Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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McCORMICK MESSENGER, McCORMICK, S. C-, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 1936 BRISBANE THIS WEEK Chose* Vacs Fan, Conscience-Proof i Caterpillars and Weeds Wise Generosity , 1 An able Frenchman, long since dead, wrote about choses vuea— “things seen.*' There are still many things to see and to hear, although there is nobody to write about them as that old French man wrote. At the head of the- London Times’ “personal column,” some one pays to print this impressive extract from the Psalms: “Seek tfhe Lord, and His strength; seek His face evermore. Remember his marvelous works that He hath done; His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth.” You spend a moment wondering what kind of English man or wom an, strong in faith, decided to put that text before statesmen that to day seek the “face” of Hitler, Mus solini, Stalin, but forget the greater power of the Creator of those gen tlemen. Artfcar Brisbane After that, yoli read in the same Times this advertisement: “Furs humanely obtained that can be worn with a clean con science—full particulars from Maj. C. Van Der Byl, Wappenham, Tow- cester.” This being an ingenious and doubtless quite sincere appeal to the tender-hearted Englishwoman who does not like to think that the fur around her neck once belonged to an animal that suffered for days and perhaps weeks tortured in a trap. , Possibly the best way to “obtain furs humanely obtained that can be worn with a clear conscience” is to buy and wear some of the innu merable furs, from rugged bears to silky chinchilla, made from the skins of rabbits that are nourished in little hutches in the suburbs of Los Angeles, and fed with “rabbit hay/* tender young alfalfa, grown on the Mojave desert, a good deal of it on a ranch owned and operated by this writer? When you buy furs, no matter what kind, with a.xabbit skin foun dation, you may *t>e sure that the animal suffered very little, if at all, and when you buy that fur you also buy honest American alfalfa, which is a vegetarian product. F. C. Cobb wrote from the Boy Scout reservation at Allaire, N. J.f “The last four week-ends have hen spent by our scouts collecting tent caterpillar egg clusters from wild cherry and apple trees along the highways of Monmouth and Ocean counties. Many thousands of .egg clusters, each containing on the average 250 eggs, have been destroyed.” No better work could be' done by scouts and other boys. It is far better exercise than perfunc tory “hikes,” often exhaustihg for smaller boys. The fathers of the boys, also in need of exercise, can be useful mowing weeds along highways, ex cellent work for the lungs and for reducing the waist. Edward S. Harkhess, generous young New York financier, gave to Lawrenceville School for Boys a sum that will make possible im portant new building, plus rebuild ing and a more extensive system of sm all-group instruction, with more * teachers. Mr. Harkness, fcho does not like publicity, refused to make .'public the amount of his gift of Lawrence ville, but he gave $7,000,000 to Ex eter academy, $13,000,000 each to Yale ancr Harvard, to finance their housing systems. That gives some idea of the size of his gifts. Some Americans will agree' that It is a good thing to have men of unusual ability accumulate wealth wisely. • Old-fashioned Americans would rather encourage such gifts ark! praise the givers than inculcate th* notion. that anybody with brains enough to accumulate wealth ip this country of opportunity is prob ably a thief and ought to be in jail. M , Mussolini knows how a dictator can keep his hold on the people. He establishes 2,000 government camps where half a million poor children enjoy free vacations al sea and mountain reports. For nine years Mussolini has carried on this work. In fittlbpe, English, French, Ger man, Italian or Czechoslovakian will believe anything you say about American crime, and that is hardly surprising. The heading “Chicago Politician Dies Under Hail of Racketeers’ Bullets” surprises nobody. There might be mild surprise if the head ing read. “Chicago Politician Does NOT Die Under Hail of Racketeers Bullets.” Kin* Prnturen Syndicat*. Inc , WNV Service. jiwv ^f^eAmur By Edward W. © Western Neu-ipaper Union I, ,,, I,,—— J. A. Reed Jeffersonian Democrats Band Together E'ORTY - THREE Democrats, ” most of them prominent nation ally or locally and representing twenty states, gathered in Detroit to tell one another and the world how much and why they disliked the New Deal. After two days of conferring, they organized themselves as the National Jefferson ian Democrats and named Former Senator James A. Reed of Missouri as their national chair man. They decided -to establish headquarters at once in St. Louis and to set up an organization in every state. Then they gave out a 1,500 word declaration or plat form in which they declared they “will not support for re-election the candidates of the Philadelphia con vention for President and vice presi dent, and we call upon all loy al and sincere Democrats to con sider the question of their duty to their country in the approaching election with the same earnestness that has guided our . delibrations— joining with us if they feel that our conclusions are sound and our anx iety for the future of our party and our country is justified.” The" name of Governor Landon was not mentioned in the declara tion, but a number of its signers are openly supporting the Republi can candidate. Among these are Joseph B. Ely, Col. Henry Breckin ridge, John Henry Kirby of Texas and Robert S. Bright of Maryland. However, the avowed prime ob jective of the Jeffersonians is the defeat of President Roosevelt and the restoration of the Democratic party to its status before the New Dealers captured it. Their declara tion is unsparing in its denunciation of Mr. Roosevelt’s course and the policies of his administration. *Sar Association Split on ^ New Deal Legislation W HEN the American Bar as sociation convenes in Boston soon it will receive two widely dif fering reports from a special com mittee named to study the effects of New Deal legislation on the rights and liberties of citizens. They were made public in Washington. The majority report, signed by Johp D. Clark, Cheyenne, Wyo.; Fred H. Davis, Tallahassee, Fla.; George L. Buist, Charleston, S. C., and Charles P. Taft II., Cincinnati, Ohio., “deplored” the action of President Roosevelt in reducing congress to a “rubber stamp” body to carry through his progrem. “Novel legislative and govern mental trends of the New Deal are just as uncertain today as they were two years ago,”, the report said. “Laws specifically proposed as emergency measures with , limit ed life have been declared by im portant members of the administra tion to be the % beginning of perma nent changes in-national policy. “There has been a continuing conflict between such officials as to whether a new social and economic order is in the making or the old institutions are being perfected so that they may be preserved.” v These findings were challenged by Kenneth Wynne, New Haven, Conn.; Fred L. Williqms, St. Louis, Mo., and James G. McGowen of Jackson, Miss. In their minority report they said: “If the purpose of the resolution creating the spe cial committee was to get the opin ion of the American Bar association regarding legislative . trends de signed to meet changing economic conditions, the report is superficial. It does not deal with the problem but concerns itself with a short range attack on surfhee triviali ties.” Congressman Zioncheck Commits Suicide < M ARION A. ZIONCHECK brought to an end in char acteristic manner, his checkered career and his life. He leaped to his death from a window of his office in Seattle shortly after he had filed for re-nomination to the con gressional seat he had held for two terms. His friends attributed the suicide to worry over a psy chiatrist’s advice that he take a long rest from politics. His trouble had been diagnosed as dementia praecox. American Track Tearq Victor in Olympics f/IGHT days of track competition that brought out many record- breaking performances showed that the American team was unbeatable in the matter of total points. These Yankee athletes piled up a total of 203 points. Finland was second with 80 1-4, Germany third with 69 3-4 and Japan fourth with 51 13-22. Jesse Owens, the marvel ous colored lad trom Ohio State university, captured four gold medals for firsts in the 100 meter and 200 meter runs and the broad jump and for pacing the winning American quartet in the 400 meter relay. The decathlon was wort by Glenn Morris of Denver. Japan captured the most highly prized Olympic championship-when Kitei Son, young Corean student, won the marathon race over a very tough course and in the record time of 2 hours 29 minutes 19.2 seconds. The distance was 26 miles and 385 yards. Among the women contestants Helen Stephens of Missouri distin guished herself by breaking the world record in two heats of the 100-meter dash. Commerce Department on Recovery and Public Debt CECRETARY OF COMMERCE ^ ROPER’S department has just put out a “world economic review” for 1935 which contains many interesting state- ments. It says, for instance, that future business prospects are condi tioned in part upon the possibility of narrowing the gap between g o v e m- ment expenditures and receipts. It as serted that “the government deficit « „ C1 springs from the' a.r.Moan root of unemployment, which is still the major problem confronting the country. As to “the part played in the re covery to date by the heavy govern ment expenditures,” the report said: “This question i not easily an swered, but it is certain that such outlays have had an influence in many directions — for example, on retail sales, on farm income, on the growth of bank deposits and on the prevailing level of interest rates.” The latter statements may well be compared with the report of Alfred P. Sloan, president of Gen eral Motors, to the stockholders. Business recovery throughout the world — in which the United States has participated — is being gen erated by a combination of various factors, Mr. Sloan explains. In this country the automobile indus try has been helped, he says, by principal influences. Only one of these, he points out, has its roots in the New Deal financial schemes and he finds that particular influ ence a bad one because it creates a temporary fool's paradise in which sales and earnings are bal looned by extraordinary govern ment expenditures. Asserting that political extrava gance has created a highly unde sirable and artificial stimulus, Mr. Sloan urges that such spending be halted before it is too late to stave off disaster. Oil'Men and Cqmpanies Accused of Conspiracy /CHARGED by the government ^ with conspiracy to violate the anti-trust law by combining to dom inate the purchasing of oil in the Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma fields and to fix prices of gasoline in the Mid dle West, 58 per sons, 23 petroleum concerns and three publishing compa nies were indicted by a federal grand jury in ‘Madison, Wis. Among the prominent defend- H. M. Dawes ants are Edward G Seubert of Chicago, president of the Standard Oil Company of Indi ana; Henry M. Dawes of Evanston, 111., president of the Pure Oil com pany, and many officials of Stand ard Oil, Pure Oil, Deep Rock, So- cony-Vacuum and various other oil concerns and their subsidiaries. Al so in the list are Warren C. Platt of Cleveland, publisher of the Na tional Petroleum News and Platt’s Oilgram; his two publications and the Chicago Journal of Commerce. The indictment charged that the defendant oil companies . formed pools in the east Texas and mid continent fields for the purpose of purchasing gasoline at artificially high prices from independent pro ducers, and in furtherance of such a scheme were members of associ ations which included the indepen dents. Further it was charged that independent refiners to aid the plan, had curtailed their production of gasoline. This, said Mr. Platt, is exactly what the oil companies did with the approval of Secretary of the Interi or Harold L. Ickes, administrator of the NRA petroleum code, v/hen efforts were being made to limit the production of gasoline, prevent the flow of excess quota oil into mar ket channels, and raise prices in that turbulent industry. “The government’s charge turns on whether a practice legally start ed and carried on under the recent NRA petroleum code was continued in illegal manner after the NRA was killed by the United States Su preme court,” Mr. Platt said. Two American Authors Called by Death L incoln steffens, long prominent as a journalist, writ er and lecturer, died at Carmel, Calif., at the age of seventy. He was creator of the so-called muck raking school of journalism and in many magazine articles he exposed the corruption in municipal politics. Another well known American writer, Arthur B. Reeve, passed away at his home in Trenton, N. J. He gained fame by his crime and mystery stories. President Resents Charge of Politics in Relief P RESIDENT ROOSEVELT was visibly aroused by Republican charges that the New Dealers were seeking to reap political profit from the drouth conditions. At his press conference he broke with the usual rule by permitting himself to be directly quoted as saying: “It is a great disservice to the proper administration of any gov ernment to link up human misery with partisan politics.** The President announced that he would hold a series of regional con ferences with governors of states in the drouth area, and naturally Governor Landon, his Republican opponent, will be among those he will meet. It was believed they would come together about Labor day in Des Moines, with the gov ernors of Iowa, Nebraska, Oklaho ma and Missouri. Mr. Landon said he would accept the Pres ident’s invitation to such a confer ence. Senator Keyes, New Hampshire, to Retire From Office S ENATOR HENRY W. KEYES of New Hampshire has announced that he is not a candidate for re- election by the Republicans, prefer- ing “to retire from active partici pation in public affairs.” The Re publicans therefore will choose be tween former Senator George H. Moses and Gov. H. Styles Bridges, both of whom have announced their candidacy for the nomination. Kansas Republicans renominated Senator Arthur Capper, and the Democrats picked Omar Ketchum of Topeka. In Kentucky the Demo crats renominated Senator M. M. Logan, whose Republican opponent in November will be Robert H. Lucas. Ten “Rebel** Unions Are Suspended From A. F. of L. T TNLESS John L. Lewis and his ^ associates in the Committee for Industrial Organization repent and cease their “rebellious” activities before September 5, the ten unions they head will be under suspension from the American Federa tion of Labor. Such was the verdict of the federation’s executive council which passed on the charges of . John P. Frey, president of the metal trades division, that the CIO was “forpenting insurrection and rebellion.” David Dubinsky, head of the garment workers, cast the only vote against the suspen sion order. Lewis having definitely set him self against any peace overtures, it appeared that the suspension cer tainly would be put into effect. The next move will be ufc to the Tampa convention in the fall, which will be asked to vote the expulsion of the refractory unions. The ten unions accused by Mr. Frey and found guilty are: United Mine Workers. Amalgamated Clothing Workers, Sidney Hillman, president. Oil.Field, Gas Well, and Refinery Workers, Harvey Ifremming, pres ident. Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, Thomas H. Brown, president. Ladies’ Garment Workers, David Dubinsky, president. Textile Workers; Thomas F. Me Mahon, president. * Flat Glass Workers, Glen Mc Cabe, president. Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers, M. F. Tighe, president. Automobile Workers, Homer Martin, president. Rubber Workers, S. H. Dalrym- ple, president. Lewis characterized the council’s action as one of “incredible and crass stupidity” and said that it. was “dictated by personal selfish ness and frantic fear.” Fierce Fighting in the Spanish Civil War D ESPERATE fighting for posses sion of the passes in the Guadarrama mountains north of Madrid was going on between the government forces and *the rebel troops. Loyalist soldiers were hur ried to that region, and Madrid claimed some victqries. However, the Fascists on the northern side of the range were said to be within sight of the capital and in position for a vigorous advance. The rebels scored in the south by landing 2,000 Moroccan troops from Ceuta after a lively sea and air fight in which two loyalist warships were driven off. The loyalists were also reported to have met defeat near Avila, losing 600 men and some tanks and trucks. On the twentieth day of the re bellion the government announced it had captured the provinces of Catalonia, Valencia, Murcia, Mala ga, Ciudad Real, Guadalajara, Badajoz and the northern resort city of San Sebastian. in *>bb about Debunking War’s Romance S ANTA MONICA, CALIF.— Mrs. “Bud” Lighten, one of the smartest women on this or any other coast, has started a symposium of suggestions for the promotion of national sanity the next time diplomats or politicians, profiteers or professional sword rattlers, or all of these types com bined, try to rush a country into futile and uncalled for war — which classification covers most wars. Her peace formula includes these ideas: No brass bands whatsoever. No speech-making by stay - at - home orators. No recruit ing except by men who have themselves enlisted for active service. No brass buttons. No shiny buckles, no gaudy regalia. Respect for the flag and, if nec essary, all proper de fense for it, but no cheap waving of it beforehand. No bla tant emotional dis plays being turned off or on like a hydrant. Reason to be invoked rather than mob-steria. Irvin S. Cobb Red Ratters’ Field Day A GENTLEMAN in Iowa, who pre sumably inquired into the mat ter, asserts that in this country are upwards of 4,000,000 aliens who en tered illegally and that the vast majority of these —over 90 per cent, are on relief. While we’re fighting corn borers and tobacco worms and boll weevils with gov ernment funds, wouldn’t it - be a grand idea to turn a lot of G-men loose to round up these smuggled- in human parasites and ship them back where they came from? Locally speaking, I’m told that the. average foreign-bom agitator, ostensibly seeking to organize the casual workers of this state, is really a red agent spreading com munistic doctrines under cover of his seeming activities in the indus trial field. In other words, his real aim is not to unionize labor but to disunionize America. Watson, the fly-swatter and the insect poison—quick! 0 0 0 The League’s Big Moment A T LAST here’s a chance for the League of Nations to function. For the poor thing it has been an uphill pull to slide down hill so steadily, with each descending step toward the bottom marked by dis appointment and failure. It had al most as tough sledding as a smooth-faced, bearded lady would have trying to get a job in a mu seum. But now, the league can punish at least one small nation for per sistently breaking the otherwise solid front presented by nearly all the important European powers. Surely, ere long, it will hang some sort of penalty on little, simple- minded Finland for regularly pay ing installments on her debt to us. This disruptive thing cannot pos sibly be permitted to go on forever when the sacred principles of dis honor, ingratitude and repudiation are all at stake! 0 0 0 Paging the Black Legion I T IS passing strange that the Black Legion is so slow about offering Herr Hitler honorary mem bership in the mother-lodge up in Michigan. Both parties seem to feel alike on the subject of per sons of color. Meanwhile just so long as they didn’t try to stop him from shaking those nimble feet . our brown- skinned flying squirrel, Jesse Owens, should worry because a dic tator refuses to shake his hand. With Metcalfe and .other dark colleagues helping him pile up so commanding a lead foi the Ameri can team in the Olympic games, it’s almost time for the band to play “All Gawd’s Chillun Got Wings.” * * * Synthetic Spanish Hidalgoes A ND the famous Santa Barbara fiesta fiesting on every side and yours truly looking as much like a Spanish hidalgo as anybody born in McCracken county, Ky., could be expected to look. Plenty of other disturbing occur rences, too. Heat wave still hang ing on in spots. Fresh European complications on account of the Spanish mess. Down at h>s home on the range where seldom is heard a discourag ing word—except from Washington, D. C.—we behold Uncle Jack Gar ner, with his head over the corral bars, beginning to moo plaintively. And now, on top of all that, it seems we must start worrying about Tommy Manville’s next wife or wives, as the case may be—and probably will. 1 do wish Tommy could see his way clear to hold off till fall. If memory serves me aright, the fall o.ways was his favorite marrying season, anyhow. IRVIN S. COBB Western Newspaper Union. 7heIttanWho0'6 sZ If, Tales and Traditions from American Political History FRANK E. HAGEN AMS ELMO SCOTT WATSON A SPEECH OF NOMINATION M OST of the reason for the title * of these little stories—The Man Who—is supplied by the orators at political conventions who place the name of candidates in nom ination. Today from the loudspeakers come to most of us convincing talks, startlingly free of modesty, which extol the virtues of this favorite son or that one as his name is placed before convention delegates. But the most successful of these nominating speeches occurred long before static was a household word. It was made in Chicago at the Re publican convention of 1880 by James A. Garfield, and made hon estly, in behalf of the nomination of John Sherman. Its net result was that Sherman failed to win the nomination but Garfield succeeded. So that Gar field, later a martyred President, actually is the man who nominate ed himself. Here is how it happened. Presi dent Hayes had pledged himself not to be a candidate. When the convention opened it was plain that great efforts would be made to nominate General Grant for a'" third term. James G. Blaine was a formidable candidate but Grant had been presented in a glowing burst of oratory from Roscoe Conk- ling, a bitter enemy of Blaine. Garfield’s speech in behalf of Sherman followed Conkling’s effort. Instead of qualifyng merely as an anti-clmax it is described by those who were there as an outstanding oratorical triumph. Grant, Blaine, Sherman, George F. Edmunds, Elihu B. Washburne and William Windom divided the votes until the thirty-fourth ballot. Then Garfield, whose speech still resounded in the minds of the dele gates, received 17 votes. He immediately took the floor and protested that he was there , only in the interests of Sherman, whose candidacy he managed. He was ruled out of order. On the next./ballot his strength had in creased to 50 votes. On the thirty- sixth ballot, with 399 votes, he re ceived the nomination which his epochal speech had asked for an other man. ORIGINAL STEAM-ROLLER '"pHE steam-roller may not cover ground with the speed of an antelope, but it gets there just the same. . First of the steam-roller tacti cians to appear on the American political scene was the illustrious Marcus A. Hanna of Ohio, whose effective maneuverings behind the scenes still serve as an outstand ing lesson in the political primer. Steam-roller methods of attain ing the objective, which in this case was the nomination of Wil liam McKinley for President, were first utilized by Mark Hanna in the Republican convention of 1896. And they succeeded. Hanna had^ observed the amaz ing switch of delegates to James A. Garfield in 1880 when the latter was earnestly and honestly plead ing the cause of John Sherman of Ohio. Sherman tried again in 1888, this time employing McKinley as his convention manager. At one stage of the proceedings, the report spread that if McKinley would say the word the strength of the delegates would be thrown to him. He promptly put an end to the movement, his vigorous inter ruption of the roll-call, for he al ready had received a vote, ending with a demand that: “No dele gate who would not cast reflection upon me shall cast a ballot for _ tt me. Hanna was impressed, as were many others. From that day he moved his support from Sherman, who had been defeated three times, and began to groom McKinley for the presidency. The opportunity came in 1896. When the convention met, only “regular” delegates were seated. The national committee o.k.’d them, one by one, by the vote of 35 to 15. And it just happened they all were McKinley men. Newspaper reports of the times describe the proceedings as a farce. But at any rate they were successful for McKinley’s princi pal opponent was cour'ing the southern vote, many of whom could not prove an unbroken chain of party fealty, and therefore were not seated. The result was an outstanding majority for McKinley on the first ballot, Thomas B. Retd of Maine running a tired second, flattened under * the weight of the original steam-roller, today an accepted part of our national politics O Western Newspaper Mnlon. Little Things Little things! Life and death, prosperity and ruin, happiness and misery, hang upon little things; they are like the .linch-pin to the wheel, on which depends the safe ty of the vehicle; they are like the rudder to the vast mass which it guides; like the slender nerves to the hollow muscles.