Evening star. [volume], January 01, 1939, Image 1

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

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Weather Forecast
Generally fair and somewhat colder to
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mostly northwest today. Temperatures
yesterday—Highest, 46, at 3 p.m.; low
est, 26 at 4 a.m. Full report, page A-2.
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WASHINGTON, D. C., JANUARY 1, 1939—NINETY-SIN PAGES. *** JSJSTSt FTVE CENTS TEN CENTS
____Associated Press. IN WASWTNOTON AND SUBURBS ELSPTWTnmrc
President's Defense Message
To Congress This Week Due
To Stir Up Heated Controversy
Critics See Program a
'Red Herring' to Cover
New Deal Errors
Bv G. GOULD LINCOLN.
President Roosevelt ■ will throw
into the lap of the Seventy-sixth
Congress a new—and according to
administration spokesmen—burning
issue, increased national defense,
when he appears before that body
in joint session Wednesday.
Despite the patriotic appeal, the
adminstration’s program of in
creased armament gives promise of
being hotly contested. The Presi
dent s appeal will be made to Con
gress directly—and, over its head
to the country, as well.
The administration's point of view
was expressed yesterday by Senator
Key Pittman, chairman of the Sen
ate Foreign Relations Committee.
Replying to a question, “Do world
conditions call for increased arma
ments in the United States?” he
said:
“What did England find? What
did France find—and both too late.
This country has for years urged
the nations to limit armaments and
even to disarm. Instead of follow
ing this advice, some of the great
nations have increased their arma
ments tremendously.
After Next Year, What?
“England and France found, in
comparison with other nations,
they were not prepared for war or
national defense. The dictator
nations had their way.
“This problem of national defense
for the United States should be
considered from the point of view
of what may be the situation five
years hence. We can only surmise
what may be world conditions then.
I am not at all afraid of a war this
year or next, Nations in the East
and in Europe are engaged in fight
ing each other. But after those
wars are over, what then?
“Three countries are ruled by dic
tators or governments that amount
to dictatorship. They have been
taught by these governments that
the way of advancement is through
war. They have prepared themselves
for war and. with or without fight
ing, they have had their way re
cently.
“The United States cannot build
up its defense overnight. The best
insurance against war, as I see it,
under world conditions today, is to
be prepared to resist any attack.”
Personnel Planes Needed.
Senator Pittman said American
authorities are fully informed re
garding the armaments of other na
tions—and that some of this infor
mation is startling. The naval pro
gram of the United States, voted by
the last Congress, goes a long way
toward improving this country's sit
uation—particularly if it is speeded
up. But what the country needs
particularly, he said, is an increase
in trained personnel and increased
facilities for the production of air
planes and other vital arms.
Against this administration posi
tion is the demand of many mem
bers of Congress that any program
for increased armaments be care
fully examined—by congressional
committees—to determine whether
they be actually needed for “de
fense.”
There is, too, a declaration by
some administration opponents that
the present demand for increased
armaments is a political move on
the part of the New Dealers, de
signed to take the mind of the coun
try off the “failure” of the farm and
recovery programs and the “scan
dal” of the W. P. A. and its use in
politics, not to mention the defeat
of New Dealers in the last elections.
This is a view emphatically ex
pressed yesterday by several Demo
cratic Senators who have opposed
the New Deal—and who have been
opposed by the New Dealers. At this
time they did not wish to be quoted.
Political Defense, Hints Barton
Representative Bruce Barton of
New York, Republican, who returned
to Washington yesterday, however,
was outspoken. He predicted the
new Congress would not allow the
country to be stampedefi on the
question of national defense, issu
ing a formal statement in which he
said:
“How much of this program really
(See DEFENSE. Page A-4.)
Roy Kelly, Long Hunted
As Slayer, Is Caught
By the Associated Press.
SOUTH HILL, Va„ Dec. 3t.-Roy
Kelly, 22-year-old North Carolina
convict wanted for the slaying of
two officers, was arrested here to
night as he stepped from a lunch
room on the outskirts of town. A
wide search had been conducted for
him, Washington, D. C., police hav
ing hunted him here at one time.
Kelly told officers he spent yes
terday here. Prior to that, he said
he was in Mississippi, where he
obtained the car he was driving. A
bullet hole in the windshield, he
said, was the result of a “scrape”
he was in while in Mississippi. He
was armed with a .45-caliber pistol,
with one cartridge in it. Police
said they found six license plates
in the rear of the car, two Missis
sippi tags, one North Carolina tag,
and three Virginia tags.
In his pocket was a letter bear
ing the name of “Sheriff Earl D.
Burton.” The address of the sheriff
was not given. The letter, headed
“Recommendation for advancement
to parole,” said:
“I take this means of recommend
ing Roy Kelly for advancement to a
grade subject to his prison record
there. I feel sure this boy would
not betray an advantage shown him
and I feel he can get recommenda
tions for parole when the proper
time comes.”
Ten Virginia state troopers, three
North Carolina officers and the four
officers who made the arrest ques
tioned Kelly for several hours to
night. Later he was taken to Hen
rico County jail to Richmond.
New Year Resolutions
Reciprocity in Fair Play Should Be
The Hope of Congress and the
Washington Community
Editorial Correspondence of The Star.
THEODORE W. NOYES.
This is the day for new year
resolutions and the expression of
hope for better things to come.
The Washington community
and the Congress which governs
it might appropriately combine
in the adoption of resolutions to
turn over a new leaf in the rela
tionship which so closely joins
them together. And both, with
good reason, might hope for bet
ter things to come.
The 76th Congress, which is
our new national, state and mu
nicipal legislature, will soon be
functioning and in the process
will make decisions of great im
portance to the people of Wash
ington. if not to those of their
home districts, upon urgent items
of local legislation and appro
priations. Those decisions can
be of utmost benefit to the Wash
ington community or they can, as
shown in the past, threaten and
accomplish deep injury to the
Washington community.
In what spirit will the Congress,
with its large percentage of new
members in both House and Sen
ate, approach this legislation? In
what spirit will the Capital com
munity welcome its legislators,
new and old, and co-operate with
them in sensible suggestion of
wise and just laws and in rejec
tion of such as are inequitable?
Harmful Talk on Both Sides.
The Washingtonian, powerless
to participate effectively in his
own taxation and government and
impotent to withstand those in
dividual legislators, who, he be
lieves, have abused their power
to tax and govern him, has in
particular instances exercised too
freely and offensively the privilege
of the hopelessly defeated litigant
of “cussing the court.” And also
in individual instances the Dis
trict's legislators, with all powers
in their hands to wound and even
to destroy, have taken too great
offense at the verbal sputterings
of the aggrieved and helpless and
have too vigorously retaliated.
Too many of Washington's leg
islators have come to view their
constituents as unappreciative,
ungrateful, greedy, selfish and
censorious, and too many of these
constituents, also generalizing too
broadly, have come to view the
legislators, selected for them by
the Constitution, as carelessly
ignorant of their needs, as con
temptuously indifferent to and
neglectful of their welfare or as
actively hostile.
The crying need of the hour is
a change of thought, a change of
heart, a new policy under which
each of the Capital-building part
ners shall heed the injunction
“Put yourself in his place!” with
the result of substituting mutual
appreciation for recrimination.
Pair play and mutual regard are
watchwords of the new policy.
Fair Play for Congress.
The Washingtonian in accord
ance with it will render deserved
arid belated tribute of grateful
appreciation to the long line of
i Senators and Representatives,
who have faithfully performed
the unselfish, difficult and almost
! thankless task of dealing as con
siderately and justly with their
Capital constituency as with their
home constituents. Washington
knows and honors these men—
its loyal, helpful friends, public
spirited workers in the task of
| Capital building, though it may
not have put this appreciation
| ‘Continued on Page 3. Col. 2.)
Rescuers Fight Fire
And Gas as Trapped
Miners Signal
Faint Message Tapped
Out on Phone Line by
20 Imprisoned Men
BULLETIN.
CLINTON, Ind.. Jan. 1 (Sun
day) (iPi. — Rescue workers
reached the 20 miners trapped
in Crown. Hill Mine No. 6 early
this morning and unofficial re
ports said that two cf the first
eight being brought to the sur
face were dead.
By the Associated Press.
CLINTON. Ind.. Dec. 31.—A rescue
force of nearly 100 men, working in
relays, battled flame, smoke and gas
this New Year's eve to save a score
of coal miners trapped 168 feet
underground in Crown Hill Mine No.
6, near here.
One rescue squad reported fighting
its way through the fire and around
dangerous cave-ins to a point near
enough to hear faint signals, tapped
on a mine telephone line, from the
imprisoned men.
The signals indicated the men
were safe and in no immediate
danger.
Mine officials said either “20 or
21” men were trapped by the roaring
underground fire. The fire broke
out today on the same level on which
the group was working and between
the men and the main shaft.
Hopes Hold Back Crowd.
A crowd estimated by State police
at 3,000 persons gathered at the
mine tonight. Ropes were strung
to hold them back from the miur
entrance, out of which curled smoke
and gas from the fire.
Many of those in the crowd were
wives and children of the men
whose fate was in doubt. There was
no hysteria, however.
The rescue squad which pene
trated nearest the trapped miners
reported to C. A. Herbert of Vincen
nes. a Bureau of Mines engineer,
that the chances of reaching the
men were ‘good,’’ although cave-ins
added extra hazards to the rescue
work. This squad said the fire was
raging on a 200-foot front.
Mr. Herbert said the rescue work
ers could get through and around
the flames, but that the big question
was getting through poisonous gases.
The mine cage was coming up
every few minutes, bringing out
rescue workers made ill by gas and
smoke.
Worker Says Fire “Bad.”
Ellsworth Graves of Rosedale, one
of the rescue workers, came up
choking and vomiting after five
hours of fighting the fire and re
ported :
“The fire is in bad shape, but
they're finally getting- some water
on it. We tapped on the telephone
line to the men and got an answer
that they were all O. K. Down
there your head just feels like some
one was pounding on it, and then
you get awful sick.”
Graves is a miner employed in
the mine and has a brother, Jim,
43. among the imprisoned men.
Harry Dunlap, a Clinton fireman,
came out of the mine and described
the situation inside like this:
“It's all just a lot of fire, with a
continual roar and rattle.”
•Dunlap said the rescue workers
had succeeded in getting air into
circulation in the mine, so as to
draw the gas and smoke away from
the men and out of the mine.
Through the tapped signals, the
trapped miners reported the air
around them was still good, Ells
worth Graves said. They also re
ported killig three mine mules in
order to conserve oxygen.
Another resque squad, pulled from
the mine at 9 o’clock, its meqibers
nauseated by carbon monoxide gas
fumes, said they believed crews
could reach the entombed men by
morning.
Tom Salmond, a member of the
squad, so ill he had to be assisted
to the washhouse, said, “we are now
making some effort to put the fire
out.”
He gasped out that the “fire had
burned out walls which the squad
was building, and let loose a lot of
gas on us.”
J. O. Hitt, a pit boss for a neigh
boring mine aiding in the rescue
work, said the carbon monoxide gas
| was very difficult to detect.
Scientists Warned
Of Part to Preserve
Democracy
Advised to Guard That
Progress Is Not Used
To Destroy Liberty
By THOMAS R. HENRY,
Star Staff Correspondent.
RICHMOND, Va.. Dec, 31.—The
! council of the American Association
I for the advancement of Science re
ceived today a detailed plan, sub
mitted by Dr. Harold G. Urey of
Columbia University, Nobel Prize
winner, and Dr. Oscar Riddle of the
Carnegie Institution of Washington
for utilizing the aid of the sciences
in solving social and economic prob
lems.
The plan, the two scientists ex
plained. is the result of a three-year
study by 100 leaders from nearly
every field of American life, in
cluding scientists, businessmen, labor
and agricultural leaders, sociologists,
economists, attorneys and physi
cians.
The time is not npe, Drs. Riddle
and Urey explained, for a public an
nouncement of any more details of
the plan. The statement follows:
“From the standpoint of the use
I of science, the great basic problem
| of our generation is how to make
actually available for our people the
i great advances of science and in
dustry and the tremendous produc
tive potentialities resulting there
from.
“From the standpoint of the mis
| use of science, the scientist is and
i See SCIENCE. Page~A-6 f
Couple, 16, Crash White House
New Year Party on a Dare
BEATRICE WHITE AND JOE MEASELL.
—Star Staff Photo.
Two 16-year-old Woodrow Wilson
High School students performed the
almost impossible feat of “crashing"
the White House New Year Eve
family party last .night and getting
autographs of President and Mrs.
Roosevelt and their son John.
“I wish it had been a check he
T*» wont mount 1
signed," said Joseph Measell of
4121 Connecticut avenue N.W., as
he gazed with pride at the Presi
dent's signature on a White House
card.
Joe obtained the President's sig
nature and had a friendly chat with
him while his “girl friend," Beatrice
White of 5367 Twenty-eighth street
N.W., talked Mrs. Roosevelt into
signing a card for her.
Get Scolding.
Mrs. Roosevelt sent the youngsters
home with a scolding, too.
“ 'Now you know it isn't right to
walk into peoples’ houses like that,’ ”
Joe said she told them. “ ‘You might
have got shot.’ ”
John Roosevelt also joined in the
scolding, Joe said, pointing out the
possible dangers to White House
"crasher*” if the Secret Service men
assigned to guard the President’s
life should become alarmed.
“We did it on a dare on a scaven
ger hunt," Joe explained, “and we
had extremely good luck.
“We just walked right up to the
main door at the White House, and
I told the policeman there we wanted
to see the President. We learned
later that Secretary of the Treasury
Morgenthau was attending the New
'Year party at the White House
and had told the guards he was ex
pecting two young people. The
guards must have taken us for the
expected guests.
Ushered Right in.
“Anyway, we were ushered right
in and someone took our coats and
led us upstairs. I waited outside the
room where Mr. Roosevelt and his
guests were watching a movie.
«ow»*
“When the lights went on, I walked
in and said to the President:
"Excuse me, your honor, but I'm
here on a dare from a party and
would like to have your autograph.
"He laughed good naturedly and
(See CRASHERS, PageA-5.)
( I HAVE A\
PLAN To KEEP\
POLITICS OUT
\OF RELIEF. /
i havFa X
PLAN To HELP )
YOU,ALBEN. I
First D. C. Baby
Of New Year
Born at 12:01
Washington's first baby of
the new year was born just a
few seconds past midnight this
morning to Mrs. Clifton S.
Wynn, 3244 Walnut street N.E.,
at Georgetown Hospital.
Birth of the 7-pound 14-ounce
girl was entered on the hospital
records at 12:01 a.m., but at
tendants said the infant ar
rived during the first minute of
the new year, while bells were
1 still ringing in celebration of
^ the advent of 1939.
' " .. .. ■ ■
Domestic Silver Price
Is Continued at
64.64 Cents
President Proclaims
Old Rate Effective
Until June 30
BACKGROUND—
Subsidizing of silver, one o;
earliest of New Deal programs,
was started in 1933 to aid West
ern mining States and create a
mild inflation which would raise
farm prices. World prices soared
to 81 cents, later fell to what
Treasury was icuiing to pay, 43
cents since last March. The do
mestic price, up to 77.57 cents in
1935, was fixed at 64.61 cents by
the President December 51, 1137.
Bi the Associated Press.
President Roosevelt continued at
64.64 cents per ounce yesterday the
Treasury's price for newly mined
domestic silver.
In fixing the price by proclama
tion, the President directed that the
silver must be delivered to a United
States coinage mint not later than
June 30, 1939.
The proclamation is effective only
up to that date. Mr. Roosevelt's
power to fix the price of domestic
silver by proclamation, and his right
to change the dollar's gold content,
both will expire then unless Con
gress renews them.
Silver delivered to a coinage mint
after June 30, 1939, will not be
eligible for receipt under yesterday's
proclamation even though mined
prior to that date.
Urged by Western States.
Congressmen from Western sil
ver-mining States had urged the
President not to reduce the price,
contending that to do so would
throw miners out of work.
Critics of the Government’s sil
ver purchase program have con
tended in the past that the differ
ence between the world price of
silver and the higher price paid by
»the Treasury for domestic silver rep
resented a subsidy for producers in
this country.
No statement was made yesterday
about the Treasury’s price for for
eign and other silver, which is kept
on a day-to-day basis, and has
been 43 cents per ounce since last
March. Most of the Treasury’s
silver purchases, particularly metal
from China. Mexico and Canada, are
made at this “other” price.
Altogether, since the New Deal’s
purchase program began, the Treas
ury has purchased 1,839,600,000
ounces of silver at an average cost
of 56.3 cents an ounce. In 1934
Congress said in the Silver Purchase
Act that silver was worth $1.29 per
ounce, giving the Treasury’s present
silver stocks of approximately 2,
550,000,000 ounces a monetary value
of more than $3,250,000,000. Most
of the silver came from foreign
(See SILVER, Page A-4.)
The Old West
Lives Again!
Follow
"RED RYDER"
for
Thrills . . .
Comedy . . .
Romance . . .
Adventure . . .
TODAY
and every Sunday
in the comic section
Washington Hails
1939 With More
Noise Than Hilarity
Capacity Night Club
Crowds Are Denied
Stimulants After 12
Washington hailed 1939 with more
noise than hilarity early today.
Capacity crowds in the night clubs
were cut off from alcoholic stimu
lants just as the New Year arrived,
sharply on the stroke of 12.
Only one 1939 casualty was re
ported early today, while thousands
remained out until the small hours
and revelry went on in dance places
from which orchestras had departed.
The first victim of the New Year
celebration was Miss Marie Harden,
16, of 229 K street N.E., who was
shot in the hip, presumably by a
celebrant, while standing with her
parents on the front porch of their
home a few minutes afty midnight.
Th^family party had issued from
their home to hear the bells and
bedlam of motor horns, locomotive
whittles and shouts. Miss Harden
suddenly felt a burning sensation in
her hip. Learning she had been hit
by a bullet, she was hurried to
Sibley Hospital.
There doctors had not immedi
ately determined whether she was
seriously w'ounded.
Waiters Are Vigilant.
It was the first New Year with a
Sunday closing hour which Wash
ington had experienced since repeal.
At hotels, night clubs and “hot
spots,” squads of vigilant waiters
were on hand to snatch glasses of
alcoholic beverages from the hands
of celebrants. Extra details of de
tectives and inspectors from the
A. B. C. Board were on hand to see
that the strict letter of the law was
enforced.
Virtually every downtown moving
picture theater gave a midnight per
formance to “standing room only”
audiences.
Lines several blocks long led to
the box offices at least an hour
before the 12 o'clock shows started.
A score of traffic officers were de
tailed to downtown F street to break
the jams of motor vehicles.
In addition to the moving picture
crowds, at least 1.500 persons were
moving on daivntown F street, into
the party at the National Press Club
and into several functions at the
Willard Hotel.
The extra policemen stood by for
the most part with good-natured
grins on their faces. They refused
to trade their caps for paper hats.
< See-NEW “YEAR, Page A-5.)
Five Perish as Fire
Razes Maine Hotel
B> the Associated Press.
RUMFORD. Me., Dec. 31.—Five
persons perished tonight in a fire
that burned the Falls View Hotel to
the ground.
Sam McLaughlin, hotel clerk, said
he was "certain” five persons lost
thgir lives as the three-story, '30
room wooden building was leveled.
The list of dead furnished by Mr.
McLaughlin:
Mrs. Peter Maelis, about 36. wife
of the hotel's owner; their three
children, Virginia, 6, Mildred, 10,
and Georgia, 5, and Russ Rogers,
about 45, of Upper Dam.
The bodies were not immediately
recovered.
The number of guests was not
known immediately. Firemen from
Mexico and Rumford battled the
blaze. Damage was estimated un
officially at $20,000.
Fraud and 'Chiseling'
In District Relief Are
Charged in Report
BURDETTE G. LEWIS.
Drastic Steps Urged
To Punish Guilty,
Change Methods
BACKGROUND—
Belief of Chairman Collins of
House Subcommittee on District
Appropriations and members oj
Congress that District public re
lief "load” was too heavy resulted
in appropriation of $20,000 by
last Congress to investigate en
tire relief setup. Advisory com
mittee of citizens headed by
Ringgold Hart, former principal
assistant corporation counsel, se
lected Burdette G. Lewis, social
worker, to make inquiry.
By JAMES E. CHINN.
“Lackadaisical" methods of han
dling District relief cases have re
sulted in widespread fraud and
“chiseling,” according to the first
section of the report of Burdette G.
Lewis, director of the public relief
investigation, made public last night
by Chairman Ross Collins of the
House Committee on District Ap
propriations.
Drastic steps to recover funds
fraudulently procured and*to prose
cute the guilty were recommended.
To carry out that plan, Mr. Lewis
urged the creation of a special bu
reau of investigation to work direct
ly with the corporation counsel and
the United States district attorney.
The report declared:
“The number of frauds and the
amount of 'chiseling' is so large as
to warrant ending of the present
lackadaisical methods of handling |
cases in the Public Assistance Divi- I
sion and in other agencies: and the
organization of an effective bureau
of investigation to prepare informa
tions for tiie use of the corporation
• counsel and the United States dis
trict attorney in effecting settle
ments and for prosecutions.”
Seeks Relief Economies.
Mr. Lewis also made a series of
other recommendations, most of
them designed to effect economies
in administration of public relief
and to increase the efficiency of
those agencies concerned with the
problem. The principal plan would
! involve complete reorganization of
the various agencies dealing with
relief, employment and public wel
fare. and their placement under a
proposed department of employment
and social security.
In addition to fraud and “chisel
' ing,” the report further declared,
i the relief investigation disclosed:
1. That “the few get too much and
the many too little” of public as
sistance.
2. That the Board of Public Wel
fare is functioning in accordance
with an “outmoded formula” in
handling relief cases.
! 3. That Public Assistance Division
! statistics and its system of estimat
! ing financial needs are “almost
crude, usually inadequate and com
monly insufficient for a modern de
partment of public welfare."
4. That the management of the
Public Assistance Division is in
i efficient.
5. That there are many and un
; necessarily “cruel disappointments'
! to applicants for W. P. A. work, un
I employment compensation benefits,
social security, and general relief
grants.
50.000 Jobless Average.
Mr. Lewis found there was an
average of 50.000 unemployed in the
District for the first eight months
of 1938. of whom about 13,000 were
engaged in various kinds of emer
gency governmental work, and 7,500
on direct relief or receiving social
security grants. And he added:
“Among these was a larger number
of single individuals than usually
have been found elsewhere.”
In order to “lessen promptly” the
number on District W. P. A. relief
rolls, Mr. Lewis declared the re
quirements of the Federal Emer
gency Administration of Public
Works giving preference in employ
ment to persons on public relief
rolls sljpuld be adopted and en
forced by all agencies of the Gov
ernment awarding contracts for any
of the construction work to be un
dertaken in the District.
He pointed out that projects esti
mated to cost about $25,000,000 are
to be initiated in the District in
1939, which should provide a year's
employment for 9,435 unskilled and
semi-unskilled workers, completely
relieving the W. P. A. rolls of every
worker physically and mentally
capable of performing unskilled
work.
For the last five years, Mr. Lewis
said, an average of $9,453,562 a year
had been expended on relief, W. P.
A. and all sorts of social security
grants. The adoption of his pro
gram, he explained, would require
an additional $143,812 at the outset,
but twice that amount could be
saved possibly by December. 1939,
or certainly by June 30, 1940.
These changes, too, he declared,
"will facilitate the formulation of
the organized long-range plans of
action which can be financed regu
larly, be changed as conditions
warrant and be worked out so as
to end the wastes and brainstorms
which have characterized the suc
ceeding emergencies.”
The proposed department of em
ployment and social security would
be headed by an executive director,
who would be responsible to the
Commissioners and the various
federal agencies or departments
concerned with the relief program.
These include the Treasury. Labor,
Interior and Agriculture Depart
ments, the Social Security Board
and the W P. A.
Under such a setup, Mr. Lew:s
explained, there could be closer co
operation between the proposed
consolidated departments and the
various divisions of the Federal de
partments in dealing with “indi
'See D. C. RELIEF. Page A-4.) -
Dictators Face'39 With Hope
For New Strength Together
a- tht Associated press.
BERLIN, Dec. 31.—Nazi determi
nation to grow stronger in the new
year was expressed on every hand
tonight in the last hours of 1938—
the breath-taking year which, in
the words of Chancellor Hitler,
“brought realization of a dream of
centuries.”
These resolutions for 1939 ex
pressed the official determination to
achieve a stronger army, a stronger
navy, stronger export trade, stronger
muscles—stronger everything.
"I am certain,” said Hitler in a
message to the army, “that you also
in the future will always be ready
KSee GERMANY, Page A-B.)
By toe Associated Press.
ROME, Dec. 31—Fascists faced
the new year confident of Germany 's
assistance in collecting colonial con
cessions which the allies failed to
give Italy for helping them defeat
Germany in the World War.
Reichsfuehrer Adolf Hitler’s New
Year message to his people, in which
he said Germany's obligations to
Italy “are clear and unbreakable,’’
strengthened this confidence.
II Giomale d'ltalia commented
that these words “should sound a
clear warning to those enemies of
ours in France who hope to see the
(Berlin-Rome) axis weakened and
I (Sea ITALY, Page A-S.)
Street Defends
Democratic Type
Of Management
Informed of Burdette G. Lewi"’
charges of fraud and “chiselim ”
among relief clients. Elwood Stree:,
director of public welfare, said last
night he was not "surprised” because
of the acute shortage of employes in
the agencies handling relief cases.
“We have repeatedly asked for
more personnel,” he declared. “Our
I staff is twice overloaded.”
I Mr. Street also came to the de
fense of the “management” of the
Pubiic Assistance Division, criticized
in the report for inefficiency.
“Miss Alice Hill, director of the
Public Assistance Division," he said,
"was selected as being the best avail
able person in the country for the
work. In my opinion, she has done
a difficult job well.”
Type of Executive Disputed.
As for Mr. Lewis' statement that
“the director of public welfare is not
a real chief administrative officer
and has been acting more as a co
ordinator and as a director of public
relations than as a top executive,”
Mr. Street said:
“There seems to be a fundamental
difference between Mr. Lewis and
me over the functions of an execu
tive. I am of the democratic type.
I believe in democracy.”
Frederick W. McReynolds, chair
man of the Board of Public Wel
fare, issued a prepared statement
prior to the publication of the re
port, criticizing both Mr. Lewis and
the Citizens' Advisory Committee
which selected him to make the in
vestigation. for not submitting the
document to the board in advance
of its release to the press “for exam
ination and correctoin or error in
respect to facts which might per
haps indavertently have crept into
it, especially as copies were made
available to other District officials.”
September Statements Criticized.
The remainder of his statement
follows:
"Such opportunity for inspection
and possible correction would have
been especially desirable in view of
the further fact that on September
27 and 28, 1938, Mr. Lewis made
public statements which presumably
were part of his report, and which
were proved to be based on errone
ous statement of alleged facts.
"The prejudice and intemperance
shown by Mr. Lewis in his state
ments at that time will not affect
the open-minded attitude of the
Board of Public Welfare toward the
report as now submitted.
"Neither I nor any other member
of the Board of Public Welfare, or,
so far as I know, any employe of the
board, has seen the report or any
part of it. When it is received the
Board of Public Welfare will be glad
to study it thoroughly. It cost $20,000
of the taxpayers' money. It ought
to be helpful. The board will give
careful consideration to all the sug
gestions and criticisms contained in
the report. It will endeavor to apply
constructively any of it which may
be founded on actual fact, which
may be sound and applicable to local
conditions, and which may be pos
sible within the appropriations, the
laws and the governmental regula
tions under which the Board of Pub
lic Welfare operates.
"The Board of Public Welfare is
anxious to improve procedures and
to correct errors which may be
found in the operation of any of
the institutions and agencies for the
administration of which it is re
sponsible. It is contipually studying
the subject and is glad to have sug
gestions at any time from any in
formed citizen.’’
-«■— .... ,
No. 1939 Disconnected
NORFOLK, Nebr., Dec. 31 (/PI.—
O. H. Johnson had his telephone
disconnected tonight. His number
is 1939.
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'Radio Programs, Page E-3
(Complete Index, Page A-2