University of South Carolina Libraries
McCORMICK MESSENGER, McCORMICK, S. C.. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1937 News Review of Current Events HITS NAZIISM IN AMERICA Strong Words by Legion Commander . . . President Refuses to Abandon Fight for Court Rejuvenation American Legion Members From West Reach New York City by Air plane for Their National Convention. *yf%4u*nlrd U/- }&Ir>lr/sfrA SUMMARIZES THE WORLD’S WEEK C Western Newspaper Union. Legion Head Hits Naziism E'OUR hundred thousand members " of the American Legion and their families and friends gathered in New York for the annual conven tion of the organiza tion which opened with a memorial service for dead vet erans. Parades, sham battles and plenty of fun-making marked the proceed ings, but the former soldiers also gave much time to se rious business. Har ry W. Colmer, retir ing national com mander, delivered a notable report on his stewardship, warning against dangers confront ing the nation from within and with out. Colmer declared attempts to sub jugate judiciary would destroy the “checks and balances” in govern ment; and he proposed that the American Legion undertake an edu cational program on the principles set forth in the Constitution. He asked each post to hold at least one meeting this fall on the basic law. The commander’s warning against perils from without led him to con demn severely German propaganda in the United States and the alleged action of the German government in fostering the organization of Nazi groups and camps in this country. This he called “a gratuitous insult to our free institutions.” Harry W. Colmer President on Constitution A LL orators on the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of the sign ing of the Constitution were loud in praise of that great document. Pres ident Roosevelt, speaking from the foot of the Washington monument, Was emphatic in his expression of admiration for and loyalty to the basic law which his opponents have accused him of trying to under mine. But he called it a “layman’s constitution” and a “lawyer’s con tract.” He reiterated his asser tions that the Constitution was in tended by its makers to be a state ment of objectives and not a rigid document, and declared democratic government in this country can do all things which “commonsense peo ple, seeing the picture as a whole, have the right to expect.” • “I believe that these things can be done under the Constitution with out the surrender of a single one of the civil and religious liberties it was intended to safeguard,” Mr. Roosevelt continued, “and I am de termined that under the Constitu tion those things shall be done.” Sharply condemning dictatorships abroad, Mr. Roosevelt said there is a crisis in American affairs that threatens our democracy and that if that democracy is to survive, it must meet the demands of the peo ple for economic and social secur ity and improved standards of liv ing. Plutocratic and proletarian dic tatorships, said he, are equally dan gerous. That the President has not aban doned his fight for “rejuvenation” of the Supreme court was made clear by the tenor of his address, and it was expected that he would continue that campaign on his trip to the Pacific Coast, which he began in a private car equipped with a loud speaker. On his way to visit his daughter in Seattle and on the return trip he was to enter the home states of several senators who we’*?* active in opposition to the Su preme court enlargement scheme. Vandenberg's Battle Cry ••'117’ E HAVE just begun to fight” »V was the battle cry adopted by Senator Vandenberg of Michigan in a speech at Bay City that was taken as the opening of his campaign for the Republican Presidential nomination in 1940. He made it evi dent that he hopes to be the stand ard bearer for a coalition party, as serting that a realignment of politi-i cal parties is inevitable. Indeed, he declared, this probably was the one thing that could save our na tional institutions. He was not sc sure that the opposition to the Roose velt policies would unite under a new party name. Said he: “There may be a realistic realign ment which will bring like-thinking patriots into common battle front, whether they live north or south of the Mason and Dixon line, whether they live east or west of the Mis sissippi.” What Will Hughes Do? EJECTIONS to the seating oi Hugo Black as a justice of the Supreme court on the constitutional ground that the emoluments of the office were raised while Black was a senator brought Chief Justice Hughes back to Washington before his vacation was ended. Associate Justice Brandeis also returned to the capital and he and Hughes were expected to confer on the matter and to examine the objections. Just what Mr. Hughes or any other mem ber of the court could do was un certain. Constitutional lawyers agree that Black could not be de nied his seat because he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, but many of them thought the court, if it decides to take jurisdiction, could bar him on constitutional grounds. There was reason to believe this so lution of the exceedingly unpleasant matter would suit President Roose velt. Should the President ask Black to resign, the latter might re fuse, and that would be most em barrassing for Mr. Roosevelt. —-K— Eden Still Hopeful NTHONY EDEN, British foreign minister, hurried from Geneva to attend a special cabinet meeting to which he reported on develop ments in the Medi terranean situation that is so threaten ing to European peace. He told of It aly’s reiteration of its demand for. par ity in the “anti piracy” patrol, and it was believed both he and Prime Min ister Chamberlain were hopeful that a rupture could be averted by a partial yielding to Mussolini in this matter. British public opinion was said to be strongly against a complete con cession. Meanwhile events in the Mediter ranean were not such as to bolster Eden’s peaceful designs. The Brit ish aircraft carrier Glorious report ed it had been attacked by a sub marine near Malta just as it ar rived to take part in the patrol of the sea. Also the admiralty an nounced an unidentified airplane dropped six bombs close to the de stroyer Fearless. The British and French fleets began their search for “pirate” submarines, Spain’s premier, Juan Negrin, stood up before the League of Na tions and fearlessly presented the evidence of Italian and German in tervention in the Spanish civil war, demanding that the league take steps to stop it. He called Mussolini and Hitler “international highwaymen.” French Foreign Minister Delbos backed up Negrin’s demands in words which were taken to mean that if Italy sends substantial re inforcements to Franco, Spanish rebel leader, or perhaps if she even refuses to withdraw her forces al ready there, France would consider her security menaced. The assembly of the League of Nations voted down the Spanish government’s request for re-election as a member of the league council. Anthony Eden 'in oil 'JhJimkd ahcfot Our National Bird. L AS VEGAS, NEV. — Those J folks back East who’re agi tating to make the turkey our national bird are late. Benja min Franklin had the same no tion 150 years ago. Old Ben pointed out that the eagle was a robber and a tyrant and was the emblem of va- r i o u s European monarchies, where as the turkey was not only our largest and gamest wild bird, but a native of America. To be sure, young turkeys aren’t so smart. They love, to get their feet wet so they may die from it. In dry sections, young turkeys have been known to jump down an arte sian well 90 feet deep in order to get their feet wet. But the adult turkey is wise and wily, a noble spectacle in the woods and popular in a cooked state, owing to his mag nificent bust development and his capacity for holding stuffing or in- ‘sertion, and his superiority when worked over into turkey hash. But if we are going to make a change in emblems, why not choose the worm—the humble, dumb, un resisting worm—as typical of most of the present populace? It could be a one-sided worm, too, which would save costs in modeling, be cause so many of us are the kinis of worms that never turn. Irvin S. Cobb The Sucker Crop. PARLIAMENT, next month, will pass statutes to curb stock mar ket tricksters, fly-by-night brokers, and bucket shop operators who, it’s estimated, are fleecing the British public to the tune of $25,000,000 an nually. We’ve tried it and it doesn’t work. As Barnum stated, a sucker is born every minute —' and sometimes twins. But the crooks who prey on the sucker crop, like the Dionne quintuplets, come along in batches. That breed spawn close to shore and the young all survive. Thus is the rule of supply and de mand balanced. In good times, there are just enough suckers to go around. In hard times, the suckers grow scarce, but, when one comes along, the crooks raffle him off and the winner takes all. Anyhow, legislation won’t save a sucker from himself—at least not in this country. He’ll break through the law in order to prove he’s a sucker in good standing in the suck ers’ lodge. By the way, brother-member, how many degrees have you taken? * * * Restrained Statements. A WAYFARER in Oklahoma, who claimed to have starved him self for forty-one days, on being asked how he felt, replied that he felt sort of hungry. Investigation showed the stranger had been cheating now and then to the ex tent of a clandestine beef stew or a surreptitious stack of wheats, but wasn’t it a magnificently restrained statement? For underemphasis, I can think of but a single instance to match it. In my youth, we had a policeman in our town with a nervous manner ism of killing folks. One night, I was passing Uncle Tom Emery’s saloon and snack- stand for colored only. A group of subdued-looking customers fetched out the limp remains of a dark per son who had been bored thrice through the heart. “Uncle Tom,” I inquired of the proprietor, “isn’t that Monkey John?” “Sho’ is suh.” “How did it happen?” I asked. “Well, suh,” said Uncle Tom, “It seem like he musta antagonized Mr. Buck Evitts.” • • • Smoked Glasses for Snakes. /"AN THE way here, I attended this year’s snake dance. The snake dance has become indeed a strange sight—for the snakes. If the tourists don’t modify their ward robes by next year, I expect to see the snakes wearing smoked glasses. Veteran snakes that have taken part during past seasons are show ing signs of the strain. The bull snakes still hiss—as who could blame them?—but the rattlers no longer rattle freely, evidently fear ing it might be mistaken for ap plause. The commissioner of Indian af fairs wants the Navajoes to grow fewer goats. The Navajoes are balk ing. Goat hair is a profitable crop; goat meat makes good eating—for an aborigine stomach, anyhow—and goat smell is agreeable for Navajo noses. It seems to neutralize some of the other perfumes noticed dur ing shopping hour in a reservation trading post. IRVIN S. COBB. ©—WNU Servio*. ADVENTURERS* CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELFI “The Vapor of Death" By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter H ello everybody: Philip J. Cavanagh of New York City is today’s Distin guished Adventurer, and Phil says that adventuring taught him something that he had never even thought of before. “Life,” he says, “is always hanging on a thread.” Well, sir, when you come to think of it, that statement is just as true as it can be. You never know when you’re going to step off the curb right into the path of a fast-moving automobile, and you never know when you’re going to step out of the precincts of your humdrum, everyday life into the territory presided over by an ornery old gal named Old Lady Adventure. You don’t think about it all the time—but it’s there just the same. But life banging on a thread has no terrors for Phil. He re members the time when Death hung in the air—without any thread or anything else to keep it from coming down on himself and the crew of swell fellows he worked with. That was on the twenty-third of December, 1908, when Phil, a foreman of pipe layers for the United Gas Improvement company, was in Bay Shore, N. Y., helping to install additional plant equipment in the local gas works. There were five other men in his crew and their job was almost completed. The only thing left to be done was to break open the main gas line and cut in the conduits that they had laid during the past weeks. Before the job started Phil made an inspection of all the valves to see that they were properly closed and that no gas was going through the main conduit where his men were getting ready to “open up.” He Was Sure the Valves Were All Closed. The valves were all shut tight. Phil would have been ready to swear to that. He gave the signal to his men to go to work, and then he went out in the plant’s yard to see to the hot lead that they’d be using to close up with. As he went back to the sub-cellar where the main line was lo cated he smelled gas coming up from below. That wasn’t unusual. There was always some smell of gas around a newly opened line. But at the same time Phil noticed that the cellar was ominously quiet. Something had gone wrong! In two seconds, Phil was through that trap door, and in an other two seconds he was down in the sub-cellar. His fears were confirmed. On the ground around the newly made opening lay his crew, draped in all sorts of positions—and out cold. Somehow or other Phil got those men out of there. The plant en gineer helped him, and so did a couple of men who were passing by th* plant. They dragged them out onto the snow-covered ground and there Phil left them in the care of the engineer. He would have liked to stay out there in the fresh, clean air himself, but for him the adventure was just beginning. Somewhere in the plant, gas was still escaping. He had to find the leak before it welled up out of the sub-cellar and got into the rest of the plant. One Spark and All Would Be Over. Inside the plant Phil headed for that row of valves again. The trouble must be there. It couldn’t be anywhere else. “I tried each one of those valves,” he says, “but they were all turned as far as they would go. In desperation I tried them again and again. I believed I tried them all at least a hundred times, and as far as I could see each one of them was closed tight. “Yet, the gas was pouring out. Pouring out so fast that I could see the gauge of the storage tank dropping lower and lower. I prayed fervently that the firemen who were attending to the two boilers would not have occasion to open the fire doors. For by this time the gas was up in the main part of the plant, and if one spark of flame got to it we would all be blown to atoms. And in the meantime, Phil was swallowing a lot of gas. He was groggy, and getting groggier with every minute as he moved from one valve to another trying to find which one was letting loose the flow that was poisoning the air he breathed. He could have saved himself by leaving his job and getting out in the air—but no such thought ever entered his head. Other lives were in danger, and any minute now the gas might get into the boilers and let • loose a terrible blast of flame. He stuck to his post, still trying one valve after the other, until finally he dropped to the floor. Desperate Battle to Remain Conscious. As Phil fell, he reached one hand out instinctively and curled it around a valve stem. Phil doesn’t know why he did that, except that it was comforting to have something to cling to and it gave him some small sense of protection. The hand slid down the valve stem to the floor, and as it did, one finger struck on something—the head of a nail! Dazed as he was, Phil’s mind told him that the nailhead shouldn’t be there. With a struggle he opened his eyes—and saw what was caus ing all the trouble. The nailhead lay between the floor and the bottom of the valve-stem, keeping it from going all the way down—making the valve seem closed when it was really part way open. The next few minutes saw a strange battle—the battle of a mind to keep consciousness while faltering bands opened the valve, brushed that nailhead away, and closed the valve again. Phil did that—and then he passed out. The cutting-in job was finished when Phil finally came to again. His men, brought back to consciousness, had gone right to work and com pleted the job, for gas lines have to be kept in service no matter what happens. But there might have been no gas at all in the town of Bay Shore that day if Phil hadn’t given the world a fine example of good, old-fashioned sticking to the job. ©—WNU Service. The Word “Starboard” The word “starboard” appears to have come down Vrom the earliest Anglo-Saxons, who called that side of their Viking ships from which the steering oar protruded the “steorboard,” which became cor rupted to “starboard” or even the “sta’b’d” of the tar. Naturally enough, according to a writer in the Chicago Tribune, the opposite of the ship, which was brought in contact with the jetty or wharf when loading for fear of breaking the steor or rudder, became the lading board, laddebord, or larboard, later changed to port because of the dan ger of confusing larboard and star board when hearing was difficult during a storm. The full rigged ship is seemingly a tangle of ropes, ev ery one of which is called mar tingale, stay, sheet, line, painter— stnvthincr but a rope. Visible Stars There are not many more than 6,000 stars that are visible to ordi nary eyes under the best of visibil ity conditions. Half of these stars are always below the horizon. That would leave about 3,000 visible at one time were it not for the fact that the fainter stars disappear when close to the horizon, because their light cannot penetrate the thick layers of mist-laden atmos phere there. The number of stars visible to the naked eye in the clear est and darkest skies is between 2,000 and 2,500. Haze, moonlight or the glare of the street lamps may reduce this number by half or more. A field glass brings out more than 50,000, while a telescope of two inches aperture raises the number to hundreds of thousands. As the power of the telescope increases the star count leaps forward. End’s the Same Jenny (angrily)—You cannot say I ran after you, anyway. Jack—No, I can’t say that. The trap doesn’t run after the mouse, but it gathers it in just the same.” Nucleus Architect—Now, if you’ll give me a general idea of the kind of house you need . . . Client—I want something to go with a door-knocker my wife brought home from Oxford. An antique collector has left over four hundred clocks in his will. Someone is going to have a busy time winding up the estate. Second Thought He had just moved into his new house, and was painting “No hawkers or canvassers” on his front gate. When he had finished he stepped back to admire his efforts, and a thought struck him. Dipping his brush into the paint again, he add ed the words: “Except with sam ples.” LIGHTS OUT Bobby Bug—Say Miss Sweet let me escort you through that long black tunnel.. For those planning a motor tour, it Is best to get a large road map. This will tell you everything you want to know, except how to fold it up again. Undisguised Praise “John, you don’t care for nw as much as you used to. You al ways used to give me the larger helpings; now you take them for yourself.” “Darling, you cook much better now.” Seeing’s Believing Father—What are jrou doing, Freddie? Freddie—^Nothing, father. Father (sternly)—There is no such thing as nothing! Freddie—Oh, yes, there is. Close your eyes and you’ll see it. Marked Down “There’s a price on your head.” “Why? Have I done wrong?” “You’ve forgotten to take the price ticket off your new hat.” What She Said “Iceland,” said the teacher, “is about as large as Siam.” “Iceland,” wrote Willie after wards, “is about as big as teach er.” • MODEL F-65 • 6 TUBES • 2 BANDS You’ll enjoy the greatest treat ot your life, when you listen to this new G-E Tone Monitor Radio and hear something you’ve never heard before with ony radio— absolutely faithful reproduction of every orchestral LIBERAL TRADE-IN I • EASIEST TERMS • I PERRY-MANN ELECTRIC COMPANY, INC. (Wholesale Distributors) Columbia, S. C. FOR REPLACEMENTS SPECIFY O-l PRE-TESTED RADIO TUBES