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About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 18, 1922)
VOL. LXI XO. 19,263 .Entered at Portland Orejrn) Postofflre m Seconrt-class Matter. PORTLAND, OREGON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, 1923 PRICE FIVE CENTS 2 CALIFORNIANS NOW CAN BOAST GLACIER WETS PROMISE STUDENTS SMUGGLE 15 IN FISHING PARTY WRECKED ON BAR ORIGIN OF LIFE 4 CONVICTS ESCAPE; WARDEN KIDNAPED S TO PAY TUITION G DIE, MANY FLEE BEER IN 2 YEARS HONEST TO GOODXESS FIELD OF ICE DISCOVERED. COLLEGE yOUIHS CAUGHT ONE IS WASHED OVERBOARD BUT IS RESCUED. DEPUTY SEVERELY KNIFED DURING BREAK. WITH &t $ DRUGS. TOWNS BURNED i MS FOUND Minnesota Forest Fires Leave Throng Homeless. 2000 MEN BATTLE FLAMES I Dozen Cities in Danger; Guardsmen Called Out. GOVERNOR IS IN CHARGE Drought in Northeastern Partof State Causes Worst Con flagration Since 1918. DCLUTH, Minn..' Aug. 17. (By the Associated Press.) Six known dead, hundreds homeless, at least two towns wiped out and a dozen others Jn imminent danger was the apparent toll tonight of forest fires which swept northeastern Minne sota today, causing the worst con flagration since 1918. when 400 per sons lost their lives. Governor Preus tonight personally took charge of the situation, order ing: out national guardsmen here for relief duty. SOOO1 Men Fight Fire. Drought conditions have increased the menace to alarming proportions, according to state forestry officials, and tonight more than 2000 men were fighting fires in various sec tions. Official reports were that Fair banks, Silver Creek and Pimio, all small settlements, had been de stroyed, the refugees mainly fleeing to Two Harbors. Cotton and Cen tral Lakes also were reported de stroyed. Fires also were reported in Wis consin, where, it was said. Druaa mond was menaced, but telephone communication with that place was interrupted. . Fighters Forced to Flee. AH the fires are said to have re cruited from smouldering peat beds, which were whipped into raging furnaces by a. strong wind and spread to nearby forests. Thousands of volunteer guards battled the flames on the various sectors throughout the forenoon but the fires leaped past fire lines everywhere about midday. Fight ers were forced to flee. When the guards left the fire fighting they turned their attention to removing townspeople and set tlers to places of safety. Through co-operation of the state highway department, which rushed every available truck to the fire zone, the refugees were hastily removed. Not a. single fatality was reported from the districts where organized effort was made to rescue the refugees. Family of Six Trapped. Duluth was given a scare late today when the wind shifted to the north, bringing dense clouds of smoke. The only fatalities were reported by Captain Leo J. Moerke of the Duluth tank corps, who said a fam ily of six was trapped by the flames near Markham. The towns reported to have been. burned are Cotton, with a popula tion of 500, about 47 miles north of Duluth, and Central Lakes, a small railroad town near Cotton. The centers of the worst fires are Kelsey, 50 miles north of here, and Kveleth, 90 miles north. There are dozens of small fires. Guardsmen Aid Refusers. National guardsmen are assisting in transporting refugees to tempo rary quarters in nearby towns. Reports from, the various fire areas tonight indicated many farm ers had lost their homes. It was believed .the loss to livestock would be heavy. Fire is reported to be dangerously near several small towns. Guards were working to night to protect these towns. The greatest loss to property and livestock was reported to have been caused by the Kelsey fire, which leveled Cotton and Central Lakes. The fires near Eveleth also de stroyed some property. Los Angeles Business Men Hiking Up Creek Valley Make As tounding Discovery. LOS ANGELES, Cal., Aug. 17. A glacier has been discovered in the San Bernardino mountains, in San Bernardino county, 100 miles east of Los Angeles and nearly six miles from Seven Oaks, in a region never suspected of harboring a field of ice according to word brought here by K. G. Leonard and S. C. Freefield. business associates of this city. They described the glacier as com prising a field of solidified 'snow, about a quarter of a mile long, vary ing from 75 to '150 yards in width and from 15 to 20 feet in depth. At its base, they said, there was a grotto or ice cave from which flows Barton creek. "We were on a recreation trip, they said, "When we chanced upon the glacier. We came upon it by following up Barton creek. The terminal moraine is beautiful. The stream has tunneled underneath the snow and ice and flows out of a great arch. "We found great boulders which the glacier had thrown up, and in side the moraine were parts of the trunks of trees five feet in diameter, which were broken off 500 or more years ago. "On the top of the glacier, is soil, with green things growing on it. while underneath are ice and snow. It is the only glacier we have found in many years of tramping over the. mountains." HARDING'S DOG HAS SON Offspring of Laddie Boy Living in West Xew York. NEW YORK, Aug. 17. Laddie Boy, the first Airedale of the land, has a 5-months-old son living in west New York. The offspring of the White House dog got his name on the police blotter today when he was found scrapping with another pup in a vacant lot. He was held for his owners, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Coffelt. He ran away from home four days ago. The young Airedale bears the name, "Happy Boy," and his distin guished ancestry was made known only, after he had been brought home. . The Coff elts said they had not advertised their lost dog as the son of President Harding's pet, fearing that if the finder knew that fact no amount -of money would tempt, him to give up the young canine. - Move to Gain Votes in Congress Is Afoot. - PROGRESS IS REPORTED Only. 50 More Places House Declared Needed. in DRYS DISPUTE CLAIMS General Counsel for Anti-Saloon League Says More Than 100 Seats Are Necessary. COYOTE KILLED BY AUTO Driver Forced to Spaced Up to 40 Jliles to Slay Forager. THE DALLES, Or., Aug. 17. (Spe cial.) A coyote which went forag ing along the Columbia river high way near Rowena last night paid for its boldness with its life, . al though the death-dealing automo bile had to get up a speed of 40 miles an hour to overtake the flee ing animal. Asher Winkler and, Guy Phette- place of this city were driving near Rowena when the half grown coy ote, with a fat hen in its jaws, sud denly stepped into the road directly in front of the glaring lights. The coyote turned and ran straight ahead of the car, but was run down finally. Winkler collected $4 bounty. ST. PAUL, Aug. 17. Fires dotting the wooded country from a point 100 miles north of here to the Cana dian boundary present a menace more serious than any in years, W. T. Cox, state forester, said to night. Disaster Is Feared. "In other years," Mr. Cox said, "the dry spots have been localized, but this year the drought conditions are general. A wind that would Ignite the small Vires' would create a disastrous condition, against which we are bending every. effort to avoid." FORESTER ISSUES WARNING Washington Wardens Cautioned to Guard Against New Fires. OLTMPIA. Wash.. Aug. 17. (Spe cial.) Fresh warning to beware of new forest fires and to guard care fully against old. ones not com pletely extinguished breaking out again was sent to all fire- wardens today by State Forester Pape, fol lowing receipt of a forecast of for est fire weather for the next three CLEMENCEAU CHIDES SAM America Didn't Finish AVar Job, Says ex-Premier. NEW YORK. Aug. 17. Cyrus H. K. -Curtis, Philadelphia publisher, returned to the United States to day after seven weeks in Europe, with word from former Premier Clemenceau that French war lead ers felt "America never finished her job." ' He said he had talked with the former premier and was told that those who had controlled France during the war felt that the United States had failed to assure France assistance against possible German aggression. ENVER PASHA IS KILLED Body of Turkish ex-Minister of War Found on Battlefield. MOSCOW, Aug. 16. IBy the Asso ciated Press.) Enver Pasha, Turkish minister of war and recently chief antagonist to bolshevist rule in the trans-Caucasus, was found dead on the battlefield in eastern Bokhara, according to advices received by the government today. He was attired in a British uni form. He was stabbed five times on August 4 in" fighting against the bolshevikl. BY ARTHUR SEARS HENN1NG. (By Chicago Tribune Leased Wire.) WASHINGTON, D. C, Aug. 17. Beer and light wines within two years and possibly by next summer is the promise held out to the thirsty by the Association Against the Pro hibition Amendment, which is or ganizing throughout the country to carry the congressional election for the consummation of this t pro gramme. A change of 50 votes would record the house in favor of 4 or 5 per cent beer and 10 per cent wine, according to the association. The organiza tion's prime aim, therefore, in the November election will be to bring about the return of at least 50 wet members of congress in place of that many dry incumbents. Numerous gains of this character already are being claimed by the association as a result of .the primaries. Claim Disputed by Drys. Wayne B. Wheeler, general coun sel for the Anti-Saloon league, dis putes this claim. He says it would take a change of more than 100 votes to make the house wet. "In the primaries up to date," said Mr. Wheeler, "only one dry repre sentative in congress has been de feated by a recognized wet. That was in the Peoria, 111., district. Pri maries have . been held in 256 dis tricts, 227 members of congress be- i Ing renominated, of whom 178 are j drys and 49 wets. The new candi dates are dry in the proportion of two to one." If the wets should win the next congress they would not have an opportunity to move the modifica-! tion of the Volstead act until a year from next December unless the president should call an extraordi nary session earlier for some pur pose, i The association working to re- Arrests at Inform Are Made on . iled by Secret (BJ- A 4" A1 Montreal. Tribune Leased Wire.) BRf o KG, Ont., Aug 17 Unitr C yes detectives hold Peter Scully, ears of age, and Bernard Gordon, 22 years old. at Buffalo with more than $25,000 worth of drugs, which they had purchased in Montreal. ' Both of the lads are college stu dents. They declared that they were smuggling drugs in order to pay their way through college. They we approached by one v of the powerful drug rings across the line and told how easy it was to smuggle drugs into the United States and how much money a small package represented. The Buffalo police got the lads on tips furnished by United States se cret service agents now working in Montreal.- The bulk of the drugs consisted of morphine and cocoaine. PRIZED PAINTING FOUND Rare 1 7th Century Product Is Brought to Paris. PARIS, Aug. 17. A painting of Deigo Rodriguez Velasquez, the great Spanish painter of the early 17th century, which formerly hung in one of the Hungarian art gal leries and was reported sold to a buyer in the United States for $250,000, has been located and brought to Paris by the son of the celebrated Hungarian painter, Guyla de Benczur, to be appraised. The painting, according to re ports, was held up by the Hungarian authorities for the payment of a heavy government tax. FAKE CIGARS ARrJ OPIUM Customs Collector at Honolulu Uncovers Narcotics Fraud. HONOLULU, T. H., Aug. 17. (Special.) Fage cigara, which are nothing more than glass tubes con taining opium, are being used to bring the narcotic into this port. -aacording- to Harry E. Murray, col lector of customs for this port. "Manila cigars" seized a few days ago proved to be nothing more than glass tubes, stuffed with opium and wrapped in the outer ci gar leaf. TACNA-ARICA PACT WINS Gasoline Boat Rustler Engulfed by Huge Waves When Pas sengers Are Saved. TILLAMOOK, Or., Aug. 17. (Spe cial.) Roy Brock of Forest Grove was washed overboard and 14 other persons on he gasoline rboat Rustler narrowly escaped a like fate today when the Rustler was driven on the south spit of the Bar View bar. Brock was rescued from drowning by persons on the Rustler and all aboard the little craft were taken from the boat ang. brought eafely ashore by members of the life saving crew belonging to the coast guard ' station at Bar View. The life-savers reached the scene of the wreck 25 minutes after the Rustler had stranded on the spit. The Rustler was engulfed by huge waves rolling in over the bar-from the ocean and to the 300 persons who watched "the perilous position of the boat and its passengers from the Bar View jetty, it seemed as though at least some would lose their lives. The rescue was accomplished at great risk on the part of the life- ving crew and with great diffi culty owing to the heavy seas which broke over the stranded boat. The Rustler, which plies between Bay City and Bay Ocean, had started out to sea with a party for deep sea fishing when it was hurled upon the spit. It is believed that the Rustler will be a total loss. Pet Theory of Paleontol ogists Held Proved. FOSSILIZED BONES PROOF Remains of Animals of First Mammal Species. FIND CAUSES ELATION HOME HAS RARE HISTORY French House Just Rebuilt Has Seen MncU of AVar. (Copyright, 1922, by the New York Times.) (By cmcago xriDune jueasea wire.) PARIS, Aug. 17. On the front of a house just rebuilt at Vailly, in the Aisne department, has "been placed a tablet bearing this inscription: Built in 1640. Burned by Cossacks in 1814. Pillaged by Prussians in 1815. Then by Russians in 1816, Rebuilt in 1840. P'llaged by Prussians in 1870 and 1872. Pillaged and razed by Boches, 1914 to 1918. Rebuilt in 1922. Doctor to Sail From Pekin Next Month to Aid in Mapping Expedition for 1923. (Concluded on Page 3. Column 3.) Peruvian Chamber of Deputies Approves Agreement. LIMA, Peru, Aug. 17. The cham ber of deputies voted almost unani mously the approval of the Tacna Arica agreement between Chile and Peru. The senate has already given unanimous approval. SINGULAR SNAKE FOUND Specimen " of Black Variety Is Killed at Heppner. HEPPNER, Or., Aug, 17. (Spe cial.) An eastern blacksnake mea suring five feet two inches in length was killed near the depot here this' morning. This is the first specimen of blacksnak ever found in this part of Oregon and speculation is rife as to how and when his snake ship arrived. He may have escaped from a cir cus that recently showed here, or he may have come through in a consignment of freight from some point east of the Missouri river. AND STILL BOYS WILL GROW UP WITH THE AMBITION TO BE PRESIDENT. IMMIGRANT TIDE STRONG (Concluded on Pg 2, Column 3.) Summary Shows 4 0,000 Come to Country Since July 1.- "! WASHINGTON, D. C, Aug. 17. Nearly 40,000 immigrants have en tered the United States since July 1, the majority coming from t Italy, Russia, the United Kingdom, Ger many, Greece and Czecho-Slovakia, the bureau of immigration an nounced today in a summarization of the status of aliens entering this country under the three per cent restrictive immigration act. About 320.000 more can enter dur ing the remainder gf the fiscal year. f WE'D RATHER. STARVE T ) nobody Evtn.--v j fL TO DEATH THAN ACCEPT - ' fr" fo'L POUTF . r SUCH HUMILIATING TERtrtS."-' a') , f ACCEPT SUCH HtJMIUATING TERMS f yyy v y tj&su -r ; ; ' . ' ' ' 1 i rt -O J 111 I I r-A TArr T STARVE TO I I " ? . .KOBOCN . I f- DEATH IF YOUDONTjW ewu it m. i i s i W t ili i "r r-- "i j r- r i : , VME-DUA.VE: THE STSlKt r-r, . . v i 'iSSVK executives . , Veiin.IJ TTlA j -vS- v f- xrr?'' Oi HD TWE stride. A- y rr ciJ si s" "TywoM if you ' ) y ) I yy?y y xK V- yr hadn't- Yyy w' ! - rr "V ENCOURAGED y )cyzz i The strike j xL.. - A a. NEW YORK. Aug. 17. (By the Associated Press.) Proof of the paleontologist's pet theory that Asia was the "mother of continents" and the cradle of life on this globe carrying with it great promise of the discovery in the wastes of the Gobi desert of the long-sought "missing link" in the evolution of mankind has been found by the third Asiatic expedition led by Roy Chapman Andrews for the American Museum of Natural History, Henry Fairfield Osborn, the museum's di rector, announced today. The "proof," to the uninitiate, would appear to be just a heap of fossilized bones, dug up by a band of curious men in the frozen waste lunds of Mongolia. But to the mind ira'ned in groping back through hundreds of thousands of years for history of the days when man was not. these fossilized remains of dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts and reptiles furnish a con clusion simple . and inevitable as "two times two." Discoveries Fally Reported. The discoveries, barely hinted at in cable dispatches, are fully report ed and interpreted by Dr. Osborn original proponent of the "Asia, mother of continents," hypothesis in the current issue of the magazine Asia. The magazine co-operated with the Museum and the American Asiatic association in organizing this, most ambitious of all similar expeditions, toward the financing of which liberal contributions were made by J. P. Morgan, John D. Rock efeller Jr., Willard D. Straight, George F. Baker, Darwin P. Kings ley, Dwight W. Morrow, Childs Frick, W. A. Harriman, the late H. P. Davidson and many othey. The hypothesis put forward by Dr. Osborn in 1900 and now confirmed to his satisfaction was based on the fact that two great deposits of remains of animals at the dawn pe riod of mammalian life on the north ern hemisphere had been fpund pre viously at widely separated points the one in Europe, the other in the American Rockies. Point of Origin Figured Out They could not have originated where the remains were found. Dr. Osborn reasoned, else they would have spread westward from Europe and eastward from the Rockies dur ing the period of early dispersal. Hence, he held, they must have originated at some half-way spot' on the less explored side of the globe, traveling as far as the Rockies on the one hand and Europe on the other, before the early sun. set on the last of their line. He then drew up a series of charts, locating Asia as the dispersal center and plotting out with a nicety remarkable in view of the expedition's discover ies the spots where the first cen ters probably were located. A little further on than the ex pedition has gone so far is the sec tion labeled "primate" the species of ape held by paleontologists to have been the first ancestor of man. So enthusiastic has Dr. Osborn become over the expedition's dis coveries to date and the promise for the future that he plins to sail for Pekln, the winter headquarters, September 15, to get first-hand re ports and aid in mapping out the campaign for the second year of the five-year programme. Writing, with elation, on the re port received from Mr. Andrews, Dr. Osborn said of the fossil deposits: Theory Declared Verified. This discovery gives the answer to one of the four great questions which the expedition sought to solve, namely, whether ancient Asia is the mother of the life of Europe to the far west, of North America to , the far east. It is a kind of realization of a paleontologic Gar den of Eden of the birthplace, or Asiatic homeland, from which many kinds of reptiles and mammals spread westward and eastward. The existence of such a center has long been a matter of pure the ory. We have waitea until iszz to verify it. This verification has come with unexpected suddenness and with a completeness beyond our fondest hopes, and there still re main four years in which the great expedition, under Roy Chapman An drews, will fill out the details." Mr. Andrews' report was made in a letter dated May 9 at Urga, in up per Mongolia. The party had set out from Peking a month before, trav ersing the desert by motor truck to ward Turin, where they planned to meet a caravan of 75 camels with Several Posses Start in Pursuit of South Dakota Outlaws in Automobile. SIOUX FALLS, S. D., Aug. IT. (By the. Associated- Press.) After severely knifing Arthur Muchow, deputy warden, four prisoners es caped from" the South Dakota peni tentiary here late today, faking George W. "Jamieson, warden, with them. The prisoners fled in a motor car parked by a tourist just outside the, prison walla Several posses of state, county and city officers aided by members of the local post of the American Legion, immediately started in pur suit. Early tonight the prisoners had cot been overtaken and apparently Warden Jamieson had not been re leased from their car as no word had been received from him by local authorities. The only trace of the fleeing men was contained in a report from Ellis where they stopped and stole an other car, presumably in hopes of avoiding detection. The four men. whose names are Henry Coffee, Joe Foreman, Joe Teel and J. B. King, were serving sentences for grand larceny. Coffee is a negro. It appeared to officials that the escape had been planned in advance. The four men started a commotion in the tailor shop at the prison and Deputy Muchow hurried to ascertain what was the trouble. When he reached the shop the convicts at tacked him with knives which they had obtained from some unknown source. Deputy Muchow resisted and was badly cut, being stabbed twice 'n the abdomen and once in the breast, as well as sustaining several minor slashes. A report from the hospital tonight was that his wounds would not prove fatal. EXPECTED TODAY Strike Situation to Be Put Up to Congress. s LONGER DELAY IS OPPOSED President Feels Whole Issue Should Be Aired. VITAMINE IDEA OVERDONE Give Children Common Sense Diet, Says Professor. MADISON, Wis., Aug. 17. Give children a common sense diet of vegetables, cereals, fruit and milk and don't worry about vitamines, Dr. E. J. Huenekens, professor of ped iatrics at the University of Minne sota, advised, in speaking before the congress of health officers today. Too much attention is paid to vitamines, he said. SOUTHERN CITIES JOLTED Earth .Trembles at Fresno, Bakersfield and Elsewhere. BAKERSFIELD, Cal., Aug. 17. A slight earthquake was felt in Bakersfield at 9:14 tonight. The quake was felt as far away at Wasco, 20 miles from here. FRESNO, Cal., Aug. 17. A slight earth shock, was felt in Fresno at 9:10 tonight, no damage resulting. JOINT SESSION LIKELY Iieport Is Expected to Cover Peace Negotiations as Well as Other Angles. 100 MARKS 8.75 CENTS German Currency Declines to New Low Record at New York. NEW YORK, Aug. 17. The Ger man mark today declined to a new low record price of 8 cents a hundred. One bank reported it had offers of 10,000,000 marks at this price and no takers. INDEX OF TODAY'S NEWS Concluded, on Pace- 2, Cojumo X-i The Weather- YESTERDAY'S Maximum temperafuro, 88 degrees; minimum. 60 degreea. TODAY'S Fair and continued warm: winds mostly southerly. Foreign. Two students smugrg-le drugs to pay col lege tuition. Page 1, Funeral Viscount Northcliffe held from Westminster abbey. Page 2. National. President expected to send strike mes sasra to congress today. Page 1. Government hopes to avert trouble next winter by early resumption oi cou mines. Page S. Senate is expected to pass, and president veto soldiers' bonus bill. Pge 8. Beer In two years, promised by wets. Page 1. Domestic. Rlaeier discovered in San Barnardino mountains in Calitornia. Page 1. Minnesota towns razed by fire. Page 1. Chicago women declared dupes or sen- siyiea iu - o Five children get only $5 each from mil- lioi. Page 3. Woman, 71, mother of six, enters Colum bia university. Page 2. Orieln of life found in Asia. Page 1. Four convicts escape, kidnaping warden. Page 1. Pacific Northwest. Wrtman candidate for senator from , Washington expected to quit race. Page 5, 15 in fishing party wrecked on bar. Page 1. Sport, Savage New York Nationals slash Pitts burg, 6-3. Page 14. Pacific Coast League results: At Seattle 12 Portland 8; at Sacramento S, Salt Lake 4; at San Francisco- 8, Vernon 1; at Los Angeles 3, Oakland 7. p'age 14. Anzacs and Spaniards battle to tennis tie. Page 14. Sarazen closing in on another title. Page 15. Commercial and Marine. Strength of stock market held to indi cate financial confidence. Page 22. Westbound water tonnage from Atlantic coast increased by rate cuts. Page 12. Wheat up and flour down at Portland. Page 21. Veal quotations advance locally. Page 22. All grains in upturn at Chicago. Page 23. Railroad bonds up at New York. Page 23. Portland and Vicinity. Grand Jury opens Precinct 201 probe. Page 13. Strike-breakers testify in trial of shop workers for contempt. Page 16. Senator Hall says he will not support Mr. Olcott for governor. Page 13. Amorous printer's love note gets him rock-pile sentence. v f age ll. ( Klan in Oregon nor to back third can didate, says state head. Page 16. Portland to' have tax claims 'service. Page 22. . Weather report, data and forecast. Page 22. WASHINGTON, D. C... Aug. 17. (By the Associated Press.) Presi dent Harding was said by adminis tration advisers late today virtually to have decided to go before con gress In Joint session tomorrow with his statement of tl'e industrial situation. Indications were that the chief executive would deliver his message by noon. He was known to have concluded writing the message, which was sent to the printer tonight. The decision to address congress tomorrow was reached after earlier reports had indicated that the presi dent might, defer his statement on the strike situation until after the railroad conference in New York had reached some definite con clusion. More Delay Proponed. Administration advisers said to night, however, that the president felt he should delay no longer in presenting the administration's case to congress and the country. Proposal was made In a bill pre sented today in the house that the interstate commerce commission be authorized to fix wages and salaries of all employes of interstate rail roads on such a basis as would give to the carriers "a reasonable Income and a fair and reasonable traffic charge." The president's message to con gress, it was said, will suggest need of legislation to strengthen the government's coal distribution sys tem, and to prevent profiteering from the shortage , brought about by the coal and rail strikes. In addition. It was understood. he will sketch a hlBtory of his at tempts to settle the Industrial tie- ups by negotiations and. It is be lieved, will assure congress that the federal government intends to give its aid and protection to the maintenance of rail operations. It is doubtful whether there will be any suggestion for legislation af fecting the rail situation. Administration leaders, including Senator Lodge and Representative Mondell, republican, consulted to day with the president and Secre tary Weeks was closeted with him later for a study of the message. Before going to the White House, Secretary Weeks received from the legal department of the army an opinion that the strike situation did not constitute an emergency which would authorize the recruit ing of the army to war strength, or to allow the drafting of men in time of peace. Opinions Akd to Knd Doubt. While no such action was con templated, Mr. Weeks said the oplnlon3 were asked from the judge advocate-general to settle any doubt in the minds of officials and the public as to he power of government. Both the senate and house wcri in session today ready to hear the president, but the house adjourned when it became known" that he in tended to delay his presentation I another day. Representative Ward, democrat, North Carolina, intro duced a bill to give the interstate commerce commission wags flxi l authority in railroad employment and providing a system of making public wage rates similar to :hat now operative for new freight schedules. FAB WEST NEARLY NOKMAJj Continued Improvement in Kali Situation Is Reported. SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 17. The far western rail strike, situation continued to improve today. Vir tually normal train movements were reported from the Union Pacific's Salt Lake City-Los Angeles line; the Western Pacific again was mov ing trains, and expected to move freight trains by midnight, on Its lines from San Francisco to Sal: Lake City and the Santa Fe linos were clearing up rapidly the con gestion of passenger trains which has grown up at Albuquerque. N. M. The Santa Fe also moved east today from Bakersfield, Cal., the first train in seven days. Negotia tions between railway officials and leaders of the transportation brotherhood men continued. From Washington state came re ports that eastern buyers were showing reluctance to contract for peaches, pears and prunes because of uncertainty as to their movinK east In time to meet the marke'. A preliminary report was rece'voC at Los Angeles from department uf justice Investigators who have been Coacluded on Page 2, Coiuma i.) I 1 f