The Barnwell people-sentinel. (Barnwell, S.C.) 1925-current, August 05, 1937, Image 2
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SENATE KILLS COURT BILL
VoHs 70 to 20 to Recommit . • . Elect Berkley New
Majority Leader • • Spanish War Enters Second Year
Senator Harrison (rlfht) Confratulates Senator Barkley.
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SUMMARIZES THE WORLD’S WEEK
O WcfUrn Newspaper Union.
'Glory Be to Godl'
T) YING for weeks, the scheme to
add to the number of justices
of the Supreme court finally choked
its last gasp and left this world. On
a roll-call vote the United States
senate voted to recommit the Rob
inson substitute for the President’s
original'bill to the judiciary com
mittee. The vote was 70 to 20, the
most crushing defeat the President’s
legislation has yet suffered at the
hands of a house of congress.
In an agreement made at a ses
sion of the judiciary committee ear
lier, It had been decided to let the
opposition senators write their own
bill, an innocuous measure for "ju
dicial reform" not dealing in any
way with the Supreme court. Sena
tor Barkley, the new majority lead
er, attempted to save the Presi
dent's face by having the bill left
on the calendar, but he never had a
chance. When the roll-call came,
even Senators Ashurst of Arizona
and Minton of Indiana, two of the
Supreme court bill's chief support
ers. voted to recommit.
"Glory be to Godl” said Sen. Hi
ram Johnson (Rep., Calif.) when
the results of the roll call were
made known. The applause that
bellowed forth from the senators
and gallery alike left no doubt that
the veteran from California had
voiced the sentiments of the great
majority.
Low Irtarast for Farmarc
B Y A vote of 71 to 19, the senate
overrode the President's veto of
a bill extending for a year low inter
est rates on loans to farmers. It
was a defeat even more crushing
than the recommission of the court
bill, and made the bill a law with
out the President’s signature, for
the house had previously passed it
by a two-thirds majority over Mr.
Roosevelt's veto.
. Senator Barkley made a half
hearted attempt to stave off the
overwhelming vote, and the defeat
was accepted by many observers as
an expression of resentment over
Barkley's having been elected ma
jority leader instead of Sen. Pat
Harrison of Mississippi.
_♦—
Berkley, 38; Harrison, 37
CEN. WILLIAM H. DIETERICH
^ of Illinois changed his mind at
the last minute and today Alben W.
Barkley, hard-fisted, blustering sen
ator from Kentucky,
is the majority lead
er of the United
States senate, suc
ceeding the late Jos
eph T. Robinson of
Arkansas. The vote
was 38 for Barkley
to 37 for Sen. Pat
Harrison of Missis
sippi.
The conservative
VicePresident Democrats in the
Garner senate had been as
sured of 38 votes,
enough to elect Harrison, on the
eve of the secret election. But that
night Dieterich, apparently under
pressure from the Democratic party
organization in Illinois, begged Har
rison to release his pledged vote, in
order that the President’s choice
might head the party in the senate.
The slim victory by no means
patched the obvious party rift. Even
the administration admitted that the
President’s Supreme court bill was
virtually dead, even then. Vice Pres
ident Gamer visited Sen. Burton K.
Wheeler of Montana, leader of the
opposition forces, and invited the op
position, which it was believed had
enough votes to recommit the sub
stitute court bill to the judiciary
committee, to draft a new bill.
President Roosevelt then told Sen
ators Barkley and Harrison at the
White House that four measures
"must" be passed before the Janu
ary session: The minimum wage,
hours end child labor
bill; the new AAA and
MB; the Wagner
Gov. Lehman
in the federal tax laws. Congress
was all for quick adjournment, the
President was told. The possibil
ity of adjourning congress, then re
calling it in special session in the
late fall, with committees continu
ing to function in the interim, was
then discussed, but what agreement
had been reached was not an
nounced.
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A Citizen Takes His Pen
RUSHING blow to the Presi-
dent’s court program, delivered
at the time it hurt most, was a let
ter written by Gov. Herbert H. Leh
man of New York to
Sen. Robert F. Wag
ner of that state.
The letter, made
public, revealed
Governor Lehman's
opinion "as a citizen
of the state of New
York" that the bill
would be "contra
ry” to the "inter
ests" of the people
of the state. "Its en
actment," the gov
ernor wrote, "would
create a greatly dangerous prece
dent which could be availed of by
future less well-intentioned admin
istrations for the purpose of oppres
sion or for the curtailment of the
constitutional rights of our citi
zens."
*
Bloody Anniversary
nr HE Spanish' civil war entered
* its second year. For the popu
lations of rebel cities, the occasion
was one for joyous celebration, with
fiestas, bull fights and concerts the
order of the day. Gen. Francisco
Franco, commander of the insur
gent forces, publicly proclaimed it
a "year of triumph." He ordered
that all communications and public
documents for the next twelve
months be dated as of "the second
year of triumph."
In the first "year of triumph,"
more than a million persons, includ
ing women and children, erere
killed. The insurgents claim to have
taken 34 of the M provincial capi
tals of the country, and all of its
colonies. They have captured six
of the eleven cities of more than
100.000 Inhabitants: Seville, Malaga,
Bilbao. Saragossa, Cordoba and
Granada.
The rebels lost little time in at
tempting to regain their losses
around Madrid. Franco unleashed
the full power of his main army of
160.000 in a drive to recapture Bru-
nete and other suburbs of the loy
alist stronghold; they were met by
at least 250,000 defending govern
ment troops. Every weapon of war
except gas was used. There was
hand-to-hand fighting in the trenches
and the greatest use of artillery
since the World war as the fiercest
battle of the Spanish conflict raged.
The battle was opened by as spec
tacular an aerial fight as the world
has seen in years; insurgents were
reported to have lost 27 planes
against only four for the loyalists.
If there were any definite gains
made in a week’s fighting, they were
probably on the side of the insur
gents, observers reported, although
the government estimated the reb
els had lost 10,000 men.
Japs Maul U. S. Women
A SSAULT upon two America!
women by sentries in the Jap
anese embassy in Peiping brought
vigorous protests, both orally and
in writing, from the United Statef
embassy. The two women, Mrs.
Helen R. Jones of Detroit and Miss
Carol Lathrop of Washington, D. C.,
were walking through the embassy
when sentries charged them from
behind sandbag barricades. While
one sentry kicked Miss Lathrop in
the side, another held off Mrs. Jones
with the flat of his bayonet. When
roughly Mwved. Mrs. J< ™
.u>
ITKidaiw about
Semi-Nude Fashions.
S ANTA MONICA, CALIF.—
Clothes may not make the
man, but leaving them off cer
tainly makes him foolish. And
that goes double for the women.
Whence arises the present-day de
lusion that going about dressed at
half-mast enchances
the attractiveness of
the average adult7
Our forbears of the
Victorian era wore
too much for health
or happiness o r
cleanliness. But isn’t
it worse to offend
the eye all through
the lingering sum
mer by not wearing
enough to cover up
the blotches, the
blemishes, the bulges
and the bloats that come with ma
turity? Sun baths should be taken
on a doctor’s prescription, not at the
corner of First and Main.
Women old enough to know bet
ter are the worst offenders, seems
like. If only they’d stop to con
sider that the snail, which is naked,
would lose in any beauty contest
against the butterfly, which wears
all the regalia the traffic will standi
But even though it’s for their own
good, you can’t tell ’em. If some
body started the fad of going at
the game while practically nude,
inside of two weeks mumblepeg
would be the national pastime—un
til somebody else thought up a game
to be played by folks without a
stitch on. Or anyhow, just a stitch
here and there.
Irvin S. Cobb
U:
Doctoring Movie Scripts.
SUALLY they lay these* yams
on Mr. Sam Goldwyn, who
thrives upon them and goes right
on turning out successes, his motto
being, "What’s grammar as be
tween friends so long as the box
office shows results?" But, for a
change, this one is ascribed to an
other producer, who proudly de
scribes himself as a self-made man,
which, according to his critics, is
relieving the Creator of a consider
able responsibility and putting the
blame where the blame belongs.
They also say no self-made man
should stop with the job only partly
finished. But then Hollywood la full
of parties trying to push Humpty
Dumpty off the wall.
As the tale runs, this gentleman
entered the conference chamber at
his studio and aa, with a kingly
gesture, he laid down a fat sheaf
of typewritten pages, said to the
assembled intellects of his staff:
"Jumpmen, in all my experience
In the picture business this is what
you might call unique. Here is atn
solutcly, posstiffiy the only perfect
script I have ever read In my entire
life. I tell you that before we start
altering it"
Strikes Versos Wars.
D ID you ever notice bow like a
war is a strike?
The operator and his operatives
are the shock troops that suffer the
heaviest casualties. The owner risks
his profits and perhaps his market
and sometimes his plant The work
er gives up his wages, frequently
his job, occasionally his life.
Stockholders see dividends van
ishing and investments shrinking.
Citizens see their communities dis
rupted. Women and children go on
short rations, many a time go ac
tually hungry. For, as in a war,
the innocent non-combatants bear
most grievous burdens.
Those who really garner in the
spoils—professional agitators; finan
cial buzzards eager to seize on
bankrupted industries; lawyers with
their writs and their injunctions;
imported thugs masquerading, for
one side or the other as honest
mechanics—these might be likened
to stay-at-home diplomats and profit
eers and hired mercenaries who
induce friendly nations to turn en
emies so they may gain their own
selfish ends.
After it’s over, we realize that
almost any strike might have been
averted had common sense and
common justice ruled, rather than
greed and entrenched stubbornness
and fomented hate. And the same is
true of almost any war. For every
real benefit to humanity came out
of peace and arbitration, not out of
battle and destruction.
And here’s the final parallel: Ul
timately, the supposed victor finds
himself the actual loser. Tell me
which army won any ^reat strike—
or any great war—and 1*11 tell you
who won the San Francisco fire and
the Galveston flood.
IRVIN S. COBB.
©—WMU Service.
Crater Lake in Oregon
Crater Lake in Oregon has the
most romantic geologic history of
any lake in the United States. Its
rim was once the base of a volcanic
mountain which collapsed and sank
into the earth. Later it cooled,
springs came out of the sides, snow
collected and it filled with water. It
is 6 miles in diameter and con
tains the bluest water known to ex
ist naturally today. There is no out
let and no streams running into it
end yet the water is always freak.
Washington
Digest g
National Topics Interpreted
By WILLIAM BRUCKART
flllft
NATION A
VI. ASM INC
wiYmi
Washington.—Many times in these
columns I have had occasion to
r* , write in praise of
Great Leader Senator Joe Bob-
Passes On inson of Arkansas,
the Democratic
leader in the senate. His magnifi
cent qualities, his capacity as a
statesman and the regard with
which he was held by Republicans
and Democrats alike were such that
further praise from this pen would
be of little value. Suffice it to say
that in Joe Robinson’s death the na
tion is the loser because "he fought
the good fight."
But Senator Robinson's sudden
death a few days ago has precipi
tated a political condition of gravest
importance. Although none of us
who knew him nor those with whom
he was associated in an official
capacity could have foreseen his
sudden death, I think it is proper to
say that the passing of Joe Robin
son may have more far-reaching in
fluence upon his country’s history
than all of his long and distin
guished career in public life. That
is to say, fate possibly has turned
in this instance to the role it some
times plays—the role of master
strategist.
The question may be asked: Why
does the death of one man become
so important?
The answer is simple. Joe Robin
son was the field marshal for the
Roosevelt administration. Particu
larly, he was the field marshal in
the greatest legislative battle to
reach the floors of congress since
the days of slavery, and this coin
cided with the daring adventure of
an epochal administration.
President Roosevelt leaned upon
Senator Robinson to put through the
senate a bill that would permit the
Chief Executive to appoint addition
al justices of^his own choosing to
membership in the Supreme court
of the United States. He leaned
upon the Arkansas senator for many
other things as well, but H seems
to be the consensus of opinion that
Mr. Roosevelt’s administration may
well stand or fall by the success or
failure of his program to reorganize
the judiciary of the United States.
It seems further that if the Presi
dent fails to obtain congressional
approval for this plan which would
give the President domination over
the court system of the country, he
will have lost control of the legisla
tive branch of the government for
the remainder of his term. Few
Presidents have been able to carry
on successfully without the co-oper
ation of the legislative branch.
It is too early, of course, to say
whether the death of Senator Robin
son means defeat for the court pack-
tng program. Nevertheless, most
of the astute political observers In
Washington—indeed, many of the
President s own party in the senate
—believe that the passing of the
Democratic leader was a fatal blow
to the President's power in con
gress. This results from the fact
that Joe Robinson was able to mold
together many groups and cliques
and hold them by the sheer power
of his lovable personality in a co
hesive, workable unit
The country never will know how
well and faithfully Joe Robinson
fought for the President and his
policies. I have said in these col
umns heretofore and I repeat that
I do not believe Senator Robinson
favored all of the New Deal poli
cies, in his heart. He was progres
sive but he had sound ideas; he
stood by the President and the New
Deal with courage and capacity, but
on many occasions, I have reason
to believe, he fought for those prin
ciples because he believed he
should either fight as a member of
his party or retire. Further, he
knew that if he would retire he
would not have the opportunity nor
the influence to persuade the radi
cal wing of the New Dealers to pro
pose reasonable policies. In other
words, the late Democratic leader
was attempting to be a leader in
fact as well as in name and many
are the indications where he was
able to pull the theorists and the
radical New Dealers back from the
brink of political destruction.
• • • •
In view of the facts I have re
ported and the observations I have
»;n made above . ^ b «-
Louit BlU comes perfectly
Doomed plain that the
President is in a
position where he can lose the pres
ent court battle with ease. In fact,
there are many observer^ who be
lieve the court legislation will have
to be abandoned and that congress
will be quickly overwhelmed by that
annual desire of representatives and
senators to conclude their work and
adjourn.
Let us review the situation as re
gards the court legislation. The
President got off to a very bad
start when the original bill to add
six new justices to the Supreme
court was presented. The original
reasons he gave for demanding the
new power he sought were shat
tered within a few days after the
draft of the bill reached the Capi
tol He was forced to
*******************
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them. Mr. Roosevelt then came for
ward with a second Set of reasons,
namely, that the Supreme court as
at present constituted could not and
would not hold some of his social
legislation constitutional. That set of
reasons was knocked into a cocked
hat when the Supreme court upheld
the Washington state minimum
wage law, the Wagner labor rela
tions act and the social security
taxes. Then came the resignation
of Justice Van Devanter. Justice
Van Devanter was one of the men
whom Mr. Roosevelt had in mind
as Unwilling and unlikely to see so
cial legislation through the same
glasses as Mr. Roosevelt saw the
situation in the country.
The Van Devanter resignation
gave the President an opportunity to
appoint a new member to the court.
It also gave the senate an opportu
nity to burst forth with expressions
of its own ideas concerning the type
of man who should succeed Justice
Van Devanter and the senators were
not backward in promoting the name
of the Democratic leader, Senator
Robinson. But Mr. Roosevelt thus
faf has failed to fill the vacancy,
and this failure has been interpret
ed by the opposition among the
President’s own party as an unwill
ingness to select anyone but a radi
cal for the highest court. In any
event, those opposed to the court
bill contend that the President’s de
lay constitutes only another reason
why he should accept "the inevi
table defeat" of the court revision
program.
When it became apparent that the
original bill for six new justices
could not be passed because the
Democratic-dominated senate judi
ciary committee reported the bill
with a scathing denunciation, the
late Senator Robinson astutely of
fered a substitute bill in tha nature
of a compromise. This substitute
bora the authorship of Senators Lo
gan of Kentucky and Hatch of New
Mexico. Even the substitute which
provided for one additional judge a
year until the Supreme court num
bered eleven members has received
the same bitter criticism that char
acterized the first measure. Many
members of the senate say they will
fight it as long as they would have
fought the original because It will
give the Chief Executive control of
the Supreme court just ee the ear
lier one would have done.
STAR
DUST
5 Movie • Radio *
★★★By VIRGINIA VALE***
E verything goes in cycles
in motion pictures, and just
now the Russian cycle threat
ens to monopolize the screen.
No less than three of the most
fascinating screen sirens are
currently holding forth in the
midst of Russian magnificence.
There is Marlene Dietrich with
Robert Donat in "Without Armor"
for instance, Miss Dietrich and Rob
ert Donat make a thrilling roman
tic pair. Another of the Russian
cycle is "The Emperor’s Candle
sticks" in which Luise Rainer and
William Powell appear as rival spies
of Russia and Poland. Last, but by
no means least, particularly for
music lovers, is "Two Who Dared,"
with Anna Sten, who has been too
long absent from our screens.
At last George Raft is out of seclu
sion and he is
very
so relieved. For
months he has had
to go without a hair
cut for his role in
"Souls at Sea’’ and
to his eternal dis
comfiture his shoul
der-length hair was
daily waved with a
curling iron. He
didn’t dare face the
mugs who are his
best friends looking
like that. The day
the picture was fin
ished he celebrated
tight haircut and
• •
President Roosevelt vetoed a little
known and litlie discussed bill the
D . other dey. It was
Star Routt known as "H. R.
BUI Vetoed 9409. An Act to
Provide for the
Renewal of Star-Route Contracts at
Four Year Intervals." The title, of
course, will mean little to moot of
tboee who read these lines. But.
this was a bill Intended to do justice
to thoee underprivileged classes
about which Mr. Roosevelt has often
spoken in his fireside chats over
the radio. The men who would have
benefited by this piece of legis
lation were the star route carriers of
the mails—the service that dates
back to the stagecoach days of
America and the service from
which originated the Postal depart
ment’s famous phrase, "tha mails
must go through." The star route
is the only means by which a good
many thousand persona are able to
receive mails on anything like a
modern basis because this service
reaches the out-of-the-way inland
towns where railroads are not yet
and possibly never will be in opera
tion.
I watched this legislation go
through the house without dissent
ing vote; I saw Senator McKellar,
Democrat, of Tennessee, attack the
bill in vicious language and then I
saw the senate pass it by a vote of
nearly two to one.
In addition, I know that the rep
resentatives of these little known
carriers (little known except to
those whom they directly serve)
had tried for a number of years to
obtain a basis of pay that will let
them live. They finally were able
to convince Postmaster General
Farley that unless they were paid
more money the number that would
go broke in carrying out their con
tracts would be amazingly large. I
have not the slightest doubt that this
group ought tOLbe paid more money
for the work they do because their
present basis of compensation is
shamefully low—so low that if they
were members of a labor union,
they would all go on strike.
No change has been made in the
basis of compensation or in the
method of contracting for this serv
ice sinee it was organized in 1845,
except in minor ways. Three quar
ters of a century or more is a long,
long time. The President’s action
in vetoing this legislation, therefore,
is very difficult to understand. His
action is made the more inconsis
tent, many persons believe, because
the additional coat to the govern
ment would be insufficient to main
tain the smallest unit of the hun
dred New Deal agencies which tha
President has created.
UWaa
smeared on the vaseline lavishly.
Ever since a coart forced Mae West
to break down and admit that she
really was married twenty-six
yean ago to one Frank Wallace,
the has been la seclusion. Couldn’t
stand having people stars at her
Intently looking for wrinkles, while
they eonnted on their Angers—eight
een and twenty-six make forty-four.
In those odd moments when they
are not discussing Mae West's age.
Hollywoodiana are raving over the
beautiful newcomer, Zorina, who
is under contract to Sam Goldwyn.
She is an enchanting young woman
about nineteen years old. Born in
Norway, not far from the Arctic
Circle, the went to school in Berlin,
joined the Monte Carlo Ballet Russ#
company when the was visiting m
Mexico City, and because of her
two years association with this
troupe now has a alight Russian
accent.
Rudy Valise spends many of his
evenings nowadays at a night chib
in New York where his friend Jackie
Osterman is making a comeback
after a long stretch of hard luck.
Vallee Is a great story teller, and
one of his favorites concerns Jack
Benny. Vallee whole-heartedly ad
mires the drastic way in which Jack
Benny treated a hostile vaudeville
audience years ago. Benny came
out on one aide of the stage merrily
saying "Hello folks" only to face a
bunch of tough-looking ruffians who
glowered at him. Continuing right
on across the stage, he exited from
the stage saying "Good-by folks"
and walked right on out of the
theater never tq^etum.
Martha Baye mads the hit of her
life and smashed all box-oAce rec
ords making personal appearances
at the Paramount theater in New
York recently. The audience simply
could not get enough of her. They
surged down to the footlights when
her act w*as over, shot questions at
her, begged her to sing one more
song, and then just stood and yelled
when her voice threatened to give
out.
Frankie Masters, NBC star and
band maestro says “it pays to work
your way through col
lege." Frankie start
ed out to earn his
way through the com
merce school at the
University of Indiana
by strumming his
banjo in the band.
Soon the band be
came more profitable
than commerce and
he had engagements
at hotels and leading
night clubs in Chica
go and other big
cities. Frankie is
starred with Eddie Guest on the
"It Can Be Done” program.
ODDS AND ENDS-There it • fan in
Grand Rapids, Mich., who writes Gene
Autry o sixteen-page letter of criticism
and comment eviry time a new picture of
his is shown. He not only reads every
line appreciatively, he tries to correct all
those faults in his next picture .. . Every
one is marveling at Connie Bennett’s
good sportsmanship in letting Roland
Young get most of the laughs in her first
comedy ’’Topper" ... Paul Muni has bam
Frankie
Masters
best of all scram actors
all who have seen "Tha Life of Emile
’ole." And Muni says this is tha vary
last biographical picture ha anil
Ha doesn’t
Smrei far a long time.
• W~
r