Evening Star Newspaper, January 8, 1937, Page 23

. Washington News THREE ARE NAMED | FOR VAGANGIES ON D. C. COMMITTEE Senators Overton, Hughes and Hitchcock Will Fill New Places. APPOINTMENTS LIKELY TO BE MADE TODAY Lounisiana Legislator Has Thor- ough Knowledge of Needs and Affairs of Washington. BY J. A. O'LEARY. The three Democratic vacancies on | the Senate District Committee will be | filled by Senators Overton of Louisi- | ana, Hughes of Delaware and Hitch- eock of South Dakota. These three appointments, which may be made late today, will com- plete the roster of the committee. Senator King, Democrat, of Utah an- nounced yesterday that he will re- main as chairman. The Republicans have assigned Senator Bridges of New Hampshire to their one District va- cancy. Other Members. Other members who will continue to serve on the committee are Glass, Virginia; Copeland, New York; Tyd- ings, Maryland; Lewis, Illinois; Bank=- head, Alabama; McCarran, Nevada; * Reynolds, North Carolina and Bilbo, " Mississippi, all Democrats; Capper, . Kansas, and Austin, Vermont, Re- publicans. For several weeks Senator King con- sidered giving up the District chair- | © manship in order to have more time for national legislation on major com- mittees of which he is also a member. After conferring with Majority Leader Robinson yesterday, however, he an- nounced he would continue to guide the District's legislative program. The Utah Senator has been chairman for i the past three years, but he has fol- ! lowed the development of Washing- ton and its problems for many years. As a member of both the House and | | SENATOR HITCHCOCK. PLANS T0 BOOST LS. PAY STUDIED {McCarran Confers With Em- ploye Leaders—Reports Senate. Senator Overton comes to the Dis- trict Committee with a thorough knowledge of District affairs, gained a5 & member of the Appropriations Subcommittee, in charge of the an- nual District supply bill. He has been & member of the Senate for four years. He is a graduate of Louisiana State University and also holds de- grees from Tulane Law School and the Agricultural and Mechanical Col- Jege of Baton Rouge. He served in the House in the Seventy-second Con- gress before being elected Senator, New Senators. The two other Democrats slated for appoinment—Hughes and Hitch- ock—are new Senators. | Senator Hughes was elected in No- vember, defeating Senator Hastings, Progress Made. | Expert agencies both in and outside of the Government service will be con- | sulted by Senator McCarran, Demo- | | crat, of Nevada as to the best plan for | | raising the lower-salaried groups in the | Federal Government, he announced | today after another conference with employe groups. Those attending today's conference | were Luther C. Steward, president, and Miss Gertrude McNally, secretary- | treasurer, of the National Federation | of Federal Employes, and John J. Bar- rett of the Association of Postal * Republican, of Delaware. He is a | Clerks, who also is chairman of the lawyer, farmer and banker. | Legislative Council of various employe Senator Hitchock was appointed by | Organizations. the Governor of South Dakota to| “We are making progress tawudi complete the term of the late Sen- | the working out of a bill, or perhaps ator Norbeck, Republican, who died # series of bills, which will be sub- recently. mitted for scrutiny to a number of | PROBATION ALLOWED | w2 s 5% D | “Among the agencies he intends to | | | ask for advice are the Brookings In-! IN BRIBERY CASE| stitution, the Civil Service Assembly | Nolan's Employe Was Principal| and the Civil Service Commission. | McCarran has not reached the point Government Witness—Escapes Full Punishment. of deciding on details, beyond the| Prancis M. Kearney, who was statement that his intention is to limit charged, with his employer, William J. helow $3,600 a year, and to benefit par- ticularly those in the lowest brackets. He said there is some difference of opinion as to the salary level at which the pay increase bill should stop, but the pay increases to salary groups Nolan, automobile dealer, with bribing | this difference of opinion has not been & witness in the divorce suit brought | ¢Xpressed by the employe representa- against Nolan by his wife, was placed | 1iVes with whom he has conferred. He on probation today by Justice James M. Proctor of District Court. | Manager of a branch sales room of | the Nolan Motor Co., Kearney had | pieaded nolo contendere, which neither | admits nor denies guilt. Nolan, how- } ever, pleaded not guilty and was con- victed recently after a jury trial. He! was sentenced to imprisonment for from four months to a year and a day. In placing Kearney on probation Justice Proctor said he was following the recommendation of the United Btates attorney and the probation of- ficer. Kearney was the principal Govern- ment witness in Nolan's trial. Four Held in Swiss Raid. ZURICH, Switzerland, January 2 (#®).—Four persons were arrested today when police raided an office suspected &% a recruiting center for volunteers to join Spanish Socialists. Owls Successful In Starling War, Lanham Claims Sent Back to Zoo After Routing District Build- ing Invaders. ‘Two captive owls which were perch- ed on the ledges of the District Build- ing for the last three nights in an effort to frighten starlings away were returned to the Zoo today, their job well done. Clifford Lanham, superintendent of trees and parking, claimed an un- qualified success for the owls after he visited the District Biulding last midnight and found them in sole possession of the starling roosts. Lanham admitted, however, that the owls were reinforced by a boy, who circled the building on the ground be- low, sweeping the ledges with an oxy- gen balloon tied to a string. Lanham said he found the sycamores along midtown Pennsylvania avenue ‘wholly empty of their usual quotas of roosting starlings. He has high hopes that inaugural visitors will not be an- noyed by the pests this year. After years of experience, however, Lanham realizes that any victory over sthe starling hordes must be temporary at best. He is on the alert for a coun- ‘r attack and will bring the owls into lay again if need be. indicated it comes from outside. “It is my intention, however, to try to improve the salary schedules below $3,500 & year,” he said. ICKES LISTS PLANS 10 0CCUPY BUILDING Interior Department to Move Into| New Quarters About Jan- uary 30. Secretary Ickes officially announced today that the Interior Department will move into its -new building at Eighteenth and E streets about Janu- ary 30 instead of January 16, as planned. Over the week end of January 30-31 the branch of Recreational Planning and State Co-operation of the Na- tional Park Service, now housed in the Bond Building, at Fourteenth street and New York avenue, will be- gin the shift which will rewrite the Government's rental map here. As originally planned, the moving operations, wherever possible, will take place at night and on Saturday afternoons and Sundays. Today's statement by the depart- ment asserted that official inspection of the new building “indicates that work thereon is progressing less rap- idly than expected.” By the Associated Press. Close reading of the Capital's book of the moment—the Congressional Directory—Ileads to the conclusion that the quickest way to statesmanship is the farm. ‘Tucked between the red covers of this volume are 132 pages of auto- biography in the raw, describing the political accomplishments of every on in the Seventy-fifth Congress from Vice President to youngest Representa- tive. Fifty-one of the Nation's 531 law- makers prefaced their personal history with this agricultural preamble—"born on a farm.” Three ultrarealists varied their themes with “born in a lig cabin.” Seven others—practitioners of the direct approach style—wrote they werz “reared on & farm,” and a couple of urists put it down in print u‘g “«ew to manhood on a farm.” | Pittsburgh, Pa., he Foening Stap WITH SUNDAY MORN! WASHINGTON, D. C, FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 1937, To Get S.enate D. C. Posts SENATOR HUGHES. 'MAY FREE ASSETS OF FIDELITY LOAN Building Association Reor- ganization Plan Studied by Home Loan Bank. Prospects of reorganization of the closed Fidelity Building and Loan Association brought hope today to thousands of “members” of this or- ganization, who now see an oppor- tunity for release of at least some of their funds which have been tied up since the place was closed by order of Controller of the Currency O’Connor. The possibility of developments in | this cirection was forecast in an of- ficial statement yesterday by Con- troller O'Connor, announcing that the Federal Home Loan Bank Board had started an examination of affairs of the association. This examination, the controller explained, was “to de- termine” the extent to which the fa- cilities of the Federal Home Loun Bank Board may be utilized in effect- ing a reorganization of the associa- tion.” Would Thaw Assets. “Such a reorganization,” he con- tinued, “would contemplate the cre- ation of an insured Federal Savings and Loan Association through which, if consummated, there would be made available to the shareholders of Fi- celity Building and Loan Association their respective proportionate shares of the sound value of the assets of the association “The examination now being made consists primarily of a classification of the assets of Fidelity Building and | Loan Association in order to deter- mine which of such assets would be acceptable to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board as assets of & new in- | sured Federal Savings and Loan As- sdciation, and whether a sufficient amount of acceptable assets are avail- | able to justify the reorganization of Fidelity Building and Loan Associa- tion.” Would Operate Under Loan Bank. Should this new and Loan Association be established, it would be the first of its kind in the District. It would operate under supervision of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Winston-Salem, N. C., which is the headquarters for the area, in- cluding Maryland, District, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Geor- gia, Florida, and Alabama. This whole system is under direction of the Fed- eral Home Loan Bank Board. . No decision can be reached for some time, in the matter of Fidelity reorganization, it is belleved. COURT TO SETTLE LABOR RIFTS URGED Washington Legislator Offers Bill to Establish Tribunal of Arbitration. A bill to establish a court of labor adjustment and arbitration to settle labor strikes and lockouts was intro- duced today by Representative Smith, Democrat, of Washington. “It seems to me that the only way to prevent lockouts and strikes in indus- try is to create a court to which dis- putes can be submitted for arbitration and decision,” Smith said. “It is cer- tainly a serious reflection on our in- telligence and capacity for self-govern- ment that labor has to lay down its tools and walk off the job to gain its point.” The measure makes a different ap- proach than has previously been made for legislation dealing with labor dis- putes. In defining the jurisdiction of the court that would be created, the bill also defines the term “interstate commerce,” and states specifically that “no provision of this act shall be sub- ject to review as to its constitutionality by the Supreme Court of the United States.” Rustic Backgrounds Rule New Congressional Directory Although the rustic note dominates the sprightly little bo8k, there is a lot of weighty detail about lodge and fraternal affliations and various alma maters. After Representative Burdick, Re- publican, of North Dakota, recorded he was ‘raised in farming com- munity,” he added with a touch of triumph that he played right end on the foot ball team when Minnesota ‘was champion of the Big Ten. ‘These notes are written in the third person as if some anonymous biographer had set down the facts, but it took only a few steps to-di- rectory headquarters to confirm the suspicion that style was sacrificed for modesty. Senator Guffey gets this reviewer’s award for telling the most about him- self in the fewest words. He says: “Joseph F. Guffey, ,r;mocnt., ) Federal Savings | 1937 TRAFFIC DEAD TENTATIVELY FOUR AS INQUIRY STARTS One Case Investigated After Man Collapses in Drug Store. WOMAN, 73, SUCCUMBS TO AUTOMOBILE HURTS Fatal Injury of Washingtonian on Mount Vernon Highway Also Probed. Washington's 1937 traffic fatality toll stood tentatively at four today, but official listing of one of the vic- tims was withheld pending an inves- tigation by the homicide squad and the coroner’s office. The latest death was that of Miss Sue M. Gill, 73, of 1884 Columbia road, who died in Emergency Hospi- tal this morning of injuries received | when knocked down December 29 in the 1700 block of Columbia road. Police said Reese B. Gillespie, 37, | of 822 Gallatin street, driver of the | car which hit the woman, was| charged with operating on an expired } permit. | Another Hit November 2. | ‘The case under investigation in- | volves Arthur D. Bowers, 51, of 942 | K street, who collapsed yesterday in | & drug store near his home and was pronounced dead when an Emergency | Hospital ambulance arrived. | Police learned that Bowers received | several broken ribs and a dislocated | shoulder November 2 when struck by | an automobile at Tenth street and | New York avenue. Although he is said to have re- fused hospital treatment at the time, | Bowers later was confined to Homeopathic Hospital, where he de-! | veloped pneumonia. | Killed on Highway. Another traffic case under investiga- | | tion was the death yesterday of John 'W. Hurley, 20, of 1219 Geranium street, who was instantly killed when his car was hit by another machine wh.2 he was making a U-turn on the Mount Vernon Memorial Highway, about a mile above Alexandria. The driver of the other automobile, Henry Herman, 45, of Philadelphia, was treated at Alexandria Emergency Hospital for a fractured kneecap and multiple cuts and bruises. The accident occurred, police re- ported, while Hurley, who had been working with a road gang of the Bureau of Public Roads at Abingdon, had gone for water for fellow work- men. Driving a borrowed car, he was on his way back when the collision took place. Foster Unchanged. Meanwhile, the condition of Eddie Foster, 49, former Washington base ball player, who, police believe, was struck early vesterday by a hit-and- run car near Beltsville, Md., remained | unchanged. said to be semi-conscious, and so far police have been unable to learn from him how he was injured and left un- conscious on the rain-soaked Balti- more Boulevard. X-rays revealed, hospital attendants said, that Foster did not have a skull fracture, as was at first believed, nor are his legs broken. He is suffering from a severe shock, however, and his condition is still considered serious. V. H. WALLACE RITES T0 BE TOMORROW Masonic Services Will Be Held.| Burial to Be in Rock Creek Cemetery. ‘Masonic rites for Victor Harris Wal- | lace, 65, deseendent. of John Washing- ton, one of the first President’s an- cestors, will be held at 2 p.m. tomorrow .» at Gawler’s Fun- eral Parlors. Private services and burial will follow in Rock Creek Cemetery. Mr. Wallace, who lived at the Stoneleigh Court Apartments, died | Wednesday night \ at Garfield Hos- pital after an ill- ness of several weeks. He was a member of the District, Georgia Victor H. Wallace. and Oklahoma bars, having been graduated from old Columbian College, now George Wash- ington University Law School. During the World War, Mr. Wallace was employed by the Air Nitrates Corp., working at Muscle Shoals, Ala. Later he became an assistant solicitor in the office of the Secretary of Interior. He is survived by his widow, Mrs, Katherine Bryant Wallace. o DRAWS $25 FINE Richard Lehman of Shamokin, Pa., was fined $25 by Judge Walter J. Casey in Police Court today on a charge of delivering coal without a license. He entered a plea of guilty. Lehman is one of a number of truckers from the coal mining fields of Pennsylvania and West Virginia ‘who have been delivering coal directly to consumers here. Several have been arrested and convicted. Lehman was arrested by Pvt. C. C. Harris while unloading at a house on Fourth street, SPEAKERS LISTED Representative Robert P. Ramspeck, chairman of the House Civil Service Committee; Charles West, Undersec~ retary_of the Interior, and Robert L. Johnson of New York, president of the National Civil Service Reform League, At Casualty Hospital, Foster was | O'MAHONEY URGES CURBING JUDICIAL, EXECUTIVE GROUPS Senator in Cosmos Club Talk Hits Lack of Govern- ment by Law. ASKS SUPPORT OF BILL ON CORPORATIONS Senator Black Says Policies Are Too Often Decided Without Voice of People. A strict curb by Congress of the executive branch of the Federal Gov- ernment as well as & check-rein on the Supreme Court’s authority to declare Federal laws unconstitutional was urged last night by Senator O'Ma- honey, Democrat, of Wyoming, former Assistant Postmaster General and a New Deal congressional lieutenant. Government by law permitting no discretion in its interpretation instead of “government by men” was advo- cated by O'Mahoney, who spoke after a dinner at the Cosmos Club arranged by Richard Hogue, head of the Inde- pendent Legislative Bureau, a private research organization interested in progressive politics. In his attack on the power of bu- reaus and commissions to discriminate in their enforcement of acts of Con- gress, the Senator asked for passage of his bill requiring a Federal charter for all corporations whose activities af- fect interstate commerce. Justice McReynolds Quoted. ‘To support his insistence that prac- tically all corpcrations fall into the interstate category, O'Mahoney quoted | Justice James C. McReynolds, one of the most consistent opponerts of the New Deal on the Supreme Court. Ia | an argument for the Government 29 | years ago McReynolds, then a lawyer upholding the Sherman anti-trust law before the court, said, according to O'Mahoney: “We submit that under the power granted by the commerce clause, Con- ress may prohibit whatever as an efficient cause will probably occasion, as a natural and reasonable conse- quence, material obstruction or hin- | drance to the efficacious operation of | its lawful will.” “There is no legal authority,” O’Mahoney added, “for the contention | that intrastate commerce is reserved to | the States and that Congress may not | interfere with it.” His desire to limit the power of cor- porations by national legislation was | applauded by two other Senators at the meeting, but they disagreed with his theory that government should be by law and not by people. “A great many of us believe that the American Constitution ought to be what the American people say it is,” | Senator Black, Democrat, of Alabama, remarked during an attack on the Supreme Court, avoiding mention of | the tribunal by name. | “The people themselves don’'t de- | termine all their policies, but they | are decided for them by a small group |'of distinguished men completely in- dependent of the people.” For Election of Judges. He suggested that the judges should e clected by the people. and recom- mended that Senator O'Mahoney’s method of regulating corporate activie ties be broadened to include “every other approach conceivable and put them all in one bill. “If necessary,” Black said, “we must use every lurking, dormant power. We must fight on all fronts at once. We must get on every battlefield and let's see if this is a democracy or if it's not a democracy. And let's provide that the constitutionality of the law | has to be decided 30 days after its| enactment.” Such a bill, Black said. might offer | some hope of fulfilling the 1936 Democratic platform's promise to ;ruse wages, shorten hours, and im- | prove the working conditions of the American people. Representative Scott, Democrat, of | California urged congressional’ aboli~ tion of the Supreme Court’s authority to declare laws unconstitutional, but O'Mahoney recommended a different approach. He said: Social Justice Objective. “If we search diligently enough we shall find the formula which will enable all judges to give full play to the law-making powers of Congress and to the attainment of the ends of social justice. “The answer to this question lies in drawing the distinction between the corporate person which, through our modern economic system, is handling the trade, commerce and industry of the people, and the natural person, who has been and is being deprived of natural rights by the modern eco- nomic Frankenstein. “A natural person, a citizen of flesh and blood, precedes all government. But a corporation has no natural rights.” Still another method of reconciling the Supreme Court to recent legisia- tion was put forward by Senator El- bert Thomas, Democrat, of Utah who disagreed with O'Mahoney’s piea for & government of laws. “The Supreme Court” he said, “should bring a dead document (the i the picture show that she left shortly | Society and General Accusers Cruel, Father Says Charges Far Worse Than Anything Babe Suffered, He Declares of First Arrest. Franklin Moore and His Wife, Lucille. BY W. H. SHIPPEN, Jr. i RUEL? but what of them? | “They've shown us more | cruelty in a day than we could show our child in a lifetime if we hated | him!" | ing ink. “Does this look like cruelty2” | he demanded. “And look at her!” | —Star Staff Photos. to Wednesday night,” the P. W. A.| worker said, “was the first one my wife baby. We have no friends here and no — PAGE B— PERSONNEL BODY FORU. 3. WORKERS SOUGHT N BILL Representative Mead Intro- duces Measure Proposing Improved System. AIMS AT CHANGES IN CIVIL SERVICE | Development of More Effective and Economical Administra- tion Is Urged. Development of “a more effective and economical personnel administra- tion system” in the Federal Govern- ment and broadening of.the scope of civil service laws would be provided for in a bill introduced today by Rep- resentative Mead, Democrat, of New York, chairman of the Post Office Committee. The measure would establish a Fed- eral Personnel Council, to be headed | by the president of the Civil Service - , | i | Commission and composed of heads of “They say we're cruel,|and I have seen in five months. We | o | can’t go out at night because of the | €Xecutive departments. It would extend the civil service money to hire somebody to stay with Pranklin, jr. laws to embrace postmasters and per- | mit Government agencies in the “We thought junior would be all | States to utilize Civil Service Come | ? | mission services in developing and The father held up his shaking right if we left him in the car. We n : oping hands, still stained ‘12}, nngerprin[si bundled him in his blanket, pinned | oOperating the merit system. the blankets down and locked the | door of the car. My wife went out Under the legislation, the appoint~ |ment and promotion of employes The thin, pallid mother standing | !0 him at his regular feeding time Wwould be based strictly on “merit and beside #h empty crib was speechless | and still shivering with fright or some | emotion equally as strong when her | husband and the visitor turned toward her. She said nothing, but dropped her head and wept quietly. Franklin Moore, the father, said it was the first time he had been ar- rested in his 41 years. That first ex- perience with jail, however, scemed to have made a much stronger impres- sion on his wife, who was 15 years | younger. | Left Show to Feed Baby. “They say we were cruel to our baby,” Moore continued. “They say we were cruel and branded and finger- printed us as cruel people because we went to a moving picture show and left our baby locked in the auto- mobile!” Moore declared that his wife had left the moving picture show to give her first born his bottle of milk only 15 minutes or so before the baby was discovered locked in the parked car by a passer-by, who reported to police. | “I can prove it by the door man at | before 8 o'clock and obtained permis- | sion to return. I stayed in the show while she went to the baby, fed him, | tucked him in his blanket and came back. | “It couldn't have been more than | 20 minutes later that the man came | with his bottle. “We would have taken him in !hei show with us, but we thought they | wouldn't let us inside with a baby. We take him everywhere we go. “They even said our baby was under- nourished! Maybe we don't have all we want to eat ourselves, but the baby gets plenty.” The father strode to his pantry, a corner closet draped with a bit of calico. He threw back the curtain. “Look at this,” he said, holding up a bottle of cod-liver oil, “and this and this!” Moore produced a tin containing carrots, another oat meal | efficiency.” Make Up of Council. ‘The proposed Federal Personnel | Council would consist of the director | of the Budget Bureau, chairman of | the Interstate Commerce Commissicn, | administrator of veterans' affairs, | governor of the Farm Credit Admin= | istration, chairman of the Social Se- | curity Board and heads of such estab- lishments as the President may desig= nate by executive order, with a Civil Service employe from each of these executive agencies to be named by the head thereof, The Mead bill declares it is the policy of Congress to extend the classification act to include those in : b | the field service “as nearly and as get a sandwich we're going out to| s V. Gallinger Hospital and get our baby | S90R as the conditions of good admin= and a bottle full of milk. “Does this look like we're starving our son?” | “Just as soon as my wife and I can | back. He's our first and only, and we've never been without him before. Maybe people will say we were car less to leave our child in an automo- bile, but wait until they have been in our position and they won't be so harsh in their judgments. “Maybe we shouldn't have left him alone even for a minute. We don't wasn't very cold Wednesday night, | and the child couldn't have been as | chilly as they said he was.” Mr. and Mrs. Moore went to Gal- | linger Hospital last night to ask for istration will warrant.” To this end the new council would be given the specific duty of making a survey of the duties and compensation of ail | Positions and groups of positions in the executive branch of the Federal Government, whether or not they are now subject to the classification act, and within six months report to Con= | know all there is to know about raising | 575 through the President, recom- | bables. I'm sure, though, that it mendations for extension and further amendment of the classification act, Probation Period. i Regarding appointments and proe after appointments under the clas: Constitution) down to date and make it a living organism.” SPECIALTY STORE ADS TO BE MEETING TOPIC Isador Cohen to Address Adver- tising Club Members at ‘Willard Tonight. Isador Cohen, advertising manager of the Raleigh Haberdashery, will ad- dress the Ad Club of Wash- ington on “Specialty Store Advertis ing” at & meeting at 8:15 o'clock to- night in the Willard Hotel. Cohen will make a showing of cur- by the parking lot at Ninth street and Massachusetts avenue and re- ported our baby to police.” Mr. and Mrs. Moore were held for | the grand jury under $300 bonds in| Police Court yesterday on charges of being cruel to their 8-month-old son, | Franklin, jr. It was testified that the | infant was choking on his teething | ring and “blue with cold” when police | broke a window in the locked car and took him to the Receiving Home | for Children. | Live in One Room. | Moore, a P. W. A. worker, and his | wife received a reporter last night in | their one-room home, second floor back, at 1215 Eleventh street. The couple had just returned home after spending Wednesday night in jail and the whole of yesterday being finger- printed, attending Police Court, an- swering questions at various bureaus ' and finally arranging for their bonds, | totaling $600. “That moving picture show we went | | Imonons. the bill provides that her their son. But the hospital attend- | fied civil servi ants bad orders to keep the child | month period octepigx:;‘ngg. r;rhe‘ serve pending a disposition of the case by | ice will end automatically uniess before District authorities. They turned the | the expiration of the probationary parents away. | period the appropriate appointing au- Father Becomes Anxious. | thority has certified to the Civil Serva While Moore talked at his home | ice Commission that the appointee is last night his wife leaned against the | Qualified and fit to receive permanent crib and shivered. She kept clutch- | 8ppointment ing her threadbare coat closer to her | To improve the morale of civil serve slight body. Moore at length ex- ice workers and to develop the merit hausted his indignation and became system governing all promotions, the anxious. executive secretary and personnel offi- “Do you think they'll fire me from | cer of the new council are required my P. W. A. job because of this scan- | Within 15 days to file with the chaire dal? Because of the way I've been | man a sworn statement that they will held up to the public as a cruel fath- er? I've got a good record there. To- day is the first day I've missed in the year I've been working for the P. W. A. | “And they say we're cruel— “Wait until they know the humilia- | not appoint of promote any employe on any other basis than that of merit or efficiency and in no case will they permit any personal or political fa- | voritism to influence their action. Proof of failure to keep this pledge tion and torture we've been through : would result in the removal from office this last day. then they'll be able | of these offenders. to judge cruelty when they see it!™ SHEDS BULLETS Was Shot in Abdomen Dur-| ing Fight—Street Car Conductor Quizzed. Either George Edwards, 35-year-old taxi driver, can “take it” or the gun with which he was shot in the ab- domen early today can't “give it.” At least this was the observation of police as they reported Edwards re- covering from the effects of a bullet fired at close range in a street corner affray with a street car conductor. Edwards, who lives at 2022 Portner place, and Bryan Thompson, 39, of 1225 Thirty-third street, were in- volved in the gunplay at Twelfth and F streets northeast about 3:30 a.m. During a fight, the cause of which police have been unable to determine, Edwards was clubbed over the head several times with the butt of the gun and then shot. Thompson was wounded in the wrist. ‘The gun, a .32-caliber revolver of the type popular about the turn of the century, was found on the roof of a nearby garage. A “six-shooter,” it contained two full shells and four empties. ‘The bullets must have been as old as the gun, for the slug that pierced Edward’s abdomen barely broke the skin, it was said at Casualty Hospital. ‘Thompson's wrist injury also was re- ported to be slight. ‘Thompson, arrested in an alley at Eleventh and C .streets northeast shortly after the shooting, was being TAXICAB DRVER 12 PLEAD GULTY T0 THEFT CHARGE Third Member of “Boots and Spurs Gang” Denies Participation. ‘Two members of the so-called “boots and spurs gang” pleaded guilty this morning in District Court before Jus- tice James M. Proctor to a charge of robbing Michael Armaly, storekeeper, of 1609 T street, November 20. A third alleged member of the gang, Jack Joseph Kurz, 19, denied guilt. ‘Those who entered pleas of guilty were William Nelson Beck, 21, and Paul Leon Burger, 18. Armaly reported to police that Kurz and Beck entered his ‘market about 9:30 am. and, at pistol point, took $352. Burger allegedly waited in the car outside the store. | In addition to the robbery of Armaly. | the three youths also have been linked with a series of other crimes, including | the abduction of a Fort Myer sentry | last November and the theft of his| automatic, ammunition and spurs. At a police headquarters line-up about & month ago, the three were identified by a number of their alleged victims, among them three couples who were robbed in parked cars cn lonely roads. Police co-operated a month ago today to allow Kurz to be married in church to an 18-year-old Edmonston, Md,, girl. PLUMBERS S.ELECT HEAD John Collins was namea president of the Master Plumbers’ Association held at the ninth precinct for investi- gation. Police said he didn't remember what happened atter he engaged Edward’s cab at Twelfth and G streets, and Ed- ‘wards, according to officers who talked of the District at the association’s annual meeting Wednesday night, Other officers elected were: Maurice Colbert and John Beane, vice presi- dents; William E. Miller, treasurer, and Frank Bentley, secretary. ‘Thomas E. Clark, the retiring presi- Wwill be the principal speakers at the | rent jjjustrations of advertising of first annual in-service training lunch- | stores engaged in men’s and women's eon of the School of Public Affairs of | wear, shoes, etc. Illustrations of how American University tomorrow after- | to improve advertising also will be noon at the Mayflower Hotel. . own. The luncheon, scheduled to start at | yecture Committee Chairman James 2 p.m., will be presided over by Arthur | Hardey, who will preside, announced 8. Flemming, director of MM of | Cohen'’s speech would be (followed by Publie Affairs. & question and answer to him, also was unable to explain ‘what started the fight. dent; Elmon J. Ewing and Joe High were elected “ the Board of Directors. It was announced at the meeting Old Taverns Near Churches. |ipat the association's sixty-fourth an- ‘The taverns of Colonial New Eng- | nual dinner dance will be held Febru- land were generally located near the | ary 25 at the Willard Hotel, Beane Against “Spoils System.” Plans for & war on the evils of the “spoils system” in civil service were presented by Robert L. Johnson, presi- dent of the National Civil Service Re- form League, to the Washington Junior Board of Commerce yesterday at jts weekly luncheon at the Lee House. By gaining the support of the press and establishing a speaking bureau, by influencing young college men and women to go into public service and by selling the idea to business that use of the merit system is good busi- ness and a tax-saving policy, the league hopes to enlist public backing, he stated. At present 2,000,000 of the 3,000,000 public employes in this country hold | their jobs because they have “rung the right doorbells” or “gotten out the vote” on election day, and it is this condition which the icague aims to eradicate, Johnson said. “It is up to the business men of this country to back our fight on lcw standards in civil service personnel,” he added, emphasizing the important | role to be played by younger men in | reforming present conditions. e RESERVE OFFICERS ASK PARADE CHANGE Directors Open Convention With Plea to President to In- clude Civic Units. Unanimous in their opinion that the President should reconsider his decision regarding the marching of the District National Guard, Naval Reserve and Marine Corps in the inaugural parade, the Board of Di- rectors of the United States Naval Reserve Officers’ Association opened a three-day annual convention with a meeting yesterday at the Washington Hotel. In executing the resolution by the board Capt. L. W. Hesselman, asso- ciation president, was directed to write a letter to President Roosevelt asking that the action in eliminating the District marching units be reconside ered. Approximately 100 delegates from the various Naval Reserve units in the country met at 9 a.m. today to discuss the resolutions and motions of the various chapters. It is antici~ pated that the delegates will seek ta church and rega! in those days as | is chairman of ghe Committee on Ar- & convenient chureh-going. rangements, . effect chang: the present Naval Reserve set-