Evening Star Newspaper, September 27, 1936, Page 17

[ General News | News '@r[)gglmflag Staf WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 27, 1936, USE OF ‘JUDGMENT IN TICKET ‘FIXING' ADVISED BY SEAL Hard and Fast Rule Against Quashing of Charges Viewed Unwise. PROSECUTION POLICIES WILL BE DISCUSSED Corporation Counsel Calls Con- ference as Result of Hooe Statement. Buggesting that a certain amount of “judgment” should be exercised on “fixing” of traffic tickets, Corporation Counsel Elwood H. Seal yesterday called a conference of all his Police | Court assistants, to be held tomorrow, | for a review of all prosecution policies. | ‘The conference is a direct result of | the declaration by Rice Hooe, in charge of the assistant corporation counsel staff at Police Court, that he objected to all—or nearly all ticket | Beal indicated he felt his assistants at court should use some measure of discretion in quashing minor charges | of traffic offenses or in the diminui- tion of the charge against offenders. Reasons Are Given. | “Of course,” Seal said, “the regula- | tions and the law should be applied as equally as humanly possible in all cases. However, at times there are mitigating circumstances and, again, | there are times when public interest | is served by dropping of charges. | “The legal representative of the Dis- | trict, after hearing all the evidence, of | course, must use his judgment as to whether a case should be taken to trial or whether the charges should be re- duced. That is the purpose of the| hearing before the prosecution official. | “On the other hand, I do not favor | ‘fixing’ of such cases as driving while | drunk, leaving the scene of accident, | pure cases of reckless driving and the like. Nor do I favor dropping of | charges of mere overtime parking against those who persistently disobey the rules day after day and think they can get off by merely sending a note to me or an assistant counsel. These should be punished. Opposes Inflexible Rule. “Even s0, there can be no hard and fast rule that no charges can be fixed. That doesn’t work any better than a policy of allowing any or all cases to Seal revealed also that he had dropped the practice initiated by his predecessor, E. Barrett Prettyman, of keeping a list of all cases fixed,includ- ! ing the names of those who asked that charges be dropped or decreased. Seal said he found no real benefit in | that practice. i The conference will be started at 3 | p.m. tomorrow in Seal's office, 700 ACRES ADDED | TO AREA OF PARK U. S. Buys More Tracts to Straighten Shenandoah | Boundaries. Bpecial Dispatch to The Star. LURAY, Va., September 26.—Fed- eral officials yesterday completed pay- ments and recording of deeds for over 700 acres of land to straighten out boundries to the Shenandoah Na- tional Park, it was announced here | today from the headquarters office of V. R. Rhodes, project manager. This is the second purchase of tracts made on a total proposed pur- | chase of 10,500 acres. The first pur- | chase was of two tracts in Rocking- | ham County in July. Purchased | ‘Thursday were one tract of 112 acres from D. D. Royer, in Albemarle | County, and one tract of 100 acres | from D. T. Dean in Rockingham | County. | Purchases yesterday were in Rap- pshannock County. One tract con- tained 150 acres and another 41 acres, both owned by David Dwyer. The third contained 224 acres and was | owned by Henry Johnson. Other | tracts have all been optioned and are affidavits taken concerning ownership. | Eventually it is hoped to include within the Shenandoah National Park all the original boundary. There are about 50 families residing on these optioned tracts. They will be given privilege of purchasing homesteads as other park residents, although their land was optioned and not condemned. PAIR DRINKS. POISON AS HIGHBALL CHASER Police Think Double Suicide Planned Because of Lack of Money to Marry. A man and s woman discouraged at the lack of enough money to enable them to marry yesterday chased witn poison the highballs they were drink- ing in the cocktail room of the Am- bassador Hotel. Cornelius K. Keedy, 31, of 1103 Seventeenth street, and Mary F. Pick- ett, 29, of the same address, slumped in their seats, causing alarm among the other late afternoon patrons. Gallinger Hospital authorities early today gave them both chances o re- cover from the effects of what police termed an attempted double suicide. At Gallinger it was said Keedy, for- merly employed by a bank here, had recently lost his job, eliminating his :a:‘om and making marriage impos- e. SENTENCED QUICKLY @pectal Dispatch to The Star. LURAY, Va, September 26.—Ar- rested and sentenced within the hour is the experience here today of Ed Hutchinson and Alonzo Breeden of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The men were arrested at 1:30 p.m. Friday at & still in Jordan Hollow. ‘An hour later they had been found guilty of being at a still and fined $100 each, and given a six months’ iei] term, & Tearing along at terrific speed. within sight of a throng on shore, dimly seen through the mist. i o . “LTTLEC.C.C BEING FORMED now having their titles searched and | Youth Administration Plans| National Program of Soil Conservation. The National Youth Administration | yesterday launched a “little C. C. C.,” with plans to put unemployed youths at work on a Nation-wide program of soil conservation and water control. Youths between the ages of 18 and 25 will be given work on such jobs as building small dams, terracing oper- ations, planting, and assembling rain- fall and run-off data. This work also | will take young women within its ranks, Deputy Director Richard R.| Brown announced. Girls in the same | age.group will be engaged in preparing | exhibits and other material designed to promote the general cause of con- servation in schools and community centers. The new conservation program will not call for any additional outlays of Federai money, it was announced, for it will form a phase of the regular work program for which allocations totaling $10,000,000 already have been made. It will be merged with similar work conducted by the Soil Conserva- tion Service, the Agriculture Depart- ment, State highway commissions and other allied groups. Youth directors throughout the country are being authorized to sub- mit projects of a nature suitable for the labor of young men and women. General features of the program were approved here by officials, following their attendance at the Upstream Engineering Conference last week. Youth directors and their aides from a number of interested States attend- ed the sessions, and the technical as- pects for the co-operation of the Na- tional Youth Administration were worked out last Friday. Brown said that no estimate was possible at this time, either of the number of youths who will be put to work or the amount of money which the N. Y. A. might invest in the pro- o=, CONTRACT ISLET FOR POOL PILINGS $1,000,000 P. W. A. Park Program Brought Step Nearer Completion. Secretary Ickes yesterday awarded a $14,000 contract to the BZ Con- struction Co. of New York for the driving of piles for the foundation for the new swimming pool in Anacostia Park, bringing a step nearer final completion the $1,000,000 Public Works Administration local park im- provement program. The $14,000 job is a supplemental contract to the BZ firm, because the park authorities decided that, in view of the flood of last March, the foun- dations should be strengthened by driving piles. The Charles H. Tompkins Co. of this city, which has the contract for building & swimming pool in East Potomac Park at the fleld house, has submitted supplemental figures for the pile-driving job for the founda- tions there. Engineers of the Na- tional Park Service are examining these before recommending to Secre- tary Ickes a definite award. With the exception of the swim- ming pools and some work in the Mall, the $1,000,000 P, W. A. park program is about completed, C. Mar- shall Finnan, superintendent of the National Capital Parks, said yester- day. He promised definitely that the two new swimming pools would be in public operation for next Summer. Final inspection of work that has been proceeding in Meridian Hill Park for the past several weeks will be made by Finnan tomorrow. The proposed fountain along Sixteenth street has been installed, and the engineers are working out final de- talls. The Fine Arts Commission has approved the design for this, which will be placed in a niche in the wall. ‘The new fountain in Franklin Park has been put into commission, but Finnan ssid there is still some minor work eo"be done before the job is creertated, @ . , the Delphine VIII overturns during the President’s Cup Regatta. Photo snapped at moment L e Suspect Held to Grand Jury In Florence Goodwin Murder Colored Man Listens Calmly as Coroner Hears Story of Confession—W ork of Homicide Squad Praised. Norman Wesley Robinson, 27, col- ored, former convict and highway rob- ber, was held for the grand jury yes- terday afternoon by a coroner's jury which heard testimony that he had confessed in detail to the brutal mur- der of Mrs. Florence Goodwin, 43- year-old Treasury Department typist. Detective Sergt. Jerry Flaherty of the homicide squad testified that Robinson was returned to the scene | of the crime and demonstrated how he let himself into Mrs. Goodwin's rooming house at 1102 Sixteenth street | and shattered her skull with a furnace shaker as she lay asleep on her studio couch. ‘The murder occurred shortly after daylight on the morning of September 18, and the body was discovered about six hours later. Robbery was the mo- tive, but Robinson found no money when he searched his victim's purse and other belongings, it was testi- fled. Investigators Praised. After the inquest Coroner A. Ma- gruder MacDonald told the jury he wished to commend the work of both the homicide squad and Dr. Oscar Hunter, well-known pathologist, who helped solve the crime by analyzing blood stains and tiny silk fibers found beneath Robinson’s fingernails. “Unfortunately,” Dr. MacDonald said, “the coroner’s officc has no equipment to conduct scientific inves- tigations. However, Dr. Hunter co- operated to the fullest and made his laboratory facilities avallable for many technical and minute tests.” Robinson, who went under the name of John Willilams when he served time in North Cerolina for highway rob- bery, declined to testify. He had worked for Mrs. Goodwin during Au- gust, while: the regular janitor, Carl Chase, coloréd, Was away, Bergt. Flaherty testified that Robin- son told him that llr.‘ Goodwin “owed me money, and I decided to go to her house and get it.” Had Retained Key. Robinson was quoted as saying he let himself in through a rear dor with a key he had retained since his em- ployment there. He took the cast iron shaker from the furnace. It was a bar about 2 feet long, enlarged at one end in the shape of a club. The death weapon was exhibited to the jury. Robinson, it was said, expected to find Mrs. Goodwin sleeping on the | ground floor, as was her custom when he worked for her. Not finding her, | Robinson was said to have climbed the steps and opened the unlocked door of her bed room on the second floor. The accused man was quoted as saying that Mrs. Goodwin turned her head while lying on the couch. “I hit her,” Robinson allegedly confessed. “Then I looked for money. Her purse was not in the top bureau drawer, but I found it in the second drawer. There were only two keys in the =2 npbxmonmmwu told later that a quarter was found in the purse and he allegedly replied, “I must have overlooked that.” Prisoner Is Calm. The tall, thin, ginger-hued colored man faced the jury with impassive calm. He was clothed in overalls and @ blue-denim coat. When asked if he had anything to say for himself, he stood uncertainly for a moment and then mumbled.a few inaudible words. “Do you wish to make a state- ment?” the coroner demanded, “an- swer yes or no.” “No,” the prisoner replied in a whisper. Flaherty had testified Robinson told him that after finding the empty purse he heard Mrs. Goodwin groan and returned to the bed, striking her four times across the head with his (MMP“! 3) - " eeding craft keeled Rescue boats arriving to pick up Frithiof Ericcson and Edward McKenzie, indicated by circle. One of the men was holding up the other, both being dazed and slightly injured. —Photos by Tim Elkins, A. P., and Randolph Routt, Star Staff. GAS FIRM MERGER 10 GET HEARING Proposed Purchases of Washington Firm to Be Considered Tomorrow. Public hearings will be held tomor- row by the Public Utilities Commis- sion on the proposal of the Washing- ton Gas Light Co. t0 buy the Alexan- dria and Hyattsville gas companies | for a price totaling $1,375,000. ‘The purchase proposals are a result of the move of the Washington and suburban companies, a Massachusetts trust, to dispose at public sale the 84 per cent of the stock it owns in the ‘Washington company. Petitions for the sale of the Wash- ington Gas Co. stock, as well as for the sale of the stock of the two suburban concerns to the Washington company, have been filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission as well as with the District Commission. The I. C. C. will hold hearings Wed- nesday on the proposed consolidation of the Washington and the suburban companies. The District Commission is interest- ed primarily in the question of whether the purchases would un- favorably affect the finances of the Washington company. The company proposes to obtain bark loans to cover the purchases and then later to issue stock to cover the loans. ‘The District Commission has indi- cated it will seek to reveal all pertinent facts and reach its decision on the basis of what the whole picture dis- closes. . —_—— Nice Invited to Oyster Scald. LEONARDTOWN, Md., September 26 (Special).—Invitations have been issued here by the St. Marys County American Legion Post to Gov. Harry W. Nice and Representative Stephen W. Gambrill, Mayor Howard W. Jackson of Baltimore City and Roscoe C. Rowe of Annapolis, Republican candidate for Congress, to attend the snnusl oyster scald at Camp Calvert, October 11. ‘SUUBURBS T0 JOIN | IN CHEST DRIVE |Campaign to Be Extended Into Nearby Area on Co- operative Basis. The District’s Community Chest campaign will be extended into near- by Maryland and Virginia on a co- operative basis this year for the con- venience of those who work in this | city and live in the suburbs, it was ,announced last night. Plans for the participation of the nearby sections in the local drive are practically complete, according to Hugh J. McGrath of Arlington Coun- ty, chajrman of the Conference of Suburban Social Welfare Organiza- tions, who has charge of the counties’ arrangements in the Greater Wash- ington area. The units involved are Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties, Md., ;lnd Arlington and Fairfax Counties yand Alexandria, Va. Two Varieties of Cards. Solicitors in the Governmental and vided with two varieties of pledge cards in order that the suburban resi- dent may give either to his home locality or to the District Chest, or to both. ‘Workers in the suburban areas also will be provided with Chest cards, s0 that residents of the two States so- portunity to contribute to the Wash- ington Chest if they so desire, Mc- | Grath said. Each of the areas in- volved already has started to set up | campaign machinery by electing cam- | paign chairmen, and these chairmen | tive secretary, will constitute the | Executive Committee in charge of the suburban campaign. operative, it has consistently been made clear by Chest officials that the Chest will not handle any money intended for the suburban areas™ it was explained in & Community Chest (See Cw!‘ Page B-3.) Group Solicitation Units will be pro- | licited by them may have an op- | |and vice chairmen, with the execu- | “While the campaigns will be co- | PAGE B—1 NEW ZONING RULES 10 GET FIRST TEST AT OCT. 7 HEARINGS Five of 30 Proposed Prop- erty Class Changes Wait Commission Action, SEVERAL OF PETITIONS WERE DENIED BEFORE One for 'Columbin Road Site Has Been Rejected 10 Times Pre. viously by Board. New Zoning Commission rules, re- | placing old requirements that prop- erty owners consent to a variety of uses of property, will be subject to | their first test October 7, when the | commission will hold public hearings |on 30 proposed changes in classifica- tions of properties. In five of these cases, owners have requested usages which now must be approved by the commission, but which formerly would have been granted automatically if consents had been obtained from owners of a ma- Jjority of the properties within the im- mediate vicinity Such consent features of the old regulations recently were eliminated by the commission as the primary guide to zoning use cases. The five cases in the classification, all affecting alley properties, will be considered October 7 after hearings are held on 30 other proposed changes. | Several Repeat Petitions. | Several of the 30 “regular” zoning | change petitions have been rejected heretofore. Among these is the pe- tition of Marie von Unschuld for change from residential to first com- mercial for property at 1646 to 1654 Columbia road, which has been re- jected 10 times. The commission also will hear again | petition for the change from residen- tial “B" restricted to residential 60- foot “C” area—which would permit the construction of an apartment house— for property at 2122 Massachusets ave- nue, known as the Patten property. | Similar petitions have been rejected several times, officials said. | Conversion of the old Episcopal Trin- | ity Church property, Third and C | streets, into a parking lot is proposed | in another petition to be heard by thr | commission. | A neighborhood debate is said to be | back of a petition for changing from | residential “A” restricted to residen- | tial 60-foot “C" area—which would | permit construction of apartme: | houses—for property on Underwoo. | street and Tewkesbury place, between Georgia avenue and Thirteenth street and on Thirteenth street between Van Buren and Tuckerman streets. | Other Changes to Be Heard. | Other regular zoning changes to be heard by the commission include the following: From residential to first commercial, | property at 500 Twentieth street; from residential “B"” restricted area to first commercial, property at 1301-5 Thirty- fifth street: from residential “A" re- stricted and unzoned property to “B restricted” area, property on W strec between Thirty-ninth and Fortie'i streets: from residential “A” to resi- dential “B” restricted, property on eas side of Thirty-ninth street near Cal- vert street. From residential “A” restricted to residential “A” semi-restricted, prop- erty at 3601 Macomb street; from residential “B” to first commercial area, property at southeast corner of Western avenue and Forty-fourth street; from residential to first commercial, property at rear of 2548 Seventeenth street; from resi- | dential “A™ restricted to “B” area, ‘property on east side of Adams Mills road, between Harvard street and Summit place; from residential “A" to residential “C” area, prop- erty bounded by Sixteenth, Seven- ‘tA‘en[h and Shepherd streets and Rock Creek Park. From residential “A” restricted to residential “A” area, property on west side of Colorado avenue, between Longfellow and Madison streets; to | extend first commercial use to prop- erty on west side of Georgia avenue, north of Geranium street; from resi- | dential “A" restricted to residential “'A' area property bounded by Juni- | per street, Eastern avenue and Kalmia street. | Carroll Street Property. From residential to first commercial, property on north side of Carroll street, between Maple and Cedar streets; from residential “A” semi-re- stricted to residential “A" area, prop- erty fronting on Aspen, Whittier and Third streets; from residential to first commercial, property at 308 Concord avenue. From second commercial to residen- tial “B” restricted, property on south side of Taylor street, from Eighth to Tenth streets, and west side of Tenth street from Taylor to Randolph streets northeast; from residential “A" re- stricted to first commercial, property near Taylor and Eighteenth streets and Bunker Hill road northeast. From residential “B"” to residential | “C” area, property improved by Cal- vary Episcopal Church at southeast corner of Eleventh and G streets northeast; from second commercial to industrial area, property bounded by ‘Twelfth, Thirteenth and L streets and Virginia avenue southeast, and from residential to first commercial area, property at northeast corner of Tenth street and Maryland avenue southwest. MRS. ARRIPJGTON DIES Former Petersburg Resident Sue- cumbs in Carolina. WARRENTON, N. C., September 26 (#)—Mrs. Hannah B. Arrington, widow of Sam Peter Arrington of Petersburg, Va., died at her home here tonight. She was 87 years old. Surviving are two sons, John Ar- rington of South Carolina and William Jones Arrington of Warrentoxn; thres daughters, Mrs. Howard Alston and Mrs. Walter Rodgers of Warrenton and Mrs. Rosa Heath of Petersburg, and two sisters, Mrs.-Mollie Beckwith of Petersburg and Mrs, Sue Pretlow of Pranklin, Va. 1