HENDERSON'S
POPULATION
13,873
TWENTY-SIXTH YEAR
JAPS TIGHIUING BLOCKADE OF TIENTSIN
Where 3 Died in R. I. Apartment House Fire
Cranston” Wf °°° ** !T Pt the swank * Williams Manor Apartment
escapcs and said'b Jf nf fh?iin f® PG f S °- nS twenty-five. There were no outside fire
escapes, ana police said half of the 110 tenants jumped from windows. Mrs. Mary Pulsifer. 40 suffered a
died after If n( ? , e ? pected to live - Eddia Healy, 44, former vaudeville star,
d after similar plunge from flames. Ladder at left was raised too late to save Mr. and Mrs. William A.
oootfc, both 80, whose charred bodies were found, hands clasped together.
French Munitions
Factory Ablaze
Angoulem, France, June 20.
(AP)—Fire started this afternoon
in the Angoulem military powder
works.
Most available troops from regi
ments garrisoned in the city and
extra reserves of police and fire
men were sent to the factory.
The fire was discovered at 3:15
p. m. in a warehouse where were
stored bales of cotton used in
munitions manufacture.
Angoulem is a city of about
40.000 in western France. Its
gleaming white stone buildings
stand on an isolated hill 200 feet
above a river.
Marriage Law
Cut Weddings
By One-Half
*
Statistics from Five
Counties, Including
Vance, Show Decrease
of About Half License
Usually Issued
Daily Dispatch Bureau,
In the -Sir Walter Hotel.
Raleigh, June 20.—North Caro
lina’s new marriage Jaw appears to
have reduced *je issuance of mar
riage licenses more than fifty per
cent in the first two months of its
operation, if statistics from five
counties in various sections are real
ly representative of its effect through
out the State.
In these five counties during April
and May of 1938, 244 marriage li
censes were issued, while in the
same five counties in the same
months this year there were 114.
On the face of the figures it would
seem they are representative as the
rate of reduction was pretty well
uniform in all of them. Nor it
seem to make any material cuuer
ence whether or not the counties
were located on or near the line se
parating North Carolina from anoth
er state
The five counties were New Han
over, close to the South Carolina
line, but not on it; Brunswick, on
the South Carolina line; Wayne,
quite a distance from any other
state, Vance, on the Virginia line;
and Catawba, reasonably far in the
North Carolina interior.
In these counties marriage licenses
for April and May of 1938 and 1939
compared like this:
1939 1938
New Hanover 36 74
Wayne (May only) ..11 30
Vance 21 47
Catawba ».... 41 80
Brunswick 5 13
In every county except Catawba
the decline in licenses amounted to
w . (Continued on Page Two).
iimtitersmt Satin SHstratrii
ERASED WIRE SERVICE nu
THIO ASSOCIATED press?
Band Not To Return Here
Until Wednesday Night
How 4 Women
Escaped Jail
Deep Mystery
Maryville, Ohio, June 20. —(AP) —
A deepening mystery revolving
about a couple of keys confounded
authorities today as they sought to
learn how Mrs. Velma West, hus
band slayer of the flapper era, and
three other inmates escaped from
the State reformatory for women
for “one little adventure.”
“They had to get keys to get out,
but no keys are missing,” explained
Mrs. Marguerite Reilley, superin
tendent of the institution, shortly
after she sent three women to cor
ruption cells “until they tell me what
they know.”
Mrs. Reilley said the three placed
in corruption cells, whom she refus
ed to identify, slept in a corridor
through which Mis. West, 33, Pay
nesville, Ohio, slipped to freedom
with the other inmates early yester
day.
“They insist they know nothing
about it,” the superintendent said,
“but I think they do.”
To make their escape, Mrs. West
and her companions had to unlock
doors to their cells and a door lead
ing from the cell blocks in which
they were confined. The reformatory
yard was open.
Combs Trial
On Narcotics
Is Underway
Elizabeth City, June 20.—(AP) —
Counsel for Dr. Howard Combs today
admitted that the physician wrote
thousand ; of prescriptions for mor
phine, offered by District Attorney
J. H. Manning as evidence against
the doctor.
The indictment charged Dr. Combs
with disposing of 61,000 half grain
tablets of morphine over a three-year
period.
Wilson Atkinson, agent for the
Bureau of Narcotics, gave a lengthy
recital of patients for whom he said
Dr. Combs admitted prescribing mor
phine, the total amount prescribed
over a period of three years, and the
residence of each patient.
Atkinson said Combs told item
many of the patients were “tran
sients”.
District Attorney Manning planned
to offer this afternoon the expert
testimony of Dr. J. W. Ashby, super
intendent of State Hospial of North
(Continued on Page Three).
ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER
Thomas A. Morgan
Gives Group SIOO To
Defray Expenses;
Some of Accompany
ing Group Comes
Wednesday Morning
■
World’s Fair, New York, June 20.
(Special) Henderson’s band
, struck oil oil today and those in
charge decided to give the high school
boys and girls another day in New
York at the afir.
Instead of leaving for home to
night, they leave at 11 o’clock Wed
nesday morning, and arrive hmne at
9 o’clock in the evening.
Good luck came in a gift of SIOO
to the hand by Thomas A. Morgan,
native of Vance county, and a home
town boy who has made good. Mor
gan is president of the Sperry Cor
poration, makers of airplane and
steam boat safety appliances, and is
also chairman of the World’s Fair
Aviation section. He asked to be in
troduced to Mrs. Millard Wester, in
charge of the hand, and inquired
what had been done for their enter
tainment. He said he wanted to do
something for the hoys and girts,
and gave a SIOO bill.
Few in the Henderson party will
return home tonight, except some
not in immediate band circle. Most
of them leave Wednesday morning,
arriving in the evening.
Nearly everyone returned to the
fair today, and the band had no
concert, leaving them free with
their chaperones to see the sights.
Like Monday, skies were overcast
today, and weather pleasant. A
heavy, misting rain was exasperating
late Monday, but did not dampen
enthusiasm.
Everyone in the party is in the
best of health and having the time
of their lives. Some forty or fifty
took out time the first thing today
to inspect the great liner “Queen
Mary,” tied up at her docks in the
Hudson river, and marvelled at her
beauty and massiveness.
The biggest thing about the fair
is its bigness; one can spend a
month here and not see half of it.
DISPATCH REPORTER TELLS
OF TRAIN TRIP AND TOUR
New York, June 19.—(Delayed)—
More than 130 members of the Hen
derson high school band, and parents
and other children and guests saw
the sights and marvels of the great
city of New York yesterday and then
today turned to the Flushing
Meadows to take part in the ob
servance of North Carolina Day at
the World’s Fair.
Aboard two special cars, the band
and the remainder of the party came
to New York on the same train with
Governor Clyde Hoey, whose grac
iousness was manifest on this trip
as always elsewhere. Since he left
Raleigh and arrived in New York, he
has properly been the center of the
show everywhere he has been on
(Ctm.ir.ued on Page Three)
PUBLISHED IN THIS SECTION OF NORTH CAROLINA AND VIRGINIA
HENDERSON, N. C., TUESDAY AFTERNOON, JUNE 20, 1939
U.S. Protests
Jap Bombing
Os Property
Roosevelt Is “V e r y
Pleased” With Clean-
U p Os Pendergast
Ring; Employers Find
It Hard to Discipline
Workers
Washington, June 20. (AP) —
Secretary Hull said today the Ame
rican charge d’affaires at Tokyo has
protested Japanese continued bomb
ing of America’s properly in China.
Eugene Doornail called on the
Japanese foreign minister on instruc
tions from the State Department,
Hull said, and in addition to mak
ing representations against the bomb
ings also sought to obtain permis
sion to publish the recent exchange
of notes between the United States
and Japan on this subject
The Secretary of State explained
it was customary to obtain the as
sent of a foreign government for
publication of one of its documents.
The Japanese assent has not been
obtained
Other developments:
Governor Lloyd Stark, of Mis
souri, said after a White House call
President Roosevelt was “very much
pleased” with the “clean up” in Kan
sas City and the smashing of the T.
J. Pendergast political machine.
Stark told reporters that he and
Mr. Roosevelt had discussed some
matters on which he could not com
ment.
John Gall, counsel for the Na
tional Association of Manufacturers,
testified the National Relations
Board had made it impossible for in
dustrial cyiployers to discipline union
employees.
“It doesn’t matter what the man
(Continued on Page Two)
A.&N.C.Road
v
Charter; Given
Raleigh, June 20.—(AP)—Atlan
tic and Eastern Carolina Railway
Co., of New Bern, organized to oper
ate the State controled Atlantic and
North Carolina railroad, got a char
ter today from Thad Eure, Secre
tary of State.
H. P. Edwards, of Sanford, who is
working on details involved in the
lease, along with May C. Edwards,
W. M. Edwards, E. R. Buchan, Pet
tie C. Buchan, and Nannie E. Huck
ans, all of Sanford, subscribed 825
shares of the 1000 shares of no-par
value of authorized capital.
The directors and stock-holders of
the Atlantic and North Carolina
voted recently upon recommendation
of Governor Hoey to lease the rail
road to Edwards.
Commander
Sub Before
Naval Board
Lieut. Naquin Begins
His Official Account
of Squalus Sinking,
Which Claimed 26
Lives
Portsmouth, N. H., Juno 20. —(AP)
—-Lieut. O. S. Naquin, commander
md last survivor to leave the sub
marine Squalus, still the undersea
tomb of 26 of his shipmates, began
his official account of the disaster
before a naval board of inquiry to
day by waiving his rights as a de
fendant.
“I do not desire counsel,” Naquin
told the board after swearing with
his left hand on Bible to tell all the
truth.
Nevertheless, he read a statement
declaring he reserved the right to
challenge anything that might be
said, to question witnesses and to
decline questions that he thought
(Continued on Page Three)
iO&aihsLh
FOR NORTH CAROLINA.
Generally fair today and Wed
nesdav; not much change in tem
gerature.
Note From Grave
i: Vfr \
Charles Crawley, Jr.
Seven-year-old Charles Crawley,
Jr., wrote a loving Father’s Day
note to his dad, a WPA worker, a
few minutes later was killed by an
automobile as he crossed a busy
Pittsburgh street. He had planned
to give his father a picture of him
self and the letter, which ended:
“I hope you have a happy Father’s
Day. God bless you.”
McDonald Is
Speaker For
Merchants
Former Legislator
Hits at Tax Increases
and Trends of Tax
Policies of State
Durham, June 20. (AP) —Dr.
Ralph McDonald, former legislator,
told the North Carolina Merchants
Association that there had been “an
amazing increase in the total of local
and State taxes” in recent years ac
companied by a “neglect of the pub
lic schools”.
McDonald, who barely failed in his
hid for the Democratic guberna
torial nomination in 1936, aiscussed
recent trends in taxation in North
Carolina.
He noted that both “favorable and
unfavorable trends have characteriz
ed tne tax policies of the State”, then
discussed each side.
“The most destructive develop
ments with the past decade,” he said,
• nave been the movement to shift
the burden of taxation from weaith
lo need through consumer taxes, and
the tragic neglect of public education
which declined in total expenditure
from $39,000,000 in 1929-30 to about
.p.Jd,iZu,ouo m 1937-38, despite a
startling increase of local and State
taxation, from a peak of $120,131,265
in the balmy days of 1929-30 to an
unbelievable total of $111,260,328 in
(Continued on Page Two)
FALL FROM TRUCK
FATAL TO FARMER
Clinton, N. C., June 20.—(AP) —
J. A. Daughtry, a farmer, died to
day of injuries received when he fell
from a truck and a trailer, loaded
with beans, passed over his head.
Manton Given
i erm and r me
New York, June 20.—(AP) —Mar-
tin T. Manton, former judge of the
United States Circuit Court of Ap
peals, was sentenced today to two
yeais in a federal prison and fined
SIO,OOO. It was the maximum sen
tence possible under his conviction
lot conspiracy to sell judicial favors.
Manton was sentenced by Federal
Judge W. Calvin Ci.esnut after mak
ing a sometime fervent but dispas
sionate plea to have the jury’s ver
dict set aside.
Speaking of himself in the third
person except when he spoke of the
“chagrin and humiliation” he had
suffered, Manton summoned a long
array of legal arguments against the
conclusion the jury reached on June
3.
He cited federal cases to support
his contention that he had been in
nocent of wrong doing and had any
part in a conspiracy.
He spoke well over an hour before
Judge Chesnut rejected the plea and
passed sentence. <£
Even while Manton was making
what was perhaps one of the most
important pleas in his career, the
court where he formerly sat was re
instating for re-argqment one of the
major cases which figured on the
charges ot bribery and conspiracy.
PUBLISHED EVERY AFTERNOON
EXCEPT SUNDAY.
Chinese Employees
Quit Work As Japs
Threaten Relatives
Sees Anglo-Jap War
jgm rank
Admiral Roger Keyes
Admiral of the Fleet Roger Keyes
in a speech at Hornsey, England,
declared the Japanese blockade of
the British Concession at Tientsin,
China, is tantamount to a declara
tion of war by Japan, Germany and
Italy. “It is a challenge which must
be met,” he asserted.
Plants Ready
To Make Up
U. S. Munitions
New York, June 20. (AP) —There
are 10,000 industrial plants in the
United States pi’epared to start the
manufacture of munitions immediate
ly, Louis Johnson, assistant secretary
of war, told the convention of the
Advertising Federation of America
today.
Johnson’s prepared address was
broadcast and dealt with “industrial
preparedness for security.”
He said the War Department sur
veyed the capacity of industry to
produce munitions of war, represent
atives of the department visiting
more than 20,000 plants.
“We found facilities to manufac
ture practically all of our military
needs, as a result of these surveys
to which we gave definite sche
dules of production If tomorrow were
‘M-Day’ (mobilization day) we could
turn to these plants, give them an or
der, and they would begin at once to
manufacture munitions.”
Johnson said the department had
undertaken a program of “educa
tional orders to prepare industry in
time of peace for its war time
duties.”
“We have placed a number of such
orders already and expect to multiply
them during the course of the next
year,” he said. “With the aid of such
a policy we arc confident that in
dustry will be able to go into pro
duction on a preponderant number
of our needs within six months after
(Continued on page two)
Power Dam On
Yadkin Would
Hit Good Land
Yadkinville, June 20.—(AP) — A
former Yadkin county commissioner
testified today in the counter suit to
prevent construction of the $6,500,000
High Point hydro-electric plant on
the Yadkin river that land to be
flooded by the lake was worth twice
as much per acre as land in the coun
ty as a whole.
E. B. Vestal, the former commis
sioner who was tax supervisor from
1935-36, was the witness, the second
in the hearing that opened Monday
before Judge Hoyle Sink.
Construction of the WPA-financea
project would result in flooding 65
percent of the county’s bottom land,
Vestai testified
On close examination, he said that
in his job as tax supervisor he had
had no part in valuing property and
that some of the lands were not ap
praised at their true value, in his
opinion.
J. T. Reece, Yadkin county .school
superintendent, the first witness,
testified school bus routes would
be flooded in 5 places by the power
development.
8 PAGES
TODAY
FIVE CENTS COPY
High Voltage Wires
Isolate British and
F rench Concessions;
Threatening Letters
Received by Workers
Tientsin, June 20.—(AP) —Chinese
employees of vital British conces
sion services began quitting their
jobs today under threats of death to.
their families in a tightening of the
Japanese blockade amid warnings
against third power participation in
any British reprisals.
Chinese, who work for concession
water, electric, police, and other de
velopments, received letters saying
their relatives would be killed un
less they resigned. Those who live
outside the concession in a Japanese
controlled area were resigning.
British authorities expressed qpin
ion that the services could be main
tained by Chinese whose families
live inside the British and French
settlements which Japanese yester
day isolated from the rest of the
city by high voltage wires in rein
forcement of the blockade.
The source of threatening letters
was not disclosed officially, but Chi
nese and foreigners alike were cer
tain they were dispatched by the
Japanese military after a census of
tamilies of Chinese employees of
the concession who were living out
side its boundaries.
State Sells
Bonds, Notes
Raleigh, June 20.—(AP) —The lo
cal government commission sold
$28,000 worth of bonds and $37,000
worth of notes today for local gov
ernment units.
A Nash county $36,000 school bond
issue went to Seasongood and Mayer
of Cincinnati at a premium of $28.85
with interest to be at 2 1-4 percent.
Two Green county issues went to
Scott, Horner, and Mason, Inc., oD
Lynchburg, Va. The firm bid a
premium of $499.99 for $200,000 road
and bridge refunding bonds, where
the first $90,000 of maturities to
bear 3 per cent interest and the re
mainder at 3 1-4 percent. It paid
$59.49 premium for $25,000 school
refunding bonds to bear 3 percent
interest.
Notes sold included:
Sampson counly, $30,000 reVnue
anticipation to Wachovia Bank &
Trust Co., in Winston-Salem, at a
premium of $1.56 with 1 percent
interest. „
L v /
Japs Study A
New US Note
On Blockade
U. S. Official Protests
Against Jap Naval
Blockade of Bulangsu;
Talks of Tientsin
Crisis, Also
Tokyo, June 20.—(AP)—The Jap
anese government today studied new
representations of the United States
against Japanese military action in
foreign areas of China.
Eugene Dooman, United States
charge d’affairs, in a call upon S.
Yoshizawa, head of the American
section of the foreign office, yester
day specifically protested against the
Japanese naval blockade of Kul
angsu, the international settlement
at Amoy, an authorative informant
disclosed.
Dooman also discussed the Tient
sin situation. (A Japanese naval
party entered Kulangsu, an island,
May 12. British, French, and Ameri
can patrols landed there May 17
to protect the interest of their na
tionals. Japanese demands for con
trol of the Kulangsu municipal
council were rejected. The matter
has been settled and June 15 Japa
nese warships began blockading Kul
angsu.)
Japanese military and diplomatic
officials meanwhile laid reports of
the crisis at Tientsin before the em
peror.