Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 June 1941 — Page 1

"The Indianapolis

FORECAST: Fair today and tonight; tomorrow partly cloudy, continued warm.

VOLUME 53—NUMBER 92

Germans Claim Destructive Attack On 15 Transport Trains

THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 1941

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RUSSIANS SLOW NAZI ‘TIME-TABLE’

COURT'S DELAY BRINGS ADDED RIPPER’ WOES

New Clash Looms Over Welfare Nominations

Due July 1.

By VERN BOXELL New complications in Indiana’s governmental squabble may be piled oh the present muddle if the Supreme Court’ does not rule this week in the Republican-Democratic battle for State House control. To date, the major features of the “decentralization” program enacted py the recent. G. O. P.-con-trolled Legislature have been tied up by injunction pending the court’s decision. Two more important parts will go into effect soon. On July 1, four new members of the State Welfare Board are to be named—two by the Governor and two by the Lieutenant Governor, since they are members of opposite political faith. The Lieutenant Governor, under the new law, is to have the deciding vote in case of a tie vote. board will select the new Welfare administrator. Governor Henry F. Schricker, in the’ three suits he has filed attacking constitutionality of the G. O. P. program, has charged that the - Lieutenant Governor is merely a legislative officer under the Constitution and lacks legal right to share appointing power with the Governor... This appointive. setup was attacked in the Governor’s case against ‘the new State Education Board law, which provides for four appointments ‘by -eachi officer. The Democrats hope that the Supreme Court decision is handed down before Monday, since if is expected to clarify this issue.

New Injunction Possible

If no verdict has been reached by thdt time, the Democrats may be forced to seek an injunction to block appointments by Lieut. Gov. Charles M. Dawson. It also is possible that Governor Schricker may make all four appointments, two

from each party, leaving the test of his power to do so to the Repuhlicans. If Lieut. Gov. Dawson’s appointments are accepted end commissioned by the Governor, they will be void in case the high court rules against his right to make such appointments. In two previous cases where the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor were to share appointments, the Governor accepted the: “appointments” by Mr. Dawson for the State Personnel Board but named the entire Alcoholic Beverages Commission personnel of two Republicans and two® Democrats. On July 10, under another new G. O. P. act, the Governor and Lieutenant Governor each are to name two members of controlling boards for the 21 State institutions. These powerful boards will hire the superintendents and be' responsible for the institutions.

Look for Precedent

This law provides that if either officer fails.to make his appointments, the other is to make all four of ‘them. Mr. Dawson is reported to have drawn up his list of trustees. Governor Séhricker is reported to have delayed action pending the court decision, in which he and his supporters believe a precedent will be established on the Lieutenant Governor’s-powers. All other patronage appointments, involving. an estimated 10,000 State jobs, are tied up by the Marion Circuit Court injunction which is before the Supreme Court on appeal and upon which the Court is ex- ‘ pected to give its decision soon on constitutionality of the new laws.

What if They ~ Hit Hot Water?

“WELL,” said one of the Supreme Court judges, “it’s just like drilling a well. You drill and drill and pretty soon you hit water. That's all there is to it.” It was reported in “authoritative circles that the court would “hit water” today in the G. O. P.Democratic battle for the State House.

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Fi FEATURES ON INSIDE PAGES

Johnson ..... 18 Millett ...... 22 Movies TY 13 Obituaries ... 4 Pegler 18 Questions .... 18 Radio ....... 10

Clapper sence 17 > Crossword aes 28 Editorials .... 18 Mrs. Ferfiuson ‘18 Financial .... 23 Flynn 18 Forum ....... 18|Mrs. .Roosevelt 17 Gallup Poll .. 9|Short Story .. 29 Homemaking . 22|Side Glances. In Indpls .... Inside Indpls. 17 Jane Jordan.. 22

morning in Aprilp 7.

» s

This airview of the Serbian Army General Headqu: grade is one of the few pictures of bomb damage received Jugoslavian capital Aollowing the Nazis’ devastating raid “one Sunday

from the

>

Houses Fell, Fortunes

Vanished in Billow of

Dust and Panie-Stricken People Fought For Gas to Carry Them to Safety..

When Leon Kay returned from the Balkans he was asked about

the bombing of Belgrade. His replies disclosed that one of the most * dramatic stories of the war never had been told. Kay has now written the uncensored story

time did not get through.

Cables Tiled at that

of what he saw in the April airblitz.

By LEON KAY United Press Staff Correspondent

NEW YORK, June 26.—This is the uncensored story

of the bombing of a city that

was not prepared.

When the German Luftwaffe struck at Belgrade without warning on a Sunday morning in April it was like an _ earthquake, except that an earthquake lasts only a few

seconds. hour. Houses fell.

The bombing of Belgrade went on hour after

People died and were mutilated. They

fought with their fists for precious automobile tires and gasoline that was more valuable than liquid gold. They

saw their business quarters fortunes vanish in billows buildings. 8

un »

blown to pieces and watched of gray dust from ruined »

THERE HAD BEEN an alert at 3 a. m,, but it turned out to be a

practice alarm. No one really thought the Germans would

mb Bel-

grade for it had been declared an open city. Most of them went back to sleep after the practice alarm, but I stayed up to try to put through an urgent telephone call to Zurich. I was sitting on a chair with my typewriter on a small table when suddenly a basket of artificial glass grapes flew off the top of a

- piano and crashed on the floor in

front of me. Then a pile of terra

cotta ash trays bounced to the floor and broke.

That was the first I knew about the raid.

1 wpb

CENTRAL BUYING PLAN PROPOSED

Establishment - of Bureau Favored After ‘Trick Bidding’ Is Revealed.

Establishment of a central purchasing bureau for buying County supplies was proposed - today by County Commissioners as a way to eliminate the present base bidding system, described yesterday by Judge Russell Ryan of Superior Court as a “vicious practice.” In a formal statement to Commissioners ‘Judge Ryan revealed what he. described as “trick bidding” for contracts on court supplies. At the same time, the Commissioners, who explained that they had been unable to correct the system under present laws, disclosed that price juggling in bids h#d been practiced in contracts for other supplies, including food for institutions. Contracts for County supplies aggregate more than one million dollars annually. ~ Judge Ryan cited contract prices

‘| for little-used supplies in sorne in-

stances as low as one cent for a $5 or $10. article and said some prices on supplies used in large volumes were as high or higher than retail prices. Under the present base bidding system, firms submitting the lowest average bid for all items of supplies usually get the contracts. In order

which knows the details of what the County uses most: of and buys

little of can reduce the price of lit(Continued on Page Six)

300 MILLION MORE ASKED FOR: HOUSING

F. D. R. Urges Quick Grant For Defense Needs.

WASHINGTON, June 26 (U. P.). —President Roosevelt asked Con-

{gress today to authorize a $300,000,-

000 defense housing program which would double; the present program. In a special message to Congress, Mr. Roosevelt said that legislation should be approved speedily to proTide “an increase from $300,000,000 to $600,000,000 in the authorization contained in the Act of Oct. 14, 1940.” Even this doubled program, Mr. Roosevelt said, may be inadequate, pointing. out virtually all of the funds appropriated under the original $300,000,000. authorization have been allocated. “Data have been presented to me which indicate the possibility that the Government should be prepared to undertake the construction of at least 125,000 additional defense homes between now and July 1, 1942,” he said. ' “It is thought best, program to $300,000,000 at this time, however, to limit the additional which will permit the construction of approximately 75,000 houses to

fal the most urgent) present, neetis.”

A

to under bid competitors, a firm.

“EXCLUSIVE IN

THE TIMES—

Working independently of each other in London and Lisbon, William H. Stoneman and John T. Whitaker of The Indianapolis Times - and The Chicago Daily News" foreign staff anticipated. the outbreak . of hostilities be-. “tween Germany and ‘Russia with extraordinary accuracy. As early as June 4 Whitaker told how. Hitler planned to invade Russia with the 2,000,000 men concentrated on the Russian frontier and with. the aid of .anti-Red Russian and non-Russian elements mobilized for the purpose. Throughout last week both Stoneman and Whitaker repeatedly said a German attack on Russia was imminent. Last Friday Stoneman cabled the attack would be . made "any hour any day" and Whitaker said that . Hitler would attack Russia regardless of the concessions Stalin might be willing to make. Sunday, hostilities started.

HARVESTER GIVEN 3a MILLION ORDER

The War Department, today announced awarding of a $3,463,640 contract for trucks to the Inter-

national Harvester Co. The trucks are to be built at the

company’s Ft. Wayne plant, and it]

was believed the truck engines, or at least a substantial portion of them, would be built in the company’s Indianapolis truck engine works.

e430 seizen

W. SIDE HOLDUP

Allison’s Checks in Loot; ‘Work on Schedule,’ One Bandit Boasts.

Two methodical bandits held up Murphy's Tavern, 2607 W. Michigan St. foday and escaped with $800 in cash and $3500 in Alison Engineering Co. payroll checks. The men escaped in a car believed to be bearing Kansas license plates and two hours later police arrested two men in a car of similar description - also with out-of-state plates. They were to be ques‘tioned by detectives. this afternoon. The bandits, one tall and the other short, entered the tavern al-

{| most unnoticed and the short one

slipped through to the back door and padlocked it. Elmer Campbell, 944 N. Bosart St., the manager, was transferring money and checks from the. cash register to the safe when the short bandit ordered him to “give me what you've got.” While the tall and silent bandit drew a gun, his companion ordered several employees to walk behind (Continued on Page Five)

‘WARM,’ THEY CALL IT

LOCAL TEMPERATURES 6am. .... 68 10a m. 7a.m..... 71 11 a.m. 8a.m..... 78 12 (noon) . 88 a.m. .... 8 1pm ....0 9

“Continued warm” is the Weather Bureau's term for the forthcoming temperatures of 90 degrees or above. Hold your hats when they predict “hot” weather,

U. S. ARMY AT PEAK WASHINGTON, June 26 (U. P.). —The War Department reported today that there are 1,441,500 officers and enlisted men in the Army, a peace-time record.

| sa I GOT OUT of the chair and my typewriter crashed off the small table, Then I heard thé bombs whistle and I knew it was the real thing this time. The first thing I thought of was that each plane usually drops four bombs, so I held my breath waiting for four whistles. ; I was in my pajamas. The door burst open and three wildly frightened women ran into the

room. They were the: landlady, her sister and the landlady’s daughter. ‘I told them they had better go down stairs, for we were on the fourth floor of a five-story apartment house—not a very safe place. They got half-way down a circular staircase that wound around the elevator shaft, but there they got frightened and stood.

I grabbed for my tlothes and the building began to rock. There was a wardrobe door in my room and it vibrated: so fast that 'it sounded like someone was playing a snare drum. I decided not to wait to finish dressing; so I just grabbed my money, shirt, shoes, socks, vest, a topcoat and a bottle of rum and started out of the room. I had on a pair of golf knickers. Outside the room I saw that the steel framework of the elevator shaft “was shuddering from top to bottom every time a bomb burst. * x = : DOWNSTAIRS THE glass door in the vestibule had been broken and glass lay all over the floor so thick that you couldn’t close the door. I went to get the door closed because that would give some protection to the men. and women huddled in the vestibule. I asked them to help me push the glass out into the street, but at first they refused. Then I began to shove the glass out with my feet, and one man came over and helped me. By this time the first wave of bombers had come over. We didn’t know it then, but four more were on their way. People ‘ran out (Continued on- Page Five)

Joseph F. Sexton, Local Attorney, Dies; - Senator in 1937 ‘and 1939 Legislatures

Joweph F. Sexton, State Senator in the 1937 and 1939 Legislatures and prominent in Democratic politics several years, died today in St. Vincent’s Hospital after an {illness of two days. Mr. Sexton was born in Indianapolis 37 years ago and graduated from Cathedral High School. He

‘attended - Notre Dame University

and received his LL. B. degree in 1926. X; He served for a time as trust officer of the Fidelity Trust Co. and was elected to the State Senate. In the 1940 election he was defeated by Albert Beveridge Jr. by 53

votes’ and waged an unsuccessfu contest for the seat after the Legislature opened. At Notre Dame Mr. Sexton played

football under Knute Rockne and {for three yearg. after his graduation

served as athletic director of Cathedral High ‘School. + He then practiced law for eight years in the office of Jackiel W. Joseph and in 1937 opened an office with his brother, William Lawrence Sexton, and his father, Timothy P. Sexton, former Marion County Treasurer and former pgesident of the Fidelity Trust Co. Mr. Sexton, who lived at 236 S. Ritter Ave., was a member of Our Lady of Lourdes Church and the Indianapolis Lawyers’ Association. . Besides his father and brother, he

‘is survived by his wife, Mary; his

Monday morning. Compl to: be n

mother; a sister, Miss Mary Catherine Sexton; two sons, Joseph > J and Timothy, and four daugh- | rs, Mary Catherine, Patrice, Rose bid and Dorothy. Funeral services probally will be

ments were a 5

Now It Can Be Told—The Uncensored Story Of Defenseless Belgrade’ s Bombing in A Lpril

Leon Kay

AID TO SOVIET HELD CERTAIN

Little Opposition Develops In.Congress to Stand Taken by F. D. R.

By LYLE C. WILSON United Press Staff Correspondent WASHINGTON, June 26.—With a minimum of opposition President Roosevelt today appears to have established firmly this country’s for-

eign policy with respect to the aid-to-Russia principle. In three quick moves, the Administration anhounced - its: sympathy for the Red Army’s effort to stop Adolf Hitler, its. intention to give such material aid as is possible, and its decision against invoking the Neutrality Act in -the RussoGerman conflict. * So far, there has been no more than scattered Congressional oppésition, although the Neutrality Act decision was an invitation to legislative opponents of Roosevelt foreign policies to make a voting issue of the whole question. Several Senators urged that this ‘country should continue to concentrate on providing material aid to Britain. The Neutrality Act’ provides that either Congress or the President may - invoke. its provisions: when either; finds that a state of war exists between foreign states and such action is “necessary to promote the security and preserve the peace of the United States or to protect the lives of citizens of the United States.” . Failure to invoke the act will facilitate deliveries of munitions, if any actually are sent. American ships could not carry munitions if the act became operative. - So far, there has been no request for supplies. Deliveries will depend on the Soviet ‘Union’s ability to withstand the initial shock of German invasion and also on. the availability of supplies here as well as ships to transport the cargoes. The general opinion here seems to be pessimistic regarding the outcome of the military engagements between the Nazi and Communist armies, but the Red Army could fall back some thousands of miles and still have need for supplies shipped later by way of the Pacific. Those . supplies would have to be delivered, however, under the watchful eye of Japan, and there is belief here that Japan will move on Siberia if the Red Army falters. A question which may come up during Congressional discussion of our relations with the Soviet Union (Continued on Page Five)

CONVICTION UPSET IN FUMIGATION CASE

Cox Upholds Contention ~ Ordinance Not Enforced.

The recent conviction of Jason Nicholas in Municipal Court on a charge of failure to have a City fumigator’s license was reversed in Circuit Court foday by Judge Earl R. Cox. The case Hag been appealed from the « Municipal Court where Mr. Nicholas was fined $100 and costs.

argued that the City Health Board never had enforced the City’s license ordinance and therefore Nicholas could not be convicted. Judge Cox upheld this contention. Nicholas was arrested last February following the death of a couple in an apartment at 1723 N. Meridian St., where ‘Nicholas had sprayed fumigating fumes the day before The deaths were Suid » have been

Frank Symmes, defense attorney,|P8

Fails to Provide Prom tional Gains; Muscovites Hold Along Pruth River; German Raider Lost.

former Polish territory as far 70 miles from Minsk. An official news agency dispatch in Berlin said that German dive bombers had made a destructive attack upon 15 Soviet transport trains crowded with troops and war equipment. The Germans have not yet assaulted the main Red Army defense lines on the pre-war border.

A promised Nazi statement of sensational gains failed to materialize in the regular daily communique of the German High Command. It dealt in generalities and predicted important successes as a result of German triumphs in border clashes. The German failure to produce a detailed report on progress did not necessarily mean that the blitzkrieg was seriously stalled by Russian resistance, It indicated that Adolf Hitler's time table might be disrupted in his greatest gamble of the war, At the same time, the Nazi High Command reported the loss of another raiding warship, the auxiliary cruiser Pinguin, in a battle with the 10,000-ton British cruiser Cornwall. It said that the Pinguin and the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer had sunk 352,000 tons of enemy shipping in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, The Scheer returned to a German port. The Germans reported that between June 15 and 25 a total of 136 British airplanes had been shot down compared to 35 Nazi planes st. . London said that the growing Royal Air Force offensive against Germany had resulted in destruction of nine more Nazi craft, bringing the total to 150 in daylight sweeps since June 11. Forty-six British planes were reportetl lost in the same period. Rumors circulated indirectly yesterday that Leningrad had been at-

LONDON, June 26 (U, P.).—8t:

to 150 at a cost of 46 British planes. British planes ‘had made their 15th straight night attack on Germany during the night, centering their activities in the Kiel and Bremen naval base areas. The Air Ministry said that large fires were started at both points. Navy planes also bombed the docks of Boulogne during the night. Observers on the southeast coast reported heavy anti-aircraft firing from the French side as the British

which came on comparatively short than even the British had at first On. the fifth day of the show that the Nazi war m defenses with the speed it achieved in the western and Balkan camigns. . It is far too early for even an attempt at appraisal. Yet, balancing - the conflicting claims of the two sides, it would seem that the Russians so far are holding well along the Pruth River

e - Likewise the Russian air force obviously is a potent factor, despite

heavy losses a

Today's War

against the German thrust into the 7

HITLER UNABLE TO REACH REDS" MAIN DEFENSES

ised Report of Sensa-

By JOE ALEX MORRIS A United Press Foreign News Editor

Soviet Russia battled to break off twin Nazi drives into the north flank of the long Eastern Front today and reported that the Red Army had strongly repulsed German forces battering at the door to the Ukraine on the south. Fighting continued 'on a scale probably greater tham any similar military operations of the past. blitzkrieg forces pushed into the Baltic States and the

The German

as the Baranovichi area, only,

tacked and left in flames were: dee nied in Russian press ‘ dispatches which said the city had had only one air alarm and no attacks.

It was believed that a Nazi offen sive against Leningrad, Russia's second largest city, was imminent,

An unconfirmed radio broadcass from ® Berlin, heard in New York by NBC, said Bucharest had been bombed twice by Soviet planes.

BULLETIN BERLIN, June 26 (U. P.).~The official DNB news agency reported

in the last few days has carried out “extraordinarily heavy” a attacks on Leningrad. -

The greatest German progress appeared to be into the Balti States and from the Polish Front toward Mifisk. London viewed the Soviet communique as indicating that the Germans had reached Kaunas and possibly Vil in Lithuania. A Swedish report said both Vilna and Riga® were in German hands and that rebellion against the Soviets was spreading in that area. ‘

It was indicated that the Russians were making possibly their stronge est stands along the River Pruth, frontier between Soviet Bessarabia and Rumania, and in the Przemysl region of southeast Poland.

In both areas there were reports of fierce counter-offensives by the Red Army which have hurled Nazi forces bdck.

London reported that the heaviest fighting of the war was in progress on a 100-mile front from Vilna to Baranovichi and observers there be« lieved that failure of the Soviet wap communique to mention Vilna indie cated it had fallen. London heard that Germany has moved a division of 7500 ' Alpine troops across Sweden from Ncrway into Finland. The Swedish Governe (Continued on Page Six) i

No Let-Up by the RAF.

rong formations of British bombers

and fighters, continuing Britain’s night and day air offensive against Germany and German-occupied territory, were. authoritatively reported to have shot down nine enemy planes this morning. Three British plahes were said to be missing. These figures hroughs the total of German planes shot down in daylight sweeps since June 11.

midday raid started today. A The firing extended well inland, it was said, indicating that the British planes were = attacking airdromes and war industries in occupied tere ritory. German planes dropped bombs ag southern England and northeastern Scotland points during the nighs but the raids were on a small scale, Berlin said the Luftwaffe last night bombed the harbor at Southhampe ton, causing a number of fires,

Moves

By United Press War Experts ‘Reliable information on the German-Russian ‘war, while onl it makes 1t appear that the Russians, not fully prepared for an at notice, are putting up a better ag, expected.

4

we

an attack, there is no evidence to has’ crashed through, the “Russian

show that Soviet planes are raiding German territory even beyond East Prussia, as well as Finland, Poland ¢

and Rumania. of fighting, tae

After five gays a

eerly pessimism at, oe nee no distinct o

tted even by Mos-

tonight that the German air force

i