Evening Star Newspaper, July 8, 1937, Page 3

PUTNAM DENIES COLLAPSE STORY Husband of Amelia Earhart Declares He Has Not Broken Down. By the Associatec, Press. SAN FRANCISCO, July 8.—George Palmer Putnam, husband of the miss- ing Amelia Earhart, took time out last njght from his radio vigil to squelch reports he had “collapsed” under the strain. “I have been reading,” he said, “that 1 have collapsed and that I have broken down, sobbing. Another re- port has me in a hospital in a bad way. “In the existing circumstances what is said about me is not of the least importance, except that false reports heighten the anxiety of friends and relatives. “If I seem to have thrown up the sponge it just makes thing harder for them. “I have not collapsed. I have indulged in no public sobbing. The nearest I have been to a hospital is the home of an old-time friend, Dr. Harry E. Clay, who has lent me & helping hand.” Nervous and impulsive, Putnam has withstocd much suspense during the long and hazardous flights of his famous wife, but never has been able to get used to it. Earhart (Continned From Ffl'str Page. )V Lexington had its full complement of 98 planes aboard. . Support for Theory Seen. Naval and Coast Guard authorities gaw in the fruitless hunt north and west of Howland Island support for their belief the round-the-world fiyers alighted in the Phoenix area The Coast Guard cutter Itasca and Navy mine sweeper Swan, acting on & mysterious, garbled radio message interpreted to have come from about 280 miles north of Howland, swept over an area of more than 104,000 square land miles north and west of Howland without result The Itasca, acting now under orders of the Navy to co-ordinate the search, contacted the Colorado off Howland yesterday and replenished its depleted gupplies of tuel and drinking water. The hunt to the north of Howland was abandoned, at least temporarily, as the cutter joined in the search to southward In San Francisco, George Palmer Putnam, Miss Earhart's husband, ex- pressed gratification over the shift in the search. He has clung consistently to the belief his wife and Noonan were in the Phoenix area. Expressing the further belief the fiyers had found safety on some reef or sandspit, Putnam advanced the opinion at least some of the radio signals apparently originating in the seldom visited stretch of the Pacific actually had come from the radio aboard the stranded plane. Position Near Hull Island. The position reported by Havens is near Hull Island, one of the Phoenix group. A San Francisco amateur operator reported hearing signals purporting to come from the Earhart plane at about the same time as Havens. The wording he reported varied greatly from that given by the Montanaan and on a different fre- quency. Coast Guard and naval authorities had investigated every amateur re- port previously, and have pronounced | none of them authentic. Putnam, snatching only a moment's rest at infrequent intervals, kept a | constant vigil at San Francisco for | definite word concerning his wife. - He disclosed without comment yes- | terday receipt of an oddly-phrased telegram from Washington bearing the name of George T. Huxford and de- | clared Miss Earhart “will be rescued | alive.” “Amelia landed exhuasted in a small boat on a small reef 50 miles west southwest of Howland. She has a weak portable radio, food and water, hardly strength to use them. She will be| rescued alive and taken to a ship,| probably Japanese, and you will receive official confirmation tomorrow. Noonan | not with her.” Japanese Ships Co-operate. The Japanese aircraft carrier Ka- moie and the Japanese survey shipf Kooshu were co-operating in the search, combing the vicinity of the| Marshall Islands, 600 miles northwest | of Howland. They haveé not been heard from since they joined the search Tuesday. The entire Phoenix area was ex- pected to be scouted after the Lexing- ton arrives. Admiral Murfin estimated | the Lexington should reach the How-' land vicinity Monday morning. | He said the carrier’s planes, if all launched immediately into the search, could cover an area of 36,000 miles in &ix hours. Although the admiral said he ex- pected the fate of the missing flyers would be determined as soon as the Phoenix area was covered, the Lexing- ton would continue the hunt as long as it had gasoline and fuel oil. He said the supply probably would last three days. Baker Island Area Scoured. While the Colorado and its planes searched the Phoenix group, the cutter Itasca scoured the area around Baker Island, some 70 miles south of How- land. ‘The mine sweeper Swan also was searching south of Howland. At one time yesterday Putnam was on the point of flying from San Fran- cisco to Honolulu. He decided against the move, however, observing, “I can do just as much here (in San Fran- cisco) as in Honolulu. His son, David Binney Putnam, who flew yesterday from Vero Beach, Fla., was expected to join Putnam at San Francisco today. Reds Have Most Pilots. The Soviet air force is generally conceded to be numerically superior to that of any European power, al- though some of Russia’s 5,000 planes are obsolescent. radio | | fall that delayed planting. Waist-to- Admr. Orin G. Murfin Co-Ordinating Activi- ties of Ships. Co-ordinating the naval search for the missing plane of Amelia Ear- hart is the-former Washingtonian, Rear Admiral Orin G. Murfin, now commandant of the 14th Naval Dis- trict, with headquarters at Pearl Har- bor, Hawail. Admiral Murfin is directing the activities of the battleship Colorado, the aircraft carrier Lexington and the three new destroyers, Cushing, Drayton and Lamson, as well as the | minesweepers Tanager and Swan and the Coast Guard cutter Itasca, to- gether with attending planes, which will comb the area with Howland Island as the hub in an effort to locate and rescue the missing avi- atrix. | Thin, wiry, likable, Admiral Murfin has served from time to time in Wash- ington, where he is well known. He was on duty in the office of naval operations at the Navy Department ‘in 1926. The year following he served as assistant chief of the Bureau of Navigation here and then went to command the battleship West Vir- iginia. In Washington again, Ad- | miral Murfin served as judge advo- | cate general of the Navy—the serv- ice’s senior legal officer—from August 1, 1931, to June 1, 1934. Commanded Battleship Division. From the National Capital he went to the command of Battleship Divi- sion 3 of the Battle Force. Then in October, 1935, he became commander in chief of the United States Asiatic fleet with the full rank of admiral. Last November he left his assignment as the Navy's senior officer in the Orient to become the commandant of | the Navy's largest shore base {n the | Pacific area—a strategic point from which the search for Amelia Earhart is proceeding. A gunnery expert, Admiral Murfin has a legal cast of mind, his asso- ciates say. He is not a flyer him- self but has had command of air- THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. o THURSDAY, JULY 8, 1937. - Former D. C. Resident Directs: Navy’s Hunt for Miss Earhart REAR ADMIRAL MURFIN. planes as part of his fleet. Extremely active, golf is his hobby. He was particularly popular in the Crient and had among his close friends the commanders in chief of the British, French, Japanese and Chinese navies. He is & man who makes friends and hoids them. Wife Noted as Hostess. Admiral Murfin's wife is a noted hostess in the Navy and is considered outstanding among women of the service, where entertaining is a fine art. During the World War Admiral Murfin had charge of the United States mine bases in Scotland and played a large part in laying the northern mine barrage to hem in the German fleet and submarines in the North Sea. He not only established the necessary bases but carried | through and administered the indus- trial machine required to make them | function successfully. For his World War service he received the Distin- guished Service Medal. Admiral and Mrs. Murfin have one child, a daughter, Winifred. The ad- | miral wa$ born in Ohio Furnace, | Ohio, April 13, 1876. Weather (Continued From First Page.) pected to range approximately the | same or perhaps higher than today. | Forecaster C. L. Mitchell said there ‘was no prospect of appreciably cooler weather here for sometime. : “We are just now getting a taste |of what they have been having in the West for a long time.” he said, Those treated for heat prostration at local hospitals yesterday were Roy | Lowery, 76 Pierce street; Preston W. | Wasner, 1767 Willard street; Theodore Maudris, 1722 Monroe court. An- napolis, and Henry Thomas, colored, 1135 First street. 106 Degrees in Kansas. Phillipsburg, Kans., recording 106 | degrees, was the Nation's hotspot on the official weather map yesterday. Four deaths were attributed to the heat in New England, according to Associated Press dispatches. ‘Michigan ‘repnrted eight heat fatalities, Min- | Alaska Visitor, ‘ Victim of Heat, | Longs for Home | | Mrs. Louise Bonsky, 44, a vis- | | itor from Alaska, collapsed from | | the heat today while having lunch in a restaurant at Fifth and D streets. Revived by Emergency Hos- pital ambulance physicians, Mrs. Bonsky vowed that she would return to Alaska as soon as pos- sible. She is stopping here at 818 North Capitol street. nesota and Nebraska two each, and Ohio one. Indiana reported numerous prostrations, one of which contributed to one fatality. Thousands sought surcease from the heat at beaches in New York and Chicago. New York's 92 degrees yes- terday was its hottest weather this year. Chicago sweltered in tempera- tures that ranged from 90 near Lake Michigan to 97 at the Municipal Air- port. It was Chicago's warmest July 7 in 63 years. The unrelenting sun provoked no complaints from corn belt farmers. The hot, dry weather was made to order for corn after the excessive rain- shoulder-high corn in many Missouri, Towa and Illinois fields raised hopes for a bumper crop. Unofficial readings of more than 100 | degrees were common in many Middle | Western cities yesterday. 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Dak, 96: Mil- waukee, Minneapolis and Philadelphia, 94: Albany and Boston, 92, and Pitts- | burgh, 90. Put 3,800 in Hunt | For Earhart Plane _— | Some 3,800 officers and enlisted men | of the Navy and Marine Corps will be | engaged in the search for Amelia Ear- hart in the Howland Island vicinity, the Navy Department revealed today, | and there will be many more “listen- ; ing in" for radio signals ashore and afloat and generally lending a hand. | Officials here, said the battleship Colorado, the first large naval ship on the scene, carries scme 1,200 enlisted men and around 90 officers. The air- | craft carrier Lexington, another of the “rescue fleet,” has some 1800 enlisted | men and upward of 150 officers. Each | of the three destroyers accompanymg' the Lexington carries around 125 men, and each of the two minesweepers. Tanager and Swan, has 50 men aboard. Then there is the Coast Guard cutter, Itasca, which has been placed under the jurisdiction of the Navy for the duration of the current | search, and has aboard eight officers | and 94 enlisted men. | DRASTIC REDUCTIONS These are from our regular stock and are being offered at cost and bel early for the best selecti 25.00 SPORT SUIT All-wool 3-pc. suits for all-year wear. fars and shorts. _REDUCED TO 29.50 ALL-WOOL SU 3-pc. suits for all-year wear; regulars, shorts, longs and stouts. REDUCED TO 29.50 GABARDINES Fine for Summer wear. 3-pc. All Regulars, shorts and longs. REDUCED TO 39.50 ALL-WOOL SUITS The very‘ finest worsteds, regulars, shorts and longs. REDUCED TO 20.00 TROPICAL WORSTEDS Just the thing for hot weather, regulars, shorts and stouts. REDUCED TO 14.50 TROPICAL WORSTEDS Extremely low priced. Gray and ton sport models. Regulars only. REDUCED TO No Charges—All Sales Final YOUDIESe. 1342 G St. N.W. | Koonce was forced down off the Cali- | hours in the water. | | problem in Chile. EARHART SIGNALS PUZZLE TO OFFICER Capt. A. C. Koonce, Once Forced Down, Mystified by Source of Power. Capt. Allen C. Koonce, now attached to the aircraft squadron of the Fleet Marine Force at Quantico, Va., who was forced down in a land plane on the Pacific Ocean in September, 1932, sald today he is puzzled by Amelia Earhart’s ability to send radio signals, as has been reported. “I don’t see where she gets her power to use her radio,” Capt. Koonce asserted. Navy planes are equipped with emergency provisions, water, rubber boats and flotation gear on land planes, Capt. Koonce explained, say- ing that he presumes Miss Earhart is similarly provided. He has hopes that the aviatrix and her navigator, Fred- erick J. Noonan, will be rescued. Recalls Own Experience. Recalling his own experience, Capt. Koonce said he was serving aboard the aircraft carrier U. 8. S. Lexington. He was attached to V. S. 15 and was forced down in the Pacific after run- ning out of gas. He said he was afloat for four hours in his land plane when he saw a tug on the horizon and sig- naled with smoke candles and a Very pistol, which shoots off flares. Capt. fornia coast. Capt. Albert D. Cooley, now at- tached to the Bureau of Aeronautics, Navy Department, was in the group forced down at sea with Capt. Koonce. On duty now at the Naval Academy, Annapolis, is Capt. Edward C. Dyer, United States Marine Corps, who, | Capt. Koonce recalled today, was in | the group, and he was down for 20 Landing on Water. | Maj. Field Harris, who is on duty in the Marine Corps aviation group in the Bureau of Aeronautics, Navy | Department, and who also served | aboard the U. S. S. Lexington, but at | a later time than the others, said to- | day that land planes make a very good landing on water. | “If Miss Earhart's plane is afloat| the planes from the Lexington will| find her.” Maj. Harris declared. | From time to time, Maj. Harris | said, planes from the Lexington are | ! forced down at sea, but invariably are | rescued. They are overhauled and put | back into service with comparatively | little trouble, he said. S o | Rising living costs are becoming a | Months Straight THOMPSONS DAIRY DECATUR 1400 SALE ow cost prices. Come on. o $'| 6.85 51 6.85 326.75 $1 3.45 ‘39.85 shades. single-breasted CHANGE N RADIO IMPERILS EARHART Aviatrix’s Lack of 500-Kilo- cycle Transmitter Hin- dered Early Search. Out of a welter of conflicting opin- ions by radio experts concerning the authenticity of distress calls and “car- rier wave” signals supposedly received from the Earhart-Noonan plane since it was forced down in the Pacific last Friday, and from a study of the mes- sages exchanged by the Coast Guard cutter Itasca with the ship while it was still in the air, there emerged yes- terday a tragic picture of technical slip-ups that are believed to have brought the flyers to grief at a time when the last of their fuel supply was being consumed and they were striving desperately to locate their tiny, mid-ocean objective of Howland Island. Chief among these was Miss Ear- hart's inabiiity to communicate with the Itasca, as repeatedly requested by the cutter, on the standard steamship frequency of 500 kilocycles—the only transmitting wave length assigned to her on which it was possible for the Itasca’s radio direction-finder to take a bearing. Up to the Coast Guard's release on Monday of the Itasca-Ear- hart radio log, officials of this service apparently were still unaware that she had scrapped her 500-kilocycle com- munication channel before starting around the world. Her reason for dispensing with a transmitting wave length universally used by ships at sea which might easily have spelt the difference be- tween success and failure, if not be- tween life and death, on her long flight across the Pacific, was ex- plained by Miss Earhart before her take-off from Miami as being due to the fact that neither she nor Capt. Fred Noonan, her navigator, were competent to send and receive mes- sages in radio code. This is used exclusively in the 500-kilocycle band. Miss Earhart decided to daspend en- tirely on her two radio telephone fre- quencies—6,210 kilocycles for day transmission and 3,105 at night. “‘Our radio set is equipped to trans- mit either voice or code,” she said, “but if we wanted to use the 500- kilocycle channel it meant that we would have to take along a 250-foot trailing wire antenna which would have to be reeled out after every take- off and reeled in before each landing. If either Fred or I could use the key, it would be different, but, since we can’t the antenna would be just one more thing to worry about and we've got plenty of things now to keep us busy, what with watching feul-con- sumption gauges, winding up the wheels and letting them down again for a landing and the hundred and one other things a pilot has to re- memebr during landings and take- offs.” That the Itasca’s commander was ignorant of this fateful decision is readily apparent both from the text of his official report to Washington and from the note of irritation that its tersely factual style does not wholly disguise. He says: Earhart that the ship's direction- finder frequency range is 550 to 270 kilocycles. The Itasca ship direc- tion-finder manned at 7:25 am. and Earhart was repeatedly requested to transmit on 500 kilocycle to enable e. Closes vSauturJays “On June 28 the Itasca advised | ship to cut her in. She neither ac- knowledged nor complied, though the {tasca’s advice indicates plane's ability to transmit on 500 kilocycles.” The statement seemingly is based on the original radio set-up in Miss Earhart’s Wasp-motored Lockheed Electra monoplane, a traveling wire antenna having been carried and the 500-kilocycle channel used frequently and to good advantage by Capt. Harry Manning, Miss Earhart'’s navigator- radio operator on her original round- the-world fight attempt. Thiz got under way from Oakland, Calif., in March and ended a few days later when a wheel collapsed and partially wrecked her plane as she was taking off from Honolulu for Howland Island. Even the Western Electric Co., makers of Miss Earhart's 50-wait transmitter and her all-wave receiving set, still were under the impression long after her disappearance that she was able to communicate on three fre- YOUR ONLY REGRET —After you have experienced all the Joys, Comforts and Economy (with so little trouble) that - MODERN HEAT brings into your home, will be that you did not have it Winters ago. The United States OIL BURNER —is bullt to endure. every part is rugged aquiet. clean . , . per- fect combustion. no waste! ASK US FOR DETAILS MAURICE J. OLBERT 2 Heating Homes for Over 30 Years 1908 M St. N.W. ... Dlst. 3626 T at *% A—3 quencies and were as mystified as the Coast Guard over her failure to “come in” on 500 kilcycles as requested. 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