Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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V Hit Barnwell People-Sentinel, Barnwell, 8. C. Thoreday, Anfnei 12,1M7 New Review mi Current Event* WAR ON TWO CONTINENTS Japanese Bomb Henfcin • • • Fearful Baffle Rages Near Madrid • • • Congress Wanfs fo Pack Up and Go Home Japanese soldiers eremate their dead at Fenftal. ~S^MurtUul IV, J&iduxJut V ^ OTTMMaPTTrfl TMT! WOPT.r China Skies Rain Fire T HERE was war in North China whether it had been officially declared or not. Japanese bombers zoomed over the densely-populated city ot Tientsin, raining death and destruction, and endangering thou sands of citizens of the United States and other foreign countries. The air attack was Nippon’s retaliation for a Chinese army drive which nearly drove the Japanese out of their North China stronghold. Chinese troops declared that "thousands of non-combatant men, women and children were killed or injured” by the airmen. The bombers left holocaust in their wake. Flames engulfed Tient sin’s principal buildings, the cen tral railway station, the militia headquarters, the famed Nankai uni versity, and the Chinkiang interna tional bridge connecting the Chinese city to the foreign concessions. In the latter, inhabitants who were not concerned at all with the war were forced to seek what safety they could in cellars which provided lit tle shelter from the exploding bombs. Chinese and Japanese sol diers fought hand-to-hand in the streets, with entrenchments in some places only 100 feet apart Three Chinese armies, operating suddenly and swiftly along a 95-mile front between Taku (Tientsin’s sea port) and Peiping, conducted the at tack which incurred the wrath of the Japanese military command. They drove the Japanese away from the three key railroad stations and en tered the Japanese concession. Japan immediately responded with her air attack, concentrating upon the heavily populated Chinese section of Tientsin. Infantry at tacked the Chinese barricades in several parts of the city. Japanese artillery went into action, and drew lusty response from the enemy, which sent shell after shell hurtling into the heart of the Japanese con cession. Many soldiers on both aides were killed. From Peiping the Chinese Twen ty-ninth army was driven back 80 rmles to the west, until not a Chi nese soldier was kft in the city or its environs. Gen. Sung Cheh-yuan, commander, resigned, turning over jis post as chairman of the Hopei- Chahar political council to Gen. Chang Tso-chung, a subordinate di vision commander. Madrid's Moat of Blood T HE Spanish government was de fending Madrid against the in surgent forces in the most terrible battle of the entire civil war and the most important. It couldn’t last; it was too furious. The whole loyalist cause apparently rested on resisting this, the most vicious at tack the rebels had yet made. Gen. Francisco Franco's army, under his personal supervision, was making advances, but at such loss of men that the cost might be too great. Insurgents stormed loyalist en trenchments directly in the face of point blank machine guns. Losses were so terrible that thousands of wounded lay without food or water among thousands already-dead and decaying in the hot sun. Infantry, tanks, cavalry and artillery were supplemented by airplane bombers. In one salient 250,000 men were fighting, including the cream of both armies. The loyalist position was admittedly the most serious of the whole war, and upon the govern ment’s ability to withhold against the attack rested the fate of the best units in its army. It was re ported that 20,000 Italian troops had joined the rebels for the battle. Each side claimed the losses of the other had been greatest. Insur gents reported that the government salient had cost 300 fighting planes and 30,000 casualties. The govern ment declared that Franco had lost at least 100 planes to its 20 or 30, had lost 20,000 to 25,000 men, and had consumed $15,000,000 worth of war materials. Gen. Franco's other armies were busy, too. While the Madrid conflict was In full sway> the insurgents sprang • air attach on Irvin 8. Cobb SUMMARIZES THE WORLD’S WEEK • Western Newspaper Union. dropping bombs on the easy target and turning machine guns on citi zens who attempted to flee. At least 65 persons were killed and 150 in jured. The rebels in the East were re ported to have driven across the Teruel-Cuenca border and to have seriously threatened the loyalist "life-line,” the highway between Madrid and Valencia. * 'Whadd'ya Say We Scram?' W ITH Supreme court bill recom mitted to the senate judiciary committee, a new substitute bill for reform of only the lower courts due to be reported out of the commit tee, and a new senate majority lead er selected to take the late Senator Robinson’s place, the overwhelming sentiment of the members of the seventy-fifth congress was to pack up their bags and get as far away from Washington as possible. Even measures which President Roosevelt had insisted bear the "must” label were being shoved aside with dispatch, as Vice Presi dent Gamer sought to heal the party wounds inflicted during the bitter court battle and salvage as much of the President’s legislation as he could. The first to be buried was the new AAA and "ever-nor- mal granary” bill; the senate agri culture committee shelved it until j the next session. The committee j authorized James P. Pope, Idaho Democrat and co-sponsor of the bill, | to prepare a senate resolution to lay the plans for regional hearings on a comprehensive farm program during the remainder of the sum mer and report back in January. It seemed certain that the Presi dent's legislation for governmental reorganization would be left over until next session when the record of three months* hearings by the joint congressional committee was made public. It was revealed that committee members have not even come close to agreement oo any of the main points Involved. Majority Leader Barkley said that the White House still wanted the wages and hours bill, the Wagner low-cost housing bill and a judiciary bill passed, as well as legislation to plug tax loopholes. The Wagner bill, meanwhile, was reported out of committee, and It was expected the senate would act upon it quickly. New Court Bill Drifted COUR important provisions were 1 contained in the new court "re form” bill reported out of the senate judiciary committee, but none of them involved any changes in or additions to the personnel of the Su preme court. The new bill provides for: (a) Direct appeals to the Supreme court from decisions in the district courts involving the constitutional ity of federal statutes. (b) Intervention by the Depart ment of Justice in all suits involv ing the validity of federal statutes. (c) Trial of all suits to enjoin the operation of federal statutes by a court of three judges—-one judge from the circuit court of appeals and two district judges. (d) Reassignment of district court judges by the senior circuit judge of each circuit, wherever additional help may be needed to relieve con gested dockets. Judges sitting away from home would receive $10 a day additional pay. Ambition in Bloom C ONGRESSMAN SOL BLOOM of New York, who, it is said (by Congressman Bloom), is the "spittin* image” of George Wash ington, and once posed for a bust labeled "The Father of His Coun try,” sponsored a brief bill in the lower house, but unfortunately (for Congressman Bloom) it was reject ed—in fact it never even came to a vote. It provided that a book be given, at the government’s expense, to each naturalized citizen with his cit izenship papers. The book, exhibit ed in the house, is a handsome af fair, all done up m blue and gold. la large letters, el the by «■* -srA- about: Western Hestelrles. S AN FRANCISCO, CALIF.— They have mighty fine hotels in this town. I've stayed at several of them and friends of mine have been put out of some of the others. And once I enjoyed a fire scare here when the alarm, at 3:30 a. m., brought to the lobby a swarm of moving picture actors with out any makeup on and not much else. This was in the era of the silent films, but you wouldn't have dreamed it to hear the remarks of an hysterical lady star when she dis covered that her chow had been for gotten. The current husband also was temporarily miss ing but she was comparatively calm about that. She probably figured a husband could be picked up almost any time whereas darling little Ming Poo had a long pedigree and rep resented quite a financial invest ment and anyhow was a permanent fixture in her life. Through the strike here, the trav eling public seemed to make out. Maybe visitors followed the old southern custom—stop with kinfolks. Think, though, how great would have been the suffering had the strike occurred during prohibition days when transient guests might have perished of thirst without bright uniformed lads to bring them first-aid packages in the handy hip- pocket sizes! Bellhops qualified as lifesavers those times. ' • • • Humans in the Raw. A S I behold vast numbers of fel low beings strolling the beaches, yes, and the public thor oughfares too, while wearing as few clothes as possible—and it seems to be possible to wear very few in deed—I don't know whether to ad mire them for their courage or sym pathize with them in their suffering or deploie their inability to realize that they'd be eaaier on the eye if they'd quit trying to emulate the raw oyster—which never has been pretty to look upon and, generally speaking, is an acquired taste any how. For a gentleman who ordinarily bundles himself in heavy garments clear up to his Adam's apple, this warm weather strip-act entails a lot of preliminary torture. At first our gallant exhibitionist resembles a forked stalk of celery bleached out in the cellar. Soon he ia one large red blot on the landscape, with fat water blisters spangling his brow until he looks as if he were wearing a chaplet of Malaga grapes. In the next stage he peels like the wall paper on an Ohio valley parlor after flood tune. • • • Destructive Hired Help. S OMEBODY found a stained glass window in an English church dating back to 685 A. D., but still intact. And from the mins of a Roman villa, they've dug out a mar ble figure of Apollo—the one the mineral water was named after—in a perfect state although 2,000 years old. These discoveries are especially interesting to this family as tending to show that hired help isn’t what it must have been in the ancient tune. We once had a maid of the real old Viking stock who, with the best intentions on earth, broke every thing she laid finger on. Moreover, she could stand flatfooted in the middle of a large room and cause treasured articles of virtu, such as souvenirs of the St. Louis World’s fair and the china urn I won for superior spelling back in 1904 at the Elks’ carnival, to leap to the floor and be smashed to atoms. She didn’t have to touch them or even go near them. I think she did it by animal magnetism or capillary at traction or something of that nature. The first time we saw the Winged Victory, Mrs. Cobb and I decided it must have been an ancestor of Helsa who tried to dust it—with the disastrous results familiar to all lov ers of classic statuary. • • • The Reaping Season. C ERTAIN crops may not have done so well, due to weather conditions, or, as some die-hard Republicans would probably con tend, because of New Deal control. But, on the other hand, hasn’t it been a splendid ripening season for sit-downs, walk-outs, shut-ups, lock outs and picket lines? It makes me think of the little story the late Myra Kelly used to tell of the time when she was a pub lic school teacher on New York’s East Side. She was questioning her class of primary-grade 1 pupils, touching on the callings of their re spective parents. She came to one tiny sad-eyed little girl, shabby and thin and shy. "Rosie,” she asked, "at what does your father work?” "Mein poppa be don't never work, Teacher,” said Rosie. "Doesn’t he do anything at all?” National Topics Interpreted by William Bruckart National Prou BaUdlng Wanhlnxton, D. CL Washington.—There are many oc casions on record where several im- UW! nr > portant issues “Eoer-Normal have engaged the Granary 9 attention of con gress and fre quently one of these issues has aroused such bitterness and devel oped such a controversy that it overshadowed all others. That has been the case hi recent weeks dur ing which President Roosevelt’s' plan to add six justices of his own choosing to the Supreme court of the United States completely sub ordinated everything else. But the crushing defeat received by the President through refusal of the vast majority of Democrats in congress to support his court re organization scheme suddenly has directed attention to other major questions. Outstanding among these is Secretary Wallace’s farm bill and the So-called wages and hours bill which is claimed to contain com plete protection for the laboring classes. It is of the farm bill that I shall write now since it is much more imminent as far as congres sional action is concerned than is the case with the wages and hours proposition. The basis of Secretary Wallace’s program is what he calls the "ever- normal granary.” There are other provisions included in the bill but the idea of a maintained supply of farm products is the heart of the plan. Now, it seems that if the words "ever-normal granary” mean any thing, they must be accepted as meaning a continuity of supply at a level which government agents ar bitrarily determine as the proper rate of accumulation or sale of such supplies. The house of representatives has been muddling along with the ques tion for several months. It has been under much pressure from Secretary Wallace and his asso ciates and from some of the farm leaders whom the secretary has convinced of the value of his scheme. The farm leaders as a whole are far from unanimous on the proposition despite the fact that Secretary Wallace and the tremen dous propaganda machine within the Department of Agriculture has been exceedingly active in an effort to "sell” the plan to the country as a whole and thereby bring addi tional pressure on congress. I shall not attempt to give eQ of the details of the Wallace proposal here. It is too complicated for ex planation in the limited space avail able. Indeed. I have found quite a number of members of the house of representatives who are unable to give a complete explanation of how the plan would work—and they ad mit it. It is a piece of legislation that must be com plicated in ordeP to accomplish things its proponents claim for it and my observation of government agencies leads me to the conclusion it Is so complicated that the chances of it succeeding are almost niL • • • In the first instance, as I have said, the ever-normal granary idea comprehends a constant level of supplies# At first blush, K would seem that storage of wheat or corn or cotton or other farm products in a big crop year to be sold in years when crops are small should work out to keep prices at a satisfactory level. That is the theory. On the other hand, in times past this same sort of scheme has worked out to depress prices instead of maintain ing them and the farmers have been the losers. Included in this legislation are provisions for benefit payments to farmers under certain conditions when the price level falls below parity. This injects into the prob lem again the influence of the gen eral price level of all commodities in the United States whether from the farm or from the factory and it also forces upon the United States additional influence wielded by the level of prices in foreign countries where the law of supply and de mand continues to operate without impossible amendment at govern ment’s dictation. No doubt, the Wallace proposal would boost prices at present. This is true because we have had sev eral short crop years and there is no surplus now. But with indica tions that the current wheat crop, for example, is going to be excep tionally large, it is entirely possible that the nation as a whole will have a surplus of wheat this fall. In ad dition, there will be wheat crops grown in other countries as usual. Some of our wheat must be sold in foreign markets and compete with wheat grown in Russia or in South America. It is easy to see, therefore, that the lack of a wheat surplus in this country is exceed ingly temporary. * • • • The ever-normal granary, if ft works as the theorists claim, would store or keep off of the market that portico of the crop which la act It If they do not take this precaution, they stand a chance always of find ing their bins empty and are faced with the necessity of closing their mills. It is this feature that causes long range buyers to resort to what is called hedging. That is, they sell on option nearly as much as they buy on contract. They are thus able to offset losses whether the price of wheat goes up or whether it goes down and the losses or the gains are distributed throughout the in dustry. It is the only way by which the industry can protect itself. Mr. WaUace’s scheme proposes doing away with that sort of thing, not directly but through the effect of the ever-normal granary. In other words, the net result of the ever- normal granary would be for the government to hold these stocks and feed them into the market as de mand for supplies requires. This sounds feasible and it probably would be except for the fact that we have no means of controlling production in the other wheat pro ducing countries, and I repeat that I am using wheat as illustrative of all farm products. In fact, the Wal lace plan provides no control of pro duction in this country and that question is vital. As far as I can see, nature is going to operate to give us rain or give us drouth in accordance with the judgment of the Higher Power. No human is go ing to be very influential in that regard. To get back to the question of the price level, it should be said that while the Wallace plan provides what appears to be an insurance against fluctuation, it is more likely to have the opposite effect. Be cause of the influence of world prices, great storehouses of wheat in the country will hang over the market like an epidemic. No one can tell when it will strike and since markets are made up of individuals who are human, a portion of the markets is always going to be frightened by the uncertainty of when government wheat will be of fered for sale. It is a perfectly human reaction because it involves the pocketbooks and humans nat urally want to buy as cheaply as they can and sell as high as they can. • • • One of the things that happened in the administration of President T • j * ,oover * 1* • * M Trtam One* tuce to be remem- and Failed be red is the utter failure of his farm policy. That farm policy centered at one time in what was called the Federal Farm board. If you will go back a few years and recall the op> erations of the Federal Farm board, I think you will agree that the things it undertook to do were exactly comparable to, if not exactly the same as. the scheme set up by Sec retary Wallace in his ever-normal granary idea. The only difference that I can see—and I watched the operations of the farm board from close at hand—is a change in the name. It must be admitted that the phrase ever-normal granary has a pretty sound. But when ft comes to a question of an attractive ea- pression, one that is soothing and one that should convince us all that every problem is solved. I sub mit those favorites which Mr. Wal lace used to use when Professor Tug- well was with him in the Department of Agriculture. Who does not re call the "more abundant life.” and who has forgotten the "doctrine of scarcity to assure plenty?” As far as I know, neither the house nor the senate committee on agriculture has held hearings on this ever-normal granary phase of the Wallace legislation. Thus far, the discussion has been largely on questions involving benefits and subsidies and means of marketing. No attention has been given to the ever-normal granary threat, and I regard it as a menace. If this discussion were devoted to only the consumer phase of our economic life, I think I should be selfish enough to urge enactment of the Wallace plan. I believe I can see where the ever-normal granary idea will make bread cheaper, where it will make cotton textile goods cheaper and when cotton is cheaper other textiles are cheaper, and where other food and neces saries of life that have their origin on the farm will be reduced in price by such a legislative policy. But that is not my idea of a sound economic structure. It is just as necessary for the consumer to pay his fair share toward the mainte nance of a living agriculture as it is for farmers to pay their fair share to a living commerce and industry of whatever kind it may be. The senate Democrats have elect ed a new leader to succeed the late Senator Joe Robinson, of Arkansas. He is Senator Alban Barkley, of Kentucky. In a previous column 1 mentioned the split among the sen ate Democrats and suggested that ft would be difficult to replace Senator of the qualities he ******************* ★ ★ fir ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ fi STAR. DUST * ★ ★ * ★ ★ fi fi fi fi jMoyic • Radio $ fi fi fififi By VIRGINIA VALEfififi W HEN word went around the Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer studio the other day that Lea- trice Joy Gilbert, thirteen-year- v old daughter of Leatrice Joy and the late John Gilbert, was making a film test, there was more craning of necks and rushing toward the set than there is even for Garbo. If good wishes could make good actresses little Miss Gilbert will be the greatest of all. Back in the wardrobe department many a tear was shed as seamstresses who had dressed her mother and her father sew'ed on her costume, and camera men who had been devoted to her father begged for the chance to photograph her. For a long time the studio has owned film rights to "National Velvet,” but couldn’t find a girl who was both young and ap pealing enough to play the heroine. Everyone hopes that little Leatrice will be chosen. —-k__ Hot weather in Hollywood so in tense that the closed-in sets of sound studios are like fur naces seems to have a calming effect on temperament and nerves. Ginger Rog ers and Katherine Hepburn sit togeth er at the edge of the "Stage Door” set at RKO studio, calmly sipping tea and dis cussing the day’s news. At Twentieth Century - Fox, Vir ginia Bruce and Loretta Young swap theories on child-raising. At Colum bia, the staff is daily more amazed to find Grace Moore agreeing whole heartedly with every suggestion the director makes. Incidentally, John Ford has an effective way of aquelching actors who want to play scenes their way instead of taking his direction. If an actor grows ar gumentative, he lets him go ahead and play the scene his way. Then he rips the film out of the camera, hands it to the stubborn thespian and says, "You can have it No one else would want to see it” The dafflest picture of the week is RKO’s "Super Sleuth.” You couldn’t find better bet-weather en tertainment anywhere. Jack Oakle provides the laughs, expertly aided by Aaa Sot hern, but M is the story that really deserves loud cheers. I doe’t wsnt to sped ft for yew by telltof toe much, but yew won’t naiad kaowiag that It is the story ef a towels star who tpsriallasa hi de tective Ginger Rogers Ann Sothem’s career, in the dol drums lately because of second- rate pictures, has suddenly picked , up and no one ia happier than her close friend, Joan Bennett If you heard Ann spouting Shakespeare on that best of all summer programs. Charlie McCarthy aided and abetted by Edgar Bergen, you know that she has a sense of comedy that should put her up In the front ranks of high comedy with Claudette Colbert 1 and Carole Lombard. When Son]a Henie decided to go to Norway for a vacation a big fare well luncheon was planned for her by Tyrone Power. That seemed like a charming idea when it was planned and the invitations sent out, but in the mean time Sonja and Ty rone had a squabble and weren’t speak ing. They carefully selected tables at opposite ends of the studio lunchroom and avoided speaking to each other. Hollywood has often giggled over parties where none of the guests were interested in meeting the guest of honor, but this was the first time on record when the host and the guest of honor weren’t speaking. His attentions to Janet Gaynor and Lor-| etta Young are supposed to have caused it. —+— ODDS AND ENDS—Officials at NBC who discovered Doris Weston and called, Warner Brothers' attention to her are de lighted with her performance in "The Singing Marine," say she is the only girl who looks intelligent while listening to other players sing . . . Ben Bemie is at tending, dramatic school in hopes of out smarting Walter Winchell in their next Sonja Heine film . . . Joan Crawford will star in the grandest of all fUm stories, ," which Nancy Carroll re-make of that L "Shopworn Angel, M once made... Ray Milland has been given Claudette Colberts former dressing room and his friends are kidding him unmerci fully about flossy turroundings, spoils af blue mirror glass, wtuie dressing table, and thick, thick mgs ... #1 that they Just can’t da