Indianapolis Times, Volume 44, Number 246, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 February 1933 — Page 9

Second Section

BANKING CODE PASSED, SENT TO GOVERNOR Control Is Tightened Over All State Financial Institutions. DEPOSITORS PROTECTED Fight for Credit Unions Is Lost; Mortgage Loans Are Limited. Indiana's new banking code, affecting all banking institutions in the state and tightening control, will become a law today, with signature of Governor Paul V. McNutt. Concluding a lengthy and busy session after fi Tuesday night, the Indiana scnated passed, by a vote of 42 to 6 the measure which completely revises banking laws and creates anew banking commission. Already having passed the lower house, the bill needed only senate approval before being submitted to the Governor. Senate amendments wpre of slight consequence and were agreed upon speedily by both houses of the assembly orior to the late adjournment. Credit Union Fight Lost Senator Jacob Weiss <Dem., Indianapolis). fought for an amendment to permit credit unions to operate under regulations now- specified bv law', but was voted down. Weiss declared that credit unions have stood the severe tests of the present panic conditions and should be allow’ed to continue without hindrance. Another amendment, w'hich w'as adopted, specifies that loans on mortgages shall not be more than 35 per cent of all loans made by a banking institution. Diversion of assets, the authors claim, will result by limiting forms of securities and loans. Aims to Protect Depositors Increased protection for depositors, according to those sponsoring the measure, will be the chief aim of the new law'. Stringent provisions cover liability of bank officials, loans to stockholders and capital stock issues. In its entirety, the law is described as being a model for other states. Its provisions w'ere agreed upon by a survey commission authorized by the 1931 assembly and appointed by former Governor Harry G. Leslie. Two years of study w'as pursued by the commission, aided by the facilities of both the American Bankers Association and the Indiana Bankers Association. The public was represented on the commission, along with representatives of banks, trust companies and building and loan associations.

SOUTH SIDE TURNERS WILL GIVE MINSTREL Second Annual Frolic to Be Staged Thursday Night. Second annual minstrel and frolic of the South Side Turners will be presented at 8:15 Thursday at

Turners’ hall. It will be under the direction of Karl L. Friedrichs. George Crumbo will act as master of ceremonies. Leading roles will be played by George Benedick, Robert Hoefgan, Joseph Lang, Laurence Smith, James A. Watson and William F. Wolf. Soloists on the program will be Charley At.he y.

Up' JPMp

Friedrichs

Clarence Roembke and Robert H. Schleicher. An oriental dance will be presented by Miss Elizabeth Leone Jones, a pupil of Jac Broderick. M'NUTT TO GIVE TALK Governor Will Be Speaker at Annual Community Fund Dinner. ‘'What Indianapolis Owps the Community Fund" will be the topic of an address by Governor Paul V. McNutt at the thirteenth annual dinner of the Community Fund at 6:30 Thursday in the Claypool. Honorary members will be chosen in recognition of outstanding service to public welfare. Arthur V. Brown, president, said reservations have been made for 400 persons. He will preside. FUNERAL IS ARRANGED Mrs. Frances 1,. Williams Will Be raid Last Tribute on Thursday. Following an illness of two weeks, Mrs. Frances L. Williams, 57. died at her home. 831 Eastern avenue. Tuesday. She was a member of the Central Christian church. Funeral services will be conducted in the home at 10'30 Thursday by the Rev. William Shullenberger. pastor of the Central Christian church, with burial in Memorial Park cemetery. MUNCIE LEADER DIES Charles F. Koontz, Banker and County Council Head. Taken. Rii l nitril Press MUNCIE. Ind. Feb. 22 —Charles F. Koontz, 73. vice-president of the Merchants National bank and president of the Delaware county council. died at his home northwest of here Tuesday night. FARM PARLEY SLATED t Annual Eductional Conference Is Expected to Draw 1,200. Third annual social and educational conference of the Indiana Farm Bureau, scheduled at the Severin Monday and Tuesday, is expected to be attended by 1.200 men and women from various sections of the state.

Full !,e*sed Wire Service of •he United I'rem Aociatlnn

NO MORE BOOMS HERE, MUSCLE SHOALS’ SLOGAN

Tri-Cities, Near Giant Power Site, Still Suffer From Financial Jag of Decade Ago

> mr* • 4c'- * • % jt-. •<%&' , ** v. &\\ _F_ / Le' ?*y . ,- - ~ j* *. Jlrc .SBi

BY JOHN MONTGOMERY Time* stair Writer MUSCLE SHOALS went on a big boom jag ten years ago and she still is suffering from the hangover. For that reason there is little chance that she will duplicate this boom, now that realization of the huge project, as recommended by President-Elect Frajnklin D. Roosevelt recently, is almost a certainty. “No more booms for us’’ is the chorus of officials in the Muscle Shoals section. “All we want now is a chance for slow and steady growth, and means to pay off the debts the boom left us.” On every hand in this section is mute and powerful evidence of the boom debacle. Elaborate subdivisions in the midst of nowhere—wide paved streets that run into the wilderness—artistic street lighting systems that, if connected, would illuminate a vastness of weeds—these are just some of the earmarks of the over-optimism that prevailed in the stirring days of the last decade. Some of these reminders are pathetically humorous. In one subdivision there is a series of sanitary drinking fountains and a complete fire plug system, all unconnected. The city hall of Muscle Shoals City stands alone and deserted in the center of this vast wilderness. Street sign posts with imposing names—Broadw'ay, Fifth avenue. Michigan boulevard, Washington avenue—stand rusting and rotting in the fields. u tt tt MOST of the subdivisions were built by eastern and northern real estate promoters, who hoped to duplicate the Florida and Long Island booms in this section. Some of them no longer maintain offices in the Muscle Shoals vicinity, but with renewed interest in the project they are returning. Os course, there w'as a time

Al Jolson Quits Radio; Done Him Wrong , He Says BY JAMES CANNON New York World-Telegram Radio Editor NEW YORK, Feb. 22.—Al Jolson is done with radio. The mammy singer and NBC have agreed on cancellation of his contract, although it has six weeks to run. “I'm making my last broadcast Friday,” he told me Tuesday night, "I couldn’t stand it. They wouldn't let me alone. I never will come back to radio unless I have a contract which absolutely forbids interference by sponsors.

“I was all set to fly to the coast this- week. I wasn't going to say a word, but to just run out. I have done it before, and I was all fed up. But my friend. Lou Holtz, pleaded with me. He said it would look bad. We argued all night. Finally I agreed to make this farewell broadcast. "All they wanted was the name of Jolson, and nothing else. I wanted to do great things on the radio. I wanted to dramatize "The Jazz Singer." There's nothing more beautiful than that. But they wanted me just to sing songs. "I wanted to dramatize incidents in my life—the early Winter Garden days, my courtship and other things. It would make grand radio material. But they wouldn't let me. I offered them jokes. They edited them and said they weren't funny." I paid J. F. Medbury and Julian Tannen each a thousand dollars in advance. But they didn’t like them. They had me so every time I did come to a punch line it went blah. I'm only a human being. What more could I do? “I'm in love with my wife. Ruby Keeler. I've got more money than I’ll ever spend. Why should I let some money come between us? I'm going out to the coast, and then I'll take a trip around the world with Ruby." PRETTY BLOND HELPS IN LUNCH CAR HOLDUP Accompanies Bandit as He Takes Loot at Point of Gun. Accompanied by an attractive blond woman, a bandit Tuesday night robbed Ollie Mitchell, operator of the Coffee Dan lunch car at 431 North Pennsylvania street of more than $5. according to police. The couple walked south on Pennsylvania street after the bandit threatened Mitchell with a gun and looted a cash register. Both were described as being young. They had visited the plfce before, Mitchell said.

The Indianapolis Times

when even the most conservative men in the community were convinced that nothing could stop the growth of the city—that the three cities soon would be the nucleus of a great industrial center. That was when 20,000 workers were on the government pay rolls erecting the buildings that soon w'ould be Wilson dam, Nitrate Plants One and Two and the emergency steam plant. That was during and right after the war and wages w r ere high. Money was everywhere and no one w'as more lavish w'ith it than the government. The government—or someone —thought there would not be enough housing in the three cities to take care of the workers. So tw'o complete villages, having a total of 185 dwelllings, w'ere built. They are there yet. About half a dozen are occupied by engineer and ordnance department workers. The remainder are crumbling. tt tt B IN addition, they built 1.700 temporary dwellings w'hich now' are falling into ruin. In this village were installed 165 miles of sew'er and w'ater piping, 685 miles of electric w'iring, a complete w'ater supply system, an ice plant and a tw'enty-tw'o acre reservoir. Os course, as the government was building all this, real estate operators, profiting from the Florida boom, were buying up all outlying land and converting it into subdivisions. Offices were opened all over the United States and lots w'ere sold at boom prices. The three cities w'ere not to be outdone. They began paving their streets, remodeling their w'ater and sew'age systems, beautifying their holdings—all by raising the tax levy. And then the bottom dropped out. The whole project W'as a wartime measure and the Muscle Shoals plant was built for the exclusive use of producing explosives. The nitrate plant w'as completed almost exactly on Armistice day,

Kids, Here’s Your Big Chance; The Times Offers Real Prizes in Roller Polo Meet

Basketball, boxing, pingpong, and jigsaws, clear the track, for the roller polo kids are coming! With the professionals going great guns on the indoor rinks this winter. roller po o has taken on a new T lease of life, to become one of the most popular sports in Indiana. On every vacant lot. the kids are emulating their elders. Though the puck may be only a battered can or a solid piece of bone, and the ground so rough that the lads have to discard their skates, they're going after the game with vim and vigor. Now just to give these future greats a chance. The Times today announced its first annual Junior Roller Polo Tourney. Ev®ry boy in the city who has not passed his 15th birthday anniversary and does not tip the scale at more than 120 pounds is eligible to participate. All that's needed is to get together five boys in any neighborhood and start practicing for the eliminations and finals. If you can, line up eight boys, for you'll need some subs when the going gets hot. You'll have about ten days to practice. First set of eliminations will be played on the Tomlinson hall rink on Saturday. March 4. with the remainder of the prelims and the finals a week later at the same place. Much of the equipment will be furnished, but we'll tell you about thbt later. Two sets of prizes that’ll gladden the hearts of any group of boys will be given. And there'll be other inducements for the winners, which now are being arranged. So get busy now in your neighborhood and line up your teams. Complete rules and everything else you need to know will be printed in The Times in the next few' days. Watch The Times for information.

INDIANAPOLIS, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1933

l ~ —■■ ‘ - j-ir * ~ :

These pictures are mute evidence of the desolation in the wake of the Muscle Shoals boom of the last decade. The upper left picture shows one of the many fading subdivisions signboards that front vacant fields in the Muscle Shoais area. Back of these boards are acres and acres of weed-grow'n lots, some of them skirted by broad paved streets, concrete curbs and sidewalks. The upper right picture is of the city hall of Muscle Shoals City,

and by the time it w'as ready for continuous operation there was no more need for explosives. So the powers that be attempted to turn this mammoth project into some use in the manufacture of fertilizer. But before anything could be done, the w'hole project became a political issue. And thus it has been ever since. tt tt a 'T'HE Wilson Dam and power w'as built for the exclusive servicing of the nitrate plant; when the nitrate plant is running at full blast it consumes ail the primary electric pow'er the dam can provide. The fact further complicates matters, for, as many pointed out, it was useless to talk of Wilson Dam in any other light than that of a part of the nitrate plant. But this and many other questions remained unsolved as congress battled over the project, and the expensive government buildings, the elaborate subdivisions, the vast improvements, rotted away Now that President-Elect Roosevelt has promised a definite rebirth for the Muscle Shoals project, a feeling of fear toward a duplication of such a debacle is felt by officials of the three cities, Florence, Sheffield and Tuscumbia, that border on the project. They are worried that with all this national publicity, there w'ill come hordes of unemployed, unscrupulous real estate promoters, stock salesmen and all the followers of a boom. And with conditions as they are, their biggest

Hr I § jp ■ 1 mm : |BEjjjjjßi ’ lafag %* I Jljl 9 Hb * * " "

Left to right, Ray Lee. 14: Earl Pollock. 14: William Mehl. 13; Billy Roberts. 13; Bob Harmon, 12. They’re members of the Illinois Shinny Club, first entrie® in The Times roller polo tourney. Ralph Lee, 13; Jack January, 12, and Chuck Johnson, 13, also belong to the club, but are not shown in the picture.

POLL DELAYS REPORT St. LawTence Treaty Action Held Up by Absent Senators. Hit United Press WASHINGTON. Feb. 22.—The necessity of polling senate foreign relations committee absentees today |

w'orry is over an invasion of w'ould-be w'orkmen. tt a tt “'%7'OU can tell the people this much for us,” Mayor Lee Glenn, mayor of Florence, the largest of the tri-cities, said. “There won’t be any work for outsiders. Even if the project goes through on the maximum plans, there are enough unemployed right in this section to handle it all. “We have enough charity on our hands right now without asking any more.” Glenn, in anticipation of a deluge of job hunters, has organized his charitable institutions to handle them in a businesslike fashion. “Our Community Fund is taking care of our own destitute citizens, but can not take care of outsiders. When destitute outsiders arrive here w r e transport them about one hundred miles in any direction they choose, and warn them not to come back. “That sounds rather hard boiled, but it is the only way we can keep our cities free of vagrants.” The Florence mayor said that the present situation of the three cities was directly attributable to the boom. “We ow'e $2,000,000 and are in default,” he said, “all because of the over-optimism of the former officials. “They w'ere certain that huge prosperity was just around the

temporarily delayed a favorable report o nthe St. Lawrence waterways treaty signed by the United States and Canada. A partial vote of the committee showed 10 for to 5 against, but seven members remained to be polled.

a boom town. Around this building is an elaborate subdivision w'ith modern street lighting system, fire plugs, artistic street lights, drinking fountains—and three lone houses. The three bottom pictures show signposts in a wilderness of grass and w’eeds. The imposing names of the streets failed to prevent their decay and today they are a standing joke in the Muscle Shoals section. Those marks in the snow before “Fifth avenue” are rabbit tracks.

corner and so mortgaged the city to meet it.” a tt a CAPTAIN H. D. W. RILEY, government engineer in charge of the Muscle Shoals plant, also issued a note of warning that there w'ould be no great employment, even if the w'hole project was carried out. “We are using only fifty men on construction of No. 3 dam now,” he said “and at the peak point of construction not more than 200 will be used. If the whole Roosevelt project goes through W'e w'ill not need more than 1.500 or 2.000 men, and there are more unemployed than that in this section right now.” According to an unemployment census made recently, there are approximately 2.300 unemployed in the three cities.

Menace Seen in Plan to Enlist Jobless in Army By Scrippe-Hoicard Xewspnper Alliance WASHINGTON, Feb. 22.—International complications are foreseen by Representative Ross Collins (Dem., Miss.), if the Couzens plan for enrolling 88.000 unemployed youths in citizens’ military training camps is carried out.

Collins is chairman of the appropriations subcommittee handling army appropriations and heads house conferees in the conference now' attempting to reconcile amendments added to the army bill by the two houses of congress. His statement today indicates he

Captured On Alky Charge After a pursuit Tuesday night, police captured Otha Childs, 38, of 2117 Shriver avenue, and said they seized an automobile containing five gallons of alcohol from which Childs is alleged to have fled with a , companion as police approached.

Second Section

Entered as Second Class Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis

N C. Siting, president of the First National bank of Florence, has no desire to see another boom in Muscle Shoals. “We certainly do not w'ant boom conditions here,” he said. “What we do w'ant is slow, steady and sound growth. We want balance among our industries. “The future of this section is assured, and it is too important to retard with chaotic boom conditions. I am convinced that Florence will some day be one of the great industrial centers of the south. We have made progress in spite of, the depression. And it is for this reason that I don’t w'ant to see boom conditions, with unemployment, sensational increases in values and unscrupulous promotion, come to Muscle Shoals.

will refuse to yield on the C. M. T. C. plan, for which $22,000,000 was added to the bill by the senate. "If congress appropriates this large sum of money, other countries of the world will charge, and correctly so, that we are increasing the size of our regular military establishment by nearly 100.000 men,” said Representative Collins. "They know the present size of out army and the number of reservists, because all the nations, including ours, make reports to the League of Nations. Foreign nations know, counting our reserves, that our army now is as large as any of them and that its cost is largest. "The increase by us of our regular establishment by this large number, of men would be, in turn, followed by similar ‘ncreases in the size of their military establishments." He adds: "Let us remember there will be more than one payday if we take these men into the army, even temporarily. Many will be diseased. Others will incur diseases and bodily injury when congregated together. The hospitalization costs will demand additional funds. “In addition, it is idle for us to say we will not compensate these men for injuries or diseases incurred in or incident to service. Veterans’ benefits therefore must increase and in future years the increase will be enormous.” ‘PEEPING TOM' HUNTED Uses Ladder to Peer in SecondStory Window of Home. Police Told. Search for a peeping Tom" was conducted by police Tuesday night in the neighborhood near the home of Mrs. Enola Harris, 525 East Seventeenth street. Mrs. Harris reported that a young man, using a ladder, was looking into the window' of her room on the second floor. When police arrived he had disappeared. J. E. ROBERTSON DIES Funeral Services for Long-time City Resident Set for Thursday. Funeral services for James E. Robertson, 73. resident of Indianapolis for thirty-two years, who died Tuesday in the Methodist hospital will be held at 2:30 Thursday in the Johnson & Montgomery funeral home. 1622 North Meridian street. Burial will be in Crown Hill cemetery.

DEBTS SHOVED OFF STAGE BY PERIL OF WAR Threats of Conflict Seen as Greatest Bar to Economic Recovery. FLAMES ACROSS WORLD Situation Grows Critical in Far East, Europe and South America. BY WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMS Scrinps-Howard Foreien editor WASHINGTON, Feb. 22.—1n a world apparently teetering on the brink oi another major conflict, mere war debt reduction, or even cancellation, would no more bring world economic recovery than a bucket of water would put out fire in a house. Such is the increasing conviction of leaders here of both the incoming and outgoing administrations and. the writer understands, this view was presented by President-Elect Roosevelt to the British ambassador. Sir Ronald Lindsay, and the French ambassador, Paul ;*-audel. In fact, it is believed, the menacing situations developing in the far east and in Europe formed the basis of the war debt discussions in New York, holding an equal, if not the dominant, place in the Roosevelt-Lindsay-Claudel conferences. War Craze Spreads Officials here do not conceal their alarm over the war fever which seems to be spreading over Europe, Asia, and South America, in total disregard of the Kellogg pact, the League of Nations and solemnly signed treaties. Japan is seen as on the point of beginning a major offensive against China, which, unless the other powers put a cordon around it, easily might spread around the world. Army officers here claim she can not whip China into submission without declaring war, blockading Chinese ports and occupying her principal cities. And that almost certainly would set the whole Far East ablaze. Rumors of only slightly less alarming nature are coming from Europe. War threats are flying thick and fast across that ancient battleground. causing genuine anxiety here—not to mention the tw f o wars already in progress in South America between four republics and threatening to drag in more. Debts Offer No Solution These things, and not war debts, incoming and outgoing administration leaders Insist, are paralyzing world recovery. Unless w'orld confidence can be restored, they are daily more convinced, through ’■emoving the growing fear of another bloody upheaval, neither war debt revision nor any other purely economic remedy can amount to anything more than a “shot in the arm.” The good effect, if any, would not be lasting. Senator Borah and other progressives on Capitol Hill, as well as conservatives, share this view' —and without congress there can be no war debt revision. Revision, they say, can be of benefit only if other major world ills are cured, or at least genuinely ameliorated, at the same time. In addition to revision of the debts there must be w’orld appeasement, world reduction, and limitation of armaments and a curbing of the rampant economic nationalism now strangling world commerce by means of prohibitive tariffs, depreciated currencies, and other deadly practices. Without the close co-operation of America, Britain, France and the other principal powers, it is admitted widely, this program is impossible.

GRAIN DEALERS ELECT Rochester Man Named President at Annual Convention. Bii United Press LAFAYETTE, Ind., Feb. 22 J. J. Werner, Rochester, was elected president of the Farmers’ Grain Dealers’ Association of Indiana at the eighteenth annual conventipn here late Tuesday. The convention passed resolutions favoring regulation of motor trucks, protective tariffs on blackstrap molasses, fats, oils ana starches, and immediate action on the St. Lawrence waterway project. FORMER SHERIFF HELD Freed on Bond; Sfi.OOO Deficiency Is Charged in Accounts. fift 1 fiitcfi Prt SULLIVAN, Ind., Feb. 22—Wesley Adams, former sheriff of Sullivan county, was free on $2,000 bond today on charges of failure to turn $6,000 over to his successor. Examination by the state board of accounts showed the deficiency, according to Rex Bridwell. prosecuting attorney. HISTORIAN TO LECTURE Philip Gucdalla to Speak at Town Hall on Friday. Philip Guedalla. English historian, will discuss South America in a lecture in the Indianapolis Town Hall series Friday morning in English's. A lawyer in London until 1923, Guedalla s first book was "Wellington," which w r as followed by his latest publication. "Argentine Tango,” about South America. FOOD CAUSES ILLNESS Woman’s Condition Not Caused by Anything Eaten in City. Illness of a woman Monday in the Traction Terminal station from tainted food did not result from food partaken there, build'ng officials asserted today. The woman, who wa3 en route to Ohio, became ill before arriving at the station and had gone there for aid.