Hammond Times, Volume 15, Number 188, Hammond, Lake County, 1 February 1922 — Page 1

THE WEATHER YTIME World's News by fair; except snow flurries in extreme northeast portion; much oolder Delivered by Carriers: in Hammond and W. Hammond 50c per month on streets and news stands 3c per copy. VOL. XV. NO. 188. HAMMOND WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1922. HAMMOND, INDIANA ARMED BANDITS SEIZE MAIL POUCHES IN WHITING

THE

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ARMED B

WHITING

INVESTIGATION

GREEN

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RAILWAYS

WELCOME

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"NOTHING TO FEAR"--TALMADGE!

Ready to go Before Service Commission at Any Time Concerning the movement of the cities of North Township to force a reduction o utility rates. Mr. O.G. Talmadge. president of the Hammond, Whiting & East Chicago Railway company, made the following statement today: "Our company is ready at any tine to go before the Public Service commission ton with a complete statement of property values and revenue accounts. We recognized that the Public Service com has the power, upon the petition of any of the cities or a required number of citizens, to conduct a hearing and inquire into the affairs of our company, with a view of fixing a reasonable rate of fare The commission by its order of June- 30th, 1921. continued the eight cent fare now in effect on our lines, and we are ready at any time to give the commission or the public, deltailed information as to our operating revenue und costs, and the many difficulties under which we are carrying on the business. OPERATE AT LOSS. The fact is. we have been operating for many months under the eight cent fare. at a loss. Our books show that for in year ending December 31st, 1921, lost $20,899.00. For the month of December, 1921. our deficit was over $ 4.000.00. We are not earning enough money to pay operating expenses, and the public should understand that, although more than $2.000.000 in money is invested In the streets of these cities in street railway property, the eight cent; fare does not give us enough money to a single cent of return on this investment. In other words, the property is being devoted to public service, without any return at all to the owners. I doubt whether there is another business enterprise in the district with so substantial an investment, that is required to carry on its business under these unfavorable conditions. PAY HIGH WAGES. "A big tion, is wages trainmen hour any stre element in our cost of operaWe are now paying our a maximum of eighty cents per hour, highest wage scale paid on railway system in the United States. The increase in wages to our men since 1916. has added over one hunthousand dollars a year to our operating costs. There have been decreases in the costs of some materials that we use, but these items make no appreciable difference in our total cost of operation. as long as the wage scale of our trainmen remains at its present high level, we must have the present rate of fare to keep the cars moving. Out of the eight cents. almost five cents goes for wages Because of fares sold at reduced rates in th" form of t ckets, free transporta.tion and the hauling of school children, we get a little over seven cents for each passenger in fact hauled Aside from wages less than three cents is lent to take care of power, interest, taxes and other elements of cost. This explains our continual increasing deficit under the present rate. LOW ERB OF BUSINESS "Our present losses are due in part to two things-low ebb of business in the industries, and the unfair jitney compeetition "Wtth the working forces of the factories reduced our traffic for the last year has fallen off in an appalling degree. For the first seventeen days or January. 1922, we hauled 6,500 passcngers less, daily, than we did during the same period of the previous year. For the tame seventeen days. our total loss of revenue, under the previous year, was over $300 00 dainly. No one is responsible for this falling off of traffic, but the public should understand that it is a serious condition, we are using our best efforts to meet. We have cut our operating costs to the closest margin, and I know there never has been a time in the history of our comppany, when the property has been so closely watched. and economically man-aged 1921 TAXES, $46,000 If any early hearing is had on our rates, before the utilities commission, we feel that that. body will be just enough to take into consideration the present jitney traffic and the losses we are required to sustain by this unfair competition. We operate under franchises imposing upon us substantia burdens for the right to haul the public in the streets. Our ears operate over thirty miles of track, in three cities, about twenty-two hours a day. When the jitney driver is asleep or resting, our cars are running, giving service over all parts of the lines. We have to do this to retain our rights. addition, we pay taxes that go to the general funds of the cities and the county. last year amounting to about 45.000.00. We have to pave and keep in repair the part of the streets we occupy. We are responsible to the public and our employes for injuries, and each j ear, in fact, spend many thousands of dollars in settlement of damage claims. All of this is required of us by the public, for the right to do business The fame public permits the jitney to enter into direct competition with us. without requiring any of these obligations or safeguards. This situation is so that it cannot continue in

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COLLECTOR AFTER ICE

CREAM MEN

Last October congress began talking about changing the laws so that patrons of ice cream parlors would no lonnger have to hand over the few extra cents tax on ice cream and beverages Immediately, it seems, many proprietors of refreshment places took it for granted that the tax had been bumped. They quit making returns to the Internal Revenue Department. The legislators did amend the law to eliminate the ice cream and beverage tax. but it did not go into effect until Jan. 1. Hammond and other cities in the territory of the Hammond office of the Internal Revenue Department, have a goodly share of dealers who have been amiss in making out these tax returns. A. Dick Maddux, deputy collector for Hammond, is going to get after them. "While it is a fact that the law has eliminated the tax. effective January 1. l932, many of the dealers seem to think that the law was effective when passed and are delinquent for the last several weeks of l922" said Mr. Maddux today. "There seems to be a disposition on the part of many dealers that they are paying the tax," he continued, "whereas they are merely the collectors. They had the use of the money collected as taxes all month until it was time to make their returns after which times they become delinquent and cannot possibly evade the penalty. In reality, in the eyes of the law, they become em-bezzlers The collector explained that in cases of this kind. in the absence of any record kept, he is directed to reckon an amount based on prior payments for the same period in a year and collect it together with tne penalty. "In as much as the law has eliminated these taxes."' said Mr. Maddux, "it certainly becomes the duty of the dealers to make their final returns of any and all tax in their hands. Otherwise the department orders a drive, which they win. on this particular line of sale and the penalties will be only that much greater."' S RELATIVES To prevent his uncle End aunt from sellng- a piece of property which they were supposed to be holding in trust for him, John Putnikovlch, a minor of East Chicago, today came into the Hammond superior court and through his next friend, Nick Mayer, asked that a commissioner be appointed to convey title to the property to him. Mr. and Mrs. Michael Trbovich are the uncle and aunt. On October 1. the boy's mother, following the death of the father, placed $2,000, which was his share of the estate, in the hands of Mr. nd Mrs. Trbovicb . They were to buy a house and lot and bold it in trust for John. January 7 the mother died. The boy then asked that his relatives convey title of the property to him or furnish sufficient security. They refused and later he learned that they were preparing to sell it. He wants the court to adjudge the property in trust and appoint a commissioner who will convey it to his name. He is represented by Attorney M. Havran . HARBOR MAN When a woman becomes mean and unmanageable and will nost listen to his advice. William Truby. 3743 Guthrie st.. lndi ino. Harbor, thinks it is time to seek the divorce court. He has been having just such trouble with hi. wife Elnora and today his petition for separation was filed by Attorney Henry L. Davis in the Hammord superior court . They were married at Morris, Ill. February 14. 1918. and lived together until August 6 of the following year. They separated at Joliet, III., when Elnora. according to Truby's story, went to live with one Clarence Johnson with whom she had been friendly for some time. PROFESSOR DEAN IS TO SPEAK Professor W. H. T. Dau. of Concordia Seminary. St. Louis. Mo., will speak tonight at St. Paul's Lutheran church of Hammond on European conditions. Prof. Dau spent six months in Europe studying- the regilious and social conditions in the interest of the Missouri synod of the Lutheran church. UNIONS CALL OFF PACKING STRIKE CHICAGO. Feb. 1. The packing house strike which began in the various meat packing centers of the United States op December 5 was virtually at an end today as the result of messages sent to all branches of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen by Dennis Lane, secretary, recommending that the strike be called off. Officials of the union refused to comment upon, their action.

MINOR

SUES

SEEKS DIVORCE

E-X-T-R-A (Full Details of Treaty on Page 6.)

(BULLETIN) I WASHINGTON. Feb. 1. -A I treaty between the five great powers of the Washington conferernce, abolishing the use. of poison ga isn warfare and virtually making it impossible for a submarine to attack I d sink a merchant ship, was presented and adopted today in open session. Invitation Sent Out Today to 16 Major Railroad Unions to Unite [INTRNATIONAL NEWS SERVICE] INDIANAPOLIS. Ind. Feb. 1- An invitation to the sixteen major railroad unions of the United States to pool their interests with the United Mine Workers of America for united resistance of proposed attacks upon their wage schedules was sent out from international headquarters of the miners organization here today. "The railroad workers have been compelled to accept inequitable wage reductions and propaganda is now being conducted on a gigantic scale designed to enforce further unwarranted wage cuts upon them," said a statement issued today by John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers in connection with transmission of the invitations to heads of the sixteen railroad unions "It is likewise apparent that certain interests are seeking wage reductions in the coal mining industry. In order to cope with this situation and successfully combat this frenzied hysteria the mine workers are willing to unreservedly pool their interests with the railroad organizations and stand with them in resistance to the proposed attacks upon their wage schedules." The miners, said Mr. Lewis are ex-tending the hand of fellowship to the men engaged in the railroad industry and are prepared to. ATTORNEYS PLEASED WITH BILL Action of Congress during the present session establishing two federal judicia districts in Indiana is reasenably certain following announcement from Washington that the bill introduced by Representative Hickey (Ind.) has been reported back favorably and (with recommendation for passage in tato by the house judiciary committee. The bill provides for two separate and istinct judicial districts. Each will have its own officers from judge to baliff. The northern district embracing 45 counties will have federal courts at Hammond. South Bend, Fort Wayne and Terre Haute The southern district with 47 coun ties will have courts at Indianapolis, New Albany and Evansville Court will convene in each city twice a year. Attorneys of Northern Indiana hail the measure as an economizer of time and money. Witnesses fees alone. including transportation. for persons called from far corners of the stale to Indianapolis as at present amount annually to thousands of dollars. This expense is borne by the government. Karly consideration of the bill is promised at Washington. FOR BETTER BABIES Hammond's Child Welfare clinic opened Tuesday in Room 33 Rimbach, block with a rush. Hammond mothers have awakened to the fact that their babies need a regular weekly inspection and weighing; to know that they arc keeping up to and making the normal gains. Drs. Nichols and Oberlin in charge bad plenty to do for two hours. Tile clinic will be open every Tuesday afternoon from one to four o'clock, babies under two will be received from one to two o'clock. two to five years from two to four o'clock. The clinic is for the benefit of all and a better baby movement of permanent character. Any mother who wishes to know whether or not her baby is properly fed and nourished may bring it for advice. T. W. OBERLLN W. E. NICHOLS. Two Liquor Law Violators Sentenced [SPECIAL TO THE TIMES] Walter Waslcwich of Hammond was found guilty of violating the state liquor law on Tuesday in the criminal court and was fined $100 and 30 days in jail. Anna Komando of Gary $50 and costs and Julius Xieman of Gary $190 and costs la for. the same offense.

MINERS ASK RY. UNIONS TO POOL

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Fire Wipes Another disastrous fire of undetermined origin early today wiped out the Indiana Gardens, skating rink, dance hall and pleasure palace at Five Points, Roby, with a loss estimated at between S6,000 and $7,000 This is the third of a trio of fires beginning with the destruction of the Ruff building that have brought losses running into thousands of dollars. In not one case has the cause been satisfactorily determined. The fire at the Gardens was discover PROBE COLLAPSE Investigation of the disaster. the Knickerbocker motion picture theater in Washington, D. C., in which over 100 persons were killed and over 100 other inGIRL WEDS ALTERNATIVE Wedded when she was only fourteen years old when she was offered death as the alternative, Jennie Konistis was today granted legal separation from Anton Konistis by Judge Crites in Room 2 of the Hammond superior court. Jennie's father got into some trouble a couple of years ago and was unable to pay a fine. He went to the Crown Point jail. Anton Konistis had some money. He procured the liberty of the father and won his gratitude. Anton began bestowing; attentions upon Jennie. She didn't like him. Her parents urged her to be nice to him. He spent much money on her. Then one day Anton prouposed in this wise: "Jennie. I got your old man out of jail. I've spent a lot of jack on you and new you've got to marry me." Jennie objected. "You'll marry me or I II kill you. No one else shall have you?" he Insisted. That was putting it pretty forcibly so Jennie consented. She lacked three mouths of being fifteen years old but the parents said they would fix it up. They went to Chicago and told court attaches she was sixteen.. They were married by a judge. That was May of last year. By July 1 life with Anton has become intolerable to the girl and she ran away. She has since been working as a housemaid in Hammond. She testified that Anton had made no effort to persuade her to return to him. Under the Illinois statutes a girl cannot marry under sixteen even with her parents' consent so the union was annulled on those grounds. Attorneys Cleveland & Cleveland appeared for Mrs. Konistis while the state was represented by Attorney Charles Dyer. WHISKEY GUARDS TO BE ARMED AT LAST [INTERNATIONAL NFW3 SERVICE] WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 -Whiskey warehouse guards hereafter- will be armed with sawed-off shot guns to keep liquor bandits away. Prohibition officials here authorized the heavier arming of guards in bonded warehouses after several recent, bold holdups, and the theft of large quantities of good whiskey. The guns are being distributed by collectors of internal revenue to the guards stationed at various warehouses, centered in their district:;. CARDINALS DELAY CONCLAVE OPENING LONDON, Feb. 1. Cardinals at Home have received instructions to delay opening conclave ceremonies until Thursday evening, act-ordirg to a Central News dispatch from Rome today. Trwy uorc to h-t r begun Thursday morning The Apostolic chancery, in the name of the Vatican, has requested Italy to reimburse 20,000,000 lire owing to the Vatican, since the separation of the

WITH DEATH

church and state in 1870

Out Pleasure Palace

ed this morning at 3 o'clock by Officer Ted Horlbeck. He said flames were leaping from three or four points in the rear of the building at the same time. Five base burners heated this onw-story building. .Firemen say they don't know how the fire started. The frame structure, 209 feet long by "5 feet wide, burned like tinder. Two hours after the fire was discovered the building had burned to the ground. More than $l.000 worth of roller skates -and OF THEATER ROOF THAT

View of Knickerbocker theater Washington, where

jured, is now under way A heavy fall of snow caused the root! of the theater to collapse. The falling roof carried the balcony with it. But for the LATEST Extra (BULLETIN) [INTERNATIONAL NEWS SERVICE] DETROIT, Mich.. Feb. 1. Dodge Brothers today announced the following cuts in the price of thicr delivered product: Touring car, $119; roadster, $100; coupe, $333; sedan, $379; business wagon, $170; panel wogan, $173. (BULLETIN) [INTERNATIONAL NEWS SERVICE] KANSAS CITY. Mo.. Feb. 1. The; body of a woman about 35 years old who had been horribly beaten, choken and gagged, was found today near a viaduct from which it evidently had been hurled to the railroad tracks 60 feet below. K. OF C'S HAVE Eaton street. 6 room bungalow, It Will Be Told at Their Minstrel Show February 9 and 10. What is so rare as a new joke? Think carefully. How long- has it beem since you heard a. new Joke? Not In Ziegfeld's Follies, surely. There may be new faces, new stage effects and now comedians in the Follies but never & new joke. The "gag" are as ancient as show business itself. There is a now joke in the Knights of Columbus minstrels to be given at the Parthenon theatre, Feb. 9 and 10. A brand new joke, probably the only one of the season. No. not that one about a prominent Hammond man giving his boy a quarter to put in the bank and telling him the gas meter is the bank . F. J. O'Rourke. publicity man for the minstrel show, guarantees that there will be an absolutely new jok"This is probably the only new joke of the year," said O'Rourke, "and it is bring carefully guarded. After each rehearsal it is locked up in the safe at the Knights of Columbus club rooms. No one is permitted to take it out except the director. It is written in code on fine parchment and closed with the lodge seal. Only the direc tor and the end man who tells joke are permitted to see it." the Asks for Damages to Car. in a few minutes. smashup between two automo biles on the Crown Point road a mile east of Dyer last August the Oldsmobile car of Carl Johnson is alleged to have lost three wheels, the windshield, fenders and sundry other parts. Today Johnson filed suit for damages in the superior court at Hammond against Christ Lassen, owner of the other car. He says he approached the rros roa-d and seeing Lassen's car approaching, stopped and waited. Lassen is said to have been making thirty miles an hour as he whirled the corner and crashed into Johnson's machine, Johnaon asks for $500 to cover damage to his machine. He is represented by. Attorney

E

BRAND NEW JOKE

H. E. Gran..

other equipment were destroyed according to Mike Madura, operator of the rink. The last of the fifty roller skaters had left the building three hours before the fire. Madura, was at his home when told that his business had been wiped out. Hammond fire companies fought futliely to check the flames. The building was owned by the occupants of the restaurant on the comer.

KILLED SCORES disaster occurred. storm which brought the snow and kept hundreds of persons from attending the show several hundred more persons might have met death. (BULLETIN) WASHINGTON. Feb. 1. Prince Yamagata, one of the last of the elder statesmen of Japan, is dead, according to private advices reaching the correspondent of the Tokio Asaha here this morning. (BULLETIN) BOSTON, Feb. 1. Max Mitchell, president of the closed Cosmopolitan Trust Company, surrendered in Superior court here today to five true bills returned by a special session of the Suffolk county grand jury called by Attorney General J. Weston Allen. Michell pleaded not guilty to many counts, charging the larceny of $1,731,803 from the bank. INFLUENZA EPEDEMIC RAGING NEW YORK. Feb. 1. - Influenza reached the epidemic stage in New York today when more than 1,000 new cases were reported in the city for the previous 24 hours, an iroase cf more than 25 per cent over yesterday. PURDUE'S CHANCES GO GLIMMERING LAFAYETTE, Ind. Feb. 1. Purdue's chances of winning the conference basketball championship went glimmering today when announcement was made that Don f. White, the P.oilermakers star floor guard, was disqualified for further athletic competition at the university because of hs confession of playing semi-professional basketball and baseball. PROMINENT NEW YORKER DIES OF 'FLU' NKW YORK, Feb. 1. Laurence .T O'Rielly, one of the best known men in New York political life, died today after two weeks illness. He was stricken with influenza which developed into pneumonia Guardianship Case. Charles H. Friedrich, justice of the peace, today filed a petition in the Hammond superior court asking that Constable Julius Taussig be appointed guardian of Joseph Goscicki. He says that Goscicki was pronounced insane in a sanity inquest held in this court January 28 and that be is incapable of managing his affairs. Goscicki s estate is said to be worth $250. BASEBALL, team organizers in Lake county gathered at 1632 Broadway, in Gary, last night, to take preliminary steps in organizing the Northern Indiana baseball league. Managers of a half a. dozen clubs were present. The rail mill at the Gary works which has been down for more than a month and started -up .Monday morning has vrders it is reported that will keep the mill in operation, several months. Between 8,000 and ton can be railed weekly.

TRA!

BULLETINS

0 WAY TO P. O. Victim

Bandits Believed to Have Slipped a Day in Their Calculations (BY STAFF CORRESPONDENT) WHITING. Ind., Feb. 1. -Five bandits. heavily armed. guessed wrong this morning when the swooped down upon the town of Whiting and robbed j. (Red) Schwartz depot mail-guard Firing their revolvers in the air to halt pursuit, the bandits raced out of the city with seven sacks of mail which it is evident they believed containded the 175.000 payroll of the Standard Oil Company. BIRDS TOO EARLY TO GET WORM. The daring daylight hold-up witnessed by a score of people, was at least twenty-four hours too soon. The "loot" consisting of six sacks of parcel post and second class matter. and one bag of first class mail, will net, at the most, two or three hundred dollars in money orders. checks and cash, according to a state ment by postal authorities this noon. Earlier in the week the bandits would hart endangered a thirty thousand dollar deposit covering the office payoll of the Standard Oil plant. Tomorrow or the next day they would have had a chance to get the big plant payroll . To obtain either of these shipments of currency they would have had to kill or over-power two special police, equipped with rifles who meet the mail trains at Whiting when their payroll deposits are in transit. SCHWARTZ UNARMED The hold-up took place at the Intersection of New Vork and Ohio avenues, a block from the Pennsylvania depot. The train from Chicago to Pittsburgh, due at Whiting: at 7:20 o'clock had just pulled out. Schwartz was pushing the mail cart along the sidewalk toward the postoffice. He was unarmed and alone. A Packard touring car with side curtains and without a license plates was moving slowly along the street behind Schwartz. The car stopped and three men jumped to the pavement. Two of the bandits wore soidier overcoats and one wore a rain-coat. One bandit rushed upon the mail messenger, holding a revolver at his head and demanding "hands up!" Th.other two grabbed the mail sacks and dragged them to the curb where a third fellow helped load them in the tonneau of the car. The engine of the Pack Pack was running and the driver was at the wheel . Hoyt Wright, assistant chif clerk of the Standard Oil Company : Clifford Green, a clerk: Miss Cera Blackhurst and Miss Nora Sullivan, school teachers. Charles Perel and Mrs. Hannah Salkenthal, were witnesses 'They're holding up the mail!" Green shouted to Hoyt and the two men started across the street toward the bandit car. FIRES AS WARNING Get back you. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " yelled a bandit, firing into the air. L. C. Grubb. principal of the high school, in front of whose home the hold-up took place, came to the door. attracted by the commotion. A bandit gun wasbrandished to wards him. The Packard begran to move, the robbers jumping to the running hoard and crowding in on top of the mail bags. The anto started on New York avenue or One Hundred and Nineteenth street nd stopped. It. would seem that the bandits decided not to venture on the main street too near the police station. The big car turned around and started up Ohio to One Hundred and Seventeenth street. The alarm had spread. Men began pouring out of their homes with guns. The bandit chauffeur threw the clutch into high and was soon racing out of the town at a mile a minute speed. Police, and firemen with revolvers and rifles were soon in pursuit on the automobile fire truck and in commandeered automobiles. South Chicago police were notified and the bridge raised to halt the bandit auto. The mail robbers went west on Indianapolis like a streak of blue lightning. The fire truck gave up the chase at the state line. The Packard was not seen again. Consternation reigned in Whiting. It was at first believed that the payroll had been stolen. Chief of Police Collins got in communication with the paymaster of the Standard Oil Company and was told the payroll deposit had not been shipped. Whiting banks made hurried investigation and learned they had no money in transit. The office pay-day at the Standard Oil Co. was yesterday and the plant pay-day is Saturday Postmaster F. C Kennedy stated this afternoon that his investigation showed only one bag of first class mail to be missing. He was not able to say how many sacks of parcel post and second class mail had been stolen. Schwartz, the messenger, said there was a total of seven bags. The messenger was also positive as to the number of bandits. Some witness only saw two, others three and still others. four There was a still greater difference of opinion as to the number of shots fired. Mrs. Grant Spurrier, Oliver street. Whiting, said that when the mail robbers' car raced passed her house, leaving tne city, the bandits were still firing their revolvers. The question of the approximate ages of the bandits was also variously answered. Schwartz said that they were comparatively young men while other witnesses declared they were thirtyfive and forty years old, heavy-set and norid, in complexion.