The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, December 20, 1939, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASK “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” MPIRE VOL. LV., NO. 8289. 36 PAGES JUNEAU, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, DECI PRESS MBER 20, 1939. EMBER ASSOCIATED PRICE TEN CENTS OMMANDER NAZI LINER IS SCUTTLED ON ATLANTIC bus Set Afire, Sea- cocks Opened CREW TAKES T0 BOATS, RESCUED BY U. S. SHIP Action Délib;rate fo Es- cape Destruction by British BULLETIN—NEW YORK, Dec. 20. — The United States Cruiser Tuscaloosa inched through fog and a drizzling rain this afternoon into the harbor, bringing to an undecided but not tolerantly friendiy naven, 579 Nazi scamen who scuttled and fired their 32,000-ton German juxury hner Cgiumbus rather than surrender to a British ves- sel of war. The seamen will be held at EI jand until Labor Dcpartment officials decide their status, Distressed seamen are days in which to reship given on a forel el NORFOLK, Va:, Dec. 20. The United States cruiser Tuscaloosa radioed last night to the Norfolk Naval Operating Base that she had taken aboard the crewmen of tide German liner Columbus. The Columbus was then reported | | | & Palatial St;élfier Colum-‘ Red Naval Guns Blast Finland Py | | | The big guns of the Soviet warship Yakov-Sverdlov are pictured as they went into action during recent maneuvers. As Russia pressed its unde- clared “defensive war” against tiny Finland, the Red naval cannon were fired in earnest. The entire Soviet Baltic fleet was reported to have sailed trom the Kronstadt base, and Tammelsuu was shelled by Red warships. SUPREME COURT DECISION OPENS WAY FOR AN ATTACK ‘ ON BU“.DING RA(KEEEERS Visited Jun?afl This Year- burning, was a wreck and rapidly _ sinking, 400 miles east of Cape Henry, Va. Two of the crew were reported missing at the time the radio was sent from the Tuscaloosa Nineteen lifeboats containing 579 officers and crew of the Columbus weie pemng destroyed to prevent being a menace to navigation Germany’s third largest civilian chip was deliberately fired and seacocks opened when a British de- stroyer neared. No naval engagement is report and the incident occurred . outsi the American neutrality zone. The Columbus made a dash from Vera Cruz harbor last Wednesday with intention of dodging Allied ships and attempting to reach a German port. MANAGER CRIES NEW YORK, Dec. 20. — Mana- ger John Schroeder of the New York offices of the North German Lloyd Lines when told the Colum- bus was scuttled, cried out: “Oh, my God, it is one blow after an- other.” The Columbus was owned by the North German Lloyd Lines and considered one of the palatial Ger- man lin on the Atlantic, out- ranked only by the Bremen, NO VIOLATION WASHINGTON, Dec. 20.—White House Secretary Stephen Lurly said that the sinking of the Ger- man merchant ship Columbus off | the coast fails to show any evi- dence of violation of the Pan American neutrality zone. A Brit- jsh warship stood by as the Ger- man luxury liner went downs « g/ Early said that the Gerluaua mer- chantman, pursued by the British warship, was scuttled by her Nazi crew well within the neutrality zone. But he stressed that no naval fighting had taken place. Said Early: “First reports showed that there had been no naval action and no violation of the safety zone, The United States govern- ment is therefore convinced in its opinion that the German crew de- cided to sink their craft rather than run the risk of a battle or seizure once it had passed beyond the safety belt.” -, HELP AN ALASKAN Telephone 713 or write The Alaska Territorial Employment Service —b KITCHEN HELPER-DISHWASH- ER—Young man, age 23, single. Four years experience as helper, dishwasher, knowledge of f: work. Call for ES 32. BRITISH STEAMER IS IN COLLISION AT SEA;DAMAGED Vessel Retur;ls to Porf- American Passengers Aboard Uninjured LONDON, D: . 20.—1It is revealed that the liner Samaria, westbound with a number of Americans as passengers, collided at sea several days ago and was damaged, but re- turned to port with all e and none of the passengers injured. It is reported the passengers will reembark on another ship The Samaria’s bridge and several lifeboats were damaged in the col- lision. The name of the other craft in collision is not given. U. 5. Might ~ Act Against Trespassing Revea Iedflerican Na- tions Offered Uruguay Military Aid | WASHINGTON, Dec. 20—Under Secretary of State Sumner Wells last night forecast in a New York speech that steps will soon be taken |by American nations to prevent a | recurrence of such a naval battle as the recent fight which sent the German Graf Spee to Montevideo |where she was sunk by her own crew. A high diplomatic source in the Uruguayan capital disclosed today |that the United States, Argentina and Brazil had offered Uruguay armed aid if the Graf Spee defied her order to leave port within 72 hours. ¥ he ———e——— — AMERICAN SHIP HALTED BY FRENCH WARSHIP | WILMINGTON, Del—Otficers of the American freighter Carlton, ar- riving today, said the ship was halted by a French warship when in ktichens @ warning shot was fired across etc. Some|the bow. When the warship noted | Department of Justice has taken in Ty cooking and pantry the identity of the ship as Ameri- can, it steamed away. By PRESTON GROVER WASHINGTON, Dec. 20—The Su- | reme Court in one blow gave the| Department of Justice a new start on its prosecution of the Chicago | milk price agreement and opened ! a hole as wide a wobbling ele- | phant for prosecution of building racketeers, The Department of Justice in its| anti-trust prosecution charged the| ne: distributors, union milk-| gon dr and city officials had conspired to fix the price of milk| in violation of the Sherman Act., The accused insisted they were e» empt under various agricultural | marketing acts which permitte farmers to together for or- derly m eting of their products. | This might be well and good, the Supreme Court said, but insisted| that the only grounds for granting an exemption under the farm mar- | keting acts was for the Secretary of Ag to have a hand in the In the Chicago case, the Su-| Court found, the Secretary | al d preme did not have a hand. | The court's decision still left it up to Assistant Attorney General Thurman Arnold to prove that there actually had been a conspiracy out- | side the law. The lower court did-| n't get around to a decision on that| int since it had already ruled that | agreement on price-fixing was exempt from the criminal features of the Sherman Act. ONE STEP TOO FAR Under the various marketing acts, the Supreme Court held, the farm- ers have a right to unite among themselves to effect an orderly handling of their crops. But when they take the next step, reaching agreements with milk distributors, drivers and city officials to fix pric- es, that is outside the scope of the exmeptions except under one con- dition—that the Secretary of Ag- riculture have a controlling hand in it. “In this instance the conspiracy charged is not that of merely form- ing a collective association of pr ducers to market their products, said the Supreme Court, “but a conspiracy, or conspiracies, -with major distributors and their allied groups, with labor officials, munici- pal officials and others, in order to maintain artificial and non-com- petitive prices to be paid to all producers for all fluid milk produced | in Illinois and neighbornig states and marketed in the Chicago area. “Such a combined attempt of all the defendants, producers, distribu- Itors and their allies, to control the | market finds no justification in Sec- |tion One of the Capper-Volstead | (farm co-operative) act.” AIDS BUILDING PROSECUTION That is precisely the position the connection with its wide-spread at- «Continued on Page Two) SILCoX, OLDER MEN CALLED UP FOR FINNS Sub Zero Weather Comin'gi fo Aid Defenders in North HELSINKI Dec 20. — The heightened northern Europe war- fare has called to the colors all Finns 40 years of age or more to help resist the Russian invasion. | This is the first time Finland has | gone above the usual classes of reservists ! Air raid warnings sounded in E ki today, but no bombs were dropped Soviet planes were active over other parts of Finland for the sec- ond successive day Reports from the northern front said the Finns have fallen back to their northern “Mannerheim Line” where .y prepared defenses after Russia cut off the Finnish outlet to the Arctic at Petsamo. Norwegian dispatches said a plunging: thermometer that has gone down to 25 degrees below ze! has halted all operations in the northern sectoss. - - FOREST SERVICE CHIEF, DIES SUDDERLY Quistanding Student and Organizer F. A. Silcox, 56, Chief of the U. S. Forest Service, who spent six weeks in Alaska last summer, died this morning of heart disease at his home in Washington, according. to word received by the Juneau office and Associated Press to the Empire. | He had been ill a week Silcox was born on Christmas Day, | 1882. He was graduated in forestry from Yale University in 1905 and immediately thereafter entered the then newly-organized Forest Ser- vice and helped to formulate the pelicies and administrative prac- tices of the organization he was la- ter to head. He progressed steadily through variaus positions in the | West to that of Regional Forester for the Northern Rocky Mountain region with headquarters at Missoula, Mon- tana. Laber Relations Expert In commenting on Mr. Silcox’s life and work Regional Forester B Frank Heintzleman said: “He had always been greatly interested in social problems, especailly the rela- | tionship between capital and labor; consequently, at the request of the Shipping Board during the World War, he was detailed to Seattle to handle labor relations in the Puget Sound ship yards and the airplane spruce production operations. As the result of his outstanding su cess in this position, the organiz printing industry of New York City —perhaps the largest industry in the metropolitan district — created for him at the close of the war the position of Director of Labor Rela- tions, and he continued in this po-| sition until he was recalled to Gov- ernment work as Chief of the For- est Service by President Roosevelt when the former head of the Ser- vice, Robert Stuart, died in Novem- ber, 1933. “At the close of his long connec- tion with the printing industry in| New York he received high com- mendation from both employer and | employee groups on his outstanding success in the position of arbiter. Organized Conservation “Mr. Silcox came back into Gov- ernment service at the time when the administration was launching the CCC and other conservation ac- tivities that involved the expendi-| tare of vast sums of money and the employment of men by the hun- dreds of thousands. As she head of one of the larger Federal conser- vation agencies he took a major part in the initiation and carrying on of these huge conservation pro- jects. The position he has occu- pied for the past six years has been extremely arduous and no doubt hastened his death. While no details as to the cause of death have yet been received, doubtless it was due to a recurrence of a heart ailment with which he (Continued on Page Five) / | i FIRST PICTURES OF RECENT NAVAL BATTLE L The top picture shows that Britich shells carried away the nose and tail of this plane, mounted on the catapult of the German sea raider Admiral Graf Spee during the furious 14-hour battle off the Uru- guayan coast last Wednesday, just of the Graf Spee afier she had put British cruisers Exeter, Ajax and a week ago today. This radiophoto shows part of the superstructure into Montevideo with 36 of her crew killed after the battle with the Achilles. The middle picture shows the Graf Spee with hole in bow and holes near the waterline indicated by arrow and circle anchored in the harbor at Montevideo. The lower picture shows the indicating that 61 were killed and British cruiser Exeter which took the brunt of the sea battle, reports 30 wounded aboard the warship. The Graf Spee was scuttled in the harbor last Sunday evening to escape destruction by a waiting Al- lied flotilla at sea or internment FRENCH CLAIMING 50 NAZI U-BOATS | SUNK BY ALLIES Naval Expefis'lieclare Four German Subs Being Sunk Each Week PARIS, Dec. 2, —Orficial French | estimates have placed at more than | 50, the number of rman marines sunk by the Allies since | the war began, The French estimated that when| the war started, Germany had some | 60 subs. At least twelve of those sent down were destroyed by Frances fast destroyer units, 1t is said. Naval experts have declared they are destroying submarines at the rate of four a week, twice as fast as Germany's capacity to replace them., | decision " |GERMANS (LAM ALLIES MAY " SINKING OF 23 SEND GUNS ~ gmisn BoATS Io HNLAND Londoners Give Out Loss i . of Trawlers as Much War Council Believed fo, ~Less than Claimed Hove Deided Against | semuav. 2 2 2 S Sending Soldiers | ’ | guard” vessels have been sunk in | the past three days by concentrat- {ed German air attacks in the North PARIS, Dec, 20.—Military observ- | goa - e pressed the belief today | hese losses are higher than ac- the Allies will send planes and guns | ,yowledged by the British in re- to Finland rather than an expedi- | j.ace of loss figures relative to tionary force, | missing British trawlers, This bleief is advanced as arising | >o—— out of the Supreme War Council’s | INITIATION TONIGHT | A large class of candidates will be On France's own war front, French | initiated tonight by the Elks Lodge. military communique said German | Exalted Ruler Herb Redman will patrol raids had been repulsed. preside. A feed will follow. OF GRAF SPEE SUICIDE BULLETIS SENT INTO HIS BRAIN Capt. Hans Langsdorff Sac- rifices Himself for "Fatherland” TAKES FAREWELL OF HIS STAFF OFFICERS Body of Executive Officer of Scuttled Ship Found This Morning Hans Langsdorff, Commander of the Admiral Graf Spee, has committed suicide, the Germany Ambassy an= nounces. He sent a bullet into his brain. Capt. Langsdorff brought himselt | and his men here aboard tugs for | stroying internment by Argentina after des the pocket battleship in the Montevideo harbor last Sunday night. Capt. Langsdorff at first talked | freely about his running battle with | ! untarily, three British cruisers, but last night he took an entirely different attie tude “I do not desire to talk further. I have talked so much now I like | to be quiet for the next three weeks,” | he told interviewers. Body Is Found The German Embassy official said the body was found this morn- ing. The Captain had shot himself [with a revolver during the night | at the Naval Arensal The statement issued by the Em= bassy said:* “Commander Hans Langsdorff | sacrificed his own life for the Fa- therland, eliminating himself vol- as he said himself in a letter addressed to German Ambas- sador von Thermann. “From the first moment he made | up Tils mind to share the fate of his | magnificent ship.” Detained At Arsenal Capt. Langsdorff had been de- tained at the Naval Arsenal after he reached Argentina with more than 1,000 men from Uruguey. At about 9:30 last night, Langs- dorff called his Staff Officers into his quarters at the Arsenal and a consultation was held for three hours. When the conference broke up, the Commander of the scuttled bat- tleship gravely shook hands with each of his Staff officers, making a complete circle of those assems bled before him. He then went into the next room, leaving word that he did not want to be disturbed because he wag tired. The crew received the news of his suicide in stunned silence. CREW ORDERED INTERNED BUENOS AIRES, Dec. 20.—Pres- ident Roberto M. Oritz of Argentina has ordered internment of 1,039 officers and men of the Admiral Graf Spee for the duration of the German-Allied war, Some of the men have been or- dered sent to interior Provinces, but the officers will be allowed to live in Buenos Ares, In the harbor of Montevideo the Graf Spee continued to burn. This is expected to be the last day of the fire aboard the scuttled sea raider. Meanwhile Uruguayan officials announced that the oil tanker Ta- coma is “detained” possibly as a pre- lude to internment. The Tacoma has oil and supplies aboard intended for the Graf Spee. e e POPULATION OF SKAGWAY 63 IS LARGE GROWTH Population of Skagway has grown |in 10 years from 492 to 633, accord- ing to preliminary Alassa census figures announced today by Super- visor J. P. Anderson. The census announcement lists one farm as lylng within the limits of Skagway.