Indianapolis Times, Volume 43, Number 211, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 January 1932 — Page 9

Second Section

GERMANS SEEK FOREIGN TRADE! TO PAY DEBTS Dietrich Says His Nation Is Willing to Meet Obligations. ASKS TARIFF REVISION Minister of Finance Hopes for Von Hindenburg Re-Election. BY FREDERICK KUH United Press Stall Correspondent (OoDvrieht. 1932. bv United Press) BERLIN, Jan. 12.—Downward revision of tariff barriers the world over would create “anew situation with respect to Germany’s capacity to pay her world war debts and reparations.” Minister of Finance Herman Dietrich told the United Press today in an exclusive interview’. Germany believes that the present world distress—aggravated un- j der the pressure of reparations—will lead her creditors to a final solution. ‘‘That is why every effort must he made to keep the Lausanne con- I ference sitting until an * ultimate solution is attained,” Dietrich said. Handicapped by Tariffs ‘‘The rpport of the Young plan advisory committee at Basle confirmed conditions upon which the authors oi the plan based their findings have not been realized,” the finance minister continued. ‘‘Germany feels handicapped by tariff increases, contingent systems placed on imports, and embargoes introduced in many countries despite the fact that both the Dawes and Young plans agreed that Germany could pay only from receipts of her foreign trade,” he said. ‘‘lf Germany can not pay, this is not due to her ill will, but because paying is a financial and economic impossibility. In addition, we ought to consider that Germany must repay her private debts. She is determined not to evade these obligations, although payment Is blocked at present. Wants Trade Expansion “If tariff barriers fell throughout j the world, Germany could expand | her foreign trade by several billion j marks and thereby create anew j situation with respect to her j capacity to pay.” Dietrich said that Chancellor Heinrich Bruening's statement on Germany’s inability to pay repara- I tions did not mean her unwilling- 1 ness to pay. He talked with the correspondent j for an hour in his office between j v. ,its from other members of the ! cabinet. He sat at his desk and j rhatted In good humor, despite his I cares in nursing Germany's emaciated finances, and sharing the ! government’s responsibility in a troubled internal political situation. Hitler Party Feared Re-election of President raul von , Hindenburg would assure continu- | ance of an absolutely legal regime in Germany, Dietrich said. “If it comes to an election contest among other candidates wi'ii Von Hindenburg not running, the j struggle will be extremely fierce, for in that case moderates will be fight- j ing the radical forces. Should the moderates win, the National So- | rialist (Adolph Hitler’s Nazis) bogey j will be driven out, but if the moderates lose, the consequences can not be foreseen,” he said. Meanwhile, leaders of the “national opposition.” Hitler and Dr, j Alfred Hugenberg. agreed to inform Chancellor Bruening that in their ; opinion it would be unconstitutional to re-elect Von Hindenburg by a constitutional amendment pro- j longing his term of office. Since the Nationalist and National Socialist vote would be required to give the proposed amendment the necessary two-thirds majority in j the Reichstag, it appeared that a presidential election in March would be inevitable. SMOKE GROUP TO MEET Hanley, Topp on Program of League for Friday Sesssion. Methods of curbing the smoke nuisance will be discussed at a meeting of the Indianapolis Smoke Abatement League, and allied organizations, Friday afternoon in the Big Four building. Meridian and Maryland streets. W. A. Hanley, director of engineering for the Eli Lilly & Cos., and George R. Popp Jr., city cumbustion engineer, will be speakers. Stationary engineers and firemen, custodians and janitors from all parts of the city are expected to attend, according to Roy Johnson, secretary-manager of the league. PLANE CARRIES ILL MAN Tuberculosis Patient Taken Home in Capitol Airport Ship. A cabin plane at Capitol airport was converted into an ambulance plane Sunday to convey a Sunnyside sanatorium patient to his home in Johnson, Ind., thirty miles northwest of Evansville. The patient. Lawrence Smith, who was unable to stand the long trip by automobile, because of his condition, was taken by ambulance to Capitol airport. At the airport he was placed in a Travel Air cabin monoplane, piloted by Don Billinghurst. and transported speedily to his home. Publishers Sued By Times Special SHBLBYVTLLE. Ind.. Jan. 12Sylvester W. and Anna D. Sammons, former owners of the Morristown Sun. a W’eekly newspaper, have filed a replevin suit in Shelby circuit court here against Harry E.. Edward and Louie Lucas, present publishers. Plaintiffs allege failure to make payments for the paper, and seek its return ana *soo' damages.

Fall Leaned Wire Service of the United Prea* Association

PATRIARCH IS CALM IN DOOM SHADOW

■■.tijrrNrtn 10 M I EiecTßOCureo ■nHHwi-

Eighty-two years old, and so feeble he scarcely can walk, John Henry Hauser here is pictured as he appears at the Davie County (N. C.) jail while awaiting decision on his appeal from a death sentence.

UHL APPOINTED ON TAX GROUP Realtors to Seek Uniform State, National Taxes. Albert E. Uhl, chairman of the taxation committee of the Indianapolis Real Estate Board, today was appointed a member of the national committee on state and national taxation of the National Association of Real Estate Boards, by L. T. Stevenson, national president. Thus national committee, to be composed of representatives from

each state, will draft a uniform program of state and national taxation which the real estate boards of the country will attempt to have adopted. A report on taxation by the national research depart ment of real rstate'boards will be submitted to a. national meeting of realtors in St. Louis next week. After action by the

lil I || 1L SH i

Uhl

convention, the proposals will be turned over to the national taxation committee to work out. Uhl today wired Stevenson his acceptance of the post. “I feel that real estate has borne more than its share of taxation for some time," Uhl stated. JAMES F. ORR DIES Internal Revenue Employe Succumbs in Hospital. James F. Orr, 50, of 3916 College avenue, auditor in the income‘t£x department in the Federal building. died today in St. Vincent's hospital of pneumonia. He was a brother-in-law of L. A. Pittenger. president of Ball Teachers’ college at Muncie. Mr. Orr. who served in the tax department seven years, came here from Portland to take the position. Mr. Orr attended Indiana university, where his only son, James N. Orr. is a freshman this year. Mr. Orr was a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and belonged to Masonic orders, including Knights Templar, and the Presbyterian church. The funeral probably will be held Thursday, with burial at Muncie. Survivors besides the son are the widow, Mrs. Helen Orr: his father, James N. Orr. of Selma. Ind., and i two sisters. Mrs. W. C. Hirons of : Portland and Mrs. L. A. Pittenger I of Muncie.

BASEBALL UMPIRE CALLS 'EM ON JURY

A man who admits his fairness in judging disputes is the reason for his success in business, took his place on a superior court jury today to weigh charges in an automobile accident damage case. He told attorneys he thought he “could call balls and strikes in a legal encounter as well as in a baseball game." The juror is Harry Geisel, major league umpire, who lives at 5782 North Delaware street. Geisel was accepted by attorneys in the SI,OOO damage suit of Charles E. Adams against Harry H. Schumacher. 320S East Michigan afreet, on trial before Judge Russell Ryan. “Do you think you can call strikes and balls in a jury trial the same as in a baseball game?” James Bingham, attorney, asked Geisel. “Sure,” he answered. “I can be as fair here as in a game. Fairness is The secret of the success of my biftlness.”

The Indianapolis Times

Appeal Delays Execution; Slew Son-in-Law With Shotgun, By XEA Sen ice COOLEEMEE, N. C., Jan. 12.—A feeble old man, white-bearded, nearly blind, sits calmly in the Davie county jail and awaits the action of the high court that must decide whether he is to go to the electric chair. For John Henry Hauser is a murderer. The fact that he is 82, with scarcely the strength to move his rheumatic body with a cane, was no legal concern of the judge who sentenced him after a jury last September had pronounced him guilty. Hauser, the murderer, who looks like a patriarch, knows well that he has but a little while to live, even if society decides not to exact its toll of a life for a life. But he doesn’t want to die that way. After all these years of living and working within the law, of making a home for his wife (who had her seventy-ninth birthday recently), and of placidly watching the lowering twilight of life, he doesn't want to die like a vicious gunman. Claims Self-Defense Hauser killed his own son-in-law. He admits that, but claims it was in self-defense. Since his daughter, Viola Hauser, married Fred S. Styers twelve j years ago, the old couple had made | their home with the Styers here in Davie county. It -was last May that a bitter quarrel arose between the old man and Styers, who was 34. They argued about the advisability of plowing a strip of land. Hauser was sitting on the back porch. He says he saw, with his one feeble eye, his son-in-law advancing on him with a stick. He seized a shotgun and discharged it at Styers at close range. Styers fell, died instantly. They led Hauser off to jail, charged with murder. During the three-day trial, defense counsel first tried to show ! “mental incapacity” of the aged : man to premeditate a crime. Abruptly the plea was switched to self-defense. The jury called him guilty. Many Plead for Leniency Judge John H. Clement pronounced sentence. He said that Hauser was to die in the electric chair Dec. 3. 1931. But counsel succeeded in placing an appeal before the state supreme court, and that i provided an automatic stay of execution. The case attracted immediate attention. Thousands of letters have come to state and county officials, and to newspapers, pleading for leniency for the oldest person ever to receive a death sentence in this state. In the Davie county jail at Mocksville. N. C., the patriarch sits and awaits a fate that will be finally I decided at the summer term of the I supreme court. Hauser is surprised that so many people are concerned with the fate of “an old codger who ain’t much good to anybody now.” But he hopes their appeals will not be in [ vain.

Geisel, a native of. Indianapolis, has been identified with American League umpiring several years and, at one time, called 'em in a world series. His service on the jury will add another laurel to the triple-threat umpiring ability. He also has a reputation as a bililard referee and boxing announcer. When the baseball season is on. Geisel is known as the Beau Brummel of the majors. So today. Geisel started his umpiring in a courtroom. He ll have to judge whether Schumacker was driving recklessly and slowed his car for the intersection of Lowell and Arlington avenues, scene of the accident. Attorneys commented that, the jury service will disrupt Geisel's accustomed hours. He umpires a ball game from 3 to 5 p. m.. but on a jury he'll work from 9 a. nw to 5 p. m.

INDIANAPOLIS, TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1932

SETTLE QUITS COMMITTEE ON TAX PROJECT Farm Bureau Head Prefers to Let Bush and Myers Choose Group. WARNS AGAINST DELAY Appointees Are Expected to Draft Program for Special Session. William H. Settle, president of the Indiana Farm Bureau, today withdrew from the committee named to appoint a group to draft a tax equalization program for a special session of the general assembly. He declared that much loss of valuable time would result from the attempts of himself and John R. Kinghan, Indianapolis meat packer, to meet and select the committee, and that he felt, to expedite matters, the men should be named by Lieutenant-Governor Edgar D. Bush and House Speaker Walter Myers. Settle notified Bush of his decision at a conference today. The Lieutenant-Governor then arranged a meeting with Myers for late this afternoon when the personnel will be considered. In Taxpayers’ Interest In announcing his decision to withdraw’, Settle said that he felt that “it was in the best interests of the taxpayers that there be no further delay.” “I had arranged a conference with Mr. Kinghan for 10 a. m. Monday and, after waiting until noon, he came into the office for a few minutes and said that he was unavoidably delayed in court. We discussed the program in generalities, and as we could not seem to get together on a meeting date, I feel that it is best for the Lieu-tenant-Governor and speaker to select the personnel. “Further delay is dangerous.” Bush Comes to City Bush interrupted the “pig killing” on his farm at Salem to come to Indianapolis and confer with Settle. Myers, w’ho is at Seymour addressing the Rotary Club there, notified Bush that he would return at 4 p. m. when the pair will meet. A tentative list of nine committeemen has been drafted and will be considered by both when they confer. Those considered and their classifications are as follows: Agriculture, Lewis Taylor, farm bureau vicepresident; labor, Thomas N. Taylor, president of the State Federation of Labor; manufacturing, John E. Fredrick, president of the State Chamber of Commerce; real estate, Albert Uhl, president of the Indianapolis Real Estate Board: investments, Gavin Payne; banking, Frank D. Stalnaker, president of the Indiana National bank; merchants, Victor Kendall, and Settle and Kinghan as members at large. Denies He Plans Coup Bush denied that he would make any attempt to call a special session of the general assembly in event Governor Leslie left the state. It was reported that Leslie had been forced to cancel trips because of his fear that Bush would issue such a call. Attorney-General James M. Ogden has declared the LieutenantGovernor can not take such step. Meanwhile, the Indiana tax survey committee, appointed by Leslie in 1930 to study the tax problem, met here Monday, Attention of the committee will be directed to plans for cutting government costs, announced State Senator J. Clyde Hoffman, the chairman. Data on this subject w’ill be assembled and presented to the committee at a meeting Jan. 21, he said. WILL TRIAL TO OPEN Brooks Estate Fraud Case Due in Criminal Court. Charged with forgery in connection with the fight over the $250,000 estate of Bartholomew D. Brooks, Indianapolis business man, Robert A. Hackney, his business agent, today is being tried in criminal court. Questioning of prospective jurors was continued by attorneys this afternoon. Thomas Garvin, municipal court judge, is special jurist in the case. The jury will hear evidence regarding three wills, all purported to be the rightful Brook’s document, that were brought into probate couduring an extended court battle lau June. Hackney sought a major portion of the estate, but failed in his attempt to have a 1920 document, giving most of the estate to charity, set aside. Allegations of fraud came to light in connection with a will, dated 1924, which witnesses at a deposition hearing declared had been signed fraudulently some time last June, more than a year after Brook's death. 2,000 REDS ARRESTED Paris Police Rout Communists Storming Chamber of Deputies. By United Press PARIS, Jan. 12. —Police made hunareds of arrests as Communists and other demonstrators attempted to storm the chamber of deputies on the reconvening of parliament today. Authorities announced arrests in the vicinity of the chamber would exceed 2.000. Open clashes occurred between police and demonstrators, particularly Communists, seeking to protest the insufficiency of the unemployment dole. Police and mounted troops rode through the mob. breaking it up into smaller groups $

Build Sidewalks Across Nation to Help Jobless , Mayor Urges

In Death Riddle

.1. . ,: j^r

Miss Mary Watts and John Foist White river was dragged today for the body of John Foist, exconvict and former husband of Miss Mary Watts, 28, whose body was found in the stream Sunday. Police believe she was murdered, but have been unable to locate Foist, with whom Miss Watts last was seen Saturday night.

JAPAN DRAFTS NOTE TO 0. S. Answer Is Reported to Be Reassuring in Tone. By United Press TOKIO Jan. 12.—The Japanese government was completing its reply today to Secretary Stimson’s recent note on Manchuria. The reply was understood to be reassuring in tone. It will be dispatched after the arrival of Kenkichi Yoshizawa, new foreign minister, from Paris on Thursday, and will be published simultaneously. A military court at Mukden has been inquiring into the Chamberlain incident and will punish suitably the offenders. The government has prohibited publication of reports about the reestablishment of the naval station at Port Arthur (Dairen). Official Japanese advices from Mukden reported two officers and twenty-eight men killed fighting 1.000 Chinese irregulars at Hsinlintum in Manchuria, where the Japanese occupied the wireless station, establishing communication w’ith Tahushan, where fighting continued. Tv’o Japanese were killed and six wounded in dispersing 300 Chinese near Tiehling. Chinese casualties were 100. RE-ELECT DIRECTORS Gas Company Board Will Remain in Office. Directors of the Citizens Gas Company w’ill continue to hold office another year as result of the annual election Monday.

Directors are: John R. Welch, H. H. Hornbrook, Franklin Vonnegut, G. A. Efroymson, W, H. Insley, J. I. Dissette, Edgar H. Evans and C. L. Kirk. No one was named to succeed J. A. Hooker, who died several months ago. Officers are Welch, president; Kirk, vice-presi-dent and general

aft

Welch

manager; Efroymson, treasurer, and Hornbrook. general counsel. Trustees are Thomas L. Sullivan, Henry Kahn, G. A. Schnull. Otto Lieber and Frank C. Dailey. Judge Wilkerson Is Advanced By United Press WASHINGTON, Jan. 12.—Judge James H. Wilkerson of Chicago was nominated today by President Hoover for the position of United Sta tes judge, circuit court of appeals,. Seventh district.

‘ARMY DUMP’ FOUND BY SCHOOL YOUTHS

A treasure hunt Monday of five east side school boys culminated today in a thrill. The thrill was provided by police who found that a corroded chunk ; of “iron” which the boys dug from a dump near Southeastern avenue and the Belt railroad is a hand grenade, probably a souvenir of the World war. In the same spot in the dump, the boys also found five souvenir helmets, three from the German army, one from France and the fifth an American tin hat Although the boys kept their find a secret, Miss Flora Drake, principal at School 21, Southeastern avenue and Rural street, heard -umors today that the boys were “harboring a bomb.” Miss Drake summoned po> :/, e. After questioning Melvin F 11, of 3417 Southeastern avenue. 'e went to the lad's home and there in a box of scrap iron found the grenade. Police could not determine whether the bomb is cb *d, Other boys in the tr - e hunt were Harold Brown, 12, of 2629 Southeastern avenue; Robert Jones, 14, of 2336 Hoyt avenue; David

Johnstown (Pa.) Executive in Favor of Abolishing Chamber of Commerce, in Plan He'll Give Hoover. BY JAMES A. SULLIVAN United Press Staff Correspondent JOHNSTOWN, Pa., Jan. 12—Eddie McCloskey, the red-haired prize fighter who has just become mayor of Johnstown, took time off from his pants pressing establishment today to lay down a four-point executive program for the city. The program: “Find work* for the city’s unemployed through a sidewalk building campaign. Enforce prohibition so strictly that everybody will be glad to repeal the law and get good beer back. Abolish the chamber of commerce. It keeps other new industries out of town. Wants Jobless Caravan Organize an unemployment caravan to march to the Democratic and Republican national conventions to make sure the people have a say in naming the man who is to be their President. McCloskey, a dynamic individual of 41, rubbed his cauliflower left ear meditatively, and said he hoped the sidewalk building program could be made a national project. He intends to seek an interview with President Hoover, he said, in an effort to put the sidewalk building campaign on a national basis. “Building sidewalks requires more workers than any other form of construction,” he said. “Machines can’t be used in setting curbing or laying walks. You need hand labor and lots of it for that kind of work. The nation needs more work of this type and less machinery.” Fought the Interests McCloskey w T as elected to office by fighting the “interests” as represented by the Bethlehem Steel Company and other big Johnstown industries. The plan he will suggest to President Hoover is this: “Let the national government give a dollar, the state another, and the municipality a third. Put them all w’ith a fourth dollar from Maine to California and Texas to Ontario. This will give every man out of w r ork a job in his own home town and end this thing they call depression.” McCloskey revealed that he is having a song written that will be called “The Sidewalks of America.” It will be used as the theme song of the sidewalk building campaign. UTILITIES REGULATED Holding Companies Get Short Shrift in California. Ejf United Press WASHINGTON. Jan. 12—Active state regulation of public utilities in California has made “well kflown holding companies conspicuous for their absence,” Examiner Judson C. Dickerman testified today before the federal trade commission. Dickerson reported on the California properties of the North American Company group. California’s “well supported” state commission, he said, has made “w’rite-ups of property accounts and security issues without actual investment costs behind them apparently impossible and useless.”

ACTION IS FAST ON VEHLING CHARGES

Coroner’s Counsel Attack Bribe Counts, Fight Impeachment. Legal steps were rapid today as attorneys for Coroner Fred W. Vehling, charged w’ith soliciting a bribe, attacked criminal court counts against the county official, and prosecutors opened fire on the defense attempt to block impeachment proceedings against Vehling in circuit court. A defense motion to strike out the affidavit, filed in criminal court on Monday to replace a previous indictment, set out that the prosecutor had no power to present the action and the court no jurisdiction to hear the case. Arguments probably will be heard soon on the motion attacking the affidavit. The move delays selection of a special judge and the subsequent trial, tentatively set for Jan. 25. The affidavit is based on charges

Cook, 15, of 432 South Oakland avenue, and Ward Watson, 12, of 3417 Southeastern avenue. The helmets, the boys told police, will be used to “play real war.”

CITY’S AUTO DEATH RATE IS ANALYZED

Jaywalking. Drunken drivers. Speeding. Those were the chief causes for Indianapolis’ terrific traffic death rate during 1931, according to a diagnosis of fatalities made today for the safety board by Lieutenant Frank Owen. Last year 118 persons were killed in the city limits and fifty-eight others lest their lives in traffic accidents in the county. Owen told the board twenty-five pedestrians were killed because they did not cross streets at comers. He laid the blame for deaths of ten other persons pa the recfclea:.

Second Section

Entered a Second-Claa* Matter at Postoffice. Indianapolis. Ind.

Attack Victim

||pg

Mrs. Thomas H. Massie (above*, wife of a naval lieutenant stationed at Hawaii, has been revealed as the woman whose mistreatment. by five natives resulted in the sensational vengeance slaying.

RAILROAD MEN STUDY PAY COT Unions May Agree to 10 Per Cent Wage Slash. By United Press CHICAGO, Jan. 12.—Heads of twenty-one railway labor unions began a two-day meeting today prior to the joint conference with the nation's railroad executives over proposed 15 per cent w’age reductions. Fifteen hundred representatives of nearly 2,000,000 railway employes will confer Thursday with nine railway presidents representing interests controlling an estimated 98 per cent of the country’s railroad lines. The executives have indicated they will seek a general 15 per cent wage reduction. Representatives of the twenty-one railway brotherhoods may agree to 10 per cent, conditional on relief for the jobless, stabilization of employment and lessening of unemployment among rail workers. Salaries Reduced By United Press NEW YORK, Jan. 12.—A 10 per cent wage cut, affecting 4,000 employes of the Railway Express Agency, Inc., was in effect today, dating from Jan 1. The reduction applied to all earning a salary of $250 a month or more. With announcement of this aetion came notice that the Express Agency would cut the wages of 50,000 unionized workers by 15 per cent.

of Mrs. Margaret Arnold that Vehling attempted to obtain $l5O, an automobile and other property to influence the coroner to return an accidental death verdict in the gas death of Benjamin Stickel last March. In circuit court, prosecutors filed a demurrer, declaring the plea in abatement in Vehling’s behalf did not constitute a cause of action. The prosecution averred the contention of Vehling’s attorneys, that an impeachment case in Johnson county should be tried first, is erroneous because an individual and not the prosecutor is the plaintiff. The state law provides a prosecutor must bring impeachment action against an official. SCIENTIST IFOUNDTdAZED Texas University Students Locate Professor Wandering in Woods. By United Press AUSTIN, Tex., Jan. 12.—Dr. H. J. Muller, famous scientist on the University of Texas faculty, was found today in a dazed condition, wandering through the wooded slopes of Mt. Bonncll, where he was in the habit of seeking relaxation from his laboratory work. The scientist, who had been missing since he left his home Sunday, was taken to Seton’s infirmary. Finding of the professor ended one of the greatest searches in this section. University students, citizens and peace officers had beaten through the cedar-covered hills looking for him.

driving of drunken autoists and nine others on the failure of autoists to heed the speed limit. The figures were presented on demand of Donald S. Morris, safety board member, who last Tuesday declared the “city must do something to halt the traffic death ton.” Today he asked if a law could be, enforced to prevent jaywalking.' and police officials told him “it has been tried before, but without success.” Causes of other accidents were numerous, as set out in Owen’s survey statistics.

MUSSOLINI FOR CANCELLATION ; OF WAR DEBTS No Alternative Between i Repudiation or Chaos, Says Premier. CITES GERMAN POVERTY j .Civilization of White-Race in Danger, Says Article in Milan Paper. BY THOMAS B. MORGAN United Press Staff Correspondent ROME, Jan. 12.—Premier Benito Mussolini went on record today for cancellation of war debts and reparations. The United Press learned that Mussolini was the author of an 1 article in the Milan newspapar I Popolo Olitalia which said there ! was “no alternative between repudiation of debts—or chaos.” “That represents the clear and : direct policy of the Italian govern- ; ment.” a foreign office spokesman ; told the correspondent. “No further explanation is necessary, as the article covered all.” The entire Italian press published the article under streamer headlines such as “Now Is the Time to Close the War Accounts, j Lausanne Must Finish With a j Clean Slate. Repudiation or Chaos.” Civilization Menaced I The article said civilization was threatened and that the world economic condition must be improved |in 1932. “Otherwise, it can not be I expected that humanity will not revolt.” The articles said that unless the Lausanne conference ended with a “common sponging of the slate,” it was better to declare a moratorium on such conferences. The paper was edited for years by the late Arnaldo Mussolini, brother of the premier, and often reflects II Duce’s views. Simultaneously, a foreign office spokesman said Italy favored “a radical solution of the debts and reparations question,” and that the government was not particularly disturbed by Chancellor Heinrich Bruening's declaration that Germany can not resume reparations payments. Must Be Sacrificed The spokesman said that Italy wished the whole debts and reparations discussion “completely removed from international affairs,” meaning that political issues must b? sacrificed for a settlement of financial problems leading to world economic recovery. The article in Popolo D’ltalia said the world was wondering whether the problem of debt and reparations would be settled at Lausanne or again postponed; whether the governments of Europe again would display “the tremendous lack of will power” which seems to paralyze them whenever they are facing' a world problem; it added that if Lausanne was unable to untie the knot, “it would be better that the conference not be convened, and establish a moratorium on these conferences.” “Lausanne should end with a common sponging of the slate,” the article said. “It should be finished with cancellation of credits and debts.” Tragic Balance Sheet Mussolini defined debts and reparations as “the tragic war balance sheet” in a recent speech at Naples. “The Basle report of the Young plan advisory committee clearly proves Germany's untenable economic and financial stiuation. It is possible that Germany never sincerely wished to pay the tribute imposed by the Versailles treaty, but in the meantime, Germany’s crisis has become a world crisis and it is not improving, despite optimistic reports from across the ocean,” the article continued. Moratorium Plan Drafted By United Press PARIS, Jan. 12. Sir Frederick Leith-Ross, British treasury expert, left for London today, reported to be carrying the outline of a French plan for settlement of debts and reparations, which the French and British would submit jointly to the United States. The plan, it was reported, embraced the following features: 1. A two-year moratorium on the conditional annuities to be paid byGermany which correspond to the allied debt payments to the United States. The annuities, however, would be annulled if the United States agreed to cancel the debts. 2. The unconditional annuities would be met by creating German railway bonds bearing a total interest of $600,000,000, the equivalent of the annuity the railways pay the international bank at present under the Young plan. However, to help Germany, payment of interest would begin only in 1934. 3. If interallied debts are canceled, the United States would be compensated by allotment of a portion of the railway bonds. Post Attacks Canceling By United Press PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 12.—The Saturday Evening Post today came out with an attack on proposals for cancellation or drastic reductions of war debts owed the United States by European nations. In an editorial written by its editor, George Horace Lorimer, it said that should Europe refuse drastic disarmament and America agreed to a drastic reduction in debts, it would be “pouring money down a rat hole.” Fordney Bom in Indiana By Times Special HARTFORD CITY. Ind., Jan. 12. —Joseph W. Fordney, 78. for twen-ty-four years representative in con. gress from the Eighth Michigan district, who died last week, was bom in Blackford county.