Indianapolis Times, Volume 40, Number 231, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 February 1929 — Page 1

SCRIPPS — HOWARD

RALLY LESLIE ALLIES; COFFIN FIRST VICTOR Forces of Governor Are Repulsed in Skirmish; Plan New Drive. WARNING TO ROGERS Stinging Rebuke Reported; Hints Patronage May Be Withheld. Repulsed in their first attack, Republican political leaders, including the close advisers of Governor Harry G. Leslie this afternoon collected their scattered forces and prepared for another onslaught in the war to unseat George V, Coffin as dictator of the party in Marion county in the Republican city convention, Saturday. It was reported Governor Harry G. Leslie administered a stinging warning to Republican State Chairman Elza O. Rogers that there would be better co-operation with the state administration than was shown in the meeting of the Republican state committee Wednesday afternoon, or the state committee as well as Coffin would be out in the cold so far as state patronage is concerned. Some Fear by Coffinites 2. The first sign that the Coffin forces fear the power of the coalition against them, despite their jubilant assertions of Wednesday that they would have the convention “sewed up" came when Coffin leaders approached the Leslie advisers with a proposition that a compromise city chairman be named. The candidate proposed by the Coffin messengers did not please the Leslie advisers and they rejected the proposition, preferring to lick Coffin in an out and out fight or go down fighting and be in good position for the next attack. Three Statehouse leaders already have prepared a list of appointees placed by Coffin when Ed Jackson was Governor, who will be kicked out of their jobs summarily if the city convention goes according to Coffin’s wishes Saturday. Leslie Remains Silent 4. The Leslie, and other antiCoffin groups got together thus morning and determined that there might be some chance to beat Coffin at his own game Saturday and decided to do what they could to swing votes to some coalition candidate. Before this conference it had practically been decided there was no use battling Coffin since his aids had prevented the state committee from changing rules Wednesday afternoon so as to insure a fair election of a city chairman. Leslie, personally was remaining silent. “I am too busy with state affair's to talk politics,” he said. Another gun ready to be fired by the Leslie group according to reports today, is the introduction of a bill in the legislature which will take the state police and automobile license bureau away from the office of the secretary of state and place it under a commission. Such a measure could be used as a club to force Otto G. Fifield, secretary of state, to require the Marion county precinct committeemen employed in his office to aid in ousting Coffin, it was pointed out. Present draft of the bill calls for appointment of three commissioners by the Governor, no more than two of the same political faith. The commission would be called the motor vehicle commission and would be empowered to appoint a director at a salary of $5,000. Pass on Its Merits The director would have charge of both the state police and the automobile license business and employe such persons as he sees fit to carry on the work “without regard to political affiliations.” Such a measure might pass on its merit it was asserted, and turn into a law rather than a club. The convention is scheduled for 1 p. m. Saturday in the K. of P. building. The most important rule change denied would have given the state chairman authority to name a temporary chairman for city reorganization meetings. This would have enabled Rogers to name an impartial temporary chairman who, in turn, would have named a credentials committee of such a makeup as to insure duly qualified precinct committeemen to enter and vote, but barring the promiscuous use of proxies and steam-roller tactics characteristic of Coffin-controlled meetings. Finding the "sentiment” of the committee against wholesale rule revision, the state chairman was directed to appoint a committee of three to consider the proposed changes. He named Frank W. Gordon of Bluffton, David .M. Hoover of Elkhart and Ewing Emison of Vincennes. No date was set for their report. SOLVE 9 BURGLARIES Youth Confesses to Many Thefts, Say Police. Lewis Reilly. 19. of 907 North Illinois street, arrested several days ago on burglary charges, is said to have made a confession which detectives say clears up nine burglaries in lunch rooms and poolrooms and three automobile thefts.

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The Indianapolis Times Partly cloudy tonight and Friday, no decided change in temperature; lowest tonight 15 to 20.

VOLUME 40—NUMBER 231

So Did Romeo! Lindy to Marry Daughter of Man on Side of Father’s Enemies. *

BY ALFRED P. RECK United Press Staff Correspondent fCopyrignt, 1929, by United Press) YT7ASHINGTON, Feb. 14. * There is irony behind the romance of Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh and Anne Spencer Morrow. The flying colonel, in seeking the hand of the daughter of the former partner of J. P. Morgan, cast aside the heritage of political hatred from his father, the late anti-Wall Street representative from Minnesota, the avowed enemy of big banking and the instigator of the 1911 “money trust” investigation. The story is old. It has been sung by wandering minstrels. Shakespeare told it in his “Romeo and Juliet” when the enmity of the houses of Montague and Capulet failed to keep the lovers apart. It has been retold many, many times with slight variations. nun NOW with the announcement in Mexico City of the engagement of the daughter of Dwight Morrow, ambassador to Mexico, muti-millionaire, and former Wall Street banker, to the son of the late Representative Charles A. Lindbergh, non-parti-san free thinker and enemy of the house of Morgan, fiction becomes a reality. Lindbergh's father never missed an opportunity to sink oratorical barbs into Wall Street, big bankers and the House of Morgan. Anne Morrow was bom to the royal purple of finance and society. Lindbergh was bom the son of a man who scl himself up as the congressional champion of the people against Wall Street. Miss Morrow spent a cloistered life as a student in select schools. Lindbergh spent a great part of his boyhood traveling with his father, whom he worshiped, and listening to attacks on the people Miss Morrow knew and respected. n a ft LINDBERGH, senior, included the firm of J. P. Morgan, of which Dwight Morrow was until recently an active partner, in the “money trust,” It is “a man-made god that controls the social and industrial system that governs us,” he wrote. Lindbergh, senior, advocated the necessity of teaching children the truth about money domination in this country. In 1923 he wrote the “Economic Pinch.” a book dealing further with the “money trust” and Wall Street banking houses. In that book he wrote a sentence, which turned out to be an ironic prophecy: “Give children the facts and they will correct things when it comes their time.” SLOW NAVY BUILDING Coolidge Stirs Row in Congress on Cruisers. By United Press WASHINGTON, Feb. 14.—President Coolidge stirred up a row with congress over the naval building program today when he submitted a proposal that only $12,370,000 be appropriated for starting five new cruisers and an aircraft carrier during the government’s next fiscal year beginning July 1. The President and the budget bureau disregarded the desire of congress for beginning work immediately, by failing to submit any estimate for construction at this time.

A live, but Buried , for Forty-Six Horrible Years on Devil’s Island

ASK RESCUE OF VICTIM, SET ‘FREE’ BY WORLD’S WORST PRISON

BY FRANK H. BARTHOLOMEW United Press Staff Correspondent (Copyright, 1929, by United Press) LOS ANGELES, Cal., Feb. 14—An effort to rescue a man buried alive for forty-six years in the “worst prison on earth was begun here today. The man is Paul Lamont. a citizen of Belgium and a former master of languages at London university. The prison is Devil’s Island and its associated penal colony of St. Laurent De Maroni, in French Guiana. Six yeafars ago, Lamont, now 78 years of age, had finished a fortyyear sentence for forgery and was a free man. Today he is more surely a prisoner than at any time during his forty years of servitude, according to a report to the Belgian ambassador at Washington by W. E. Allison-Booth, American, who himself has just returned from the French penal settlements. Allison-Booth landed in Los Angeles after shipping half way around the globe in order to get back to the United States. He was second officer on a supply steamer plying between New York and tropic prison colonies.

On his last trip from the United States to Devil’s island and St. Laurent he was left behind at the latter poinij, and spent three months awaiting the arrival of the next steamer. During Ills three months at St. Laurent he became acquainted, he said, with many of the thousands of men who are “not allowed to live, not allowed to die" in the equatorial prisons, including, according to his statement, Paul Lamont. Lamont's plight so touched him, Allison-Booth said, that immediate 1 upon reaching Los Angeles he ' the following letter to the P ambassador: ‘•I have just returned French penal settlemei v* cst.

TWO ADDED TO CLOSED BANK LIST IN STATE Includes Another Bluffton Institution and One at Montpelier. TOTAL STANDS AT SIX Receivership Plea of Examiners to Be Heard Feb. 21. By Times Special BLUFFTON, Ind., Feb. 14.—The number of banks closed as the result of the .failure Wednesday of the Wells County State bank of Bluffton was increased to five today when the Union Savings and Trust Company of Bluffton and the Farmers’ Deposit bank of Montpelier failed to open for business. Both were closed as a precautionary measure by their directors after runs, induced by the three previous bank failures, mounted to large figures. $68,000 Withdrawn A run of $50,000 was made on the Union institution Wednesday, according to Fred J. Pangeman, president, while Guy Bracken, president of the Montpelier bank, reported withdrawals of SIB,OOO. Both officials reported that their institutions were solvent, but said that after a conference with Thomas D. Barr, assistant state bank commissioner, they decided it would be unwise to open in view of the attitude of the public. The state banking department has taken charge of all five institutions. Receivers Asked Hearings on petitions asking appointment of receivers for two of the five banks have been set here for Feb. 21, by Circuit Judge A. W. Hamilton. Receivers are asked for the Wells County State bank of Uniondale. The others closed Wednesday are the Bank of Petroleum and the Liberty Center State bank. Investigation of the banks is being made by seven state examiners, assigned by Luther F. Symons, state bank commissioner and working under direction of Barr. Symons said he was unable as yet to say whether deposits of $1,250,000 in the bank at Bluffton are safe. He indicated there is a possibility that the bank may be reorganized. Bank at Hope Closed Bn Timrs Special HOPE, Ind., Feb. 14.—The Citizens National bank failed to open its doors for business here today. The decision to close came after a conference of directors in which it was decided to act to “protect the interests of the depositors.” John F. Utt, national bank examiner, immediately took charge. Persistent rumors of a shortage were vigorously denied by bank officials. Mart Holder is president and Herman Stewart cashier of the closed institution. NAMES GARRETT JUDGE Senate Receives Nomination of Democratic Leader. B.n United Press WASHINGTON, Feb. 14—President Coolidge today sent to the senate the nomination of Finis J. Garrett of Tennessee, Democratic leader in the house, to be associate judge on the United States court of customs appeals. Former Senator Irvine L. Lenroot of Wisconsin, also was nominated for the customs court.

Laurent De Maroni, and I feel it my duty to call your attention to the pitiable case of a citizen of your country. “This man. Paul Lamont by name, has been at the settlement for fortysix years, during the last sLx of which he has been a free man. “However, owing to the French government making no arrangement for the return of prisoners after completing sentences, he has been in abject poverty and near starvation for six years with no prospect of 'arning enough to return to the rilized world, before he dies. ’’"his man is 78 years of age. He drly was a professor of languages in a European university,

INDIANAPOLIS, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1929

mHi s x men i

Os Course, Chivalry Lives ONE can believe that a spark of chivalry still glows and that perhaps little silver haired old ladies still tuck mementos away in lavender and scent after studying these pictures of children at the kindergarten of Miss Fem Swanson. 3720 North Pennsylvania street observing St. Valentine’s day. Above is Rosemary Myers, little daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Myers, 3720 North Pennsylvania street, receiving tribute of Vachel Anderson, son of Mr. and Mrs. W. P. Anderson, 3703 North Delaware street. Below is Paul Schass, son of Mr. and Mrs. Paul C. Schass and Marian Davis, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Davis, 117 East Twenty-eighth street. 0. K, ON SHOALS BILL Committee Favors Lease for 50 Years. By United Press WASHINGTON, Feb. 14.—The house military affairs committee in executive session today favorably reported the Madden bill, which would authorize leasing of Muscle Shoals to the American Cyanamid Company for fifty years. Mrs. Hoover Heads Traveler’s Aid Pil United Press WASHINGTON, Feb. 14.—Announcement that Mrs. Herbert Hoover has accepted the honorary presidency of the Travelers’ Aid Society of 1928, has been made by the association.

and has retained his fine academic mind in spite of the horrors of the past forty-six years. “During the past six years, since his freedom, he has kept alive by doing small tasks for the Chinese storekeepers.” Booth said he is one of the few men ever to come away alive from the place. Dreyfus, central figure in what possibly was the most widely discussed international “cause celebre,” was another. Yet another was Dieudonne, the Frenchman, who was pardoned not long ago after he thrice had escaped and twice been recaptured. Both these men were found innocent and restored to their homes. Booth told of some of the things he saw and heard and did —including incidents which cost him eight days in a dungeon; and came near making his stay at St. Laurent permanent. “It commonly is supposed,” Booth said, “that Devil’s island is the penal settlement. This is not so. The ‘Rock,’ as it is termed, is but a sort of receiving station. “Here the prisoners are given a period -of solitary confinement. When they are thoroughly disciplined and their spirits completely broken, they are transferred to one oi the settlements, the principal being St. Laurent. “To get to St. Laurent you have to mm forty miles up the sluggish

REFUSE HOSPITAL Setback Given to Building Veteran Institution Here. By Times Special WASHINGTON, D. C., Feb. 14Legislation under which it was hoped that a veterans’ bureau hospital might be established at Indianapolis has received a set-back as a result of refusal of the Luce subcommittee of the house war veterans’ committee to report the bill authorizing $10,000,000 for hospitalization of World war veterans. The sub-comnfittee had an animated session yesterday afternoon, and took a secret vote, which is said to have been a tie. Unable to secure a report, friends of the legislation including Louis Ludlow, Seventl district congressman-elect, were today to secure another meeting, trying to force a full meeting of the veterans’ committee. John Thomas Taylcr, legislative agent of the American Legion, is also working on the project. Hourly Tempteratures 6 a. m 14 10 a. m 20 7a. m 15 11 a. m 20 Ba. m 15 12 (noon).. 27 9 a. m 15

Maroni river. On each side is dense jungle. “Monkeys chatter in the trees. Parrots screech overhead. “A regiment of men could be a hundred feet away without giving any trace. “When the ship is tied up at the wooden jetty, convicts are marched aboard by the guards to unload it. They are the most hopeless men in the universe, for escape through the jungle is almost impossible, and there is scarcely a chance in a mil-

Ragged, bearded and hopeless! No idea of how the world has changed in the last half century. Buried alive for forty-six year's in the “worst prison on earth”—free now, but can’t escape. That’s the remarkable story of Paul Lamont at Devil’s island. He even has forgotten his prayers for rescue.

lion that they ever will see France again. “After they have served their sentences they must do another equal amount of time as ‘preventive detention,’ after which they are free to get away if they can pay their passage. But as they are not allowed to have money while prisoners, and as St. Laurent offers them no way of making more than the tiniest pittance by labor after they are free, there is almost no hope. “St. Laurent is only six degrees from the equator, but the convicts

SIX MEN LINED AGAINST WALL AND MURDERED BY GANGSTER FIRING SOUAD

Money Is the Root of All — Pm United Press DETROIT, Feb. 14.—Oran Mills donated SIOO to the AntiSaloon League. His wife and three children were given sl, Mrs. Mills said in asking for a divorce. The divorce was granted. Pm United Press DETROIT, Feb 14.—Six cents for newspapers and five cents for luncheon was all his wife gave him each week day for an allowance, Norman Main testified in his suit for divorce. The rest of his pay check went for his wife’s luxuries >e said. He was granted 3 jrce.

FLIER DIES IN CRASH Another Believed Hurt Fatally When Plane Falls Near Terre Haute. Pm United Press TERRE HAUTE, Ind., Feb. 15. One man is reported dead and another dying as the result of an airplane crash near here today. Authorities had not yet succeeded in establishing the identity of the aviators.

are issued neither hats nor shoes. “One day I counted nine convicts who dropped down from the effects of the sun. The guards made no effort to help them and when two other convicts made a move to assist them they were belabored with whips. “Even the privilege of bathing in the shark-infested river has been denied the men because of the number of suicides by convicts who had come to prefer the man-killers in the water to the man-killers on shore, and deliberately swam out

beyond the safety of the shallow water. “Such washing as is done now must be done with water out of the drinking Ration. “This is the kind of thing Paul Lamont suffered for forty years as a convict. Since his ‘release,’ things have been even worse, for now he is not attached for rations. “He is ragged and bearded and almost hopeless—yet through it all he has kept his mind sane and bright. “Imagine an educated person who

Entered as Second-Class Matter at PostofTice, Indianapolis

Two Carloads of Chicago Thugs Invade Warehouse, Massacre Beer War Foes With Volleys from Sawed-OfY Shotguns. PAL OF ‘SCARFACE AT/ IS VICTIM Arrest of Every Hoodlum and Racketeer in City Ordered After Investigation by Police Commissioner. By United Press CHICAGO, Feb. 14.—Six employes of the S. S. M. C. Cartage Company were murdered with sawed-off shotguns today and one man was wounded, when two automobile loads of bandits raided the garage in which the company had its headquarters. Police construed the assassinations as an outgrowth of the working for the S. S. M. C. concern had been engaged in running beer. The raid was one of the most daring in the long history of Chicago gang feuds. The two carloads of raiders drew up in front of the garage shortly before noon, leaped out and entered the garage. Sawed-off shotguns roared. Persons in the neighborhood said they thought there had been an explosion in the building. A few minutes later, half a dozen or more gangsters raced out of the garage, took their places in the two automobiles, and speeded away.

The victims were said to have been treated in the usual gang manner, shot down without a chance to defend themselves. Every available squad car at detective headquarters was pressed into action and raced north through the loop with screaming sirens. Lined up Against Wall When police arrived on the scene they found every one who was in the garage at the time of the raid had been shot, presumably lined up against the wall as though for execution by an official firing squad. One of the dead was said to have been identified as Pete Gusenberg, a lieutenant of George “Bugs” Moran, north side beer rival of the famous Aiello gang. Pete’s brother, Frank, was wounded. Others among the identified dead were: James Clark, a brother-in-law* of “Bugs” Moran, and owner of the garage. Arthur Hayes, said to be a former state representative. Frank Foster, a truck driver A1 Weinshaks. An unidentified mechanic. The garage where the shooting took place is in an unimposing structure in the 2200 block on North Clark street, about nineteen blocks cue north of the Chicago Loop. The lower half of the windows in the front of the building had been painted so that passersby could not see inside. Escape Attempt Futile Several of the victims appeared to have attempted to run after being shot, but none got far. The body of Pete Gusenburg lay under a sink and near by was his brother Frank, who was badly wounded and may die. Ambulance physicians said he was in no condition to be questioned about the shooting. Police said they could not tell by examining the bodies whether the men had faced the raiders or the wall when the massacre took place.

has no idea of how the world has changed in the last half century. “He pictured Lindbergh’s plane as some giant bird with flapping wings like the mythical bird in Sinbad the Sailor. He could not grasp the principle of flight by any heavier-than-air machine. The things that we see every day are all a strain on his imagination. “And it is no wonder. When he first arrived at Devil’s Island he was placed in solitary confinement for two years, and when he eventually was transferred to the settlement it was weeks before he recovered his sight. “I know a little of what solitary confinement there means, for I did eight days on water and rice cakes, the ratioy privileged prisoners. “I had been talking to Paul Molet, partner of Dieudonne in one of his escapes, who on that occasion was bitten by a snake and had to be left behind by his partner. He was telling me about that famous adventure. “A guard, I suppose, overheard the word ‘escape’ and thought we were plotting. “Four days after my arrest I was taken before the commandant, and then learned for the first time that I was charged with conspiring to assist a convict to escape. “Another four days in the semidungeon followed, at the end of which I was exonerated and released.”

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That was because most of the shotgun slugs tore clear through the bodies, leaving similar wounds on both sides. Hayes, Clark and Weinshaks-went to their death dressed as carefully as the most prosperous of racketeers. Each wore a wrist watch. Only the unidentified mechanic was in working clothes. The north wall of the garage, against winch the victims were believed to have been lined up. was pitted with shotgun bullets, which spread into a large pattern after leaving the saweu-off barrels of the guns. On the floor were fifty machine gun shells, but police found no evidence of machine gun bullets. On the floor also was a .38 caliber pistol. Bodies All Over Room The bodies were in all parts of the room. The body of the mechanic remained unidentified because the top of his head had been blown off. Important representatives of Chicago officialdom flocked to the North Clark street address as soon as news of the assassinations spread about the city. The police commissioner was there, as was the chief of detectives and agents of the Chicago crime commission. Police Commissioner William Russell issued a statement describing the outrage as “the last straw'.” “The gangsters have declared war openly and the police department has accepted the challenge," Russell said. “I am issuing orders for the arrest of every gangster, hoodlum, and racketeer in the city.” At the rear of the room in which the murders took place was a large space crowded with trucks and automobiles. In one of the trucks police found a dismantled still, strengthening their belief that the wholesale shooting was a flare-up in the beer war. “Bugs” Moran, whose late broth-er-in-law owned the garage and the Cartage Company, Is known as an associate of “Scarface" A1 Capone, the Chicago beer lord. “Bugs” is said to be the second successor to the alcohol domain on the north side once-ruled by Dean O’Banion, the Irish gang leader who was murdered when he fell out with the Sicilian element in the beer industry. TRAFFIC SIGN BREAKS Pedestrians Enjoy Old Time Sport ar, Busy Corners. Pedestrians enjoyed a brief vacation from the three-way traffic system at Illinois and Washington streets at noon today. Something went wrong with the semaphore which ordinarily keeps pedestrians wiating until the gong rings and the two “stop” signs appear. One of the old semaphores was put into use and pedestrians permitted to romp across with traffic while the broken sign was repaired.

Automobile Dealers Anxious to Reduce Used Car Stocks Indianapolis Automobile Dealers, anticipating heavy trade-ins on new models, during Auto Show week are endeavoring to clear their floors of Used Cars. Dealers are co-operating in a tremendous 3-day clearance sale. Special price inducements are being offered. If you are in the market for a car it is "your opportunity to buy at a real bargain price.” See the Want Ad Pages of today’s Times for a list of “ Specials.”