The Alleghany Times
TO THE CIVIC, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF ALLEGHAN Y COUNTY
Series 1937 GALAX, VA. (Published for Sparta, N. C.) THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 1937. eight pages Number 10.
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TODAY’S THOUGHT
“Home is the seminary
of all other institutions.”
—Chapin.
DEVOTED
By Hugo Sims, Washington
' Correspondent
UR YEARS AGO
?our years ago this week, on
rch 9, 1933, Congress met in
raordinary session and rushed
Emergency Banking Act
augh both houses in a single
to liquidate the banking cri
caused by the closing of
ks in many states and con
ted by the bank holiday pro
med a few days earlier by the
rly installed President, Frank
D. Roosevelt. Three days la
, the Chief Executive, in his
i radio address to the people,
lined intricate financial mat
i in clear-cut phrases and re
d what had been done to meet
financial peril.
E CONTRAST TODAY
■he picture today is entirely
aged. Business and industry
e forged ahead although much
mployment remains to chal
te alleged national prosperity,
or and capital are resuming
r strife as conditions improve,
i the more aggressive labor
ers reaching out into new
Is of organization. The na
al monetary system seems es
ished as outside nations pour
ranted gold into our borders,
locracy continues its course in
face of serious questions be
> the people.
JRT ISSUE DEBATED
>ast week the nation continued
debate the President’s pro
al to enlarge the Supreme
rt by adding new justices to
et those above seventy who
ine bo retire. The discussion
ged the scale of political is
i, with conservatives asserting
; what the President sought
ild kill the Court and make
a dictator and the President’s
porters insisting that some
g is necessary if the republic
o solve modern problems and
the Court proposal utilized a
il power given to Congress by
ie who feared an oligarchy of
judiciary.
aaically, the division of opin
is along lines clearly indicat
in previous battles between
New Dealers and those op
sd to its general philosophy
government. The Republicans
conservative Democrats open
pppose the manoeuvre while
ant supporters of the President
y to his standard. Every ef
; is apparently being made to
nsify propaganda on both
s, with the President’s radio
the culmination of the drives,
ually, the situation last week
;he Senate gave a slight edge
the proponents of the change
t appeared that a majority of
senators would vote favor
r. A poll of public sentiment,
>n by the Institute of Public
nion, along the lines of its
sessful presidential tests of
aion, however, revealed 53 per
t of the people voting against
plan.
RAH’S AMENDMENT
,n interesting development of
battle has been the proposal
Senator Borah bo amend the
istitution to prevent the judi-:
y from using the “due pro- j
" clause to kill laws held to
unduly harsh or arbitrary. His j
mdment would permit the ap
ation of the phrase, other than
reference to certain portions
the Bill of Rights, to the “pro
ore of executive, administra
ox judicial bodies charged
l the execution and enfovee
it of the law.”
iignificance lies in the fact
• when the fourteenth amend
it was written it was adopted
lafeguard the lives, liberty and
perty of ex-slaves but the
rts have defined it to widen
authority of the courts tq set
le laws when, in the judges’
lion, the laws were arbitrary
unreasonable in effect upon
perty. The result has been
t many laws have been affect
by what the judges thought
its substance rather than its
[ of due process in procedure,
reover, the judges themselves
e often been unable to agree
to whether a law was a.rbi
•v or unreasonable.
>ULD RESTRICT COURTS
'he. Borah amendment would
it the Court in >ti ccnsider
m of the laws of the States
thur. provide latitude for soc
, and regulatory legislation, ti
aid probably end the much
:us?ed twilight zone which has
etcfore resulted when the
,rt.4 have thrown out Federal
station because the Federal
ernipent had no such power
the Constitution and then,
“Fanner Bob” Has
Conference With
Roosevelt Monday
Chief Executive And Head
Of Way* And Means
Group Hold Conference
At White House
PARKWAY IS DISCUSSED
Doughton Maintains His
Non-committal Attitude
On Controversial High
Court Question
Washington, Mar. 9.—Represen
tative Robert L. Dough ton, of
North Carolina, was guest at the
White House yesterday at which
time they discussed taxes, the
Supreme Court issue, the com
pletion of the Blue Ridge park
way, and the official opening and
development of the Great Smoky
Mountains National park.
After leaving the White House,
Doughton predicted there would
be no general revenue bill consid
ered at this session of Congress
and the only tax legislation to be
enacted would deal with special
excise taxes which are slated to
be extended.
Doughton expressed opposition
to a change in the present hori
zontal tobacco tax to one based
upon the selling price of tobacco
products which has been suggest
ed by the federal trade commis
sion as a means of encouraging
the sale of a 10-cent brand cigar
ettes. “We went into this mat
ter thoroughly and decided the
horizonal tax was the fairest to
all parties concerned,’’ Doughton
said. He does not expect any
reduction in tobacco taxes at this
session.
Any amendments to the undis
tributed profit tax will be con
sidered at the next session instead
of the present one, Doughton pre
dicted. “If, after further stdy, a
change is desired, we can enact
the amendments at the next ses
sion,” he said.
Doughton said he had been as
sured that money would be pro
vided to keep construction of the
parkway connecting the Great
Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah
National parks under way'with
out interruption. The North
Carolinian said the President was i
anxious to have the Great Smoky
Mountains park accepted by the
government and developed to take
care of tourists Who will want to
spend sopie time in the park but
cannot now do so because of a
lack of accommodations.
The national park service has
insisted that the full 426,000
acres, originally planned for the
park,’ be secured before the park
is accepted. Under the Weaver
bill, it can be accepted when
400,000 acres are in hand. This
latter acreage will be acquired
as soon as pending condemnation
litigation is settled.
On the Supreme Court issue,
Doughton maintained his non
committal attitude. When asked
about his stand following the
White Housfe luncheon, the ways
and means chairman replied:
“The President is the finest
man in the world.”
Edith Maxwell Is
Denied A Third
Trial For Murder
Wise, Va.. Mar. 9.—Edith Max
well, twice convicted on charges
of murdering her father lost a
new effort to escape a jury-pre
scribed prison term late today
when Judge Ezra T. Carter de
nied her motion for a third trial.
Her attorney, Charles Henry
Smith, of Alexandria, immediately
noted an appeal and was granted
a period of 90 days to perfect
the appeal. Miss Maxwell’s $16,
000 bond was renewed.
Judge Carter ruled that evi
dence presented in the second trial
was sufficient to support the
jury’s verdict of second-degree
muru'er, under which the 22-year
old former school teacher was
sentenced to 20 years in prison
for killing her father.
CHICKEN PIE AND OYSTER
SUPPER TO BE GIVEN FRI.
On Friday, March 12, at 6:80
o’clock a chicken pie and oyster
supper will be given at the home
of E. L. Williams, sponsored by
tho Women's Missionary society
of the Methodist church.
Back to ^Vilds
■> P-AAfl.
From her hos
LOS ANGELES .
pital bed. recovering from injuries
in a Western air crash which cost
her husband’s life. Mrs. Osa Mar
tin Johnson (above)C announces
she will carry on in jungle expe
ditions.
Mrs. Simpson To
Spend Sometime
At French Retreat
Early Visit Of “A Very
Distinguished Person”
Hinted. $450 Worth Of
Flowers Bedeck Chateau
Monts, France, Mar. 9.—Under
stood to be intending to remain
for an indefinite stay, Mrs. Wal
lis Warfield Simpson arrived to
day >at her new retreat, 400-year
old turreted Chateau de Gande.
Accompanied by her Riviera
hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Herman L.
Rogers, Mrs. Simpson drove up
to the chateau in the front seat
of a low-slung sedan.
Mrs. Charles E. Bedaux, wife
of a New York industrial engi
neer, greeted Mrs. Simpson and
her friends at the great, arabes
que-adorned doorway of the
chateau.
Twenty-two servants, headed
by an English butler, lined up
behind, their uniforms resplendent
in the soft, red glow of chandel
iers shining out under the castle’s
irregular, high-pointed, blue slate
roofs and turrets.
The party had tea with Mrs.
Bedaux and other guests at a gay
house party. Mrs. Simpson then
retired to her room, bathed and
rested, and was understood to
have telephoned the Duke of
Windsor before dinner.
Rogers said she planned to re
tire early and sleep away the
fatigue of the two-day journey
(Turn to Page 8, Please)
A.S.T.CGrl
Commits Suicide
Monday At Home
Boone, Mar. 9.—In an upstairs
bedroom at the home of her par
ents, Miss Virginia May South,
18-year-old Appalachian State
Teachers college Junior student,
was found shot to death yester
day afternoon about 4fl5 o’clock.
Miss South was a daughter of
A. E. South, clerk of the Wa
tauga county superior court.
Coroner R. E. Kelly, after an
investigation, said that an inquest
was unnecessary, and stated that
Miss South’s death resulted from
a self-inflicted bullet wound1.
Coroner Kelly said that no rea
son had been found for Miss
South’s act. However, he stated,
she had been moody for several
days.
Miss South’s body was found
by a cousin, Ben Norris, lying
across the bed with a pistol bul
let wound near the heart. She is
believed to have died instantly.
The pistol Miss South used was
found1 in the room near the body.
Earlier in the day, Miss South
was with a group of students who
were talcing pictures to be pub
lished in the college annual. Her
picture was taken with the rest
of the group. Later she went
home.
Surviving are the parents, Mr.
and Mm. A. E. South; two sis
ters, Elizabeth and Marjorie
South, and one brother, Stanley
South, all of Boone.
The funeral was held this af
ternoon at 2 o’clock at Boone.
Burial wee at Boone.
Todd, Wanted For
Various Offenses,
Is Captured Wed.
a vuug rkiivgimuj tnnu •«
Taken Into Custody By
Taylor And Gentry In
Surry County
Paris Todd, young man of Alle
ghany, wanted in Alleghany and
Wilkes counties for several alleg
ed offenses, was captured on Wed
nesday night of last week by
Wayne Taylor and R. D. Gentry
near the home of Dick Mays, in
the foothills of the Mitchells
River section of Surry.
At the time of the capture, a
posse of Alleghany, Wilkest and
Sunry county officers, headed by
Sheriff Walter M. Irwin, of Alle
ghany, and a Wilkes county
bloodhound were on Todd’s trail.
But Taylor and Gentry, being fa
miliar with that section, guessed
correctly the route he probably
would follow in crossing the
mountain, and intercepted him.
A watch and chain in the pos
session of Todd was admittedly
stolen two days earlier from the
home of Everett Roberts in North
Elkin. The brown suit which he
wore, likewise, was alleged to
have been stolen from an Alle
ghany merchant, Neal Hendrix,
of Hooker.
Following the burglary of the
watch from the Roberts home, a
warrant was issued for Todd and,
when Deputy Sheriff Spencer ap
prehended him at a State Road
tobacco barn, the d^leghany man
fiercely resisted arrest, attacking
the officer with a knife and
escaping.
Taken to North Wilkesboro for
trial, Todd was given from one to
two years in prison in Wilkes
county on robbery charges. He
was than turned ooar to Sheriff
Walter M. Irwin, of Alleghany
county, where he will face trial
on several charges before begin
ning the sentence imposed in
Wilkes county.
Child Suffers
Broken Leg When
Struck By Auto
Marie McCann, seven-year-old
daughter of Bud1 McCann, of the
Bull Head section, suffered a
broken leg on Friday afternoon
on the Scenic parkway, near the
Albert brothers construction camp
when she was struck by the
bumper of a car driven by A.
V. Choate, rural mail carries- in
the county, on her way home
from school.
It is reported that Mr. Choate
slowed down upon seeing the girl
and her sister beside the road
some distance ahead. As he ap
proached the girls, the younger
one, it is said, dashed1 across the
road and, although Choate swerv
ed his car off the pavement in an
effort to avoid striking the child,
a headlight struck her, a bumper
breaking her leg. It is thought
that the accident was unavoidable.
The girl was brought to Sparta
for treatment, and is recovering
rapidly.
Students. On Honor
Roll For Feb. At
Wolf Branch School
Students of Wolf Branch
school who made the hon'or roll
for February, follows;
Seventh Grade: Mildred Rich
ardson and Marie Crouse.
Sixth Grade: Pawnee Brooks,
Katherine Andrews, Ray An
drews and J. Harliss.
Fifth Grade: . Mack Andrews,
Ollie Halcomb and Doris Wago
ner.
Fourth Grade; Wilma Crouse,
Odus Adams, Loraine Brooks, El
sie Watson and Romaine McBride.
Third Grade: Earnest Andrews,
Mattie Reid Irwin, Nova McBride,
L. V. Tedder, Amos Richard
son, Helen Watson and Dale Hol
loway.
Second Grade: Raymond Adams
Lacy Brooks, Charles Alvin
Brooks, Betty Andrews, Pauline
Holcomb. Page Wagoner and
Reqves Brooks.
First Grade: John Irwin, Lo
raine Holloway Norma McBride,
Ruth Brooks, Marie Brooks, Ed
win Brooks^ Doris Watson and
'Virginia Brooks.
lama’s Baby Boy’
To Be Gven Sat.
Night At S.H.S.
First Of Two Plays During
Present School Year To
Be Presented By Seniors
Of Sparta High School
“Mania’s Baby Boy,” the first
of two plays to be presented dur
ing the present school year by
the Senior class of Sparta high
school, is to be given in the local
high school auditorium on Satur
day night, March 13, at eight
o’clock.
This hilarious comedy, so re
ferred to recently by an interest
ed person in commenting on the
play, is said to exceed the speed
limit in laughs and ludicrous i
situations. This person had the
following to say, also: “As a
cnaze for appearing youthful
spreads, even to the colored maid,
one laugh piles on top of an
other. The play is filled with ridi
culous, mirth-provoking lines and
scenes. Needless to say, the whole
play is a whirlwind of delight
that the entire cast is anticipate
ing presenting.”
The cast of characters is as
follows:
Mrs. Shephard McLean — a
young widow, Miss Flora Crouse;
Shephard McLean—her young son,
Ernest Edwards; Luther Long—a
widower, Herbert Lyons; Juliet
Long—his young daughter, Miss
Hattie Maines; Mrs. Blackburn—
Mrs. McLean’s mother, Miss Stella
Billings; Wilbur Warren—Shep
hard’s pgh-Jeff Joines; Sylvia
Klipe—Wifbur’S girl friend, Miss
Wilma G. Ratiedge— Mrs. Car
lotta Anglin—friend of Mrs. Mc
Lean, Miss Margaret Giobbi;
Cynthia Anglin—her young daugh
ter, Miss Mary Riizoti; Max
Moore*—a real estate agent,
Wade Choate, and Minnie—a
young colored maid, Miss Ethel
McCann.
The entire action of the play
is supposed to be taking place in
the living room of Mrs. Mc
Lean’s home in Fort Wayne, Ind.
The first act is represented as tak
ing place on a spring afternoon,
the second act a little later on
the same day, and the third' still
later in the same day.
Farley I* Heard
Tues. At U. Of N. C.,
In Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, Mar. 9.—Post
master General James A. Farley
charged the Republican party to
day with “seeking the, repeal of
the 1936 election” by opposing
President Roosevelt’s Supreme
Court reorganization plan.
"The Republicans lost before
the voters,” the chairman of the
Democratic national executive
committee said. “Now they are
trying to win in Congress.”
Speaking under the auspices
of the University of North Caro
lina Political Union, a non-parti
san organization, Farley said the
judicial plan was the only way
out of the “blockade that has re
sulted from the present economic
complexion of a majority of the
Supreme Court.”
Two thousand persons packed
into the university’s Memorial
Auditorium and another 600 in
the foyer heard the address, which
also was broadcast over a nation
| wide radio hook-up.
Sentence Suspension
Bill Is Enacted
Into Law By House
Raleigh, Mar. 9.—The House
of Representatives enacted into
law tonight a measure allowing
judges of criminal courts in North
Carolina to suspend the sentence
of offenders, except ia capital and
life imprisonment cases.
The bill, introduced February
12 by Representative Ward, of
Craven, was passed yesterday by
the Senate and returned to the
lower body for concurrence in
amendments.
MISS HONAKER MEMBER OF
ALL-STAR BASKETBALL TEAM
Miss Jean Honaker has been
named a member of the all-Mar
team, following the tri-county
basketball tournament recently
sponsored in the new Elkin gym
nasium by Elkin high school.
With Toy Pistol
NBW YORK . . . Norma Parker,
New York’s girl cafe bandit, con
eluded a brief and spectacular
crime career, when a cashier
grabbed her . . . and learned he
was being held up with a toy
pistol. Police identified her as the
girl who had successfully held up
•ereral cafe cashiers recently.
Roosevelt Asks
Swift Enactment
Of Court Reform
Heavy Blow Is Struck By
President For His Plan
For Court Reorganization
In Speech Tuesday Night
Washington, Mar. 9.—To “save
the constitution from the (su
preme) court and the court from
itself,” President Roosevelt called
for swift enactment of his court
reorganization bill tonight.
In outspoken fashion, the Chief
Executive asserted the high tri
bunal had “improperly set itself
up” as a “super legislature,” and
had read into the Constitution
“words and implications which are
not there and which were never
intended to be there.”
At the same time, he disavowed
any intent to “pack” the court
with “spineless puppets who
would disregard the law” and de
cide cases as he might wish them
decided, and asserted’ the process
es of constitutional amendment
were too slow for the pressing
problems of the day.
“We must find1 a way to take
an appeal from the Supreme
Court to the Constitution itself,”
he said. “We want a Supreme
Court which will do justice under
the Constitution—not over it. In
our courts we want a government
of laws, not of men.
“I want—as all Americans
want—an independent judiciary
as proposed by the framers of the
Constitution. That means a Su
preme Court that will enforce the
Constitution as written—that will
refuse to amend the Constitution
by the arbitrary exercise of judi
cial power—amendment by judi
(Tum to Page 5, Please!
Five Injured In
Accident Sunday
Near Cherry Lane
On Sunday. March 7, shortly!
after noon, Wiley Johnson, his !
sister, Mary Johnson, and Tavia
Comls, all of Sparta, were in
jured, the former seriously, when
the truck in which they were
riding crashed into a pine grove
a short distance beyond Kent
Andrews’ home, near Cherry Lane.
Garnett Nichols and Porter
Wagoner also of Sparta, who
were rising in the truck bed,
were thrown out by the impact,
but received only minor injuries.
The driven, Wiley Johnson, suffer
ed a broken leg and grave in
ternal injuries. The two girls also
sustained cuts and other injuries,
the extent of which have not been
learned.
In going down grade from
A. A. Woodruff’s home the truck
failed to negotiate a curve, ran
off into a ditch on the right side
of the road, then veered across
the highway, crashing into a pine
thicket, finally stopping, wedged
between a telephone pole and a
pine tree.
The first passers-by at the
scene of the accident were George
Reeves and R. D. Gentry, of
Sparta. The injured persons,
bleeding profusely, were extri
cated from the truck, and brought
to Sparta, where first-aid was ad
ministered.
Death Of Fries
Man Investigated
4tIndependence
Trial Justice Anderson, Of
Grayson County, Conducts
Hearing Tuesday In
Regard To Tragedy
DIED IN FRIES JAIL
Young Man Was Apparently
Victim Of Suffocation
As Cell Bedding Burned.
No Decision At Hearing
At an investigation into the
ieath of Ed Reese, who died as
the result of a fire in his cell in
the Fries jail on the night of
February 27, held Tuesday at In
dependence by Trial Justice Grey
Anderson, Galax, no decision was
arrived at.
After hearing the evidence of
almost thirty Witnesses summon
ed in the case, Trial Justice An
ierson said the investigation,
strictly speaking, was a purely
informal procedure, in that no
warrants had been issued, and,
therefore, he was not in a posi
tion to hand down a decision of
any kind in the case unless some
thing of a more definite nature
developed. He left the matter in
the hands of Commonwealth’s At
torney P. L. Harrington, of Gray
son county, who said that if, af
ter he has thoroughly studied the
evidence produced, he deems such
iction warranted, he will sum
non certain witnesses before the
jrand jury. On the other hand,
re indicated, if, after such a
study is made, he is not of the
>pinion that further action is nec
;ssary, insofar as criminal negli
gence is concerned, with refer
snce to the death of young Reese,
re will consider the matter closed.
His bed having caught on fire,
roung Reese, .who was . 24 years
>f age, apparently was suffocat
ed in his cell in the Fries jail
lometime during the night of
February 27. No night keeper
s employed at the jail, and the
»ody of the young man was
found face down, about 9:30 o’
:k)ck on the morning of Febru
ary 28, by Chief of Police Bruce
Smith and Officer Henry Martin,
also of the Fries police force.
Reese was arrested early on
the night of the 27th on a charge
of drunkenness by Chief Smith
and Officer Martin.
At the hearing held at Inde
pendence, Commonwealth’s Attor
ney Harrington was assisted by
H. Prince Burnett, Galax, who is
a former commonwealth’s attor
ney of Grayson county, and the
Town of Fries was represented
by Attorney Stuart B. Campbell,
Wytheville.
The hearing opened at ten o’
clock and the first witness called
was C. W. Bond, of Washington
inn, which is situated near the
Fries jail. Mr. Bond told of
hearing someone in the jail yell
ing during the night that Reese
died. However, he said he had
heard such noises many times and
thought that they were merely
being made by some “drunk” in
the, jril and thought nothing of
it. He said further that the
yelling did not sound at all like
(Turn to Page 5, Please)
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