Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 June 1938 — Page 2

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PAGE 9. a

Train Wreck Toll May Climb to 60: Injured Total 67

Boys’ State

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Llects Et. Wayne Youth

ab bi NR Be hl

Chiang Executes High General For Retreating From Lanfeng; Duce Studies Plan for Truce

Forty Bodies Reported Recovered From Wreckage | Of Crack Coast Flier; Cranes Pull Coaches From Creek Bed Where Trestle Collapsed.

(Continued from Page One) '-

Negro porter aboard the Olympian. His heroism was credited with saving many lives at the risk of his own. He was bruised but his condition was not serious.

Train Service Continues

Custer Creek is 26 miles east ot Miles City, in eastern Miles City is 100 miles from the North Dakota line | Milwaukee trains were running on schedule over Northern Pacific tracks. They were routed over the |

least-shaken of the

Passengers Seek Help The disaster occurred in a wild. |

isolated section where the nearest | telephone is

several miles away.

latter road from Terry to Miles City | There are not even roads in the!

where they returned to the Milwau- | kee main line. In addition to pulling wrecked | cars from the creek, work crews drove piles over the old trestle site for a temporary structure. Railroad | officials said that they expected to have trains running over the tem- | porary bridge by Tuesday. Among the dead were five members of the train's crew. The rest were passengers—men, women and children. Some had been crushed, but most had been drowned when the coaches in which they were riding plunged into the creek which usually is a dry bed but at the time of the disaster was brimming from bank to bank with the waters of a series of cloudbursts. : The bodies were clad in pajamas and nightgowns, which made identification difficult. The garments were mute testimony that the victims had been jolted suddenly into wakefulness only to die a split second later before they could do anything to save themselves. : There could be no positive count of those who had been on the train until the railroad company checked the tickets sold at all stations between here and Chicago, where the train began its run Friday nignt. bound for the Pacific Northwest, but 150 was an authoritative estimate. Some bodies were swept downstream by the torrent which was powerful enough to move an all-steel Pullman car 50 feet. It may be days | before all bodies are recovered, and | the exact number of dead established. The body of a woman victim was recovered several downstream from the trestle.

Fast Operating Train

ara. the night in search of aid, but | thre hours passed before help from | the outside arrived. When the train | faided to reach Miles City, SXDIo}S* | tory trains were sent out from the! nearest points on each side. K | be done for those who had been in | HEROISM MAR S the creek. The torrent still raged down | | the bed when the first rescue trains | arrived. were piled into were taken into Miles City. | trains were rushed to the scene and by dawn the Miles City hospital was crowded with the injured and every doctor in the | mobilized to treat them. | i

iy hurt. legs were numerous. been hurt by having been thrown ! violently out of their berths. of them were bandaged and per- | mitted to leave the hospital, and today scores of them, heads swathed in bandages, arms in slings, waited at morgues for more bodies to arrive from | the bodies of the survivors missing. who members of their families. ”

Several passengers set out in|

Nothing had been done or could |

cars which plunged into the

The most seriously hurt | these trains and | More

vicinity had been |

Of the injured, none was seriousBroken arms and broken | Almost all had |

Mos:

the scene. Those were

had been accompanied by

Casualty List

IDENTIFIED DEAD Frank Merrifield, Miles City, en- |

miles gineer.

A. E. McCoy, Miles City, fireman. Milton Nordberg, Aberdeen, S. D.,

The train was one of the fastest | railway mail clerk.

operating on American railroads. It was roaring across the high plain country of eastern Montana where the road bed is solid, the towns few, and high speeds are customary. A short while before it reached the trestle over the creek named for the hero of the Indian Wars who, with | all of his men, were massacred by Indians nearby, rain began to pour in torrents, but it did not obscure the right of way. Surviving members of the train crew said they could feel the train slow slightly as it approached the bridge. Engineer Frank Merrifield, a veteran of the division, apparently had pulled back his throttle some, but the train still was going fast. | Estimates of the speed varied, but 40 miles an hour was the consensus of railroad men. There was no water on the track —nothing to warn the man in the| cab of approaching disaster. A torrent 30 feet high was raging down the usually dry creek, but he couldn't see it until it was too late The huge locomotive roared over! the bridge and reached the other side So did the tender and the baggage coach. But the trestle collapsed suddenly and completely | 8 beneath the mail coach and the| tourist coach directly behind it and | they, with the track beneath them | plunged into the creek. Their weight, multiplied by their plunge, literally

jerked the locomotive off the track! S.

and into the air and backward —like | the tip of a lashing whip. |

Engine Cuts Car in Two

Mont.

The locomotive came down on top of the baggage car, cutting it into! two as though it were a knife. From the other end of the train two Pullman cars were jerked into the torrent by the couplings which held fast. Another Pullman tottered on what remained of the trestle for per..aps five minutes while its passengers, marshaled by a heroic Negro porter, scrambled out to safety, then it plunged. Five cars—a dining car, the club and observation car, two standard Pullmans and a bedroom puilman | remained on the track. | Railroad company officials said | the trestle was in good repair and had been inspected recently. Al trackwalker had gone over it an hour before the train passed and | found the structure sound. It] seemed evident the sudden torrent | had washed out its under-pinnings and that only the speed of the train carried the locomotive and baggage car across before it collapsed. Milton Nordberg, of Aberdeen, S D., railway mail clerk; Fred Rasch-| ke of Minneapolis, Railway Express clerk, and Charles James of Miles | City, Mont, baggageman, were crushed to death—Mr. James by the | locomotive which cut his car in half. | Mr. Merrifield and his fireman, A. McCoy of Miles City were found dead in their cab, apparently | trapped and drowned.

Mother and Babies Killed i

Ore.

Mont.

« D

Fred Raschke, Minneapolis, rail-

way express clerk.

Mrs, J. L. Warning, Springfield,

gageman. |

Mrs, Milton Leer, Hettinger, N. D. |

Mrs. Leroy Bailey, Billings, Mont. | Juanita” Bailey, 6, and Joyce

Bailey, 3, daughters of Mrs. Bailey.

Mrs. Ernest Johnson, Miles City. | Mrs. Josephine Freelich, Lem- |

mon, S, D,

Dickson Post, Omaha, Neb.

John N. Dana, Hartford, Wash.

SERIOUSLY INJURED Mrs. R. C. Daniels, Deer Lodge, | Lucille Sturmley, Keldron, S. D, | Albert Dobbins, Chicago. John Housmith, New York City, Mike Smykowski, Chicago. | D. Hanscom, New York City. SLIGHTLY INJURED Raymond Noftaker, Baker, Mont. Fred Mohr, Garden City, 8S. D. Mrs. Fred Mohr, Garden City,

J. L. Warning, Sprizgfield, Ore. Mrs. D. L. Herrold and baby,

Planington, 8S. D.

Mrs. Guy Herman, White Lake, D.

John F. Fuller, Mobridge, S. D. Mrs. A. G. Fuller, Mobridge, S. D.!

Rhea Dora Ellis, Great Falls, Mrs. Marian Wheeler, Seattle, Lorraine Olson, Ronan, Mont. Mrs. Ralph Olson, Ronan, Mont. Mrs. P. C. Williamson, and son,

Waterloo, Mont,

C. C. McGee, Miles City. James R. Reece, Miles City.

John George Lallas, Bellingham, | Wash,

Anna Lallas, Bellingham, Wash. Thomas Townsend, Bryn Mawr,

Pa.

John Townsend, Bryn Mawr, Pa. Miles Caskie, Mitchell, S. D. John Tressman, St. Paul. Frank Moran, Chicago. Edward S. Richard, Chicago. Louis Williams, Chicago. Elenzie Woodson, Chicago. Paul Gehrig, Minneapolis. Mrs, Paul Gehrig, Minneapolis. Barbara Gehrig, Minneapolis. Jack Gehrig, Minneapolis. Paul Gehrig Jr, Minneapolis, Leo Gehrig, Minneapolis. Maureen Gehrig, Minneapolis, Helen Gehrig, Minneapolis. Leo Mohr, Garden City, 5. D.

| passenger train a hero. Passengers

|liams bravely aid a passenger | Charles James, Miles City, bag- | escape from a car seconds before hj Peru,

! job,” he =aid. | such

| to go to bed.

WRECK RESCUES

Negro Porter Saves Many Pasengers at Risk of Own Life.

MILES CITY, Mont, June 20 (U. P).—Lewis Williams, Negro porter, emerged from the wreck of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific

told of his efforts which saved the lives of others at the risk of his own. | Miss Evelyn Bratiud of Minneap- | olis, Minn., M. V. Coquist, New York | City. and J. R. Knight, Chicago, |

| praised Williams.

Miss Bratiud, who was sleeping | when the trestle collapsed, said the | porter’s first thought was for his; passengers. “He came running | through the car,” she said. “He was asking if everyone was all right. Tt was then we learned what had hap- | : pened.” | Mr. Coquist, who took candid | camera pictures of the wreck, praised the entire crew. “The train crew was dandy—our porter got us | out and I had my clothes on and| below), was elected governor of just grabbed my bag and camera.” | the Hoosier Boys’ State, in the election today at the State Fair Ground, where 600 boys are encamped for a week under auspices of the American Legion's Indiana Department. Russell B. Rhodes, Legion Department comdropped through the trestle into the | mander, congratulates “Governor” creek. Urbine, who was elected on the "I saw what I believe was the | Nationalist ticket, and offers cononly person to escape from Car B| dolences to the losing, candidate, (still submerged in the creek). He | Gerald Hutton, Bedford, who ran broke out a window and our porter | on the Federalist ticket. The vote helped him to the bridge abutment | was close, young Urbine’s home on our side.” county winning for him, C. S. Franke, 44 St. Louis, presi- | The boys conducted their elecdent of the American Furnace Co., tion along the lines of regular powas sleeping in a lower berth. | litical elections, using Australian He said: “The most remarkable | ballots for City tickets and voting thing about the catastrophe was the | machines for County and State reaction of those involved. | tickets, The candidates, nomin-

Dick Urbine, Ft. Wayne (center,

Describes Rescue

Mr. Knight, whose vacation was interrupted by the wreck, saw Wil-

* | denied that warships had been sunk. |

ated in party conventions yesterday, campaigned last night and today, using a public address sys= tem. Paul William Marksbury,

Richmond, candidate for County Clerk, is shown above, on the table, giving a campaign speech with Lieut. Gov. Henry Schricker in the audience. Election officials reported that except for the office, of governor and a few minor offices, won by the Nationalist party, all the other offices apparently were swept by the Federalist candidates. Following a band concert from 7 to 8 o'clock tonight, the judge=ship winners will be sworn in by a Justice of the Indiana Supreme or Appellate Court, and these boys, in turn, will swear in the others elected.

“The passengers displayed coolness | and showed no signs of hysteria. “The trainmen were splendid. | They circulated about the groups of | passengers and took fine care of | everyone. As everyone was natural- | ly quite nervous, their presence was | a great aid.” Passenger Took Photos Mr. Coquist saw the disaster | through the eyes of a camera fan.! “It was the greatest opportunity If ever had

(Another Story, Page 7)

3 Dr. John Erle Grinnell, of Stout to do a candid camera |p,ctityte, Menominee, Wis., "Never have 1 seen |y.¢ appointed dean of instruction

wh barBulent Water. Neve had hy the trustees of Indiana State there been so much gruesome drama | ria cher College.

enacted before the eyek of any sur- | vivor, so far as I know. Why, I| The trustees, in a meeting at the

| can hardly talk. It's different from | State House, also named Glenn M.

Martinsville, basketball

being just excited. the first pictures.” : Mr. Knight's first warning of the! Dr. Grinnell is to assume his new wreck was a jolt. “I was just ready | duties at the State Teachers Coilege It took me about five lat the end of the summer session,

minutes to get my bag and get out. Chosen From 25

I think I ¢ | Curtis, BO! | coach.

Wisconsin Man Appointed Teachers College Dean

| Secondary Schools,” and “Interpret |

{ ing the Public Schools.” | He received his A. B. degree from

today | the University of North Dakota, his |

| A. M. degree from the University of { Minnesota, and his Ph. D. degree ! from Leland Stanford University, | He is 41, married, and has three sons,

SHELBYVILLE BOY DROWNS SHELBYVILLE, June 20 (U. P.). —Funeral services will be held tomorrow for George Zobel Jr, 186, whose body was found Creek where he had been fishing

in Lewis |

| When 1 left the coach water was| g;,... 1032 he has been dean of | running in the top vestibule. I ran the liberal arts and education di through the car and got a dizzy |. t Stout Institute. He was feeling—you know the kind you get ‘Sion at Stout In . “4 when you run on a slanting surface, | chosen from a field of 25 educators. The car had begun to settle.” He succeeds Dr. J. W. Jones, who Miss Bratiud, an accountant with | recentiy’ resigned to take a position | 2 Minneapo'is insurance company, at North West Missouri State [ wasn't frightened. | Teachers College. “I thought the train had been de-| Prior to going to Stout Institute, railed and wasn't frightened. Then | Dr. Grinnell was a member of the I raised the curtain beside my | faculty of Minnesota and Stanford berth and saw water rushing be- | University. He also was dean at the neath my window. Our car was | North Dakota State School of tilted toward the water. Forestry, and at present is on the “Very foolishly, I stopped to pick | summer school faculty at the Uniup my clothing before I left the | versity of Colorado. car. | Headed School Systems “Everyone was very calm. All the| He also has served as principal of passengers and the train crew were | high schools at Cooperstown, N. D,, | Very quiet, and were doing every- | and Pine City, Minn. and head of | thing they could to help one "| pu English department and head of

and swimming. Coroner W. R. Tindall said he evidently had suffered an attack of cramps.

other.” publications at the Albert Lea, | Minn., High School. p

3 BROKERS T0 SERVE |, niece & mimi mages ALL 7 ch? K

Lewis Brown, Perry, lowa. Mrs. Lewis Brown, Perry, Iowa.

Shirley Brown, a daughter, Perry, | | Towa.

Grace Hatchan, McLoughlin, 8. D. Ralph Yontz, Butte, Mont. Henry Shippley, Miles City. Francis Berry, Mobile, Ala. Arthur M. Jackson, Chicago. Edgar Peoples, Chicago. Carl Boefield, Condon, Ore. Warren Peabody, Montana. H. E. Bernadict, Milwaukee. Dr. G. M. Leonard, Spokane, Wash. Evelyn Jansen, Freeport, Ill. Kermit Kolaster, Aberdeen, S. D. Mrs. R. F. Caskie, Mitchell, S. D. Mrs. R. F. Cackie, Mitchell, S. D. R. Bruisado, address unknown. Harry Buckley, Chicago. Mrs. Harry Hook, Valley Ford,

broke it, pushed himself out, and | wash.

manaked to swim through the tor- | rent to shore. | The locomotive and coaches plunged into the creek amid a frightening crunch of steel and the shrill hiss of steam. There were no outcries from the victims. They were drowned too quickly. For an instant, | survivors heard not a sound, then there was a hysterical shriek from

Eleanor Hook, Valley Ford, Wash. |

C. J. Hahn, St. Marys, Ida. Mrs. C. J. Hahn, St. Marys, Ida. Catherine Hahn, St. Marys, Ida. W. O. Blackman, Hinsdale, III. A. W. Olson, Tacoma, Wash. Mike Caine, Miles City.

Mrs. Rhoda E. Lear, Omaha, Neb. |

Janice Flaeger, Miles City.

one of the ears that had remained _ ron on the track which seemed to set |f§ ™F FINER LINENS | § at Lower Prices loose a chorus of terrified screams.

They heard women crying and men and women calling out to one another and to children. Then came the sharp,

barking | — voices of the surviving members of :

CONSPIRACY TERM two books, “The Rise of the North ASK YOUR

| Central Association of Colleges and "GIRLS GROCER | Je Pe” —

CHICAGO, June 20 (U, P) — | The president of the defunct Hoag- | id {land & Allum Brokerage firm, whose | © officers were accused of bilking customers of $750,000 while leading them on with rosy tales of a fortune | « In munitions “deals,” pled guilty to- |: day to embezzlement and con- | spiracy charges. : George F. Allum drew sentences |: of 1 to 10 years in the State Peni- | tentiary on the first charge and |1 to 5 years on the second. : Two other officers, Olaf Larson, |. | vice president, and Henry Engel, | secretary treasurer, pled guilty to | the conspiracy charges and were | sentenced to 1 to 5 years each. Embezzlement charges against them | were nolle prossed.

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Officials Seek to Curb Nazi Hysteria Against Jews.

SHANGHAI, June 20 (U. P).— Gen. Lung Mao-shan, commander of the 88th Division, ‘which comprises the best of Gen. Chiang-Kai-sheks own troops, was executed Friday for disobeying orders, it was officially announced by the Chinese today. The execution of Gen. Lung was interpreted as a general stiffening of Chinese resistance as the heaviest concentration of war machines and men since the outbreak of the war poured into the narrow Yangste Valley below the provisional capital at Hankow. Gen. Lung was held responsible {for the fall of Lanfeng, strategic city on the Lunghai Railroad line. He disobeyed the orders of Gen. Chiang and retreated. Later he recaptured the city but the counteroffensive was considered more costly | than continuous defenses. | The Chinese claimed to have in- | flicted a severe setback against the | Japanese at Anking, on the Yangtse. | Eight Chinese airplanes were said {to have bombed and sunk at least | four Japanese warships. A Jap- | anese communique admitted that a Chinese bomb had damaged a [Japanese transport at Anking, but

| TOKYO, June 20 (U. P.).—Gen. | Kazushige Ugaki, Foreign Minister, asked foreign powers today to take new measures to protect their nations in China because, he said the area of hostilities may be greatly expanded.

Duce Considers Asking

Truce in Spain ROME, June 20 (U, P.).—Premier Benito Mussolini is considering a British suggestion that he seek a truce in the Spanish civil war as one means of speeding the operation of | the Anglo-Italian pact, it was con- ( firmed in well-informed quarters today. Diplomatic circles reported that Lord Perth, British Ambassador, made the suggestion to Count Galeazzo Ciano, Italian Foreign Minister,

‘PILOT AT RICHMOND CLAIMS NEW RECORD

RICHMOND, June 20 (U, P.).—| A. R. McDaniels, 24-year-old co-.| manager of the Richmond airport, | today claimed a new world record | for tailspins. | Yesterday the pilot, who was in- | jured seriously last November in a crash with the same plane, spun 55 | times from an altitude of 11,000 feet | before landing the ship at the air- | port, He said the old record of 52 turns was established in 1934 by a | South Bend pilot. {

said that it would be difficult to guess his reaction. Lord Perth and Count Ciano met today and discussed a compromise on the pact with regard to the Spanish civil war. The agreement originally was to go into effect upon the withdrawal of volunteers from the conflict.

PARIS; June 20 (U. P.).—The French Government today forbade shipments of war equipment and munitions to the Spanish Loyalists by way of France, thus making French application of the nonintervention principle complete,

Anti-Jewish Hysteria

Quieted at Berlin

BERLIN, June 20 (U. P.)—The hysterical purge of unwanted Jews, which has sent hundreds to prisons and concentration camps in the past | week, settled down to a systematic | weeding out of undesirable elements today while the Government once more turned its attention to Czechoslovakia. One reason advanced for the sudden lull in anti-Semitic terrorism was that elements within the Nazi Party had exceeded themselves, that they had carried the campaign further than the Government wished. With this in view, it was asserted, Government leaders sought to divert public attention from the anti-

Jewish drive to the German minority problem in Czechoslovakia. The latest incident was the reported “invasion” of a Czechoslovak | airplane into German territory. An official protest was sent to the Praha Government.

PRAHA, Cze:hoslovakia, June 20 (U. P.).—Soviet Russia is seeking a | definite promise from Poland to | come to the aid of Czechoslovakia | in event of a war, it was reported here today.

Communists Purge

Party in Ukraine

MOSCOW, June 20 (U. P)—A | purge of the Communist Party in |

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De Valera Wins

‘Irish Election

DUBLIN, June 20 (U. P.).—Prime Minister Eainon de Valera's Fianna Fail Party has obtained an absolute majority in Eire’s Parliament, ree turns from Friday's general elec tion showed today. By midafternoon the count was Fianna Fail, 70; Fine Gael (United Ireland), 40; Independents 7 and Labor 6. De Valera had the possi= bility of winning five of the re= maining 15 seats, of which Labor might take three.

BARCELONA, June 20 (U. P.).— Rebel airplanes dropped 20 bombs on Barcelona in two attacks today and then swept southward for an other general raid along the Loyal ist Mediterranean coast, During one of the Sunday raids a bomb struck the American steame er Wisconsin, owned by Bulk Care riers Corp. of New York. The bomb damaged the 6000-ton vessel's bridge and port deck badly. It was reported also that the interior was wrecked and that it would be necessary to tow the ship from port, There were no casualties because the crew was ashore.

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