Indianapolis Times, Volume 41, Number 299, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 April 1930 — Page 13
Second Section
FACTORIES OF FOUR CITIES IN BETTERSTATE Brighter Outlook Revealed at Anderson, Ft. Wayne, Greenfield and Wabash. 400 MORE WILL WORK General Electric Adding to Force: Kokomo Plant Will Close May 1. BY CHARLES C. STONE State Editor. The Times Gains in manufacturing by plants in Anderson, Ft. Wayne, Wabash and Greenfield are noteworthy in a business and Industrial survey of Indiana for the week ended today. In addition to increased production, four plants at Anderson are engaged in expansion programs, giving what is described as the greatest Impetus to industry in the city since a year ago. The Ames Shovel and Tool Company has awarded a contract for a plant building with 60,000 square feet of floor space to be completed by July 15. Assembly work started in the factory this week and plans are being made for a night shift of workers. A $25,000 building at the Guide Lamp Corporation plant will increase floo* space 50 per cent. It will be ready for use Sept. 1. Phillip Cook & Sons have moved to new quarters with facilities for doubling production. The Anaconda Wire and Cable Company has accepted an addition to its plant in which anew type of wire will be produced. Are On Full Scnedule The American Steel and Wire and Sefton Container Corporation plants are running on full schedule. There have been some additions to working force of Certainteed Products factory and the Ward-Stilson Company reports a satisfactory booking of orders. Additional workers to the number of 400 are being added to the force of the General Electric Company’s Ft. Wayne plant. The Greenfield Manufacturing Company is operating steadily, with officials announcing a fair market for its products. Some improvement In industry is noted at Wabash. The Industrial Asbestos Corporation plant is operating with increased employes, following a reduction of the force five months ago. Officials of the Cardinal Cabinet Company, which has been engaged in radio cabinet manufacture, do not deny a report that the plant will change to production of bed and dining room furniture. Feru Venture Approved Tlie Indiana securities commission has approved plans for financing a company at Peru which plans to manufacture a stoker invented by Arthur V. Sampsel, and it is believed a plant will begin operation during the summer. In addition to leases on Monroe county land, the Petroleum Exploration Company of Sisterville, W. Va., has acquired oil drilling rights on 9.000 acres in Morgan county, and plans are being made to put down four test wells. The Veedersburg Brick Company has been acquired at receiver’s sale by Jerry B. and Daniel V. Casey, who announce the plant will be overhauled and within a few weeks placed in full operation. During the week, Kokomo received bad news in the form of an announcement that the Pittsburgh Plate Glass plant will cease operations May 1 for an indefinite period. At full production, 900 persons are employed at the plant, but for several weeks it has been winning on a reduced schedule. RAIN, COLD COMING Week-End Weather Menu Disappointing One. The weather man today again placarded a disappointing weather menu for ambitious week-end golfers. motorists and other outdoor fans, promising low r temperatures and rain Saturday, and perhaps Sunday as w T ell. A week’s cold spell was unbroken, although the thermometer this morning began an upward trend that may reach 60 degrees Saturday afternoon, according to J. H. Armington. United States weather bureau senior meteorologist. PAVING OF SIXTEENTH STREET CONSIDERED Board Expected to Approve Widening Project at Conference. A decision to proceed with the widening and paving of Sixteenth street from Northwestern avenue to Delaware street was expected to be reached this afternoon at a conference of works board and plan commission members with Mayor Reginald H. Sullivan. A group of property owners have agreed to pay their assessment on the paving. Majority of those assessed for the $422,000 for acquisition of property expressed desire to proceed. The city will pay 60 per cent of the cost. Dentists Gold Stolen See Times Special GREENCASTLE, Ind., April 25. Gold valued at approximately SSO was taken from the office of Dr. Krider, Greencastle. dentist, by thieves, who gained admission through a transom.
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Mrs. Frances Curtis of Monon (above), just elected worthy grand matron of the Order of Eastern Star, served the grand chapter as deputy of District 17 for three years before being appointed Grand Ada, from which station she was elevated to associate grand matron. Ura Seeger, worthy grand patron of West Lebanon (below), served his home chapter as worthy patron ten consecutive years. He was appointed grand marshal in 1927, grand chaplain in 1928, and elected associate grand patron in 1929.
PIONEER CITY WOMAN DEAD Mrs. Daniel Stewart Here Since 1863. Mrs. Daniel Stewart, 94, sole survivor of a generation of prominent Indiana pioneers, died today at the home of a daughter, Mrs. William Scott, 1126 North Meridian street. Wife of Daniel L. Stewart, wellknown local business man, who died in 1829, Mrs. Stwart was the sister of Judge John Tarkington, late father of the Hoosier author. Booth Tarkington. She settled in Indianapolis in 1863, following her marriage to Mr. Stewart at Greensburg in 1858. Survivors include Mrs. Scott and Mrs. John Newman Carey, daughters; two nephews. Arthur and Elvan Tarkington, all of Indianapolis, and four granddaughters, Mrs. E I. Lewis, Washington, D. C.; Mrs. G. Barrett Moxley, Mrs. Morris Haines and Mrs. Frederick Appel of Indianapolis. Arrangements for the funeral have not been made. BRITON PEACE SPEAKER Dr. Hubert Phillips Slated for Disarmament Address. "The Relation of Disarmament to Peace” will be topic of an address by Dr. Hubert Phillips of London, England, at a mass meeting tonight in the Second Presbyterian church. The meeting has been arranged as a part of the annual state conference of the Indiana Council on International Relations.
City Man Claims He’s Conquered Pi Problem
BY CARLOS LANE Granville Davis, 3360 Kenwood avenue, saluted his eightieth birthday today, his heart full of the contentment that rewards victory after patient toil against discouraging odds. In his own mind, at least, Davis has solved a puzzle to which he dedicated his declining years a decade ago, and he is convinced he has evolved a simple formula that may i volutionize one division of mathematical science. But science, reinforced with precise reason, discredits his theory as heresy, although at the same time, it admits the octogenarian has discovered a law of some practical value in its field. However, Davis presents anew ratio—pi—between the diameter and circumference of a circle, an equation so simple that if it were accepted, the torment of generations of school boys by complexities of the traditional value of 3.1416 would be dispelled as harassed youth discarded pages ,of bothersome figures and
The Indianapolis Times
OXNAM HINTS POLL ‘TAINTED WITH FRAUD’ Suggested Only Official Ballots Be Tallied, President Says. RECOUNT IS DEMANDED Defeated Candidate’s Wife Is National Officer of D. A. R, . Evidence indicating that the annual election of an alumni representative to the university board of trustees was “tainted with fraud” persuaded President G. Bromley Oxnam of De Pauw to recommend to election tellers that only official ballots be tallied, he said today. Because forty-seven unofficial ballots were discarded, resulting in election of Richard Shirley, Indianapolis, over James L. Gavin, Indianapolis, candidate of alumni opposed to the Oxnam administration, demands have been made for a recount of votes. Disgruntled alumni charge that casting aside of the unofficial vote is unprecedented, and allege Oxnam exerted undue influence on the tellers. Directors of the alumni association are expected to settle the controversy at a meeting May 3. Wife Is D. A. R. Officer Gavin’s wife is a national officer of Daughters of the American Revolution, an organization antagonistic to Oxnam because of a recent address before state reformatory prisoners, which they termed pacifistic and un-American. Copies of letters by L. Roy Zaps, Indianapolis attorney, and George L. Clark, 625 East Fifty-ninth street, one of the tellers, asking recount of the votes, today were being dispatched to other alumni. Zaps explained the gesture, saying he thought they would be interested. Oxnam, returned today from Chicago after a day’s absence from the university, issued a short statement he said would be the last he would give out to the press on the matter. Clark Was Dissenting Teller “When evidence of fraud was presented to me by alumni I felt it my duty to give it to the official committee,” he said. “I presented my facts and left the room. Two of the three tellers voted to discard the unofficial ballots.” Clark was the dissenting teller. “I don’t know that the action was unprecedented. Last year unofficial ballots were not counted, although then they meant nothing insofar as the election was concerned, and nothing was said about it.” Replying to charges that Roy O. West, Chicago, president of the board of trustees, was elected on unofficial ballots, Dr. Oxnam said he did not know the nature of ballots that elected West. Oxnam recently named West to fill the unexpired term on the board of Bishop McConnell, New York, who resigned. ‘Six or eight individuals in Indianapolis are responsible for the present trouble,” Oxnam declared. “I can’t see their interest in the university in giving it this unfavorable publicity.”
BOYS TO m PRIZES Announce List for Floats in Ball Game Parade. Prizes for floats and banners in a boys’ parade sponsored by the Indianapolis Lions Club Saturday afternoon, and judges who will award them w r ere announced today. All Indianapolis boys are invited to participate in the parade, and attend the Indians-St. Paul baseball game in Washington park as guests of the Indianapolis baseball club. Prizes are: sls, for the best float; $lO, for the most unique float; $lO for the best banner pertaining to future citizenship of the present day boy; $5 for the most unique banner, and second, third and fourth prizes of $3, $2 and sl, respectively.
computed a circle’s area and circumference mentally with ease. “I’m no great mathematician,” Davis apologizes. “I got through the eighth grade in school, and my business helped some. "Scientists admit they are a little wrong, so I decided ten years ago to find out just what this pi is.” He is a retired lumberman, and. by his own admission “something of an inventor.” Davis experimented with various figures, ranging between 3, and 32295, until finally he hit upon 3.2, which he says his measurements have supported. That figure, in eyes of mathematicians who have carried the pi equation through eleven digits beyond 1.1416, is far from correct, but it leads to another relationship, an approximation, but said to be close enough for practical purposes, between the circle and its diameter. With his 3.2 ratio, one need only square the diameter and subtract one-fifth the total to obtain the approximate rrea of the circle. Approximate circumference is reached by multiplying the diameter by four and subtracting one-fifth.
INDIANAPOLIS, FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 1930
PRIZES AWARDED CITY STUDENT IN SCHOOL CONTEST
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43INBIGTEO BY GRAND JURORS Wide Range of Crimes Is on County List. Twenty-eight indictments charging forty-three persons with crimes ranging from assault and battery to banditry were returned to Criminal Judge James A. Collins today by the Marion county grand jury. Five defendants were reported discharged. Five men and two women, said by police to be implicated in a burglary plot, were indicted for receiving stolen goods. Four have not been arrested. Police are holding Carl Carson, Oliver McClelland and Wilson Allison. The indictment alleges the group secreted $546 in household articles stolen from Curtis E. Burke, 650 East Forty-ninth street, Feb. 14. Auto banditry and grand larceny was charged to Granville Durrett, 822 Beecher street, and Lize Durrett, 905 Beecher street, for alleged theft April 5 of SIOO in brass from the New York Central Railroad Company. Eugene Rodenbarger, 1210 West Nineteenth street, was indicted for burglary and grand larceny, alleged to have stolen SIOO in merchandise from the White City Aquatic Club at Broad Ripple, March 18. James Homing, 951 Prospect street, was charged with failing to stop after an accident.
FLEES FROM COURT Police Capture Defendant, Firing Shots in Air. Breaking loose from City Court Bailiff William Brooks in municipal court three today, Charles Meyer, 30, of 1218 Bates street, fled from the court and down an alley near police headquarters, being captured in a vacant building nearby after pursuing police fired several shots in efforts to halt him. Meyer, charged with vagrancy, had been arraigned and his case was continued. As Bailiff Brooks led him away from the bench, Meyer broke loose and fled, with patrolman Reeves Oliver in chase. Oliver fire two shots but Meyer continued flight. Detective Emmett Staggs cornered the fugitive in f. building and he was captured as police emergency squads surrounded the building. Aged Fanner Dies Bu Times Special GREENCASTLE, Ind., April 25. John Thompson. 80, Putnam county farmer, died at a hospital from a complication of diseases. He leaves three granddaughters and lour great-grandchildren.
Top Row (left to right)—Virginia Hildebrand, 843 Lincoln street; Nevian Chess, 1746 Lambert stret; Jean McHattan, 1500 East Michigan street, and Maurine Randolph, 5745 Julian avenue. Center Row (left to right)—William Aust, 1500 East Michigan street; Hubert Thiesing, 1854 Tallman avenue; Thomas Vinnedge, 3138 Ruckle street, and Ralph Montgomery, 1209 East Raymond street. Lower Row (left to right)—Elizabeth Smith, 5848 Julian avenue; Francis McCoy, Lois Lisey and June Kempf. Donald Stebbing, 224 West Fortythird street. Arsenal Technical high school pupil, won first prize of SSO, and twelve other Indianapolis high school pupils won other prizes and honorable mention in the annual art and literature contest conducted by the Scholastic, national high school magazine. Stebbing won the first prize In the special art division and Ralph Montgomery, 1209 East Raymond street, wo nthe $25 third prize in the pictorial arts division. Art work of the local pupils will be displayed n the third national high school art exhibit sponsored by the magazine. Other awards were given local pupils in the sculpture and short story division. CAN’T MISS ALIMONY, EVEN ON SEA BOTTOM Judge Orders Torpedo Man to Pay Suing Wife S3O a Month. Bu United Press LOS ANGELES, April 25.—A man can’t escape alimony, not even by hiding on the bottom of the ocean. “Her husband is a torpedo man on a submarine, the R-6,” said attorney S. I>. Cheroske during the hearing of an alimony proceeding pending trial of the divorce suit of Mrs. Alice Duckworth. “He has informed his wifte that submarine men don’t have to pay alimony.” “Oh, yes they do—if she can collect it,” replied Superior Judge Walter Guerin, and he ordered Raymond Duckworth to pay S3O a month.
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Mrs. Mary Eunice Haynes will sing over radio station WFBM at 1 Sunday during the broadcast of the Indiana Odd Fellows’ anniversary program. J. Clyde Crane of Bloomfield, past grand master, will be the speaker, and the Odd Fellows’ band of Marion county will play. Officers Fatally Hurt TERRE HAUTE, Ind., April 25. Michael McClain, 40, Lackawanna (N. Y.) detective, Is dead of injuries sustained Saturday when the automobile in which he and two other Lackawanna officers were riding in, collided with another three miles
COUNTY SPUT PERILS HOPES OF DEMOCRATS Three Factions in Field in Battle to Dominate Party Choices. CITY HALL GROUP BUSY Barrett and Keach Also Reported to Have Framed Slates. BY BEN STERN What adversity could not do, success already has accomplisheddisintegration of the Democratic organization in Marion county, events of the last few days indicate. Flushed from the overwhelming victory in the fall municipal election and confident that it presages a similar result in the county election, it appears that every Democratic leader is attempting to force upon the party his own slate, so he may control the court house. Three slates already have entered the field. They are the one advanced by Fred Barrett early in the year; the organization slate, supposedly sponsored by Leroy J. Keach, county chairman, and a third put forth by the city hall group, in defiance of the statement of Mayor Reginald Sullivan that he wanted no city hall activity in the primary. Viewed With Suspicion The city hall slate is viewed with suspicion because of the activity of Hendricks Kenworthy in promoting it. Kenworthy, Ninth ward chairman, is a representative of the Indiana Portland Cement Association and his connection with any slate would be viewed as participation of the cement group. Secretly, the city hall group met in the Severin this week to frame its slate. Those present, It was said, were: John Berry, city asphalt plant superintendent; Charles Burkline, Brookside park employe; Albert Losche, city purchasing agent; Wilbur Winship, street commissioner; Bowman Elder, sixth ward chairman and son of William L. Elder, city controller; Grover Parr, chief inspector of the weights and measures department; William Clauer, Fifth ward chairman, and several others. In a session marked by much wrangling and bitter recrimination, they are said to have patched together a tentative slate, pairing on several offices for the time being in order to test strength. Decide on Wilson Slating of Herbert M. Spencer, former city prosecutor, for county prosecutor was contested bitterly by those who were impressed by the bar association poll, and it was decided to indorse also Herbert E. Wilson for the time being. The bitterest battle occurred on the choice for judge of superior court five, with the majority favoring Russell J, Ryan. To strengthen their position the slate makers divided up their choices so that the slate would include names of those supposed to be favored by Barrett and Keach. Several of the candidates recommended for slating already have been solicited for campaign contributions, it was declared, and enemies of the city hall group declare that the entire project is merely a money-making plan. Cites Bar Poll Keach as county chairman has been maintaining a more or less disinterested attitude, but he is known to have declared that the bar association poll is the best indication of who should be supported by the county organization. Barrett’s slate includes several apparently sure losers, and he has been straining every effort to obtain support for these candidates. There is no doubt a bitterness between the always antagonistic groups and entrance in the primary of Democrats who held good city positions has added fuel. Dog Attacks Child Bu Times Special ANDERSON, Ind., April 25.—Robert Dick. 3. son of Mr. and Mrs. Laurel Dick, was attacked by a bulldog while riding on a tricycle and severely bitten on the head and arms.
CRIME SURVEYORS DODGE PROHIBITION
Despite the dampness of Indiana, as indicated in the Literary Digest poll and the check-up by The Times, the state crime committee will do little about the matter in legislative recommendations, it was predicted today. The committee meets at the statehouse Saturday to draft its final findings. Leo M. Rappaport, member of the committee and president of the Indianapolis Family Welfare Association, has announced he will attempt to get the committeemen to at least comment on prohibition. He will recommend repeal of the Wright bone-dry law and modification or repeal of the eighteenth amendment if given a chance, he said. But the membership of the committee is reported overwhelmingly “dry” and the officers refuse to talk
Second Section
Entered as Secord-Class Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis
Champ Looper
A smile of victory on her face, Mrs. Florence Klingensmith, 23-year-old Fargo, N. D., aviatrix, is shown just after she landed from a world’s record loop-the-loop flight. She did 143 loops in an hour and 13 minutes.
FEDERAL JURY STARTS PROBE OF BOOZE RINO Special Precautions Are Taken in Fear of Gang Revenge. Fear of gang revenge that may break out momentarily, today caused special precautions to be taken by federal authorities as the investigation of alleged liquor rings in Vigo and Vermillion counties was started by the grand jury. Witnesses who have been subpenaed before the probe body are being guarded, it became known. A few of them were under cover in the Federal building today and many more are expected here from Terre Haute and Clinton early next week. Orders blocking use of grand jury witnesses’ names were issued to newspaper men by authorities today. Word from Terre Haute and Clinton said the towns are in turmoil and that police 'are taking steps to avert gang warfare. Grand jurors will return to their homes Saturday and additional testimony will be received Monday. According to information, the probe of the Vigo and Vermillion counties situation is not expected to end before May 2 or 3. The jury probably will make a report of miscellaneoi:s cases to Judge Robert C. Baltzell early next week. It is understood that 110 witnesses will testify before the investigation is completed. These will include agents, not only from Indiana prohibition offices, but also from offices in Illinois and possibly Missouri, who were brought into this state to handle the quiz. Some evidence in the case, it is said, was obtained some time ago during the probe into the Montezuma still case, and a resume of this already is before the jurors, it is reported. Federal operatives began the investigation after the raid in Montezuma which netted an enormous still. Subsequent investigation revealed large shipments of sugar into the district.
FACES 7 CHARGES City Man Arrested After 68-Mile-an-Hour Chase. Seven charges were filed by police today against William Harrington, 34, of 227 South Grace street, who was captured after a sixty-eight-mile-an-hour chase on East Washington street from Beville avenue to State street Thursday night. Police say his car contained a gallon of alcohol. He is charged with speeding, reckless driving and intoxication as well as transportation of liquor and resisting an officer. Boy Loses Eye SHELBYVILLE, Ind., April 25. Paul Stafford, 12, will be blind in the right eye the remainder of his life as ; the result of accidental discharge of an air gun in the hands of a playmate, Tommy Sturgeon.
about prohibition. They prefer talking statistics. Members of the Indiana state prison board of trustees who belong to the committee, can furnish the statistics that there were 881 prisoners in their institution in 1929 and 2,350 now, state charities board records disclose. Trustees have admitted that prohibition forms the basis of this overcrowding. Attorney-General James M. Ogden, a member of the committee, asserted today that he doesn’t think prohibition ought to be gone Into at all. He will attend, aimed with letters from county prosecutors giving their ideas of how to improve court procedure. One committeeman expressed his idea of the possibility of prohibition discussion as follows: “Indiana is dry in theory, even if not in practice.”
PRISON BOARD CLASHES WITH STATE JUDGES Jurists Are Assailed in Biting Terms: Heated Replies Shot Back. PATTIE DENIED PAROLE Clemency Is Given in Few Cases: Hearings Are Continued Today. Pi/ Times Special MICHIGAN CITY, Ind., April 25. —Worried over crowding of the Indiana state prison, where 2,300 per- | sons are confined, beset by men, i women and children in hundreds seeking clemency for convicts, the prison board sitting here as a pardon and parole body, took up 125 cases asking either parole, pardon or commutation and showed leniency in few. Members assailed circuit court judges of Indiana without mincing words. “What in the world are our courts coming to?” asked M. E. Foley, board secretary. “Judges in Indiana are trying to make us discharge their duties. Why are not these conditions investigated before men are sent to prison?” “I can’t see that these judges are burdened with brains,” was the comment of Jesse Andrews, a board member. Threatens Impeachment The angry board bitterly assailed Judge Virgil H. Simmons and Prosecutor Robert W. Bonham of Blackford county, and threatened Bonham with impeachment if it was shown that conditions in the John Butcher case were as represented in I pleas of relatives to the board asking his release from the prison where he is serving a life term for assaulting a 9-year-old girl. Among those denied release was James O. Pattie, Rockport, serving a term for the slaying of a farm hand, one Wilkinson. His counsel had charged Pattie was convicted through efforts of the Ku-Klux Klan. The board declared investigation showed the charge false. A letter which bore the signature of Fred A. Heuring, former Spencer circuit court judge, declared four members of the Jury were Catholics and therefore could not have been influenced by the klan. Another Session Today Joseph Benson, serving a life term for the murder of Walter Owen in Indianapolis twelve years ago, won a commutation which will make him eligible for parole in a year. Owen, bartender for Jack Dillon, then a well-known prize fighter, was shot following a fight resulting from stealing of a taxicab belonging to Howard Wilcox, late automobile race driver. Today marked the second session of the board. Late Thursday night the board had not considered all of the cases and it was necessary to resume its sessions again today. Os the seventy-five pardon cases considered up to today, only three prisoners were recommended to Governor Harry G. Leslie for parole. Jurist Hits Back Condemnation of Indiana circuit court judges by the state prison trustees sitting as a parole and pardon board drew sharp retorts from Virgil H. Simmons, who occupies the Blackford county bench at Hartford City, and Joseph Cripe, the Howard county Judge. Judge Simmons declared board members are publicity seekers and “display their ignorance of the cases on which they comment." Prosecutor Glen Hillis of Howard county joined Judge Cripe in replying to the board which asserted that a man convicted of stealing copper wire from an Indiana Union traction work car, should have been fined and a prison term suspended. The prisoner, James Hickman, was paroled by the board. Prosecutor Hillis declared there is a great difference between handling pleas for leniency at the prison and the reformatory, declaring that at the latter institution, Superintendent Miles makes a thorough investigation and obtains abundant data. "At Michigan City, the pardon board seldom, if ever, asks for the state’s side of the case. It seems to me that this was just one of those cases. It looks like a publicity stunt,” the prosecutor asserted.
FIREMAN TAKES POST IN CITY HALL OFFICE Harry Branson Takes Place Held in Past by Fred Heaton. Transfer of fireman Harry Branson of Engine House 12 to the city controller’s office to replace Fred Heaton, a Republican, who was transferred to the fire department ranks, was ordered today by City Controller William L. Elder. W. J. Spires, 602 North Gladstone avenue, former deputy clerk under Albert Losche’s regime, was appointed to a $1,500 a year Barrett law job. He replaces William Caylor, Republican who was assigned to the county treasurer’s office. ✓ Wanted Man Held By Timet Special TERRE HAUTE, Ind., April 25Floyd Wheat, 31, hunted for three years by officers holding a warrant based on a charge that he aided in robbing the Lewis postoffice, is finally a prisoner. He was taken into custody at a house in Sandlord.