Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 November 1937 — Page 1

VOLUME 49—NUMBER 220

PAY-HOUR BILL STILL 1S HELD IN COMMITTEE

Poll Reveals 90 Senators Favor Revision Now in Profits Tax.

CONSIDERS FARM BILL

Upper House Starts Debate On Measure Despite Lack of Report.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 (U. P.).—Congressional leaders opened their drive for snactment of President Roosevelt’s special session program today with the House Rules Committee still refusing to release the wage-hour bill and the Senate Agriculture Committee unable to submit a re-

port on the farm bill. Consideration of the farm bill began despite lack of a report. Meanwhile Congressional sources reported that a poll of sentiment showed 90 Senators in favor of revision or repeal of the undistributed profits tax. The disclosure spurred a move to place Congress on record. Word of the poll of Senate sentiment coincided with a demand in the House by Rules Committee Chairman O'Connor (D. N, Y. for action at the special session on the profits tax, Leaders in both the House and Senate thus far have taken the position that revision

regular session in January. The House Ways and Means Tax Subcommittee announced that it tentatively had adopted a plan revising the corporate tax siructure, including normal corporation levies and the undistributed profits tax. Agree on Exemption The committee agreed: 1. To give corporations earning $25,000 a year or less total exemption from the undistributed profits tax and to raise their normal tax to 121; per cent on the first $5000 and 14 per cent on the next $20.000. 2. To place a top rate of 20 per cent on the incomes of corporations earning more than $25000, with a minimum of 16 per cent, contingent upon earnings retained by the corporation. In the case of the higher bracket corporations the tax reduction is four-tenths of 1 per cent for each

10 per cent of earnings distributed | Thus if a corporation |

in dividends. retains its entire earnings its tax will be 20 per cent. If it distributes 10 per cent and retains 90 per cent, the tax rate will be 196 per cent, reducing progressively, until, with 100 per cent of earnings distributed the rate falls to 16 per cent. Holds Wage Bill Doomed Chairman O'Connor of the House Rules Committee announced that the House leadership had determined there was “no possibility” of favorable action by his Committee on the Wages and Hours Bill. “The leadership,” he announced in a formal statement distributed at Speaker William B. Bankhead's press conference, “has exhausted every possible effort to secure a sufficient number of votes in the Rules Committee to report out a resolution for the consideration of the Wages and Hours Bill, and find that there is no possibility of the bill being considered by that method.” Chairman O'Connor for the first time called attention to the possibility that the measure might be considered in its regular order on the House calendar, where it has rested since it was reported last summer by the Labor Committee. “I have thought for some time.” he added, “that the bill would be considered as soon by this method as it would via a discharge petition.” Majority Leader Rayburn (D. Texas) announced he would sign the discharge petition and would make a statement on the floor giving his reasons for signing and urging his colleagues to do the same. Both Chairman O'Connor and Speaker Bankhead, however, said (Turn to Page Three)

GARY ATTORNEY IS VICTIM OF SHOOTING

CHICAGO, Nov. 23 (U.P.).—Police investigated today a reported attempt to assassinate Frank J. Cook, 40, Gary, attorney, who was shot and seriously wounded last night as he walked in the downtown district. Attorney Cook was shot down in gangster fashion as he neared the steps to an elevated station. Two men in a small car fired five shots at him.

TIMES FEATURES ON INSIDE PAGES

Bob Bumns.... BIOUNR sesecse Comics Crossword ... Curious World Editorials .... Financial .... Fishbein ..... Flynn Food FOrUM veesse Grin, Bear It. In Indpls..... Jane Jordan.. Johnson

3| Merry-Go-R'd 12 11; Movies ...... © 12| Mrs. Ferguson 11 18| Mrs. Roosevelt 11 17, Music ....... 19 19 Obituaries ... 4 12; Pegler ....... 12 13{ Pyle ...vvouv 11 18| Radio ....... 19 13| Scherrer ..... 11 9 Seuial Story.. 18 12! Short Story.. 18 18 Society ...... 8 3 Sports ....... 14 11| State Deaths. 4 12| Wiggam ..... 19

State Orders 5-Cent Movie House Closed

State Fire Marshal Clem Smith today ordered closed for repairs the Gem Theater, 225 W. Washington St, one of the few 5-cent movie houses left in the country. Mr. Smith said the theater was the seventh in the state ordered closed in a campaign against “unsafe public auditoriums.” “The closing action was taken,” Mr. Smith explained, “to prevent possible disaster in the future.” He said investigation by his office [showed the Gem Theater building was in a “depiorable condition.” Mr. Smith said Edgar O. Hunter, owner of the building, has agreed to make necessary repairs. The fire marshal said orders to several of the larger downtown theaters to make “minor changes and repairs have been complied with.”

LAY SAFETY GUT T0 ‘ECONOMY’

Councilmen Blame Slash on Effort to Reduce Tax Rate.

(Editorial, Page 12)

The appropriation which would have supplied equipment for a special accident prevention system here was slashed from the budget in an effort to lower the tax rate and allow Indianapolis to “handle its own traffic problem,” City Councilmen said today. Their comment followed a statement by Lieut. Frank Kremil, nationally known safety expert and

\ | founder of the system, that it was should not be undertaken until the |

“useless” for his men to install his system until “City officials show a willingness to supply the necessary equipment.” Mayor Boetcher said: “The $80, 000 appropriation suggested by Mr. Kreml to install the accident prevention system was removed from the police budget by the City Council as an economy measure.” Council President Edward Raub: “The conclusion of the Council was that by filling the 26 vacancies in the Police Department, we would be able to accomplish all in the traffic enforcement campaign without the appropriation of additional money. Our conclusion also was based on statements by Chief Morrissey.”

Poor Business, Oren Hints

Republican William Oren said: “I personally feel that if it had been granted, we would have started an endless chain of spending to accomplish the end of some particular person. The Chief was only human wanting something to play with, but if started, the high-pow-ered quota for each item would have been endless. We didn’t think that it was good business in view of the higher tax rate. It was a good thing to nip in the bud. Next year it would have been something else—more men, more equipment, etc. We can have plenty of safety if we just enforce the laws we have.” Rose Wallace, Democrat, finance committee chairman: “We did it to reduce the tax rate, We don’t want to impair the service. We want to (Turn to Page Three)’

DUKE SETTLED FOR $50,000, IS REPORT

Cash From Suit Will Go to Charity, Paper Says.

LONDON, Nov. 23 (U. P.).—The libel suit of the Duke of Windsor against William Heinemann, Ltd. and Geoffrey Dennis, publishers and author of the book “Coronation Commentary,” was settled for 10,000 pounds ($50,000), the Daily Mail reported today. The money will go to | the Duke's favorite charities. In an editorial under the heading, “Foul Libel,” the Daily Mail commented: “In the King’s bench division yesterday the Duke of Windsor, exercising the right possessed by all British people in defending his good name, received sincere and humble apologies for the ‘foul and cruel libel’ contained in statements which |it was admitted were unfounded. | “The substantial sum paid in (damages jis to be distributed to | charities. The public deeply resents | such scurrilous assertions about the | Duke and the circumstances of his abdication. That he should have been a victim of malicious comment deeply offends his former subjects. They universally hope that no more mischievous tittle-tattle of the kind censured by the Lord Chief Justice will be heard or read.”

Indianapolis Times

FORECAST-—Fair tonight and tomorrow;

ONE IS BURNED; 12 FLEE BLAZE IN APARTMENT

Flames Dart From Furnace; Victim Walks to First Aid Station.

2 CANARIES SMOTHERED

Bedridden Mother and Four Children Carried to Safety.

One Indianapolis woman was burned and 12 other persons were forced from an apartment at 5 a. m. in their night clothes as furnaces stoked against the low temperatures took further property toll today. Mrs. Cora Adams, 48, of 628 S. Illinois St., opened the door of the soft coal furnace in the basement of her home, and was burned on the face, hands and shoulders by a rush of gas flame. She walked to No. 10 Engine House, Russell Ave. and S. Illinois St., where firemen gave her first aid. She was taken to City Hospital, where her condition was described as “fairly good.” Burns Inside Walls The two-story frame apartment at 2453 N. New Jersey St. burned from the basement up the walls into the second floor. Mr. and Mrs. Robert Childers, building owners; their daughters, Misses Mary, 30, and Yvonne, 27, and their grandchildren, Joan Stumph, 14 months, and Carolyn Harris, 3, escaped in night clothes and bare feet. Miss Mary Childers and Mrs. Childers carried the children and hurried them into the home of a neighbor. Joan is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Stumph, 353 Audubon Road, where the children later were taken. Carolyn is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Howard Harris, Mickleville. Upstairs on one side, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Fischer were warned of the blaze by a shout from Mrs. Childers. Mr. Fischer carried Mrs. Fischer downstairs and to the home of a neighbor. Mrs. Fischer still is bedfast from childbirth. Mrs. Josephine Pearson, Chicago, Mrs. Fischer's mother, carried 3-year-old Jerry Pearson, her son, and Mrs. Fischer's daughter, ¢- week-old Barbara, to safety. Rescued From Ledge Miss Lorraine Everetts, living in another upstairs apartment, was awakened by smoke. She gathered a bAthrobe hurriedly about her and climbed to a second floor ledge outside the window. She was rescued from there by a neighbor who put up a ladder, Two pet canaries owned by Miss Everetts smothered in the smoke. Mr. Childers could not estimate the loss, but said the building was covered by insurance. He said he did not know whether the contents of downstairs apartments, ruined by fire, were insured. Firemen estimated the loss at

$2000.

STATE TO DEMAND DEATH OF PREACHER

PITTSFIELD, Ill, Nov. 23 (U. P.). —The State today will demand death in the electric chair for the Rev. Coionel E. Newton, Baptist preacher and one-time politician, accused of the murder of his “very devout” parishioner, Mrs. Maybelle Kelly. Testimony was completed at adjournment of court last night. It is expected the case will be given to the jury of 11 farmers and a barber by nightfall. The 51-year-cld minister, who repudiated the confession anc then accused his stepdaughter of the crime, clung tenaciously to his defense story. He denied he had killed Mrs. Kelly and said the stepdaughter, Myra Hanan, 37-year-old spinster, engineered the crime while he was unconscious in the rear seat of her automobile.

QUEZON UNDERGOES APPENDIX OPERATION

MANILA, P. I, Nov. 23 (U. P).— Manuel Quezon, President of the Philippine Commonwealth, underwent an appendicitis operation today while the Cabinet gathered at the hospital near his bedside, prepared to meet any emergency that might have arisen. Several hours after the operation, doctors said the President was “resting easy.” The veteran Filipino political leader fell ill suddenly last night. He cancelled all engagements and went at once to the hospital.

NEW YORK, Nov. 23 (U. P).— Julius Katchen, 11-year-old pianist, emerged timidly from the wings at Carnegie Hall last night, stared with obvious embarrassment at the rull house, and proceeded to play the Mozart Concerto with a skill that drew the heartiest adulation of the critics. It was his New York debut and the highest point in his career— playing with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

Dressed in knickers, blouse and socks, the New Jersey youngster settled down after his initia] stage-

3

11-Year-Old Pianist Plays Mozart With Philharmonic

fright and sat before the piano to await his cue. Conductor John Barbirolli raised his baton and led the orchestra through the long opening passage. Julius fidgeted, rubbed his hands up and down his knees, and appeared anxious to get started.

When his turn finally came, he proved, in the words of one critic, “to be a gifted boy.” Another said: “His fingers are fleet, his conceptions clear and intelligent, and he has a musicianly feeling for the contour and flow and rhythm of a phrase.”

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1937

Before Sun Came Smilin’ Through

If you're looking for a breath of fresh air, you might try the top floor of the city’s tallest building.

EA

rising temperature; lowest tonight about 25. -

Entered a Second-Class Matter at Postoffice d.

, Indianapolis, In

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Times Photos.

It’s clear up there, as these pictures, looking down on the smoke blanket, indicate,

PARTITION OF CHINA BEGUN, REPORTS HINT

Nation Hoping for Secret Aid In Fighting Japan.

TOKYO—Partition of China begun by Japanese, preéSs dispatches indicate. NANKING—Ambassadors evacuate. Japanese but 100 miles away. HANKOW-—3000 refugees, including Chinese Government officials and tieir families, arrive in new capital, BRUSSELS—China hopes to get secret aid from certain nations attending Far Eastern Peace Conference,

TOKYO, Nov. 23 (U. P.).—Partition of China already has started to take form north of the Yellow River, it was indicated today by rress dispatches which reported a “burning desire” of certain provinces to form an autonomous federation of states. The Peiping correspondent of the Domei News Agency predicts the drafting of a constitution for the provinces of North China, asserting that “present indications are that a new administration in North China will take definite shape at least before the year end.”

China Hopes for Secret Aid

BRUSSELS, Nov. 23 (U. P.).— China has hopes of obtaining secret aid in the form of war materials. from certain powers attending the (Turn to Page Three)

FACES CHARGE OF WOUNDING NEPHEW

William H. Wainscott, 63, of 1056 E. New York St. today was charged with assault and battery with intent to kill in connection with the wounding of his nephew, Max Wainscott, 22, of 424 E. Merrill St. The youth was reported in serious condition in City Hospital with shotgun wounds in his legs. The a00ting, police said, occurred early today in the elder Wainscott’s home when Max entered the house with his cousin, Mrs. Madge Wessell, 29, also of 1056 E. New York St.

Mr. Wainscott said he did not

recognize his nephew before he fired

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Boy's Eye Cut As Pal Throws Knife at Tree

Robert Waggoner, 14, of 245 Minkner St., may lose the sight of his left eye as result of an accident while he and a companion were playing with a knife on the way to school today, City Hospital attaches said. Allen Millnere, 13, of 241 Minkner St., according to police, was hurling a knife at a tree when Robert ran in front of him. The blade of the knife struck the boy in the eye, police said.

RECOMMENDS 56 FOR FIRE MERIT SCHOOL

The Safety Board today recommended the names of 56 applicants for the Fire Department Merit School to fill 10 vacancies in the department. The Board retired on pension Patrolman Fred Brenan who has been a City policeman for 25 years. The retirement is to become effective Dec. 1. Hearing was started by the Board in the case of Patrolman Emmett McCormack whose dismissal on charges of conduct unbecoming an officer has been recommended by the Police Board.

BAKERY ASKS TEST OF TRUCK WEIGHT LA

‘Act Discriminatory, Richmond Firm Charges.

Constitutionality of the Indiana truck weight tax law, passed by the 1937 Legislature and effective Dec. 31, was attacked in a suit filed in Superior Court here today. The Richmond Baking Co., Richmond, Ind., asked a permanent injunction against enforcement of the law, charging it is “arbitrary, unreasonable znd discriminatory.” The company, which operates 24 trucks, claims the law which places a tax on truck tires, violates Article 1 of the State Constitution. It charges that the law “applies only to owners of truck trailers and tractors and motor busses, not to passenger cars and trailers for passenger cars, and therefore is discriminatory.”

5 IN SAME FAMILY ARE ASPHYXIATED

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. Nov. 23 (U. P).—A family of five was asphyxiated accidentally today by gas from a leaking main. The victims were Raymond C. Yeoman, Y. M, C. A. ‘secretary, his wife, Elizabeth, and their children, two girls and a boy.

Keep track of your $10.-000-a-year men at Washington. Three $10,000-a-year men went back to work for you

on Nov. 15. They are the two members of the United States Senate from Indiana and the member of the House of Representatives from your Congressional dis: trict. Or, if the 96 Senators and 435 Representatives be thought of as functioning for the country as a whole, rather than for their own states and districts, you now have 531 men and women working for

"How They Voted"

you—or "against" you—in the legislative branch at Washington. The Times will publish at regular intervals during the special session and the reqular session to follow a summary account of Congressional activities, with particular reference to the positions taken on important issues by Indiana members, to help you determine whether your employees on Capitol Hill are doing the job as you would have them do it. The first of these articles, covering the first week of the session, appears on Page II.

HOME

Capi sess Sh AL J AN TOR

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FINAL

PRICE THREE CENTS

PALL OF SMOKE MENACES ILL IN | HOSPITALS HERE

‘Fighting Coughing Spells and Respiratory Irritations,” Doctors and Officials of Institutions Report.

HAZE HANGS OVER CITY 12 HOURS

Abatement League Continues Campaign for Cheaper Coke Prices by Asking Gas

Co. for More

Information.

(Another Story, Page 11)

Patients in all but one Indianapolis hospital were re ported to have been “seriously affected” by a smoke pall which descended on the city last night and stayed for 12

hours.

At noon there still was a haze over the downtown section, So dense and so continuous was the smoke, the second attack within two weeks, that doctors and hospital executives reported patients “fighting coughing spells and other respiratory irritations as well as their illnesses.”

OCTOBER SOOT FALL 733 TONS

City Officials Call Rural St. And Massachusetts Ave. Worst.

Seven hundred thirty-three tons of soot fell from Indianapolis’ polluted atmosphere during October, Building Commissioner George R. Popp Jr., and Combustion Engineer J. W. Clinehens announced today. This figure is for combustible carbon only and does not include the thousands of tons of dust and dirt stirred up by automobile traffic and similar causes, the officials announced. The city’s “sootiest” section was at Massachusetts Ave. and Rural St., where carbon fell at the rate of 22.57 tons a square mile. This section, which adjoins railroad yards and factories, accounted for 13.5 per cent of the total. The area surrounding 54th St. and College Ave., where the fall was lightest, accounted for 7.51 tons a square mile or 4.5 per cent of the total. Mile Square Sixth Dirtiest The Mile Square was the sixth

‘| dirtiest area with the station atop

the City Hall recording a soot-fall of 15.72 tons. The survey was based on observations at 12 key points. Station locations and tons of pure soot per square recorded mile were: College Ave. and 22d St. 10.77; 34th St. and Keystone Ave. 8.58; 54th St. and College Ave., 7.51; 38th and Meridian Sts, 10.25; 20th and Harding Sts, 8.1; Sheffield Ave. and Michigan St. 15.99; Kentucky Ave. and Morris St.,, 19.94; Shelby St. and Pleasant Run Blvd. 15.86; E. Washington St. and Emerson Ave. 13.02; Beville and New York Sts., 19.32; Massachusetts Ave. and Rural St, 2257, and City Hall, 15.72. Mr. Popp said the September figures were part of a preliminary survey which showed several adjustments had to be made in the sootfall stations.

‘ROOSEVELT TO OPEN

UTILITY MEETINGS

WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 (U. P.) — President Roosevelt opens a series of conferences with privaté utility cfficials today. He was scheduled to meet this afternoon with Wendell Willkie, bitter foe of the Government’s Tennessee Valley Authority. Mr. Roosevelt, continuing to remain in the White House proper to recuperate from his tooth infection, chose Mr. Willkie as the first private company official with whom to discuss condtions in the utility industry. He is president of Commonwealth & Southern, major private power concern operating in the TVA region. It was expected that Frank R. McNinch, recent chairman of the Federal Power Commission, would participate in the conference. The White House reported continued improvement in the President's condition.

LOCAL WOMAN AIDS IN LAUNCHING PLANE

Mrs. F. W. Freeman, 1857 Orleans St., helped launch the largest flying boat ever built in America in ceremonies at Baltimore, Md. The mother of L. C. McCarty Jr., who engineered the building of the clippers for the Glen L. Martin Co., Mrs. Freeman took part in a broadcast yesterday a few moments before the 63,000-pound flying boat slid off a concrete ramp into the water. This new plane was named the Soviet Clipper. Mr. McCarty was born here and is a graduate of Technical High School. He attended Indiana University one year, and then went to Yale University. He learned to fly Millie in the air corps reserves in

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> The remainder of the popu-

lation, especially those who entered the downtown district before 9 a. m., breathed black smoke so thick that the sun shone through it only as a

dull copper disk.

Today's black cloud apparently was more widespread and remained longer than that of Nov. 10, which City Combusiion Engineer J. W. Clinehens said was “the worst I ever have seen here.”

TEMPERATURES

6am... 20 10 a. m.... 7am... 20 11 a m.... 8a m... 22 12 (Noon). 9 a. m.. 25 1p m...

Downtown office buildings and stores were filled with the blue-gray haze. Weather officials said only a small portion” of the pall was og. Temperatures that reached a new season's low of 13 Sunday, went above freezing this afternoon for the first time in a week, Dr. John Benson, Methodist Hospital superintendent, said that patients and staff members both were affected by the smoke. “It is terrible,” he said. ‘Dectors are attempting to stop the coughing of patients, and some patients are having a hard battle against the smoke which fills the hospital. “Something certainly should be done to abate the worst health menace in the city—and done right away!” Dr. Benson said he believed this pall settled earlier in the night and Sayed longer than the ordinary pall.

28 33 34 35

Just Outside Pall It was reported at St. Vincent's that even the “well persons are coughing out here and the smoke is terrible.” Sister Rose, hospital manager, was not in her office and no official statement could be obtained on the effect of the smoke on patients. At City Hospital, it was reported there was only slight inconvenience to patients. Officials pointed out that the hospital building appeared to be just outside the worst of the pall. “But we'll have a run of asthma patients today,” it was predicted, “We always do when we have one of these smoky days. It makes life unbearable for the asthma sufferer.” Medical Center Affected I. U. Medical Center physicians said the corridors of Riley, Long and Coleman Hospitals were “blue with smoke.” “We're trying to keep it out of the rooms, but it is impossible. Naturally the smoke has an extremely irritating effect on all types of patients,” one physician said. ' He said the only smoke-free room in the hospitals was the air-tight oxygen chamber at Riley. Building Commissioner George R. Popp Jr., who was combustion engineer from 1931 until this year, said the pall was “one of the densest” Indianapolis has seen for several years. He said the density was about the same as that of Nov. 10 except the latest smoke blanket began to sete tle several hours earlier. The Weather Bureau, on the 10th floor of the Consolidated Building, reported that the smoke became so dense at 7:20 a. m. that visibility was reduced to less than 1000 feet and that it remained that dense until 8:39 a. m. $ During that time, the Bureau said, visibility was occasionally reduced to less than 100 feet. Only once during the night did the wind ve(Turn to Page Three)

THE BASEBALL PAYOFF

Subsidized college athletes are not confined to the gridiron. Sib Organized baseball spends thousands on scholarships, incidental expenses and ° bonuses for students who . also know their ABC's on the diamond. College base- | ball coaches cut heavily into | the gravy, too. : ]

Joe Williams tells yom about it today on Page 14.