Sewickley Herald

              The Herald
The Sewickley Valley’s Home News Weekly
Vol. 49 No. 35
SEWICKLEY, PENNA., THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 1948
Price Ten Cents
(¡militates At Juni-itn College
Marjorie A. DoiTs
Huntingdon, Pa., August^ 23—Marjorie A. Dods, daughter of Mrs. Kathryn S. Dods, 1508 Center Street, Osborne, received a bachelor of arts degree at Juniata College’s Summer Commencement exercises here Saturday, August 21.
Miss Dods, who majored in English and will enter library work, was one of 45 students awarded degrees by President Emeritus C. C. Ellis at ceremonies which closed Juniata’s largest Summer School since 1931.
Bus Fire Attracts Crowd
A fire at the comer of Beaver a: Broad Streets is just unusual enough attract a huge throng of spectators. O looked around and said, “I didn’t thi there were this many people in Sewic ley.”
The cause of all the excitement was blaze in the motor of a Akron-Detn west-bound Greyhound bus at 2: P'm' Tuesday. The bus had just pull away from the bus stall in front of M Masters, when a couple of passers-t whose names were not learned, shout to the driver that the bus was on fire!
The driver, Earl M. High, 10 Jackman Street, Avalon, stopped t us, grabbed the Du-gas chemical t unguisher which is carried on all Gre hound buses near the exit and ran to t ac of dm bus, while the passengi Piled out to safety. Officer Bertil Net was m the police car parked in the st n road Street and he sent in a rac arm and then followed it in person, were are no extinguishers carried on t fh» w °ar .?rge enouSh to take care
drivprmi lf r5t g0t away from the t .. vJi'n^re truck screamed to t ti ’ cUt t l0 driver had Ae fire out. which ,,remi°n switched off the gasolir runni was,driPPing out of the motor a:
washed -idTn the street They * called fU down the sewer and poli
from itf a.tow truck Poll the b down n pofl'on aor°ss the intersecti
place Thad StrCel t0 a quieter Pnrki to annrli1\pnssengers -were transferr an onl bl,,S' °ne o* them reached after u'riad°w hnd retrieved his co
oErs w n5tVi,tl,0ut il tho «rst tin
Wraps after	^ ^	“
Wasmnftl j. , re was o«t. Dama
0nthebackof°ftebufgandtllePa:
mi. , Wel1 Bflhy Clinic the Se3Cli!iBaby c,in!o Will be held
WedneS T iBorough Buildi»g ™ andSt t 1 P’"V Dr' Robert f ' Jaokson will be in charge.
It’s morning scrub-up time for this little fellow at the Protestant Home for Children, a Red Feather agency located on the North Side, where he lives with more than sixty other children. None of them are for adoption as they have one or more parents living.
Protestant Home for Children is one of the institutions supported through the Community Chest. In 1947, 3182 children were cared for through this and several others such as St Anthony Village, Home for ithe Colored Children ,and Kay House.
ADVISORY COMMITTEE NAMED
To Aid in Fund Drive Prominent civic leaders of the Sewickley Valley area have agreed to serve as an advisory committee to the local area organization of the Community Chest it was announced this week by County chairman George R. Craig.
“It is a genuine contribution to the work of the Community Chest that these leaders are willing to meet and plan for the coming campaign of the Chest. They are already at work selecting an area chairman to direct and supervise the work of the Red Feather volunteers, and plan to announce his name next week,” stated chairman Craig.
Members of the committee include David B. Oliver, Ted Borger, Ross W. Buck, Mrs. Roy Rose, John C. Oliver, Jr., Frank C. Schroeder, Jr., and John Gibson.
Scheduled for late fall, the Community Chest campaign is for funds for 92 Red Feather agencies of Allegheny County. Among them are hospitals, clinics, family and child counseling, nursing, and youth service.
Typical of tire Community Chest youth service is the Sewickley Community Center on Division Street which operates a program of recreational and educational activities for boys and girls of this area.
500 FAILED TO REGISTER
Friday, August 20th, 1948, 343 people visited the registration booths pat the Municipal Building, Sewickley, vPa., to become registered. Of this number, 280 registered as Republicans, 56 as Democrats, 2 as Independents, and 5 as No Party, from the Borough of Sewickley alone. There were also approximately 100 additional registrations from the surrounding boroughs and townships. Over 200 change of address cards were completed for people who had moved since last voting. While this is evidence that considerable work was performed by the committee, the result is somewhat disappointing, in that there are yet 569 people within the Borough of Sewickley who are not at tills time registered. They, of course, will not be permitted to vote in the coming Presidential Election in November.
No doubt many of these people are away on vacation, perhaps some were otherwise occupied, and perhaps a few chose not to register. Nevertheless 569 people, in a population of approximately 6,000, is a high percentage of non-registered citizens. Several opportunities yet remain to register locally, as follows!
Monday, August 30th, 1948, 12:00 Noon to 10:00 P. M., Public School Building, Mound Street, Fair Oaks, Pa.
Wednesday, September 8th, 19.48, 12:00 Noon to 10:00 P. M., Valley
Homes Community Building, Big Sewickley Creek Road, Sewickley Township.
Daily: at Room 602, County Office Building, Ross Street, Pittsburgh, Pa.
Those desiring to register at either Fair Oaks or Sewickley Township, on the above dates, who do not have transportation facilities, such transportation will be arranged if they will call Mrs. Margaret M. Morgan, Registration Chairman, at Sewickley 1233.
Respectfully .submitted, Laurence V. Gibb, Chairman Sewickley Valley Republican Committee
WHY THE HURRY, FRIEND?
What’s all the hurry?
Why bum up the street, Just step on the gas,
And Satan *— you’ll meet.
You think you act smart,
By speeding ahead,
But think how You’ll look, Stretched out in bed.
Better go slower,
Even though late,
At least you’ll be sure,
Of keeping that date.
As you start in your car, Keep this hi your head,
The faster you drive,
The sooner you’re dead.
Former P.O.W. Speaks
Captain James L. Leggett, Jr. as he looked while in a Jap Prison Camp
Captain James L. Leggett, Jr., son-in-law of Harold McK. Grubbs of Sewickley Heights, told some tales of liis experience in a Jap prisoner of war camp to the Kiwanis Club of Sewickley, gathered on the lawn of the ‘Y’ Annex Monday night. Replete with generous servings of special com grown in the Kiwanis garden, the Kiwanians listened to stories of hunger, thirst, brutal treatment, death, disease and finally rescue.
Harold Grubbs told of ‘Jim’s’ activities before the war and the decorations he earned, just in case Jim was too modest to mention them. A school teacher by inheritance, Jim’s mother was a teacher and his father a professor at Transylvania College in Lexington, Ky. Jim graduated with honors and was top man in the Engineering School of Kentucky University. After graduation, he came to Sewickley to reside and was employed by tlie American Bridge Company. Having been in the Army Reserve at Kentucky, he was one of the first called up in June of 1941.
He was in one of the first Aviation Engineering battalions organized and was sent to the Philippines, arriving in time for tlie Jap attack on December 8th, Philippine time. After his rescue and return to tlie United States in October, 1945, he was hospitalized for a year and separated from the service with disability. He went back to tlie University of Kentucky and received his Master’s Degree in Engineering within tlie last ten days. He has the Silver Star, although the citation really called for tlie Distinguished Service Cross. He made as many trips as lie could in a jeep to rescue men after the bombing of Clark? Field, Mr. Grubbs concluded.
Captain Leggett then took up the talk, describing the first battle for he Philippines as a ‘rat race’ instead of a battle. Clark Field was the biggest base west of Hawaii and the line engineering companies sent out at tlie same time were Scattered to maintain and construct fields all over the islands. On Bataan, the engineers maintained three airfields So the Philippine Army and U. S. forces could hold out ns long as possible. The retreat to Bataan was on Christmas Day, 1941 and by January 2nd, it was necessary for those who remained to go on half rations. Whole rations hadn’t been too much and flic half rations were very Scanty. So the defenders were half-starved when the Surrender came on April 8lh,
Just before the surrender, Jim was in charge of the demolition of everything
that could be destroyed. Motorized equipment was started up and operated for a time, then sand thrown in and the throttle opened until tlie motor froze— but tight. Only small arms were left to the defenders by that time, for all the larger pieces either had burned-out barrels or no ammunition. Millions of dollars worth of equipment was destroyed, so it wouldn’t fall into the hands of the Japs. As many as possible were taken off by boat and submarine before the surrender, but there wasn’t nearly enough of anything to ‘really do a job*. When surrender came, the American and Philippine forces were in a state of confusion. The let-down feeling was awful, Jim said, but they stopped shooting even though -many of tlie Japs kept right on.
He was fortunate on the Bataan death march, managing to keep some iodine crystals to purify tlie water he got to drink. He missed dysentary by that means. The Japs took delight in taking canteens from those that carried them and marched the soldiers in the heat of the day. A 65 mile march wouldn’t have been bad in five days, had it not been for die heat and no food or water. The Japs are prone to physical violence and think nothing of beating up their own soldiers.
The death march is a hard thing to believe by just reading, you really had to see it with your own eyes! More Philippine soldiers died than Americans, for many of them had been set to battle with little training. The Japs looked down on and treated them meaner than they did the Americans. However, the War Crimes Trials have settled things with those individuals or commanders whereever they could be located.
At the end of tlie death march route, men were piled in steel box cars, which would comfortably carry about 40, 100 to a car. The interior of .the cars were like bake ovens during tlie 12-hour ride to Camp O’Donnell prison camp. Thirst is the worst torture in the tropics, especially when tlie tongue swells. One peculiar tiling about the trips were that not so many died on the road, but when they arrived in the new camp to find it as bad or worse than the one they left, men just laid down and never got up again.
By the time Captain Leggett was transferred, 50 Americans were dying a day out of a group of between 5,000 and
6.000	and 200 Filipinos were dying every day out of their group of between
25.000	and 30,000. There was no medical treatment and no quinine, so most of the prisoners, including Jim, developed malaria. That disease takes what appetite is left and tlie patient goes down-hill all the time. Husky men and small ones died; out of the five first lieutenants, Jim was tlie only one to survive. At another camp, groups of 10 ‘blood’ brothers were formed by the Japs. If one escaped, the rest were shot, so the ten usually tried to go ‘over the hill’ together.
Captain Leggett was sent by rail to Manila and then packed" aboard a tramp steamer for tlie 20-day trip - to Japan, ordinarily taking five, so tightly that they could stand and sit but not lie down. Jap troop ships were packed almost as tightly. Of the 1,500 who Went to Japan on tlie ship, 450 died during tlie next Winter. At Osaka prison camp, they took their first baths in six weeks, huddling in blankets while friends boiled their clothes to rid them of lice as large as small flies.
Jim had a break when lie was transferred to Zentsuzi prison camp on Shikokuj for the prisoners there were from Wake and Guam and they Weren’t (Continued on page 21)