The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, February 16, 1934, Page 1

North Dakota’s yer Oldest Newspaper THE BISMARCK TRIBUNE ESTABLISHED 1873 BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1934 PRICE FIVE CENTS |CWA Work in State Halted |. Nonpartisans Call Anti-Langer Conventions i Se wit 2 aaa: OLD-TIME LEAGUERS SEE UNFAIR USE OF HUGE “SLUSH? FUND | Some Frankly Concede Prob-| able Defeat at Meeting in Valley City WILL MEET AT JAMESTOWN Date Is Fixed for March 8, Day After That Set for Regu- lar Gathering Forces opposed to the administra- tion of Gov. William Langer Friday called a second Nonpartisan League indorsement convention to be held at Jamestown March 8. The regular ‘convention is scheduled for March 6 at Valley City. Over the signatures of State Sena- tor John L. Miklethun of Barnes county, president, and Sidney A. Papke, Grand Forks, secretary of the “committee of 100,” anti-Langer wing of the League, a resolution by the group was announced Friday calling for county conventions to se- lect anti-Langer delegates for the Jamestawn convention, The resolution charges that the Langer administration “has available campaign funds for the purpose of controlling” the Valley City conven- tion “by whatever means they see fit without regard for the will of the people.” Would Protect Voters Voters of the state are urged in the resolution “to protect themselves from dictation in the matter of se- lection of delegates to the conven- tion at Valley City,” and adds that the Jamestown meeting has been called to safeguard “the selection of & ticket which shall truly represent the principles of honest and progres- sive state government.” It is resolved that on Feb. 27, the date set for regular Nonpartisan League county convention, that county meetings be called to select anti-Langer delegates to the James- town conventior. on the basis of one delegate for each 750 votes or major fraction thereof cast for the League candidate for governor in the June, 1932, primary election, Anti-Langer forces plan to go to the Valley City convention but they have little hope of control, At the Jamestown convention, the anti- Langer group is certain to place a ticket in the June primary election to contest for the Republican nomina- tions with the Langer. slate. Control of the Valley City convention by Langer supporters is regarded here as practically certain. Follows Repudiation ‘The call for the Jamestown conven- tion follows a formal statement by seven elective state officials repudiat- ing Langer's administration. Six of the signers of the statement come up for reelection this year and are re- garded as assured of indorsement at the Jamestown convention, in the event the Langer group controls the Valley City convention. se elective officials are Lieut. Gov. Ole H, Olson, Secretary of State Robert Byrne, Commissioner of Ag- riculture and Labor John Husby, State Treasurer Alfred Dale, Railroad The seventh signer, Railroad Com- missioner C. W. McDonnell, is not up for reelection this year. The resolution calling the James- town convention reads: “Whereas it is the unprejudiced opinion of a large number of our citi- zens that William Langer does not may/anew, in a much healthier state, and Aviation Pioneers | Disturbed by Blow Men Who Dared Death to Fly GRASSHOPPERS ARE Mails Heartbroken Tragedy to Industry at HATCHING AS FROST LEAVES THE GROUND Sentinel Butte Lumberman Says Farmers Bring In- sects to Town Alive SOME SEE TOTAL COLLAPSE Others Feel Better Times May Result From President's Drastic Action (Editor's Note: This is the first of a series of four stories giving the history of the airmail, its ro- mance, its al progress, and its scandals, revelation of which leaves the life of the aviation in- dustry hanging in the balance. It is written by one of the na- tion's foremost aviation authori- | Grasshoppers are hatching out and frost is leaving the ground at Sen- tinel Butte, N. D., according to a let- ter received Friday by O. N. Dunham, manager of the Dunham Lumber ties. Clark, manager of the company’s eee jbranch at Sentinel Butte. In his let- By E. T. PYLE jter Clark said: NEA Service 8; “We are still having wonderful jpecial Correspondent Washington, Feb. 16.—With one stroke of the pen, the Roosevelt ad- ministration has called an abrupt halt on America’s air transport indus- try. Has, in the words of the flying fraternity, “grounded” it. With cancelling of all airmail con- tracts in the United States, based on charges of fraud in letting contracts, the industry stops, bewildered, and looks blankly into the future. ‘What will happen? The only true answer is that nobody knows. Some think that with this drastic purging, the industry will start out weather. I never saw anything like it in the 25 years I have lived here. The frost is going out and the grass- hoppers are hatching out. In places they are pretty thick. Several farm- bate have brought them into town ive.” The report of grasstoppers hatch- ing was interesting news to O. W. Roberts of the U. 8. Weather Bureau here. It was the first he had receiv- McIntosh and parts of Burleigh coun- ties had reported their fields infested soon will overtake itself and go on ahead, still holding its present world leadership. Some think that the sudden scrap- Ping will be a death blow and that it will be many, many years before America again is abreast of the world in commercial aviation. Some think the government must: and will take over the whole air transport system and run the sir lines, both passenger and mail, perman- ently. For, financially and politically, the air transport industry is a mess. Such @ mess that the administration felt something drastic had to be done about it. \But, paradoxically, the American air industry is without a peer in the world when it comes to efficiency, modernism, and scope of its actual flying operations. x * * NOW ALL THIS CEASES Briefly, America’s air transport sys- tem today is this: A network of 27,000 miles of routes (three transcontinentals and numer- ous up-and-down feeder lines) over which 5,000 employes direct the flying of 175,000 miles every 24 hours. Five hundred planes run on fixed schedules, and 500 of the world’s most skilled pilots sit at the wheels. Every year these planes cover more than 40,000,000 miles, carry half a million = and 8,000,000 pounds of mai Total investment runs into hun- dreds of millions. Last year the gov- ernment paid out for this service a subsidy of $19,000,000. And on Monday, Feb. 19, all this ceases. The army takes over the fly- ing of the mail. A few of the present lines will continue carrying passen- gers for a while, but they can’t con- tinue long without a postal subsidy. And thus, because of the crimes of a few, some 5,000 people may lose their jobs; and, what is worse, their equity in what was to be a life work in aviation. But for many of them, there is something that cannot be taken away. That is their memory of proud participation in the most romantic chapter in modern history—the build- with almost no frost in the ground they should hatch out and later frosts would undoubtedly destroy them he said. A heavy cold rain in early spring is about the only other relief from a grasshopper plague that ican be hoped for, he believes. Not Warmest Winter ‘was in 1930-31, when the average for the month was 30.4 degrees above zero. That winter as a whole also was by far the warmest recorded here. The warmest day in February on record was Feb. 12, 1932, when the thermometer hit 65 degrees above zero. The second warmest February was in 1877-78 when the average was 28 degrees above. The third warm- est was 1926, with 25 above. The coldest February in history here was in 1929, when the average monthly temperature was 4.6 below zero. The coldest February day on record was} in 1939 when the thermometer regis- tered 43 below zero on the 19th. In- cidentally that was the second cold- est day ever recorded here, the cold- est being Jan. 13, 1916, with a mini- mum temperature of 45 below zero. In contrast to the lack of snow in the southern and western sections of the state traveling men report that roads north and east of Devils Lake were impassable the early part of this week. In some instances drifts were 18 feet deep on roads north of Lakota and where the road had been opened with a snow plow it was like driving through a tunnel, one man Highway No. 1 between Edmore ‘and Langdon was impassable as were all east and west roads north of No. 2, which was kept open. roads in Walsh, Pembina traffic the early part of the week, TWO CCC CAMPS SOON merit reindorsement for the office of governor, and “Whereas it appears that certain sdiniolseaion forces are at work to cont jonpartisan League con- vention to be held at Valley City on ‘March 6, 1934, and (Continued on Page Two) Father Confesses To Murder of Son Rockford, Ill., Feb. 16.—()—Charles Backus, @ middleaged vegetable ped- dler, stood near the ice covered river here, pointed to & hole in the tee, and police: } “I put it there. I was scared,” in i ih ze eno Eel §F fay g EI “Hell stretch,” away and never came back, of “flying coffins” of the early days, of the con- tinuous and lonely struggle with &@ spirit which does exist today—these AN INGLORIOUS START Although airmail in the be said to have had its carried ede we ie i E 8 ° Bid Be fo58 i FE £ = a & i g : gE ge53 ¢ A EE i 2 Ff g Hil Se lr te al rH EE L »E ai ga ir: H ; tay E ! Z i £ ay ze f 2 i E =e *s fe | i Be ig E i 5 : a it i i Er | i & i 2 said Friday. 1 \ Secondary and the; northern tier of counties east of Bot-; tineau were closed to automobile, travelers reported. { BADLANDS WILL HAVE’ | ed, though farmers from Emmons,|- While a storm of criticism and ‘commendation rages about cancella- tion of private airmail contracts, fliers of the U. 8. army prepare to take over the nation’s airmail service. At the top are soldiers at Mitchell Field, N. Y., familiarizing themselves with the job of loading mail sacks. As Army Prepares to Fly the Mails | Below are the three army officers ‘who will have charge of the service. They are, left to right, Major Byron ;Q. Jones, head of the eastern zone; |Lt. Col. Henry H. Arnold, head of |the western zone, and Lt. Col. Horace M. Hickman, director of the central zone. DEMOCRATS SELECT APRIL 4 FOR STATE MEETING IN MINOT Decision Is Made by Party Exe- cutive Committee Thurs- day at Fargo Fargo, N. D., Feb. 16.—()—Assem- bled here Thursday night the Demo- cratic state central committee set the state indorsing convention for April 4 at Minot and ordered county ses- sions for selection of delegates to the state session set for March 7. All members of the committee at- tended. Three hundred fifty-one delegates will vote on endorsements for nomi- nations at the Minot session. The al- Representative of National Park jlotment of delegates, the committee Service Ordered to Medora to Select Sites announced, was based on the Demo- cratic vote cast for candidates for congress in the 1932 general election. In addition to the delegates thus named, those seated as delegates will include members of the state central committee and the chairman and sec- in each of the 53 counties. “It is recommended,” the commit- -|tee sald, “that at each county con- trict a complete legislative ticket. either by nominating such proposed legislators at the county convention or by selecting a proper committee fully empowered to select candidates and to prepare and file the necessary petitions.” of the central committee Carloadings Increase ; 2 i ii F ‘FRENCH PREMIER IS ACCORDED SUPPORT IN FIRST Bla: TEST \Chamber of Deputies Gives | Confidence Vote; Turns | Toward Germany Paris, Feb. 16.—(?)—Premier Gas- ton Doumergue, armed with the big stick of popular support in France, showed a firm hand to Germany Fri- day. . His new ministry, with its eyes fixed closely on Austria’s troubles, openly charged Chancellor Adolf Hit- ler with having rearmed Germany. Hence, said a note to Berlin draft- ed as one of the cabinet’s first acts, further Franco-German talks on arms are useless. Friday the ‘l-year-old premier worked to define a foreign policy which “will give us the necessary au- thority to play a useful role in the League of Nations and international conferences.” ‘ The German rearmament charge, hurled in reply to a Hitler memoran- dum in regard to further discussions on disarmament, was revealed while cheers of the chamber of deputies still resounded in the ears of the cab- inet Thursday night. In the Doumergue government's first encounter with parliament it|"n won the almost unprecedented sup- Port of all save 193 of the 595 depu- Wholesale _Is Ended MILES TO BE FLOWN BY ARMY AVIATORS SHARPLY CURTAILE Government Men Contend ‘Pri- mary’ Routes Still Are Complete, However Fighting in Austria —— Socialists, However, Open Guerrilla War on Home Guards LAUNCH SABOTAGE DRIVE Other European Nations Keep Anxious Watch; Fear Con- trol by Nazis (By the Associated Press) Washington, Feb. 16.—(#)—The gov- ernment will sharply tighten its air mail belt when the army takes over the job and the public may feel the pinch. The miles-flown fare will be reduced more than half. Postoffice officials, busy with ar- rangements for the Monday midnight transfer, expressed a belief, however, that there won't be a serious reduction in service. ‘The “primary” routes are complete, they said. Three additional “secon- INJUNCTION PLEA DENIED New York, Feb. 16.—(?)—Fed- eral Judge John C. Knox refused Friday to restrain Postmaster Gen- eral Farley by injunction from cancelling the government’s air mail contracts. The judge denied an application for an injunction made by Trans- continental and Western Air, Inc. He ruled that the suit was, in fact, a suit against the United States, which cannot be sued with- out its consent. dary” routes have been mapped, and the army plans to restore more shortly. At present, however, commercial companies are flying about 95,000 miles daily. Routes so far announced for the army total only 42,570. From New ‘York to Chicago there will be five planes instead of six. Chicago to Kansas City remains at 3, and westward there will be two in- stead of three. A varying system has been mapped for landing fields and lighted airways. The army fliers in many instances will use fields owned by the com- panies they replace. Drop Twin Cities Route One of the principal “feeder” routes, that into Chicago from Twin Cities, has been dropped, but it is un- derstood it will he among the “secon- dary” routes soon placed in operation. Other main branch routes dropped at least temporarily include: Los Angeles to Portland, Oregon, eliminating air mail service along the Pacific coast except from San Diego to Los Angeles and from Portland to Seattle. New Orleans via Memphis and 8t. Louis to Chicago (slated for early restoration.) o Buffalo to New York. In addition there are such curtail- ments as: Planes from Portland via Boise, Idaho, make flights through Pocatello into Salt Lake City because of better lighting and discontinuance of the Ine from Great Falls, Mont., to Salt Lake. A direct federal “bounty” for avia: tion, replacing scrapped air mail con- tracts, received strong administration thought Friday. McCarl Plans Stop-Gap Another disclosure was that Comp- troller General J. R. McCarl, watch- dog of federal expenditures, is shap- ing a stop-gap against excessive Profits on army-navy airplane con- tracts. This move is at congressional request. Walter F. Brown, Hoover postmas- spiracy and “illegal’ ministration, as put forward by his ‘Wholesale fighting was in end in strife-torn Austria Friday but the tenacious Socialists began a campaign of guerrilla warfare against the Fas- cist home guard, backbone of govern- ment support. Reports were circulated that Chan- cellor Engelbert Dollfuss, “gamecock” of European politics, had been the subject of an assassination attempt, along with Vice Chancellor Emil Fey and Prince Ernst Von Starhemberg, home guard leaders. The rumors ‘were unverified. Socialist leaders called for acts of sabotage. Other European nations, mean- while, closely scanned the Austrian situation, which they considered fraught with danger to European tranquillity, especially should the Nazis gain control. To avoid this, France and Czecho- slovakia decided to give the Dollfuss government non-military aid. Reports were current in Rome that Italy might demand an investigation by the League of Nations of pub- Ushed charges that Czechoslovakia supported the Socialist uprising by shipping arms and ammunition into Austria. Press attacks on Czechoslovakia, the foreign office admitted, repre- Czechs Enter Denial foreign minister, issued a flat denial in Paris that his government had supported the Socialist outbreak in any fashion. The charges, he told the Associated Press, “are absolutely without foun- datio. Rebels Driven Underground Driven underground into the sew- ers of Vienna, the scattered forces of the fleeing Socialist Republican guard were fighting a desperate guer- villa warfare, still disputing the au- thority of the Austrian government. ‘The secret passages into the roomy sewers, which honeycomb the ground under Vienna, were ways of escape for defeated garrisons of the municipal apartment blocks shelled by govern- ment artillery Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Now the sewers themselves have be- come a last stronghold for these fighters. Thursday night Socialist riflemen emerged from manholes in the Stadt Park district—though it was officially co that there had been no fight- and terrified foreign Police. morning all seemed quiet, -—no one large it is—still was lurk- se underground wers. ‘The skirmish in Stadt Park broke wn at a point where flows out of a tunnel day Wein opposite the Kursalon, Awakened b; Residents of this heard light artillery fire. sented the Italian government's | ¢,; view. Dr. Edouard Benes, Czechoslovakian | ;; in Vienna since Thursday noon— residents who were kept awake by the clamor and the phy as the Socialists skir- y Firing district tofd the successor were completely lacking in| The principal entrances to the Vi- “Justification.” seisaaad enna sewers are little metal huts re- Waiving immunity, Brown arranged | Sembling kiosks. One enters through to tell the senate air mail investigat-|® doorway and climbs down a ladder ing committee on Monday his version |0n the street level. Ventilator open- of the tangle. ings in the middle of the The justice and postoffice depart-|large enough to permit pistol (Continued on Page 9) by men climbing up from the . ———_— Manhole covers in the streets Stock Manipulation can be lifted and fire can be directed from these. 16.— (P) —Evi- Federal Feed Relief Man Dies at Edgeley Mandan, N, D., Feb. 16—(P)—Sid- ney B. Parkin, 52, Mandan, inspector for the federal feed relief department, Minn, He engaged with his father ranching on the investigat of col in the others. 39,000 MEN AWAIT NEW ORDERS FROM FEDERAL LEADERS |Directions to Resume Activity | Expected by Chiefs at | Local Office SOME CHANGES FORECAST Williams Anticipates Revision in Rules Applying to All Projects Work on CWA projects in North Dakota came to an abrupt halt Thursday night and approximately 35,000 men were thrown out of em- ployment when the time limit set for the work expired. An extension of time has been expected hourly from Washington but no authoriza- tion for a continuance of the projects had been received Friday morning by John E. Williams, secretary of the state emergency relief committee. Orders were issued to local com- mittees throughout the state to dis- continue further relief activities Thursday night. Williams said that, while orders to resume CWA activities are momen- tarily expected from Washington, there might be changes in the wage, bled hours worked and in the whole up. Harris Robinson, state engineer for the CWA, said word had been expect- ed from the federal government some time Thursday but that, since none arrived, there was no alternative oth- er than stopping the work. Robinson anticipated there would be an order soon extending CWA work. He said Noel Solein, Jamestown, in charge of improvements in throughout the state, in a telephone conversation with state CWA head- between 150,000 and 200,000 workers on federal projects, will be carried on at the rate of approximately 10 per cent a week through March. After that it is scheduled to be accelerated until the entire force of 4,000,000 men and women will have been demobil- ized by May 1. The demobilization order affects every state equally insofar as it has gone out, Hopkins said. Here Are New Rules The new regulations as Hopkins outlined them: 1, All persons living in households where another member is working, whether on public or private employ- ment, will be dropped first. 2, All persons who have other re- sources. Civil works will be maintained at Present strength in all industrial cit- tes. One of the projects on which the administration will concentrate dur- ing the remaining 10 weeks is con- struction of fireproof consolidated Tural schools in states which have a