Imperial Valley press., June 15, 1942, Image 1

About Imperial Valley press. (El Centro, Calif.) 1907-current

Image provided by: University of California, Riverside; Riverside, CA

                
WEATHER
Maximum Sunday 107. Minimum
Monday 70. 5 p.m. Sunday 96 hu
midity 2. 5 am. Monday 78, hu
midity 24. Noon Monday 95, hu
midity 12-
BANK DEBITS
El Centro Business Barometer
Saturday .. $632,601.36
Last Year $482,382.22
VOLUME XL, No. 269
GERMANS BATTER VITAL RED DEFENSES
Rambling
eporter
No Surprise—
RR, for cue, is not at all surprised
that Lieut. Leonard Mcore can cut
up didoes in a plane that has lost
a lot cf its necessary gadgets.
Why, many are the times that
RR has ridden in Leonard’s car when
there was noth,ng holding it to
gether but pieces of wire off an old
broom. Getting into the car was
a gymnastic feat necessitating the
unknctting of a lot of rope and a
garguantuan struggle with odd
ments of rusty tin. He scorned floor
boards, forcing RR to sit with feet
on the battery.
Starting the car was as interest
ing as watching the assembly line
in an automobile plant. First he
punched s'mething and tickled the
motor with a bent safety pin. Then
he would run cut in front and
crank, nil the while jabbing with a
cast off corset slay. At the first
cough Leonard would hurtle over
the hood, land on his spine in the
seat, and start twirling the hand
throttle. Then cff we would go,
scattering parts t’.id bits of tire
along with 'n’attering oil and now
and then a splash of gasoline from
the tank that had no cap.
Ah, yes you can’t say the boy
hasn’t had good training.
A Slight Libation—
A Mexican was sentenced in
Brawley justice court Monday for
being drunk. He was sent to the
county jail for 60 days.
“Oh. Man!” whistled Deputy
Sheriff Bob Parrish as he prepared
to drive the Mexican to the coun
ty jail. “Sixty days! You certainly
must have been most awfully
drunk.”
"No. No,” said the Mexican. "I
wasn’t so drunk. I cnly had two
gallons."
Normal. By Heck—
In a world gone mad with ab
normalities, it is a comfort to find
something that is normal.
The boys are stealing watermelons
again. If that ain’t normal, we
don’t know what is.
The Hens Are Helping—
The hens have gone all out for
war time production.
It’s a fact.
A hen belonging to Mrs. Mort
Downing of the Mt. Signal district
laid an unusually large egg. Inside
the etc shell was the usual egg
yolk and. bless your soul, also
another egg.
.Yep, the hens are doubling their
production.
Perfectly Simple—
The reason Minor Simms looks a
bit dashed is because he has anoth
er job to add to the sizable collec
tion he already had Monday.
“Let’s make Minor Simms chair
man." said Dan Carter happily at
a meeting cf oil and service static’n
owners Monday. "He can head this
rubber salvage campaign. Why, he
has practically nothing to do."
Amid l°ud guffaws, Simms begged
for sympathy but did he get sym
pathy? He did not. He got the
Job.
Earthquake Kills
Ocean Going Fish
NAHANT, Mass., June 15. (UP)—
An earthquake stocked Nahant fish
markets with cod and haddock to
day.
Thousands of them were killed in
the ocean off Nahant yesterday
when a severe quake shook shore
communities. Fishermen put out in
boats to cellect the fish. Two boats
hauled in more than 600 pounds.
Dr. L. Don Leet of the Harvard
seismograph station placed the cen
ter of the shock at 30 miles east of
Boston.
Jacob P. Nuffer
Succumbs in E. C.
Jacob P. Nuffer, 82, who had made his home in Imperial
Valley for 30 years, died during the week-end at his home
at 572 Olive avenue, El Centro.
He had been at the point of death for several woks, all
hope of his recovery having been abandoned several weeks
— n „
ago. Death came at 6 a.m. Sunday -
Funeral services were scheduled
at the L°mons funeral chapel in
El Centro at 10 a.m. Wednesday
with the Rev. Mr. Hayden Sears,
paster of the First Methodist church
of El Centro, preaching the funeral
sermon. Nuffer will be buried in
Evergreen cemetery.
Nuffer was born in Beaver Falls.
N. Y., Oct. 18. 1859. For many years
he was a real estate and insurance
'man in El Centro, first arriving in
the valley during the early years
IMPERIAL VALLEY PRESS
Onlu Paper in Imperial Valley Served by Complete United Press Fast News Wire Day and Night, Full NEA, Inc., Features, with J alley News by the Largest Editor
ial Staff in Southeastern California.
Eight Pages
WAR CLAIMS
VALLEY MAN
“Reported missing in action.”
This terse statement Monday
brought home the war to relatives
in Imperial Valley of Sgt. Edward
L. Hargrove, 22, radioman on a
flying fortress that failed to return
to its Australian base after a bomb
ing raid on Japanese territory
April 28.
Young Hargrove came through
the Philippine campaign and the
battle cf Java unscathed, getting to
Australia after the Japs succeeded
in capturing the islands.
His grandparents, Mr. and Mrs.
Manuel Flores Acacia, heard from
him after his escape to Australia.
His wife in Albuquerque New Mex
ico, received a letter from him April
Shooting Blasts
Baptism Ritual
Objections to Jitterbug Contest at
Solemn Rites Leads Aged Man to Fire
Bullets Into Wall; Near-Riot Follows
A baptism party which developed into a jitterbug con
test and ended in a bloodless shooting affray threw Heber
into an uproar late ounoay night and &2nt Joe Grommet,
69, to jail for disturbing the peace of the affair in the ex
dance hall. Mr. and Mrs. Pete Abeytia were hosts at the
I ,A. —— - ■■ —— - - . ■ . ■
baptism party. Grommet, who had
been looking on the wine while it
was potent as well as red. watched
a Jitterbug contest which develop
ed for some reason unknown to In
vestigating officers, and didn't like
it.
Grommet fired three shots at
something or another but struck
nothing but the wall. Johnny Cot?,
grabbed the pistol from Grommet
and handed it to Abeytia. The by
standers apparently thought Abeytia
was doing the promiscuous firing
and started toward him. Abeytia,
fearing mayhem, ran outside the
hall and fired two shots into the
air. That brought help but Grom
met decided the Japs were after
him and took off for home. Deputy
sheriffs restored order, traced Grom
met to his home, arrested him, and
took him to jail. Grommet still
thought the Japs were to blame for
the ruckus he started himself and
objected strenuously to going to
jail.
While the affair may have been
hard on the participants, the big
gest headaches were suffered by the
deputy sheriffs who tried to straight
en everything out and get the party
going smoothly again.
Peek Withdraws
From Campaign
SACRAMENTO, June 15—(UP)
Secretary of State Paul Peek today
announced he would seek re-elec
tion instead of entering the race
fof attorney general cn the Demo
cratic ticket.
"After considerable thought and
discussion with friends throughout
the state, I have been forced to the
conclusicn that during these criti
cal times the less of political cam
paigns and the more strict atten
tion to the duties of justly admin
istering the business of government
the better," Peek said.
‘ With this thought in mind I
have decided to offer my candidacy
to the voters cf California for re
tention of my present office of sec
retary of state.”
of the city’s existence.
Among his survivors are two
daughters, Mrs. Cora Maxwell of
El Centro and Mrs. Elma Wallace
of Augusta, Kansas; three sons.
Allen and Lee of El Centro, and
Herbert of Seattle, Wash.; six grand
children; three great grandchildren;
two sisters, Mrs. John Gress of
Medicine Lodge. Kansas, and Mrs.
F. C. Dissinger of Lawrence, Kan
sas; and one brother, the Rev. Mr.
P. G- Nuffer of Naperville, 111.
20.
Monday the Flores had received
a telegram from Washington, D. C.
officially notifying them that their
grandson was missing. He had gone
cut on a mission and had not re
turned.
About that time the Americans
were battering Rabaul, possible
base for an Australian invasion by
the Japanese.'
Hargrove graduated from Calexico
high school in 1937 and two years
later went into the air corps.
Ronald is Hargrcve’s three
month-cld son born after his de
parture for the Pacific war zone.
Hargrove's mother, Mrs. Ola
Dickey is now a resident of Ala
mitos. ,
Boy, 15, Jailed as
Killer Following
Failure to Escape
Youngster Nabbed as
He Attempts to Cross
Border at Calexico
Imperial county’s boy kill
er, 15-year-old Carlos Lopez,
was held in the county jail
Monday after his arrest while
attempting to slip across the
border into Mexico during the week
end.
He had been a fugitive since he
stabbed and killed Richard Guzman.
15. in an argument over a 14-year
old girl a group of Mexican boys
had been serenading at her home
near the intersection of Eastern
avenue and J street in Brawley last
Friday night.
Lopez was arrested by United
States customs officers at Calexico
as he attemnted to slip across the
border into Mexico. The boy killer
weighs 113 pounds and is four feet
and 11 inches in height.
District Attorney Elmer Heald
said the law required that Lopez
be taken into juvenile court where
he would be referred to Imperial
county superior court for trial on
a charge of murdering Guzman.
Gunman was stabbed once in the
chest near the throat and once in
the heart.
Youthful witnesses of the killing
testified at an inquest in Brawley
Saturday, explaining how Lopez and
Guzman quarreled over the girl.
Lopez later was angered again when
he was told that Guzman’s little
brother had struck one of the Lopez
youngsters with a rock. Lopez and
Guzman started to fight, the wit
nesses said, Guzman saying they
should fight with their fists and
not with knives. The killing came
almost immediately after the boys
started to fight.
One Family Has 2
Accidents in Day
Accidents run in the Kaiser fam
ily.
At 6:03 p.m. Saturday Karl Kaiser
was in involved in an accident at
Third and Main with B. S. Mark
man. Kaiser suffered a slight back
injury and was taken to his home
at 830 Brighton.
One hour and 47 minutes later his
wife collided with a machine driven
by H. P. Comlee at 10th and Heil
Mis. Kaiser suffered slight injuries
and joined her husband at home.
Draft Objector
Sent to Prison
Robert Lee Allen, Imperial Val
ley’s conscientious objector No. 1,
Monday was sentenced to McNeill
island for five years.
The government contended that
Allen, rancher of the Westworland
area, became a conscientious objec
tor after he had received his order
to report for Induction into the
armed forces of the United States.
(Five Cents Per Copy) MONDAY, JUNE 15, 1942
Son's
Voice
Heard
Parents Almost
Miss Broadcast
By Midway Hero
To a million Americans, it
was a hero’s voice they heard
over the radio on Sunday’s
army hour broadcast from
Australia, but to two El Cen
trans, it was something more—it
was their sin’s voice.
It was a voice they almost missed
—the first time.
P. L. Moore, El Centro credit as
sociation executive and city coun
cilman, was working in his yard
Sunday. A neighbor, Oscar M. In
gersoll, dashed out of his house
across the street. P. L. listened to
his shout, and in less than half
a second he was legging it for his
own radio, and calling Mrs. Moore.
The thing was off. He switched it
on . . .
. . . just in time to hear the last
two sentences of Lieut. Leonard
Moore’s description of the battle of
Midway, in which the El Centro
youth was the hero of a torpedo
plane exploit in sinking a Japanese
carrier and driving off a swarm of
Jap Zero fighters.
“We stayed pretty close to the
radio after that,” P. L. recalled Mon
day.
Some time later a friend, P. L.
did not know who, telephoned that
there would be a rebroadcast of
the program at a later hour. The
Moores heard it all, that time. More
than that—they were later present
ed with a recording of their son's
voice in his recital of the battle,
made by the Rev. E. L. Carter.
Many El Centrans, besides the
father and mother, heard Lieut.
Moore's description of the battle,
which included a matter-of-fact re
port on his own activities in man
ning a gun at which the ’gunner
had been wounded, and driving off
enemy fighting planes after the craft
on which he was co-pilot had scored
a direct aerial torpedo hit on a .lap
aircraft carrier of the largest type.
Lieut. Moore found a humorous
side, looking back at the conflict.
’A cushion caught on fire." he
said. “I didn't know it was so hard
to throw anything out of an air
plane.”
The belief was general here, and
seemed to be partially confirmed by
the fact that Lieut. Moore was
chosen for the radio broadcast, that
he is in line for award of some such
citation for heroism as the Dis
tinguished Flying Crass. But his
father had a greater desire.
"I wish they'd give him a fur
lough," P. L. said. “We’d like to
see him again.’’
Synthetic Rubber
Delay Denounced
WASHINGTON. June 15— (UP)—
The national scrap rubber salvage
campaign began today as three sen
ators called upon President Roose
velt to "break the war production
board bottleneck” which they
charged was holding up production
of synthetic rubber.
The scrap campaign is designed
to find out how much scrap rubber
there is in the United States. The
amount collected is expected to be
a majcr factor in determining
whether it will be necessary to ex
tend gasoline rationing to all 48
slates as a rubber conservation
measure.
The three senators who denounc-
Filipino on Trial
In Slaying Case
Jacobo Valoria. 33. Filipino who
shot and killed Herman Tabile. 34,
May 17 for love of blend Gloria
Prior, went to trial before a jury in
superior court Monday on a charge
of murder.
The killer was a fugitive for two
days before he finally appeared at
the Imperial county Jail in El Cen
tro and gave himself up. His vic
tim died a short time after Valoria
emptied his gun at him at. a ranch
between Brawley and Imperial.
New York 001 100 013 —6-12-0
Pittsburgh 000 000 020-2-7-2
Schumacher and Danning; Butch
er. Heintzelman and Phelps.
(Only day game, either league).
Baseball
NATIONAL
Second Street Improvement Project
Awaits Only WPB Approval Here
El Centro had received the green
light on the secondary city paving
project from the state highway
department Monday and needed on
ly the approval of the war produc
tion board to begin work.
Under the setup the state has
agreed to finance $23,912.10 of the
estimated cost of $31,000 for grad
ing. graveling and oiling of 26
blocks of city streets.
Prelliminary processes in oiling
24 blocks in the first project are
completed but actual oiling, which
was to begin last Thursday, was
held up by an order prohibiting de
livery. Walter Heinecke, public works
director, said he had received prom
ise that the oil will be here by
Here's AHu village, on AHu, island at the western tip of America's Aleutian islands, where U. S.
naval forces are attempting to dislodge a Japanese landing party—the first to gain a foothold in
the Western Hemisphere.
I. V. Joins Nation to Put
Scrap Rubber Drive Over
Bring on ycur scrap rubber!
Every service station in Imperial
county, major and independent
alike, Monday became a reception
center for the accumulation of scrap
rubber.
Anything of rubber will be accept
ed. Anything from rubber tires and
tubes to ash trays and jar rings
will be received and turned over
to the government at the request
cf President Roosevelt in his na
tion-wide campaign to collect every
available scrap of rubber so that
it may be used in the war effort.
Incidentally, if the scrap rubber
backlog piles high, you may still be
ed the WPB's handling of the syn
thetic rubber program were Ellison
D. Smith, D.. S. C.. Hugh A. Butler,
D„ Neb., and Burton K. Wheeler,
D„ Mont.
Smith chargea tnat all the offi
cials handling the rubber program
are "big shots from the various rub
ber companies."
“They are doing everything in
their power to keep their little play
houses from being upset—either now
or after the war," Smith said. "I
do not believe the President will
ever appoint a competent man that
the people of this country can trust
to head the rubber program."
Wheeler called for the appoint
ment of a “rubber czar” with no
connections with private rubber or
petroleum companies.
Butler, writing directly to the
President, charged that the delay in
production of synthetic rubber is
“due to the determination of offi
cials to depend on the time con
suming, experimental petroleum
process, rather than on the grain
alcohol method."
Smalling Capture
Report Confirmed
The United States war depart
ment Monday confirmed the report
that Pvt. Hollis Smalling, son of
Mr. and Mrs. Dewey Smalling of
El Centro, was one of the 153 Ma
rines held as prisoners of war by
the Japanese at Zentsuji, Shikoku
island. Japan.
Unofficial news of Smalling's cap
ture by the Japanese had been re
ceived in El Centro some time ago
but was not officially confirmed by
the war department until Monday.
PHONE 303
Wednesday.
Final approval is now necessary
by the WPB on any building or
paving project over $5,000, Heinecke
said, and actual negotiations have
not yet been entered into.
Heinecke said the plan for the
second project differs from the
first in that money may be used
for any pl.-se o: construction under
the latter. The city may either use
its own equipment and , labor at
cost to the city or may reduce the
amount of work done and take funds
for it from the state allotment.
The 26 blocks affected are.
On 12th from Holt to Ross, on
Holt from Eighth to 12. on Hamilton
(Continued on Page 8; Column 4>
‘able to ride more than three gal
lons of gasoline worth a week in
the fall, but if it dees not, nation
wide gasoline rationing to force
conservation of rubber on the
American public is a virtual cer
tainty.
MONEY FOR RELIEF
“If ycu want to give the rubber
to the war effort," said M. O.
Simms, chairman of the Imperial
county rubber salvage committee,
“do so and the money will go to
three organizations for service men,
the Navy Relief, the U. S. 0., and
the Red Cross. If you don’t wa'nt
to give it away, the petroleum in-
One-Half of Scrap
Rubber Lost When
Reclaiming Starts
WASHINGTON. June 15—<UP>
War production board officials to
day estimated that the scrap rub
ber collected is the campaign start
ing today would be cut approxi
mately in half during the process
of reclaiming.
They said that it ordinarily took
two pounds of “good” scrap rub
ber to obtain one pound of rubber
which could be used.
It. requires from five to seven
pounds of reclaimed rubber to recap
a tire. A few ounces of crude rub
ber are needed to cement the re
cap to the worn tire. A senate
committee has reported that as few
as two or three ounces of crude rub
ber could be used to do the cement
ing, but some WPB officials re
ported that more crude rubber than
that was required for recapping a
tire that could held up under mod
erate to high speeds.
Supervised Play Program
Gets Under Way in E. C.
El Centro’s supervised play pro
gram planned to bring diversion
and entertainment to children and
adults this summer was scheduled to
begin at 7 p. m. Monday at three
different places in the city.
The program was to begin at Wil
son school under the direction of
Mrs. Mary B. Kendall of Holtville
and at Douglass and Washington
schools under the direction of Ar
thur Prince.
Recreation will be provided from
7 p. m. to 10 p. m. every night ex-
THE POST PRESS
Hitler's Summer
Drive Under Way
On Russian Front
Axis Reports Biggest Convoy
Of War Under Attack in Mediterranean;
Food Riots Reported in Nazi Hamburg
By UNITED PRESS
Armed forces of the United Nations and the Axis were
locked in major battles Monday on three Russian fronts,
on the Libyan desert south of Tobruk, in the Mediterranean,
and on the air front north of Australia.
dustry will pay you a cent a pound
for it.”
This drive for rubber must be
completed by June 30.
All service station proprietors and
managers in the county instructed
their employes that their main job
in the next two weeks is to handle
the rubber that is brought to them
by the patriotic citizens determined
to prevent waste of material need
ed for the war effort. The Presi
dent of the United States must
knew by June 30 just how much
the citizens salvaged for the war.
TAKE IT ANYWHERE
Residents take their scrap rub-
(Continued on Page 8; Column 1)
Congress Seeks
Revenge on OP A
WASHINGTON, June 15. (UP) —Congressional leaders,
disgruntled because their cherished patronage privileges
have been disregarded by Price Administrator Leon Hen
derson, planned today to exercise control over appoint
ments in the Office of Price Administration.
Their opportunity will come when
the $161,000,000 OPA appropriation
for the year beginning July 1 is
formally laid before congress. Pres
ident Roosevelt has submitted a
request for that sum but no legisla
tive steps have been taken to grant
it.
* Congress probably will vote the
appropriation—or at least part of
it—when it is formally presented,
it was said. But leaders planned to
add a provision which would re
quire senate approval of OPA ap
pointees receiving more than S4OOO
a year,
The battle between OPA and con-
cept Sunday. Dates for special
events, contests, and tournaments
will be announced as arrangements
are completed, said Mrs. Angela
McNeece. chairman of the city-wide
program.
Activities will include diversion
for everyone. Included in present
plans are story telling, ring ten
nis, social and folk dancing, skat
ing, mixer parties, horseshoe pitch
ing, ping pong, dominoes, checkers,
badminton, rope jumping, stunts,
indoor ball, and harmonica playing.
EL CENTRO, CALIF.
i The long-awaited and perhaps
decisive summer campaigns again
appeared to be getting underway
on the Russian front, with desperate
fighting in progress at Sevastopol,
where the Russian Black sea fleet
joined in the battle; on the Kharkov
front, where the Germans claimed
to have smashed across the Donets
river; and near Leningrad, where
Axis sea and air attacks were re
ported on a large scale.
Although the Germans had seized
the initiative on key Soviet fronts,
they were meeting powerful resis
tance and frequent counterattacks
and had failed to force a decision
on any important sector. It appear
ed likely, however, that Hitler was
throwing massed strength into the
eastern front in an effort to start
his 1942 offensive along the black
sea and toward the desperately
needed oil of the Caucasus.
On other irones, developments in
cluded :
MEDITERRANEAN ltalian tor
pedo and dive bomber planes claim
ed to have sunk two Allied cruisers,
a destroyer and four merchant ships
and to have damaged a battleship,
an aircraft carrier, two cruisers, a
destroyer and four cargo ships in
an attack—still in progress—against
a strong convoy moving from Gibral
tar toward Egypt. Twenty Italian
and 15 British planes were reported
destroyed in the action, which in
dicated that one of the greatest
Allied maneuvers of the war was in
progress in the Mediterranean. The
Germans also claimed to have sunk
an Allied merchant ship and hit
a destroyer and two other ships
off the Tobruk coast.
LIBYA— A wild tank and air bat
tle was in progress southwest of
Tobruk, where the Axis forces
launched an attack in the Acroma
sector in an effort to trap British
forces on the coast at El Gazala,
west of Tobruk. Tae British counter
attacked from the south in an en
gagement that still was undecided.
GERMANY — Reports from Stock
holm indicated unrest in the bomb
battered port of Hamburg, where
25 Germans were said to have been
shot and hundreds arrested follow
ing food riots.
AUSTRALIA Port Darwin at
tacked by 27 Japanese bombers pro
tected by fighters in heaviest bomb
ardment of the war. About 200 bombs
dropped during third strong enemy
(Continued on Page 8; Column 4)
gress was said to be an outgrowth ol
some recent appointments Hender
son has made in his regional offices.
These appointments were made
without consulting Democratic con
gressmen, it was reported, and have
offended some including strong
New Deal supporters.
In three instances, it was said,
Republicans were named to head
local offices in states where New
Deal strength is admittedly slim
New Deal senators and representa
tives from those states expressed
bitterness privately and pointed out
that this is an election year.
Arrangement.-- arc being made f< 1
14 additional activities but are net
complete as yet, Mrs. McNeece said
Indoor leagues and play-off tourn
aments will be arranged Tourna
ments in many competitive games
also are planned
Local talent will be utilised in
the monthly community nrograma,
several of which are planned for
the summer. One will be held on
the Eastside July 3, at Wilscn July
5, and possibly at both places on
Aug. 1 and Sept. 5.