Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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<3 \ Pi McCORMICK MESSENGER. McCORMICK, S. C.. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1938 Weekly News Review- ail Reorganization Predicted Following Denial of Wage Cut -By Joseph W. La Bine 5 ' ' • • • - "i ‘ 1’ • • " ■- •< .'••I'" — XvX , X'>X , X*'.">XvX*SiiI£si v v.v^vw !F1 , -4 : COMMITTEEMEN LANDIS, STACT AND MILLIS A cut would be ineffective, detrimental. (See TRANSPORTATION). Transportation In the opinion pf three experts, American railroads have no right to cut 15 per cent from pay checks of 930,000 employees because: (1) it would be a stop-gap measure at best, only reducing the standard of living at a time ; when business in general is coming back; (2) the rail- . roads' financial problem is still of short term aspect, having been crit ical less than a year; (3) although railway wages have not fluctuated so badly as wages in other indus tries, they have not been advancing proportionately so fast as in other industries; (4) a fiat 15 per cent wage cut would not be equitable, since smaller roads—which are in worse shape—would derive less ben efit than the larger, more prosperous lines. This was the gist of a 40,000-word opinion handed down by President Roosevelt’s emergency fact-finding commission after three weeks of de liberation. Board members: Chief Justice Walter P. Stacy of the North Carolina Supreme court; Dean James M. Landis of Harvard law school, once chairman of the se curities and exchange commission; Professor Harry A. Millis, Univer sity of Chicago economist and for mer member of the national labor relations board. Though offering a well-considered opinion, the commission gave no help to sorely pressed railroads. Only tangible result is that some solution of America’s entire rail problem will probably be speeded. Possibilities: (1) Wholesale reorgan izations, combines and abandonment of lines to avoid duplicated service, a program which the interstate com merce commission must approve, and which would probably decrease railroad labor employment; (2) agreement with labor for a tempo rary, smaller pay cut; (3) federal financial assistance, which would only pile higher the already high in terest charges and would offer only temporary relief. Reorganization is the most likely solution. Already pending before the I. C. C. when the fact-finding com mission reported were proposals for such plans. In the Northwest, stock holders of Chicago & North Western railroad wanted merger with the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pa cific line. In the Southwest, an I. C. C. examiner recommended reorgan ization of the Missouri Pacific and consolidation of all properties now operated as the Missouri Pacific sys tem. In the deep South, the Gulf, Mobile & Northern line wanted mer ger with the Mobile & Ohio road. .i Domestic Opponents of the administration’s foreign policy have long criticized Secretary of State Cordell Hull for censuring Japanese encroachment on U. S. affairs in the Orient, mean while allowing Mexico to expropri ate U. S.-owned oil lands. Secre tary Hull’s answer has been that Mexico’s problem may best be set tled by arbitration, not through a hostile attitude that may destroy Western hemisphere peace. The lat est Mexican step has been seizure of a headquarters building occupied by Standard Oil subsidiaries, an act which brought only feeble protest from U. S. Ambassador Josephus Daniels (’T made representations . . .”). But if the U. S. hopes to stalemate Fascism in the Western hemisphere by its kid-glove policy toward Mexico, it may be doomed to disappointment. Although Presi dent Lazaro Cardenas once said his country would sell oil only to demo cratic nations, he has just an nounced consummation of a con tract to sell several million dollars’ worth in Rome. This, marking the birth of friendly trade relations be tween Italy and Mexico, gives Fas cism another wedge into the New world. Foreign After the peace of Munich, France’s Premier Edouard Dala- dier went to great lengths justifying his position before the senate and chamber of deputies. He won confi dence by assuring Frenchmen that if Munich’s treaty was a capitula- tioii — which he denied — France would never again capitulate. But Premier Daladier’s promise is not borne out in fact. At the Marseille convention of his Radical-Socialist party he outlawed communists from the government, plainly a move to curry favor with communist-hating Reichsfuehrer Adolf Hitler and Pre mier Benito Mussolini. Many ob servers believe this decision shows Premier Daladier is frantically grasping for a straw, since by re pudiating the communist party he throws away a large part of his Popular Front support. Not only will the premier lose his next election, but France will probably break off her treaty with communistic Russia and thereby become isolated prey for Italy and Germany. • Rumania’s complete shift to Nazification marks another step in Germany’s economic invasion of southeastern Europe. Acting under orders from King Carol, the Ru manian government has proclaimed 100 per cent totalitarian principles in the hope that Germany will re spect its territorial integrity in Reichsfuehrer Adolf Hitler’s “drive to the east.’’ Since Czechoslovakia and Hungary are already pro-Nazi, Germany’s economic orbit is ex. tending itself with little difficulty. Utilities New Deal dams and power plants have offered public utilities serious competition, forcing down their prices and creating an unfriendly breach between electricity execu tives and the administration. One government power project not yet started is the St. Lawrence water way, which President Roosevelt praised during September when the war scare first began. At that time, partly because he feared a lack of power reserve, partly because such SECRETARY JOHNSON The war department made peace. a shortcoming might be good ad vertising for a St. Lawrence project, the President appointed a commis sion under Louis Johnson, assistant secretary of war. When the commission reported re cently, it failed to mention St. Law rence waterway plans. But it made bigger and more puzzling news by drawing executives of 14 large utili ties to Washington and getting their promise to start expanding. If this was a peace gesture, it was over shadowed by explanations that util ity expansion is an important step in the government’s defense pro gram and a healthy move toward business recovery. The program: In 15 areas (all east of the Mississippi) utilities will spend an immediate $350,000,000, boosting it to $2,000,000,000 if power consumption increases normally the next two years. Only government function will be Reconstruction Fi nance corporation aid in refinanc ing securities. Though generally regarded as an optimistic sign of recovery, utility expansion has been minimized in some quarters. The 1,000,000 new kilowatts in generating capacity is only a 3 per cent boost in U. S. power potentiality, considerably below the average increase in good business years. Star Dust ★ Greta Suits Garbo ★ Felix Gives and Takes ★ Good, Hard Advice By Virginia Vale HTY Greta Garbo! She has been criticized in the past for practically everything that she did, and when, on arriving in New York from Europe a short time ago, she did some of the things that she had been criti cized for not doing, she prompt ly walked into more criticism. People had jumped on her because she didn’t go out more. So she went everywhere—to night clubs, thea ters, restaurants. She walked down Fifth avenue and looked into win dows. She had fun. And she dressed as she likes to dress—in a tailored suit, flat heeled shoes, a classic felt hat. She wore her hair in a long, straight bob. And what a storm of criticism broke over her head! / She ought to dress up, said her critics. She ought to wear the kind M ■tjy m •^5*. * ' GRETA GARBO of clothes that the department stores want to sell to other women, said they, (only not in so many words!). Because, if a glamorous person like Garbo could wear such simple clothes, all the other girls who want to be glamorous might decide that it was the woman, not the clothes, that counted. And her hair! Here was all this controversy going on, about wear ing the hair up instead of down, and all over town women were break ing down and having their hair done high — which delighted the hair dressers — and then along came Garbo with hers down, and un curled! She ought to wear her hair high! She ought to wear clothes- horse clothes! She ought to be ashamed of herself! And Garbo went right on wearing her hair down and wearing her com fortable old clothes, and looking beautiful and glamorous! * If you are in New York and go to the big movie houses on or near Broadway, the chances are that the other people in the audience will also be visitors from out of town. New Yorkers, most of whom used to live in smaller places, flock to their neighborhood movie houses, the kind they’d find in smaller cities. Much pleasanter! * “Sing in the shower if you are learning how to be a singer,” says Felix Knight, who’s become one of our most popular young tenors of the radio. “The tile walls of a bath room lend resonance and size to the voice and this makes it easier to hear yourself sing.” Neighbors who live on the same road in the Connec ticut countryside with Felix report that they always know when he’s taking a shower, so apparently he practices what he preaches. According to Billy House, the CBS comedian, if you want to get on the air and stay on, all you have to do is be funny. Just as simple as that! He’s been at the business of amus ing people for more than 25 years— circus, vaudeville, musical comedy, motion picture and radio audiences have laughed at him. He admits that it’s quite a trick to land on the air (complete with sponsor) in the first place, and that you have to work like a dog to keep the popular ity that you’ve won, but he points to various headliners to prove that his advice is good. There’s Fred Allen, who’s had the same sponsor since 1934. So has Jack Benny. A1 Jolson, Eddie Can tor—any number of them have climbed to success on a ladder of laughs. And Bob Bums’ record shows how fast you can shinny up that ladder, after years of trying, if you can just find the formula that makes people chuckle. Two others who have made a fortune by being funny are George Burns and Gracie Allen. ODDS AND ENDS—It’s a specially built microphone with an electric filter that makes “The Shadow’s n laugh sound so creepy . . . When you see champagne in a movie it’s really vinegar and bicar bonate of soda; if the actors drink it, it’s soda pop . . . Horace Heidt is always looking for new voices, acts and faces; he’s the only band leader who operates a complete stage show in connection with his band ... If you’d like to have your favorite hymn sung on the air, write to Joe Emerson of NBC’s “Hymns of All the Churches” program; it’s broadcast every Thursday. ® Western Newspaper Union. Bruchart 9 * Washington Digest General Housecleaning in Federal Communications Board Is Needed History of Control of Radio Is Story of Troubled Days; Public Is Concerned Because Free Speech Is Involved; Split on Board Adds to General Confusion. By WILLIAM BRUCKART WNU Service, National Press Bldg., Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON.—It seems among the inevitable and unavoidable things that there must be growing pains when the government starts execution of any new policy. This always has been the case. I as sume it is going to be true always, and it does not matter whether that new policy involves something as inherently governmental as govern ment supervision of public serv ices or something as inherently po litical as the national emergency council. The latter institution ought to have as a part of its title some words designating its value as the hod carrier in political emergencies, such as the recent “purge” of Dem ocrats who insisted on being Demo crats as distinguished from New Dealers. With that preface, we can exam ine into the situation that exists in the federal communications com mission. As laymen whose only con tact with radio is on the listening end, or whose only contact with telephones is to use them for busi ness and social intercourse, or whose only contact with the tele graph is to send or receive mes sages, well, obviously we laymen do not know much about the F. C. C. But that does not excuse any of us for lack of interest. For F. C. C. is just as close to you and me as the interstate commerce commission is, and unless I miss my guess it will be even closer in the years to come. There has been a measure of con trol over radio for years, and they have been troublesome years, both for the agency administering the law and the industry forced to abide by the law. Within the last few years, however, there has come into existence the F. C. C. which is con cerned not alone with radio, but with telephones and telegraphs. These latter industries, however, are themselves settled down and out of their teens. They have got by the growing pains, but as for radio, the story is quite different and de cidedly more important, because there are fundamental dangers to you and me in the situation. Federal Control of Radio Story of Troubled Days The history of federal control of radio, as I said above, is a story of troubled days. The bulk of the trouble has been due to the type of personnel selected for administra tion of that control. That is to say, politics is to blame as much as any thing. Politicians will endorse any screwy bird, long-haired theorist or narrow-eyed half-breed if such en dorsement will get him votes or help hold the royal order of nose-pickers in line at election time. And that is why, or largely why, the federal communications com mission at this writing is undergo ing pains like I used to have when I allowed my childish enthusiasm to overcome my judgment and ate ap ples before they were ripe. I wouldn’t care how many of the boys on the government payroll had tum my aches about their jobs, or how many private and bitter words passed between highups or low- downs in the commission except for the fact that precedents are being established that will affect you and me directly as the years roll by. The things that have developed in the F. C. C. concern us because they involve free speech, involve it as directly as any attempt to use censorship on your newspaper or mine. Besides, there is the certain ty that radio has been used to fo ment or put to sleep some national issues. It brings the nation within any small room that happens to house a couple of good, workable microphones. If there was ever a place for establishment of basically sound and wise policies, it is in the government supervision of radio. It is hard to get at the facts in the current dust storm within the com mission. There are so many sto ries afloat, however, that some where there must be some truth. And this belief is buttressed by the known fact that President Roosevelt is considering what to do to get the tangle straightened out. Trouble Shooter Fails To Smooth Out the Mess To go back a bit, it will be re called that Mr. Roosevelt sought more than a year ago to smooth out the mess by transferring Frank Mc- Ninch from the job of chairman of the federal power commission to that of chairman of the federal ra dio commission. Every one con versant with the situation said at that time that the new chairman was a good trouble shooter and that he would get things working as a highly technical agency ought to work. But the truth is that Mr. McNinch has not succeeded. If any thing, there have been more rows and the work of the commission has been slowed down even to a worse condition than it was. The whole thing would not amount to a hill of beans except that it seems utterly impossible to get sound and judicial execution of a teehnical law under such circum stances, and the matter becomes of moment to everyone because this monster, radio, is still in swaddling clothes. The battle within the commission crops up every once in awhile, just as it did when the commission re cently fired Hampson Gary, its gen eral attorney. Mr. Gary was asked for his resignation, and an alterna tive of another appointment else where in the government. But he stuck out his chin, and said “no.” Well, he promptly was fired. Too Much Interested in Fighting Among Themselves From all of the stories I have picked up, I suspect that Mr. Gary was no great shakes as a lawyer. On the other hand, it was equally apparent that Mr. Gary was being supported by a couple of commis sioners who had hard noses and wouldn’t quit fighting. It is an inci dent that is related as an illustra tion qnd as a basis for the state ment that most of the members of the commission and a substantial portion of the subordinate personnel are much more interested in fighting among themselves than in trying to understand and administer an intri cate law. This column is not the place to attempt a list of the many rulings of the commission that have done the industry no good. Attention can be called, however, to the procedure under which these decisions are brought about, having in mind that such decisions have just as much force as the law itself. It is the regular routine in a gov ernmental agency for consideration of problems, determination of poli cy, interpretation of law, to have their initiative in suggestions from the top individuals. They are named as the policy-makers. They have to assume responsibility. In the case of the communications commission, there seems to be something of the same procedure followed, except that the individual members of the board, or some of them, persist in acting individually rather than col lectively as a board. This would not be so bad if the board members as a whole were in accord. But they are not. There is a split as wide as Pennsylvania ave nue. The result is that on many, many occasions underlings have brought forward propositions that served only to fan the flames of dis agreement between board members. And, of course, as these proposals became known the portion of the ra dio industry concerned was thor oughly upset because it had no way to defend itself—no place to tell its side of the case. General Housecleaning In Commission Needed Again, even this condition could be corrected and something of a work able nature developed if the bulk of the subordinates around the com mission were sound thinkers. That, unfortunately, however, seems not to be the case. The place is packed and jammed with numerous men who think they are hot shots, whose only claim to recognition is that they, themselves, claim to be experts, or who have been unable to make good in the industry and have succeeded through political endorsement to get a place at the feed trough of gov ernment checks. So I say that I am unwilling to charge continuation of the mess to Mr. McNinch. He apparently has tried, but as long as some members of the commission manage to gain public attention by their nauseating blurbs and as long as some of the silly flock, claiming to be “original New Dealers,” continue to spew out venom about “unfairness of news papers,” it is likely the communica tions commission is going to get no where very fast. Much of the silly propaganda, that newspapers are unfair to the New Deal, bubbles to the surface from points other than the communica tions commission. Those who serve as the mouthpieces for such clab ber, however, can be seen flocking together frequently. It is only nat ural, therefore, to suppose that they are active in spreading their views among commission underlings who, in turn, get the germs incubated within their own organization. I said earlier that it may be Mr. Roosevelt will have to askuitf a gen eral housecleaning and designation of most of those in key positions. It is quite likely that he will dodge that action if any other way can be found to solve the problem. In any event, I hope that congress looks into the situation. If it does, may be something concrete will be done to establish a sound agency—one that will consider the interests of listeners and services and manufac turers equally, just as the Interstate Commerce commission does in its supervision of rail and other form? of transportation. £> Western Newspaper Union. AROUND THE HOUSE Broken Glass.—Use a wet cloth or dampened absorbent cotton.to pick up broken glass. Even the tiniest bits will adhere to it. For safety, discard cloth and all. • • • Mendifcg the Wrinj-er.—If a crack appears in the rubber roller of your wringer, bind the cracked part tightly with adhesive tape. It stops the crack from spreading and it does not come off. • • • Care of Satin.—Freshen black satin with potato water, sponging on the right side and ironing on the back. • • • Vinegar Cores Rost. — Don’t waste time trying to clean rusty articles with emery paper! Placo them in a jar of ordinary vinegar, leave for a couple of days, and you will find that they are quite free from rust. • • • Repelling Mice.—The smell of peppermint is most obnoxious to mice. A little oil of peppermint placed about their haunts will soon make them look for other quarters. NEVER SLEEP ON AN “UPSET STOMACH ff m Neutralize excess stomach acids to wake up feeling like a million 1 To relieve the effects of over-indul gence— escape “acid indigestion’* next day — do this: Take 2 table spoonfuls of Phillips* Milk of Mag nesia in a glass of water — AT BEDTIME. While you sleep, this wonderful alkalizer will be sweetening your stomach... easing the upset-feeling and nausea . . . helping to bring back a “normal’’ feeling. By morn ing you feel great. Then — when you wake — take 2 more tablespoonfuls of Phillips* Milk of Magnesia with orange juice. That is one of the quickest, sim- lest, easiest ways to overcome the ad effects of too much eating, smok ing or drinking. Thousands use it. But — never ask for “milk of magnesia” alone — always ask for i magne “Pnill [7/ips’”Milk of Magnesia. PHILLIPS’ MILK OF MAGNESIA it IN LIQUID OR TABLET FORM ‘ '7 Above Ourselves It is vanity to want to be su perior to someone else; it is wis dom to want to be superior to ourselves.—Joseph Fort Newton. TRUE! "Like lemons, Luden’s contain a factor that helps contri bute to your alkaline reserve. I pre fer Luden’s.” Edna Riggs, Lscturtr, Los AngtUs LVDEN'S MENTHOL COUGH DROPS 5* Source of Progress And from the discontent of man the world’s best progress springs. —Ella Wheeler Wilcox. How Women in Their 40’s Can Attract Men Haiw’a good advice tor a woman durinc her “ ), whole change (usually from 88 to 62), •ha’ll loae her appeal to men. who worriee about hot flashea, loae of pep, dixzy spells, upset nerves end moody spella. Get more fresh air, 8 nra. sleep and If you teiaUy for women. It helps up physical resistance, thus helps give more vivsdty to enjoy life end assist calming jittery nervee end disturbing symptomsthat often accompany change of lifeu WELL WORTH TRYING! CLASSIFIEDS ADVERTISING Have you anything around the house you would like to trade or sell?Trya das- Gaisified sified ad. The cost is only ADS * * ew cents and there art'' . probably a lot of folks look* B * *, «»g for just whatever it Is Results you no longer have use for.