Evening star., 1936-12-27

before the vernal equinox snow fell
"a inches Of ton Western New York.
The Adirondacks, the Berkshires and
the Alleghanies were thick with sue
cessive layers of Winter snow, and
their soaked subsoils were frozen many
inches deep. Spring started up from
the South, bringing steady drenching
rain and rain mingled with SHOWS of
the mountainsides. Surface waters
flowed on, making rivefs of rivulets,
and rivers became raging torrents on
their way to level plains. The swirling
Susquehanna, the Conemaugh and
other tributaries of the Ohio, joining
forces, inundated Pittsburgh and
Wheeling; the Potomac flooded WASH
ington. President Roosevelt modified
military and civil forces, and three
Government departments gave aid.
The public was asked for $4,000, 900
for direct relief Of the 225, 900 home
less, and for rehabilitation work the
President allocated $43 900, 900 to
w. P. A., which. with c. c. c.. assigned
thousands Of men to relief work in the
stricken areas.
With June came drought, persisting
across the parched plains of the West
through July and growing into propor-
tions Of q major disaster in 13 States.
Spring wheat was burned to a crisp.
Montana, Dakota and Minnesota
farms were pictures of desolation, and
the range country was covered with q
tan moss. With temperatures in the
t. AvaI = rvlrA t.vyI
Of grasshoppers. In terms Of human
ity, the cost was an average of 300
deaths a day, in live stock and grain
millions of dollars, while the hurt to
the Nations land resources was in
calculable.
The Black Legion was announced to
the Nation when on May 13 the body
of a man, shot several times, was
found by the police in Dearborn,
suburb of Detroit. He was identified
as Charles A. Poole, a w. P. A. worker,
and 13 men were arrested, charged
with his kidnapping and murder. Thus
came to light vast secret organiza-
ton that, bound by a melodramatic
oath of old-time blood -and- thunder"
phraseology, was accused of hoggings.
murders, bribery and allied crimes.
Evidence disclosed the legion oper-
ated in at least IS States. and Vergil
En1nger of Lima, Ohio, identified as an
official Of the organization, told re-
porters there were 100000 members
throughout the country. BY June 81
three grand jury probes were under
way, and witnesses told freely Of the
legion's activities. BY October 4 the
murderers had been convicted. others
connected with floggings and sundry
black activities were sentenced, and
the Black Legion panic was ended.
\ T THE very beginning Of 1886 the
- dignified Supreme Court broke
into the headlines and received pages
of copy in the Nations press following
their blowing under" of the A. A. A.
In their vast and solemn new court
house, on the 9Th of January. for the
seventy-fourth time since 1889, they
invalidated an act of Congress. The
division was to 3, Justices Stone,
Brandeis and Cardoza dissenting. The
White House secretariat announced on
Monday mo comment today; Secre-
| tary of War Dern stated that the Presi-
dent seemed to take it all right" and
under the chandelier of the blue room
in the White House the following
Thursday evening Chief Justice
Charles Evans Hughes, guest OF honor
at a state reception, bowed over the
Presidents hand, while Mr.. Roosevelt
smilingly responded to the usual cour-
teous good wishes.
On the night Of February II. work.
ers on the Norris Dam and their
ladies danced past sign on the
wall of their community house in
Norris, Tenn, which read IT. V. A.
Marches On" in celebration Of a Su-
preme Court decision, rendered after
50 days of waiting, to the effect that
they were not to be destroyed like
their alphabet brothers Of the A. A. A.
MARCH was marked in 1896,
A'A among several events, by the
return of Lincoln Ellsworth to a
world that had mourned him as lost.
Arriving at Los Angeles from Homo
lulu, he described the Polar Stars
flight to Antartica, the end of their
460 gallons of gas at the Ross Sea
Barrier, their sledge to Little America
and their months wait for the ar
rival of the British ship Discovery.
He told, too, of raising an American
flag over the last unclaimed land on
earth, named for his father, James
w. Ellsworth Land"
The year now waning was bad
one for kidnapers, and good one
for the G-men, for it marked the |
wiping out of Public Eenemies" /, 2.
3, 4, leaving few eligibles in the an
mails Of crime for the undesirable dis
tinction of mo. l." During the early
days of May the G-men captured AL
vim Karpis, Harry Campbell. his part
ner, for participation in the Bremen |
kidnapping; Thomas Robinson. jr.. for
the Stoll kidnapping, and William
Mahan for participation in the Wey-
erhaeuser kidnapping.
There was q service strike in New
York City in 1886 that forced folks
to walk up many flights of stairs and
carry their own bundles from the
lobby in the early part of March.
Around this time, too. folks began to
be Texas conscious, with announce
ments Of the Texas Centennial max
ing the feature pages Imitation"
and taxes" were the topics of the |
hour, and in naval circles they dis
cussed the United States, Great Brit?
ain and French naval treaty that
was SO peppered with escape clauses
it came to be referred to as the
Swiss cheese treaty" in unoficial
moments.
In April bands Of the jobless were
refusing TO- leave the Assembly |
chamber at Trenton, where they
loafed all day and slept at night; ex-
President Hoover's speeches were tax
ing on q racy tang that Norman
vtHNy L.