Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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r* * V I ,.. & k f msj . " M-y m% * % * « v Jm Robinson Rallies the Democratic National Convention. -iM^W.PicUA V ^ SUMMARIZES THE WORLE SUMMARIZES THE WORLD'S WEEK • Vwlmi Mtvaow Uaioa. Falls 'Face to Battle' W HEN Sen. Joseph T. Robinson of Arkansas dropped dead of a heart attack in his apartment across from the United States capi- tol, the President’s plan for securing new appointments to the Supreme court bench, even in its amended form, died with him. That is the belief of close observers in Washington. For “Joe” Robinson was the President’s tow er of strength in the legislative branch of the government Ho had served the Democratic party well in the senate since 1113, and as the majority leader in the upper house since 1932. Joe Robinson’s Job it was to keep a smooth balance between the con servative democrats, largely of the South, and the more radical mem bers of the party from the North, and West so that the objectives of the New Deal could be turned out of the legislative milL Robinson never fought harder than he did in his last battle. As he worked hard and long in an attempt to get the “compromise’' court plan passed, often raising his voice and exerting himself mightily in senate arguments, it was ap parent to his colleagues that he was not well. Sen. Royal S. Cope land, the only phyaician in the sen ate, had several times asked him to calm himself lest he hasten his own death. While the senate was adjourned for Robinson’s funeral, administra tion leaders sought to rally support so . the court bill could be passed, even without the late senator’s lead ership. But the opposition forces were equally determined to take advantage of the psychological as pect of the senate following Robin son’s death—the desire to effect a peace, finish the session’s business in a hurry and get away from the capital. The forces opposed to the bill believed that when the issue came up again they would be successful in recommitting the substitute bill to the Judiciary committee, an ef fective way of killing it The indica tion of opposition greater than had been expected in the house of rep resentatives was another factor pointing to the eventual fall of the bill. Another battle was hot long In getting under way: to decide who the new majority leader of the sen ate should be. Conservative Dem ocrats were anxious to wrest a measure of control from the White House by backing Sen. Pat Harri son of Mississippi, who has been faithful to the President, but is fundamentally conservative. The more radical senators backed Al- ben W. Barkley of Kentucky, Dem ocratic national convention keynot er, who had been Robinson’s as sistant as floor leader. Another pros pect was Sen. James F. Byrnes of South Carolina, but it was believed his strength would eventually be transferred to Harrison. Another thing that had Washing ton guessing as a result of Robin son’s death was the vacancy on the Supreme court left by the retire ment of Justice Willis Van De- ■> vanter. Robinson, it was generally believed, was to have received the appointment. Struggle In the Senate 'T'WELVE Democratic senators A and one Farmer-Laborite were believed to hold the fate of the administration’s substitute for the original bill which would increase the number of Supreme court justices to IS. The administration was certain that the bill would re ceive at least 38 votes, with 48 necessary to a majority since Sen ator Robinson's death. Forty-three definitely committed it Thirteen were stffl un- (Wash.), Brown (N. H.), Caraway (Ark.), Duffy (Wis.), Johnson (C<fto.), Lewis (111.), Murray (Mont.), Overton (La.), Pep per (Fla.), Russell, Jr. (Ga.) and Wagner (N. Y.). Lundeen (Mina.) was the Farmer-Laborite. The substitute for the original Ashurst bill provides for appoint ment of one new justice each year to every justice remaining on the court after reaching the age of seventy-five yearly New Sino-Japanasa Conflict? W AR between China and Japan was believed almost inevitable as hopes of settling a new outbreak of hostilities by diplomatic means faded out. The fight ing ensued as Jap anese gendarmes at tempted to take over the policing of Yu anping and Luhow- kiao, two villages in the Peiping area, near Marco Polo bridge. This, the Japanese said, was provided for in the North China truce. According to the HlrehJte assertions of the Japanese war office, Chinese soldiers fired upon the gendarmes and opened up with trench mortars against the Japanese contingent at the Yuanping station. This action allegedly com pelled the Japanese to make a night assault, costing 30 lives, in order to occupy the towns of Lungwangmiao and Tungshinghwan. It was said the Chinese troops had also ad vanced into these points. Officials of the Hopei-Chahar coun cil claimed the Japanese moves were in open violation of the truce. They further accused the Japanese of conducting night army maneu vers, using real bullets instead of the blanks ordinarily employed in maneuvers. As Emperor Hirohito and Premier Fumimaro Konoe con ferred with military leaders and the cabinet, the Japanese people franti cally prepared for the war that loomed. China’s Nanking government gave orders to Gen. Sung Cheh • yuan, commander of the North China forces, that his army was not to re treat for any reason, but was to be prepared to make the "supreme sacrifice” to hold its position until Gen. Chiang Kai-shek should arrive over the Peiping-Hankow railroad with 50.000 fresh troops. As the fighting continued in the Peiping area, with no hope of an effective compromise on the two na tions’ demands, war seemed the probable result Although an agreement was re ported to have been made between local Chinese and Japanese authori ties at Tientsin, settling the dispute to the satisfaction of both, the na tional government at Nanking has continued to insist that no agree ment reached locally would be observed. —V— Mrs. Roosevelt's Taxes W HEN Representative Hamil ton Fish (Rep., N. Y.) sought to demonstrate the unfairness of the tax invasion investigation commit tee, he demanded that the committee investigate the i n - come of the wife of the President from radio broadcasts, charging that she was not paying a cent of income taxes upon those earnings. She had turned over $39,000 to the Amer- _.. . ican Friends Service Kep. Fish committee, a Phila delphia charity, kept $1 per broad cast for herself and paid nothing whatever from her radio earnings to the government. Assistant Attorney General Rob ert H. Jackson replied for her, ex plaining to Chairman Dough ton of the congressional committee that the bureau of internal revenue had advised Mrs. Roosevelt she need pay no tax ee the S ANTA MONICA, CALIF.— After a president has been re-elected it's certain that some inspired patriot who is snuggled close to the throne will burst from his ceU with a terrible yell to proclaim that unless the adored incumbent consents again to succeed himself this nation is doomed. v Incidentally, the said patriot's present job and perquisites also would be doomed, so h e couldn’t be blamed for privately brooding on the dis tressful thought. You wouldn’t call h i m selfish, but you could call him hope ful, especially since there’s a chance his ballyhoo may direct attention upon him as a suitable candi date when his idol Irvin S. Cobb says no to the prop osition. He might ride in on the backwash, which would be e v e n nicer than steering a tidal wave for somebody else. Political observers have a name for this. They call it "sending up a balloon." It’s an apt simile, a balloon being a flimsy thing, full of hot air, and when it soars aloft nobody knows where it will come down—if at all. It lacks both steer ing gears and terminal facilities. There have been cases when the same comparison might have been applied not alone to the balloon but to the gentleman who launched it. So let's remain calm. It’s tradi tional in our history that no presi dent ever had to go ballooning in or der to find out how the wind blew and that no volunteer third-term boomer ever succeeded in taking the trip himself. HAT are the secret ambitions Modem Prairie W E’RE certainly returning — with modern improvements— to prairie schooner days when rest- lees’Americans are Uving-on wheels and housekeeping on wheels and having babies on wheels. Only the other day twins were born aboard a trailer. And—who knows?—per haps right now the stork, with a future president in her beak, is flap ping fast, trying to catch up with somebody’s perambulating bunga low. So it's a fitting moment to revive the story of early Montana when some settlers were discussing the relative merits of various makes of those canvas-covered arks which bore such hosts of emigrants west ward. They named over the Cones toga, the South Bend, the Murphy, the Studebaker and various others. From under her battered sun bon net there spoke up a weather beaten old lady who, with her husband and her growing brood, had spent the long years bumping along behind an ox team from one frontier camp to another. “Boys," she said, shifting her snuff-stick, 'T always did claim the old hickory waggin wuz the best one there is fur raisin* a family tax." • • • Pegs Verses Statesmen. ITS confusing to read that poor A decrepit Jim Braddock, having reached the advanced age of thirty- four or thereabouts, is all washed up, and, then, in another column, to discover that the leading candi dates to supply young blood on the Supreme court bench are but bound ing Juveniles of around sixty-six. This creates doubt in the mind of a fellow who, let us say, is quite a few birthdays beyond that en gendered wreck, Mr. Braddock, yet still has a considerable number of years to go before he’ll be an agile adolescent like some senators. He can’t decide whether he ought to join the former at the old men’s home or enlist with the latter in the Boy Scouts. • • • Quiescent Major Generals. COMETHING has gone out of life. ^ For months now no general of the regular army, whether retired or detailed to a civilian job, has talked himself into a jam—a rasp berry jam, if you want to make a cheap pun of it. Maybe it’s being officially gagged for so long while on active service that makes such a conversational Tessie out of the average brigadier when he goes into private pursuits and lets his hair down. It’s as though he took off his tact along with his epaulettes. And when he subsides there’s always another to take his place. You see, under modem warfare the commanding officer is spared. He may lead the retreat, but never the charge. When the boys go over the top is he out in front waving a sword? Not so you’d notice it By the new rules he’s signing papers in a bombproof nine miles behind the lines and about the only peril he runs ie from lack of exercise in the fresh air. May be. * view of what ee often v e Washington. — This article shall be devoted not to politics nor to _ affairs of the gov- ruturm erament of the na- Leadera tion exclusively but to the future— the future leaders. It shall be, to that extent, a discussion of funda mentals about which I think there can be no controversy. First, let us take a quick survey. In the Capitol building of our own nation there is raging a bitter de bate between two schools of political thought. The question is whether there shall be a law passed that will give to the President of the United States the power to appoint addi tional justices to the bench of the Supreme court when and if present sitting members reach the age of seventy-five and refuse ,to retire from active work. In Spain, a bitter political war fare moves on apace. It is over the question whether Communism of the Russian sort or Fascism of the Ital ian brand should be the dominant influence in the government of that nation. In the Far East, along the Rus sian border, troops of the Japanese emperor and of the Russian dicta tor, Stalin, glared at each other. Their controversy also involves po litical bases. That controversy also is complicated by economic condi tions. It is a powder keg. Back in Europe, we find a dicta tor, Hitler by name, persecuting citizens of Germany almost without end. A political question there is involved aiiJ it is complicated deep ly by religion and race. Hitler and his minions seek to destroy, first, the Catholic church and, second, the Jews. Somewhat set off by the great Alps, although woven intricately in to the whole picture, is another dis torted and disturbing condition. In Italy, Mussolini, having moat of hie people under his steel boot, is now preparing for new crusades. He has ordered all steel producing units in Italy to increase their produc tion to the maximum so thvt war material will be available. Musso lini wants more territory; he wants to expand the influence of Fascism and he wants to build a gigantic world power in a military way with Rome as the center and with him as the head. • e • Through many years residents of Washington and visitors to the capi- _ tal of the nation Budding have gloried in a for Futura greensward that borders the Poto mac river within the District of Co lumbia. It is a Justl/iatnous park, made more beautiful by such state ly structures as the monument to George Washington and the great citadel of beauty erected to the mem ory of Abraham Lincoln. And, to add to this beauty is the vista acroas the river where stands in grandeur the beautiful home that was the residence of Robert E. Lee—main taining throughout the years the respect that a nation has for a great military leader. It reposes, or seems to repose, in peace and quiet as do the thousands of men who rest in the hillsides of Arlington National cemetery. In this peaceful setting for ten days, more than twenty-six thou sand boys—the leaders of the fu ture—were congregated in a Na tional Jamboree of the Boy Scouts of America. Tents were everywhere. Uncounted boys in the khaki shorts, which is their uniform, flitted about the city or held various maneuvers or staged dramas of the ages in a great arena. Among them was a sprinkling, and the number was not more than a sprinkling compared to the boys, of the scoutmasters and mature men who constitute the lead ership of this great army of youth. I hope I may be forgiven for inter jecting here an expression of my personal feelings. It has been my lot to work hard from the time I put off swaddling clothes. The work I have done and the experiences I have met had a tendency to make me callous, somewhat cynical. But I must confess that on half a dozen occasions as I wandered through this tented city, I gave thought to my own boyhood and to two boys for whom I am responsible, I felt a swelling of pride, a satisfaction of heart, that I live in a nation which has given me the right to liberty and progress. Moreover, there came to me the thoughts of the future of my own two boys and the millions of others just like them— future leaders of a nation that holds forth such possibil ities as are best evidenced by the encampment of those twenty-six thousand then within the range of my vision. • • • Then, no tribute to these future leaders of our nation and to the nation which brad them can ar will tm Want be Or Jaaaea E Wee the keenest medical minds said he could not live and if he did live would be a hopeless invalid. But Dr. West was made out of the same mold from which came the founders of our nation and from whom, as founders, the traditions and the methods known pow as the American way have grown. It was Dr. West who devo indeed, dedicated his life to the or ganization and development of the Boy Scouts of America. It is now an organization of more than two mil lion boys and there are some six million who can be called alumni because they have grown too old to remain in the ranks of active Boy Scouts. I mentioned earlier that this was an army of peace, an army devoted to the maintenance of American traditions. No better proof of this need be given, if any were needed, than the notorious fact that rep resentatives from the three total- iarian states—Italy, Germany and Russia—are missing from the en campment. In two of those states the Boy Scout movement has been superseded by a dictator’s decree which forces regimentation and mil* itarizing of the youth. They are being trained for war. Happily most countries still pin their faith to the virtues summarized in the Scout law—the boys promise not to die but to live, not to cringe but to blossom, by holding themselves ev er trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friend ly, courteous, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, clean, and last but not least to maintain a reverence for God. So, I think I can be pardoned for the feriing I have that in this en campment lie the seeds of a con tinued free America, waiting the time to take root and bloom into manhood. It is from these and from these alone that we can hope to maintain in our beloved nation a political system which warrants neither Communism nor Fascism; which desires liberty and peace and which challenges the cockeyed theo ries that government must care for the people rather than the people care for their government. It seemed to me, therefore, to be something of a sour note that the National Youth administration which set up a hideous looking, box- Uke structure near the center of the capital city from which litera ture could be distributed to the Boy Scouts. This structure looked for all the world like a soft drink stand at a cheap carnival and I. per sonally, resented the action of Na tional Youth administration officials who ordered its construction. I felt this way because the National Youth administration is predicated upon the very theory that I have just condemned—a theory that govern ment must serve as a fatter for everybody and that it must lay down rules to which all must sub scribe. It is the nearest thing te the regimentation that is going on in nations under dictators that exists in our government today. • • • Cabled dispatches from Russia in dicate again that the dictator, 6ta- „ lia, is determined Hamoy Hand to rid the Soviet mi Stalin of anyone and ev eryone who may be opposed to him. The official an nouncements of the so-called Soviet government tell of the “liquidation’' of numerous individuals who have objected to Stalin’s tactics or who are seeking to revise the Soviet system. “Liquidation" in Russia means that those individuals were executed by a firing squad. A dead man can cause no harm to the as pirations of a dictator. The Stalin administration ar ranges for the "liquidation" of its opponents by coercion of confes sions and this is followed up by what the Soviet calls a trial in a court of justice. The courts of jus tice are owned and controlled by Stalin; they decide as they are told to decide and there is no such thing as an impartial court in Russia be cause the government owns the courts and names the judges who are to do the government’s bidding. Private advices from abroad seem to show that there is a very serious uprising underneath the surface in Russia. Thousands of Russians have grown tired of having one man de termine whether they shall live or die and they yearn again for a system of courts which will de termine their guilt or innocence in accordance with honest evidence presented, and not in accordance with the way the governing clique wants justice administered. As the Russian judiciary is con structed under the mailed fist of Stalin, courts are a farce. Without such a court structure, however, a dictator could not perpetuate his own power. He must have control of the courts in order to carry out under the guise of law all of the ■ and hatreds that m at free people those who serve us, par- WS' ticularly those whose occupations are mechanical or lonesome enough to allow their minds to drift often into the realms of fantasy? Walt Disney is an example. Born in Chicago ih 1901. his first job was as a mail carrier there, at the age of sixteen. As a little boy he liked to draw, and he liked to draw ani- mals; but the famous creator of ickey Mouse had to make a living delivering mail. He had no chance to express his creative genius un til after the World war, when he obtained a job as a commercial artist in Kansas City. In his garage, he experimented with animated newsreels called "Local Happen ings." which he sold to Kansas City moving picture theaters. He fol lowed these with a series of fairy tales for local clubs and church gatherings. This modest success prompted him to try Hollywood, where ha started in an unpretentious little building far from the big studios. Thera ha created “Oswald, the Rabbit.” but after making 36 sub jects. ha and his backer separated. The backer owned the rights to “Oswald, the Rabbit” which is still being shown in the theaters, and Disney eras left without his most promising character. Out of this adversity was born "Mickey Mouse” and the "Silly Sympho- Today. Walt Disney employs a staff of artists to draw his charac ters but he is. himself, the voice of Mickey Mouse • • • PICTURE MAGNATE WAS A PEDDLER I TS fun for the young man who was born to be president of his rich father’s company: a month In the shop, a month clerking, and then general manager But consid er the discouragement and heart aches of the boy too poor for an adequate education, too poor for nourishing food or decent clothing, too poor to meet people with influ ence That such boys, possessing only courage, ambition and brains, can still rise m America la this country's strongest defense against fascism and communism. William Fox was born 117V In fulchva. Hungary, son of a small shopkeeper who extracts-' teeth as a •ids-line. The family moved to America when William was nine months old. and settled in an East Side tenement district of New York city His first job was at the age of nine, when his father, who was out of work, made stove blacking in their small tenement and William peddled it from door to door in the neighborhood. Later he sold candy lozenges at the Third Street dock and at Central park on Sundays. At the age of fourteen, he was forced by poverty to quit school. He obtained a job in a clothing firm and rose to be foreman in charge of lining cutting, at the magnificent salary of $8 per week. To augment his earnings, he bought umbrellas and peddled them in front of thea ters on rainy nights. With $1,600 savings accumulated through many privations, he started a cloth ex amining and shrinking business, when he was twenty-one, and at tha end of the second year invested his profits in a nickelodeon or flvw- cent motioa picture five years later ha CFMJ. EMM afl ME