Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • Page 17

If If aman TOW a Unlit Prut AiJOculiant (01 mi THE V5L cxxiv- National NO. 16 OAKLAND, THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 1936 17 XT THE Lsjiave Whirlio A XT rrvT TTT TTTTXTn LEGALLY DEAD ni I I I I I I BALKED 'Clipper', Flying Sea Lion, Joins Airmen Landslide Carries Home 25 Feet Down Oakland Canyon Jj All' 1 IWK- MSr- JM4! 1 1 Iff Week-Day Column No matter how ln- a fire engine refused to go to a fire in the earlier days of Oakland's career because of a heavyrain, it is declared. According to Assistant Fire Chief J. H. Burke, a small fire started while rain was.

pelting down. One of the fire engines failed to respond. Its presence was not really needed at the fire but the chiefs inquired to-see why it had never turned up. The investigation started at the fire, house. "It was raining," explained the delinquent official in charge of the fire house.

"We never go out in rains like that. We might have got very wet." After which there were some, punishments, and no fire engine ever since has stayed home at an alarm because of the weather. JUNGLE STUFF is human to want to go primitive from time to time. Artists have that urge; at least annually, so they carry their friends, patrons, patronesses and Others along with them in a yearly pageant and dance a riot of. well selected colors and of merrymaking that are to see.

i This year the San' Francisco Art Association, which gives the annual Parilia, decided to go jungle. It doesn't require much cloth to be jungle native and what with the late depression and art being shy, it seemed a good -idea to be Cambodians, for a night and much of the day following. Cambodians were strong on large headdresses. A large headdress Is something to worry about if you ar a swaying dancer, that is one sway-. ing under the rhythm of beating tomtoms, or what was it Cambodians beat? i From the stone carvings at Angkor Vat, the artists have taken their suggestions for costumes.

The Knave has been told the Parilia pageant will be the best ever given and. since I have seen some of the costumes in the making and of -the stone carvings (now in this country) I must agrel that it is going to be some party. Artists do things well, when they get around to it They, put on a beautiful pageant last year. This year's Pa rilia will be held January 17, Expo-, sition Auditorium, San Francisco. If you are interested you may select your costume from any Cambodian style between the eighth and twelfth centuries.

Probably the styles didn't change much In those days, so an eighth century Cambo-' dian on Van Ness Avenue in the early hours of January 18 will appear to the police about the same as a twelfth century Cambodian, i LAUREATE 'now that John scheduled to appear twice on the University of California campus this month, something about the duties and traditions of Britain'! poet laureate may be timely. First, Masefield is the first of 22 English poet laureates to visit the United States with the object of speaking on the public stage. His predecessors, who confined their appearances to their home climes, included such distinguished poets as Dryden, Wordsworth and Tennyson. The British Labor government conferred Masefleld's title upon him while from the crown came letters patent to officially, confirm tht honor. No ceremony attends the appointments of poet laureate in England but the new appointee must attend a levee Buckingham Palace In court dress.

as Masefield told interviewers on his arrival in San Francisco prior to going to Los Angeles to fjll engagements, a poet laureate's duty called upon him to compose an ode on tht sovereign's birthdayj on the wedding of some -member of "the royal family or on the occasion of a royal This picture of the former home rage drive bowed, was taken last of Frank Chambers on McKillop Summer when a la ndslide carried it Cayon. The two homes in background were moved. Here's "Copper," the flying sea lion. He's a mere pup of 200 pounds who wandered onto the Alameda Airport in spite of protests. Now Parker Mitchell, shop superintendent, who feeds him four pounds of.

fish a day, says he'll make a flight in one of the' big transpacific seaplanes soon. Clyde Sunderland photo. Young Amphibian Comes in Frpm Deeps to Take Up Life at Alameda Airport WASHINGTON STRENGTH Democratic bosses of Congress have ouietly framed a program that will turn the legislators out of Wash- lngton by May 1 at the latest The pnly obstacle to an- early adjourn ment is the Supreme Court F. D. R.

doesn't want a prolonged session which the O. E. can use as a stage for sounding off on the 1936 issues. He has impressed upon his henchmen the political necessity for a short and snappy Congressional show. He has agreed to ask 'for nothing more than passage of a neutrality and appropriation measures, and whatever patchwork legislation future Supreme Court upsets may necessitate.

House and Senate leaders have agreed to cooperate. Politically, Democrats on Capitol Hill are eating out of the President's hand. Despite recent signs that his stock has dropped, they tstill figure that he is stronger than his party. Barring exceptional demands such as new taxation, he can have almost anything he wants from the legislators at this session. a a SECRETS Most vicious critic of 1 me wusun-oiyan wcu policies on the Senate Munitions Committee is Senator Bennett (jiarK of Missouri.

Young Bennett, a true son of his father, is paying old scores against Wilson and Bryan, At the Baltimore convention in 1912. "Champ Clark" was lead Ing Democratic candidate for the presidential nomination. But Bryan in a historic speech branded Clark as the "Tool of 1 Tammany" and other Democratic bosses. It. was this address which swung the tide from Clark to Wilson and eventu ally led to the nomination of the Princeton, professor.

The Clarks have never forgiven. The investigation into 20-year-old history has also brought out an other ancient secret. Bryan's friends have informed Senate investigators that he expected Walter Hines Page, then. Ambassador to London, to be appointed as his successor. Bryan was poised to brand Page a subservient Britisher; But when Wilson named Robert Lansing, who had served under Bryan In the State Department, the Great Commoner decided to' hold his tongue, even though Lansing and he had clashed over loans to the Allies.

Secrets will out, like murder, TAMMANY r. D. wooing of lammany ueaucr John J. Dooling reveals that the Democratic high command is seriously worried over the prospect, of carrying New York State in the 1938 Presidential election. Jjpoiing has been listed as a close friend of Al Smith and slightly hostile toward the President Since 1932 New York voters have returned to their old moorings.

The normally Republican up-Staters who turned against Herbert Hoover nave soured on the President. It will take a tremendous Roosevelt plurality bejow to overcome the Republican margin above the Bronx. The Roosevelt-Farley forces control four bor- ouehs. but their domination or coo ling's Manhattani, not certain. A falling off of the Roosevelt vote in Tammany's lair might easily cost Roosevelt the.

State's 47 electoral ballots. a 1 F. D. R. is trying to win Dooling away from AI Smith, who is making as much bad medicine as he can In the Wigwam for the man he once called "old potato." The outcome is still In doubt, for Leader Dooling Is a canny poll-' ticlan, cannily advised.

0 I rtNC SHOT Gov. Eugene Tal madge of Georgia may have been bragging, but on his recent visit to Washington he lam -several bets that F. D. R. will- not be.

the Democrats' 1938 Presidential nominee. He indicated that the so- called constitutional Democrats in tended to' "gang up" against the President. The Governor insists that he will a hand-picked, untnstructed delegation to the Philadelphia-con vention. He understands that Louisiana will also bob up with an anti-" Hoosevelt slate. He hears that the Smith-Ely-Ritchie forces will also appear with several delegations pledged to clamor for the nomina tion of somebody other than Roosevelt In fact he bragged quite profusely of the anti-Roosevelt organi sation which he and his friends were building up against the President.

But when it came to making bets, the Governor contented himself with wagering nothing more valuable than a hat against F. D. nomination. SECURITY Moves are on- to bring about amend- ments of the Social Security Act but nothing looms up as immediate. Labor leaders are not satisfied.

They want old age and unemployment provisions more widely separated, and wofild like to strike out the provision calling for employee contributions to- the enormous fund that will eventually be accumulated. Social security organizations say the payments will, not be big enough. Business men want simplification not so many reports" calling for ALAMEDA. Jan. 16 Meet "Clipper," the only flying sea lion.

He weighs 200 pounds, eats four pounds of fish a day and think a ferry boat whistle is the call of the wild. Six days ago he waddled onto the runway at the Alameda Airport dripping sea water and grunting asthmatically. Mechanics at the port tried to drive, him back into the bay" by grazing him with a tractor. But "Clipper" merely smirked at a tim orous hit-run drfver. S2D.DDD SAVED Court Records Keveal Man Alive; Creditor Who 'Had Claimed Funds Loses Suit Th story of a man who dropped from sight more" than eight years ago, was declaredgallxjiead, and theft "came back to life" to prevent a creditor from collecting nearly $20,000 insurance on his life, was disclosed today.

At least that much of the story of I Charles Dana Plotner, 38, insurance I agent, was disclosed most of it I from court records in San Francisco. Where and how Plotner spent the intervening years, why he disappeared in the first place, and where he is now, are still largely mysteries. COURT RECORDS The court records begin, with a divorce action filed by Plotner's wife, January 13, 1936, charging failure to provide. That action concluded on February 18, 1927, when-' a finel decree was granted to her. The next record is an application for letters of administration for his estate given as consisting of.

personal property worth $25 filed January 16, 1935 by N. Welter. It was. in this proceeding that Plotner was found to have legally, died on October 17, 1927 the date he disappeared after telephoning a friend that he was going away and intimating his body- would be found "in a lonely spot." Next came a suit filed on behalf of Walter Scott Wise; of.Oroville, by the Oakland law firm of Woolsey Huovineh against the Union Central Life Insurance Company of Ohio on October 31, 1935. INSURANCE POLICIES The complaint set forth that Plotner had taken out four life insurance policies with the company for $5000 each naming Wise as that he had disappeared "under circumstances indicating death" on October 17, 1927; that Wise had notified the company on January 5, 1928, but that, the company refused to pay the policies.

It went on to recite that on February 4, 1935, the San Francisco court found that Plotner was dead; that Wise had served a copy of the court's order on the company but that it still refused to pay. Wise asked a total of $19,658.56 as due on the policies, premiums he had paid and interest. The next court record is a dismissal of this suit filed on January or tnis year. ATTORNEY EXPLAINS J. W.

Radii, of the San Francisco law firm of Knight, Boland Riordan, representing the company, expiainea: nomer was a member of a wealthy Ohio family. He had al ways had plenty of money. He came to San Francisco, got Into financial difficulties and borrowed Wise was a creditor but. was protected by the Insurance Other creditors were not. "They pressed Plotner and he decided to' disappear.

We found him last December 11 In San Francisco. got affidavits and finally produced him alive. "He said he had been In Galifornia all the time exeept" for a "year. I am not at liberty--to say where he is now. "That's all there Is to it except that the insurance company doesn't have to pay." Bets on Horse Racing Banned Captain Frank J.

Lynch of Central Police District today issued waminn that acceDtance of horse race bets in his district will not be tolerated. The warnings came after the captain toured a oortion of the down town district. He ordered officers to send suspicious characters to the police station today. As a result of the orders, Z. "Tiny" Heller, Jake Goldberg and Harny Peyton, with Jimmy who Derates a bar at Twelfth and Franklin Streets, paid the Captain a visit in his office.

The men were instructed that if evidence of horse-race betting was found, the Caotain would ask the State. Board of Equalization to re voke liquor licenses. Youth Arrested on Burglary Charges Charges that he stole nearly $1000 in cash and merchandise from a West Oakland-drugstore and garage were filed against Eddie Gehrke, 22, of 1517 Brush Street today. He was arrested last night at his home by Inspectors L. S.

Trowbridge and Jerry Ring. He will be arraigned today before Police Judge Chris B. Fox. Police said he gave large quanti ties of perfume stolen from the drug to a girl friend' and squandered $500 at the dog track. He is alleged to have entered the drug store at 1401 Market Street December 22 and taken $160 in cash and $75 in merchandise.

Later, on January 12, according to police, he broke into a garage at 17th ana Market Streets- and took $730. Of this amount $210 was recovered. One hundred dollars worth of the drug itore loot was also recovered. BY INSURANCE INVESTIGATORS Philippine Red Cross Head Tells of Island Experiences Finally Parker Mitchell, shop superintendent for Pan-American Airways, arrived, decided to give "Clipper" transient accommodations in a fish When he flopped into it, the water rose two feet at a splash. In the meantime, Mitchell telephoned the State Fish and Game Commission to find out whether it was all right to keep irvcapivity.

It was. So immediately consumed four pounds Ut fish to clinch the bargain. CLARK back," he said, "but we get there1, whether to rescue survivors or ruined villages, to innoculate against cholera, establish a quaran tine, investigate leprosy, give food relief when needed, or help in any one of dozens of other ways. Whatever else they know or don't know, the natives of the most remote islands of the Philippine recognize and- welcomepthe Red Cross sign, according to Fors ter. In his 12 years of, service, he has established regional and village units of trained each of whom is prepared in an emergency to act without orders until-the arrival, perhaps from the air, perhaps by boat, perhaps riding donkeys, of members of Forsters staff of 325 workers from Manila.

Here is the Chambers home Creek Canyon for a distance of upper right. today, shown after the same landslide 25 feet. Street level, which originally McKillop Road Residences, Vacated Several By ANNE i rh'crnni7pH riica.cttpr This has been the 12-year tasl? of Charles H. For-stur, head of the Philliplne' Section of the American Red Cross. Forster has just arrived at his home'ieao Lincoln Way, Alameda, for a month's vacation before proceeding to Washington, Paris and Geneva.

He will return' to his post at Manila in June. Typhoons and floods, often Wip ing out entire towns, come highest! on tne list oi disasters witn wnicn Forster's organization of relief has learned to cope under his leader-, ship, he said today. In local units of dental nurses eared for the teeth of 590,000 Filipino children duripg the last year. "We may have to travel by airplane or by the primitive carabao Months Ago, Threatened by New Shifts Road, shown in foreground with ga several feet toward Sausal Creek Tribune photo had carried if down the Sausal faced garage doors, is seen at Tribune photo How an asserted "fence" for a Sacramento burglary ring disposed of thousands of dollars worth of loot in Oakland pawnshops was disclosed today as Inspectors Ray Peart and Ray Kunz, Sacramento detectives arrived here with Angelo Rossi, 52, in custody, to make a check-up. Held in the Sacramento jail on burglary charges are Ray Woodford and Frank Romando.

The third member of the asserted ring is Bert Lathrop, captured in Oakland nine days ago in company with his bride of a week. The three, according to police, also confessed to taking $100 from th hnme nf T. RTiffnm fi(174 Ghftbflt-Roadi-enr-Ghristmas Day, and $70 from the home of H. J. Breen, 84 Rio Vista Avenue, November 23.

Auction Sale Charge Dismissed in Court A misdemeanor charge of conducting an auction sale without a license pending against Mose Grossman, 406 12th Street, was dismissed today by Police Judge E. J. Tyrrell on motion of Deputy District Attorney Folger Emerson. Emerson said a' felony charge against Grossman is scheduled to be heard before Police Judge Chris B. Fox January Both charges grew out of an.

"action sale" allegedly conducted by Grossman at the 12th Street address. SO Pet. Job Gain Since '33 Reported WASHINGTON, Jan. 16. (JP)-Aa increase of 50 per cent in industrial payrolls since the low point of the depression was reported to the in ternational seamen's convention today by Secretary Perkins.

"Approximately 5,000,000 men and who were without jobs in March; 1933, have been returned to work in privat industries," Miss Perkins said. HELD BY POLICE birth.1 Patriotic verse was also ex-, pected on important occasions in the nation's history. This is no longer a requirement of the office, Masefield discloses. Like his immediate predecessors, Masefield receives about $500 per year for holding the laureate's title but he has the added advantage of. being able to write what, when and how he chooses.

LIKKER The titte of laureate, 1 so it is explained, orig inated from the Latin word meaning laurel, with which poets in classic days were crowned. Petrarch was crowned with laurel with great solemnity in Rome "in 1341. In Paris, Cambridge, and Oxford at that time, also, laurel wreaths were sometimes placed on the heads of scholars distinguished for learning and poetry. Predecessors of the present laureates were, however, minstrels attached to-tht households of medieval They were not crowned but received -pensions. At a later period Chaucer received a pension of 20 marks from Edward VIII and also a pitcher of.

wine dally. In subsequent times wine became a prerequisite of the laureates, who received a butt or a cask every year. This pleasant custom, Masefield reveals, is no longer carried out Although Spenser was the court poet of Queen Elizabeth and re-' ceived. a pension of 50 pounds for having written the Faerie Queene, there was no formal poet laureate until 1630 when the title was on. ferred upon Ben Jonson by James I.

His successor, Sir William Dav enant, in the reign of Charlej received no title but was given pension of 100 pounds a The first English poet to receive the title by letters patent was John Dryden in 1670. Thereafter, his successors were formally appointed. It is interestingthat Elizabeth Barrett Browning was'" suggested as successor to Wordsworth but she did not receive the appointment because tradition decreed that -men should be. accorded the honor. The position was therefore given to Tennyson, who held it for 42 -THE KNAJ" A landslide which six months ago forced three families to move from their tomes on McKillop Road to day had carried one of the homes, formerly occupied by Frank Chambers and his family, 25 feet down a canyon toward swollen Sausal Creek.

The second of the Homes, moved from next door to the Chambers residence at 3168 McKillop Road, was again threatened as more of thej filled-in land crumbled away. The house, moved from next the Cham bers residence, is occupied by Mr. and Mrs. A. E.

Williams and their family. A third home was moved to a lot distant. The Williamses moved their home to 3192 McKilloo Road, several doors from the old site. EARTH IS SLIDING What was originally the site of the Chambers home has slid Sausal Creek, in Dimond Can yon, near the city's central reservoir, knocking over large trees in its 'downward path and threatening to block the creek. The Williamses moved their home last August after the Chambers property had slid eight Now the earth is crumbling between their property and that adjoining the old Chambers residence.

City engineers, surveyors and Suicide Hurls Self In Front of Train SAN FRANCISCO. Jan." 1R While several spectators-looked on, Fred 'Horn, 55, dairy company employee, dropped his umbrella and hurled himself into the path of art oncoming freight train at Seventh and Irwin Streets. He was' killed. WOUNDED TELLER DIES VANCOUVER, B. Jan.

William H. Hohbs. 25-year-old teller shot by one of three gunrhenj wno neia up the Powell Street branch ofNthe Canadian Bank of Commerce yesterday and escaped with $1200, diecTtoday. Street Department officials have investigated, but according to neighbors, nothing has yet been done to check the movement. i Occupants of the houses were advised to vacate the premises following an examination made last June by City Building Inspector E.

O. Rousseil and City Engineer Walter H. Frickstad. The property upon which the homes, were buiit was' originally fjlled-ln ground from excavations made at the reservoir site 15 years ago, neighbors said. RESERVOIR BLAMED Nearby residents and those forced to move away have claimed that the slipping ground is due to leakage in the reservoir, a block away.

No concrete evidence of this has, been reported, however, officials said. Test holes have been drilled. Jii engineers and were filled a depth of six feet with water, it was reported. Rains-of the past two Aveeks have caused the old Chambers residence, still intact except for a crumbled chimney and a number of cracks in what once served as a side porch, to slide down the canyon side for a distance 9f 10 -'The drop in the Chambers home was first noticed early last Summer. Since that time it has moved 25 feet New Sterilization Suit Threatened SAN FRANCISCO, Jan.

16. Threats of new sterilization suits were made today byLfto Cunningham, San Francisco attorney, as announcement was made that Ann Cooper Hewitt, may appear in court as a witness when mayhem accusations are presented to a committing magistrate. Cunningham said he had a Mexican woman client, who had four children in four years, and was sent to Sonoma Stae Home by a San Francisco psychiatrist, where a sterilization operation was performed on her against both her will and that of her husband. sbookkeeping and expert figuring. 1 0 I POLITICAL On a recent visit lJ 11 0 I ii John W.

Democrats' 1924 presidential nominee, said: "I think Roosevelt is a 'red' and a socialist and I don't care who knows it." Although Mo: partner Thomas W. -Lamont sue ported Wilson, Cqx, Davis and.gmith in four recent presidential campaigns, he iriforrted the Senate Munitions Committee that "I am not a Democrat." Charley Michelson, Democrats' ace publicist, writes those rip-roaring speeches which Chairman Jim Farley delivers as if they were his own. (Copyright, 1939, for Tht Tribune) Charles H. Forster (right), head of the Philippine Island Sec-; tion of the Red Cross, ia shown with Mrs." Forster and son, Clifford, 1 1, "after arriving at his Alameda home for a delayed one- month vacation. He will return to Manila in June after touring Europe.

TYipune photo..