The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 1

fc '1 PittsU TTO MX WATR Showers and cooler today and Saturday. (Copyright, 1935. by Press Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved). VOLUME 52; No.

54 44 PAGES. PITTSBURGH, PAM FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 1935 Entered as second-class matter Postoffice. Pittsburgh 'I I u7 CSDHLEi DR3 MM Wife 'And Daughter Bear Up Bravely As They Hear of Tragedy 1 U. S. SIGNAL CORPS OFFICER, REPORTER DISCOVER BODIES Both Apparently Died Instantly; Plane, Lost in Fog, Dives Into River Bank 5-, X.

sj i Kimn I Jkmmm 11 ESKIMOS SEE TRAGEDY Fv It if fl 1 1 i i I rjt ROGERS WILEY POST Pet Rogers Follows Cryptic News Flash Tells World Of Disaster on Northern Tip of Continent By FRANK DAUGHERTY Copyright. 1835. by United Press POINT BARROW, Alaska, Aug. 16 Will Rogers and Wiley Post were killed 15 miles south of here late last night in a plane crash. Lost in a fog, Post at the controls, the plane swerved and smashed into the tundra on a river bank, overturning when it struck frozen hummocks of moss.

Its right wing was broken, its nose and engine driven backward into the cabin. The crash instantly killed both occupants. The plane fell from an altitude of about 50 feet. Post's wrist watch, shattered by the impact, was stopped at 8:18 p. m.

(2:18 a. m. Friday, Pittsburgh time.) Flying from Fairbanks to Point Barrow, Post and Rogers had become lost in the fog. They landed their Lockheed Orion low-winged monoplane at Walkpi, an Eskimo village. Post made repairs to the plane's engine, which had been missing badly, and asked natives the way to Point Barrow.

The fog was lying almost to the tundra and they decided to wait for it to rise. Post and Rogers ate dinner with Eskimos, camped on a river bank, then after the meal decided to take off despite the fog. Natives said the engine appeared to be running smoothly as the big ship took off. It rose slowly to a 50-foot altitude, fluttered a moment, then swerved and plunged into the river bank. The motor was driven into the cabin by the force of the crash.

Post was crushed by the engine. Hobby To Fliers and Flying Were First Love of America's 'Good-Will. Ambassador at Large'Lampoonlng of Big Shots Made Him International Figure By KASPAR MONAHAN Only the United States of America could have produced Rogers, killed yesterday an airplane accident. Only in the United States could a man born in obscurity, educated on a cattle range and who never saw the inside of a college until his mature years, have risen to the status of a true world figure as did this nation's "unofficial Good Will Am-' WILL WESTINGHOUSE BOOSTS WAGES Hourly Pay Schedules Increased for 25,000 In 14 Plants Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing today announced a 5 per cent increase in the hourly rate of pay. The advance, the first put into effect since the advent of NRA by any major industry in the country, becomes' effective immediately.

An average of 25.000 employes are directly affected in 14 plants and the payroll of Westinghouse was increased by many thousands of dollars weekly by the adjustment. At the same time the company announced a slight change in the basic work week for hourly paid emnloves. In the future these workers will be on a 40-hour week, although schedules of actual hours will be subject to modification at individual plants. That is rush periods there may be a further slight increase in the work week to take care of the peak. This work basis is an increase over the hours provided in the NRA code but corresponds to the general practice in the metal working industries, where hours were lengthened when NRA was declared unconstitutional.

The exact amount by which the payroll of the company is increased could not be approximated today by company officials because of the different wage schedules as well as the different hours being worked in the various plants. But that the increase in pay does directly reflect the betterment in business was stated by company officials. Westinghouse now has on hand more orders than in several (Continued On Page 4, Column 4) Miss Rogers Playing in Av iation Tragedy in Maine Theater By The United Press LAKEWOOD, Aug. 16 Will Rogers' wife and pretty actress-daughter, Mary, bore up bravely here today as they listened to the news of his death in an Alaskan airplane crash. Ironically, Mary has been playing the feminine lead in the Lakewood Players' presentation of the Broadway success, "Ceiling Zero," a thrilling aviation drama.

A feature of the play is an off stage plane crash in which a pilot is killed. Family's Plans Unannounced Neither the cowboy humorist's daughter nor his wife, the former Betty Blake of Rogers, who arrived here Tuesday, commented when the news was broken to them by a theater attache. The report had been withheld until confirmed by the United Press. With them at the time, at the home of friends, was Miss Theda Blake of Beverley Hills, a sister of Mrs. Rogers.

Mary's brother, James, was due here tomorrow. The family's plans as a result of the tragedy were not immediately announced. "Ceiling Zero," in which Mary has played the leading feminine role as "Tommy Thomas," has the New ark Airport for its setting. The audience watches activities in the airport office, where planes are dispatched. Daredevil Enlivens Play There is a daredevil pilot, whose reckless flying enlivens the three- act play.

He becomes lost in fog en route into Newark, and from this point the action is thrillingly traced by the crackling voices on a two-way radio as he asks and receives his bearings. Suddenly the audience hears the roar of his plane over the airport. and, seconds later, a terrific crash off stage. Ceiling Zero is only one of sev eral plays in which Miss Rogers has appeared here this summer. The long-established Lakewood summer playhouse is famed in the atrical circles for having first produced perhaps more future Broadway successes than any similar organization in the country.

Miss Rogers first appeared here last year, returning this season. Her father visited her here early this summer. HOOVER LAUDS LIVES OF POST AND ROGERS They Were Great Souls," Shocked Ex-President Says By The United Press CHICAGO, Aug. 16 Ex-President Herbert Hoover, advised of the death of Will Rogers and Wiley Post today, issued the following statement: "The news comes as a terrible shock to me. I have long known both of these fine Americans and have a keen appreciation of their achievements.

"In origin and accomplishment they were typically Americans, with their careers appealing to everyone of the pioneer spirit. "They were great souls and I feel a deep sense 01 personal loss in their passing." Rogers Paid $8000 A Week for Movies By The United Press NEW YORK, Aug. 16 Will Rog ers, humorist and actor, received. $8000 per week from Fox Film Corp. That was brought out yesterday at a meeting of Fox Film stockholders at which President Sidney R.

Kent said: "We pay will Rogers sauuo a week and we make money on him Mr. Rogers reputedly was a millionaire, as. he also had a large income from his writing and other sources. MARKETS AT A GLANCE Stocks quiet and steady. Bonds irregular.

Curb stocks irregular. Chicago stocks irregular. Call money of 1 per cent. Foreing exchange Dollar strong. Grains Wheat.

Vs to 4 cents higher; corn, oats and rye lower. Cotton $1-50 to $1.75 a bale higher. Silver Bar at New York 65 cents unchanged; Montreal futures firm. Rogers was thrown clear of the plane, which ground-looped over onto its back. Rogers' death was also instantaneous, however.

His watch was still running when Sergt. Stanley Morgan of the U. S. Signal Corps, Point Barrow station, and I reached the scene, Sergt. Morgan was notified in Point Barrow by excited natives, and we reached the vicinity of the crash in a whale-boat, manned by these natives.

The plane was demolished. We pulled Posts' body from the wreckage. It was badly crushed. While natives and whites struggled to lift Rogers' body to the boat, an ink-stained piece of paper fell from Rogers' pocket into the sea. Unfolded, the soggy paper was discovered to be a rotogravure picture of Rogers daughter, Mary, vacationing in Maine.

One of the natives fell beneath the rollers which were used to beach the whaling boat. He was badly crushed. Stray bits of wreckage caught in the current of the river on the bank of which the plane landed and floated down into the Arctic Ocean. Rogers' body was placed with that of Post in the whale-boat. Then we returned to Point Barrow.

Here the bodies were turned over to Dr. Henry Griest, superintendent of the Presbyterian Mission Hospital, where they were taken to await the arrival' of the U. S. Coast Guard cutter Northland, which will take them to California. The Northland was ordered to Point Barrow to pick up the bodies, by officials in Washington.

It had left Point Barrow yesterday, after its annual visit to the Arctic port. First news of the tragedy was flashed to the world by radio. The cryptic message, in dot-dashes, sent by Sergt. Morgan, was: "Post and Rogers crashed 15 miles south of here. HOPSON HOTLY DEFENDS LOBBY 'ower Ace ReveaJs Income Last Year Was $300,000 By The United Press WASHINGTON, Aug.

16 Howard Hopson hotly defended his com panies expenditure of nearly 000 to fight the Wheeler-Rayburn utilities bill by charging today that the measure would destroy 000,000 worth of utilities securities. "That is about one-half of all the utilities securities issues," the Associated Gas Electric Co. official told the House Lobby Investigating Committee on his third appearance before it. Mr. Hopson, who contends he isn't wealthy but wishes "it were true," told the committee under questioning that he received $300,000 to $500,000 last year from his "personal companies," plus $50,000 salary from Associated Gas Electric.

The rival Senate committee has charged that Mr. Hopson received some $2,000,000 from A. G. directly or indirectly, during the past five dividends were being omitted. The Senate group, having agreed to "divide" Mr.

Hop- son with the rival House committee, was waiting to question him again today. Mr. Hopson said the A. G. E.

expenditures in fighting the bill included $146,879 for telegrams to Congressmen and others, $250,704 for newspaper advertising, and 602 for legal fees, including $25,000 to former Secretary of War Patrick J. Hurley. The entire campaign by all groups has been estimated at $1,800,000. "How can you spend these huge sums legitimately?" asked Repre sentative Eugene Cox "On the same theory that Con gress would appropriate any amount (Continued On Page 4, Column 1) CRASH HALTS CRUISE OF WILL ROGERS JR. Ship Officials Fail to Tell Boy of Father's Death By The United Press LOS ANGELES, Aug.

16 Will, 23-year-old son of Will Rogers, about to sail on a short cruise aboard an oil tanker, was sent rushing home to Beverly Hills today by the report, "some kind of an acident has happened to your father." Officials of the Standard Oil aboard whose ship W. M. Story, young Rogers had spent the night at dock in the harbor, said they had not informed Will of his father's death. Will had planned to sail on the tanker to Estero Bay, approximate ly 100 miles north of here; James, Rogers' youngest son, is with his mother in Maine, J. K.

Rogers' secretary, said. Clipper Off Again SAND ISLAND, MIDWAY ISLANDS, Aug. 16 Pan American Airways four-motored clipper ship took' off from a coral-edged lagoon of this mid-Pacific island today, bound for Wilkes Island of the Wake Group, 1400 miles westward, 9 His a Will LINDBERGH MAY FLY TO SCENE OF CRASH Will Decide Today Whether To Go on Tragic Mission By The United Press WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh fly on a tragic mission to Alaska to supervise return of the bodies of Will Rogers and Wiley Post, killed in an airplane crash, advices today indicated.

Advices to Assistant Secretary of Treasury Stephen B. Gibbons indicated that a telephone conversation this afternoon would decide whether Colonel Lindbergh would undertake the mission. Mr. Gibbons planned to talk to Lindbergh, now at Northhaven, by telephone. Coast Guard officials reached a sister of Mrs.

Rogers at Skowhegan, Maine, this morning. The sister told officials that Mrs. Rogers would be happy to have Colonel Lindbergh take charge of returning the bodies PIRATE GAME OFF Wet Grounds Force Postponement In Philadelphia Srecial to The Pittsburgh Press PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 16 Wet grounds forced postponement of to day's game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Phillies. Two games will be played tomorrow.

Complete List Of Candidates Is Announced Announced by the Bureau of Elections as eligible to appear on the September ballot, borough candidates are listed today ON PAGE 21 To The Death, Says Emperor, Of Ethiopia Emperor Haile Selassie I is ready to lead his troops, even unto death, against the aggressor, if and when. Read the new series STARTING MONDAY Death MARY ROGERS 5 ITer picture in lather's pocket. tfary Rogers Played Here After Talent Scored With Will Last January Mary Rogers, beautiful daughter of the homely Will, came to Pittsburgh's Nixon in her first important stage role an ingenue part in the Lawrence Langers "On to Fortune." She was happy very happy. For Will had visited her back stage at the premiere of the play in the National Theater at Washington, D. C.

A surprise visit it was and sMrs. Rogers, who accompanied Mary "on her tours, was happy, too. Mr. Rogers had slipped into the theater incognito, heavy dark "blinders" hiding his eyes. With the show's press agent, he sat in the very last row.

Talent Admired by Father i For two acts he watched Mary closely, but fondly, finally turning to the press agent to say: "Well, she don't seem so bad, does she?" There was a world of praise in that laconic phrase and the press agent chuckled. For Will was proud of Mary, proud that a daughter of his could be pretty, but prouder still that she had courage to go on her own and not to cash in on his reputation. Some months before the "On to Fortune" engagement, Mary Rogers went to a Hollywood studio, insisted on a screen test, got it, and said: "My name is Mary Howard." Recognized by Friend Nobody had ever heard of Mary Howard. For weeks Mary appeared before the cameras until finally, one day, a friend of the family recognized her and blurted out her idenity. Mary was put out about it alL But Will wasn't.

He hadn't heard that his only daughter was launching a screen career until others told him. IMPORTANT FEATURES ON INSIDE PAGES -Page Beaman 33 Bridge 26 Broun 33 Classified Comics Crossword 40 Deaths 39 Editorial 14 Finance Food Page ...28 Page Mr. Fix -it 17 Pattern .24 Radio 34 Seek Hawkins.43 Serial 42 Short 42 Society 25 Sports 35-36 Theaters Uncle Ray 42 THE WEATHER rifrw A ti.n. IS feature in temperature. -Temperature, at a year b.v United States TYCO-" fTio Uidnlirht m.

I a. a. a. 4 a. m.

rt a. 70 a. 70 10 a. 70 11 a Sv 71 roon -71 1 p. m.

71 2 P. m. 73 3 P. m. HI S3 81 7 a.

DETAILED WBATHER BEPOKT ON bassador at Large." Today he is dead because of an almost fanatical love for his major hobby airplane travel. Fliers and flying they were Will Rogers' greatest love, his screen and radio and writing careers, taking second place. His death removes a man who in his own country and afar was vividly symbolical of all that is "bed-rock" American, minus flag-waving tendencies. On the screen he soared to universal popularity in his invariable role as the homespun American husband and fatherfull of native shrewdness, harmless Yankee guile and an unerring faculty of seeing through subterfuge and insincerity to glimpse the kernel of truth in any proposition or situation. On the radio his drawl the typical drawl of the inhabitant of the Southwest made him millions of followers.

His daily and Sunday articles "All I know is what I see in the papers" were devoured eagerly, his trenchant homely and pleasantly satiric epigrams on world-wide and national problems being quoted wherever the "common man" and his companions gathered. For Will Rogers spoke the language of the common man the farmer, the garage mechanic, the comer cop, the village storekeeper (Continued On Page 8, Column 1) he was on top one of the derricks and saw the acrobatics of a group of barnstorming planes. That settled his mind about his future and he decided he would get the air some way. His good break was the bad one of the loss of that left eye. He used that first Lockheed ship to fly oil company officials to hurry- up business appointments.

He studied his plane thoroughly, learned enough about Lockheeds to win a job as test pilot for the fac tory and, soon, the reputation of (Continued On Pagre 8, Column 2) Loss Of Eye Started Post On Air Career Money From Accident in Oil Fields Went for Wiley's First Plane Two Round-the-World Flights Lifted Flier to World-Wide Fame Both killed. Have recovered bodies and placed them in care of Dr. Griest. Standing by." Later a more complete report was filed to the War De who operates the Signal Corps who is practically one man ruler partment by Sergt. Morgan, Station at Point Barrow and of the small community there.

His full report said: "At 10 p. m. a native runner reported a plane had crashed 15 miles south of Barrow. I immediately hired a fast launch and proceeded to the scene. I (Continued On Page 2, Column 2) Wiley Post would have never been any more than an oil field worker had he not lost his left eye in a machine shop accident.

The flier who went 15,596 miles completely around the world in seven days, 18 hours and 49 minutes, bought his first plane with the $1800 compensation he received from that accident, He got his urge for planes while working on ou uemcKs in the Southwest the same section of the country that produced Will Rogers, his companion on the last flight. He was born in 1898 on a small farm near Grand Saline, Tex. His Scotch parents watched their boy tinker with machinery, saw him quit academic studies to enter an auto mechanics school in Kansas City. From an apprenticeship in garages and machine shops, he graduated into the oil fields. One day, in 1924, Full Page Of Photos A full page of pictures showing scenes from the live of Wiley Post and Will Rogers, killed in an Alaskan plane crash, appear in today's Press on First Page of Second" Section Other pictures and stories on Pages 2, 8 and 32 A'.