Evening Star Newspaper, March 24, 1935, Page 17

riaas ‘ General News - RESTORATION SEEN The Sunday Star SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH WASHINGTON, D. C, 24, COLORED SCHOOLS 1935. PAGE B—1 LIQUOR” CONTROL Soaring Food Prices Wage FORD. C.BILLITEMS | Assault on Cost Family Budget of 42 Items Increase 14 Per Cent Sl_ASHED BY HUUSE From December, 1933, to November; 1934, Statistics Show. Senate Subcommittee May Make Provisions for Ad- ditional Funds. CITIZENS’ GROUP NAMED TO PRESENT ARGUMENTS Plight of City, Faced by Increas- ing' Needs, Is Viewed With Sincere Alarm. BY J. A. O'LEARY. With hearings drawing to a close early this week on the 1936 District appropriation bill. indications last night were that the Senate subcom- mittee.in charge of the measure prob- ably will restore most of the Budget Bureau items omitted by the House. By trimming the estimates of va- | rious departments, the House took $1,066,000 from the budget recom- mendations, leaving the total of the measure at $39,308.404. a strong possibility the Senate will make provision for a few additional | needs, including some increase in the | size of the police force and increased | | allowances for health needs. Hearings will be resumed Tuesday | morning and probably will be com- pleted Wednesday. after which the subcommittee, presided over by Sena- tor Thomas, Democrat, of Oklahoma, will begin the process of deciding on proposed changes. Larger Lump Sum Asked. _Before the hearings close a delega- tion from the Citizens' Joint Com- mittee on Fiscal Relations between the United States and the District of Columbia will make an urgent plea for a more equitable Federal payment, toward the expenses of the National Capital. The House left the Federal share of the pending bill at $5700,000, the #ame as for the current year, despite the fact that even with the cuts made by the House, the total exceeds appro- | priations for the current year by more than $900,000. This calculation takes into account the cost of the 5 per cent pay restoration in the District service from April to June of the current fiscal year. Theodore W. Noyes, chairman of the Citizens’ Joint Committee on Fis- cal Relations between the United States and the District of Columbia, has appointed a special committee to represent the Joint Committee at the Senate hearings. Edward F., Col- laday, general chairman of the Joint Committee, is chairman of the Special Committee and will make the presentation of the citizen's case. Others on Committee. James G. Yaden, president of the Federation of Citizens' Associations, is vice chairman, and Robert J. Cot- trell is secretary. Other members of the Special Committee are as follows: L. A. Carruthers, George E. Sullivan and Jesse C. Suter, representing Fed- | eration of Citizens' Associations; John Locher, Frank J. Coleman and John B. Colpoys, representing Central Labor Union: Mrs. Harvey W. Wiley and Mrs. Horace J. Phelps, representing the District of Columbia Federation of Women's Clubs; Mrs. Richard W. Hogue and Mrs. 8. H. Horne, repre- senting the Voteless District of Co- lumbia League of Women Voters, and Claude W. Owen, Edgar Morris, Thomas P. Littlepage and B. M. Mc- Kelway, representing the Washington Board of Trade. The committee will present a peti- tion signed by practically all of the representative organizations of the community. ‘The highlight of yesterday's hear- ing was a statement filed by Mrs. Ernest R. Grant, managing director of the District Tuberculosis Association, in which she took the House appropri- ations group to task for cutting $43,900 from the budget estimate for personnel and maintenance of the Children’s Tuberculosis Sanatorium. “Why any member of the District Appropriations Committee of the House should feel justified in cutting these appropriations, when no single ‘member of that committee knows any- thing about tuberculosis, is beyond my comprehension,” Mrs, Grant's state- ment declared, New Deal Held Needed. “If the Distriet of Columbia is to have a new deal in health, it seems to me that the first step in that di- Tection is a new deal in the personnel (Continued on Page 2, Column 1.) Relief Measure Slowest of All New Deal Bills Largest Single Appropri- ation in U, S. History Passed After 8 Weeks. By the Associated Press. The $4,880,000,000 relief bill, largest single appropriation ever to pass a hational legislature, took more of Congress’ time than any other messure yet advanced by the e- velt administration. It required more than eight weeks since its introduction in the House January 21. ~Technically known as House joint resolution 117, the bill was: ’lxmroduced in the House January . Reported in House January 23. : Passed the House, 329 to 78, Jan- uary 24. ‘Received in Senate January 25. Reported by Senate Committee Pebruary 14. Senate began consideration Feb- pusry 15. Recommitted February 22, after the prevailing-wage amendment was adopted. i~ Reported back to Senate March § hout the prevailing wage. “Made unfinished business March 8. ““Adopted compromise wage amend- ment March 15. ’«;Imlw passed the big bill March [} There is also | | pound cake and canned pork and Skyward-soaring food prices still are waging a steady assault on the budgets of Washington housewives. . Drought, the agricultural program and the assumption that Washington is a wealthy city that can afford to pay high provide the impetus for rock- eting costs, it was said at the Bureau of Labor Statistics which collects fig- ures on food costs. Meat in the Washington retail mar- ket area brings twice what it was sold for a month ago. District buyers pay more for sliced bacon and hens than any one of six other comparable cities. Except for Jacksonville and Atlanta, the percentage increase in food prices | for the last year is greatest here of the 22 cities east of the Appalachians for | which the bureau issues figures. 14 Per Cent Increase Here. The averaged cost of 42 food items | increased 14 per cent in the District between December, 1933, and No- vember, 1934, while the general rise in the Atlantic seaboard cities came to but 13.2 per cent. The increase over two years ago is 34 per cent. A comparison of food costs here and in New York, Phila- delphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland and St. Louis shows Washington pays top prices among these six for tea, canned milk, sliced bacon, hens, beans. Strangely enough, however, Boston, where the bean is king, pays more for them than any other place in the country. Extremely wide spread is noticeable between the cost of tea in Washing- ton, 84.1 cents a pound, and in other places. Next below the District is Chicago, where citizens pay 78.4 cents for it. Staid Philadelphia gets it for 56.4 cents. Sliced Bacon Higher. Sliced bacon ranges to 38.1 cents here from 30.4 cents in St. Louis, at the edge of the hog country. The evaporated milk price is fairly level. Hens, 30.7 here, are only 22.2 in St. | Louis. The pound cake situation | shows wide variation. Washington pays 26.4; Cleveland gets it for 18.5. As for the staples, Washington is fourth on the list for white bread, | fifth for potatoes and anywhere from | first to sixth for a variety of meats. | | The canned pea is the only item | | that comes lowest in Washington. The green baby rollers sell for 15.8 | cents per No. 2 can. Macaroni, pink salmon. red salmon, | | canned tomatoes, canned pineapple. | green beans, beef liver, sliced ham | and salt pork are undersold by only | one city in the six outside Wash- ington. Comparatively cheap, too, are ap- | ples, potatoes, canned peaches, rye bread, canned pears and corn meal. But the Nation's Capital has to dig deep when it wants to buy coffee, milk, | carrots, cabbege, lettuce, oranges, loin roast or veal cutlets. FIGHT FOR SON Sues Father of Divorced Husband Who Was Killed by Auto February 27. A legal battle for custody of her 8-year-old son was launched in Dis- trict Supreme Court yesterday by | Mrs. Helen V. Villapiano of Asbury Park, N. J., divorced wife of Albert J. Sardo, who was killed February 27 while driving to the Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Mrs, Villapiane, who was repre- sented by Attorney Julian I. Rich- ards, says the child, Albert J. Sardo, jr., is being held illegally at 412 H street northeast, by his grandfather, William H. Sardo, Chevy Chase, Md,, and his two uncles, William H. Sardo, jr., and Joseph E. Sardo, both of ‘Washington. Married in 1925. Her petition asserts she married Sardo here in August, 1925, and that they were divorced in Reno on No- vember 13, 1933. At that time, she says, she agreed the father could have custody of the child, reserving the right to visit him. She contends that since the death of the father she is entitled to have the child as against the other rela- tives. Justice F. Dickinson Letts set April 3 as a date for hearing the case. Child Hurt in Accident. Sardo has been associated with his father and brothers in the undertak- ing business bearing their name. At the time of his death he was driving with two police officers to join Supt. of Police Ernest W. Brown in New Orleans, where the latter had gone on a honeymoon. The child received a broken arm in the accident, | ARCHITECT STUDIES BUILDING PLANS! Maj. Clarke to Prepare Landscap- ing for New Interior Structure. Maj. Gilmore D. Clarke, landscape architect member of the Fine Arts Commission, yesterday took under consideration landscaping plans sub- mitted by the National Park Service for the new $10,000,000 Interior De- partment Building, to be erected at Eighteenth and C streets. The commission met briefly yester- day and, after examining the plans in a general way turned them over for detailed study to Maj. Clarke. Sec- retary Ickes is anxious to have a setting for the building that will be in keeping with its magnitude. C. Marshall Finnan, superintendent of the National Capital Parks, laid before the commission plans pre- pared by the branch of plans and de- sign of the National Park Service for modernizing the landscaping of Lafayette Park. In Southeast Wash- ington, Marion Park, at Fifth and E streets and Folger Park, at Second, Third, D and F streets, are to be reconditioned as well, and plans for these also were considered by the com- mission, Further conferences were held with the commission by David Lynn, archi- tect of the Capitol, on improvement of the Capitol grounds. PASSES RUBBER BILL Colored Man Exchanges Note for Suit of Clothes. At least one man in Washington knows how to stretch a $20 bill, in- flation or no inflation! He is the colored man who handed Bernard Weaver, 1134 Nineteenth street, the bill in exchange for a suit of clothes. He made off with the suit before Weaver opened an envelope containing the bill. The bill, Weaver told police, was rubber, pure rubber, Jelleff Takes Oath Tuesday. Frank R. Jellefl will assume his duties as a member of the District Parole Board Tuesday morning, in- stead of tomorrow as previously an- nounced. He will take the oath of office at the Tuesday meeting of the Board of Commissioners.. FOUR LOCAL BILLS DUE UP THURSDAY Auto Responsibility Measure Among Those to Come Before House. BY WILL P. KENNEDY. The District automobile responsi- bility bill and three other measures on the Commissioners’ legislative pro- gram are expected to come before the House on District day next Thursday. All four measures have been passed | by the Senate at a meeting Wednes- day of the full House District Com- mittee. A bill by Representative Quinn providing for straight insur- |ance for all automobilé operators, but reducing the liability limits to $2.500 for bodily injury and $500 for property damage, will be set for hearing. Others on Calendar. Other bills on the calendar to be called up Thursday are: Covering the removal of dangerous buildings. Authorizing proceedings in excess condemnation cases. | Providing for condemnation of in- | sanitary buildings. | _ With some 70 District bills intro- ‘duced in the House, only 9 have | { been passed. Representatives from | the Federation of Citizens’ Associa- tions protested at the District Com- mittee meeting last Wednesday that | District measures are allowed to lag in the House, with many of them held up indefinitely in subcommittees. The District Committee will endeavor this week to correct that situation. Chair- man Norton has requested all chair- men of subcommittees to endeavor to make reports on as many measures as possible at the next meeting of the full committee on Wednesday. Subcommittee Called. Representative Virginia E. Jenckes of Indiana has called a meeting of her subcommittee for tomorrow morn- ing. The first measure to be taken Iup will be the Quinn bill for regula- tion of beauty shops and manicure parlors in the District. The next bill to be discussed will be one sponsored by the health office requiring the use of a special preparation to prevent blindness at birth. The Jenckes sub- committee also will set a date for spe- | cial hearings on the bill to control the ;‘:‘n;oke nuisance” in the National Cap- SENATE TO CONSIDER PAYLESS WORKERS Treasury-Post Office Bill Includes Pay for Group Left Out Last Year. ‘When the Senate reconvenes Tues- day it will take up the Treasury-Post Office appropriation bill, containing the amendment to pay the 1,200 ‘Treasury employes who have been working without compensation since December 1, due to a restriction placed in a deficlency appropriation act last year., Senator McKellar (Democrat) of Tennessee had questioned the civil service status of a group of former prohibition agents whc were re-em- ployed in the Internal Revenue Bureau after repeal. He had a rider enacted to prevent payment of salaries after December 1 unless they passed a new civil service test. After Congress ad- journed last year, it was held the amendment required the discontinu- ance of the pay of a large number of other employes. The pending measure wouid pay all of the employes affected for the period from December to May 15, but after that date those in the original group, who have not passed a new examina- tion since last June, would be dropped. . KIWANIS SPEAKER NAMED Daughter of Admiral Peary Will Discuss Far North. Mrs, Marie Stafford, daughter of Admiral Robert E. Peary, discoverer of the North Pole, will be the guest speaker at a meeting of the Kiwanis Club Thursday at the Mayflower Ho- tel at 12:30 p.m. “The Far North” will be the topic of Mrs. Stafford’s agddress before the day.” w HELD LAGKING IN ROOM T0 EXPAND Even With Grimke Addition Congestion Would Exist. FIVE LEFT WITHOUT SPACE AFTER THIS YEAR Officials Unable to Use $55,000 Appropriated for Purchase. of Land. If all pending plan‘s for the expan- sion of the Archibald B. Grimke Elemenl_ary School, Vermont avenue between T and U streets, are carried out five schools in the heart of Wash- ington's most congested colored resi- dential section still will be left with- out any facilities whatsoever for expansion after this year. At least three separate projects are involved in pending plans to improve physical equipment at the Grimke School. If all of them should become realities before next September, the Grimke School and four other schools in the immediate vicinity would barely have rooms enough to care for present enrollment. The problem of housing new elementary and high school stu- dents would remain acute next Fall. The Board of Education has asked for Public Works Administration funds to build an eight-room addition and an assembly hall-gymnasium at the Grimke School. The sum sought is $190,000. Land is available for the construction, and Garnet C. Wilkin- son, first assistant superintendent of schools, declares the need there is| the most pressing in the city. 368 Pupils Crowded Out. The Grimke School, now housing eight classes, seven of which are larger than the limit considered “safe” by leading educators, also has nine additional classes totaling 368 pupils crowded out of the institution. These elementary classes occupy nine rooms in Cardozo High School, in the block bounded by Eighth, Ninth and R streets and Rhode Island avenue. Affected directly by this overcrowd- ing of Grimke and Cardozo, especially the latter, are also the Willlam Lloyd Garrison School, Twelfth street be- tween R and S streets; the William Henry Harrison School, Thirteenth street between V and W streets. and the Grover Cleveland School, Eighth and T streets. - Most of the score or more of con- struction projects for which P. W. A. money has been asked will afford some relief for nearby overcrowded schools. Such is not the case st Grimke. All in Colored Beit. All five schools involved are in the colored belt, surrounded by some 40.000 to 45,000 colored citizens. To- gether the four grammar schools have an enrollment of 2,781. Not count- ing the overflow classes at Cardozo nor the kindergarten classes, there are 51 classes. Of these, 48 are above the limit of 35 fixed as the maximum number of pupils to be supervised by a single teacher. Most of them have more than 40 and some have more than 50 pupils. ‘The enroliment in the four schools has jumped from 2,257 in 1932 to its present high mark of 2,781. Cardozo, the old Business High School for white pupils, is likewise crowded ‘and with nine classrooms filled with elementary pupils there is no space left to take care of the chil- dren who will be ready for entrance thps Fall unless the unprecedented thing occurs and more seniors gradu- ate than freshmen enter. The Grimke School was formerly the old Phelps Vocational School, be- ing taken over as an elementary school last Fall. Anticipating the change, Congress appropriated $65,000 for a four-room annex on July 1, 1934. The contract has not yet been let. Two Projects Linked. In addition, purchase of land for an eight-room wing was authorized and in the current appropriation bill for the District $55,000 was provided for the purpose, but with such conditions tied to it that school authorities have been unable to touch it. Congress made the Grimke School’s $55,000 con- tingent upon the expenditure of $105,000 for the purchase of a site for the Jefferson Junior High School in southwest Washington. Why the two unrelated projects were linked together is known only to the author of the bill. The Jefferson Junior High site purchase has been pending for the last seven years and $90,000 is still needed to carry out the purchase. That means, probably, that Grinke School will have to wait for another Jefferson appro- priation before it can touch the money already authorized for its expansion. Efforts are being made now, it is understood, to have the condition re- moved because of the imperative de- mand for more space for colored pupils. Cardozo High School, meanwhile, is_accommodating 959 business high school pupils. These children could and would use the nine rooms oc- cupied by grammar grade pupils if they could be transferred elsewhere, Lack Recreation Facilities. If all the plans were carried out, however, the schools in the congested colored area would have only rooms enough to house its present enroll- ment. With the enrollment increasing steadily every year, the problem of overcrowding would be solved only for a single term at best. No future increase could be taken care of. The same five schools also are wholly without adequate playground and recreational facilities. Being old-~ type buildings, erected flush with the sidewalks, the pupils have the choice of playing on the streets and side- ‘walks or not playing at all. No plans for expansion along this line have been made. “The Grimke and the neighboring schools,” Wilkinson pointed out, “were regarded as the hardest pressed in the entire city when the so-called ‘five- year plan’ was adopted in February, group on “Wives and Sweethearts’ lo! the fastest growing sections of the A | Club of Washington; Donald Hamil- ITHOUT the “sacred god,” but still perfectly recog- | nizable, a model of the his- | toric State House of the | old Bay State, golden dome gleaming, rolled in on wheels last | night to sell the city New England Equipped with a radio and phono- | graph broadcast coaxing speeches by several New ‘England politicians, the massive advertisement found a park- ing space outside the Willard Hotel, where its sponsors, Burton L. Thomas, president, is staying. ‘The inside is decorated with en- | ticing pictures of Vermont hills, New Hampshire lakes, Massachusetts bat- tlefields, Maine coast Island polo players. Brochures on several tables may be carried off and inspected at leisure. The student may find two brief biographies, one of John Hancock, famous American penman, and another of Paul Revere, the Colonial alarm clock. and Rhode | CHANGES AT STAKE IN HOUSE: HEARING First Test of Sentiment on Present Rulings Due This Week. FIGHT TO PREVENT SALOON RETURN BEGINS |Bills Considered Would Permit | Before it goes back to Boston in | June, the bus will have visited all the | States circumscribed by Michigan, Illi- nois and Kentucky. Having already | heard six New England Governors | speechify, when Gov. Curley unveiled | it in Boston, it will present Senator ‘Walsh, also of the Bay State, with | | an opportunity to say a few words | when it visits the Capitol Monday at | 11 am. after calling at the White | House in the hope of a presidential inspection. BLEE T0 ARRANGE FLYING SESSIONS Appointed to Head Commit- tee for Intercollegiate Con- ference April 2-3. Appointment of Col. Harry . Blee, | former diractor of development cf the Commerce Department’s aeronautics branch as general chairman of a com- mittee on arrangements for the first | National Intercollegiate Flying Con- | ference to be aeld here April 2 and 3, was announced last night. | The meeting is intended to create | & national intercollegiate flying or- ganization to co-ordinate aviation ac- tivities in colleges in all parts of the ! country and to promote intercollegiate | air meets. More than 50 large colleges already have indicated intentions to send representatives. Other inembers of the committee are Lieut. T. U. Sisson, Navy Bureau of Aeronautics; Joseph T. Shumate, | Bureau of Air Commerce; Capt. Hez | McClellan, Army Air Corps; Chester H. Warrington, president of the Aero ton, Soaring Society of America; L.| G. Walter, Washington Glider Club; | Capt. E. E. Hildreth, Army Air Corps: Roy Miller, Greater National Capital Committee; Harrison Somerville, presi- dent of the Washington Air Derby As- sociation; William R. Enyart, National Aeronautic Association; Paul Brockett, National Academy of Sciences: Dr. George W. Lewis, National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics; Paul Gar- ber, Smithsonian Institution; Capt. James E. Webb, Marine Corps Avia- tion Reserve; D. M. Little, Weather Bureau, and Dr. A. F. Zahm, aero- nautical division, Library of Congress. Mr. Hamilton has been appointed committee secretary. The committee on organization, which will be in charge of drafting the plan for the national organization, is headed by William D. Strohmeier. EXTENDED PRESERVES SOUGHT FOR INDIANS Collier to Aid Seminoles Get Ad- ditional Hunting and Fish- ing Areas. By the Associated Press. John Collier, Indian commissioner, returned from Florida with Secretary Ickes yesterday determined to seek extension of hunting and fishing pre- serves for the Seminole Indians. Ickes and Collier heard some of the requests from the Seminoles with sym- pathy, but balked when they were asked to provide each with a pension of $15.a month. The commissioner said, however, the Interior Department would at- tempt to fulfill the Seminoles’ request for additional hunting and fishing preserves, with protection against poachers. 0dd Fellows Plan Party. HYATTSVILLE, Md, March 23 (Special).—A bingo and card party for the benefit of the Odd Fellows will be held in their hall, here, Friday night. Organizer W. D. STROHMEIER, Chairman of the committee on or- ganization for the coming first National Intercollegiate Flying Conference. MERRIAM IS LISTED TOWN HALL SPEAKER University of Chicago Dean to Talk Tonight on National Planning. Charles E. Merriam., head of the political science department of the University of Chicago and & member of the National Researches Board. will be the featured speaker at the Town Hall at the Shoreham Hotel tonight at 8 o'clock. His topic will be “The Funda- mentals of National Planning.” The following persons compose the panel that will take part in the dis- | two-part rate is more equitable than | wage cussion: Eugene Meyer, former governor of the Federal Reserve Board and pub- lisher of the Washington Post. Justin Miller, Assistant Attorney General. William Atherton Dupuy. magazine writer on international affairs. Walter E. Myer, editor of the American Observer and former head of the economics department Kansas State Teachers’ College. Hilmar R. Baukhage of the United States News Association. JEWISH TUTOR NAMED F. Ashkenazy Third Member of Har Zion Talmut Torah. The appointment of F. Ashkenazy as the third member of the faculty of Har Zion Talmut Torah, Eighth and Shepherd streets, was announced yesterday. The appointment is the culmination of a drive in which 25 new pupils were enrolled in the school, bringing the total to 90. A series of weekly talks will be inaugurated by the school, in which the more important phases of Jewish life will be discussed. The talks, to be held Sunday morning during the assembly period, will be given by prom- inent Jews. Stravinsky Is More Interested InU. S. Manners Than in Music Igor Stravinsky, pianist- violinist- composer, who, with Samuel Dushkin, will appear in concert at the National Theater tonight, is more interested in how Americans set the table and serve at dinner than he is in plans for winning world acclaim with his musi- cal compositions. Born 52 years ago, the son of a basso in the old Petrograd Theater, Stravinsky has adopted France as his foster country and his wife and four children now are in Paris. Just prior to the outbreak of the World War, the musician left his native Russia and went to France. Later, however, he moved to Switzer- land, where he remained until 1921, when he moved to Pn'i‘; When the n he was noted as a com- mrb:?uue'. music. At that time B compositions were considered ex- tremely revolutionary. Stravinsky, who speaks no English, at the Mayflower Hotel in America. Since coming to America four months ago he has appeared in concerts in about 20 major cities. Speaking in French the noted mu- sician said he liked America particu- larly because “you are so different” over here. “Even when I watch the setting of the table and the service at dinner,” he said, “I am much amused, not be- cause you do it wrong, but because it is.all so different.” Stravinsky said he had noticed a great revival of interest in classical music in the United States since his last visit 10 years ago. At that time, he said, there seemed to be a lacka- daisical attitude toward classical sym- phonic music. However, on the pres- ent tour, he said he had noticed that the younger people are showing a keen interest in all branches of music. ‘When a young man, Stravinsky, at the insistence of his father, took up the study of law. He graduated de- spite the fact that at no time did he give up.‘r.he composition and interpre- “DEMAND” BAS RATE T0 BE AIRED {Hearing on Maximum Use Charge to Begin on April 15. A wordy battle over the “demand” | or maximum use charge made by the | gas companies to house heating and | | commercial customers is expected to | develop at the public hearing be-i ! ginning April 15 before the Public | Utilities Commission on gas rates. | A number of citizens' associations | | are insisting on elimination of this | charge, arguing it is unwarranted. | On the other hand, some engineers | claim misunderstanding is the basis | of the complaints against the system. Some experts following the mat- ter declare the rates of the small con- | sumer might have to be increased if | the demand charges were eliminated. Decline to Pass Judgment. | Commission officials decline to pass | | judgment on the point prior to the | hearing, but one stated yesterday the | demand charge is not to be regarded as an extra charge made by the gas companies over and above rates, but | rather as a part of the approved charges levied for certain types of | service. The housekeeper using gas only for | cooking is not involved in the matter. | Present rates for house heating are | divided into two parts, one being the "'dsmnnd“ charge and the other a rate for gas consumption. The de- mand charge is at the rate of $2 per 100 cubic feet of demand and 60 | cents per 1.000 cubic feet for con- | sumption. Both are subject to the| present temporary 8.5 per cent dis- count. Claim Rate More Equiable. Gas engineers claim this so-called | a flat-rate system, under whih the | small user might be required to carry | a greater burden of the whole cost of the gas service. Some cities have | | & four or five part rate system | Experts engaged some years ago by the National Association of Railroad | and Utility Commissioners reported | | that under a straight meter rate about | one-third of the customers were | another third at the cost of service| without assuming a share of the rate | return going to the utility owners and the remaining third of necessity bore the costs properly charged to the other two. Commission staff workers antici- pate there will be a big reduction in gas rates as a result of the commission finding that the value of the two gas concerns for rate making purposes is $16.993.000. or some $13.000.000 less than the claim originally made by the companies. g SECOND MARRIAGE REUNITES D. C. PAIR L. W. Todd, Jr., and Divorced Wife Rewed Here After Time Revives Romance. Romance is in the air again'for Lemuel Wilson Todd, jr. of 3900 Huntington street, Chevy Chase, and his former wife, Edith Norman Todd, who yesterday became his bride for the second time. They were married by the Rev. J. H. Dunham. Todd, an airplane mechanic, and his wife were divorced in Lafayette, Ind., some time ago, but he deter- mined not to let that end the affair. So he went out to the Hoosier State, where Mrs, Todd’s parents live, and where she spent her girlhood—and the romance began all over again. Both parties to the marriage license issued yesterday at District Supreme Court gave their ages as 27. RANGER WILL SPEAK Park Service Officer to Lecture Here on Thursday. An llustrated lecture on Rocky Mzuntain National Park will be given Thursday at 8 p.m. in the auditorium of the Interlor Department Building by John 8. McLaughlin, a ranger of the National Park Service. McLaughlin has spent five years in the region he is to describe. He will stress the wild-life features of this park, which lies across the Continental Divide. The lecture is free to the - publie, PRSI W [} Mixing of Drinks in Sight of Customer. Important principles in the method ol control of the sale of liquor in the National Capital will be at stake Wed- nesday when the House District Com- mittee considers amendments to the District liquor act to permit open mix- ing of drinks This will be the first serious test of sentiment on moves to make im- portant changes in the act, which be- came law January 24 of last vear. Determined debate by opposing fac- tions of the committee is expected. ‘The drive of some groups to abo! present restrictions will be countered by those who uphold the contention of the President and the pledge of the Democratic platform that there shall be no return of the old-time saloon. While the committee will have be- fore it two bills interpreted as weak- ening the present system. there will be up for approval amendments recom- mended by the District Commissioners designed to strengthen the present rules. One of these would forbid drinking of liquor after legal closing hours for sale of beverages at licensed places, another would step up penal- ties for intoxication for second and third offenses and another would allow greater discretion in suspension of li- censes. Removing “Hidden Bars.” Moves to weaken the present system are before Congress in the form of bills by Representatives Dirksen of Illinois and Beiter of New York, both of which would permit mixing of drinks in the sight of customers, or removal of the “hidden bars.” As now drawn the Dirksen bill also would eliminate from the present act specific authority conferred on the Commissioners to “forbid the issuance of any class or classes of licenses for businesses established subsequent to the date of this act near or around schools, college, universities, churches or public institutions.” Dirksen, however, has disclaimed to some District officials any intention to limit the control of the Commissioners over licenses in such instances. This deletion of wording in the present law has been described as a “mistake.” ‘To do away with the present system of non-public mixing of drinks, the Dirksen bill would provide that *all aleoholic beverages offered for sale or sold by the holder of such licenses (for sale of drinks for consumption on the premises of the establishment) shall be displayed and dispensed in full sight of the purchaser.” City Heads Oppose. The Beiter bill would ban use of any curtained box. stall, partition or any obstruction which prevents a full view of the entire room, by any per- son present in the place where drinks are drawn or mixed. It provides that bars left over from old saloon days may be converted into “service bars” by the erection of a plate glass screen at its outer edge at least 12 inches high. Also, it would permit sale of drinks on Sundays after 1 pm., whereas sales on Sundays now are prohibited by law. The Commissioners have disap- proved the proposed “‘open bars” and Commissioner Allen is prepared to a determined fight against change. He believes this drive is the first step toward return of the old- time saloon. This recalls that the Democratic platform carried a pledge against re- turn of the saloon and President Roosevelt, in a proclamation of the Tepeal of prohibition. said: *“I ask especially that no State by law or otherwise authorize the return of the of |served at a loss to the company, |saloon, either in its old form or in some modern guise.” Before the present liquor reegula- tions were adopted, the Commissioners were called to a conference at the White House and it was stated the President was insistent there be no return of anything resembling the old saloon. The District law and regulations (Continued on Page 2, Column 2.) Florida Ex-Mayor To Be Honored as First Air Passenger Will Come Here to Re- ceive Tribute for Pio- neeringin 1914. Noel Mitchell, former mayor of St Petersburg, Fla., who was found after many weeks of investigation to be the first cash passenger, now living, on a regular scheduled airline, will be brought to Washington to " receive honors for his pioneering. Mitchell bought passage on the St. Petersburg-Tampa airline January 1, 1914. After a long search through the history of all early airline operations over the whole country, Pennsylvania Airlines laid before Eugene L. Vidal, United States director of air com- merce, the results of its studies. Vidal selected the Florida enterprise as the first worthy of the name of “airline” and a search was begun to find the {;;fl passenger to buy a ticket on that e. A. C. Pheil, since deceased, also a former mayor of St. Petersburg, was the first cash passenger. In a public auction of the first ticket, Mayor Pheil topped Mayor Mitchell's bid of $375 with a bid of $400. Only one passenger was carried on each flight. Mr. Mitchell paid $175 for the second ticket and made the second triy. Tony Jannus, pilot on the first runs, was killed in Russia dwing the World War, J. D. Smith, mechanic on the first airline, now is living in ‘Washington. . s