COAST TERMINAL FOR THE ALASKA RAILROAD
MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOLUME XXI, NUMBER 288.
SEWARD ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15. 1926.
PRICE TEN CENTS
»-n p
Pomerene Flays Defense
For Attempting to Drag
Forth Harding's Shroud
CHARGES THAT TOMB OF LATE REVEREND
PRESIDENT DESECRATED AND SHROUD DRAG
GED FORTH TO COVER UP INFAMY OF OIL
TRANSACTION—FRANK J. HOGAN CRITICIZES
SECRETARY WILBUR FOR NOT ANSWERING
* QUESTIONS
' t WASHINGTON, D. C., Dec. 15. (/P)—Former Sena
tor Atlee Pomerene of Ohio, making a plea on behalf of
the government in the Fall-Doheny trial, told the jury
that the Elk Hills were set aside “as oil for your navy
and mine. It is no longer a naval reserve, but Doheny’s
reserve, and all this was accomplished in secret. I resent
the desecration of the tomb of the late President Harding
in the attempt of the defense to bring forth his shroud
to cover up the infamy of this transaction.”
■w
LEMS WARN
SMITH TO REJECT
> SENATE OFFER
i -
BY ACCEPTING VACANCY'OF Mc
KINLEY MAY CAUSE EXTRA
SESSION CONGRESS
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15. (^—Sen
ate Republican leadrs warned Smith
of Illinois, not to accept the appoint
ment to fill the seat of the late Sena
tor McKinley. It has been reported
that Smith determined to accept the
appointment in order to present his
side of the investigation into cam
paign expenditures. The leaders "are
prepared to move for an immediate
vote on seating Smith if he is appoint
ed. A resolution or bill introduced
would disavow Smith as senator-elect.
‘Watson, a personal friend of Smith,
telephoned him by long distance not
to accept for it might cause a special
session of congress.
AUDIENCE COULD NOT
UNDEUTAi NOBILE:
ORGANIZATION SUES
DAVENPORT, Iowa, Dec. 15. (#>)—
The American Business club of Daven
port, which sponsored the Nobile lec
ture on Monday, sued the Lee Kee
dick Company of New York, Nobile’s
booking agency, for 81,800. The club
charged misrepresentation, that No
bile was unable to talk English and
the audience couldn’t understand him.
DES MOINES, Dec. 15. (£>)—'The
attorney for the Davenport Club
which sponsored the Nobile speech
garnished $800, the proceeds of the
Des Moines lecture.
SAVED FROM MUD DEATH
OAKLAND, Cal., Dec. 15. (/P)—
While rescuers warred over her head
as to credit due for her rescue, Alma
Matiso, ten years old, was dragged
from the mud near Bay Farm island
after she had sunk to her armpits.
1 Frank J. Hogan, attorney for the
defense, said yesterday, in his ad
dress to the jury: “We come to a
sorry spectacle in the testimony of
Secretary Wilbur, that of a govern
ment officer on the witness stand.de
liberately withholding truths at the
risk of sending two old men to the
penitentiary. He told you he did it
because to 'jpns.wer questions would
jeopardize the national- safety; that
isn’t why he did it.”
The arguments in the case were
completed by Mark Thompson, and
Judge Hoehling began the prepara
tions of his instructions to the jury.
Thompson said: “Since Judas Is
! cariot betrayed the Master, it has been
the immutable law that no tainted
money could be applied to a wmrthy
cause. Fall used the money he re
ceived to buy land to establish a
heritage for his children.” Speaking
of Fall’s statement that he obtained
the money from Edward B. McLean,
owner of the Washington Post, Thomp
son said Fall “lied to shield his friends
from a pack of politicians, led by
Walsh, that little grey wolf from the
hills of Montana, and every red-blood
ed man in New Mexico is proud of
him for it.”
PASSENGERS, CREW DROWN
LONDON, Dec. 15. (/P)—A Lloyd’s
Reykjavik Iceland dispatch said the
Norwegian steamer Balholm was
wrecked in Akrar Faxe bay and all
members of the crew and passengers
drowned.
LIGHT QUAKE RECORDED
SEATTLE, Dec. 15. (/P)—A light
earthquake shock, shook northwestern
Washington and eastern British Col
umbia. No damage was done, the
shock being barely strong enough to
rattle dishes.
INVITES COOLIDGE
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15.—President
Coolidge has been invited to spend
the summer of 1927 in Californa, and
a site will be prepared for the sum
mer White House.
RAILWAY PRESIDENT DEAD
ST. LOUIS, Dec. 15. (£>)—Charles
M. Whitehead, president of the Mis
souri, Kansas and Texas railway,
died here yesterday. He was 47
years of age.
QUESTION IF MURDERER CAN RE
FUSE PRESIDENTIAL COM
MUTATION OF SENTENCE
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15. (/P)—1The
question whether a murderer can re
fuse to accept a presidential commu
tation of sentence from hanging to
life imprisonment was reached in the
supreme court in an appeal from the
Eighth Circuit court asking instruc
tions in the case of Vuco Perovich,
convicted of murder in Fairbanks, in
1905, and sentenced to death. Pero
vich has been confined in Leaven
worth, but contends that his impris
onment, which President Taft re
commended, is illegal.
NEW JERSEY MAYOR, POLICE
CHIEF, CUSTOMS AGENT
INDICTED
NEW YORK, Dec. 15. (/P)—Thirty
three persons including the mayor and
police chief of Edgewater, N. J., the
United States customs inspector of
New York City and a marine police
sergeant were indicted for liquor con
spiracy as the outgrowth of an eight
month’s investigation of the landing
of a two milion dollar cargo of liquor
from the rum runner Eker in April.
A. S. CO. SHIPS ARE CHARTERED
The Alaska Steamship company
freighters, Depere, Denali and Derb
1 ley have been chartered to the Luck
enbach Steamship company to help
the latter to take care of the conges
tion in intercoastal traffic. It is said
that the freighters will carry Luclc
enbach lumber to the North Atlantic
ports.
INSURGENT WELCOMED BACK
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15. (^—Sen
ator Arthur Frazier of North Dakota,
insurgent, banned as a political un
desirable after the -024 election, was
formally welcomed back unanimously
by the Republican Senate committee.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15. (A5)—The
Navy Cross has been awarded to
Lieutenant Hallyear F. Gearing for
heroism during the explosion aboard
the submarine S-49 at New London,
last April, in which four men were
killed. Gearing directed the rescue
work, entering the explosion in the
battery compartment and remaining
there until wreckage was torn away
and three injured comrades removed.
“His nerve and undaunted courage,”
President Coolidge’s citation says,
“were an inspiration to others in the
rescue work.”
CANADIAN HUSBANDS
ENTITLED “TANK UP”
OFTEN AS PLEASES
TORONTO, Dec. 15. (JP)—It is
a man’s right to get drunk when
and as often as he pleases in On
tario, the appellate division of the
Supreme court ruled in sustaining
a decision dismissing the alimony
action of Mrs. Victoria Lang
against her husband, Jerome Lang.
She declared that he was contin
ually drunk. Justice Riddell opin
ed that ‘‘a man may get drunk
every day of his life.” The court
suggested that Mrs. Lang should
exercise more discretion in select
ing a husband.
RELIGIOUS BELIEF
IS PREDOllTli
NEWSPAPER QU EST10N Al RES j
SHOW 89 PER CENT BELIEVE
IN GOD
NEW YORK, Dec. 15. (4-P)—Partial
returns from newspaper religious
questionaires show the South and j
Middle West towns are orthodox. The
results in percentages are as follows:
Believe in God, 89; no, 11; immoral
ity, yes, 85; no, 15; Jesus was divine
as no other man was, yes, 77.; no, 23;
Bible inspired, yes, 80; no, 20? attend
church regularly, yes, 70; no, 30; wil
ling to have family grow up in church
| less community, yes, 21; no, 79;
brought up in religious home, yes, S8;
no, 12; religion a necessary element
of life, yes, 90; no, 10.
JOYCE AND PEGGY WED
CHICAGO, Dec. 15. (/P)—James S.
Joyce, millionaire lumberman and
third husband of Peggy Hopkins
Joyce was wed again last night. Peg
gy and Joyce were divorced in 1921.
S. S. ALASKA DUE FRIDAY
According to present indications
the S. S. Alaska will arrive in port
from the south on Friday, for it is
hoped to be back in Seattle for
Christmas.
POSTOFFICE DEFICIT
IS $37,SOB,118,07
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15. {IP)—The
Potmaster General shows that the
increase in the business of the de
partment for the fiscal year as
measured by the postal receipts was
10.04 per cent. Exclusive of the in
crease in expenditures due to the
salary bill of 1925, the postal expen
ditures increased only 1.29 per cent.
The actual expenditures, including
those for increases in salaries, how
ever, exceeded the revenues by $19,
972,379.42, -which is the cash de
ficiency, and is a decrease of $19,
906,647.87 from that for 1925. After
the necessary adjustments are made
the operating deficit becomes $37,
906,118.07. During the fiscal year
there was paid out approximately
$65,000,000 on account of increases
in salaries due under the act of 1925.
If this had not become necessary, the
cash deficit would have been elimi
nated and there would have been a
substantial surplus.
NEVER CONSUMED A DROP OF
LIQUOR WHILE PROHIBITION
ADMINISTRATOR
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 15. (IP)—
Former Prohibition Director Green
| swore: “When I was prohibition ad
| ministrator I never consumed a drop
j of liquor the government confiscated,
| nor did any of my friends drink it,
nor did any of my friends get any of
it. I drink occasionally, but I am
not a drinking man.” He described
how he was appealed to to give liquor
to aged Civil war veterans in the
county institutions. “Why, in a case
like that, I would see that they got
liquor if I had to steal it,” he con
cluded.
TREMENDOUS POSSIBILITIES OF
THE TERRITORY IMPRESSED*
HIM
SEATTLE, Dec. 15. (/P)—“I shall
never forget the sadness of the last
retreat we sounded at Anchorage on
December 4th,” said Major J. Kemp,
commander of the Anchorage post,
and declared: “While my stay in
Alaska was short, I did not fail to
become impressed with the tremen
dous possibilities of Alaska. I will
never forget the grandeur and won
derful resources of that magnificent
country. It was not cold in Alaska
when I left. The weather is milder
than many places in the States.”
CALIFORNIA SHOCKED
CALEXICO, Calif., Dec. 15. —A se
ries of earthquakes, two of them
very pronounced, shook Calexico but
no damage was reported. Mexicalo,
just across the boundary line in Mex
ico, also felt the shocks.
BOMB EXPLODES IN GARAGE
OAKLAND, Calif., Dec. 15. (£>)— For
the third time in four months a
bomb was exploded yesterday in a
garage. The blast wrecked automo
biles and broke glass in the sur
rounding buildings.
Hilly FLIER ESTABLISHES
FACT HUMAN BEING CAN
NOT LIVE HP ALTITUDES
DAYTON, Ohio., Dec. 15.—Capt. T.
C. A. Buckner, of the U. S. Army, who
recently made an altitude test flight
without an oxygen mask has establish
ed the fact that a human being cannot
function beyond an altitude of 25,000
feet above the earth. Officials an
nounced at the Wilbur Wright field
that Captain Buckner flew to an alti
tude of 28,000 feet but after he had
attained 25,000 feet he lost the ability
to count correctly and became so weak
that every movement was accomplish
ed only by extreme effort.