Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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m ■■ m- * • * f m ^The Barnwell People-SentlneU Barnwell. S. C- Thursday, April 30, 1936 i BRISBANE THIS WEEK 18 and 65 No Perfect Crime A Heavenly 400 Fighting Over Rivera President Roosevelt, lo another “opening speech of the 193Q campaign,” addressing 20,000 Young Democrats of llaltimore and the nation on the radio, suggested that youth should begin work at eight een and '‘old age" Wop work at sixty- five. ^ Youth should have Its first 18 years, at least, for exercise, study, happiness. Sixty- flve might be a good age to stop Arthar Brl.b.ae rolltloe work for wages, but no man would want to atop real work until death, except that •lx months to look around this side of the grave might be acceptable. Goethe finished the second part of “Faust" when he was past seventy- two; and one of the ablest French writers, starting a new prose style, wrote nothing until at eighty-six he wrote the Life of St. Louis at the re- tpiest of the king’s widow, Within half a century 25 years have been add ed to the average lives of old men; nobody would want those years wasted. In the murder of an unfortunate young woman. New York detectives think .they see, at last, "the perfect crime," one In which the perpetrator cannot be Identified. Fortunately, there is no perfect crime, except In the Imagination of the criminal or the detective story writer, because criminals are dull, can not keep their mouths shut, are vain, boa&t and the electric chair gets them. Also, they Jump when a hand is laid on the^sboulder; that helps detectives, and criminals are betrayed by fellow criminals. Bishop Stewart, Kplwopallan, ot Chicago, thinks immortality may be limited. “Only those who have a defi nite relationship to God through the spiritual life may be eligible for in* mortality, and other souls cease to ex 1st upon death." This important suggestion of a ce lestial “four hundred" will appeal to many that might not care to meet, in heaven, the cave man with low fore head. protruding jaw. the busbman with a vocabulary of 150 words, or all the repentant thieves, murderers and trust magnates. It Is conceivable that selection of the celestial few might be postponed a few million years, until real civili zation shall have begun. This is the poison gas age. Rivers have played an Important part In the world's history and In wars. The Tigris and Euphrates, creating fertile Mesopotamia, and the ancient Nile, with Its rich valley, regularly coated with Nile mud. made the ttrsj civilizations possible. Men fought through the ages about those two rivers, and today rivers still cause war. In Europe the Rhine bor der may cause a repetition of the big war. In Africa, the Blue Nile, fed by Ethiopia's Lake Tana, breeds bitter hatred bet ween England and Italy. Charles Lamb tells of a Chinese gen tleman whose house burned and of a pig so marvelously roasted that there after pigs were locked In houses, the houses burned for the sake of tl»e roast J>1*- That Is recalled by » lady under • rrest In Pensacola, Fla. Sheriff Gun dy charges she tried twice to wreck a passenger train to kill her husband, the engineer It is alleged that the plot failed because the wrong spikes were pulled from the rails. Shorifi Gandy thinks the lady wanted to col lect $3,000 In life insurance. An African savage who gave all his Ivory tusks for a gun was found later In the bush, on his knees, praying to the gun not to shoot him lie did not know how to use It. This country Is equnllv Ignorant about using youth and its enthusiasm. News Review of Current Events the World Over Illinois Primary Results Interesting and Significant—New Tax Bill Drafted—President Roosevelt Favors Flood Control Projects. By EDWARD W. PICKARD G Wentarn Newspaper Union. A Frenchman says truly "American digestion would improve if Americans made more and bettei -sauces." Voltaire, another I reucbman. said the same thing of England long ago. He found that England bad m my re ligions and only one sauce, whereas France had many sauces and only one religion, and he preferred France. The new Zep|H*lin, in spite of <>n glnes out of order on her return from Brazil to Germany, kept on her \\n.\ a! 50 miles an hour, lighting winds over the Mediterranean That Is one advantage of n dlflglble—she stays up. The heavler-tban air plane wjtiVjjei) glue trouble comes down Russia has a genuine ‘youth move ment," with one-third of all workers under twenty-three year* of age. 4;j per eent of them girls. Russia has 173.008,tVlO population; nearly half of it born since the Bolshevist revolution. Populations and history change rap idly. Extreme youth might control the whole of Russia but for the fact that It Is already controlled by Stalin of middle age. • Bins FVatuie* Syndicate. Joe. WNU Sarvlt-a. TLUNOT8’ primary held the center 1 ®f political Interest for It not only provided lively state battles but also was of considerable moment nationally. Col. Frank Knox, pub- < Usher ^f the Chicago Dally News, and Sen ator Borah of Idaho, I who was horn In Illi nois, were the contest ants for the Repub lican Presidential pref erential vote, dnd the former came out with 31 delegates against 26 for Borah. The sen ator’s friends were Frank Knox elated because, with out organization, he carried a large part of the state outalde of Chicago. This preferential vote Is purely ad visory and neither man has a slate of delegates to the national convention. The result makes It certain that Knox will make a respectable showing on the first roll call. It also adds to Borah’s prestige and aids him In the coming Ohio primary. Gov. Henry Horner, seeking renom- Ination, was victorious In the bitter fight with the regular Democratic or ganization and the Kelly-Nash ma chine In Chicago, which had thrown him overboard and supported Bunde- sen for governor. The Democrats al most unanimously voted for the re- nomination of Senator James Hamil ton Lewis, and the Republicyns named Former Senator Otis Glenn ^o oppose him in November. Republican leaders In Washington were encouraged to believe the in ternecine warfare In the Democratic ranks would help the Republicans to carry the state. The Democratic sages, on the other hand, liked the showing of strength nyule by Borah, feeling his liberal following might switch to Roosevelt In November If the G. O. P. puts up a conservative candidate. In Nebraska’s primary only Borah’s name was printed on the Republi can preferential ballot but about one- sixth of the voters wrote In the name of Gov. Alf Landon of Kansas. For the Democratic preference Pres ident Roosevelt was unopposed iu both Illinois and Nebraska. Mr. Roosevelt said the Passama- quoddy project In Maine and Florida ship canal were eliminated because of the recent refusal of congress to make appropriations for continuance of the work. He said he did not contemplate doling out relief funds for the proj ects and that there would be no funda for the projects unless congress re versed Its refusal On the same day the United States Chamber of Commerce issued a warn ing against encroachment of thq fed eral government on flood control proj ects which are the primary responsibil ity of the states. The committee also objected to the New Deal policy of expending large sums for dams to develop hydro-elec tric power and declared that the ad ministration should follow a well-bal anced program having as Its foremost purpose the control of floods D EFEATING opposition by Presi dent Roosevelt’s supporters, the state Democratic executive committee of Georgia ordered a Presidential pref- eiential primary on June 3 and fixed the entrance fee foc^ach candidate at $10,000. "The New Deal has plenty of money to pay for a primary In Georgia and I am in favor of letting them do It," said Will 'Marin, close personal and political friend of Gov. Eugene Tal- madge, administration critic. The governor was asked directly whether he would oppose President Roosevelt In the primary. "I don’t know," he answered. "I am pretty busy with state affairs right now. It depends on how things shape up in the state." DY A vote of 153 to 137 the house rejected a resolution to permit Senator Black's lobby committee to pay $10,000 to special counsel In In junction litigation started by William Randolph Henrst to protect his tele gram^ from the probers. This action, which followed a hitter debate, doesn’t halt the y^ork of the committee, which has Its own funds, hut It prevents the payment of more than $3,000 a year, in accordance with general law, t« Crnmpton Harris of Birmingham. Ala., former law partner of Chairman Black The lobby committee In a recent ses sion brought out the fact that some wealthy men who are backers of the American Liberty league also have con tributed to the Southern Committee to Uphold the Constitution, though what this has to do with lobbying was not quite clear. The Southern committee, which Is headed by John Henry Kirby of Houston, Texas, Is opposed to some of the New Deal doings. J. M. Beck H AVING discarded the President's suggestion of temporary process- tug taxes, Chairman Sam B. Hill’s house subcommittee completed its draft of the new tax bill. It calls for a new type of corporation levy, ranging from 1 per cent to 29.7 per cent for con»oratlons with net Income up to $10,000, and frotu 4 to 42V* per cent for cor poruilons with net In come over $10,000, de pending on the amount of earnings that are not distributed Pref erential tax treatment is given to banks and insurance companies, to debt ridden companies, to companies In receivership, and a new system of tax ing non resident aliens is created Railroads will continue to have the right to file consolidated returns but the committee refused to accept the petition of R. V Fletcher, general counsel lor tire Association of Ameri can Railroads, that railroads as a segregated group of Industry, lie given a variety of special deductions in com puting taxable net Income S UDDEN death, due to a coronary thrombosis, came to James M. Beck at his residence in Washington, and all Informed Americans mourn the demise of this public spirited citizen and eminent authority on constitu tional law. Though he was a sturdy and con scientious opponent of the present national administration, lead Ing officials In Wash Ington united with the Republicans In declar ing that in Ida death the nation bad sus tained a great loss. Mr. Beck was not only one of the foremost lawyers of America but for more than three decades was a public man of distinction, holding numerous offices at Washington, and an Influen tial place in the counsels of the Re publican party. Born In Philadelphia In 1861. he first held office as United States attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, as a Democrat He left that party on the silver Issue and was made an assistant attorney gen eral by President McKinley. In 1921 Mr. Harding appointed him solicitor general, an office which be filled with distinction. He then served three terms In congress, where be was one of the best debaters, and retired in 1934. Richard Yates, former governor of Illinois and former congressman, died In Springfield at the age of seventy five years. The son of the Civil war gov ernor of the state, Mr. Yates was for many years a picturesque figure In Illi nois politics and an influential mem ber of the Republican party. B EFORE tbe senate subcommittee on labor appeared spokesmen for or ganized labor with charges that there la a great movement of machine guns, tear gat and police clubs into Indus trial centers for use in contending with strikes and attendant disorders. Tbe first witness to tell the story of the arming of Industrial plants for con flicts with labor was J. P. Harris, a steel worker from Portsmouth, Ohio. Id support of his assertion came a mass of data compiled by tbe senate munitions investigating committee and presented at tbe bearing by Heber Blankenhorn, an employee of the na tional labor relations board. At one point Harris testified that be knew the Wheeling Steel corporation at Portsmouth was “arming,” a state ment that brought from corporation officials at Portsmouth an assertion that' company police were armed to protect property against “thieves and firebugs, and they will continue to be armed." At another point In the hearing there was testimony that general ‘Tumors’* were being circulated that the Ford Motor company was “shot through" with spies, hired to report on the ac tivities of labor. Vice Pres. Garner A BOUT six hundred men and'wom en, members of the recently or ganized Unemployed Workers’ Alliance, staged a big parade of "hunger marctv ers" In Washington, shouting demands, singing and waving banners. They sought to present a petition to President Roose velt In the White House but the best they could do was to obtain an audience from Secretary Mar vin McIntyre" for a delegation headed “'fciy David Lasser, presi dent of the alliance. Lasser declared after spending 30 minutes with the President’s secretary: “Mr. McIntyre gave us a lot of nice words, but nothing substantial. If nothing is done to give these people Jobs there will be a hunger march on Washington next summer In which hundreds of thousands will take part We are tired of Mr. Roosevelt’s prom issory notes." Lasser and his delegation also called on Vice President Garner at the Capi tol and got even less satisfaction from him. “The Jobless feel that we have been sold out by the Democratic party," Lasser declared. “I resent that," snapped the Vice President, reddening. “I have been In politics for 40 years and I don’t think anybody has ever been sold out by the party." JlyfUSSOLINl’S artql.es in Ethiopia occupied Dessye. an Important military base, and captured vast stores of war materials. Marshal Badoglio- at once starlet) an expeditionary forct along the excellent road from there F OLLOWING a conference with MaJ. Gen. Johnson Hagood, who was re moved from command of the Eighth corps area for criticizing WPA meth ods, President Roosevelt took the sol dier back into Jpis good graces and ap pointed him to the command of the Sixth corps area with headquarters in Chicago. He will replace MaJ. Gen. Frank McCoy and the assignment takes effect May 2. General McCoy Is trans ferred to the Second corps area at New York to succeed MaJ. Gen. Dennis E. Nolan, who la retiring. W ITH appropriate ceremony the cornerstone-of- the new Interior department iMilldlng iu Washington was laid, the President handling the trowel, riie structure, the second laig est government office building there. Is to he completed in l►eceinher. It covers five and one-half acres and will pro vide 7UO.000 square feet of usahle floor space. It will cost $12.<NNMNNl. about $5.(NNi,tMN! less than the capital's larg est. ilie Commerce department building The trowel used by Mr. !t<»osevelt was the vine employed h> George Wash ington-in laying the cornerstone of the Cap'ool in 1793 IN Ills press conference President l Roosevelt said government depart- utenta are concentrating on tliNtd con trol problems and that If congress would pass a hill appropriating a bil lion dollars for that pur|M«e be would sign It. provided'the measure put wen to work Imtnedlale'y. to Addis Ababa, and It was tielieved the capital city would he captured with in a few days. Stiffened by military successes it Africa, the Italian delegation went to Geneva for peace conversations, pre pared to demand a peace on Italy's t. rms. Including virtual Italian con trol of the entire empire of Haile Se lassie. Settlement of tbe matter with in the framework of the League of Nations seemed remote if not impos sible. P LUTARCO ELIAS CALLES, former president of Mexico and for long tbe most powerful figure In that republic, was forcibly exiled to tbe United States, together with three other once prominent citizens, by tbe Mexicsn government, which declared their pres ence there was dangerous to tbe wel fare of the country. Summarily ousted wltb Calles, wbo for 11 years ruled Mexico with an Iron hand, were Luis Morones, former min ister of labor and leader of tbe region al confederation of workers and peas ants; Luis de Leon, former minister of the Interior and agriculture; and Ra fael Melchor Ortega, former governor of Guanajuato. The four men were, by order of Pres ident Cardenas, placed aboard a plane at Mexico City and taken acroea tbe border to Brownsville. Texas. From there they took another plane to Cali fornia. Leftists charged that Calles and hla associates were fomenting agitation against the Cardenas administration, 'ibis Calles denied, adding: “a state of anarchy exists in Mexico and com- "tmrnism Is spreading wltb government help." ^ I/.A,NS for mutual defense In case * Germany attacks France or Bel giutn were studied by the general staffs of Great Britain. France and Belgium at a meeting in London. High officers of the armies, navies and air forces were present, with experts to assist them. It was underspmd that a major fea ture of the plan would he to reply to any German attack with a terrific aerial bomhardn^nt by tnasaed fleets ou German ImluOTlal centers, railways, army headquarters, airdromes and sea ports It was clear that the relatively amall British professional army could not give a great deal of help against Genoar aggression, and that Britain's effective aid would be rendered by her navy, which could easily seise control of tbe North aea and the chaanel, and her steadily increasing air forces. S OMETHING new In Spanish history took place in Madrid. Tbe parlia ment, by a vote of 238 to 5, ousted Nlceto Alcala Zamora from the office of president of the republic. This ac tion, accomplished by a coalition of Socialists, Communists, fceft Republi cans and ten minor groups, was taken on a Socialist motion that tbe presi dent had acted Illegally In dissolving the last parliament before the elections and that therefore be should be ex pelled from office. Back of this mo tion. however lay radical sentiment that Zamora, In using hla power ac cording to personal whim, has ham pered the progress of the “republican revolution." Diego Martinez Barrio, speaker of parliament, was made temporary pres ident to serve until elections are held. I N THEIR formal acceptances of tbe invitations of tbe-^Jolted States gov ernment to tbe forthcoming inter-Amer- lean peace conference, three of tbe Latin American nations have proposed that a league of American nations l>e formed to preserve peace In tbe west ern hemisphere. Tbe suggestion comes from Presidents Alfonso Lopes of Co lombia, Jorge Ublco of Guatemala and Rafael Trujillo of tbe Dominican Be- eubllc. e 0 National Topic* Interpreted by William Bmckart National Preaa Building r VaaMnaton, P- C. Washington.—It has been several months since the administration farm relief program, tbe Memory agricultural adjuet- Lingert On was < ^®‘ •' dared dead, but like the words of the song, “the memory Ungers on." And it is quite apparent that mistakes as well as memories of the AAA will continue through the heat of the coming Presidential cam-' palgn and probably considerably long- er for it is only necessary to recall that the stepbrother of the AAA, the federal farm board of the Hoover ad ministration, still Is the butt of much criticism and many pointed para- graphs. ♦ One of the main reasons why the memories linger on, where those mem ories Involve AAA, Is Michigan's Re publican Senator Arthur H. Vanden- berg. Senator Vandenberg never did get enthusiastic about the merits of AAA as they were expounded by Sec retary Wallace, Administrator Cheater Davis and other New Deal spokesmen and when the Supreme court of the United States threw out the process ing taxes upon which the law was pred icated, Senator Vandenberg was in a delightful spot from a political stand point. He has not found It necessary to say “I told you so" and has had, I Imagine, a great deal of personal fun In simply hinting to or reminding oth ers of his previous stand. But It was not until the Michigan senator began pulling figures out of h1s senatorial hat. showing how bene fit payments from the AAA had gone to great and wealthy corporations In sums ns high as a million dollars or more, that he held a key to the New Deal skeleton closet. Th£y know now, however, exactly what he meant when he announced in the senate several weeks ago that no such plan as the AAA could be administered without vast sums being distributed In what he termed unwarranted payments— nnwarranted from the standpoint of help for the smaller farmers. Secretary Wallace stalled off Sen ator V’nndenherg's demand In the sen ate for* a complete list of beneficiaries who received checks from AAA In ex cess of one thousand dollars for quite a while hut there were too many sen ators who believed as Senator.Vanden- berg did. that the truth ought to be known. Of course, ns the procedure usually goes In Washington, many things are done without actual force being used. It was tints In the case of the AAA payments. Democratic senators who foresaw their Inability to prevent a senate vote demanding a list of AAA payments persuaded Mr. Wallace to make public the list voluntarily and It was done Just In advance of senate action. So. we now have for the first time, at least, an In dication of the grotesque results of the agrrcultural adjustment adminis tration program that was hailed from the Atlantic to the Pacific as an Ideal plan. • • • The dynamite In the situation lies In the fact that there were dozens. even hundreds, of Dynamite corporations which in It received AAA checks among the big boun ties paid to Induce curtailment of basic foreign crops. This would not be so bad except for the fact that the bril liant planners of the AAA continuous ly stressed Us value to the small, debt ridden farmers. Throughout the time the law was under consideration and through the two years of Us opera tion. never did Mr. Wallace or Mr. Davis'fall to point out In their numer ous speeches how great sums of money, collected In processing taxe$. were be ing distributed to thousands of fann ers and that these payments were In time going to put agriculture on Us collective feet. Now. however, the truth of their statements has been proved but when the whole truth had been exposed on the floor of the senate. It was found to go far beyond‘"the small, debt rid den farmers. The whole truth disclosed, in fact, that several million dollars had been paid even to corporations chartered by the British government and with home offices In England. Wall Street, rhat home of “entrenched greed.” re ceived Us share and Us share was sub stantial. On top of all of this there lately has come a disclosure that a great wli*-ai farmer In Montana re ceived something like $50,000 for agree ing not to plant wheat on land which he had rented from the Indians through the Federal Department of the Inte rior for the specific purpose of raising wheat. The list of huge benefit payments Is much too large to Include In this letter but the fact remains that U showed how even the best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray, even when those men are brilliant brain trusters who themselves claim to know all there Is available for human under standing. Beyond that, the Vanden berg disclosures have set In motion dlacusslnn that will come pretty close to continuing Into every farmhouse In the land. Unless 1 miss my guess, and I am no Doctor Tugwell. thousands of fanners are going to bitterly resent the (act that their payments were small, whereas gigantic corporations received sums ranging from ten to a thousand times as large. • * • In behalf of the AAA officials. It must be said that there will be as. In deed, there has been Unfair already, considerable Criticism unfair criticism. The criticism to which I refer Is ot this type: that they should have discovered In advance of the pay ments that funds were going to these corporations. Assuming that they could have discovered that fact in advance, there was no alternative for them ex cept to pay the checks authorized by law. Congress made the law, or rather congress passed It under the lash of the administration, but It was on the statute books and administrative offi cials are not supposed to disregard such provisions. If there Is to be criticism it should be'directed at the Initial framing of the statute that brought about the con dition. The results that have attracted so much attention since Senator Van- denberg’s exposure constitute one of the curious coincidences and queer quirks of planned economy. And a further word about the criti cism. A great many people are likely to forget that while their check was In three figures and some corporation received one In six figures, the condi tion results wholly from the fact that one owned more land than the other You may properly say this should have been foreseen and I believe you will be making a correct statement. But surely this Is a fact: the AAA officials cannot he blamed for sending out the checks when the law said they should do it regardless of the name or nature of the beneficiary. The fault lies sole ly and completely with those who, from their professional desks, con ceived the whole scheme and gained President Roosevelt’s approval for it. • • • Development of the vulnerable spots in the AAA crop curtailment program probably will prove Vulnerable beneficial to the Spots country as a whole eventually. For one thing, these disclosures have forever choked off proprsals of that kind. They may result as well In strength ening the new proposition for crop con- trop through' the medium of soli con servation. In other words, since the bulk of the congress thinks through legislation only In the terms of admin istration arguments, they will likely be less prone to enact legislation without knowing what results will be obtained. It seems to me that the new farm-aid plan likely will be stronger and prob ably more workable and certainly less extravagant than was the AAA because the AAA weaknesses have been ex posed. These exposures ought to have an effect also among thinking farmers who hereafter are unlikely to accept dogmatic statements and rainbow pic tures painted for them by political demagogues and professional farm leaders without examining the prac ticability of the scheme. Personally. I am convinced that a great many farmers were led to believe that AAA was their only salvation and they gained this conviction solely because the other s’de never was told to them. While we are talking about mistakes and about tbe results obtained by bril liant theorists. I hear Fletcher's more and more dis train Trust <3>ft* |o n of the latest move by Chairman Henry P. Fletcher and his Republican national committee. Mr. Fletcher has hired ten university professors to head up what he calls the committee’s re search staff and In announcing their -appointment he stressed a declaration that “the division Is not a brain trust." Rut "brain trust" It Is going to he called notwithstanding Mr. Fletcher's assertion that they were practical men and women of experience. They are going to he a brain trust In exactly the same sense that Mr Roosevelt's “brain trust" has been denominated. And how else could It he? There actually seems to he little choice between the type of men Mr Fletcher has chosen and the TugwHIa. Hopkinses and other doctors and professors who have constantly had the ear of the President, These men will have Mr. Fletcher’s ear and undoubtedly will pour into It their own theories of government and their own Ideas of approach to the pyddem that confronts the Republican national com mittee. namely, the defeat of Mr. Roosevelt. - . I have observed political, battles for a good many years and I have observed the management of governmental re sponsibilities through a parallel period. The conclusion Is Inescapable, as far as I am concerned, that practical men always have done a better Job, alwaj's have been better administrators and better planners, than the men and women who have spent their live* lec turing from a university classroom roa trum. I once criticized Professor Tug well by saying that his qualification for the post of under-secretary of agrtcill tore consisted of tending flowers In s window box and I am wondering now whether Mr. Fletcher’a new brain trust la any better equipped for Ita job How ever, we mum not forfcet, the conn try now has one brain trust trying ta find out what la wrong wltb anothei brain trust. • Wwaara H*w—a»»r UmUw.