Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 35, Number 67, Decatur, Adams County, 19 March 1937 — Page 1

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ICHOOL DEATH TOLL MOUNTS

lernor’siDaya/s Wne Off Decatur’s I Greatest Events

■ [owibciui \n(i OthOtliciuL Arc Kjnkd (.real Kee< l'flg n e re Thiii'da.'. ■j’UHA ( KOW I) 1,1 ' " !, h " ’ K. . IK ■ - ■m, - ls ' ll """ '" ,l "‘ I,iUI IK ..m.'V .1 itd’-il a - !,J ' isit , IK,. I:.'! ' ' t’.y ‘ i "■ k |K. !■? ll ’" ■ H . K ■ jis]'"' ll "' .! w ■ •• I >i> k K ... ■ ■r <..■.. ■*>- son nf th- governor; ■B Ej- >’• '' I'-hana direct adlilltnsof mor.- than f>s»o’ perthe facilities of the - lor tillbanquet of the Decatur ■; ' sponsin visit to this city. Mwara I'allaiul. field manager, ■etoastmaster. ■ ir.'.o w - pi oiiniitii ed Mb nuu - \I |'i ugh. pastor Mh Zion H-torm-d church ■uity singii,.- was 1. d by Leo ■l»rii Miss Louise Haubold Maying at the piano. if'- !>u; instrument Mii< »as played by five DecaMt’ls Mary K. Flyback, Anna Mfrh-rry. Alic.- Yost. Marjorie Uli Patsy McConnell, a< ■ Mull'll hy Albert oelleineyer. Ml of the sixth, seventh and Mb tirades ut the St. Joseph ■ presented a splendid mill■trill. ■ Introduces Guests Mjttnaster Calland. after speakMMy on the purpose and ac ytoi-nts of a Chamber of Btrae, introduced the delega- ■ from Geneva. Monroe and M- The members of the De- ■ Junior Chamber of Commerce ■ introduced, followed by the y, of directors of the senior ybff of Commerce. ■ Calland then introduced f A R- Holthouse, who dep the address of welcome. ■‘ n ““ yor stressed the fact ■ atur and .Adams county r ll a united community, one ■ resi(l «tfts Os the city and F „ Bard as the best in the ■tn extendet l a warm welE°. t ’ ov - Townse nd and other ■su.ahed guests. E., Callaiiti ,he » presented Mr. | y ’ Mr ’ Crawfo r<i. Mr. Pet- |,_ Max Townsend. These Ith’b , only briefl y' expressL. ' ’ mure at being guests Kn'g‘' 11,y at BUch a Bplcn i tontmagter then introduced ipan»rm ” er ' former Decatur M, )r 8 , n ' Wh ° expreMed his bad he B Plendid reception fro mhls former —M Ely On paoe SEVEN) '* en Funeral Services Sunday ’’'eranW*^ 8 f ° r Joseph Bowhr, who a U>Ck buyer and « raia “'?ht a. d m DPed dea<i Wedne «- ►Ulshire Oh- p!aCe ofbnßln «s« EST 2 ' be he “* at Hn Mpth j. Suada >’ afternoon itt cij o*l*Bl 0 * I * Bl E P”«WI church

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT

GOV. TOWNSEND VISITS SCHOOLS AND FACTORIES Governor And Party Inspect Schools And Industries Os City A lesson in current Indiana history was impressed upon the minds of the pupils of the Decatur schools : Thursday afternoon when members of Gov. M. Clifford Townsend’s party proved they were "real peoi pie.” The party visited both the I St. Joseph Catholic school and the I public high school. At the latter i place, the pupils of the Central school were also present. At the conclusion of the program at the Decatur high school. IW. Guy Brown, principal, said: | "Such a distinguished group has never visited our schools before. It is unlikely that such an occasion will be repeated for many years." The governor's party and reception committee inarched from the court house to the Catholic school gymnasium behind the Decatur girls bund at 2 p. m. The St. Joseph pupils were assembled in the . gymnasium. As the governor's party entered, the pupils sang the ‘Star Spangled Banner.” The Rev. Father Joseph J. Seimetz introduced Gov. Townsend, who told a number of stories. He ■ concluded by telling the pupils, "This is the best community in the • world for you. Here more persons are interested in you. Here I you are among friends." • Rev. Seimetz also introduced Floyd I. McMurray, state superinI tendent of public instruction, and [ Dick D. Heller, secretary to the governor. Mr. McMurray told the pupils they should be proud of i their schools. He said he came i from a community. Lebanon, where the schools were appreciated as much as they are here. The party then marched to the public high school. Mr. Brown, in . introducing Dick Heller said, "It gives me great pleasure to introduce an alumnus of this school. I one who only a few years ago sat I (CONTINUED ON PAGE SEVEN) o MILLER BAKERY HERE IS SOLD Fort Wayne Man To Take Possession Os Miller Bakery March 29 Proprietors of Miller’s Bakery announced officially this morning that ' the -bakery has been sold to Gail H. Redd, of Fort Wayne. Mr. Redd has been employed Iby the Holsum bakery in Fort Wayne for several years. The new owner . will assume operation of the bakery Monday, March 29. Miller's Bakery was started by Charles Miller and hie sons, Edwin , and Albert, in 1919 They had for- . merly been engaged in the restaui rant businessThe firm moved into its present location in January of 1926. [ The sale is only for the bakery • plant and equipment, with the Mil(llers retaining title to the property II in which the bakery is located. Charles Miller and his son, Erwin, have been in poor health for several mon the and decided to retire from active business after their many years of service to Decatur and community. Albert Miller will continue for the present with the new manage- • ment. i o WEATHER I ■ Showers probable tonight and Saturday; somewhat warmer tonight and eazt and south portions Saturday.

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DALIAf- X I L I NEW \ LONDON j

SIO,OOO DAMAGE SUIT IS FILED I Suit Against Bus Company Is Venued To Local Court A. SIO,OOO damage suit against the A. B. C. bus line, brought by Geraldine Cleo Meir, has been venued to the Adams circuit court from Allen county. The suit was brought as the result of an accident, January 8, 1936, when four passengers on the bus were killed and Mre. Meir was injured. The plaintiff alleges she "was a paying passenger on a hue being operated on state highway number nine about seven miles southwest of Huntington, at night, during bad, weather conditions with the highway covered with ice. "The defendant operated the bus in a reckless and negligent manner in that the driver drove at the rate of 50 miles per hour on a curve and down an incline, and at the same time removed both his hands from the sterling wheel, took off his hat and proceeded to brush his ! hair. At the same time the bus ' began to skid and swerve to the , left of the center line of the highway. It entered into a bridge at the bottom of th incline and collided with a motor truck with such force and violence as to completely tear off the left sid eof the bus. “As the result of the accident she was violently thrown about in the hue with such force that she was rendered unconscious, suffered a concussion of the brain, injury to the brain and brain cells, nerves and tissues therewith connected, impairing the hearing of her left ear, injuring her spine, spinal cord and nerves and tissues, injuring the vertebrae of the dorsal region. Injuring her chest, (OONTTNUEB ON PAGE SEVEN) o Continue Evidence In Guardian Trial —— Evidence continued to be introduced this afternoon in the suit brought by Louis A. Jettens seeking the removal of the guardian for Mae Rice of Portland. The case was venued here and is being tried before , a jury of seven men and five women.

ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN ADAMS COUNTY

Decatur, Indiana, Friday, March 19, 1937.

Countv Agent M ill Be Club Speaker i County Agent L. E. Archbold will be the principal speaker at I the monthly meeting of the Adams ' I county fish and game conservation league, which will be held Monday. April 5 at the Moose home. Mr. Archbold will explain the move to have the 4-H clubs affiliate, with the conservation clubs in the state. A statewide movement ij underway to have the 4-H clubs join the conservation clubs in their respective counties. W. A. Fonner is chairman of the meeting. STORM DELAYS AMELIA PUTNAM Noted Aviatrix Delayed By Storm In Round World Flight Honolulu. T. H.. Mar. 19 (U.R) ' Amelia Earhart Putnam, delayed overnight by a storm in her path, prepared today to take off over an , unexplored air route for How’land Island, the second goal on her flight around the world. Her $90,000 silver Lockheed “Flying Laboratory" was overhauled during the night bv her crew of three men. two of whom will accompany her to the tiny Pacific island, just north of the equator and 1,650 nautical miles away. Mechanics said the plane had to be “practically rebuilt,” after the 2.400 mile flight from Oakland. Calif., which the 38-year-old queen i of the air made in 15 hours and 47 minutes, to begin her greatest expedition. Two new propellers w-ere installed. replacing ones that were pitted by rain. The tousle-halred woman filer was philosophical about the weather that delayed her. “There's no time lost, anyhow, because the motors needed checking," she said. I “They will have a long ways to go and we must be sure of them." * The storm was near Howland Island. There were clouds and light rain. Visibility was 30 miles. Miss Earhart expected a new report from U. S. aerologists eai ly today and it it were favorable, she i planned to leave Wheeler field, (CONTINUED ON PAGE FIVE) ,

Scene of Collinwood fire [ Hundreds of children ranging in age from five to 19 were killed when a centralized county school at New London. Tex., 125 miles east of Dallas, was demolished by a terrific explosion. Approximately 1,000 pupils were in the school at the time of the blast which struck with such devastation that the roof was blown off the building. Lire added new horrors to the tragedy as flames swept the wreckage and hampered work of rescuers Built about two years ago at a cost of $1,000,000, the school housed pupils from the surrounding territory. Worst previous school disaster in the history of United States occurred in Cleveland in 1908 when a fire swept the Collinwood school causing the death of 175 children who were trapped in the holocaust.

DEATH CLAIMS BERNE WOMAN Mrs. Louise Winteregg Dies This Morning At Berne Home i Mrs. Louise Winteregg. 67, died at her home in Berne this morning after an illness of two years caused .by complications. She has been bedfast since she fell down the stairs at her home and fractured a leg, , September 25. 1936. i Mre. Winteregg was born at Vera Cruz. January 28, 1870, the daughter of Abraham and Caroline Baumgartner. Nearly all her life was spent I in or near Berne. She moved into the town of Berne from a farm 2Ms miles north of Berne about 10 years .- ago and had lived there since. Mrs Winteregg was married in 1891 to David Wintereggg, who died several years ago. The following children are surviving: Elmer of Berne; Homer of I Monroe; Mrs. Joel Neuenschwander jof Wabash township; Mrs. Noah | Gefber of Berne, and Mrs. Illi Gra- . ber of Monroe township. The fol- ; lowing brothers and sisters survive; ' Mrs Josephine Wittwer, Mrs. Levi I Sprunger, Mrs ' .Ellen Nussbaum; i Mrs. Noah Augsburger; Miss Emma Baumgartner and Samuel Baumgartner. all of Berne. A daughter, Mrs Amos Neunschwander, and two brothers, Noah and Albert, are deceased She was a member of the Mennonlte church. Funeral services will be held at the home Sunday afternoon at 1:15 o’clock and at the Berne Mennonlte church at 2 o'clock. The Rev. C. H. Suckau, pas-; tor of the church, will officiate. Burial will be made in the M. R. E. cemetery at Berne. Former Supreme Court Justice To Broadcast Washington, Mar. 19 — (U.R) — Senate majority leader Joseph T. Robinson today announced that former supreme court justice John H. Clark will make a radio address on President Roosevelt’s judiciary plan Monday night. He made his announcement shortly after the senate judiciary committee had voted to call the clerk of the supreme court for a report on the condition of the docket.

More Thanl4oo Known Dead In Nations Worst Schoolhouse Disaster; Gas Leak Is Blamed

JUDGE ORDERS AUTO STRIKERS UNDER ARREST Homer Martin, 6.000 SitDown Strikers Ordered Arrested Detroit, Mar. 19— <U.R) —The Wayne county circuit court issued a writ of "body attachment” today, ordering the arrest of Homer Martin, president of the United Automobile Workers, and the 6,000 sit-down strikers in nine Chrysler corporation plants. The original injunction named John L. Lewis, head of the committee for industrial organization, and it was presumed that today's order also applied to him inasmuch as the IT. A. W. is a C. I. O. affiliate. Lewis, however, is in New York —outside the jurisdiction of the Wayne county circuit court, making his arrest improbable. Judge Allan Campbell, after a conference with Chrysler attorneys. issued a blanket writ against the men who are holding nine plants of the Chrysler corporation. The writ also named "agents and representatives" of the union —Martin and such U. A. W. officials as Wyndham Mort'imer. first vice-president; and Ed Hall, second vice president. The writ Instructed Thomas Wilcox, sheriff of Wayne county, to “arrest said persons and each of them and to bring them and each of them before this court to answer for said misconduct.” Sit-down strikers ignored a writ of injunction issued by Judge Campbell, commanding them to disperse and leave the Chrysler plants by 9 a. m. Wednesday. Today they still held the plants, some of the strikers armed with blackjacks and bolts, and said they would not leave. "We’ll die before w-e do." read signs on the gates of some of the plants. Sheriff Wilcox made no immediate move, apparently awaiting (CONTINUED ON PAGE FIVE) o SUPREME CODRT DOCKET SOUGHT Request Clerk To Submit Data On State Os Court Docket Washington, March 19 —(UP) — The senate judiciary committee today voted to request the clerk of the supreme court to submit data on the state of the docket of the high courtThe motion to ask supreme court 'clerk Charles Elmore cropley to supply the information was made by S-en. Warren R. Austin, R., Ct., It was not certain whether Cropley would appear before the court personally or merely supply the information to the committee in statistical form. The request for information on the court's docket came as committee members studied the possibility | of. obtaining chief justice Charles i Evans Hughes or other justices as witnesses in the hearings on President Roosevelt’s judiciary propos ' als. One opposition leader on the committee said that he believed either ■ th chief justice or one of the other justices had been contacted in regard to appearing. At Hughes’ office it was said: “The chief justice has no statement on the matter at this time.” At associate justice Mcßeynolds’ office it was said that the justice had not been asked whether he desired to testifyAustin’s motion called for information on the full number of cases (CONTINUED ON PAGE EIGHT)

Superintendent Os New London School Tells Os Tragedy • « New London. Mar. 19 — (U.R) — ; William C. Shaw, superintendent of the New London school, the man directly responsible for the. well being of its 1,200 pupils.! Identified one of the 425 recovered bodies from yesterday's explosion in a morgue early today. It was that of his 17-year-old son. Clifton "Sambo” Shaw. A man of 61, the superintendent' seemed to have aged 10 years overnight. His hands shook like those of a man suffering palsy. One of them was bandaged, injur-' ed in the explosion. His cheeks were flecked with dried blood from lacerations caused by flying glass. He wondered if he might not have been, inadvertently, partly responsible. He recalled that he had made the janitor cap an unused gas pipe. It occurred to him that perhaps the pipe had not been sealed properly and that leaking j gas tilled the sub-basement of the school building and finally was ignited into the explosion. Relatives tried to keep Shaw at home but he defied them. He plodded about the ruins on trembling legs and spoke frankly. The natural gas that makes his school one of the richest in the world, he said, was used in gas radiators in every room. There are seven producing oil and gas wells on the campus. “Most of our school was built | right over the ground. Between I the ground and the floors there was a cavity enclosed by the (CONTINUED ON PAGE FOUR) o STRIKE HALTS TRANSPORTATION Bus And Interurban Service Halted At Anderson Today — Anderson, Ind., Mar. 19—(U.R) — A strike by approximately 200 men today halted local bus service i and interurban service of the Indiana railroad in and out of Anderson. Strikers walked out of the North Anderson power station which serves as car barns and garage, at the time they were scheduled to work. Approximately 100 pickets patroled the power station and the company made no attempt to operate. A strike committee left immediately for Indianapolis to confer with Bowman Elder, receiver for the railroad. It was understood they sought wage increases. The Indiana railroad suspended its Terre Haute city street car and bus service from Jan. 17 to Jan. 28 until a strike was ended by granting wage increases and raising the city fare one cent. In addition to the local bus service, the strike halted interurban service from Indianapolis to Anderson; Muncie to Anderson, and Muncie to New Castle. o Decatur Man Held On Intoxication Charge Glen Martin is being held in | the Adams county jail on a public | Intoxication charge. An affidavit was signed late this afternoon by Sheriff Dallas Brown and Prosecuting Attorney Arthur E. Voglewede. The case has not yet been filed. Martin was taken into custody Thursday night. o Prospective Crop Plantings Shown Washington, Mar. 19 —(U.R) —The department of agriculture today reported intention of farmers to plant 20,918,000 acres of spring wheat and 94,840,000 acres of corn this year.

Price Two Cents.

Dynamite Rumor Scouted By School And Civil Authorities; Largest Rural School. SEARCH RUINS New London, Texas, Mar, 19 — (U.R)—A military board of inquiry this afternoon postponed its investigation into the cause of the explosion that wrecked the world's largest country school as volunteer workers completed the check of debris from which they removed all school children and 14 teachers. Military leaders directing 1,000 weary oil field workers in the search for additional victims said the death toll agrees with the United Press compilation of 425 dead. New London, Tex., Mar. 19. —(U.R) —A thousand weary oil field workers virtually had completed search of the ruins of the New London high school building at noon today when a military board of inquiry was called to determine the cause of the explosion that killed approximately 425 children and school teachers. Military officiasl who supervised the search of the wrecked building ' that until yesterday housed the ' largest rural high school in the world said the checkup should be jcomplete within two or three hours. Throughout the morning only j five bodies were found and rescue workers did not expect to find many more. Those found under heavy debris were so mangled that identification was impossible. Although rain fell intermittently during the morning, some of the showers drenching the workers to the skin, the men labored doggedly on. Two right angle : walls of the auditorium were pulled down because engineers feared they would topple In the slightest wind and add additional victims to the staggering toll. Most authorities believed that the explosion was caused by an ac--1 cumulation of gas that was piped driectly from the scores of oil wells whose derricks dot the piney i forest around the hilltop school to individual heaters in each of the school rooms. Searchers found 15 sticks of dynamite in the storage room of one of the school buildings. Although school authorities said that this was to be used for blasting (CONTINUED ON PAGE SIX) NEW DIRECTORS ARE SELECTED Junior Chamber Os Commerce Selects Three Directors Dorothy Young, an employee of the Central Soya company, Edwin Kauffman. Adams county deputy recorder, and Harry Dailey, a teacher in the Central grade school, were named directors for three years, of the Decatur Junior Chamber of Commerce, Thursday night at the Catholic auditoriumThe vote was taken during the banquet, sponsored by the Senior i Chamber of Commerce, in honor of Gov. M. Clifford TownsendMies Young is one of the organizers of the club and has just completed a two year term. Edwin Kauffman and Harry Dailey succeed Kathryn Hyland and Jesse Sutton. Other directors whose terms carry over are: Deane Dorwin, Frank Wallace, Mrs. Harold Grant, Bud Townsend, Kathryn Hower and Bob Heller. Deane Dorwin. president of the club, announced that the directors I will meet Tuesday night at 6:30 o’clock in the Rice hotel to elect officers for 1937. Retiring directors have also been i requested to attend this meeting be- : cause policies for tho new year will ; be discussed on which their advice will be consulted.