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The Alamance Gleaner ? Vol. LXIV GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 1938 Na 26 NEWS REVIEW OF CURRENT EVENTS SHAKEDOWN IN TENNESSEE Senate Campaign Committee Uncovers Political Scandal in Berry-Stewart Primary Fight ? ? ? ? ?KSOHWtfE&i David E. Lilienthal, TV A director, at left, trying to explain to the congressional investigating committee the methods by which XV A "yard stick" rates for power were established. Next to him Is J. A. Kurg, chief power planning engineer; and at extreme right U Dr. A. E. Morgan, the deposed head of the authority. PLuLojiA SUMMARIZES THE WORLD'S WEEK 6 Western Newspaper Union. Political Scandal CENATOR SHEPPARD'S cam ^ paign expenditures committee, after hearing a report from an in vestigator, announced that the con es duct of the Demo cratic senatorial pri mary campaign in Tennessee was scan dalous and warned that the successful candidate was likely to face an ejection contest in the sen ate. The shaking down of both federal and state employees, the ocumur dciij buying ol votes on a huge scale, the raising of funds by intimidation ? all were being in dulged in by the two rival candi dates, according to the committee. Those who are seeking the nom ination are Sen. George L. Berry, Tom Stewart, J. Ridley Mitchell, Dr. John R. Neal and C. L. Powell. Stewart is supported by E. H. Crump, political boss of Memphis. Berry is backed by the state ma chine and Gov. Gordon Browning. "The committee is of the opin ion," its statement said, "that the evidence already before it with re spect to assessments of federal em ployees by one group participating in the Democratic primary contest for United States senator and of state employees by the other group, points sharply toward an election contest in the United States senate regardless of which group's candi date triumphs. "Regardless of action that may be taken in the courts to punish those practicing illegal election methods and those exercising po litical pressure, there are indica tions that the senate may be called upon to consider the probability of excessive money being used in be half of the victorious candidates." Besides its pronouncement on Tennessee, the committee asked Postmaster General Farley to in vestigate the distribution of a "po litical circular" by the Farm Se curity administration in South Da kota. The circular, it was said, was sent out under government frank to "aid the senatorial candi dacy of former Gov. Tom Berry of South Dakota." The committee also dispatched in vestigators to Georgia, Illinois, In diana, North Dakota and California. It heard reports from its investiga tors already at work in Pennsyl vania and Kentucky and sent them back for additional information. Bar Hih Labor Act /COMMITTEE report* received by ^ the house of delegates of the American Bar association in ses sion in Cleveland denounced the na tional labor relations act as "inten sifying class antagonisms"; and condemned "despotic tendencies" of governmental administrative tri bunals. The committee on labor, employ ment and social security in its re port said the labor act is "the delib erate embodiment of a new social policy" in which the government "has departed from the traditional cole of mediator and arbiter." The assault on governmental ad ministrative agencies, such as the securities and exchange commis sion, interstate commerce commis sion, N. L. R. B., and others, was contained in a report ot the com mittee on administrative law, head ed by former Dean Roscoe Pound of Harvard university law school. * Utilities to Be Heard DRIVATE utilities are to be given * a chancfe to present to the TVA investigation committee their case against the "yardstick" for electric power of the authority. The committee said it had Invited the Edison Electric institute, repre senting the power industry in mat ters of policy and publicity, and the Electric Bond and Share company and Commonwealth and Southern corporation. The latter two are holding companies which have ex tensive holdings in the Southeast where the TVA is offering cheap power to municipalities and rural co-operatives. * * Debt Payment Rumors FROM a London correspondent ' comes the report that prelim inary negotiations have begun for final settlement by Great Britain and France of their defaulted debts to the United States. It is asserted the discussions, started some weeks ago by Ambassador Kennedy and British Prime Minister Chamber lain, were carried forward in secret talks in Paris among Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau, Ambas sador Bullitt, French Foreign Min ister Bonnet and Finance Minister Marchandeau. Both Britain and France, says the correspondent, have expressed will ingness to conclude a final settle ment on the basis of the prin cipal and not the interest of the original debts, which aggregated $9,286,950,943 ? *5,185,730,763 con tracted by Britain and $4,101,220,180 by France. But in the contemplated settlement Britain and France are asking for a reduction of the prin cipal of the original debts, which, if granted, would serve as the foun dation for arranging the payment. Texas Picks a Yankee TEXAS Democrats in their pri mary selected a Yankee to be the next governor of the state. W. Lee O'Daniel, born in Ohio and raised on a Kansas farm, received a clear majority over 11 other candidates for the nomination which is equivalent to election. O'Daniel is a flour jobber. He cam paigned with a hill billy band and a M \ , platform that In- | 1 ' eluded the Ten Com W. Lee mandments and the O'Daniel Golden Rule, ridi cule of professional politicians, prom ise of a business administration and more liberal pensions for the aged. More important nationally was the fact that Rep. Maury Maverick, leader of a considerable bloc in con gress, was defeated for renomina tion by Paul Kilday, a San Antonio attorney. Maverick is an enthusi astic New Dealer. Kilday says be will not be a rubber stamp. Two other administration backers were defeated for renomination. They were Representatives W. D. MacFarlane and Morgan Sanders. Hoffman Dares N.L.R.B. fLARE E. HOFFMAN, Republi ^ can congressman from Michi gan, has challenged the National La bor Relations board in the matter of constitutional guaranties of free dom of speech and of the press. He sent to the board a letter recalling that the body recently declared the circulation of a house speech by Hoffman constituted an unfair labor practice under the Wagner act. In the speech Hoffman declared that known communists were active in the Committee for Industrial Organ ization and denounced C. I. O sit down strikes as communistic meth ods. "This speech," Hoffman's letter said, "was republished, with illus trations, by the Constitutional Edu cational league of New Haven, Conn. "I am now offering, .and intend to continue to offer, to furnish to any and all interested persons, in cluding employees, employers, or others, copies of this address for circulation at the actual cost of printing, and to recommend that employees might well read this ad dress before joining the C. I. O." The American Federation of La bor charged in its official organ, the American Federationist, that mal administration of the Wagner act is threatening American democracy. The publication printed an editorial bluntly accusing the National La bor Relations board of promoting the rival Committee for Industrial Organization "which seeks to set up a dual labor movement despite all the social and economic waste which dualism involves." * ? To Expand Business Loans pHAlRMAN JESSE JONES of the Reconstruction Finance corpo ration announced a new policy for forcing the expansion of business loans, by which competitor banks will be pitted against each other. When a loan applicant ap proved by the RFC is turned down by his local bank an RFC agent will con tact the bank and try to persuade it to participate in the loan. II it refuses Jesse Jones the RFC agent will contact a competitor bank. In its most optimistic monthly business survey of the year, the fed eral reserve board said industrial production is on the increase and available data indicate that in July the index will show a considerable rise. Chairman Jones put huge re sources of the Reconstruction Fi nance corporation behind the pub lic works program. He and Ad ministrator Ickes agreed that wher ever possible RFC would make loans for public construction and PWA would conserve its money ex clusively for outright grants. Hither to, PWA has been making both loans and grants. Under the new system it will be possible, officials said, to undertake more big projects, such as roads and bridges, than if PWA had to furnish all the money itself. * Blames G.O.P. for Debt SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE WALLACE blames the Republi can policies of the twepties for "the unusual increase in the federal debt in the last nine years." Addressing the Iowa Democratic convention, he said: "In the Democratic thirties we have been like sailors sobering up the morning after, with the fed eral government playing the part of nurse." The secretary said the federal debt of the "Democratic thirtiea is being carried with ease by a country restored to health." He took his audience through a set of figures which he said showed "total debts in the United States today" to be $6,000,000,000 less than in 1930. Pri vate debts, for instance, he said, are $12,000,000,000 under the 1932 to tal and $28,000,000,000 less than in 1930. * Hull Prods Cardenas SECRETARY OF STATE HULL, out of patience with Mexico, aent to President Cardenas a (harp note protesting Mexico's failure to pay for American owned farm lands that the Mexican government has seized. Mr. Hull asked that the matter be submitted to arbitration. The sec retary has in this the full approval of President Roosevelt, for the ad ministration feels that Cardenaa is endangering the "Good Neighbor" relations between the two countries. Sen. Key Pittman of the aenate foreign relations committee also backs up Mr. Hull, asserting that if Mexico refuses to arbitrate ahe will be subject to economic penal- j ties. "Mexico," he said, "then would forfeit all the financial and other voluntary aid we have given her through our spirit of friendship and desire for peace, prosperity, and up building of that country." # If you think birling is an easy game, if you think it's child's play to stand on a half -submerged pine log, churning in the water, then think again. You're going to slip, stumble, trip and fall, landing face down in an icy pond while some wisecracking spectator yells ? YOU'RE ALL WET! By JOSEPH W. LaBINE Chips aren't flying so fast these days from the axes of north woods lumberjacks. Be tween strokes you'll find them talking about a sport called birling (log-rolling to you) and the world championship birling contest to be held at Escanaba, Mich., August 12 to 14. Nothing is easier than falling off a log. Nor is anything hard er than standing on one, es pecially when it's half sub merged in a pond of water and somebody else is on the other end, trying to push you off. Here's a nimble-footed art that makes toe dancing look like an old man's game. It's strange, surely, that log roll ers can be seasoned lumber jacks, big-boned men with heavy shoes who should be more at home on dry land than tripping the light fantastic on a slippery log. Part of the Job. But they aren't birlers by choice. Lumberjacks discovered long ago that to keep your job in the north woods you've got to have a knack for this apparently senseless busi ness. In the days when legendary Paul Bunyan was a youngster in knee trousers, lumberjacks first rolled their logs into the river and nursed them downstream to the sawmill. Usually the drive went smoothly, the churning waters carrying mil lions of feet of timber down to the doorway of civilization. But now and then some obstruction would cause the logs to pile up and it was the birler's job to skip out under the face of this menacing jam, find the key log, jerk it loose and get 4 RIGHT: Joe Connor, the 1937 world champion blrler, shown at work on the spinning timber as he prepares (or this year's tournament at Escanaba, Mich. BELOW: A remarkable picture of birling feet, where a man must step faster and higher than in toe dancing if he doesn't want to get wetl back to dry land before be was crushed to death. With a roar like the collapse of a 10-story building, the jam would loosen itself and go thundering downstream. If the birler was skilled ? and lucky ? he would skip over the swaying carpet and get out of danger. Smart lumberjacks soon discov ered that it was pretty good life in surance to practice log rolling in their spare time. When the day's labors were finished or the logs had been delivered to the mill, they found a postman's holiday in com peting with one another to deter mine who was "the best man on the log." Annual Summer Event. That was the start of competitive birling, a sport that is at once toe tripping and red-blooded. In a land where the heyday of lumbering has long since disappeared, a few en thusiasts have kept birling alive, gathering annually from the far flung outposts of their primitive north woods to vie for the cham pionship. There are veterans who remember the invincible Tom Fleming and A1 Hubbard who reached their peak in 1898. They remember Big Joe Madwayosh, the husky Indian woodsman who won the title in 1924. They still watch Wilbur Marx, the child prod igy of yesteryears who tossed "Big Joe" into the pond when a boy of 14 summers. But they cannot believe that bill ing has become a college boys' sport. So they'll converge at E? canaba from every north woods set tlement this year to watch some real lumberjack defeat Joe Connor, the twenty-six-y ear-old University of Minnesota student who won the crown last year. Birling has flourished since the nineties without the aid of a pro moter. But it was not until the lumbermen's exposition at Omaha in 1898 that it became organized as an annual national event. That was the year Tom Fleming defeated A1 Hubbard in the final match. In 1900, 1901 and 1902 the tourney was held at Ashland, Wis., after which it was abandoned. In 1914 William P. Hart, Wisconsin sportsman, re vived it at Eau Claire. Birling's Child Prodi ty. Big Joe Madwayosh woo his first crown in 1924 and on the sidelines that year was thirteen-year-old Wil bur Marx who decided birlinf looked easy. He came back the next year to provide the tournament sensation by almost defeating "Big Joe," racing him off the log after 2m minutes of breathless birling in the second round. When the next year's tournament opened Marx was again present, merely fifteen years old, but now a well-muscled, seasoned athlete in stead of an awkward boy. Losing a third round elimination match in the northwest titular tourney steadied him and he won the Wisconsin state title without difficulty. Then he faced little Billy Girard of Gladstone, Mich., in the final match. Too eager, too confident, he made the mistake of thinking him self speedier than Girard and "Lit tle Billy" raced him off the log for straight falls in the fastest match that has ever been rolled. Feet trod so fast they could hardly be seen; spiked shoes chewed the logs to sliv ers; "white water" splashed the contestants' legs and both birlers were almost continually on the verge of a wetting. On to Victory. But Marx was a steadier birler the next year and he could not be stopped. At sixteen he won the world's championship against a score of veteran log roller*. He held it 10 years. But last year the college boy from Minnesota came along and Marx, whom the old time lumberjacks had at last taken to their hearts, lost his title. To what depths has this sport fallen! This year Marx says hell regain the championship and the bearded birlers from the north woods are wishing a real jam-breaking logger would appear to teach all these young upstarts a lesson. Maybe Joe Connor will be defeat ed, but even then the plaid-shirted lumberjacks won't be completely happy. At last year's Escanaba tournament they rubbed their eyes with amazement and chagrin to see four girl birlers engage in a contest of their own. A few old timers admitted the women showed a speed and style that equalled or surpassed the skill shown by a lot of the semi-finalists in the men's tourney. Their only consolation, it ap peared, was in the memory of Paul Bunyan, patron saint of all log roll ers. Paul's wife, the story goes, was the only one able to wet him in a birling match! ? WMtan Itowipasw Unfcm. ^ ' .. Lung Sawed in Two, But Boy Still Live* PINE BLUFF, ARK.? Fifteen year-old Buddy Middlebrooks, his right lung almost cut in two by a circular saw, is recovering, to the surprise of his physicians. When he was brought to a hos pital here doctors expected him to die within a few minutes. In stead he gained consciousness and is improving, thanks to a strong constitution. 1 BOY ON TRACKS IS SAVED FROM DEATH Engineer Jolts Passengers Bat Georgia Is Safe. BOSTON. ? The prompt action at an engineer saved the lile of a three year-old boy who had fallen on tbe main line tracks of the New Haven railroad beneath the Broadway bridge. Seeing the little boy prostrate on the road ballast a few yards ahead, W. Bartol of Dorchester, engi neer of a gasoline motor train in bound from Dedhara to the South station, stopped so suddenly that his passengers were jolted from their seats. The boy was unhurt ?xcept for a scratched cheek re ceived in his (all on the cindered track. Child Placet! oa Train. He was placed on board the train and taken to the South station where railroad officials tried for two hours to learn his name and address. The only information he could give was that he was "Georgie." Asked what his fa ther's name was. the child replied: "His name is Daddy, of course.? Later, Georgie was taken to po lice headquarters where he was placed in custody at Capt. Archi bald Campbell and Detective Frank Hagerty of the bureau of criminal investigation, while search was made for his parents. A typewriter and a set of dominoes satisfied him as toys, and policemen brought him milk and crackers for his supper. Mother Appears; All's We*. Shortly after 11 o'clock, when the police were preparing to And quar ters for the child for the night, his mother, Mrs. George Gardner of South End. appeared to claim him. She said she had spent many hours searching for him when he failed to return home in the evening and finally appealed to the police of the Warren avewie station, who sent her to headquarters. Switch Game Still Good; Cobbler Lnet $2,000 CARTERET. N. J ?Karl Born, fifty years old, a shoemaker, asked police to help him find two men who swindled him of S2.00Q. most of his savings, in one of the innu merable variations of the perennial switch game. The two confidence men, one of them elderly, made his acquaint ance by bringing several pairs of shoes to his shop to be repaired. On their third visit. Born said, the older man brought a metal lock box in which he said was $20,000. He said he was m, feared that death was near and wanted to give his money to the poor Born said that the man pleaded that, being unacquainted in Carter et, he wanted his companion and the cobbler to select a list of de serving recipients of his munif icence. The two were to receive $600 each for their services, bat the older man asked that a cash bond be posted. The younger man offered $2,000 as his bond, and Bom went to his bank and drew out $2,000. He thought that the two bonds, $4,000. were placed in the lock box. which was left in his care. When the supposed philanthropist and his young helper did not appear Born forced the box open and found that it contained only strips of paper and a few $5 bills. Defies Curse; Lies in Desecrated Sarcophagus LONDON. ? A curse which is said to have cost many lives was defied by F. W. Jacquemin. of Wolver hampton, England, when he lay down in the desecrated sarcopha gus of the last abbot of the ruined Bindon abbey at Wool, Dorset By his action, Jacquemin has, ac cording to local superstition, doomed himself to violent death within a year. Since the abbot's tomb was robbed more than 200 years ago, the curse is said to have been on it. It was in this sarcophagus that An gel Clare, in Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the '"D'Urbervi lies," while sleep walking on the first night of his honeymoon, placed the tragic Tess. Several persons who have defied the curse have been killed in acci dents.
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
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Aug. 4, 1938, edition 1
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