People, Feb. 23, 1931

"Names make news." Last week the following names made the following news:

George Arliss and wife, en route to further cinemacting in Hollywood, were two of 300 tourists marooned in Wellton, Ariz, (no population, mostly Mormon), when bursting dikes let a giant wall of water sweep a 250-yard-wide path through the town. One woman was drowned, 4,000 ft. of Southern Pacific rail torn away.

Joseph Potter Cotton, U. S. Under Secretary of State, who has long been ill at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore from an infection of the spinal cord, developed blood-poisoning in his right eye, which had to be removed.

Under Secretary of the Treasury Ogden L. Mills, riding in Washington's Rock Creek Park, was thrown from his horse, invalided with strained neck and shoulder muscles.

Pallid, stooped, Lawyer Howard E. White, 56, socialite that failed, successful speculator of over $500,000, walked wearily out of Sing Sing upon completion of a one-year term. Princeton graduate, he was voted "most scholarly inmate" by fellow prisoners.

For the fifth time in 22 years, Playwright-Composer Joseph Edgar Howard (The Time, the Place, and the Girl), onetime millionaire, now performing on the three-a-day with his most recent wife and child, filed a bankruptcy petition. This time he listed $25,472 liabilities and no assets. Vicissitudinarian Howard wrote the onetime hit, I Don't Want a Million Dollars.

Into the London bankruptcy court marched Henry William Montagu Paulet, 16th Marquess of Winchester, head of a family which came to England with William the Conqueror. Land-poor after the War, he had sought employment. Clarence Hatry (stock swindler whose failure precipitated the 1929 stockmarket crash), gave him a $75,000-a-year job as "director." Later Lord Winchester resigned because he "did not agree with [Hatry's] methods of business," but he was nevertheless held responsible for the sale of some fake stocks. To pay these debts, the Marquess speculated, was caught by 1930 bears. Last week he admitted having no income, assets of $5,125, debts of $2,000,000.

The will of Baron Melchett, "one of the richest men in England," surprised the public when it disclosed that his estate at his death was only $2,500,000. But it did not surprise financial wiseacres who were aware that most of his holdings were in stocks knocked down by the economic depression, particularly Imperial Chemical and International Nickel. The remaining estate will be divided among his family. The new Lord Melchett will inherit half the estate. Lady Erleigh, daughter-in-law of the Marquess of Reading, Great Britain's No. 1 Jew, is to receive Lord Melchett's property facing Lake Tiberias in Palestine.

Low-moaning Showgirl Helen ("Boop Boop-a-Doop") Kane announced: "It is really 'Poop Poop-a-Doop.' "