THE ALAMANCE GLEANER
Vol. LXIII GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 1937
No. 7
News Review of Current
Events the World Over
>
Explosion Kills More Than 600 Children in Texas Rural
School ? Justice McReynolds' Rebuke to
Critics of Supreme Court.
By EDWARD W. PICKARD
? Western Newspaper Union.
np HE east Texas oil field was the
scene of the worst school dis
aster in history. The London Con
solidated rural school, a few miles
north of Henderson, was demolished
by a tremendous gas explosion and
more than 600 children and their
teachers were killed.
The horror that followed wrought
such confusion that Gov. James V.
Allred declared martial law in the
vicinity of the school, and ordered
National Guard troops to the scene.
He previously had ordered all state
highway patrolmen in the area to
proceed there.
President Roosevelt, hearing at
Warm Springs about the horrible
disaster, was most distressed and
urged the Red Cross "and all of
the government agencies" to stand
by and render every assistance pos
sible. Albert Evans, flood disaster
head in Little Rock, Ark., and his
staff rushed to the stricken Texas
town, and all communities within
reach gave aid to the extent of their
capacity.
The blast smashed to bits the
main structure of the educational
plant that was termed the largest
rural school in America and the
richest in the world.
About 740 children and 38 teachers
were in the building at the time and
nearly all who were not killed out
right were injured. Of the latter it
was believed many would not re
cover.
Fifty or more mothers of the
young victims were attending a par
ent-teacher association meeting in
the school gymnasium, a separate
building, when the explosion came,
sending the mangled bodies of their
sons and daughters flying through
the air. The women raced to the
wrecked structure with screams of
agony and tore at the ruins with
their bare hands.
For a few minutes after the roof
caved in, leaving jagged remnants
of wall standing like the ruins of a
medieval castle, flames shot out
above the wreckage. But the build
ing was of fireproof construction and
the blaze, having almost nothing to
feed upon, soon died out.
W. C. Shaw, superintendent of the
school, whose son was one of those
killed, had just left the building.
"I was standing about fifty feet
away from the building when the ex
plosion came," he said. "There
wasn't much noise. The roof just
lifted up, then the walls fell out
and the roof fell in. It was all over
in a minute, no, less than that, half
a minute. It's unbelievable."
Highway police, National Guards
men and workers from all the
nearby oil wells managed to re
store some semblance of order at
the scene, roping off the campus
and systematically carrying on the
task of getting out the bodies of the
dead.
From the oil well machine shops
were brought acetylene torches to
burn away the steel girders while
trucks hauled on heavy iron chains,
pulling the debris away from the
building.
The great force of the blast was
taken as proof that the disaster was
caused by the ignition of natural
gas which was used to heat the
school plant. Unable, because of all
the confusion, to ascertain the cause
of the explosion, it was theorized
that someone attempted to light a
heater which accidentally had been
left turned on.
The "wet gas" used, which comes
from oil wells on the school campus,
is odorless and so would have given
no warning.
p*VTDENCE of good sportsman
*~J ship is to accept the outcome
when one has had a chance to pre
sent a fair case to a fair tribunal.
said Associate Jus
tice James C. Mc
Reynolds of the Su
preme court in an
extemporaneous talk
at a fraternity ban
quet in Washington.
It was the first time
a member of the
court had expressed
his views on rela
tionship of the court
to the government
since the President
made his proposal
for packing the tribunal, and op
ponents of that plan were encour
aged to hope other of the justices
might be induced to appear before
the senate judiciary committee and
tell what they think of it. Justice
McBeynolds, who is seventy-flve
years old. has voted against the
Justice
McReynolds
New Deal fourteen times and for it
twice.
Near the end of his talk the jus
tice said: "I should like to be op
timistic. I should like to tell you
that the situation is rosy. I can't.
But I like to believe in the courage
of the American people, and I hope
they may make a solution of which
they may be proud."
Edward S. Corwin, professor of
constitutional law at Princeton, was
heard by the senate committee in
support of the President's bill and
he got along very nicely until Sen
ator Burke, leader of the opposition,
called his attention to a speech the
professor made a year ago and a
book he wrote 25 years ago, in both
of which he expressed views quite
different from those he seemingly
now holds. Then Senator Tom Con
nally took a hand in the question
ing:
"Now you say the court is biased.
You want to add six new justices
who will be biased in the otfier di
rection, don't you?"
Professor Corwin evaded a direct
answer for some time, but Senator
Co anally demanded to know whether
he did not support the President's
plan for this purpose.
"Well, that is one of the reasons,"
the witness said.
GENATORS indulged in an indig
^ nant debate concerning the sit
down strike and there were de
mands for a congressional investi
gation of this new
weapon of labor.
Majority Leader
Joe Robinson said:
"Manifestly the sit
down strike is un
lawful. It is not
within the rights of
any individual or
group of individuals
to seize or retain
possession of prop
erty to the exclusion
of the employer for
Sen. Robinson
the purpose of enforcing demands
against the employer."
However, he added, it was diffi
cult for the federal government to
do anything in the matter until the
Supreme court has passed on the
validity of the Wagner-Connery
labor relations act.
The Democratic senate whip, Sen
ator James Hamilton Lewis of Illi
nois, vehemently criticized sit-down
tactics of labor and demanded in
vestigation by congress. "Is the
United States a government?" Lew
is asked. "Every form of com
merce is being torn apart under
the name of controversy between
employer and employee, leading to
the danger of national riots."
CIT -DOWN strikers, ordered by
" Circuit Judge Allen Campbell of
Detroit to evacuate the Chrysler
plants, defied the court when the
writ of injunction was served on
them and declared they would re
main "to the death." The sheriff
said he had done his full duty until
he received further instructions from
the court and the judge was await
ing application from the Chrysler
lawyers for writs of contempt.
Meanwhile Gov. Frank Murphy,
who had hurried home from Flori
da, set up a committee to con
ciliate the many strikes in that area
and to devise a legislative program
to dispose of future labor disputes.
Rev. Frederic Siedenburg, S. J.,
executive dean of the University of
Detroit, was named chairman of the
committee.
Since the committee was limited
to four members for labor, Homer
Martin, international president of
the United Automobile Workers of
America, the union waging the
city's outstanding strikes against
Chrysler Corporation and Hudson
Motors, rejected the governor's in
vitation to U. A W. A. member
ship on the committee.
AMELIA EARHART left Oak
land, Calif., in her "flying lab
oratory" for what promises to be
the greatest adventure of her ad
venturous life ? a 27,000 mile flight
around the world, following gen
erally the equator. Her first hop of
2,400 miles took her to Honolulu.
With her in the Lockheed Electra
twin motored plane were Capt.
Harry Manning and Fred Noon an,
navigators, who were to leave the
plane at Hawaii, and Paul Mantz,
Amelia'* technical adviser, who
was to continue with her to Dar
win, northern Australia.
VfARRINER S. ECCLES, chalr
man of the Federal Reserve
board, started something when he
issued a warning against the dan
gers in inflationary
price rises, which
are due, he says,
chiefly to foreign
armament demands,
strikes and monopo
listic practices by
certain groups in
both industry and
organized labor. He
argued (or continu
ance of low interest
rates but said the
budget should be
M. S. Eccles
balanced and taxes on incomes and
profits should be raised, if neces
sary, "to sustain the volume of re
lief and at the same time bring
the budget into balance and permit
the paying down of public debt as
private debt expands."
The federal reserve system, said
Mr. Eccles, "is powerless to main
tain a stable economy unless other
essential nonmonetary factors nec
essary to stability are brought into
line either by private interests or
by the government."
This statement, presumably made
with the approval of Secretary Mor
genthau and the knowledge of Pres
ident Roosevelt, aroused a lot of
talk in Washington and the admin
istration leaders were discussing
taxes and receipts. Generally they
agreed that there will be no exten
sive tax change ? merely a resolu
tion in June extending for one year
$400,000,000 in "nuisance" levies. It
may be the Eccles warning will
serve to curb the demands of vari
ous department heads and congress
men for more huge appropriations.
p OPE PIUS in a long encyclical
' condemned communism as "the
ruin of family and society" and
called on Christian employers, ev
erywhere to combat it by recogniz
ing "the inalienable rights of the
working man." He accused the com
munists of having played upon the
susceptibility of the working classes
with promises of alleviation of
"many undeniable abuses."
HP HAT controversy between May
or La Guardia of New York and
the German Nazis degenerated into
a riot of abusiveness on both sides.
German Ambassador Luther again
asked and received an apology from
Secretary Hull after La Guardia had
called Reichsfuehrer Hitler "satis
faktionfahig" ? a man without hon
or. And Mr. Hull politely expressed
his weariness with the whole squab
ble. In Berlin Ambassador Dodd
was telling Foreign Minister Neu
rath that the anti-American cam
paign in the German press should
be stopped.
\/f ADELINE LA FERRIERE, a
beautiful Parisienne, stirred
up a pretty scandal when she shot
and slightly wounded Count Charles
de Chambrun, former French am
bassador to Italy. The young wom
an asserted the count had caused
her to lose the love of a "great
Italian" man of state whose affec
tions she had won in recent inter
views. She has made many trips
to Rome, where she was received
in diplomatic society, and is known
to have been granted several inter
views by Premier Benito Mussolini.
Paris papers did not mention Mus
solini, but the London Daily Mirror
did not hesitate to say that he was
the "great Italian" involved.
Remington rand, inc., large
manufacturer of office equip
ment, was accused by the federal
labor relations board of violating
the Wagner-Connery act and of us
ing "ruthless" methods in trying to
break the strike of 6,000 workers
in six of its plants. The corporation
was ordered to cease alleged inter
ference with union activities of its
employes; to bargain collectively
with a majority of its workers; to
reinstate strikers without discrimi
nation and to withdraw support of
so-called "company unions" in its
Ilion, N. Y., and Middleton, Conn.,
plants.
WARSHIPS of Great Britain,
France, Italy and Germany
started the naval patrol along the
coasts of Spain designed to isolate
the civil war as provided for by the
neutrality agreement entered into
by 27 nations. The two latter na
tions are guarding the government
coast and the two former the Fascist
shore line. Ships going to Spain
are required to halt at designated
ports for inspection and agents of
the international committee will ei
ther certify that no arms or volun
teers are aboard, or will accompany
the vessels to Spain.
THE Creusot works of the famous
old Schneider armaments firm
in France has been expropriated by
the French government and formal
possession will be taken by decree.
Everything in the workshops and
stores of the firm which has to do
with the manufacture of arms ?
tools, machinery, and stocks? will
be taken over.
They Won't Try This on a Winding Trail
A ski enthusiast at Plymouth, N. H., constructed this 40-foot pair of skis in hope of starting a new fad ?
ski-tobogganing. It works out swell if the party sticks to the straight trails.
r
ttiri
Au Thornton W Burtfess
SAMMY JAY SPREADS A
FALSE REPORT
COME people like to spread bad
^ news. They would rather spread
bad news than good news. It's
queer, but it's so. Sammy Jay is
that kind. He never seems so happy
as when he is flying about through
the Green Forest telling some
dreadful news to everybody he
meets. And this isn't the worst of
it. He doesn't always tell the truth!
He sometimes makes things out a
great deal worse than they really
are so as to make his story more
"Great News! Great News!"
Screamed Sammy.
exciting. And so it often happens
that Sammy spreads false reports.
You know false reports are stories
that are not true or only partly
true.
Now, Sammy Jay had happened
along just in time to see Farmer
Brown's boy pick up poor Mrs.
Grouse after he had broken the
hard, icy crust that had made her
a prisoner underneath. She had
been so weak and worn out that
she could only flutter feebly when
he had set her free, and so he had
picked her up and started for home
In Scotch Woolen
This Scotch woolen ensemble in
blue and gr ay will be very fetching
this spring. The sleeves of the Jack
et are ornamented with an embroid
ered draff
rki'.k ~ . A
with her. Sammy Jay had seen
this. His eyes had popped out with
excitement. Here was great news.
He couldn't sit still a minute. And
what a splendid chance to say some
thing bad about f Farmer Brown's
boy! Sammy never misses a chance
to make trouble (or Farmer
Brown's boy.
So off he started as fast as he
could go. The first one he met was
Chatterer the Red Squirrel.
"Great news! Great news I"
screamed Sammy.
"What is it?" asked Chatterer.
"Farmer Brown's boy has killed
poor Mrs. Grouse and taken her
home for his dinner!" cried Sam
my.
"I don't believe it," replied Chat
terer, who right that minute was
eating nuts that he knew Farmer
Brown's boy had left for him.
"You don't have to, but that
doesn't make it that it isn't so. I
saw him do it," retorted Sammy,
and started on.
Right away Chatterer lost his ap
petite. He didn't know whether to
believe it or not. He felt dreadfully
sorry for Mrs. Grouse and then, too,
he didn't like to think that Farmer
Brown's boy had been very good
to him, and though he had once
hated him, he rather liked him now
that he had come to know him,
though Chatterer wouldn't have ad
mitted this to anybody for the
world. "Oh, my no! I don't believe
it," he muttered over and over to
himself. "I don't believe it." But
just the same he lost his appetite.
Presently Sammy Jay saw Reddy
Fox. "Great News! Great news!"
shrieked Sammy.
"What is it?" demanded Reddy.
"Farmer Brown's boy has killed
poor Mrs. Grouse and taken her
home for his dinner," replied Sam
my.
"How do you know?" demanded
Reddy suspiciously.
"I saw him do it," replied Sam
my.
"I hate Farmer Brown's boy!"
growled Reddy Fox. "Mrs. Grouse
belonged to me. I meant to have
her for my dinner some day."
"Why didn't you catch her then?"
asked Sammy Jay slily.
"I would have, some day,"
snapped Reddy.
"The way you have Peter Rab
bit!" laughed Sammy. "
Reddy couldn't say a word, for
you know he had tried and tried
to catch Peter Rabbit and never
could. He just glared up at Sammy,
who just laughed and then flew off
to spread the dreadful news. All the
rest of the day he told the same
story until all the little people who
were out that cold winter day in
the Green Forest and on the Green
Meadows, green no longer because
they were covered with snow, had
heard that poor Mrs. Grouse had
been killed by Farmer Brown's boy.
And some it made very, very sad.
And some, like Reddy and Granny
Fox and Old Man Coyote, it made
angry, for each of them had meant
some day to have Mrs. Grouse for
dinner themselves. And all the time
Mrs. Grouse wasn't dead at all, as
you and I know.
6 T. W. Burgwr? WNU Servie*.
First Aid Roger B. Whitman
to the Ailing House
RENOVATING A BATHROOM
, D ATHROOMS have been so great
^ ly improved within the last few
years that one of old style makes
a whole house seem old-fashioned.
The points that make a bathroom
out-of-date are a bathtub on legs,
a high-tank toilet, a wash-basin with
a marble top or of old-fashioned
design, plaster walls and a wood
floor. The door of a bathroom of
that kind is usually kept closed at
all times, whereas a room of mod
em design is something to be proud
of.
There it no great effort or ex
pense in renovating an old bath
room and in giving it all of the
beauty of modern design. A new
toilet if built-in in a corner, which
completely obviates the collecting
of dust beneath and behind it. A
built-in tub also permits the fitting
of a wall shower, with the use of
a curtain to confine the spray. A
separate shower stall is preferred
to a wall shower, and can often be
built at the end of ? tub, which
thus has only one side open.
Of the new fixtures, the tub is
the most expensive. When costs
must be kept down, an old style
tub can be built-in by removing
the legs, wedging it in a comer,
and surrounding it by a framework
finished with tiles or other water
proof covering. When this is done,
the wall surface must come well
over the rounded rim of the tub,
so that water, running down the
walls, will drain into the tub rather
than behind the rim.
The moat usual finish for bath
room walls is a five-foot or six-foot
wainscot of tiles, which are usually
set on a concrete base laid on metal
lath. Many substitutes foe tiles \re
to be had. In making a selection,
it must be borne in mind that the
walls should be waterproof, easily
cleanable, not affected by steam,
and proof against scratching.
The walls above the tile wainscot
and the ceiling should have a finish
that will not be affected by steam.
For this, the modern quick drying
enamels are excellent.
For the floor, the choice is be
tween tile, and linoleum, rubber or
similar material. Linoleum is very
usual because of its warmth and
softness.
A sunshiny bathroom can well be
finished in one of the cool colors ?
green or blue. For a north
bathroom, the color should be
warmer? rose, or a warm yellow,
for example.
C By Roger B. Whitman
WNu Service.
rtn (jONnS^^fw rr >J
KAJCe vt> U D0U6LE CHOCOLATE
?*T YOU* WITH ?l?*KDl
LOTS WORSE OFF
By DOUGLAS MALI OCH
COME say, "Well, there are lots
^ of others, too,
Of others who are lota worse off
than you."
I cannot comprehend their cheerful
whine:
The grief of others is no balm for
mine.
Another's grief adds something to
my own:
I wish no other heart this hurt had
known.
No other mind had suffered this
distress;
Their loss makes mine the greater,
not the less.
The beggar's rags make no man's
coat of gold,
Or age's feebleness a man less
old.
The deeper sorrow of the open
ground
Is not a thing to hail with joyful
sound.
Whatever I may lose, if less or
more,
Another's loss adds nothing to my
store.
So tell me not, whatever you may
do,
"There are a lot a lot worse off
than you."
The grief that gloats will find but
small relief
By hiding it behind some greater
grief.
However poor another beggar is,
If I have more, then half of it is
his.
However dark another mortal's
mind.
Then I should share whatever hop*
I find.
Yes, say to me, "That is the thing
to do.
For there are others lots worse off
than you."
6 DoBflu Malloch. ? WND Scniea.
TW Ow caution#/
fi^ero(J.piter
C* ROM the preceding lessons we
" have learned that the first, or
Finger of Jupiter, indicates the de
gree and kind of power and purpose
fulness of its possessor. We must
look not only to the conformation of
the linger but also to its position on
the hand in order to arrive at ac
curate conclusions.
A forefinger which leans or crooks
toward the finger next to it partakes
of the qualities of that finger. The
linger of Jupiter which inclines
toward it neighbor indicates that
purpose is strongly controlled by re
flective foresight. And the manner
in which it inclines denotes the kind
of foresight, whether studious,
gloomy, optimistic or doubtful.
The Overeaatiotu Finger a < Jupiter.
Three outstanding characteristics
mark this type of forefinger: (1)
Shortness as compared with the
length of the second finger; (2)
prominence of the middle joint; (3)
pronounced angularity of the in
clination toward the second finger.
The nail joint may be either
squared or tapered, with a flat
though sometimes sharply ridged
nail deeply set. In fingers falling
within this classification, the entire
length may have a stiff resistant
feeling under backward pressure.
When you encounter a forefinger
at this type, you will make no mis
take in placing its owner as a man
or woman whose initiative is often
stifled by an aversion to "taking
chances." Conservatism which be
comes unnecessary weighing of
pro's and con's is very likely to
keep such folk from the enjoy
ment of life which should otherwise
be theirs.
WJTU Servic*
Ia the Lot-Book
A ship's log-book is the ship's
diary, notes a writer in London An
swers Magazine. In it are entered
the rate of progress according to
the log, hence its name, and all
other particulars of the ship's
course. In it also are entered all
details of misdemeanors committed
on board, with the culprit's nam*
and the punishment meted out.
From this we get the expression,
"to log a man," toad ia the sens*
of to One him.