Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 January 1940 — Page 9

‘t Hoosier Vagabond

have heard that . + Canal, from Atlantic to © ‘of west. Also for years I

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NESDA, ANUARY 241940]

CRISTOBAL, Canal Zone, Jan. 24.—For years I a ship going through the Panama Pacific, travels’ east. instead have heard that this belief that somebody just thought up to startle the public. : So I have constituted myself a posse of one-half person to trace down, this utterly unimportant fact and nail it to the masthead. And boys, I've got it. After reading this, you may get up and argue it in-any drawing room in America, and know you're right. The first rumor is true. Ships going from the Atlantic to the Pacific do travel eastward. Not straight east, but egsterly. And : there’s no catch to it. : F. It’s simply that the Isthmus of Panama at this when the Canal diggers cut across it at an angle, following the lowest points, the Canal turned out to run northwest to southeast. The south end is 27 miles east of the north end! That ends that. Next case. ; : 8 = 's Checking the Statistics The Panama Canal, despite the war, has just had one of its biggest years. The biggest, in fact, since the lush days of ’29. : In 1939 the Canal handled 5928 ocean-going vessels. That makes an average of 16.24 ships going through the Canal every day. From our room in the Washington Hotel we can see every ship that enters or leaves Limon Bay, which is the Atlantic entrance to the Canal. So one day I got out my rocking chair and my spyglasses, to check up on the ships going through. And ssure enough, there were exactly 16.24 ships. They came on the average of every hour and a half. Mostly I just gave them a casual glance, and marked

"’ them down on my chart.

-

But after the 16th one passed, I really got alert.

Our Town

IT STRIKES me that Dr. Verne K. Harvey, Secretary of the Board of Health over at the State House, might have waited for the sub-zero weather to subside before springing the news of the decline in the birthrate in Indiana. : : ~ A-careful reading of Dr. Harvey’s report reveals 2315 fewer births during 1939 than in 1938. Which is the same as saying that the birthrate for 1000 population dropped from 17.3 in 1938 to 16.6 last year. Even more painful was my discovery that it’s been going down steadily ever since 1924 it stood somewhere around 22. I learned that by way of the 1940 World Almanac (Page 520) which, curiously enough, arrived the very day Dr. Harvey released his discovery—the very same day, too, the thermometer hovered around six below zero. Everything coming at once was almost more than I could bear. : : As a rule, I consider my duty done after recording isolated incidents, no matter how baffling or disturbing they may be.| Today’s case is different, however. It calls for interpretation. Without interpretation, Dr. Harvey's discovery would destroy us were we to brood overlong on if. ®

- Master Minding the Figures

- All right, let’s interpret. Using the methods of master minds—those who get up our tables of statistics—it is not unreasonable to suppose that 1689 of the 2315 babies which were never born would have

' lived to maturity. At which point,” if they weren't

slick enough to find a way out of it, they would have become what economists call “the gainfully occupied workers.” Never having been born, however, the only

" thing left to believe is that they remain idle. Result:

An eventual shortage of 388 industrial workers, 156 white-collar jobs, 163 farmers, 472 wives, 201 physicians including one family doctor, 123 beauty shoppe operators, 49 dance band leaders, 33 tavern operators, 92 insurance agents, four bug exterminators, one deep sea diver, one-half of one architect and six and onehalf columnists. !

Washington

ST. LOUIS, Jan. 24.—Not until this year’s political fighting is over will it be possible to say definitely whether the notorious Pendergast political machine has been smashed. Boss Pendergast’s penal colony in Leavenworth penitentiary is growing daily. : Pendergast is eligible to parole in April. As the Democratic primaries come in August, some concern is expressed lest he have time to reorganize. That is not likely to happen. Boss Pendergast himself is through. His parole will forbid him to take any active part in politics. He cannot so much as give political advice. The question is rather whether the fragments -of the organization which he headed are to : continue dominant in Missouri Although the machine was based in Kansas

A politics.

-- City and surrounding Jackson County, it extended * throughout the state and included the court house

boys in most of the counties in Missouri. The Kansas City sections of the organization will be tested Feb. 13 when charter amendments are io be voted on. The state-wide tests will come largely through the Demo-

“s cratic Senatorial primary in August.

- Rewards Are Uncertain

.One unfortunate thing about politics is that its rewards are uncertain. Newton D. Baker, for instance, spent the best part of his life in notable public service, was+one of Cleveland’s great liberal mayors and then served as wartime Secretary of War in the _ Wilson cabinet. Ending his service with the inauguration of Harding, Baker took a night train back home to Cleveland. He was greeted on his homecoming by exactly one person—a diligent newspaper reporter.” They went to Baker’s hotel apartment and

“ the retiring public servant was a trifle grim.

‘My Day

WASHINGTON, Tuesday.—Two interesting young English people came to see me yesterday afternoon.

: They started out with $250 each and plan to travel

Be bn

around the world, earning their way as they go along. The war made them give up their plan of encircling : the globe, but they have covered 35,000 miles and seen more of this country than a great many of us have. ” .At the outbreak of the war, they went at once to Canada and volunteered their services, but they are not needed yet, so they are back in Washington seeing a little more. Charming and attractive, they are successful because of their faith in their own ability to swing a plan which to some of us might have seemed impossible of achievement. Last night the Newspaperwomen’s Club held their annual benefit for the children’s hospital and took over Keith’s Theater for the first showing of the movie: “Abe Lincoln in Illinois.” Mr. Massey, Miss Gordon, Miss Howard and Mr. Cromwell appeared on the stage at the close of the performance. The house was packed and I think everybody appreciated that it is » most successful and artistic production. To some of us, however, it is'more than that. I feel it is a very moving reminder of the principles which a great man, who did not want to fight, finally

-U. S. Shipping Leads

point runs east and west. And,

“for their public service, which has been little short

the Pendergast henchmen are talking up Prosecutor

- By Ernie Pyle

It seémed to me the rest of the day’s quota would never come. But finally it eased past the wing of the hotel and came steaming into the bay—a quarter of a ship! | > i : Down here you never say a ship “went through” the Canal. You say it “transited” the Canal. 'It is used that way in the newspapers, and in personal conversation. = The Canal pilots are supposed to have about the best * jobs in the Zome. They get good pay, have plenty of time off. After a pilot brings a ship through from the Pacific side he goes to the Washingion Hotel and stays till the next train goes back across

the Isthmus.

The railroad track extends on beyond the Cristobal station for about a quarter of a mile, and the end of the track is right up close to the hotel. All the trains come back up there to the end of the track, and the

pilots don’t have to walk more than 100 yards from the lobby to get on the train. It is my opinion that they won’t last long, wasting their energy like that in the tropics. Now the way I did. it out in China, I always had four boys carry me across the lobby. . , . As for ships going through the Canal, the war hasn’t given the crews that handle them a great deal of excitement. The distribution of ships as to nationalities has remained about the same, except for German vessels. There has been only one German ship through since the war. The United States holds the lead in ships as usual, Great Britain is second, and Norway third. In December six Italian and six French ships went through the Canal. Canal transits dropped off in September and October, but zoomed again in November. Of the 583 ships that transited in December, 79 were British. Since the Canal was officially opened in 1914, more than 100,000 ships have. transited. And what good did it do them? Where are they now? Sic transit gloria, :

By Anton Scherrer

Or to put it another way, the 1689 habies which were never born represent a loss of.997 subscribers to the National Geographic Magazine to say nothing of 1143 toothbrushes the manufacturers of dentifrices figured on in making up their radio budgets. Multiply this by what's going on all over the country and you'll realize the fix we're in. Dr. Harvey's discovery has its bright side, however. Obviously, there will be a shortage of criminals, the corollary of which is that Indianapolis won't need as many policemen. Most comforting, . thought, is the revelation that every time the birthrate goes down the number of mothers’ increases. Sure, because if you examine the statistics in the State House, to say nothing of those contained in the World Almanac, you'll discover that something like six mothers die for every thousand children born. If 2315 babies weren't born, it stands to reason that 14 mothers must have lived. Which, of course, brings up the question whose mothers were they?—a problem I will let Dr. Harvey wrestle with. *

8 =»

Something for the Future

“That leaves me only to tell what happened in the City Hall during the cold spell. On the very day Dr. Harvey released his alarming report, James E. Deery, City Controller, received a report from the trustees of the Cornelia Cole Fairbanks Memorial Fund. Back in 1918 when the will of Charles W. Fairbanks was probated, you may recall that Item 12 bequeathed the sum of $50,000 to the City of Indianapolis “to be invested by said city at compound interest for the period of 500 years.” At the end of each 50 years the increase of the principal was to be used for educational and charitable purposes. And “at the end of 500 years,” said Mr. Fairbanks, “the principal sum may be used together with the remaining accretions thereof for effecting the purposes of this bequest.” Properly construed this means, of course, that Mr. Fairbanks was looking out. for the future children of Indianapolis. The report Mr. Deery received showed that the Fairbanks Fund had doubled in value ($100,041.62) in the course of the last 22 years. Goodness only knows what it will be at the end of 500 years. By which time, if I read Dr. Harvey's report right, there won't be any children left in Indianapolis.

By Raymond Clapper

“From now on,” Baker said, “I am going to make money.” 3 He made money, and his liberal friends wondered why he forsook a lifetime of public service as a liberal reformer for the life of a rich corporation law practice. They weren't down at the railroad station that morning or they might have understood. So it is in public life. Boss Pendergast and some of his crooked henchmen have learned that the wages of sin are long hours behind the bars .of Leavenworth. The two gentlemen who labored with courage and great ability to inflict those sentences are learning that the rewards of civic virtue are most elusive and uncertain.

The Stark Candidacy

Governor Lloyd C. Stark, who opened the fight on Pendergast, has announced himself as a candidate for the Democratic Senatorial nomination. U, S. District Attorney Maurice M. Milligan, who fought the Pendergast cases through the courts and obtained a sensational series of convictions, intends to announce also for the Senate seat, as a rival of Stark. Senator Truman, the incumbent, an obscure Pendergast henchman, is the third candidate. Governor Stark and District Attorney Milligan both deserve great reward

of heroic. Yet one of them is bound to lose. Already the fight is extremely bitter. Curiously

Milligan, and vowing to cut Governor Stark’s throat. They blame Stark for the jailing of Pendergast and the breakup of their big-money political racket. Governor Stark’s defeat in the primaries would be regarded as a victory for the Pendergast remnants and might well bring about the machine’s reconstruction. : While all of this goes on, Senator Bennett Clark has quietly gained control of the national convention delegation, which Governor Stark might have captured and thrown behind the Roosevelt Administration had he not been otherwise engaged.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

found he could only preserve by fighting. There comes a time, as Lincoln’s life illustrates, when one must stand up and be counted for the things in ‘which one believes. :

I reached the theater to find it picketed by the Negro people who are barred from all District of Columbia theaters except their own. I have been in many theaters in the deep South where Negro people are admitted, even though segregated. It seemed to me particularly ironic that in the natfon’s capital there should be a ruling which would prevent this race from seeing this picture in the same theater with white people. It may not have been quite fair or wise to picket this particular show, because the house had been taken over by an organization for a charity. As the evening progressed; however, I could not forget the banners outside, partly because I have a deep-rooted dislike of crossing picket lines. Though this was not a strike where any question of unfair labor conditions was involved, still I could not help feeling that there was another question here of unjust discrimination, and it made me unhappy. This occurrence in the nation’s capital wags but a symbol of the fact that Lincoln’s plea for equality of citizenship and for freedom, has never been quite accepted in our nation. May we not, if we limit the freedoms of people because of race. or religion or color, some day find that our own freedom is limited too? Not in the way that the Constitution limits it for us all, but in other arbi-

Union State Council to Meet Sunday; Local Officials to Be Queried.

A special committee of the In-

dianapolis Industrial Union Council, | C. I. 0, will convene tomorrow |

night to investigate conditions in Marion County which force 3652 WPA workers to remain idle for lack of projects. ; Disclosure that a total of 12,000 certified workers were unemployed throughout the State because of failure of local governmental units to provide projects was made yesterday by State WPA Administrator John K. Jennings. Mr. Jennings placed the responsibility for providing projects and adequately financing them on the shoulders of local officials. In addition, he warned that 5000 people now being certified for the WPA would swell the ranks of the certified workers in a few days.

State Leaders to Meet

Meanwhile, the WPA situation in the State will be discussed at the legislative conference of the State Industrial Union Council to be held here Sunday, John Bartee, secretary, said. C. I. O. leaders throughout the State will meet to formulate a legislative program for 1940. Locally, Orval J. Kincaid, Indianapolis Industrial Union Council president, said the WPA committee was formed last night to investigate reports of unemployed WPA work-

ers received prior to Mr. Jennings’ A

statement. The committee will ask City and County officials to determine the reason for their reported failure to provide work for the WPA workers, he said.

Confer on River Project

While City and County officials studied Mr. Jennings’ statement, Mayor Reginald H. Sullivan said he would confer Friday with Flood Control Board President M. G. Johnson on the possibility of employing additional men on the White River Flood Control project. With a capacity of almost 2000 men, the project has been employing about 900, according to Mr. Johnson. The Flood Board president, who alse is City engineer, said that new WPA regulations had cut down the contribution of the Board as sponsor from 25 to 11 per cent. To keep the present 900 men employed as well as to employ additional men, it is necessary for the Flood Board to raise more money, Mr. Johnson said. Marion County Commissioners said they did not see what. they could do to employ more WPA workers on County road projects which virtually have shut down because of the cold weather. Commissioner William Brown said additional WPA workers would be needed next spring when the County begins work on several new projects, including the landscaping of the Julietta Hospital. No additional workers can be employed on the few road projects now operating parttime, he said.

6. 0, P. DISCUSSES NATIONAL SESSION

- The Indiana Republican Central Committee convened at the Columbia Club today to vote its preference on the date and place for the national G. O. P. convention next summer. Meeting with the committee were Will G. Irwin, Columbus, national committeeman for Indiana, and Mrs. Grace Reynolds, Cambridge City, national commiiteewoman, The conference was called by State Chairman Arch N. Bobbitt at the request of Mr. Irwin and Mrs. Reynolds who said they wanted the committee’s views before they attend a national committee meeting at Washington next month, The Central Committee is expected to give its preference on whether the national convention should be held before or after the Democratic national convention, Mr. Bobbitt said other details of the 1940 campaign program in Indiana would be discusssed by the committee following the luncheon meeting. !

AHEPA CONVENTION GUEST TO BE CHOSEN

Members of the local chapter of the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association will meet at 8:30 o'clock tonight to choose a guest to attend its national banquet March 4 at Washington. George S. Geroulis, local chapter president, said .either Rep. Louis Ludlow, Senator Frederick VanNuys or Social Security Administrator Paul V. McNutt would be asked to attend the banquet. Rep. Ludlow and Senator VanNuys are honorary members. and Mr. McNutt was initiated when he was Governor. The association, known as “Ahepa,” has about 150 members in the Indianapolis region, 800 in the state and about 40,000 in the country. It was founded in 1923 at Atlantic City. :

CROSBY, FINN FUND LOSE IN GOLF MEET

HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 24 (U. P.).— Crooner Bing Crosby and several other Hollywood movie stars were back at the studios today after the Ryder Cup Golf Team humbled them 3 to 1 in a bob-tailed tournament during a driving rain yesterday. : The matches were called off because of the storm at the end of nine holes, Another loser was the Finnish Relief Fund. All receipts for the tournament were to go to the fund, but participants almost outnumbered

trary and sinister ways? , 4 oe N rs at 5

spectators,

i

i :

SPECIAL C. 10. a Snow Covers Hub the City 30DY T0PROBE [IS jl WPA IDLENESS

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Times Photo.

Here’s how Monument Circle looks when lashed by winter’s blasts. The heavy snow which blanketed the hub of Hoosierdom made driving a little hazardous, but motorists moved with caution, kept in a straight, narrow lane and there were no mishaps.

LOCAL CHAMBER TO FETE 14 MEN

Members of 1890 Commer-

cial Club to Be Guests at 50th Anniversary.

Fourteen men, K whose names. appear on the 1890 membership list of the old Commercial Club, predecessor to the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, and arn still members of the Chamber, will be honored Friday night at a banquet celebrating the C. of C.’s 50th anniversary. . The men are Albert Baker, Arthur Bohn, Hilton U. Brown, Fortune, Frank B. Fowler, the Rev. M. L. Haines, J. K. Lilly, George J. Marott, George J. Mayer, W. L. O’Connor, John C. Shaffer, Franklin Vonnegut, Evans Woollen and W. A. Zumpfe,

Grandson of Inventor to Speak

The banquet will be held in the Riley Room of the Cldypool Hotel following an open house at the In-

‘| ternational Harvester Co.s new

plant at 5565 Brookville Road. Fowler McCormick, Chicago, grandson of Cyrus Hall McCormick who invented the reaper, will be the principal speaker. Mr. McCormick is second vice president of the International in charge of manufacturing, and he will bring a group of 11 executives with him as banquet guests. 232 Firms to Be Honored

At the banquet special honor will be paid the 232 firms which have been continuously in business in the city a half century or more. New Chamber officers will be installed. They are W. I. Longsworth, president; George A. Kuhn, Paul L. McCord, George S. Olive and Edward Zink, vice presidents, and James S. Rogan, treasurer. C. D. Alexander, outgoing president, will preside. Stowell C. Wasson is vice chairman of the general arrangements committee. Mr. McCord is chairman of the banquet committee and Harper J. Ransbutg and Henry L. Dithmer are members; George S. Olive is chairman of the program committee and Paul Richey - and Meier S. Block are members; I. W.

‘| Davies is chairman of the speaker

committee and H. T. Pritchard and Charles: W. Chase are members; Ralph S. Norwod is chairman of the decorations committee and Edwin J. Wuensch and Frank A. Montrose are members, and Edward W. Harris is chairman of the 50-year firms committee and Felix McWhirter and Almus G. Ruddell are members,

KILLED BY FALLING TREE

ELKHART, Ind, Jan, 24 (U. P.). —Harry Graybille, 25, of near Middlebury, died yesterday from a fractured skull received Friday when he was caught under a falling tree. His brother, John, 24, was in an Elkhart hospital with several fractured vertebrae.

William |

License clerks say these couples

marriage license under the act. Health authorities say there is spective bride and bridegroom to hold such fears. The act, which provides for premarital blood tests, will entail no considerable cost. Health authorities point out there is no reason for young people to fear medical disapproval of their marriage. Officials believe any anxiety by persons planning to marry springs ‘solely from a lack of understanding of the law’s regtiirements. The chief burden placed upon altar-bound couples under the law, is a waiting period of between 3 to 6 days necessary toc complete the required tests. The waiting period is made virtually automatic by requirement that specimens and reports be transmitted through the mails.

Procedure Is Simple

There is no fee for the examinations specified under the law. The cost, which health officials” say should be nominal, is left to patientdoctor agreement or relationship. The procedure to be followed in securing a marriage license on or after March 1 is fairly simple. Sometime within 30 days before the date set to get the license, the prospective bride and groom should see a physician—their family physician if they have one. To make sure the testing procedure is completed in time, this visit should be made at least seven days before the date set for obtaining the license. The physician will draw a blood specimen from the applicant and after carefully marking the date on the specimen, mail it to the State Board of Health laboratory or private laboratories approved by the State Health Board. :

Laboratory to Make Tests

The laboratory then will perform a standard serological test to. determine whether there is any evidence of syphilis. After completion of the tes: the laboratory will fill out two forms. One will contain a statement by the laboratory that the test was made and date of its completion, without showing the results of the specimen examination. ‘Also on this form will be a blank to be filled out later by the physician. The other form will be a card on which the laboratory will’ show the results of the test. Both forms will be sent by mail to the physician, After receiving the results of the laboratory test, tha physician will call the applicant back for an additional examination to determine

A. C. Garrigus to Wind Up

44 Years in

The Federal Building isn’t going to seem the same to many who work there aftef March 31. On that day A. C. Garrigus, a U, S. postal inspector, will retire. | For more than 10 years the slight, mild-mannered man walking through the corridors puffing one of his pipes has been as familiar to building employees as the mailman.

_ Now he _is reaching 70, the Gov-|-

ernment: retirement age. He's going to have too much time after he leaves. For 44 year: he has been “in the service,” Always he has had a shortage of time in which to do his

work. Sometimes he came back to]

the. office in the evening and he rarely failed to make a daily check at the building during his vacation. - He hasn't any plans. He says ‘I'm not a club man.” Outside of fishing he has no hobbies, except perhaps his children. His daughter, Louise,

is editor of the North Side Topics,

i }

U. S. Service

and his other daughter is the wife of an advertising man, Fred Smith. His son, Ross H. Garrigus, is edte of the Vincennes Sun-Commer-

: Mr, Garrigus has taken part in

prosecutions here put, modestly, he minimizes his part, insisting he was only ‘an aid to the district attorney. He has made more than 230 arrests. He entered the postal service as a clerk in 1891. After a year he became associated with the Howard County auditor's office and then returned to the postal service in 1896. In 1906 he was named a postal He served at Cincinnati, He

inspector. Paducah, Ky. and Kokomo. came here in 1927, : He was born in Greentown on March 14, 1870. In 1891 he married Miss Gertrude Heath of Elwood. He and his wife and their two daughters live at 521 E. 33d St.

some of the largest mail fraud].

Wedding Law Fear False, Health Officials Declare

By SAM TYNDALL

Many prospective newlyweds have expressed fear of the new Indiana hygienic marriage law which becomes effective March 1. are under the impression there will be a large expense and some embarrassment involved in applying for a

no legitimate reason for any pro-

Indiana’s new hygienic marriage law, which goes into effect March 1, is discussed in a * series of three articles of which this is the second. Its immedi_ate effect, how it will work and its long-timoc. purpose will’ be explained.

whether the applicant has syphilis or venereal disease. If both the serological test and physical examination reveal no traces of syphilis or venereal disease, the physician will fill out the blank portion of the first laboratory form. On this form the physician will state that the examination has been made and that in his opinion the applicant is not infected with syphilis, or if so infected, is not in the communicable stage. ; This statement of the physician, which also contains certification by the laboratory that the test was made, must be presented to the marriage .clerk by the applicant for a license. The other form, containing results of the. laboratory test, will be filed with the State Health Board and held in absolute confidence. The act declares “and shall not be open to public inspection.” Under the law the license must be used within 60 days after its issuance. f Out-of-state persons seeking to marry an Indiana resident may arrange to have any “duly licensed” physician in the state in which he lives draw .the blood specimen. The specimen must be mailed to the Indiana State Health Board laboratory, however, for the test. Despite the great emphasis that will be placed on syphilis control under the new law, health authorities point out that there is no legitimate reason for fearing the blood tests since out of some 15,000 premarital tests in California, under that state’s new law, only 226 showed syphilis reaction and of this number a very small percentage were forbidden to marry.

NEXT—Purpose of the new hygienic marriage law.

STATE HEALTH GOOD DESPITE COLD SIEGE

Despite the most severe winter in

diana citizens is better than normal this year, Dr. Verne K. Harvey, state health director, said today. : “Although we have been unable to ascribe any reason for the absence of illness in epidemic forms, our reports, indicate a healthy trend generally,” he said. > Records show that - extreme weather, either hot or cold, in previous years had nearly always brought out some form of sickness. During the last month of nearzero temperatures there have been fewer influenza cases than during previous normal winters, Dr. Harvey said.

PASTOR ACCEPTS POST VALPARAISO, Ind. Jan. 24 (U. P.).—Rev. O. H. Schmidt, pastor of the Immanuel Lutheran Church here, has accepted a call to become executive secretary for foreign missions for the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church.

I. U. TRUSTEE IS ILL Times Special : BLOOMINGTON, Ind. Jan. 24.— Edwin Corr, a member of the Indiana University board of trustees for 33 years, is critically ill at his home here. Prominent in Indiana politics

some years ago, Mr. Corr suffered a stroke of apoplexy Sunday.

several winters, the health of In-|-

of the|

GAS FIRM ASKS

CITY TO DELAY CONDEMNATION

Property Lease Being Ruled On Now by U. S. Court Of Appeals.

City Council today studied a plea

{to delay condemnation of the Ihe

dianapolis| Gas Co. properties until Circuit Court of Appeals the validity of a lease

which the company contends is

hearing last night by Louis B. Ewe bank, Indianapolis Gas Co. attorney,

} i who asserted the validity: of the : | lease materially would affect the

value of the company’s properties, Patrick |J. Smith, Utility District attorney, and Leroy J. Keach, a rged Council to ratify the

condemnation resolution which was

trict trustees and directors. Discussion Turns Into Debate

Councilman F. B. Ransom, who presided last night, limited argue

: [ments to speakers for the Utility

District and the Indianapolis Gas

Co. He said the public wauld be

given an opportunity to express its

| views at a later date to be fixed

Monday night. a Mayor ‘Reginald H. Sullivan, Utile ity District officials and a small group of Indianapolis Gas Co. stocke holders attended the hearing, which

| turned into a debate between Mr,

Ewbank and Mr. Smith. Pointing out that Indianapolis Gas owns a little more than half of the gas mains in the City, Mr, Smith said the City’s gas utility can not serve more than half the City and can not operate profitably with out these mains.

Urges Unit Operation

“We feel the property (of Indiane apolis Gas) must be operated as a unit (with the City’s gas property) to protect not only the City’s ine vestment but also its obligation to pay off the bondholders,” he said, “The condemnation proceedings ape pear to offer the possibility of are riving. at a settlement.” The 99-year lease on Indianapolis Gas properties was acquired by the old Citizens Gas Co. in 1913 when Indianapolis Gas ceased to cperate in competition with Citizens. When the City acquired the Citie gon firm in 1935, it continued to use the Indianapolis Gas mains (but served notice it would not be bound by the lease terms.

Appeal Now Pending

Federal Judge Robert C. Baltzell ruled last year that the lease was not binding on the City, and the company’s appeal from this ruling now is pending in the appeals court, “Under the lease terms,” Mr, Smith said, “the City would be com= pelled to pay more than $50,000,000 tothe Indianapolis Gas bondholders and stockholders between now and the lease expiration date, 2012 A; D, The City then would have to turn back the property to Indianapolis Gas Co. stockholders in the same condition it was a. century before.” Mr. Ewbank said the company doesn't deny the City can “take this property for what it’s worth, but we do insist they wait until the ap peals court decides on the lease, to find out what the property is worth,”

May Make Flat Offer

Mr. Smith said that if Council ape proves the condemnation. of the property, the City may make Indianapolis Gas a flat offer for its properties. : ; - “I should imagine such an offer would be refused,” he added. “It then would be necessary for the City . to take over the property by cone demnation, paying whatever fair value a local court might fix.” ; When the City repudiated the lease, it continued using the prope erty under a standby agreemewt, Under this reement, the lease rental due under the lease is basirg paid into a bank to be held in escrow until the validity of the lease™ finally is adjudicated.

DIES AS TRAILER-HOME BURNS

SHELBYVILLE, Ind., Jan. 24 (U, P.).—Thomas Dobbins, 62, of Shel« byville was burned fatally yesterday ‘when a. trailer home in which he lived was razed by fire.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—0f which country is Baghdad the capital? 2—What is the name for a mass of compacted ice originating in a snow-field? : 3—Which state is represented in Congress by Senator Robert A, Taft? No 4—How long is a fathom? » 5—Entomologists study climate, trees or insects? 6—Who is the French Ambassador to Italy?" T—What is the atmospheric prese sure at sea level? ; : 8—What is the correct pronunciae tion od the word ethereal? .

LE Answers

oA

1—Iraq. 2—Glacier. 3—Ohio. 4—-Six feet. 5—Insects

6—Andre Francois-Poncet. 7-147 pounds per square inch. 8—E-th’-re-agl; not eth-e-re’-al.

ASK THE TIMES Inclose a 3-cent stamp for reply when addressing any . question of fact or information to The Indianapolis Times Washington Service, Bureau, 1013 13th St., N. W.. Washington, D. C. Legal and medical ‘advice cannot be given nor can extended research be under-

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