Evening star. [volume], April 17, 1947, Image 1

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

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TEXAS CITY FIRES PERI;
; - :i i . ' i 1“*
Death Toll Is Estimated at 650,
3,000 Hurt; No Damage Figures
Governor Proclaims State
Of Emergency; Residents
Begin Return to Homes
(Full Page of Pictures on A-9.)
By the Associated Press
TEXAS CITY, Tex., April 17.—Gov. Beauford Jester
Issued a proclamation declaring a state of emergency in
explosion-shattered Texas City today, even as reassured
residents who had fled the city began returning to their
homes.
The Governor, in his proclamation issued at Austin,
outlined steps to be taken to keep the situation under
control in the stricken city.
Meanwhile, firefighters massed to smother flames in
oil tanks which still threatened to ignite other tanks of
high octane gas.
J. H. Hill, deputy Mayor appointed by Mayor J. C.
Trahan to aid him in the emergency, said water and light
utilities were back in operation. He said there was no
further fear of water contamination.
He would not estimate the damage done to Texas City
by the five terrific explosions yesterday and today. Hhe
said it was too early to attempt it.
3,000 Persons Are Injured.
The death toll remained at an estimated 650, with
3,000 injured, according to Dr. Clarence Quinn, medical
co-ordinator appointed by Mayor Trahan. Gov. Jester said
the Red Cross had reported that 364 had been embalmed,
400 were positively known to be dead, and that another
200 to 250 were believed dead.
(Red Cross headquarters in wasnmgton reported
* this afternoon that 400 were known dead, revising
downward an earlier figure of 714 which it had given
out. Besides the 400, an estimated 250 to 375 were
believed to have ben killed, the Red Cross added.)
The wind, blowing from the north last night, had subsided,
and billowing smoke from burning oil at noon was rising in swirl
ing columns straight above the fires.
Earher plans to use demolition equipment to halt the spread
of fire was abandoned at noon, Mr. Hill said.
“We won’t try it at this time. We see no need for it.”
City Will Be Sprayed With DDT.
He said four, major fuel storage tanks had been extinguished,
but even as he made the report to Hal Boyle, Associated Press
writer, there was a fresh shower of smoke and flames roaring
skyward. Reports circulated that a new tank had collapsed and
caught fire.
Mr. Hill said the city would be sprayed with DDT by planes
as a protective measure.
The city began to come back to life at noon. So many auto
mobiles entered the town that a traffic jam occurred downtown.
Debris \*as being removed.
This morning Deputy Constable Herbert Whitmore had said
that all of Texas City was in danger. Mr. Hill later today said
this danger seemed passing.
Only 1,000 Remain in City.
The city’s 15,000 residents had dwindled to about 1,000 today,
A. R. Duncan, Houston policeman, said. Many made homeless
have moved to a nearby Army camp and to Galveston, Houston
and other towns.
The fear of chlorine gas last night caused others to leave.
A false rumor spread that an official evacation order had been
issued, and caused hundreds to move.
The task of claiming 223 bodies at an improvised morgue in the
school gymnasium was completed early today. But more bodies are still
being found and moved to the gymnasium, still decorated with wilted
bunting from a recent school party. Lines of dazed citizens stand out
side. waiting to enter a few at a time to identify relatives.
Willis E. Hamontree, chief boatswain's mate of Maryville, Tenn.,
yesterday alone brought 107 of the 223 bodies to the morgue in a 5-ton
Navy truck.
Only a few cases of looting were reported. Highway patrolmen
picked up a man last night. They found $6,000 In cash on him and took
him into custody.
Eighty-thousand pounds of foamite was rushed here today from Bay
town by the Humble Oil Co., and 120 new firefighters were sent by Shell
to join those on hand. *-; ;
L. D. Romine, Red Cross official,
said the major problem facing them
today was the feeding of the home
less and the rescue and relief work
ers. Financial aid was being given
to the poor in hospitals and else
where by the Red Crass.
Three new explosions rocked this
Texas Coast industrial city today.
They followed the two yesterday
morning at 9:12 a.m. that set off
the chain of disaster and tragedy.
At dawn a blanket of billowing
black smoke, covered the city, the
result of new oil fires caused by the
newest explosions on the Liberty
ship High Flyer.
At 1:10 a.m. there were two violent
explosions as the burning High Flyer,
U. S. Agencies Asked
By Truman to Assist
In Texas City Relief
By the Associated Press
President Truman said today
he has asked every Govern
ment agency to co-operate in
relief of suffering in the Texas
City disaster.
He sent a telegram to Mayor
J. C. Trahan of Texas City say
ing : “I know that the Red Cross
is ministejing to your stricken
city and I have asked every
Government agency to co
operate in relief activity.
‘‘My heart and the heart of
the Nation go out in deepest
sympathy to the suffering
people of Texas City. May God
lighten the burden of sorrow
which has fallen on the com
munity with such tragic force.”
loaded with nitrate, blew up, while
four tugs tried to get her away from
her berth.
A secondary explosion occurred at
3:25 am., but it was far from be
ing as intense as the two earlier.
It appeared to come from one of
the numerous oil tanks that dot
the city.
Capt. Volnev J. Shown of the
Houston Police Department and di
rector of rescue work, said that five
minutes before the High Flyer blew
up he had ordered 400 rescue work
ers out of the dock area and that
only 50 men were in the area at
the time of the explosion.
Officials were watching closely the
progress of rescue workers who for
uie inol luue suux auuiuy uici yes
terday morning's explosions, pene
trated the Monsanto Chemcial Co.
plant, located in the immediate vi
cinity of the initial explosion on the
French vessel, the Grandcamp.
Only police, military personnel and
relief workers were permitted to re
main in the city last night.
Danger of chlorine was reported
to be slight, in that the only known
gases at the Monsanto plant were
styrene, propane and butane. Thou
sands of homeless residents were
taken out of the city by Army trucks,
buses, special trains and private cars
to points as far away as Beaumont,
Port Arthur and Orange, near the
Louisiana State line.
Throughout the night relief work
ers searched the waterfront ruins
I for dead and injured. Men carried
I stretchers — bloody, oil soaked
stretchers bearing the dead.
Priests, some wearing gas masks as
protection from poisonous gases
from burning chemical company
plants, read services for each body
as it was brought into the ambu
lance area. Soihe of the trucks
pulled away with bodies stacked four
and five deep.
Police cars with public addresi
systems broadcast instructions tc
rescue crews, warning against loot
ing and smoking and calling foi
"blankets, sheets, coverages.”
Fire aboard the French freighter
iSee EXPLOSION. Page A-5.)
Picture of Actual Blast
Shows Bikini-Like Effect
By th« Associated Press
HOUSTON, Tex., April 17—De
scriptions of the blast which
wrecked a large portion of Texas
City, likening it to the atom bomb
explosion at Bikini, were borne out
by a picture of the actual explosion
R. W. Frederick and J. W. Kuhne,
Texas A. & I. students from Kings
ville, Tex., were on a Galveston
i bay ferry taking pictures of the
; burning ship. Their lens caught
the ship as it blew up. The picture
was strikingly similar to the Bikini
! blast.
The youths developed their pic
tures for the Beaumont Journal,
which made the print available to
jits fellow Associated Press members
; throughout the country cm wire
i photo's Nation-wide network. It ap
pears in The Star today on Page A-9.
Hal Boyle Likens
Texas Blast to
Attack on Ploesti
Writer in Plane -
Describes Ruins
Of Burning Town
By Hoi Boyle
Associated Press Staff Correspondent
OVER TEXAS CITY, Tex..
April 17.—Flaming Texas City
today looks from the air like a
peacetime parallel to war
bombed Ploesti, Rumanian oil
capital.
xi is now cxo a.m., central stand
ard time. We are making our third
flight over the burning town.
The fire-ravaged industrial sec
tion and the peaceful residential
areas offer the contrast between
life and death.
One is a two-mile-wide torch.
The other is the living pattern of
a deserted village, its fate still de
pendent on whether the present
favorable wind holds.
Angry smoke towering to 3,000 feet
spreads from the city like a gigantic
black wing—deep and dense where
it joins the ground, feather-thin
where the wind has dispersed it.
Capt. J. P. Talton of Atlanta, Ga.,
turns the two-engined Eastern Air
(See BOYLE, Page A-4.)
U. S. Speeds All Relief
To Blasted Texas City;
Red Cross Takes Over
Medical Battalion Sent
From Brooke Field;
WAA Releases Supplies
Half a dozen Government
agencies were converging all the
aid they could muster toward
stricken Texas City today.
The War Department said the en
tire 32d Medical Battalion from
Brooke Field, Tex., hkd been ordered
to fly to the scene with medical
eauinment and
plasma. More
plasma and sup
plies were flown
in from the
Army Medical
Depot in St.
Louis.
Red Cross
h e a d q u a rters
here announced
this morning
that Maurice
Reddy and Stone
Crane, their two
veteran disaster
i r e 1 i e f officials
sent to direct **«ar.
work there, had arrived in Galveston
late last night.
Basil O’Conor, national director of
the Red Cross, also said he had
wired Gov. Beauford Jester of Texas
that in addition to the $250,000 im
mediately set aside for relief at the
Texas tragedy yesterday, more will
be available if it is, needed.
The War Assets Administration
reported this morning that a num
ber of surplus ambulances and med
ical supplies from its stocks in the
Texas area were already on hand
and in use in Texas City.
17 Stations in Operation.
Already 17 Red Cross emergency
feeding stations and shelters are
in operation, add eight mobile can
teens serving outlying sections, na
tional headquarters learned by tele
phone today.
More than 240 Red Cross nurses
had checked in for duty with the
Galveston headquarters, and the
Galveston unit still was setting up
| an information service that han
dled 5,000 inquiries by mid-morning.
Some 6,000 units of blood plasma
had been flown in by the Red Cross,
along with some whole blood, anti
tetanus serum and gas gangrene
antitoxin.
Littlejohn Orders Supplies Sent.
Maj. Gen. Robert M. Littlejohn,
War Assets administrator, has
ordered all WAA offices In the area
to direct all available surplus med
ical supplies to the scene immedi
ately.
The Army said almost *11 facil
ities at Brooke Field has been turned
(See OFFICIALS, Page A-2.)
Fate of 6 WAA Plants
Worth 36 Million in
Blast Area Unknown
•y th« Auocntad Prwt
The War Assets Administra
tion said last night it did not
know the fate of six plants
valued at $36,700,000 which it
had for surplus disposal at
Texas City, Tex.
A spokesman said WAA held
the following properties at
Texas City:
American Liberty 100-octane
plant, $12,500,000; Republic Oil
Refining Co., 100-octane plant,
$11,7004)00; Tin Processing
Corp., smelter, $7,500,000; Pan
American Refinery, $3,000,000;
a butadiene plant operated by
Southport Petroleum Co. of
Delaware, $1,500,000, and the
utilities plant for Monsanto
Chemical, $500,000. WAA sold
the main Monsanto plant to the
Monsanto Chemical Co. for
more than $$,0004)00. It cost
about $19,000,000 to build.
Star Reporter
Calls Texas City
Giant Mortuary
Mile-High Column
Of Smoke Boils Over
Shattered Gulf Town
(Soon after receipt of news of
yesterday’s disaster at Texas City,
Tex., The Star sent Reporter
George Kennedy to the scene by
plane. This is his first dispatch,
transmitted by long-distance tele
phone.) ,
by beorge Kennedy
Star Staff Correspondent
TEXAS CITY. Tex., April 17.—
“There it is,” said a newsreelman
in a left seat of the plane.
Everybody craned at the windows.
Flames below at several widely-scat
tered points are sending up black
smoke that dominates the horizon
like a mountain range.
Texas City is still blazing.
We put down at Galveston Airport.
Two Army hospital planes are stand
ing on the apron. They have brought
in plasma, doctors and nurses from
San Antonio. The mountain of
smoke Is still all across the northern
sky.
We walk In the half-dark of dawn
to neon lights that read “Steak and
Spaghetti.” It is a wooden struc
ture called the Amapola Cafe and
the waitress behind the counter tells
us the causeway to Texas City Is
open. A telephone call brings taxis.
The newsreel men load their equip
ment and we start looking for the
State highway patrol escort that Is
to take us into the closed area.
Flames Grow in Size.
It is 16 miles to Texas City on the
route we are taking. We meet no
escort, but the highway guard waves
us on when the newsreel men show
their cameras. The flames under
the smoke become larger and larger
is we approach.
Oil tanks and the curiously shaped
retorts of refineries are all one sees
if Texas City driving in. Finally
we are among them. We stop to
watch a tahk silently flaming into
black smoke. The flames are licking
mother tank.
Thfl mopoHam t-aoA U /\Ma
large piece of steel, a half inch
thick, from the side of a tank has
bitten into the highway a foot deep.
We got out of the car and looked at
the highway’s pock marks of bom
bardment.
A policeman is whistling frantic
ally a quarter mile ahead, waving at
us. We drive up to him. He asks
who let us in the area.
Whole Area Supposed to Explode.
“This whole area is supposed to
blow up in a minute,” he says.
“Those tanks are filled with high
octane gas. We shouldn’t care much
if you all get killed. There are so
many dead here already it wouldn’t
make much difference, but we are
trying to keep casualties down. We
are all too near it now. I wish I
could get out of here, but I have
to stay.” We thank him and drive
on. We realize why no fire equip
ment and firemen were in that area.
Texas City is a community of
wooden cottages of the workers in
its oil industries. Lacking paint,
and with all their windows broken,
they look as if they had been aban
doned for years. They were lived in
yesterday.
The executives and higher-paid
workers of industry live across the
bay in Galveston, but as the first
explosion occurred just after 9
o'clock (central time) yesterday
morning, all were on hand to suffer
the effects of the blast.
Little City Is Giant Mortuary.
We stop at the gymnasium, a large
new building of tan brick, its steel
sash windows entirely blown out.
One hundred persons, men and
women, are lined up on the sidewalk.
The Salvation Army has a stand
with milk, coffee and doughnuts
alongside the line.
Everyone talks in a hushed tone.
This little city is a giant mortuary.
Everyone is constantly aVare of the
(Continued on Page A-5, Column 2.)
Man's Body Found on Grave
Of Wife, With Pistol Nearby
William Arnold Barbour, for
mer personal assistant to two
St. Elizabeths Hospital superin
tendents, was found shot to
death today on his wife’s grave
in Rock Creek Cemetery with a
revolver at his feet. The head
stone that marked the grave also
bore his own name.
In the three years since his wife
lied, Mr. Barbour had come to the
grave two or three times a week.
Be was found lying on his back be
side the granite marker.
Police said death apparently was
caused by a single bullet wound in
his head behind tbe right ear. The
weapon at his feet was a .32-caliber
revolver.
In the car, police' found a two
page note, addressed “To Whom It
May Concern." In a large, sprawl
ing hand, Mr. Barbour had written
that be was despondent over bis ill
health. Police did not reveal the
details of the note.
No one saw Mr. Barbour drive
into the cemetery or heard the shot,
but police found the radiator of his
car was still warm when they were
summoned to the cemetery shortly
before 9 a.m.
The cemetery through which Mr.
Barbour drove on his last visit to
his wife’s grave was abloom with
crocus and forsythia. At many a
grave, relatives had left cut spring
flowers.
At the Barbour grave, the head
stone carried the family name. Un
der that was carved “W. Arnold,
1890-19—.” Beneath Mr. Barbour’s
name was that of his wife. It read,
“Olive S., 1897-1944.”
Charles Boteler of White Oak.
Md., cemetery attendant who found
the body, said Mr. Barbour came
often to sweep off dead leaves and
keep the grave tidy or simply to
(See BARBOUR, Page A-2.)
(toTsmEO
Something
\BURHINGf
c~
i
Truman Is Reported
Preparing Order to
Abolish 3 Agencies
OPA,CPA and OWMR Due
To Go Before Deadline;
Rent Job for Creedon
■y th« Associated Press
President Truman was report
ed preparing an executive order
today to wipe out three major
wartime emergency agencies and
transfer rent controls from OPA
to the housing expediter.
Officials familiar with a tentative
draft of the order said it will com
plete liquidation of the Office of
Price Administration, the Civilian
Production Administration and the
Office of War Mobilization and Re
conversion.
It also would put the skids under
the Office of Temporary Controls,
the agency set up last December to
start the liquidation process.
Budget Bureau officials said the
order “may be issued today or to
morrow.”
Could Beat Deadline by Weeks.
Congress already had tabbed OTC
and its subgroups for liquidation
by June 30. By issuing the executive
ojjder quickly, the President could
beat that deadline by weeks.
Also Mr. Truman could put in ef
fect ahead of a final congressional
vote one change favored by the Sen
ate Banking Committee. This is a
proposal to shift rent control activi
ties from OPA to the office of Hous
ing Expediter Frank R. Creedon.
It further would have the effect
of eliminating OPA, as such, from
debate over the rent control exten
sion legislation.
Committee is debating a bill to re
peal the Patman Emergency Hous
ing Act, which is administered by
Mr. Creedon’s office, and put rent
controls on a local basis.
Changes to Be Made.
The tentative draft of the order,
officials said, directs these changes:
OPA—The rent division, along
with most of its 6,326 employes,
would be transferred to the expedi
ter. Functions of the enforcement
division would be shifted to the
Justice Department. The Commerce
Department would take over OPA’s
records.
OPA—The agency wjjl be slashed
to 400 employes by tomorrow. These
employes and administration of
controls over rubber, hard cordage
fibers, tin, antimony, cinchona and
streptomycin, would be shifted to
the Commerce Department. Con
gress extended rubber controls un
til next March 31, the others until
June 30.
OWMR—About 105 employes and
the agency’s functions also would
go to Commerce. OWMR handles
chiefly Government premium pay
ments on copper, lead and zinc pro
duction from marginal mines.
OPA’s controls over sugar, sirups
and rice recently were transferred
to the Agriculture Department by
congressional edict. These are all
that are left of thousands of war
time price curbs.
Ill British MPs Thank Wallace
Eor Aid to Peace During Visit
Letter, Presented Before His Departure,
Cites Contributions to Understanding
•y the Associated Press
LONDON, April'17.—A letter
signed by 111 members of Parlia
ment, more than 100 of them
Laborites, thanked Henry A.
Wallace today for "the contribu
tion you have made during your
visit to Anglo-American under
standing and to the cause of
world peace." % .
Mr. Wallace was handed the let
ter, whose signers included four
lords, shortly before leaving for
Scandinavia to continue a speaking
tour pleading for "the century of
the common man” and “unity of the
world for peace.”
The signers constituted about one
sixth of the House of Commons
membership of 640 and included
Konnl Zilliacus and other Socialist
“rebels” who have Opposed the La
bor Government on foreign policy
and conscription. William Gal
lacher, one of the two Communists
in the House, was one of the signers.
The former Vice President of the
United States' asserted in an inter
view earlier that the Labor govern
ment had “moral and spiritual
strength fully equal to that of the
Roosevelt cabinet in the early days
of the New Deal.”
The round robin letter said:
"With you, we are convinced that
the pursuing of any policy in either
of our two countries which might
divide us from one another or from
the U. S. S. R. would be fatal to
world peace.
“We have been pleased to welcome
one of the foremost advocates of the
achievement through the United
Nations of one world In which the
common man everywhere might
find security and peace. * * *
"We believe if our two countries are
(See WALLACE, Page A-2.)
George Everett Dies;
Woodward & Lothrop
General Manager
Department Store's
Vice President Was
Washington Native
George N. Everett, vice presi
dent and general manager of
Woodward Si Lothrop depart
ment store, died early today at
his home, 3134 Ellicott street
N.W. He was 71 years old and
had been ill for the last two
months.
Born in Washington January 2,
1876, Mr. Everett became associated
with the store December 14, 1890.
For several years he was treasurer
of the company. His brother, Wil
liam W. Everett, is president.
Mr. Everett was a member of a
family that traced its American an
cestry back to 1634. One of its
members was Edward Everett, a
Secretary of State and renowned
orator of his day. Shepard S. Ev
erett, father of William W. and
George Nichols Everett, came to
Washington from Boston in 1871
and several years later joined the
then newly established firm of
Woodward <fe Lothrop.
George N. Everett is survived by
his widow, Mrs. Alice Webster
Everett; his brother, and two sisters,
Mrs. Marion H. Hayne and Mrs.
Prentiss Willson, all of this city.
He was a 32d degree Mason and
a member of Lafayette Lodge of
Masons. Among his business in
terests was a directorship in the
National Bank of Washington.
Private funeral services will - be
held at the Everett home Saturday,
followed by private burial.
■a • ■ M ^
uamsn Mng s uonamon
Reported Unchanged
By the Associated Press
COPENHAGEN, April 17.—An of
ficial bulletin said today that King
Christian X, who suffered a heart
attack on Easter Sunday, had spent
a quiet night and that his condition
generally was unchanged.
Crown Prince Frederik told a
cabinet council yesterday that there
was “little hope” for the 76-year-old
nonarch’s recovery and physicians
said his strength was dwindling.
Bulletin
Big 4 Deadlock Unbroken
MOSCOW The Council
of Foreign Ministers failed to
night to break a deadlock over
re-transfer of displaced per
sons from Austria. The United
States, Britain and France re
fused to accept a Soviet de
mand that these persons be
expelled within six months
from the tate the Austrian
treaty takes effect.
(Earlier Story on Page A-lt.)
%
[Lewis Charges Krug
Slurred Mine Union
On Safety Charges
UMW Chief Tells Senators
Federal Injunction Made
Co-operation Impossible
By James Y. Newton
John L. Lewis today described
as “one of Mr. Krug’s slurs” the
charge of Secretary of Interior
Krug that the United Mine
Workers had failed to co-operate
with the Government in pro
moting safety in the Nation’s
soft coal mines.
Mr. Lewis testified before a sub
committee of the Senate Public
Lands Committee, which is investi
gating the recent Centralia, (111.)
mine explosion and coal mine safety
in general. It was before that com
mittee that Mr. Krug charged that
in the 10 months of Government
operation of the soft coal mines his
office had received only 31 com
plaints of unsafe conditions from
individual mine safety committees.
He said all had been corrected.
"That isn’t so.'iMr. Lewis told the
committee. ‘’"That is another one
of Mr. Krug’s slurs. The fact is
that we haven’t been able to co
operate since last November because
Mr. Krug went out and got himself
a yellow-dog injunction with which
to heat the miners over the head.”
Refers to No-Strike Order.
He referred to the no-strlke order
which the Government last Novem
ber obtained from Justice T. Alan
Goldsborough in District Court and
which Mr. Lewis and his union
ignored to 'bring about their con
viction for contempt.
sjnov wccfc uuoutc vjuiuouutvugii
continued until April 24 action on a
petition of the miners’ imion to re
turn $2,800,000, the amount which
they had posted as bond above the
Supreme Court contempt fine. At
the time, Justice Goldsborough
warned Mr. Lewis to show “good
faith” compliance with the court
order and remarked that so far the
union boss had been "utterly con
temptuous of the court.” The court
referred specifically to Mr. Lewis'
reference to the injunction as "the
yellow-dog injunction.”
Despite that warning, Mr. Lewis
several times in his testimony be
fore the Senate committee today
gave the same description to the
court order. At one time, in saying
that the miners had co-operated on
safety with the Government, he said
that last November 6 a complaint of
lack of enforcement of the Federal
mine safety code was made to the
Interior Department's coal mines
administration.
“And that was B. K. Y. D. I.,”
before Krug's yellow dog injunction,
Mr. Lewis told the committee. “And
yet Mr. Krug comes down here and
says we never had complained.”
Mr. Lewis charged that Federal
(Sec COAL, Page A-5.)
House Is Ready
For Final Vote
On Labor Bill
Postage of Measure
By Late AfterfToon
Predicted by Hartley
BULLETIN
Hie House stiffened restric
tions on industry-wide bar
gaining today and again re
fused to outlaw the union shop
as it maneuvered its strike
curb bill toward a vote on pas
sage. Added to the measure
was a provision that competing
employers may not get to
gether on collective bargaining
policy on such things as wages
and hours.
By th« Auociatad frtii
Hie House was all set to pass
Its potent union strike curb bill
today.
Some technicality could prevent a
Anal vote before tomorrow, but
Chairman Hartley of the Labor
Committee, In command of the bill,
offered to bet a new hat that the
House would approve it by lata *
afternoon.
The Senate may get down to ac
tion on its own, softer measure next
peek. An eventual compromise win
riave to be worked out.
The House bill got over three
lumps yesterday when the House re
fused to:
Outlaw the union shop, which lets
tn employer hire anybody but re
quires new workers to Join the union
later.
Permit industry-wide collective
bargaining on a national scale. Com
pany-wide dickering by unions would
be permitted.
Lift a ban on employer donations
to welfare and health funds con
trolled by unions.
Foes Seek Recommittal.
This was the general picture:
1. Representative Arends, Repub
lican. of Illinois, the party whip hi
charge of lining up votes, told a re
porter a complete cheek showed 33
out of 245 Republicans planned to
vote against the bill. Previously he
had figured 18 or 20. •
2. The 187 Democrats were spilt,
apparently about 50-80.
3. Representative Lesinski of
Michigan, top Democrat on the
Labor Committee, said the opposi
tion is concentrating its skimpy
strength behind a last-minute mo
tion to send the bill back to the
committee.' The objective there
would be to take out the ban on
Industry-wide bargaining And put
in a provision for further study of
labor-management issues by a spe
cial commission.
4. Mr. Hartley agreed to accept an
amendment * by Representative
Kersten, Republican, of Wisconsin,
designed to balance the bill by for
bidding employers to get together on
collective bargaining terms. He
told reporters that is only fair be
cause of similar restrictions pro
posed for unions.
Bill Declared Under Control.
But Mr. Hartley said he could see
no more big fights ahead In the
House.
"We’ve got the bill under control,"
he declared.
Some Republicans and Democrats,
however, want to change the method
for handling "national paralysis”
strikes.
The bill proposes to let the Attor
ney General obtain court orders to
stall off or halt such ticups during
some 75 days of mediation and fact
finding. It would not actually out
law the strikes.
But it would outlaw various spe
cial types of strikes, such as juris
dictional walkouts usually caused
(See LABOR, Page A-5.)
Boston Leads Nats,
4-1, With 3 in Second
By Burton Hawkins
Star Staff Corrmpandant
BOSTON, April 17.—Boston, scor
ing three runs In the second, was
leading the Nats, 4 to 1, In the third
inning here today.
FIRST INNING.
WASHINGTON—Grace filed to
Di Maggio. Lewis beat oat a bunt
down the third-base line. Spence
filed deep to Mele. Lewis was
picked off -first pase, Dobeon to York
to Pesky to Doerr.
BOSTON-Pellagrinl doubled off
the left-field fence. Grace made
a fine running catch of Pesky’s liner,
Pellagrini holding second. Di Mag
gio walked on four pitches. Wil
liams took a third strike. Doerr
singled to right, scoring Pellagrini,
Di Maggio stopping at second. York
forced Doerr, Christman to Priddy.
One run.
SECOND INNING.
Washington — Vernon fanned.
Travis lined to Di Maggio. Priddy
filed to Williams.
Boston—Christman threw out
Mele. Partee looped a single to cen
ter. Dobeon attempted to sacrifice
but popped to Haefner. Pellagrini
singled to left, Partee stopping at
second. Pesky singled to right, sear
ing Partee and sending Pellagrini
to third. Di Maggio doubled over
Lewis* head, scoring Pellagrini and
Pesky. Williams .walked. Christ
man threw out Doerr. Three runs.
Queen Elizabeth to Sail
For U. S. on Saturday
•y *h« Associated Pros* •
SOUTHAMPTON, 'England, April
17.—The Cunard White Star liner
Queen Elisabeth prepared today to
sail for New York on Saturday.