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Show THE SMITIIFIELD SENTINEL, SMTTHFIELD, UTAH S. ECCLES, chair-ma- n of the Federal Reserve board, started something when he issued a warning against the dangers in inflationary price rises, which are due, he says, chiefly to foreign EDWARD Writeru Ne east Texas oil Held was the TIIE scene of the worst school dis- aster in history. The London Consolidated rural school, a few miles north of Henderson, was demolished by a tremendous gas explosion and snore than 600 children and their teachers were killed. The horror that followed wrought such confusion that Gov. James V. Allred declared martial law in the vicinity of the school, and ordered National Guard troops to the scene. He previously had ordered all state highway patrolmen in the area to proceed there. ' President Roosevelt, hearing at .Warm Springs about the horrible disaster, was most distressed and urged the Red Cross and all of the government agencies" to standby and render every assistance possible. Albert Evans, flood disaster head in Little Rock, Ark., qnd his Staff rushed to the stricken Texas town, and all communities within teach gave aid to the extent of their capacity. The blast smashed to bits the main structure of the educational plant that was termed the largest rural school in America and the richest in the world, About 740 children and 38 teachers were in the building at the time and pearly all who were not killed outright were injured. Of the latter it was believed many would not recover. Fifty or more mothers of the young victims were attending a association meeting In the school gymnasium, a separate building, when the explosion came, sending the mangled bodies of their sons and daughters flying through the air. The women raced to the wrecked structure with screams of agony and tore at the ruins with their bare hands. For a few minutes after the roof caved in, leaving jagged remnants of wall standing like the ruins of a medieval castle, flames shot out above the wreckage. But the building was of fireproof construction and the blaze, having almost nothing to feed upon, soon died out. W. C. Shaw, superintendent of the school, whose son was one of those killed, had just left the building. I was standing about fifty feet away from the building when the exhe said. There plosion came, wasnt much noise. The roof just lifted up, then the walls fell out and the roof fell in. It was all over in a minute, no, less than that, half a minute, its unbelievable. parent-- teacher Highway police. National Guards- men and workers from all the nearby oil wells managed to restore some semblance of order at the scene, roping off the campus ' and systematically carrying on the task of getting out the bodies of the dead. From the oil well machine shops were brought acetylene torches to burn away the steel girders while trucks hauled on heavy iron chains, pulling the debris away from the . , building. The great force of the blast was taken as proof that the disaster was caused by the ignition of natural gas which was used to heat the school plant. Unable, because of all the confusion, to ascertain the cause of the explosion, it was theorized that someone attempted to light a heater which accidentally had been left turned on. The wet gas used, which comes from oil wells on the school campus. Is odorless and so would have given no warning. of good sportsman-- ' ship is to accept the outcome when one has had a chance to pre- rfVIDENCE sent a fair case to a fair tribunal, said Associate Justice James C. of the Supreme court in an extemporaneous talk at a fraternity banquet in Washington. It was the first time a member of the court had expressed his views on relationship of the court to the government Justice since the President made his proposal MrReynolds for packing the tribunal, and opponents of that plan were encouraged to hope other of the justices might be induced to appear before the senate judiciary committee and tell what they think of it. Justice Mc-Reyn- olds McRcynolds, who is seventy-liv- e years old, has voted against the New Deal fourteen times and for it twice. Near the end of his talk the justice said: 1 should like to be optimistic. I should like to tell you that the situation is rosy. I cant. But I like to believe in the courage of the American people, and I hope they may make a solution of which they may be proud. Edward S. Corwin, professor of constitutional law at Princeton, was heard by the senate committee in support of the President's bill and be got along very nicely until Senator Burke, leader of the opposition. PICKARD W. arr I'lwm. called his attention to a speech the professor made a year ago and a book he wrote 25 years ago, in both of which he expressed views quite diilcrent from those he seemingly now holds. Then Senator Tom Con-naltook a hand in the questioning: "Now you say the court is biased. You want to add six new justices who will be biased in the other direction, dont you?" Professor Corwin evaded a direct answer for some time, but Senator Connqlly demanded to know whether he did not support the Presidents plan for this purpose. Well, that is one of the reasons," the witness said. The American Federation of Labor, like its opponent, the C. I. O., has favored the Presidents court plan, though rather mildly, but President William Green, when he appeared before the senate committee, was even less emphatic in his approval of it. He denied that the court as now constituted has assumed dictatorial power or that its members have not the mental capacity or the necessary learning." Senator Wheeler said he was under pressure from organized labor because of his position against the Roosevelt program, but he declared he would not change. He said Maj. George L, Berry, the President's ly A , I 1 '.A I - armament demands, strikes and monopolistic practices by certain groups in both industry and organized labor. He argued for continuance of low interest rates but said the Explosion Kills More Than 600 Children in Texas Rural School Justice MrReynohls Rehuke to Critics of Supreme Court. By Where Blast Killed Hundreds of Children .f ARRINER News Review of Current Events the World Over budget should be balanced and taxes on incomes aad profits should be raised, if necessary, to sustain the volume of relief and at the same time bring the budget into balance and permit the paying down of public debt as private debt expands. The federal reserve system, said Mr. Eccles, is powerless to maintain a stable economy unless other essentia nonmonetary factors necessary to stability are brought into line either by private interests or by the government. This statement, presumably made with the approval of Secretary and the knowledge of President Roosevelt, aroused a lot of talk in Washington and the administration leaders were discussing taxes and receipts. Generally they agreed that there will be no extensive tax change merely a resolution in June extending for one year Mor-gentha- u General view of the New London Consolidated school, New London, Texas, after the explosion ti the school and snuffed out the lives of hundreds of school children in the worst school tragodv inVfi BUST KILLS 500 IN TEXASSCHOOL Search Debris for Mangled Bodies of Children, Dead and Dying. Workers wreckthe still are searching London Consolidated of the levies. It age $400,000,000 in nuisance school for more bodies to be may be the Eccles warning will added to the toll of the worst serve to curb the demands of various department heads and congressschool disaster in the worlds men for more huge appropriations. history. Hundreds of students were OPE PIUS in a long encyclical blown to bits in a gas p condemned literally communism as the which demolished the explosion ruin of family and society" and called on Christian employers ev- richest rural school in America ten minutes before the boys erywhere 'to combat it by recognizing the inalienable rights of the and girls would have been discoordinator for industrial working man." He accused the comand also head of labors Non- munists of having played upon the missed for the day. Estimates partisan League, "has had a man susceptibility of the working classes placed the total dead at about traveling through Montana at gov- with promises of alleviation of 500. ernment expense stirring up activity against me. CENATORS indulged in an indig- nant debate concerning the strike and there were demands for a congressional investigation of this new weapon of labor. Leader Majority Joe Robinson said: Manifestly the strike is unlawful It is not within the rights of any individual or group of individuals to seize or retain sit-dow- n sit-do- possession of property to the exclusion 8cn Kobinson of the employer for the purpose of enforcing demands against the employer. However, he added, it was difficult for the federal government to do anything in the matter until the Supreme court has passed on the validity of the labor relations act. Senator Johnson of California gave a "general Warning" that the strike is the most ominous thing in our national life today, bad for the government and in the long run worse for labor. The Democratic senate whip, Senator James Hamilton Lewis of Illinois, vehemently criticized tactics of labor and demanded inIs the vestigation by congress. United States a government? Lewis asked. Every form of commerce is being torn apart under the name of controversy between employer and employee, leading to the danger of national riots." Wagner-Conner- y sit-do- sit-do- many undeniable abuses." 'T' HAT controversy between May-or La Guardia of New York and the German Nazis degenerated into a riot of abusiveness on both sides. German Ambassador Luther again asked and received an apology from Secretary Hull after La Guardia had called Reichsfuehrer Hitler a man without honor. And Mr. Hull politely expressed his weariness with the whole squabble. In Berlin Ambassador Dodd was telling Foreign Minister h camthat the paign in the German press should be stopped, and both those diplomats were pictured as ready to call it all off. ig Neil-rat- ADELINE LA FERRIERE, a beautiful Parisienne, stirred up a pretty scandal when she shot and slightly wounded Count Charles de Chambrun, former French ambassador to Italy. The young woman asserted the count had caused her to lose the love of a great Italian man of state whose affections she pad won in recent interviews. She has made many trips to Rome, where she was received in diplomatic society, and is known to have been granted several interviews by Premier Benito Mussolini. Paris papers did not mention Mussolini, but the London Daily Mirror did not hesitate to say that he was the great Italian" involved. Vj D 1X EMINGTON RAND, INC., large manufacturer of office equipment, was accused by the federal labor relations board of violating the Wagner-Conner- y act and of using ruthless" methods in trying to C strikers, ordered b y break the strike of 6,000 workers Circuit Judge Allen Campbell of in six of its plants. The corporation Detroit to evacuate the Chrysler was ordered to cease alleged interplants, defied the court when the ference with union activities of its writ of injunction was served on employes; to bargain collectively them and declared they would re- with a majority of its workers; to main to the death. The sheriff reinstate strikers without discrimisaid he had done his full duty until nation and to withdraw support of he received further instructions from company unions" in its the court and the judge was await- Ilion, N. Y., and Middleton, Conn , ing application from the Chrysler plants. lawyers for writs of contempt. Meanwhile Gov. Frank Murphy, YV ARSIIIPS of Great Britain, who had hurried home from FloriFrance. Italy and Germany started the naval patrol along the da, set up a committee to conciliate the many striket in that area coasts of Spain designed to isolate and to devise a legislative program the civil wa- - as provided for by the to dispose of future labor disputes. neutrality agreement entered into Rev. Frederic Siedcnburg. S. J., by 27 nations. The two latter naexecutive dean of the University of tions are guarding the government Detroit, was named chairman of the coast and the two former the Fascist shore line. Ships going to Spain committee. It has twenty-thre- e are required to halt at designated members drawn from representatives of civic, industrial, religious ports for inspection and agents of and labor institutions. the international committee will eiSince the committee was limited ther certify that no arms or volunto four members for labor, Homer teers are aboard, or will accompany Martin, international president of the vesseis to Spain. the United Automobile Workers of HE Creusot works of the famous America, the union waging the old Schneider armaments firm city's outstanding strikes against Chrysler Corporation and Hudson in France has been expropriated by Motors, rejected the governor's in- the French government and formal vitation to U. A. W. A. memberpossession will be taken by decree. Everything in the workshops and ship on the committee. stores of the firm which has to do with the manufacture of arms A MELIA EAHHART left Oak- tools, machinery, and stocks will land, Calif., in her flying lab- be taken over. oratory for what promises to be the greatest adventure of her adR- - ELIHU THOMPSON, one of venturous life a 27.000 mile flight the country's famous inventors, around the world, following gen- a contemporary and friend erally the equator. Her first hop of Thomas A. Edison, died in Swamp-scot-oft. 2,400 miles took her to Honolulu Mass., at the age of eighty-fou- r. With her in the Lockheed Electra His scientific discoveries and twin motored plane were Capt inventions were numerous, he Is Harry Manning and Fred Noonan! perhaps best known as thebut discovwho were to leave the erer of electric navigators, and the inplane at Hawaii, and Paul Mantz, vention of the welding centrifugal cream Amelias technical adviser, who and thj centrifuge, an inwas to continue with her to Dar-wi- separator strument used in biological northern Australia. N 'T n New London, Tex. Gov. James V. Allred immediately declared martial law, and sent all state highway patrolmen to the scene, which is 12 miles north of here. National Guard troops were ordered out as the entire populace of the neighborhood thronged about the school hysterically waiting for the bodies of their loved ones to be dragged forth. President Roosevelt promised every aid from the federal government At the time of the mighty blast fifty or more mothers were attendr ing a association meeting in the school gymnasium, a separate building several hundred feet away from the main structure. Hearing the rumble of the blast, they rushed to the windows in time to see a hail of debris flying through the air and the big building collapsing upon their children. Parent-Teache- Mothers Race to Aid. Screaming hysterically, the mothers raced across the campus and with their bare hands clawed at the debris trying desperately to reach the children whose cries could be heard from beneath the crumbled structure. Nearby oil fields, some of which could be seen from the school grounds, shut down and frantic workers rushed in to try to rescue those who still remained alive. The terrible force of the eruption sent the mangled bodies of boys and girls flying through the air like they were rag dolls. The brick walls were blasted out The roof raised in the air and then fell back on to the mass of crying and struggling humanity. Bricks were hurled more tl.an a quarter of a mile. Dismembered bodies lay all around on the school lawn. Some were decapitated. Others had limbs missing. Some of the children still were alive. The scene quickly became one of extreme confusion. Hysterical women fainted, shrieked, and prayed, munities of London and New London, unincorporated hamlets, soon were clogged with a stream of vehicles. More than 15,000 persons assembled at the scene in the next few hours, either anxious over the fate of their relatives, to help hi the rescue work, or sightseeing. Call Doctors and Nurses. Every available ambulance, doctor, and nurse in all surrounding towns were summoned by telephone and radio. As far away as from Shreveport, La., came doctors and nurses by airplane, sent by the American Red Cross. Thirty doctors and seventy-tw- o nurses, twelve of them from the Red Cross, came from Dallas. Accompanying them were twelve ambulances, twenty-fiv- e embalmers, and five hearses. All sorts of vehicles laundry trucks, private cars, ambulances, and what not sped to the scene, and were used to carry the bodies away. But, with no one in authority and hundreds of persons wrought up to a frenzy, many of the cars soon were entangled in a hopeless snarL Because of this situation, Governor Allred ordered all state highway patrolmen on duty in the district to hurry here and take command. All available Texas Rangers and highway policemen also were being rushed there from Dallas, Houston, Austin and Tyler. Fingerprint experts were sent from Austin on the possibility they might assist in identifying the bodies, many Texas school children having been finger printed. Find Few Survivors. Five hundred workers from the oil fields arrived at the wrecked building soon after the explosion and leaped into the ruins. But there were few survivors for them to rescue, and their main work was carrying out bodies. Later an additional 1,000 men went to work on the debris. In the early stages they passed up the bodies of those obviously dead in the hope of finding those in whom there might be life. Three hundred and sixty bodies were taken by ambulance, truck, and every possible conveyance to Henderson. Dozens of other bodies were taken to Kilgore, Overton, Ark, Troup, Longview, and Tyler. While waiting for the arrival of sufficient vehicles to move the great number of dead the bodies were carried from the wreckage and laid in long rows on the lawn. Mothers and fathers dragged the bodies of still more victims into the school gymnasium until the vehicles came back for more loads. There the children and their teachers lay, side by side, many of them unidentified. Few Injured Will Live. The superintendent, who saw the school disintegrate before his eyes, said that of the 770 odd children and teachers believed to have been in the building, not more than 100 escaped death. Many of the injured who were removed from beneath the tons of steel and concrete, he said, were so badly injured that they could not live. Most of the younger children, attending the nearby grammar school, had been dismissed before the disaster occurred and were out of harms way. Some were playing about the yard, however, and saw the school building collapse. Mrs. Evelyn Hooker, a welfare worker for Rusk county, in which the school is located, and a friend, Mrs. William C. Roberts, were drives Past the school at the time the explosion occurred. I looked up," said Mrs. Hooker, just in time to see the top of the building suddenly rise in the air. It seemed that the whole building moved up and the walls wefe flung out. A black pall of smoke appeared to hover over the building. Clothing Torn Off. Then we saw the children. O, It was terrible. Some of the smaller ones, who must have been playing wer in th entrances if the building, ran into the streets. were bleeding and hor-nblTheir clothing hadcrying been torn off many of them. A. W Waldrop, physical education teacher at the school, was conducting a class in physical educa-- n the grounds shortly before tarivUtA He. cft lhe clas the building. that moment tht explosion currea. kneeling on the grass. Many parents, the women either screaming hysterically or silently sobbing, ran frantically from one body to another, seeking their loved ones. There were gasps of horror and occasionally a woman slumping to the ground in a faint, indicat ing she had found what she had fearfully hoped she wouldnt. Mutilation of the bodies made their tragic task increasingly difficult. One couple hovered over the form of a little boy, his face and body so mangled and bloody they couldnt be certain if he were their son. Must Be Jim, Mother Cries. O, its Jim, it must be Jim, sobbed the woman. Picking up one of the little victim's feet, she hysterically with her husband. "3ee, its his tennis shoes," she cried. I remember he asked to wear them to school this morning. No, no, her husband replied, almost happily. Jim changed into his other shoes when he came home for lunch." O, merciful God, he may still be Alive then, the mother cried as they got up and hurried away to scan other little bodies. For a few minutes after the roof caved in, leaving jagged remnants of wall standing like the ruins of a medieval castle, flames shot out above the wreckage. But the build-in- g was of fireproof construction and the blaze, having almost nothing to feed upon, soon died out. It One of the first to reach the was well that it did, for scene nearby arr an employee of communities have only small fire Jut Jdewater Associated. fighting forces. lie road the school, ned out the VA wreck,Be and car- .Th!.?roW body of a little girL It situated between the oil field com! was his daughter. ar-gu- ed a.or y. Stricken School Was U. S. Richest Located in the Heart of Eaal Texa Oil Fields. Henderson, Tex.-T- he London Consolidated school, wrecked fa fte horrible expfosion blotted out the lives of hm. dreds of children instantly k believed to have been the finest rural school of its th United States. In the he? the East Texas oil fields, it fc located in one of the wealthiest sections of the world. The blast itself is believed to htn been caused by explosion of natural gas from the seven oil wells on school campus. The school district encompasses ome thirty square miles with u assessed valuation of 16 million dol lara. The community sprang iL most over night following theupdi. covery of one of the most productive oil fields known. Quickly Paid For. With "black gold" flowing baa its own wells, the school plant had no difficulty in raising the several hundred thousand dollars spent h its construction. It is not only debt free but its original value has multiplied many times. In 1931, when wealth gushed out of the ground for the communities of London and New London, the schools serving the two village were merged and the present district set up. The school lies midway between the two communities. The site of the disaster scene can readily be located by drawing a line from Tyler, a city of 35,000, largest in the district, to Henderson. 1,590 in Eight Grades. The wrecked school had an enrollment of 1,500 students, from Ow fifth grade to the third year of high school. The building had been constructed in units, the first of which was built in 1934. The completed slructurs contained 30 classrooms and an auditorium large enough to accommodate half of the total enrollment Equipped to teach stenography, music, manual training, and as well as academic subject, it was the proud boast of the community that its institution was u fine as could be found in any rural section of the country. At one side of the main building stood the gymnasium, and at the other stood a grade school for chi dren from the kindergarten to As fifth grade. The home of the supetj itendent also stood on the school sew-in- grounds. All Are Fireproof. All of the buildings were of 8r proof construction and ample size. The grade, or grammar school, was a two story brick building about IB by 125 feet The main building had a two staff unit in the center, about 53 feet wide and 60 feet deep, which housed the auditorium and various laboratand wings on either ories, These wings, each 30 feet deep anas 65 feet long, gave the building frontage of 180 feet. From a high window of the school one could look out across dotted almost solidly as far eye could reach by oil of the-i- rear their sm covered skeletons from 50 to 1W in the air. Smooth Dirt Roads. Broad dirt roads, of the sort list O" road maps as first class C are the main highways here. are almost as smooth as are " at this time of the year on (id Ditches are three feet deep " side and the shoulders, in cases, are edged with asphalt e FJ gl-r- ... gravel. Under the scorching sun beats down with stifling fore no months out of the year, the and other wooden structures like Under boxes, dry ns dust a ready to burst into flames slightest spark. Practically no building than two stories high. Manyoi office buildings, stores, and the banks in the villages i one-stor-y affairs. Despite the dirt roads in in earth, nearly everyonefinancial! district Is well-of- f cause of the oil. The people ride In expenslv for the most part, to their tainment in Dallas, Houston, Worth, and Shreveport. w . |