McCormick messenger. (McCormick, S.C.) 1902-current, August 11, 1938, Image 2
McCORMICK MESSENGER. McCORMICK. S. C.. THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 1938
—Weekly News Review
Shall U. S. Pay Your Doctor?
Professional Opinion Divided
' by Edward W. Pickard—
'Domestic
Modern medicine’s biggest prob
lem is the middle class, too pros
perous for relief, too poor to pay its
doctor bills. Although 80 per cent
of the nation favors government
care for those who cannot pay, the
potent American Medical associa
tion has constantly frowned on U. S.
subsidy.
In Chicago, A. M. A.’s headquar
ters, 30 physicians have been ex
pelled since 1920 for operating low-
cost clinics and advertising their
services. Throughout America, de
pression-ridden medics have twid-
died their thumbs while the nation
suffered from poor health. What
makes the situation more desperate
is that acute illness is much more
prevalent in the low income
brackets than among those who can
pay.
Last November a self-appointed
committee of 430 doctors' revolted
against A. M. A.’s high ethical
standards and took the stump fa
voring socialized medicine. Their
proposals, all previously refected by
A. M. A., included local, state and
federal subsidy for public health
work, hospitalization, research and
education.
For six months an interested pub
lic has been forming opinions. Two
weeks ago President Roosevelt’s na
tional health conference met at
Washington under able Josephine
Roche, former head of U. S. health
activities as assistant secretary of
the treasury. Though they listened
attentively to the 'Roche- program
for an $850,00p,000-a-year medical
program, delegates soon broke into
two camps.
From Mayo clinic’s Dr. Hugh
Cabot, leader of the revolting group,
came a charge that the practice of
medicine is “medieval” in parts of
the U. S. Lashed back A. M. A.’s
General Manager Olin .West: “I
don’t know 1 whether the medical pro
fession is any more proud of Cabot
than he is of the medical profes-
$ion.” Added fiery Dr. Morris Fish-
bein, editor of A. M. A.’s Journal:
“Medical care is not the most im
portant problem before the people
of the United States . . . medical
and dental care must always be
subservient to the need for food,
fuel, clothing, shelter and a job.”
Last week A. M. A. found itself
in an uncomfortable position. In
Washington, Assistant Attorney
General Thurman Arnold announced
that A. M. A. will be prosecuted as
a monopoly under the federal anti
trust laws, accused of violating the
law by boycotting low-cost clinics.
Specific grounds for the suit in
volved the Group Hefilth association
of the District of Columbia, organ
ized last year by 2,500 government
employees. Trust Buster Arnold
charged A. M. A. and the Medical
Society of the District of Columbia
had attempted to prevent the Group
Health association from operating
by cold-shouldering doctors. Group
Health association physicians, he
said, had been (1) excluded from
Washington hospitals, (2) threat
ened with expulsion from the asso
ciation and (3) made unwelcome at
consultaUons with other doctor?.
As A. M. A. prepared its counter
attack, Thurman Arnold predicted
the suit would have “far-reaching
consequences on one of our most
pressing problems.”
Aviation
In Portland, Ore., one day last
week. Major Howard C. French of
the U. S. air reserve corps posed
for his picture being “dragged” into
a plane bound for San Francisco.
The pretense was that Major French
feared flying.
Next day he headed west over the
Pacific in Pan-American’s Hawaiian
Clipper bound for Manila. Some
2,500 miles later the ship landed in
Honolulu and took off for Midway
island, 1,380 miles away. Next stop
was Wake island and next came
Guam. When the 26-ton Clipper took
off for Manila, Major French must
have thought his fears were in vain.
But a few hours later the Clipper’s
radio went dead. After half a day
of anxious waiting, Pan-American
admitted the ship must be down at
sea. Out from Manila went the
army transport Meigs and by dawn
next day heavy warships were plow
ing the sea to reach the plane’s last
reported positions.
Finally, in a spot where the water
stood 5,000 fathoms deep, the Meigs
struck a significant oil slick that
indicated the Hawaiian Clipper had
plummeted into the sea. Aboard
had been six passengers, nine crew
members. Major French’s fears had
not been in vain.
•Capt. Hans Bertram of the (Ger
man air service became the first
person to circumnavigate the world
by commercial plane last week when
he landed in Berlin after a three-
weeks’ absence. Unnoticed on his
eastward trip until he reached Man
hattan, Bertram crossed the Atlan
tic as third pilot on Germany’s cata
pult plane Nordwind.
Foreign
Already weary of hostilities in
China, Japan wondered last week if
she ha{l a second war to fight. In
isolated Mahchukuo where 75-year-
old Russo-Chinese boundary mark
ers have long since been lost, So
viet and Jap troops were making
much ado over a disputed hill near
the village of Changkufeng. First
hostilities occurred July 11, but not
until last week did the conflict blos
som into full-fledged warfare.
Three clashes were reported in
three days. As might be expected,
both Moscow and Tokyo claimed
victory . and Moscow sent a “vig
orous protest” which Japan reject
ed. In the next skirmish Manchu-
kuan detachments occupied Russian
territory two and a half miles deep
west of Lake Khassan, while So
viet troops fled leaving 50 dead.
Next day Moscow answered with
airplanes, bombing railways near
Changkufeng. Tokyo claimed five
ships were downed and Russia did
itk best to minimize the iiicidents.
To some, it looked like war.
Sports
Although Jerome Hanna Dean had
cost the Chicago Cubs $37,000 each
time they used him this year, Own
er Phillip K. Wrigley thought last
week his investment was at least es
tablishing some sort of record. Pur
chased from the St. Louis Cardinals
for $185,000, Dizzy Dean had pitched
only five games but had won them
all. Most important, however, was
his mark of only 1.02 earned runs
per nine-inning game. Considering
that Boston’s Jim Turner led the
JEROME HANNA DEAN
**It teat just one of those days,**
National league last year with 2.38
runs against him per game, and
Lefty Gomez paced the American
league with 2.33, Dizzy Dean’s rec
ord appeared spectacular indeed.
Chicago was just complimenting
itself on this feat when Dizzy Dean
took the mound against Philadel
phia. First inning saw the bases
loaded with a single, double and a
walk. Third inning saw a harmless
single. Fourth inning saw Chuck
Klein’s over-the-fence homer. Fifth
inning saw two doubles before Dizzy
went to the shower. With Larry
French finishing for the Cubs, Phila
delphia won 5-4.
“It was just one of those days,”
said Dean.
Politics
During Pennsylvania’s recent fiery
primary campaign, charges were
made that Gov. George H. Earle’s
forces had extorted money from
state contractors and employees and
“sold” legislation. When a Dauphin
county grand jury was called to in
vestigate the charges, Governor
Earle sprang to action, summoned
his rubber-stamp legislature and
ground out four bills to block the
quiz. One of them appointed a spe
cial legislative committee which
would supersede the grand jury and
conduct its own investigation.
Two days later the Dauphin coun
ty court blocked fhis ambitious plan
by impounding all evidence in the
case and prohibiting the grand jury’s
witnesses from appearing before
the legislative committee.
Labor
Last week the national labor re
lations board sent conciliators to
Newton, Iowa, where a well-behaved
washing machine strike has occu
pied 1,500 Maytag employees since
May 9. As federal peacemakers pre
pared to call a parley between com
pany officials and C. I. O. repre
sentatives, Iowa’s Gov. Nels G.
Kraschel got on his high horse. To
Maj. Gen. Mathew Tinley, in charge
of national guardsmen at Newton,
the governor sent word that the la
bor board must not convene. In
formed of the ultimatum. Trial Ex
aminer Madison Hill reported to
Washington and decided not to fight
the Iowa national guard single-hand
ed. Lawyers agreed Governor Kras-
chell’s troopers are supreme so long
as the martial law goes unchal
lenged. What he wants, said the
governor, is a settlement of differ
ences between Maytag and C. I. O
without the labor board’s meddling.
People
Politely spurning cash. Count
Kurt Haugwitz-Reventlow signed
formal separation papers in London
with his wife, the former Barbara
.Hutton. To Count Kurt goes control
over Lance, the couple’s two-year-
old child, who will be raised as a
“Danish gentleman.” Next day
Countess Barbara was reported pin
ing once more for the American cit
izenship she renounced last yepr.
•Married a little more than one
year, England’s Duke of Windsor
and his wife, the former Wallis War-
field, only a few weeks ago found a
home in Austria’s ancient Mittersill
estate. Last week as workmen were
busy renovating the Twelfth-century
castle for-September 1 occupancy,
fire of undetermined origin burned
it to the ground. Notified at their
temporary chateau on the Riviera,
England’s former king and his wife
were expected to start house-hunt
ing once more this- week.
•Celebrating his seventy-fifth birth
day anniversary in Detroit, automo
bile magnate Henry Ford spoke for
the press. Fordisms: (1) “The trou
ble ... is that we think the future
is tomorrow. If it doesn’t come to
morrow, we are not interested.” (2)
“There is nothing ahead for this
country but prosperity.” (3), “Busi
ness is all mixed up with! utterly
false elements.” Meanwhile in
Washington the national labor rela
tions board found the Ford Motor
company guilty of Wagner act viola
tion by “spying and discrimination”
at its Buffalo, N. Y., plant.
•Douglas Corrigan, who, left New
York flying to California and ended
up “by mistake” in Ireland, took a
boat for home and announced he
was afraid of being seasick. In
Washington, U. S. department of
commerce officials radioed the hom
ing aviator news of his penalty for
an unauthorized transatlantic flight.
The penalty: A six-day suspension
of Corrigan’s commercial pilot cer
tificate, conveniently arranged while
he is on shipboard.
•At Indianapolis, John Pierpont
Morgan III had his appendix re
moved after being rushed from a
nearby farm where he had been
pitching hay incognito. Notified of
“Jack Morgan’s” real identity,
neighboring farmers said the twenty-
one-year-old youth “seemed to be a
willing hand, but a little green.”
Miscellany
©At Dayton, Ohio, seventy-one-year-
old Jeanette Reber Taylor sought
her birth registration to apply for
old age pension. Clerks thumbed
back through musty registration vol
umes, found Jeanette Taylor was
No. 1 registrant in No. 1 volume.
•Guilty of squandering his wife’s
money, guilty of murdering two
women at Elmont, N. Y., last Janu
ary,. John Reo confessed his crimes
to his sweetheart, Mrs. Florence
Termond. Last week his wife, Ma
mie, visited John Reo at Sing Sing
where he awaits death August 15.
Upshot was Mamie’s letter to New
York’s Gov. Herbert Lehman: “If
there could be a way ... I would
gladly die in his place. Could it be
made possible?”
•Southampton^ England, turned out
last week to welcome two luxury
liners arriving the same day. Ger
many’s sleek Bremen ran aground
entering the harbor, finally got off
with the aid of tugs. A few minutes
’ater the Queen Mary, caught by
wind and tide, almost split a long
wooden jetty.
•At Denver, thousands of bees came
from nowhere to settle on the swank
Brown Palace hotel, covering one
side up to the seventh story. After
a four-hour battle by employees pro
duced only swollen noses, somebody
called Mrs. Sarah Jackson, Denver
bee catcher. Systematically locating
three queen bees, Mrs. Jackson
goon had the entire swarm safely
oacked away.
By LEMUEL F. PARTON
I EW YORK.—England pioneered
the businessman - diplomat—
shrewdly and effectively, it would
seem. Many of her best fixers
and negotiators
Beat Fixers throughout the
Have Stake world have been
In Deals men who had a
personal stake in
the outcome of their operations.
They were not disinterested, per
haps, but no more were the tradi
tional diplomats who knew protocol,
perhaps, but nothing about oil.
America followed with Nor
man H. Davis, a financier who
became an effective European
swing man under five Presi
dents, and then came Spruille
Braden, engineer and industrial
ist who was our ambassador-at-
large in Latin America until he
became minister to Colombia
last April.
President Roosevelt, agreeing to
act as an arbitrator in the Chaco
dispute, picks Mr. Braden to repre
sent him. In his own private indus
trial diplomacy throughout South
America, the husky and gregarious
Mr. Braden has proved himself an
excellent pacifier and trouble
shooter.
He knows the score in oil, copper,
rubber, minerals, hides and what
not, and this ma-
Braden Wise terialized and par-
In Latin ticularized diplo-
Diplomacy macy has made
him useful in dip
lomatic representations at various
South American conferences. He
has been working on the Chaco set
tlement for the last three years.
In his youth, he did a short turn
in the mines near Elkhorn, Mont.,
his native town, and then went to
Yale and became a mining engi
neer.
He was a second-string halfback
at Yale, but a first string engineer
and promoter from the start, elec
trifying Chile for Westinghouse, or
ganizing the Bolivia-Argentina Ex
ploration corporation, branching out
widely in South American develop
ment and finance. He desperately
wanted to be minister to Chile, but
was consoled with Colombia.
He is forty-four years old, re
membered in New York as the
fastest and hardest-working
handball player around Jack
O’Brien’s gymnasium, in which
he combated a tendency to
plumpness, creeping up on him
m bit in late years.
He was married in 1915 to the
beautiful and socially eminent Se-
norita Maria Humeres del Solar of
Chile. They have three daughters
and two sons. Their New York res
idence is the former George W. Per
kins estate at Riyerdale-on-the-Hud-
son.
• • •
C ARL J. HAMBRO, burly presi
dent of the Norwegian parlia
ment, is in America for a lecture
tour. There is an interesting cut
back in his career.
Predicted At Geneva, in
Collapse 1927, hp staged
Of League a spectacular de-
* bate with Austen
Chamberlain, in which, speaking for
the small states, he vehemently in
sisted that the league must find a
way to restrain strong aggressors,
or else find itself impotent and dis
credited in a few years.
With equal vehemence, Mr.
Chamberlain proclaimed t^e
**• trustworthiness of the strong
states and their humanitarian
aims. Warning Mr. Hambro
against overt restraints by the
league, he said, “Along that
road lies danger.”
Mr. Hambro was the most distin
guished recruit of the Oxford group
movement in 1935, and has since
been a leader of the movement in
Norway.
Returning from a luncheon attend
ed by Dr. Frank Buchman, founder
of the movement, in Geneva, he told
of the mystic exaltation of the com
pany and later announced his ad
herence to the group.
Although a conservative, Mr.
Hambro is the president of the La
bor party of Norway. For many
years, he has been leading the fight
of the smaller nations in the league.
Arriving in New York, he remarks
dryly that Norway is old-fashioned
—she has a surplus in her budget
© Consolidated News Featui es.
WNTJ Service.
Platinum Once of No Value
Old prospectors like to tell how
they picked “native lead” out of
their pans and sluiceboxes, and
what they said as they threw it
away. They are still saying things,
for this much despised substance
was actually platinum, which had
.little value years ago. Counterfeit
ers used it extensively because of
its heavy weight, and gold-plated
platinum coins are still in existence.
In 1828-45 Nicholas I of Russia is
sued platinum 3. 6 and 12 rouble
pieces that are highly prized by the
coin collecting fraternity.—Detroit
Coin Club.
Australian cowboys “mustering” cattle.
Stock Ranches of the 'Down Under'
Continent Measured in Square Miles
Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington. D. C.—WNU Service.
UT in the more remote
regions of Queensland,
Northern Territory and
Western Australia, and in the
arid center of Australia, cattle
properties are still measured in
square miles, not acres.
Picture a single cattle station
larger than Massachusetts and Con
necticut. Look at it also as a band
five miles wide extending all the
way from New York to San Fran
cisco; or, fantastic thought, a land
path more than a mile wide all the
way from the farthest side of Aus
tralia to Maine! For it is 13,000
square miles!
One cattle man, whose station lies
on the Queensland-Northern Terri
tory border, tells you quite casually
that it is a 125-mile horseback jour
ney from his back porch to the
back line of his property.
Like many of the older holdings,
none of his land is fenced, so the
cattle often stray far afield.
During the summer months they
move southward into the prevailing
winds to rid themselves of the my
riad flies that pester them. Conse
quently, the station hands often
have the task of riding 250 miles to
get their stock back to their own
property. The herds also may wan
der 40 or 50 miles in the direction
of storms if they lack water.
Early one morning a Geographic
staff writer flew out to a cattle sta
tion, 300 miles into the Queensland
interior, landed in a field near the
house, and taxied up to the gateway.
What One Station Is Like.
The station was not lar£e as many'
of the inland stations run, but it was
a goodly block of land—1,200 square
miles—pasturing 25,000 head of
stock!
As he rode its ranges, he saw one
herd of 1,500 steers that had just
arrived from a four months’ trek
of a thousand miles down from the
gulf country. *From. ,the fattening
paddock where they grazed to mar
ket was still another 200-mile ovet-
land journey.
Upon food and water hinges suc
cess or failure. How many times
tragedy has' stalked beside dried-
up water holes and parched, pas
tures! Whole herds have perished
in rigorous seasons and the stren
uous labor of cattlemen has come
to dramatic nought.
As shearing is the big event on
sheep stations, so mustering for
branding and sorting is the chief
activity on cattle ranches.
Herds on this property are han
dled from 15 mustering camps and
it usually takes four to six months
to complete the work.
Here, where life is attuned to the*
ceaseless moan and bellow of cattle
about water holes and in branding
corrals, the American Wild West is
reflected in ten-gallon-Stetson hats
that have come into fashion in the
last few years.
But the swaggering cowhand
with a handy lariat and a pair of
six-shooters strapped on his thighs
is unknown. Australian cattlemen,
instead of roping their beasts for
branding, in most cases pen them
and hold them in a system of
gates.
Why “Duffing” Is Rare.
“Do you have any cattle rustling?”
you ask.
“We call it ‘duffing’ here,” replies
the manager. “But it’s very rare.
Distances are too great; it doesn’t
pay.”
One story that you hear stands
out as an excellent example.
It seems that two men desired
to increase their stock, so when
rains had filled water holes along
the way, they rode 250 miles to a
station and drove off about 300 cattle.
The ranch owners and police
tracked the animals down and
brought them back, together with
the culprits.
The men were then committed to
stand trial in Darwin, nearly a thou
sand miles away. Eventually one
man pleaded guilty and was sen
tenced to five years’ imprisonment.
For lack of evidence, the other man
was released. But by the time he
got home again he had traveled
nearly 3,000 miles!
Far out in the interior, remote
from railways and easy means of
transport, station homes have few
er amenities. There are no electric
lights, no refrigerators. Water in
canvas sacks is cooled by evapo
ration on the shady verandas.
Yet life is pleasant, and afternoon
tea is an established custom. The
radio, magic destroyer of dis
tances, brings the world’s news and
music to the family living room.
Across the Vast region, popularly
dubbed the “back of beyond,” ether
waves crackle in the evening with
friendly chatter between neighbors
perhaps 50 or 100 miles apart, for
many stations are equipped with
hand-operated radio sending sets.
Out here the airplane has likewise
proved its worth, for flying doctors
now race hundreds of miles on their
errands of mercy. Now and then,
too, a flying parson may drop in on
a station to hold a service.
Stock Routes Well Maintained.
The government maintains a sys
tem of stock routes and tends them
with religious care, for they are
the arteries of a far-reaching enter
prise. Across dry areas they wind
and twist to touch every available
spring, stream, and billabong.
Australia’s land map is sketched
with a number of these long snaky
paths whiclj radiate out to railways
and seaboard cities. One begins up
in the tablelands of Northern Terri
tory and reaches out to the railheads
of Longreach, Winton and Charle-
ville to serve Townsville and Bris
bane.
Another starts up in southwestern
Queensland, swerves through the
northeastern comer of South Aus
tralia, and follows down the west
ern boundary of New South Wales
until it contacts the railway at Cock-
burn, to find eventual outlet at Ade
laide.
A third trail connects the Kimber
ley region of Western Australia with
Wyndham, whose meatworks op
erate during the winter months. In
Western Australia, too, another
seemingly endless meandering line
ties the railheads thrust out into the
interior with the expanses of North
ern Territory. •
On these tenuous channels, hun
dreds of miles in length, you see
streams of steers moving out to
ward the ports, eventually per
haps ,to provide chilled beef for the
London market or bully beef for
British Tommies or jack-tars.
Unlike Argentina, where wild
herds once roamed and men needed
only to round them up, the Aus
tralian cattle industry has been built
up gradually from small beginnings
of half a century ago. Frozen-
meat contracts have provided the
impetus.
In recent years, however* Aus
tralia has seen new handwriting
on her economic wall.* 'With ’ im
proved refrigeration facilities and
fast ships, fresh chilled meat has
come to England from the Argen
tine. Against it frozen meat cannot
compete.
Learning to Chill the Meat.
So the commonwealth has turned
to its scientists to learn whether it,
too, can deliver chilled beef to the
London market, a distance handi
cap of 13,000 miles.
In the Brisbane abattoirs experts
have tackled the problem. With
test tubes and refrigeration cham
bers, and with bacterial, fungal and
yeast growths under their micro
scopes, they are learning the condi
tions necessary for meat to main
tain its full freshness and color dur
ing the month-and-a-half that it
must be on the high seas.
Romance is in their refrigerators,
which are controlled to fractions
of a degree, and their pipettes re
flect future profits, because these
quiet workers have been remark
ably successful in their experi
ments.
Several trial shiploads of meat,
sent in 1934, arrived in London
without deterioration. To this heart
ening assurance, the operators of
various meatworks quickly react
ed ; plants are being altered to meet
the new requirements.
Less spectacular, perhaps, but
doubly more profitable than the
herds that roam the interior, is the
dairy stock pastured in the fertile
coastal belt, mainly in New South
Wales, Victoria, and Queensland.
Approximately a sixth of the coun
try’s cattle are bred for their milk
products.