Indianapolis Times, Volume 40, Number 218, Indianapolis, Marion County, 30 January 1929 — Page 9
Second Section
COUNTY CASH IN CONTROL OF COFFINCLIQUE Boss’ Henchmen Will Hold Key to Treasury and Spend Millions. GIVAN GETS PAY TILT Purse Strings Expected to Be Loosened for Road Jobs. Every dollar that will be spent in conducting the business of Marion county’s government this year i3 controlled by county officials who are members of the George V. Coffin Republican political faction. Last year the county spent $2,251,958 and in 1926 disbursements from the county coffers aggregated $2,110,572.13. During 1929 it is said the amount probably will reach a high point of $2,600,000. Before last Friday the Coffin faction of the county council had the opposition of three members of the Otis Dodson faction. But now that has been wiped out, since one of the three Dodson men voted for Thomas E. Hamlyn, Coffin candidate, who was elected by this deciding vote to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John Shearer, now county commissioner. Coffin in Saddle During 1928 the Coffin group was outvoted in the county commission. Two members of the Dodson group comprised the majority, but now George Snider and Shearer, Coffin men, build up the majority with Charles O. Sutton as the third member. It is the duty of the council to appropriate money which commissioners use to meet bills. All claims for pay and expenditures are presented to the commissioners for approval. At Saturday’s council session Clinton H. Givan, county attorney, now recognized as a Coffin supporter, was given a salary raise of $l,lOO a year as part of $170,000 worth of business handled during the meeting. With Coffin also firmly entrenched in the county road superintendent’s office through the appointment of Charles Mann, former deputy sheriff, a susperintendent, it is expect'ed a $1,000,000 road program will be shoved through the council. Expect More Road Mbney For three years, efforts have been made for a "blanket” appropriation to cover construction of several miles of hard surface roads. Each time the Coffin group voted down these requests. The road proposals then were made by County Surveyor Henrq Campbell, opponent of the Coffin group. It is reported that the Coffin, commissioners and council members are preparing to buy anew juvenile detention home site. This also was thrown to one side by the Coffin council group when efforts were made heretofore by opponents of the political machine. The Coffin supporters will control money for bond issues,.roads, salaries, operation of institutions, and payment of all expenses attached to administration of the county business.
C. C. BENJAMIN, AID TO STATE AUDITOR, DIES Employe in Gas Tax Devision Since 1923, Passes. Funeral arrangements were being made today for Charles C. Beniamin, 66. deputy in the state auditor’s office, who had served in the gasoline tax division of the office since its inauguration in 1923. He died Tuesday of influenza at Indiana Christian hospital. Benjamin was first appointed to office by Robert Bracken, who was auditor of state in 1923. He was a Democrat and served as United States deputy collector of internal revenue during the Wilson administration, being divisir ' chief at Terre Haute and later at Lafayette. Surviving are the widow and six sons, DEFENSE THEORY GOOD, BUT FAILED IN COURT Defendant at Brownstown Said He Sought Legally Extinct Wine. Bn imrs Special BROWNSTOWN, Ind.. Jan. 30. jFrancis Grider couldn’t get away with this one in Jackson circuit court here: Arraigned on a burglary charge, Grider said he entered the basement of Arthur Haekman’s home to get wine. Had he proved that point, there could have been no conviction, as in legal theory there is no such thing as wine in a state with a dry law as stringent as Indiana's. However, the state showed there was no wine in the cellar. Grider faces a reformatory term of one to ten years. SHIPPING CHIEF RESIGNS General A. C. Dalton of Merchant Fleet Corporation Quits. Bu United Press WASHINGTON, Jan. 30. Brigadier-General Albert C. Dalton, vice-chairman and general manager of the Merchant Fleet Corporation has resigned his position effective Feb. 28, it was learned at the United States shipping board today. CHARLEY’S RESTAURANT open for Sunday dinners, 5 to 9 p. m.— Advertisement.
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CHAPTER I. A BLACK pigeon, its iridescent breast gleaming in the sunshine of the January morning, circled warily above the open window, then fluttered to the white stone ledge. The tiny head jerked back and forth, a brilliant black diamond of an eye cocked suspiciously, as the little feet pattered just out of reach of the white hand extended invitingly, palm upward. “Satan, you old humbug!” the girl laughed softly. “Don’t Ritz me! I’m sure I don’t look so different this morning that you don’t know me! Is it because I have no crumbs to give you, greedy?” The black pigeon stood still on his little red sealing-wax feet and studied the girl, his graceful head cocked consideringly. Then, as if reassured, the gleam black wings spread to the cold sunshine, and a second later those tiny red claws were tightly gripping Ruth Lester’s forefinger. As if they had been waiting for a signal from their leader, the black pigeon which Ruth had named Satan, a flock of pigeons, whose home was the roof of the seven-story Starbridge building, came swooping down upon the broad ledge of the window outside the private office of Handsome Harry Borden, to pay court to the suddenly revealed beaiity of Borden’s private secretary. Ruth, with an exultant laugh, spread her arms wide, leaning far out of the window. In a moment she was a living pigeon perch. On her little white hands, along her arms, on her small shoulders, even on her golden head. Brown pigeons, splotched bronze and gold and purple; black-and-white pigeons; white pigeons—no, only one pigeon that was pure white and only one —Satan—that was inky black.
An exclamation made the girl raise her eyes, but did not startle her, for she had been expecting it. Directly across the narrow airshaft that separated two wings of the Starbridge building, broad window, exactly like the one from which Ruth leaned, framed a young man’s head and torso. The January sun, which was really quite cold, seemed to the girl to gather all its shivery rays and concentrate them, for borrow warmth, upon the coppery-brown head of Jack Hayward. Ruth leaned further out of the window, impetuously, her arms reaching toward the man who looked like a sun-god to her, the man to whom she had just become engaged. Pealously, the pigeons took wing and fluttered indignantly away—all but the black pigeon, which clung stubbornly to her finger, his beady black eyes flashing from the girl to the man. i * n ft “/"'vh. Beautiful!” Jack called soft“Little snow princess with the sun in her golden hair! You’re too beautiful! Go put on your big yellow spetacles and slick back your hair. I’m jealous even of Satan, and he's jealous of me! Look! I believe he’d like to peck my eyes out!” ’ Ruth laugher, then very gently, so as not to frighten Satan away, she reached into the pocket of her sweater. In a moment she was holding the struggling pigeon against her breast, as her quick, deft little fingers wrapped a slip of paper with a typed message—“l rove you"—about one of the tiny red legs, securing it with a bit of black silk thread wheih she kept in the office for darning runs in the sober stockings she had always worn to Aork until today—today! “If you have any bread crumbs, Mr. Hayward,” she laughed, “you may be able to learn something to your advantage.” And she let the black pigeon flutter away. Then, because she heard the door of the outer office, where she was supposed to be opening the morning mail, she drew in her head, bringing a glittering, imprisoned mass of hair into the soberly but richly furnished room where “Handsome Harry” Boardman conducted a business which had need of every artificial aid to make it appear respectable. For Henry P. Borden was one of those financial vultures that prey upon the cupidity of men and the credulity of women who have hardearned savings or pathetic . little legacies to invest. His favorite boast to the sleekhaired, collegiate-looking young stock salesman who worked for him was that he was “always within the law,” but Ruth, in growing disgust, had come to hope that the law would not always be so obligingly elastic. But now—now—there was no need to worry about Harry Borden’s crookedness or about his offensive private life, or about anything in the world. For sirifce exactly 12 o’clock last night she had been engaged to be married to John Carrington Hayward, who was listed on the bulletin board of the Starbridge building as “Insurance Broker.” Broker! The dear, delightful boyishness of that title, Ruth thought tenderly. Broker!—when Jack hardly made enough selling life insurance to pay the rent on bis suite of two small offices! But she loved the courage with which he stubbornly kept them, the boyish cocksureness of future success which made him splurge now on “front” mam “T TULLO, Ruth! Any mail for XT. the future President of the United States?” a cocky, nasal young voice called from the outer office. Ruth smiled, a dimple which she did not have to repress any longer tugging at the comer of her adorable little mouth. Then she stepped through the door that divided Borden’s private office from the big outer office which served as a reception room and as an office for Borden’s secretary and messenger boy. Benny Smith, 17, and just be-
The Indianapolis Times
ginning to be very girl-conscious, was sprawled in Ruth’s little nar-row-backed swivel chair, pawing the pile of mail on her desk. His sandy hair was still wet from its morning brush, his big ears very red from the scrubbing to which they were not yet accustomed. He had told her recently, in a burst of confidence, that he was using freckle cream on his speckled cheeks.and neck. The dear! He’d be asking some girl to marry him soon, just 1 as Jack Hayward had asked her last night. . . . “Nothing from your girl this morning, Benny,” Ruth called out, in the meek, repressed little voice which had been so necessary a part of the disguise she had temporarily discarded. “Girl? Who said I had a girl?” Benny sputtered, whirling about in the little swivel chair. Then he saw Ruth and his prominent eyes glared until Ruth coloring and laughing, was afraid they would pop from his head. “Gee gosh! ’ he exploded at last. “All right! I bite! Who are you?” “Don’t be silly, Benny: It’s just Ruth Lester, of course—” “Jul-yus Caesar!” Benny breathed. “It’s just Ruth Lester, of course,” he mimicked her precise, repressed little voice. “Gosh! What, have you went and done to yourself, Ruth? Be yourself! I ain’t feelin’ so strong this mornin’ —” Ruth laughed. “That’s what I’m doing at last, Benny! I’m being myself! Do you like Ruth Lester herself?” Benny rose slowly from Ruth’s chair, then lifted a crooked elbow as if to ward her off. “Gosh, woman! Turn them lamps off mel You’ll blind me! Where’s your specs? And say, what have you done to your hair?” Ruth’s little white hands, which she had never been able to disguise, fluttered to her golden curls, fluffed them. “Nothing—but turn it loose!” she laughed. “It’s really too long to be worn as a bob—” “But gosh! You didn’t have to slick it back till your head looked like a yellow onion, and screw it into a little knob on your neck,” the office boy protested, curiously angry with her. “I used to think your hair’d pull your eyebrows out by the roots. Say! Maybe that was what give you that scared rabbit look—your hair skinned back like that, pulling at your eyebrows, and them big, yel-low-glass specs of yours, covering half of your face. Gee!” he marveled again. “But, listen! What’d you do to your face? It looks different, too, not pale and sickly—” a a a RUTH opened the top drawer of her desk and took out a box of powder, which she showed him triumphantly. “See! Rachel-tint-ed powder, very heavy. See how yellowish it is? Plenty of that slapped on and my milk-maid complexion was successfully hidden. But —l’ve got to get to work, Benny! Bea good infant and get me some water for my sponge, and sharpen a bunch of pencils, won’t you?” “Listen, Greta Nisson!” -Benny sputtered. “You ain’t going to shut up and not slip me the lowdown on why you done it, are you?” “Greta Nisson?” Ruth raised her eyebrows and gave him the full, enchanting beauty of her limpid blue eyes.’ “My error!” Benny backed away, again with that crooked-elbow gesture of warding her off. “Greta Nissen or no other movie star can’t hold a candle to you. “I heard that red-hearted riot across the hall say that Ruth Lester wouldn’t be a bad-looking girl if someone’d slip her a little info about how to dress and make up that sickly little face of hers. Boy howdy, but I hope I’m on deck when she lamps the wow you turned out to be! Gee!” “Scatter, Benny!” Ruth commanded, her cheeks very pink, her blue eyes brimming with tender mirth. “Remember, this is Saturday. I’ve something else to do than listen to you sputter ‘Gee!’ and ‘Gosh!’ down my neck. No, I’m not going to tell you why I did it! Take these pencils and put a long point on each of them, please.” Her competent hands began to open the big stack of mail. Only one letter marker “Perse ,and” this morning—another of those big square, orchid-tinted envelopes with j.
INDIANAPOLIS, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 30, 1929
“The Black Pigeonnow a messenger of love, carries the little letter into Jack's outstretched hands.
the distinctive, angular handwriting in violet ink. The handwriting of a woman of culture and strong character, Ruth had decided long since. The pencil sharpener had been grinding furiously, but now the sound dragged, stopped altogether. “Say, Ruth! I guess I ain’t so dumb! I know whjr you made up to look like a slr.vey in specs and long dresses.” “Clever boy!” Ruth laughed. “You done it so’s you could keep your job!” Benny deduced triumphantly. “You knew that the minute ‘Handsome Harry’ lamped you he’d fall for you like a ton of bricks. Bet that’s the reason, too, that you’ve worked so many places since you got out of business college—ain't it?” a a a “TJENNY, you’ve been meddling •D in my desk again!” “Aw, I ain’t either! I just happened to see a bunch of letters of recommendation clipped together and I glanced over ’em,” Benny protested. “Say, they had me goin’ sure! I couldn’t Agger out why a whizz of a steno like you should work two or three weeks in a job and then blow, and why the guys you worked for give you such swell recommendations if they didn’t want to keep you.” “Shut up, Benny, and get to work!” Ruth scolded. “yes, sir, ’at’s the ticket, sure’s you’re born!” Benny applauded Jiis own powers of deduction. “Gosh! I can just imagine! Married man hires you—and who wouldn’t? I’m asking you! Wifey blows in, lamps new secretary. Wham! ’Either she goes cr I go!’ wifey lays the law down. Now—‘l’m awful sorry, Miss Lester, but—er—necessary to retrench, do without a secretary for a while. Os course, best of recommendations— ’ All ’at stuff! Am I right, fair frail?” Benny concluded, with an impudence he had never been interested enough to show her before. Ruth’s golden head nodded slowly. Yes, Benny was right. No boy of 17 could know how terribly accurate his slangy version of her past as a business girl was. “Do shut up, Benny! If you don’t let me do my work I’ll spank you.” “Huh!” Benny snorted. “!*<?. make two of you. Bet you don’t weigh more’n ninety pounds. Gosh! You even look littler in that cute little short skirt. Them sad rags you wore made you look two inches taller, and just plain skinny. And you ain’t skinny at all, you’re just —just right! But I ain’t surprised that you’ve held this job for four months. Men don’t go around falling in love with girls that look like washouts in spectacles.” “One man aid, Benny!” The pencil sharpener, which had begun to grind .again, stopped with a jerk. “Hey! .Ipell that out, will you? You ain’t gone and got engaged, have you? Or—or is it ‘Handsome Harry’ Borden?” And the boy’s freckled face turned a sudden dull crimson. “Guess I mighta knowed that ‘Handsome Harry’ wasn’t missing nothin’— Gosh!” The last word was a wail of adolescent misery. “Don’t be absurd, Benny!” Ruth cried, in what she thought was a sharp Voice. Then she rose, drawn to her feet by the boyish agony in Benny’s face, and went to him. She tilted his quivering chin with a forefinger and smiled shyly into his eyes. “It isn’t Mr. Borden, Benny. It’s—can you keep a secret, Benny? I’m engaged to Mr. Hayward. It just happened last night and oh, Benny, I’m so happy I don’t think I con bear it” ! The boy did a surprising thing then. He seized the finger which had tilted up his chin and pressed ft hard against his lips, while a blush ran in crimson waves from his throat ib his brow.
“Won’t you say you’re glad, Benny?” Ruth coaxed tenderly. “’Oh, sure!” the boy mumbled. “Sure I’m glad! Why not? He’s a great guy—best-lookig man in the Starbridge building. Gee! What a swell pair you two will make!” He gulped back his tears manfully. “But say, Ruth, you’d better douse the glim before ‘Handsome Harry’ surges in. I’m tellin’ you—” “Talk English for a change, Benny!” Ruth laughed. “‘Douse the glim’ ?” “Put on them yell-'w specs of yours and slick back your hair like you been wearin’ it,” the boy urged, with a curious sort of desperation. “Honest, Ruth ” “Mr. Borden’s affections are so thoroughly engaged at present that I don’t think we need worry,” Ruth laughed. “But to please you, Benny, I’ll revert to the ‘Lillian Gishtn spectacles’ role.” a a a SHE was reaching into the top drawer of her desk for the big, yellow-lensed, horn-rimmed spectacles which made her blue eyes look a sickly, pale green, when the telephone rang. “Main 3500,” she announced. Then, after a pause during which she raised her eyebrows significantly as she glanced over her shoulder toward Benny, “No, Mr. Borden is not in. ... I don’t know. I’m sorry, . . . What name shall I say? . . . Oh, thank you!” She hung up the receiver and shrugged. “The woman with the lovely contralto voice. I wonder who she is. I put Mr. Borden on the line once when she called, and he told roe to remember her voice and never do it again. Some old flame, I suppose.” She pushed back the telephone and was reaching for the disgusting spectacles, when the outer door opened and Henry P. Borden stepped into the room. Ruth whirled toward her desk in her swivel chair, so that not just yet should he see the transformation with which she had chosen to celebrate her engagement. She had not meant him to see, had intended to have the golden curls pulled into a tight knot, exposing her ears and elevating her goldenbrown eyebrows, had intended to peer up at him as usual through the disfiguring yellow lenses. “Morning, Miss Lester. Anything important?” Borden was striding toward the door that led into his private office, not vouchsafing a look at that pallid little secretary whose only appeal to him was that she was an incomparable secretary. Henry P. Borden, known along the city’s White Way as “Handsome Harry” Borden, deserved both the adjective and the slight sneer with which it was accompanied. For handsome he undoubtedly was, in a bold, striking black and white way. If he had chosen the movies instead of dubious finance as a career he would inevitably have been cast as the “heavy,” but invariably as a drawing room, silk-hat type of villain. He was tall and large, but not at all fat. Sleek, thick black hair, into which 40 years of self-indul-gence and at least twenty years of fast living had not introduced a single strand of white. Bold, wide black eyes, which had a trick of staring at a woman until her heart fluttered and her cheeks went either pale or crimson. A stubby black mustache, which Borden was too wise to wear small. Extraordinarily white skin, for a man, despite the thick growth of beard which he shaved close twice a day. Rather thick but wellshaped red lips, always slightly
moist, as if he had just run an anticipating tongue over them. a a a “TWJOTHING very important, Mr. IN Borden,” Ruth answered, without turning her head. Oh, if he would only go on into his office and close the door! But Borden paused, his hand on the knob of his door. “Any calls?” Ruth’s hands shook a little as she adjusted her spectacles with fumbling haste over ears which were now covered with gleaming golden curls. “Only one,” she answered, in her meek, timid little voice. “The woman with the beautiful contralto voice. I asked her if she would leave her name, but she said no.” She rose, gathered up the mail, the or-chid-tinted letter topping the and faced her employer. “That voice may sound beautiful to you, but believe me, I’d rather listen to a riveting machine—Hullo! what have you done to yourself?” As Benny Smith had done, Harry Borden took her in, from the top of her curl-crowned head to the toes of her enchanting little pumps. Ruth pursed her mouth, and looked as much as possible like the mouse-like little creature ho had become accustomed to and had ignored. “It—it’s the clothes, Mr. Borden. I—l saved some of my salary, and— But please, Mr. Borden, there’s a letter from Hendrickson in Chicago. He’s sold 10,000 shares of that Nugas stock, in spite of what the chemist reported—” The potential lover vanished and the shady financier took his place. “Hendrickson’s a fool, but a good stock salesman. Wire him to—” They passed on into Borden’s private office, and as her employer gave her instructions regarding Hendrickson, Ruth laid the stack of opened letters, topped with,, the orchid-tinted “Personal” envelope, upon the immaculate green blotter of the flat-topped brown walnut desk. Before she reached her chair on the opposite side of the desk Borden flipped the orchid letter aside, with a muttered oath, then stuck it, unopened, in the breast pocket of his vest. “I wonder if he ever answers one of them, and why she keeps on writing him if he doesn’t,” Ruth reflected, then looked up from her notebook to find her employer’s eyes regarding her quizzically, calculatingly. ’ “Little Miss Cinderella in person!” he chuckled. “Funny what a permanent wave and a box of rouge will do for a girl.” “Yes, Mr. Borden,” Ruth answered in her meek, timid voice—the one last scrap of disguise, except for the yellow spectacles, which was left to her. What luck that he thought her curls had come out of a machine, her complexion out of a box! “There’s an urgent letter from Nathan in Los Angeles. He’s demanding a larger comipission on Bakersfield Oil, since the new field is failing. What shall I write him?” a a a BORDEN consented to be lured into dictation. “Write me out a check for SSOO cash,” the promoter said at last, flinging his personal checkbook across the desk to her. “And go to the bank yourself, won’t you? Then stop at the station and get me a drawingroom and two roundtrip tickets for Winter Haven—train leaving at 2:15 this afternoon. Wire .the Hotel Winter Haven for a suite —best in the house. Reserve the rooms in the name of Mr. and Mrs. H. P.—let’s see—what other surname begins with a B?” “Benton?” Ruth suggested, in a small, innocent voice. “All right. But make a note of it on the ticket envelope for me, please. Guess who Mrs. Benton will
Second Section
Entered As Second-Class Matter at Postofflco Indianapolis.
CITY MANAGER SUPPORTERS RALLY FORCES TO COMBAT GENERAL ASSEMBLY FOES
Shut Up! Judge Stops Comparing Lindbergh to 'The Hawk.’
By Times Special NOBLESVILLE, Ind., Jan. 30. —•"No, no, I do not care to hear such comparisons as that and furthermore I do not see how it could aid me in determining whether or not this young man should be released on a suspended sentence,” said Judge Cleon Mount of Tipton when he sentenced Wendell C. Hessong, from one to five years in the Indiana reformatory for blackmail. Hessong appealed for a suspended sentence, and his attorney, E. M. Hornaday, Zionsville, began to compare the alleged high ideals of Hessong with those of Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh. Judge Mount threw up his hands and stopped the comparison, indicating it was going a step too far. r The defendant had been found guilty of blackmail growing out of an effort to induce prominent men to give him money. In writing the letters to them, Hessong signed himself “The Hawk” and threatened to bomb homes of recipients of the letters if money was not left in rural mail boxes. It was brought out during trial of the case that Hessong wanted the money to finish his aviation education and to purchase an airplane.
JURY DISAGREES ON DRYKILLING Discharged by Judge After No Verdict Is Returned. Bu United Press ELMIRA, N. Y., Jan. 30—The jury in the trial of Glenn Jennings, coast guardsmen accused of manslaughter in connection with the shooting of Jacob D. Hanson, disagreed and was dismissed today. Jennings was on charges growing out of the shooting of Jacob p, Hanson, prominent citizen of Niagara Falls, N. Y. Testimony showed that Jennings shot into Hanson’s automobile when it failed to stop at his command. Jennings insisted he aimed only at the engine with a view to stopping the car, but several shots broke through the windshield and Hanson fatally was wounded. Boatswain Frank L. Beck, Jenning’s superior officer, was placed on trial with Jennings on the grounds it was at Beck’s command that Jennings fired at Hanson’s car. Just before the case went to the jury, however, Federal Judge John C. Hazel instructed the jury to find Beck not guilty, the court deciding Beck could not be held guilty of manslaughter. ELECTION WILL END BUILDERS’ CONVENTION Attorney-General Terms Indiana Nation’s “Melting Pot” in Address. Election of officers this afternoon was to close the convention of the Associated Building Contractors of Indiana at the Lincoln. The convention assembled here Tuesday for a two-day session. The leadership of Indiana in production of pioneers in all lines of industry and the fact that this state is the melting pot for the United States was the theme of a talk given Tuesday night at a dinner of the organization by James M. Ogden, attorney-general of Indiana. Governor Harry G, Leslie was to speak, but was unable to attend. His place was taken by A. E. Kemmer, Lafayette, who outlined the plans and accomplishments of the contractor’s association.
BATTLE TO CONVICT PAL OF ‘THRILL SLAYER’ State Pushes Case Against Georgia College Student. Bu United Press ATLANTA, Ga., Jan. 30—Richard Gallogly, Oglethorpe university student charged with murder, sat silently in the courtroom today and listened intently as state attorneys began the finish of their attempt to prove he was with George Harsh, convicted “thrill slayers” when Harsh shot Willard Smith in a holdup last October. It was evident from testimony Tuesday the defense lawyers plan to force o.i the prosecution the burden of positively identifying Gallogly as the lookout man who stood in the doorway of the drug store when Smith was shot. At the close of the session the best the state could do was draw from witnesses the admission Gallogly was with Harsh when the latter came to them for help in getting treatment for a gunshot wound received during the holdup. Burglar in Courthouse Bu United Press BRAZIL, Ind., Jan. 30.—Authorities searched for a burglar today who entered the Clay county courthouse here Tuesday night, rifled various offices, but obtained only a few old coins. The man overlooked approximately $250 in cash which was in a drawer in the clerk's office.
Bills in Both Houses Are Designed to Help Present Law. COMMITTEES CONFER Repeal Sought in Measure Introduced by Sims of Terre Haute. Friends and foes of the city manager form of government today were mapping the legislative strategy by which they hope to strengthen or lepeal the law under which Indianapolis is committed to adopt the manager form in January, 1930. Bills, sponsored by the Indianapolis City Manager League and city manager advocates from throughout the state, are in both houses of the Indiana general assembly, under consideration by committees en cities and towns. The senate committee, at the same time, has the repeal measure, introduced by Senator George W. Sims, of Terre Haute, before it. That one of the strengthening bills will be withheld in committee while the one in the opposite house is sent to the floor with a recommendation for passage, appeared the likely procedure after the cities and towns committees of both houses had considered the manager league bill in joint session Tuesday. Committees Friendly Decision as to which house shall take the initiative awaits further conferences between'the two committees, which are regarded as generally friendly to the strengthening bills. A dozen members of the two committees heard explanation of the proposed city Manager League measure Tuesday while Claude A. Anderson, the league’s legislative chairman; W. H. Insley, stanch manager form advocate, and Edmund L. Craig, attorney for the Evansville City Manager League, contributed comment. Senator Sims, author of the repeal bill and member of the senate committee, was on hand, puffing a black stogie, the Acts of 1921 on his lap, as he traced the changes outlined by Representative Frank J. Noll of Indianapolis, chairman of the house committee. Except for a casual question now and then, Sims gave no indication of the nature of attack he will direct against the bill.
“P. R.” to Be Fought The joint hearing gave indication, however, that attack against the proportional representation system of voting in Indianapolis, may be expected from Senator Sumner Clancy, Indianapolis, “holdover” Coffin man from the 1927 session. “Proportional representation has been connected with city manager government since the election that adopted the manager form,” Clancy told the committees. “When it is said here that other cities want proportional representation, it’s a matter for these committees to look into. We should fifid who is demanding it.” Senator Clancy told The Times he had not studied the proportional representation system of voting sufficiently to say whether he would oppose it or not. “But when I vote for a man, I like to know that man got the vote,” he said. The proportional representation of voting is designed to insure representation for the minority and to prevent control of elections by political “machines.” It permits the voter to name first, second, and subsequent choices for city commissioners, the votes going to first choice only until the quota required for his election is passed—then to second and subsequent choices. Amendments Considered Representative Noll said the most important changes sought included the “P. R.” system of voting, for Indianapolis alone, and revision of Section 9 of the 1921 act to insure transfer of powers held by various boards under the present form of government to the proper agencies under the manager form. The committees took under consideration amendments proposed by Craig to force acceptance of city manager petitions by city clerks. The clerk of Evansville went beyond intent of the 1921 act in determining the qualifications of petitioners, Craig said. Proponents of the city manager plan were considering asking amendment of the bill, either in committee or on second reading, to extend the proportional representation voting plan to all cities adopting the manager form. Such move, it is thought, would open the measure to the opposition of many legislators outside Marion county, who now feel that if Indianapolis wants the “P. R.” system, it should have it, but should not seek to make it a state-wide requirement. fightsTbathing parade Michigan Legislator Wants Charms Made Less Public. By United Press LANSING, Mich., Jan. 30.—A bill prohibiting women appearing in public in bathing suits anywhere but on beaches or in contests has been Introduced in the state legislature by Representative Lynn C. Gardner. He would make it a misdemeanor to appear in a bathing suit on a public highway.