Evening Star Newspaper, January 29, 1939, Page 1

Weather Forecast Rain today and tonight, probably ending tomorrow morning, slightly warmer to- day; colder tomorrow, much colder to- morrow night. Temperatures yesterday —Highest, 38, at 4 p.m.; lowest, 21, at 5 am. Full report on page A-2. Full Associated Press News and Wirephotos Sunday Morning and Every Afternoon. WASHINGTON, D. €, JANUARY 29, 1939 —120 PAGES. Star (= UP) Means FIVE CENTS Asociated Pres. [N WASHINGTON AND SUBURBES WITH Entered as second class matter post office, Washingten, D. C. Chamberlain Calls on Hitler For Contribution to Peace in EN CENTS ETSEWHFRE W. P. A. Bill Passes Senate With Drastic ‘Politics’ Restrictions No. 1,767--No. 34,606. » l & Reichstag Likens His Stand To That Taken By Roosevelt BACKXGROUND— New tension in Europe has been created by Germany's eye- ing Soviet Russia’s Ukraine and Italy’s loud clamor for French territorial concessions. Prime Minister Chamberlain went to Rome January 11-1¢4 for conver- sations with Premier Mussolini. France and Italy have recently- been increasing their armed forces in Africa and the Red Sea. (Text of Mr. Chamberlain’s address on page A-9.) By the Associated Press. BIRMINGHAM, Jan. 28.—Prime Minister Chamberlain tonight called on “others” to contribute to the world’s peace in what was regarded as an invitation for Reichsfuehrer Hitler to help the appeasement cause when he addresses the Ger- man Reichstag Monday. Mr. Chamberlain stressed Brit- ain's growing strength for defense in a speech before a home-town audience of businessmen and told of international misgivings over the future. He likened his stand to that of President Roosevelt in a declara- tion of inevitable resistance to ef- forts to rule by force. “We have so often defined our attitude that there can be no mis- understanding about it, and I feel that it is time now that others should make their contribution to a result which would overflow with | benefits to all,” the Prime Minister declared. Air Full of Suspicions. “Today the air is full of rumors and suspicions which ought not to Address Tomorrow 10,000 Hunger-Mad Refugees 'Stumble Exhausted Into France Van of Million too Weary to Eat, too Hungry to Sleep; Babies Born in Flight By CHARL 'S S. FOLTZ, JR., Associated Press Forogn Correspondent N | PERPIGNAN, France (near the Spanish frontier), Jan. 28.—Thou- | sands of panic-stricken, hunger-crazed Spanish refugees stumbled across the French frontier today, fleeing before an insurgent army sweeping ! northward through Catalonia almost without opposition. These thousands, however, were only a pitiful vanguard of a horde estimated by Spanish government authorities at almost 1.000,000 who | were being pushed toward the frontier by the insurgent advance. For them it was the end of a week of tortured flight from homes | smashed in the civil war—end of a week which had seen the govern- ment’s resistance collapse with an almost unbelievable suddenness after two and a half years of warfare. One of the greatest mass migrations of history was under way. Border authorities at Le Perthus dropped the chain across a gateway through the Pyrenees Mountains, admitting throngs into France. Sob- bing with relief, hundreds of women and children and old men hurled | themselves on the border guards. Many collapsed in the snow, huddling together against the sides of buildings to protect their §canli1y clad bodies from a biting wind. They E— — E= “»were too weary to eat, too hungry to sleep. Others grabbed feverishly at great FUEhrer Expeded L hunks of hread handed out by emer- | gency relief kitchens and gnawed at To State Attitude e | . . On Big Questions There were a few mothers carry- | Importance Is Attached ing babies which had been born along the roadside while great guns y Veering of Reich olitical interest roared in the distance and war- planes dropped their loads of bombs nearby. There were young Cala- lonian girls prematurely aged, their B mud. P By the Associated Press. BERLIN, Jan. Hitler. celebrating frontier today. About half were k“legal" refugees passed by the 28 —Chancellor | French boarder control machinery. six years of | The others crossed the frontier tattered rags smeared with freezing | An estimated 10.000 crossed the | be allowed to persist. victory and surrounded by Nazi| “For peace could only be en-|.oeantry, on Monday will tell a| . dangered by such a challenge S yajiing world from the Reichstag | was envisaged by the President of | joiirym where Germany stands in the United States in his New Year | .. European struggle for power. | message, namely, a demand to dom- "~ Great importance is attached to | inate the world by force. the event because it comes in the | “That would be a demand which, | very middle of what appears to| as the President indicated and I be a momentary veering of German | myself have already declared, the|political interest from Eastern democracies must inevitably resist.| Europe to Western Europe and along smugglers’ trails in the snow- covered Pyrenees through the 6,000- foot-high pass. Prat de Molo, 25 miles west of Le Perthus. Many Deserters Found. French frontier guards found many government deserters who brought their arms across the fron- tier. They were disarmed and placed under heavy guard until the government at Paris decides what | McCormack Urges Recognition by U. S. Of Franco Regime Bay State Representative Cites Rebel Strength In Letter to Hull By the Associated Press. Representative McCormack., Dem- ocrat, of Massachusetts, in a letter to Secretary of State Hull, urged vesterday that the United States recognize the regime of Gen. Fran- cisco Franco as “the government preferred by the Spanish nation.” “Occurrences during these days in the civil war in Spain remove all doubt as to the inability of the Bar- celona government, sometimes re- ferred to as the popular front gov- ernment, to exercise political juris- “But I cannot believe that any| such challenge is intended, for the | consequences of war for the peoples ‘ on either side would be so grmje‘ that no government which has their | interests at heart would lightly em- bark upon them.” ! There have been fears in some | quarters that Hitler would voice | before the Reichstag colonial or | other demands which, in connection with Italian clamor for French ter- ritory and Spanish insurgent suc- cesses, would heighten Europe’s ten- sion. Hitler often has used the Reichstag as a sounding board for his ambitions. Dealing With Governments. Earlier in his address Mr. Cham- berlain said he believed the French, German, Italian and British people | wished to live in friendship and un- derstanding with each other and| settle their differences, if they have anw, by discussion and not force. He added, however: “I do not exclude the possibility that these feelings of the peoples may not always be shared by their governments and I recognize that it is with governments and not peoples - that we have to deal.” Mr. Chamberlain’s address, be- fore the Birmingham Jeweler's As- sociation, looked ahead to a critical week which may show plainly whether the world faces war or peace. It was relayed through five British Broadcasting Corp. stations, covering'| the United Kingdom. and six short wave transmitters reaching all the world. A condensed version was broadcast in German to Central Europe. First Talk Since Rome V. 'The address was the first Mr. Chamberlain had made since his January 11-14 mission to.Rome, in which he and Premier Mussolini ac- | quainted each other with their views on post-Munich problems. He paid tribute to Mussolini’s aid in bringing peace out of the September war scare; said that without his co- operation “I do not believe peace could have been saved,” and an- swered critics of his Rome journey by declaring: “We did not go to Rome to make bargains, but to get to know Italian | statesmen better, to ascertain by personal discussion what was their | point of view and to make sure that they understood ourselves. * * * ‘We accomplished that * * *” . Mr. Chamberlain took up point by point Britain’s rearmament program and described progress by the army, navy and air force, which he said was more rapid daily. He explained that | in the year ending March 31, Britain will have added 60 new ships to the navy. The royal air force, he said, “is going ahead at an equally remark- able rate.” Last September, he said, “every- one knows” that “certain deficiencies were disclosed” in anti-aircraft de- . fenses. Now, he added, the position is better, “not only as regards the increase of guns and accessories, but also in the organization for direct- ing and manning them.” Dr. Clarence T. Wilson Reported Near Death By the Associated Press. PORTLAND, Oreg., Jan. 22.—Dr. Clarence True Wilson, 66, interna- tionally famous prohibitionist and founder of the Temperance Board of the Methodist Church, was near death in a hospital here tonight. Suffering from uremic poisoning, which followed a heart attack and a stroke several years ago, the noted Africa. | Foreign Efforts Disliked. | Nazis have not liked what lhey} interpreted as efforts abroad to! influence the Feuhrer to take a mild tone. An English peace mes- sage signed by 18 leading Britons and broadcast last night in German from London was denounced to- night as an effort to give Germans | the impression that “Greater Ger- many ang its leaders” are the “source of all the unrest under which the world has suffered for years."” | Hitler will speak at 8 pm. (2 pm, | E. S. T) in the red-draped, flag- | bedecked Kroll Opera House to the | world's largest parliament—=855 dep- uties—on the 6th anniversary of | the Nazi Reich, and at 11 pm. he will review from his chancellery balcony a repetition of a jubilant torchlight parade staged by the | Nazis on their hour of victory Jan- | uary 30, 1933. It is believed almost certain Hitler | in hi$ review of six years of Nazi successes will refer to strained re- lations with the United States, and probably conciliatory passages in this reference. Support for Italy Likely. Important parts of the speech are expected to be devoted to sup- port of Italy's clamor for “justice” in Africa, to the victories of the Spanish insurgents, and to the French attitude in refusing to open the frontier to aid the Barcelona Government. Reassertion of Ger- many's colonial demands also is awaited. The entire country will be be- flagged Moncay. The day will begin with a ceremonious reveille in | army posts and by Nazi storm troops and Elite Guard units at 8 am. At 9 am. Propaganda Min- ister Paul Joseph Goebbels will address Germany's youth. Von Epp Assails Critics Of Reich Colony Claims MUNICH, Jan. 28 (#).—Gen. Franz Ritter von Epp, governor of Bavaria and president of the Reich's Colonial Bund, said today it was a “‘senseless denial of the necessities of life” when Germany's claims for colonies were “identified with an attack on the peace of the world.” Gen. von Epp, striking a theme which many believed would be a part of Adolf Hitler's Reichstag ad- dress Monday, said in a speech that Germany had about reached the limit of economic production, ex- cept through further intensification of efficiency, and that colonies were an urgent necessity. Mother, 12, Given Oxygen After Birth of Baby By the Associated Press. CHICAGO, Jan. 28.—A 12-year- old child-mother whose husband must remain “in exile” until she is 16 gave birth to a 5!2-pound girl today—and then was rushed under an oxygen tent. The girl, Jennie Renello Roia, eloped to Valpgraiso, Ind., last sum- mer and was married to Frank Rota, 24, but Judge Frank E. Bicek or- dered them to live apart because Illinois laws prohibit marriage of girls under 16, even with parental consent. The baby was resuscitated and placed in an incubator. “Maybe now they will let us live together, Frank,” the girl told Rota, an unemployed shipping clerk, at the hospital. Jennie’s parenis, Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Renello, approved the mar- churchman was taken from his sub- urban home to a hospital today. He was unconscious most of the time. riage and the court ruled Jennie to do with them. | (In Paris it was understood | French authorities had decided —in view of the increasing num- ber of Spanish government troops seeking refuge in France—to dis- arm and intern all such men, but not refuse them entry.) These armed soldiers were the! real menace of the situation. De- feated and cut off from heip, they had only one way of escape—into France. In Catalonia there are estimated to be nearly 300,000 government sol- diers, and French authorities said they might attempt to fight their | Asserting the insurgent govern- | way across the border when they | ment had been accepted by “20,000.- found they could no longer resist | 0G0 of the 24.000.000 people of Spain.” the insurgents. | Representative McCormack said it As the first deserters came across | was “logical” to expect other gov- | the border they were asked if they ernments which have not already wanted to go into insurgent Spain. | done so “will now proceed to extend Some few said they did, and were |to it their recognition and establish started back by way of Hendaye. with it friendly relations.” | The great majority, however, said| Representative McCormack said | they preferred concentration camps |he recommended “sympathetic con- | in France. | sideration” by Secretary Hull of Troops Rushed to Border. “steps necessary to be taken at this French authorities rushed between | time for the establishment of diplo- 4,000 and 5,000 troops to the border | matic relations between the Gov- to help control the refugees. The |ernment of the United States and | prefect of the border department, |the government of Spain repre- Raoul Didkowski, was ordered to sented by Gen. Francisco Franco.” | diction as a national government of | Spain,” McCormack wrote. | “On the other hand, more than two years of experience have dem- | | onstrated the ability of the insur- | | gent government to exercise poliu-] cal jurisdiction with order and jus- tice, accompanied by constructive | and humane policies wherever it has had jurisdiction.” | Cites 20,000,000 With Rebels. Representative McCormack's letter was dated January 27, when it was |apparent Barcelona had fallen into Gen. Franco’s hands. |ish President Manuel Azana and let only women and children and old men into France, but he replied | French troops would have to be em- powered to use their guns if men of fighting age also were to be barred. The French troops deployed along | the bottom of the mountains of the unmarked Pyrenees frontier, where they disarmed deserters who crossed | into France. Late today the road on the Span- ish side of the frontier at Le Perthus | was blocked for six miles with a triple line of trucks, cars and wagons abandoned by their drivers, | who trudged the rest of the way to | France with whatever they could carry. From the heights at Le Perthus the road from Figueras, 15 miles to the south, was jammed with a moving stream of refugees afoot which extended to the horizon. Above were clouds of smoke from a thousand refugee camp fires. No Room for Cars. i No cars traveled the road. There was not a foot of highway left open for miles. The son-in-law of Span- the chief of the presidential proto- col, with a Spnnjsh deputy, tried (See REFUGEES, Page A-5.) Grand Coulee'Dam Area Menaced by Huge Slide By the Associated Press. GRAND COULEE, Wash., Jan. 28. —A gigantic slide, involving more than 2,000,000 cubic yards of earth on the west shore of the Columbia River, threatened the highway, rail- way and buildings at Grand Coulee Dam today. The slippage, between the dam and the engineer's town, a short dis- tance down river from the dam, spreads in a wide triangle from a point high above the dam site high- way and extends to the surface of the river where it is about 2,000 feet wide. In the last few days the mass has dropped 5 feet at some places. Grant Gordon, Reclamation Bu- reau engineer-geologist, who created an ice dam to halt the famous mil- lion-yard mud slide at the opposite end of the dam two years ago, is di- recting the opening of a 200-foot shaft in an effort to trace the source of water which is believed to be causing the slide. Mr. Gordon halted the last major | 1s now about to begin in Spain.” | of the absence of Chairman McRey- “To extend this recognition at this time is the acceptance of the de facto status of that government and cannot fairly be interpreted by | any other nation as an unfriendly act,” he wrote. | “Indeed, I feel that the interests of American institutions and of rep- | resentative government require that | we neglect no opportunity to exer- cise in a friendly manner our in- fluence during the period of recon- | struction that from all appearances | | | Congressmen Decline Comments. | ‘The McCormack proposal aroused no immediate reaction among his congressional colleagues. Members of the House Foreign Affairs Com- pittee declined comment. Representative Luther Johnson, Democrat, of Texas said the com- mittee would hold its first meeting of the session Tuesday, but because nolds, who is recuperating from illness, no controversial measures would be considered. Representa- tive McCormack told Secretary Hull it was “peculiarly important that our Government be at all times in friendly communication with the government of Spain” because of Spain’s historic connection with South America. “The people of Spain and their government because of like tradi- tions and language have always been in close cultural communion with the peoples and the govern- ments of other American republics,” he said. “It will doubtless be a policy of the government of Spain in the future to promote and foster these cultural relationships.” Problem for U. S. Officisls. Gen. Franco’s capture of Barce- lona poses for admisintration offi- cials what may be one of the most important questions of American Aoreign policy this year: “What effect will a Franco vic- tory in Spain have on American interests in Latin America?” Some officials tentatively have reached the conclusion such a vic- tory might: 1. Promote German and Italian influence in Latin America and enlarge their trade. 2. Enable Germany and Italy to obtain flying bmses such as the Canary Islands and (through their (See McCORMACK, Page A-3) —— slide by sinking refrigeration pipes can be remarried to Rota in Illinols —when she's 16. ) into the sliding maas of loose earth and freexing it solid. [ Radio Programs, Page F-3 Complete Index, Page A-2 A Frightened by Lights Of Searchers, Girl, 4, Hides All Night By the Associated Press. CONROE, Tex. Jan. 28.— Four-year-old Betty Jean Gundy was recovering from exposure today after an all-night dis- appearance almost under the feet of . approximately 500 searchers. Betty Jean became lost while trying to follow dogs chasing rabbits. She worst by tearfully explained her fright had been caused all those men with lights.” “But every time they got near me I hid in the bushes and staved right quiet,” she said. Chile May Burn Quake Ruins fo Bar Threatened Disease 20,000 Bodies Believed Buried in Tons of 2 Women, II!, Saved 'As Fire Destroys Historic Home Thorpland, Burns as Hundreds Look On (Picture on Page A-2.) Two ill women were carried to safety last night as historic old County's oldest Colonial homes and | once the center of Snow Hill Farm, went up in flames. They were Mrs. Parry Boswell, wife of the owner, who is one of the county’s leading citizens, and Mrs. Hannah Waffle, Cherry Valley, N. Y., mother of Mrs. Eenjamin F. Brandon, who, with her husband, lived at the Boswell's home. Prince Georges Showplace, | Thorpland. one of Prince Georges | Dies Commitee To Get $100,000 To Carry On Chairman Assured Of Added Funds For Probe BACKGROUND— Dies committee was set up by House last year to investigate subversive activities in this coun- try. Methods of group in the handling of witnesses were as- sailed by President Roosevelt after testimony criticizing Gov. Frank Murphy's handling of Michigan sit-down strikes of 1937. Chairman Dies frequently was embroiled in controversies with Secretaries Ickes and Per- kins. By G. GOULD LINCOLN. The House Committee on Un- 1American Activities is about to be continued for another year, with $100,000 put at its disposal by the House, Representative Dies, Democrat, of Texas, chairman of this committee | which stirred the ire of the Roose- velt administration during the last campaign, has been given assurance [that a special rule providing for | continuance of his committee will be ! reported by the House Rules Com- | mittee either this week or next. The Rules Committee is slated to | hold a meqting tomorrow, and it is | possible action on the Dies resolu- | tion will be taken then. House Democratic leaders, it was learned last night, have come to the conclusion that a resolution to ex- tend the life of the Dies Committee cannot be headed off. For that reason, it is begleved the contest | built in 1747, and an addition con- against the co..cnuing resolution has practically been abandoned. Measure Is Compromise. The resolution which will be re- ported is in a measure a compromise, although Representative Dies does | not regard it as such. His original It was Mrs. Boswell and Mrs. ‘Waffle, both in bed with grippe on the second floor, who heard the crackle of the fire in the attic walls between the original Thorpland, structed in 1854, Broken Stone BACKGROUND— Devastating earthquake struck Southern Chile Tuesday night, totally destroying’ town of Chil- lan and razing large part ¢f im- | portant coast city of Concepcion. | Full reports of number of dead | have not been possible in view | of difficulty of excavating ruins. i (First Wirephotos of Quake on Page A-3.) By EDMUND A. CHESTER, Associated Press Foreign Correspondent. | CHILLAN, Chile (by airplane courier to Santiago), Jan. 28— Government officials battling hunger | and disease in the wake of Tuesday’s disastrous earthquake gave serious consideration tonight to a plan to evacuate the city within 24 hours and consume the ruins by fire. To those who saw the tired, grief- | stricken men digging in the debris | of this former city of 40,000, trying hour after hour to retrieve bodies | from beneath tons of stone, the plan | to burn the ruins seemed the | sensible if not the only way out. Upward of 10000 bodies are buried in debris in the very center of the city and rescuers have been able to uncover only about 1500 since the quake leveled Chillan | Tuesday night. If 5,000, instead of | 500, workers were employed for full time they would not be able to remove the bodies for a month. (Chilean officials in Santiago said a total death toll of 24,000, of which 20,000 was in Chillan alone, was indicated in dis- patches from the quake-stricken region.) Stone Tightly Wedged. Thousands upon thousands of tons of stone are strewn about, much of ‘it wedged so tightly that dynamiting would seem to be the only means of loosening it to per- mit digging by hand. Meanwhile the danger of pesti- lence increased and the problem of food and water was still serious. Medioal men worked day and night to prevent outbreak of disease, but there were thousands of bewildered injured persons wandering about the streets with injuries only half dressed or not dressed at all. Many persons were wearing filthy bandages which they failed to have changed after receiving first aid Wednesday. The writeg has talked to several hundred persons in the last 24 hours, many of them among the once wealthiest in the area, but he failed to find one who expressed a desire to continue to go on with life in Chillan. There was none of the usual “out of the ruins will grow a bigger city” talk. These people are definitely despondent and see very little fu- ture for themselves here. Center of Rich Section. Chillan is the center of a rich agricultural section, but even this year’s crops seemed doomed because thousands of farm hands have been killed, wounded or evacuated, leav- ing an inadequate force for the harvest. B The work of evacuation already has begun, and the government is taking steps to prevent entry into Chillan of any person now outside. It became evident that first re- ports of -the number of dead in this quake area of Southern Chils were erestimates. There is little ( A- | | carried them to the first floor en- | at 7 o'clock last night. Mr. Boswell and Mr. Brandon | regolution provided for continuance of the committee for two years, | with $150,000 to be placed at the committee’s disposal. “The resolution providing for con- tinuance of the Committee on Un- v American Activities will extend the Water Supply Lacking. life of the committee for just this Because of lack of a water supply, | year,” said Mr. Dies. “Thers was fire-fighting units in lower Prince bpposmon to having the committee Georges were unable to save the continue into 1940—an election show place of Southern Maryland, year. But I say it makes no dif- which last year was one of the homes | ference, that when January, 1940, that attracted visitors in the gar- | olls ‘round, the life of the com- den tours of April, 1938. It is lo- | mittee will again be extended.” cated on the Largo-Upper Marlboro| The Texas Representutive pre- road two miles from Upper Marl- | gjcted that when the resolution is boro. : = | brought to a vote in the House, All three wings of the residence | there will not be more than 30 votes burned to the ground within a few | cast against it. hours after the fire was discovered Only the| Dies Denies Charges. brick foundation and framework re- | He denied that the commjittee's mained. Flames lighted the sky for | investigation was directed in any miles around and brought to the|way against the administration, al- scene hundreds of motorists. | though New Dealers, including the Mrs. Brandon was ascending the | President, have assailed the com- trance of the house and they were sent by ambulance to 3300 Rhode Island avenue, Mount Rainier, where Mr. Boswell owns an apart- ment house. steps with a tray of food for her mother when she heard Mrs. Bos- well and Mrs. Waffle call “fire.” Mr. Boswell almost had the fire put out at one time with an ex- | tinguisher. Fire companies from about a dozen lower Prince Georges County towns were summoned to the scene. They soon exhausted their supply of chemicals. There was no water line at the home, and each truck made repeated trips to neighboring creeks, some as far as 4 miles away, to bring back water in buckets. Mr. Boswell, Mr. Brandon and the (See FIRE, Page A-4) o Frankfurter.Will Take Court Seat Tomorrow By the Associated Press, Felix Frankfurter came to the Capital yesterday ready to take his seat on the United States Supreme Court tomorrow. The 56-year-old law professor, who taught at Harvard since 1914, will take the oath of office at the out- set of the Monday session. Justice Frankfurter has rented temporarily a furnished house in the 3600 block of Prospect avenue N.W., in Georgetown. LY | mittee’s methods. Mr. Dies insisted that the New Dealers had been foolish to take such a position against the committee since it was | interesting itself only in un-Ameri- |can activities, particularly the ac- | tivities of Communists in this fcoumry. =l “They (the New Dealers) have attacked the committee and ine” | said Mr. Dies. “I have fought back. I have used their own tactics, I have | gone to the people, and 85 per cent |of the people are with the com- | mittee.” Chairman Dies and his committee summer because they permittad witnesses to testify disparagingly about Frank Murphy, then Governor of Michigan, seeking to align the Governor with Communists. Since then Mr. Murphy has be- come Attorney General. The De- partment of Justice, under his di- rection, s going into the matter of un-American activities, but Repre- sentative Dies insists the depart- ment is not getting very far and is largely interesting itself in the witnesses who appeared before the Dies committee. The Texas Representative believes "(See UN-AMERICAN, Page A-3) Report of Roosevelt-Garner Relief Feud Hit By the Associated Press, Reports of differences between President Roosevelt and Vice Presi- dent Garner cver the amount of the emergency relief appropriation were minimized in the Senate yesterday by ‘Senator Bankhead, Democrat, of Alabama. “I am at a loss to understand why some of the newspapers assert that there was an issue here upon this question between the President and the Vice President,” declared Senator Bankhead. “It may be true, but I have seen no evidence of it. I have not heard the Vice President at any time ex- press his opinion upon this subject. He has certainly not here in any open way, where I have been in cir- culation around the cloakrooms or on the floor or in the lobbies, made any open effort to line up or to in- duce or to persuade any member of this body to vote any particular number of dollars into the relief measure.” by Bankhead The Senate followed the House Friday in rejecting the President's request for $875,000,000 and voted instead for the House-approved fig- ure of $725,000,000. - There were reports Mr. Garner had been active in putting across the smaller figure, and Senator Adams, Democrat, of Colorado, who led the floor fight for it, when asked whether he appreciated the help the Vice President had given him, said, “Yes, I do.” With regard to suggestions of anti- administration Democrats that the relief vote amounted to a test of ad- ministration strength in the Senate and gave an indication of the grow- ing influence of economy advocates, Senator Bankhead said: “I cannot conceive that the Presi- dent regards this (relief) question as an issue of principle, as a line of demarcation between supporters of his administration and those who feel unkindly to him. ) were scored by the President last | Fate of Amendments Now Rests With Conferees . BACKGROUND— President Roosevelt encoun- tered first rebuff of current ses- sion of Congress when House several weeks ago cut his request for W. P. A. relief funds from $875,000,000 1o $725,000,000, avoid- ing a roll call on the issue. House was sustained by the Senate Fri- day, the vote being 47 to 46 on a motion to restore the original estimate. By J. A. O'LEARY. The Senate passed the $725,000,000 W. P. A. relief bill last night and sent it to conference carrying a !uries of last-minute amendments, including far-reaching new provi- sions to protect all Government em- ployes from political coercion. The ultimate fate of the anti- political amendments, some of which are designed to safeguard from po- litical pressure not only relief work- ers, but persons paid from any act of Congress, rests with House and Senate conferees who will meet this week. Driving ahead for six hours yes- terday, the Senate rejected several moves to modify the prevailing wage principle now applied to W. P. A. workers, but agreed to these two major changes: A motion by Senator Borah, Re- publican, of Idaho earmarking $15,- 000,000 of the new appropriation for direct relief of needy cases not otherwise provided for on work projects. A proposal by Senator Clark, Dem- ocrat, of Missouri to prevent use of any of the new relief fund for naval or military armaments, except im- provements of housing at military posts. Passed Without Roll Call. Final passage came shortly before 6 p.m. without a roll call, the climax in the relief fight having come Fri- day, when the New Deal went down to defeat, 46 to 47, in its effort to raise the bill to President Roosevelt's estimate of $875,000,000. That vote settled the amount of money for the time being, but op- posing factions in Congress differ as to whether it is all that will be appropriated before June 30, the end of the fiscal year. Leaders of the winning economy group believe $73§,000,000 will prove adequate for the remaining five months, although they have left pro- vision for the President to recom- mend more in the meantime if he states an emergency has arisen. Ad- ministration spokesmen in the Sen- ate say he will have to make such a request some time in March. The sweeping anti-political amend- ments approved by the Senate will overshadow all other issues in con- ference, since the size of the relief fund is now settled. As the bill came from the House two weeks ago, it contained only one brief political ban, to the effect that this appropriation could not be used to pay the salary of any person who hereafter attempts to influence the vote of any relief worker. Senate Asks Restrictions. The Senate struck out that pro- vision and substituted a broad set of restrictions, containing sharp teeth. Brieflly, they would: 1. Make it unlawful for any per- son, directly or indirectly, to promise | employment out of relief funds or any other act of Congress as a re- }ward for political activity, or for support of or opposition to any candidate or any political party in any election. 2. Make it unlawful to deprive, or threaten to deprive, any person of e_mployment out of relief appropria- tions on account of political activ- ity, or because of race, creed or color, or because of support of or opposi- | tion to any candidate or party. This is limited to relief activities. |* 3. Make it unlawful for any one |in an administrative or supegvisory capacity in agencies paid from relief appropriations, to use his official authority or influence to interfere with an election or affect the re- sults thereof. All such persons would retain the right to vote as they please and to express privately | their opinions on all political sub- Jects, but they could take no active part in political management or in political campaigns. This is limited in scope to the relief program. 4. Make it ynlawful for any per- son knowingly to solicit, or knowing- ly be in any manner concerned in soliciting, any assessment or cam- paign contribution for any individ- ual or political party, from any em- ploye paid from relief funds, or other acts of Congress. Heavy Penalties Imposed. Under the Senate bill the prac- tices covered by the first, second and fourth ‘amendments are de- clared to be felonies, punishable by a fint of not to exceed $1,000 or imprisonment for not more than a year, or both. The penalty for violating the third amendment would be immediate removal from office. Senator Adams, Democrat, of Col- orado said last night that, while the amendment relating to cam- paign contributions from Govern- ment workers would not prevent an employe who felt so disposed from voluntarily cotnributing to a political party, it would prohibit any person, whether in or out of public office, from in any manner solicit- ing contributions from those in the service. There was speculation last night as to what effect it might have on political banquets in future, where (Beo W. P, A, Pagge A-5) | 1