The Daily Banner, Greencastle, Putnam County, 20 March 1937 — Page 1

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THE DAILY BANNER “IT WAVES FOR ALL”

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)IUME FORTY-FIVE

TIDY RUINS OF SHATTERED SCHOOL HOUSE

iPERTS PROBE IN DEBRIS gEEKIM* CAUSE OP' TRAOIC EXPLOSION

NOVVX

DEATH TOLL 425

Injured In New

y of Children

London, Texas, Explosion

Maimed For Life

GHKKNCASTliE, INDIANA, SATURDAY, MARCH 20, liCT.

NO. 132

of three official investigations. Meanwhile bereaved parents laid plans for mass and individual funeral services for their children. A group service for an undetermined number was planned at the New London Baptist church today, and there was the possibility of a mass service at Henderson. Last night the only activity was in funeral homes where the dead were receiving last ministrations. Such lights burned far into the night at Tyler, Longview, Kilgore, Overton and Henderson—all through the oil

belt.

Many of those who lived after the eruption scattered human beings and buildings alike are maimed, physicians said, and fractures are evident in almost every case. Definite indication that seepage gas caused the explosion came when Maj. Gaston Howard said Dr. Schoch would testify before the board. Seeping gas, an ever-present menace that lurks in the oil fields, collects in recesses of well-ventilated buildings and along highways, said Assistant Fire Chief J. J. Lynn at Oklahoma City. ::The cast Texas country of New London is hilly.” he addde. “You’d probably find more gas pockets along highways there.” At Austin, state capital, legislators passed resolutions in both houses calling for a legislative investigation even as Governor Allred's military court of national guardsmen assembled here. Major Howard stood in a deluge of rain as the last of the bodies was carried tenderly from the scene of Texas’ greatest disaster since the GalvAton flood. He indicated his belief that accumulated gas, gathered in the crannies and hollow tiles of the building’s basement, was the basic cause of the disaster.

INVITATION IS DECLINED BY JUSTICES

DECLINE INVITATION TO TESTIFY ON PRESIDENT’S DEMAND FOR MOKE ON BENCH

ASKED

O I‘ POSITION

NEW LONDON, Tex., March 20— ip»—Miscellaneous experts poked ut in the ruins of the world’s largt school today while innumerable shuttled between funeral mes and cemeteries. Yesterday doctors and nurses came miles around to succor this oil Id community's injured and dying; ay ministers and hearses came to ry its 425 dead. At noon a military board of inquiry et to establish officially the cause the explosion that Thursday after--n demolished the school’s main ilding and buried pupils ranging in e from seven to 18, and 14 teachers, neath tons of debris. T. P. Schoch, University of exas chemistry professor who is ted as an expert on gas explosions, id "it (the explosion) came from ither the basement or the hollow tile alls which are excellent gas chamrs.” Dr. Schoch made the stateent to newspaper men. “I am reasonably certain in which ne of these sections it occurred and i ave very little evidence to support explosion in the other.” He inspected the tangled wreckage i torn which a thousand men hauled [ ' e botlies of the trapped victims and I sserted he found many of the gas ! adiators without proper flues. Of six radiators left intact after j explosion, Dr. Schoch said he ound only one with a satisfactory j

ent

“It's simple,” he said. “The walls !

■ere filled with gas that had no ! ther exit Then there was a spark RUSSIAVILLE, Ind., March 20 — d the walls burst. I swe pt. through the business dis“The condition of the bodies of , trict here last nigh t. Five buildings hose children bears that out. They , were destroyed and at least a dozen blown (he emphasized the I otherg were damaged. Business men ord) to death—not burned to egt.jrna.ted the loss was between $75,eat| i" 000 and $80,000 as the fire was Dr. Schoch said the natural gas brought under control about 8:30 o’-

roduced here in quantities simply clock.

urns when ignited, but when mixed j Residents said the fire started with air. even in a ratio of one part stortiy before 6 o’clock in the Russia‘f gas to ten parts of air, causes a 1 ville Hatchery, where new electrical

[powerful explosion. , equipment had been installed.

Dr. Schoch explained that '‘wet’’ | Other buildings destroyed were the pas. such as was used in the radia- Stout & Sons' Mortuary, William O'tors at the school, must be mixed Bricn General Etore. Eakin Jewelry with air if its heating power is to be Store, Okay Barber Shop and Dr. V.

kept constant. j C. Carter’s office.

He said he learned from school of- | A high wind fanned the flames and fieials that, prior to the disaster, the sent sparks soaring over the town At institution switched from "dry” to, lease a dozen other buildings and

“wet” gas. j residences were afire.

“However, that is no cause for 1 An appeal for aid brought firecriticism,” the scientist added. (fighting equipment from Flora. School Superintendent W. C. Kempton, Kokomo, Logansport,

leaders In Senate Opposed To Proposed .Indiciary Reform Extended Invitation

Business Section Damaged By Fire FLAMES SWEEP THROUGH STORES LAST NIGHT AT

RUSSIAVILLE

WASHINGTON, March 20. Justices of the supreme court declined yesterday an invitation to give the senate judiciary committee their opinion of the Roosevelt court reorganization proposal. Leading members of the opposition group in the senate, eager to obtain testimony from the jusMces, had extended the informal invitation. They reported with disappointment that the justices prefer to keep aloof from tlv! current controversy. A possibility remained, the senators said, that some members of the court might testify later on the purely procedural aspects of the president’s bill, although they thought this prospect a doubtful one. This disclosure was made at the end of a day. in which the committee went ahead with a list of witnesses from the law schools and universities favoring the bill. Dr. Charles Haines of the University of California at Los Angeles urged passage of the measure “to remove some of the shackles which the justices have forged to obstruct and confine governmental authority,” and to end what he said was the “court’s present role of censor over the policy and expediency of legisla-

tive action.”

William D. Lewis, former dean of the Pennsylvania university law school and now connected with the American Law Institute, asserted that “under the court as it is now constituted there are few acts of congress regarded by the majority in

IT’S SPRING SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Cal. March 20 'UP' The famous swallows of San Juan Capistrano mission, which for 160 years have arrived every spring on Saint Joseph’s Day, flew in from the sea and popped into their nests under the old Abode Eaves on clock-work schedule this morning. Flocks of the birds began appearing from over the pacific soon after dawn, coming from a wintering place that is a mystery. They wheeled over the mission, dived down, and began their annual battle to must the Swifts occupying tneir nests.

Art Models on Sitdown Strike

Operetta To Be Given Tuesday

HIGH SCHOOL GLEE CLUBS WILL GIVE "NORGEWIAN NlfllTS” The presentation of “Norwegian Nights,” an operetta in three acts, by the Greencastle high school chorus next Tuesday night, will be unusual in many respects. The plot of the operetta is built around the life of the Norwegian composer Grieg and the music is an adaptation of some of his finest compositions. Prof. B. W. Bergothon, supervisor of music in the city schools, who directs the operetta, lived in Norway several years and has given the production much “local coloring.” The peasant chorus, which has an important place in the production, will be dressed in colorful original Norwegian peasant costumes. All the main characters will be dressed in the period of Grieg's

life.

Demanding an increase of 25 per cent to $1 an hour, members of the New York Art Students' league went on a sitdown strike, taking possession of the league studio, above.

“Aunt Mary” Allison Was Responsible For Founding Of Our Orphans’ Home

"The good works men do shall live after them.” Whoever it was that wrote this sentiment must, surely, have had “Aunt Mary” L. Allison in mind. Her death occurred a number

Staging of tie operetta required years ago. but there was no cessa-

tion, on that date, nor since, of the beneficence of the great climax of her life, which was the founding of the Greencastle Orphans’ Home. It was started by her in a small way, before she died, when she lived in the old brick residence at the intersection

the construction if two complete sets of scenery. Ones represents Grieg’s home wtih a background of mountains and a Norwegian fjord and the other a rocky glen in the mountains. The second act is unusual in that

c . ^ all of the seven scenes depicting

congress and by the president as not i Grieg’s inspirations to the Peer Gynt of Arlington and Washington streets, only constitutional, but vitally neces- music is presented in pantomine. ~ *''• A ‘

aary to public welfare, which will not : This act also calls for some unusual be annulled by the decision of a di- j lighting effects such as northern vlded court.” | lights. Several elaborate dances are At the outset of the senate’s ses- also included in this act.

An orchestra of college students will accompany the vocal solos and

sion Senator Robinson of Arkansas, the Democratic leader, announced that John H. Clarke, the only living • former member of the supreme court, would make a radio speech on the court bill next Monday night. Clarke, who retired from the bench in 1922 and is now living in California, will speak at 9 p. m. (8 p. m. Central j standard time) Monday over NBC. Also in the senate Copeland of New York asserted President Roose- ( veil gave a “false impression” in a j recent speech by suggesting that the j courts had “interforred” with the control of floods on the Ohio river !

and tributaries.

in Greencastle. At her death, that germinal form of the later “Home” became a seed from which sprang the present wide-reaching institution which has been a real home to hundreds of boys ami girls. Without it. they would have lived precariously

chorus throughout the three acts. Professor Bergethon states that there is some unusual talent represented in this cast of high school students, and everyone who appreciates good music and colorful staging should attend this performance The operetta will give given one night only.

Horse Show Dates Fixed

DEPAUW BROADCAST "What Does Your Job Mean

.. .... — ~ fc Vllnkfort Tinton Delphi and Sharps- You?” will be the subject of an adShaw who lost a son in the tragedy ? > a was ; dress by Prof. Paul J. Fay of the

-had said he believed seeping gas 1 vme - . wn , _

from the adjacent oil

th! blast.

OFFICERS ELECTED, AND DE- , TAILS OF NEXT MEETING EXHIBIT ARRANGED AT MEETING

fields caused threatened, lines of hose were extend- psychology department in the regular The preliminary arrangements for cd to a nearby creek where ennough DePauw university radio broadcast the 1937 horse show for Putnam

Weary workmen who toiled water was secured to check the over station WFBM, Indianapolis, at county, to be hi Id in Greencastle were through the night and day burrow- blaze - J 5:45 this evening. i made at a meeting of horse owners of

Nearly half of the Kokomo jKilice The DePauw School of Music will the county, which was held in the of- helping

force was sent here when roads be- , be represented on the program by Hce of the county agent, Guy T. Har- w h° h a, l no on< ‘ to care for them, and

came choked with traffic. Witnesses John Crow, student vocalist. He will ris, in the Court House at Greencastle,

i said the flames were visible for , be accompanied by Kathryn Olds.

through the formative years of their lives and without doubt there would have been absent from their present characters some of the fine things that arc there now. Mrs. Mary L. Allison was a sister of the Dr. Alexander C. Stevenson who was one of the prominent citizens of the county in its first halfcentury. She was born in Kentucky, the daughter of James Stevenson and Margaret Campbell Stevenson, both of these names being on the geneologies of other Putnam families, who truce hack to Colonial

lay.'..

After a busy life, Mrs Allison

found herself alone and lonely in the world, her husband and daughter. Mollic Clark, having died. The happy thought came to her that she could in no better way establish a memorial to her daughter than by

children of the community

<fical attention. The list of children thus helped is surprisingly large. There is another series of gift? that is interesting, and very unusual The home has one friend, a man, who believes in the good old doctrine o f tithing. With him, a part of his tith ing is the giving to the home from I time to time, of sums of money which arc fully credited to him on the books of the corporation but the money itself is merged with the resources of the institution. In the course of years, it has reached a considerable total, but especially impresrsive about jt is the spirit which actuates the giving. Once there was a man to whom was entrusted a talent in old-fash ioned money, for him to invest in the interests of the donro. Another talent was given to another man. wit* - the same instructions One of thor at the end of the specified period re turned his talent double in amount The second man returned his just as lie had received it. There is an analogy between the story of the talents, and the stewardship by the di rectors of the gift made the home bv Mrs. Allison. She gave $60,000. and the institution now has resources o' $120 003. One point that may not have or curred to many, in thinking of Uu nome and its management, Is thn' nearly all of the hundreds of youn" people who have been members o' the home’s family through these sue cessive years, would, without this rare from the home, have been mor

THRUE POINT PROGRAM BY MRS. PERKINS

SECRETARY OF LABOR (SEEKS TO END STRIKE AT DETROIT LEWIS FAVORS PLAN, REPORT Situation Of Striking Ch-yn er Men Remained (’nehangnd On Saturday .Morning WASHINGTON, March 20, (UP) —Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins today proposed a three-point program designed to end the Chrysler automobile strike. Reliable sources confirmed a report that she submitted the plan to Walter P. Chrysler, chairman of the Chrysler Corporation, at an informal conference in New York last night. The proposed program provided: 1. That plants occupied by United Automobile Workers sit-down strikers be evacuated immediately and that maintenance employes of the company be allowed to enter the premises to protect buildings, 2. That Chrysler guarantee that evacuated plants be kept inoperative until peace conferences between the corporation and the Committee for Industrial Organization, strike sponsor, are completed. 3. That conferences between the C. I. O. and the corporation start immediately in an attempt to settle lifferences. Simultaneously, leaders on Capitol Hill forecast possibility of a congressional investigation of the wave of sit-down strikes. Sen. Hugo L. Black, chairman of the senate labor committee, said there was a “distinct possibility” that such an inquiry would be undertaken. John L. Lewis, C. I. O. chairman, was reported to bo willing to agree to the Perkins proposal if Chrysler would go to Detroit and take part in peace conferences.

PRINTERS END STRIKE INDIANAPOLIS, March 20. (UP) —Printing machinery again rumbled in three Indianapolis newspaper plants today after union printers ended a 27 hour strike which forced publishers to suspend publication. Members of International Typographical union local No. I voted to return to work after publishers of the Indianapolis News, Times and Star had refused to discuss wage negotiations as long as the strike continued.

Check Artist Is Held Here

TRIED TO PASS $20 CHECK AT LOCAL STORE

FRIDAY

Robert Fowler, alms Robert Anderson of MarkelviWc, was arrested

or less public charges, whoso msin

tcnance would have been at public ! three o'clock t riday afternoon

cost. The community’s treasury has

been spared this expense.

lag in the twisted wreckage for bodiep. completed the task late yester'la;, .after 425 victims had been removed, with the statement of Col. E. K Parker, commander of the national guard forces which held the terri-

tory under martial law:

“The job is finished. We estimate 425 bodies were lifted from the ruins.

Maybe more.”

Cas flares from the forest of oil derricks surrounding the community cast an eerie relief last night over a scene quite strangely at contrast

large

I eighteen or twenty miles as the fire | reached its height. | No one was Injured, [Kilice said. The fire burned the remainder of j the night. Squad of firemen was detained to prevent any further spread

i of the blaze.

DUST SWIRLS OVER S. W. KANSAS CITY. Mo„ March 20. j (UP)—A violent windstorm blew up

DePauw To Have Easier Vacation

SPRING RECESS AT UNIVERSITY

TO START NEXT

WEDNESDAY

Friday evening. There was group of men present.

| Officers were elected, the dates set, and other details of the coming shovi

were cared for.

I Gilbert E. Ogles was elected president, Harry McCabe vice-president. Ray Vaughn secretary, and Carl

Arnold treasurer.

[ The dates for the show as now set : are September 16, 17, and 18. It was tentatively agreed that the

recess beginning pulling contest should be held on the March 24,. first day, and that the stallion show

Tile present directors of the home corporation are Charles Huffman Otto Lakin, Mrs. W O. Timmons Ernest Browning, and W. B. Peck

7, 1806,

Home

n i noan \

To make her purpose tangible and workable, she had incorporate I. June

Greencastle Orphans’ | The latter may lie considered to repCorporation, the purpose of resent, in a measure, the family in-

whieh, as was formally stated, Was terests in the home and its manage"to receive gifts of money for the "tent. In that he is closely related to; ••are of orphan children.” The first ,hc founder, the late Mrs. Allison directors were Thomas C. Hammond. H' s brother, C. T. Peek, was on the Mary E. Birch, Alphcus Birch, Mary board before him. The home is now

I under the personal care of Mr. and | the i Mrs. L. W. Hudlin and daughter.

with the frenzied activity Thursday a b]ack {lust storm over p art 8 of! The Eaatcr

night when a thousand men tore at Texaa ok | aho ma and Missouri, last Wednesday evening, March 24. tirse uay. ami Uw wreckage. | , ht ' shortens the list of activities sched- should be opened to other counties. The shell of the school building lay | visibility was negligible at Cana- uled next week for DePauw univer- There was also discussion of ic Sllp nt. its steel, bricks and tile scat- dian Tex ^ was d own to a mile or sity. securing o tered over a vast area. , e8g at Amarillo, Tex.; Wichita and Campus politics will be the cen- judge. .. . ,, _ p( , lltivo

^^^4 ‘ ^V^ntC to ^0” commit^ oMhe horse show wii. be

"trained in tremendous labor and ma- m ji es p er h our WC re as important in inees for election to the student 1 April 7.

chines clanked through the grim task the development of the duststorm as | governing bodies, the student

N. Bridges and John W. Robe. The gifts of Mrs. Allison to

home corporation amounted to tip- I proximately $60,000. The directors

on October 4. 1901. purchased the fine home-place on the Col. John R Mahan estate, south of Greencastle,

the condition of the soil.

20 Years Ago IN GREENCASTLE

n f uncovering bodies, the only activIty was an occasional visit by auth"I'itics or residents seeking to asccrtain the cause of the appalling dc-

®t ruction.

^ a Pt. Z. E. Coomhcs of the Nation-

al Guard, who accompanied Dr Schoch on his inspection trip, said he] The D. A. R. met with Mrs. C. J. had talked with the architects and Arnold. contractors of the building and add- John Cherry has purchased a new 0,1 that they reported the installation motor truck for his transfer busi-

of ra diators was the same through- ner?.

ecutive board and the student af

extension man for now known as the Handy farm.

The home was operated there for about twenty years, and then was moved to its present beautiful property, which had been the home of Mr. ami Mrs. Alexander C. Lockridge.

LOCAL BOY PLACES There are about 45 acres comprised Charles Crawley, Ji\,Imitator, of v/ithin the grounds of the home. In

Constitu-' Grcncastle high school, was second addition, the Home Corporation

a group

°ut the structure.

There were seventy-two radiators, each individually gas-fired, in the building, thirty-six on each floor. Dr. Schoch was sent here by Gov-

Putnam county hunters and fishermen met in the office of Ferd Lu-

cas to consider organizing a fish and morning in Gobin game association. The week's activities

ernor James V. Allred to conduct one visitor in Indianapolis.

Theodore Crawley was a business with a

fairs committee.

The convention of the (

tion party will be held at 7 o'clock place winner among

Monday evening, while the Univer- twelve (amateur talent contestants

convention at the first of a series of 9th dls-

in triot recreational amateur shows held in Terc Haute Friday night. Miss Betty Ann Judy, age 11

next week, Prof. T. Carter Har- y^rs. singer and tap dancer of the other than Mrs. Allison. For

frr*h- Bainbridgc school, was also a guest stance, the late Samuel P Bowen on

morning, and Prof j on toe program. She gave a real February 4, 1932, bequeathed to them

act and dance, in “Shoe Shine Boy.’’ a sum which netted a little more William Harper of Vigo county, than $2,000. the income from which

Memorial church, top dancer, placed first in the con- was to be used, by the home direct-

will end tost, while Doris McKinney of Mar- ors, to alleviate bodily needs of chil-

student recital Tuesday ev- tinsville, imitator of Lulu Bell, d r cn, not limited to parentless young

sity party will hold its

at 8 o’clock Tuesday evening

Meharry hall.

Only two chapel programs will be

hold

rison speaking (to (DePauw

men Monday

Van Denman Thompson presenting 1 a program of organ music Tuesday

owns, as one of the gifts of Mrs Allison, a farm of 160 acres northcost of Greencastle, lying along Big

Walnut creek.

Comprised In the corporation’s assets are several gifts from persons

In-

jening at 7 o'clock in Meharry hall, j placed third.

folks, in the form of medical and sur-

TAMI'ERING WITH TRUTH Several items In recent nown prove again that foreign propaganda and censorship tend more toward the ri diculous than the sublime. Fascist newspapers, for instance have claimed famed “Buffalo Btl'" as a local boy. The Iowa-horn plain' hero, they reveal, was really a native of Barbigarczzo, Italy, and was “fuP of Fascist courage and daring.” The other day a huge wave swept over the Italian liner Rex, killing twe persons. Since Italian papers were ordered to print not a line of the incident, it Is apparent that Duce's subjects are to get the idea that even Neptune dares not be aggressive ir the presence of anything Fascistic. Ami a Nazi news organ hns produced with a flourish alleged cvl dence that the famed liberal. Benjamin Franklin, was anti-Semitic. This, happily, is refuted by an American authority on Franklin. More appropriate terms for this would seem to be nonsnnac-worship er improper-ganda.

when he attempted to purchase supply of shirts with a $20 checlc at the J. F. Cannon clothing store on the south side of the square in

Greencastle.

Fowler presented his driver's license, issued from the local license bureau yesterday, as his identification, and declared that he was a student in DePauw. When Mr. Cannon looked through the DePauw student directory, he failed to find the name given by his prospective customer. This, however, was temporarily explained when the man said that he entered the university at the bcginlng of the second semester. Not satisfied, Cannon called the registrar of the school and found that there was no one in the school registered under that name. City Marshal I^awrencc Graham was called and Fowler was lodged in the county jail to await charges of attempting to pdas a fraudulent

check.

$ ft fr- ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft Today’s Weather ft ft and ft ft Local Temperature ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft Cloudy and colder, rain turning to snow flunies east and north portions ton’ght. Sunday partly cloudy, colder southeast portion.

Minimum 6 a. m. ... 7 a. m. ... 8 a. m. .. 9 a. m. .. 13 a. m. ...

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