Evening Star Newspaper, November 14, 1928, Page 5

THE EVE STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C. WED ASTER OF RESCUE SHPGVES REPORT Tells of Being Forced to Cast| Own Lifeboat Adrift Be- cause of Storm. By the Associated Press NEW YORK, November 14.—This is the story told today by Capt. Schuyler Cummings, master of the Sveam Amer- ican Shipper, which brought to port 41 | passengers and 84 of the crew of the Vestvis. “On Monday, November 12. at 11:06 am, he said, “we received an S O 8§ from the Vestris and immediately changed our course to the southward | and proceeded at utmost speed to the position given. After the S O §, at- tempts were made to get the true posi- tion of the Vestris by the use of the radio compass, but signals became so weak that we cotd not got bearings. We, therefore, had to rely on the posi- tion given by the steamer Vestris, and radio positions relayed from shore sta- tions. “About 7:30 p.m. we arrived at one of the positions given by some shore | stations, but nothing was in sight, and we continued on a southerly course to the position given by the Vestris, | which was approximately 30 miles south of the radio stations’ position. We reached the position given by the Vestris | et 10:30 pm. and immediately sighted a white light, which shortly proved to be the masthead light of another searching steamer. Flare Marks Lifebcat. “From 11:08 pm. until 2 am. on November 13 we searched the -rea where the Vestris was supposed to have gone down, but not finding any wreck- age in the area indicated, we decided to extend our search further to the east and south, figuring that the drift SCOTT URGES C Urges Co-operative Method as Means of Effecting Greater Economy. Would Place All Activities Under Care of Pension Bureau. Transfer of the Veterans' Bureau to the Bureau of Pensions of the Interior Department was advocated today by Commissioner of Pensions Winfield Scott in an interview with The Star. Commissioner Scott agrees with Brig. Gen. Frank T. Hines, director of the Veterans’ Bureau, that all veterans’ ac- tivities should be consolidated. The Veterans’ Bureau should be brought under the Pension Office, Col. Scott declared, as it should be under a cabinet officer for the sake of greater :Fonflmy and efficiency of administra- Commissioner Scott made it clear that he was not criticizing Gen. Hines personally. “The Pension Bureau cannot be run any more economically than at present,” Commissioner Scott asserted. “The Government could not save any money by putting the Pension Bureau in the Veterans' Bureau. In my opin- ion, the Veterans’ Bureau will have tc eliminate its regional offices and cen tralizes its activities in Washington just as the Pension Bureau has done. Urges Consolidation. “I am not opposed to a combina- tion of veterans’ activities in one bu- reau. To get governmental economy for the veterans, we ought to have the consolidation under a cabinet officer. and preferably under the Bureau of Pensions of the Interior Department. The Veterans' Bureau ought to be put in the Pension Office. As far as ex- penses are concerned, the Pension of the current might have carried the | Office is being run at rock bottom now. lifeboats further east. “This calculation fortunately proved to b2 correct, and at 3:40 am. we saw & Zare trom a lifeboat almost right ahead, and at 4:05 a.m. we came along- side a lifeboat from which we took 24 | and in survivors. When these survivors were taken sight, but at 4:30 a.m. cries were heard angd by using our searchlight we located a lifeboat, No. 1 of the Vestris, and rescued 19 persons. “It appears that this boat had used up its,flares and, therefore, could not signal ‘its position. Shortly after this boat was located another flare was seen toward which we proceeded at full speed. and at 5:15 a.m. arrived alonz- side lifeboat No. 3, saving all persons on beard. Two Taken From Water. “Prom 5:30 a m. until daybreak, about 6:30, nothing further was sighted, and then lifeboats Nos. 10 2nd 14, and by 7:3¢ we had taken abosrd all the per- sons in these boats. At this time the| radic communication with other scarch- ing wessels led us to believe that all the lifeboats which had got away from the Vestris were accounted for, so we decided to continue the search for a life raft or for survivors in life bells. “At 9:48 we sighted two sons in the water in life preservers and we low- ered our No. 2 lifeboat in charge of Second Officer Ohman. This boat suc- ceeded with considerable difficulty in saving two persons, one of whom prov- | ed to be a woman and, it appears, that both these survivors had been in the water since the Vestris sank almost 20 hours previous. In carrying out this rescue it was necessary to aboard no other boats were in|sion Office pays “The overhead expense of the Pen- sion Bureau is less than $2,000.000 an- nually We handle pensions of all sol- diers of all the wars up to April 5, 1917, and subsequent to July 1, 1921, addition we administer the civil service retirement law. The Pen- out approximately $250.000,000 a year and we adjudicate around 160,000 claims annually. “I am informed by the record,” Com- missioner Scott continued, “that the OF WORK IN AID OF VETERANS Federal| ONSOLIDATION e 8 i WINFIELD SCOTT. Veterans' Bureau pays out around $500,- 000,000 annually and that its overhead is approximately $39,000,000. “There is som>thing wrong Some- where. I wish it clearly understood that | I have no differences with Gen. Hines. He is a fine man and a good adminis- trator.” Commissioner Scott explained that the United States Spanish War Veter- ans are in accord with the idea of com- bining the Veterans' Burcau with the Pension Office, for at the convention at Havana, Cuba, last month, they voted | definitely to put the Veterans' Bureau in with the Pension Office and to unite all veterans’ activities. Thir, he pointed out, was passed unanimously. The commissioner of the Pension Of- fice d that he is interested in run- | ning the consolidated veterans' activi- ties most economically, taking into con- sideration good administration at the least amount of expense, so that the Governmer® can give to the veterans themselves the greatest benefits under the law to which they may b2 entitled. Commissioner Scott called attention to the point that the Pension Office has bren in the Interior Department since 1849—nearly a century—and that “the oldest bureau of its kind” should r(-mach\‘ in his judgment, in that depart- ment. As at present constituted, the Vet- eran’s Bureau is an independent estab- lishment, Gen. Hines reporting directly tn the President concerning the conduct of its afTairs. SHIPWRECK LAID T0 INEXPERIENGE Passenger Says There Was Time to Save All Lives and Baggage. BY CARLOS QUIROS, Chancellor of the Argentine Consulate in New York. a Passenger on the Vesiris. By Radio to the Associated Pres: S. 8. BERLIN, November 14—My im- pression of the Vestris tragedy is that it was due to lack of experience, or ex- cess of optimism, or both. Starting cast adrift our own lifeboat, as mean- time the sea had greatly increased and Saturday, we met a light storm, result- ing in a right side list which was grad- ually accentuated until it was 30 de- The survivors got a hearty reception from Capt. von Thuelen of the Berlin and his crew, who deserve all praise. The Vestris crew was fine. The cap- tain, with a worried expression, was calm in giving orders from the hurrj- cane deck. Impress on everybody that the only trouble was inexperience in handling the boats. Some were two crowded. Men and women occupying them were compelled to jump into the water, for the crew was unable to re- lease them from the davits. The good chief engineer shut down all but the 4vnamo engines early Monday. so avoid- :n! ‘kllung everybody (by boiler burst- ng. The second steward went into the water advising what should be done, a thing thet was very praiseworthy. My opinion is that after a certain number of years every boat should car- ry certificates giving the opinion of uninterested humanitarian experts that the passengers' could be removed. ‘The passengers of the Vestris were | fine, not realizing the seriousness of , the cituation until they were in th2 water. Then women were crying and their faces showed terror and sorrow for ones that passed away. I firmly believe that similar acei- dents should not cost a single life THIRD TERM PROPOSED. ESDAY. will finish his second four-year term as President of the Austrian Republic, terday announced his willingness to —— yes Austrian Chancellor Would Amend | run for a third term “if the nation wills Constitution to Favor Hainisch. 14 (®.—Dr.| The “if” les in the fact that the VIENNA, November it.” He made this statement to Chan- cellor Seipel. Michael Hainisch, who on December 9 constitution prohibits any one from NOVEMBER 14, 1928. ®5 b e ———— holding the presidential offi-2 mre than eight yoers. The chancellcr proposed to parli-+--ntary leaders thet the con- stitution b2 amended to petmit Dr. Hainisch to continue in office. He recommended, however, that this third term be limited to the present executive and that the amecndment 25 make plain that it was enacted be- cause of the esteem and affection in which Dr. Hainisch was held by all classes. The President of Austria now is elect- ed by a majority vote of the parties represented in Parliament. The chan- cellor proposed that this be changed, AT Tl O T L THERE'S A OVERCOATS From the plateaus of Mongolia comes the camel’s hair and that the Chief Executive be chosen waumvmxmm"f 3 A survey of business in small Illinois towns reveals that the automobile and good roads have caused a general ce- cline in sales for village and small town GEOGRAPHY LESSON IN HART SCHAFFNER & MARX From the mountains of Peru comes the fine [lama’s hair From Sedan, France, come the famous Montag- nac fabrics there was a possibility of injury to our lifehoat's crew if we attempted to get it aboard. One Man Loses Hand. “During the rest of the forenoon we maneuvered through the wreckage at slow speq,. searching it thoroughly for additiona survivors, but finding none. | The battleship Wyoming and the steam- | 3 ship Berlin also took part in the search. ; At noon, in view of the fact that sev- eral other Government vessels had ar- rived on the scene, and considering the large number of persons we had on board, some of whom required hos- pital treatment, I decided to abandon the search to proceed to New York, where we arrived at 7:30 this morning. “The following is a list of the injured requiring hospital treatment: “Passenigers—E. Keizer, amputation | of the left hand: E. M. Walcolt, frac- tured ribs; William W. Ulrich, frac- tured leg; W. W. Davies, acute bron- || chitis and shock, and Miss Henrietta | a Cubbin, shock. E “Crew—Henry Carpenter, fractured leg; George Amsdell, fractured arm; Jean Gladianes, severe lacerations of the hand; Reginald Bannister, lacera- tions of the foot: John Hogg, fracture of both arms; John Kewn, lacerations of the hands, and Lorando Moore, stewardess, shock.” The outstanding heroine of the wreck of the Vestris, in the opinion of Capt. Cummings, was the stewardess | of the Vestris, Mrs. Ball, who was the | woman referred to as having been taken out of the water after having floated | g 20 hours. She insisted on the man, who was in the wa with her, being taken aboard the ship first, and when she got on board the steamer she in- sisted that she was well enough to stand | up. grees, At that time ln{ person of com- mon sense could realize the impossi- bility of avoiding disaster. I would like to know what time the S O S order was given. The Berlin got it 150 miles off Nantucket. Due to the Berlin’s distance from the wreck it lost time. or piece of baggage. There was plenty of time to avoid loss of either. TSR b TR T g Governor of California spoke at the dedication of a Salvation Army college in San Francisco. From Australia comes the wool for the soft Ar- gonaut fleeces From India comes the goat hair for the lustrous cloths known as Kashmirs From Scotland comes the cloth for the Four Winds topcoats From Japan and China come the rich silk fibers for linings From Ireland comes the linen for interlinings From China comes the hair for hair cloth used for the shape retaining qualities From South Africa comes the horn that makes the horn button From London, Paris, St Moritz, New York, and every other great fashion center in Europe and America come the authentic fashions (covered by our style scouts) Evening Star Model Home Foxhall Pillage 4422 Que St. Will Be Open for Public Inspection Every Day and on Sunday From 9AM.to 9P.M. Drive out Que St. to Wisconsin Ave., right 1 block to Reservoir Rd. and_left to_Village. Left-hand turn at 44th St. or take Blinielth-Poxhall Bus a¢ Dupont Circle to Villige, - © BOSSAIDFHELFS Realtors Owners and Developers 1417 K St. Main 9300 Furniture, Draperies and Rugs from the House of W. & J. Sloane MASTER OF RESCUE SHIP Capt. Cummings of the American Shipper Commended for Aiding Vestris. The Shipping Board adopted a reso- lution yesterday expressing apprecia- tion and pride in the courage and skill displayed by Capt. Schuyler F. Cum- minge and the officers and crew of the American Shipper in the rescue of 123 persons from the steamer Vestris. The life-saving feat of Capt. Cum- mings, whose vesscl was the first to reach the stricken Vestris, however, was not the first for which he has received commendation. On November 2, 1925, Capt. Cum- | mings, as master cf the American ! Shinper, received distress calls from the Holland American stcamship Andijk, | which had encountered a gale that| washed away her wheel house and| bridge. Her life boats had been bat- | tered to pieces and her emergency com- passes wrecked Capt. Cummings went to the rescue | and towed her to the Azores Islands, a | distance of 370 miles. This rescue the House committee on commerce called | “a splendid piece of efficient seaman- | ship and navigation on the part of the | master of the steamship American Shipper.” | CHRISTMAS GRUENS Mr. Schwartz Says: Your overcoat means a trip fo every corner of the world. If you haven't the time to travel like that, better let Hart Schaffner & Marx do it for you RALEIGH HABERDASHER 1310 F Street Every watch we sell must make good—or we do. Cus- tomers’ satisfaction is more important to us than “cash register” music. Copynight 1928 Hart Schaffner & Marx. ELECT that Christmas Gruen wrist or strap watch this week and pay on extra easy terms. Styles for men and women, in a!l the newer shapes. Washington’s most complete stock of Gruen Watches awaits your selection. 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