McCormick messenger. (McCormick, S.C.) 1902-current, September 23, 1937, Image 2
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McCORMICK MESSENGER, McCORMICK, S. C.. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1937
Sews Review of Current Events
FLEET STALKS 'PIRATES'
Britain, France Will Patrol Mediterranean tor 'Subs'
^ • • Japs Advance as Chinese Start Tactical Retreat
W. fticJoeUul
y SUMMARIZES THE WORT.!
SUMMARIZES THE WORLD'S WEEK
G Western Newspaper Union.
M. Litvinoff
Showdown on 'Sub' Piracy
G reat Britain and France
were massing the greatest de-
istroyer fleet ever operated in the
Mediterranean sea, to police it and
safeguard neutral
shipping from at
tacks by “pirate”
submarines, as a re
sult of the agree
ment signed by nine
powers at Nyon,
near Geneva. The
powers signatory to
the pact also in
cluded Greece, Jugo
slavia, Turkey, Ru
in a n i a, Bulgaria,
Egypt and Russia.
Italy and Germany had refused to
attend the conference when Russia
publicly accused Italy of operating
the “pirate” submarines which sank
two Russian ships, and threatened
reprisals if Italy did not pay indem
nity.
The principal provisions of the
agreement, which Germany and
Italy were invited to join, were:
, 1. Mediterranean shipping will be
restricted to the regular ship lanes,
which will be patrolled by French
and British warships, in both the
eastern and western stretches. If
Italy agreed, she was to be al
lowed to patrol the Tyrrhenian sea.
2. Patrolling navies will attack
and attempt to destroy any sub
marine which attacks merchant
ships other than Spanish, without
first giving passengers and crew op
portunity to leave in lifeboats, as
outlined in the 1936 London naval
treaty.
3. Signatories expressly declare
that they do not concede belligerent
rights to either party in Spain.
4. Patrol ships arriving on the
scene of an attack too late to pre
vent it will be authorized to attack
any submarine in the vicinity, pro
vided they are satisfied it is the
guilty one.
5. These measures will be execut
ed by the British and French fleets
anywhere in the Mediterranean with
the exception of the Adriatic. East
ern powers will protect neutral
shipping in their territorial waters.
6. Signatories agree not to let any
of their own submarines put to sea
in the Mediterranean unless accom
panied by a surface vessel, except
in certain “exercise” zones.
7. Signatories will not permit for
eign submarines in their waters un
less in urgent distress or on the
surface and accompanied.
It was plain that delegates knew
that explosions might occur in half
a dozen European capitals if their
pact did not get into operation be
fore there were any further attacks
on shipping. They were embar
rassed in conference by the Russian
foreign commissar, Maxim Litvinoff,
who insisted on naming Italy as the
“pirate.” Russia at first refused
to sign, on the grounds that the sec
ond provision was no protection at
all, merely requiring submarine
commanders to be “gentlemanly”
before sinking ships, and that it im
plied recognition of both Spanish
parties as belligerents. Britain’s
Anthony Eden was reported to have
convinced the signatory powers that
it would be impossible for a sub
marine to sink a ship under those
conditions.
China's German Strategy
JAPAN’S long-awaited “big push”
** in China was believed definitely
“on” as the Japanese assumed vir
tual control of North Hopei, and
made important thrusts into the Chi
nese lines at Shanghai, after the
most terrible fighting of a month of
undeclared warfare.
At about the same time, the Chi
nese, heeding at last the advice of
German officers generally conced
ed the “brains” of the central army,
began a strategic retreat to the
“third area of defense” mapped out
by these same officers after the
Shanghai conflict of 1932, which was
conducted under identical condi
tions.
Included in the Japanese drive to
break the 20-mile Chinese line from
the Woosung forts to Liuho were
more bombihgs and shellings of the
heavily populated Chinese districts
of Nantao, Chapei and Lunghwa,
with women and children account
ing for most of the enormous casu
alty list.
The Japanese conquest of North
Hopei appeared to have been
clinched with smashing victories at
Machang and Tsinghsien. Tsingh-
sien is 40 miles south of Tientsin
and only 16 miles from Tsangchow,
where the principal Chinese de
fenses of the area are located. From
Tsangchow to Paotingfu there exists
a strong, unbroken Chinese line
which includes the finest Chinese
war equipment and the country’s
heaviest artillery.
Apparently the Chinese plan of re
treat was to withdraw defending
troops from the range of Japanese
naval guns in the Whangpoo and
Yangtse rivers. The Chinese were
reluctant to leave positions which
they claimed had been held against
the Japanese invasion, but the Ger-
HANDS ACROSS EUROPE
Jointly refusing to attend the
anti-“piracy” conference. Hitler
(left) and Mussolini once more
show the complete accord of the
two Fascist governments.
man advisers finally won them over
to the theory that these positions
had been held at a cost far out of
proportion to their importance.
Japan has depended largely upon
the naval guns for most of her ar
tillery shelling and, attacking' far
ther back from the river, will lose
that advantage. The presence of
Japanese warships was an impor
tant factor in the heavy Chinese
casualty list, which totaled 20,000
killed and 30,000 wounded. The in
vaders lost 10,000 men killed and
an unestimated number wounded.
The first strategic stage of the
Chinese fighting in Shanghai—as
planned by the German officers—
was to slow down and harass the
landing of Japanese reinforcements;
the second, to divide the Japanese
lines, and the third, to deprive the
Japanese of the use of their naval
guns.
Realizing what is going on, the
Japanese command has ordered
rapid advance no matter what the
cost, in an effort to change an or
derly retreat into a complete rout.
As a result, the Japanese for the
time being are the heavy losers in
men, rather than the Chinese. The
latter have been covering their ma
neuver well,, leaving land mines in
their wake which have blown whole
Japanese units to bits, and continu
ing to throw a curtain of artillery
fire in front of the invaders. The
city of Shanghai is a mass of fires
and ruin such as no one has ever
seen there before.
$300,000,000 In New Money
S ECRETARY OF THE TREAS
URY MORGENTHAU has
agreed to issue $300,000,000 in cash
against an equal amount of the
treasury’s “steril
ized” gold. The
move was believed
to have been made
because of recent
weakness in the
market for govern
ment bonds and a
16 per cent decline
in the stock market
over a period of
about four weeks.
In addition, the
open market com
mittee of the federal
reserve board announced that it had
authorized the twelve federal re
serve banks to buy additional
amounts of short term government
securities.
In some quarters, the treasury’s
move was interpreted as an about
face by the administration, reversing
its year-old policy of trying to pre
vent an untimely inflation.
—*—
'Keep Us Out of War*
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT, anx-
* ious over conditions in Europe
and the Far East, cut his vacation
short and returned to Washington to
discuss developments with his cabi
net. After discussing the situation
with Norman H. Davis, his European
ambassador-at-large, and Bernard
M. Baruch, and getting reports from
the State department, he was said to
be convinced that there was a real
possibility of implication of the Unit
ed States in a foreign war. Baruch
called Europe a tinder box, ready to
explode at any time.
In an address before an outdoor
meeting of Dutchess county (N. Y.)
citizens President Roosevelt had
said, “World conditions are pretty
serious. I am glad to say . . . that
we are going to do everything we
can in the United States—not only
the people of the United States but
the government of the United States
—to keep us out of war.” He added
that “it will take a lot of planning
to keep us out of war.”
16,098,000-Bale Cotfon Crop
'TVlE fifth largest cotton yield
in the nation’s history was fore*
case by the Department of Agricul
ture, which estimated a 1937 crop of
16,098,000 bales. The cotton crop
September 1 was 75 per cent of nor
mal, indicating an average yield
per acre of 228.5 pounds.
Secretary
Morgenthau
Irvin S. Cobb
And the con-
about:
The Big Book Craze.
S ANTA MONICA, CALIF.—
We’re promised a historical
novel longer than any yet—say
half a million words or so. Of
course, the author probably uses
some words at least twice, but
that won’t reduce the gross ton
nage unless they’re very short
words.
I can’t take it. While still con
valescent from “Anthony Adverse,”
I was stricken down
by “Gone With the
Wind” and had such
a relapse that even
now I barely can
hold on my stomach
such comparatively
light and trifling
stuff as volume VET
to ZYM of the en
cyclopedia.
When reading this
modern bulk litera
ture, it upsets me to
find my legs going
to sleep before I do.
stant pressure makes callouses on
my second mezzanine landing.
I admit these mass production
books serve nicely as door stoppers
and for pressing wild flowers. I
also heard of a chap who detected
a prowler under his window and
dropped a frothy little work of fic
tion weighing slightly less than nine
pounds on the back of the fellow’s
neck, dislocating three vertebrae.
At last accounts, the surgeons were
still picking long jagged chapters
out of his spine.
In my present mood, what I crave
is the romantic stuff of olden days,
in which our sainted Aunt Sophie
was wont to inscribe “Alas, how
sad!” or “Only too true!” in pale
violet ink on the margins. What
happened to all the Aunt Sophies,
anyhow?
0*0
An Actor’s Temperament.
W E’VE all been waiting for
something to top it, but the
best wheeze of the month remains
the one that was emitted, not by a
paid gagster, but by a simple stage
hand at one of the studios when Mr.
Leslie Howard refused to go on
making a picture until a group of
distinguished visitors, including Mr.
Charles Norris, the novelist, had
been shooed off the set.
“He ain’t sore at you gents,” stat
ed the stage-hand to the ousted par
ties, “but he’s been playin’ ‘Ham
let’ on the regular stage and he ain’t
used to havin’ a crowd watchin’ him
while he’s actin’.”
If Mr. Norris and his friends want
ed to see some really great acting
they should have patronized the pro
fessional wrestling matches. That’s
where they put on the heavy dra
matic stuff—beautifully rehearsed,
perfectly done.
• • •
Children’s Education
f LIKE the way the wealthy
A classes in England rear their
children. Little Rosemary doesn’t
recite for the company after dinner,
and if Master Jones-Terwillager Mi
nor gets uppity at school, he gets
thrashed.
Many a rich American has known
how sharper than a serpent’s tooth
it is to see his daughter grow up a
wanton and his boy turn out a wast
er. Yet, with few exceptions—so
few that the newspapers comment
on them—it never seems to occur
to these fond fathers that less of
coddling and pampering and spoil
ing in adolescence and more of
wholesome discipline might produce
a higher average grade of heirs.
What set me to thinking along this
line was being t’other night at a
party where a poor little four-year-
old, having already the pitiable as
surance of a veteran prima donna,
was fetched in to give impersona
tions. She never again could imper
sonate natural babyhood though,
more’s the pity! And her pert small
brother was encouraged to domi
nate the talk.
Mark my word for it, that kid is
going to come to no good end—not
even a well-spanked end, which
would help.
* • *
Mr. Pincus’ Coup.
TN THESE topsy-turvy times lib-
* eral-minded patriots who are
striving to steer a middle course
between ultraenthusiastic left-wing
ers and ultraconservative rightists
might do well, methinks, to follow
the example set by Mr. Pincus.
Mr. Pincus had opened a clothing
store. Immediately on one side of
him was the clothing store of Mr.
Ginsberg and immediately on the
other side was the clothing store of
Mr. Dreifus; and three clothing
stores in a row were too many even
for Essex Street.
So the adjacent competitors
framed a plot to put the newcomer
out of business. Next morning their
rival, coming down to open up,
found over Mr. Dreifus’ establish
ment a flaming legend, to wit:
BANKRUPT SALE
And above Mr. Ginsberg’s door
was this equally prominent an
nouncement:
CLOSING OU¥ SALE
Within an hour, smeared across
the entire front of Mr. Pincus’ store,
exactly in between the other two,
appeared a huge sign reading as
follows:
MAIN ENTRANCE.
IRVIN S. COBB.
«>—WNU Service.
Hoyd
ADVENTURERS’ CLUB
HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES
OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELFI
«<
99
A Swim in the Ocean
By FLOYD GIBBONS
Famous Headline Hunter
H ello everybody:
Here’s the story of an adventure that almost ruined a
girl’s career. That’s the way Grace Stoner of New York City looks
at it, anyway. And since Grace is the girl in question—well—
she ought to know, hadn’t she?
But if you left it up to me, I’d put it a little more strongly than Grace
put it. I’d say that adventure came doggone near ruining Grace. I
wouldn’t say it was only her career she was in danger of losing. It seems
to me she stood a mighty good chance of losing her life in that little epi
sode in the harbor at Corinto, Nicaragua, in July, 1922.
Maybe in mentioning her career, Grace was talking about the
thing that mattered most. Grace is a dancer, and I’ve heard it
said that dancers take their careers mighty seriously. But the
point is that Grace risked her career, and her life, too, for that
matter, because a couple of birds made a couple of sneering
remarks about her sex.
It Happened in Corinto Harbor.
Grace was off on a cruise when it happened. The ship was anchored
in Corinto harbor about a mile from shore. It was late afternoon—just
before sundown—and a more peaceful picture you never saw in your life.
There wasn’t a breath of wind blowing. The sea was like glass. Off in
the distance the beach was bathed in shadow and the sun was sinking
behind the towering peaks of the Central American Sierras.
A bunch of the young folks aboard the steamer were splashing around
in the tiny improvised pool, rigged up out of wooden frame-work and
waterproof canvas on the afterdeck. There was a bunch of young Span
ish students aboard, going home from the University of California to
their homes in Panama and San Salvador. They made up most of the
crowd. The rest of it was Grace.
In a nice cool bathing suit, and with half a dozen handsome young
fellows around her, Grace ought to have been happy. But the canvas
pool was so small you could hardly turn around in it, and Grace was
casting longing eyes on the placid, inviting waters of the harbor. It would
be swell fun, she thought, to dive right off the deck and swim to shore.
Grace Wouldn’t Take a Dare.
Grace mentioned her idea to the young Central American students.
And that’s what started all the trouble. The boys laughed at her. One
of them said: “You? A girl? Why you wouldn’t have the nerve to swim
ashore.” And another one wanted to bet her ten bucks she wouldn’t
have the nerve to try it.
It made Grace see red. They couldn’t talk like that to her
just because she was a girl. Without another word she ran to
the rail, dived overboard and struck out for shore.
Behind her, the boys crowded to the rail, shouting and gesticulating.
Grace wondered what they were making all the fuss about. It was only
a mile to shore, and that wasn’t much of a swim, even if she was a girl.
Grace knew lots of girls who could swim twice that distance. She smiled
to herself as she rolled along through the cool, calm water. She’d show
those birds what a girl could do.
Sne was halfway across when she noticed a commotion ashore. A
bunch of the people had formed in an excited knot there. They were wav
ing and shouting. Finally, two men in uniforms launched a canoe and
began paddling wildly toward her. Now what was the matter with
those fellows anyway? Hadn’t they ever seen a girl who could swim be
fore? Or were they customs officers, seeing to it that she didn’t smuggle
any grand pianos into the country in the folds of her bathing suit.
Swimming Toward the Shark.
Grace decided to have some fun with, them. When the canoe was
about two-hundred yards away she put on a sudden spurt, swerved, and
swam away from it. Cries came from the canoe behind her, but the
more they shouted, the faster she swam.
And then—she saw it. Ahead of her a dark, triangular fin was
cutting the water, coming straight for her. A SHARK! Instantly, all
the stories she had ever heard about those man-eating monsters of the
deep flashed through her mind. Here was one of them coming toward her—
and what was worse, she herself was swimming toward IT. "Now she
knew the meaning of all the shouting and gesticulating—of the commo
tion on the beach and the two men in the canoe. Why hadn’t she re
membered that these weren’t the northern waters she was used to swim
ming in? These were tropical seas, infested with sharks, barracudas,
and all sorts of other aquatic dangers.
For a second or two, Grace was paralyzed with fright. She
was closer—much closer—to that shark than to the canoe. And
that ominous fin was steadily diminishing the distance between
them.
Then, suddenly, Grace collected her wits again. She lit out for that
canoe with a speed that would have shamed an Olympic champion. No
time to look behind—and no reason to. Either she won that race or she
didn’t. Her life was at stake, but strangely enough it was her career
she was thinking of most. What if that shark bit off a leg or two? There
just wasn’t any such thing as a legless dancer.
One Yard Between Her and Death.
When she reached that canoe, the shark was just ONE YARD De
hind her. One man hauled her hastily into the boat while the other
beat the shark off with a paddle. The passengers and crew were hanging
anxiously over the side of the steamer when at last the canoe»brought
her back, and then there was a first-class brawl. The officers in the canoe
bawled out the captain of the ship for allowing Grace to go swimming
in the harbor, and then the captain turned around and bawled Grace
out. The only ones who didn’t have anything to say were the boys who
hadn’t thought much of a girl’s swimming ability, and especially the one
who bet her ten bucks she wouldn’t have the nerve to try it.
“And incidentally,” says Grace, “I collected that ten.”
©—WNU Service.
Edison Inventions From
Signal Device to Rubber
Some of the important inventions
accredited to Thomas A. Edison in
cluded the following:
Telegraphic signal device (1863),
the repeater (1865), the voting ma
chine (1868), improved stock mar
ket ticker (1869), a typewriter
(1871), quadruple telegraphic re
peater (1872), district signal box
(1874), automatic telegraph trans
mitter (1875), mimeograph (1875),
carbon telephone transmitter (1875),
phonograph (1877), incandescent
lamp (1878), electric dynamo (1880),
electric motor (1881), trolley car
(1881), electric meter (1881), ore
separator (1881), valve gear (1882),
electric railway turntable (1882),
railway signal system (1885), pro
cess for making plate glass (1887),
extracting gold from sulphate ores
(1888), sleeping doll (1889), motion
picture camera (1891), composition
brick (1893), rock crusher, dryer
and mixer (1897), alkaline storage
battery (1900), reversible galvanic
battery (1901), improved cement
mixer (1902), a photographic film
(1903), recording telephone (1905),
improved phonograph (1908), a
starting system for automobiles
(1912), talking pictures (1913), flash
light (1914), improved transmitter
(1918), electro-plating (1919), disc
phonograph records (1923), im
proved radio receiver (1926), syn
thetic rubber (1931).
Snow Drinks Forerunner
of Ice Cream Industry
Who first invented ice cream? No
one really knows. Alexander the
Great is recorded as having a great
weakness for snow-cooled fruit
drinks. The Roman patricians also
drank vast quantities of fruit drinks
mixed with exorbitantly priced
snow. And an old Roman cook,
Quintus Maximus Gurges, is said to
have been the first to serve ice
cream soda, says a writer in London
Answers Magazine.
All that historians are really cer
tain about is that by the Middle
ages ice cream had definitely “ar
rived” in court circles. Four cen
turies ago, Catherine de Medici was
being served with ice cream of a
different flavor every day. As usual,
the English were all behind in this
branch of civilization.
Charles I remedied matters a lit
tle by bringing over a French chef
who surprised the king with the
delicacy.
With the coming of the Civil war,
the Frenchman fled back to his na
tive land, taking the secret with
him. From that time until the sev
enties of last century, ice-cream
was practically unknown here.
The history of the ice cream in
dustry in the United States is quite
different. The real pioneer of Amer
ican ice cream was a Jacob Fussell,
who kept a dairy farm just outside
Washington, D. C.
Sylvia Sidney
! STAR |
| DUST |
★ jMLovie • Radio $
★ *
★★★By VIRGINIA VALE★★★
R ADIO amateurs played a
big part in the preparation
of the dramatization of Peary’s
dash to the pole, presented re
cently. If they had not come to
the rescue of the authors, Henry
Lanier and Alan Bunce, it might
have been a year or more be
fore this program could have
been heard.
In dramatizing historical events it
is necessary to get permission of all
living participants to impersonate
them on the radio, and of Peary’s
North Pole expedition Matt Henson,
the negro who was the only one to
accompany him on the final dash,
Capt. Bob Bartlett and McMillen
still survive.
It was easy enough to locate Matt
Henson; he was right in New York.
But Bartlett and McMillen were off
somewhere in the Polar seas.
Lanier and Bunce appealed to va
rious clubs of radio amateurs and
for days the short wave channels
were filled with calls to the two po
lar exploration ships. Finally com
munication was established with the
Bartlett and McMillen ships, and
permission to go ahead with the pro
gram obtained.
—■¥■—
The best picture of the week is
“Dead End,” the most breathtaking-
ly-dramatic of all
stories of New York.
The setting is an
East river street t
where a millionaire
apartment house is
surrounded by
squalid, sinister ten
ement houses. Back
to this neighborhood
comes Baby Face
Martin, a hunted
gangster who had
left ten years before
and things begin to
happen. Sylvia Sidney and Joel Mc-
Crea play what are supposed to be
the leading roles of the picture,
but Humphrey Bogart as Baby Face
Martin and Claire Trevor as the
sweetheart he deserted, just take
possession of the picture and romp
away with the honors.
—*—
It is nothing new for secondary
players to steal a show. You may
remember that it was in “Flying
Down to Rio” in which Gene Ray
mond and Dolores del Rio were
supposed to be the stars, that Fred
Astaire and Ginger Rogers scored
the knockout success that made
them about the most popular young
couple in the country.
—•¥■—
Fred Waring is getting to be an
industrial magnate of such propor
tions that he has had to take a whole
floor of an office building in New
York to house his music arrangers,
secretaries, contract signers, and
scrap books. No sooner had he and
his versatile boys worked their way
East from Hollywood where they
made “Varsity Show” for Warners,
than he up and signed a contract to
play at the Drake hotel in Chicago.
There he and his frenized cohorts
are working up new specialties,
madder than ever.
\ —*—
When you see Metro-Goldwyn-
Mayer’s “Madame X,” you will see
a scene made under most unusual
circumstances. John Beal, making
voice and make-up tests when they
were getting ready to produce the
picture, ran through the biggest
dramatic scene, largely to see if
he had his lines all memorized. Aft
er the picture was shot, some of the
staff were a little disappointed in
the way he played the courtroom
scene where he defends his mother.
Then they remembered the test
shots—dug those out of the film vaults
and substituted them for the less-
spontaneous performance he gave
later.
—*—
Carole Lombard is going to have
such fun in her next Paramount
picture, “True Con
fessions.” She plays
the part of a con
firmed liar, such a
habitual liar that
she even confesses
to a murder that she
did not commit.
John Barrymore
Will support her,
playing an eccentric
amateur detective
who falls for every
false clue, and Fred
MacMurray will be
the patient, long-suffering hero, who
is the victim of her weird false
hoods.
—■¥—
ODDS AND ENDS. Greta Garbo hat
become a Deanna Durbin fan . . . Gloria
Blondell,sister of Joan, will make her screen
debut in "Accidents Will Happen.” For
a long time Warners would not give her
a job because she looks so much like Joan
they thought it might be confusing, but
they finally gave in lest some other com
pany take her .. . Rudy Vallee will film
"Howdy Stranger” for Warners this fall.
He wanted a part that would permit him
to wear a stunning uniform, but Warners
convinced him that a cowboy suit would
be just as becoming . . . Frank Parker,
who is a big radio favorite himself, played
the role on the Broadway stage.
C Western Newspaper Union.
Carole
Lombard