The Alamance gleaner
Vol. LXIV GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 1938
No. 17
News Review of Current Events
EUROPEAN WAR AVERTED
Britain, Prance and Russia Would Not Stand for
German Aggression Against the Czechs
Here is an armored ear detachment of Czechoslovakia's up-to-date
army which was sent to the frontier to meet the threats of aggression by
Fuehrer Hitler's troops that were massed on their side of the border.
%L^JulW. Pickled
SUMMARIZES THE WORLD'S WEEK
C Western Newspaper Union.
On tho Verge of Hostilities
/"2 ERMAN and Czech troops by
^ the thousands were massed on
the frontier between the two coun
tries. President Benes of Czechoslo
vaiua ana rus caoi
net decided to call
70,000 reserves to
the colors. Poland
assembled armed
forces close to the
Slovakia border.
Hungary was re
ported to be taking
"certain military
measures." France
was ready to defend
her ally, Czechoslo
vakia, against Nazi
aggression, and
President
Benes
there was assurance that Great
Britain and Russia would come to
the aid of France if she were at
tacked without provocation.
No wonder the governments of
Europe were desperately worried
by such a critical condition.
Hitler must have realized that the
time was not ripe for aggressive ac
tion against the Czechs, for German
authorities in Berlin solemnly as
sured Dr. Vojtech Mastny, Czech
minister to Berlin, and the Czech
military attache that Germany
planned no military expedition
against Czechoslovakia. This eased
the situation somewhat, but the
British cabinet continued to urge
Benes and his government to make
all possible concessions to Hitler
concerning the demands of the Su
deten German minority. It was be
lieved the Fuehrer would ultimate
ly get about everything he wants
from the Czechs without a fight.
Both France and Britain were
bringing strong pressure to bear on
Berlin, and the British especially
were determined to avert general
war if it could be done.
Henlein's German party in the
Sudeten districts of Czechoslovakia
was winning victories in municipal
elections, and this made the Nazis
quite cocky in their attitude. They
refused to negotiate with the gov
ernment until their safHy had been
guaranteed.
*
Southerners Are Sore
U NOWING they were fighting a
losing battle, Southern repre
sentatives bitterly contested the
progress of the wage-hour bill
through the house. The test vote on
discharge of the rules committee
was 322 to 73.
In the debate that followed North
ern Democrats and most of the Re
publicans indicated their approval
of the measure. The South opposed
it mainly because it contains no dif
ferentials in favor of that section.
*
Two Taxation Decisions
TN TWO far-reaching decisions the
4 United States Supreme court fur
ther narrowed the field of recipro
cal intergovernmental tax immuni
ty. The rulings continued the trend
in the direction of President Roose
velt's theory that the federal and
state governments can tax the sala
ries of each other's employees and
the income of each other's securi
ties without a constitutional amend
ment.
In a decision delivered by Justice
Stone, the court upheld levying of
federal income taxes on employees
of the Port of New York authority.
In a decision delivered by Justice
Roberts, the court upheld federal
admission taxes on tickets to foot
ball games conducted by the uni
versity system of Georgia.
Martin Loses in Oregon
rjOV. CHARLES H. MARTIN of
Oregon, the veteran soldier
who has been fighting against the
C. I. O. and other radicals, was
beaten for renomination in the Dem
ocratic primary by Henry Hess who
had the backing of labor unions and
of Secretary of the Interior Ickes.
Charles A. Sprague was nominated
for governor by the Republicans and
they believe they have a good
chance to win in the fall elections,
for the Democrats, there as in Penn
sylvania, were badly split.
Italy Warns France
ITALY intimated it would keep out
1 of the Nazi-Czech quarrel, but
Mussolini broke off the friendship
talks with France and warned that
continued French acquiescence in
the shipment of arms to govern
ment Spain would not be tolerated.
The Duce declared that unless
France ceases aiding transmission
of Soviet and Czech arms to Barce
lona, Italy and Germany may be
forced to increase their assistance
to the insurgents. This naturally
would endanger the new Anglo-Ital
ian agreement.
as
Must Re-Hire Sit Strikers
'"THE National Labor Relations
board ordered the Kuehne Manu
facturing company, Flora, 111., to re
instate with back pay 164 American
Federation of Labor sit-down strik
ers.
It was the NLRB's third major
sit-down decision, but the first in
volving an A. F. of L. union.
*
"Doom-Sealers," Says Farley
DOSTMASTER GENERAL FAR
* LEY attacked the critics of the
administration's spending - lending
program in an address to the Com
monwealth club of
Chicago.
"The doom-seal
ers," he said, "are
again sending forth
their mournful
prophesies of evil
because of govern
ment acts per
formed or suggest
ed. ? - ? - ? -1 ?
"Stocks are down
a bit. There is a re
currence of vast un
employment. Cer
James A.
Farley
tain taxes bear heavily on people
or corporations with plethoric
purses. So the same element that
has held every national emergency
as a precursor of doom is out again
in full cry."
"The republic," he said, "is in no
danger. It never has been in dan
ger since the present administration
checked the downward spiral of the
big depression and started us again
on the upward path."
Too Late for Wheat Quotas
SECRETARY WALLACE said that
under the new crop control law
it is too late to invoke marketing
quotas on this year's indicated
bumper wheat crop. He explained
that the law authorized quotas this
year only in the event congress ap
propriated funds by May 15 for
"parity payments" provided in the
new legislation.
Asks 23 Millions for Navy
^ONGRESS received from the j
^ President a request that it ap
propriate $23,875,000 immediately t?
begin strengthening the nation's sea
and air defenses in accordance with
the billion dollar naval expansion
act. i
The President outlined the intend
ed uses of the fund as follows in ?
letter to Speaker Bankhead:
For three new warships, ten aux
iliaries and a fleet of small vessels
of great speed and maneuverabili
ty, $16,500,000.
For nine patrol planes of the lat
est type, $3,375,000.
For a dirigible ? the first since the
Macon and Akron crashed several
years ago ? $500,000.
For improvements at navy yards,
$3,500,000.
* I
Predestination Is Out
/"I ENERAL assembly of the Pres
^ byterian church in the United
States, in session at Meriden, Miss.,
voted 151 to 130 to omit from the
confession of faith these two impor
tant sections:
"By the decree of God, for the
manifestation of his glory, some
men and angels are predestined
unto everlasting life and others fore
ordained to everlasting death.
"And their number is so certain
and definite that it cannot be either
increased or diminished."
6uvcinment in crop loan opera
tions by the Commodity Crop cor
poration since its creation in 1933
have totaled $83,987,495.
This was made known in a com
munication President Roosevelt sent
to the capitol, asking that $94,285,
404 be appropriated to restore the
$100,000,000 capital of the corpora
tion.
A budget bureau statement ac
companying the President's com
munication showed that the bulk of
the losses grew out of the shrinkage
in the market value of cotton, corn,
tobacco, turpentine and other com
modities put up as collateral for
price bolstering loans.
Phil La Follette Snubbed
TP HE Wisconsin Farmer-Labor
* Progressive federation snubbed
Gov. Philip LaFollette, president of
the new National Progressive party,
and unanimously indorsed Daniel
W. Hoan, Milwaukee's Socialist
mayor, as progressive candidate for
United States senator.
The convention applauded when
the secretary ruled out Governor
LaFollette's name as the indorsee
for re-election.
*?
Crop Loan Losses
incurred by the federal
Earle Beats C.I.O. Man
TPHE desperate primary battle
among the Pennsylvania Demo
crats resulted in complete victory
for Gov. George H. Earle and his
state machine and
equally complete
defeat for the Duf
fey - Lewis - C. I. O.
faction, whose can
didates all the way
down from senator
and governor to mi
nor county offices,
were routed. Earle
won the senatorship
nomination over
Mayor Wilson of
Philadelphia,
Got. Earle
Charles Alvin Jones, Pittsburgh law
yer, captured the gubernatorial
nomination, beating Thomas Ken
nedy, secretary-treasurer of the
United Mine Workers of America,
who was on the Duffey-Lewis ticket.
Jim Farley, national committee
chairman, had projected himself in
to the hot fight by advising the com
promise choice of Earle and Ken
nedy, but the governor indignantly
told him it was none of his busi
ness, and the voters gave him a
swat on the head by rejecting his
advice.
Republicans were elated because
the returns showed a ground swell
back toward OrO;"Pr eons^rvatism
The Republican total vote exceeded
the Democratic vote, and this fact,
together with the graft and bribery
charges that enlivened the cam
paign of the Democrats, led the Re
publican leaders to hope the Key
stone state would return to the Re
publican fold in November.
Judge Arthur James won a
smashing victory over Gifford Pin
chot, twice governor, for the Repub
lican gubernatorial nomination, and
this was another swat at John L.
Lewis, for he was reported ready to
back Pinchot if Kennedy lost. Sen.
James J. Davis was renominated
by a heavy majority.
Both Senator Guffey and Lewis
appear to have lost their claims to
political leadership. Lewis had
boasted that he controlled 800,000
C. I. O. votes in Pennsylvania, but
the best he could do was 520,000.
Earle, though he came out on tof
was considered to have lost pref
tige greatly by the accusations of
mis-rule made against his adminis
tration. His presidential aspirations
were believed wrecked.
MESSIAH from WISCONSIN?
i '
House of La Follettc
Again Sponsors a
Third Party
By JOSEPH W. LaBINE
Since 1930 American politics
has seen Messiahs by the car
load. In Minnesota the Floyd
B. Olsons attempted to project
their Farmer-Labor party into
the national picture; in Detroit
the Father Coughlins came for
ward with a platform that was
anti-Democratic and anti-Re
publican; Townsendism had its
day, and dynamic Huey P.
Long raised his voice from the
bayous of Louisiana.
These are the malcontents,
"radicals" if you please, many
of whom argue that it's safer
to build a new balloon than
patch the old. In an era fea
tured by change, they want
more change. Individually they
are powerless, but if a new
Leader should emerge ? .
In Wisconsin a few weeks
ago that potential Leader did
emerge, but he was not an
unknown Messiah. His father
was the fire-eating Progres
sive who kept the United
States senate worried until
his death in 1925. His brother is
today a member of that same sen
ate and very much respected. He
himself is governor of Wisconsin.
The name is Phil LaFollette.
If America's anti-Republicans and
anti-Democrats had searched a gen
eration they might not have found
an abler Leader than the man who
popped up in the quiet college town
of Madison. Like his brother, Sen
ator Bob, Phil LaFollette has been
doggedly fighting for the ideals of
Progressivism more than a decade.
He's never shouted; only the false
Messiahs shout. But he has applied
his ideals to state government and
has made them work.
A Brotherly Combine.
Together the brothers LaFollette
form a unique combination to win
support from labor, the farmer and
the small business men.
They are not socialists but the La
Follettes want to "harness the profit
motive for social ends." They are
not capitalistic but they think or
ganized labor is foolish to bargain
for fixed wages instead of an an
nual income based on a share of
the company's profits. Nor are
these farm state boys opposed to
agriculture but they do censure the
farmer for haggling with purchas
ers of their crops for a set price
level. Instead, say the LaFollettes,
farmers should bargain collectively
for a share of the ultimate price.
These proposals come under the
heading of making new balloons in
stead of patching old ones. Phil La
Follette built a new balloon in his
state unemployment insurance law,
a piece of legislation that reflects
the LaFollette fetish for justice. Un
Governor Phil LaFollette of Wisconsin, charming and unassuming,
will be the "public appeal" factor in the National Progressive party's
campaign. He's presidential timber.
der this act a separate set of books f
is kept for each business organiza
tion in the state. The corporation
with the smallest labor turnover
pays the least.
What Phil LaFollette doesn't say.
Senator Bob supplies. In Washing
ton he rants about the "hodge
podge" of taxation that has grown
up these past hundred years. .
Brother Bob's Opinions.
Senator Bob has also voiced a
family opinion concerning the New
Deal and its efforts to cure depres
sions, recessions and crises within
crises. But the New Deal is only
an immediate victim of his denun
ciation. He says this business of
waiting for "economic cycles" is
foolishness.
Throughout the past decade's top
sy-turvy experimentation in social
and economic reform, the LaFol
lettes have remained pretty much
in the background. In Wisconsin,
Governor Phil has done his own ex
perimenting and in Washington Sen
ator Bob has listened carefully to
each successive crop of reform pro
posals.
In 1938, at a strategic moment
when the New Deal shows signs of
bogging down, when the Republican
party still lacks leadership and the
country cries with discontent. Phil
LaFollette has launched the Nation
al Progressive party with an eye to
pushing himself to the White House
by 1948. Perhaps it will be sooner.
On the surface Bob LaFollette,
Senator Bob LaFoIMte, lac kin* Ma brother'* salesmanship ability,
?erertbeless knows political Waahia*toa so thoroafhlr that be will be
invataubie la the campalfa.
well versed with official Washington,
is the logical National Progressive
candidate. But the brothers recog
nize that Bob is the politician and
legislator while Phil is an execu
tive.
This is a queer trick of fate be
cause old Bob LaFollette intended
that his namesake should carry on
the family tradition. Young Bob
went to Washington immediately
after he finished college and became
his father's secretary. In 1924 he
managed the LaFollette presidential
campaign and found himself in the
heat of politics while brother Phil
was twiddling his thumbs.
Phil once thought of entering the
ministry. His wise old father dis
couraged him from politics but his
heart was in it. In 1924, at the ripe
age of twenty-seven, he ran for dis
trict attorney of Dane county, de
livering not a single speech for him
self because the elder LaFollette
needed his help in the presidential
campaign. But Phil won.
Wisconsin's Wonder Boy.
The next year his father died and
Phil's ambitions were nipped in the
bud when young Bob ascended to
the senate. It looked like a politi
cal fade-out but Phil won the Re
publican nomination for governor
in 1930 and has been at Madison
for three terms since.
Governor Phil is by no means an
idol with his constituents. The past
two years have seen many scraps
from which he has emerged vic
torious but badly scratched. In most
of. these he has shown a judgment
for diplomacy that would credit any
President.
The governor's private life and
hobbies account for much of his pop
ular appeal. He is a devotee of
Americana of the Sam Houston pe
riod and is also a student of Na
poleon.
His quick-on-the-trigger aptitude
in speech-making wins him many
converts. Never caught short, he
faced a momentary crisis when ad
dressing a crowd of Farmer-Labor
ites in Iowa a few weeks ago. A
bench collapsed noisily, spilling its
"That," cracked Phil, "must have
been the Democratic or Republican
platform."
The next few months may see
Governor Phil and Senator Bob car
rying their National Progressive
party to the nation. The two broth
ers never disagree on major points,
so America's farmers, laboring men
and small business men are apt to
be offered two Messiahs instead of
one, each preaching the same politi
cal doctrine.
To them may fall the task of ce
menting our growing crop of mal
contents into a unified political
group, of soothing Labor's quarrels
with the farmer and the corner gro
cery man. To their flag may rally
a strange mixture of men and wom
en, disillusioned followers of de
feated third party movements.
But Phil will be the dominant La
Follette, a dynamic crusader in
whom more than one aging Pro
gressive will see a carbon copy of
old Fighting Bob LaFolIette, the
man who wanted his son to be a
minister.
? Western N*?w*r UnJoo.
City Order* Arrest
of Criminal in 1989
St. Louis. ? It will be SI years
before St. Louis can punish Ed
ward McLean Snow, who escaped
from the city sanitarium while
awaiting trial (or three holdups.
But he'll be punished.
Snow is in federal prison in
Washington, serving the first of
four terms for a series of Califor
nia robberies. The terms add up
to 51 years.
Despite the half century of
waiting, St. Louis police have
placed a detainer against Snow
with California and federal po
lice.
Snow is now twenty-nine. By
the time St. Louis justice gets
around to him, he'll be eighty.
HEADLESS BODY OF
GIRL HIDDEN YEARS
Found in House by Workmen,
Occupants Unaware.
Des Moines. ? Workmen who had
just knocked out an old wall
blanched when they investigated
two musty bundles lying atop an old
fruit cellar in a residence on Twen
ty-eighth street. Those two bundles
set the city on its ear, for they con
tained the headless body at a young
girl.
Wrapped in muslin and placed
over the fruit cellar, just back at
the brick wall, the hideous parcels
had been sealed op there, according
to Coroner A. E. Shaw, for at least
a quarter of a century. Jfot far
away lay a locket, dirty and tar
nished. When polished up, the jew
elry was distinguishable as a locket
of a style popular years ago.
On its front was an engraved de
sign, decked with eight brilliants.
There was no picture or other me
mento in the locket but scratched on
the inside of each of its halves were
the letters, or numeral, "XDC."
"Removal of the head," observed
Dr. Shaw, "was an ideal way to bf?
vent identification. One part of the
body which is indestructible, and
which furnishes a means of identifi
cation, is the teeth."
After four days of diligent inquiry
into the murder mystery, the coro
ner's men and the police got a real
break. A physician in St. Louis,
Mo., Dr. W. H. Betts. heard of the
case, and gave it an entirely dif
ferent twist.
"The dismembered parts of a
body." he said, "were items m a
collection which belonged to Dr. G.
F. Yates, who occupied the house,
and with whom I boarded, while we
both were students in the Drake uni
versity medical college. That was
in 1910. We were graduated in 1914."
Dr. Betts said he ?as not aware
that Dr. Yates had left the body at
the residence.
"I was under the impression." he
related, "that Dr. Yates had re
turned that part of the body to the
college's anatomy department, after
removing the head and left side.
"He took the head and the other
parts back to his home m Harris
burg, Pa., when he left after gradu
ation.
"The body had been given to Dr.
Yates by Professor Hoevre. instruc
tor in anatomy at the medical col
lege, as payment for assistance Dr.
Yates had given in the department."
Snake Angling New Sport
for Venturesome Texan*
- Matador. Texas. ? Cowboys and
town dwellers alike are getting new
thrills from a dangerous new sport
of the rocky ranch country ? snake
angling.
The idea circulated northward
from the Rio Grande ranchers, past
Breckenridge, in central west Tex
as, where a "snake hunt" is an
annual outing for many citizens
The rugged brush country of the
???Carp R8?r plateau of the KigtT
plains furnishes a sport usually not
found in snake hunting.
Rattlesnakes are the prey and the
"rods" are four-foot lengths of pipe
encircling a stout wire that is fash-*
toned into a loop at the bottom
end. The "angler" carries the rod,
and when he meets a rattler, the
wire loop is slipped over the snake's
head. A quick jerk on the other end
of the wire, and the rattler is killed
? either decapitated or with a bro
ken back.
A catch of 100 is not unusual for
a single all-day party.
Kill 15,000 Crows With
One Charge of Dynamite
Burley. Idaho. ? It took only one
shot to bag approximately 15,000
crows on an island in Snake river.
The composite bullet, consisting of
199 sticks of dynamite in tin cans
filled with ' buckshot, was touched
off, all at once, by an electric timing
device. The island rocked, and the
crows dropped in droves. The idea
and the "marksmanship" record be
long to the state