Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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; McCORMICK MESSENGER, McCORMICK, S. C., THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1937 News Review of Current Event* CONGRESS ENDS SESSION Dodges Most of 'Must' Legislation . • . Shelves Wages tond Hours Bill • • • Shell Hits U. S. Flagship in China A breathing spell! Members of 75th congress, happy in adjourn ment at last, file out of the Capitol in Washington. H ^hAurnJul W. PicJcaJul SUMMARIZES THE WORLI SUMMARIZES THE WORLD’S WEEK O Western Newspaper Union. Hooray! School Is Outl E VEN if there were more than a few threats of “Wait’ll I get you after school,” the nation’s lawmak ers were happy as schoolboys at the end of the term, as the first ses sion of the Seventy-fifth congress came to a close at last. The sena tors and representatives, fairly bogged down with months of wran gling, much of it fu^jle, through the intolerable Washington summer, were glad of release, even if such release carried the implication that there might be a special session in October. But the legislators left the Capitol in the realization that the session just ended will probably become known less for what it did than what it did not do. Four out of five of President Roosevelt’s major “must” meas ures it did not pass; the fifth it passed only t with reservations which put a new complexion upon it. Congress did not pass the wages and hours bill. After being passed by the senate in unacceptable form, with tiie understanding that it would be improved in the house, the bill was still buried with the house rules committee when the bell rang. Congress did not pass the new crop control bill which includes Sec retary Wallace’s “ever-normal granary” project. It was agreed that this legislation be brought up during the first week of the January session or the special session. • It did not pass the President’s de sired legislation for re-organization of the executive department. It did vote the White House six new sec retaries, though. It did not pass the proposal to Increase the membership of the Su preme court by six justices, who would apparently be selected with a view to insuring the constitution ality of New Deal measures. By a vote of 70 to 20 it permitted a sub stitute measure, which would have added the justices one at a time, to die a natural death in committee. In addition to failing to enact this legislation demanded by the chief executive, congress defeated the Norris bill to create seven “little TVA’s,” and the crop insurance bill, proposing a revolving fund of $100*000,000. The senate failed to ratify the sanitary convention with Argentina, modifying the restric tions on imports of meat and live stock. However, congress did: Pass the Wagner low-cost housing bill, but with restrictions on the unit cost which will, it is charged, make the program virtually unavailable for New York and other large cities which constitute the principal slum problems. The $526,000,000 measure was on the President’s “must” list. Pass a sugar quota which may be vetoed by the President. He threat ened to veto such a bill if it limited the output of Puerto Rico and Ha waii to 126,000 and 29,000 short tons annually, and it does just that. Extend the neutrality law to pro hibit the shipment of arms, am munition and implements of war to belligerents or extension of credit to them. Pass the Guffey act, creating a commission to fix prices and control the marketing of bituminous coal. Appropriate $1,500,000,000 for work relief in the current fiscal year. Pass a bill to outlaw personal holding companies and other al leged means of tax evasion. Passed a reform bill for the lower courts, designed to speed appeals to the Supreme court and permit the Department of Justice to intervene in cases involving the constitution ality of a statute. Ratified the Buenos Aires “peace treaties,” which include a consulta tive pact for common course of ac tion when war anywhere threatens the American republics. Extended the CCC three years. The President had asked that it be made permanent. Passed a farm tenancy bill to help share croppers buy their own farms. This provides for the ex penditure of $10,000,000 the first year, $25,000,000 the second year and $50,000,000 in succeeding years. Appropriations for the session to taled $9,389,488,893; this was $946,- 910,379 less than for the 1936 session, which included $2,237,000,000 for the soldiers’ bonus. Guffey's Unholy Three S :lNCE the fight on the President’s court plan began in the senate, it has become more and more obvious that a serious split impends in the Democratic party ranks. It was not a secret that certain of the sena tors and representatives were marked for extinction, fish fries and harmony dinners notwithstanding. But few expected the bombshell that broke when Sen. Joseph F. Guf fey of Pennsylvania, in a radio speech just before the end of the session, openly named Senators O’ Mahoney of Texas, Burke of Ne braska Euid Wheeler of Montana as senators who would not return to Washington after the next elections. Burke summed up reply of the three men attacked when he said that if Guffey’s statement were true “we might just as well forget about Jefferson Island and harmony •din ners and get ready for a real bat tle.” Wheeler, on the senate floor, said that if the “Democratic bosses . . . want to drive us out of the Democratic party they will not have any difficulty in doing so. I say to you (Guffey) that if you nominate your governor of Pennsylvania or yourself for President of the United States, you will not have to drive us out.” Admiral Yarnell Protests T TNCLE SAM was brought nearer ^ than ever to the unofficial war in North China when a shell ex ploded on the deck of the Augusta, flagship of the United States’ Asi atic fleet, killing Freddie John Fal- gout, a seaman, and wounding 18 others of the crew. The ship was lying at anchor in the Whangpoo riv er in the heart of the International Settlement of Shanghai. It was im possible to determine whether the shell had been fired by the Chinese or Japanese. Admiral Harry E. Yarnell, com mander of the fleet, warned the gov ernments of both nations againbt shellfire over American and foreign warships. The President and the State department were inclined to leave diplomatic overtures to the military, naval and diplomatic offi cers in China. The President de clared that under the circumstances accidents such as the one which beset the Augusta were bound to occur. Premier Sees Long War P REMIER FUMIMARO KONOE declared in Tokyo that there would be no settlement of the un declared war until Japan had “pun ished” the Chinese army. He ad mitted that he believed the fighting would be of long duration. The Japanese foreign office was said to have rejected a British plan to establish a neutral zone in Shang hai. A spokesman said the Chinese soldiers must withdraw far enough beyond the limits of the demilitar ized zone of 1932 to make an attack impossible. The government’s aim was expressed as a desire to restore amicable relations between Japan and China, but to chastise the Chi nese militarists. Franco Batter* 'Iron Ring 1 L OYALIST Spain’s second “iron ring” — the one around San tander on the northern coast—is proving no more invulnerable than its first—the fortifications about Bil bao. Rebels have broken through it, besieging the hungry city and bombarding its fortifications with artillery. General Franco’s forces have captured several important neighboring towns in Villacarriedo, considered an important sector. In a communique the national de fense ministry at Valencia admitted that the government had met defeat in the fighting about Santander, but claimed the victory had cost the in surgents heavily in men. It also claimed that an Italian sergeant, taken prisoner, reported that four Italian divisions were fighting with the rebels on the Santander front Irvin S. Cobb about: The State of the World. S ANTA MONICA, CALIF.— Up in Montreal a veteran showman says he talks with chimpanzees in their own lan guage. I wish he’d ask one of his chimpanzee pals what he thinks about the present setup of civilization. Because I can’t find any humans who agree as to where we all are going and what the chances are of get ting there. In fact, the only two who ap pear to be certain about it are young Mr. Corcoran and young Mr. Cohen, and they seem to hesitate at times— not much, but just a teeny-weeny b i t— which is disconcert ing to the lay mind. We are likely to lose confidence even in a comet, once it starts wobbling on us. I’m also upset by a statement from England’s greatest star-gazer —they call him the astronomer roy al, which, by coupling it with the royal fsunily, naturally gives astron omy a great social boost in England and admits it to the best circles. He says the moon is clear off its mathematically prescribed course. * • * Cash Versus I. O. U.’s. O NLY a few weeks ago the front - pages were carrying dis patches saying the adjustment of Great Britain’s defaulted debt was just around the corner. Economists and financiers had discussed terms of settlement. Figures were quoted —mainly figures calling for big re ductions on our part, but never mind that. They were figures anyhow. Lately the papers have been strangely silent on the subject. Per haps you remember the old sto^ told on the late John Sharp Wil liams, who frequented a game at Washington where sportive states men played poker for heavy stakes —mostly with those quaint little fic tional products called I. O. U.’s as mediums of exchange. Early one morning a fellow sena tor met the famous Mississippian coming from an all-night session. “I certainly mopped up,” he pro claimed. “I won $3,000—and what’s more, $8.75 of it was in cash.” • • * Autumn Millinery. J UST as the poor, bewildered males are becoming reconciled to the prevalent styles in women’s hats, up bobs a style creator in New York warning us that what we’ve thus far endured is merely a fore taste of what’s coming.* In other words, we ain’t seen nothin’! For autumn, he predicts a quaint number with a slanted peak fifteen inches high, which, I take it, will make the wearer look like a refugee trying to escape from un der a collapsing pagoda. Another is a turban entirely com posed of rooster feathers. A matching coat of rooster feath ers goes with this design. But in the old days they used hot tar. A third model features for its top- hamper a series of kalsomine brushes sticking straight up. Nat urally, the hat itself will imitate a barrel of whitewash. But the gem of all is a dainty globular structure of Scotch plaid. Can you imagine anything more be coming to your lady wife than an effect suggesting that she’s balanc ing a hot-water bag on her brow? • • • v “McGuffeyisms.” T HE lieutenant-governor of Ohio urges a return to “McGuffey- ism” for settling modern problems. ’Twas in a McGuffey reader that I met those prize half-wits of lit erature—the Spartan boy who let the fox gnaw his vitals; the chuckle headed youth who stood on the burn ing deck; the congenial idiot who climbed an alp in midwinter while wearing nothing but a night shirt and carrying a banner labeled “Ex celsior” in order to freeze to death; the skipper who, when the ship was sinking, undertook to calm the pas sengers by—but wait, read the im mortal lines: “We are lost!” the captain shouted. As he staggered down the stair. And then the champion of all—the Dutch lad who discovered a leak in the dyke so he stuck his wrist in the crevice and all night stayed there. In the morning, when an early riser came along and asked what was the general idea, the heroic urchin said—but let me quote the exact language of the book: “ ‘I am hindering the sea from running in,’ was the simple reply of the child.” Simple? I’ll tell the world! Nothing could be simpler except an authority on hydraulics who figures that, when the Atlantic ocean starts boring through a crack in a mud wall, you can hold it back by using one small Dutch boy’s arm for a stopper. IRVIN S. COBB. © Western Newspaper Union. Bamboo Largest of Grasses The giant bamboo is doubtless the largest of the grasses. The arun- dinacea grows to 100 feet high and the variety Tulda to 70 feet high. Thuxe are other very high varieties. j-totyd ADVENTURERS’ CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF! « Devil in the Dark By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter T ODAY’S pleasant little tale, boys and girls, is about a grave yard and a boy who lay in it waiting for death. It’s Harry Dennehy of New York City who is telling this yarn, and it con cerns the time Harry thought he was about to get an exclusive interview with the Devil. That’s something that newspaper men would look forward to. A lot of them would give their shirts to get Old Nick off in a corner and say, “Look here, now, Dev, what do you think of American women?” But Harry wasn’t looking forward to it. He didn’t give a whoop about meeting Old Nick, and he didn’t give a whoop about American women then, either. For this happened in December of 1917, and Harry was just a boy living in Cork county, Ireland. Maybe Harry’s dad shouldn’t have told him ghost stories. And may be Harry shouldn’t have been prowling around at night when everybody ought to be in bed. Anyway, the facts are these: The Sinn Fein move ment was organizing all over Ireland. The Gaelic language had been suppressed in the public schools and the young fellows of the neigh borhood were meeting in secret sessions to learn the Irish language as it was spoken in the days of the Irish kings. Fear of the Devil Was Instilled in Him. Harry’s dad was an old-fashioned man who wanted Harry to be at home early of nights, and he used every method he knew to get results. He told him stories about ghosts he had seen in the neighborhood that fairly made Harry’s hair stand on end. He told Harry that the Devil haunted the country of nights, waiting to snatch up young boys who stayed out late, and Harry half believed him. But not even the fear of the Devil could keep him away from those Gaelic classes when all the other young lads of spirit in the neighborhood were going. So, on cer tain nights, Harry slipped out of the house and off through Ovens grave, yard to Strelan, whre the class was held. It was all right going—but it was the coming back that worried Harry. Coming back in the dark along about 11 o’clock. Coming back through the graveyard, with its black and white shadows. That’s when Harry used to think of the stories his dad would tell him and run fast so that he’d get home all out of breath. And then came the night that the class broke up later than usual, and Harry didn’t start his four-mile walk home until half-past 11. He walked with a couple of other lads for the first mile and a half. Then they left him to go off in another direction and Harry was alone. He was more reluctant than usual to go through the graveyard, but it would cut half a mile off his journey, and even if he went the long way he’d have to pass along the edge of that graveyard anyhow. So he started right through. It Sure Looked and Sounded Like Satan. It was after he was well in the graveyard that Harry remembered the time. He had left Strelan at 11:30, and now it would be about mid night—the hour when, according to his dad’s stories, the Devil was in.the habit of appearing on earth. After that every tombstone looked as if it were grinning at him. Every shadow looked like a specter. Ajid Harry began walking faster than ever. He had just passed the old church that stood in the center of the grounds when suddenly—he heard a sound. It was the clanking rattle of a chain. Harry broke into a dead run and fled for the exit. He says he made it in nothing flat. The gate was locked, but there was a flight of steps leading up over the wall, and in his panic he tried to take them ip a flying leap. That leap was nothing short of disaster. Harry missed his footing. His toe stubbed on one step—his knee cracked against the edge of another. Down in a heap he went, and then, for an instant, he lost consciousness. When he came to again he was lying on the steps, still inside the cemetery, with a sharp pain stabbling through his knee. The pain was so intense that Harry just lay there, unable to move. Then he thought of that chain-clanking specter, and in a fit of terror ho tried to drag himself up the steps. Suddenly he heard that clanking of chains again—and the sound was COMING TOWARD HIM! “I guess,” says he, “that you know how a rabbit feels when he’s looking into the eye of a snake that is hypnotizing him. Well, that’s just how I felt then. I couldn’t stir an inch. I could hear slow, rhythmic foot falls on the gravel and the sound of the chain, keeping tune with every step. It seemed an eternity that I lay there powerless to help myself—waiting for what I was certain must be the end. And just then the moon came up!” The light should have reassured Harry—but it didn’t. Straight ahead of him he could see a dark form coming straight toward him. It was a short, squat form, moving steadily to the clank of its chains, and Harry could see the horns sticking up from the top of its head! Just a Stray, Friendly Donkey. Old Nick! Coming to get him! Harry lay there quivering with terror as the Devil came forward with slow, steady steps. He wanted to scream, but he couldn’t find his voice. And then, * all at once, the figure moved right into a beam of moonlight, and Harry let out a low, hysterical laugh instead. The figure came up to him and began rubbing against his leg. But Harry had forgotten his fear now—had even forgotten the pain in his knee. For what Harry had seen in that stray beam of moonlight was, not the Devil, but a DONKEY—a donkey with ears—not horns—sticking up from his head, and with a length of broken chain clanking on one of his hind legs. ... Harry says that’s the first time in his life that he ever felt like kissing a jackass. He scrambled up those steps and limped on homeward to nurse a sore knee for a week thereafter. And after that he could listen to his dad’s ghost stories without turning a hair, for he had a pretty good idea of how such tales get started. In fact, he’d have started one himself —if it hadn’t been for that stray, revealing ray of moonlight. ©—WNU Service. Millions of Matches in Daily Use Through World If all the matches used in the world in one day were placed end to end, they would reach to the moon and 10,000 miles beyond. Think how important these baby explosive bombs are in the everyday business of the world, writes a correspondent in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. American kitchen matches are usually made of pine wood cut in a round shape. In Europe the yare made of aspen and are cut square. Sheets of aspen wood can be dried artificially in a couple of hours and made into matches within the next hour. Thus three hours may see a change from an aspen log to a few hundred or more boxes of matches. But pine has to be allowed to stand for a couple of years before it is suf ficiently seasoned to be made up. There is more than one might sup pose involved in the matter of dip ping match sticks into the fire-pro ducing solution that makes the head. Match heads are really the product of much chemical research. For instance, feople like their matches a cheerful color, so the chemical has to be dyed a pleasing blue or red. They must be double tip, capable of being lit on any surface—a wall, a stove, your shoe. They must not leave a streak or scratch after them. They must not be noisy and pop up at the person using them. The matches must be made so they will not flash up too soon. They must have no sharp edges, but must be smooth and oval so the heads will not rub against one another in peo ple’s pockets and light on each oth er. They must be fairly waterproof and windproof, and must burn without smoke or odor. Henry’s Contributions The electromagnet was further improved by Joseph Henry, dean of American scientists in the field of electrical research and for many years secretary of the Smithsonian institution. He also made many oth er important contributions toward the art of communication by elec tricity. Henry’s first magnet was exhibited in 1829. One form of mag net devised by him was particu larly useful when the current ener gizing it was carried over consider able distances. This magnet was utilized by Morse in his telegraph receiver and, still later, by Bell and others in various forms of telephone apparatus. Electromagnets, in the form of relays, perform important functions in many other types of communication equipment. When Morse was experimenting with the telegraph, Henry gave him the bene fit of his technical advice, and it was Henry’s encouragement that in spired Bell to continue experiments which ultimately led to the invea tion of the telephone. GOOD TASTE £ TODAY f by "emily post World's Foremost Authority on Etiquette f 3 ) Emily Post. What Is It? Dinner, Lunch or Supper? EAR Mrs. Post: A friend of mine insists that no matter what is served, the meals of the day in their order are called break fast, lunch and dinner, and a light evening meal is supper. I maintain that if a person eats a full course meal at noon it is called dinner. Will you explain this to us? Answer: Meticulously speaking* dinner, no matter whether served at mid-day or in the evening, be gins with soup in plates set on a tablecloth, and is followed by meat and vegetables, and there is no cup and saucer for a hot beverage on the table. It is the tablecloth and the soup in the soup plate, and the absence of cups and saucers, that classifies the meal as dinner. Until lately the presence of bread and butter plates also banished the name of dinner. Supper is recog nized principally because set on a bare table, and it has cups .and saucers and hot coffee, tea or choco late on the table, and soup, if any, is served in cups. The difference between lunch and supper is that one is at mid-day and the other is in the evening. Less meticulously but according to its more usual in terpretation, dinner is the substan tial meal of the 24 hours, no mat ter at what time it is eaten, and the other meal is either lunch or supper. • • • Youth Still Addresses His Elders With “Sir” EAR Mrs. Post: My son is ^ eighteen and as a young child we tanght him to address older men as Sir. A young uncle of his insists that Sir and Ma’am are used only by servants when speaking to their employers. If modern training is gradually abolishing every sign of filial respect, what kind of untrained animals will our young soon be? I wish you’d explain the present-day use of Sir and Ma’am. Answer: All properly brought up boys answer Sir when making a monosyllabic reply to a gentleman, and Mrs. Brown or Miss Brown when answering a lady. Girls say Mr. Brown as well as Mrs. or Miss Brown. Properly, servants say Sir and Madam. • • • Sending Announcements, F\ EAR Mrs. Post: My only rela- tives are my aunt and my brother, and under the circum stances I am not going to have a very large wedding and will not send any invitations. But I would like to send announcements to our friends everywhere. In whose name should these announcements bo sent? Answer: Either would be proper although somewhat depending upon circumstances. If your aunt has brought you up and your brother is younger than you, then the invita tions would certainly go out in her name. But if you and your brother have always lived together and if he is older than you, the invitations would probably go out in his name. This, however, can’t be answered definitely since the question of how both feel about the matter must be taken into consideration. • • • Ask Her Alone, D EAR Mrs. Post: Is it necessary to ask the friends with whom a friend of mine is visiting to go out with us? I have always done this but this year things are differ ent and I haven’t much money. However, 1 do not want her criti cized for my failure to do some thing that would be very difficult for me to do right now, but which they may not appreciate. Answer: Under practically all cir cumstances one is free to ask one’s friend and not the persons with whom she happens to be staying, especially if the latter are strang ers. • • • Substitute for Spouse. D EAR Mrs. Post: You have writ ten that to all general parties such as receptions and musicales a wife may accept an invitation for herself and send regrets for her hus band. Will you go a little further and explain whether she might be allowed to take a friend in her husband’s place to such a general party since to go alone would be rather unpleasant? Answer: She could do this only in the house of someone whom she knows well enough to call on the telephone and ask if she may bring whoever it is in “John’s” place. • • • Knives, Forks and Fish. r\ EAR Mrs. Post: When fish is served at breakfast, are the medium sized knives used for eat ing breakfast proper, or should I set the table with the fish knives and forks? Answer: Usually the regular breakfast knife and fork are used, but if you are having small bony fish and your fish knives are more practical, then by all means use them. WNU Servlet.