Indianapolis Times, Volume 42, Number 261, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 March 1931 — Page 11
Second Section
LA FOLLETTE BRANDS U. S. CHIEFS WEAK Administration Lacks ‘Will or Courage,’ Young Bob Tells Progressives. JOBLESS AID IS TALKED Existing Order Challenged at Conference: Borah Striking Figure. BY RAYMOND CLAPPER United Press JitafT Correspondent WASHINGTON, March l2.—D-e-arlng the administration has acked “either the will or the courage” to meet a crisis in which ”5,000.000 people have suffered privation in the midst of plenty, Senator Robert M. La Follette (Rep., Wis.) called upon members of the progressive conference today to -earch for a remedial program which independents could support ith their balance of power in the next congress. “We do not expect to draw up uch a program in two days’ time,” ic said, ' but we believe our government can be made to function in reieving the appalling suffering that "Mists, and in prevention of the rg:urrence of the disaster of widepread employment.” Urge Jobless Insurance La Follette led a round-table discussion on unemployment and industrial stabilization. Others participating included Leo Wolman, unemployment expert; Robert P. Scripps, president and editorial director of the Scripps-Howard newspapers, and George H. Soule of the labor bureau, New York, and associate editor of the New Republic. Wolman is his speech advocated oree major remedies for unemployment. They were: 1. “A universal system of public employment agencies calculated to tacilitate the bringing together of acancies and unemployed workers.” v 2. Exercise of control over public construction, to enable expansion in times of need and contraction in times of prosperity. 3. Unemployment insurance, set up by the industries themselves Shape Important Issues Economists, said Wolman. are agreed “that these recurring periods of prosperity or depression inevitably will succeed themselves in the future as they have in the past as long as the present unregulated ourse of business continues.” Out of these discussions, especially that concerning utilities, one of the important issues in the next presidential campaign may take shape. Senator William E. Borah (Rep., Idaho! has emerged in the conference as one of the striking figures m the progressives’ new movement. Borah, supported by emphatic applause, registered the general temper of the conference as one which seeks to better the condition of that 96 per cent of the population which was to own only 20 per cent of the nation's wealth — uid to lay firm hands on the other 4 per cent, not to deprive it of its wealth, but to hold it in check through equality before the law. “Progressive opinion is against any blanket repeal of the eighteenth amendment which does not substitute a rational system of public control over the manufacture and sale of alcohol. Should rhe federal government take over the enforcement responsibility of rhe state? It should not. "This question can be met only by a system of honest co-operation between state and local authorities.”
William Green Speaks The question of Russian recognition was injected into the conference by William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, who announced that his organization is “uncompromisingly and irreconcilably opposed to the recognition of Soviet Russia.” The federation’s position, Green said, is based upon a belief that application of Soviet principles would “destroy our organized labor movement. Green demanded a flve-day work week and a reduction in the hours of labor in proportion to the increase in the productivity of individual laborers. He declared modern machine methods of production enable one man to produce as much in four days at present as he could produce in six days in 1899. The federation president also asserted that industry generally should be required to provide coninuous employment for its laborers. Assails U. S. Policies The attitude of the federal government toward the present unemployment situation was described by Mayor Frank Murphy of Detroit as "unfair and cowardly,” amounting to a social retreat. "In Detroit we held the situation to be legally a calamity and as a city we held our arms open while the federal government groused away the opportunity and was stone-cold and brutally callous.” the youthful red-headed mayor said. He described the machinery which has furnished 2,000,000 free meals and housed 12,000 homeless men every night in Detroit and appealed for federal unemployment insurance.
REALTOR BLAMES BANKS losses on Real Estate Unnecessary, Board Is Told. “No bank which has made real estate loans on a scientific, intelligent and honest appraisal, which the bank itself should have made, should have lost any appreciable amount during the past depression.” said Harry S. Kissell, Springfield, 0., before the Indianapolis Real Estate Board today at the Indianapolis Athletic Club. KiflMfi. president of the National Association of Real Estate Boards, spoke on "Real Estate Solidifying Itself as Safest Investment."
Full Leased Wire Serrice of the United Press Association
Wealthy Husband Slain by Ex-Beauty Queen
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Mrs. Fred G. Nixon-Nirdlinger
Self-Defense Claimed by Former ‘Miss St. Louis’ After Tragedy. By United Press NICE, France, March 12.—Mrs. Fred G. Nixon-Nirdlinger, 26, who, as Charlotte Nash, Miss St. Louis, won second honors in the 1923 international beauty pageant at Atlantic City, was held uy police today on charges of killing her husband. Nixon-Nirdlinger, 60, once a prominent figure in theatrical life in the United States, was killed during a quarrel at the villa of the couple on the fashionable promenade Des Anglais. Mrs. Nixon-Nirdlinger told police she fired two shots at her husband in self-defense when he threatened her with physical harm. Police said the shooting occurred when Mrs. Nixon-Nirdlinger was studying Italian. Her husband was said to have been jealous and to have accused his wife of studying the language Decause she wanted to talk “to your Italian friends.” The couple had two young children who were asleep in the next room, but were not awakened by the shots.
Met at Beauty Pageant' By Lnttcd Press PHILADELPHIA. March 12. Fred G. Nixon-Nirdlinger was a member of a prominent theater family in the east. At one time he had various shows touring the country and was considered extremely wealthy. Mrs. Nixon-Nirdlinger, the former Charlotte Nash, is the third wife of the theater owner. They were married in Hagerstown, Md., in February', 1924. divorced in Paris, and remarried in 1928. They have two children, one 3 years old and the other 18 months. The amusement man and Miss Nash became acquainted during the Atlantic City beauty pageant of 1923, when she was Miss’ St. Louis and he was connected with the group sponsoring thp pageant. Nixon-Nirdlinger was one of the judges of the contest and Miss Nash was awarded second place announced “she was the most beautiful girl in the world.” Shortly after the contest*, the girl who was to become the third Mrs. Nixon-Nirdlinger, was sent to a finishing school at Forest Glenn, Md., by a wealthy Philadelphian. A special governess was employed to instruct her in the fine points of social deportment. The the school girl and the theater magnate slipped away to Hagerstown, Md., and were secretly married under assumed names, although he was still married to his second wife. During the honeymoon, reports came to friends here that there had been a quarrel while crossing the ocean. Her mother. Mrs. J. B. Nash, came east and went to Paris with the couple, then returned to New 7 York with her daughter. Later the bathing beauty relented and returned to her husband in Paris. But they were divorced. During the following year, a son was born to Mrs. Nixon-Nirdlinger, and that paved the way for a reconciliation. In the fall of 1928 friends learned they had been remarried.
TWAS A HORRIBLE DAY FOR MAN AND BEAST, IN THIS FAMOUS BLIZZARD OF ’BB
By United Press NEW YORK, March 12.—The famous blizzard of ’BB, which forty-three years ago today descended upon Ne v York, tied up
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traffic, and left a wealth of stories for posterity, was commemorated today at a meeting of the blizzard men of 1888. The blizzard men. all hardy Survivors of the historic “blow,”
The Indianapolis Times
LEGISLATOR IS SHOT IN HOTEL Gunplay Follows Drunken Row in Hostelry. By United Press LITTLE ROCK, Ark., March 12. Representative W. U. McCabe was wounded mysteriously today, a few hours before adjournment of the Arkansas legislature, and taken, in critical condition, to a hospital. H. G. Lansdale, Atlanta, was arrested and held by police. He denied any connection with the shooting, which occurred in a hotel. Hotel officials said McCabe had been drinking and had created a disturbance. Lansdale, who occupied a room across a hall from McCabe, telephoned the hotel clerk that “if you don’t stop that rumpus, I will,” the clerk said. McCabe was shot just below the heart and from a point in the hall outside his door, police said. A revolver of the caliber used in the shooting was found in Lansdale’s room, police said.
MUD HELPS POLICE Hit, Run Driver Sticks in Street Mire. A muddy street in West Indianapolis joined the police department Wednesday in pursuit of an alleged hit-and-run driver, who also is charged with vehicle taking. The mud mired the auto after it figured in an accident at Pershing avenue and Morris street, and is said to have sped away. Police charged Charles Cousins, 27, of 415 Virginia avenue, with failure to stop after an accident and vehicle taking. David Margson, 58, R. R. 2, Box 598. said Cousins struck his car and fled. Charles Denton, 17, and William Bible, 17, Negroes, were held on vehicle taking charges today after a police radio broadcast led to their arrest in a stolen auto Wednesday. GOLF COURSE JOBS WILL BE ASSIGNED City Links to Open for Season Late Next Month. Appointment of professional golfers at municipal links was to be made this afternoon by the park board. Ralph Stonehouse, last year professional at Coffin course, will be assigned to Pleasant Run. Coffin course will be closed to be rebuilt. He will succeed Herman Uebele, resigned. Russell Stonehouse will be reappointed to Riverside, and Harry Schopp will be in charge of maintenance and golf duties at South Grove. Clayton W. Schultz will be appointed to the Sarah Shank course. Selection of a pro for the Douglass park Negro links will be made later. Grand opening of municipal courses probably will be held the latter part of April.
started their annual luncheon at 10 a. m. and will continue as far into the evening as necessary to give each member time to relate his share of the saga. Some of them wore Palm Beach suits to indicate their scorn for the mild winters of the present century. Only the best of the stories concerning the great blizzard were selected for recounting. Rivalry among the blizzard men as to who had the most harrowing experience during the three days always has assured several stories of rare quality, which even improve with age and repetition. a a m THEY tell how Ben Jackson, an engineer, succeeded in delivering a heavy printing press on the day of the blizzard by giving etch of jjis four horses a pint of
INDIANAPOLIS, THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 1931
‘MYSTERY GIRL’ IS BRANDED AS DRAVES KILLER Kirkland Defense Charges Victim Was Struck Down by Jealous Rival. REVERSAL IS FORECAST Barrett O’Hara Declares Gary Youth Will Be Set Free. VALPARAISO, Ind., March 12. Refreshed by a fourteen-hour sleep and assurance of his attorneys that they could obtain reversal of a life imprisonment sentence, Virgil Kirkland, 20, former Gary high school football player, appeared almost his old confident, smiling self again today. A “mystery” woman witness, It was repo:rted, will testify that a girl, jealous of Virgil, had struck Arlene Draves In the head with a milk bottle at a liquor party. “I didn’t do it,” Kirkland said from his small cell, where he will remain until Monday when sentence formally will be passed and he will l>e taken to • the state prison, “I’m innocent and this isn’t fair.” Youth Collapses in Cel’ The jury's verdict that Kirkland had caused the death of Arlene Draves, his 18-year-old sweetheart, by beating her with his fists at the party in November, ended an eight-een-day trial. Virgil collapsed exhausted on his hard cot when he was taken to his cell and remained there fourteen hours. Barratt O’Hara, defense attorney, appeared elated at the verdict, he declared he was satisfied. “There is no question about a reversal in this,” said O’Hara, “the state’s case was built up chiefly on evidence that my client had assaulted Miss Draves and brought about her death that way. Reversal Is Forecast “The jury decided that he did not assault her when it returned its verdict of guilty on the first count alone, which was ’by beating.’ There was no evidence to show that Virgil beat the girl to death with his fists. Even the jury said he did not beat her with anything else, when it passed up the second charge, which was ‘beating by a blunt intrument.’ “Since he was acquitted of every other charge than that of beating the girl to death, he can not be retried on those other counts: “And, too,” he added with a smile, “we have just found anew witness, a woman, who will give evidence of a nature that I am sure will startle the prosecution and free the boy. Society Is Blamed “He wasn’t the guilty one, remember. Society, with its prohibition which brought about such gin parties, is really responsible for that murder.” Leon Stanford, one of four youths charged with responsibility for the girl’s death with Kirkland, was brought to the jail here and will be tried as an accomplice. Three others, David Thompson, Henry Shirk and Paul Barton, are still in jail at Crown Point awaiting trial. Kirkland met Stanford at the noon lunch hour, and they ex- \ changed a stiff greeting. They did not discuss the trial, guards said. Speculation was rife in this city j and Gary today over the effect the 1 Kirkland verdict might have upon : the pending trials. Attorneys for the remaining defendants contend that since it already has been found that Miss Draves died of Kirkland’s blow, it is unreasonable now to charge that she died of attacks by the defendants yet to be tried.
GIRL, 18. HELD AS HIT, RUN CAR DRIVER Short ridge Pupil Is Charged With Hitting Negro Youth. Miss Ruth Bannister, 18, of 1850 Gcodlet avenue, Shortridge high school pupil, today w 7 as held on charges of failing to stop after an accident in connection with a hit and run accident March 5 in which Charles Hassell, 20, Negro, of the Negro Y. M. C. A., was struck and injured. The accident occurred on Indiana avenue. TAXf CURB TO COME UP Control Ordinance to Be Introduced at Council Meeting. Rewritten partially to insure invincibility against attacks on its constitutionality, the taxicab ordinance will be introduced before city council Monday night. The measure would give the safety board and council power to control activities of operating companies and cab drivers, establish maximum rates and license fees, and regulate taxi traffic on the streets. Four or five companies now operating are reported behind the bill, with the United Cab Company against it.
straight rye whisky. The beasts dar.ced over the snowdrifts like reindeers on the way out, Jackson said, but were bothered by hiccoughs on the way back. How one member was blown by the wind from the corner of Third avenue and Twelfth street, three blocks south, around the corner and into the basement of the Ninth avenue mission. Even today he can show frost bite scars on his ears to prove it. How workmen started digging away at a gigantic drift, only to find it was a horsecar, snowbound for more than two days,-with all passengers safe inside. How another crew tied an elevated train to the tracks to keep it from blowing away. How the courts were closed and Wall Street deserted, men were marooned in theig offices and in
Bullets and Jail Terms Take Toll of Chicago s Gang Chiefs
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Leading figures among Chicago’s twenty-eight “public enemies” who have felt the weight of the law or succumbed to the bullets of rival gangsters since the famous list was issued by the Chicago crime commission a year ago ar.d the crusade against them began are pictured here. Most prominent is A1 Capone, “Public Enemy No. 1, who faces six months in jail.
GIANT BEACON IS, DEDICATED Planes Roar Over City as Governor Pushes Switch. Indianapolis cut another notch in .aviation history today, following dedication of the airplane beacon on top of the Merchants Bank building Wednesday night. Thousands of citizens anxiously awaited the first rays of red light as Governor Harry G. Leslie pushed the switch that turned it on. One of the largest fleets of planes ever seen above the city roared over the downtown section several hours prior to the official dedication. H. B. Carpenter, president of the Lincoln Oil Company, which erected the beacon, viewed the lighted air marker along with other company offcials in a plane piloted by Richard Arnett and Robert Armstrong Jr. of the Indiana Aviation Sales. Pilots, including several from national guard units in other states, W'ere guests at dinners at the Claypool and the Columbia Club attended by Indianapolis pilots and oil firm officials. The beacon is 375 feet above the street, visible at a radius of seventyfive miles, and is lighted by a Neon 2,000,000-candle power light. A figure “6,” designating miles to the Municipal airport is visible. The beacon weighs 43,000 pounds and was erected at a cost of $50,000. carmelTmyersTsks $50,000 IN DAMAGES Owner Sued for Injuries Suffered in Cap He Loaned. By United Press LOS ANGELES, March 12. Carmel Myers, screen actress, has asked $50,000 damages from Milton C. Bren, theatrical agent, charging that she was injured in an automo-
bile accident after Bren knowinglylent her husband a car with defective brakes. The automobile overturned between San Diego and Laguna Beach. Miss Myerds suffered cuts on the head, a broken wrist and a broken right arm. Miss Myers also asked $2,000 medical fee.
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Carmel Myers
Her husband, Ralph Blum, and Bren "were sued by Bernice Judis, New York, a friend of Miss Myers. She asked $50,000 damages and $2,500 medical fees for injuries she received. Unemoloyment Aided By Times Special ANDERSON, Ind., March 12. The SIOO which would ordinarily been spent for the annual banquet o$ the volunteer fire partment at the American Steel nd Wire mill has been contributed to the Emergency Work Bureau to aid unemployed, and the banquet canceled this year.
saloons, and 300 persons, caught in Grand Central station, slept on the floor and played euchre. Earmuffs sold by unscrupulous clothing scalpers brought So a pair. us* HOW persons marooned in stalled elevated trains lowered pails on ropes, had them filled with hot toddy at the nearest bar and held a three-day revel until rescued. How Theodorus Van Wyck, poet and retired attorney, got through to Mt. Vernon with the first news and went from house to house, like a slow motion Paul Revere, warning wives that their husbands would not return that night. How all provisions in the city finally were exhausted except
By NEA Service CHICAGO, March 12.—1 t has been almost a year since the Chicago crime commission issued its famous list of twenty-eight “public enemies,” who were set apart as the most dangerous enemies to law and order and anew campaign to rid the city of them was launched. If the Chicago police could not arrest and convict these publi' enemies on the major charges of which most people agreed they were guilty, then they were to be harassed out of business on other charges, such as vagrancy, income tax frauds, deportation proceedings, and the like. Now a year has passed, and the drive has not been without success. In fact, scarcely a single one of the public enemies has escaped unscathed. Two Slain by Rivals Two of the twenty-eight, Jack Zuta and Jos Aiello, have gone down under the bullets of rival gangsters. Five are behind bars, either serving sentence or awaiting trial. One is to be deported. Five are under sentence to prison, though free on bail at present. Seven are at large, but under bond pending hearings on various charges, mostly vagrancy. Warrants have been issued against six who have not yet been arrested. Even A1 Is Nabbed And the other two have been arrested on vagrancy warrants, though not convicted. Even A1 Capone, supposed to be beyond the reach of the law, has been sentenced to six months for contempt of a federal court. He was named in the list as “Public Enemy No. 1.” Though he is free on bond pending his appeal, it appears that he will everoually have to go to jail. Charges of evading federal income taxes, and of vagrancy, are waiting for him as soon as the -contempt matter is cleared up.
TREE PLANTING IS PLANNED BY LEAGUE Head of Walton Group Speaks to Civic Committee. Plans to plant several thousand forest trees in Marion county, beginning Arbor day, April 10, were discussed Wednesday night by Howard M. Meyer, president of the Indianapolis chapter of the Izaak Walton League. He addressed members of the central committee of south side civic organizations at the Fountain Square theater. . Tracts now are being surveyed in the county as sites for the tree planting, Meyer said. The surveys are being made by the state conservation department. 700 QUARTSOFBEER CONFISCATED BY POLICE Two Are Arrested in Raid and Charged With Blind Tiger. Sergeant Eldridge’s police blotter squad arrested two persons and confiscated 700 quarts of home brew and a small amount of gin and alcohol at 36 West Thirteenth street. Wednesday night. Mrs. Doris Campbell and Thomas Campbell were charged blind tiger. Frank Drybread, 705 East North street, was held for blind tiger, and Miss Charlotte Gibson, same address, was charged as a vagrant when Sergeant John Eisenhut’s drysquad halted their car at Capitol avenue and fourteenth street, Wednesday, obtaining, they said, a small amount of synthetic whisky.
liquid refreshments, and brewers heroically kept up deliveries by hitching ten horses to a truck. How an old gentleman with a fine beard and burnsides became entirely hidden under icicles while walking two blocks up Broadway and, when rescued from an eight-foot snowdrift by two policemen/ was saved by drinking a quart of hot toddy through a funnel. BBS HOW, when the storm at last began to clear up on Wednesday, Chauncey Depew, “admitted the existence of. his railroad,” and the first cargoes of beer from Staten Island, arriving at the battery, were given a reception comparable to that now accorded trans-Atlantic fliers. These arey only a few of the
Second Section
Ente-ed as Second-Claas Matter at Poatoffice, Indianapolis
FIVE MEN IN ‘DEATH ROW’ First Execution March 26 at State Prison. By Times Special MICHIGAN CITY, Ind., March 12.—Five men are in death row at the Indiana state prison awaiting execution in the electric chair. The latest to enter the place of the doomed was Ignacio Sarragoza, 26, slayer of Charles Glafcke, Michigan City policeman. His execution is set for June 24. Frank Scott, South Bend Negro, who killed another Negro, is the first scheduled to die, his execution being set for March 26. Others in death row and dates of execution are Ulysses Mack, Gary Negro, who attacked and killed a young white woman, June 12; James Anderson, Franklin counts, Nov. 6, and Walter Carlin, slayer of a policeman at Madison, Sept. 10.
WIFE ACCUSED OF ABDUCTING HUSBAND Caused Rich Mate to Be Secreted Against Will, Is Charge. By United Press CLAYTON, Mo., March 12.—Mrs. Grace Thomasson was at liberty under $5,000 bond today after her arrest on a charge of kidnaping her
wealthy husband, Hugh W. Thomasson, and causing him to be secreted against his will. The warrant on which Mrs. Thomasson was arrested was sworn out by Mrs. Ella Bowles, Thomasson’s second cousin, who charged Mrs. T h o m a sson kid-
ilrs. Thomasson
naped the capitalist and forced a reconciliation after he had filed suit to have their marriage annulled. The marital difficulties of the pair have been given wide publicity and their disappearance several weeks ago, when it is charged that Mrs. Thomasson kidnaped her husband and took him on a “second honeymoon,” led to a wide search for them. / BAR SUGGESTS COURT RECEIVERSHIP RULES Building Fund Announced at Association Dinner. Suggested rule to require receivers to file monthly reports, discussed by the Indianapolis Bar Association at the Columbia Club, Wednesday night, would tend to remedy evils of receiverships, proponents contended. Marion county judges took rules of court procedure suggested at the association’s dinner under advisement. Several judges and attorneys debated on rules now in force in local courts, and Howard S. Young, president, announced an additional sum of $17,0C0 has been received to be applied to the building fund.
amazing tales which the blizzard men can recall at their annual conclaves. James H. Scarr, weather forecaster, can recall, however, that more snow fell in the storm of
Feb. 4 to 7, 1920, than in 1888, and that it was much colder in the winter of 1917-1918. The blizzard men believed it best that we stay away from today’s meeting.
PROHIBITION IS POWDER KEG, WHITE WARNS Nation Faces Greatest Perl! in Seventy Years, Says Kansas Editor. BOTH PARTIES DIVIDED West and South Are Ht ! d Unalterably Dry, East Is Firmly Wet. After the Democratic national committee’s stormy session In Wssbincton e\er the prohibition issue. The United Press asked William Allen White, publisher of the Emporia Gazette and yeteran editorial writer of many campaigns, to outline his views on the part prohibition wUI play in the comlnr eampalrn. His article, written exclusively for the United Press, follows: BY WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE Editor, The E.nporia Gazette (Copyright, 1931, by pitted Press' EMPORIA. Kaii. March 12. When one part of i country gets into an emotional s'ate where it can not understand the attitude of another part of the country, the danger flag should go up. And when the emotional condition of both regions rises to a point
where people can not admit the honesty of the other side nor its intelligence, the danger flag should begi:to wave a real warning. America is approaching such a danger now as the land has not faced for seventy years. Prohi bit ion is
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White
, making a serious rift in the politics of this country. Tlie people of the Atlantic seaboard north of Baltimore, without much consideration for party, will vote wet in the coming election. The people in the south and in the west outside of the larger citvjs will vote dry. Feeling Is Bitter Republicans and Democrats ordinarily do not let their emotions affect their judgments of each other. But prohibition has emotionalized politics, and people have ceased to think and have begun to feel, and feel bitterly. An example of the bitterness which may come in our partisan, politics during the next two years is seen in the explosion within the Democratic national committee in its last meeting, when Chairman Raskob attempted, on behalf of the wets, to commit the party on a wet program. The same thing easily might happened in the Republican national committee if the New' York and New England members had made the attempt which Raskob made in the Democratic committee. Prohibition is bound to be an issue in the coming presidential campaign, perhaps the only issue, certainly a devastating issue, one which may, for a time at least, and possibly finally, split both major parties. Split Is Likely It is not impossible that a majority of the Democratic convention favors a wet or a moist plank in the Democratic national platform. But with the two-thirds rule prevailing, the drys can prevent a wet Democratic presidential nomination. With the adoption, or a serious threat of adoption, of a wet platform, it is more than likely that the south and west might withdraw from the convention and name a dry Democratic candidate, who might be nominated a few hours later or earlier, according to the luck of the game. Similarly, the drys certainly will be able to control the Republican convention; their control easily might be frittered away and a Wet or moist platform might be made for Mr. Hoover, a dry. Another Bolt Possible But there is in the Republican party a strong minority group of progressives for the most part from dry states. These dry progressive Republicans might take a notion to name Pinchot, one of their ’own kind, on a bolting ticket, thus leaving Hoover ecuhred into a wet po. sition with the regular nomination. Such a forecast is not impossible. The south would vote for the dry candidate and in the Republican party probably the dish would break on the old crack. Many of the middle states and the Missouri valley w’ould go dry and radical under the pressure of hard times. -Nev York and the seaboard New England states easily might go wet Republican. It is a mess and a mixup. The eastern wets can not realize hew permanently and finally dry the west is. They are blind to the fact that year after year for a dozen years the drys have held and still hold in the next congress a working majority. Playing With Fire They grasp at straws. Because Ohio elected a liberal senator, the eastern wets forget that Ohio, on the one vital matter pertaining to prohibition, elected a dry legislator. Because J. Ham Lewis came back to the senate the wets forget that he was a liberal running against a conservative Republican candidate who attempted to straddle the prohibition issue by falling back upon a referendum and lost both wet* and drys. The wets see what they want to see in the politics of the west, bui the drys make no mistake about the intense feeling of the east on prohibition. The situation is acute. It is full of danger. It is an isso- which easily might lead to a disruption in this country which would be serious and terrible. We are as a nation playing with fire. Mafi Hauling Bids FUed ANDERSON, Ind., March 12. Twenty bids are being considered for the contract to haul United States mail in Anderson.