The Alamance gleaner 1 V , 0 J . Vol. LXV GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1939 No. tl Weekly News Analysis Paris, London Woo Franco In Weak Bid to Oust Fascists : By Joseph W. La Bine? ^ EDITOR'S NOTE?When opinion* ?n expressed in thogo columng, they aro those of the news analyst, and not necessarily of the newspaper. Spain Germany and Italy would not have aided Rebel Spain if they had no aspirations in the Iberian penin sula. Nor, presumably, would Rebel General Francisco Franco have accepted Fascist aid if he did not, expect to repay that favor. These simple facts are being ig nored by .Franc? and Britain, who now hope' to woo the Rebels away from their Rome-Berlin connections to make a peace which would save the defeated Loyalist cause. It is hoped thereby to end the war im mediately, giving General Franco a partial victory when he could achieve a complete victory through WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? (Shoemaker, Chicago Daily Nam) a few more weeks' fighting on the Madrid-Valencia front The likelihood of a complete Loy alist surrender is evidenced by an apparent breakdown in morale, coupled with internal squabbling. An army of 200,000 government troops allowed itself to be routed out of Catalonia. Next day Loyalist President Manuel Azana plumped for unconditional surrender while Premier Juan Negrin boasted he would continue fighting. Mean while, in southeastern Spain, Loyal ist Gen. Jose Miaja was a virtual dictator in his own right. Britain and France could hardly expect General Franco to jump at a peace offer from such badly-tattered opposition, but they did. It was reliably reported that Anglo-French interests were offering to supply funds fpr reconstructing Spain if Franco would oust German and Italian influence. In return for these gestures. Gen eral Franco offered little to the two great European democracies who refused him recognition until all Loyalist hope was gone. His prom ise: To remove foreign troops, which does not necessarily mean removal of foreign influence. Ex pected daily is recall of the old Bourbon dynasty to Spain's throne. Probable ruler will be big, sport loving Prince Jaime, not a sufferer from haemophilia (bleeding) like so many Bourbons. Highly grateful to the man who restored his throne, Prince Jaime would be mora than wiHing to let General Franco rule. Great Britain Last January 13 the British for eign office received a mysterious "ultimatum" demanding withdraw al of English troops from Ireland within four days. Three days later bombs began exploding throughout the British Isles and between subse quent explosions Scotland Yard was able to place responsibility with the illegal Irish Republican army. While first arrests were being made and special guards were assigned to the king and queen, Irish Prime Minis ter Eamon de Valera found occasion to regret the incident. Far from a terrorist, Mr. de Va lera has won smexing minuses taws for Ireland by using much gentler tactics than the extremist Republi can army advocates. Today Ireland is known as Eire, having become an independent state associated with the British commonwealth only for certain minor purposes. British overlordship is gone except for far North Ulster, which is largely Eng lish Protestant as opposed to the Irish Catholicism of southern Ire land. Main purpose behind the Re publican army is British withdrawal from Ulster. Mr. de Valera also wants this but be believes in saner tactics. While soothing London's nerves by asking laws to crush the illegal army, Mr. de Valera probably found himself Mushing with embsrrsss ent senator, arose to' "regret that the ultimatum sent by the Republi can army to the British foreign sec retary had not been sent by the Irish government." Vatican Within 18 days of a pope's death, the Sacred College of Cardinals must meet in Rome to elect his successor. Locked in secret con clave at the Vatican during late February and early March, these princes of the Roman Catholic church will name a successor to the late Pope Pius XI. Attesting to the futility of prediction was the last election, on February 6, 1922, when Pius?only nine months a cardinal ?was elevated over the heads of many more favored candidates. Favored candidate this time is Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, papal sec retary of state who serves as tem porary pope during the interim be tween Pius1 death and the election of his successor. Though he con fesses a longing to lead the con templative life of a monk, Cardinal Pacelli has the excellent record of papal diplomat that qualifies him for the job of pope in a year like 1939. Only stumbling block to Cardinal Pacelli's election is the growing be lief that a non-Italian might make more headway in settling the cur rent' European turmoil. Though the position, traditionally goes to an Ital ian, it is recalled that in 1922 the Spanish Cardinal Merry del Val led early balloting. Relief It is paradoxical that this year's anti-administration congress should be the first to admit that federal relief is a permanent fixture. But this does not mean that the White House and Capitol Hill are agreed on how relief should be handled. No sooner had the nation recovered from the shock of congress' inde pendence in slashing $190,000,000 from the relief deficiency bill, than relief again popped into the head lines: 'Emergency.' As President Roose velt signed the reduced deficiency appropriation he begged congress to restore the $150,000,000. Reason: "In my opinion an emergency now existsThe President said WPA's alternatives are (1) to slash 1,000, 000 reliefers from the rolls by April 1 or (2) to oust from 1,900,000 to 2,000,000 via week-by-week reduc tions from April 1 to July 1. 'CRA.' The house received a bill from Virginia's Clifton A. Wood rum which would completely upset the administration's relief apple cart, creating 'URA' (unemployment re lief administration). The bill's light ly-camouflaged purpose is to give congress complete voice over re lief, hamstringing the White House. Stipulations: (1) halving the Presi dent's 1939-40 budgetary relief re quest of $2,266,189,000; (2) abolish ing WPA and creating 'URA' which would report monthly to congress; (3) providing for congressional allo cation of relief funds to individual state agencies; (4) giving the Pres ident $120,000,000 a year to spend SECRETARY ICKE8 "Of tftin, cm ?r>ui, fotu mgmm . . as he km fit; (3) attempting to divorce politico from relief. 'Off Again, On Again.' Created in 1933, PWA is soon to expire. But Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes has urged creation of a per manent PWA to prevent future de pressions. Says be: "American growth has been an 'off again, on again, gone again Finnigan' . . . We owe it to our people to protect them . . . from the strains and stresses of an economic system which . . . periodically has hurtled off the track. A program of timed' or "balanced* public works . , . would act like a gyroscope." Business As counsel for a New York state legislative insurance committee, Charles Evans Hughes made a name for himself in 1906 uncovering what he thought to be irregularities. The chief Hughes fear: That in surance company resources were so large as to make conservative, re sponsible management increasingly difficult. The Hughes remedy: Fed eral supervision of insurance invest ments. Since 1906 Mr. Hughes has risen to the U. S. Supreme court and may have changed his mind. At least nothing has been done about it and the vast insurance fuhd has quad rupled. Whereas Mr. Hughes sug gested limiting new policies to $150,000,000 a year per company, some now write $2,000,000,000 a year. Today there are $110,000,000,000 worth of policies in effect and in suradce investments cover a sur prisingly wide field. Samples: Gov ernment securities, $4,500,000,000; railroads, $3,000,000,000; farm mort gages and corporation securities, $2,000,000,000; state, county and city bonds, $1,500,000,000. If this business was worth inves tigating 23 years ago it is even more vulnerable today. Just start ed in Washington is a 12-month probe by the temporary national economic committee, headed by Wyoming's Sen. Joseph C. O'Mahoney and bet ter known as the "monopoly in vestigating committee." Chiming in. is William O. Douglas' Securities and Exchange commission. Perti nent question marks include (1) what influence insurance invest ments exert on U. S. money mar kets, banks, railroads, etc.; (2) how insurance executives are chosen; (3) possibility of interlocking direc torates between insurance firms and utilities. Though the monopoly committee has often reiterated that it is not hunting witches, and although Mr. Douglas maintains he only wants to CHARLES EVANS HUGHES The tins v now quadrupled. brine the Hughe* report up to date, there is a good chance of new legis lation providing federal regulation over all interstate insurance busi ness. This would supplement state supervision now in effect. Treasury Statutory limit of the U. S. public debt is now $49,000,000,000, which will be reached when and if con gress approves President Roose velt's new budget. (Current debt: About $39,700,000,000). When con gress convened last month it was rumored the administration would ask to raise the debt limit another $9,000,000,000. To congressional fis cal experts who questioned him about the U. 8. financial outlook. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. explained that it might be a good idea to raise the debt limit. Said he: "(would not be worried to see it (the debt) go to another $4,000,000,000 or $9,000, 000,000, which is the present budget, and we are going to have to ask congress, if you vote this money, to increase the treasury's borrow ing power." Mulling over this ad vice, congressmen decided the of ficial request, which will come from the White House, may precipitate another feud between spenders and conservatives. Wives in the News GANDHI ? Mrs. Kasturibhai Gandhi, "faithful, silent" wife of India's Mohandas K. Gandhi, has been arrested for participating in a civil disobedience campaign. FLEGENHEIMER ? Mrs. Ar thur Flegenheimer, widow of New York's late poller racketeer, "Dutch Schultz" Flegenheimer, testified she saw her husband hi conference with James J. Hines, Tammany leader who is accused of selling protection. MOONEY?Mrs. Rena Mooney, wife of California's ex-Convict Tom Moooey, promises to fight bar husband's reported attempt to divorce bar. I Bruckarft Washington Digest Feeling of Unrest in Europe Reaches Our Side of Atlantic Permeates Administration and, to Some Extent, Congress; Result Is Great and Increasing Mystery; President's Secrecy Approved; Facts About Plane Sales. By WILLIAM BRUCKART WNU Service, National Press Bid;., Washington, D. G? WASHINGTON.?The feeling that has obsessed Europeans for weeks? that they are approaching toward some international crisis?seems to have spread to our side of the At lantic. Right out of the air, so to speak, we are made to feel that great questions are about to take shape and that we, in this country, must be ready to decide them. The germ, or whatever it is, has taken up its domicile within our adminis tration and, to some extent, in con gress, and the result is great and in creasing mystery. Most sources in Washington did not believe that the so-called settle ment of the European crisis at Mu nich last September was, in fact, more than a stop-gap, as I reported to you at that time. The Munich failure has become more and more evident and the very atmosphere is charged again with exactly the same type of bated expectancy. In a general way, of course, we all know that the worldwide differ ence between the democratic forms of government and the dictatorships is at the bottom of the whole thing. We know, as well, that Hitler and Mussolini have challenged the Eu ropean democracies by the boldness of their dictatorship actions in tak ing practically what they want in the way of additions to their em pires. We know, further, that the end decidedly is not yet insofar as the Hitler and Mussolini ambitions are to be considered. And wrapped up in all of this is the genuine friendship that the United States has for France and England. Beneath the surface, things have been going on in our own govern ment. The President, the depart ment of state and the military and naval services know what is taking place in Europe and they are ad vised as to what may be expected. Plans were being formed and de veloped so that steps could be taken here at the proper time. All of this was done in more or less secrecy, as it always has to be done since public discussion of such delicate matters could tilt us very easily from the frying pan into the fire. Genuine Danger of War, Bat Not Immediately Because of the necessity for avoid ing wrong impressions which is a i vital thing in international relations, President Roosevelt told the mili tary affairs committee of the senate confidentially something of the in j side story. I believe he did right in shielding those facts from general knowledge for no one knows how ?they could, or would, be distorted in German or Italian newspapers. But this air of mystery has back I fired in a curious way. It has aroused certain portions of the coun try into a veritable frenzy?particu larly, some members of congress? and they have seized upon a rela tively unimportant thing as their weapon in striking at Mr. Roose velt's foreign polii^r. They have jumped all over the President's neck about the sale of airplanes to Prance, airplanes that were manu factured and are being manufac ? tured by private plane builders and i which are being sold for cash to the French government. It is made to appear that this is a terrible thing. The howlers are saying that Mr. Roosevelt has vio lated the spirit of the neutrality act and that be should never have given permission for the sale of the planes. There are other charges flying about, also, but they are un important here. I have dug into the situation as far as is possible, I believe, and I fail to get very much excited about the whole thing. There is, of course, the genuine danger of war, although I am not convinced that Europe is going to break out tomorrow. Some time, probably, but not immediate ly. Such a clash of hopes and con victions and traditions and faith as obviously occurs between the philos ophies of dictatorships and democ racies is bound to lead to use of force but I think there is the prob ability that it is further away than this Jittery feeling of the world now indicates. Franne'e Purchase of American Made Airplanea To get back to this airplane thing, I should like to set out some of the facts. France is buying American made airplanes several hundred of them. She la doing this because her own airplane production has stalled and France has sufficient gold to buy them elsewhere. The French military service must have them in case there is that outbreak of force that seems so imminent on the sur face for the reason that Germany and Italy are Superior to France in the air. The contracts were let in this country after Mr. Roosevelt had talked over the whole question with his cabinet and with the war and navy departments and certain lead ers of the airplane industry. They were authorized after Ambassador Bullitt, in his reports from Paris, had laid bare the whole situation. I am told that Mr. Bullitt ad vised Mr. Roosevelt to treat the matter as a routine; that to talk much about it would excite people, unduly. Well, the Bullitt idea was working until the unfortunate acci dent out near Los Angeles when a big bombing plane fell, injuring a member of the French mission that is in this country buying the planes. Then, out popped the secret and out came the critics of the Roosevelt foreign policy. It is not within my power to say whether Mr. Roosevelt's foreign poV icy is right or wrong. I do not believe anyone can tell yet. Any foreign policy is something of a gamble. If it works, the author is a hero; if it fails, the author of the policy promptly is termed a sap. Foreign Policy Opposition Making Itself Look Foolish I do not regularly burn incense at the Roosevelt dais, but when I believe his opposition is making it self look foolish, I believe they ought to be called what they are. If they can show where the present foreign policies are ridiculous, now is their opportunity. If this criticism of Mr. Roosevelt were directed at his actions with re spect to Spain or Japan, perhaps there would be something worth considering. It will be recalled that the President persuaded plane man ufacturers and many others as well to discontinue sales to the Japanese for use against China. It will be recalled also that indirect assist ance was given the so-called loyal ists in Spain, aid that surely must be looked upon?if done honestly? as help to the military forces al though disguised as provisions for those who suffered back of the lines. All of this was done while we have a neutrality act through which coo jresa believed it was taking away certain powers from the Chief Ex ecutive. So, I repeat that there is cause, it appears, for criticism of some of the President's foreign policies, but it does not seem that critics have joined issue with the Chief Execu tive on any sound basis. President Has Authority To Shape Foreign Policy When it come* to foreign rela | tions, however, the eituetion U en tirely different The constitution, wisely enough, provides that such matters must be dealt with by the President. It allows him the power of negotiation but it curbs that pow er by requiring him to ask congress for a declaration of war. In other words, the President is provided with authority to shape and conduct the foreign policy, the dealings with foreign nations, but he must have the approval of congress, which rep resents the people, when the con cluding phases of those negotiations are reached and the nation is about to be bound. That condition was arranged at the outset of our nation's history. It has worked well. The rights of the people are amply protected. Think for a moment what the situa tion would be if our foreign poli cies were in the hands of addle pated demagogues in the house or the senate I I hazard a guess that some of them would talk as long as Hitler did the other day and create just as much grief. So, I firmly believe there should be some secrecy about our foreign policy and that the President should have some liberties in working out arrangements with other govern ments. After all, any program thet be has must eventually be published and debated by congress Speaking of Sports Warner, Dobie Resign College Gridiron Posts By ROBERT McSHANE WHEN Glenn "Pop" Warner and Gil Dobie, two of football's old est coaches in point'jof service, an nounced their resignations almost simultaneously, they gave football historians a red letter day. Only Amos Akmso Stagg, College at the Pacific mentor, exceeds ei ther of them in years devoted to the grid game. Warner has com pleted his forty-fourth year of coach ing, and Dobie his thirty-eighth. Btagg has coached for 48 seasons. Both men have had a great deal to do with shaping the trend of foot ball. They were coaching teams when the flying wedge was the game's best ground-gaining play. Warner can claim credit for much of football as it is played today. He was among the first to rely on decep tion rather than power?in some cases carrying deception to an ex treme. The "Warner System" is ? monument to his ingenuity. Warner's hidden ball trick will al ways be a delight to football fans, who never tire of hearing about it. Shortly after the turn of the cen tury, when his Carlisle Indians were GilDobie Pop Warner scheduled to meet Harvard, Pop de cided on a tricky little play he no ticed year* before in an Auburn Vanderbilt game. The Indiana de cided to uae K on the opening play. When the kick-off waa received the Indiana ran together in a huddle, and alipped the ball under the front of Dillon'a Jersey. Then they scat tered, running and dodging, each with one arm folded across his stomach. Dillon loped carelessly down the middle of the field, cross ing the goal line with little effort. It was at Carlisle, tea, that War ner erossed up his opposition by sewing halves of footballs on the Jerseys of Us players In one of the first real strategems of the grid iron. Pessimist Leader His coaching career at Temple wound up with an all-time average of .778 as a result of 207 wins, 100 defeats and 31 ties during the 44 year stretch at Georgia, Carlisle, Pittsburgh, Stanford, Temple and a few other points. Dobie, though be didn't make as many technical contributions, left an equally sharp Imprint en the game. Be learned Us football un der Doe Williams at Minnesota. To the gloomy dean of the gridiron the sport owes many of Its traditions. Always a pessimist, Dobie gave rise te the tradition that eeecbeo are always weeping about their mis fortunes. He is the possessor of the longest string of victories ever achieved by an American college?the 10-year stretch at Washington without a de feat His team won 61 games and tied three from 1906 to the middle of the 1917 season. Une? 1 wo? 1 hreer C. S. Howard may get ample re venge tor the loaa of two .$lWjB00 prises when be aboota tor racing's richest prize?the Santa Anita Han dicap?with three standout per formers. Seabiecuit srill be there, carrying top weight and a good share of the public's money in the March event. And In addition to the Bisduit will be two stablemates from the Ar-* gentine pampas. Kayak II and Sor The three Howard stable entries have a good chance to make up for Seabiscuit's heartbreaking defeats of 1937 and 1938. It is far from im possible that thdV may run one, two and three this year. Ralph Neves, Howard's jockey, has made the statement that he would rather ride Kayak II in the big race than Seabiecuit Which is the pinnacle of praise, for a jockey gets 10 per cent of the purse when he wins a stake. His share, if he had a leg up on the winner, would be $10,000. Sorteado is the horse bought for $40,000 after he made a clean sweep of South American races. Howard hadn't planned on entering him in the handicap, as South American home require quite a whjk to bo Stratton Comeback \X7HEN Monty Stratton, White | So* pitching ace wboae right ? leg was amputated in December : following a hunting accident, first j announced that he was going to try a comeback H was suspected that he j was whistling in the dark. Now, however, even the asset du bious are keeping a skeptical eye en Monty. Experts have already gene to Ms Greenville, Texas, homo to consult on the best type at arti ficial leg for the Injured young ath lete. His convalescence has ap proached the point where ha is ready to begin Ms mechanical ex periment, and he is more optimistic of future success than he was last spring when he palled an arm mus cle. Stratton Is fortunate in having in terested experts of the artificial limb industry In his plight Soma manu facturers accept his condition as * challenge to their resourcefulness. While many players grant that be . has an outside chance of pitching again, they are not of the opinion that he will be able to cover ground / with any speed. It Is reported ens expert has as- , tared Strajton and Sox officials that ' Monty will not only be able to pitch, but that he can run with a fair de gree of speed. Stratton will not make the trip to the Pasadena training camp. In stead, he will work out in Texas until April 10, when be will come to Chicago. According to present plans he will be in uniform during the White Sox-Cubs benefit game for him in Comiskey park on April 17. Naismith Complains P)R JAMES NAISMITH. origina tor of basketball, roceptly told a group of coaches, officials and sports writers what could he done to make the game better. His criticisms were aimed mainly at officials and the rules body as he pointed out that: 1. The rules today eonxietsetJy penalise the offensive team. t. Many officials ore not interpret ing or enforcing the rules property. S. Elimination ef the center jump, fat addition to penalising the aiwlec team, actually slews the gaaae and eliminates many clever plays wMab ? . ? ia add ? It la true that the offensive teem is penalized by loss of the ball every time it makea a basket. But it is equally true that the defensive team receives many unjust penalties. Fur instance, the dribble primarily was eyolved to enable a cornered player to break loose. Today it is used as a weapon with which the offensive player can crash into a defensive man, knowing that the latter wiB get the penalty. His first and second criticism is practically unanswerable. The fans seem to be against anything which would handicap the team with a score in prospect, and few officials are going to listen to an evening of booing. So that fault rests in ths public's lap. Before the center jump was elim inated the average time lequiiad for an official to get the ball and toss it up at the center was four or five seconds. Now s player takes the ball under the basket, has five seconds to get it out, and the team has ten more seconds to advance ba yond the center of the court. Coaches in general seem to be satisfied with the present rules. Many changes have been suggested, but the feeling has been that the game win certainly not be improved by the hasty adoption at now regu lations. Sport Shorts Robert Gardner, rookie lx pitcher for the Washington San- . ators, is > feat f inches tall . . . Though golf is essentially a Scotch game, ths word "caddy" is from the Chinees language . . . Too hard tracks, too ""m* spood stort? lng gates, and too many short dis tance races cause the early break down of American horses, according to Herbert Bayard Swope, New York racing com Swan, who luccaod ed Pop Warner aa head at Tern pie univaraity, nerved aa Warner'a aaairtant for six years at that aehtoL . . . Nell Sandford. ?? a Haw Scotia hock ey player, peered 18 a recent game . . . T leak* >.?/) Fred Swu ? llgll*