Evening Star Newspaper, March 8, 1935, Page 19

Wash DALY SESSIONS T0SPEEDUPD.C. CRIME HEARINGS Scores of Gamblers and ington News Others Yet to Be Called to Witness Stand. REPORT IS DESIRED BEFORE ADJOURNMENT Head of Woman's Bureau and Capt. Bobo First on Captains’ List to Be Questioned. The special Crime Committee of the House arranged today to speed up its investigation of the District’s crime situation in order to finish before the adjournment of Congress. Instead of two and three hearings & week the committee adopted & schedule calling for daily sessions | lasting from 10:30 am. until late in | the afternoon, beginning Monday. | Scores of witnesses—gamblers, pro- | fessional bondsmen, lawyers, court attaches and penal authorities—are yet to be called to the witness stand and only through prolonged daily hearings, the committee decided, will 1t be able to complete the inquiry in | time to make a report at the current | session of Congress in obedience to the resolution authorizing the inves- tigation. - The immediate plan of the com- mittee is to summon every police cap- tain, and follow with attaches of the various courts, and then the noto- rious figures in the gambling fra- ternity. The parade of captains started ves- terday with Rhoda J. Milliken, head of the Woman's Bureau, and James E. Bobo, commander of the second precinct. Capt. Edward J. Kelly of | the third precinct probably will be called upon resumption of the hear- ings Monday. Bobo Told of Gambling. Capt. Bobo received quite a shock while he was on the witness stand when the committee informed him that two big gambling establish- ments are operating in his precinct and that the operator of one had | ade enough money to erect a big | apartment house. Bobo insisted he had no knowledge of the establishments and promised to make an immediate investigation and | Teport the results to the committee. Chairman Randolph disclosed the committee’s information after asking Bobo several times if he knew there | are gambling houses operating in his | precinct at the present time. | Denies Knowledge. “No, not right now,” replied Bobo. “Well,” said Randolph, “the com- mittee has information that at Eighth and T streets there is a gambling establishment where 100 runners meet the proprietor every day and there is a pay-off. The operator is said to have accumulated sufficient funds to erect an apartment house at Sixteenth and T streets and has openly boasted he had never been arrested.” “That's news to me,” remarked Bobo. Randolph then asked him if he | knew of a gambling house located | at Seventh and O streets. | “No, I don’'t know that,” replied | Bobo. “It is reported to us” continued Randolph, “that Sam Beard's head- | quarters, formerly in the sixth pre- cinct, are now in your precinct.” “I know Sam Beard,” said Bobo, *“and if he is operating in my precinct 1 would soon fird it out.” Representative Reed, Republican, of Illinois had just previously read into the record figures showing there were 284 arrests and 137 convictions for gambling in the 1932 fiscal year, 403 arrests and 211 convictions in 1933 and 130 arrests and 44 convictions in 1934, when Representative Schulte, Democrat, of Indiana suddenly de- clared: “Whoa, let’s get this.” Bobo hesitatingly admitted under a rapid fire of questions that there is 8 lack of co-operation between the Police Department and the United States Attorney’s Office. Several times members of the com- mittee tried vainly to get Bobo to make this admission, and as he at- tempted to evade a definite answer, Schulte sa.d: “Be frank, be frank, we will protect | ou.” 9 “Well,” Boba finally said, “I wouldn't want to say now, but the lack of speed in the prosecution of cases has lasted for several years.” Capt. Milliken Heard. Capt. Milliken told the commit- tee there had been a marked in- crease in the number of arrests of women and said this was due chiefly to soliciting of prostitution and alco- holism. She cited figures showing there were 980 arrests in 1933 and 1,065 in 1934. Capt. Milliken also revealed there had been an increase in the number of women kept at the House of De- tention and admitted these conditions had caused overcrowding and insani- tary conditions to a certain extent. Schulte asked her if the police- |any women had any trouble with the *“curbstone sheiks” and ‘“automobile flirts” and she admitted there had ‘been some complaints and that some BY W. H. SHIPPEN, JR. HEN Jack London sailed for s N ) the South Seas in 1906 he signed on the world’s worst whose ignorance of culi- nary blandishments was only excelled by his thirst for travel and adventure. The cook's biscuits recommended him for a transfer almost before the little vessel laid the land behind her. London made young Martin Johnson an engineer, more to keep him out of the galley than anything else. Yet if London lost a cook, he won a disciple who was to carry on the London tradition long after the author, globe-trotter and idealist had embarked on his last adventure. Both Present Story. ‘Today, at 51, Johnson is as eager to see the world, to explore lost jun- gles, endless veldts and forgotten seas as he was on that Spring day in 1906. London’s medium was the pen and Johnson's the camera. Both tried to tell the story as they saw it. Johnson is still perfecting his me- dium, still experimenting to develop the type of camera which will, for example, portray a charging lion, a mad rhinoceros or a whole panorama of moving animals. On his last trip to Africa, Johnson told reporters in his rooms at the Willard Hotel here today, he shot 280,000 feet of film for the 6,000 feet now on the screen at the Columbia under the title “Baboona.” Mrs. Johnson Provides Food. Johnson shoots with his camera, while Mrs. Johnson keeps the camp meat pots full with her rifle. John- son, he admitted, knows next to noth- ing about a gun, but his wife is a quick and accurate shot, who can be relied upon in an emergency, whether it may arise from hunger or danger. For years now they have made & fine team in the field, years in the Woman's Bureau personnel should be increased to protect the women of ‘Washington against “these cowboys and tinhorn sports.” Capt. Milliken added that an increase in personnel and more stringent laws would enable the Woman'’s Bureau to perform that function. Denies Rings Operate. Capt. Milliken said there are no } white slave rings in Washington, but there had been incidental cases of white slavery involving girls who came here from other cities looking for work. Randolph said he had received re- ports that one group of white slavers is importing girls from a mining sec- tion of his own district in West Vir- ginia. In response to questions, Capt. Milliken admitted the present $25 fine | or collateral imposed upon women arrested for soliciting is too low. She said these women consider $25 merely as a license fee and aearly all had sufficient funds to pay the fines. She declared a mandatory jail sentence for chronic offenders might alleviate existing .conditions. Representative Randolph asked her why Washington “has been a mecca for this type of woman”? Capt. Milliken said the condition is due to the fact that Washington had not been affected by the depression as seriously as some other cities. Capt. Milliken told the committee the better class of hotels in Wash- ington are co-operating with her bu- reau. Both Chairman Randolph and Rep- resentative Schulte complimented Capt. Milliken and said she had given the committee more information than previous witness. “If your su- periors are as efficient as you,” said Schulte, “we would have less crime in the District.” Randolph declared as she left the of the women who had been picked up had come to harm. Schulte declared he D. C. Law Balks thought. the witness stand: “Your grasp of your duties is highly gratifying to this committee.” Allen’s Plans To Create Staff of Admirals Commissioner George E. Allen is disappointed. Ruby Laffoon, Governor of Ken- tucky, has thousands of colonels at his beck and call, but Commissioner Allen can’t even have one admiral. The Commissioner, prompted by the size of the Kentucky Governor's staff, to seek a similar corps of aides-de- camp in the District, looked around for authority under which he and his two colleagues could act. The District has a “pavy.” The Police and Fire Departments each are represented on the Potomac River and down st Lorton Reformatory there are a tug and a barge. Boats a-plenty, Allen reasoned, why not admirals? But, alas, the District has a law that prohibits the acceptance of “vol- untary services,” and there is no ap- propriation available for salaries for admirals. ‘The Commissioner didn't say o, but he was so hopeful of granting & hun- dred or so commissions that he had a design of the commissions drawn, and was all set, until the law step- ped in. cook, a green Kansas youth | he Foening Stap WASHINGTON, D. C, FRIDAY, MARCH 8, 1935. PAYLESS WORKERS BIG SCHOOL PLANT || “Terrorism” on the Radio! Martin Johnson Once “Cook” For. Jack London on Cruise Mr. and Mrs. Martin Johnson, photographed at the Willard Hotel today. —Star Staff Photo. South Seas, in Borneo, and finally in their favorite Africa. They returred only a few months ago after an ex- | tensive airplane venture into the big-game country. last . expedition, he said, taught him a lot about leopards. Johnson knew cats from long association. The lion will not charge unless he sees the whole of a human body. Thus he can be photographed, a'mcst without danger, a point blank range, so long as the photographer hides part of his body—in a grounded air- plane or an automobile, for example. Discovers Difference. But leopards are different, Johnson learned. He and Mrs. Johnson spotted a cave in the big game country which was littered with bones, indicating it was haunted by some carnivorous animal. They set up a blind and returned to it from time to time in hope of get- ting some shots of the cave's tenant. They were at length rewarded by the appearance of a huge female leopard, which prowled in the vicinity of the blind, affording the photog- rapher in concealment some excellent shots. Johnson was behind his big sound camera, trained through a small opening in a pen banked with grass. A friend ‘of the couple, a Boer of long experience with the Veldt, was in the blind with them. None of the party was aware the leopard detected their presence. Suddenly the leopard whirled and leaped for the camera opening. Quick With Gun. “Those Boers,” Johnson said, “are great with a gun. They almost in- variably have one under arm or hand at a second’s notice. I did not even know the leopard had charged when the Boer shot her head half away almost in my face. “The muzzie of his gun was almost alongside my forehead, which was spattered with the leopard's blood. If that Boer had been a second slow on the draw the leopard vould have been in the pen with us all. Well, you can imagine what that would have meant. Perhaps we wouldn’t be here now, would we, dear? “Probably not,”” smiled Mrs. Johnson. —_—— COLDER WEATHER DUE Minimum of 30 Predicted Tonight. Clouds to Stay. Cloudy and somewhat colder weather is in prospect for tonight, with & minimum of about 30 degrees. The cloudy weather is expected to continue through tomorrow, fol- lowed by rain tomorrow night or Sunday. ‘Washington and cities to the north experienced a trace of snow this morning, but no additional preéipi- tation was expected until tomorrow night. Horseplay Ruling Prevents Receipt Of Death Benefits 'U. S. Employes’ Com- pensation Commission Refuses Suit Snarls. Holding that & workman, although on duty, was not actually in a state of employment because he had been en- gaging in “horseplay” immediately preceding his death the United States Employes’ Compensation Commission has refused to pay benefits under the compensation insurance act, it was developed in s swit filed in District Supreme Court today. ‘The case came to light in apptica- tion for & writ of mandamus by John Christopher Cook, 750 Third street, against Robert J. Hoage, deputy com- missioner of the United States Em- ployes’ Compensatior. Commission, and the National Casualty Co. Cook seeks to force payment for the death of his son, Howard B. Cook, fatally iniured in a fall just as he had finished a friendly scuffie with a coworker on November 10. Howard Cook was an employe of the Poole Drayage Co., against which, to- gether with the casualty company as insurer, the father had filed the death benefit claim. The claim was denied that Cook’s death was he engaged in . mlflh":u'h. ts the plaintil. Eithed) N 0., TREASIRY MAY CET SALARES Compromise Is Reached for 1,200 in Former Pro- hibition Bureau. 450, HOWEVER, FACE LOSING OF POSITIONS Employes Placed on Unusual Status When Re-examina- tions Were Demanded. All of the approximately 1,200 Treasury employes who have been working since December 1 without pay because of the McKellar rider would receive their salaries, but after May 15 about 450 of them would go out of the service under a compromise plan adopted today by the Senate Subcom- mittee on the Treasury-Post Office appropriation bill. The McKellar rider of last year originally was intended to affect about 706 employes of the former Prohibi- tion Bureau, who were called back into the employment of the Treasury Department after the abolition of the Prohibition Bureau had left them without jobs. McKellar's rider provided that after December 1 no current appropriations could be used to pay the salaries of these agents unless they had passed a new civil service examination, Mc- Kellar having questioned their civil service status. Others Go Without Pay. After Congress had adopted this proviso last June, however, the con- troller general's office held that the language of the rider had the effect of | stopping also the pay of several hun- dred other employes. Johnson's narrowest escape on his | Under the compromise these other groups of employes will receive the back pay they have been deprived of since December and will remain in the service, With respect to the 700 or more who were affected by the original controversy over Civil Service status, the substance of the compromise is that all will receive their back pay and remain at work until May 15, but after that date, only those who passed a new Civil Service examina- tion subsequent to last June will be retained. It was estimated at the Capitol today that about 250 would remain under this compromise, leav- ing about 450 or more who would be dropped by May 15. Fail in Re-examination. ‘When the McKellar rider passed last year it was contended on behalf of these 700 employes that they al- ready had Civil Service status, and for that reason some of them declined to take the new examination required by the rider. A considerable number of those who took it failed. In re- cent hearings before the Senate Sub- committee there was some discussion of the nature of this examination, as to whether the questions related to the work to be performed. After the examination was held last Fall, the Treasury Department de- cided that enforcement of the liquor laws would collapse if these trained workers who had not passed the new examination were dropped and re-' placed by inexperienced men who had passed the civil service test. General Cummings held that the old employes could be allowed to con- tinue at work if they so desired and trust to Congress to settle the pay question. The decision of the sub- committee today will go before the entire Appropriations Committee, and later to the Senate. TWO STUDENTS FINED IN THEFT OF LANTERN Judge Hitt Imposes $25 Each on Pair Who Invaded Apartment on Twentieth Street. Fines of $25 each were imposed to- day by Police Court Judge Isaac R. Hitt on Charles Donson, 2100 block of I street, and Louis N. J. Nicklaw, 500 block Twentieth street, both university students, for the theft Sunday of an antique lantern from the lobby of an apartment house at 1612 Twentieth street. The complainant in the case, Victor Sadd. informed the court when the case came up far trial that he did not wish to prosecute. The Government, however. insisted on going through with the case. The testimony showed the theft was traced through the license num- ber, which was taken by a witness as the two left the apartment house in Nicklaw’s car. The latter was later arrested by Policeman W. S. Rinker for speeding and a search of his rooms revealed the lantern. e THEFT BOND FORFEITED Newspaper Honor System Rack Held Robbed. John A. Langston, 50, 700 block Twenty-second street, forfeited $10 in Police Court today on a charge of stealing & newspaper from an honor system rack at Twenty-first and I streets yesterday. Attorney | IN HEART OF CITY URGED BY BALLOU Wants to Remove Wilson Teachers’ College to Pres- ent Hospital Site. FOURTEENTH STREET BOUNDARY OF ‘CENTER’ Area Around Upshur, Arkansas, Allison and Iowa Would Be- come Educational Unit. An elaborate educational plant oc- cupying 30 acres of land in the heart of the city, on a plot bounded by Up- shur street, Fourteenth street, Arkan- sas avenue, Allison street, Iowa ave- nue and Thirteenth street, was dis- cussed by Supt. of Schools Ballou to- day and labeled “the greatest need of the city.” He was speaking, naturally, as an educator. ‘What Dr. Ballou intends to do, with the aid and advice of the Board of Education, is to remove the Wilson Teachers' College from its present cramped position at Eleventh and Harvard streets and put in on the site that already holds the Tuberculosis Hospital, which he believes should be torn down. In the 30-acre tract already se- lected for this development, a project talked over with the Board of Edu- cation, there are now located the | Health School, the Tuberculosis Hos- pital, the MacFarland Junior High School and the Roosevelt High School. Immediately across the street, on the | south side of Upshur, is the Powell | School which s being used for ob- servation and practice for Wilson | Teachers’ College. | Development Needed, The absolute necessity for the re- | moval of Wilson Teachers' College educational development in Wash- ington. There are close to 600 students at- tending Wilson Teachers’ College. For some time the Board of Education has wondered how the problem of an overcrowded school building might be solved. Then came word that the tubercu- losis hospital will be removed to Glenn Dale, Md. That put an idea in Dr. Ballou's head. “It's a natural step,” Dr. Ballou said, “to take the Wilson Teachers’ College from Eleventh and Harvard streets and place it on the site of the tuberculosis hospital. Chances are those buildings will have to be torn down—but we may be able to use the nurses home. Anyway, that is the logical place for the teachers’ college The health school is there =ziready, but we do no know whether it will remain. We will bring the new Den- nison Vocation School there, t0o0.” At present the Dennison Vocational School is on 8 street between Thir- teenth and Fourteenth streets—and Dr. Ballou calls attention to it a5 one of the horrors of the city. It stands, in his estimation, as a sign pointing out what is needed in Washington school facilities. More Relief Needed. In discussing the general question today, Dr. Ballou said: “We need re- the Woodrow Wilson High School and the one in Anacostia are going to pro vide when they are ready. by the building of additions to junior high schools, especially so these may relieve the pressure from Takoma Park and Manor Park. There should be additions to Elliott and Paul, and later—say within two or three years— an addition to Deal. “In the colored schools, now de- veloping need for a Senior High School at Benning, the proof of the need for expansion is shown by the congestion at Armstrong and Dumbarton. “In the elemetary school field, the needs are scattered. There is need for many additional class rooms. Some of the schools need to have addi- tional stories built. Some need as- sembly rooms and gymnasiums. Some need painting. Things like that. The list is formidable—and it will take a deal of money. Where the money is coming from, of course, is the ques- tion; but I am sure legislation will be provided. Just at present the $4,- 880,000,000 work and relief bill is in a jam.” Dr. Ballou intimated that he saw no reason why the schools should not be granted sufficient moneys. Last De- cember the Board of Education made up a list of absolute needs. This list was turned over to Dr. John W. Stude- baker, United States commissioner of education. The District of Columbia school want list, together with lists from 48 States, was sent by Dr. Stude- baker to Secretary of Interior Ickes, to be considered as P. W. A. material. So far, the P. W. A. has done noth- ing for the schools of Washington— and it is intimatea that the school officials are not putting any great store by the P. W. A. project possibilities. Lt i Couple Licensed. Special Dispatch to The Star. LEONARDTOWN, Md., March 8— A marriage license was jssued here to and Elizabeth V. Quade, 17, of Laurel Grove. Music Loses Charm for Three Arrested in Auto Theft Case ‘What was music to the ears of De- tectives Watson Salkeld and Fuller Arrington turned out to be very sour notes for three colored men who were held for the grand jury today in con- glelthn with the theft of an automo- . Starting out to investigate the lar- ceny of several musical instruments, the detectives subsequently uncovered evidence that led to the arrest of Wil- liam A. Jones and Charles E. and James H. Simms for operating an au- tomobile theft ring. as music lovers the detec- tives casually strolled through the Southeast, keeping their ears open for the delicate strains of a violin and the twang of a guitar, They entered sev- eral houses from which music ema- nated, finally recovering two yiolins. Seizure of the guitar broke up a dance being held in Navy place. By questioning the musicians who played the “borrowed” instruments, Salkeld and Arrington said they traced the theft to Jones and the Simms brothers. The instruments were stolen from a second-hand store on Eighth street southeast. Later the trio was found to be in- volved in the theft of 30 automcbiles, the detectives said. > In Police Court, Jones, who lives in the 600 block of K street southeast, and the Simms brothers, who reside in the 300 block of I street southeast, pleaded guilty to one charge of steal- ing an automobile. The other automobile !.he‘tltm [ and the housebreaking case e placed before the grand jury. ases will lief for high schools far beyond what | “Such relief can be accomplished | John M. Morgan, 21, of Oraville, Md.. | BY THOMAS R. HENRY. ANGSTERS, gunmen, spies, masked murderers, counter- feiters, bad Indians, air ban- Gits, dope smugglers, Oriental torturers— Nerve-torturing shriek of police sirens, rattle of machine gun, sicken- ing crash of fallen airplanes, despair- ing cry of the murderer's victim— What conglomerations of horrible sights and sounds are the dreams of | Washington children! No wonder the little boy “sneaks” his toy pistol under his pillow unbeknown to mother or steals from under the sheets in the {middle of the night to put on the “bullet-proof vest” he has just gotten by mail underneath his pajamas. No wonder his sister screams hysterically in her sleep and no wonder, when mother goes to discover what is the matter, her pillow is found damp with | tears. Voices in the Night. And no wonder fathers and mothers with children between 4 and 14— especially those who come home weary in the late afternoon—are con- sidering seriously either some fancy | banditry of their own or mass suicide. “The Shadow knows—ha-ha-ha-ha.” “Now I've got you, Buck Rogers. I will disintegrate you. I will be king of the universe.” | The malevolent voices break into | their sleep. They hear the moans of | has brought about the scheme to make | the aforementioned tract the greatest | i the conqueror-criminal. No longer is |it possible for them to find peace in | the bosom of one's family of an eve- ning. And no longer is it possible to | find peace outside, for wherever they seek it—in church or cocktail room— they are met with the same blood- curdling “ha-ha-ha-ha” of the omni- | Killer Kane. Everybody Complaining. It is to this sad estate that the | radio—perhaps the most marvelous product of human intelligence in the ilwenuet.h century—has fallen in the | Winter of 1935. Everybody is com- | plaining. All parents one meets have | lurid tales to tell of incidents in their own homes. -Apparently it is & Nation-wide condition, since the of- fensive programs are broadcast on Nation-wide chains. But nobody seems able to do anything about it. In case anybody doesn’t know what this is all about it may be explained that—starting at about 4:30 and last- ing until 8:30 or 9 every evening- a continuous succession of episodes pf serial stories intended for children are broadcast. One follows another without any breathing spells, except for the interval devoted to extolling | the products of the sponsors. They are staged by excellent actors. The serials have been written by masters of the art of sustaining in- terest. They are exciting, lurid, and ighly emotional. They deal, for the most part, with criminal activities. ‘They have acquired a powerful, and pernicious, hold on the interests of the children. Little boys and girls sit with their ears glued against the radios, their eyes bulging with ex- |citement or filled with tears, their | faces flushed, their hearts thumping. Parents Suffer, Too. ‘They are oblivious to everything that goes on about them. Mother calls them to dinner. They do not hear. They are far, far away—hurtling in a space ship between Neptune and Pluto, fleeing from a Northwest mounted policeman over Arctic drifts, opening wide the throttles of their airplanes to escape the bandits who are swooping upon them from the clouds to steal the mine pay roll, rushing to the poor widow with her lost brother’s fortune before the crafty lawyer arrives with the sheriff to set her furniture on the street. Finally, after repeated calls go un- answered, they are led away, pro- testing, to the bathroom to wash their hands. They come to the table. The radio is turned on loud. The meat and potatoes are cold. Father and mother are discussing the events of the day. They are implored not to talk. It interferes with listening. They gulp their food. Back to the radio again. “Leave 1t On, Mother.” Perhaps some station has a program the elders wish to hear—some choice musical broadcast, a sports discussion, the news of the day. The dial is turned. There is a tearful protest. How can folks be such morons as to turn on such silly stuff when the bandits have just cornered Dick Tracy in the abandoned mine, or the leader of the cattle “rustlers” has a gun leveled at the head of brave Tom Mix, or Buck Rogers’ space ship has just |broken down and is just ready to crash on Jupiter with something gsterlously wrong with the de-gravity Its. So it continues as the evening passes. Bedtime comes. The chil- dren are told to undress. They beg, in tears, to listen to just one more program. If they are refused it is gross injustice because their play- mates next door are allowed to listen every night. Only after a word fight, and sometimes a physical struggle, are they gotten into their pajamas and tucked between the sheets. There they toss nervously before going to sleep and going through it all again in their dreams. Home a Nightmare. Home, in the early evening, has become a nightmare. Fathers, mothers, grandmothers, uncles and aunts are being driven to distraction. As for the children—they are becom- ing nervous wrecks, Every nerve is tense as they listen. S Somebody might suggest that the remedy is simply to turn off the radio and refuse permission to listen at all. It isn't quite so simple as all that. Like most other evils this one was not born in its full hideousness. In- [} That 4-t0-8 Session of Gangsters, Conjurers and Torturers Findlly Starts a Revolt by Dazed Parents. sidiously it has crept upon a suffer- ing world. It started, as this par- ticular sufferer recalls the growth of the nightmare of our times, about two years ago with a couple of serial stories which were harmless enough. Perhaps the first recounted the rather innocent adventure of two little boys, Skippy and Sooky. Shortly after- ward a high-school hero named Jack Armstrong—a holier-than-thou lad whom one would like to give a healthy sock in the eye just as a matter of principle—appeared on the scene in a sponsored by a popular program brand of breakfast food. Jack was the fleld for a touchdown just 10 sec- onds before the final whistle, lectur- ing some less elevated school fellow on the morals of good soprtsmanship, etc. What & Boy Is Jack. He was the “typical American forever making home runs with the | bases loaded, running the length of | Society and General PAGF B—1 CITY LAND POOR WITH BIG CENTER SITE, SAYS SULTAN Commissioner Tells Senate Committee of $6,600,000 Investment. HEARINGS UNDER WAY ON MODIFICATION BILL Measure to Define Procedure for Conserving Estates of Absentees and Absconders Heard. Having invested $6,600,000 in buy- ing the site for the original Municipal Center group of District buildings, the local government is now in the posi- tion of being “land poor,” Engineer Commissioner Dan I. Sultan told the boy” and he was ably seconded in | all his uplifting activities by Betty | Fairfield, “the typical American girl.” But just about the time even the | 8-year-olds were almost ready to give ! | present, all-knowing shadow or the | |sinister threats of the space-ranging | Jack and Betty some swift kicks where they would do the most good the whole tenor of the serial changed. Almost before the parents realized what had happened noble Jack and ing the plots of vile gangsters, circum- widows, the triumphant challenge of |venting the schemes of the wicked | beautiful Betty were engaged in foil- | Senate District Committee today at the beginning of hearings on a bill that would lead to modification of the original elaborate program. Col. Sultan emphasized that, having | applied most of its surplus revenues of a few years ago to buying this large site, which extends from Third to Sixth streets, Pennsylvania to In- | diana avenues, the District is without funds now to go ahead with the build- | ings on the scale contemplated by the original program. Authority to Borrow. The pending bill would authorize the Commissioners to borrow from | the Public Works Administration to erect one or more buildings for the banker, and being rescued on the |ous situations. But the change had | come so insidiously it almost escaped notice. Jack and Betty, of course, owed their lofty characters and sturdy young bodies to the fact that they always ate a certain veriety of break- fast food. It happens to be a cold cereal. In some families, it appears, there lingers the quaint old supersti- tion that @ warm cereal is best on cold Winter mornings. One of the ideals of the hero and heroine, it ap- | pears, has been to combat this linger- | ing superstition of a crude and be- | nighted age. Taught to Argue. split second from all sorts of danger- | | so-called small courts—Police, Ju- |venile and Municipal—to be located | on Government-owned land in Judi- | clary Square, which is north of the original Municipal Center site and adjacent to District Supreme Court | While this bill does not deal with the use to be made of the old site, it paves the way for modifying the |original Center program, and there | has been discussion of the advisibility | of allowing the District to dispose of part of the site on the north side of Pennsylvania avenue. Sentiment Is Desired. Chairman King of the Senate com- mittee, pointed out he was opposed from the start to the elaborate nature of the original Municipal Center pro- | gram. He said however, he would lke to be sure local citizens are in favor of the proposed changes. Col. Sultan said the Commissioners have con- sulted with various civic groups. in- cluding the Board of Trade, and have had no protests against the change The committee was unable to go into details today, and will meet at 3 o'clock tomorrow afternoon to con- tinue the hearing. The only other action taken todey was to report out a bill, already passed by the House, to define the court procedure for conserving the estates of absentees and absconders. The committee turned over to Sen- “If your father and mother tell you that you must eat warm breakfast food to keep your bodies warm just tell | them that they don’t shovel hot coals | on the fire to keep the house warm,” was one choice bit of advice. In other words, the avid listeners are encour- ‘aged to argue with their parents about what they should eat. Probably the point itself its well taken, but most parents prefer the dietary advice of | their family physicians to that of the ! saintly Jack Armstrong. | More and more lurid, by degrees, grew the adventures of Jack and | Betty. Still they were no worse than the average juvenile fiction and the average parent could not see that they were doing any particular harm. | They remembered with a bit of nostalgia the Horatio Alger heroes of their own childhoods. The only difference was that the appeal of ex- cellent acting took the place of that of the printed page. Complete identi- fication was easier. But other serials were coming on the air. Such, for example, was that describing the adventures of Buck Rogers and his girl friend Wilma Deering in the twenty-fifth century. In their day interplanetary flights had become everyday affairs. There were vivid descriptions of an imaginary world of five centuries hence. In meny ways this was educational and stimulating. The listeners learned a good deal'of physics and astronomy. Al over the United States little girls and boys were drawing diagrams of the solar system. Unfortunately, to keep up the interest, there had to be a villain. Such a fellow was intro- | duced in the person of a sinister | “Killer Kane,” who used disintegrator rays on his pursuers as freely as Dill- inger used machine guns. Every epi- sode closed with Buck and Wilma in some horribly desperate situation in midspace, in the wilds of some other planet, etc. The children were left to dream ebout the sad fate of their ‘heroes. This was merely the start. If it had gone no further there could be little valid complaint. After all, most of us sneaked a dime novel to bed now and then. The trouble was that all this served to establish the radio serial habit It became part of the routine of life, so that a forced change could be made to appear an injustice. When parents began to be a little worried over the exciting predicaments ting off these programs would appear in the light of unmerited punishment. Then, starting about last Fall, came the flood—heroes that made Jack Armstrong look like a babe in arms, villains that made Killer Kane look like & Sabbath school teacher. Before the parents realized it, the children had been caught in the coils. They protested and cried when any objec- tion was raised. They didn't come home to supper because they were listening at & chum’s home to some- thing barred in their own home. ‘The horrible laugh of The Shadow resounded across the dinner table. Right in the middle of the soup the pistol of the beautiful actress- spy cut short the life of brave young Capt. Jones of the Intelligence Corps. Meat and potatoes were interrupted by the despairing screams of the widow as the kidnapers tore her child from her arms. Far, Far Into the Night. And so on until 8 or 8:30 o'clock. One after another they came. Objec- tions to listening to them were met with tears and even hysterics. Parents were forced to buy tooth- pastes and breakfast foods they hated 8o the box-top could be mailed to the of Jack Armstrong or Buck Rogers, | they were in a position where shut- | ator Austin of Vermont the King bill to define the qualifications of law- yers in the District, with authority to report it after perfecing certain amendments in conference with Cor- poration Counsel E. Barrett Pret- tyman. DR. E. J. SCHWARTZ | QUITS HEALTH POST Resignation in Effect April 1. Plans Prolonged Vacation in California. Dr. Edward J. Schwartz, assistant health officer of the District, has re- signed, effective April 1, and plans to leave then for a prolonged vaca- tion in California. Dr. Schwartz was acting health officer for several weeks, between the retirement of Dr. Willlam C. Fowler and the appointment of Dr. George C. Ruhland. When Dr. Fowler re- tired, he offered his resignation then, but was asked to withdraw it and serve as head of the department un- til Fowler's successor was chosen. Upon Dr. Ruhland’s appointment. he was reappointed as assistant health officer, but decided to remain only long enough to assist the new chief to familiarize himself with the post. | _ Dr. Schwartz came to the Health Department eight years ago from Al- liance, Ohio, where he served on the | Ohio State Board of Health. Prior to that time he had held a similar position in Florida. District Commissioners George E. Allen and Dan I. Sultan accepted the | resignation late yesterday. CHINESE IS BEATEN OVER HEAD BY WOMAN Laundryman in Hospital in Un- determined Condition—Assail- ant Held Pending Outcome. Hang Wah, Chinese laundryman, |was in an undetermined condition at Freedmen'’s Hospital today after a dispute with a colored woman in his shop at 2216 Fourteenth street last night. The police never learned what the row was about, but when they arrived they found that some one had broken 8 plate and a glass jar over Wah's head. He was taken to the hospital for treatment of scalp wounds and an injury to the skull. Meanwhile, the colored woman, Jesse Mae Bivins, 20, of 343 K street southwest, surrendered to police. She was being held pending the outcome of Wah's condition. ——————————————— which had been featured in the broad- casts. Worst of all—there was more and more instructions to children how to argue with their parents. “If your mother tries to make you take some nasty, bad-tasting laxative just tell her you will take nothing until she goes to the corner drug store and buys you some nice, sweet, deli- cious ," said one announcer the other night. This is & strange age—and here may be the strangest phenomenon of company for all sorts of paraphernalia | all. N