Indianapolis Times, Volume 43, Number 274, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 March 1932 — Page 15

Second Section

LEGION FIRES OFFICER, STIRS REVOjJ HERE Ousting of Service Official Rouses Members to Angry Protest. GIVEN ‘RUN-AROUND?’ John Ecker, Linton, Did Not Resign, Statement Declares. Insurrection seethed today in the Indiana department of the American Legion, as charges of “doublecross” were hurled by seven members of the Twelfth district, following selection of Harry Hall of Marion as state service officer. The seven members of the Twelfth district met in the office of Dr. Ralph W. Hamer, 762 Bankers Trust building, today and protested that John Ecker, Linton, past service officer, was given the well-known “run-around’’ when he was ousted from office last Sunday. at a meeting of the legion’s executive committee in Knightstown. In a statement, the protesting legionnaires, who seek to make a state legion issue of the dismissal of Ecker, charge he did not resign from the office, as was given out to the press following the meeting. “Shot at Sunrise” “He was shot at sunrise without a court-martial,” asserted one of the legionnaires in commenting on the executive committee’s action. “We have definite information that Ecker did not resign, and was for this reason we asked to be present at the executive committee meeting,” a statement of the seven protestants says. The statement declares, “Ralph Gates of Columbia City, state commander of the legion, on presenting our request to be heard, referred to us as the ‘seven gentlemen from Inoianapolis,’ notwithstanding the fact that we are paidup members of the legion. “Other men were permitted to sit in the meeting who did not have more constitutional rights than we. We have been informed that one of these men took the floor against Ecker.” llano Turns, Seven Charge “Before the meeting,” the statement continues, “the Twelfth district commander (John W. Hano, Indianapolis), of which district we are members, pledged himself to vote for Ecker, or if there was a charge placed against him as to inefficiency, he would demand a thorough investigation be made of said charge. We have been informed he voted against Ecker.” Hano denied today he was pledged to vote for Ecker in the executive committee meeting. “I was not pledged in any way by members of the Twelfth district. I went into the meeting without strings and clear to do what I thought best. I did vote against Ecker. The charge against him was insubordination,” Hano asserted. Twelfth district legionnaires assert the “insubordination” —an old A. E. P. charge that co/ered a multitude of sins—was failure to obey an order of Gates. Indianapolis legionnaires signing the statement and declaring injustice was done Ecker, are J. J. Kelly, J. E. Malin, Carl Gates, Lee Ingling, W. C. Middlesworth, Roy Parsons and Dr. Hamer. BURGLARS GET S4OO LOOT IN EIGHT ‘JOBS’ One Suspect Is Nabbed on Charge of Stealing Clothing From Auto. One burglar suspect was arrested and several others are sought as police investigated eight thefts Thursday and early today involving loss of property valued at S4OO. The suspect is Robert Williams, 25, of 2322 Park avenue, said by detectives to have been identified as a man who sole clothing from the auto of Samuel L. Griffith, 4061 North Meridian street, several days ago. Window smashers failed in an attempt to grab jewelry from the display window of the Davis Jewelry store, 140 North Illinois street, early. They were routed by a passerby. Thefts were reported by the following: Mrs. Edith Losche. 663 1 b East Fortyninth street. $300: William York. 3655 Terrace avenue. S3O: Miss Hazel Goldman. 2063 North Meridian street. $25: Lee Bobb. Louisville. Kv.. $25, and Mrs. Norma Rodewalk. 547 North Kevstone avenue. S2O. DEATH CLAIMS PRINTER Charles F. Waddle, 72, Worked for Many City Firms. A stroke of apoplexy, suffered a week age, caused the death of Charles E. Waddle, 72. Indianapolis printer, Thursday night. Mr. Waddle worked as a printer for various concerns in the city, including the Indianapolis News, Bookwalter-Ball-Greathouse, the Cornelius Printing Company and the Hollenbeck Press. He was a proofreader for William B. Burford Printing Company when he became ill. Funeral services will be held Saturday afternoon at 3:30 at Flanner Buchanan mortuary. Burial arrangements have not been made. FI R E LOSS IS $T,500 Flue Sparks Cause Damage *to Residence; Police Car “Catches.” One alarm resulted in two fires being extinguished Thursday night. Roof and second story of the home of Charles Smith. 3245 West Washington street, was destroyed by fire started by sparks from a flue. Loss is estimated at $1,500. While the house was burning, backfire set fire to a police automobile at a filling station across the street. Roy Chapman, station attendant, used an extinguisher and there was little damage.

Full Leaved Wire Service of the United I'reaa Association

FIVE TO FACE TRIAL IN ISLAND DEATH DRAMA ‘'Murder in Paradise ’ to Be Played for World on Honolulu Counroom Stage

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SALES TAX DEFEAT HURTS DEMOCRATS

Now, You See! By United Press EVANSTON, 111., March 25. —Patrolman Howard Borgeson felt today he had given a graphic, albeit icy, lesson to four youths on the perils of playing hop-scotch on ice cakes in Lake Michigan. Borgeson saw the youths skipping hither and yon on the floating ice. Realizing the danger, the officer gave chase. But the cakes were not staunch enough to bear his weight, and he broke through into the frigid water. The youths saw his plight and rescued him. Then the shivering officer took them to the station house and gave a lecture on the hazards of rubber ice.

HOLDUP NETS S.IOOO Oil Company Collector Is Victim of Bandits. Bandits who robbed Claude Hardin, 21 West Sixteenth street, collector for the Lincoln Oil Refiining Company, of about SI,OOO after forcing his car to the side of the road near Crows Nest, Thursday afternoon, are sought by police today. Hardin carried the collection from fifteen filling stations in a brief case, which the bandits seized when they threatened him with revolvers at Forty-fourth street and Kessler .boulevard. SCHUMANN-HEINK ILL Physician Fears Ailment May Turn Into Pneumonia. By United Press ST. LOUIS, March 25.—Mme. Ernestine Schumann-Heink, world famous contralto, was treated here today for an attack of grippe and larnygitis that her physician said "may develop into pneumonia.”

Short ridge Students Have Frolic at Riverside Rink

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THE liniment bottle was doing overtime in many north side homes today. Increased consumption of sprain-juice was due to the senior

The Indianapolis Times

Mrs. Grace Fortescue

Party Leaders Find Prestige Impaired by Revolt of Followers. BY RAYMOND CLAPPER United Press Staff Correspondent WASHINGTON, March 25.—The Democratic party’s march up the presidential hill of 1932 has been thrown into temporary confusion by defeat of the sales tax in the house. The party’s proud shock troops, constituting the Democratic majority in the house, engaged busily in demonstrating to the country that the Democrats were competent to rule, have had to suspend their demonstration temporarily while the scattered fragments are picked up and put together agaim One incidental casualty is Spealcer John N. Garner, whose presidential boom was bounding along on the reputation he was making as the perfect driver of the unwieldy house. His luster is not so bright today. It is not necessarily a fatal mishap that has befallen the Democrats. Republicans have fought their way to victory out of worse confusion, and the Democrats have ample opportunity to do likewise. The Democratic leaders had the bad luck to advance a tax program which aroused too many fears from back home. Instead of accepting the administration’s tax program, involving drastic stamp taxes on telephone and telephone messages, bank checks and a number of selected items, the house ways and means Democrats rewrote the administrations proposal into a general sales tax. "Politically, they would have been better off probably to have taken the administration program and pushed it in the house the same as they had sponsored the administration’s reconstruction finance plans. But instead Democrats began to feel the need of doing something on their own. So the sales tax was to be the big vehicle of Democratic self-expression, the achievement to which campaign orators could point next summer But wnen tney orougnt out meir bill it was soon evident they had misjudged the temper of the house.

class roller skating party given by Shortridge high school Thursday afternoon at Riverside park's rink. Left Photo—A hitch in time

INDIANAPOLIS, FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 1932

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Above, (left to right)—Mrs. Fortescue, Thalia Massie, Lieutenant T. H. Massie. Below —A. O. Jones, left, and E. J. Lord. BY DAN CAMPBELL United Press Staff Correspondent HONOLULU, T. H„ March 25.—The final sequences of “Murder in Paradise,” a drama which has placed this Pacific melting pot on trial before the world and its principals on trial for murder is scheduled to open here next Monday.

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Clarenee Darrow

tea house and cabaret and into a series of events which would scream in the headlines of the nation. Kidnaped, beaten, and assaulted by a group of men, she was left dazed on the coral strand of the Ala Moana.

Five men were arrested, Joseph Kahahawai, Hawaiian; Horace Ida, Japanese; Ben Ahakuelo, Hawaiian; David Takai, Japanese; and Henry Chang, Chinese. Smouldering resentment reached its peak when Horace Ida was kidnaped by sailors, it is alleged, and taken into the mountains and* beaten. a tt tt IDA’S “ride” gave the city its first hysteria. Street fights between civilians and sailors occurred. Sailors were rounded up by the shore patrol. Momentary calm was restored. Then another young matron was assaulted. Society was stirred to its depths. Naval authorities charged ‘that Honolulu was not “safe for women.” On Jan. 9, Kahahawai, while making his daily bail report, was spirited away with a fake warrant. Later a wild chase occurred on the Koko Head ‘road. When police halted an automobile con-

may save a fall on pine. At least that’s what Miss Evelyn Greenblatt, 2456 North Meridian street, believes, as she takes time out to rest outside the rink and

With an all-star cast, the trial of Mrs. Grace Fortescue and her co-defendants charged with the slaying of Joseph Kahahawai, Hawaiian youth, promises dramatic qualities equaled only in island history by the “Bird of Paradise.” Indicted on charges of the second degree murder of Kahahawai, one of the five defendants in the Massie assault case, and defended by Clarence Darrow, are Mrs. Fortescue, her son-in-law, Lieutenant Thomas H. Massie, and Sailorman Edward J. Lord and Albert O. Jones, will go to trial facing sentence of from twenty years to life imprisonment if convicted. Seldom in the history of American jurisprudence has one case involved such ramifications encompassing as it does the assault of a 20-year-old society matron, murder of a native, with consequent racial angles, politics as concerns the government here, and the future of those involved. On a starlit Hawaiian night last September, Mrs. Thalia Massie walked out of a combination

taining two men and a woman they found Mrs. Fortescue, Lieutenant Massie and Lord. tt u n IN the rear seat was a bloodsoaked shroud containing the body of Kahahawai. The young Hawaiian had been shot through the heart. His clothing, which had been removed, lay on the floor of the car. Trousers, coat, shirt, socks and underwear were dripping wet. Police declared that the killing had taken place in the Fortescue home. When police arrived they found the bathroom spotlessly clean. They also found Sailorman Jones, who was intoxicated and refused, or was unable, to talk. The quartet was questioned and made statements. They were released to the custody of the navy, while a grand jury struggled for three days over an indictment and finally returned a bill in the second degree.

[ take up a notch in her skates. Center—“ When good girls get together” it’s a sure bet the soft drink bottle wilL be emptied. Left 1 to Right—Jean Brown, Estelle

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Mrs. Thalia Massie ‘UNWRITTEN LAW’ TO BE DARROW’S PLEA

Famed Lawyer, in Startling Statement, Raps ‘Alarm Clock’ Insanity Idea. By United Press HONOLULU, T. H, March 25. Clarence Darrow, 75-year-old veteran of many a famous legal battle, apparently was determined to appear in circuit court today to plead the unwritten law for Honolulu’s accused “honor slayers.” Although Darrow, in a startling public statement, was thought to have attacked the basic defense plea of “alarm clock insanity,” the United Press learned authoritatively this plea has been definitely decided on. The new chief defense counsel from Chicago, fighting what may be his last “big case,” was prepared to ask another continuance of the trial from March 28 to April 4. By that time, he said, he will be prepared to appear for Mrs. Granville Roland Forescue, New York and Washington society matron; her son-in-law, Lieutenant Thomas Massie, and A. J. Lord and A. O. Jones, navy enlisted men. Darrow', arriving Thursday from the mainland, assailed the new Hawaiian law which makes attacks on women a capital offense. But as to the unwritten law—the essence of the so-called alarm clock insanity defense —Darrow was reticent. “I am not one of those fanatics who thinks all laws are good,” Darrow said. “There are altogether too many of them. Soon the only place where you can live decently will be in prison.” Meanwhile, the United Press was

MRS. MOONEY, ILL, WILL SPEAK HERE

Although Mrs. Mary Mooney, 84-year-old mother of Tom Mooney, California labor prisoner, is under

Gabriel and Jane Priesmeyer. Right—Just rolling along side-by-side, Miss Irma Cox, 241 West Thirty-eighth street, and Ralph j Brown, 3537 Graceland avenue.

Second Section

Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis

Roll ’Em, Kids WASHINGTON, March 25. Attendants at the White House were busy today preparing the south grounds for the traditional Easter Monday egg rolling for children. Gardeners trimmed the grass, left long during the winter months. A “lost and found” pavilion was beingerected, where children lost in the crowd that customarily attends the annual festival may be returned to their parents. Trees which some ambitious youngsters might climb are being wired off. A fence is being built around the fountain to keep toddling youngsters from danger.

assured that alarm clock insanity will be made the defense. Psychiatrists have explained this as a type of temporary insanity to which otherwise normal persons are subject if reminded of a bitter past experience. It was intimated that sight of Kahahawai reminded the defendants of Mrs. Massie’s treatment by her attackers. Under such circumstances, they could have lost control of their senses, according to alienists. “The death penalty for attackers is plain idiotic,” Darrow said. “Even life imprisonment is too severe. There are too many fine questions of fact to make any arbitrarily fixed penalty just.”

care of physicians, plans were being completed today for receiving her Saturday, prior to the protest session of the International Labor Defense at 7:30 Sunday at Tomlinson hall. Mrs. Mooney collapsed Thursday at Detroit. She has been making speeches pleading for her son’s release from prison and is scheduled to talk here. In addition to the Sunday night speech, Mrs. Mooney is to give an address Saturday at 11:15 on station WKBF. The Rev. F. S. C. Wicks will introduce her. Definite rest period between her arrival here early Saturday, her radio speech and her appearance at Tomlinson hall have been ordered by defense workers. Action on Tom Mooney’s plea for a pardon is expected to be taken in California April 1. Albert Goldman, Chicago, attorney for the International Defense, also will speak Sunday night. In addition to the Mooney plea others will be sounded for release from the state farm of Theodore Luesse, Indianapolis unemployed leader, and clemency for Owen Montgomery, Negro, sentenced to death as a result of the Scottsboro (Ala.) “box car” case. Montgomery’s mother will speak at the Indiantapolis meeting. FLU IS ‘NOT ALARMING’ Doesn't Assume Proportions of Epidemic, Says Dr. Morgan. Scattered cases of intestinal 'flu reported in Indianapolis do not appear “alarming” to Dr. Herman G. Morgan, city health officer, he said today. “We have had several reports of the new attacks," he said, “but it is a natural followup of the flu epidemic. I think the situation is well in control and that there is not much cause for alarm.” Jobs Found for 326,909 Persons By United Press NEW YORK, March 25.—The United Action for Employment campaign has brought jobs to 326,909 persons. New York headquarters announced today.

CLASH CERTAIN I IF DE VALERA KEEPSPLEDGE Britain Is Determined to Act If Oath of Allegiance Is Refused. DOMINIONS BREAK AWAY England's Hold on Countries Once Its Colonies Is Slipping Fast. BY WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMS ScripDs-Howard Foreien Editor WASHINGTON, March 24. the Irish Free State free? Practically the only remaining tie between Great Britain and Ireland is the oath of alegiance to the king, and President Eamon de Valera has declared that to be “an empty political formality, having no binding significance.” Even this “empty formality, ’ ho now insists, must go, despite grim warnings from the British government at London that the oath must; stand. This new' quarrel between England Bnd Erin adds one more quirk to the riddle known as the British commonwealth of nations. Opinion within the dominions themselves is divided as to the status of mcm-be-s, some holding they are in fact, independent, others asserting thero still are a few strings left. Strings Hard to Find What these strings are, however, is difficult to see, since Great Britain admittedly has no more authority in the commonwealth today than Canada, Ireland, or any of the other members. A governor-general represents the crown, but he is without governing authority and remains in a dominion, to all intents, on sufferance or by invitation. Ireland has been fighting for independence for three centuries. “The Emerald Isle set in the ring of the sea” today would have the color of a ruby if all the blood shed in that fight had remained on ‘,ha surface of her soil. In 1922, through the signing of the Anglo-Irish treaty, she approached her goal. It was not exactly what was wanted, but it was ratified by the Irish republican government on Michael Collins’ plea that it was a necessary step and would be superseded by another—the constitution. Start Toward Freedom “It gives to Ireland not that ultimate freedom that all nations hope for,” he said, “but freedom to achieve that end.” Article 1 of the constitution, which “superseded” the treaty, specified that “the Irish Free State is a coequal member of the community of nations forming the British commonwealth of nations.” Article 2 declared that “all powers of government and all authority, legislative, executive and judicial, in Ireland are derived from the people of Ireland and the same shall be executed in the Irish Free State through the organizations established by or under and in accord with this constitution.” These first articles, it is claimed, tell the story. They are the constitution’s keystone. The word “coequal,” the Irish assert, sets aside all idea of any superior authority, and Article 2 makes it clear that no such authority can come from the outside. The Irish people themselves are sovereign. That is the reason for De Valera’s statement that the oath of allegiance is “an empty political formality” not mandatory by the constitution, and hence must go. Demonstration Planned By United Press DUBLIN, March 25.—Demonstrations by the Irish republican army Sunday in commemoration of the Easter rebellion of 1916 against the British, are expected to give Eamon de Valera’s republican government its first real test of strength. While army leaders went ahead with plans for the demonstrations, members of the Free State executive council debated, the British position that abolition of the oath of allegiance to the king and retention of land annuities heretofore paid Great Britain would be treaty violations. Precautions were taken in Ulster to prevent outbreaks, possible if overzealous Irish patriots cross the border. Republican demonstrations on Easter were banned in northern Ireland. The Ulster government was confident it could control the situation. Members of the executive council were en route to their homes today for the Easter holiday, with no further meeting scheduled until after Easter Monday. They are debating the situation as discussed j Thursday night. JUNIOfTmGH SYSTEM IS BEING DEVELOPED Teachers, Principals Study Special Courses for Next Fall. Seventh, eighth and ninth grade pupils of the public school next fall will enter anew type of junior high school being developed here. The plan of incorporating junior high school principles in the present school system, without any new structures, was explained by Paul C. Stetson, school superintendent* before the Chamber of Commerce education committee Thursday. “In deciding to adopt the Junior high school system here, we found we lacked funds for special buildings,” he said. “However, we feel that instead of stressing the building, as is done in most other cities, we should put emphasis on the course of study, preparation of teachers and needs of the pupils. “Accordingly, 300 teachers and principals, in their spare time, are taking a special course of study to prepare them to teach junior high school subjects in their own buildings." >