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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 5, 1920)
4, THE SUA'DAV OliEGOMAX, l'OltTLAXD, . SElTEMiJEit 3, 1920 CREW IS BACK, BUT DIVER SINKS AGAIN H Heroism of Commander h Lauded by Men. Is 2 MESSAGE SEMT TO WILSON -3 Petition at About Same Time forwarded to Secretary Dan iels by 3 6 in Crew. Is (Continued From -First Page.) They are not expected to experience jny serious permanent results. .Every man "was met at the gang plank by Admiral Charls F.Hughes. As the admiral, who Is commandant at the navy-yard, reached out his hand with the question "How are you?" each one, even the three sick men, straightened up and with a brisk navy salute, answered "Fine, thank you. sir." ; Stories Pieced Together. I Piecing together the brief inter- lews the men would give, it was easy ' to obtain a fairly accurate story of ', their experience. The cause of the ac ; cident, they declared, was a ' failure of the main air induction to work. , Who was to blame for this they did not know. That will be the task of the naval board of inquiry, the pre liminaries of which began today on the battleship Ohio. It was in order to be present at this hearing that Lieutenant-Commander Cooke was absent from the returning group. - According to the story, at about ? o'clock Wednesday afternoon the S-5 was about 55 miles off Cape Henlopen when Lieutenant-Commander Cooke gave orders for a practice" "crash dive." This is a war maneuver used when speedy submerging is desired It was successfully tried the day be- j fore. Kvery Man at Bb Plaee. The signal had . been given and every man was at his place. The hatches were closed and water doors were opened as the air ballast was forced out and the water rushed In and the boat begar to sink. In a mo ment the indicator showed something was wrong. The bow was. sinking faster '. than the stern. A quick In spection showed the air Induction had failed . to work and one of the sea valves, had not closed. . - . ' . Three minutes passed and the sub marine was still sinking, but un evenly. Orders flashed out from Com mander Cooke, fronv Charles Grischam, lieutenant, and J. B. Longstaff, ensign. Every man knew that something waj seriously wrong, but not one left his station. Then there came a bump. All hot Three Don MaHka. "It took us some time to realize just what happened." said Youkers. "We were too busy to worry for a moment." . All but three donned masks and for hours'they had their long fight for life. The three men without masks are now In the navy-yard hospital. As the gas spread through the boat, the 37 men were forced from one com partment to another, getting nearer the stern each time, until all wqre gathered there. Crowded in the stern of the boat the men drank the juice of canned peas and beans until they were too weak to open cans. They tried to eat other' food, but the. oil and water had ruined it. Without a watch or a match, the men were unable to tell whether it was night or day. Commander Cooke suggested that when they pierced the shell and set a signal they would need something for anight sign of distress. One of the commissioned officers vol unteered to dash into the chlorine filled torpedo compartment and get one of the batteries .there. He was permitted to do so, but in hi9 quest got hold of one that, was useless. Seaman ObtalnM Battery. Stephen Gavin, a seaman, saluted and said: "We need that battery. I will get it." And before anybody could protest. he slipped back into the gas-filled loom and returned with the battery. The presence of .eight torpedoes made the bow heavy and aided in pressing' It further into the mud. Ef forts to release the torpedoes were without result. At about 8 o'clock after the ship had been under water about six hours Commander Cooke decided on trying to force a hole through the side. With Chief Gunner's Mate Fox he tried an electric drill. Then the commander learned that none of the electrical ap paratus was of any use whatever. Hatchet I'fted to Brill Stern. Only one ratchet was aboard and xnis was usea to arm a small hole in the stern. The men took turns at drilling. Commander Cooke starting off. the ratchet made slow progress through the tough steel and the men were hampered by the darkness. Finally at about 3 A. M. Thursday a hole 7 inches long by of an inch wide had been mad. The ratchet was ruined and it was impossible to widen the. hole sufficiently ' to' permit the egress of a human body. A long iron rod was pushed through the aperture with Youker's undershirt tried to it. This was the distress signal which brought the Alanthus to the rescue. borne hours later the transport Gen eral Goethals appeared and released the men. . ' . . . , . . Dive Sixteenth on Cruise. H. A. Love, gunner's mate, , first class, tall River, Mass., . was in the' torpeao room -wnen- the - dive- was taken. Love said it was the 16th "crash dive" taken since he cruise started. The air intake valve which according to the official report to .Washington, was responsible for the accident, epened directly - into the room in which Love was working. When we began to go below the surface," Love said, "I started to set the diving-rudders in position. After we were- almost completely-11 sub- merged I felt water pouring into the .J. room. 1 turned around quickly and saw that it was entering through the Intake valve. I ran over to try to shut it, leaving my rudders. I was j alone in the room. .When I attempt ; ed to close the valve from the Inside - I. was knocked to the floor by the rush of water. Chlorine- finm -Releaned. r J "I got upj and tried again. - Again I was bowled over. It was a power- ': f ul stream of water, but I managed to get out. We were forced by chlor ine gas from room to room until finally we were confined in the two etern compartments, the motor room and the tiller room. We did not yet know the depth of water we were in. Kefore we were forced to retreat from the conning tower we could look and see that the bow was rest ing on the sand. That led us to be lieve that we were not in water whose depth was more than the length of the boat. "When we got into the two com partments we could hear the water lapping against the side of the boat. That convinced us that the part of the submarine we were in was above , tje surface. Several men began looking around the room until they found a breast drill. Work was im mediately started cutting a hole through the hull so that we could get. air and help. 41 Honrs Spent In Silence. "The officers told us to keep quiet and talked to us. They asked us to sit down wherever we could and keep as still as possible, so that we would not waste any of the precious air by deep breathing. We also were told not to talk in loud tones, as that would consume oxygen. "After that we spent our 41 hours of captivity in almost dead silence, save for the revolving drill and the lapping of waves outside. "Commands were issued Iij subdued tones and when we talked to each other and kidded to keep up our spirits, we did it in whispers. Hardly a word was spoken aloud. "There were seven fellows who ought to be mentioned. When the gas masks were counted there were seven shy they had been ruined by the water or something so those who did not have any were pushed through the motor and tiller compartments first, although they kicked a lot. ''The worst thing we had to con tend with was the fact that we had no matches, no watches and did not know one day from another or when it was night or day at first. But everybody felt that we would get out all right as long as they could tell from the waves hitting the sides that part of thes hip was out of water." EFFOKTS TO RISE ARE FUTILE Diver Finally Tilted on Stern by Blowing Water From Xose. NEW YORK, Sept. 4. Frederick W. Whitehead, chief machinist's mate of the submarine S-5, gave an account at his home in Brooklyn tonight of the experiences of his shipmates dur ing the hours they were trapped be neath the sea. He got permission from his commanding officer to visit hi wife, a war bride. Alter describing preliminaries to what he termed "the last dive called for in the test," he said: "We hit bottom and rested easily. The captain and men had a confer ence. Then we started the air salvage system to . work. There was 2300 pounds of compressed air pressure and we tried to blow the water out of the tank, but the added water was too much and we could not rise. The tor pedo room was flooded. We closed -the water tank from the torpedo room to the battery room, but still there was from two to three feet of water n each room. We were also unsuc cessful .in trying to blow; the water out of the torpedo room.' After blow ing all of the oil out of the fuel tank. we were still too heavy to rise. 'The captain then figured out that our boat was zsl feet long and the water was but 160 feet deep and that by standing the boat on her nose the stern Would project through the water. To do this we had-to let the water' from other compartments run into the storage room where we knew it would form a deadly chlorine gas. But there was nothing else to do. We blew out this water, but as it rushed past and the stern began to rise we were all swept along with it. Several men sustained injuries. The salt water on the battery plates caused the forr mation of chlorine gas and the men began choking. We had onlysix gas masks between us. I had none. 'The captain worked his way aft and we communicated with . him thrpugha speaking tube. We finally had to iuit our' posts as ' we were choking with gas. With difficulty we got into the next compartment,- but had to return to .open a valve so we could get air. The lights then went out. ' ' ,r 'Finally we got into the tiller room and after five hours' work managed to drill a small hole through the steel plates. We were ' then about 25 feet above water. We put some rags on a fuel oil pipe and pushed-It through one of these holes as a signal to- a steamer we saw passing about five miles away. "But she evidently did not see us and passed us by. "An hour later the Alanthus came along and luckily for us she was off her route, because of being partly disabled. "After getting 'a cable around us two crews from the boat started to drill from the outside. We kept on working inside but the air was so foul we could work only for 10 minutes at a time and fall back exhausted. Finally a hole was made large enough to put a hose through and air was pumped In. "We rigged up a funnel and through this we received the first water we had had in 20 hours. After being down 35 hours a plate was cut through large enough for us to be carried out." Whitehead explained there was no danger from possible explosion of the eight torpedoes on board because the electric batteries were dampened, by the water that rushed into the tor pedo compartment. CARFARE REHEARING PETITION IS UPH ELD Bridge and Street Tolls Put Up to Commission. LEGAL OPINION IS GIVEN GIRL IN BOY'S GARB HELD Fugitive From Portland Home in Custody at Pasco, Wasb. PASCO, Wash., Sept. 4. Geraldine Bley, 20, dressed as a boy, was taken from a Spokane, Portland & Seattle train here this afternoon. She was traveling with Claude Johnson, 19, who said he didn't know the sex of I his traveling companion ' until they had been taken to police headquarters here. The Bley girl escaped ' from the House of the Good Shepherd. Port land, where she was beinr -held for the Linn county grand : jury. The sheriff at Albany, Or.,, was notified and she is being held for him. - Some weeks ago the girl was ar rested while traveling in boy's clothes from California. - She was then ac companied by a man. . Assistant Attorney - General De clares Argument Sufficient to Call Meeting. "SALEM. Or., Sept. 4. (Special.) The petition filed recently with the Oregon Dublic service commission by F. D. Broderick, B. H. Fisher and V. Chadek of Portland, in which they urged that the case Involving the fares of the Portland Railway, Light & Power company be re-opened to the extent of considering the reason ableness and removal of alleged un just burdens of taxation now imposed on the traction corporation, is suffi cient under the public utility act to cause the commission to call a hear ing on the application, according to a legal opinion handed down today by J. O.'. Bailey, assistant attorney-general. Fred Buchtel, chairman of the pub lic service commission, in comment ing on the opinion, declared that if it was the personal view of Mr. Bailey he was not interested in it, but that If the opinion was the bona fide find ing of Attorney-General Brown or of the attorney-general's office, it was his view that the commission, having 'already expressed itself in three pre vious orders as to the unreasonable-' ness of the franchise tolls might take some action .without even resorting to a rehearing of the case. -Mr. Bailey held that if, after the hearing of the petition, it is found that . franchises and ordinances pro viding for the alleged unjust burdens of taxation are unreasonable, they become void by law to the extent of their unreasonableness and should be removed.. No attempt was made by the assistant attorney-general to pass on" the reasonableness of the franchise provisions, however, this being a mat ter entirely within the jurisdiction f the commission. Section of Act Held Plain. "Section 61 of the public utility act is plain, explicit," said Mr. Bailey in hio opinion. "It grants to every mu nicipality certain power and further provides that contracts, ordinances and other determinations of every municipality within the scope of said section shall be in force and facie reasonable." "It is' expressly stated that every municipality shall have power to de termine by contract, ordinance br otherwise, the terms and conditions upon which the public utility may be permitted to occupy the streets, highways or other public property of the municipality, so long as such contract, ordinance or determination is not inconsistent with the terms and provisions of the public utility act. These contracts, ordinances or determinations by the municipality are, however, by the provision of this section, only prima facie reasonable. Commlsiilon Holds ' Power. "The public service commission is granted power upon complaint, either made by a public utility or by a qualified complaint, to set a time for hearing and if it is found that such contract or ordinance is un reasonable, the same, according to the sections of the act are declared void. "The provisions of the public util ity act relating to the Jurisdiction of the public service commission are much broader and more comprehen sive than the provisions contained in many public utility acts of other states and in the absence of section 61 it might well be contended that the public service commission had power to relieve unjust and unrea sonable burdens. "But with section 61 incorporated in- the act I can find no escape from the conclusion that it was the inten tion of the legislature to confer upon the public service commission juris diction to inquire into and determine the reasonableness of every contract, ordinance or. other determination of a municipality relating to the terms and conditions upon which public utilr ities may occupy the streets. In grant ing a to every municipality certain powers, ' the legislature further pro vided that the acts of municipalities should be subject to review, by the public service commission. "The fact that your commission characterized the ' provisions in the different franchises as burdens and found them to be unreasonable and amounting to double taxation, would seem to warrant the assumption that they were considered. "You are therefore advised -that you have. the power to pass upon the un- WE'VE SOLVED YOUR CLOTHES PROBLEM With All-Wool . Fabrics sound workmanship . perfect fit and style ' prices as low as $40 satisfaction guaranteed Kirschbaum Clothes New Fall Models Now in Our Cabinets and Windows PHEGLEY & CAVENDER Cor. Fourth and Alder Streets reasonableness of the different pro- ' visions of the street, railway fran chise and if you find they are un reasonable, then by operation of law, they become void to the extent they are found unreasonable.". i Cane Started March 27. The fare case involved In the peti tion at issue had Hs inception on March 27, 1920, when the commission after extended hearings on an appli cation of the railway company for Increased revenue found, according to Mr. aBiley's opinion,-that the provi sions of the franchise relating to franchise taxes, car licenses, free transportation for city employes, pav ing assessments and bridge rentals were unreasonable and amounted to double taxation. - Recommendation was then made by the commission that the city of Port land should eliminate the nlleeed un- prima ! just Duraens, ana on -way zi ine pro posal was . rererrea to tne voters. Every measure' looking toward the elimination of the alleged "double taxation"' was defeated, and on May 26 the railway company renewed its application, with the result that on June 10 the -commission granted to the railroad corporation an increase in fare -from 6 to 8 cents. Almost at the same hour that Mr. Bailey gave his opinion, today, a let ter .was received from John Kaste, a Portland attorney, that he proposed to institute 'proceedings in mandamus in the supreme court here next week to compel the public service commis sion to eliminate, the so-called bur dens of taxation now imposed on the railroad corporation. , No intimation was given in his letter as to whom he represents. n . SUMMER SCHOOL CLOSES Oregon Normal Students Put On Playlet Willi Good Success. OREGON NORMAL SCHOOL, Mon mouth, Sept. 4. (Special.) Miss Erica - Johnson of Boring has taken up work at the Oregon Normal school as assistant to the registrar. The second six ' weeks' term of summer school closed Friday, Sep tember 3. and rapid preparations are being made for the fall term, which begins September 20. Students, of the summer school staged the playlet "Six Cups of Choc olate." -Thursday night with great success. The following girls from Portland took part in the play: Misses Dorothy Miller, Carrie Grant, Florence Court and Isa Upsson. Miss Lillian Lusk of Trout Lake. Wash., and .Miss Juan Ha Wolff of Orenco, a'BO had roles in the play. . FACULTY IS COMPLETED North Bend Elects Six New Teach ers for Ensuing Year. NORTH BEND, Or., Sept. 4. (Spe cial.) The city school board an nounces completion of its faculty for the "ensutne year y the election of GOVERNOR NOT FOR DEBS Olcott Refuses to Sign Petition for Socialist's Release. SALEM. Or., Sept. 4. (Special.) Governor Olcott will not be a party to the plan to release Eugene V. Debs, socialist candidate for president, from the federal penitentiary in which he is serving a term for sedition. This was made plain by the executive in a letter prepared today in reply to a communication received from a prom inent socialist in Atlanta, Ga. In the letter received, by the execu tive it was said that an effort was being madS to obtain Mr. Debs re lease and that' all the governors in the-United States had .been asked to sign the petition addressed to Presi dent Wilson. "FIUME DAY" IS SEPT. 12 D'Annunzio Representative in TJ. S. .Vnnounces Celebration Here. NEW YORK, Sept. 4. Celebration of "Flume day," Sunday, September 12, anniversary of d'Annunsio's occu pation of Fiume, is assured In New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, St. Louis, New Or leans, New Haven, Newark and West Hoboken, N. J., and Denver, Pueblo and .Trinidad. Colo. Whitney Warren, newly appointed representative in the United States of D'Annunzio and the National Council of glume, announced this today. , ; ; XhW -IX '- - " '" A Popular Favorite i$ the "Combination" - It polls a large vote from men .who . know shoe values, and a repeat vote from its wearers. V 'i 5TH SHOE aWOBHQBEinnWa The "Combination A shoe of class and comfort that will eive satisfaction to the last step. x. X STAIGER'S 292 "Washington St, Bet. 4th and 5th six new teachers on September 1.' Those engaged at this late date were: Otto L. -Fox, Gertrude Curtis, Ana belle Brown, Ruth Ellsworth, Sumner Bryant and Forest Schneider. Superintendent G. A. Ruring, who comes as a new head for the city educational institutions, declares everything ready tor the fall open ing. The congestion of schools Is to be relieved by the renting -of the Norwegian chapel room to house one of the lower grades. Check Passer Arrested. EUGENE, Or.. Sept. 4. (Special.) Gilbert James, wanted here on the charge of passing a number of bad checks at Cottage Grove a short time ago, was arrested at Sacramento, Cal., yesterday. An officer from here will be sent after him. School Building- Burned. GOLD HILL. Or.. Sept. 4. (Special.) Fire from an adjoining stubble field treaty was announced totally destroyed the Dardanelles school building, two miles south of Gold Hill. It was used as a com munity meeting hall and part of the equipment was a new piano. A ma jority of patrons of the school have opposed consolidation with the Gold Hill schools for several years, but the loss of the building will force the Issue. . Pond Lyceum Bureau Bankrupt. kv lOKK, Sept. 4. A petition in bankruptcy was filed by the Pond Lyceum bureau, the oldest lecture promotion concern in America, in the United States district court yesterday. The assets were given as $72,044 and the liabilities at 160,259. mimmimiiiiimmiimimim, S- F. laAZEUflSQCif iiiiiiHimiiiimiiimmimiiiii Lelvians Ratify Soviet Treaty. PARIS. Sept. 4. The Letvian con stituent assembly on Thursday rati fied the treaty with soviet Russia, It was declared by the foreign min istry today. The signing of this August. 1919. SUNDAY DINNER $1.25 Cream of Chicken Corn Soup . Vegetable Soup Celery Radishes Choice of Lettuce Tomato Salad, French Dressing Special Fruit Salad Crab Salad Choice of ' Baked Salmon or Halibut Roast Spring Chicken, Giblet Sauce Roast Prime Ribs of Beef, Natural Gravy Leg of Veal, Apple Sauce Stewed Chicken with Noodles Mashed or Baked Potatoes Choice of Stewed Fresh Tomatoes Green Lima Beans Spinach Stringless Beans Corn on Cob Choice of Pie Pudding or Ice Cream Tea Coffee or Milk Salted Nuts Hazelwood Plate Dinner 75c Cream of Chicken Corn Soup Choice of: Salmon, Halibut Chicken Fricassee with Noodles Roast Veal with Dressing. Stringless Beans Corn on Cob Mashed or Baked Potatoes Choice of: Pie Pudding or Ice Cream Tea Coffee Milk or Buttermilk Hazelwood Vegetable Dinner 40c Asparagus on Toast Corn on Cob Green Lima Beans Stewed Summer Squash Bread and Butter Tea Coffee or Milk THET3zGlu)ood dJ C0N F ECTIONEKf & RESTAURANT 388 Washington St. Music at the Washington St. 127 Broadway Hazelwood niiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiir HELD OVER ! ! By Popular Demand MAE MURRAY and DAVID POWELL . : in i : "THE RIGHT TO LOVE" A special production that has been playing to capacity houses this past week. Come, see a woman's heart athrob with all that woman's heart has known. Flooded with splendor and the spell of summer nights. ."HUMORESQUE" STARTS WEDNESDAY - - ;. :'...:'. - Jf u. , X',',