Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 31 March 1941 — Page 1
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The Indianapolis Times
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VOLUME 53—NUMBER 17
Jugoslavs Ask Non-Aggression Pact I
MONDAY, MARCH 31, 1941
COX PLEDGES RULING TODAY
ON GOP LAWS
Suit “Just Politics,” Says |
| : | Gause; Fund Tieup Feared | By Beamer. | By VERN BOXELL Republican attorneys, fighting al Democratic plea for an injunction blocking their State “decentralization” program, told Circuit Court Judge Earl R. Cox today that this] is “just a political fight and not a
justifiable controversy.” | At the noon recess, Judge CoXx| announced he would rule on “this| injunction, one way or another, by | midnight tonight.” He advised at-| torneys that if they have any motions or pleadings to file, “you'd better file them now because this case must be closed today.” | He explained the law giving Re-/ publican officials the right to ap-| point an interim Attorney General becomes effective after midnight tonight. Fred C. Gause, G. O. P. attorney, gaid no controversy could exist until the appointments to State offices were made by the G. O. P.-domi-nated boards created by the Legislature. An injunction order, he said, would make it impossibie for the) issue to be created. “No decisions can be found in which any court ever enjoined an appointment or removal of an officer,” Mr. Gause said
‘Not Fooled,” Says Court
"This action is just an attempt to give one party to a political dispute | an unfair advantage over another.” Arthur I for the Republican named defendants in gaid the injunction
the !
‘Big Ripper’ Battle Moves Into Court
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x
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Here's a part of the battery of legal talent facing Circuit Court Judge Earl R. Cox today during a hearing of Governor Schricker’s suits to block the Republican “decentralization” program. (left to right) are Deputy Attorney General James Northam: Attorney General George Beamer: Deputy Attorney General Warren W. Martin and Fred Gause, G. 0. P. counsel.
In the group
MARTIN NAMED HEAD OF BOARD
Succeeds to Fox Vacancy in Industrial Group; Probation Unit Selected.
Warren W. Martin, deputy attorney general since 1935, today was named chairman of the State Industrial Board by Governor Schricker. He succeeds
Charles Fox, Terre
Gilliom, chief counsel | Haute attorney, who was killed restate officials cently in a traffic accident. suit, appointment came as Mr. Martin
The
procedure was appearing in Circuit Court here
“js merely an attempt by the Gov=ias one of the attorneys for Goverernor and those under him to pro-! nor Schricker in his suits to block tect their political pie. On our side [the Republican “decentralization” these state officials want to appoint | program,
men to these same jobs—let's call that political pie, too. But this bench is not a pie counter.” | Judge Cox interrupted: | “You don’t think I've been fooled by it, do you?”
Claims Millions Involved
Attorney General George Beamer, who brought the injunctive action in the name of the State, said millions of dollars in Federal and State funds would be tied up unless the | G. 0. P’s “decentralization” pro-| gram is delayed until the three suits| filed by Governor Schricker have been decided He contended the G. O. P. legisfative program merely was an attempt by the General Assembly to | remove State officials without the | proper impeachment proceedings “This injunction,” he said, “is! gought to prevent a breakdown of our State Government. “Even if the State has no property rights involved, as the defendants claim, it still has the right to seek injunctive relief from the courts.
Cites Federal Tax Case
“However, we contend that the gtate does have property rights involved. Representatives of the Ate torney General's office, which is to be abolished at midnight tonight. are in Washnigton today to appear before the U. S. Supreme Court in| cases involving thousands of dollars | in gross income tax collections. Al-| though on the calendar for today. | the cases probably will not be heard before tomorrow or later.” By that time, unless the injunetion is granted, he said, they may not be legally entitled to represent the state. A temporary restraining order was issued by Judge Cox last Thursday and today’s hearing was to determine whether the order should be exe tended until the Supreme Court has ruled on three suits filed by Gove ernor Schricker, now awaiting action in Circuit Court.
BRITISH SPEND 14 BILLIONS LONDON, March 31 (U. PP). Great Britain's spending for war and normal government purposes totaled £3.867.245670 1about $14.468.982 680) ni the fiscal vear which ends at midnight tonight, it was announced officially.
WOMEN DRIVE TAXIS HONOLULU, March 31 (U. P.) = Taxicab companies, faced with a shortage of men in the defense industry boom, are hiring women drivers. Four, dressed in slacks and blouses, are already at work.
TIMES FEATURES ON INSIDE PAGES
Clapper «...eo. 7] Mrs. Ferguson, 8 Comics «sesso 13] Musie tavene 8 Crossword ....12] Obituaries ... Editorials «.... 8 Pegler ... Financial ..... 4 Pyle ‘ors Flynn | Questions ....7-8 Forum SiRadio ........14 Gallup Poll ...14| Mrs. Roosevelt. 7 Homemaking.. 9 Serial Story ..18 In Indpls ..... 3 Side Glances. .13| ‘ 9
6 « 8 7
Inside Indpls.. Society 9 Jane Jordan... 9 Sports 10 | Johnson ...... 8 State Deaths.. 8 Movies seanass 5
Governor Schricker also appointed a new bi-partisan State Probation Commission. The Republican mem- | bers are Eugene Foster, Indianapolis, and Mrs. Elizabeth Burton, ! Reckville. The Democratic members are Mrs. Mabel Fogel, Brookville, and McFarland Smith, Kokomo. Elects Chairman Soon
The commission will meet soon to elect a chairman. Retiring memsbers of the commission are Solon, C. Vial, Indianapolis; Mrs. E. B. Bender, Zionsville; William Boggs, Veedersburg, and Mrs. Sara Ritter, Hartford City. Mr. Martin, who is 49, has been practicing law at Boonville since he was honorably discharged from the] U. S. Army in 1919. His son, Warren W. Martin Jr, maintains the law office at Boonville. Mr. Martin served two terms as prosecuting attorney of Warrick County. He was elected judge of the Warrick Circuit Court in 1934, but was deprived of the office as a result of a contest of his election He is married and has seven chil dren, As head of the Industrial Board, he will receive a salary of $4000 a year. He has becn receiving $3600 a vear as deputy attorney general. State House observers believed (Continued on Page Two)
GRIFFEY CHOSEN FOR COUNTY SCHOOL POST
Succeeds J. Malcolm Dunn As Superintendent.
Harvey F. Griffey, 3117 N. New Jersey St, was selected Marion County School Superintendent by the County Board of Education today. Myr. Griffey has been on the faculties of Marion County schools for 40 years and for the last year has been principal of the Flackville grade school. Previously, he was principal of the Fleming Garden School and has been a teacher in other couns ty schools. He succeeds J. Malcolm Dunn, who resigned to enter U. S. military service under a res serve officer's commission, Mr. Griffey was selected to fill Mr. Dunn's unexpired term, which ends next August. At that time the County Board of Education will select a superintendent for a fours vear term. The salary of the office is $3600 per year.
ABATEMENT HEARING FOR BROWN DELAYED
A plea of abatement hearing in behalf of Arthur V. Brown, Indianapolis banker, scheduled for today in Federal Court, has been post. poned. Mr. Brown, indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States through diversion of WPA funds and labor, has been seriously ill for some time and his attorneys last week filed physicians’ reports that Mr. Brown is too ill to appear before Federal Judge Robert Baltgel. The hearing was postponed on these grounds, >
SUMMARY
LABOR developments:
1. Shutdown in Appalachfan and Widwestern mines, including Indiana's feared at midnight as coal parley in New York continues in deadlock. (Page 6.)
2. Mediation Board announces settlement in all four cases referred to it by Labor Department Thursday. (Page 3.)
3. Allis-Chalmers strikers refuse request of OPM to return to work but officials claim that mere than 3000 reported for work today. (Page 3.)
4, Civil Liberties Committee critical of “Little Steel” industrialists. (Page 3.)
3 MORE DIE IN COUNTY TRAFFIC
Deaths, Now 42, Top Last Year's by 20; Four Others Killed in Indiana.
Three more died in traffic accidents here over the week-end, send-
| LABOR
ing the Marion County toll for the he had been employed for 11 years, year to 42-20 more than last year. time, four other
At the same motorists were killed in the state The dead: LEWIS V. ZANDER, 21, of 25 N. Chester St. killed yesterday morning in a two-car crash at
21st St. and Emerson Ave. RALPH REEVES, 20, Kokomo, killed almost instantly in a twocar crash on Road 67 near the Post Road at 2:30 a. m. yesterday ROBERT ALLEN PEARCE, 6 weeks old, Martin, Tenn, injured fatally in the same accident. JOHN GILLEY, 26, Washington, dead of injuries in a collision Saturday night. CHARLES ZERKEL, killed in= stantly when his car was struck by a New York Central train at Waterloo. PAUL BUCKIO, 20, Terre Haute. MISS STELLA HUNCILMAN, 75. killed at Terre Haute as she crossed the street. Several others were injured seriously in city and county accidents over the week-end, including John W. Hilkene, 80, former postmaster at Cumberland. Mr. Reeves and the Pearce infant were injured fatally when cars driven by Mr. Reeves and the ine fant’s father, Allen Pearce, collided (Continued on Page Two)
POLK MYSTERY
STILL UNSOLVED
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Words of Delirious Man Recorded in Probe of Fire and Death.
The delirious ravings of a eritically injured man were being recorded today in an effort to explain the mysterious fire and death struggle at the Polk Sanitary Milk Co. plant yesterday. While firemen were fighting a two-alarm blaze on the third floor of the company's garage, the body of Lockwood McCoy, 40, of 128 Wis= consin St, head of the Prola¢ Department, was found hanging in a closet in an adjoining building. At almost the same time, Lee Roy McDonald, 49. of 626 BE. 16th St, was discovered critically injured in the paint department on the second | floor of the burning building. City detectives, admitting their theory was based on purely circumsstantial evidence, said they believed {MCoy might have started the fire, been surprised by McDonald whom he struck, and then, fearing he had killed his fellow-worker, committed
suicide, { However, members of both fam- | (ilies and friends of McDonald and | {McCoy refused to accept the the- | jory. The men were close friends. [there never had been any friction between them and there was no | known reason why MeCoy should | have set fire to the plant in which
| |
the friends and relatives pointed (out. | Detectives and Coroner's office (investigators agreed that the key [to the mystery rested with Me(Continued on Page Two)
MARCH RETIRES LIE A LION--ON A LEASH
Or Maybe Like a Lamb, With Bass Voice.
LOCAL TEMPERATURES Sam .... 49 30a. .m... Tam «...% Ljia.m... 8am ,,.. 49 12 (noon) Sam .... 50 1pm ..
March padded out today like a ifon on a leash. Or maybe it was ilke a lamb with a bass voice. It all depends on your taste for weather. At any rate, the proverb writers -=80 positive about everything— didn't provide for a March 31 which could be good or bad. The temperatures were lamb-like —four degrees above normal. The skies were overcast with cold rain predicted, all lion-like, So_ there!
52 «54 « 38 .. 86
Entered
BERLIN MAKES NEW CHARGES OF ATROCITIES
Germany Says Bulgaria Is Mobilizing; Eden Pays Visit to Athens.
By HARRISON SALISBURY
United Press Staff Correspondent
Balkan events moved swiftly to-| toward a showdown between |
day Germany and Jugoslavia.
Belgrade reported that Jugoslavia |
found the tri-partite pact unacceptable and would offer Germany
as BSecond-Class Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis, Ind.
nstead Of
PRICE THREE CENTS
Axis Alliance
Roc 3
|
a non-aggression agreement in its
place. But there was no hint in Berlin that anything short of a complete
swing by Jugoslavia back to the pro-|
Axis policy of the ousted Jugoslav
government would be regarded as
satisfactory. Odds against peared to be almost astronomical,
Charge Maltreatment
German spokesmen and the German press laid all their emphasis on the maltreatment of German nationals and German property in Jugoslavia and Germans and Italjians were leaving the country as
{ quickly as possible,
It was said in Berlin that the German Minister, Viktor von Heeren, might return to the German capital shortly, while the Jugoslavia minister to Germany already had gone back to Belgrade. Events have caused Hungary and Bulgaria to take special precautionary steps, the Germans said, adding that they believed Bulgaria had ordered general mobilization. Bulgarian sources denied the mobil« ization report. Rome claimed was mobilizing Albania, Greek frontiers. Eden Reaches Athens
The Germans seemed to be plac ing great hopes in the possibility
that troops and
Jugoslavia along the Hungarian
lof a split between Croats and Serbs
but Belgrade reported that progress toward a strong Croat-Serb coalition in the face of the emergency was being made. The Jugoslav Government was said te be taking all steps necessary for protection of the country, whatever may develop. British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden and the chief of the Imperial General Staff, Gen. Sir John G. Dill, arrived in Athens for new conversations with the Greeks. It has been reported that Capt. Eden may go on to Belgrade Presumably the British are making last minute preparations for meeting a German attack upon both Greece and Jugosiavia. The prospect that Germany would act quickly in the Balkans in an attempt to repair the double blow to AXis prestige suffered from the (Continued on Page Two)
STUDENT PILOT DIES ON BIRTHDAY SPIN
DECATUR, Ind, March 31 (U. P.) Otto C. Smith Jr, 23, died at the Adams County hospital late yesterday, less than an hour after he had crashed his Aeronca C-3 plane in a field northwest of Berne. Mr. Smith, who held a student pilot's permit, had celebrated his birthday by taking the plane up. He had circled the field preparing to land when suddenly the plane dived. Authorities believe the youth pulled the plane up quickly to avoid striking some wires and the machine stalled. Mr. Smith's father died in an airplane accident at Montpelier in 1927 and his cousin, Art Smith, was fatally injured while flying mall when he cracked up at Bryan, O,
ROME BARS BROADCASTER
ROME, March 31 (U. P.) Cecil Brown, Columbia Broadcasting System commentator, was advised today by Italian press authorities that he would have to cease his broadcasts from Rome, effective tomorrow.
If the Consumer Remains Level-Headed There Should Be No Post-War Price Rise
This is the first of a series of articles on the cost of living and its relationship to the war,
By E. A. EVANS Times Special Writer WASHINGTON, March 31. The gun-shy American people, remembering what the last war did to their cost of living, are dreading, but more than half expecting to see that history repeat. “Prices went out of sight then, and they're bound to do it again.” That, beyond doubt, is what mil lions of consumers are thinking, But “It ain't necessarily so.” For many reasons, the cost of living NEED not do another balloon act. For more reasons, it should be prevented. And, aside from anything the Government may do, there are preventive
forces which ghe public and the
public's purchasing agents—the retail merchants—can employ. These articles will try to tell what some of those forces are. The first essential is to stop thinking
that runaway prices are ordained by fate. Enough people thinking that can start a price runaway. Enough people thinking about their power to control prices, and acting as they think, can keep most prices to reasonable levels. Some things the public “remembers” about the last war aren't true. When the present war began, in September, 1930, there was speculative and panicky buying, especially of sugar, by people who remembered that sugar became scarce the other time—but not that the scarcity got worst only toward and after the war's end. These people rushed to get sugar, and the rush created ggmporary
local shortages and higher prices. But it didn't last long. The pub lic soon learned that the country had plenty of sugar and could easily get plenty more. There was no real reason for soaring sugar prices 19 months ago. There is none now. Another untruth “remembered” by many is that wages also rose and produced a prosperity syme bolized by the $15 silk shirt. Some people did get rich in the last war. Some workers whose wages rose sooner or later to levels higher than the high cost of living could wear $15 silk shirts for a while. But most people got poorer, and most workers, their wages trailing behind prices, suffered because such things as $1 work shirts jumped to $2.50. And the war boom-—the skye (Continued on Page Three)
such a swing ap-|
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Port Newark.
WASHINGTON, March 31 (U, Italian, German and Danish ships
A Coast Guardsman inspects some of the machinery reportedly destroyed by the Italian crew aboard the Italian ship S. S. Alberta at
70 Are Taken Into Custody On Personal Order of F.D.R.
Seized Ships?
wo
5 TO 8 ITALIAN WARSHIPS ARE SUNK
HINT FANCIST VESSELS FIRED ON EACH OTHER; ROME LOSES 3000 MEN
Will I) $ Use \
British Fleet Back in Port Unscathed; 2
Planes Lost.
By GRATTAN P. McGROARTY (Copyright, 1941, by United Press.)
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt, March 31.—Italy’s crippled fleet has been ripped to pieces by the British Navy in the biggest naval encounter since Jutland, a weird battle fought in the darkness of the Ionian Sea, it became known today.
Only the flash of 15-inch broade sides, the flare of burning Italian warships and the play of naval
| searchlights illuminated the scene
|
P.) —Possibility of using 70 seized to relieve the shipping shortage in|
of the war's biggest naval encounte er last Friday night. When the battle was over three Italian cruisers, the pride of Italy's fleet, and two destroyers were known to have been sunk. A 35,000« ton batleship, identified as the new Vittorio Veneto, had been damaged and possibly another cruiser and dee stroyer sunk. In the desperate confusion tha followed the shattering impact of the British broadsides, some Brite ish officers believed that some of the Italian warships fired on each other. It was estimated by British fleet officers that more than 3000 Italian officers. and sailors perished in the encounter, The Italian fleet was operating in two squadrons and it was thought that the remnants of these squade rons became confused and mistook each other for the British,
‘Well Done,” Says Admiral ’ Like all modern naval encounters the major fighting lasted only & short time, The conflict started Friday evening, Most of the ace tion was over by midnight, although scattered engagements, mostly bea
| the Atlantic topped speculation over their eventual disposition today, as | tween airplanes and warships, wen | diplomatic circles wondered whether other Western Hemisphere repub- | lics would follow suit and seize European ships in their ports.
Maritime Commission and Coast Guard officials insisted that the
intended to prevent) sabotage and that they were not preliminary to confiscation and | | American use. All 70 vessels were placed under protective custody over the week-end. A recapitulation showed a total {of 28 Italian, 40 Danish and two | German ships to have been placed | into protective custody. The possibility that Latin American nations would seize immobilized {European ships in their harbors {was advanced in diplomatic quarters, These reports were believed responsible in part for the sailing preparations of several German ships in South America. A charge by the captain of one of the Italian ships that the Italian naval attached here had ordered the sabotage of the vessel pointed to the probability of a thorough inquiry by the State Department. Officials speculated whether this might lead to the placing of greaier restrictions on the movement of Italian diplomatic and consular officers in this country. The United States already has asked the Italian Embassy to report at all times the movements of the naval, air and military attaches, and it also requested the closure of Italian consular offices at Detroit, Mich.,, and Newark, N. J. The Italian Embassy, however, (Continued on Page Three)
ARMY BEGINS STATE RECORD DRAFT CALL
6900 to Go by April 19 With From 2 to 50C Daily.
Nine Marion County men were scheduled to be inducted into the Army today as the State's sixth— and largest — Selective Service call got under way.
The local men were a part of 100 from throughout the State ordered to report today at Ft. Harrison for induction. The sixth call, which will continue through April 19, will take in all 6000 men from Indiana into the military service. The Marion County contingent for today's induction were registered with Local Board No. 7. They are Donald R. Knowles, 203 8S. Arsenal Ave.; Loren LaSalle Lind, 1913 N. Meridian St.; Lawrence B. Niebrugge, 429 W. 39th St.; Kenneth J. Christensen, 2235 N. Meridian St.; Paul E. Roller, 2103 E. Riverside Drive; Robert F. Krueger, 2249 N. Illinois St.; Elmer J, Lane, 1512 N. Pennsylvania St.; Ralph Hanley Urich, 19 W. 24th St. and
seizures were
|
Robert W. Kemp, 1512 N, Meridian, No. 30, w
———— ap wo.
NAZIS SAY SEIZURE
MAY BE ‘HISTORIC!
British Are Pleased and Hope to Charter Vessels.
By UNITED PRESS While London expressed satisfaction today that the United States had confiscated Danish and Axis vessels, a German spokesman said that the event might be of “his toric importance.” Nazis refused to say whether the action was regarded in Berlin as “an act of war,” but stories published here did not say that any but Italian and Danish ships had been seized, although two of German registry were involved. The Italian Embassy in Washington indicated a protest might be
made as soon as all the facts had been determined. The captain of one of the seized ships, the Italian motorship Leme, said in Portland, Ore., that he believed “war will be likely to come” as a result. The British were chiefly interested in the Danish ships, in the hope that {hey might be able to
charter them,
on through the next day. Today the commander of the British Eastern Mediterranean Fleet, Admiral Sir Andrew Cun= ningham, radioed this message to his officers and men: “Well done!” The British Fleet has returned to port without a scratch and without single casualty except for the probable loss of the crews of twe missing planes. Some here say the victory of this British fleet with which I have spent more than one month, a fleet which again and again steamed up so close to Italian fortresses that we could see them through binocue lars, may prove to have been one of the most decisive naval engage= ments, in its ultimate implications, since Trafalgar. The action took place in the Ionian Sea about 150 miles west of Crete, when the Italian fleet wa® (Continued on Page Two)
TWO DIE IN OIL BLAST EMLENTON, Pa. March 31 (U, P.)—Damage was estimated at $100,000 today as the result of an explosion and fire that killed two men and injured a third at the Quaker State Oil Refining Corp. plant here.
SIGNS OF SPRING WASHINGTON, March 31 (U. P.), —The National Park Service ane nounced today that the capital's famous Japanese cherry trees are expected to be in full blossom on April 12. The annual Cherry Blos« som Festival has been set for the 12th and 13th.
War Moves Today
By J. W. T. MASON United Press War Expert
The victory in the greatest
of the British Mediterranean Fleet sea battle of the war was due not
only to the continual vigilance of Britain's air and naval command but also to astonishing tactical
errors of the Italians.
It is apparent from the dee
scription of the battle, reported from Alexandria, that the Italian Admiral allowed his forces to roam
Mr. Mason
the Eastern Mediterranean in divided formations while Italian scouting planes do not seem to have
given warning of the presence of heavy British warships. The British account says the roving Italian fleet consisted of three
batleships, nine cruisers and 14 destroyers.
protective formation, three of the cruisers and several destroyers apparently wandered away from the main body. These were the ships definitely known to have been sunk. They were spotted by Britain's reconnaissance operators and three British battleships seemingly opened fire on them out of range of retaliatory fire before the Italians realized they were in danger. The rest of the Italian fleet does not seem to have moved to the rescue but apparently started homeward, several units being d ed
Instead of keeping in
en route. The unprecedented fact that no British warship was dame aged and there were no British casualties resulted from the longer, range or the British guns and the refusal of the Italians to close in for combat. A fleet as powerful as the British description of the Italian wanders= ing command does not normally put to sea without a prize objective in view. The purpose can be supposed to have been an attack on British (Continued on Page; Two)