Indianapolis Times, Volume 43, Number 291, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 April 1932 — Page 9

Second Section

U. S. MAY KEEP ENTIRE FLEET IN THE PACIFIC Ominous Trend of Events in Far East Is Hinted as Reason. RETICENT ON PLANS Almost All Seaworthy Ships of Navy Now Are Off West Coast. BY JOSEPH H. BAIRD United Pres* Staff Correapondent WASHINGTON, April 14.—The entire United States fleet may be kept in the Paciflc indefinitely. Officials of the navy department said today this course was ‘under consideration.” No orders to this effect have been issued yet. Reports were current that the state department had suggested that the navy should not return the scouting fleet to the Aalantic, as scheduled. Officials of the department were certain that this suggestion had not been made formally to the navy in writing, but would not say what advice Secretary Henry L. Stimson might have given informally to Admiral William V. Pratt, chief of naval operations. The two have had numerous conferences during the last two months. Stimson now is at Geneva. When navy department officials were asked about the state department's reported suggestion, they said they could not discuss the matter. Remain in Pacific Virtually all seaworthy vessels of the United States fleet, save some submarines, miscellaneous vessels, and ships laid up for repair, now are concentrated in the Pacific. They total 107. The scouting fleet, normally based in the Atlantic, was sent to the west coast about two months ago, during the height of the Far Eastern trouble. The dispatch of these ships coincided with plans for naval maneuvers in the Paciflc and officials contended at the time that the ship movements had no connection with the Japanese-Chinese quarrel. The scheduled fleet maneuvers tire completed. Yet the scouting fleet remains in the Pacific. So far as could be ascertained here, no orders have been issued to return it to the Atlantic. Officials were reluctant to discuss the reported plan to keep the Atlantic naval forces in the Pacific. They deprecated the idea that there was anything unusual or sensational in the present disposition of fighting ships. Deny Cause for Alarm Observers in daily contact with the state department found no reason to believe there was any cause for immediate alarm, so far as the United States was concerned, in the far eastern situation. Yet authentic dispatches reaching Washington point to an everincreasing tension between Japan and Russia in Manchuria. The Chinese and Japanese still are at odds. For some weeks there has been intensive military activity on the Manchurian-Siberian border. Russia has been concentrating troops and grain at Vladivostok, its important Pacific port, adjacent to Japanese-controlled Korea. More than sixty locomotives belonging to the Chinese Eastern railroad jointly controlled by China and Russia, have been withdrawn from Manchuria into Siberia by the Russians. Apparently the Russians fear that the Chinese Eastern may be seized by some foreign power and are anxious to keep as much rolling stock as possible within their borders. East Is Powder Magazine A train carrying Japanese troops was blown up in Manchuria early this week. Without making specific charges, Japanese spokesmen in tokio blamed agents of some foreign power for the explosion. The episode has increased the tension between Japan and Russia. Speaking informally, American tofficials admit that the Far East now is a veritable powder maga7ine. Hence the disposition to keep United States naval forces in the Pacific sufficiently strong to rescue Americans from danger spots and to meet any emergency that may arise. BURGLAR IS'ROUTED BY TINKLE OF BELL Brushes Against Baby Walker; Flees When House Is Aroused. Tinkling of a little bell on a baby walker early today put to flight a burglar who is believed to have been the flashlight intruder sought by police since Wednesday morning, following his entry into five homes. Mrs. H. C. Asher, 1639 North Temple avenue, was awakened about 12:30 this morning when she heard the bell on the walker. At first she believed a cat had brushed against the walker, but saw the beam of a flashlight. She aroused her husband. A man ran into the kitchen and fled through a window where he had entered. Nothing was taken. CITES PAY CUT~VALUE Tax Justice Group Head Points to Public Expense Slash. Voluntary acceptance of salary cuts by Indianapolis .city ofllciais and employes removes one of the chief stumbling blocks toward reduction of public expenses, William G. Irwin, president of the Indiana Association for tax justice, said today. "These officials have shown that there is a way of cutting expenses despite mandatory salary laws. The salary waiver agreement avoids possibility of anyone filing suit for collection of back salary in the future,” Irwdn pointed out.

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Detroit’s Purple Gang May Hold Lindy Kidnap Key

Detroit, April 12. Baby Lindbergh, born to the purple of American aristocracy, may be the kidnaped prize of Detroit’s dread terrorist mob, the Purple Gang. That’s the word passing through gang circles here. Since the Lindbergh baby vanished, police throughout the country have been hunting for Harry Fleisher, one of the leaders of the gang that had been poisoning Detroit’s night life for a decade and a half. The search has been vain. Harry Fleisher was one of the ‘‘big shots” of a band that has grown from a frowsy coterie of kids. They started with stealing groceries. They have grown into an organization of killers, kidnapers, hijackers, liquor-runners, alcohol salesmen, extortionists, bombers, thieves, swindlers and socalled muscle men. "We were not born to the purple,” one of the gang chieftains once said, “but we will get there just the same.” That the Lindbergh kidnaping may have been the purple dream of these crime-graduated alley rats has been one of the theories of the police since the baby—and Harry Fleisher—disappeared. * U H THE Purple Gang is i n this thing, ’ is what racketeerwise Detroiters are, saying. "We don’t know how they are in it, but we know they are. It’s just the kind of a yellow dog trick the Purple Gang would go for.” Police and newspapers often have heralded the doom of the mob. But aljvays it has turned up again, stronger and bolder than before. When Detroit was appalled by its first wholesale machine gun murder, the Purple boys were found to be responsible. When three gangsters were brazenly wiped out in an apartment house

MOTHER OF SLAIN NATIVE TO TESTIFY

LANDS RAINBOW TROUT Rare Catch Is Made by Head of Walton League. By United Press GARY, Ind., April 14.-—Three rainbow trout were caught near here recently by Stuart Pritchard, president of the Gary chapter of the Izaak Walton League. He refused to disclose where he caught them or what bait he used. They were the first rainbow trout said to have been seen in Indiana for many years. "Old timers” here insist that "trout and hoop skirts left Indiana at the same time.” STEVE HEARING SET Action Against Warden to Be Called on April 25. By United Press VALPARAISO, Ind., April 14. Hearing of D. C. Stephenson’s action to restrain Warden Walter Daly of Indiana state prison from “listening in” on Stephenson’s conversations with counsel will begin in Porter superior court April 25*, it was announced by Judge Mark Rockwell. Judge Rockwell set the trial date after a telephone conversation with Deputy Attorney-General Taylor in Indianapolis. The date is the opening day of the April term of court. Stephenson, former dragon of the Ku-Klux Klan, serving a life term following conviction on a murder charge, also charges in his suit that Daly is holding documents which hamper Stephenson’s battle for liberty. He asks that these be submitted to him. SKILL PROVES COSTLY Indianapolis Welder Too Clever With Auto Plates; Fined. By United Press MATTOON, 111., April 14.—William Krouch, Indianapolis, welder, turned his trade to his own temporary profit and manufactured a set of 1932 license plates by welding together parts of two sets of old plates and painting them. The illegal licenses were not detected until Krouch was arrested on a traffic violation charge, when police discovered the forgery. Krouch was fined $lO and costs on his plea of guilty and his car was ordered held pending purchase of new license plates. HOLDS 13-SPADE HAND Waiter Bales Picks Up Solid Suit in Bridge Game. Thirteen spades were held, April 13. by Walter Bales in a bridge game on Wednesday night at the home of his brother, Henry Bales, 1515 South* Belmont avenue.

DROUGHT, FREEZES SLASH WHEAT CROP

BY WILLIAM B. DICKINSON JR. United Press Slid Correspondent KANSAS CITY, Mo., April 14. Drought, high winds and late winter freezes have combined to slash the wheat crop of the southwest in half. Official government reports last week indicated drastically reduced yields in every state. Further damage since then has cut estimates even more deeply, a survey showed today. As each day passes without rain, the survey indicated, thousands of bushels are cut from potential production, as wheat, held back by a bad winter, is blown from loose, dry ground by the wind. Kansas is suffering most intense damage. The recent government report placed the expected kansas yield at 98.500,000 bushels, compared with 240,000,000 bushels a year afri.

The Indianapolis Times

in a respectable neighborhood, the I job was pinned on thp Purples S \ It was the last butchery that \ \ startled Detroit. The Purples I \ were hated as much by the under- I Mtßjr / Bp” ' \ body had tried to smash the or- 1 1| pjf ' W sgl|g&lg \ gamzallon and it seemed that the ) night of Sept. 16. They had been I Jfjßli \ holding a conference with four or

in a respectable neighborhood, the job was pinned on the Purples. It was the last butchery that startled Detroit. The Purples were hated as much by the underworld as by the police. Everybody had tried to smash the organization, and it seemed that the three-way killing would lead to its destruction. one “-VJTGGER JOE” LEBOVITZ, Izzie Sutker and Hymie Paul were shot to death on the night of Sept. 16. They had been holding a conference with four or five other hoodlums when suddenly the others decided to let guns do their arguing. Asa touch of impudence, the gangsters left alive one of the friends of the three victims, Solly Levine. It was a gesture of supreme contempt for law and underworld combined, an amazing' violation of the age-old code of gangdom. Levine turned informer. Three of the slayers were imprisoned, and Solly Levine “took it on the lam.” But Harry Fleisher, shrewdest

State Calls on Surprise Witness in ‘Honor Murder’ Case. BY DAN CAMPBELL United Press Staff Correspondent f Copyright. 1932, by United Press) HONOLULU, April 14.—The mother of a Hawaiian "honor murder” victim was summoned to old King Kamehameha’s courthouse as a witness today as prosecutors marshaled final evidence against four American defendants. With a crushing array of facts already before a "melting pot” jury of whites and browns, Prosecutor John Kelley tempted an anti-cli-max by calling small, neatly dressed Mrs Joe Kahahawai Sr. as his last witness. Bitter opposition was expected from Clarence Darrow. patriarchal defense chief, in contrast to his past nonchalance as he waved aside one territorial witness after another. Darrow has expressed himself against allowing the slain youth’s mother to appear. Mrs. Kahahawai, whose husband stolidly has chewed gum during the trial, broke down Wednesday when witnesses told how a fatal bullet was extracted from her son’s body. Avoids Mrs. Massie Mention The bullet, Kelley charged, was fired with premediated anger by one of the accused four—Mrs. Granville Roland Fortescue, her navy officer son-in-law, Lieutenant Thomas H. Mashsie, and Seaman Albert O. Jones and Edward J. Lord. The closing hours of Kelley’s case were spent dealing blows at possible defense stratagems. He avoided mention of an attack on young Mrs. Thalia Fortescue Massie, the lieutenant’s wife, in which Joe Hahahawai was a suspect, A trail of bullets, pistols and strands of purple rope was outlined before the jury by Kelley as evidence the defendants planned to avenge the attack on Mrs. Massie. Witnesses identified a little pearlhandled revolver found in Mrs. Fortescue’s kitchen after the shooting last January, along with bullets matching the one that killed Kahahawai. Vasca Rosa, hardware clerk, sold Mrs. Fortescue the gun and said another and larger weapon was bought by Jones ten days before the native met death. Identify Bullets A box of shells which witnesses said were found in Jones’ seabag, were introduced with testimony they were similar to the fatal bullet. Cornelius Gibbs said a piece of rope found around Kahhawai’s reck and a similar piece located in the Fortescue home were obtainable only at Pearl Harbor navy yard. Tochi Adachi, 16-year-old Japanese maid, testified Mrs. Fortescue surprised her with a day’s vacation the morning of the slaying. She smiled at the society woman as she spoke and received a stolid stare in return.

Unofficial sources today indicated the Kansas crop would be even smaller. Observation,” said three in vestigators of Kansas Jjtate college, "showed prospects have been reduced even since the official estimates. It substantially was the same story in Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska and lowa. Everywhere, moisture was needed badly. Texas prospects were for sharply reduced crops. Estimates of damage ranged up to 50 per cent. Crop abandonment was expected to be three to four times greater than last year. It is the sort of reduction which the federal farm board urged in vain last fall. What the board could not do with pleadings and warnings, unfavorable weather his accomplished.

INDIANAPOLIS, THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 1932

Love of luxury and the companionship of flashily dressed "molls” formed the inspiration for Detroit’s dread Purple Gang, police say. Hated by the underworld, enemies of Harry Fleisher, fugitive leader of the mob, shown in inset left above, say he may have engineered kidnaping of the Lindbergh baby. In circle is Irving Rappaport, alleged gunman of the gang once believed smashed, but now supposed to have regained its strength.

member of the mob, and named by Levine as one of the killers, was not to be found. “Find Fleisher,” a Detroit vice squad officer said the other day, “and you will find the Lindbergh baby, too.”

THE NEXT CREAT ® INVENTION ® WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS MOST

Eminent inventors answer the question as to what the world needs most in this series arranged by Science Service for readers of The Times. BY DR. LEE DE FOREST Radio Engineer and Inventor fConvriaht. 1932. bv Science Service) HOLLYWOOD, Cal., April 14.—1 believe the next great invention (or group, for several inventions are required to solve the problem) will be practical television, first in the theater, then in the home, by wire and radio. But this is not, in my opinion, what the world needs most. The urgent need of mankind is for unlimited sources of power, at costs so low as to revolutionize our method and conditions of working and living. Such power lies a few miles beneath our feet. The next generation will see man delving and boring, not for fuel, coal, oil, nor mineral wealth, but to tap the limitless fountains of heat, by some durable means which will permit us to send down water and get back high temperature steam, or some equivalent energy absorbing and emitting medium. Then electric power will be at our doors for heating, for cooling our houses, for purifying our air, propelling our vehicles (supposing suitable storage batteries), doing all manual work in factory, farm, and home, speeding an enormously increasing vegetable and crop growth, illuminating homes, streets and all country roadways with light like that of day. “Knowledge is power,” the sage has said; but power will bring knowledge and leisure to acquire it, and the immeasurable blessings which follow in its train. Next—Elihu Thomson, electrical pioneer. Marian Balllinger on Paper Board Marian Ballinger, editor of the Wednesday staff of the Shortridge Daily Echo, was elected president of the school’s editorial board Wednesday. Leßoy Breunig, who was named secretary, is associate editor of the Wednesday staff.

POISON LIQUOR IS TAKEN BY THIEVES

By United Press ROCHESTER. Ind., April 14. The persons who stole a huge quantity of confiscated liquor from a vault in the basement of the city hall are in danger of death if they drink the liquid, authorities disclosed today. The robbery took place Sunday, but was not revealed until today. Included in the loot was beer,

Cermak, Big Bill Fight Again to Rule Illinois

By United Press CHICAGO, April 14.—Mayor Anton J. Cermak of Chicago and former Mayor William Hale Thompson today were pitted once more against each other in a picturesque battle for the political dictatorship of Illinois. Their struggle comes as a sequel of the state primary election

Tuesday. Cermak was hailed as virtual ruler of Illinois Democrats by virtue of the decisive victory of his candidate, Judge Henry Horner, in winning the gubernatorial nomination. Thompson and his associates pointed to the nomination of Len Small in the Republican primaries as evidence of the political strength of Big Bill, who managed Small's campaign. Cermak quickly gave notice of the revival of the Cermak-Thomp-son feud, quiet since last year’s spectacular mayoralty election.

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Cennak

"If Small aims to be Governor, God help the taxpayer,” said Cermak. "His pal. Big Bill Thompson, increased the cost of city government from 897,'000,000 to $143,000,000 in four years. If Small gets in, and does the same for the state costs, God help the people of Illinois.” Cermak and Thompson are alike in one respect. Both are wet.

WHENCE the name "Purple” gang? There are several versions of its origination. During the war a crowd of boys and young men began preying on the merchants of Hastings street, Detroit’s Ghetto. The merchants

$300,000 IN GEMS REGAINED BY TRICK

TAX PARLEY IS SLATED Adoption of Economy Recommendation Scheduled Friday. Adoption of recommendations for governmental economy is scheduled for the Indiana tax survey commission’s program at a meeting at the L. S. Ayres and Company store Friday, it was announced today by Senator Joe Rand Beckett, commission secretary, FUND DRIVEH.ANNED Million to Be Sought to House Bible School. A nation-wide campaign to raise $1,000,000 to house the Indianapolis Bible Institute will be started within sixty days, it was announced at tha annual dinner of the 1932 graduation class Wednesday night in the University Park Christian church. At the same time it was announced by P. E. Smith, president, that the institute, which in the past nas conducted only night classes in instruction of Sunday school teachers, will start a day program with opening of the fall semester. The fund campaign will be carried on through sale of bricks for the building at $1 each. Members of the graduating class were C. C. Crooks, William Marshall, Mrs. Mary Hatton, Miss Ethel Jay, Mrs. Zeneth McDonald and Mrs. Maude I. Steel. FIRE WOUNDS CRITICAL Lieutenant George Mueller’s Condition Regarded Serious. Condition of Fire Lieutenant George Mueller, 3729 Speedway road, who suffered burns March 28, is described as critical at city hospital today. Mueller, stationed at Engine House 23, suffered the burns at the place when a fireman lit a cigaret while the gasoline tank of an automobile was being filled.

alcohol and whisky taken in dry raids in Rochester and Lake Manitou in the last eighteen months, which was to have been used as evidence in liquor trials. The liquor was treated with bichlorite of mercury at the time it was confiscated, authorities said. If consumed, death to the drinker would follow within two or three weeks, according to physicians.

Big Bill

referred to the boys as “off color” and from this the name Purple was evolved. There are other &nd more dramatic versions. One of them is that the members of the gang all wear bright colored neckties and always travel with women who are dressed to the height of fashion. the fashion of their overdressed world. They take a peculiar pride in having the best dressed “molls” in town. Police say that from his childhood, Fleisher was one of the toughest members of a mob that was nurtured in greed and resentment. It was a gang that was held together by the- desire for easy riches, automobiles, women. With their loot, they splashed the royal purple upon their "molls” and upon themselves. They dressed with lavish foppishness. They carried big bank rolls —and big guns. nun IN the fifteen years since the purple finger was put upon Detroit, many of the mobsters have become rich. But inevitably when members cf the gang are sent to prison, they were found to be broke. Millions of diverted dollars passed through their hands, most of it quickly. But as rapidly as members of this mob would be imprisoned or killed, recruits would appear in their places. Gangsters came from other cities as reinforcements. Bellhops were corrupted by the show of wealth. School boys followed their deeds with fascination. The ranks depleted by death or capture found willing replacements. Now anew finger has been pointed at the mob, and anew search started for Fleisher. It may prove to be the last chapter in the gang’s vicious history.

Detective Plays ‘Jeweler Out for Good Time’ and Pulls Coup. By United Press NEW YORK, April 14.—" Joseph Rothstein, a jeweler from Seattle, Wash., on Broadway for a good time” turned out to be policeman Abe Gralla, unassuming member of the bureau of investigations, so today $300,000 worth of stolen jewels, two women and three men were in the hands of police here. Gralla, picking up the case on information gathered by other New York detectives who had posed as hotel bell boys, elevator operators and dcormen, Wednesday captured the women, leading to the recovery cf the jewels and the arrest of three men. Cops Turn Bellhops The prisoners, all of whom are charged with assault and robbery, are Hejen Smith, 26, and Ruby Golet, 42; Samuel Ippolito, 26, and Anthony and Joseph Indelicato, brothers, aged 27 and 32 respectively. The arrests were the culmination of months of work, following the robbery of the Harry Glemby home here last January, in which the jewels were rifled from a wall safe. Detective Sergeant John Brennan and Detectives Fitzgerald, Dwyer, Casey, Phillips, McGuire and Harnett for at least three weeks served as employes in a New York hotel. For another and shorter period, they posed as employes in a hotel upstate. Detective Sergeant Brennan was night manager. The others were bellhops, elevator operators and doormen. When the time was ripe, Gralla was called upon to play his part. Gralla "Playboy Jeweler” Gralla registered as "Joseph Rothstein of Seattle.” Rothstein was in New* York for a good time, but not averse to mixing business with pleasure. He met Miss Smith, a good-looking young woman glad to help him enjoy New York. Rothstein and Miss Smith did the night clubs and "hot spots.” The Seattle jeweler seemed a godsend to a group burdened with more than $300,000 worth of jewelry. The matter of blending business with pleasure was suggested to Rothstein. and the jewelry was shown to him. He said he agreed to pay $50,000 for it. Wednesday he met Miss Smith and Miss Golet in a taxicab off Broadway. Each held a brown paper bag. The three started off, when a horde of ex-bell hops, ex-elevator starters and ex-doormen descended. The paper bags and two women were .taken to headquarters. One bag contained the jewelry, the other, cheap Cups and saucers. It was thought the women intended to double-cross the Seattle jeweler by switching bags after he paid the money. Police rounded up the three men who had been observed previously as accomplices in the robbery.

HEROES OF TITANIC DISASTER HONORED

By United Press NEW YORK, April 14.—Heroes who died and men who lived to be called cowards during a night and day of horror twenty years ago, when the Titanic was cracked by! a deadly, unseen iceberg and went down with 1,513 passengers, were recalled today by survivors. They planned services Friday in honor of those who perished during that dramatic, hopeless night while the Cunarder Carpathia speeded toward the scene, eventually picking up 711 survivors. The White Star liner, at that time the greatest ocean-going vessel ever built, struck the iceberg on her first voyage across the Atlantic. Most of the victims were men who gave women and children first call on places in the Iceboats.

Second Section

Entered aa Second-Class Matter at Postoffice. Imilan-nolla

MANY MEN INJURED OR ILL IN CIVILIAN LIFE RECEIVE WAR DISABILITY BENEFITS Legislation Gives Allowances for Maladies Not Connected With Actual Service Overseas. BURDEN IS HEAVY ON TAXPAYERS Number of Pensioners Grows Rapidly; Congress Swings Away From Original Theory of Compensation. BY TALCOTT POWELL Congress has veered completely away from the original war-time theory that only veterans damaged by their World war experience should receive public funds for their support. This departure, represented by legislation passed July 3, 1930, had cost the taxpayers $76,866,520.59 up to the end of February, 1932. The expense is mounting by a third of a million each Ynonth. This law has a misleading title. It is called the disability allowance act. To the casual observer, it would seem to be connected with disability compensation, which is granted only to veterans with service-connected maladies.

Asa matter of’ fact, disability allowance is a plain service pension given to individuals who have been damaged permanently to some degree in civil life long after the war. They may have been run over by automobiles, hurt in factories, gone insane, or suffered some disability due to tuberculosis or other disease. Little Qualification Needed The only qualifications connected with this law are: That the veteran must have been in the service ninety days during the World war, and that he is ineligible if he paid federal income taxes prior to the year in which he claims the pensions. A 25 per cent permanent disability nets sl2 monthly; a 50 per cent disability brings $lB a month; a 75 per cent disability, $24. and a total permanent disability, S4O. Since other laws give this class of men free hospitalization, these allowances, in many cases, simply mean an additional gratuity to a group who are purely casuals of civil life. Hundreds of these veterans receive more than mothers or widows or children who lost their only support in the actual fighting. There now are 353,744 individuals getting this pension. The number is mounting at the rate of almost 15,000 a month. Many Given Allowance On June 30 last—the end of the government’s fiscal year—229,568 has received disability allowance. A study of the awards shows that, just as in other World war benefits, the greater number is receiving the smallest award. Sixty-one per cent are getting sl2 a month, 24 per cent $lB, 7 per cent $24, and 8 per cent S4O. More than half of the men on the disability allowance pay roll had been importuning the government for money before 1930, with claims that their troubles were due to their war service. Despite the very liberal construction congress has put upon service-connected disabilities, these ex-soldiers were unable to prove their cases and compensation was denied. Then congress obligingly legislated them on to the federal pay roll. An additional 15 per cent of those receiving awards had at some time or other been getting money from the rest of the taxpayers on the ground of service connected disability. Back on Compensation Rolls In most cases it was discovered subsequently that their disabilities had been less than 10 per cent and they were removed from .the compensation rolls. The new legislation put them back on. More than two-thirds of the applications for this type of benefit were from veterans who never before had made claim for any disability compensation. Seventeen per cent of the applicants were turne'd down because they were discovered trying to get on two pay rolls at once. _ That is, they already were in receipt of service-connected compensation. Sixty per cent of those who applied. and whose claims were disallowed, had less*than the required 25 per cent permanent disability. Only 2 per cent of the claims were rejected because it was discovered the veteran had paid an income tax. Estimates of just how much the disability allowance pension is going to cost are well nigh impossible, but within another year the expen-

Monuments honoring those who perished will be decorated with flowers at the Seamen’s Church Institute here, in Potomac park, Washington, D. C., and in Southampton, England. The New York iservice will center around the H- ; tanic memorial lighthouse tower, a | beacon visible ten miles at sea. Vessels of the international ice patrol, established in northern wa- | ters as a direct consequence of the i tragedy, will salute the memory of the dead. Loss of life in the Titanic tragedy exceeded that in the Lusitania and Eastland disasters. When the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine in 1915. 1,198 lives were lost. The Eastland sank at its pier in Chicago in 1915 with, 812 casualties. ht

ditures probably will amount to more than $10,000,000 a month if the present rate of acceleration continues. This is one more reason why the taxpayers are now pouring out a billion dollars a year for veterans’ relief, now the most expensive branch of the federal government. An indication of the enormous amount of administrative work in connection with this pension is the number of additional employes taken on by the veterans’ administration to handle it. Shortly after the law was passed, the flood of applications became so great that 1,079 temporary clerks had to be added, together with the partial services of 4,000 examining pension surgeons. Many of those were laid off after the rush was over, but disability allowance has added enormously to the management problems of the veterans’ administration, with a corresponding addition to expenses. Rate of increase in this benefit is best illustrated by the fact that in January, 1931, there were 94,342 men receiving a total of $2,859,702.54, and in January, 1932, these had increased to 340,294 men and $6,227,907.39. Win Their Cases Nor has the past generosity of congress served to prevent the passage of numerous special acts favoring specific individuals, ex-sol-diers arid dependents of all wars, who otherwise would not be able to get any money at all from the government. About 15,000 persons have had their names and cases placed before the legislators and gotten favorable action since 1927. It would be impossible 'to go into these special cases in detail, but in- seventeen of them, congress reversed the decision of military authorities during the war, and presented these veterans with honorable discharges. In other cases, veterans were reimbursed by special acts for sums as low as S6O, which they claimed the government owed them. Other special acts provided specific benefits after the veterans’ administration had decided the cases had no merit. Nurse Gets Merited AW Diligent search uncovered only one case in which the veterans’ administration itself had felt it necessary to recommend special legislation. This was to iron out the difficulties of an army nurse. She had taken out her first citizenship papers and then gone overseas, making it impossible for her to complete her naturalization. Due to exposure, she contracted tuberculosis and became destitute, but because she was not a citizen she was not entitled to veteran benefits. Her case obviously was meritorious; the veterans’ administration had her cared for by special legislation. -

(To Be Continued) MUELLER FUND LEADER Named General Team Director for Jewish Welfare Drive, Samuel Mueller, civic leader, has been selected as general director of teams for the Jewish Welfare Fund campaign, April 28 to May 6, it has been announced by Charles S. Rauh, campaign chairman. Captains will be appointed bv Mueller and teams organized this week. Mueller served in a similar capacity in the last Community Fimd campaign. MANUAL AWARDED FLAG Pupil's Essay in D. A. R. Contest W T ins Honor for School. Manual Training high school today received an American flag in recognition of the prize winning essay of Clara Allee, a senior in the recent contest sponsored by the Caroline Scott Harrison chapter, D. A. R. The flag was presented at a special school session by Ollie A. Davis, state adjutant of the American Legion. Mrs. Maurice Tennant, regent of the chapter, also spoke. WELL TQ BE DEEPENED Park Board Puzzled When Flow at Fountain Stops. Undaunted by the vagaries of Mother Nature, city park board officials today set about to revive an artesian well in Ellenberger park which ceased to flow, although similar wells in the neighborhood still produce. Under direction of J. Edward Perry, park engineer, the well will be dug deeper in an effort to end the mysterious drought. f