The Courier from Waterloo, Iowa • 1

Friday cloudy; not quite so cold Compltt wtathef fnrtcut. pg 1 1 jjl'! ij I00 Make Your Payroll an Axis Death Toll! FIRST WITH NEWS ESTABLISHED 1854 WATERLOO, IOWA, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1944 TWENTY-TWO PAGES PRICE THREE CENTS U2 THE fe2 Til 17 raw WJ o)UTl lr L3 WILL Tiff 50 Reports on Prisoner Treatmen Fired by Roosevelt Washington, D. (AP) President Roosevelt, stepping into a redhot justice department row, fired Assistant At BUM UP IE DID BRIDGES ID DHL! YANKS Grandmother TOKYO PASTED IN NEW IDS BY MOONLIGHT Justice Eicher, Former Iowa Congressman, Dies in Night Washington, D. Death during the night of presiding Justice Edward C. Eicher Thursday apparently brought to an end the seven-month-old mass sedition trial iii federal district court.

His death was attributed to a heart attack, Eicher, 65-year-old former Iowa First district congressman, from Washington, died at his home in nearby Alexandria, Va, A justice department official, declining to be quoted by name, said the jurist's death would mean that the current trial would have to be terminated and the hearing started all over again. The 27 defendants are accused of conspiring to disaffect the loyalty of American armed forces and to set up a Nazi form of government in this country. The trial opened last April 17 with 30 defendants. One later died and two won severances. After a summer recess, the hearings have recently been confined to afternoon sessions to permit defense attorneys to carry on their own law practices.

Most of the attorneys have been serving without compensation. I PlilllSi '''llllilii" Testifies to Child Abuse By GENE THORNE Courier Staff Writer Charles City, la. Testimony of the child's grandmother was introduced in district court here Thursday morning to snow, lor the prosecution, that Jo Anne Pipho, 4, Tripoli. was spanked, tripped and other wise mistreated for several weeks before she was allegedly fatallv as. saulted by her stepfather, Everett rresuen, on Mar.

17. The grandmother. Mrs. T.il Schwerin, residing on a farm about six miles from the, Prestien home, told the jury and'a filled courtroom that she noted bruises on the child Feb. 27, and had inquired of me mother what had happened.

She testified Mrs. Prestlen advised her that "Everett spanked her last Friday and tripped her." Examination of the child, said Schwerin, showed two days later that the girl had an ankle injury and "stripes an inch and a half wide across her buttocks and half-way up her back." The state contends In the trial, opened here Monday, that Prestien inflicted fatal injuries upon the stepdaughter which brought death Mar. 18. Attorneys for Prestien contend the child died as the result of injuries she incurred in a fall against a chair. Mrs.

Lawrence Schwerin, Read-lyn, a sister-in-law of Mrs. Prestien, testified also Thursday that Jo Anne "limped a little" about Mar. 6, She said the child had been "quiet and wellmannered prior to the January marriage of the Frestiens. Wednesday afternoon, Dr. W.

Barry, under cross-examination, testified it was hard to fix the time the child's hemorrhages be gan. The defense indicated it was attempting to show that calcifica tions and embolisms earlier described by Dr. Barry could not have resulted in the 12 hours be tween the alleged assault on the child and the. hour of her death. Bombers Collide; Both Ciews Dead Tucson, Ariz.

(U.R) The Pima county sheriff's office reported that two B-24 army bombers based at Davis-Monthan army air field collided seven miles east of here Thursday. Deputy Sheriff Frank Snodgrass, who was almost directly beneath the planes when they came together, said they crashed, exploded, and burst into flames. He said all crew members were killed. The explosion scattered plane parts over several acres, Snodgrass said. SIX WOMEN WORKERS KILLED ON CROSSING Ionia, Mich, (JP) Six of seven women war workers sharing the ride home from a plant here were fatally injured when a Grand Trunk passenger train demolished their automobile at a crossing Wednesday.

PER tm CHI .1 Shipments of Iron and Steel to Stop Under New Joint Schedule. Washington, D. (AP)-The United States plans to halt lend-lease shipments of iron and steel to Britain Jan. 1. This means a drastic down.

ward revision of the war aid program for 1945. It waa announced officially Thursday in a statement summing up lengthy British-American lend-lease conference! just concluded here. They resulted in a $5,600,000,000 program for shipments to Britain during 1945 cut of almost 50 per cent under comparable figures for this year. Elimination of cost-free shipments of steel and some other "raw and semi-fabricated materials" to Britain is made possible by decreasing war demands on Britain's own steel industry, it wis learned. It has been ordered Into effect Jan.

1 in order to smooth the way for reconversion of British industry to civilian production on an equitable basis' with reconversion in this country. Anxious to Reconvert. The British are anxious to recon vert in order to begin restoring their 71 per cent losa in exports. The principle of "equitable" reconversion was worked out for th first time in these conferences, headed by Lord Keynes, British economist, End Harry White, Amer ican treasury expert It i taken to mean thai the British may relax their war production controls and shift their production capacity where they can on a basis of equality with the United States. Lend-lease arrangements from now to the war's end will not deny them that opportunity.

Acting Secretary of State Stettinius, Treasury Secretary Morgen-thau and Leo T. Crowley, foreign economic administrator, jointly announced the new schedule. Their statement distinguished between lend-lease and postwar foreign trade relations of the United States and Britain which art still to be determined. Skipped Trade Problems. The Keynes-White committee, it said, did not "enter into the review" of trade problems.

The statement promised na change in the fundamental policies that lend-lease is a wartime system only and that no article which Britain receives under lend-least may be re-exported. "After the defeat of Germany," it continued, "there will be no impediment to the United King dom's exporting articles, so far as war conditions permit, which art no longer supplied under lend-lease and are obtained out of their own production or purchased from this country for cash. "To some degree lend-lease aid for the United Kingdom will be reduced even before the defeat of Germany. "It is now expected that somt raw and semi-fabricated materials, such as iron and steel, will no longer be provided by the United States to the United Kingdom under lend-lease after Jan. 1, 1945.

Limitations Reduced. (Officials commenting on thia said that only some revolutionary change in the war situation could prevent this from going into effect.) "This (cut) will have the ef- 1 feet." said the joint statement, "under terms of the white paper itself, of removing products made from such materials from limitations that will continue to apply to articles received under lend-lease, The "white paper" as a formal statement of British government policy against re-exporting any article received under lend-lease. The present declaration meant that if the British want to obtain American goods for export or othor commercial purposes they must pay cash since at present there is no private or public credit arrangement set up. Cash for Export Goods. London (P Prime Minister Churchill revealed Thursday a far reaching British American trade arrangement whereby, after the defeat of Germany, lend-least would be cut nearly in half but Britain would pay cash for Amer.

ican materials intended for eventual re-export from England. Hammering home Britain's necessity for, and intention of, rt- PROBERS FIND DIFFERENCE IN Americans Not Badly Off In Germany; Better Than at Jap Bases. 'Washington, D. (AP)-The house military committee reported Thursday that American prisoners of Germany are, in the main, humanely treated. It said prisoners in Japan proper seem to be faring better than those In Japanese-occupied territories.

The Axis prisoners In the United States, It said, are well treated but not pampered. The committee's report to the house grew out of complaints which Chairman May D-Ky) said Indicated laxity in the handling of German and Italian prisoners, especially the latter. Committee investigators who made first-hand inquiries in prison camps throughout the country reported no evidence of too-lenient treatment of Inmates. More Attention Than Soldiers. They did relate reports that in many cases prisoners received bet ter attention and more privileges than United States soldiers.

At the time the investigation was completed, early this month, the committee said, there were 281,344 German, 51,032 Italian and 2,242 Japanese war prisoners in 132 base camps and 334 branch camps. The committee had this to say about American handling of prisoners: The number of escape attempts is "surprisingly small" and confined almost entirely to Germans often actuated by fear of their fellow-firlson-ers." "Japanese prisoners they occasionally engage in mass attempts at hara-kiri which are carried out, by the most violent and spectacular means at hand." Provisions of the Geneva convention for treatment of prisoners are being "carried out to the letter by the United States," and "in general the German government has endeavored to accord to American prisoners the standards of treatment prescribed" by the convention. Permits Food to Be Supplied. However, the committee added, the Germans have "adopted a less liberal interpretation of some portions of the convention than has our government" the probable reasons being "the exigencies of the situation in Germany. While the "primary example of tinliberal interpretation of the treaty by the Germans is in connection with the food rations," the committee said, the German government permits large supplies of food to be sent to prisoners through the Red Cross and other agencies.

Prisoners of Germany receive good medical care, the committee added. Although Japan did not ratify the Geneva convention, the com mittee said, "it has undertaken to apply, with some modifications the provisions of the convention" to war prisoners and American civilian internees "insofar as its provisions are adaptable." Jap Camps Differ. The Japanese government, it re ported, "has but partially imple mented the terms of the conven tion and has not provided conditions of life on an Occidental standard." Camps under Jap control in metropolitan Japan, Manchuria, Formosa and Shanghai were described as accessible to representatives of the Red Cross and the Swiss government. Outsiders, however, are not permitted to inspect conditions in the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, Malaya, Borneo. Thailand, French Indochina, Burma and the Hon? Kong area.

"On the whole," the report said, the. camps in Japan, China, and Manchuria, in which an estimated 6,296 Americans are held, "seem to be more humanely administered" than those in distant Japanese occupied territories in which "there are approximately 9,865 Americans. The committee said Swiss representatives confirmed reports that the food given prisoners In Japa-' nese camps is superior to that available to Japanese civilians. CAMPS torney General Norman Littell Thursday for "insubordination." Littell had been warring with his chief, Attorney General Bid-die, in exchanges that followed Biddle's demand for Littell't resignation. Littell accused Biddle of having interfered in one justice department case in favor of Thomas (Tommy the Cork) Corcoran, for mer presidential intimate now in private law practice.

Whether this Biddle knockout, scored with White House help, ends the battle entirely is problematical There remains some talk of a sen ate In a statement given out at the justice department, president said: "When statements nude by Norman Littell first appeared in the papers I wrote to him that it was primarily an executive matter and that I hoped for his own careejr he would resign. "Since then he has volunteered a long statement, thus substantiating what the attorney general had said about his insubordination. "This is inexcusable; and under these circumstances my only alternative is to remove him from office, which I have done today More Bombs on German Targets London (U.R) A fleet of almost 3,000 Allied bombers and fighters struck at the heart of the German war machine Thursday, hitting synthetic oil plants in the Leipzig area, three benzol plants in the Ruhr, and the big rail yards around Saarbrucken, Just behind the front Continuing the nonstop aerial offensive against Germany, the Eighth air force threw more than 1,250 heavy bombers and 1,000 fighters into a strong assault on the Leipzig and Saarbrucken areas British four-engined Lancaster escorted by fighters singled out the benzol plants in the Ruhr. Stettinius Given Senate Approval Washington, D. The senate Thursday confirmed President Roosevelt's nomination of Edward R.

Stettinius, to be secretary of state, succeeding Cordell Hull, who resigned because of ill health. The vote was 67 to 1. Stettinius, 44, thus becomes the youngest secretary of state since George Washington appointed 41-year-old Edmund Randolph to the post In 1794. The former chairman of the United States Steel corporation won approval of the senate despite a one-man fight against him by Senator Langer (R-ND). Bares Troopship Sinking in 1942 London The Daily Mail said Thursday the 20,000 ton ocean liner Viceroy of India was sunk by a German submarine in the Atlantic in November, 1942, while carrying troops from the United States to England.

Two photographs of the stricken vessel taken from a rescue ship were published in the newspaper. No details of the sinking or the rescue of troops were given. Grade Allen Reporting: Well, there seems to be a sudden trend toward using good-looking men in politics and if you ask me it a healthy sign. Take Jun-i Stettinius, our new secretary of state: he's ruggedly handsome. Gov ernor-elect To-bin of Massa-ehusetts is suavely handsome, Governor A Gracia Green of Illinois is boyishly some, and Mayor La Guardia of New York wears large, handsome hats.

Washington society ladies aren't exactly members of the bobby-sock set. but you should have heard them sigh when wavy-haired Paul Mc Nutt whispered "all or nothing at all" regarding his control of man power I can just see him now In a double-breasted blue suit com peting with Walter Pidgeon for Greer Garson's affections. Goodness, with all the good-looking-devils going Into politics, the newsreels have -more dimples than the main feature. Bloody Fighting Continues in Villages of Inden, Lamersdorf. Paris (UP) German troops withdrawing toward the Roer line blew up the Inde river bridges at Inden and Lamersdorf Thursday as the battle of the Cologne plain went into its third week and two American armies hammered out gains measured by feet instead of yards.

Lt Gen. Courtney H. Hodges' First army doughboys were thrown out of Lamersdorf, five miles northwest of Duren, by a counterattack, but swarmed back in and held firmly to capture Grosshau, nine miles to the south. With the Cologne battle roaring toward a climax and the Nazis showing signs of cracking under the terrific American pressure, a spokesman for Gen. Dwight D.

Eis enhower announced that "the time has come" to instruct foreign work ers in the Rhineland and Ruhr on what to do when the Allies ar rive. First Opens New Drive. The French First army opened a new drive in the upper Rhine val ley south of Strasbourg and simul taneously cut loose with a heavy barrage against river craft evacuat ing Nazi forces from the pocket be tween Strasbourg and the Swiss frontier. The Luxembourg radio said the German high command had de clared all of Baden, the strip of the Refch across the upper Rhine from France, a war zone, and had or dered the evacuation of its entire civilian population. Swiss dispatches reporting the new French push said the border town of St.

Louis "teemed with troops, and it appeared that a big drive was beginning." At the center of the blazing western front, the 95th infantry division of Lt. Gen. George S. Patton's Third army massed on the rain-swollen Saar river northwest of Saarbruck-en across the 10-mile deep Siegfried line, the most formidable bar rier in western Europe. The Third army got one of the breaks it has been looking for when frost settled over the sodden ground, hardening it enough in some sectors for tank maneuvering.

Reports Saarbrucken Entered. (CBS quoted the Ankara radio as reporting that American units "have entered Saarbrucken and from there they have kept up their advance A First army front dispatch said bloody fighting continued in the villages of Inden and Lamersdorf despite the blasting of the bridges by withdrawing Nazi defenders, but progress was made in clearing both. The Nazis were unloading Panzers from railway flal cars inside the woods when wave after wave of fighter-bombers swooped down on them. The German line appeared to be sagging back toward the Roer (Continued on page 2. column 3) eight years with nothing to recommend it but its "boy and girl relationship and parent and child relationship that ignore the morals of human beings." He said Americans mistreat Negroes, don't care to see them on the stage but enjoy watching blackface comedians "imitating the pitiful Negroes." Nakano quoted "enemy reports" of actresses selling kisses or doing the strip tease to sell war bonds, adding, "thus by barbaric methods, they are.

bolstering the dime store patriotism of the ignorant Yankee masses," Hit Waterfront Again as Japs Report Fires from Last Attack. Headquarters 21st Bomber Command, Saipan, Marianas, Nov. 30 (East Longitude Time) (UP) American Superfortresses of the 21st bomber command, changing their tactics by striking with a medium-sized force under the light of a full moon, attacked Tokyo's waterfront and industrial targets again early Thursday. The first planes over the target flashed word that bombs were away shortly after midnight Tokyo time. Many of the huge, silvery Superiors had been over the Japanese capital only 60 hours earlier when they bombed the industrial area in a noon-hour raid.

Before the takeoff. Brig. Gen. Haywood S. Hansell commanding general of the 21st said: "Tonight tests the full moon.

In- dustrial and shipping targets in Tokyo bay should stand out sharply against the outline of the water. Minimize Air Opposition. "We have an opportunity to use our bombsights under these con ditions. 'We will exploit this and every opportunity to put our bombs in industrial targets which constitute the backbone of the Japanese war making capacity." Officers minimized chances of in terception by Japanese fighters al though the Tokyo area is heavily defended by antiaircraft batteries and American moonlight raiders might draw intense opposition from these guns. However, officers said, the change of pace of attack undoubtedly threw the Japanese off bal-' ance and provided some measure of surprise.

Col. Samuel R. Harris, Winston-Salem, N. was the senior flight officer on Thursday's raid. The first plane over the target was piloted by Lt.

Donald G. Thor- burn. Burlingame, Cal. If the Japs hoped their series of air raids on Saipan would halt attacks on Honshu island by B-29's, Thursday's continuance of the Tokyo missions proved the enemy mistaken. No Losses in First Night Raid.

Washington. D. (U.PJ Giant American Superfortresses, carrying out their first night raid on Ja. pan's teeming capital despite un favorable weather, bombed "indus trial targets" in Tokyo Wednesday night and completed the 3,100 mile round trip to their Saipan bases without loss to enemy action, the war department announced Thursday. The Japanese radio admitted that fires "raged" uncontrolled for nearly an hour after the last of the big four-englned B-29'i had left from the third attack on Tokyo within six days.

A 20th airforce communique Is sued here said the latest bombing was "accomplished by precision instruments and results were not observed because of a cloud cover." Tokyo's antiaircraft defenses put up only "meager and inaccurate" resistance, the communique said, and "none of our aircraft was lost from enemy action." Vote lor Freeze on Security Tax Washington, D. UP) The house ways and means committee Thursday voted 17 to 7 to "freeze" the social security tax, which, otherwise would double automatically Jan. 1. Nine committee Republicans voted solidly, and were joined by eight Democrats in delivering this rebuff to an administration plea that the tax be allowed to rise, as provided in the basic security law. The committee action raised the possibility of a session-end veto fight with the White House.

LONDON EXILES FORM POLISH GOVERNMENT London (U.R) The formation of a Polish government in exile head ed by Premier Tomasz Arciszew- ski, socialist party leader and vet eran revolutionary, was announced Thursday, From its outset, the mass hear- Ing was marked by uproar and confusion. Selection of a jury proceeded at a snail's pace throughtout the first two weeks. Then with, the box still not filled, the task had to be started from scratch again with the expiration at month's end of the district court jury panels. The coutroom clamor grew to such a pitch that Eicher was forced to resort to numerous contempt fines to keep defense counsel in line. All told, six attorneys and a defendant were fined an aggregate of $1,220.

All appealed their fines to the court of appeals, where the cases still are pending. Government counsel, too. came in for criticism from the bench. Eicher late in September formally reprimanded Chief Prosecutor O. John Rogge-iap-improper conduct" in granting interviews to a newspaper and a magazine.

Masses of exhibits were entered in the trial record, but only after bitter defense objections. Quantities remained to be entered, and many witnesses to be heard before the government would have been prepared to rest its case. Eicher would have been 66 years old Dec. 16. He was named to the federal bench Dec.

31, 1941 after serving three years as a member of the securities and exchange commission. He resigned his house sear in December, 1938, near the end of his fourth team, to take the SEC post. He was a Democrat. Eicher was first elected to congress from the First Iowa district in 1932 and was reelected in 1934, 1936 and 1938. As a member of the house he served on the interstate and foreign commerce committee.

Eicher was born on a farm near Noble Dec. 16, 1878. He was the youngest of 13 chil dren, and son of Benjamin Eicher, eastern Iowa pioneer who as a Menonite ministered to the various needs of an early day settlement as its preacher, teacher, doc tor and buttermaker. His father died when he was 14. Names Kirk as Envoy to Italy Washington, D.

C. P) Alex-1 ander C. Kirk of Illinois was nom- inated by President Roosevelt Thursday to be American ambassador to Italy. Kirk now is United States representative on the Allied advisory council for Italy. He was American charge d'affaires in Rome at the time Italy came into the war in June, 1940.

EISENHOWER INSPECTS TROOPS IN HOLLAND Somewhere in Holland (JP) Gen. Eisenhower left this sector Thursday after a 24-hour inspection tour of the Canadian First army ana British and Polish divisions of the British Second army. King Edwurd. Dutch Mter, R. O.

Dim. El Verio, Red Dot, Cortna. Good elgir dvertlfementi INDEX Page' "Believe It or Not" ...16 Cedar Falls 1 City in Brief Dixon "With the AEF" 22 Markets 20 Northeast Iowa ...21 Radio Programs Ration Calendar Iff! Runyon's "Brighter Side" 18 Serial Story .16 Society 10 Sports .13 Theater 14 Uncle Wiggily 16 Wlnchcll in New York ....,,,,,.15 9: EDWARD C. EICHER. Jap Troops for Leyte Sunk at Sea Allied Headquarters, Philip pines (UP) American planes have smashed a sixth large scale Japanese attempt to re inforce the doomed Leyte gar rison, sinking 13 ships with at least 4,000 troops in a two-day battle in the Camotes sea, Gen.

Douglas MacArthur announced Thursday. Two of the 10 transports sunk reached the enemy stronghold of Ormoc on the west coast of Leyte and had unloaded partially before they were sent to the bottom, but the remainder went down with virtually all hands. Three escorting destroyers also were sunk. The victory boosted the en' emy'i losses in six attempts at reinforcement of Leyte to 21,000 men, 26 transports of a total of 92,750 tons, and 17 escort vessels. Heavy downpours continued to stymie all ground Activity on Leyte except minor patrol action.

MacArthur said an unprecedented 23 Vt inches of rain had fallen since the beginning of November, nearly twice the normal rainfall. Front-line troops were being supplied in part by air. Thunderbolts, Lightnings, War- hawks, and a small number of Mitchell bombers caught the latest Japanese convoy well out in the Camotes sea Tuesday and bombed and strafed it without let-up until the last of the 10 transports and three destroyers had been iunk Wednesday afternoon. The transports were believed carrying a full division of troops. Japanese prisoners captured in recent days said another infantry division had been expected at Ormoc.

The Japanese shirjs scattered soon after the attack began, and 811 seven of the smaller transports ana one oi tne large snips were sunk well out to sea. The other two large ships ap- parently reached Ormoc under cov- cr darkness. Dut were destroyed POSTERS EXPLAIN WHY ADOLF IS INVISIBLE New York W) The Stock holm Aftontidningen said in an article reported Thursday to the OWI that posters appeared in the streets of Berlin Tuesday declaring: "The more the enemy shows himself, the more invisible becomes the fuehrer (Hitler)." Jap Paints Americans as Barbarians; Cites "Proof1 I By tht Aitociattd Prtt America, a Japanese propagandist told his countrymen in a broadcast Thursday, "is a barbaric nation unparalleled in the world." The propagandist, Goro Nakano, former New York correspondent of the Tokyo newspaper Asahi, said he "stripped the mask of justice and humanity" from "the enemy Americans" to Inspire a leenng oi natrea toward the American people. In the broadcast, recorded by the federal communications commission, he cited as evidence of American barbarism wrestling matches, blackface comedians, plays like "Tobacco Road," and actresses selling kisses for war bonds. Nakano said he was "amazed at the bloody barbarity" of wrestling in America where "huge and horrible looking monsters" are imported from distant lands and rittgf against "good-looking athletic American youths.

"In the end, the good looking youth completely defeats the monster who looks like a ghost, carrying out a cruel revenge." He was shocked, too, by such "truly outrageous names as Man Eater, Man Mountain, Champion of Hades, King Kong, or Gorilla of Siberia." "The more cruel the nature depicted in plays on Broadway," Nakano said, "the more popular they become." He cited "Tobacco Road" as such play, commenting ran for.