MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOLUME XXI, NUMBER 64.
SEWARD, ALASKA, FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 1926.
PRKW.TEN CENTS
Special Train Conveying
Coolidge Family Loses
Race with Grim Reaper
It Was In 1923 When President Harding Died that Colonel
Coolidge Sprang from Obscurity of the Quiet, In
Administering Presidential Oath to His Son
TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY BE WOULD HAVE BEEN 81
fie Never Took Credit for the Success of His Son’s Career;
Waf Merchant Practically Ail of His Lfe; Became
Representative Vermont Legislature At 27
PLYMOUTH, Mass., Mar. 19. (AP)— Colonel John
Coolidge died at 10:41. A bulletin brought from White
Farmhouse by Angus McCaulay, the Colonel’s body guard
said: “Passed away quietly.”
President Coolidge, speeding northward on a special
train to his father’s bedside lost the hopeless race. The
President’s train was due to reach Woodstock, 13 miles
from here at 6 o’clock'this morning. Colonel Coolidge
was within two weeks of his 81st birthday. He sank grad
ually since his heart attack of a week ago and suffered
no pain.
At Bridgeport, Connecticut, the special train in which!
the Coolidges were riding, was stopped by the Associated
Press which gave the party the death bulletin. Presi
dent Coolidge, who was awake made no comment. Mrs.
Coolidge was awakened and advised of the death of Col
onel Coolidge.
The Presidential party left Woodstock at 8:40 this
morning on the last leg of the journey to Plymouth. Sam
uel Pearson, son-in-law and Attorney General Sargent
met the train here, where a detail of National guardsmen
were drawn up. The President was accompanied by his
son, John, who boarded the train at Northampton, Mass.
The road was cleared of snow between Woodstock and
Plymouth. The temperature registered 4 above zero with
the sun shining brightly. The President, his wife and
son were given fur coats to protect them from the cold.
The President arrived at 10:10 a. m. this morning at
Plymouth. Citizens, following an old custom, lay a com
munity wreath on a grave.
No crepe was draped on the door of the Coolidge
home. With drawn blinds in the parlor where the body
lay, and a flag at half mast on the little schoolhouse, were
the only signs of mourning.
The President and his family arrived in sleighs as
they had left the automobiles at Bridgewater Corners,
for the last seven miles the snow covered the road. A mil
itary guard saluted the President as he turned into the
road, leading to his old home. Cameras clicked as the
President’s family entered the house. Neighbors said
the President’s father wished that he be burid from -the
little Union Meeting House at Plymouth, where he wor
shipped all his life, and which the Colonel and his kins
men and his neighbors helped to build. The President, as
a boy, also attended services there.
A cable announced the funeral will be held at two o’clock
tomorrow afternoon from the house of the deceased. Rev.
John White, Episcopal clergyman of Sherburne, will of
ficiate. Burial will be in the little cemetery here, where
many members of the Coolidge family lie. The decision
to hold the funeral at the house instead of at the church
was taken as indicated at the President’s wish. It was
recalled the President’s stepmother, who died six years
ago was buried from the House, and that she occupied a
high place in the President’s affections. Coolidge’s own
mother died while he was very young.
Dr. Cram, attending physician, said that Col. Cool,
idge died of carcinoma and myocarditis, a disease of the
heart muscles. . After a brief stay at his father’s house,
President Coolidge, accompanied by Mrs. Coolidge, re
turned to an inn at Woodstock, where they plan to remain
until tomorrow.
Led Obscure Life
When Calvin Coolidge succeeded
to the presidency upon the death of
President Harding in August 1923,
his father, John C. Coolidge, suddenly
sprang from the obscurity of a quiet,
little Vermont town to national prom
inence. Up to that time, the father
of the new president, although he
had been actively interested in pub
I
lie affairs for many years, scarcely
•was known or heard of outside his
native state.
Not many of the 29 men. who
were fathers' of presidents lived to
see their sons inducted into the high
est public office, and among those
(Continued on Page Two)
THREE HUNDRED IS TOLL OF
COSTA RICA TRAIN WRECK
SAN JOSE. Costa Rica, Mar. IT. (JP)
—Three hundred were killed and in
jured in the wreck of the excursion
train between Alajuela and Cartago.
MILLER WAS FIRED
BECAUSE HE WAS
HARD ON THE GIRLS
IN THE FIRST CITY
Marshal Beaumont Plays
Important Role In the
Great Expose.
AND CONGRESS STOPS
TO LISTEN TO SUCH
PUERILE BUNK
Passing' the Buck To City
Officials Was Only
Subterfuge.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
Mar. 19. (AP).—Chas. H.
Miller, former assistant dis
trict attorney of the First
Division described the fric
tion which existed between
himself and his superior in
office, District Attorney Ar
thur G. Shoup. At the re
quest of Delegate Suther
land he “described what hap
pened in the segregated dis
trict at Ketchikan, which
district had been abated and
closed during the visit of
President Harding.”
Miller expressed the opin
ion there is “an abundance
of officers to enforce the law
in Alaska, if only they did
their duty. The attempts to
pass the buck to the City au
thorities was only used as a
subterfuge to evade their
duties.”
Judge Thomas M. Reed of
the First division said it had
been exceedingly difficult in
obtaining new men to serve
the United States “who were
in sympathy with prohibi
tion enforcement.”
Several telegrams were
read into the record from
Alaska to the effect that
“Ketchikan is as wide open
as ever.”
Miller said while he re
mained in office, “none of
the women returned to their
houses or even after the
abatement proceedings had
lapsed, but as soon as I left
to go to Washington, they
started back and formed res
idences.”
Miller testified that one
woman told him that Unit
ed States Marshal George D.
Beaumont informed her
“Miller had been fired and
that a new man was coming
which would make things
better.”
There are approximately 20,000
“lost” husbands in England.
r
SEATTLE FIRM WILL ENTER
BID ON MUSCLE SHOALS
WASHINGTON, D. C., Mar. 17. (/P)
—The Nitrogen Products Company of
Seattle has notified the Muscle Shoals
Joint Congressional Committee that
they expected to enter a bid for the
lease of the Shoals project.
SUTHERLAND BILL
ON ILLITER ATES
FALLS FLAT
Chairman Curry Said That
Illiterate Indians, W h o
Have Been N oting In Al
aska Were Herded to the
Poles In Blocs.
WASHINGTON. D. C., Mar. 19.
(AP).—Tlhe House Territories
Committee, over Delegate Suther
land’s opposition, voted “no” to re
port out from the White bill that
section to disfranchise illiterate
Alaskan votes. They also dropped
the amendment offered, which
was accepted last week, to ex
empt those legally voting last year
from retroactive effect in the Bill.
Sutherland contended no State
in the Union was passing literacy
qualifications or have disfranchis
ed old voters and that the White
Bill was an injustice to Indians
and to the White pioneers of Al
aska who are still illiterates, but
have been voting.
Chairman Curry replied that il
literate Indian voters had been
herded and forced to vote in blocs
for certain candidates.
AIR DEFENSE PLAN
EMBRACES SEWARD
WESTWARD REGION
i
ENTIRE COASTLINE OF ALASKA
WILL BE MAPPED FROM
THE AIR
IN KODIAK NEXT SUMMER
Present Entries Seward No doubt
Connect with Work
—
At the first opening’ of summer,
1927, all terain, both insular arid
Territorial, in the region of Kodiak,
i will be mapped and photographed
j from the air covering a radius from
| Kodiak extending southward to Sitka
and northward to the Aleutian Isl
ands, With the coming of spring,
! 1928, will be extended and completed
throughout this district, Seward in
cluded.
Further expeditionary work will
then be assigned through the cooper
ation of the Departments of the In
terior and of Navy, until all Alaska
is explored in this manner.
This represents, undoubtedly, one
of the supreme efforts of aviation
in the economic field, and is a fit
ting example, it is stated, of the
peace time value of aircraft, especi
ally such aircraft as that under mil
itary discipline and handling.
While the fury and melee of pol
itical strife within and without the
Air Service has been before the pub
lie mind, the Departments! of the
Interior and of the Navy have beer
quietly perfecting plans for the eff
ective consolidation of Alaska ir
peace and war strength of the
nation.
Tentative aerial mapping begar
along the Alaskan Coast two years
ago by a Naval aerial expedition, urn
der Rear Admiral Jehu Chase, hae
resulted in the promulgation of ai
order by the Navy Department, ai
the request of the Department of the
Interior, for the formatiiona of
General Alaskan flight expeditioi
which started January 1, 1926, undei
Lieutenant B. F. Wyatt, the same
young officer who commanded the
mapping of the government’s oi
shale reserves in Colorado, and whe
also actively commanded the actua
GRUESOME TRAGEDY RESULTS WHEN
INFURIATED HUSBAND MURDERS 5
WOMEN AND HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW
Wife’s Slurring Remark About the Home the Enraged
Man Built Was Believed to Have Coerced Him
To Commit the Rash Deed.
SHOOTS SELF WHEN POLICE OVERTAKE HIM
Was Former Employe of Southern Pacific Railroad and
Stockton California Business Man.
STOCKTON, Calif., Mar. 19. (AP).—John M. Goins,
a former Southern Pacific Railway employe and Stock
ton business man, shot himself through the mouth in an
automobile while being chased by police last night near
Eldorade, a little village south of here, after he had shot
and killed five women and one man at Stockton and Galt.
. Goins early yesterday went to a ranch house, four
miles from here, shot his wife, Florence Podesta Goins
and his wife’s sister, Mrs. Minnie Podesta Clark. He then
returned to Stockton and killed Airs. George McNoble,
and while eluding the police he went to Galt, where he
killed Airs. Alex Marengo, her husband and a married
daughter, Airs. Alary Dentro.
It was stated that he evidently became infuriated be
cause his wife is alleged to have made slurring remarks
about the home he built for her and in which she refused
to live.
His car ran down a bank as the police were firing at
it. Captain Carel E. Slattermack, State traffic officer,
and Supervisor S. W. Biggs encountered Goins a mile west
of Eldorado. They tried to stop the car, but Goins, aware
of pursuit, doubled his car’s speed. The prowler car fin
ally overtook Goins who then shot himself.
IS HARRY WATSON
ENTITLED DOUBLE
MILEAGE?
WASHINGTON, D. C., Mar. 19. (JP) ;
! —Whether Hary Watson, former mem-;
! her of the Alaska Legislature and a ’
i former employe of the Alaska Rail
road is entitled to draw mileage from
both, while traveling to the 1926 ses
sion of the Legislature is being con
sidered by the Comptroller General.
Watson is Gov. Park’s secretary
at the present time.
It was contended that Watson was
an appointive employe of the Rail
road and as such was not entitled to
another Government office. He ac
cepted the secretaryship after the
Secretary of the Interior pressed him
to resign.
Among the Seward arrivals on ome
of the next few steamers will be Mr.
and Mrs. Ellsworth, who have been
spending the winter in Seattle.
flight work of the Admiral Chase
expedition.
The new Alaskan expedition which
is now preparing for the work will
get under way for the North May 1,
rom San Francisco.
Comprising the flight expedition
will be four commissioned pilots and
thirty enlsted men, including several
enlisted pilots. This summer’s flight
work will be carried on in south
eastern Alaska, with Ketchikan as
the base. Later it is planned to
move over to Sitka and to Juneau.
DOG RACE AT NOME
POSTPONED AFTER
SEPALLA FINISHES
NOME, Mar. 19. (/P)—The 40-mile
clog race which was called off on ac
count of high winds and drifting after
half the distance had been run, but
Supalla went on, and finished the en
tire distance in three hours and fifty
one minutes. The race wil be held
when weather conditions improve.
The wind blew the Bering sea ice
out of sight again.
catherineT hits
ICEBERG IN ICY
- STRAITS
CORDOVA, Mar. 19. (JP)—'The radio
station here reported the Catherine D,
big cannery tender of the Pacific-Am
erican Fisheries, hit an iceberg in Icy
Straits. It is reported the vessel was
leaking slightly on theport side, but
not seriously.
The Admiral Evans, of the Pacific
Steamship Company, resumes her
run to southwestern Alaska and the
westward district, March 30.
The first regular meeting of the
local scout troop for two weeks will
be held this evening at 7:30 o’clock
at the S. A. C.
SUPERANNUATED ALASKA RAILROAD
BUGAROO COMES UP IN RESOLUTION
INTRODUCED BY MORMON STATE SEN.
WASHINGTON, D. C., Mar. 19. (AP).—A resolution
was proposed today for the sale of the Alaska Railroad.
1 It was introduced by Senator William H. King, democrat
I of Utah and read that the Secretary of the Interior be au
thorized to appoint a commission to receive bids. Sena
1 tor King said: ‘The sooner the Government gets out of
' business the better it will be for business and the Gov
| ernment.
[ Senator Smoot, republican, also of Utah wanted to
, know who would buy the road which at the present time is
i not being operated at a profit;