McCormick messenger. (McCormick, S.C.) 1902-current, August 12, 1937, Image 2
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McCORMICK MESSENGER, McCORMICK, S. C.. THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 1937
News Review of Current Events
JAPS GIRO FOR LONG WAR
Mass 30,000 Troops Near Peiping ... Wages and Hours
Bill Passed by Senate • • • Take Up Low-Cost Housing
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SUMMARIZES THE WORLD’S WEEK
• Western Newspaper Union.
North China Powder Keg
T IENTSIN, powder keg of the
hostilities in North China, was
being attacked from many angles
as .Japan apparently prepared to
fight a long term war. Japanese
bombers rained death arid destruc
tion from the dries, artillery pep
pered the city with shells and, as if
that were not enough, a serious
earthquake shook the metropolis*
foundations.
A surprise Chinese attack, by
three armies along a 95-mile front
from Taku (Tientsin’s port) to Peip
ing, drove Japan away from three
key railroad stations, provoking
Nippon’s retaliation. In the wake
of the bursting bombs, flames en
gulfed Tientsin’s principal build
ings, including the cental railway
Station, the militia headquarters,
the famed Nankai university and
the Chinkiang international bridge
connecting the Chinese city to the
foreign concessions. In the streets,
Chinese and Japanese soldiers
fought hand to hand, with entrench
ments in some places no more than
100 feet apart.
Chinese troops declared that
“Thousands of non-combatant men,
women and children were killed or
injured” by the airmen.
Russia protested vigorously to the
Japanese embassy in Nanking
against the "pillaging of the Russian
consulate by White Russian ruffians
assisted by Japanese.” The Japa
nese denied that any of their coun
trymen were implicated, and ridi
culed the idea that the Japanese
planned any future attacks against
Russian consulates.
In the Fengtai-Lukouchiao district
southwest of Peiping, 30,000 veteran
Japanese troops massed for an at
tack upon five divisions of China’s
central government army, number
ing approximately 60,000. Including
the remnants of the twenty-ninth
army, driven from Peiping by the
Japanese, there were said to be
100,000 Chinese. Both sides were
well equipped with airplanes.
Further evidence of Japan’s ex
pectation of real war were the
sweeping changes in military per
sonnel made after a conference be
tween Premier Konoye and Emper
or Hirohito. Four new division com
manders were named, as well as a
new commander for the island of
Formosa. It was regarded as sig
nificant that all of the new ap
pointees were soldiers with exten
sive experience in China. The gov
ernment was attempting to push
through an appropriation of $115,-
000,000 for operations in North China.
Bill Green jSaves the Day
A FTER William Green, president
** of the American Federation of
Labor, had been prevailed upon by
President Roosevelt to grace the
wages and hours
bill with an approv
al slightly less than
lukewarm, the sen
ate passed it, 56 to
28. Southern sena
tors, led by Pat Har
rison of Mississippi
and obviously dis
pleased with the
bill, pressed a move
ment to recommit it
to the education and
labor committee,
but their motion
was defeated, 48 to 36.
It seemed certain that the south
erners would have enough votes to
defeat the measure when the metals
and building units of the Federa
tion voiced their dissatisfaction also,
while Green at first refused to com
ment. But under pressure from the
White House, Green gave out a
statement that, while the bill was
still unacceptable ,to him, he would
like to have it passed in the senate
and then improved in the house.
As the senate passed it, the Wag-
ner-Connery bill to regulate hours
and wages would create a labor
standards board empowered to set
minimum wages up to 40 cents an
hour and maximum work weeks
down to 40 hours a week.
The draft prepared by the house
labor committee was far broader in
scope than that of the senate. It
would extend the limits to permit
the board to set minimum wages
up to 70 cents an hour and set the
William
Green
IP
maximum working week as low as
35 hours.
In the house, too, there was oppo
sition by the southern Democrats.
They objected to the wide latitude
given the board. Most of them felt
the bill would have a detrimental
effect upon the industrial growth of
the South.
—*—
$700,000,000 for Housing
T-J AVING disposed of wages and
^ hours legislation, the senate
took up the Wagner-Steagall low-
cost housing bill. This would au
thorize the flotation
of a $700,000,000
bond issue by a
United States hous
ing authority. To
meet operating ex
penses of the pro
gram’s first year,
$26,000,600 would be
appropriated imme
diately. The pro
posed bond issue
_ was cut from $1,-
Sen. Wagner 000,000,000 as a com
promise with the Treasury depart
ment, which objected to so high a
figure.
The bill would aid low-cost hous
ing projects in two ways. It would
make loans to the full amount of
contracted projects, aiding the re
payment of the loans by direct
grants if the sponsors kept rents suf
ficiently low; or it would make di
rect grants not to exceed 25 per
cent of the cost of a project. Under
this latter method, the President
would be authorized to make an ad
ditional 15 per cent grant from re
lief funds, to be used only for the
employment of labor. Sponsors
would be required to contribute at
least 20 per cent of the cost.
The housing authority would also
be permitted to spend $25,000,000 on
demonstration projects to illustrate
to communities the benefits of elimi
nating slums and providing ade
quate housing at low cost. The proj
ects would be sold "as soon as
practical” to local housing agencies.
Under the first plan the housing
authority would be given power to
enter subsidy agreements totaling
$20,000,000 annually.
—*—
Wedge to Split Loyalists
A S THE battle of Madrid con
tinued to rage, Gen. Francisco
Franco's eastern army was driving
an ever-widening wedge into the ter
ritory near the junction of Teruel,
Cuenca and Valencia provinces 100
miles east of Madrid. His object
is to impose a barrier between Ma
drid and the loyalist government’s
capital at Valencia.
Government forces all along the
line of advance were reported sur
rendering or fleeing. Insurgents
claimed to have captured large num
bers of automobiles and supplies of
arms, munitions and clothing.
Latest news from the Madrid front
indicated that a rebel attack in the
Usera sector southeast of the city
had been repulsed by machine gun
ners and dynamiters.
Taking inventories of their forces
in the Madrid conflict, the govern
ment and the insurgents disagreed;
each claimed the other’s losses had
been greatest. Rebels reported the
government had lost 300 fighting
planes and had had 30,000 casualties.
The government declared 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.
Women Hear War Cry
NE of China’s chief agitators
for war was Mme. Chiang Kai-
shek, Wellesley-educated wife of the
dictator. She urged women to fight
Japan "according to their ability,”
citing the fashion in which the wom
en of Spain are occupying the fight
ing lines.
"In the World war the women of
every country gave their best," she
declared. "The women of China are
no less patriotic or capable of phys
ical endurance.
"China is facing the gravest crisis
in its history. This means we must
sacrifice many of our soldiers,
masses of our innocent people,
much of the nation’s wealth and see
ruthlessly destroyed the results of
our reconstruction.”
Wllxt
it
about
This Business of Golf.
O AKLAND, CALIF.—As I sit
writing this, I look out
where elderly gentlemen, in
tent on relaxing, may be seen
tensing themselves up tighter
than a cocked wolf-trap, and
then staggering toward the
clubhouse with every nerve
standing on end and screaming
for help and highballs.
I smile at them, for I am one who
has given up golf. You might even
go so far as to say
golf gave me up. I
tried and tried, but
I never broke a ty
phoid patient’s tem
perature chart —
never got below 102.
I spent so much
time climbing into
sand-traps and out
again that people be
gan thinking I was
a new kind of her
mit, living by pref- Irvin S. Cobb
erence in bunkers—
the old man of the link beds, they’d
be calling me next.
And I used to slice so far into the
rough that, looking for my ball,
penetrated jungles where the foot of
man hadn’t trod since the early
mound builders. That’s how I add
ed many rare specimens to my col
lection of Indian relics.
But the last straw was when a
Scotch professional, after morbidly
watching my form, told me that
at any rate there was one thing
about me which was correct—I did
have on golf stockings I
• • •
Congressional Boldness.
XAf ARNING to pet lovers: If you
v v own guinea pigs or tame rab
bits or trained seals or such-like gen
tle creatures, try to keep the word
from them that some of the majority
members of the lower branch of con
gress actually threatened to defy
their master’s voice.
The senate always has been
knov/n as the world's greatest delib
erative body—and, week by week
and month by month don’t those
elder statesmen know how to delib
erate! But these last few years the
house has earned the reputation of
being the most docile legislative
outfit since Aesop’s King Stork ruled
over the synod of the frogs.
So should the news ever spread
among the lesser creatures, hither
to so placid and biddable, that an
example had been set at Washington,
there’s no telling when the Bel
gian hares will start rampaging and
the singing mice will begin acting
up rough and the grubworms will
gang against the big old woodpeck
er.
• • •
Professional Orators.
\\T E HAVE in Southern fcalifor-
v v nia a professional orator who
long ago discovered that the most
dulcet music on earth was the sound
of his own voice. He’ll speak any
where at the drop of the hat and
provide the hat.
What’s worse, this coast-defender
of ours labors under the delusion
that, if he shouts at the top of his
voice, his eloquence will be all the
more forceful. The only way to
avoid meeting him at dinner is to
eat at an owl wagon. But the other
night, at an important banquet, he
strangely was missing from the ar
ray of speakers at the head table.
One guest turned in amazement to
his neighbor:
"Where’s Blank?” he inquired,
naming the absentee.
"Didn’t you hear?” answered the
other. "He busted a couple of ear
drums.”
"Whose?” said the first fellow.
* • •
Foes of Nazidom.
TP HE veteran Rabbi Stephen Wise
-*■ of New York has been reason
ably outspoken in his views on Nazi
treatment of his own co-religionists
and the practitioners of other faiths
as well. And one of the most ven
erable prelates of the Catholic
church in Europe, while discussing
the same subject, hasn’t exactly
pulled his punches, either.
So what? A friend just back from
abroad tells me that in Berlin he
heard a high government officer
fiercely denounce these two distin
guished men. About the mildest
thing the speaker said about them
was that both were senile. Some
how or other, the speech wasn’t
printed in the German papers—
maybe by orders from on high.
Well, far be it from this inno
cent bystander to get into religious
arguments and besides I have no
first-hand knowledge as to the Chris
tian clergyman’s state of health, al
though, judging by his utterances,
there’s nothing particularly wrong
with his mind. But I do know Rab
bi Wise, and, if he’s in his dotage,
so is Shirley Temple. And I risk
the assertion that he would be per
fectly willing to have one foot in the
grave if he could have the other
on Herr Hitler’s neck.
IRVIN S. COBB
C—WNU Service.
ADVENTURERS’ CLUB
HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES
OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELFI
<<
Human Bait
99
By FLOYD GIBBONS
Famous Headline Hunter
H ELLO everybody; You know, boys and girls, fishing is a
harmless sport, and perfectly safe just so long as you don’t
get things mixed up the way Tony Benciven did. In all the fish
ing I’ve ever seen done, the fisherman stays in the boat, and
uses a worm, or another fish, or maybe just a hunk of salt pork,
for bait.
But Tony didn’t follow the usual procedure. For bait, he used him
self. And you know, there are fish that don’t hesitate to chew up even a
man, if they see him trailing along at the end of a fishing line.
Tony lives in Brooklyn, N. Y. He likes Brooklyn because there you
can get a swell swordfish steak in a restaurant, without having to go out
and catch it yourself. Tony is plenty sick of sword-fishing. There are
enough dictators around waving swords nowadays without having the
fish do it, too. And like a dictator, a swordfish can drag you into trouble
faster than almost anything else on earth or in the water. At least,
that was Tony's experience.
Tony says he never did want to go on that swordfishing trip in the
first place. He had just arrived in Avalon on Catalina island, off the
coast of California, and he didn’t know any more about deep-sea fishing
than the mayor of Timbucktoo knows about the North Pole. But his
friend, Tom Martin talked him into it, and on the morning of August 17,
1931, they set out in a power boat for San Clemente island, about thirty-
five miles away.
Then Tony Got His First Strike.
When they reached the north side of San Clemente, Tom showed
Tony how to bait his hook and how to handle his line. Then they began
cruising and looking for swordfish. Tony says they cruised for two
hours before they saw one, and it was a half hour after that before
Tony got his first strike.
"That strike,” says Tony, "almost yanked me clear out of the
boat. There was a tremendous tug on the line, and I caught my
balance just in time. Behind me I could hear Tom yelling in
structions and I began reeling in my line. I reeled in until an
other violent jerk told me that the fish was diving for the bottom,
and then, still following Tom’s instructions, I let the line reel out
again.
"By this time my hands were raw and blistered, and I was panting
from the exertion. When the line was almost all out, Tom shouted to
me to reel in again, and slowly, laboriously, I began hauling that sword
fish back to the surface. I must have had him almost to the top when
suddenly the line went slack again. A second later I heard a hellish
roar and the water burst apart close to the boat. The swordfish shot
out of the water like a bombshell and fell back again with a loud splash.
Then it was off again, in a series of mad plunges, taking most of the
line with it.
"Tom yelled: ‘It’s a beauty.' And it was. It was every bit of
eleven feet long, and it must have weighed close to four hundred pounds.
And just then, the fish turned suddenly in the water and charged straight
for the boat!”
Tom yelled to Tony to haul in the line, and Tony forgot about the
reel and began hauling it in hand-over-hand. In the excitement of the
moment he didn’t notice that the line had become tangled around his
foot. That swordfish was taking all his attention. At the last moment it
veered, missing the boat by a fraction of an inch, and then Tony felt a
tug at his entangled foot. He was knocked clean off his pins, and be
fore he realized what had happened he was in the water, choking and
gasping for air, being dragged along at the end of the line.
Overboard Among the Sharks.
Says he: "In vain I tried to untangle the line around my
foot—and in vain I tried to break the strong cord. Down—down
I was dragged by that diving fish, and I thought my lungs would
burst before it shot to the top again. And then, while I was still
fighting for air, I became aware of an even deadlier menace.
Sharks! A number of them, swimming nearby, dim, ghostly
shapes in the water.”
Suddenly, Tony realized that he was no longer being dragged. He
looked toward the swordfish and saw the reason. He had come to the
surface now, and there was the fish, less than two hundred feet away,
charging straight at him. Tony drew in a deep breath. This looked like
the end, and he was getting ready to meet it. But the swordfish never
reached him. Halfway in its course it was met by two or three darting
streaks of gray. THE SHARKS!
"What a battle that was,” says Tony. "The fierce struggle threw
up mountains of water. And then the line began to drag me into that mad
maelstrom. I was getting closer and closer, when suddenly it snapped—
probably slashed by shark teeth. Then, free for the first time, I looked
for the boat. It was coming toward me at a fast clip—but it was too
late. For at the same time I noticed that two triangular fins were
cutting the water around me in circles—circles that were getting smaller
with every turn.”
Bump on the Head—and Rescue.
Just the same, Tony began swimming toward the boat. The circling
fins were now so close to him that he could see the bodies of the sharks.
Suddenly, one of them darted madly. He felt its body touch his foot
as it swam beneath him—and he shivered. Wasn’t that boat ever
going to reach him?
"The other shark would charge at any moment,” he says "It
had turned on its side, jaws gaping. I tried to steel my nerves for
the inevitable finish. Churning the water wasn’t going to keep
this one off. He was ready for the kill. I heard a roar and a
' rush of water behind me and remembered the other shark. Be
fore I could turn, something struck my head, and that is the
last I remember.”
But when Tony opened his eyes again, he was in the boat, and Tom
was pouring whisky down his throat. It was the boat that had given him
that bump on the head—and it hadn’t arrived any too soon. For Tom
had had to fight the shark off with a gaff hook while he dragged Tony’s
unconscious body out of the water.
Tony says he looked over the side and saw nothing but a couple of
fins circling the water where the swordfish had been a few moments be
fore. And that’s when he resolved that thereafter he’d get his sword
fish in a restaurant, served up on a plate with a piece of lemon and a little
parsley. This business of being shark bait was no fun at alL
No adventure is any fun—until after it is all over.
©—WNU Service.
Hudson and Staten Island
Staten island was one of the ear
liest discoveries of the explorer,
Henry Hudson. He first saw the
highlands on September 2, 1609, and
on the following day entered the
lower bay and anchored in the har
bor of Sandy Hook. The next day
he manned a small boat and sent it
through the narrows to explore the
bay, and the island now known as
Staten island was discovered Sep
tember 4. It was then inhabited by
a branch of the Raritan Indians.
In 1630 the Dutch West India com
pany purchased the island from the
natives, giving in exchange for it
"some kettles, axes, hoes, wampum,
drilling awls, jew’s-harps and divers
small wares.” It was the Dutch
who named the island, calling it
Staaten Eylandt — Island of the
States—after the States General, the
Parliament of the Netherlands,
which was popularly referred to as
"The States.”
Judge Advocate General, Adviser
The judge advocate general is the
official legal adviser of the secre
tary of war, the chief of staff, the
War department and its bureaus,
and the entire military establish
ment. He advises concerning the
legal correctness of military admin
istration, including disciplinary ac
tion, matters affecting the rights
and mutual relationship of the per
sonnel of the army, and the finan
cial, contractural, and other busi
ness affairs of the War department
and the army. The functions of the
judge advocate general’s depart
ment include not only those of the
judge advocate general and of his
office in Washington, but also those
of judge advocates serving as staff
officers at the headquarters of
army, corps area, department,
corps, division, and separate bri
gade commanders, and at the head
quarters of other officers exercisinf
general court-martial jurisdiction-
1 STAR 1
| DUST |
★ M.ovie • Radio $
★ ★
★★★By VIRGINIA VALE★★★
W HEN word went around the
Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer
studio the other day that Lea-
trice Joy Gilbert, thirteen-year-
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
sewed 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.
—j
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
theorjes 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
squelching 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.”
Ginger
Rogers
I
The daffiest picture of the week
is RKO’s "Super Sleuth.” You
couldn’t find better hot-weather en
tertainment anywhere. Jack Oakie
provides the laughs, expertly aided
by Ann Sothern, but it is the story
that really deserves loud cheers. I
don’t want to spoil it for you by
telling too much, but you won’t
mind knowing that it is the story of
a movie star who specializes in de
tective roles.
Ann Sothern’s career, in the dol
drums lately because of second-
rate pictures, has suddenly picked
up and no one is 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
and Carole Lombard.
★
When Sonja Henie decided to go
to Norway for a vacation a big fare
well luncheon was
planned for her by Igjg
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 Gay nor 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
film . . • J°<m Crawford will star in the
re-make of that grandest of all film stories,
"Shopworn Angel" which Nancy Carroll
once made ... Ray Milland has been given
Claudette Colbert’s former dressing room
and his friends are kidding him unmerci
fully about his flossy surroundings, walls
of blue mirror glass, white dressing table,
and thick, thick rugs . .. Whenever actors
insist that they just can't do justice to
more {han two pictures a year, producers
remind them that Gene Autry is the big
gest attraction in pictures nowadays, partly
because he is so good, partly because he
makes so many pictures that audiences
have no chance to forget him.
e> Western Newspaper Union.
Sonja Heine
V
v,