McCormick messenger. (McCormick, S.C.) 1902-current, July 07, 1938, Image 2
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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
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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.