mm
mm
' m
mmm
THE SUN, NEWBERRY, S. C, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1938
News Review of Current Events
OIL LEADERS CONVICTED
Government Wins Anti-Trust Case . . . A. E. Morgan
Opposes President's Plan for More TVA Set-Ups
-
mm
i 1 m
>■
Huge Relief Expenditures
COCIAli securities board an-
^ nounced that government agen
cies spent $2,155,417,000 for public
relief in the first eleven months of
1937, a decline of $251,821,000 from
the corresponding period of 1936.
Payments to relief recipients in
November were $189,671,000, a drop
of $36,000,000 from November, 1936,
b.it $15,000,000 more than in Octo-
be.-, 1937.
The figures include payments to
recipients under all types of public
eisistance.
Morgan Hits Power Plan
A rthur e. Morgan, chairman
of the Tennessee Valley author
ity, in secret testimony before the
house rivers and harbors commit
tee, declared his op
position to the Presi
dent’s program for
the establishment on
other watersheds of
agencies patterned
after the TVA. Wa
ter power develop
ment, he asserted,
“has become an ob
session with some
men.”
In place of the . _ „
regional resources A ' ft,organ
agencies proposed by Mr. Roose
velt, Morgan recommended that in
terstate water control districts be
set up. “It would seem better,” said
he, “to deal with the ownership of
remaining water power resources in
separate legislation rather than to
encumber general water control leg
islation with the problem, possibly
with the result of defeating that
more inclusive purpose.
“The part which water power de
velopment will play in a unified riv
er control program is being greatly
exaggerated in the public mind.”
—+—
"No More Regulation Laws"
G EORGE H. DAVIS, president of
the Chamber of Commerce of
the United States, sent to the sen
ate unemployment committee a plea
. :•
for assurances that there will be
passed at this session of congress
no more laws for regulating busi
ness.
“The real cause of the present re
cession,” said Davis, “is lack of
confidence in the future, caused ac
cumulatively by the passage of laws
culminating in the undistributed
profits tax and the threat of the
wages and hours bill.”
There is no question in t' 3 minds
of business men, he said, that these
steps would restore confidence:
1. Repeal of the undivided profits
tax.
2. A sharp modification in the
amount of capital gains tax.
3. Liberalization of the security
exchange and commodity exchange
rules to provide more liquid mar
kets.
4. Assurance that, at this session
at least, there will be no additional
laws passed further regulating busi
ness, such as the wage-hour bill.
Business at White House
n'lFTY members of the business
*■ advisory council of the Depart
ment of Commerce, all of them
leaders of the nation’s business and
industry, went to the White House
for a long conference with the
President, and told him what they
believed to be responsible for the
current “recession.” Then they
promised to co-operate with him in
combating the slump on condition
that he made clear the course he
intends to follow.
The business men specified that
necessities to aid in the struggle
were limitation to wage-hour legis
lation, a truce with public utilities,
no general purge or holding com
panies and no further tinkering with
the currency.
To these suggestions Mr. Roose
velt gave his approval. Others were
heard by him without comment.
W. Averill, the council’s chair
man, issued a statement which em
braced the views of his colleagues
and which was read to Mr. Roose
velt.
The statement said re-employ
ment in private industry is the criti
cal problem now before the country.
“We wish to record with you our
faith in the efficacy of the prin
ciples of democracy, and yet our
grave concern over the possible far-
reaching effects of our present sit
uation,” the statement concluded.
“Tolerance and understanding must
be used by' all sections and interests
in the country.”
At the conclusion of the confer
ence the President announced that
he will seek the formulation of a
definite policy, designed to end the
depression and create a framework
for steady functioning of a nation’s
economic life through the appoint
ment of a group representative of
all the interests within the country.
The group would consist of as
many as twenty-five or as few as
five or six persons, who would be
charged with the task of sifting over
all proposals to aid business and un
snarling all conflicts existing among
the various interests with a view
toward perfecting an administrative
and legislative policy for business.
—+—
Flying Cadets Needed
M ORE aviation cadets are ur
gently wanted by the War de
partment. It announced that 232
unfilled vacancies exist for the
March flying cadet class at the air
corps training center, Randolph
field, Texas. Only 112 qualified can
didates thus far have been autho
rized out of the class’ total of 344.
The War department ordered all
regular officers in army posts to ob
tain blue dress uniforms before Oc
tober 1. Officers buy their own
outfits. The new uniforms cost
about $100
Senator Allen J. Ellender of Louisiana is here seen in action as hi
established a record for long talking in the senate, at least in modern
times. Engaged in the filibuster against the anti-lynching bill, this suc
cessor of Huey Long spoke for 27 hours and 45 minutes—and he confined
himself strictly to his views on the measure.
WTPitJc^
SUMMARIZES THE WORLD’S WEEK
• Western Newspaper Union.
"Guil+y" Is Oil Verdict
T TNCLE SAM won the long drawn
ou t trial of oil concerns and
their executives before Federal
Judge Stone in Madison, Wis. Six
teen oil companies
operating in 10 Mid
dle West states and
30 individuals were
found guilty of con
spiring to violate the
Sherman anti-trust
law. Prominent
among the men con
victed are Henry M.
Dawes of Pure Oil,
E. G. Seubert of
n m Standard Oil of Indi-
H. M. Dawes ana> Jacob France
of Mid-Continent Petroleum, I. A.
Shaughnessy of Globe Oil and Re
fining, Dan Moran of Continental
OU and Frank Phillips of Phillips
Petroleum.
Formal motion for a new trial was
filed but will not be ruled on for sev
eral weeks. Probably the case will
be taken to the Supreme court.
The defendants were accused of
entering into a secret agreement to
purchase quantities of oil from inde
pendent oil producers at artificially
high prices. These prices were then
quoted as the market price to job
bers, who had signed contracts with
the defendants to purchase the fuel
at the spot (or daily) market price.
The defense denied having artifi
cially influenced the market and
pleaded unsuccessfully that the
companies merely bought distress
gasoline to save the independent
refiners from failure and did so in
accordance with a policy approved
by President Roosevelt and Interior
Secretary Harold L. Ickes.
Huge Loss Laid to C.LO.
C'ROM the lips of Mayor J. K.
" Carson of Portland, Ore., the sen
ate’s joint committee on commerce
and labor learned that the activities
of the C. I. O. mid
Harry Bridges, its
leader in that re
gion, have cost the
people there more
than a billion dol
lars in the last three
years. This was due
to strikes and mari
time tieups.
“Bridges cannot
even vote in this
country,” scid May- Hllrrr Bridces
or Carson, yet he
exercises more power over the
maritime industry of the Pacific
coast than all the ship owners and
all the seamen combined.* -
Bridges, who came from Austra
lia, is not naturalized. He is a Com
munist and his deportation has been
requested by the inspectors of the
bureau of immigration and natural
ization, but issuance of a warrant
has been prevented by Secretary of
Labor Frances Perkins.
Mayor Carson said the shipping
and fruit industries of the West
Coast had suffered not only because
of maritime strikes but also be
cause of tie-ups caused by the long
shoremen’s unions, which are con
trolled by Bridges.
“The fruit industry is endangered
by the present attitude of maritime
labor,” Mayor Carson said. “The
continued disruption of deliveries
has resulted in a lack of confidence
in our ability to fulfill orders, caus
ing us to lose our European markets
to Argentina and South Africa.”
Every Tenth Worker Idle
STATISTICS released by Secretary
^ of Labor Perkins showed that
every tenth worker in the country is
without employment. Her findings
were disclosed as the senate unem
ployment and relief committee
called state and local relief admin
istrators to testify on increased de
mands for aid during the recession.
Approximately 1,162,000 persons
filed unemployment compensation
claims for benefits during the first
week of January when 21 states
and the District of Columbia began
this new plan, the secretary report
ed.
Chautemps in Again
F RANCE’S latest governmental
crisis ended with the return of
Camille Chautemps to the post of
premier. He and his Popular Front
cabinet had re
signed because of
financial and labor
troubles. Several old
timers tried in vain
to form a new gov
ernment and Chau
temps was again
called on for the
job. His new cabinet
was much like the
former one and it
was believed it
would not need the
support of the com
munists. Eighteen of the twenty
ministers were Radical-Socialists.
Chautemps was drawing up plans
for extensive social reforms.
Continuation of France’s vast
armament program seemed as
sured, what with Foreign Minister
Yvon Delbos and Defense Minister
Edouard Deladier retaining their
posts in the new cabinet.
More Woe for Jews
O UMANIA’S government, headed
by Premier Octavian Goga, is
so anti-Semitic that thousands of
Jews are seeking means of escape
from the country. Jewish commit
tees visited foreign consulates in
Bucharest to ask about the possibil
ity of emigration to Brazil, Ethio
pia, Madagascar, Mexico, or Aus
tralia. One of the latest moves of
the government is the issuance of
orders that make virtually impos
sible the intermarriage of Jews and
gentiles.
All alien Jews not engaged in
farming were given 30 days in
which to quit Ecuador, under a de
cree by the provisional military gov
ernment of Col. Alberto Eriquez,
—*—
Egypt's King Weds
C' AROUK, king of Egypt, was mar-
1 ried in Cairo to Miss Fraida Zul-
fikar as cannon boomed a salute.
The city was thronged with natives,
but they had no glimpse of the
bride, because the Moslem clergy
were in control and would not per
mit her even to be present at the
ceremony. They did, however, con
sent to a semi-public reception aft
erward in the Abdine palace at
which the seventeen-year-old queen
made an appearance.
—♦—
Stalin Checks the Purge
'Vf OT a single bit of legislative
work was accomplished by the
first session of the new parliament
in Soviet Russia. But there was a
lot of speech making, and external
enemies, especially Japan, were de
nounced and defied.
Dictator Josef Stalin, through the
central committee, ordered an end
to the mass expulsion of Communist
party members, which has usually
been followed by death, banishment
or loss of jobs.
Pravda, the Communist party
newspaper, indicated satisfaction
with the results of the purge, but
assailed “rotten leaders” who
played into the enemy's hands. “Un
der the mask of false vigilance
agents of Fascism sought to break
up and oust from the ranks our
bolshevist personnel," Pravda said.
Camille
Chautemps
Ttoycl
ADVENTURERS’ CLUB
HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES
OF PEOPLE LIKE VOUtSELFI
“When the Volts Broke Loose'
By FLOYD GIBBONS
Famous Headline Hunter
H ello everybody:
You ail know what happens when the lions get loose.
Here’s something that can be just as deadly as a full grown,
man-eating lion. It’s a doggone sight more common than lions,
too. You’ve got ’em in your own house, and they travel along
every street in the city you live in. It’s volts I’m talking about
—those little electrical sledgehammers that pack such a terrific
wallop.
The more of those volts you get together in one place, the more of
a wallop they pack. A hundred and ten of them—the number in your
lighting circuit at home—will knock a man flat on his back if he gets in
the way of them. But this story is about a lad who was fooling around
with eleven thousand of those ornery things—and that’s three or four
times as many as they run through the electric chair up at Sing Sing.
Richard Flushing of Jamaica, N. Y., is today’s Distinguished
Adventurer, and he wins the honor with the story of how it feels
to see the volts come hopping out of the cable eleven thousand
strong. Dick is an electrician, and he says he’s had plenty of
close calls of one sort or another, but this one with the galloping
lightning was the biggest thrill he ever had or ever expects to
have.
The date was February 7, 1933. At that time Dick was working for
the Long Island railroad. It takes a lot of current to run those elec
trified trains that run out of New York on the Long Island, and Dick’s
job was in the road’s key sub-station, where the voltage came through in
large quantities.
Thought It Was a Simple Job.
Dick came to work at four o’clock that February day. He and his
partner worked the four to midnight shift. They had only been on the
job for five minutes when they got an order over the telephone to put
Eleven Thousand Volts of Current.
into service an eleven thousand voit feeder that had been taken out
by the day men while some tests were being made.
Both of them started for the cellar of the sub-station where the dis
connecting switches are located. They took along their switch sticks,
but they didn’t bother about rubber gloves, for their job was a simple
matter of throwing a switch and letting the juice ride on through.
At least, that’s what they thought. But when they reached the cellar
they discovered that something was wrong. Ground wires—high tension
cables—were dangling in the air when they should have been hanging
on brackets. The two men laid aside their switch sticks and proceeded
to put those wires where they belonged. The wires were dead, for the
switches were still open, and Dick and his partner figured there’d be
no need for gloves or any such precautions.
Dick’s partner put one set of wires on the brackets and in
doing so he passed within a few inches of the open switch.
Dick thought he went a little TOO close to it for comfort. He
bung his own set of wires on the brackets and, in passing the
switch, took care to be farther away from it than usual. The cable
in Dick’s hand was at least eight inches from the switch when,
suddenly, things began to happen.
Eleven Thousand Volts Hit Them.
A back-feed was what did it. An extra load of power was suddenly
shunted back from another station. It hit that switch, but couldn’t
get through it because it was open. If there had been no other metal in
the neighborhood that current would have stayed where it was. But
there was that ground wire in Dick’s hand—eight inches from the switch.
That current—eleven thousand volts of it—streaked out toward that wire
with all the force of a thunderbolt.
Dick felt himself being picked up off his feet and hurled through the
air in one direction, while his partner, standing near by, was hurled
in the other. Each of them landed twenty feet away, on opposite sides
of the switch. Dick’s eyes had been seared by the terrific blast of the
power. He felt the floor come up and hit him, and then the next thing he
remembers is staggering to his feet and seeing his partner, forty feet
away, doing the same thing.
His face was scorched and burned from the terrific heat.
He put his hand to his head—and it was bald! Every bit of hair
was burned, not only from his head, but from his arms as well.
“That current,” he says, “had given me a heat shave, cleaner
than any barber could have done it, and all in a fraction of a
second.”
Dick walked back to the switch from which those deadly volts had
broken loose. His partner came over and joined him. The switch was
nothing but a mass of molten metal. Lumps of hot copper lay on the
floor. The big insulators were gone. There wasn’t so much as a
sign of them. They had been blown to dust.
Lucky to Escape With Their Lives.
Says Dick: “Even the fireproof barrier had whole bricks burned out
of it. Both my partner and I considered ourselves mighty lucky to get
out with our lives. I don’t believe either one of us had taken much of the
voltage through our bodies. I escaped because I was holding the ground
wire at a place that was well insulated. Had my hand been in any other
place, or had there been a slight leak in the wire, I would unquestionably
have gone up in a cloud of smoke.”
So, if you were to give Dick a choice between a bunch of loose lions
and ten or fifteen thousand loose volts, I have a hunch that he’d take the
lions every time. There may not be much left of you when a crowd of
lions get through looking you over, but there’d be a darned sight more
than the volts would leave.
Copyright.—WNU Service.
Strength of a Lion
Naturalists have seen a lion leap
over a nine-foot wall with a calf in
its mouth, honeybees extinguish the
flame of a candle with the breeze
created by their wings, and a secre
tary bird, four feet high, kill a ven
omous snake with one blow of its
foot.—Collier’s Weekly.
Indians Used China Brier
The China brier, which grows in
Florida, was used by the Seminole
Indians to prepare a dish called
coontie, or contee, which was made
from the starchy roots of the China
brier. The roots were chopped up
and pounded in a mortar. Then
this meal was mixed with water
and strained through a basket. The
sediment, when dry, was a red meal,
this meal was mixed with honey and
warm water. It jelled as it cooled
and was eaten with corn bread or
cakes.
The Dominican Republic
The Dominican republic has both
historic and scenic attractions. Ciu
dad Trujillo, formerly Santo Domin
go, is the oldest European settle
ment in this hemisphere,- having
been founded by Bartbiome, a
brother of Christopher Columbus, in
1496.
Snake Rattles Don’t Count
A persistent and popular notion
is that the age of a rattlesnake may
be told by counting the rings or but
tons of the rattle, each one of which
is supposed to represent a year in
his life. This is entirely erroneous,
says a writer in the Detroit News,
because they actually take on an
average of three each year. Vibra
tion at the tip is so pronounced that
very frequently a segment is brok
en off and lost. Some small speci
mens carry more buttons than some
twice their size.
Historic
Hoaxes
88
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
© Western Newspaper Union
Many Ladies' Man
I^UGENE FIELD took special de-
light in tormenting Edward S.
| Bok, because Bok, who was a bach
elor, was editor of the Ladies*
; Home Journal. That apparent in
consistency was amusing to the poet
and humorist.
One day he inserted in the news
columns of the Chicago Daily News
a notice of Bok’s engagement to
Miss Lavinia Pinkham, granddaugh
ter of Mrs. Lydia Pinkham of pat
ent medicine fame. The story went
out over the Associated Press and
was reprinted in papers throughout
the United States. A few days later
there was a story about Miss Pink-
ham’s departure for Paris to buy a
trousseau.
Soon letters and inquiries began
to pour in upon Bok, who pleaded
with Field to put a stop to such sto
ries. Field obliged him by printing
a denial of the Pinkham engage
ment but at the same time linked
Bok’s name with that of Mrs. Frank
Leslie. Again there was a flood of
letters to the unfortunate editor of
the Journal, also some caustic com
ment about the fickleness of his af
fections. Shortly afterwards Bok’s
{engagement to the daughter of Cy
rus H. K. Curtis, publisher of the
Journal, was officially announced
and Field was very contrite for the
joke he had played on the Philadel
phia editor.
But that didn’t stop him playing
jokes on Bok. His next was a fake
interview “at quarantine” with Bok
upon his return from a trip to Eu
rope. Since the interview dealt with
changes in women’s fashions in Par
is it was widely copied by fashion
papers all over the country and it
even fooled Bok’s office in Philadel
phia. The people there believed
that he was still in Europe and
there was much scurrying around
to prepare for his arrival before
they learned that it was another of
Eugene Field’s jokes.
• • •
John Wilkes Booth Mummy
I F, AT some county fair or in a
“museum,” you were told you
could see the “mummified body of
John Wilkes Booth” upon payment
of a certain fee, it is to be hoped
that you took advantage of the op
portunity. For if you had, you would
have gazed upon one of the greatest
hoaxes in American history.
Around the turn of the century a
house painter in Enid, Okla., known
as John St. Helen (his real name
was David E. George) convinced
Finis L. Bates, a Tennessee law
yer, that he was in reality John
Wilkes Booth. He asserted that he
had escaped from the burning barn
in Maryland a few days after the
assassination of Lincoln, and now,
struck with remorse over his deed,
had to confess to ease his soul.
Bates tried to interest the United
States government in his discov
ery, so he could collect the $100,000
reward offered for the slayer of Lin
coln—this, despite the fact that that
reward had long since been paid to
the captors of Booth. But the fed
eral authorities weren’t interested.
In 1903 St. Helen (or George) com
mitted suicide and the Tennessee
lawyer claimed the body. In 1908
Bates published a book, “Escspe
and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth,”
to bolster up his claim. For a time
the mummified body of his “Booth”
was exhibited in Memphis, Tenn.,
and in 1929 it was said to have been
sold “to parties in the West.” Where
it is now is unknown but wherever
it may be, this is true: it is NOT
the body of the man who killed
Abraham Lincoln!
• • •
Wedding Story
D URING the winter of 1929-30,
Robert Quillen, editor of the
Fountain Inn (S. C.) Tribune print
ed a story about a wedding in his
community which wasn’t compli
mentary to either the bride or
groom. As a climax, it insinuated
that this had been a “shot gun wed
ding” and then added: “This may
be the last issue of the Tribune but
my life ambition has been to write
up one wedding and tell the truth.
Now that is done, death can have
no sting.”
This story was widely reprinted
throughout the country, because
many an editor, no doubt, had often
wished to write just such • story
and was glad to know that one of
their number at last dared to do so.
Some of them suspected that it was
a fictitious yarn, but others believed
it was genuine and criticized Quil
len for “exposing and treating peo
ple so cruelly.”
It was a hoax, all right, but it is
still often reprinted as a real wed
ding story, perhaps the most famous
one ever written.
Badminton
The name badminton was “poo-
na” when first played in India, no
one knows how long ago. English
soldiers on leave carried it home
and it was introduced by the Duke
of Beaufort at his home. Badmin
ton. Hence the name. Like tennis,
it is played with rackets, but on a
smaller court. Instead of a ball, a
shuttlecock is used. This is shaped
like an orange cut in half, has feath
ers imbedded in the flat side. The
shuttlecock must be hit on the round
side and while in the air.
Even Beginner
Can Make These
Here’s a chance to please every*
body — the delighted youngster
who gets his set and yourself who
makes it! You’ll want to crochet
a set for all eligible young misses,
the pieces work up so well. Double
crochet and popcorns—the latter
in white or a contrasting color—
Pattern 5953
are the “making” of it. Use 4-fold
Germantown—it works up Just
right and makes a set as warm
as toast.
In pattern 5953 you will find in
structions for making the set
shown; illustrations of it and of all
stitches used; material require
ments; color suggestions.
To obtain this pattern, send M
cents in stamps or coins (coins
preferred) to The Sewing Circle.
Household Arts Dept., 259 W.
Fourteenth St., New York, N. Y.
Keep your body free of accumulated
waste, take Dr. Pierce’s Pleasant Pel
lets. 60 Pellets 30 cents.—Adv.
Fruit of Patience
Patience is bitter, but its fruit
sweet.—Rousseau.
"only 0 ! 3 a WIFE?
nil*—s wKa who to lonbio lor tkrm i
tbo nooth—bat o boU-cot the foarth.
No aottor hew yoar bock oohos—oo Bottw
how loudly rour nemo acnoa—Coat tabs tt
oat oa your husband.
For three generations one wo Ban ban told
another bow to r- "amfflna through" with
Lydia K. Pinkham'e Vegetable Compound. It
S a Nature tone up the system, thus leeeen-
the discomforts from the functional 4is-
r» i
bottle of
which i.
m a note NOW to gat a
Finkham’s today WITHOUT FAIL
druggist—more than a million
written in letters reporting bene]
Whynot try LYDIA K. PI
VEGETABLE COMBO
Our Vocation
The vocation of every man and
woman is to serve other people.—
Count Tolstoi.
For Chest Colds
Dkrtreasing cold in chest or throat,
never safe to neglect, generally esses
up when soothing, wanning Mas-
terole is applied.
Better than a mustard plaster,
Musterole gets action because it’s
NOT just a salve. It’s a * counter-
Irritant"—stimulating, penetrating,
and helpful in drawing out local con
gestion and pain.
Used by millions for 80 years.
Recommended by many doctors and
nurses. All druggists’. In three
strengths: Regular Strength, Chil
dren’s (mild), and Extra Strong. Ap
proved by Good Housekeeping.
Anxiety Useless
Anxiety never yet successfully
bridged over any chasm.—Ruffini.
Real Riches
And his best riches, ignorance
of wealth.—Goldsmith.
BLACKMAN
A-Mk.
• Blackman’s Stock Powder
• Blackman's Caw Tonic
• Blackman’s Hcg Powder
• I
• I
Highest Qsmfffy—lowot Price
Satisfaction Guaranteed or
your money back
BUY FROM YOLR DEALER
BLACKMAN STOCK MEDKME CO.
SMALL SIZE
60c
LARGE SOS
* .20