Fort Lauderdale News from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 13

eJiool Insurance ComBetition 8 Agents Take Case Fairchild Succumbs In Miami Fort Lauderdale Daily News Tugboat FRIDAY, AUGUST 6, 1954 Buildiiisr Into Court Resumes Horticulturist Dies Of Navy Okays $762,000 'Thousands Of Dollars' Wasted, Men Claim Charging that "thousands If- wmm I Mt I i'''iftfnrtifiiilflfijii)fr lfllin, i 1 9 FACT FINDERS A three-man committee, named by the Broward County Democratic Executive Committee last night, to get facts on investigations of three county officials by Acting Gov. Johns, is shown above with Executive Committee Chairman Robert M. Cur- (Daiiy Newt photo by Daoflai McQuarrie) tis. Left to right, H. W.

(Tom) Setley, Curtis, John Seaney and Bert Stephens. Curtis will accompany the fact-finders to Tallahassee next week after an audience has been arranged with the acting governor. (AP Wlrephoto) WOODS FIRE THREATENS A fire truck pumps water from a small pond onto woods fire that threatened a small animal kennel and homes along a beach boulevard in Jacksonville yesterday. This was one of flareups in fire which forest rangers say is temporarily out of control. Ira Jacksonville Man Braves Roaring Flames To Grab 2 Boys From Shed Ban On Strike Upheld By Court TALLAHASSEE, ik) The Florida Supreme Court ruled today the state may invoke Its police power to preserve the peace in labor disputes.

The upheld the action of Dade County Circuit Judge Pat Cannon in enjoining members of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union from striking against Cover Girl of Miami, a manufacturer of women's, clothes. The 'injunction also banned union members from intimidating or coercing on-union workers to leave their jobs and from picketing the Cover Girl plant. The non-strikers charged one of their number was struck by a striker while crossing a picket line. Advance For Jobs Fifteen tugboats being constructed at Port Everglades last February when work on them was halted will be delivered to the Navy "within seven or eight The time target was set today by T. Clyde Smith, vice president of Smith's Basin and Dry Dock who said that the Navy would advance the firm $762,000 under terms of an amended contract so that the 112-ton tugs can be completed.

About 100 workers will be reemployed by the company, and construction of the tugs will be resumed in "about a month," Smith said. Approximately 325 persons were employed by the company when work on 12 of 28 boats originally contracted for by the Navy was halted on Dec. 8, 1953, ostensibly because of an easing of the international situation. ONE DELIVERED One of the 16 tugs on which construction was continued was delivered in February, but company officials later in the same month petitioned Federal court in Miami for relief under the bankruptcy act, and no work has been done on the boats since. During a creditors' hearing yesterday in the Court House before L.

Earl Curry, federal referee in bankruptcy, 154 of 168 creditors who made claims against the company agreed to a plan of arrangement accept able to the Navy. An order confirming a plan of arrangement will be issued. Curry said, provided that no objec tions are filed by creditors be fore Tuesday. Clyde Smith and his fader, William company president, have charged that Navy ineffi ciency was principally respon sible for the fact that only one tug of 28 contracted for on May 4, 1952, was delivered All locally-built tugs were to have been completed by June 30. 1953, according to the original contract.

COST WENT UP However, the Smiths said that the Navy made 797 designing changes in the initial plan, and that these resulted in increased cost "beyond all reason." More Funds Asked Io Complete Big Recreation Job POMPANO BEACH City commissioners last night asked City Manager Carl Burbridge to "dig up" an additional $45,000 to complete the proposed 000 recreation project. The assignment was made at an executive session of the com mission and recreation board when a breakdown of the project revealed more money will be needed than provided by the original $400,000 recreation bond issue. The proceeds from the original bond issue was shaved down considerably by expenses Involved in its sale and legal fees, officials said. Commissioners also explained that the amount needed to complete the project was found to be approximately $45,000 in addition to the proceeds received from the sale of the recreation bonds that was due mainly to the building of roads to facili-i tate traffic about the entire area and additional expenses brought about by weather conditions not contemplated when the recreation program was initiated. What hurt the project was a whittling down of funds roughly $34,000 which was lost when the city sold the bonds under par value and paid for legal fees.

i Heart Attack At 85 MIAMI. Dr. David Fair child, 85, famed horticultur A. 1st ana tor many years director of the Agriculture Department's office of plant introduction, died today. The noted agricultural explorer passed away at 12:45 p.m.

at his home in suburban Coconut Grove from "terminal heart failure." The family physician. Dr. Herbert Elchert, said Dr. Fair-child collapsed at 6 p.m. Wednesday while walking through the breezewav of his bayfront home with his wife.

He did not regain consciousness and weakened gradually At the bedside was his wife, the former Marian H. Bell, daughter of Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone. and his son, Graham, who ar rived from Nova Scotia where he had Just gone for a vacation. RAISED INCOME Dri Fairchild was credited with introducing plants to the United States which increased agricultural income more than 100 million dollars a year. Under his direction, more than 75,000 species of plants field crops fruit crops and ornamentals were brought to this country.

Dr. Fairchild himself traveled widely throughout the world in search of new plants. He was responsible for the introduction of new varieties of wheat, rye and soybeans that resulted in tremendous increases in the yields of these basic crops. He also introduced the kudzu vine and, in cooperation with the late Dr. Walter T.

Swingle, introduced the commercial date to tbe southwest. His travels and experiences were told In several books. Perhaps the best known was "The World Was My Garden," published in 1938 Others included "Garden Islands Of The Great East," "The World Grows" and "Exploring For su BORN 1869 Dr. Fairchild was born April 17, 1869, at Lansing, Mich. He received a bachelor of science degree in agriculture at Kansas State College, and went to work for the Agriculture Department in Wash ington in 1889, Just before reaching his 20th birthday.

He left the department for sev eral years to study botany and allied sciences in Germany. Italy and Java. He returned to the de partment in 1894 and a year later set out on his first plant explora tion, searching the East Indies Siam, Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, Japan, China and Africa for promising plants. The following year he married Marian Bell, daughter of Alexander Graham Bell, in ventor of the telephone. Dr.

Fairchild was head of the office of plant introduction until his retiremnet in 1928. Even after that he continued to make extensive trips in search of new plants. WORLD TRAVELS With Allison V. Armour, he visited Ceylon, Java, Sumatra and West Africa, and then Just before World War II he and his wife joined the Fairchild Tropical Garden Expedition on a Chinese Junk sailing to the Philippines and the East Indies. The Fairchild Tropical Just south of Miami, was named In honor of Dr.

Fairchild. The 85-acre public botanical garden was built by the late Col. Robert H. Montgomery after reading Dr. Fairchild's book "Exploring For Plants." Washington was Dr.

Fair-child's permanent home until he retired, but he spent many summers in Miami and built a. home, "The Kamponjr, in suburban Coconut Grove. "The Kampong" comprised several dwellings. Once when Alexander Graham Bell was staying in a Kampong cottage a telephone company official heard the inventor of the telephone was without one of these modern instruments. Workmen rushed to the cottage.

"We've come to put in a pri vate nne ior you. sir, as a courtesy of the telephone company," the crew leader said. "Telephone 1" Bell exclaimed. "Who ordered a telephone for me? A telephone's the last thing I GAVE PLANTS Dr. Fairchild spent much of his spare time adding to his collection of plants at "The Kampong." He received seeds from many lands and planted them in a little greenhouse Then whent the plants deveoped he gave them to friends he knew would tend, them carefully.

Mr. and Mrs. Fairchild had two daughtrs. Mrs. Marston Bates.

New York, and Mrs. Leonard Muller, Miami, and a son. Dr. Graham Fairchild, Pan ama. of dollars of the "taxpayers' money is wasted annually," eight Broward County mutual insurance agents to day asked the Circuit Court to force the Board of Public Tn- structiooon to award insurance contracts on a competitive basis.

In one instance which attorneys for the agents cited it was charged that the board is paying a premium more than 50 per cent higher than would have been necessary had competitive bids been taken. Declaring that the board recently had taken a $1,308,618 policy on South Broward High School, Hollywood, on which the premiums total $9,343.48, the plaintiff agents contend they could have saved the county $3,886.36 during the five-year life of the policy. The agents further charge that they asked board permission to bid on the policy in July but were refused. Paul Turner, chairman of the board, defended his group's action by saying it was "the opinion of the board that while the policy we now follow may have been a little more costly in dollars and cents, that has been more than offset by the improved service which the stock (insurance) companies provide." FAVORS BIDDING John Patton. a member of the board and a Ft.

Lauderdale insurance agent, took issue with Turner's statement, however. and said he favored a clan whereby policies would be awarded on a bid basis. Patton, who represents both stock and mutual companies, clashed with other board mem-, bers several months ago when he advocated the bid plan but was outvoted. In their suit the plaintiff agents cite a state law which prohibits a school board from making any purchase in excess of $300 without taking bids. Mutual companies long have fought the board's policy of allowing contracts to go exclusive ly to stock companies.

Plaintiffs in the action, which asks an injunction to prevent awarding of future contracts without bids being taken, are John G. Stephenson, Lamar Thistlethwaite, Gilbert P. Ed wards and Richard E. Templln. Ft.

Lauderdale, and Gerard Tar- diff. Louise M. Taylor, W. E. Parker and Louis A.

Charnow, Hollywood. THREE PARTS Under the system which the board currently operates, the county, is divided into three -sec tions with agents in those areas deciding which firms" are to be given contracts. The three areas are Pompano Beach, Ft. Lauderdale and Hollywood. Turner said his board merely accepted the recommendations of the district agents in making awards.

The chairman said he and O. K. Phillips, superintendent, recently had gone to TaUahassee to discuss the insurance situation with officials in the budget department and had been told there that insurance was considered a service rather than a commodity and for that reason did not fall within the $300 purchase cata-gory set forth in today's suit Turner said he and Phillips also were told that most counties of the state follow the same procedure that Broward does but that "some" operated on the competitive bid basis. Patton disputed this and said the bid basis was in general use throughout the state and that "we have lagged behind in not adopting it." AGENTS DECIDE The chairman estimated that "approximately 40 agents" in the county share in the insurance program and said policies were awarded by school location. "If a policy is being taken on a school in Ft.

Lauderdale it will go to a Ft. Lauderdale agency," Turner said, "and. similarly, Hollywood school policies are placed with Hollywood agents. The agents themselves decide who is to get the policy. We just follow their recommendations." Turner said state officials had praised the board in years past for the manner in which its insurance program was carried out, and added: "We are very proud of the fact that there never has been any irregularity uncovered by state investigating agents in connection with our program." MAY LEASE FIELD POMPANO BEACH Acting City Attorney Bart Sullivan and City Manager Carl Burbridge were to confer with John Morris Broward County School Board Attorney today concerning leasing Kester Park for 5 Pompano Beach High School football games.

off as a volunteer in the week-long battle against the woods fire. "The flames were completely surrounding the building and seems to be 80 feet high," one of the volunteers, Robert H. Zier. reported. "You could hear the boys screaming in there.

Cowart put his hands over his face and plunged right in there without a moment's hesitation." Zier said he grabbed a hose and played a stream of water on Cowart as he ran about 40 feet through tne flaming brush to the shed and back with the boys. AIDED CREWS The boys, about 10 and 12, were not seriously hurt. No one got their names. They had been carrying drinking water to the fire fighters when the flames turned with the wind and whipped toward the crew. Everyone but the boys ran for a highway 200 yards away.

The boys sought shelter in the tin shed. but within minutes it was encircled by flames. One shift of the wind drove the flames to Maron and Sons Furniture Co. on Beach Blvd. When the fire was put out, with the help of a city fire company, damage was estimated at $3,000.

Smoke blackened forest rangers and volunteers continued their day and night struggle to contain the woods fire. STILL THREAT "Except for the weather, the situation is looking up," John Bethea of Tallahassee, chief of the Florida forest service's fire con trol division, reported last night. "But it's a potential powder keg We don't know at what minute it will get away from us." Rainfall here is far below normal this year and the woods are tinder-dry. Bridge Omission Is Protested By Hallandale HALLANDALE A resolution protesting the omission of Hal landale Beach Blvd. bridge from the Broward bridge building budget during the current year was adopted by tne city commis sion last night.

The resolution points out the "need" for a new bridge over the Intracoastal Canal at Hallandale Beach Blvd. and requests money for the bridge on the next budget prepared during the three-year program. The Hallandale bridge once occupied top priority on the bridge program. Pompano Beacfc is now in first place, commis sioners Jearned to their dismay this week. A discussion of 'lack of co- operation" between the park board and recreation department ended last night with instruction of City Manager Ralph Smith to tell recreation employes to "work with the park board 100 per cent." The park board told commis sioners initial relations with Rec reation Director Hank Sloan were excellent but he has not been recognizing the park board's authority in recent weeks.

The city manager is to seek a return to the original good relationship between the recreation and park departments, according to the desires of the commission as expressed at the special meet- in last night. In other action, the commis sion approved a sketch of civic center plans and authorized blueprints of the approved draw ing. Noise Maid Charge Topic At Hollywood HOLLYWOOD City officials conferred thisv morning with representatives of Trimedge, manufacturing plant on Dixie Hwy. which has been accused of creating loud and "obnoxious" noises during evening hours. Mayor Al Ryll, City Manager Joseph W.

Watson and City Attorney Judson A. Samuels are representing the city, which was decided upon at this week's City Commission meeting in response to a petition submitted by 74 persons. Complainants at the commission session had suggested that restriction of working hours from about 10 p.m. until 8 a.m. might be satisfactory relief from the alleged noises.

Col. Watson said that he had had two conferences with com pany officials, and they had agreed to shut windows on the west side of the building in an attempt to lessen the noise. STORY DENIED The plant's neighbors said this had not been done. Particular noises they object to are sledge-hammer pounding, the use of buzz saws in cutting metal, and loud crashes resulting from metal being thrown in heaps. Attorney Samuels said that the solution of the problem is a "ticklish' one, for ordinary operating noises caused by the company's work.

"The commission has the power to declare any noise a nuisance," he said, "but the company has certain constitutional rights which we cannot infringe upon." A report of the city officials meeting with officials of the firm will be presented at the next commission meeting Aug. 17. Swimming Event Will End With Big Splash Party HALLANDALE A free "fam ily splash party" will end Hal-landale's first annual swimming program. Hank Sloan, recreation director, said today. He is chairman in charge of a splash party and water show from 7 to 10 p.m.

Wednesday at Flamingo Pool in Hollywood. A water show starting at 8 p.m. will feature the 75 Hallan-dale children who participated in this year's swimming classes. Twenty-two girl swimmers will stage two water ballet numbers. There will also be demonstra tions by the junior life saving class and the volunteer Hallan-dale fire department.

A diving exhibition will end the water show, Sloan said. Drive For Polio Donations Slated For Tomorrow WTLTON MANORS Six "mile of dimes" stations and a "pitch in for polio" game in front of Manor Market will be manned by Kiwanis Club members tomorrow Co chairmen are Charles Sweeney and V. W. Burnell. "We're off to a good start with a $25 donation from Lohman Electric, and with a canvas of the whole business section we hope to obtain large donations," Burnell said.

A check will be given to Mrs. Z. H. Pilcher, Wilton Manors' March of Dimes chairman at the regular Kiwanis Club meeting Tuesday, 6:15 pjn. Child Labor Law Violation Charged To 3 Federal child labor laws have been broken by three Broward County business concerns, field representatives of the Florida Industrial Commission charged today in warrants obtained from County Judge Boyd H.

Anderson. Named in the warrants for ar rest were John Sarco, manager of the Bowlingdale Lanes, bowl ing alley, 1730 Sunrise Ft. Laauderdale; Bernard Pettie, manager of Bowlarena, a bowling alley at 1830 Federal Ft. Lauderdale, and J. F.

Starling, co-owner of Manor Market in Wilton Manors. R. E. Lee, Winter Haven, and M. M.

Bono, Miami, field agents for the FIC, allege In their com-: plaints that the companies per mitted miners to work on the premises without permits. Children under 16 years of age must obtain work permits from the Broward County School Board at 1400 SW Fourth Ft. Lauderdale, before accepting employment, the agents said. GOT WARNINGS Lee and Bono said that the men charged in the warrants had been warned previously that permits must be presented by children before they could work and that they must not work after 8 p.m. Lee said that in the case of Manor Market five children ranging in age from 11 to 13 years worked as bag boys beyond the legal hour of 8 p.m.

The Bowlingdale Lanes complaint cited that six boys, 12 to IS years of age, worked without permits and beyond the legal hour. Bowlarena was charged with employing six minors without permits and beyond the legal hour. BEER SOLD The two bowling alley operators were also charged with permitting minors to work on premises whei beer is sold and consumed. Starling said today that la company has done much for the children in Wilton Manors and felt the accusation against him was arbitrary. "We actually don't hire the boys.

Many of them help their mothers who are cashiers, bag the groceries," Starling said. One of the boys involved. Starling said, was helping out his mother who has three children to support. BLEACHERS ORDERED POMPANO BEACH The city ordered four new sections of bleachers for the a Beach High School football field today. Estimated to cost about $1,600, the seats are expected to boost capacity at the field from 1.000 to 1,400.

Davis the men under investigation. Named to the committee by Chairman Robert M. Curtis was L. Bert Stephens, Ft. Lauder- dale hotejman; John Seaney, of the Ft.

Lauderdale Junior Cham ber of Commerce, and H. W. Tom) Setley, campaign coordinator for the acting governor in the May primaries. JOHNS HAS DATA Leonard Pepper, executive secretary to Johns said findings in the recent investigations gave the acting governor sufficient reason to remove Hall and Kennedy. A citizens committee recently investigated Judge Davis.

The findings are in the hands of the governor. Hall has been accused of being lax in law enforcement; Kennedy Gunmen Tie Waitress, Get $782 In Cash The Oasis Club, near the Dania Indian reservation, was robbed of $782 yesterday by two men who took the money from a waitress at pistol-point after calmly drinking beers. The waitress, Mrs. Viola Parr, was alone in the bar. at about 3 p.m., when the robbers entered, according to sheriff's deputies who investigated.

Mrs. Parr said that the men took the money from a cash register and a filing cabinet, then tied her hands behind her hack and made her lie on the floor behind the bar. Owner of the oar, Mrs. Thelma Leidy, sat outside about 30 teet behind the building during the rob bery. She was unaware of the happenings because the men kept quiet except to warn the waitress not to yell.

ACTED AS GUARD while one of the robbers snatch ed up the cash, the other stood guard at the rear of the room, Mrs. Parr told Deputies Claude Tlndall, Wayne Pittman and Larry Bland. After drinking beers, one of the men whipped ont a snub- nosed pistol, which he shoved in Mrs. Parr's side. Although the men entered sep arately, and did not sit together while drinking, they went to work as a team one serving as a "guard" for the other.

Before leaving, they shoved the waitress into a back room where they bound her legs. JACKSONVILLE. UPV The Cou rageous rescue of two boys from a flame-seared shed and damage to a suburban furniture firm yesterday underlined the menace in a wood lands fire that has swept over 5,0000 acres of scrublands east of the city, A fire crew told of the rescue of the two boys by Edgar A. Cowart, a city fireman working on his day Husband Asks Divorce After Theft Of Pants A Ft. Lauderdale husband, who charged his wife once took his trousers and money and left him stranded in an out-of-town hotel room, today offered to pay ner (20,000 and deed her "Certain properties" in return for his freedom.

In a suit for divorce filed in Circuit Court, B. Don Stuller of a Hibiscus Trailer Court address sued Jane S. Stuller on grounds of mental cruelty. Attached to the suit was a financial agreement whereby the wife would be paid $20,000 in lieu of alimony and given certain properties, the value of which was not specified The Stuller suit sets forth that the couple ha been wed and divorced once before. EMBARRASSED In the trouser incident, Stuller charges he suffered "great embarrassment when his wife, in a fit of anger, took the pants and his wallet and fled the notel while the couple was at tending a convention.

Before it was possible for him to leave the room Stuller says in his suit, it was necessary for him to borrow funds from a friend and dispatch him to purchase a pair of trousers. AIRMAN SUED In another divorce action filed today, Marguerite Billee Williams Kavalesky asked the court to end her four-month marriage to her airman husband on the grounds the marriage never had been consummated. The suit charges she married Anthony Joseph Kavalesky, Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, March 3, after a guest at a party the couple was attending asked: "Why don't you two get married?" Tne 1 1 continues that despite efforts of the parents to find grounds on which to establish a marriage, they have been unsuccessful and never have lived as husband and wife. were irregularities in the sheriff's office and the courts." PRESS BAN ASKED Jack Rosel, Ft. Lauderdale, suggested that the executive could go into the matter more fully if the press were excluded.

"If the press is ordered out then I'll walk out too," Setley responded. At this point Seaney said that the Ft. Lauderdale Junior Chamber of Commerce had sent a telegram to Johns requesting him not to remove either Hall or Kennedy. He said the Jaycees were unanimous In their Democrats Name 3 Man Team To Sift Probe Findings of inconsistencies in court deci- judgment in giving the three "a sions, and Davis of using profane clean bill of health without know-language in court. ing there was, or wasn't, merit Following the meeting.

Curtis in the investigations or that there The Broward County Democratic Executive Committee has refused endorsement of three of the county's top political office holders whose conduct has been the object of investigations by the office of Acting Gov. Charley E. Johns. The executive instead named a three-man subcommittee last night to gain audience possibly Monday with the acting governor in an attempt to get all the facts in the cases. THREE FIGURES The committee was picked after a motion was defeated 26 to 7 which would have given executive endorsement to Sheriff Amos H.

Hall, Criminal Court Judge William T. Kennedy and Juvenile Court Judge Dorr S. "You just can't back up anyone without knowing all the facts. That's what we hope to get in Tallahassee." PLEAD IGNORANCE? As the committee members argued the original motion, Edward R. Roll, precinct 9 committeeman, told the group "there must be something in the wind" after Stephens asked, "why don't we plead ignorance of the investigations." Setley, in urging appointment of the fact-finding committee, said that the executive "could be embarrassed" by any snap.