Evening Star Newspaper, April 14, 1935, Page 2

HOOVERSINTENT PUZETOG.0P Leaders Try to Smoke Him Out, but Silence Is to His Advantage. BY G. GOULD LINCOLN. The “titulac leader” of a political | party—especially if he happens to have been occupant of the White House—is always regarded as a “pres- idential possibility,” a candidate for his party’s favor. That is one rea- son why a number of Republicans in and out of Congress have set about the task of eliminating. if they can. the possibility of the nomination for President next year of former Presi- dent Herbert Hoover. The favorite political pastime for some months to come will be to ask the former President whether he will be a candidate for the Republican nomination in 1936. Every time Mr. Hoover travels or opens his mouth his everv movement and his every word will be carefully scanned and | interpreted. Many of the Republican leaders and near leaders, in Washington and out, today they do not believe that Mr. Hoover will be a candidate. Most of them insist that he could not re- ceive the nomintaion—although some say so with reservations, pointing to | the fact that Mr. Hoover still has a strong hold on parts of the Repub- lican organization. Hoover Likely to Keep Silence. " No one seems to know whether Mr. Hoover will gratify the wishes of those gentlemen who desire to smoke him out on his own political plans. It seems rather likely. however, that Mr. Hoover will continue to say nothing. If he should announce that he would net become a candidate nor accept & nomination for President under any conditions, his influence in the party, both in regard to the selection of a candidate and the writing of a plat- | form, would be dmminished. Four years ago the Democrats were trying to smoke out Alfred E. Smith. their presidential nominee in 1928, in an effort to learn whether he would | The | cast his hat in the ring in 1932. former Governor of New York flatly refused to be drawn out. Indeed, he said flatly that any man was a fool who undertook to say what he would do a year in the future; that no one knew what conditions might be. As a8 matter of fact, early in 1932 Mr. Smith got into the presidential race and was the chief contender in the “stop Roosevelt” drive at the Chicago convention. West Opposes Hoover. Should Mr. Hoover become a can- didate and win the Republican nomi- nation, Republican progressives from the West insist he would not receive their support. This fact, plus onc other, seems to militate strongly against the candidacy of the former President. For the G. O. P. is look- ing to the West next year for victory They cannot win without it. The other factor in the equation is the belief on the part of many Repub- licans that the overwhelming defeat suffered by Mr. Hoover in 1932 and his linking in the public mind with the beginning of the depression would make his election impossible. There is no denying the fact that Republicans are beginning to think rather well of their chances in the national elections next year. The deluge of attacks on various phases of the New Deal has encouraged them, rather than anything that has hap- pened to the Republican party. They ‘mre looking also for Huey Long and the “lunatic fringe"—so dubbed by Gen, Johnson—to create a diversion &nd division in the New Deal ranks ©f 1932 and 1934. And since admin- istration Democrats have begun to take Long and his threats of splitting the Democratic party seriously enough to make replies to him, the Republi- cans are hoping still more from this third party talk. Senator Barkley of Kentucky is going on the air in a Nation-wide hook-up tonight to dis- sect the Long “share-the-wealth” plan. Senator Robinson of Arkansas, the Democratic leader of the Senate, and Postmaster General Farley, chair- man of the Democratic National Com- ittee, have begun to belittle and discount Long and his influence in public speeches and statements. Democrats Have Big Fund. ‘The Republicans in their calcula- tions would be foolish to overlook the fact, however, that the Roosevelt ad- ministration is going to have the ex- penditure of some $5,000,000.000 of public funds, for relief and work re- lief. between today and election day in November next year The same edministration was putting out hun- dreds of millions of dollars for all kinds of relief when ‘he congressional ! election was held in 1934. The Presi- dent has insisted that relief must be outside of politics. Of course it can- not be. Any one who receives money from a political source usually wants to receive more. He may fear his supply will be cut off if there is a change of party in control. The Democrats did not let the voters for- get that fact in 1934, and they prob- ably will not in 1036, Every Republican. or nearly z-vrr)" Republican, when he is speaking for publication, insists that this is no t to idential di- March Circulation Daily . 126,812 Sunday 132,810 District of Columbia. ss S H. KAUFPI ANN. Manager of THE EVENING AND SUNDAY STAR. does solemnly swear that the ac. tual number of copies of the paper named gold and distributed during the month of March. AD. 1935, was as follows Assistant Business Less adjustments Total net daily circulation Average asily net paid circula- T ion . i Daily average number of copies for service, etc Da iy average net circulation SUNDAY. C Gwaie B 36018 31 36,563 Less adjustments Total Sunday net circulation. .. y i ay circulas A\'P'rolnl! n" el Bund ’ ... . 132,002 ¥ ) 798 132.810 service Average Sunday net circulation. . g, H. KA Asst. Business Bubscribed u?d‘lwurn to before 8th day of April (Beal.) Yount, i \}roun Public. Army Pilot Brings Blazing Ship Down In Safe Landing By the Associated Press. LITTLE ROCK, Ark. April 13.—Two United States Army fly- ers landed a blazing plane here today and with the help of air- port employes extinguished the flames before the ship was se- riously damaged. Lieut. P. Brewster and Pvt. Tidwell, flying & new high-speed Army attack plane from Barks- dale Field, Shreveport, La., to Belleville, 111, saw the flames when some distance from Little | | Rock, and the former piloted the ship to a landing at the airport. | dates. None of them wants to stick | his head up so early. But the early | bird usually gets his breakfast. It | won't be long before the hats begin | to fall in the ring. President Roose- | velt and his friends had begun to | organize their drive for his nomina- tion by the Democrats a year and & | half before the Chicago convention. | They did not lose anything thereby. Already, the friends of Gov. Hoffman of New Jersey, who won a surprising victory in his Btate in a Democratic year, are taking the possibility of his candidacy quite seriously, and are working to that end. While friends of Senator Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan and Senator Charles L. Me- Nary of Oregon, Republican leader of the Senate, are talking ebout both of them as presidential possibilities, neither of them admits that he is in any sense a candidate. New England to Take Lead. On April 30 in Boston the first of & series of sectional Republican gather- ings to stir up interest and outline policies will be held, with the Repub- | lican organizations in all six New ,Engllnd States nk‘nz part. It will be followed in Ma}, probably, by a | meeting of Middle Western Repub- licans in Kansas City. And there is talk now of & Republican meeting in the Far Western State:. In discus- sions of these gatherings it 1s insisted | that there must be no presidential | candidacies advanced: that the meet- | ings must be merely to talk issues. Does any one really believe that when these political leaders get to- gether they will not talk about the | big prize. the presidential nomina- | tion? Of course, it is not likely that candidates will be thrown into open | meetings—although possible candi- | addresses. But a lot of spade work { will be done in the more secret meet- ings of the leaders. In New England the name of for- mer Gov. Wynant of New Hampshire. called a progressive, is mentioned frequently now as a possible candidate. Col. Frank Knox, publisher of the Chicago Daily News. has his follow- ing in the Middle West. Gov. Alf Landon of Kansas has been suggested in some quarters, and a canvass has been undertaken to see®how Senator Borah of Idaho would fit in the Re- publican picture as an opponent of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hoover Silence Deplored. Republicans who have the candi- dacies of these various presidential possibilities at heart, and some who have not, are saying that Mr. Hoover could do much for his party if he would announce now and unequivo- cally that he will not be a candidate for the presidential nomination under any circumstances. Their argument is to the effect that he could not be | elected, and that his candidacy for the nomination would give many per- sons the impression that the Repub- lican party was seeking to go back to the so-called old deal. | Senator Hastings of Delaware, | chairman of the Republican Sena- .‘!onal Campaign Committee, issued | a statement last night, taking a pot- shot at the Democrats. He insisted that President Roosevelt had not kept | his platform or the Democratic plat- | form pledges since he has been in the | White House. After referring to a statement by Senator Lewis of Illinofs, | chairman of the Demccratic Sen: | torial Committee, in which Lewis claimed that the record showed the greatest enactment of promises ever made by a President, Hasting con- | tinued: “What has become of the sound money pledge, the promise to cut | down Government costs, the covenant to remove Government from all fields of private enterprise. the vow to bal- ance the budget and the guarantee to maintgin the national credit? What has become of the promise to | strengthen the anti-trust laws and | abolish useless bureaus to establish | rigid governmental economy? All these are the really important pledges of the party and of President Roose- velt who accepted Ris party’s plat- form ‘100 per cent.’ | Fear Held Established. “These are the ones that matter be- cause their violation has plunged the Nation into the greatest deficit in history, torn up the Constitution, | repudiated Government obligations, |and given us the most extravagant | administration of all time with an | unsound currency. They have estab- lished fear in business and individual alike while prolonging the depression. are sending the country rapidly along the road to ruin. These are the pledges which Democrats dare not | speak about, “Because Mr. Roosevelt and his ad- | ministration chose to violate these | particular pledges, more people are on | the relief rolls today than ever before, ity with the taxpayers’ money; busi- ness is staggering under un-American Government competition, regimenta- tion and price control and an un- paralleled bureaucracy runs it with an iron hand. Living costs are sky- rocketing. Taxes to pay for these | rash_extravagances will be a scourge |on this and future generations. “The American people will not let this record go unchallenged. Already | they protest and the day of reckon- ing nears.” WINTER IN EDMONTON EDMONTON, Alberta, April 13 (#) —Disrupting street railway sched- ules and piling up snowdrifts 3 feet | or more, near-blizzard weather plunged | Edmonton back into the depths of Winter today. A 28-mile-an-hour nor'easter howled through the city. The temperature dropped steadily from 10:30 p.m, Friday, when the reading 51 above, to & mark of 12 above at 9 a.m. today. Time to fit out the ole’ boat Tune up the outboard, put canoe and oll the reels. to be found today in the spoi This feature will ap, months in The S8unday tar, | dates may be called upon to make | | These are the promises which, ignored, | despite the administration’s prodigal- | THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. O, APRIL JORNSON T0 STAR INN.R.A. INQUIRY Senate Probers Informed of Approval by Small Business. By the Associated Pr, A chorus of small business voices pleading for extension of the recovery law formed the prelude yesterday for a grand finale this week in the Senate’s N, R. A. inquiry, with Hugh 8. Johnson, former administrator, slated for the star role. Spokesmen who said they repre- sented thousands of little business men yesterday told the Senate Finance Committee that N. R. A. instead of oppressing them had been their salvation. As the fifth week of the investiga- tion closed, Chairman Harrison an- nounced the hearings would end Thursday with the colorful Johnson as the last witness. Few Protesting Voices. Though the testimony yesterday was predominantly favorable to the re- covery law, there were a few protest- hit at what he called monopolistic tendencies under N. R. A. 8pokesmen for small plumbers and retail hard- ware stores also opposed the law. The final witness, Mortimer Fishel, | Manufacturer's Association, charged than $1,000,000 collected by the cot- ton garment code authority, and asked the committee to investigate. of keeping a separate bank account for this sum had put it “in the private bank account of a private trade as- sociation,” the International Associa- tion of Garment Manufacturers. Denied Access to Books, Fishel said his group, which came never been able to see the books of |.the code authority and asked the com- mittee to go into them. He also de- “recur- 'or code funds and to curb the orgy of | extravagant expenditure of code funds.” | Harrison announced that | Johnson's testimony Thursday the | committee, in executive session, ing voices. One, representing farmers, | counsel for the National Work 8hirt | irregularities in expenditure of more | | He said the code authority instead | | under the cotton garment code, had | Figures in Probe of Rockville Crossing Crash after | | would begin to frame legislation to | extend the recovery law. Johnson will have a chance answer the broadside fired by wit- | nesses before the committee against his administration of N. R. A. and to give his views on how the new leg- | tslation should be framed. He has | been keeping in close touch with the | protests and complaints as they were filed during the inquiry. Small Dealers Represented. | Witnesses claiming to represent hun- | dreds of thousands of small drug | stores and retail tobacco dealers pro- | vided the dominant tone of the day's testimony for N. R. A. They were backed up by a petition from the retail code authority, speaking for | retail clothiers dry goods stores, fur- | niture dealers, shoe retailers, variety stores and music merchants. The retall code authority reported that only the National Retail Hard- ware Association had voted against N.R. A Willlam A, Hollingsworth, president of the Retail Tobacco Deslers of America, composed of 750,000 retail outlets, testified that the retail to- bacco code was “conceived by the little man, initiated by the little man, operates for the little man, and is administered and managed by the g COL. KNOX CALLS ON LEADERS HERE Chicago Publisher, Mentioned as G. 0. P. Candidate, Sees Borah and Capper. An assertion that Republican chances for the presidency in are improving, but varying views as to how they should be capitalized, vesterday emerged from brief and in- | formal political parleys here between Col. Prank Knox, Chicego publisher, | | and Republican Senators. Put forward by some Benators as a ssible presidential candidate against | po: Franklin D. Roosevelt next year, Col. Knox first called on Senator Borah of Idaho, who wants the party re- | organized _with new principles and leaders. He then spent another 10 minutes in the office of Senator Cap- per of Kansas. Col. Club banquet last night, supported Theodore Roosevelt in the memorable 1912 party split. He refused yester- sonal chances for the nomination, “I am rupning the Chicago Daily News,” he replied with a smile, when asked about the reports. He did say, however, that Republican prospects | 1ooked brighter. ceived the impression that the 61- year-old publisher, a close personal friend, agreed with him as to the need for reorganization, but possibly not as to the method of bringing that about. Talking a little more freely than Borah, Senator Capper recalled his 20 years' friendship with Knox, in- cluding the time he operated news- papers in New Hampshire and Michi- gan. “Col. Knox is not running for President,” Capper said, “but he is very much interested in & comeback for the Republican party.” MEXICAN WOMEN RIOT VERA CRUZ, Mexico, April 13 (®). —A riotous demonstration staged by hundreds of women to protest in- creased prices of corn meal today brought energetic intervention of po- Jice and thrests to use federal troops i the disorders were renewed, The women sought to force closing of the Nixtamal Corn Mills because, they charged, it increased prices of meal without warning. A Later labor leaders protested what they termed the “injury” done by the police. The Boating Season Is Here ‘The aquatic season is here. and drag out that fishing tackle. a fresh coat of varnish on the Naturally you're interested in what's doing and where along the Washington water front. 8o turn to the news and r&mip about boating and fishing section of The Star. ar regularly throughout the warm | to 1936 | Knox, here for the Gridiron | day to discuss reports about his per- | | Borah said afterward that he re- | No. 1—W. F. Bussey. fireman of wrecked a school bus at & Rockvill the crash, plainly visible from his sid No. COUNTY MAYSUE ROADON OLD LAW 11912 Statute Ordered B. & 0. to Maintain Guard Until Midnight. Montgomery County officials last night pondered bringing suit ageinst the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad for alleged violation of a forgotten 323- year-old grade-crossing law that would net the county $419,750 if infraction every day of the existence of the statute could be proved. The law, found by an attorney thumbing the State code in search of possible county redress for the bus and railroad tragedy of Thursday night that snuffed the lives of 14 school children, makes it mandatory for the railroad to maintain a signal- man at the Baltimore avenue death crossing in Rockville from 6 am. to 12 midnight every day in the year. A sign at the crossing now warns’ motorists that the signalman leaves' his post at 10 pm., 2 hours before the limit set by the law enacted in| 1912 20 Dead in Last 15 Years. The bus disaster occurred at 11.26 p.m., 1 hour and 26 minutes after the flagman left the intersection, and 34| minutes before the law would allow | him to leave. Twenty people have been killed at the Baltimore avenue point in the | last 15 years. | The statute sets a penalty of $50 ! for each day's violation. Pines col- lected for non-compliance with the law are set aside for the Montgomery | County Bchool fund. William E.| Prettyman, Rockville counsel for the | B. & O. Rallroad, last night admitted knowledge of the law in question. President Frank H. Karn of the | Montgomery County Board of Com- | missioners will confer with the five members of the board Tuesday morn- ing on a course of action on the law. Inquest Due Tuesday. Tuesday morning also the inquest into the cause of the accident will be opened before Police Judge L. A. De- lashmut of Moutgomery County. Percy Line, 23, driver of the fatal bus, Wil appear. Meanwhile, yesterday surveyors of the Maryland State Roads Commis- sion took measurements 300 yards from the grade crossing preparatory to construction of an overpass to eliminate the dangerous intersection. Specifications for such an overpass have been filed with the Montgomery County roads engineer for several years. Two years ago the State was ready to proceed with construction, but the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad then declared it was unable to provide its share of funds. COAL MINES TO RESUME One-Third to Half of Workings in Southern Field Will Start. KNOXVILLE, Tenp. April 13 (). —Bhut down since April 1, from a third to & half of the coal mines in the Southern Appalachian district will resume operation Mondsy, L. C. Gunter, secretary of the Southern Appslachian Coal Operstors’ Associa- tion, said today. He said the resumption was pos- sible as the result of several good- sized orders received yesterdsy, Surgeon Drops Dead. CHICAGO, April 13 (#.—Donning his white gown and mask to operate on a patient at St. Elisabeth's Hos- pital, Dr. J. J. M ), dead today He jonahan, with a hear attack. was & professor at De Paul and Loyols mumumq testified vesterday at the hearing in Baltimore. ! Collier the Baltimore & Ohio train which e grade crossing. 1s shown as he He is gesturing to describe e of the cab. No. 2—J. A. Shewbridge, engineman. 3—A group of railroad and Interstate Commerce Commission BUS SPEED HELD TOO FASTBY B. & 0. FIREMAN AT QuUIZ (Continued From Firat Page.) their testimony to detailed explana- tions of the safety devices in opera- tion as the train sped toward the dangerous crossing. Only brief reference was made to the aftermath of the crash and this came when Bussey and Shewbridge told of finding the bodies of a boy and girl lodged on the engine's pilot and related the discovery of & decspitated body lying beside the tracks Members of the crew, who calmly told of detailed tests made of the | engine’s safety devices when they took over the train in Cumberland three hours before and also along the 14, 1935—PART ONE. officirls examining blueprints of the H. W. Routenberg, assistant division Harveson, division engineer. C. W. road, and the 1. C. C. men who are conducting the inquiry. B. Smith, G. W. Lovering and Robert No. 4—R. A. Compton, conduc | | | PERMANENT UNIT FOR WORKS 15 SEEN Democratic Group Seeks Voice for Congress in Shaping Program. By the Awociated Press The creation of a permanent national planning agency to chart the course for a continuing public works program was reported authoritatively yesterday, 1o be envisaged by Presi- dent Roosevelt in shaping his four- billion-dollar relief work plan. This disclosure came while the un=~ official House Democratic Steering Committee was seeking a conference with the President to ask that mem- bers of Congress be allowed some say about the projects to be undertaken in their districts. They hope to see Mr. Roosevelt tomorrow. Other developments of the day in= cluded Allocation by Harry L. Hopkins, the relief administrator, of $113661384 for April relief. Georgia was given | no funds and Pennsylvania only half | | | that employment at i | scene of the tragedy. Left to right: engineer, an important witness; C. B. Van Horn, general manager of the Insert: Thomas Tonkin tor of the train, as he testified Star Stafl Photos the engine when it came to a stop? A. About 1,700 or 1800 feet. A car length east of the west bound signal at Rockville. Applied Brakes at Once. Q. Did vou apply the brake imme- distely after the fireman shouted? A. Yes Q. Was it an emergency application or a service stop application? A. Emergency. Q. Did you allow the brakes to re- main in this position until you came to a stop? A. No. The drivers began to slide on the wet rails and I released the emergency brake to free the drivers However, I kept the brakes applied on the coaches. Q. Is it your belief that an engine will come to a quicker stop under such conditions by releasing the brakes on the drivers and hclding them on the coaches or keeping the brake on the entire train? A. I have found that on slippery | route to Rockville, appeared nervous | rails a train can be hajted quicker by | and upset while testifying regarding | Yeleasing the brakes on the drivers the havoc wrought by their engine in | When the drivers are sliding. one of the most tragic crossing acci- dents in Maryland histery. Shewbridge was questioned at length regarding the passage of another automobile across the tracks imme- diately prior to the crash, a car which Lovering intimated had preceded the bus and safely reached the opposite side. Lovering repeatedly Bhewbridge on this point. Was Blowing Whistle. ‘The engineer said he saw a C cross the tracks in the opposite di rection from that in which the bus was traveling. but was unable to re- call & car going in the direction re- ferred to by the Interstate Commerce questioned | Commission official. “I started blowing the whistle at the whistle board about 1400 feet from the crossing and it was blowing all the way to the crossing,” Shew- bridge testified. the bell for some time before the crash.” “I heard the fireman yell ‘Hold 'er’ and a second later he shouted 'We've hit & bus,’ " Bhewbridge said. "I was on the crossing at the time.” Under questioning by Division Bupt. shriver, Bhewbridge said he had closed the throttie near Boyd, which is on a down grade, and was “drifting” through Rockville at a speed of 55 or 60 miles an hour when the wreck occurred. The locomotive bell. he said. was ringing. It is automatically operated. Other testimony given by the engi- neer follows: Q. What signal did you give ap- proaching the crossing? A. Two long and two short blasts. I continued blowing the whistle until I was across the crossing. Q. How far east of the crossing was HE Senate Munitions Commit- tee's bill to control war profits will be discussed by Senstor Gerald P. Nye of North Da- kota, chairman of the com- mittee, in the National Radio Porum tomorrow at 10:30 p.m. The National Radio Forum is ar- ranged by The Washington Star and broadcast over the network of the National Broadcasting Co. The control of war profits is one of the immediate issues before the country and before Congrese. The President has urged that legislation be enacted. The House has its own bill for this purpose, less drastic than the Senate committee bill. Senator Nye has taken a foremost part in the demand for legislation which will make war profiteering impossible. His committee has had before it for months financiers, munitions makers, industrialists and others and the revelations of profiteering during war have been astonishing. When he spoke on the subject in the National Radio Forum last year Senator Nye was showered with lette's snd tele- “I also was ringing | Headlight Perfect. He said that the engine’s headlight was functioning pertectly and it was possible “to pick-up a man on the tracks 700 or 800 feet ahead.” H. T. Clark, road foreman of en- gineers, later testified that the sealed apeed indicator on the engine showed | the train was running 58 miles an hour at that the engine had not exceeded 60 miles an hour at any point on the un. The tape taken from the recorder | and indicator was presented to I. C. C. | and railway officials for examination. | Questioned by the I. C, C. group, | Shewbridge continued Q. Was it ralning at the time of the accident? A. Yes, sir. Q. Was it foggy? A. No, sir. It was misty, but not foggy. Q: Was your visibility affected by | the ra A. 1 was forced to open the cab | window and look out the side, Q. Could you plainly? A. Yes, sir. nLated it perfectly. Q. Were you concentrating your at- tention on the crossing as you ap- proached it? A. Yes, sir. Q. When did you last look at your speed recorder? A. Around Boyds. View of Crossing. Q. How far can you get a view of the crossing? A. About 500 or 600 feet. Q. How far is the whistle post Iocated back of the crossing? A. About 1,400 feet, 7 SENATOR NYE. the time of the crash and see the crossing ' The headlight illumi- | Q. When did you first see the bus? A 1 saw something ‘“like fire” fiy from en object as we struck it Q. Did your brakes work properly? A. Yes, sir. Q. Did you think you had collided | with the bus before the fireman/ | shouted? A. No, sir. But everything hap- pened in a split second | Q. Where was the engine when you fput the brake on? | A. On the crossing. Q. How far east of the crossing were you when the drivers locked? A. About two or three car lengths Q. What do you suppose made the drivers lock? A. A wet and slippery condition of the rails Shewbridge testified that smoke and steam were beating down on his side of the cab due to the rush of wind from the opposite side of the | engine, but at the time the wreck oc- | curred he had & plain view of the | crossing intersection. He said he was not coversing with the fireman at the time of the wreck and both men were gazing intently ahead, the fireman from his seat on the left side of the cab. Only a few seconds before, he added. Bussey had called out the reading on an automatic signal leading into the “block” approaching Rockville. Bell Signals Testimony. Neither the engineer nor other mem- bers of the crew were able to testify whether the automatic signal bells lo- cated at the road crossing were ring- ing as the train crossed the intersec- | tion with the highway. ‘The noise of the roaring train was too great, they said | Shewbridge, who is 58, and lives at Sandy Hook, Md., has been an engi- | | neer for 32 years with only one other fatality on his record. | An automobile occupied by two| women crashed into the side of his| locomotive at the Chestnut avenue crossing in Takoma Park, Md.. several | years ago and both motorists were killed. Shewbridge was entirely ab- solved of any blame by county, State and railway officials. Conductor Compton said he raced | to a telephone after the accident and notified a telephone operator and then | returned to the train. He said the ! | train continued on into Washington | after the rescue workers removed the bodies and debris from the tracks. Compton, Flagman Collier and Cul- bertson testified the engineer had ap- plied the emergency brake, for “the train halted with a violent jerk.” Visibility at Crossing. ! H. W. Routenberg, assistant division engineer, toid the I. C. C. and railway | officials that an examination of the | crossing disclosed that a man siand- | | ing in the highway at a distance of 23 | feet from the near on the side on which the bus approached the tracks | could observe a man standing a dis- tance of 1,540 feet up the tracks. He also explained the manner in| which the crossing is guarded by & danger signal which shows a red -light | at all hours of the night and by th automatic bells actuated by a “tri on the rails, 3,578 feet away. R. T. Perrell, signal supervisor of the Baltimore division, then took the | witness chair and told that an inspec- tion of the bell circuit made on the day | following the accident revealed it to | be in perfect order, While the probe was in progress | here, Gov. Harry W. Nice in Annap- olis directed the State Roads Commis sion to take immediate steps to elimi- nate the grade crossing. . RELIEF ROLL DROPS 500 Texans Told They May Get Jobs With Farmers. CORPUS CHRISTI, Tex,, April 13 (#) —Direct rellef ended today for the 500 persons on the Nueces Coun- ty_roles. Farmers reported & labor shortage, 30 those receiving Government help were told to apply for jobs in the cot~ ton and vegetable fields, where offi- cials believed there would be work for sll if weather remains favorable. ‘The county relief pay roll for March Was approximately $8,000, a month’s supply, they being amonz the Btates which Hopkins has said had not made arrangements to fur- nish their share of the co Grade Crossing Program. Bureau of Public Roads officia said States were ready to go aheac with a grade crossing eliminatio: program costinz between $100.000.00 and $£200,000,000 Robert Fechner, director of th Civilian Conservation Corps, said 20.000 members of the corps woul be sent to Kansas, Oklahoma, Texa: New Mexico and Colorade to broade: the soil-erosion-prevention program Secretary Ickes reported tha 17,000 of 19,000 public works project under the old fund had been com- pleted or were under construction &anc different time had been provided 2,000,000 persc He said $2.506.050.000 had gone int construction and $1.200,000.000 to th financing of other Governmen agencies. Permanent P. W. A. Planned. In discussing the permanent plen ning agency. informed quarters sai many of the chief advisers of the President were agreed that it would be necessary for the Government t continue public works as a permanen® part¢ of the national life With this in mind, they would be necessary to have a pl ning agency to direct these wo! along lines of well-grounded polic The Planning Board would pass upon projects with a view to keeping them in step with a long-range improve- ment plan. It would co-operate with the more than 40 Btate planning agencies that have been set up The President already has indicated that the major part of the spendin: of the $4,000,000,000 would be done by existing governmental agencics the heads of which would comprise a board over which he would preside. Would Co-ordinate Works. ‘The function of the board, as out- lined in the proposal that has beer put before the Chief Executive, would be to serve as a clearing house for significant plans developed by Federal. State or local! agencies. In its work the board would, under this sugges- tion, help to co-ordinate the different Federal, State and local plans where close co-operation appeared needed. The proposal calls for a board of not more than five members with a rotating panel of consultants to be chosen by the board. It calls for fre- quent consultations with representa- tives of labor, agriculture and in- dustry. In general, the test officials expect to see posed projects under the work pro- gram is whether they fit into a long time effort to promote better use and conservation of land, water. mineral and human resources. Member Voices Plaint. One member who attended ti Steering Committee meeting said: “Prequently members of Congress have told constituents that they were unable to find out anything about a particular project in their districts and even that the projeci was not to be undertaken. “Then, to their surprise, public an- nouncement had been made that the project would be undertaken and the money allocated “They not only had no chance to try to discuss projects with P. W. A officials, but the way things happened made them look silly.” SWEDISH SECT DATES “FLYING ARK” ARRIVAL By the Associated Press LULEA, Sweden, April 13 — A strange religious sect whose members believe in the arrival of an “ark of gold and silver” to convey them to the Promised Land came under the serutiny of police today, Definite dates for the arrival of the “flying ark” have been set several times by A. Korpela, leader and prophet of the group. Thus far, how- ever, no gleaming heavenly convey- ance has appeared in this Northern- most Swedish community. One of the chief complaints by in- dignant neighbors against the “re- ligious hysteria” of the group has been that colorful and picturesque oaths seem to be an essential part of the worship and ritual—this for reasons unknown. which informed applied to pro- he 85 Zamous FEATURES This Changing World depicted by Constantine