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i i . Mr w v / \ McCORMICK MESSENGER. McCORMICK. S. C.. THURSDAY, JULY 7, 1938 Review ot Current Events HANCE FOR RECOVERY (Resident's Call for Help Indicates Compromise • • • ^ He Demands Election of Liberals to Congress * W mi Speediest ship in oar navy, the destroyer McCall, was commissioned at the Mare Island navy yard in California. The McCall, first privately built navy vessel since 1921, has a specified speed of 38V6 knots, but in recent ;tests was reported to have averaged 42 knots. It carries four 5-inch gnns and four quadruple torpedo tubes and is especially fitted for quick attacks on capital ships. urrtlrfi US. Is A SUMMARIZES THE WORLD'S WEEK C Western Newspaper Union. Signs of Compromise / T'HERE are distinct indications of compromise and co-operation in the American.picture, and hopes for restored prosperity are somewhat revived. The stock market has be come unusually active, and private enterprise is awakening. Unfreezing of three billions in stored-up credit is expected to result from new bank ing regulations ordered by the Pres ident. Thousands of contracts for approved projects to cost almost $500,000,000 have been sent to all parts of the country by the Public Works administration. Mr. Roosevelt, in his latest radio address to the nation, said: “In simple frankness and in simple hon esty, I need all the help I can get,” and it seems that the people are ready to give that help if the administration will do its part. Notable in the President’s talk was the admission that mistakes have been made not only by his op ponents and by industry and labor, but also by government leaders. He sharply attacked reactionaries in business, blaming them for much of the current depression. Asserting his continued belief in individual enterprise and the profit motive, he criticized the recent con gress for failing to enact his pro gram for government reorganiza tion and legislation to aid the finan cially depressed railroad industry. At the same time, however, he said the legislators “achieved more for the future good of the country than any congress between the end of the World war and the spring of 1933.” —*— Wants Liberals Elected \/r OST of the President’s radio speech was frankly political. He declared himself the leader of the liberals and held that, as such, it was his privilege to intervene in state primary and election cam paigns for the purpose of insuring the defeat of those whom he char acterized as conservatives, the op ponents of his policies. This aroused the indignation of many Democratic statesmen like Senators Burke of Nebraska and King of Utah. “I believe the people in the dis tricts and states will resent the President’s interferenpe,” Burke said. “If we were to follow the course he has suggested, we would all be goosestepping behind a leader no matter how beneficent that leader may be. I do not approve of that course.” Senator King asserted the Presi dent should not use the great advan tage he has in controlling the purse strings of the huge spending pro gram. “People who have fought for the Democratic party for a great many years do not like interference in their state affairs by outsiders,” he said. ' “I do not believe the President should meddle in the pri mary elections of the Democratic party or any other party.” General opinion was that Mr. Roosevelt had widened the split in the Democratic party and by his words had placed the stamp of his approval on the attempted “purge” directed by Corcoran, Cohen and others of his advisers. * Latest War Scare t) OMBING of loyalist Spanish cities and of British ships in Spanish ports by Generalissimo Franco’s insurgent planes led di rectly to the most recent war scare in Europe. It was reported in Lon don that the loyalists had threat ened to bomb Italian and German cities if Franco did not call off his airmen, and in Italy it was assert ed that this probably would be re garded as an act of war and would be the cause for appropriate action. The rumors were denied, but their dissemination may have done some good, for information reached the British government that Franco had ordered his aviators to stop bomb ing British merchant vessels. However, this news was followed immediately by dispatches saying two more British ships i had been bombed in the ports of Valencia and Alicante, several seamen being killed or wounded. * Swedes Celebrate A MERICANS of Swedish descent by the thousand and many from Sweden gathered at Wilming ton, Del., for the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the landing in Amer ica of the first Swedes and Finns. From the old coun try came Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf with a large party, but he was confined to his suite on the liner Kungsholm by illness. His place was taken by his Prince Bertil son> Prince Bertil. The principal event of the opening ceremony was the presentation of a monument erected by Sweden on the landing site. The presentation was made by Prince Bertil and ac cepted by President Roosevelt. Then the President presented the monument to Gov. Richard McMul len for the state of Delaware. After the monument ceremony there was a lawn party attended by Crown Princess Louise. The celebration was continued for four days in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, parts of which states were embraced in the New Sweden founded in 1638 by a com pany of 150 Swedes and Finns sent to America by Gustaf us Adolphus. —*— Mustn't Seize Hainan nPHE British and French envoys in Tokyo warned Japan that any occupation of Hainan, Chinese island off the south coast of China, would be met by joint Franco-British ac tion. The island, which lies near French and British trade routes, was bombed by Japanese flyers. Germany is recalling the Germans who have been acting as advisers to the Chinese army, apd diplomats be lieve Germany may now give active aid to Japan. * Ireland Installs Hyde IRELAND’S first president, in the 1 person of Dr. Douglas Hyde, was installed in St. Patrick’s hall, Dub lin castle, where former viceroys held their social functions. The cere mony was conducted entirely in Gaelic and was witnessed by state and church officials, members of parliament and representatives of foreign countries. Among the last was American Minister John Cudahy. Dr. Hyde read and signed a declaration in which he promised to defend the constitution and dedicate himself to the service of the people of Ireland. Prime Minister De Valera made a speech in which he said: “You are now our president, free ly chosen under our own laws, in heriting authority and entitled to the respect which Gaels ever gave to rightful chiefs. Not all the territory of Ireland is at the moment under your sway, but the justice of our claim and the tenacity of the Gaels will set that right.” President Hyde has been a poet, historian and educator. He is the son of a protestant clergyman and it is hoped he will bring about a un ion of Roman Catholic Ireland and Protestant northern Ireland. Douglas Hyde I For Naval Expansion MPETUS was given the naval ex pansion program with PWA al lotments of $27,883,000 for the en largement, extension and remodel ing of existing plants and facilities of the navy department. With orders for full speed ahead the navy department said that 113 projects, approved by Mr. Roose velt, will be under way by August 15. Among the projects are power plant improvements, foundry build ing, high frequency radio station, fleet moorings, turret assembly fa cilities, improvements to ship build ing ways, structural assembly, elec tric and sheet metal shops, water storage, railroad tracks, noncom missioned officers’ quarters, storage buildings and other improvements. * Some for Every State XT O SOONER had President Roosevelt signed the pump priming measure than the flood of federal money was released. The Public Works ad- m i n i s t r ation of which Secretary Ickes is the head, made public two lists of grants and loans covering 590 projects in every state in the union with a total estimat ed cost of $148,795,- 895. Four more lists were ready, and these, PWA officials said, would complete the Secretary Ickes Rep. Fish ‘first push” toward a $2,000,000,000 con struction program to provide work and stimulate industry. Officials fur ther estimated that these initial groups of projects may run as high as 1,500 or 2,000 with a cost of $600,000,000. Federal grants under the PWA procedure cover 45 per cent of the cost and, when a PWA loan is made, 55 per cent. The difference between the estimated overall cost of the projects and the sum of loans and grants made by PWA is sup plied by the various applicants. * Fish Attacks Hamilton IJ[ BATED discussion over imme- diate control of campaign funds among members of the Republican national executive committee, meet ing in Washington, gave Rep. Hamilton Fish of New York an opportunity to re new his fight on National Chairman John Hamilton, whose removal he demanded. With Hamilton out of power. Fish said, the Republicans would win 10 senate seats and 100 house seats. With Hamilton at the helm, he warned, Republican gains would be reduced by half. Rep. Joe Martin of Massachusetts and Sen. John Townsend of Dela ware, chairmen, respectively, of the house and senate G. O. P. campaign committees, have demanded allot ment of funds from the national committee and exclusive control of their expenditure. Hamilton has re sisted these demands. Representative Bertrand Snell of New York, Republican leader in the house, told the committee that he intended to retire from public life and would not seek re-election this fall. —m— Group for Labor Survey INE men and women were ap- pointed by the President as members of a special commission that will study the workings of the British labor disputes law and Swed ish labor relations. Most of them already are in Europe ready to be gin their work. The group is composed of Lloyd K. Garrison, dean of the University of Wisconsin law school; Robert Watt, American Federation of La bor representative; Gerald Swope, president of the General Electric company; Henry I. Harriman, for mer president of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States; William H. Davis, chairman of the New York labor mediation board; Mrs. Anna M. Rosenberg, regional director of social security for New York; Charles R. Hook, president of the American Rolling Mills com pany; Miss Marion Dickerman, principal of Todhunter school, New York, and William Ellison Chal mers, assistant American labor commissioner in Geneva. Louis K.O.'s Schmeling T OE LOUIS of Detroit, the “Brown ^ Bomber,” stands the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. His amazing victory over Max Schmeling of Germany in the Yan kee stadium at New York gave him that status. In less than one round the challenger was hammered to the floor three times by the crashing blows of Louis, and his seconds threw the towel into the ring, for the German was quite helpless. The referee declared Louis the winner by a technical knockout. The loser said his defeat was caused by a blow over the kidney. X-ray examination of the German after the battle showed a projection from a vertebra was broken. The blow was not a foul for it was not struck in a clinch. Eighty thousand persons wit nessed this epochal battle, the short est heavyweight championship boul in history. Louis got 40 per cent of the gate and 20 per cent went to Schmeling. WHO'S NEWS THIS WEEK By LEMUEL F. PARTON 'NJ'EW YORK. — When Charles Maurras came out of the Sante prison last year, he was met by a committee of distinguished French- _ ... men, who nomi- Leavea Jail nated him for the To Get Bid Nobel peace prize To Academy an <* sai ? J he y would make him a member of the Academy. They have just fulfilled the latter prom ise, and M. Maurras becomes an immortal by a majority of one vote. He had spent 250 rays in jail on a charge of having urged the as sassination of 140 members of the chamber of deputies who had voted for sanctions against Italy; also on a charge of inciting the French peo ple to “sharpen up their kitchen knives” for use against certain pro scribed politicians. In the 250 days he had written five books, swelling his vast collec tion of books on biography, politics, economics, literary criticism, histo ry and what not to probably well over 100. I talked to him once in the Cafe des Lilas, a fragile, deaf, bearded old man With a contentious, blazing mind which makes one think of a sizzling battery running an au tomobile without any engine. In 1923, he was in jail for four months in a somewhat anti-climatic c , , n adventure for one Showed Uace who was to be gar _ Technique landed as an im- Of Tt»rmr mortal. Three members of the chamber of deputies were kidnaped and fed castor oil—Mussolini is said to have got his broad prospectus of Fascism from Maurras—and the bald head of one of them was paint ed with violet ink and glue. In 1925, M. Maurras was sen tenced to. two years in prison, the charge being that he had threat ened to kill the minister of the in terior. Among the causes of his incarceration in October, 1936, was conspiracy evidence in the assault on Premier Leon Blum, in which he was severely beaten, while attend ing the funeral of a friend. His books and virulent editorials against democracy in the Royalist, paper, translated into many lan guages, are the fount of Fascist doctrine all over the world. His hatred of democracy is savage and vitriolic. He is witty, learned, bril liant and he has the most excoriat ing and corrosive vocabulary in France. • • • A FOOTNOTE to the main text of the world discussion on Japan bombing babies is the interchange between Avery Brundage, chairman . _ , of the American Jap tsomba Olympic commit- Cauae Rift tee, and William In Olympic* 3 - Buigham (Bill the Plugger), Har vard athletic director. Mr. Brund age says it has nothing to do with sports, and Mr. Bingham says it has—with sportsmanship, at any rate—and he withdraws from the committee and the 1940 games. The sports writers are becoming almost metaphysical in weighing and appraising the moral values of the argument. Bill the Plugger says, in effect, that he won’t play with baby-killers. He became Bill the Plugger by losing 19 races at Harvard and win ning the twentieth. Thereafter, he was Harvard’s crack miler. He started out plugging at the age of fourteen, leaving school to work in a mill and help support his five younger brothers and sisters. He saved $30, went to Exeter and worked his way through Exeter and Harvard. He came out of the war a captain with appropriate decorations, did a turn in the banking business in Texas and became Harvard gradu ate supervisor and track coach in 1921. On the side, he is president of a concern which imports rubber goods. • • • IF GERARD B. LAMBERT builds * a house, they’re likely to find a center-board and a skys’l yard on it. It’s hard to see how he can get __ _ , his mind off his Mr, Lambert yachting, but, at Keepa Mind any rate, he be- On Yachts comes special ad- viser to Stuart Mc Donald, federal housing administra tor. The gargles and shaves of the multitudes built his chemical for tune at St. Louis. He was one of the original backers of Lindbergh and the originators of great adver tising slogans. Author of a spirited “Defense of Babbitts” in the American Mer cury, commander of the Eastern Yacht club of Marblehead, Mass., he maintains a valhalla for gallant old yachts. © Consolidated News Features. WNU Service. Women Get First Vote In their first vote women of Uru- guay recently helped choose a new parliament of 99 delegates and 30 senators. TOWN OF THE PASSION PLAY v ‘ • : : -y :*>>• v': : > :> i mk mmMk ■<'*■ Judas in Private Life Paints Pictures. Oberammergau Gives to the World Drama of Christianity Every Decade | cows into the fields and hills, and not returning until 6 at night. That is the rush hour for the cows, and traffic has to comply with their whims as they slowly trot home ward, never minding the honking of automobiles that might get into their path. , The Play Is Their Life Mission. Just as the ability to act seems to be in the blood of the majority, the people of Oberammergau hold a deeply inbred feeling of personal re sponsibility toward their important task, their sacred tradition. They live and die for their play. They do not play to live, but live to play— which may at times appear incom prehensible to the hurried traveler/ rushing in and out again without ever penetrating more deeply into the meaning of the villagers’ work, habits, and customs. All amusements, such as dancing, are prohibited during the solid year of preparation for, and concentra tion upon, the Passion Play. Yet the village, during its six months of rehearsing under Georg Lang’s most able direction (there are more than 30 families of the name of Lang in Oberammergau), dons fes tive attire. Houses look more at tractive. Gardens, streets, walks, and parks hum with activity. The year J940 will display about the same bourse of things, but there will be more buses and auto mobiles from May until September. Once again, for a period of five months, the village will be handed over, willy-nilly, to the countless vis itors, their prejudices and criti cisms, their whims, their admira tion and praise of what is but nat ural to those laboring in the homes and playing on the stage of the mammoth theater before 6,200 spec tators, occasionally as often as five times a week. Pi ^P«red by National Geographic Society. Washington, D. C.—WNU Service. / A CHANGE which empha sizes tmehanging tradi tion has taken place in Oberammergau, Germany, the small Bavarian town where ev ery decade a performance of the Passion Play attracts thou sands of visitors. The change came through the death of An ton Lang, for thirty years the former Christus of the Passion Play. Death, however, changes the players but does not stop the presentation of the Passion Play, which for centuries i has been performed to fulfill a vow of the villagers in the Seven teenth century. Until about 150 years ago the sight of the towering mountains filled the people of Oberammergau with awe; in fact, fear; and they were looked upon more as drawbacks than as objects of beauty and inspiration. The custom of offsetting the de pressing effect of the looming rocky background by vivid color still pre vails, and besides old but ever fresh fresco paintings depicting scenes from the Bible on the walls of the houses, new ones are beginning to decorate several homes. These show a more modern trend, and general ly are done by young Bavarian ar tists. They lend vivid color to a street scene already bright with houses painted yellow, pink, green, and blue. Hardly a house lacks a balcony, and this, like all the windowsills, is lined with a profusion of flowers. Green shutters and painted frames around the windows put a special stress on the “eyes” of most homes. Usually near the door, in large letters, is exhibited the name and occupation of the owner, who might well appear to be the proprietor of the entire valley as he complacently walks through the streets and fields, hills and mountains. Born here, he feels himself part of all this. In the Home and Fields. The inside of his birthplace breathes the same spirit. The cen ter is not the kitchen whence the healthful, frugal meals come, but the living room with a carved wooden crucifix solemnly hanging in one corner. There is the cradle of family life. There the men and women and children assemble when they come home from field or shop. The fields yield just enough grass for the cattle and potatoes for the people, though most of the villagers have their own little gardens. Farmhouse and stable are usual ly in one building. This saves the peasant many a step in bad weather and keeps him always near his be loved cows, which in turn help sup ply warmth in the long, cold winter. The arrival of the White King is hailed by everybody, for the thick blanket he always spreads over the mountains and the valley does not mean being buried for four or five months. Oberammergau lies in about the same latitude as Montreal, and masses of snow cover the moun tains, at times to a depth of 30 feet. Many visitors come to try their luck on skis, and skiing be comes an easy accomplishment for the local youngsters. St. Peter Distributes Milk. Singing and whistling, Hubert Mayr, the St. Peter of the Passion Play, drives his little pony cart through the town every day, dis tributing milk among the people. How happy and pleased he is that at last his life’s dream has come true and he has become “St. Peter”! The meek manners of Hugo Rutz, the village blacksmith, would never lead one to guess that on the stage he was the fiery high priest, Caia- phas, inciting the mob against Jesus. Anton Lechner, teacher of draw ing at the local woodcarving school, is just as much of a surprise. Ludwig Lang, fierce - looking Barabbas on the stage, is a peaceful cowherd who may be seen walking along the street at 6 o’clock almost vmy morning, driving a herd of How the Play Is Presented. From 8:15 a. m. to 5:25 p. m., with two hours’ recess for lunch, the thou sands watch the performance with tense interest from beginning to end, never turning their eyes, which are often dimmed with tears, from the recently built and modernized cen tral stage. In front of it, flanked by the house of Pilate and the palace of Annas, opens the proscenium, 140 feet wide, on which—rain or sunshine— the mass'scenes take place and the 47 members of the chorus—all local talent—appear, led in and out by the majestic figure of the Speaker of the Prologue, whose task is to in troduce each act of a tableau. He has more lines than any other mem ber of the cast. There are 24 of these artistically set and lavishly mounted pictures, irregularly scattered among the 16 acts and representing scenes from the Old Testament, running parallel with the New. The very beginning of the per formance, announced by the boom of a cannon discharged on a dis tant hill, plunges the audience into deep silence, and absorption. Or chestra, choir, prologue, and tab leaux heighten this mood; then the curtains part. Impressive Climax of the Drama. Now Christ triumphantly enters Jerusalem. The jealous priests be gin their work against Him, while Christ bids farewell to His Mother and friends at Bethany before re turning to the city of His doom. There the last Supper unites Him and His twelve disciples once more. Judas hastens away to betray His Master in the Mount of Olives. Christ is seized. The afternoon sees Him before the high council, slandered, mocked, and jeered, and eventually sent to Pontius Pilate, who passes Him on to King Herod. Peter repents his sin of denial, whereas Judas finds no way out but the rope. Christ is scourged and crowned with thorns, and presented to a raging mob in a scene of highest dramatic values. Pilate finally hands Him over to His enemies, and, with the Cross on His bleed ing shoulders, Christ staggers up to Golgotha to be fastened to the Cross, to die, pierced by a spear in realistic manner. We see Him rise again from the tomb, and, in the finest of all tab leaux, ascend to Heaven.