Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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THE SUN, NEWBERRY, S. C, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1940 Washington, D. C. SECRET BRITISH WEAPON Britain’s new secret anti-aircraft weapon, which is described as neith er “gun, ray, nor balloon,” is the most ingenious defense instrument the war has yet devised, according to military reports received here. It consists of a shell which when fired by an anti-aircraft gun, ex plodes at a desired level and re leases a new kind of gas. This gas has the same density as air and does not dissipate. It holds together and constitutes a sort of invisible balloon. The gas is harmless—ex cept when it explodes, and then it possesses tremendous destructive power. Explosion is by ignition. An air plane engine roaring through one of these gas masses ignites it and causes an explosion which tears the plane to pieces. That is the way the British are reported to be using it. • • • NEW AID FOR BRITAIN Another historic move to aid Great Britain, almost as significant as the destroyer-islands deal, is now on President Roosevelt’s desk. It is a plan to sell to the British 30 merchant vessels owned by the United States government and now tied up in. the James river, Virginia. The vessels, built during the World war, are desperately needed by Great Britain because of her se vere shipping losses in submarine and aerial warfare. In the once-scorned James river fleet, controlled by the maritime commission, are the only ready made vessels in the world today that can be purchased in quantity. The fleet consists of 92 ships of about 8,000 to 10,000 tons each. The en gines are in fair condition, having been turned over periodically by the navy. However, considerable repairs will have to be made to other parts of the ships by the British, totaling $165,000 each. The British plan to offer about $30 a ton for the vessels, which is con sidered high in view of the fact that they will have to spend $165,000 or about $20 per ton for repairs. The total price paid to the United States for the ships will be in the neighbor hood of $8,000,000, while the total British repair bill will be about $5,000,000. * • * FROM MISSOURI One of the greatest publicity drives in U. S. political history is about to be launched. From thousands of billboards, posters, window signs, movie screens, radios and sound trucks, the voters of the country will be bombarded with arguments, slogans and oratory until November 5 as to why Wendell Willkie should be elected President of the United States. The campaign will be under the auspices of the Republican national committee, but its real authors are a group of live-wire St. Louis busi ness men headed by bustling Edgar Queeny, president of the Monsanto Chemical company, one of the big gest such firms in the country. An original Willkie booster, Queeny has been giving a large part of his time to the job of electing him. He lunches daily with a score of politically smart friends, and it was at these informal powwows that the nation-wide publicity plan evolved. Originally Missouri was to stage the show alone, but the national committee was so impressed with its possibilities that Queeny was asked to apply it to the entire coun try. He responded with character istic zip. Through his influence, five leading advertising firms went to work with the agency that handles the Mon santo account, the Gardner Adver tising company of St. Louis, and as signed two representatives to each state to explain the drive to local G. O. P. chiefs. One particular point to be ex plained was that the cost would be too large for the national com mittee to bear under the Hatch act, and that the state organizations would have to carry the load. The advertising contact men have re ported back that without exception the state headquarters are willing to raise and spend the necessary funds. * • • MERRY-GO-ROUND For admission to a press confer ence with Secretary of War Stim- son, newsmen must be equipped with identification cards, colored bright red. Colonel Ward Maris, able press re lations officer of war department, is literally behind the eight-ball. Planted on his desk is a billiard ball, marked with the figure eight. Hefty Rep. Frank Fries of Illinois, one-time miner, is leading the battle to save the federal mine inspection bill from being shelved in the house mines committee. Sponsored by Sen. Matt Neely of West Virginia and Rep. Kent Keller of Illinois, the measure is being stymied by an un dercover filibuster. “The Republican,” official organ of the Young Republican National federation, urges Willkie to name four or five cabinet members now, and campaign not with a two-man ticket but with a six or seven-mem ticket. VS WHO’S NEWS THIS S WEEK By LEMUEL F. PARTON (Consolidated Features—WNU Service.) EW YORK.—In Uncle Remus. 1 ~ Brer Fox said to Brer Tarripin, “You ain’t seen no trouble yit. I’m de man w’at can show yer trouble.” ‘The Perfect Fool 9 And that goes . . for Ed Wynn Once Again /» and adds to Fooling the Jinx the public zest in whooping it for his new revue, “Boys and Girls Together,” at its Boston tryout. His i revue sounded extemporaneous, like everything else he does, and seemed to make people feel that even these dire days will end when an old mas ter, who though he was licked, can thus improvise a knockout. Set upon by a blizzard of trou bles, financial and domestic, two years ago, Brer Fox Wynn re tired to his Park avenue cave to sit around in his pajamas and bite his nails. Then something touched off a. giggle or two and he began trying on funny hats, and working up a few gags. He began to feel better, and along came George Wood and Pat C. Flick with a bankroll. ' ' That recent mess of trouble was Mr. Wynn’s twenty-seventh upset, in the light of which his comeback is not so surprising. His radio chain was as fragile as a Vassar daisy chain and took $300,000 of his money. A delayed income tax time bomb blew up a similar amount. Harassed by lawsuits and whatnot he found his wellspring of gags had dried up. He shopped around for new and used gags, but found none in stock. It was his own inner resources which finally reclaimed and reissued the waggish Mr. Wynn. Funny hats have figured in his karma from the first. His fa ther, a milliner, came from Czecho-Slovakia and his mother from Turkey. In the millinery shop, he handed himself many a laugh, trying on hats. When he was 16, his father said it was time for him to take up the mil linery trade, but be had other ideas. He tied a shirt and a Sunday suit into a Dick Whit tington bundle and made his way to Norwich, Conn. He talked his way into a rousta bout job with a barnstorming com pany, presently got a small part, and burlesqued it just enough to re veal his genius for comedy. Twelve years of barnstorming and vaude ville followed. His recurring trou bles have been such that interview ers or critics usually stress the Pagliacci note when writing about him, but it’s rollicking, sympathetic laughter which greets his happy comeback. \.y INSTON CHURCHILL stirs * wide interest and approval with his demand for simple and pre cise language, official and unofficial, More and More in the interest of national ef- People Taking Up fectiveness. Word Gunnery cent a u- dresses have been models of clarity and force. He has risen nobly to the demands of the hour. All the more credit to him in view of his previous lapses. This department has dredged up an old speech of Mr. Churchill’s in which he scolded certain offenders for “terminologi cal inexactitude,” and deplored the public trend toward ornate lan guage. Perhaps under the pressures and urgencies of the times pre- cisionists are coming forward in the entire field of communica tions as they are in machine tooling. War casualties among pedants and mystagogues may be heavy. Over here, Charles A. Collin takes a long overdue swipe at the mystic word maze of life insurance policies, as he addresses the Insurance Adver tising conference in Atlantic City. This writer has been thrown for a loss every time he tried to read an insurance policy and has had to take them en tirely on faith. Also in tune with the times is Judge Pecora’s deep pondering and long-studied decision in that ques tion mark or period case. Sixteen entrants in a civil service examina tion were sustained against their examiners when they picked the .question mark as the proper ending for a certain sentence. Just getting under way before the war started there was in England a society for general word renova tion and fumigation and the further ance of good diction. In these en deavors, Mr. Churchill now gets a putout, but something more than an assist should go to the mischievous and ironic A. P. Herbert, the par liamentary gag man who was far ahead of Mr. Churchill in blasting at over-elegant word setups. Half Irish, the author of about 20 novels, and a half-dozen plays, he has pinked much revered, but preten tious usage. Leaves From Great Britain’s Scrap Book Lower: A convoy steaming up the English channel, currently the most dangerous stretch of water in ths world, under the guns of an escorting British warship. Upper Left: Winston Churchill surveys a great crater left by a German bomb in a London street after a night raid. Upper Right: An anti-aircraft gun crew in action during a practice session with a 3.7 “Archie” somewhere in Canada. ‘Guardian of a Hemisphere’—World’s Largest The world’s largest military airplane, “Guardian of a Hemisphere,” will be flown late this autumn from the Douglas Aircraft company’s airport. It is shown here at Santa Monica, Calif. Fully loaded for emergency mission it can take off with a gross weight of 164,006 pounds. It will be powered with four 2,000-horsepower engines. Its armament is a closely guarded secret. The Ascoli family arrive in New York on the Greek steamer, Nea Hellas, en route to their new home in the West Indies. Head of the family is Joseph Rene Ascoli, retired British industrialist, here shown with his wife and 13 of their 14 children. Preview of Jimmy Roosevelt’s coin-in-the-slot dime sound movies. For a dime a person can hear and see a three-minute musical “short.” These young Chinese girls, uniformed, armed with rifles and wearing hats that camouflage them against air observation, belong to a women’s fighting organization with the Chinese forces of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek at Chungking. Young as they are, they are well versed in guerrilla warfare. On the right, harried and nervous, is a newly made air raid widow, Mrs. O’Connor of London. The bomb killed her husband, sister and neph ew. Queen Elizabeth comfort* her. DEFINITIONS, THEN AND NOW Ultimatum (1910)—A cop telling a horseless carriage driver that the next time he speeds at 15 miles per hour through a street filled with horses he’ll be arrested. Ultimatum (1940)—A dictator or dering a half dozen nations to sur render or else . . . Raid (1910)—Usually a means of proving a saloon guilty of Sunday selling. Raid (1940)—Another attempt to destroy a city or intimidate a na tion. Treaty (1910)—A solemn and bind ing covenant. Treaty (1940)—Flypaper without the mucilage. « • • Fifth Column (1910)—A column between the fourth and sixth col umns. Fifth Column (1940)—A nation al menace. Storm Troops. (1910) —Soldiers caught in the rain. Storm Troops (1940)—Something very different. • • • Neutral (1910)—Anybody who took neither side in any argument. Neutral (1940)—An extinct nation. Parachutist (1910)—A performer at a county fair. Parachutist (1940)—An instrument of frightfulness employed to stab a foe in the back. Tank (1910)—A heavy' drinker; a feature at the Hip podrome. Tank (1940) — One of the most devilish mecha nisms ever de vised by man. • • • Gas Mask (1910)—Something used by coal miners. Gas Mask (1940) — Compulsory equipment for children at play. Blackout (1910)—The finish to a Follies sketch. Blackout (1940)—A city in com plete darkness to avoid indiscrimi nate slaughter of men, women and children. • • • Mechanized Warfare (1910) — A tcout on a bicycle. Mechanized Wirfpre (1940) — An army operating ui death-dealing mo torized units. Long-range Gun (1910)—A weapon capable of sending a shell about three miles. Long-range Gun (1940)—A gun ca pable of projecting a shell 75 miles. Axis (1910)—Something on which the earth turns. Axis (1940)—Any powerful group of megalomaniacs on a binge. Sabotage (1910)—Cutting the stir rups on a cavalry officer’s saddle. Sabotage (1940)—Stopping at noth ing in the destruction of all imple ments and materials of war. * » • Bomber (1910)—A nickname for a prize fighter. Bomber (1940)—A fortress in the skies. ■ Spitfires (1910) — High-tempered young women. Spitfires (1940)—Airplanes of the R. A. F. Blitzkrieg (1910)—A German wait er throwing somebody out of a raths keller. Blitzkrieg (1940)—Hell on earth. • • • Scuttle (1910)—A container for coal. Scuttle (1940)—German naval pol icy. Peace (1910)—The whole world living without military disturbances. Peace (1940)—Any situation in which not more than 30 countries are at war. • • » COMMUNIQUES According to communiques. The fight was fierce the last few days. They state the losses and the gains; It seems they downed a lot of planes! The Nazis state they lost eleven, But Britain says ’twas fifty-seven! The Germans claim just sixty-nine Of Britain’s craft—a sharp incline From their admitted twenty-five. How many men were left alive? These facts the propaganda press Is somehow very loath to stress; And they omit the damage done— From all reports, both sides have won. —Mori Fremon. • • • “The French Empire remains in tact.”—Marshal Petain. • • • WANNA BET? Bing Crosby has gone into compet itive golf in a serious way and we can almost imagine him, sizing up a difficult shot and saying, “Caddie, does this call for a croon or a driver?” • • • Wendell Willkie, according to Har ry James, is a candidate who ought not to mind people getting in his hair. • • * WILLKIE IS TRYING TO GET ROOSEVELT BEHIND THE DE- Corner Whatnot Made of Spools By RUTH WYETH SPEARS A HOME Demonstration Agent wrote me the other day to say that many of the women in her group had made the spool shelves described in SEWING BOOK 3 and the end tables of spools in Book 5. “One member has an interesting collection of pitchers and would like to make a corner whatnot for them,” the letter continued. Well, here it is ladies! With the collection of pitchers all in place. The sketch gives all of the dimen sions and instructions. The second shelf from the bottom needs six holes. All the others have three holes each. The design may be varied by using larger spools at the bottom for the first spool above and below each shelf. Use exten sion curtain rods to fit the holes in the spools. A little glue be tween spools makes the whatnot rigid. Stain or paint. * * * NOTE: These homemaking booklets are a service to our readers and No. 5 con tains a description of the other numbers; as well as 32 pages of clever ideas with all directions fully illustrated. They are 10c each to cover cost and mailing. Send order to: MRS. RUTH WYETH SPEARS Drawer 10 Bedford Hills New York Enclose 10 cents for each book ordered. Name Address Maybe your furniture isn’t oM. Maybe It is lovely underneath... Why don’t you O-Cedar If? Why don’t yoa go and get a bottle of genuine O-Cedar Polish... and hurry home and have a circus? First, it cleans the chair* and tables, cabinets, doors and floors, take* away the old worn look, the muggy blurry look, the ugly fingerprints ... and leave* instead... the soft warm lovelier Imtre of years ago...a lustre that lasts...andLASTSi MOPS, WAX, OUSTiRS, CLEANIRS AND FLY AND MOTH SPRAY Careless With Life There is nothing of which men are so fond, and withal so care less, as life. Heart’s Envoy The tongue is the ambassador of the heart.—Lyly. HOST TO I110ST WHO VISIT BRLTimORE! Baltimore's newest, largest and finest hotel—700 room*, equipped with every luxury and modem conveni ence. Fine restaurants serve the world-renowned food that has made Baltimore a Mecca for "gourmets"; bars and lounges feature drinks mixed in the time-honored Maryland manner. Rates from $3 to $6 single.