Evening Star
- REPUBLICANS NEED VICTORY OF BUTLER AND WADSWORTH TO KEEP SENATE RULE
- LIEUT. F. H. CONANT, CRACK NAVY FLYER, IS BELIEVED KILLED
- VETERANS MAY GET $262,540,000 LOANS
Two days before the 1926 midterm elections, the Evening Star's front page carried G. Gould Lincoln's forecast that Democrats would gain seats in both the Senate and the House because of Republican troubles in individual states. He still expected the Republicans to hold the House, perhaps narrowly, and the headline said they needed Butler in Massachusetts and Wadsworth in New York to keep the Senate. The page also reported that Navy Schneider Cup flyer Lieut. Frank H. Conant Jr. was believed killed when his plane crashed into shallow water near Mathews, Va., on a flight from Anacostia to Hampton Roads. A third story gave the Veterans' Bureau estimate that World War veterans could borrow $262,540,000 in 1927 against adjusted service certificates with a face value of $2,975,000,000.
Translation
REPUBLICANS NEED VICTORY OF BUTLER AND WADSWORTH TO KEEP SENATE RULE
Democratic gains in Senate and House loom as the probable outcome of Tuesday's elections. They will be due to an accumulation of G. O. P. troubles, but these troubles are State rather than national. Despite the prospective losses the Republicans will control the House in the seventieth Congress. This will be a real victory for the Republicans, for the entire membership of the House is to be elected, the only nation-wide contest this year. Republican control of the House perhaps will be by a narrow margin, but the control will be definite unless there should be a Democratic landslide, and there is nothing today to indicate one.
LIEUT. F. H. CONANT, CRACK NAVY FLYER, IS BELIEVED KILLED
Lieut. Frank H. Conant, jr., Navy Schneider Cup race flyer and one of the Navy's outstanding young pilots, is believed to have been killed yesterday afternoon when his plane crashed and sank in shallow water near Mathews, Va., about 30 miles north of Norfolk. Lieut. Conant, who has been practicing for the speed races to be held over Hampton Roads November 11, left the naval air station at Anacostia yesterday morning at 11:45, bound for Hampton Roads. He was due to have arrived there about 1:30.
VETERANS MAY GET $262,540,000 LOANS
Approximately 2,883,000 adjusted service certificates in the possession of World War veterans, with a face value of $2,975,000,000, will be available in 1927 for deposit with banks as collateral security, on which the Veterans' Bureau estimates $262,540,000 may be borrowed.
Context
Butler and Wadsworth both lost, and the Republican Senate majority shrank
The headline over Lincoln's article named Massachusetts and New York as the two Senate races the Republicans could not afford to lose, and on November 2 they lost both. In Massachusetts, William M. Butler, appointed after the death of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, was defeated by former Democratic senator David I. Walsh, 52.0 to 46.5 percent. Most speakers at the rally where Butler announced his campaign tied his race to the re-election prospects of President Calvin Coolidge, his close ally. In New York, the incumbent James Wadsworth lost to Democrat Robert F. Wagner, 46.5 to 42.4 percent. Nationally the Republican majority in the Senate was reduced by seven seats, and in Pennsylvania the Senate refused to qualify the Republican winner because of charges of corruption and fraud in the election. Lincoln's argument that Republican troubles were State rather than national was his own reading of the campaign; the results show that the two states he singled out did turn against the party.
Conant's body was recovered, and a fish-net stake was blamed
The Star could report Conant only as believed killed. An Associated Press report dated November 1 said his body was recovered some seven hours after the accident and would be buried the next day at Arlington National Cemetery. A Berkeley dispatch quoted with it said the body was found in the waters of Winter Harbor, Va., after a search of twenty-four hours, so contemporary accounts of the recovery differed on timing. The AP also put the crash about 30 miles north of Norfolk, the same distance the Star gave. Richard E. Byrd later wrote that Conant had been flying low over waters filled with fish nets and that one of his pontoons was believed to have struck a net mooring stake.
Who flew for the United States at Hampton Roads in November 1926
The 1926 Schneider Trophy race was held at Hampton Roads on November 13, after bad weather delayed it by two days; the Star had given the date as November 11. Without Conant, the American entries were Navy Lieutenant William G. Tomlinson in a Curtiss F6C-3 Hawk, Navy Lieutenant George T. Cuddihy in a Curtiss R3C-4, and Marine 1st Lieutenant Christian F. Schilt in a Curtiss R3C-2. Italy's Mario de Bernardi won, finishing the seven laps in 52 minutes 56.22 seconds at an average of 246.496 miles per hour, and Schilt took second place at 231.364 miles per hour.
What the 1924 Bonus Act certificates were and how much veterans borrowed
The certificates in the Star's story came from the World War Adjusted Compensation Act of 1924, the Bonus Act, which Congress passed over President Coolidge's veto. Instead of cash, most veterans received an adjusted service certificate redeemable in full on their birthday in 1945, and holders could use the certificates as collateral for loans under certain restrictions. Veterans could begin borrowing against them in 1927, the year the Veterans' Bureau estimate covers. The bureau's $262,540,000 figure was less than a tenth of the $2,975,000,000 face value the paper cited. Borrowing grew far larger later: after the Great Depression began in 1929, demands for immediate payment escalated, and by June 30, 1932, more than 2.5 million veterans had borrowed $1.369 billion.
Original
REPUBLICANS NEED VICTORY OF BUTLER AND WADSWORTH TO KEEP SENATE RULE
Democratic gains in Senate and House loom as the probable outcome of Tuesday's elections. They will be due to an accumulation of G. O. P. troubles, but these troubles are State rather than national. Despite the prospective losses the Republicans will control the House in the seventieth Congress. This will be a real victory for the Republicans, for the entire membership of the House is to be elected, the only nation-wide contest this year. Republican control of the House perhaps will be by a narrow margin, but the control will be definite unless there should be a Democratic landslide, and there is nothing today to indicate one.
LIEUT. F. H. CONANT, CRACK NAVY FLYER, IS BELIEVED KILLED
Lieut. Frank H. Conant, jr., Navy Schneider Cup race flyer and one of the Navy's oustanding young pilots, is believed to have been killed yesterday afternoon when his plane crashed and sank in shallow water near Mathews, Va., about 30 miles north of Norfolk. Lieut. Conant, who has been practicing for the speed races to be held over Hampton Roads November 11, left the naval air station at Anacostia yesterday morning at 11: 45, bound for Hampton Roads. He was due to have arrived there about 1: 30.
VETERANS MAY GET $262,540,000 LOANS
Approximately 2, 883, 000 adjusted service certificates in the possession of World War veterans, with a face value of $ 2, 975, 000, 000, will be available in 1927 for deposit with banks as collateral security, on which the Veterans ' Bureau estimates $ 262, 540, - 000 may be borrowed.
Source: Holding institution