Indianapolis Times, Volume 38, Number 279, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 February 1927 — Page 2

PAGE 2

THIRTY ARRESTED IN U. S. LIQUOR DRIVE

FOREIGN GROUPS SET UP MACHINE GUNS INSHANGHAI Barbed Wire Entanglements Form Another Line of Defense. liu United Press SHANGHAI, Feb. 26.—Armed foreigners on the outskirts of Shanghai tonight were setting up machine guns behind sand bag embankments and erecting miles of additional* barbed wire to protect the foreign communities from Chinese soldiers or mobs. Despite the warlike preparations which have resulted in the creation of two major lines of defense and a third for emergency use, Shanghai was calm and seemed unperturbed. Shanghai’s calm resulted from knowledge that approximately 15,000 foreign soldiers, sailors and marines were available for the defense of foreigners and their property. About 1,000 Chinese troops of Chang Chung Chang’s Army arrived here this afternoon in high spirits and were placed at the north station. Others of Chang’s troops who had previously arrived were sent to the Sunkiang front, thirty miles south of Shanghai. A foreigner returning from Sunkiang today said Marshal Sun Chuan Fang’s troops there were intrenching and that there was every indication that they would make a stand against the Cantonese nationalists. Sun Iviang, key city to Shanghai, where a decisive battle in the war for control of China is expected to be fought, today was reported to have changed hands twice in the last twenty-four hours without a struggle. Troops of the northern general, Chang Chung-Chang, w r ere in possession of the city this morning, and 10,000 of Chang’s troops were officially reported en route there from Nanking. The vanguard of the Cantonese army started filtering into the outskirts of Sun Iviang early yesterday, it was reported, and the northern troops hurriedly evacuated. Later, encouraged by news of approaching reinforcements, they returned to the city, which had not yet been occupied by the main body of Cantonese troops, and regained control without opposition from the southerners. Unruly troops of the ( army of Chang tried to enter the foreign settlement in Shanghai, threatening police and firing their revolvers into the air when they were halted, said a dispatch to the London Daily Mail today. Two companies of volunteer troops appeared in the settlement, preventing a serious disturbance, the dispatch said, HOOSIER VOLUNTEERS Muncie Man Among Foreigners in Military Unit at Shanghai. Bu United Press , MUNCIE, Ind., Feb. 26.—G. D. Woodward of Muncie is among foreigners in Shanghai, China, enrolled as a member of a volunteer military unit. There are several of these units, composed of citizens of various foreign nations represented in the Chinese city.

DANDELIONS ARE LATESURODUCT Sell for 40 Cents Pound at Market Stands. Dandelion greens, at 40 cents a pound, was the only new commodity on the city market stands today. Two changes were made in fruit prices, but none in vegetables. Alligator pears dropped to 50 cents each and strawberries to 60 cents a quart. Butter, continuing its tendency to be higher, sold at 60 and 61 cents for creamery and 64 cents for the country variety. Eggs, declining gradually, moved down to 25 cents, with some selling up to 28 cents a dozen. Geese were 40 and ducks 50 cents a pound; chicken bakes and stews, 45 cents. Fries are practically extinct, a few selling at 60 cents. Dealers expect to have spring fries about Easter. Florida oranges sold • at 50 cents and California oranges at 75 cents a dozen. Tangerines and limes, 50 cents a dozen. Roman Beauty and Ortly apples were three pounds for 25 cents; Delicious, 15 cents and Spitzenbergs, 10 cents a pound. Mushrooms were 80 cents a pound and watercress 10. cents a bunch. PRESIDES AT CONFAB State Conference on Vocational Education Ends at Lincoln. O. B. Badger of Purdue University presided at the commercial and industrial section of the conference on vocational education today at the Lincoln. C. D. Rotruck, Anderson vocational director, and Guy J. Mason of the national trades extension bureau at Evansville, spoke. The Session ended today. Miss Helen Bosard of Lafayette presided at the home economics section. Speakers: Miss Elsie Glasgow and Miss Agnes Watson of Freelandviile, Miss Gzark Palin of Plymouth and Mrs. Louise Huston of New York. The program was arranged by Miss Mary Beeman, State supervisor of home economics education. Tlje conference was sponsored by the Indiana Vocational Association and vocational division of the State department of public instruction^

50,000 Delinquent on Personal Taxes The Marion County treasurer’s office is not making any effort to collect delinquent taxes on personal property from about 50,000 persons in the county because of the split between the treasurer’s office and the prosecutor’s office, it was learned today. Last fall Deputy Prosecutor John L. Niblack charged that the treasurer’s office was obtaining fees for serving demands for delinquent taxes and for carrying out sales when no such action was taken. These fees amounted to 10 per cent of the amount due and fifty cents for demand service. “This year we have mailed notices,” Deputy Treasurer Charles O. Harris declared. “We are waiting for the prosecutor’s office to give us a schedule on what fees we should get. We don’t seem to be able to strike a working agreement with that office. When asked if any action had been taken to seize property to obtain payment of the delinquent amounts Harris stated “that has not been done in years.” Niblack said the treasurer knows how much to collect on delinquent taxes.

DETENTION NOME SITE DECLARED TO BE HAZARDOUS Remy Studies Contract for Apartment Building— Edwards Made Deal. Marion County’s new Detention Home, 225 E. Michigan St., that will be occupied March 10, is not a fireproof structure, it was charged today by members of the county council, who have visited the place since announcement was made Thursday by majority faction Commissioners Cassius L. Hogle and Charles O. Sutton that the building was leased. Sutton told The Times the building was a “fireproof brick structure, with a stone porch.” Council President George Montgomery declared, after investigation, that the building is "anything but fireproof.” Juvenile Judge Frank J. Lahr, who approved the building because Hogle and Sutton promised anew Detention Home within a year, stated that “fireproof buildings were not erected in those days.” The Times Friday discovered the only means of exit from the structure in case of fire would be through the building itself or down a narrow, siz-zag wooden enclosed stairway in the rear of the building. Cn each of the three floors a door two feet eight inches in width opens into the stair. Two persons cannot get through these doors and not more than one person can safely round the staircase corners. There is no fire escape. Councilmen assert that a fire escape must be placed on the building because under Indianapolis ordinances a hotel or -lodging structure three stories must have a fire escape. Prosecutor H. Remy began investigation of the Detention Home situation Friday. He studied a copy of the lease for the building. Charles Owens, commissioners’ bailiff, brought the copy to the grand jury room. The lease reads that the property is owned by James M. Davis and on Dec. 29 the commissioners leased the building, beginning March 1, at $350 a month. This transaction was handled by James Edwards, county councilman and member of the real estate firm Edwards & Edwards. All day Friday The Times attempted to obtain a copy of the lease but commissioners and County Auditor Harry S. Dunn continued to “pass the buck.” Dunn claimed he had not seen the lease, as did £}eorge Snider, minority faction member. Dunn said Hogle- had it and Hogle said Dunn had it. When the lease, was finally procured by Remy it was learned that Snider had not signed it and the signatures of the majority commissioners were jammed- into the lower left-hand part of the paper. The Indiana criminal statutes, Sec. 5930, referring to the county council, contains the following: “No member of the county council shall either directly or indirectly be a party to, or in any manner interested in any contract or agreement with the county. Any contract in contravention of the foregoing shall be void. Whoever shall kndwingly violate the provisions of this section shall be fined not more than SI,OOO, to which may be added imprisonment in the county jail for any period not exceeding six months.” RETURNS FARM BILL Radically Amended Measure Passed in House, 80-5 Following passage of a radically amended Lindley - Shake - Johnson farm relief bill, by the House of Representatives 80 to 5, late Friday the bill now returns to the Senate for concurrance in the amendments. The hill postpones a general reassessment of property in Indiana until next year. It sets up methods of determining the “fair cash value” of land. Earning power of farm land is a factor in determining the new assessment value. LIBRARIAN IS NOMINEE Charles E. Rush, city librarian, is a nominee for second vice president of the American Library Association, according to the nominating committee’s report announced today by its chairman, Malcom G. Wyer, Denver. Results of the election will be made public at the close of the fortyninth conference at Toronto, Canada, Junei 20-27.

LITA NOT INTELLECTUAL ENOUGH FOR CHARLIE; HIS GRAMMAR BAD

Two more exclusive NEA pictures, taken inside the Chaplin mansion at Beverly Hills, show I-it a Grey Chaplin at her writing desk and reading "The Life of Napoleon.”

I Editor's Note—Dan Thomas, who represents The Indianapolis Times at Hollywood. Cal., interviewed lata Grey Chaplin after a court order permitted her to move back into the Chaplin mansion at Beverly Hills, and is telling in four articles an iutiapate story of how Lita and her children are living tnere. Here is the second. Exclusive photographs. the flrsfc ever taken at the Chaplin home for publication, accompany the articles. ] By Dan Thomas SEA Service Writer (Copyright, 1927, NEA Service, Inc.) HOLLYWOOD, Cal., Feb. 26. Mrs. Charlie Chaplin, who bored her famous comic husband because she wasn’t “intellectual enough,” simply could not teach Charlie Chaplin grammar! Charlie Chaplin may have been a pretty fair actor,’ according to the girl-wife now living alone With her babies in the Chaplin mansion cf Beverly Hills, but, oh boy, what lie didn’t know abo ft the relative pronoun! And that’s not the half of It, says Lita Grey Chaplin! Not only didn’t Charlie know grammar, but it was she, the beautiful but dumb wifie, who spent many a long and weary hour in a futile struggle to let husband Charlie know that there were such things as subjects and predicates, to say nothing of the potential subjective! Beautiful young Mrs. Chaplin told me the story of struggling to teach her famous husband grammar along with other things as we sat In the beautiful living room of tije comic artist’s mansion. “We started out studying and reading together,” said Mrs. Chaplin, her big brown eyes sweet with memories. “First we tried to master Latin and French together. But Charlie simply didn’t know grammar, so we had to start studying English so that he might get a grammar background. “That didn’t last long either. Charlie let me teach him for a while, but he had such a difficult time trying to grasp even English grammatical rules that he gave up in disgust.” Speaks Spanish, French But with or without a husband for a desk mate, Mrs. Chaplin contined to parley-voo, and it was only three months ago when her house of cards tumbled about her pretty pink ears that she laid aside French grammars for more ponderous tomes of conjugal law. That “the hardest cut of all” those endured by young Mrs. Chaplin, was her husband’s declaration that she was “not intellectually satisfying,” is indicated by her eagerness to tell that she is a graduate of an exclusive girls’ school in Hollywood, and that she can speak both French and Spanish rather fluently. I have talked with Lita Grey Chaplin for many hours and find her a sparkling, interesting conversationalist, able to talk well on many mere subjects than the average girl of 19. Charlie Chaplin’s great library, famous in the entire cinema colony, and insured for thousands of dollars, is Mrs. Chaplin’s greatest solace during these lonely waiting days ift the big palace. Interested in Napoleon She was enthused over “The Life of Napoleon” one day when I visited her there, and enthused over the interest of * biography. “I am reading ‘The Life of Napoleon’ now,” she explained. “It is one of the most interesting books I have ever read. Whetl I studied about him In history In school, I thought he was terribly boresome but I get so interested in this book that I can hardly put Jt down. “I have read the biographies of several famous recently and have found them all" fascinating. Before concentrating on these glographies, I used to read many novels of old English authors. Dickens is my favorite and I believe I have read every one of his books. Edwin McMurray, Lita's uncle and personal attorney, tells of an interesting event which occurred several nights ago. “We were all going out to a show after dinner. When Mrs. Spicer, her mother, and I were ready to leave,

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Lita was missing. I finally located her in the library literally buried in a book about Napoleon's life. I told her that we were ready to leave, and without even looking up from her book she replied that she didn’t want to go—the book was too interesting. ’ Beautiful but dumb? Talented in Music What about her musical talent, and “mother’s,” too? “Just as soon as things calm down,” Lita Chaplin told me, “mother and I are both going to take

FORCES UNDERMINING U. S. DEFENSE SCORED A Paid Propagandists ‘Cut of the East’ Seek to Incite Students, Charges Dean McNutt Before 400 Masons.

Forces which he declared were seeking to destroy national defense were scored by Paul V. McNutt. Dean of the Indiana University Law School and Indiana American Legion commander, Friday night before 400 Masons attending the Washington’s birthday celebration of Calvin W. Prather Lodge No. 717, F. & A. M., College Ave. and Forty-Second St. . “Paid propagandists from ‘out of the East’ are attempting to incite the student bodies of our schools and colleges to an uprising against com-

COUNCIL CHANGES STANDON BRIDGE ‘Backs Down’ on Plan to Close College Span. The majority faction of the city council today apparently had “backed down” on their plan to close the College Ave. bridge over Fall Creek at once. Otis E. Bartholomew, one of the “four horsemen,” said that a special meeting of the council would not be called to consider the proposition unless it was called by the president. Claude E. Negley, president, declared there would be no special meeting. The east side of the bridge has been closed since September because of the sinking of a northeast pier. The special committee of councilmen, composed of Boynton J. Moore, Walter R. Dorsett, Bartholomew, Austin H. Todd and O. Ray Albertson, inspected the bride and recommended that it be c'jsed at once. City Engineer Chester C. Oberleas said there was no danger and refused to do so. Oberleas announced Friday that the bridge would be closed during high water next month. $500,000 LIQUOR CASE Captain of British Ship Held at Philadelphia with 27 of Crew. Bv United Press PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 26.—The captain and twenty-seven of the crew of the British steamer Clackamas were held by United States Commissioner Long here today in connection with the smuggling of 10,000 cases of liquor, valued at $500,000, into the country. The crew was arrested after Wireless Operator Michael Long, 19, left the vessel yesterday and laid charges before authorities. Long charged the liquor was loaded from the French barque, Pierre Miquelon, at sea two days after the vessel had cleared Port Mulgrava, Nova Scotia, with a cargo of pulp wood and was unloaded at Port Newark, N. J., into a fleet of motor trucks when the Clackamas docked there Feb. 13.

piano and vocal lessons. Mother is really a wonderful musician. She studied in Paris when a girl. I play the piano by ear, but I really want to study music right.” Then Lita Chaplin smiled, a funny, wistful littlo smile—“So many things I want to do and things are so confusing right now, but I’m going to try to make my time really count.” Among the “many things” that Mrs. Chaplin wants to do and is doing, is the novel that I'll tell about Monday.

pulsory military training,” McNutt said. Not Responsible "The student is not responsible, because it is an easy matter to get students to protest against any compulsory course, whether it be mathematics, science, military training or what-not. “It is not dangerous, as they term it, to teach our children the responsibilities of citizenship as it is learned through military training. Schools are failures otherwise. These raidcal ‘red’ pacifists talk of military traning as producing an influence in the ‘psychology of war,’ but I have found that military trained students are merely normal American citizens not imbued with the spirit of war, but prepared for any national emergency that might arise. “Washington, whose birthday we are celebrating, said: ‘To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of securing peace.’ The greatest national crime ever laid at the doors of America is our past mistake of one-half of our battle casualties being due to unpreparedness.” Compulsory military training also affects the discipline needed for the present-day "revolt of youth,” McNutt said. Peace Insurance “The child doesn’t get the discipline at home and the school affords it —as it must. A national defense is a national peace insurance policy with this additional benefit and many others. “The $10,000,000 appropriation to train 119,000 students, taken as a premium rate, is lower than any other-kind of insurance giving comparative results.” McNutt spoke at a dinner following conferring of the Master Mason degree. Fred G. Buskirk, worshipful master, presided, and A1 G. Hoffmeister led a “community sing.” Music was furnished by the Claypool trio and the Frohne sisters. The Rev. J. Ambrose Dunkel, Tabernacle Presbyterian Church pastor, gave invocation. Thirty members of the Grace Ransford Chapter, Order of Eastern Star, served the dinner. Harry G. Leslie, speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives, spoke. Obie J. Smith, deputy grand master of Indiana, and Elmer F. Gay, past grand master, were introduced by Paul G. Winter, past master. GRISLY OBJECT FOUND Du United Press AMARILLO, Texas, Feb. 26.—A chemical analysis of what appeared to be a human heart, found in a nest of charred bones and scorched portions of a woman’s silken undergarment, will be made here by Dr. M. L. Fuller, city health officer. The organ and bones were found by J. L. Womble, second-hand dealer, in a stove he had purchased a few days ago and which he was cleaning. Womble called police and an investigation was begun instantly*

MOORHEAD BILL. LAID TO REST IN INDIANASENATE Final Week Faced With No Serious Action of Utilities Problem. With Uje Moorhead utility regulation bill laid to rest in the Indiana Senate Friday, by a vqte of 31 to 18, the seventy-fifth Indiana Legislature faces the final week of law-making with nothing serious having been done about the Spencer-Shivley utility act of 1913 or the public service commission. AH that remains In the Senate is a bill introduced by Senator Russell B. Harrison (Rep.), Indianapolis, which would require a two-third vote of approval by the Senate of all public service commissioners appointed by the Governor. The bill received a favorable committee report and passed through second reading, without debate. It will be called for final consideration early next week. Minor Measures / Two minor measures have been passed by the Senate and are pending in the House. They have been held-up until the Moorhead bill was given final consideration. The Nejdl bill puts commission appeals into the bands of the local Circuit and Superior Courts and the Harland bill permits the commission to Investigate excessive fees and salaries and deduct them from legitimate expense in rate making. The most radical legislation proposed was the Cann bill, which would have repealed the Spenser-Shivley act and put all utility control untjer “home rule.” It rapidly was defeated. Teeth Removed Originally the Moorhead bill called for abolition of the present commission by May 1, and the election of commissioners. It was changed so that when voted on Friday it merely brought holding companies under commission control and laid down rules for establishment of value in rate making. Senator Robert L. Moorhead (Rep.) Indianapolis, author of the measure, placed responsibility for passage directly upon the majority party. In one of numerous pleas for the bill ho declared that at present th© Indiana G. O. P. was ‘‘utility owned and controlled.”

News Quirks

NEW BRITAIN, Conn.—Because he preferred fumes from a gas stove to moonshine, Charles Celke was sentenced to twenty days in jail. He is alleged to have inhaled tho fumes and to have told his wife, “This is better than moonshine.” The charge was drunkenness and breach of the peace. BROOKLYN'—An armored ear conveying money to a Brooklyn bank, was split in halves by a trolley car. The trolley was speedingalong, when the armored car turned in on the tracks between elevated pillars. The impact wrecked the armored car and threw both halves against one of. the elevated posts. No one was seriously injured. PARlS—Marie Mouquet, 76, confided to her few friends that she feared she might die suddenly and enrich a band of nephews and nieces, whom she imagined were persecuting her. She solved her problem. One morning she was found dangling, dead, from the end of a rope. Torn into bits and scattered at her feet was her fortune In paper money and bonds. NEW YORK—Annoyed by two “inasliers,” Mrs. E. A. Motto, whose motto is “safety first," turned in a fire alarm to protect herself. Recorder Smith decided that a whole Are company wax more protection tlian one woman needed, and advised her to buy a police whistle. CHICAGO Henry Giblehouse suffered from peculiar noises in the head. Doctors failed to cure him, he said.-. He went to a gipsy fortune teller, who asked hirrffor his savings of $3,000, and gave him a red ribbon which she said would act as a charm and cure him. He still suffers from the noises in the head and a peculiar emptiness In the pocket. He has asked police to help him locate the gipsy woman. NEW YORK—Graham Smith, 3, slipped out of his home and sst out to see the world, but he didn't wear his pants. He left before the rest of the family got up, and he couldn't put on the more or less necessary garment without help. Graham met a snowbank and such arctic surroundings for an almost unclothed explorer didn’t look right to a policeman. So Graham didn’t get very far. BROOKLYN. N. Y.—Six assistants in the office of United States District Attorney William De Groot got paid a penny apiece extra. Economical Uncle Sam sent an auditor around to get It back. Total cost of collection, sl2. NEW YORK—A $70,000 cache of monoacetlcacidester of salicylic acid, otherwise known as aspirin, was recovered by police here. It was believed to be part of $93,000 worth stolen from a Bayer company warehouse Jan. 26. The rest was found recently in Chicago. Apparently none of the bandits had had a headache. METZ, France—Metz movie theaters are open after a six weeks’ shutdown because of a tax imposed by the city council. The council repealed the tax after receiving thousands of _ 4

Fourteen Held Here Said to Have Distributed Over State. STATE POLICE QUIZZED Federal Authorities Probe in Lake District. Thirty persons were under arrest today over the State as a part of a Federal prohibition department drive to dry up Indiana and stop the influx of liquor into the State. Fourteen local men, alleged to have, been responsible for the distribution of between 15,000 and 25,000 gallons of liquor a week from Indianapolis, were arrested here in raids late Friday and early today by local police and Federal agents, accompanied by Deputy Prohibition Director George L. Winkler. f And two State policemen were interviewed this morning by Winkler and Albert S. Ward, United States district attorney, in connection with tlie Federal grand jury investigation of an alleged huge liquor ring operating in northern Indiana. Suspended Officers The two, Charles W. Butterfield, Valparaiso, and William Gardner, Gary, were among the four State policemen suspended by State Police Robert Humes a month ago when It was reported Federal authorities were investigating the situation in northern Indiana and Lake County. The other two suspended were Liei t. Ralph White, Whiting, and William Gardner, Gary. Several county officials from the northern part of the State are said to be involved. The men, it is charged, are members of a number of rings, who have been “running” liquor, principally alcohol, here from Chicago and other northern points and Louisville. Those arrested: Three Geisking brothers, Theodore, 19, Alexander, 25 and Charles, 32, all of 1350 S. Belmont Ave.; Patrick Butler, 35, of 1338 S. Belmont Ave.: William Kempe, 26, of 1370 S. Belmont Ave.; Lawrence Hyatt, 25, of 1362 S. Belmont Ave.; Earl Ruddles, 31. of 1010 W. New York St.: Albert Tyree, 25, of 906 Elm St.; Joseph Morris, 22, of 1346 Hiatt St.; Frank Minardo, 32, of 512 Warsaw St.; Gus Wink, 34, of 1702 S. Delaware St.; Frank Sliearin, 40, of 546 Greer St.; Gaylord Harrod, 28, of Apt. 1 at 10 E. Twen-ty-Fifth St., and Anthony N. La Rosa, 29, of 826 Wright St. Conspiracy Charged The men are charged with conspiracy to violate the national prohibition act, and are held on evidence to be presented to the Federal grand jury now In session, obtained by under-cover men under Winkler's direction, Winkler said. Hearings before a United States Commissioner will be held today. “The arrests were a move to get at the source of supply of the ‘halfpint’ dealers In the city and over the State,” Winkler said“We are trying to curb the activity of these wholesale liquor importations that are the source of enforcement trouble in Indiana.” An extensive drive Sgainst liquor traffic in Vigo County was made at the time of the local arrests. Fifteen Federal agents under Winkler’s direction raided five alleged liquor establishments at Terre Haute, making sixteen arrests. Under-cover men have bought liquor from each of those arrested, Winkler said. Terre Haute Raids Frank (Buster) Clark, a political power in the old saloon days, and his partner, Frank Meharry, operators of an alleged gambling house on N. Second St., headed the list of Terre Haute arrests, which included three women. Others: George Harris, soft drink parlor proprietor at 222 Wabash Ave., and his four bartenders, Robert Hughes, John Boyd, Frank Mcßay and Bert Fisk. James Locke, a similiar pwroprietor at 529 Wabash Ave.; Edith, his wife: May Harbaug, waitress, and Jack Hurley. Lester McKinney, restaurateur at Ninth and Mulberry Sts.; Hazel, his wife. Denny Shea, former Vigo County sheriff, and George Nisbet and Lawrence Snow of the Vandalia Inn, at 602 N. Seventh St. The entire group will face conspiracy charges, Winkler said. NEW APARTMENT BUILDING A two-story apartment building, to cost $25,000, will be erected at 520524 Sutherland Ave., according to a permit issued today by Building Commissioner M. Bert Weatover. The permit was issued to *W. L. Pruitt and construction will begin immediately. The building will contain ten apartments.

Roy E. Adams Heads Athletic Club

Hsl - ' ' ralU j||

—Photo by Nicholfton Bro. Roy E. Adams, 3255 Washington Mlvd.. general manager of J. D. Adams and Company, new president of the Indianapolis Athletic Club. He was elected Frl-

FEB. 26, 1927

SWORD HANGING OVER BARRETT LAW FEE GRAB Bills Stopping Personal Pocketing of Interest Still Pending. A two-edged sword, in the form of bills pending in both houses of the Indiana Legislature, hangs over the practice of Marion County treasurers of pocketing between SGO.OOO and SBO,OOO annually in Interest on Barrett law bonds. These bonds are issued on city improvments when assessed property owners elect the ten-year payment plan. Interest accruing on the bonds during the ten-year period has always been pocketed by Marion County treasurers, according to time-honored Marion County political ethics. This practice allowed by a loophole in the present law, has resulted in an estimated Marion County Jk v rett Law fund, deficit of SBOO,OOO. Most Important Pending bills to correct the tice are considered among the most' important to conic before ‘ho present Legislature. They affect Marion County taxpayers moro than any other piece of legislation to bo acted upon. The Babcock-Borns bill, In the House, was written in its amended form by Alvah Rucker, former city corporation counsel. It provides that Barrett Law. funds to be held intact by county treasurers for the city. In commenting on the House bill, Rucker said, “If the. present law was enforced, cfwnlly treasurers could not appropriate for their own use this Barrett Law interest. The pending bill merely makes the present law more specific.” An attempt was made Friday by Representative Lloyd D. Claycomb, Indianapolis, who introduced Rucker’s amendment, to postpone second reading action until Monday. This was the third postponement of the bill proposed, and roused Speaker Leslie’s ire. Leslie Takes Stand "There will be no further postponement of this bill if I have to order It on to third reading myself,” Leslie declared. “The time is so limited now that further postponement will be equivalent to killing the bill.” Claycombe replied that his desire to postpone the bill was caused by the fact that “a Senate bill affecting the same matter is further advanced than this measure.” Postponemnt was denied and the bill passed to third rending. 4 The Senate bill is attacked by Rucker on the grounds that it “seeks to penalize the small property owner for the actions of treasurer.” "Small Indianapolis taxpayers,” Ricker said, “who are paying for property improvements under the ten-year plan, If they desire to pay the assessment in full thirty days after electing the ten-year plan, would be forced to pay for ten years in advance.” This Is regarded as an to provide a means whereby treasurers can make up the *BOO,OOO deficit now existing. This “advance interest” will, it is pointed out, amount to huge sums annually and can bo used toward making up the deficit. Now Six Months Present law enables a property owner paying for his improvements under the ten-year plan, who wishes to pay up in full, to pay the assened chargo and six months’ interest. Unless both bills spend their strength in contending with other for prefernce, one of then* probably will survive before tli* Legislature closes. Pressure is being brought to bear on the Hotrs t bill, since it is the more popldar with foes of the present "pocketing practices.”

OLD AGE PENSION MEASURE KILLED' Bill Meets Sudden Death in- House—No Debate. The Nejdl old ago pension bill, passed in the Senate after fitful struggles mot sudden defeat In tho House of Representatives, Friday. The bill was killed without debate when It appeared on second reading. Its death via the “Indefinite postponement” route precludes any possibility of its being reconsidered this session. Representative C. Elmer Garrard (Rep.), Parke, made tho motion to indefinitely postpone the bill Immediately after it was handed down by Speaker Harry O. Leslie. Representative John W. Scott (Rep.), Lake and Porter, moved to table Garard’s motion. Scott's motion lost 46 to 23. Tho postponement was affected by voice vote. - Under the terms of tho meastfre, counties could elect to pay old age pensions. On petition of 200 citizens any county would he required to vote at the next general election on the pension question. Per sons over 65 years of age' would lie eligible for pension. Admlnlst rhtion would be In the hands of Clrcdlt Courts. PASSES CROSSING BILL / The Harrls-Battprman bill, per mitting cities of tile second class be® tween 45,000 and 90,000 population to negotiate with railroads for overhead crossings, passed the Hoi&c, Friday, 72 to 12. The bill provide that these cities may enter into any contracts with railroad companies provided that? no. more than 35 per cent of the track, elevation costs are to be paid by tit*