Indianapolis Times, Volume 44, Number 229, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 February 1933 — Page 9
Second Section
TRADE PROBE BOARD FACES FIGHT FOR LIFE Leaders in Both Parties to Wage Battle to Save Commission. HIT APPROPRIATION CUT Safeguarding of Public Is Threatened, Declare Congressmen. BY RUTH FINNEY Timr< Staff Wrltrr WASHINGTON. Fsb. 2.—Members of both parties in the house rallied today to save the federal trade commission from virtual abolition, propose ■* by the house appropri- „ ations committee. Representative John J. Cochran (Dcm., Mo.i, one of the group which has led the fight in the house for governmental economy, will move today to increase th'e trade commission appropriation for 1934 from $510,000 to $1,000,000. The budget bureau has recommended that $1,109,550 bs given the commission. During the present year the commission has been allowed $1,466,500. Cochran’s announcement that he would fight the 65 per cent cut recommended by the committee called forth promises of support from Representative Sam Rayburn (Deni., ' Tex.), Representative F. H. La Guardia (Rep., N. Y.) and Representative Thomas Amlie (Rep., Wis.). Chairman Clifton A. Woodrum (Drm„ Va.) of the subcommittee which first proposed the cut admitted the treatmment accorded the commission probably had been too drastic. Senate Fight Planned Representative John W. Sumners (Rep., Wash.), ranking minority member of the subcommittee, likewise told the nouse he had not intended that the work of the economic division should be crippled. In the senate plans are being made to save the commission. Senators Thomas Walsh, iDem., Mont.), and George W. Norris, (Rep., Neb.), will lead the fight there. "Year after year, powerful men in the house have tried to end the work of economic division of the trade .commission,” said Cochran in the house Wednesday. "They particularly are anxious to. now that the commission wants to j investigate corporate practices and j causes back of the stock market j crash. “This is the only agency of the government that represents the masses of the people. If we don’t appropriate funds for writing the j report on utilities, how can w r e legislate to correct the evils disclosed?” • Tool of Dirty Business "I fear the committee on appropriations unwittingly lent itself as a tool of dishonest and dirty business,” said Representative La Guardia. "In my own city is a group that wants to put the commission out of business because now 7 it contemplates investigation of corporate practices. The investing public has been mulcted of millions of dollars, and it is time we protected them." Rayburn added that in his opinion crippling the commission at this time “would give encouragement to elements in this country that do not deserve to be encouraged.” Meanwhile, the trade commission continued its inquiry into the Insull utility system, disclosing that National Electric Pow'er Company, a sub-holding company in the group, reported a few months before going into receivership that it had a capital surplus of $4,487,441 and an earned surplus of $1,070,322. f Bares “Phony” Surplus The commission disclosed that the capital surplus was "composed of donated surplus, arising through donation and cancellation of a like amount of non-cumulative 7 per cent preferred stock and of $3,487.442. which is the excess of apprasied value over the book value of the plant and property of Cumberland County Power and Light Company.” Regarding the earned surplus, it 1 reported that "if the value placed upon stock dividends and unrealized profits on sales of securities to subsidiaries amounting to $2,891,957 are . excluded instead of a surplus . . . there would have been a deficit of $1,812,634. $6,000 BUTLER LOAD SEIZED BY HIJACKERS Machine Gun Bandits Commandeer Truck; Drivers Are Freed. fiu 1 nitrd f'rcs* CHICAGO. Feb. 2.—Machine gun hijackers, who told their victims they were watching for a liquor truck, comandeered a load of Wisconsin butter near Palatine today. The truck, loaded with 32.000 pounds of butter and 1.000 pounds of oil. was valued with its load at $6,400. Five bandits, four armed wtih revolvers and one with a machine gun, halted the truck as it neared Palatine on a trip from West Salem. Wis. The hijackers, after several hours, released Homer Shaffer. Palatine, and R. Mack. Chicago, drivers of the truck, which was found abandoned and empty in Cicero. U. S. EXPORTS SLUMP Drop of Almost $1,000,000 Listed by C ommerce Department. ■ t'uiti (I I'ri n WASHINGTON. Feb. 2.—American exports in 1932 were valued at $1,612,305,818. compared with 52.424.288 588 In 1931. the commerce department reported today. Great Britain and Canada remained the United States’ best customers with purchases of $288.462 805 and $241.424.707, respectively, the department said.
Full Wire Servlre of the I nlle*l Pros* A“<i;itton
Missouri Pardon Asked by Modern Jean Valjean
Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Smeeman
Freed in Colorado, Cleveland Man Goes to Settle Last Debt. ft; / 1 nilnl Press JEFFERSON CITY. Mo., Feb. 2. Glenn Smeeman. twentieth century Jean Valjean, who attained respectability after escaping from prison, will appear here today to settle his only remaining debt to the law—a matter of bond jumping in an automobile theft case at St. Louis. J V. Allison, prosecuting witness against Smeeman in a trial in St. Louis seventeen years ago, asked Governor Guy Park to acid a Missouri pardon to the Colorado commutation extended earlier this week. Though Governor Park said he W'ould have no statement until the case is presented, he was believed to look with favor on the plea. Allison in a letter to Governor Park asked that the Cleveland music dealer be freed because of his ‘‘good behavior in the last fifteen years.” Smeeman w'as sentenced to two years in prison for stealing Allison's automobile, jumped an appeal bond, and later w r as sentenced to the Colorado penitentiary on another auto charge. He escaped from a road gang, went to Cleveland and engaged successfully in business with a brother. A year ago, he married a Cleveland society girl, and lived there happily, until exposed recently by a woman reported to have attempted to blackmail him. His wife and brother accompanied him back to the Colorado prison at Canon City. He was freed there Tuesday by Governor E. C. Johnson. His wife attempted suicide when it appeared for a time that he would be required to complete his Colorado sentence. OWNERS OF BIGGEST HOTEL ARE INDICTED James Stevens anti Two Sons Held as Embezzlers. By l nited Press CHICAGO, Feb. 2.—James W. Stevens and his sons, Ernest J. and Raymond W„ ow-ners of the largest hotel in the world, were indicted today on charges of embezzlement. Charges against the three were the outgrowth of the failure of the Illinois Life Insurance Company, of which they were directors. All three men were named in three indictments, two of which contained three counts each and the other twelve counts. Specific charges were that the 80-year-old father and his sons embezzled $200,000 from the insurance company by declaring a $250,003 dividend when they knew the company was insolvent.
John Law, Master Inflationist, Duped France on Grand Scale
This is thp third of a sprirs of articles in which Earl Sparline presents a highlight history of inflation. BY EARL SPARLING Times Staff Writer CONFESSING himself to history as "an ignorant man. - ’ Louis XIV. died in France in 1715. The Sun King, the Grand Monarch, was missed by "only his valets and his dogs" and was buried at St. Denis, with "very little expense." During his final fourteen years he had spent two billion, eight hundred million livres. The most grinding taxation had produced only eight hundred and eighty million livres of revenue. The rest had been borrowed. The new King. Louis XV., being still a child, thq problem of what to do fell upon the Duke of Orleans, regent. The regent variously reduced r.nd readjusted the public debt, but with all that, the annual interest would be eighty million livres —about aif of the total revenue—which can be compared with the fact that in America today 38.7 per cent of the federal revenue is consumed by interest, France was in a bad way. Tire government deficit for the current year totalled seventy-eight million livres. . "As to the public distress." writes Cochut, "it is sufficient to say that great numbers died the ensuing winter in Paris from cold and famine.” B B B AND now there appeared in Paris one John Law. cavalier Seo.. who had inherited a fortune and increased it over the gaming tables of E’-rope. A gentleman of parts, his Beau Scot, and not unknown in Paris. Cn a previous occasion the 1 Fans police had ordered him out oi
The In :T unapolis Times
175 WILL FACE FEDERAL JUDGE Most to Be Arraigned Friday Are Facing Booze Charges. More than 175 persons indicted j by the federal grand jury Jan. 21 I will be arraigned before Federal Judge Robert C. Baltzell Friday. Majority of the defendants indicted are charged with liquor law violations, although ten are accused cf narcotic violations, a similiar number with counterfeiting and several with postal and banking act violations. Three officials of the defunct Spencer ilnd.) National bank, charged with misapplying funds of the bank, are to be arraigned. The list also includes two Terre Haute youths charged with stealing a $24,000 currency shipment from the mails at Terre Haute last Septcm- | ber. They are Harold Fasig, substitute mail clerk, and Kenneth Ray Ccker, unemployed accountant. They are alleged to have fled to California, spending several thousand dollars before being apprehended. About SIB,OOO of the money was recovered. Three confederates of Homer Wright, Indianapolis gangster, machine gunner and “king of alky runners,” who was slain mysteriously the day before he w r as indicted. also will face the court. They are Lester Bridweli, Clinton, | and John L. Smith and John Moline, both of Louisville. They were ; arrested in southern Indiana while I convoying a truck loaded with 700 j gallons of alcohol, dry agents | charge. Myrl Myers. Greenwood, charged with threatening to kidnap a Greenwood business man's child unless he were paid a sum of money, is the j first person in Indiana to be arj raigned under the new federal ex- | tortlon law, passed as result of kidS naping of the Lindbergh baby. DEMONSTRATORS HELD FOR IMMIGRATION QUIZ Communists Are Blamed for Relief Outbreak at South Bend. I By United Press SOUTH BEND, Ind„ Feb. 2. Records of twenty-four men and women arrested in Mondays poor relief demonstration here were being investigated by department of labor investigators today with a view toward deporting any who are connected with Soviet Russia in the spreading of Communist propa* ganda. Deportation proceedings can not apply to citizens, however, it was pointed out by Oliver Loomis, United States district attorney. Stella Machullies. 24, leader of the demonstration, is a citizen. Police who searched her home said I they found Communist literature.
the country within twenty-four hours. Indisposed to return to England, owing to the fact he lately had escaped from Newgate prison, where he had faced death for killing Beau Wilson in an impromptu duel, he had repaired on that occasion to Amsterdam, then the financial capital of Europe. There he had learned the occult art of turning a small supply of gold into an inexhaustible supply of money. Banking was a mystery in those days: it might be added, still is. The Dutch had established their great commercial power by locking up any gold that came to them in a bank in Amsterdam. Against this unseen gold they issued warehouse receipts, which passed as so much gold. They paid gold to those who demanded it on bills of exchange, but pointed out that warehouse receipts were easier to carry, and most people accepted the paper. Beau Law spent five years nosing around this bank trying to learn if it actually had the gold. As Samuel Crowther puts it. “Every one assured him that the bank did have the gold, but since none of his informants had seen it or actually knew how much was on hand, he concluded that a belief in the presence of gold was as good as gold.” a a a SO that he was more welcome in Paris in 1718. Any one able to produce acceptable money out of nowhere was just the man the Regent was looking for. Law' proposed "a vast banking establishment having for a reserved fund all the specie cf the country." The Regent could not see that, but finally Law was allowed to open a private bank at his own expense. m
I DIAXAFOUS, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1933
BILL TO PARE COUNTY COSTS IS INTRODUCED Board of Trustees Would; Supersede Council and Commission. SIMILAR TO STATE PLAN Democrats May Discuss Idea at Caucus Scheduled for Saturday. Centralization of county government similar to that under the state plan sponsored by Governor Paul V. McNutt is provided in a bill introduced in the house today. The ! plan would be optional, inaugurated only through a special election. j The measure, sponsored by Representative Born B. Grubb 'Dem., | West Lafayette), proposes that a county board of trustees shall supersede the county commissioners, tak- ! ing over powers and duties of the j latter group, as well as those of the present county council. A trustee would be elected from each township for each 15.000 population or major fraction thereof. Terms would be for four years and salary of a member SIOO a year. Power to appoint all county officials not enumerated in the state constitution is granted in the bill. Consolidation of all county offices not mentioned in the constitution would be permitted. Salaries of both officials and employes would be set by the proposed board. The board would have power to make all county purchases, and to appoint township assessors. Teachers for all schools in a county would be nominated by the county superintendent, with approval of the board, and it would have the power to eliminate from nominees two persons, without stating any reason for the action. Citizens of a county are authorized to petition for an election as to whether they shall adopt the board of trustees plan, or an election can be called on action of present boards of commissioners. The bill is to be the topic of caucuses Saturday of both house and senate Democrats, according to reports current today.
Modern Plus 1933 Model Home to Be the ‘Ultra’ in New Designs. THE ultra of modernity—will be included in the 1933 model house, according to members of the Indianapolis Home Builders’ Association, who saw the plans for the structure Wednesday night at a meeting in the Washington. Plans for the home, presented by Leslie F. Ayres, architect, show a circular living room, with one whole arc of the room a mass of glass, bedroom windows six feet from the floor, dining room equipped with a bar and other facilities for entertaining guesta, and the kitchen sink below’ a deep bay window. The house will be showrn at the Home Complete show at the state fairground. April 22 to 29. PODIATRISTS TO MEET Annual State Convention to Convene Here Sunday. Podiatrists from throughout Indiana and from neighboring states will attend the annual convention of the Indiana Association of Podiatrists Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at the Lincoln. Dr. Henri L. Duvries of Chicago, president of the Illinois College of Chiropody, will speak Sunday afternoon on “Chiropodial Medicines.” Dr. Hal P. Smith of Indianapolis, vice-president of the National Association of Podiatrists, will be toastmaster at the annual banquet to be held Sunday night.
The bank opened in May, 1716. | Law put the capital a t 6,000,000 livres. divided into 1.200 shares of 5,000 livres each, payable in coin. Against this coin he issued 50 to 60 million livres of paper notes—- ! tvhich is just about the ratio at which American bankers in normal times convert gold-backed money into credit money, or bank deposits, today. (Actual money outstanding in the hands of the bankers and the people in J. 929 averaged $4,746,000,000; this was built into 57 billions in bank deposits. Law's bank was an immediate success. The people found it better to use bank notes than coin. A thousand livres of silver might change one-sixth in valuation overnight. The bank notes w r ere made payable in coin at the value of the day of issue. Thus, mere paper, a promise to pay, gave more security than the actual metal which made the paper valuable. So that in a year the bank notes stood at a 15 per cent premium while the government's notes, the government's promises to pay. were selling at about one-fifth , of the face. 808 'T'HE bank was such a good thing that in December, 1718. the government took it over, paid off the stockholders in specie and made it a royal bank. At once its issue was increased to 110.000.000 livres. Meanwhile, Law's ideas were developing. He formed his Mississippi company and obtained from the i dazzled regent what amounted to sovereign rights to all the vast French possession in the new 5 world, the right to trade there, erect forts, .levy troops, man vessels.
Groundhog Sees ‘Shadder;’ Skips
L' ‘) '* mdSi x 3** * e *■ll murmr—iuni ■■ winnwT n ■■■■ ■■■■■■rr-ni' in
H-rr. there! LaHv hv the brook! Groundhoe's out anil ffivin; a look. Secs his “shadder” on th° water; It means winter and you hadn’t ouchter Hang your clothes on a hickory limb. Till you get the “okay” from him. t> tt And thus Monsieur Groundhog observed his shadow in Indianapolis as he peered over a bank and saw’ Miss Helene Eder. 944 Lesley avenue, dancer, as she tested the chill of an outdoor pool for a plunge. Monsieur came out as diffidently today as Miss Eder did, in sticking a toe in the water. For a short time it appeared that winter w’ould be gone, for his shadow would not form under w’eak gray clouds. But at last the sun took a hand and, abetted by Miss Eder's courage, chased Monsieur back to his hole for another six weeks to sleep and dream of spring.
LOSS $25,000 WHEN BLAZE RAZES HOME Residence of Capitol Airport Manager Destroyed. Loss estimated at $25,000 was caused by fire which, Wednesday night, destroyed the home of Elmer H. Jcse, president and general manager of the Capitol airport, on Lawrence drive in Brendemvood. Firemen were helpless because of lack of w’ater. Chemicals were useless after the structure was enveloped entirely in flames. Origin of the blaze w r as not determined. '
He issued 200.000 shares at 500 livres each and made the stock attractive by allowing 75 per cent of the purchase price to be paid in government notes at their par value. Every one rushed to convert the depreciated government notes into this new paper. Soon, another 50.000 shares were issued, this time at 550 livres each. Wall Street still was a nameless boundary of a pioneer settlement, but John Law knew all the tricks. He provided that the investor must own five shares of the first issue to buy one share es the new\ Also, the price could be paid in installments. The stock started booming. Soon another 50.000 were issued, this time at 1.000 livres. And now he made the stock still more attractive by allowing the holders to deposit it with the bank and receive bank notes to the full value, which money they could use to buy more stock against the rise. American bankers were more cautious during the Coolidge bull market two centuries later—they loaned (issued credit money) up to only 50 to 75 per cent of the market value of deposited common stock. B B B AND now the canny Scot attempted his greatest miracle. The outstanding public debt stood at 1.509 million livres. He proposed that this be paid off without a cent of money. The regent was puzzled, but delighted. What ensued was described by Daniel Defoe at the time as that "which will forever be spoken of as an action that the world never heard of the like before.” Law issued 15.000 million livres of additional bank notes. Simultaneously. he announced anew issue of Mississippi stock at 5.000 livres a share. Whereupon the boom be-
Wrong Relief System Is Blamed for Pay Slashes
Greedy Employers Helped to Put Wage at Peasant Level, Senators Told. By Scripps-Howard Xeicspaper All in nee WASHINGTON, Feb. 2. The manner in w’hich relief now’ is being administered is helping employers to cut wages to a peasant level and threatens to make this level permanent, Stephen Raushenbush, director of industrial relations of Pennsylvania, charged today. Raushenbush testified before the senate manufactures committee which recently has reported the Costigan-La Follette $50,000,000 relief bill. “Wages being paid now’ often are lower than the standard relief grant—s 4 a week,” said Raushenbush. “Since no one can live on such wages, the community helps the employer pay his w’ages—the federal and state governments subsidize, in some instances, low w’ages and the employers who pay them. "This subsidy is supported by the attitude of many relief boards of refusing help to any one who refuses any kind of a job. “The first harmful effect is on the ‘good’ employer. He either is forced out of business, or forced to cut. wages. “The second harmful effect may
I gan in earnest. People stood in 1 line to cash their government notes. With the new' money in their I hands they hurried to the com- ■ pany's office to wait more hours in line to buy stock. The stock they bought inside for 5.000 livres could be sold out in the street a few moments later for 7.000 or 8.000 livres. By November, 1917, the stock had reached 15,000 livres, thirty times par. Rue Quinquampoix became the Wall Street of the day. We are told that 500.000 specula- . tors flocked into town from all over the world until lodging space was jno longer available. In Rue Quinquampoix brokers and speculators jammed the street from wall to wall. b a b AS the price of the stock scared everything else went up accordingly. Houses near Rue Quin- | quanpoix which had rented for 800 livres a year were cut into 300 and 40 offices each and rented at 60.000 livres. A contemporary speaks cf everyone "wearing cloth of gold.” I The shops of the Rut St. Helene ! were literally emptied of the tsores lat prices never heard of before. Footmen became millionaires and equipped themselves like their former masters. There is a story preserved of a footman meeting his former master !in the market place and bidding I against him for a fowl until the price rose to 200 livres. A hunchback earned 150.000 livres by allowing the brokers in Quinquanpoix to use his back as a desk. The stock reached 20,000 livres. Now the wise began realizing on their paper profits. "The first effect of the desire to realize,” writes the historian Adolphe Thiers, “was a general increase in the price of everything. They took 1 advantage of the insanity which had
Second Section
Filtered Second-Class Matter at Postoffice. Indianapolis
be upon the workers. Governor Winant of New Hampshire has pointed out that ‘men and women working part time, and. in some instances, even long hours, are little better off in goods or money received than those applying for charity. “The result is that more and more half-broken people are tempted to accept doles rather than earn wages.’ ” Raushenbush added, “there is danger that-we may stabilize on a peasant level, with disastrous results for every industry in the nation.” “He estimated that of 460,000 women working in Pennsylvania, excluding teachers, 100,000 are getting from $2 to $lO a w’eek. REGROUPING IS URGED State Funeral Directors Back Plan to Reorganize Government. Proposed reorganization of state departments as an economy move was supported today by leaders of the funeral directors’ organizations. Bert S. Gadd, head of the Indiana Funeral Directors’ Voluntary organization, and Luther J. Shirley, president of the Indiana State Board of Embalmers’ and Funeral Directors, made the announcement after conferring with prominent members of the groups.
led so many to sell their estates; they purchased them and thus obtained the real for the imaginary. They possessed themselves of precious stones and jewels, whicr were still eagerly offered, and thus secured solid value in exchange for the semblance of it.” BBS THE shares began to decline.. John Law, he whose home had been surrounded by 300 coaches at a time, for whom dukes and princes had waited six hours for a word, whose daughter had given a ball to which all nobility sought invitation, whose son had played with the boy king. John Law saw the beginning of the end. The realizers began asking for coin instead of bank notes He had thd regent decree that xs were worth 5 per cent more than coin. the shares dropped. The regent decreed that silver could not be used in payment of more than 100 livres, nor gold for more than 300 livre. Still the stock ' dropped and the money with it. To raise prices more money was | issued, increasing the issue to one billion livres. The wearing of precious stones was prohibited. The paper money was increased to two biiilon livres. It was decreed no one could possess more than 500 livres in specie. Public assemblage was forbidden. The issue was increased to 3,070 million livres. Rich realizers i showed their contempt for the paper by using it to light their chafing dishes. The crash came in 1720. Riots began. Many were killed. Defrauded thousands shouted in front of the regent's palace. Law managed barely to escape from France with his life, and with c ’.y 800 borrowed gold louis in x-s [pocket.
SALES TAX IS CONDEMNED BY BUSINESS MEN 600 at Mass Meeting Voice Denunciation: McNutt to Get Resolution. BUDGET PLAN OFFERED Merchants and Industrial Heads Strenuous in Objections. Resolution condemning the proposed sales tax. adopted at a mass meeting of nearly six hundred representatives of business and industry from all sections of the statp, was to be presented to Governor Paul V. McNutt today. In addition to adopting the resolution. the group approved a pioposed method of balancing the budget. without creating any new tax, which was submitted to the Governor Wednesday by a committee representing the retail merchants of the state. It was pointed out that thp state government faces a deficit of $3,224.743 by the end of this fiscal year. Sept. 30. and a deficit of $5,500,000 for the next fiscal year. This year's anticipated deficit would be met by transferring bark | to the general fund, from the highway fund, $3,222,821 of inheritance ! tax funds. Would Leave Balance This sum is part of a total of i more than $5,000,000 of inheritance | tax funds turned over to the highway department in the last several years. It is proposed to give the highway department credit for $2,000,000 on this total for the 52.C00.000 transferred from the highway depart ment to the general fund a year ago. This transaction, the group set cut. would wipe out the anticipated deficit this year and leave a $2,000,j 000 working balance. To prevent a deficit in the next ! fiscal year, the group would declare ! a two-year moratorium on highway ' construction, divert $5,000,000 of auto license fees from the highway department, and effect a 10 per cent reduction in personal service items 1 and other- operating expense, j It was stated that salary cuts for ! state employes are fair because such ! employes are not subject to income tax. Strenuous in Objections Members of the group were strenuous in their objections to creation of a single new tax, declaring the state government should do as private business has been j forced to do—cut operating expenses ; to meet income. “When a business firm is getting iin the ‘red’ it doesn't assess its j stockholders—it cuts expenses and operates on its budget,” said John I E. Fredrick, Kokomo, Indiana State Chamber of Commerce president, ; who opened the conference. “The state government must economize on luxuries, as business has i had to do. It must eliminate un- ! essential services.” Figures showing that the pro- ; posed sales tax would raise excessive ■ sums of $35,000,000 between now and | the end of the next fiscal year, Sept. ; 30, 1934, were presented by Virgil | Sheppard, state chamber statistician. With this tremendous sum available, speakers charged, there would be no Incentive for state officials to economize, adding that the sales tax j would be “just one more burden j which would add to the number of bankrupt business firms.” Ayres’ Side Is Given Indiana firms would be handi--1 rapped by the sales tax in meeting competition of plants in other states, said B. W. Cooper, controller of the Delco-Remy plant at Anderson. Plight of the large department stores was explained by Victor Kendall, of L. S. Ayres & Cos., Indianapolis. “Our company gave $70,000 to the Community Fund last year out of capital funds. There were no profits from which to take it," he said. “The sales tax would cost us $150,000 a year. It would make it almost impossible for us to stand our share of such relief activities and, in addition, would force us to I reduce our advertising and to slash | wages and reduce number of our | employes. - ’ Slight Friction Arises “The three largest stores in Indianapolis support 14.000 persons and the sales tax probably would force us to discharge hundreds of breadwinners.” He said his store is employing 1.250 people, only 100 less than in better times when sales were 50 per cent greater, in an effort to prevent unemployment. The only friction at the conference arose when William Holland. secretary of the Indiana Highway Constructors’ Inc., protested diversion of road building funds from the highway department. He said fees paid by motorists should be used to build roads. His remarks were followed by scattered boos. Suggestion that if anew tax is needed to balance the budget, that cigarets and tobacco be taxed, was made by Louis J. Borinstein. Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce president. JAPAN MASSES TROOPS Advance on Jehol to Be Resumed. Chinese Leaders Believe. By United Press PEIPING. Feb. 2—Japanese in Manchuria are completing large troop concentrations in spring-like weather with a view to resuming their offensive against Jehol province, consular reports received from Mukden said today. Spokesman for Marshal Chang Hsueh-Liang said the Chinese were ready for the Japanese advance. Chinese intelligence reports indicated the Japanese were moving southward from Mukden and northward from Shahhaikwas.