Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 32, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 April 1935 — Page 22

PAGE 22

FATHER BARES INSANE KIN TO HELPMATHERS Brother Died in Asylum, He Says: Alienists to Take Stand. B W I'nitrd Prr LEBANON, Ind.,. April 17 Completion of direct evidence in the murder trial of Theodore Mathers. 21, charged with slaying the Rev Gaylord V. Saunders. Wabash, wa' scheduled in Boone Circuit Court today. Defense attorneys planned to rest their case at noon. It was doubted that the case would reach the jury this week, however, since each side is prepared to introduce lengthy testimony by alienists regarding the youth's insanity plea. Joseph E. Mathers, 56, father of the defendant, said there is insanity in the family. His brother, Andrew, died in the Evansville Insane Hospital and another distant relative now is a patient there, he said. Says Pastor Was Insane Saunders became insane about three months before the slaying, his foster-father, William D. Haines, 80, Yorktown. testified. He said Saunders developed a vicious temper and his sermons became “a general talk on nothing.” Mathers was released from the witness stand after reiterating under cross-examination that his mind was blank at the time of the slaying. “We scuffled and Saunders choked me. Everything went black and the next thing I remember was when I heard a shot,” he said. “I don't even remember having a gun with me that night. I suppose I killed him. I don't know. They told me I did.” Confession Is Repudiated He repudiated a confession given police when he was arrested at Wabash after the shooting. *‘l never told any one that I killed him.” Mathers said. The confession, admitted as evidence. relates that Mathers was given $lO by Mrs. Neoma Saunders, widow of the pastor, to buy a gun. Mrs. Saunders was acquited on an Insanity plea here last December. The state contends that Mathers and the widow planned the slaying because of an illicit love affair. Saunders and Mathers were roommates in Indianapolis when the slaying occured Feb. 2. 1934. OCHS’ KIN ARE NAMED TRUSTEES FOR TIMES Trio Placed in Control of Residuary Estate. Bu E'n itrit Pres* NEW YORK. April 17—The New York Times will be directed by three executors and trustees placed in control of the residuary estate of Adolph S. Ochs/under provisions of the publisher's will on file for probate today. No estimate of the estate’s value was made. The trustees and executors named were Mrs. Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger, daughter of the publisher; her husband. Arthur Hays Sulzberger and Cos. Julius Ochs Adler. Mr. Ochs’ nephew. They were urged to exercise their control of stock in the New’ York Times “to perpetuate” it as an institution "charged with a high public duty.”

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Race Against Dust Futile, Reporter Learns in Battling Storm in West

Ranchers, Farmers Flee Before Nature’s Onslaught as Dirt Clouds Hover Over Nation. LDITOR S NOTE—For two rear, doit bas bent transforming once fertile wheatland, of a region large a> New Enfland into deaert. Since February the itormi bare reached unprecedented intensity. The I nlted Press sent a staff correspondent into tbe refion worst affected, to report first band what be saw and what be learned from tbe inhabitants. His tour will carry him through the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles, eastern New Mexico, southeastern Colorado and western Kansas. The first dispatch follows: BY FRANK M'NALGHTON United Press Staff Correspondent By I'ntfed Prrtu CLAYTON, N M , April 17 —The wall of dust, at least 10,000 feet high, boiled over the horizon on the wings of a gale and engulfed me and every animate and inanimate object in blackness laden with stinging dirt.

I drove here from Felt, 0k1a.,; through a region once called the “Bread Basket of America.” The storm broke suddenly at about 5 p. m. Sunday. Leaving Felt I heard cries of “dust storm, dust storm.” I saw men and women and children running toward their homes. Brave with inexperience I drove on. Soon the fearsome force was upon me. Across the horizon the earth rose into the sky. At the top of the dense black wall was a weird yellow fringe. I raced the storm for 55 miles, seeing the ground, like the troubled surface of a volcanic pool, rising into the air. It caught at me at the M. H. Doerksen ranch. I wheeled into the ranch yard and stopped six feet from the stout, | tightly built stock barn. Before I could dash through the doors the dust hit. I spat on my handkerchief and held it to my nose. I could not see my hand at my face. The dust was inescapable. It sifted through the double walls of the barn and made the air almost un- s breathable. It was like emery dust. My lungs still ache. Dust Drifts Rapidly In the stalls, frightened cattle bellowed and snorted incessantly. Gradually the first phase of the storm passed. I opened a door and after a time could see the outline of the automobile. After two hours I could see the ranch house 60 feet away. In the next few hours the storm thickened and thinned alternately several times. Between me and the sun the dust streaked over the plains in sheets. In an interval of light I saw a chicken's head protruding from a drift and pulled the bewildered bird free. The remainder of the trip to Clayton was frightful. While in the barn two feet of dust had drifted against the car. Driving was by instinct. Once I ran into a ditch that had been filled with dust. Another time I ran over a farmer's mailbox which became visible only when it was a foot beyond the radiator cap. It is not flippancy when I say I | had received a taste of what B. A. | Donaldson, L. M. Price, Preston j Foreman, G. E. Stewart and others j told me last week when I visited { Stratford, Tex., west of here, after I a swing from Sayre, Okla., through the Texas Panhandle towns of Amarillo and Dalhart. Many Have Given Up It seems tragically casual to report that the dust mantle has stifled crops over millions on millions o l acres in the Southwest. But the men who own the land are not beating their breasts. Many, like Donaldson, who owns 1,000 acres of | land near Stratford, have quit the j fight. Donaldson fought the reluctant earth eight years, drought another two. Two and a half months of dust whipped him. “The damage will never be repaired,” he said, sweeping his arm in a wide circle over desolated wheatfields. stripped of topsoil. “I couldn’t sell my land now . . . 1 guess I'll just have to lease it and | leave ” G. E. Stewart, another wheat rancher, said “there’s lots of them talking about leaving, especially renters —people who couldn’t hold on.” A truck drove by, its wheels kicking up clouds of yellow dust. The driver wore an army gas mask. But the storm wasn't bad then. “You can see a quarter of a mile,” Stewart pointed out. Stewart said his farm hadn't received any appreciable rain since 1931. ‘lt’s a Calamity* “When business takes a lick at a man. it's a depression,” he said “When nature does, it's a calamity.” I saw mile after mile of dust drifted like snow against the fences, and acre after acre stripped of vegetation and topsoil and in places drifted high with dust. L. M. Price, president of the Stratford State Bank, sees only one chance of salvation, “a deluge o* rain.” Sherman County. Texas, in 1531, produced 5.000.000 bushels of wheat. The crop this year. Price said, will ; not make 100.000 bushels. Much of

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STATE BOARD HUES UmiTYVALUATION $123,371 Added to Bell Company Assessment. Increase of $123,371 in the valuation of the Indiana Bell Telephone Cos. for 1935 has been fixed by the State Board of Tax Commissioners. The present assessed valuation was fixed at $34,534,255 as compared with $34,410,854 last year. The American Telephone and Telegraph Cos. valuation of $19,356.394 is unchanged from last year. Other valuation increases include: Indiana Pipe Line Company, from $1,676,622 to $1,723,942; Illinois Pipe Line Company, from $2,461,345 to $2,533,180; Indiana and Michigan Electric Company, from $20,089,560 to $20,175,095, and Indiana General Service Company. Muncie, from SB,010,600 to $8,413,585. JUDGE SMITH IMPROVED Condition Still Critical, However, Hospital Reports. Although Appellate Judge Ralph N. Smith remained in a critical condition at Methodist Hospital, it was said today that he was slightly improved over yesterday. He was taken to the hospital following a heart disease attack in Vincennes two weeks ago.

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Federal soil-erosion projects. What can man with tractors and listers do to control a destructive phenomenon that ravages thousands of square miles? “Give us rain, to get some grass growing,” said Preston Foreman. Federal relief agent for Sherman County. Some wheat farmers, however, are “chiseling” their land—furrowing the fields at right angles to prevailing winds. Federal money has kept business going since 1933, W. T. Martin, implement and hardware dealer at Stratford, said. A score of families who came to Sherman County in 1929 have left in recent weeks. Several scores have emigrated from the areo north of Dalhart. J. R. Pope, a farm worker who left Guymon, Okla., expressed the feelings of the discouraged ones. “My boss, John Booth, has 200 acres of wheat, sickly stuff, left out of 800 acres. I couldn’t stand it any longer. I had to move.”

SUSPECT SOUGHT HERE IN CORN CRIB THEFT Johnson County Sheriff Hunts Fifth Member of Gang in City. Sheriff A. R. Mulkins of Johnson County was in Indianapolis today searching for a com thief, the fifth of a band which gave him some trouble last night. Summoned by phone, Sheriff Mulkins found and captured four men at a farm near Franklin. When he found a truck by a corn crib loaded with 40 bushels of corn, he took the four to jail at Franklin. When he returned to drive in the truck, it was gone. Sheriff Mulkins believes there was a fifth thief and has a hunch he’s in Indianapolis.

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CITY FIREMEN CONTINUE FIRE HAZAROVISITS Pumper and Burro Team to Carry Message to Auto Race Fans. Indianapolis firemen today continued their inspection of possible fire hazards and accumulation of debris that might cause insanitary conditions, as a part of the Cleanup, Paint-up and Fix-up campaign sponsored by the Junior Chamber of Commerce. Bernard A. Lynch, fire prevention chief is directing a group of 40 firemen in the inspection. The fire truck and burro team, which have been touring the city spreading the message of the cleanup campaign, will parade around the state fair crj.seum to advertise

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the west: Section 4: Massachusettsav on the south. 34th-st on the north, city limits on the east and Rural-st on the west. H. Norwood Sallee, '“..mpaign director, announced yesterday that Chief Lynch's men inspected 4795 West Side homes Monday. Most of the homes and lots were found in good condition, but the firemen made 377 requests to residents to eliminate unsightly and insanitary rubbish.

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KERN MEETS WITH AIDS City Problems Are Topic of Round Table Discussion. Mayor John W. Kern met with the heads and assistants of the city departments in his office late yesterday for the first time since the beginning of the administration. About 25 were present. Mayor Kerrj said no important business wag transacted and that the meeting was merely a round table discussion of city affairs.