Indianapolis Times, Volume 41, Number 284, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 April 1930 — Page 1

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CHAIR DEATH OR ACQUITTAL FOR CITY MEN 1929 Hartzell Act Prevents Prison Sentence in Zeller Murder. VERDICT IS MANDATORY Freedom Is Predicted for Hill. Trout Despite Trial Evidence. BY EDWARD C FULKE To tiie electric chair, or scot free. With those the only verdict alternatives under Indiana's 1929 '•Hartzell act," will a criminal court jury sternly condemned William C..HiU, ex-policeman, and his alleged accomplice, James Trout, to death if convinced they murdered William teller, lottery operator, as the state alleges? Or, without the alternative of imposing life Imprisonment, will the jury fulfill predictions of the Hartzell law opponents by returning a verdict of acquittal, regardless of the evidence. Death Mandatory Sponsored in the 1920 legislature by Senator Lee Hartzell <Rep.. Ft. Wayne), the statute under which Hill and Trout will be tried, probably this month, makes death the mandatory penalty where a human being is killed in perpetration of a robbery. Eyes of the courts, the legal fraternity. law enforcement agencies and the Governor's crime commission, will be centered on the criminal court trial here. The Hartzell act further provides ! life imprisonment where the victim Is wounded and provides a ten to twenty-five years imprisonment for burglary and highway robbery. First Degree Charge Hill and Trout, the latter captured In Miami two weeks ago. are j under joint indictment charging! them with first degree murder. Before the Hartzell amendment was enacted, jurors could have imposed either death or life imprison- i ment for such a crime as Hill' add Trout are alleged to have'committed. In the course of the trial of Jolin Van Hook, Terre Haute | deputy constable in Clay circuit' court, where the Hartzell act met ■ its first test. Judge Thomas' *A. Hutchinson condemned the act, saying “Hartzell should be indicted j and imprisoned for six months. I Van Hook was freed of the murder, charge. FORMER LOCAL MAN DIES Prominent Russian Doctor Passes at Manchester. N. H. Bu United Press , I MEREDITH, N. H.. April B.—Dr j Charles Chirburg, 63.' prominent! Russian physician, formerly of In- j dianapolls, died at Manchester, j N. H., today. He was a graduate of Indiana University School of Medicine. Born in Russia, he studied in Germany before coming to the United States, lie was a member of the Congregation Adath Yeshurin and of many medical societies. His widow and seven daughters survive him.

Nears Triumphant Hour

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The Indianapolis Times Fair tonight and Wednesday; possibly light frost tonight in exposed places. Warmer Wednesday. #

VOLUME 41—NUMBER 284

Irate Egg-Hurling Woman Clerk May Bare Power Scandal Suspended for Quarrel With Superior, She Tosses Charges of Tampering With U. S. Files.

Bu United Press WASHINGTON. April 8. An irate woman clerk in the federal power commission threw six eggs and a vase of water at her superior, F. W. Griffith, chief clerk, and laid open a feud which threatens to bring sensational power disclosures if charges are sustained. The clerk, Mrs. Minnie L. Ward, alleges valuable official documents, mneerning the relations between the power commission and the power industry, have disappeared from the government's files. Her husband, Herbert. S. Ward, Washington attorney, said today he had called on Attorney-General Mitchell to take action on formal

JURY IN PROBE OF AUTO FIRM Open Quiz of Charges Made Against City Men. County grand jurors today opened an investigation of charges against. Paul Keyes, 25 West Thirty-fourth street, and William B. Peterson, Brendenwood, president and secre-tary-treasurer, respectively, of the Peterson-Keyes Auto Company, 440 North Capitol avenue. Among witnesses were Otto N. Gulling, Eisemann Ignition Service Company manager; B. E. Davidson, George Hartwick and G. A. Corwin, local auto finance company officials, and Herbert Bretzloff, Detroit, auto financier. Vagrancy' charges against the men were continued today in municipal court until Wednesday. Gulling sgid he would file charges against Keyes and Peterson, but refused to divulge the nature of his accusations. Both are held in city prison in lieu of SIO,OOO bond. Detectives said their arrests Monday grew out of the company’s automobile financing operations.

YEP, AMOS ’N'_ANDY You’re to Have Famous Visitors

You're going to have a couple of j famous visitors in your homt, for j a two-week sto starting Friday, j and they'lL be te most welcome : guests you've x—- ix\ years. Guess who? Why, Amos 'n' Andy, j Starting Friday * in The Times. j you'll get the whole story of Amos j 'n' Andy, all the way back from the J old days when they were just am- I bitious ' kids, hustling around in j their home towns of Richmond, Va., j and Peoria. 111. It's a series of stories that will i grip your interest from the opening syllable till you’re brought right up to the present minute of their lives, written by Douglas Gilbert, staff writer of the New York Telegram, another Scripps-Howard newspaper. And there's another big treat for you. Just to help out Amos ’n' Andy and pave the way for their recep-

MoUtei Jones

, charges that documents have disappeared. Mrs. Ward, for ten years in charge of the power commission’s files, ! charges. Griffith abstracted letters j from her files last fall. She asserts these letters contained recommendations from officials of the power industry concerning the appointment of an executive secretary for the power 1 commission. Mrs. Ward’s charges were laid before the senate interstate commerce committee after she was suspended for insubordination as a result of the egg-throwing incident. Ward said his wife had been ! bothered for a long time by Gris- ; fith’s “meddling with her files." Mrs. Ward, a government employe for twenty-three years, intimated today further charges may follow. Nomination Asked by 187 MARION, Ind., April B.—A total of 187 candidates, 97 Republicans and 89 Democrats, have filed declarations of candidacies with the Grant county clerk. COUNOiLVOTES MARATHON BAN Unanimous Action Is Taken to Prohibit Derbies. Passed by unanimous vote of city ; council Monday night, the ordii nance forbidding dance marathons i in Indianapolis will become effective when twenty-five days have elapsed. Although effort was made by several councilmen to defer action for I another two weeks and make the ; measure effective in sixty days, imi mediate passage Monday night with j the twenty-five-day period finally 1 was agreed upon, so as not to affect j the present marathon in Cadle tabernacle. I The measure was drafted at rej quest of Mayor Reginald H. Sulli- | van.

tion in Indianapolis, The Times’ own ragtime band is parading the streets in typical Amos ’n' Andy style in one of the best cars Cohn Bros., 806 North Capitol avenue, ever wrecked, and you’re likely to hear them in your residence district or downtown at any time of the day or evening. Watch for them and hear them. The boys are good, plenty good. - To top it all off. there'll be the famous Fresh Air Taxi, Incorpolated. parade through downtown streets Friday, and right now is the time to get in ytuir entry. If you have a car and trimmings that you think will be good enough to win the $lO prize for the best takeoff on Amos ’n’ Andy’s stunt, rush in your entry to The Times Promotion Editor. Just let us know that you wish to be in the parade, and if you qualify you’ll get word in Wednesday’s Times when and where to appear for the Friday parade.

SHOTS FIRED AT HOMES HINTED AS REVENGE PLOT

Firing of three shots into each of two homes of Lawrence residents who aided recently in prosecution of an alleged bootlegger at 11 p. m. Monday, was investigated by state police and deputy sheriffs today. One of the bullets, from a 32caliber automatic revolver, sthick a wall two feet above a bed in which Mr. and Mrs. James Jordan were asleep. Two other buffets lodged in the wall of the Jordan home. Three bullets were fired into the kitchen of the home of Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Rosenbaum, about a block from the Jordan home.

FIGHTING HEART OF MOTHER JONES UNDAUNTED AS 100th BIRTHDAY NEARS

BY THOMAS L. STOKES United Tress Staff Correspondent , Tl 7 ASHINGTON. April B.—Mother Jones is hoarding these spring " * days like a miser. The aged laoor leader, Amazonian heroine of many coal strikes, watches each day pass outside her sickroom, for each one takes her nearer the triumphant hour of her one hundredth birthday on May 1, a day, likewise. *hat is notable in labor annals. Mothei Jones realizes she is nearing the end of her long and hard, but dramatic life, and is determined to see that final day which will close a century. She’s going to have a party then, a big birthday party. There will be a huge birthday cake, the gift of the bakers’ union, with 100 candles on its frosted surface, and congratulations, and—best of all for her—the memories of a 100 years For that day. Mother Jones is clinging to life. “I’ll be up and around soon and see my boys again.’’ she said today, confidently. Lying propped up on her pillows, the spirited little Irish woman does not impress one as an invalid. With great detail she recalls things beyond the memory of but fewi living today. Feebly and frankly she discusses events of today.

INDIANAPOLIS, TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 1930

i ‘LIAR AND CUR’ CHARGE FLUNG IN CONGRESS Fist Fight Barely Averted Between Editor, Solon in Senate Probe. WALSH IS PEACEMAKER Fraud Accusation Hurled by Blaine in Demand for Postal Quiz. Bu United Pres * WASHINGTON, April B.—The senate lobby committee provided most of the drama in congress today as scheduled, but the fireworks came with the unheralded appearance of a little-known Alabama editor instead of in the testimony of Josephus Daniels, famous editor of the Raleigh (N. C.) News and Observer. J. E. Pierce or Huntsville, Ala., was the witness who caused the excitement, his testimony resulting in a near physical encounter with Senator Black (Dem., Ala.) during the lobby committe’s investigation into Muscle Shoals lobbying. After Daniels had been questioned briefly concerning an editorial demanding the resignation of John J. Raskob as chairman of the Democratic national committee, the lobby investigators recalled Pierce, who had testified earlier regarding Muscle Shoals. Pierce told the committee he had received SI,OOO as traveling expenses from the Tennessee River Improvement Association, a lobbying organization, but resented what he termed Black’s efforts to leave the impression the money “had something to do with my paper’s policy toward Muscle Shoals.” “Liar” Is Passed A heated controversy followed during which the epithets “contemptible liar" and "contemptible cur” were passed between the two. Senator Walsh finally Intervened and avoided fisticuffs. During his testimony in connection with the inquiry into prohibition lobbying, Daniels was not allowed to reiterate his demand for Raskob's resignation. The dry editor expressed the view, however, that the Democratic chairman should not be contributing to an organization which supports others than Democrats for office. Meanwhile, a senate naval affairs subcommittee questioned Lieutenant Alford J. Williams, crack navy speed pilot, as the first step in opening an investigation into America’s naval aviation. Williams resigned several weeks ago after being ordered to sea. On the senate floor more fireworks were promised bv the action of Senator Blaine 'Rep., Wis.). who introduced a resolution calling for invest igation by a committee of three of the postoffice department’s leasing system. Fraud Is Charged Blaine's resolution, which will come up Wednesday, charges “fraud, misrepresentation and, corruption" in the leasing of postoffices and commercial postal stations. A similar resolution is before the house. House and senate tariff conferees disposed of thirty more amendments to the Smoot.-Hawley tariff bill, among them the duty on manganese ore on which the senate rate of 1 cent a pound was accepted.

The kitchen of the Rosenbaum home was lighted with an electric light and officers believe the gunmen believed members of the family, who had retired, were in the kitchen. In each case the bullets were fired from the road. Residents of the section declared six shots were fired at short intervals, indicating the gunmen were in a car. Rosenbaum and Jordan recently aided in prosecution of a resident of the section after a liquor raid and officers were investigating possible connections of the shooting with the liquor case.

STEEL KINGS AT CLIMAX OF GREAT MERGER WAR Above (left), is James A. Farrell, president of the United States m. Stee l Corporation, and (right), Cyras S. Eaton of Cleveland, head of the W - MSMBEM Otis-Eaton interests, and leader of the opposition to the merger of PPpst £ % Youngstown Sheet and Tune with Bethlehem. Below Heft), James A. Campbell, president of Youngstown, who WsMm ”> favored the merger, and (right), Eugene Grace, chairman of Bethlehem. ffisfflg. % * ‘UPLIFT’ IS DOUBTED

Scouts, Church Fail in Boys’Work? A PPARENT failure of the church, Sunday school, Y. M. C. A. and the Boy Scout movement to prevent delinquency will be presented dramatically to members of the state crime commission at their meeting in the statehouse April 26, it was disclosed today. Donald Du Shane of Columbus, chairman of the subcommittee on crime prevention, will present to that meeting a report on a survey made of fifty delinquents, under 17, admitted to the Indiana Boys’ school, Plainfield, since June of last year. This subcommittee survey discloses that 84.8 per cent of the boys questioned were identified with some church, Sunday school, Y. M. C. A.

or Scout troop. “These organizations can take no pride in the results of this survey,” the report states. Members of Sunday schools or churches numbered 75.6 per cent of the total quizzed, according to the report. Broken homes were blamed in part for 69.5 per cent of the de-

m t> n * * Pointing out there are twenty counties in Indiana without any probation provisions and others with “low grade political appointees ’ in charge of probation work, the report recommends revamping of the probation question. A bipartisan state board to have supervision of probation in every county in the state, including power to reject appointive probation officers, is recommended.

All suspended sentence cases would be in charge of probation officers. i Tentative recommendations for immediate commission approval include: 1. Passage of a law to identify and segregate backward children in the schools.

Looking for a Pearl? Don’t Be That Way!

BY SHELDON KEY PERSONS who eat oyster stews meticulously, expecting to strike it lucky and find a big, shiny pearl that will make them rich, are foolish victims of superstition. That Dame Luck seldom smiles in this fashion and that people often are believers of many other enchanting but absurd ideas concerning jewelry, was disclosed today at the meeting of the Indiana Retail Jewelers’ Association in the Severin. For instance, hands on dummy clocks in front of jewelry stores are not set at the hour 8:20 o'clock because that was the hour Lincoln died, as commonly believed. Even though most display watches and clocks are set at that hour, truth is, that it has no connection with Abraham Lincoln. According to Earl F. McConnell of Oakland City, secretary of the association, “it is done to make

\ PROBLEM of the modern world is called to her attention. Forcefully, she speaks out. From the vantage point of her 100 years she looks about upon the world of today and finds it full of shortcomings. Observing unemployment and the modern industrial trend in displacement of men by machines. she said: ’’That’s the biggest problem of today. You are throwing men out of work and putting machines in their places. What are you going to do about it? That’s something for our statesmen to ponder." Prohibition? ‘I think that is the greatest humbug ever put over on the American people.” She explained she doesn't know enough about the London naval conference to discuss it. but 6he has her own opinion about such things. “Those peace conferences are a lot of trash, Just spending the people's money junketing about.” Her viewpoint is colored by lack of sympathy with modern civilization. with its speed, its new thrills, the theater, the moving picture, the jazz dance. ‘ They are a lot of foolishness. I never went to a theater in my life and I only went to one moving picture show." She jerked her head, disgustedly. “I thought they were a lot of fools. I never had any time for those things. I never went to dances or parties. There are too many wretched people In the world who nesd help.”

Entered 88 Second-Class Matter at PosrofTice. Indianapolis

linquency of the group. Os the total questioned, 37 per cent had lost one or both parents; 28 per cent had step-parents; 24 per cent were from homes broken bydivorce or separation; 42 per cent had quarreling parents, and 48 per cent were from homes suffering from economic and resulting physical poverty.

2. Revision of the probation law in line with best modern practice. 3. Traveling psychiatric and behavior clinics. 4. Reorganization of outdoor poor relief. DuShane is superintendent of the Columbus public schools.

me nanas Dai ante aixu leave ajiow for the jeweler’s name and advertisement.” Asa matter,of fact, Lincoln did not die at 8:20 o’clock. He was shot in Ford’s theater a few minutes past 10 and died at 7:22 the next morning. Men in the “wateh-fixin’ ” business find the public is prone to take stock in many foolish ideas. It’s useless to spoil a good meal by getting excited over finding a chip in an oyster for usually such pearls aren’t worth a dime. “It is very, 'very rare that a valuable gem is found in an oyster,” McConnell says, “for most pearls come from the bivalve mussel anyway.” As for the idea that scientists can extract gold from seawater—well that is just another “fooler.” Os course, water contains a slight amount of gold, but it would be necessary to extract tons and tons of water in order to get a tiny bit of gold.

Eaton in Supreme Effort to Prevent Move at ‘Showdown’ Stage. BY HARRY WILSON SHARPE United Press Staff Correspondent YOUNGSTOWN, 0., April B. Cyrus S. Eaton, powerful Cleveland financier, put forth his supreme effort to block the proposed billiondollar consolidation of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company with the $475,000,000 Bethlehem Steel Corporation today as Sheet and Tube stockholders met to ratify or reject the proposal. As the stockholders went into session, the common pleas court began hearing an injunction suit filed by Otis & Cos., Cleveland brokerage house. The suit sought to restrain the Sheet and Tube proxy committee from voting 51,038 shares of stock purchased by the concern since March 22. Eaton is a. partner in the firm and contended stock purchased after March 22 could not legally be voted. Voting Is Delayed It was announced voting would not begin until the injunction suit was disposed of and the assembled stockholders ensconced themselves in chairs to await the court’s verdict. The stockholders' session, brief and unproductive, was reminiscent of the final day of a political paign. Rival armies of canvassers, trying to swing proxies into line, passed cigars freely and buttonholded share owners as they entered the building. If the merger is voted it will create the second largest steel corporation in the country. The United States Steel Company with assets of more than two billion dollars is the largest. Battle Against Schwab The fight found Eaten, powerful Cleveland financier, campaigning against the battle-scarred Charles M. Schwab and Eugene C. Grace of Bethlehem, veterans in steel and finance. Eaton, who controls 260,000 shares of Sheet and Tube, fought the merger from the start, charging Bethlehem’s offer was inequitable and unfair. The battle dates back to January, when James A. Campbell, 75-year-old founder of Sheet and Tube, approached Grace in New York with a merger proposal Hourly Temperatures 6a. m 33 10 a. m 44 7a. m 33 11 a. m 44 Ba. m 37 12 fnoon).. 45 9 a. m 42 1 p. m 50

■ "HE present “crisis,” as she calls It, needs leadership, she said. There never was a time in all the history of the American people when you needed level-headed men as you do today.” Looking back ever here own experiences in various coal mine controversies, she philosophized: , vt omen have power, but they don't know how to useit. They get timitd. If I ever knew what fear meant I never would have done what I did." One of the things that she did—and she recalled it today as if It happened yesterday—was to defy a group of hired gunman who had planted a machine gun on a ridge above a West Virginia mine. She walked right up to them, took the gun and told the men that 700 miners, well armed, were coming over to attack them. “They let me have the gun and ran,” she said. Another time a Governor of Colorado told her she could not go back to the miners. “Says I to him, ‘You’ll go to hell before you keep me away.' So I went back.” That was Mother Jones of the bygone years. The Mother Jon m of today Is about the same. But the woman in her yearns for just one thing—that 100th birthday party on May L

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[GUNS OF GANGS THREATEN AS ! ILLINOIS VOTES Mobs Patrol Chicago Streets: McCormick and Deneen Fates in Balance. BALLOT RECORD SLATED Foiled Kidnaping. Shooting and Bombing Recorded as Cops Mobilize. BY MERTON T. AKERS United Press Staff Correspondent CHICAGO. April B.—An attempt* ! ed kidnaping, a shooting, one bombing. reports of gangsters riding th ! streets and many threats of violence marked the heavy voting in the ! spectacular Illinois primary today : with the senatorial fortunes of Ruth ! Hanna McCormick in the balance. The sun shone the length and breadth of the state, bringing predictions that an unusually heavy vote would be registered before 5 ; p. m. when the polls close. I The violence was reported from the "Badland" wards of Chicago where minor candidates fought to control their regions. Kidnaping Is Thwarted f Police thwarted the attempted kindaping of an alderman early today and jailed the three wouldbe abductors. A bomb blasted the front off a four-story building owned by a Thompson henchman. No one was injured. A host of reports tftat, gangsters were at their old tricks of patrolling "badland” wards, flowed into the detective bureau where the police board of strategy sat about the redsplotched election map and directed the 120 police squads to the trouble zones. Seven entire wards were outlined in red on the map. indicating the police expected trouble. Included was the “bloody Twentieth,” where two years ago a reign of terror and kidnaping resulted in one death and numerous shootings. Many precincts in other wards were reddened and extra squads detailed. Twelve sets of election officials in the “bloody Twentieth” ward were removed summarily this morning when Morris Eller, “boss” of the district, complained that Deneen men were intimidating his faction. Intimidation Denied The Deneen faction denied the charges, but anew set of judges was rushed to the polling places by the election commissioner. Eller is running for Republican committeeman. The first actual violence came from South Wabash avenue on the edge of the “black belt” where Lemnard Rollins. Republican candidate for ward committeeman, was beaten seriously. He accused his factional enemies, but no arrests were made. The two chief figures in the show, Mrs. McCormick and Senator Charles S. Deneen voted early and then rested from the arduous campaign until time when returns pour in and blight or quicken the hope® of wearing a senatorial toga. Out in Byron, HI., about 100 miles away, Mrs. McCormick, refreshed by a night on her model farm, voted at a country precinct and started for Chicago to meet Mrs. Alice Roosevelt Longworth, her friend of long standing, who will lend moral support as the returns come in. Senator Deneen was up early and voted in his home south side precinct to the boom of flashlights. STATE WETS INCREASE LEAD IN DIGEST POLL Gary Overwhelmingly Against Prohibition, Latest Reports Reveal. Incomplete returns today from thirteen cities in seven states, including two Indiana towns, increased the lead of anti-prohibition-ists in Literary Digest’s nation-wido poll on enforcement, modification or repeal of the eighteenth amendment. Gary voted overwhelmingly wet, with 1,155 ballots for repeal, 1,057 votes for modification, and 353 for enforcement. Elkhart cast 486 votes for enforcement, 591 for modification, and 360 for repeal. Os the 25,073 ballots. 9,273 were for repeal; 7,899 for modification; and 7,901 for enforcement.