North Carolina Newspapers

WEATHER Partly cloudy and continued warm today, tonight and Sunday; not quite so warm in northeast portion; a few widely afternoon and evening thundershowers. The Hhelbg Bnily Hielt CLEVELAND COUNTY’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1894 TELEPHONES 1100 - State Theatre Today - "WOMAN IN GREEN" BASIL RATHBONE NIGEL BRUCE VOL XLIII— 228 ASSOCIATED PRESS NEWS SHELBY, N. C. SATURDAY, SEPT. 22, 1945 TELEMAT PICTURES SINGLE COPIES—6c COMPLETE STATEMENT Congressional GOP’s Want Dewey To Tell Pearl Harbor Secrets 9 > WASHINGTON, Sept. 22.—(/P)—Republicans demanded today that congress invite Thomas E. Dewey to tell whether he has reason to believe the high command was aware of Japan’s war intentions hours before Pearl Harbor. awu (U»u ktu uiav a juim senate-house committee investigat ing the disaster must take a look at a letter Gen. George C. Mar shall wrote the New York gover nor while Dewey was running tor president last year. Dewey has confirmed receiving the letter, but referred reporters to the chief of staff for its con tents. Last night the war depart men said Marshall was not avail able for comment. (A Life magazine story says the letter asked Dewey to keep the secret that the United States had broken a Japanese code, because the Japanese still were using it. (The story goes on to say that before the letter was written, Dewey had learned the U. S. had solved the Japanese "ultra” code. It adds that as a result President Roosevelt and the high command knew 15 hours before Pearl Har bor that the Japanese would break with the U. S., but did not know the exact place where the mili tary attack would come. (Newsmen who traveled with Dewey recalled that during the campaign the candidate told some of them he had information on the Pearl Harbor disaster but was keep ing it locked up in a bank vault in New York. He said then he believed disclosure of the infor mation might adversely affect the war effort.) Senator Bridges (R-NH) told a reporter the joint committee ought to study the Marshall letter. Sen ator Ferguson (R-Mich), a com mittee member, said Dewey should be called before the group. Bridges expressed the opinion i that Dewey could have been elect ! ed president if he had charged President Roosevelt with failing ; either to forestall or mitigate an attack" and had backed it up with the letter as evidence of advance warning. Senator Green (D-RI) poked : fun at this idea. He wanted to know whether Dewey is being “re • vived." Chairman Barkley (D-Ky) of the inquiry comittee had nothing to say immediately. Ministers Concerned Over Trade Pact Today's Meeting, At Which Hungarian Treaty Was | To Be Talked, Is Canceled By Flora Lewis LONDON, Sept. 22.—(fP)—Foreign ministers of the Big Five canceled at the last minute today their scheduled mom- j ing meeting. Simultaneously a British official expressed! deep concern over the disclosure of a Russian trade pact which, in the British view, would give Moscow control over Halt Hungary a economy. Today’* meeting had been sched uled to take up the Hungarian peace treaty. No official expla- j nation was given for the cancel-j lation. It appeared the ministers! Would not meet until Monday. Americans at the council meeting apparently shared Britain’s Interest In the Hun garian trade treaty. Official British sources declared the pact was considered another step in what appears to be a Soviet campaign to hold a tight rein over the economic as well as the political life of all east ern Europe. The agreement, which has been Initiated and awaits Budapest's ratification, is said to propose founding 8oviet-Hungarian com bines for the development of steel, oil and other industries. Also said to be included are shipping on the Danube and Tisza rivers, airlines, trucks and motor traffic and a joint bank to finance mu tual trade. The British are consulting Wash ington on the development. RUSSIANS SILENT No Russian comment was avail able. Earlier, a reliable source said that Soviet foreign Commissar Vyachlesav M. Molotov had pro tested that the council’s commu niques had been too detailed and that too much information had leaked out of closed sessions. This source said the Big Five agreed to meet his objections. A considerable part of yesterday’s session was taken up by discus sion of the protest. Results became apparent quick ly. Last night’s communique said only that the( Romanian peace See MINISTERS Page 2 Navy Planes Lock Wings, Crash, Burn In Heart Of Miami MIAMI, FLA~ Sept. 22 —(/Pi— Two navy planes, one apparency In distress, locked wings and crashed into the heart of Miami’s business district last night, killing two pilots and setting buildings ablaze in a two-alarm fire. One of the planes crashed through the roof of the Tuttle ho tel garage, struck down a wall of an adjoining hardware warehouse, and set fire to both structures. Both planes were one-man sin gle-engine night fighters from the Melbourne, Fla., training station. Names of the two pilots killed were not Immediately available. Witnesses For War Crimes Trial Quizzed NUERNEBERG, Sept. 22 —UP)— At least eight special interrogation rooms are being kept in steady use here every day by allied pro secution staffs engaged in gather ing great masses of evidence for the war crimes trial of two dozen top Nazi figures. Justice Robert H. Jackson, U. S. prosecutor, said the prisoners are not being subjected to "any mis use or indignity,” and added he hoped they would choose their own defense counsel, instead of compelling the court to appoint defense attorenys. So far as the Americans are concerned, he said, even a person under arrest could be released as a defense attorney, should a defendant desire it. American interrogators, headed by Col. John Harlan Amen, have found that Nazi prisoners and wit nesses alike appear to enjoy being questioned. “They are all willing to talk, but not always about what you want them to,” Amen said: "Then, after you’ve questioned them, they go back to their cells and write letters telling us about other things they had forgotten to mention.” Hurley Leaves Chungking For Home CHUNGKING, Sept. 22 —(A5)— Ambassador Patrick Hurley left for America today in an army transport plane which combined its diplomatic mission with transpor tation for a G. I. summoned ur gently to the bedside of his mo ther and for a pretty embassy clerk going home to convalesce from an appendectomy. He had called on Madame Dhiang Kai-Shek last night to bid her farewell, and Dr. K. C. Wu, Chinese minister of information, rode with him to the airport to give him the Generalissimo’s of ficial goodbye. Hurley left without comment on favorable report to President Truman on the basic agreement— actual or impending—in the Chi nese central government's nego tiations with communists. FAMILY RESCUED BY ROW BOAT IN CAPE FEAR FLOOD—A row boat has come to the rescue of these women and children who had been marooned in their home by flood water of the Cape Fear river at Fayette ville, N. C. All were taken out safely.—(AP Photo) TRUMAN OFF FOR ANOUTING Will Spend Week End At Jefferson Island Club . On Chesapeake WASHINGTON, Sept. 22.—(A5)— President Truman left by automo bile at 8:30 a.m., EWT., today for a two-day outing on Chesapeale Bay with fellow Democrats. The president will spend the week end relaxing at the Jeffer son island club and return to the capital late Sunday. He was ac companied by members of the White House staff. Other congressional and govern ment party leaders will be at the club, headed by former Democratic Senator Harry Hawes of Missouri, now a Washington lawyer. ' Mr. Truman’s itinerary called for a trip by automobile to Annapolis, site of the Naval Academy, and thence by ferry and launch to Jefferson Island. The occasion recalled another presidential picnic on Jefferson is land in 1938 when Franklin D. Roosevelt paid a visit there for talks with members of the senate and house. Mr. Truman's automobile, cara van included White House Secre taries Matthew J. Connelly and Charles G. Ross, John W. Snyder, reconversion director, and George E. Allen, advisor on war plant li quidation. Leslie Biffle. secretary of the senate, said there would be up wards of 300 guests, including sen ators, representatives, government officials, and Governor O'Conor of Maryland. The outing is strictly informal. Reporters are accompanying the president as far as Annapolis. 17,314 Visitors At Employment Offices RALEIGH, Sept. 21—(A*)—Dr. J. S. Dorton, state director of the War Manpower commission, said here today that visits of veterans to local U. S. employment service offices reached 17,314 in August. Local placements of veterans on jobs reached 2,094 in August, the first month in which the number has exceeded 2,000, Dorton said. Of those completing applications for work in ■ August, 317 were classed as handicapped, and 162 such veterans were placed in jobs. Demand Increases For N. C. Workers RALEIGH, Sept. 22—(A5)—Mark ed increase in demands for work ers in industrial, business and serv ice activities in North Carolina since V-J day and in spite of the lay-offs of more than 15,000 work ers in war plants, are shown in the orders now on file in the local offices of the U. S. Employment Service. Job openings have increased from 27,000 on July 1 to 40,500 on Sept. 1, Dr. J. S. Dorton, state manpower director, reports. MINISTER DIES CHARLOTTE, Sept. 22. —(ff)— The Rev. J. N. Randall, 49, pastor of suburban Hickory Grove Meth odist church since 1942, died at his home last night after a long ill ness. A native of Rutherford county, the minister had served charges in Concord, Pineville, North Charlotte, Gastonia, Shelby, and Connelly Springs. Surviving are the widow and two daughters. Atomic Bomb Destruction Is Spectacular By AL DOPKING TOKYO, Sept. 22. — {£>)— Amer ica’s atomic bombing of Nagasaki Aug. 9 wrought "more spectacular’’ destruction than the first atom bomb at Hiroshima, said Brig. Gen. James B. Newman, Jr., head of the War Department’s atomic bomb mission to Japan. There were no measur able signs of radioactivity in the area, however, he reported. Newman returned from Nagasaki after studying effects of the second and mare powerful bomb, and left 17 scientists and medical officers there to complete their observations. Studies already have showed that there is no radioactivity at Naga saki that could have any effect on human or animal life, he asserted. Although the bomb left no crater, its destructiveness was startling. CASUALTIES "The bomb hit between Japan’s largest torpedo factories and a great steel mill,” General Newman said. “The Japanese now estimate their death toll at 35,000 to 40,000, with some 80,000 injured. "Modern structural steel buildifigs sheathed with steel plate, 2,000 feet from the center of the blast, be came a single mess of twister gird ers and were completely burned out, while the buildings of the torpedo plant, some 4,000 feet from the center, were completely wrecked by the force of the blast.” Newman said that almost all buildings at Nagasaki sustained mi nor damage, and those in the in See ATOMIC Page 2 Canal Outmoded By Aircraft Carriers WASHINGTON, Sept, 22 —(/P)— The navy’s new 45,000 ton air craft carriers, biggest warships a float, are too hefty to pass through the Panama Canal. In order to reach the Pacific they must round Cape Horn or sail east. Confirming this today, naval sources said it is not a case of a man building a boat in his base ment too big to take through the door. It is simply recognition that the canal, as a controlling factor in naval construction, is outmoded. The three behemoths are the Midway, already commissioned; the Franklin D. Roosevelt, launch ed but not commissioned; and the Coral Sea, still under construc tion. They were designed for the in-fighting which looked inevit able in the Pacific war. Supplemental locks, begun be fore the war but not completed will eventually permit the carriers to get through the canal. ON LABOR FRONT: Number Of Idle In Nation Hits New High Of 230,000 By the Associated i ress The nation’s post-war labor dis putes, most of them stemming from workers’ demands for wage in creases, hit a new high for the year today and the outlook for the imme diate future was not bright. The country’s idle resulting from strikes and forced shutdowns for a varied line of industries and bus inesses mounted to around 230,000, high for 1945 and more than 100,000 above the number idled by disputes immediately preceding V-J Day. As government agencies planned efforts to halt the rising trend of iaoor strife, a strike threat came from the lumber mills of the Pacific Northwest, with a walkout of 60,00( workers called for Monday. Othei strike threats also were heard anc only a couple of minor stoppages were ended, putting the labor pic ture off-balance. Detroit found little encourage ment of effecting settlement of the multiple disputes that have idlec some 86,000 workers, mostly in the automotive industry. A complete shutdown in transportation threat See NUMBER Page 2 EPES CASE TO GO TO JURY Lawyers Paint Conflicting Pictures Of Defendant In Pleas By HENRY LESESNE COLUMBIA, S. C„ Sept. 22. —UP) —The fate of Lt. Samuel C. Epes, dashing young army officer charg ed with murdering his school teach er wife for the love of a 19-year old blonde, was expected to be plac ed in the hands of an all-male jury late today. Barring a mistrial, the jury can return one of three verdicts— death, conviction with a recommen dation of mercy which carries a mandatory sentence of life impris onment, or acquittal. The trial is now in its sixth day. Arguments to the jury commenced before noon yesterday, after the defense decided not to put the wan, impassive 27-year-old, defendant or otner witness on tne stand. The lawyers painted two pictures of Epes before the jury: The prosecution portrayed him as a cunning wife-slayer who plan ned and executed a nearly perfect crime, even to burying his 98-pound wife, Mary Lee Epes, in an aban doned foxhole, so he could love a blonde war worker he met on man euvers in Louisiana. The defense pictured him as a devoted but sometimes philandering husband whose only offense was to lose his head when his wife died from an overdose of a sedative. “He may have acted like a crazy maniac,” said Defense Attorney Ri chard E. Broome, “but he did not kill her.” Saying the state has produced no actual evidence beyond Epes’ own admission to officers that he sec retly buried his wife, the lawyer pointed out that this is not the of fense for which Epes is on trial. Clint Graydon, a criminal lawyer who is a special prosecutor, told the jury that Epes buried his wife in an abandoned foxhole and stuck a “latrine closed” marker over the grave possibly while his wife was in a deep anesthesia but still alive. THE OTHER WOMAN His two-hour summation dwelt at length upon the state’s evidence linking Epes with “the other wo man” 19-year-old Nelson Kings land of Lake Charles, La. Epes admitted spending a "pla tonic” week-end with Miss Kings land in a New Orleans hotel, and 52 endearing letters he wrote her in 42 days were entered as evidence in the trial record. Leith Bremner of Richmond, Va. a defense attorney who is a friend of Epes’ father, industrialist Travis Epes, ridiculed the state’s references to premeditated murder and a nearly perfect crime. He said Epes could hav® found a See EPES Page 2 FLOOD PICTURE: Travel Resumed Today On N. C. Roads Except In Cape Fear River Areas By The Associated Press Travel was resumed today on all main North Carolina highways except those in the Cape Fear river areas, as four overflowing rivers—the Cape Fear, the Neuse, the Tar, and the Roanoke—which have been on the rampage nearly a week, subsided in their middle and upper reaches. At Fayetteville, the Cape Fear was receding slowly, after leaving more than 2,500 homeless out of the city’s population of 20,000. Today, the weather bureau report ed a reading of 66.7 feet there, which was a drop of two feet since yesterday. At Weldon, the Roanoke had risen to 48.8 feet and continued to rise slowly. There was .42 rain fall there last night, but weather bureau officials say that the Roa noke has just about reached a crest there. The textile mill and paper board mills at Weldon and the textile mill at Roanoke Rapids are reported closed because of the high water. The Neuse was still rising at Goldsboro and Kinston, with stages of 25.8 feet and rising at Kinston, and 17.3 at Kinston. The highway department_said_that “chances are in our favor” in re gard to closing the highways at Goldsboro and that they may be kept open in spite of the rising wa ters. HIGHWAYS CLOSED The Tar at Rocky Mount was stationary today at 13.5 feet. U. S. 15-A was officially opened this morning at Lillington. How ever, east of Fayetteville, the road situation remained unchanged. Highways closed this morning were: N. C. 87 southeast of Eliza bethtown leading to Wilmington; U. S. 74 betwen Maxton and Lum berton; N. C. 53 between Fayette ville and Atkinson; N. S. 217 be tween Erwin and Linden; and N. C. 95 east of Rocky Mount. The highway department said U. S. 701 may be inundated at Elizabethtown, where the Cape Fear continues to rise in its lower reaches. Two Killed In Grade Crossing Accident Double Rites For Raymond Melton And "Bud" Melton To Be Held Sunday Afteroon A double funeral will be held at 4 P. M. Sunday at Union Baptist church for Raymond Melton, 34, and his nephew, George Lee “Bud” Melton, 18, killed in a grade crossing tragedy west of Shelby late Friday evening. The two men met instant aeatn i when the southbound Southern Railway passenger train, running from Marion to Rock Hill, crashed squarely into the side of the auto mobile driven by the former at the Highway 26 crossing just east of the Dover Gin. Their badly mangled bodies were taken from the wreck age some 200 feet from the scene of the impace as Engineer J. W. Weatherspoon had applied his brakes when he saw the crash was inevitable, bringing his train to a quick stop. George Lee Melton, a member of the Merchant Marine who was visit ing relatives here, was riding with his uncle, a tenant on the D. A. Beam farm near Grover, en route to pick up the former’s father, Wil bur, at the farm of John Philbeck whom he had been assisting. The fact that George Melton was driv ing so that his car faced into the brightly setting sun may have ob scured his view of the oncoming train for he did not slacken speed despite the whistle and bell warn ings Engineer Weatherspoon said he used when he saw the car approach ing the crossing. Surviving George Lee Melton are his wife, Mrs. Ethel Brown Melton, and seven children, Marjoree, Rose lee, Hazel, C. A., Lorene, Billy Jean and Minor Lee; four sisters, Mrs. Arnold Philbeck, Mrs. John Phil beck, Mrs. Forrest Philbeck and See TWO Page 2 All-India Party Rejects British Proposals For India LONDON, Sept. 22 —(/P)— The working committee of the all-India congress party rejected today new British proposals for India as “vague, inadequate and unsatis factory,” a Reuters dispatch from Bombay said today. The report quoted the commit-: tee as saying “nothing short of j independence can be acceptable to the congress and the country.” Observe Week For Handicapped WASHINGTON, Sept. 22—(^P)— President Truman acting pursuant to a congressional resolution, to day proclaimed the week of Octo ber 7-13 as National Employ-the Physically-Handicapped-Week. He asked governors, mayors, gov ernment agency heads, and civic leaders to make every effort dur ing the observance to enlist public support of a sustained program from the employment and develop ment of the abilities and capaci ties of those who are physically handicapped.” 750.000 May Be Home From Pacific Soon MANILA, Sept. 22 —UP)— Ap proximately 750,000 servicemen ir :he western Pacific may be sent aome by the first of the year rhat’s the goal tentatively set foi replacement centers in the Phil ppines. Even in official circles there if plenty of doubt that the goal car ae reached, but everybody’s hoping for the best. Right now there are more thar 20.000 men waiting in the twc principal Philippines replacement depots for transportation home And the universal question is: Wil there be enough shipping? That seems the only bottleneck. Processing time has been cut t( five days, and every replacement depot is full to overflowing witt men ready to go home. Even ship that leaves for the states car ries troops if it is physically ca pable. Space is allocated sepa rately to officers and enlisted men with the latter usually getting tht earliest break because most of th< available space on shipboard if adaptable for troop quarters—not tor officers’ rooms. There is no priority among th< boys who have enough points t< go home. Replacement depots pui them aboard ships on a basis 01 first come, first served — treating officers and enlisted men alike ir this respect. Light Earthquake In South Pacific NEW YORK, Sept. 22—(/P)—/ light earthquake, estimated at 8, 300 miles from New York anc probably located in the southwes Pacific area, was recorded on th< Fordham university seismograpl today. The Rev. Joseph J. Lynch, di rector of the Fordham seismo graph station, said the shock wa: recorded at 5:42 a.m. (EWT.) WHAT’S DOING SUNDAY 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.—USO center open to Shelby folk vis iting in city. MONDAY 7:00 p.m.—Chamber of Com merce directors meet at Hotel Charles. 7:30 p.m.—State Guard drill at armory. HIROHITO NOT EXPECTED TO ABDICATE Konoye Denies Washing ton Report Emperor To Give Up Throne TWO NEW~DIRECTIVES TOKYO, Sept. 22.—(£>)— General MacArthur today de manded an accounting of all Japanese financial dealings from Pearl Harbor day to the present, including those of the imperial household whose chief tenant, the emperor, re portedly has no intention of abdicating. A member of the royal family, Prince Fumimaro Ko noye, said there was “abso lutely nothing” to Washing ton hints that Hirohito would quit the throne. Lt. Gen. Kenj Doihara, Japan’s top military field commander, meanwhile went to work as usual at the Japanese war ministry de spite an order for his immediate arrest,” Issued by MacArthur yes terday but not immediately trans mitted to either American or Jap anese arresting officers. Two additional directives were passed on today to the Nipponese government, burdened with a heavy day of order-taking. One called for the arrest of Nobuyuki Abe, former governor-general of Korea, and the other demanded complete demobilization of the Japanese naval police force before Oct. 31. Vice Premier Konoye told corre spondents that the constitution prohibits the emperor from abdi cating, but he added that Hirohito might step down from the throne in event of illness. In that case, a regent would serve until Hirohi to’s death, then the crown prince would inherit the throne—the pro cedure followed in the case of Hirohito’s father in 1924. GENERAL FINANCES In addition to a report on the books of the emperor and the government, MacArthur asked for the amount of money held by banks, insurance firms and all other financial institutions, lists of directors and top executives of all firms dealing in big money, and lists of all their heavy investors. The scientific section of the Allied staff needs the financial reports, headquarters officers said, to block, if necessary, use of Japanese money in a man ner inimical to the objectives of the occupation. Chikuhei Nakajima, minister of commerce and industry in the Japanese cabinet, declared in an interview that his nation must re establish trade with the United States before even the bare essen tials of life for its economy can be produced. MacArthur’s instructions on the demobilization of the naval police 1 superseded Japanese plans to keep 11,279 of the police on duty at the end of October until all arms are collected. IN CUSTODY Naval police stores of arms and 1 ammunition must be placed in i custody of civil police by the new : order. Meanwhile, the occupation pro gram expanded at such a pace See HIROHITO Face * ROAD DAMAGE IN AREALIGHT Noell Estimates Total At $40,000 For Three Counties Highways and bridges escaped with abnormally light damage considering the extent of the flood waters of the past week It was J stated this morning by Hugh No- j ell, division engineer, who esti mated total damage of only $40, 000 in the Cleveland, Gaston, Liu-1 coin territory. In the Iredell, I Catawba and Alvxander there was| virtually no damage suffered. Mr. Noell said highway author!-j ties are gratified that damage was I so light compared with the situa-J tion in 1940 when water of about! the same extent caused damage! running into many hundreds ofj thousands in the same area. Most of the damage was to bridges, many of which were en tirely under water, while some fills adjacent to bridges and loe sections of highway suffered the high water.