Evening Star Newspaper, October 13, 1924, Page 17

B i o il ALY o } STATE PRESENTS POSTMASTER GENERAL WITH THE HOOSIER FLAG. The Post Office utiful Indiana flag presented to Postmaster General New by the post office clerks of Indianapolis. nt attended the presentation ceremonies, artment will be the new home of the irty Indiana employes of the depart- Copyright by Underwood & Underwood COOLIDGE ATTENDS TREE PLANTING ON LINCOLN MEMORIAL Chapter of the National War Mothers in honor of mothers of sons and ith shovel. GROUNDS. The ceremony was conducted by the District of Co- daughters who served in the World War. The photograph thow- UNITED STATES George W, Steele, U. the trip to this country OBSERVER W ITH GIANT DIRIGIBLE. Capt. N., Uncle Sam’s official observer, who is making from Germany in the ZR-3. It is reported that be will command the ship when it arrives in the United States. OTED AL THEF SOUGHT AS HLLER Chapman, Escaped Convict, Accused by Aide as Po- liceman’s Slayer. By the Associated Press. NEW YORK, October 13.—Gerald Chapman, mail robber, who escaped from Atlanta, in April, 1923, now is being sought for the murder early vesterday ot a policeman in New Britain. “He has eluded the police of New York, Connecticut and Massa- vhusetts with the same skill he show- ed in escaping three times from the wuthorities after his capture in 1921 for a million-dollar mail robbery in this city. His confederate in a rob- bery which vesterday led to the kill- ing of a New Britain policeman was ‘Walter E. Shean, son of a well known family of Springfield, Mass. Shean was captured as he was entering an automobile waiting near the store which the pair undertook to rob. In the automobile the police found bur- glary tools, a revolver and $200 in cur- rency, which the police believed was all the robbers obtained from the store safe which they blew open with nitroglycerin. The pair were preparing to blow apen a second safe when the employe )€ a livery stable nearby turned in an alarm which brought five policemen on the run. One of them, James Skelly, was shot as he entered the store and died three hours later. Fired Fatal Shot. Chapman, according to the police, fired the fatal shot. He then escaped by the front door of the store. Shean said his companion was Chapman. Shean admitted to the police, they said, that he had been working with Chapman in the attempted robbery of the department store. He pointed out, however, that he was not in the store when the shooting occurred. Despite this fact, he will appear in court today charged with murder. A Connecticut law permits a charge of murder against all members of a band when a murder is committed. SOUGHT IN NEW YORK. Chapman Trailed by Police at Old Crime Scene. By the Associated Press. NEW YORK, October —Gerald Chapman, escaped mail robber, was being sougnt here in connection with the killing, yesterday, of a policeman in New Britain, Conn., where Chap- man and another man were said to have been surprised in the act of blowing up a safe. A close watch was maintained over railway terminals, hotels and ferry rauses after Chapman, who is also acown as “Bryce” and “The Count,” was believed to have been the brains behind the $1,000,000 rob- Wide BAND CONCERT. By the United States Soldiers’ Home Band Orchestra, Stanley Hall, toIGOLTOW eVening at o:45 o'clock, John S. M. Zimmermann, bandmaster. March, “Anchors Aweigh” (Re- quest) .C. A Zimmermann Overture, Burlesque”. ..Suppe Pharaphrase, “The Loreley,” Nesvadba Scenes from comic opera “Bocac- clot) 2 -..Suppe Foxtrot, “Only a Butterfly”.Hager Waltz suite, “Dreams on the Ocean” ..... Finale, “The is Always Greener in the Other Fellow's Yara” Whiting “The Star Spangled Banner.” and sentenced to 25 years in Atlanta Penitentiary. They had served less than eight months of their sentence when they made their escape from prison. ESCAPE SENSATIONAL. By the Aseocisted Press. ATLANTA, Ga, October 13.—Offi- clals at the Federal prison last night said they had received a request from the police at New Britaln, Conn., for photographs and other data regard- ing Gerald Chapman, who is believed to be one of the slayers of a New Britain policeman. Chapman escaped from the prison here on the morning of March 27, 1923, in company with another pris- oner named Gray, who was recap- tured shortly afterward. Chapman, with George Anderson, was serving a term for a ‘million-dollar mail rob- bery in New York at the time of his escape. Anderson escaped from the prison in December following Chap- man's escape in March and has not been recaptured. Deputy Warden Fletcher of the prison last night said Chapman and Anderson were sup- posed by officials -to be operating. together. At the time of his escape Chapman made his way to Athens, Ga., where he was captured by police there and wounded so badly in a gun fight in- cident to his capture that he had to be taken to a hospital, from which, in his wounded condition, he escaped during the night by means of @ rope ladder made from bed clothes. Deputy Warden Fletcher said dis- patches from New Britain was the first news the prison has had of Chap- man since his escape. . SHEAN AD AGENCY HEAD. By the Associated Press. SPRINGFIELD, Mass., October 13.— Walter E. Shean, held in New Britain in connection with the shooting of Policeman James Skelley, is the pres- ident of an advertising agency and the son of Charles T. Shean, prom- inent resident and hotel owner here. Shean was involved in the theft of $180,000 in certificates from the People’s Trust Company of Wyomis- sing, Pa., February 4, 1921, and was charged on June 17 of that year with being an accessory before and after the theft of bonds from the bank. Shean was not extradited from Mas- sachusetts for a hearing there due to the case against him being dis- missed because of lack of sufficient evidence. It was announced in court at that time that $13,000 of the se- curities stolen from the bank had bery of a registered mail truck in lower Broadway three years ago this month. After trailing him for weeks, police arrested him and George An- Gerson of Rochester in July, 1922, They were convicted of the robbery. been recovered from Shean in this city. Most of the $180,000 ultimatel> as recovered, but six men connecied | with the case were sentenced to from 13 to 20 years, o Mrs. George G. Seibold, president of the local chapter, Mrs. Coolidge at left. 4 WORLD'S LARGEST SPAN IS COMPLETED AND LAST RIVET IN PLACE. ExGov. Benjamin E. Odell of Newburg, N. Y., drove the last rivet which completed the approaches of the Bear Mountain, N. Y., vehicular Bridge, the largest span in the world. The bridge, which is 1,623 feet in length, will be ready for MRS. GOOLIDGE AIDS TREE' DEDICATION Attendance at War Mothers’ Exercises Unexpected and Informal. Mrs. Calvin Coolidge yesterday par- ticipated in the dedication of a tree at Lincoln Memorfal to honor the mothers of the men and women of the District of Columbia who served in the World War. The attendance of the wife of the President was unexpected. She was out for a stroll with the White House Airedale when she was espled by some of those assembled for the exer- cises. Mrs. George G. Seibold, presi- dent of the District of Columbia Chapter, National American War Mothers, under whose auspices these impressive exercises were held, es- corted Mrs. Coolidge to the little stand that had been erected for the occasion. Mrs. Roscoe L. Oatley, organizer of the chapter, turned the spade of earth that dedicated the tree. An address was delivered by Lieut. Col C. O. Sher- rill, officer in charge of public build- ings and grounds. A bugler of the 3rd Cavalry Band brought the gather- ing to order with the sounding of “assembly.” Thereafter the program was interwoven with selections by the band. Following the dedication of the tree Mrs. Charles B. Dohch sang “The Star Spangled Barner.” A poel by Joyce Kilmer, entitled, “The Tree. was recited by Mrs. S. E. Deeds, first vice war mother of the local chapter. A hymn, “Tree Planting,” written for the occasion, was sung by the assem- bly to the tune of “America.” The Rev. Vincent O. Anderson, pastor of St. Agnes' Episcopal Church, delivered the {nvocation. The benediction was pronounced by the Rev. F. J. Hurney, assistant pastor of St. Patrick’s Church, The exercises were brought to a close with the band playing “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Mrs. Bradley A. Snyder, chairman of tree dedication, had charge of ar- ranging the exercises. Asks $50,000 Damages. Melvin Pekofsky and Abraham Pekofsky were named as defendants in a suit to recover $50,000 damages filed today in the District Supreme Court by John Aylor, as mext triend of Leonard Harper, a minor, for alleged personal injuries. Through Attorney T. Morris Wampler the plantiff says he was standing on the railway platform at Mount Ralner, Md.,, October 14, last, when the de- fendants in an automobile, are said to have driven off the highway across the platform and to have run him down, Policeman Loses Pistol. W. L. Bishop, member of the elghth precinct police command, this morning was deprived of his pistol while attending a session of Police Court. He left the pistol in & lava- tory, returned five minutes later, and fiscovered it had been saken, _ traffic in Janua; BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. In a recent public statement of Senator Henri de Jouvenel, the view of France toward the League of Na- tions and French estimates of the value of recent Geneva decisions are set forth with a clarity which det serves American as well as European attention. France, says the French Senator in effect, will have to increase or reduce her armed strength pre- cisely as the member states of the League accept, reject or modify the provisions of the protocol recently adopted at Geneva. If other nations wish to see the armies of France re- duced, let them sign the protocol. Now what this means is fairly patent. France has for five years, indeed since the morrow of the armis- tice, sought to obtain security by some form of undertsanding between the nations which were called against Germany during the war. She did not originally see in the League of Nations such security and accordingly she went outside the league and ob- tained the famous treaty of insur- ance, which fell with the refusal of the American Senate to ratify it. Thereupon ;France sought first a definite alllance with Great Britain and secondly separate alliances with a number of the European nations which like France had profited by the treaties of peace and were fearful of alter attempts by Germany and her former allies to modify these treaties by war. France did not get the Brit- ish alliance, but she did obtain what she was after with the various Euro- pean states, notably Belgium, Poland and the countries of the little entente. Herriet Changed Attitude. With the coming of Herriot, how- ever, the French government decided to seek security within the league, to adopt the league and to translate the covenant into a guarantee of se- curity. Adopting at Geneva the ap- pealing motto of arbitration, securi- ty and disarmament, the French dele- gation went to work to obtain the second. while agreeing to the first and insisting that the last could not be touched until the first and second were satisfactorily arranged. The protocol adopted at Geneva not only pledges all member nations of the league to arbitration, but it puts them under every form of moral con- straint to come to the aid of any member nation attacked wantonly by another country, whether a member of the league or not. If the pro- tocol is adopted by the governments of the member nations as it was signed at Geneva, then no member nation honorably can decline to sup- port any country Wwhich, being a member of. the league and being the victim of a deliberate aggression, 1is for help. u’!‘hls means, in fact, that if Ger- many should presently attack France there would be no honorable escape for Britain from c¢oming to the aid of France. If the British by ratification of this protocol in Parliament accept the obligation, then the French are prepared, as De Jouvenel indicates, to take up the matter of disarma- . ment, they ake Willipa-to conaider re- LEAGUE MAY FIX ARMIES SIZE IF PROTOCOL WINS WIDE O.K Instrument Guaranteeing Protection of Members to Enable France and Other Continental Na- tions to Cut Forces, Senator Asserts. ducing the number of French divi- sions kept ready for war, but the reduction will, be based --naturally upon the number of British divisions which would be ready to come to Frenoh assistance in case of an ag- gression And, in precisely- the same way, one may conclude, Po'and, Rumania, all the Central European states which stand in danger of Russia or Germany, will con- sider the reduction of their present standing armies on the basis of the out- side_help which would certainly come to them in case of attack. All reduc- tion, then, must be conditioned upon the extent and certainty of league aid in case of aggression. If the British Parliament. as is quite possible if not probable, should under- take to cover the protocol with reserva- tions, following the example of the United States Senate and thus reduce the degree of British liability in case of any aggression, then the British cam- paign for the reduction of the standing armies of the continent would go by the board instantly. It is the perception ofs this fact which has led to the postpone- ment of any disarmament conference until the action of the various member nations upon the new protocol is known. U. S. Relation Peculiar. But even assuming—and it is a large assumption—that the British, as well as the other member nations, accept the protocol substantially as adopted at Geneva and a disarmament conference is called for next June or next Novem- ber, it ie plain that American relation to that meeting will pe peculiar. All the other nations present will be discussing a reduction of armaments based upon a commoh contract to support each other in case of attack, but the American representatives will be discussing dis- armament without assuming any re- sponsibility, urging European nations to disarm without promising them any aid +if after disarmament they are attacked. The truth, of course, is that the Geneva conference and the new pro- tocol represent an enormous triumph for the French and the continental view generally of the league. France and her associates have successfully framed the protocol in such shape that it becomes no more and no less than an alliance between all member nations; that is, the league itself be- comes an alliance not alone against war, but to make war upon any na- tion which fails to keep the peace and ventures upon an aggression. All of the continental nations, as- sociated with France and like France fearing aggression, have combined to write a protocol which puts the Brit- ish in the uncomfortable dilemma of having to agree to share in the de- fense of the continental nations if want only attacked or to abandon all agitation for disarmament and surrender practically all influence within the league. Thus, in fact, the league, which was an Anglo-Saxon conception and in its original form to a large degree an Anglo-Amer- ican affair, has been taken over by the continental nations and remade in accordance with their own views and their own necessitles. Originally the league was dedicatad NGEPUT ON TRAL IN TARRING CASE Husband Says Mrs. Shank Received Threatening Let- ters, One From D. C. Special Dispatch to The Sta: FREDERICK, Md., October 13.—It looks like the trial of Arthur Rice, third of 20 Myersville, Md., citizens indicted for tarring and feathering Torothy Grandon last' July, will be draggy. Rice pleaded not guilty and the procedure was simplified, as in the Leatherman case two weeks ago, by the court overruling demurrers in six of the nine cases against him. Then he was placed on trial, charged with tarring and feathering, and the work of drawing a jury was begun. Only one juror had’ qualified up to 11_o'clock. 3 Lloyd Shank, Lusband of Mrs. Mary Shank, who applied the tar and feathers to Miss Grandon, after beat- ing her in the presence of a mob on the highway near Myersville, stated today that Mrs. Shank has re ceived two threatening letters signed “KKK,” one from Myersville and one from Washington. It was on ac- count of Miss Grandon's alleged at- tentions to Shank that the attack occurred. Mrs. Shank pa‘d her usual friendly visit today to Miss Grandon, who is a prisoner in the County jail, held as a material witness under $2,000 bone. * Harry Leatherman was convicted and is awaiting sentence, while Mrs. Shank pleaded gui'ty and will be sentenced followin; dfsposition of the other cases, 17 of ‘which, besides those of Rice, Leatherman and Mrs. Shank, are pending. Ordered to Lieut. Comdrs. John H. Holt, How- ard B. Mecleary and Ames Loder, at- New Posts. tached to the receiving ship at San Francisco, have been ordered to New York City for duty, and Lieut. Comdr. John H. Falge, at San Francisco, has been ordered to the Bureau of Navi- gation, Navy Department. _—-- to the cause of peace, but intended to achieve peace through the mutual agreements of all nations in equal good faith to refrain from war. Now it has become an association of na- tions to protect each other against the consequences of attack, while each nation conforms to the obliga- tions laid upon it by the covenant in the matter of keeping the peace. It is, in a word, no longer an associa- tion of nations pledged to avoid war and arbitrate differences, it is in ad- dition an alliance of nations pledged to act together against any nation which does resort to war. And on the basis of common contributions to common defense the league is now preparing to discuss individual re- duction of armaments, having politely dismissed an American proposal for a conference on the same subject under Amerlcan sus hoss. (Copyright, 19M, McOlure Newspaper dandicated : ELDEST SON OF PRI 'ESS MARY. Lascelles and Princess Mary of England, out for an airing. National Fho Master Lascelles, son of Viscount The grand- child of the King and Queen of England now has a younger brother, bern several months ago. DARROW NOT CARING ‘WHO LICKS COGLIDGE’ Assertion by Chicago Lawyer, Ref- eree of Debate on Merits of Davis and La Follette. By the Associated Press. NEW YORK. October 13 —Clarence Darrow, Chicago lawyer, acting as referee of a debate under the auspices of the National Labor Forum at Madison Square Garden yesterday be- tween Morris Hillquit, Socialist lead- er, and Samuel Untermyer, New York attorney, on the relative merits of Senator Robert M. La Follette and John W. Davis as presidential candi- dates, declared in his introductory address that he did not care “who licked Coolidge.” At the conclusion of the debaters’ opening speeches, Mr. Darrow said, “1 am not satisfied with the debate. No one could get me to debate 80 minutes without saying something about heavy wines and beer.” s The sprakers were frequently ap- plauded and heckled. The subject of the debate was: “Resolved, That, viewing the concrete circumstances of the pending elec- tion, the cause of sound progressive government will be best promoted by voting for La Follette rather than Davis” Mr. Hillquit upheld the af- firmative, Mr. Untermyer the nega- tive. The debaters came to gTips over the question of popularly elected judges and Government operation of railroads. Mr. Untermyer championed the Democratic party as “foremost in fighting monopoly” and characterized the independent party’s platform as “contrary to the letter and spirit of every line and word of the Constitu- tion.” Mr. Hillquit retorted that “consti- tutional guarantees of personal free- dom have been invoked in but few cases to protect the weak from op- pressions of the strong, but they have been perverted in numerous cases to the destruction of legislation de- signed to protect the workers from the merciless greed of the employ- ing classes. RECLAMATION PROJECTS INVOLVE 400,000 ACRES Six New Developments Approved as Feasible in Committee Reports to Interior Department. Totaling more than £00,000 acres, six new reclamation projects have been approved as feasible from an engineering, economic, agricultural and land development standpoint by investigation committees whose re- ports were made public today by the Interior Department. The projects are the Vale and Baker in Oregon, Kittitas in Washington, Owyhee in Oregon and Idaho, Salt Lake Basin in Utah and Spanish Sprints in Nevada. 4 Studies of the projects were con- ducted by professors of agricultural colleges In States in which they are located, State agricultural officials and bankers. In their developement it is recommended that policies and methods proposed by the committee of special advisers of reclamation be World RAL NERGER PLA PUT BEFOREL . Consolidation of Eastern Lines Into Folr Great Sys- tems Is Proposed. ot A _completely revised plan of con solidating the great trunk line rail roads of the East into four systems instead of the nine tentatively pro- posed by the Interstate Commerce Commission is understood to have been placed before the commission as an outgrowth of Saturday's confer- ence here with President Patrick Crowley of the New York Central lines, Daniel Willard of the Baltimore and Ohio and Samuel Rea of the Pennsylvania lines and O. V. and M. J. Van weringen of the Nickel Plate system, whosé’ proposed Nickel Plate merger would upset the com- mission’s tentative plan. titute plan, it mplates four great E: . stems built about the New York Central, Pennsylvania, Balti- more and Ohio and Nickel Plate sy tems. According to information in well informed railroad circles, such a plan would assign the Read z Company and the Central of New Jersey to the Baltimore and Ohio system, which owns the controlling interest in them. N. and W. to Go to P. R. R. The Norfolk and Western, given & system of its own in the commission’s tentative plan, would be assigned to the Pennsylvania lines, and the Lackawanna and the Virginian Rail- roads, grouped by the commission in the New England-Great Lakes and the Chesapeake and Ohio systems, respectively, would be assigned to the Nickel Plate. The New York Central would be given trackage rights over the Cen- tral of New Jersey Railroad and the Philadelphia and Reading into northern New Jersey and northeast- ern Pennsylvania. The New England roads would sither be grouped together into a New England system or distributed to the four proposed Eastern systems. I grou independently, the commis- sion would require bridge lines into New England for the Eastern groups, such ws, for instance, the Delawarc and Hudson and the Lehigh and New England. Mrs. Helen Bennett Causes Arrests on Statutory Charge. A month’s sleuthing on the part of Mrs. Helen Bennett, 1824 G street, early this morning resulted in the ar- rest of her husband, Chester Bruce Bennett, 30, automobile mechanic, 1105 13th street, and Agnes Stewart, 27, 1337 L street, hotel telephone operator. Bennett and Miss Stewart were held on statutory charges. The former deposited $25 collateral, while the latter was released on $i0 col- lateral. The collaterals were for- felted in Police Court today, N