McCormick messenger. (McCormick, S.C.) 1902-current, August 25, 1938, Image 2
McCORMICK MESSENGER, McCORMICK, S. C.. THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 1938
Weekly News Review—
House Un-Americanism Body
Probes Hollywood Communism
— By Joseph W. La Bine
A. F. OF L.’S JOHN FREY, INVESTIQATOR DIES
They were obliged to discuss John Lewis.
Domestic
Last year Chicago Times Report
er John Metcalfe joined Fritz
Kuhn’s Germ an-American Bund,
traveled 20,000 miles attending Bund
meetings, then resigned to write a
startling expose for his paper. Di
rect result was a $25,000 house com
mittee on un-American activities,
which met last week under Texas’
Martin Dies. After three days of
probing, un-Americanism reared its
colorful head everywhere from C. I.
O. headquarters to glamorous Holly
wood.
Ex-Bundsman Metcalfe told how
Fritz Kuhn organized 500,000 Ger
man-Americans under instructions
from Adolf Hitler, how in return
Kuhn was give'n a whip hand over
Germany’s ambassador to' the U. S.
He told of Chicago’s “Silver Shirts,’’
organized to smash Communism.
Ex-Bundsman Peter Gissibl told
how Nazi spies consorted with Ger-
man-Americans, how the Red Star
line “fixed it” so spies could slip
back home when they got in trou
ble. But it was American Federa
tion of Labor’s John P. Frey who
tossed in the biggest bombshell and
caused C. I. O.’s John L. Lewis to
snort with rage..
Naziism is one thing, but Metal
Tradesman Frey promised to identi
fy “several national C. I. O. offi
cers” as Communists. Would he
mention John Lewis? “How could I
avoid it!” replied Mr. Frey.
The Frey disclosures had barely
started before Committee Investiga
tor Edward Sullivan hurried into
Washington from California, anx
ious to reveal how C. I. O.’s Harry
Bridges, America’s most famous
alien, “attended ‘top fraction’ meet
ings of the Communist party and
received aid from officials of the
U. S. labor department while patri
otic citizens were trying to have
him deported for his Communistic
activities.”
Continued Investigator Sullivan:
“Witnesses can be produced who
can name the day when an official
of the immigration service contact
ed Harry Bridges and called him to
his office, where he read ... a con
fidential letter of instructions on his
future behavior, written by an out
standing official of the labor depart
ment.”
That Communist Bridges is
financed by Hollywood cinema stars
was Mr. Sullivan’s next charge.
Armed with this evidence, supported
by Unionist Frey whose accusations
John Lewis seemed unwilling to an
swer, the Dies committee prepared
to remain in Washington two more
weeks. In New York they will pick
up more tasty rumors, then move
west across the nation to smell out
Communism a la Hollywood.
Foreign
Many years ago Germany’s great
Bismarck fooled his opponents by
telling the truth, knowing they would
not believe. Last week, when Adolf
Hitler called 500,000 reserves to the
colors for war games with a mil
lion regular soldiers, all Europe be
came jittery. But in Berlin there
was scoffing; if Germany' planned
anything but peaceful moves, she
would have assembled her giant
war machine secretly. Remember
ing Bismarck, answering too that
secret mobilization on such a giant
scale would be impossible, Berlin’s
nervous diplomatic corps sped the
news back home to Paris, London
and Prague. There, these things
happened:
(1) In Prague, England’s Lord
Runciman has spent a fortnight
mediating differences between loyal
Czechs and their disgruntled fellow-
countrymen, Sudeten Germans. Su-
detens want autonomy, eventual an
nexation by Germany. Was it pos
sible that Germany’s mobilization
foreshadowed a quick annexation
move? As Premier Milan Hodza re
jected a Sudeten demand for autono
my, all Czechoslovakia became wor
ried and Lord Runciman wished he
were back home.
(2) In Paris, where the govern
ment has also been having trou
ble with Mussolini, French frontiers
along Germany and Italy were vir
tually locked. Next, Interior Min
ister Albert Sarraut re-enforced his
counter-spying service against Ger
many.
(3) In London, Prime Minister Ne
ville Chamberlain forgot his catarrh
and returned from Scotland. Since
Germany recently closed its fortified
zones to all military men, Britain’s
war office warned its officers to get
special certificates to avoid “trou
ble” during travels in Germany.
Chief dynamite in Germany’s ma
neuvers lay in the possibility of an
incident that would topple Europe’s
delicately balanced peace structure.
• When Japan and Russia signed a
truce in their month-old undeclared
war on the Manchukuan-Siberian
border, only the most optimistic ob
server could predict lasting peace.
As a redemarcation commission
prepared last week to settle the
boundary dispute, two incidents
threatened once more to send Rus
sia’s bear charging up bullet-pocked
Changkufeng hill. On isolated Sag-
halien island, half Russian, half Jap,
Soviet guards fired on a touring
member of the Japanese parlia
ment. Next day Tokyo’s troops took
advantage of the truce, advanced
100 meters up Changkufeng hill
while Russian guns bristled. Since
wisdom was the better part of val
or, the Japs immediately retreated.
Politics
Dearer than anything else to
Franklin Roosevelt is his legisla
tive program, blocked last session
not by a Republican minority but
by anti-New Deal Democrats. No
silent sufferer, Mr. Roosevelt de
cided long ago that congress needed
new blood to replace opponents of
his reorganization bill, wage-hour
bill and lesser measures. This year’s
primaries offered an opportunity.
By last week his “purge” pro
gram was not a success. But neith
er had New Dealism suffered many
losses in elections thus far. Bound
GEORGIA’S GEORGE
He had reason to scowl.
to break the impasse, Mr. Roosevelt
decided to stake his political future
on his tremendous personal popular
ity in the South. Fortnight ago at
Bamesville, Ga., he bluntly read out
of the party Sen. Walter F. George,
who sat scowling in the audience
(see picture). Last week 60-year-
old Senator George took up the
“challenge” and set out to beat New
Dealer Lawrence Camp in Georgia’s
primary, September 14.
Stalking next into South Carolina,
the President intimated that Sena- 1
tor Ellison D. (“Cotton Ed”) Smith
would be unwelcome at Washington
next winter, intimated also that
South Carolinians should send in his
place Gov. Olin D. Johnson.
Back in Washington, news of the
South’s “purge” gave political com
mentators enough hard tack to chew
on until election day. What Frank
lin Roosevelt wanted was complete
domination of congress, insuring
passage of his legislative program.
Thus would he be able to dictate
his 1940 successor, dispelling the
third term bugaboo.
People
Last month Anne Lindsay Clark
married Son John Roosevelt, who
a fortnight ago took an $18-a-week
job in the Boston department store
of late Democrat Edward Filene.
Last week Anne Roosevelt’s sister,
Sally, who has sung her way to
nominal fame in a night club, said
she would marry George Xavier
McLanahan of New York.
• Wed only two weeks to his tele
phone operator sweetheart from
Gore Bay, Ont., 21-year-old Auto
Heir Daniel C. Dodge was honey
mooning on Manitoulin island off
Lake Huron’s Georgian bay. One
afternoon as he rummaged around
the garage with his wife and Mr.
and Mrs. Lloyd Bryant, a stick of
dynamite exploded. Completely
shattered was Dodge’s left arm, his
face torn, his eyes blinded. Rushed
off by boat to a distant hospital by
his badly injured friends. Dodge
suffered excruciating agony. Final
ly he stood up, swayed, jumped into
the water, drowned. Next day Bry
ant was not expected to live.
Crime
One morning last fall, 18-year-old
Paul Dwyer of South Paris, Me.,
was arrested in North Arlington, N.
J. Stuffed in the trunk of his auto
mobile was the corpse of James
G. Littlefield, elderly country doc
tor. Stuffed in the back seat was
that of Dr. Littlefield’s wife. Paul
Dwyer went to prison under life sen
tence for double murder. Then he
changed his story. Said Dwyer:
Francis Carroll, a former deputy
sheriff, had improper relations with
his daughter, Barbara, Dwyer’s
sweetheart. When Dr. Littlefield
learned of this, Carroll killed him.
Later he killed the doctor’s wife.
Fear of Carroll caused Dwyer to
admit both murders.
Last week these horrible accusa
tions were settled. Francis Carroll
was convicted, sent to prison for
life. It appeared likely that sallow
faced Paul Dwyer would be par
doned, though he might still be
charged with guilty knowledge of
the slayings. Meanwhile Barbara
Carroll received offers to appear in
a Boston night club.
Aviation
Transatlantic commercial air su
premacy has long since been willed
by public consent to U. S. and Great
Britain, though until last year nei
ther nation did anything to justify
the public’s approval. A few weeks
ago Nazi Germany sent its Nord-
wind, Nordstern and Nordmeer cat
apulting from the Azores to New
York and back, placing a new na
tion in the race for Atlantic air su
premacy. Last week Adolf Hitler’s
birdmen did something still better.
Non-stop from Berlin to New York
in 24 hours, 56 minutes, came the
26-passenger Brandenburg. Two
days later Brandenburg was again
in Berlin, making her return trip in
the record time of 19 hours, 55 min
utes. No longer a secret is Hitler’s
ambition to make not London, not
Paris, but Berlin the European
starting point for transatlantic
flights.
• Down from the clouds east of
Mexico City plummeted an airliner.
First a crash, then flames, and 11
were dead. Down from fog-bound
skies into Germany’s Black forest
came a Czechoslovak liner bound
from Prague to Paris. Sixteen died.
Down to their deaths off England’s
coast went six crew members of a
royal air force flying boat, bringing
to 126 the total fatalities in that
service this year. Thus, in 12 hours,
in Mexico, England and Germany,
33 lives were snuffed out.
Sports
When Broker J. Smith Ferebee
played 144 holes of golf in Chicago
last fortnight, it looked like a new
marathon fad would start, rivaling
marathon dancing, surpassing the
toughest flagpole sitter. Last week
at St. John, Ind., 23-year-old Charles
Grant started playing golf at dawn.
By 3 p. m. he had covered 162
holes, by sundown, 225. His worst
18-hole round: the tenth, scoring 81.
Miscellany
From San Francisco’s Golden
Gate exposition grounds last week
came orders that publicity on the
1939 fair must show more fair build
ings, fewer fair maidens. Result
was a new bit of publicity, some
thing fair officials had not expected.
Up and down in front of the adminis
tration building paraded “the most
beautiful picket line in America.”
Their placards: “We’re out on a
limb.” “We want a leg-acy.”
• Last fortnight Britain’s proud
Queen Mary made a westward At
lantic passage in 3 days, 21 hours,
48 minutes, clipping better than an
hour from the record of her rival,
France’s Normandie. Last week
Queen Mary steamed east from New
York, made the crossing in 3 days,
20 hours, 42 minutes, to beat an-
1 other Normandie record. Said a
proud officer: “This is the lion’s
turn to roar.”
• Last June 1 a big malamute dog
went hunting with his master off
Alaska’s frozen Bering strait. Lin
gering off shore to gobble seal meat,
the beast was carried to sea on an
ice floe. Last week, more than two
months later, the master again
went hunting, this time with Father
Bernard R. Hubbard, Alaskan mis
sionary. On lonely Point Hope, 250
miles away, the dog bounded up.
He had cruised the entire distance
on a cake of ice, had thrived on
seal meat.
WHO’S
NEWS
THIS
WEEK
By LEMUEL F. PARTON
NTEW YORK.—When Sir Walter
Runciman was here in 1937, it
was reported that he was trying to
persuade Washington to lend money
. to Germany, to
Runciman soothe Hitler and
Master of make him stop
Squeeze Play frightening Eng
land. That may or
may not have been his mission,
but, as a master of the old credit-
and-raw-materials squeeze play, he
works that way, and, now, as Vis
count Runciman, he is deep in the
Downing Street strategy which
swings these two cudgels of empire.
Prime Minister Chamberlain ap
pointed him as mediator in the
Czechoslovak-Sudeten German nego
tiations, but the Czechs toned that
down to adviser.
Viscount Runciman has been
a silent ally of Viscount Halifax
in the quiet, glacial-pressure ad
vance of the four-power bloc
scheme for a European coalition
and the final and complete iso
lation of Russia.
It was reported from London, un
verified so far as this writer knows,
that it was he who
Makes Moves put over a fast
In World’s credit double-play
Chess Game with France and
Italy, the moment
the Daladier government came in,
and he has been tagged as the man
who deploys the empire’s financial
resources in the diplomatic chess
game.
His father was a ruddy old sea
dog who sang chanteys, a cabin
boy who became a shipping czar
and a baronet. Viscount Runciman
is a pallid, tight-lipped little man,
a total abstainer, a former Sunday
School teacher, and a faithful chapel-
goer.
As president of the British board
of trade, he made concessions in
empire free trade, but he is a pro
tectionist of the Chamberlain tradi
tion. Like many men of small
stature, he has the Napoleonic psy
chosis, writing books about Napo
leon and hoarding memorabilia.
• * •
npHIS writer has heard from sev-
eral assured but not necessarily
authoritative sources that Tullio
Serafin would succeed Edward
Johnson as man-
Serann ager of the Metro-
To Boss politan Opera.
The Met? Signor Serafin has
been highly es
teemed here for his musicianship,
but all was not well between him
and the Metropolitan manage
ment when he returned to Rome in
1935, after a number of years as
Italian conductor here.
“The Metropolitan has not kept
pace with the artistic progress of
the modern stage,” he said, on his
arrival in Rome. “The way opera
is put on at the Metropolitan is ri
diculous . . . The great fault with the
Metropolitan is the little encourage
ment it is giving to its latent tal
ent.”
The Metropolitan reply hinted
that Signor Serafin was really
thinking about money rather
than art. In the season ’32-’33,
he had a fair subsistence wage
of $58£00 for the season. This
had been worked down to $34,000
the year he left.
He did indicate that he thought
that was pretty shabby pay for an
ace conductor, but insisted his criti
cism was directed solely at artistic,
shortcomings.
Several years ago, the Metropoli
tan was intent on national self-suf
ficiency in music.
Home Talent It was going to
For Opera discover and nur-
No Bargain ture native talent.
That hasn’t quite
come off, and there have been the
usual number of importations. It
will be interesting if it brings in not
only a European manager, but one
who is its sharpest critic.
Among music lovers of this writ
er’s acquaintance, there seems to
be great indifference about where
the singers come from as long as
they are good. They insist that mu
sic, above all, must be free from
the sharply nationalistic trends of
the day.
As a lad, Tullio Serafin laid
down a shepherd’s crook for a
baton. Tending the sheep near
Cavarzere on the Venetian
mainland, he used to walk sev
eral miles to tewn on Saturday
night, at the age of ten, to con-,
duct the village bund. He at
tended the conservatory at Mi
lan and was a full-fledged con
ductor in his early youth.
At La Scala, in Milan, he was
assistant conductor under Gatti-
Casazza. He became one of the
most widely known and popular con
ductors in Europe.
A stanch supporter of the Fascist
regime from its outset, he has been
conductor of the Royal Opera at
Rome since his departure from New
York. He was replaced here by
Ettore Panizza.
© Consolidated News Features.
WNU Service
Polishing plate glass in Pennsylvania factory.
Coal, Coke, Steel, Cement and Glass
Are Pennsylvania's Great Industries
Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington. D. C.—WNU Service.
G REAT events have hap
pened and the lives of all
Americans have been
transformed in many ways
since Obediah Gore, the Con
necticut blacksmith, moved to
the Wilkes-Barre country and
taught the neighborhood smiths
how to fire their forges with
anthracite; since Jesse Fell in
vented the grate for burning
hard coal in homes; since
Philip Ginter stubbed his toe on
a piece of hard coal and there
by laid the foundations of the
Lehigh Coal and Navigation
system of coal mines and coal
roads.
Even in the depths of the depres
sion in 1931 Pennsylvania was pro
ducing 60,000,000 tons of anthracite
and 97,000,000 tons of bituminous
coal, or approximately a third of
the nation’s entire coal output.
When you consider how much the
country owes to its vast supplies of
sunshine stored up in the earth
through millions of years, you real
ize how great is its debt to Penn
sylvania, for in service to humanity
coal far outshines the magic wonders
of Aladdin’s legendary lamp.
As one travels through the coal
fields, there are many sights remi
niscent of a century of mining. One
sees in the anthracite fields every
type of coal breaker, from the old
dry breaker with dust everywhere
and much of the coal wasted, to the
latest Rheolaveur breaker where
water is used from beginning to end,
and where even the dust is saved.
Tremendous Coke Production.
Pennsylvania is the nation’s fore
most producer of coke.
For generations the beehive coke
oven had its day. It was a waste
ful day, it is true, but the beehive
oven fitted its time. It was not
until the World war period that it
relinquished first place to by-prod
uct ovens.
Then the cry went up for more
and more of the chemicals hidden
in bituminous coal to take their
place in the explosives that were
indeed “the power behind the gun”
of war-making. Now the alchemist
of coal is getting more coke out of
a ton of coal made in a by-product
oven than could be obtained in a
beehive oven, and in addition he is
able to capture enough ammonia and
its compounds, light oil and its de
rivatives, gas, tar, fine coke, and
other products to bring the total
value of by-products up to $3.86 per
ton, all of which were lost in the
old-time beehive oven.
Those were spectacular nights be
fore the World war when one rode
for miles through the beehive oven
districts. Today those old ovens
stand row after row along scores
of railroad tracks, some v almost
completely in ruins but others lookr
ing as if they might be fired again
tomorrow.
Pig Iron and Steel.
Pennsylvania’s role in the iron
and steel industry is as remarkable
as her position in the coal and coke
industry of the nation. In 1931 the
Keystone state produced only 1 per
cent of the nation’s iron ore, but it
turned out 28 per cent of its pig
iron and 32 per cent of its steel.
With every 1,000 tons of pig iron
requiring in its making about 1,800
tons of ore, 700 tons of limestone,
1,000 tons of coke, and 4,500 tons of
air driven by powerful fans, one
may easily imagine that its produc
tion is the Keystone state’s heavy
industry.
There was in the days of peak
production no more inspiring night
sight than the view from a high hill
at Pittsburgh, looking down the Ohio
and up the Monongahela and the Al
legheny rivers, beholding Titan at
work, transforming ore into pig
iron.
The era of the Bessemer process
in converting pig iron into steel is
largely gone in the Keystone state.
No longer do these huge metallic
eggshells send their streams of fiery
sparks heavenward. The awesome
“spitting” of the spectacular con
verter during certain periods of the
blowing of air through its molten
contents has given place to the open
hearth.
New Ways of Making Cement.
Here enormous jets of gas flame
are played over the molten pig met
al, producing jron oxide which com
bines with added iron ore to form a
basic slag—the “skimmings” of the
fiery caldron.
.Nowhere in industrial Pennsylva
nia does one discover more progress
in processes than in the cement in-’
dustry. A pilgrimage through a ce-j
ment plant 20 years ago was like
working at the “bunghole” of a
threshing machine before the days
of the straw blowers. There was 1
dust everywhere. As one surveyed
the horizon of Lehigh and North
ampton counties, it seemed that
there were a hundred whirlwinds
perpetually blowing and marking
the sites of the cement plants scat
tered over the countryside.
Today it is different. Now the
rock is crushed under streams of
water and the final powdering of the
stone produces a sludge of about
the consistency of mush. . This is
introduced into the big rotary kilns
—some of them as much as 120 feet
long and 15 feet in diameter.
Here it meets a stream of pow
dered coal under a flame that gives
a temperature of from 2,500 to 3,000
degrees Fahrenheit. The coal has
been so finely ground that 95 per
cent of it will pass through a screen
that has 10,000 meshes to the square
inch. When the powdered coal, the
sludge, the fiery heat, and a regulat»
ed amount of air meet, glass-hard
clinkers are formed.
These clinkers in turn are the in
termediate materials between ce
ment rock and the finished product.
They are mixed with heavy steel
oval-shaped globules and conveyed
into rotary grinders.. Round and
round these big machines turn hour
after hour until all the clinkers have
been ground almost to impalpable
dust, in which form it is Portland
cement.
Among all of Pennsylvania’s dra
matic industries there is none pos
sessing greater fascination than
plate-glass making. Such opaque
substances as salt cake, pure lime
stone, and quartz sand go into a
furnace in 3,5b0-pound batches, be
come liquid, and then pass out as
a continuous sheet of plate glass
which is cut, ground, and polished
until it is as transparent as thin air.
In a Plate Glass Plant.
Up the Allegheny river from Pitts
burgh stands the little village of
Creighton. On its outskirts is the
largest plate-glass plant in the
world. The company owns at its
back door the coal mine that sup
plies its fuel, for coal is used in
such quantities that such a plant is
always located near its fuel supply
rather than close to its raw ma
terial.
Here are huge bins for storing
salt cake, soda ash, glass sand,
limestone, and other ingredients.
There is the giant furnace that
holds 1,200 tons of molten glass.
With a colored glass Shield before
your eyes look into the fiery fur
nace. Here are little hills and tiny
mountains, survivals of the last
3,500-pound mouthful of material
dumped in. There you stee a minia
ture lake of incandescent molten
mixture.
Twenty-one days of warming are
required to bring the temperature
of the furnace up to operating re
quirements. The marvel is that its
linings can be made heat-resistant
enough to stand temperatures that
convert sand and limestone into liq
uid and to take that punishment
for months on end.
At the rear of the furnace is a
giant lip out of which the molten
glass flows. Glowing hot, of doughy
consistency, it passes under tremen
dous rollers, which convert it into a
ribbon about 7 feet wide. Along
this it travels through an annealing
lehr for 400 feet. By now it is cool
enough for the cutters who trim
off the edges, cut it into lengths,
and mark the defective spots.
Then a sort of mechanical spider
with vacuum-cup feet swoops down
on each piece, lifts it high over
head, and deposits it in a plaster-of-
paris film on the six-ton cast-iron
car that is to be its bed while pass
ing under the grinding machines,
where sand and emery smooth it
down. From these grinder# the
plate passes under the felt-footed
polishers where enough rouge to col
or the lips and cheeks of an army
of women is used to produce that
perfection of smoothness ' which
gives perfect vision through your
motor window.
After the glass has traveled 125
feet in the fiery furnac.e, 400 feet on
the cooling lehrs, 400 feet under the
grinders, and 400 feet under the pol
ishers, it is ready for its trip
through the Duplate works where
two pieces are cemented together
with a DuPont product and be
come safety glass.