The Indianapolis times. [volume], July 07, 1933, Home Edition, Second Section, Image 15

About The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965

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Pant-Jean Toulet
In “Cloekmaker of Souls,” W.
E Collin, the author, has Riven
the reader a brilliant study of
Paul-Jean Toulet, the strangely
gifted poet-novelist of France who
was the friend and translator of
Arthur Machen. It has recently
been published by Claude Ken
dall, New York city.
a a a
BY WALTER D. HICKMAN
WHEN history is in the making
as it now is in Washington.
D. C.. the reading public is turning
to writers and political journalists
who are able to record events and
interpret them without getting on
the bandwagon of any particular
Individual.
A constant close-up view of a na
tional figure often blinds newspaper
men as it is so easy to become en
thusiastic over a candidate for
President.
Even during the war and espe
cially at the close of the conflict
when many writers turned against
President Wilson, their writings
often a opeared to me to be strictly
partisan. It will take years and
years before the proper verdict can
be given of Piesident Wilson.
And so right now, many, many
authors, newspaper men (used in
the sense of reporters) as well as
political journalists are writing
books on President Roosevelt.
The latest to reach my desk is
"On the Trail of the Forgotten
Man," a journal of the Roosevelt
presidential campaign, by James H.
Guilfoyle, well known journalist
and publicist of current political de
velopments.
This book is made more important
because it has an introduction by
Prof. Robert E Rogers of the
Massachusetts Institute of Tech
nology. It is published by the Pea
body Master Printers. Boston, and
sells for $2.
This survey of recent political his
tory really has two heroes. One is
President Roosevelt and the other
is James M. Curley, mayor of
Boston, who "went against his own
political party" to tell the voting
public about the man who would
defend the forgotten man."
Prof. Rogers in his introduction
states. "There is nothing more no
table—and more rare—than courage.
This book is a story of courage. It
has tw'o heroes.
a a a
T sincerely feel that the author of
“On the Trail of the Forgotten
Man'' has honestly, intelligently
and with no partisan feeling au
thentically recorded all the major
steps in convention and out of con
vention which resulted in Franklin
D Roosevelt's nomination.
The space devoted to the Demo
cratic national convention, revela
tions of personal ambitions, the in
fluence of the Hearst newspapers
over the possible choice and the re
portrd activities of Mayor Curley in
"softening” the attitude of the
Hearst newspapers toward a Roose
velt and Garner combination.
The pages devoted to the secret
hotel room conference in Chicago,
where James A. Farley and Louis
McHenry Howe battled possible de
feat and later made victory possible
as far as the nominations were
concerned, are filled with what I
thinks nre facts set in good rep
ortorial "theater."
But more amazing is the way the
author has recorded the unusual
campaign of President Roosevelt
and the work of Mayor Curley. It
seems to me that everything re
corded in these campaign journeys
are true.
The last chapter of the book is
devoted to the action that President
Roosevelt has put into his job since
he took the oath of office.
Here is one deduction of the
author which is very illuminating—
“ This return of beer in less than a
month after the new administration
took office did more than anything
else to inspire the people with con
fidence in the President. For years
the beer loving-public had listened
to vague promises that beer was
coming back until it had become
disgusted."
And probably it will take years
and years for us to accurately place
the value of what Huilfoyle has re
corded but at the present time I am
satisfied with the record as well as
the interpretations.
Read it and be your own judge
an n
In answer to a question—" Please
give me the name of a dependable
literary agent.” I suggest Mathilde
Weil, literary agent at The Writers'
Workshop. Inc., 570 Lexington ave
nue. New f York City. This agency
criticises books, stories, articles and
verse as well as markets them.
Knll Leased Wlr* PerrU-> of
the r nlipfl Pre* Association
U. S. IDENTIFIES
GANG INVOLVED
IN MASSACRE
One Suspect Is Arrested in
Kansas City: Six Others
Are Sought.
HUNT OUTLAW FLOYD
Desperate Killers Are on
List: Machine Gunner
Is Named.
/11l / itrrl /’rr
KANSAS CITY, Mo.. July 7,-The
United States department of justice
and the Kansas City police depart
ment announced today they knew
definitely the identification of the
guns which shot down four peace
officers and an escaped convict in
the Union station massacre here
June 17.
Simultaneously, it wa? learned
that an unidentified suspect had
been arrested. He was apprehended
bv federal agents and deputy sher
iffs and rushed to the Jackson
county jail, where he was held in
communicado.
Charles Arthur 'Pretty Boy)
Floyd, notorious Oklahoma outlaw,
and Harvey Bailey, escaped convict,
who formerly worked with Frank
Nash, the convict slain at the Union
station, were ordered arrested in
warrants issued today by Attorney-
General Homer Cummings in Wash
ington.
Warrants for Others
Warrants also were issued sot
Robert G. Brady, alias Bob Brady;
Ed Davis, alias W. A. Davis; James
Clark, alias Jim Clark, and Wilbur
Underhill, alias Henry Underhill, all
notorius criminals with national
reputations.
Underhill arid Bailey were the
ringleaders in the gang which cap
tured Warden Kirk Prather, two
guards and more than a dozen civi
lians in the spectacular break from
the Kansas penitentiary at Lansing
on Memorial day.
Besides the six for whom warrants
were issued, the department of jus
tice said identification orders would
be issued shortly for Harry J. Gar
ner. Vernon C. Miller and Bernard
Phillips.
Machine Gunner Identified
Miller, a former sheriff and ex
convict in North Dakota, was the
man who handled the machine gun
which shot down the four officers
and Nash, according to T. J.
Higgins, detective chief here.
Higgins said Miller was accom
panied by William Weissman, a
gangster suspected of crimes in
many cities. Weissman was not
mentioned in the Washington or
ders, however.
This omission led to the opinion
here that the federal agents and
city police were working separately
on the case.
The Washington orders also
omitted any word of Mrs. E. B.
Connor of Hot Springs, Ark„ and
Herb Farmer of Joplin. Mo., who,
according to Chief Higgins, engaged
in a series of telephone calls that
enabled the officers to connect
Miller with the crimes
Desperate Killers Involved
The men named in today's orders
are mostly desperate killers, all
capable of planning or executing a
[ wholesale killing such as the one
! which took the lives of William J.
Caffrey, federal agent; W. J.
Grooms and Frank Hermanson, city
detectives; Otto Reed, police chief
at McAlester, Okla., and Nash.
Nash. Bailey, Underhill and Mil
' ler were all connected with the
same gang. Crimes charges against
them include a bank robbery at Ft.
Scott, Kan., for which Bailey was
| sentenced to prison, and the $2,000,-
000 holdup of a bank at Lincoln,
Neb.
"Pretty Boy" Floyd is as ruthless
a killer as ever worked in the mid
dle west, his activities rivaling those
of Jesse James, the Kimes boys, or
the A1 Spencer gang.
Doubt Floyd's Guilt
City police, however, hesitated to
believe Floyd was in the station
massacre, despite the fact that Mrs.
Lottie West, agent of the Travelers'
Aid Bureau, said she saw him at
her desk a few minutes before the
killing, and that the massacre oc
curred only a few hours after Floyd
released a Missouri sheriff and an
insurance man w’hom he had kid
naped. Floyd was only a few miles
from the city when last seen.
Floyd, according to police here
and in Oklahoma, shoots to kill
when he is cornered, but not other
wise.
MOTHER URGES PAROLE
FOR KILLER OF SON
Elkhart Woman Joins in Move to
Free Virgil Decker.
By l ed Pres
WARSAW. Ind.. July 7.—Mrs.
Mary Lovett of Elkhart has joined
the move for a parole for Virgil
Decker, serving a life term at the
Indiana state prison for slaying her
son Leroy.
An Indianapolis law r firm repre
senting Decker said it had received
a letter from the dead boy's moth
er saying she believed Decker should
be given a chance.
The prisoner was 17 at the time
of his conviction in 1921 in Kos
ciusko county.
Doug-Mary Break Recalls Memories of Days When Romance Budded
BY JI’LIA BLANSHARD
XEA Service Writer
XTEW YORK. July 7.—Head
x lines on the Douglas Fair
banks-Marv Pickford divorce
bring back vivid memories of war
days of 1917-18. when they, with
Charlie Chaplin, were selling Lib
erty bonds in New York. ... It
was on this tour that the romance
started. . . . Both then were
married to other mates. . . .
Mary Pickford sold one of her
famous gold curls, then the sym
The Indianapolis Times
VICTORY HERE IN WAR ON DIPHTHERIA
Herculean Labors of Devoted Physicians at Last Bring Success
Dramatic have beer, the battles of medi
cine against the mysterious—against the
unseen foes of the race. William Engle.
Times Special Writer, recounts some of
these thrilling conquests in a series of
articles of which this is the first
BY WILLIAM ENGLE
Times Special Writer
NEW YORK, July 7.—The doc
tor eased the hypodermic
needle home. Small Mary Mc-
Dermott winced. That was this
summer. She was New York's
millionth.
The doctor, William H. Park,
head of the city's bacteriological
research laboratories, who in the
dark ages inoculated the first,
drew the needle out of the child's
arm. and he thought (character
istically not of his qyn mighty
contribution to the long fight) of
a cablegram he got in 1891:
"DIPHTHERIA ANTITOXIN A
SUCCESS. BEGIN TO PRODUCE
IT. BIGGS."
And he thought of one who long
ago was young, and a dreamer,
named Friedrich Loeffler.
Friedrich Loeffler saw the chil
dren dying. As he worked in the
laboratory of the great Robert
Koch in Berlin in the early 'Bos,
fifty out of every hundred stricken
with diphtheria choked, and grew
blue, and by and by died. No one
knew what made diphtheria the
scourge of childhood.
Loeffler set out to learn. He be
gan to examine the throats of
children dying of diphtheria. He
examined the throats of the dead.
Hundreds he w'orked over. And
then he found a germ. With
methods just then devised by
Koch, he demonstrated that an
infinitesimal rod-shaped organism
—he called it the diphtheria ba
cillus—was the cause of the
blight."
tt tt tt
DR. PARK, as he stood this
spring beside Minnie, the
millionth New York child to be
immunized, thought, too, of a
hatchet-faced, young zealot, sal
low and bearded, named Emile
Roux.
Emile Roux also saw the chil
dren dying. Over Paris, that year,
1888, a cloud of diphtheria lay and
the Children's hospital was dread
ful with the sound of children
choking.
Roux, student of Louis Pasteur,
took up the fight where Loeffler
last it. He began trying to find
out how that fearful, rod-shaped
bacillus killed its victims.
He grew bacilli in beef bouillon
He injected the broth into rab
bits. He saw slow palsy in a few
days creep over them, saw them
die in paralysis—saw them die as
the children died.
Loeffler was right, said Roux;
the bacillus was the killer. But
how did it kill? He did not know'.
Perhaps, he thought, by lodging
in th* vital organs, riddling the
vital organs.
But. that was not so. He ex
amined his dead rabbits and he
found, as Loeffler had found, that
the bacillus did not go to the vi
tal organs.
He did come, though, upon a
clew to the mystery. Since the
bacilli did not permeate the body,
he said, perhaps a poison which
they had produced in his broth
did.
Perhaps a. ooison was the real
factor that brought on the pa
ralysis and death.
a tt a
AT once he was off on a vast,
fanatical campaign to prove
it. It was a slaughter of guinea
pigs and rabbits in a fight to save
babies.
He and his associate, Yersin,
planted diphtheria bacilli in pure
History in 151 Words
Short Text Covers Marvels of Science, Lettered
on Wall at Chicago Fair.
(Copyright, 1933, by Science Service)
CHICAGO, July 7.—The history of science has been written in 151
words of lyric prose and lettered upon the wall of the principal
exhibition room of tne Century of Progress Hall of Science here for visit
ors to read this summer.'
The text, written by Dr. Henry Crew, formerly professor of physics
at Northwestern university,-and now head of the division of basic sciences
of the Century of Progress, is as follows:
Pythagoras named the cosmos; Euclid shaped geometry . . . Archi
medes physics.
Xenophanes gazing upon the
heavens saw them to be one. Coper
nicus placed central in that one,
our shining sun.
In the motions of physical bodies
Galileo beheld law; thence Newton
and the principle of universal gravi
tation.
Democritus glimpsed the atomic
theory of the structure of matter;
Dalton established it.
When in the nineteenth century
Lamarck and Darwin formulated
the great principle of organic evolu
tion. the science of life first was
seen as a cosmic progression of na
ture.
For the saving of life through in
oculation men give honor to Jenner
and Pasteur.
The century of progress saw Oers
ted and Faraday set forth, and
Maxwell and Hertz advance the
theory of electromagnetism.
Through the labors of Becquerel,
of the Curies and of Thomson, to
our own day are revealed fragile
atoms and electrons.
Plank's kuantum and Einstein's
relativity theory open new epochs
bolos all the sweetness and light
that he-men wanted in their
women, to the highest purchaser
of bonds.
She stood on the landing of the
little stairway leading up from
the back of Lord & Taylor's and
the store was so packed that doors
had to be locked to keep the rest
of the crowd outside. . . .
Afterwards she joined Fair
banks, who did his bit by turning
back somersaults, walking on his
hands and gttng through a iight
INDIANAPOLIS, FRIDAY, JULY 7, 1933
soup, let the culture grow a few
days and filtered out the bacilli.
Now they would see whether
the filtrate still contained the
deadly agent. They shot it into
the rabbits.
It did not kill them. It did
not make them sick. Some even
seemed to feel better than usual.
That was a blow to Roux's the
ory. It staggered him. But he
would not give it up. He began
to give more and more filtered
soup to the rabbits.
Finally, with huge doses, he
killed them. There was a poison,
a diphtheria poison, after all. Now
he was sure. But why he had to
give so much of it to a little ani
mal he did not know.
Then he found he had not let
the bacilli stew long enough in
the broth. The simple fact was
the key to the mystery.
So he stewed them forty-two
days instead of four—and then one.
ounce of the filtered poison was
enough to slay 600,000 guinea pigs.
tt a tt
DR. PARK thought, too. of a
young army doctor, with his
clipped little beard and his feel
ing for poetry, Emil August
Behring.
Diphtheria, Behring saw r , still
soup, let the culture grow a few
he was sure. But why he had tn
So he stewed them forty-two ÜBjL j
enough to slay 600.000 guinea pigs.
l I I \ . INTBOIfuCED _ _ 4|P Jp
|2O i \ j \ J \ A /ABb 7 R - Winston Jarvis
\ , Ave. A looks on.
50 - ■ Dr. Park.
| 'VTOW, again, placards are u
_ , , . ' I -Lx in the subwtays; there still
1870 1880 1890 I9DO • 1910 1920 1930 nced t 0 fight the chlld plagl "
A chart showing the diphtheria in New' Y’ork and Brooklyn since 1870.
was killing the children. For w r hile
Roux had found the real cause he
had not found a cure. Behring,
in Berlin in 1891, began to hunt
for one. In chemistry, he thought,
lay the answer.
Into guinea pigs w'hich he pros
trated with Roux's diphtheria
poison he began to shoot strange
chemicals —chemicals to counter
act the toxin, and thus to save
the animals. But the guinea pigs
kept on dying.
Salts of gold he tried, and
naphthylamine; in all, more than
thirty chemicals; and then he hit
upon iodine tri-chloride of
iodine.
He injected it into his guinea
pigs ill of diphtheria. He saw them
get well. He had a cure for
diphtheria—in guinea pigs.
Moreover, those cured guinea
pigs, he found, became immune to
the disease he had first given
them, for w r hen he tried to give
it to them again, with the filtered
poison, he could not do so; the
poison did not harm them.
Now he w r as on his way. He took
their blood, mjxed it with several
ordinarily fatal doses of poisonous
broth he had made from diph
theria germs, and injected the
new' combination into his well
guinea pigs that had not been
immunized.
Fisher’s Luck
Woman Owes Life to
Doctor's Decision to
Try Angling.
TV/fRS. ELIZABETH BARKLEY,
30. of 1535 College avenue, is
alive today because Dr. Clarke
Rogers, 1911 North Delaware
street, decided to fish at North
Illinois street and White river on
Thursday night.
Despondent over domestic diffi
culties, Mrs. Barkley tried to end
her life by drowning, and was
rescued by Dr. Rogers, who plunged
into the w'ater. brought her to
shore and resuscitated her.
Mrs. Barkleey was wrapped in a
blanket, rushed to city hospital by
police and treated for shock.
She is not in a serious condition.
ning series of fantastic gymnas
tics, and Chaplin, who made a
speech on a platform in front of
the library on Fifth avenue. . . .
Crowds filled the avenue and
Fortieth street, entirely blocking
traffic, and that trio got more ap
plause than the soldiers who pa
raded the preceding day. . . .
a a a
NEXT day, the three again ap
peared. this time on a plat
form built up in front of the
treasury’ building in Wall street.
THEY did not die. It was clear
that the blood from the cured
animals had made the poison he
mixed with it harmless. He had
an antitoxin.
Hundreds of experiments he
made with it. then; he proved
that it even would cure guinea
pigs dying 'of diphtheria. But he
was not sure it would cure chil
dren.
On Christmas day in 1891. in
the Baginsky clinic in Ziegel
strasse, Berlin, a child w r as chok
ing with diphtheria; beneath its
skin they shot the first dose of
antitoxin a human received.
Quickly, after that, the serum
was given to others who seemed
doomed. Some died anyw'ay. But
more got w'ell than had got w'ell
before. In the serum, then, was
the cure, though still unperfected,
for childhood's scourge.
In the next two years it was
vastly improved. It worked such
winders that Dr. Hermann M.
Biggs, health commissioner of
New York, seeing the results in
Berlin and Paris, sent that cable
gram to Dr. Park: ‘Diphtheria se
rum a success. Begin ”
a tt
IN New York then in 1894, with
the population only half what
it is now, 15,000 children a year
EPOCHAL AIR DASH
IS SHOWN IN FILM
National Plane Races Also
Feature News Reel.
Spectacular scenes of the prepa
rations and flight of the fleet of
tw'enty-five seaplanes at Orbetello,
Italy, on the first leg of their dash
across the Atlantic to the Chicago
world's fair, under command of
General Italo Balbo, are to be seen
in the current issue of The Indi
anapolis Times-Universal Newsreel.
Graham McNamee, noted radio an
nouncer and the screen's talking
reporter, describes this and the
other important events in the reel.
Other outstanding news events
reported by McNamee include spec
tacular view's of stunting planes at
the national air races in Los An
geles and. colorful scenes at Campo
bello Island, N. 8.. as President
Roosevelt ends his vacation cruise
and boards the cruiser Indianapolis
for his trip to Washington.
City theaters showing The Times-
Universal reel include the Alamo,
Garfield. How'ard, Rivoli, Roosevelt,
Tacoma, Zaring and Indiana (for
colored), 410 Indiana avenue.
ROB HOME: SWAG $340
Gold Dental Plates, Watch, Brooch
and Ring Are Stolen.
Leonard B. Schick, 376 Drexel
avenue, reported to police today
that gold dental plates valued at
$l9O, a wrist watch, cameo brooch,
and a ring, all valued at more than
$l5O, were stolen from his home
Thursday night by burglars who
entered by a rear window.
. . . Fairbanks did his stuff and
Miss Pickford came forward to
smile and wave and urge every
one to "Buy Bonds." . . .
Her little-girl voice carried no
farther than the front row but
just seeing “America's Sweet
heart" in person was enough in
those long-ago days. . . .
However, when Chaplin's turn
came, there were cries of derision.
. . . Nobody recognized the dap
per young man. in an immacu
late gray suit, soft felt hat. Eng
lish jshoes and no mustache. . . .
w'ere getting diphtheria, 2,000 a
year dying. The serum immedi
ately began to save lives, of
course, but it was not until 1916,
when Dr. Park perfected the
toxin-antitoxin, that science be
gan to indicate that diphtheria
eventually could be completely
wiped out.
Even as late as 1928, 10,000 got
diphtheria and 642 died. Then
the drive to immunize began. The
Milbank fund, with lesser donors,
gave $200,000 for a three-year
campaign.
The department of health con
tributed as much in services of
doctors and others. Commissioner
Shirley W. Wynne organized the
Diphtheria Prevention commission.
An average of 781 children a
year had died of diphtheria here
in the previous ten years; by
1931, the year’s total dropped to
186.
The health department's travel
ing clinics rolled out across the
city—motor vehicles equipped with
the apparatus for immunization;
the baby health stations inocu
lated thousands; health depart
ment doctors in public and pa
rochial schools inoculated more.
In all, during the campaign,
522,144 children were made im
mune.
Admiral for Governor?
Pratt, Out of Navy, May Bring Pungent Person
ality Into Maine Politics.
BY GEORGE ABELL,
Times Special Writer
WASHINGTON, July 7.—Rear Admiral William V. Pratt, who re
cently retired from the navy, is leaving soon for Maine, where it is
reported he will run for Governor.
The veteran, grizzled seadog—intensely popular in the navy—is known
as one of the shrewdest strategists of the service, and friends hold that
this same trait will be displayed in politics. Some think, however, that
he may choose to run for congress instead oi for Governor.
Admiral Pratt's profanity was the
envy of the w'hole navy. When the
orders came out lately for sailors to
stop cussin’, many navy officers
grinned and said: "Humph! What
will Admiral Pratt do now?" The
admiral resigned
—but not on ac
count of the or
der. He had de
cided to quit some
months ago.
With the de
parture of the vet
eran salt, navy
circles lose one of
the most dynamic,
pungent personal
ities that ever trod
a quarterdeck or
caused diplomats
to jump at sound
of his briny ex
pletives. At the
London naval con-
W. V. Pratt
ference Admiral Pratt’s foghorn
voice boomed out frequently—often
not in vain. He usually got what he
wanted.
As chief of naval operations or
guest at a Buckingham palace tea
party, the admiral ever was a strik-
"That isn't Chaplin, ’ was heard
on all sides. . . . Charlie heard
it, too, and stood still a second.
. . . Then he leaned over and
asked somebody for a derby and
somebody else for a cane. . . .
Then he hurried back, dragged
forward one of the tables that
they had been using for bonds,
borrowed a couple of chairs right
out from under officials recording
bond sales, and placed one chair
by either end of the table.
Second Section
Entered as Second Class Mutter
at Eostoffiie. liidlanaimini
NOW, again, placards are up
in the subways; there still is
need to fight the child plague;
more than 600.000 boys and girls
under 10 in New' York have not
been immunized, and 10,000 more
are being born each year.
"There is no reason why they
can not all be safeguarded against
diphtheria,” Dr. Wynne said the
other day. "There has been only
one death from smallpox here
since 1912. and w'hat we are hop
ing is that w'e will be fighting as
successfully against diphtheria as
that by 1935.”
Dr. Park is making the process
of immunization now' even safer
than in the past.
He has perfected an imm iniz
ing agent, toxoid, to take the place
of toxin-antitoxin, and this not
only immunizes more readily, but
often does its work after only two
doses.
Since almost all very young
children are susceptible to diph
theria, Dr. Wynne urges immuni
zation w'hen the baby is from 6 to
9 months old.
In children of school age, the
doctors give the Schick test, dis
covered by the Viennese physician,
Bela Schick, now' of New York.
The child's reaction discloses
whether it is susceptible to diph
theria. If it is, the toxoid is ad
ministered.
Six months Later the Schick test
is given again. It discloses then
whether the toxoid—as almost
inevitably—has made the child
immune.
I
ing figure. He took great pride in
his profession.
"You're a Yankee, aren't you?"
an acquaintance once asked him.
"I'm a sailor first,” replied Pratt.
He is, as a matter of fact, a.
Yankee, born in Belfast. Me., and
with a career whose brief outline
! takes up a half page in Who's Who.
The admiral recalls Belfast when it
| was a bustling shipping center in
I the days of the old Yankee clippers.
There he spent his boyhood listen
ing to tales of China silk races and
South Seas adventures, gaining his
love for the sea—and there he will
; return, perhaps to embark on a
! cruise over stormy political waters.
STARVING MAN FOUND
Homeless Unfortunate Taken to
Hospital by Police.
Suffering from starvation, John
Lindsay, 41. no home, was taken to
city hospital early today from South
Belmont avenue and the Pennsyl
vania railroad. He said he had no
relatives. He had been sleeping in
box cars at night.
,r I''HEN he straightened up; faced
A the crowd, put the derby on
his head, just so: turned his well
shod feet out, in the Chaplin man
ner: twirled his cane a time or
two; walked over to the table in
his inimitable manner, walked
right up over one chair, across
the table, down the other table
and faced the crowd again. . .
Before he even reached the
table they had begun cheering
him. , . . When he faced them
again, they almost their
throats.
SHREWD RAIL
CHIEF REVEALS
HUGE PROFITS
Fascinating Story of High
Finance Told in Senate
Quiz by Clevelander.
SOLD LINE AT HIS PRICE
Outwits Rival Bidders: Deal
for Millions Closed
Without Writing.
BY HARRY FERGUSON.
t nited Press Staff Correspondent
WASHINGTON, July 7.-Frank
; E. Taphn. a railroad man w ho talks
; plain, blunt language, told the sen
ate banking and curency committee
| Thursday how he wrune $11,000,000
1 profit out of the great rail war that
has raged in America for the last.
| decade.
Most, of that profit trickled out
of the pockets of the investing pub
lic. which now has a heavy loss on
the rail stocks.
There was none of the glamour
of a Morgan or a Kahn—men who
preceded him in the same witness
chair—about Taplin. His name is
unfamiliar to the great mass of
Americans, he has no private bank
and no foreign chancellors come to
him for international loans. His
accent is definitely mid-western,
where Kahn’s is German and Mor
gans is English.
Doesn't Like Rankers
He lives in Cleveland. He wears
plain, serviceable clothes, puts horn
rimmed glasses on his nose when
he reads and knows the value of
a dollar. Slang rolls off his tongue
freely and he expresses his'opinions
of bankers by saying, “They try to
get you in a hole and then pull
the strings; I don't like 'em, because
I know how they work."
The gist of Taplin's testimony
was this;
While J. P. Morgan and the Van
Sweringen brothers on one side and
Otto Kahn and the Pennsylvania
railroad on the other were fighting
for domination of the eastern rail
roads, Taplin stepped in and seized
I control of a vital rail link—the
Pittsburgh & West Virginia.
! The rest of the story of the rise
lof any number of American mil
lionaires—men w'hose native shrewd
ness enabled them to get control of
something that somebody else
wanted and to hold on until the
price was right.
Tells Thrilling Story
Taplin told a fascinating story,
filled with secret negotiations,
; poker-faced bluffing, and deals run
| ning into millions of dollars con
■ eluded without touching a pen to
1 paper. In the midst of it all he
j couldn't remember what his own
; salary is as president of the Pitts
burgh & West Virginia railroad.
His associates had to remind him
j that it is $17,000 a year.
This is ths way it started:
Taplin organized a syndicate
i which gained control of the Pitts
! burgh & West Virginia railroad.
Four railroad lines soon began to
| realize that the little road would
I be a valuable addition in the im
pending bitter war. Ferdinand Pe
cora, committee counsel, asked Tap
lin wfflat made him want control of
the Pittsburgh &, West Virginia.
"We wanted to make some money
out of it," Taplin replied.
They did. Syndicate members
paid $52.50 a share for the stock.
When it came time to sell, they
got $l7O a share for it. Taplin was
made manager of the syndicate,
wdth power to sell at any figure he
chose.
Wanted His Price
The railroad battle became tense.
Executives approached Taplin over
a period of years, asking him to sell.
"I w r as willing to sell,” he said,
"and I wanted S2OO a share. No
body was willing to pay it, so I just
held on."
Ultimately, the railroad war set
tled down to a battle between Mor
gan and the Van Sweringens and
Kahn and the Pennsylvania. The
Fens.vlvania formed the Pennroad
Corporation, a holding company, to
facilitate the job of getting control
of other railroads. General W. W.
Atterbury, a trustee of Pennroad,
and Taplin w-ere old friends.
"I saw him every month or so,"
Taplin said, "and he usually men
tioned the matter of selling. I still
wanted S2OO. Well, along in 1929
things didn't look so good to me.
I thought the entire economic situa
tion was top-heavy. It looked like
a good time to get out from under."
Time to Get Out
"Do you mean you saw the stock
market crash coming?" Pecora
asked.
"I don’t want to say I was a
prophet." Taplin replied. "But it
was a good time to get into a snug
position.”
He did it by agreeing to sell the
syndicate's stock in the Pittsburgh
& West Virginia to the Pennroad
Corporation for $l7O a share. At
terbury conducted the negotiations
for Pennroad.
"You signed an agreement, I sup
pose?” Pecora asked.
“No, we didn’t,” Taplin answered.
"If it had been anybody else I
would have got something in writ
ing. But General Atterbury is a
friend of mine. He told me he would
pay $l7O a share, and I told him
I would deliver the stock. That's
all there was to it.”
Ha/ His Suspicions
They shook hands and a deal in
volving more than $37,000,000 was
completed. Taplin, members of his
family, and the North American
Coal Company, of which he is presi
dent, made a profit of more than
$11,000,000. The syndicate's total
profit was $26,174,000
Pecora then sought to bring out
the fact that the Pennroad corpora
tion obtained the money to pay
Taplin's syndicate by selling stock
to the public.
"Did you know that?" Pecora
asked.
‘ When I sell something,” Taplin
replied. "I don’t ask where people
get the money to pay for it. In this
case, I had my suspicions, though.”*