Evening Star Newspaper, December 21, 1932, Page 6

EL PASO IS HAVEN OF HOMELESS BOYS Hitch Travelers Swarm About| City Park While Waiting for Freight Trains. This is the eleventh of a series of daily dispatches by a writer who traveled back and forth across the country to et the story of the thousands of home- ess. wardering boys. BY DANIEL ROBERT MAUE. Hitch traveling life in the center of the transients’ park, a green square at El Paso, Tex., was basking in one of its more pleasant byways when I reached there on a Winter forenoon. The sun Seemingly healed physical soothed mental turmoil. past chill night and anticipation of the trying night to come. A spoon, a half of & pair of manicure scissors, a toothbrush, a stub of pencil Above—Two homeless boys “waiting for something to turn up.” Lower—Wayne Bridges, Arkansas City, 16 years old, who is mentioned in the accompanying story. and one carefully wrapped cigarette—a 20-year-old hitch traveler from Cincin- nati, Ohio, seated among & group on & slatted bench, produced in the order named, and then added to these an endless variety of articles from the depths of his numerous, rumpled gar- ments. Finally he unearthed needle an‘d thread and began mending his going_to the Rio Grande or | sville (Texas)—some place where | get warm,” said a_sandy- vouns Irishman in soiled tan trousers and blue sweater. iy With 18 vears and an eighth-grade education bchind him, he had left home to help with the Autumn harvest at an uncle’s farm near Britton, 8. . _That done. he kept on to Seattle. Fresno, to Frisco, and then to L. interrupted Charles West, out of Hornell, New York State. El Paso an “Easy” Place. “I guess T'll stay here for a week or two. It's an easy place,” called & well built and shiningly clean blond fellow from the further end of another bench. “No!” he exclaimed when I asked if this was his first wandering from home. Nineteen, through high school, he was out of Oklahoma, “this time” by way of the Northwest and California. I ceased to annoy him. and he returned to intermittently intense reading of a newspaper. -~ - “I like that town of Houston. TI'd sure settle down there if I eould get a job in the place” sald a 20-year-old boy in a near-feather jacket. He, too, was a Cincinnatian. “He broke his back trying to lift a nickel's worth of wheat” laughed a sotlea fellow in overalls in telling a joke at the expense of President Hoover. The joker appeared as ycung as he was mirthful. “My last job didn't pay enough to live on,” said a 22-year-old elegtrician’s helper, just in from Kentucky, Missis- sippi. Louisiana and Eastern Texas. “Boy, where'd you get a cigarette that long?” queried a surprised tran- sient out of New York State. “Hold me shorts on it, will you?” he begged of a companion from Illinols. Thus youthful life went on in the center of the El Paso square, about the alligator pond, along the benches, up and down the paths. No one knew the name of that city park, and so why should I? Groups everywhere mow accepted me as one of their hitch traveling number, a5 & young fellow who, like themselves, milled over these United States in search of amusement, in part no doubt, but more frequently in search of some oasis in the world of unemployment where one might alight. Or, again, they simply accepted me as one Who had need of food and warm shelter and who was going somewhere. Leave Park, but Return. I had traveled from New York City to El Paso by motor car or demus‘ method, that I might hearstheir stories. Now, as one of them, I was to ride the freights through to the West Coast. | That the groups accepted me whole- heartedly as they did is perhaps more to their credit than to mine. ‘When ncon whistles screamed in the distance a_new alertness came to the square. The solitary hitch travelers, the pairs, or the groups, did not rush away; they drifted off quietly or broke up into smaller units, and so sifted through the city. A few asked for money, but more sought the back doors of hotel or private homes and asked for food. None, in my belief, was guilty of theft. By midafternoon the transients, for the greater part_youths under 24, or surely under 25, had again pre-empted more than half of the benches about the park. Aleng its paths, at its center and along its sides they sat and read pulp magazines, dozed in the shade now, for the day grew warm, or strolled and Jolled in talking groups. Faces grew familiar to me. I questioned when I had opportunity. The groups never maintained the same consistency of personne!l hey shifted about from bench to bench. broke up into singles airs, and then reassembled again. e was sensible talk of politics and labor conditions, as there was rough talk, bantering jests, clean jokes, talk of families and friends, Of Sports and athletics, of school and of books, of trips and of travels.' There was gayety and laughter. And always there was talk of east- bound and west-bound freights. Rumor flowed freely. Advance information had always to be corrected. Headed westward, I, of course, heard chiefly talk of the route to Tucson and Yuma. There would be one freight available at 8:30 in the evening, one an hour later, and a third two hours later. The unanimously accepted point at which to board the west-bound freights lay of low buildings, the of shops where the hrough the middle of sev- within a few hundred feet of the park. Its location accounts for mption _of that particular ot in the Texas city. Clean, Calm and Alert. Along these tracks about midafter- noon I met Jennings Hida, 19, son of a veneer manufacturer at Piqua, Ohio, Jennings appeared as clean and calm as though he were on the front lawn of his parental home. His fair hair went In_ tweed trousers e sients lay This station of the tran- | and blue sweater, erect and clear-eyed, he spoke with unusual alertness. “My ambition will get me into Flor- 1da,” he snapped when I commented on the difficulty he might encounter in reaching his avowed destination. Al- most immediately we were speaking of business conditions. “I'll be so howlingly glad when this depression is over,” sighed Jennings. “If only because everybody will stop yawping abcut having no_job.” Last Summer Jennings wanted to see the ocean, and so he hitch traveled straight to the Gulf of Mexico. His parents accorded him a warm reception Wwhen he returned home. “Sure,” sald the now wistful fellow; “sure dad cuffed me plenty when I got home.” ‘However impreased the wanderer may have been by this treatment, his ardor for travel had not been quenched. “And at home they're so darned religious,” he went on, “T couldn't stand it—the praying over everything that came along.” Leaving home the second time, he went northward and then through the boundary States to the Coast and south to California, He had a plan of a sort, since he had just taken up with an elderly needle peddler, who, traveling in an old motor car, was headeq for the Guif and Fiorida. “Yes, I'll go finish those two years of high school,” he concluded, firmly, “after I've been to Alaska.” His manner, his whole person left little doubt as to the youth's avowed ambition. It might, after all, take him both to Florida and Alaska. Re! Companiens. Dusk, and its first chill had dropped over the park before Jennings Hida ‘and I parted company. He remained thoughtfully on the bench. I went in search of those who would be my trav- eling companions on the second freight for Tucson, Ariz. Because of an almost entirely tacit agreement among three of us hitch travelers who had chanced to meet. I was almost positive that I should find the others awaiting me at the transient “station” slong the near- by tracks. Yes, there they sat together in the growing dark. We agreed to hitch the second freight. ‘Wayne Bridges, 16, had for b: a bottle of hair oil. Jack Ca igan. nearer my own age, carried a traveling This is the third of a series of stories The Star is presenting on the problem of the unemployed women idn other cities throughout the country. since lone | woman has only emerged from her ol scurity as & real relief issue after Winters without a Job. By a Staff Correspondent of The Star. CLEVELAND, Ohio, December 21— One out of every three of the 100,000 women normally employed in Cleveland is out of a job today. The percentage has increased with depressing rapidity in the last two years. In 1930 the percentage was a little over 5. At the beginning of this year it had increased to epproximately 18. As the year closes it has gone up to about 331-3 per cent. ‘Unemployed women' with children are cared for through the Assoclated Charl- ties as family relief problems. But the city lacks a common center for unem- ployed single women to fill for them the need Wayfarers' Lodge fills for the single men and boys. Generally speaking, the older unem- ployed woman and the hitch-hiker goes to the Police Women's Bureau and the younger woman to the Y. W. C. A. Officials report between 30 and 50 des- titute women who are city residents seek a bed at the Women's Bureau each month. Most of these are do- mestic help, cleaning women or serub- women. Transient Figures Higher, But the figures for transients, femi- nine prototype of the “wandering boy” problem, is much higher. Between 50 and 75 8 month are brought to the bureau, They are usually, with the help of the Travelers' Aid Soclety, re- turned to the city from which they come. THe Y. W. C. A. has established the Friendly Service Burezu to help| the unemployed youncer woman find a job and a home. About 200 free beds and 250 free meals are given there each month. Eight rooms are ’ PR For Christmas Electrolytic Copper-Back D. ¢, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1932. PRESIDENT READY FOR HOLIDAY TRIP May Stop at Sopelo Island, Off Georgia Coast, on Christmas Eve. * B the Assoclated Press. Preparations went forward today at the White House for. President Hoover to set sail from Savannah, Ga. next Saturday, Christmas eve, on a holiday crulse off the Georgia and Florida Coasts. Despite the approach of his sched- uled departure from the Capital, how- ever, set for Friday night, the President made clear to his aides that he might yet cancel the trip should developments on Capitol Hill or in his war debt plans require, " As plans now stand, the Chlef Execu- tive and Mrs. Hoover and a party of guests will board the Qoverhment in- spection boats Sequoia and Kilkenny at Savannah about noon 8aturday. Plans to Fish Qlten. For the next week or 10 days the President plans to drift along, stopping where the fish are biting best or in- specting inland waterways. There was a prospect, although defi- nite plans were withheld, that a stop might be made on Christmas eve at Sapelo Island, less than 100 miles from Savannah. The island is owned by Howard Coffin, & friend of Mr, Hoover, jand has been visited by Mrs. Hoover bag. Since its weight might make boarding a refrigerator a matter of some difficulty, Wayne and I, with the bag, sat to one side with our backs to a bullding, while Jack moved away toward the east-lylng vards to study possibilities. Suddenly a freight en- ne screamed its high bell of two lasts. The first of the west-bound freights! In two or three minutes we crouched in the glare of the headlight. The great engine chugged hissingly by in awesome majesty—and again we were in the half-light of a single strect lamp. Directly the entire area In which Wayne and I awaited Jack's coming became thronged with the indistinct forms of running, clambering men, both with and without luggage in bundles. The freight slowly increased its speed. Its rhythmic rumble grew deeper. Men seemed to bear down upon that boarding spot from all parts of the city. They climbed up the ladders. They hitched to the tankers. They ran along the tops of cars. They opened the lids of reefers, dropped into empty ice compartments when these could be found or straightened and ran on again. d then Wayne and I stared at the Tear lights of the caboose. On that one side of the traln I counted 73 forms silhouetted against :ge sides of cars or against the night Y. ‘Tomorrow—Crossing the desert to lcson. (Copvrisht. 1932. by North tcan News- paber Alliance, Te) o (nc.) The Unemployed Woman 3,000 Out of Jobs in Cleveland—500 Girls Seek, Positions Monthly—Stand Better Chance to Get Work Than Men. set aside all the time In the hotel de- partment and are practically filled every night. 500 Monthly Seek Jobs. ‘The bureau has about 500 girls & month seeking jobs. In the first 10 months of the bureau’s existence 1,300 jobs were found. Most of these girls are stenographers, typists, office help, the young business woman type. What happens to the older business woman no one seems to know. They don't appear at the Women'’s Bureau. The State-City Free Employment Bureau reports about a third of its applicants for jobs are women. The women seem to stand a better chance of getting a job through the bureau than the men. For, although they number only 33 1-3 per cent of the ap- plicants, they get 38 per cent of the North New Sets for Your Christmas Twee. ... 8 Rosette Reflectors FREE! Check your sets and get new bulbs NOW!! Wreaths With Electric Jist I'P'l |lc‘ f‘;"fiinfl& Every % MUDDIMAN ¢ 911 G St. Nat’l 0140-2622 Organized 1888 E SPECIAL “EVALAST” MIRRORS previously. Christmas eve might be spent on the high seas, however. White House automobiles Will be dispatched to Florida so that the presi- dential party may take land trips at inviting points. Under present arrangements the Hoo- vers would not return to the Capital until January 3 or 4. Meanwhile the White House will not be lacking entirely in Yuletide atmos- Pphere, It was announced yesterday that the presidential home and the executive office will be decorated as usual with Christmas wreaths and flowers. Also & number of Christmas trees will be in- cluded in the scheme of Yuletide deco- ration, and it is understood that one of these, trimmed with ornaments, will be erected in the main lobby on the first floor of the White House. Mrs. Hoover will personally supervise the decora- tions before she leaves the city. For the past few days the White House mail has grown heavier with Christmas and New Year greeting cards for the President and Mrs. Hoover. Cards are being sent by friends from all parts of the country, and at the rate they are arriving it is expected that the President and First Lady will this year Tecelve a greater number of cards than received at any Christmas time since they entered the White House. Many Christmas presents also have arrived. Mrs. Hoover has been busy during the vast week superintending packing for the President’s brief vacation trip in Florida waters and attending to the family Christmas shopping. The pre: ents for the Hoover grandchildren ready have started on their way to t! home of Mr, and Mrs. Herbert Hoover, ir., at Pasadena, Calif. Duce Plans Huge Building. ROME, December 21 (#)—The Mus- solinian state will dwell with its past in a monumental building to be erected in the new Street of the Empire. Lead- ing Fascist architects have been in- vited to submit plans. It will house the Fascist party headquarters and a museum for recording the history of the movement, now 10 years old. Em- pire street is a broad avenue leading from Il Duce’s fortresslike palace in the Piazza Vemezia to the 2,000-year- old Colosseum. o Dublin is to have the first chocolate factory in the Irish Free State. LERE SRR SR SR S SR SR SR SR S R 57 Give Sporting Goods Young Delinquents Special Dispatch to The Star. (NANA)—The two Bloomsburg chil- dren who have been placed in the care of the State for robbing & bank here will remain in institutions “at least a year,” if their parents have their way. And John Harrington, jr., 9, and his 7-year-old sister Lillian will have a chance to get “good and homesick” be- fore they see their mother and father Mr. and until Spring. We tried everything we could to_cure them of their habits of stealing and bagging school, but mothin Lillian Harrington. ooehedi g “We will miss them a lot,” Mrs. Har- rington added, “but we know what we are doing is for the best. After they get out, Johnny and Lilllan may be | them into the country to live. No matter what people say about us, we think they should stay in State care.” ohn was taken to the Glen Mills School for Boys, near Media, and Lillian to the House of the Good Shepherd, Phila- delphia. Less than a week earlier they had climbed in the window of the bank and taken money from a desk drawer. Judge Evans | sentenced them to the _institutions, after testimony as to numerous of- fenses. John Harrington, Jr. The Harringtons live in a $15-a-month cottage in the Morgantown section of Bloomsburg. Harrington, 38, a war veteran, is a la- | borer. He draws $30 & month from the Government for war disability, and gets about two and one-half days’ work a | week through the welfare society when he is able to do it. He is tall and thin. His wife, a fe years younger, is haggard with wor | over the boy and girl. There are four | other children, Margaret, 14; Marie, 13; | Bobby, 4, and Milo, 2. “Anybody who says the trouble with our children is due to neglect of their parents is lying.” Harrington said. “It's @ terrible thing for parents to admit they can't control their young ones, but we couldn’t. We have four oth- ers, and never had any trouble with any of them. We never had any trou- ble with Johnny until ke got to school. Then the other children began annoy- ing him about his shabby clothes. He was all right before that. I used to take nim fshing with me, and he had a | dog_he loved. “I certainly think he was old enough | to know the difference between right and wrong. Some folks say I never tried to_correct Johnny. The truth is I did. Later I tried sitting down and talking with him, trying to shame him. This would work for a time, and then the children would start dogging him and he'd’ tear loose again. “If he behaves well now we may try to get him back in a year, but not be- At a Saving From 25% to 50% The Largest and Most Complete Stock of First Quality Standard Make Sporting Goods in Washington Matched Sets Included Soccer Balls Basket Balls " *Foot Balls Boxing Gloves 25% OFF Fresh Stock Standard Makes . Base Ball Gloves Leather Coats Sweaters Striking Bags Shotguns—Rifles Leather Gun Cases Now Greatly Reduced All Standard Make Guns WINCHESTER SAVAGE Their Lesson, Says Laborer Father of Bloomsburg Pair. 1 BLOOMSBURG, Pa, December 21 | l Note Holders’ Committee Sues to better children. We expect to take | M PARENTS WANT CHILD ROBBERS TO STAY BEHIND BARS A YEAR Learn Will Have to paying. ight. 1932. by North 1 o (Copyright. 1 -5 illllnu. mr can News. $3,895,000 SOUGHT IN INSULL ACTION Recover Securities From New York Banks. By the Associated Press. NEW YORK, December 21.—Suit was filed in United States District Court yesterday seeking to recover securities, sald to be worth $3,895,000 at present, posted by the Corporation Securities Co. of Chicago, an Insull holding com- pany, as collateral for loans from New York banks aggregating $5,000,000. The action was started by George W. McGhie, jr., secretary of a Serial Gold Note Holders’ Committee, against the | Chase National Bank, the Central Han- over Bank & Trust Co. and the Guar- anty Trust Co. of New York. ‘The suit set forth that Corporation Securities Co. was organized in Decem- | ber, 1928, for the purpose of buying, | holding and selling the stock and bon |of Insull units and is now in bank. Tuptey. FINE LIOUORé SEIZED ON MOTOR SCHOONER | Eight or Ten Men Escape in Flor- 1 ida Raid as Two Are Made i Prisoners. By the Associated Press. |" JACKSONVILLE, Fla., December 21. —Shortly after it tied up at a se- cluded bank on the Nassau River north of here yesterday, the British registry | schooner” Midinette was captured by | Feceral prohibition agents, who arrested ‘]tiwo men and seized 955 cases of choice uors. | "Oticers saia warning shots fired by a | lookout resulted in the escape of 8 or | 10 other men engaged in unloading the | boat. Herbert Archer of Nassau, Bahamas, | skipper of the Midinette, and Courtney ! Camplejohn ¢f Jacksonville were in the hold of the cfaft when the lookout fired the signal shots. the agents said, and as a result they were arrested. | Three men made away in a motor launch, while several others engaged in | loading the trucks escaped into the | derse woods nearby. | There was enough liquor aboard to | fill seven or eight trucks, 8. O. McPher- &on, deputy district prohibition adminis- trator. said. | McPherson held an elongated bottle in his hand as he described the seizure, | It had four separate compartments. In | (one was creme de menthe, another | | cherry brandy, one had creme de cacso | |and the other apricot brandy. The | bottle was decorated with gilt trim- | " The agents estimated the booze | vas worth in the neighborhood of $50,- | | 000 at retall prices. | All Our Stores Closed All Day Monday, December 26 New Film Beauty DETROIT GIRL JOINS HOLLY- WOOD RANKS. VERNA HILLIE, A Detroit girl of Finnish descent, who, rTecently passed the screen tests with fiying colors and won & contract. —A. P. Photo. i Gandhi Defends Low Castes. POONA, India, December 21 (A).— The Mahatma Gandhi told a delega- tion of untouchables who visited him in Yeroda Jail: “If it is in my power, I shall certainly incorporate the ques- tion of the removal of untouchability as one of the fundamental the new constitution of India. be a criminal offense for any Hindu as untouchable (the low- in rights . It should | on Januar; BARS ON ALERS EEP OUT 50000 Secretary Stimson Reports Emergency Law Effect in Depression. By the Associated Press. Secretary of State Stimson today re- ported to President Hoover that as & result of emergency bars against im- migration more than 500,000 aliens who normally would have entered United States “during the economic de pression” have been held out. The Secretary reported this result had been accomplished solely through enforcement of existi provisions of law, principally the clause excluding persons “likely to become & public Charg: > S Breaking down his total into smaller figures, Stimson said that during the fiscal year ended Jume 30, 1932, only 12,697 quota immigration visas were is- sued, as compared with the total annual quotas of 153,831. In addition. he said, there was & reduction in the number of aliens not subject to quota limitations from 45, 999 during the previous fiscal year to 24,040 during the last year. As compared with the 107.469 non- quota aliens who entered the United States during the fiscal year ended { June 30, 1930, he pointed out, the re- duction last year was ene of 77.6 per cent. - “The number of non-quota immigra- tion visas issued to natives of non- quota countrics which comprise most of the countries of the Western Hemi- sphere during the period mentioned amounted to 9,392,” he said, “represent~ ing a decrease of 52.6 and 849 per cent, as compared with 19,815 and 62,441, respectively, the number of sim- ilar visas issued during the previous 8 years." SCHOOLS TO CLOSE By a Staff Correspondent of The Star. ARLINGTON COURT HOUSE, Va., December 21.—The public schools of Arlington County will close tomorrow for the Christmas holidays and recpen 3. The school board will meet tonigh§ to authorize the pay roll and will hold another meeting before the end of the year. 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