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McCORMICK MESSENGER, McCORMICK, S. C.. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 1940 WHO’S NEWS THIS WEEK By LEMUEL F. PARTON (Consolidated Features—WNU Service.) IXTEW YORK.—Old General Plu- tarco Elias Calles, Mexico’s strong-man for 11 years, has repu- : dialed force, on several occasions, but has stopped Ctdlea Return* To Mexico on Salvage Trip for just one more round. Just now a resident in southern Califor nia, the former president will be al lowed to return to Mexico City, to try to recover his expropriated land, according to a dispatch from Mexico City. The revolution against Porfirio Diaz in 1910 made much of breaking up the great land hold ings and distributing them to the peasants. He made the land revolution as much as any man, but on June 15, 1930, he pro posed to liquidate it—thus: “If we wish to be sincere, we must confess that agrarianism, as we have understood it and thus far practiced it, has been a failure/* Five years later with the as cendancy of Cardenas, lean In dian Savonarola of communal doctrine, he was exiled, and his great estates at Santa Barbara were confiscated. As a peasant youth in his native mountains he doubled in bar-keep ing and school teaching. He led a savage strike against the Sonora Dodge copper interests, and in the turmoil of the revolution, joined Obregon and was president from 1924 to 1928. He was in Cardenas’ cabinet and was supposedly pulling the strings, but suddenly hopped a plane for San Diego and took up golf. He was an unyielding foe of the church during the years of his dictatorship, in the presiden cy and out. Muscular and vig orous, at 63, with high cheek bones and squinting mongoloid eyes, he is of the cut of the latter-day dictator; and several times there have been reports that he was planning a come back. It is now indicated that - he is up to nothing more im portant than trying to salvage something out of the agrarian ism which he helped to start. ' 1 'HIS writer had a letter from his old friend, Eddie Persons, of San Francisco, the other day in-which Mr. Persons put Santa Barbara When Champion ?o“*a, i^'a Champions Cause test-tube, as a If. Championed clinical sam- pie of what ruinous taxation can do to a minor commonwealth. It would appear that Santa Barbara county is carry ing on just to save funeral expenses and Mr. Persons, one of the leaders of the San Francisco business com munity, is trying to do something about it. It was a similar alarm, among many citizens, which started New York’s unique tax march on Albany, in which thousands of citizens, rep resenting 829 organizations, moved on the state capitol, “to apply the ax to the tax,” as their banners and buttons had it. The new and seem ingly unprecedented “economy front” is the state budget emer gency committee, in which the va rious organizations converge. It was started by a man who was scratching gravel, literally and fig uratively. Henry M. Champion had a lit tle sand and gravel pit on his 40-acre farm on the Chenango river, 20 miles north of Bing- hampton. He was doing nicely until taxes began to pull him down. He called a meeting of farmers in 1938 and formed the Chenango County Taxpayers’ association, of which he was elected president. In their first year of ax work, they nicked $75,000 from the county budget, and, moving on from there, found eager allies in similar or ganizations, culminating in the state committee, with Mr. Champion as chairman. They chalked up a reduction of $26,- 500,000 in the state budget last year. Mr. Champion was a punishing ax- man in his youth, working in logging camps in Arkansas and Wisconsin, the latter being his native state. His father is still a lumberman in north ern Michigan. He came to New York state in 1914 and made his first visit to New York city last July, rallying the tax rebels. He is a weather-beaten citizen, 44 years old, who doesn’t look at all like the little man in the barrel— although his organization has this undernourished little chap, armed with a blunderbuss, on its badges. Many mystics regard upstate New York as the cradle of prophecy— many prophets having risen there. If it isn’t a prophet this time, it would appear to be a Watt Tyler, and the capitol stands on Notting ham hill. The little man in the barrel has had an uphill climb for many years and ought to take this slope easily. It’s Air Travel for Australia’s ‘Flying Caseys’ First Australian to hold a full diplomatic status in the capital of a foreign country is IVXaj. Richard Gardiner Casey, inset, whose appointment to the post of minister to the United States was announced recently. Mrs. Casey is pictured spinning the propeller of the Casey family plane in Sydney, Australia. Sire, like her husband, is a licensed pilot. The children are Jane, 11, and Don, 8. With them is a young friend. Reconnaissance Flights Probe Enemy Territory Aerial reconnaissance flights over enemy territory are one of the most common of today’s war maneuvers. Pictured here is the headquarters of a British royal air force unit in France. Left: Airmen who made the reconnaissance flight return with scores of aerial photographs of German positions, ammunition dumps and other strategic points. Right: At headquarters the developed pictures are placed in appropriate positions on a map of the Reich, and are examined under microscopes to find hidden details such as plane hangars, gun positions, etc. Rescue! Feline Survivors Reach Safety Rescued from electrocution were a mother cat and two of four kittens who lost themselves in the control room of the perisphere at the 1940 Worlds fair in New York city. After a search of several days the feline family was rescued from among the high tension wires. Two kittens were dead. The mother cat promptly was named “Purrisphere.” G. O. P. Leaders Discuss Convention Plans Making big medicine for the Republican party’s 1940 convention in Philadelphia are John D. M. Hamilton, center, chairman of the Republi can national committee; Harold W. Mason of Vermont, left, secretary, and Henry Fletcher of Rhode Island, general counsel. The trio met in Washington, D. C., to discuss plans for the June convention. Saposs Testifies Admitting one-time membership in the Socialist party, David J. Sap oss, chief economist for the National Labor Relations board, testifies in Washington, D. C., before the house committee investigating the labor relations board. War-Time Gibe From Germany comes this car toon gibe at England. Chamberlain says “God is our witness that we did not want this war.” Winston Church ill glumly replies, as he views sink ing ships: “It’s sure we did not want it like this.” “The Name Is F a miliar— » ^ BY FELIX B. STREYCKMANS and ELMO SCOTT WATSON Joel R. Poinsett Poinsettia / X'HE poinsettia — that crimson -*■ flower so popular around Christ mas time—was named for a man who was not a botanist but, of all things, one of our secretaries of war! He was Joel Robert Poinsett, seventeenth secretary of war, serv ing from 1837 to 1841 under Presi dent Van Buren. And the full name of the flower, by the way, is poinset tia pulcherrima, Latin for “most beautiful poin- sett,” but was meant to describe the flower, not the man. Before he be came secretary of war, he was United States minister to Mexi co, the country from which the flower was brought to the United States. It had been called “Painted Leaf,” and “Mexican Fire Plant.” While in Mexico, Poinsett called the flower to the attention of botanists and imported some of the flowers to the United States. This is why, in searching for a scientific name for the flower, Poinsett was honored. He was of Huguenot descent, the last of his family—if he hadn’t fallen in love with the flower, he never would have had a chance to per petuate the family name. He was educated in England and traveled extensively. While in Rus sia, the czar offered him a commis sion in the army, which v he de clined. While an American good will emissary to Chile, the Span- ) iards seized several of our mer chant ships. Poinsett organized a .large force right on the spot, led them in an attack against the Span- iurds and recaptured the ships. The name is certainly more ap propriate for the flower than the man. * • * \ A Maverick COMETHING that doesn’t belong ^ to anybody is called a maverick —especially if it’s wandering around loose. The name was applied origi nally to cattle that were unbranded. Samuel A. Maverick, an 1825 graduate of Yale, gave his name to the idea. Although he was one of the founders of Texas’ independence and a meMber of the congress of the Republic of Texas in 1845 and had other signs of intelligence, he nevertheless had a reputation for allowing his cat tle to wander around without being branded. So unusual was this practice that whenever cattle were discovered without brand- marks someone was almost cer tain to say, “They’re probably Mav erick’s.” You have to be pretty well known to be referred to that way and must have a lot of cattle, too, and Samuel Maverick was well qualified on both counts. But after all, there is a limit to everything and it was un reasonable to assume that Maverick owned ALL the unbranded cattle. Cattle rustlers continued to refer to unbranded cattle as Maverick’s but they soon meant that they were mavericks—without the capital let ter and without that possessive apos trophe. That meant that the cattle merely were unbranded and, there, fore, belonged to anybody. S. A. Maverick Gerrymander O GERRYMANDER means to divide a voting district in an un fair manner, especially so one politi cal party will have an advantage over the other. Elbridge Gerry (1744- 1814), a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a vice president of the United States and a governor of Massachusetts, provided the name. In 1811 the Democrats of Massa chusetts elected Gerry governor and also obtained a majority in both houses of the leg islature. They then put through a law rearranging the state senatori al districts with out regard for ge ographical loca tion, the main idea being to get enough voters in each district to perpetuate themselves in office. The arrangement of the towns in Essex county was so absurd that the editor of the Boston Sentinel colored them on a map hung on his wail. A visiting artist added head, wings and claws and, turning to the editor, said, “How’s that for a Sala mander?” “Salamandar, nothing!” he shout ed. “It’s a Gerrymander!” The word stuck and is in the dic tionary today. (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) Elbridge Gerry White Embroidery On a Dark Color By RUTH WYETH SPEARS /^ROSS-STITCH is combined here » ^ with plain running stitches to make a smart luncheon cloth that may be embroidered quickly in coarse white embroidery thread. The material may be broadcloth or other smooth-finish cotton. The color is a deep maroon and the white design is very effective on this background. This cloth is made of two 1%- yard lengths of 36-inch-wide mate rial. Split one piece lengthwise through the center and join to the sides of the other piece by ma chine. The seams are covered by the rows of running stitches. You do not need a stamping pattern to make the cross-stitch design. Baste coarse open-mesh embroid ery canvas over the material; then follow the design 'given here at the lower left. Repeat the cor ner of the design to make the four corners of the center square. NOTE: There . are 36 em broidery stitches illustrated in Mrs. Spears’ Sewing Book 2; also several original designs for r table covers; men’s ties; mittens; hats; purses; Baby’s bassinet; doll’s wardrobe; five ways to mend fab rics. Ask for Book 2, enclosing 10 cents coin. Address Mrs. Spears, Drawer 10,-Bedford Hills, New York. Irresistible Minds It is interesting to note how Some minds seem almost to create themselves, springing up under every disadvantage, and working their solitary but irresistible way through a thousand obstacles.— Washington Irving. ARE YOU IN ANY OF THESE CLASSES? 1. Do you suffer from Indigestion, con stipation, belching, gas. dizziness, or head aches? B-L Tonic will help correct these conditions quickly and easily when due to functional causes. 2. Are ycu rundown, always feel tired, weak, underweight? This often results from a simple anemic condition of the blood. 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