Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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< TM Baniwtll People-S^nliatU BaniwIU 8. C. TkarWay. May 20, 1W7 News Review of Current Events the World Over Dirigible Hindenburg Destroyed by Explosion, Two Score Persons Perishing—Economists and Spenders Continue Their Battle in Washington. By EDWARD W. PICKARD a We. tern New apt per Union. Z'') NE of the major tragedies of ^ aeronautical history occurred when the big German dirigible Hindenburg exploded and fell in a blazing mass at the landing field in Lakehurst, N. J. At this writing the exact number of dead is un known, but it probably is more than forty. American passengers who in the early reports were unaccounted for and presumably killed were: Burtis Dolan, Chicago; Mr. and Mrs. John Pannes, New York City; Moritz Feibusch, Lincoln, Neb.; Edward Douglas, New York; James Young and Birger Brinck, addresses not given. The airship, just arrived from Eu rope on its first transatlantic trip of the year, was about to land when there was an explosion toward the stern. Instantly flames broke out and ran the length of the ship. The tail sagged first, then the nose crashed down and the split sections telescoped as they fell. A few of the 44 passengers and some mem bers of the crew were able to jump to safety, but many of the others aboard hadn’t a chance for their lives. The navy men of the ground crew heroically plunged into the flaming wreckage and dragged out those victims who could be reached. The screams and cries of injured in agony were '‘terrible,” the hard ened sailors and marines who did the rescue work reported. The cloth ing was completely burned off one man. Another, blown through the envelope, was found moaning near the smashed airship. The survivors and rescue work ers told of the terrific heat which followed the explosion and the surge of fire. An explosion of the No. 2 gas cell toward the stern of the ship was named as the cause of the dis aster by State Aviation Commis sioner Gill Robb Wilson, who called the blast "strange.” Some authorities scouted the the ory that the explosion could have been caused by the ignition of hy drogen inside the gas cells. They said a mixture of 20 per cent free air with hydrogen would be neces sary to cause an explosion, indicat ing the first blast must have oc curred outside one of the gas cells. Aeronautical experts said the only way they could explain an explo sion inside the ship would be that free hydrogen had in some way es caped and was lying in the stem of the ship where it was accidentally ignited. Capi, Ernest Lehmann, who pilot ed the Hindenburg last year, was aboard it on this fatal trip, but its commander was Capt. William Pruss, Just promoted to the post. He is a veteran in working dirigi bles. H. L. Hopkins l_I OW to economize by cutting down government expendi tures, as the President has demand ed. and at the same time to continue with such huge ex penditures as the billion and a half dollars Mr. Roose velt asked for relief is a puzzle that con gress doesn't know how to solve. Harry Hopkins, Works Progress adminis trator and most ac complished spender of the administra tion, took a hand in the discussion, telling a house appro priation subcommittee that unem ployment is a permanent problem, that the government should be pre pared to support seven million job less persons at all times, and con sequently that congress must ap propriate the billion and a half for relief instead of cutting the sum down to a billion. Both Democrats and Republicans on the committee protested, and Chairman Woodrum of Virginia told Hopkins he would use every endeav or to have the appropriation re duced by at least a third. He chal lenged the figures and arguments submitted by Hopkins, contending that if the extravagance of the work relief principle and the padding of relief rolls with undeserving cases were eliminated and the states re quired to assume a greater share of the burden the cost to the federal government would not exceed one billion. Senator William H. King of Utah, Democrat, not only disagrees with Hopkins as to the amount needed for relief, but isn’t satisfied with the way the administrator has been conducting the work. He introduced resolutions in the senate calling for an investigation of the works prog ress administration and taking the future spending of relief money out of Hopkins' hands. King said his purpose was to abolish the WPA. In the house economy received a wallop on the head when the re forestation bill was passed, 171 to 153. This measure would appropriate $2,500,000 annually for fovemment aid to farmers who wish to turn part of their farms into woodlands. It was fought by a bloc led by Representative J. J. Cochran of Mis souri, Democrat. “It has k worth while objective, but it is one of those expensive measures which we can defer passing for a while until the budget is in balance,” declared Cochran. DEWILDERED members of con- ^ gress were still further dazed when they learned that the admin istration was moving to obtain ap proval of the Florida, ship canal project which will call for $197,- 000,000. This was revealed when Secretary of the Navy Swanson sent to the house rivers and harbors committee a letter urging that the canal scheme be approved. It was assumed he would not have done this without the approval of the President. Mr. Swanson argued that the canal would be of value during war for the shipment of materials. Testimony labeled “confidential” was also heard by the committee from Gen. Charles. P. Summerall, retired chief of staff of the army, and Rear Admiral Frederic B. Bas sett, retired. Both declared that the canal would serve as “a most im portant element of the national de fense in time of war.” Representative Better of New York, Democrat, called upon the -budget bureau to make known its stand on the Florida canal question. pREQUENT reports have been 1 heard in Washington that gov ernment employees, including some high officials, took advantage of their “inside” knowl edge that the attor ney general was go ing to file suit to dis solve the Aluminum Company of Ameri ca by selling the common stock short, thereby making im mense profits. Just the day before the suit was filed Pres- _ ident Roosevelt is- Rep. Hocrn his order against stock speculation by em ployees of the government, but it came too late. Attention of congress was called to the matter when Representative Edith Nourse Rogers of Massachu setts. Republican, demanded an in vestigation. “I hold no brief for the Aluminum Company of America.” Mrs. Rogers told the house. “I know nothing about the institution, but I am very anxious to know why the common stock of this huge enterprising cor poration should decline over 300 per cent more than similar industrial stocks in the period just prior to an nouncement of the government’s suit. 'To the 825,000 employees of the government the President's an nouncement was a most czaristic order,” Mrs. Rogers declared. “I believe the money paid to federal employees is Just as much their money to do with as they please as is the money paid to any employee working at any job in any place in the United States.” But government employees, she added, certainly ought not to have the advantage of knowledge with held from the public. 'T' W E L V E American women reached what some people con sider a social climax when they were received by King George and Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain at the first court of the new reign. These fa v o r e d matrons and debutantes had been carefully coached at the American embassy and were presented by Mrs. Robert W. Bingham, wife of the American ambassador. They were: Eleanora Bowdoin of Aiken, S. C.; Mrs. George Temple Bowdoin of New York City; Catherine M. Ma her of Lincoln, Neb.; Mrs. George W. Norton Jr., of Louisville; Mrs. John Perrin of Boston; Anne Schenck of New York City; Vesta Putnam Culberson of Chicago; Mrs. F. Vernon Foster of West Orange, N. J.; Lydia Fuller of Bos ton; Mrs. Dozier L. Gardner of Philadelphia;. Mrs. Byron Hilliard of Louisville, and Mrs. Julia Henry of Philadelphia. D RIME MINISTER STANLEY 1 BALDWIN, soon to retire, made an eloquent plea to the people of Great Britain not to mar the corona tion festivities and endanger the safety of democracy by engaging in industrial strife. He was moved to this by a threatened strike in the coal fields and by the danger that the trolley employees of London would go out in sympathy with the striking bus men. Said Mr. Baldwin: "I appeal to the handful of men on whom rests the responsibility of peace or war to give the best pres ent to the country that could be given at this moment, to do the one thing that would rejoice the hearts of all who love this country, and that is to rend and dissipate this dark cloud gathered over us and show the people of the world that this democracy at least can still prac tice the art of peace in world stnia.” Irvin S. Cobb hi 3hinkd about Humane Fox Hunting. S ANTA MONICA, CALIF.— In England it has been de cided that fox-hunting is hu mane. This opinion emanates from the hunters. The foxes have not been heard from on the subject. Maybe you don’t know it, but there’s a lot of fox-hunting among us, especially down south. Being but a lot of stubborn non conformists, south erners do not follow the historic rules. A party at large wear ing a red coat, white panties and high boots would be mistaken for a ref ugee from a circus band. And anybody blowing a horn as he galloped across hill and dale would be set down as an insane fish peddler; and if you shouted “View, halloo 1 Tantivy, tantivy 1 Yoicks, yoicks!” or words to that effect, they’d think you were a new kind of hog-caller. Down there they’ve chased the fox until he’s wise. The foxes have learned that the hounds can’t fol low trail on a paved highway and so quit the thicket for the concrete when the chase is on. A fox has been sitting in the middle of the big road listening to the bewildered pack. On second thought maybe Brer Fox isn’t so smaft, after all—not with automobile traffic what it is. ’Tis a hard choice—stay in the woods and get caught or take to the pike and get run over. • • • Courageous Republicans. W HO, besides the writer, can re call when the Democrats held their jubilation rallies the night be fore a presidential election and the Republicans the night after the re turns were in, when they had some thing to jubilate over? Now the sit uation is just the other way around. The Literary Digest poll was prac tically the only thing the Republi cans had to celebrate during the en tire fall season of 1936. Still, are must give that dimin ished but gallant band credit for courage. Here, in an off-year, they’re spiritedly planning against the next congressional campaign. • • • English Recruiting. T HE English are still having trouble inducing young fellows to Join the colors. First, the gov ernment tried to increase enlist ments by giving every recruit a gid dy new blue uniform, absolutely free of charge, and still the lads re fused. So now, as an appeal which, ’tis believed, no true Britisher can withstand, the military authorities announce that, hereafter, Tommy Atkins will have time off for after noon tea. This may be a new notion for peacetime, but, during the great war, the custom was maintained even up at the front. Many a time I’ve seen all ranks, from the briga diers on down, knocking off for tea. However, this didn't militate against his majesty’s forces, be cause, at the same hour, the Ger mans, over on their side of the line, were having coffee—or what the Germans mistake fdr coffee. And the French took advantage of the lull to catch up with their bookkeep ing on what the allies owed them for damage to property, ground rent, use of trenches, billeting space, wear and tear, etc., etc. Did it ever occur to our own gen eral staff that guaranteeing a daily crap-shooting interval might stimu late volunteering for the American army? " • • • The Job of Censorship. O NE reason why moving pictures are so clean is because some of the people who censor them have such dirty minds. To the very pure everything is so impure, is it not? That’s why some of us think the weight of popular opinion, rath er than the judgment of narrow brained ‘ official judges*, in various states, should decide what should and what should not be depicted. Anyhow, there are so many movies which, slightly amending the old ballad, are more to be pitied than censored. Sponsors of radio programs also lean over backward to be prudishly proper. But without let or hindrance the speaking stage, month by month, grows fouler and filthier. Suggestive lines once created a shock in the audience mind. The lines no longer suggest—they come right out and speak the nastiness. Skuce for the goose isn’t sauce for the gander, ’twould seem—or may be, after the reformers got through saucing radio and screen, there wasn’t any left over for the so- called legitimate stage. IRVIN S. COBB ©—WNU Service. Modem Language Coarse The study of French, English and Gorman has been introduced into El Azhar university, Cairo, the old est university in the world, liahed in 971 A. D. National Topics Interpreted by William Bruckart National Praia -Bulldlns Waahlnston, D. C. Washington.—Congress lately has passed and President Roosevelt has » o/*i» J ust Coal Will Guffey-Vinson coal Be Higher bill. It is, there fore, a law. And presently, as a result of the pas sage of this legislation, you and I and every other person who uses soft coal will be paying higher prices. The increase in price that will re sult, however, is not the only phase of the Guffey-Vinson law that seems to be open to criticism. There are many who believe that in passing the Guffey-Vinson bill (and it was done under the lash of administra tion leaders) our government has taken a step which is very close to, even actually a step toward, fas cism in i^merica. It is an action so near to the policies of fascism in Italy that close students of the Mus solini plan say they can hardly dis cern any distinction. Let us see what the Guffey-Vinson law does. It permits all soft coal producers in the United States to organize as in a monopoly under government control. True, the gov ernment is supposed under the law to fix the price of soft coal but actu ally the law is going to work out so that the producers and the mine un ions will establish the prices, sub ject to the approval of a govern ment commission. It will work out this way because the law has actually legalized the right of the producers to agree on the prices they will charge by virtue of the fact that those prices are based on the production costs in regional areas. It is provided in the law that the United States shall be divided into 23 regions or sections. The United States coal commission is empow ered to prescribe the prices, both minimum and maximum, to which coal from each of these areas or re gions may be sold. In that man ner. the law guarantees that the soft coal producers shall gain an accept able rate on their investments. Since labor costs enter directly into pro duction costs—indeed, they consti tute a major factor—it becomes plain that whatever wages labor de mands and obtains influences the level of the production costs and the result is a change in the selling price to the consuming public. Thus, when John L. Lewis, presi dent of the United Mine Workers of America and head of the C. I. O., determines that the mine workers are not being paid sufficiently high wages, he demands an increase from the mine owners. The mine owners or producers, now that the Guffey-Vinson monopoly law has passed, simply submit the new costs to the coal commission and it has no alternative but to approve an in crease In the selling price, fn conse quence. therefore, every bucketful of coal going into your stove and every shovelful that goes into the furnace of a home or the Are box of a factory carries an additional tax that has been legalized by law. So, we see the bulk of the coal in dustry pass from the field of free competition into the form of a mo nopoly under government control. If that can be described otherwise than as fascism, I am ignorant of what constitutes fascism. • • • There remains the question whether the law promoted by __ . Senator Guffey of Question Pennsylvania and Validity R e p r e sentative Vinson of Ken tucky is constitutional. It will be remembered that the Supreme court once threw out the original Guffey-Vinson law. It threw out that law because it held that the original legislation attempted to fix hours and wages for workers and that, in accordance with the unani mous decision of the court when it invalidated the NRA, was an illegal act by congress. The labor pro visions alone were discussed in the litigation at that time. But in the current Guffey-Vinson law, those ob jectionable factors have been omit ted. There is no way to discover whether the Supreme court will find the monopolistic practice authorized in the current legislation to be im proper except the hunch that such a declaration of policy by the con gress is not in conflict with the con stitution directly. Some members of the congress opposed the Guffey-Vinson bill be cause they believed it to be uncon stitutional. There were so few of those, however, that the house of representatives debated the bill only a day and a half and the sen ate debated it only a few hours. • • • Some sections of the soft eoal in dustry objected to the bill but they , were quickly re packed signed to the in fry Lewie tangible fact that it would become a law because of the power that John L. Lewis wielded over congressional leadership. The chief reason for the division of sentiment among the coal producers was that there is a wide range of costs among the pro ducers. There are many mines which have low production costs and they are able. « able under open competition, to sell at lower prices than many of their competitors. There is another sec tion of the mining industry where production costs are high and in consequence that section of the in dustry was barely able to scrape out a living return. Under the new law, the high cost mines will be assured of a reasonable return and that means that the low cost mines will gain exorbitant profit. On the face of things, it would seem that the low cost mines would be all for this law because of the heavy returns they can make. Such, however, is not the case. Thus mine owners pretty generally, would pre 1 fer taking their chances in open competition because they can make a larger profit through a heavy vol ume of sales at lower prices than under the new scheme whereby the high cost mines are bound to get a share of the business. Proponents of the law contend that there is an obligation to thV owners of the high cost mine or to the workers they employ. But what, I ask, is the user of coal going to do about it? What has he to say and how can he say it? Again, sponsors of the legislation explain that interests of the con suming public are to be protected through the office of a consumers’ council. That is, there is a govern ment official who is supposed to look after and protect your rights and mine against excessive prices. It may work out satisfactorily. I be lieve, however, that the odds are heavy against any of us receiving any benefits in this direction. • • • A few days after President Roose velt signed the Guffey-Vinson law, _ Attorney General Cummings came of Trust a forth with a letter urging congress to revise and tighten the anti-trust law. He said that monopoly was grow ing in the United States and that small businesses were being driven to the wall by the inroads of great masses of capital. There is evidence that capita) is massing. We need not look any fur ther for proof of this than the Guf fey-Vinson law itself which permits capital to work together—the only hindrance being that which is sub jected somewhat to the influence of organized labor under the Guffey- Vinson law. The result is exactly the same whether the massing of capital takes place under private arrangement or under government supervision such as is legsltsed in the Guffey Vinson law. Dinner Cloth of Crocheted Ldce ■ 1 / Dress up your table, when com pany’s expected, with this stun ning lace cloth. Crochet either identical squares, or companion squares—they’re easy fun, and either way makes a handsome de- Pattern 1410. sign as shown. Crochet them of string and they’ll measure 10 inches; in cotton, they are 6% inches. Join together, for tea or dinner cloth, spread or scarf. Pattern 1410 contains directions and charts for making the squares shown; illustrations of them and of all stitches used; material re quirements. Send 15 cents in stamps or coins (coins preferred) for this pattern to The Sewing Circle Needlecraft Dept., 82 Eighth Ave., New York, N. Y. CARDUI In this modern time something wonderfully worth while can be done for practically every woman who suffers from functional pains of menstruation. Certain cases ran be relieved by taking Cardul. Others may need a physician's treatment Cardul has two widely demon strated uses: (1) To ease the Im mediate pain and nervousness of the monthly period; and (2) to aid In building up the whole system by helping women to get more strength from their food. Simple Truth The empty vessel makes the greatest sound.—Shakespeare. Don’t Sleep When Sea Presses Heart If )r*« *• rwaWy Ot T RIO OV OAS •»* temat* •••1 SRT"^ W*m aeeea. twiaaA* i*e This situation impresses me as being a bit incongruous. It aeems to be a circumstance where the administration is trying to run in two directions st one and the seme time. It is further exaggerated by the fact that the President lately has spoken with emphasis about the rapid increase in retail prices Yet. besides raising wages for labor, the only tangible result that I can see under the Guffey-Vinson law is high er prices for all of ua to pay. Surely, monopoly has a tendency always to increase prices. It has been the chief subject of harrangue against monopoly and the Attorney General adverted to this fact in his recent appeal for legislation to pre vent monopoly. But why is it bad for monopoly, privately arranged, to force higher prices and good for monopoly, legalized by congress, to force higher prices? Swa «• sM aslasMm ■*•«»•* m tw* •soatiaMaS towsfta «*>•« w* i»*a*a vmIW ki Sitfn*. If fwr «•««•«.**(••« i* *f l*** MamS. >»* ««•»<•«** *f —»»e»r*w a**a*r«a ••*«•«*«••*•. Tw** r*"* •*- I* «•#*•( oas »»—— • M •»* Mf* •* ••*•***. V** **f *V •»♦•* Vm» *••* •<IM*. V•«' MW**. VMW MM- *««■•« •••••• •«* VM«r »*••<* i* SmA V*w • • <t tr*nc»y. VOUR *r*««**e MM*«**« prn*i avavcM is ro'SAnco TW*w—«<* *f *•«** I* A*t*rih* «** *w«fe. Wly S* rt* tfc« r •*•«•**• *f *< *««1*r«* ym *f ••• •*! •!*•*• Wt If SOTM M**jr a<v* >■■*!* • ntAc ••n* Aet*r*h*. 0*1 r*4 *f OAS A*to' it a Saa* ***» §»•*• • a nat **»H farm.Af. At *M Laa«<»f LAtOC VU II.to smau vn 60s No Stoch Gambling President Roosevelt has sent word around through all government de partments to the effect that no gov ernment worker may engage in stock market speculation. He has told the civil service commission that "among the matters to be con sidered” when passing upon an em ployee’s qualifications for retention or advancement, the commission may consider whether that em ployee has engaged in speculation in securities or commodities. At first blush, this did seem to be a sound order. I have heard much discussion of the matter, how ever, that gives rise to other thoughts about it. I think there can be nothing more reprehensible than for a public official or employee to use the confidential information which he obtains officially as the basis for stock speculation. On the other hand, is it not questionable whether—a- government should try to tell any of its employees that they cannot invest their surplus earnings in securities as a means of increasing their income? The President said that “bona fide in vestments” are all right but the question for which I have not been able to find an answer is "how can it be determined whether the pur chase of a few shares of stock is speculation or bona fide invest ment?” That brings u~> of necessity the difficulties of enforcement. It also brings to the forefront a real dan ger. That danger is not as remote as it seems I refer to the use of power in the hands of the Chief Ex ecutive to take away individual kb erty of Sulttr MA«« I McchAy ••4* AU«y» ’ au 3000 otuO vrosts Origin of Wickedness All wickedness comes of weak ness.—Rousseau. HELP KIDNEYS To Get Rid of Acid and Poisonous Waste Tour kidneys Help to keep you wall by constantly Altering waste matter from the blood. If your kidneys got functionally disordered and fail to remove eacres impurities, there may bo poisoning of the whoio system sad body-wide distress. Burning, scanty or too frequent uri nation may be a warning of some kidney or bladder disturbance. You msy suffer nagging backache, persistent headache, attacks of dizziness, getting up nights, swelling, pufftness under the tyed—feel weak, nervous; nil played out. In such cases It is bettor to rely on • medicine that has won country-wide acclaim than on something loss favor- ably known. Use Doom's Puls. 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