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The Alamance gleaner |i Vol LXV GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, JULY 20, 1939 , No. 24 WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS BY JOSEPH W. LaBlNE Charge Pittman Embargo Bill Constitutes Admission by U. S. Of Japan's Belligerent Rights (EDITOR'S NOTE?When opinions ore expressed In these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) Released by Western Newspaper Union. CONGRESS: Neutrality First guesses after the senate for eign relations committee tabled the Bloom-Hull measure held that neu trality was a dead issue this session. Hot counted upon were Sen. Key Pittman's enthusiasm and the White House's insistence. Because Presi dent Roosevelt evidently feared a European war after the harvest sea son, he demanded that neutrality legislation be passed this session. Nor would congressional objection avail much; filibusters are a handy weapon for stalemating legislation, but the President's special session threat made it seem more desifable to act now than be called back from vacation. i The President's program: (1) re tention of the munitions board; (2) barring of American ships from combat zones; (3) restriction of American travel in such zones; (4) transfer of title of .goods sold to bel KEY PITTMAN Japan would Buffer, alto gain. ligerents before shipment; (5) con tinued restrictions on loans and credits to warring nations; (6) regu lation of fund collections in the U. S. for belligerents. Though all inclusive and appar ently carrying more tenacles with which American isolationists fear the U. S. might become involved abroad, the President's program carries far less potential dynamite than Senator Pittman's measure. Under this bill, the President would be forced to declare a munitions embargo against any nation violat ing the 1922 nine-power Chinese non aggression treaty. The obvious tar get; Japan. But what Mr. Pittman apparently forgot is that such declaration would constitute American admission that a state of war exists in China?a fact Japan has never admitted. Ja pan would thus gain belligerent rights in China and U. S. interests would have to flee the war zone. Thus America's entire Oriental po sition would be toppled, and the em bargo would have little effect un less Great Britain follows the un likely course of adopting similar tactics. AGRICULTURE: More Trouble On July 1 the U. S. looked for ward to a wheat crop of 716,653,000 bushels, comparatively small beside last year's 930.801,000 bushels and the 10-year (1928-37) average of 752, 962,000 bushels. Obviously, wheat is not a source of worry for Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace this year. But a Job with more than its Just quota of worries has produced three others to take the place of wheat: Tebaeee. Last year growers voted to remove strict marketing control provisions of the farm law, result ing in a big expansion of acreage this year. As of July 1 the tobacco forecast for this year was 1,654,622, 000 pounds, compared with an av erage crop of 1,360,400,000 pounds. If estimates materialize, some ex perts believe prices will be de pressed 25 per cent below last year; also that?under law?another ref erendum must be held on tobacco quotas. Cera. Forecast now is a crop of around 2,570,795.000 bushels, com pared with the 10-year average of 2,309,674,000 bushels. Reasons: (1) unusually favorable weather in June; (2) a sharp increase in plant ings of high-yielding hybrid corn. With a surplus of about 450,000,000 bushels from previous seasons al ready on hand, experts prediqt some governmental action will be neces sary to forestall undue price de pression,--!^ marketing quotas re sult, approved by two-thirds of corn belt farmers, growers would be re quired to store their share of the excess supply or pay a penalty tax of 10 cents a bushel. Cotton. With 14,350,000 bales of cotton hanging over his head, Sec retary Wallace persuaded congress to give him $928,000,000 for curing the surplus problem. Of this, a large part will go to cotton, distributing it among U. S. relief families and offsetting losses in selling cotton to foreign buyers at cut-rate prices, i.e., government subsidy. But in New York the Cotton Exchange serv ice moaned a few days ago that cotton exports this season may be the smallest in more than 50 years, not in spite of, but because of gov ernment aid. POLITICS: Yes or No? One good way of ruining an op ponent is to give him so much rope he hangs himself. When Indiana's one-time Gov. Paul V. McNutt re turned from his $18,000-d-year post as governor general of the Philip pine islands, he became the nation's No. 1 outspoken seeker after 1940's Democratic nomination. What amazed onlookers was that he boldly walked into the lion's mouth, con ferring with President Roosevelt and his traditional enemy, Postmaster General James A. Farley. What amazed them still more was Paul McNutt's appointment a few days later as $12,0OO-a-year head of the newly created U. S. security agen cy. What did it mean? Was Paul McNutt the President's choice for 1940? Or was Mr. Roosevelt craftily plotting the political suicide of this ambitious Hoosier, thus insuring his own renomination for a third term? The pro and con: Bnildnp? "Liberalism" is a much worn-out word denoting the New Deal's objectives. The last few months it has been succeeded by "humanitarianism" as the keynote for 1940. Not to be forgotten is the "humanitarian" scope of Paul Mc Nutt's new job, where he has charge of social security, the office of edu cation, National Youth administra tion and Civilian Conservation corps. MANAGER McBALE CfffHIHf cionf jilM, all strong talking points a smart politician can use to further his own cause. Neither should Paul McNutt's travel opportunities be forgotten; as head of the security agency his chances for speeches and political contacts are practically unlimited and he is expected to make the most of them. Breakdown? The security post is not all roses. Keen observers know Paul McNutt is in jthe limelight where both Democrats and Repub licans can take pot-shots at him between now and nomination day. They also know that his new Job may be a good place to build a man up personally, yet "humanitarian ism" should have nothing to do with politics; therefore Mr. McNutt must be discreet. Meanwhile, in Indianapolis, Mc Nutt Manager Frank McHale could figure his campaign to date had been a success. His candidate, like young Lochinvar, had come out of the west after IVt years in Manila, where he could make no embarrassing entan gling alliances. More important, he had returned to get what Frank Mc Hale termed the President's en dorsement as a candidate for 1M0. HOUSING: Political Vogue? Periodically there arises a David who slays the wicked giant Goliath. Usually it sets a fashion until cor ruptness again catches hold. Last year New York's racket-busting States Attorney Thomas E. Dewey became a David, captured public fancy, inspired radio programs and placed wicked politicians on the de fensive. The public obviously want ed reform and no more rackets. When Tom Dewey began looming as a 1940 G. O. P. presidential pos sibility, reformation sounded like good strategy for any aspiring poli tician or party. By early July, At torney General Frank Murphy had behind him an excellent record of smashing corrupt political machines (like Kansas City's Tom Pender gast) and tracking down income tax RACKET bUSTER DEWEY Everybody1 $ doing iL evaders. This was the signal lor Scripps-Howard Columnist Raymond Clapper to charge that Frank Mur phy was trying too hard to win the vice presidential nomination. Meanwhile there was arising an other administration racket-busting program under guidance of the jus tice department's Thurman W. Ar nold. Its aim: To drive trust prac tices, price-fixing and collusion out of the U. S. building industry. The day Mr. Arnold told his plans to the temporary national economic committee, Chicago Daily News' William H. Fort wrote from Wash ington that this was "obviously the New Deal's most ambitious trust busting venture in its attempt to push young Tom Dewey's New York activities into the shade." TRADE: Penalties It is no coincidence that the world's topmost aggressive powers, Italy, Germany and Japan, must force exports to maintain a balance of trade. One primary reason is that peace-loving nations would sooner trade elsewhere; another, goods for which foreign markets are available must be kept at home to guarantee self-sufficiency in case of war and to build military machines. Therefore no deliberate anti-Nazi gesture was involved last spring when the U. S. began levying coun tervailing duties on goods imported for Germany. Though this move coincided with the Reich's absorp tion of Czecho-Slovakia. treasury and state departments pointed out that Germany customarily forces exports through subsidy. Similar reasoning was behind the countervailing duties recently im posed on Italian silk exports to the U. S., which treasury officials dis covered were being subsidized. Skipping next to aggressive Ja pan, the U. S. is investigating com plaints from domestic textile man ufacturers that Nipponese cotton goods makers are being given gov ernment subsidy, boosting still fur ther the natural world trade advan tage they gain by low operating costs. Result: Observers predict countervailing duties will soon be imposed on cotton imports from Japan. Trend Haw the wind u blowing . . . LABOR ? Oregon'* Supreme court has held constitutional the famous "anti-picketing" law adopted by referendum last No vember, confining picketing to bona fide disputes between em ployers and a majority of em ployees, prohibiting boycotts and outlawing minority strikes. BABIES?Since both 1837 and 1938 found France's deaths ex ceeding her births. Premier Ed ouard Daladier has announced decrees to reward large families and thus stimulate the birth rate. BUILDING?Major U. S. engi neering construction awards for 1838's first half reached the great est volume since 1930. Bruckart'* Washington Pig** Blame Absurd Relief Policies For Widespread WPA Strikes Misguided Effort to Force Government Into Greater Gift* To Them; Yell Radical Accusations When Soft Snap Is Ended; Honest Distribution Congress' Aim. By WILLIAM BRUCKART WNC Service, National Press Bid*., Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON.?It is sometimes poaaihlc, I believe, to. find an ex cuse for violent action on the part of a man who is hungry. Likewise, that individual's desperation may be explained when his children are near starvation. It is a social con dition that perhaps merits sympa thetic understanding rather than harsh treatment. When those indi viduals have had the specter of star vation removed by the generous hand of government, however, it strikes me that there can be no justification for revolt against the government or the people which have been responsible for the chari ty. That is to say, neither the gov ernment nor the citizens can be held responsible for the hard luck of any of us, nor does any one in dividual have a divine right to such generosity. Yet, there exists in this country today an extraordinarily large num ber of persons who seem to feel the government must bend its knees to them. They have lately taken the position?largely misguided by the lowest grade of leaders?that they can dictate to their govern ment and their neighbors the terms upon which they will receive gov ernment relief. They have gone so far as to use the strike as a weapon to force, to coerce, their govern ment into greater gifts to them, and it is one of the most dangerous trends to be noted on the hortzon of our country. It is traceable, of course, to the utterly absurd relief policies that have been practiced, heretofore, but that fact does not lessen the threat contained in the widespread strikes of WPA workers that have taken place lately. To go back a bit for a review, the relief program enacted recently by congress for the year that is now starting specified that all WPA workers must put in 130 hours per month in order to get the maximum government relief. It was included by congress as a part of the law upon recommendation by WPA Commissioner F. C. Harrington, and no right thinking persons can flnd reason to disagree. The purpose is most commendatory. The increase in the hours of labor was designed to weed out those who were receiv ing WPA checks who were satisfied to go on without any thought of ever obtaining a private job again. There is that type, you know. The i new requirement obviously roughed their'fur; it took away the soft snap that they had, and they yelled typi cal radical accusations about it. Congress Sought to Sot Up An Honest Distribution The rules that expired June 30 had made it possible for some workers to receive the maximum pay in as little 31 two weeks of work. Skilled workers were being paid wages that were equivalent to the rates in pri vate employment in the area where they were. So, some workers stayed on the job two weeks and had their month's pay ; others worked longer and were paid much less. Congress, therefore, tried to set up something like an honest distribution and it directed that everybody receiving the WPA checks had to work 130 hours in order to receive the full amount. There were some other provisions, too, that irked the WPA workers. One of them, for instance, makes it necessary for those who have been on WPA relief jobs for 18 months, to take a layoff of one month. That was designed to give some other unemployed person a chance to get WPA relief. The third big change from last year and the earlier years of fed eral relief was a specification as to wages. The legal language is too complex for me to understand, thor oughly, but the intention is to make the rates of WPA wages have some relationship to the cost of living where the unemployed are given WPA jobs. This was put into the law by a determined group of south . ern Democratic senators, and the result will be to increase some of the wages in the South and reduce some of them in the northern half of the United States. These things are. in the law, this time. In previous years, congress t, had been unable to break the grip of the professional relievers, like Har ry Hopkins and Aubrey Williams, and the rates of pay and conditions of work were determined largely by such men. Mr. Williams will be re I called as the man who said in a I speech to WPA workers they should use their numerical strength politi cally and support only those offi cials who turned loose the most money. Under the previous system, the WPA workers could attack rules and regulations laid down by indi viduals. But now Mr. Hopkins and Mr. Williams are not in the picture, and a hard-boiled army officer heads up the WPA organization. If there are men who can stick closer to the words of law than army offi cers, I have yet to see them. Strike Against Government Is What Confronts Country The condition that confronts the country, therefore, is a strike against the national government, be cause the elected representatives of the people as a whole laid down the rules, this time: Of course, the Con stitution guarantees to all citizens the right to petition congress. It does not grant the right, however, to use force or violence to change the action of congress. The WPA workers who went out on strike, therefore, in my opinion, were right close to the border line of a serious offense against the government. It is one thing to strike, as a union does, against an employer; it is quite another thing for a union to be organized to perpetuate govern ment charity and to use that union in a violent fashion as has been done in this instance. And, speaking of unions, there are two of them?rival organizations? among WPA workers. There is the Workers Alliance of America and the Workers League of the United States. The first named is headed by David Lasscer and the second by Lloyd Leith. I do not know the back ground of either man, where they came from or what their mission in life may be. Of this, however, I am sure: very few men and women in this world of ours ever work for absolutely no pay. Why It a Union Ntotttary Among Thoto WorhtrtT One might also inquire quite prop erly, I think, why it is necessary to have a union among these workers. I fail to see why they should spare any of the meager funds that the government gives them for living purposes to be used by union lead ers. Those fellows cannot do any thing to make congress change its mind. Oh! They can come to Wash ington ? and they do ? and issue statements and shout threats before congressional committees and see their names in the newspapers, and accomplish nothing. That is, they get nowhere except that they are able to show the poor, wretched souls on reuef that their "leaders" are great "fighters" in the causa. While there never was a chance of congress amending the law and anyone with a grain of sense must recognize it, these self-appointed, self-annointed saviors of the WPA workers did succeed in calling something like 40,000 workers off of their Jobs in various parts of the country. The result was that those workers lost just that much money. They also ran afoul of the Harring ton determination, which many of them did not realize was not a Hop kins or Williams chin. Colonel Har rington promptly issued orders that those who stayed away five days would be replaced, because there were thousands willing to work and had no jobs. Obviously, that brought a good many back to their jobs. Some others, however, let their pas sion and unwise leadership of their unions put them in a position of cutting off their nose to spite their face. Seems There Art Some Very Stupid Load Labor Leader* The national labor unions, like the American Federation of Labor and the Lewis organization, the C. I. O., came close to getting involved in this picture. I do not know whether the heads of those great unions were responsible for the general aloof ness, but they were quick to explain that strikes by any of their member organizations in behalf of the WPA workers were "entirely local." II this be true, the explanation lies in the fact that there must be some very stupid local labor leaders. Surely, with union labor's prestige at its lowest ebb in many years, re spectable labor unions could hardly expect to gain in public esteem by participating in such ludicrous pro ceedings as a strike against the gov ernment of the United States. (BetetMd by Wutern Smpwe MtaT r-?Speaking of Sports J Track Records ] Crack Up When j Rice Performs * By ROBERT McSHANE e h rjIMINTJTlVK Greg Rice, captain of Notre Dame's track team, b whose latest feat was to clip 23 sec- (l onds off the National A. A. U. 5,000- J meter run record, has managed to c jam the Notre Dame book with a series of new marks. The 5 foot, tVHneh distance ran- _ ner Is a native of Missoula, Meat. He enrolled In Notre Dame as a . miler, winding ep recently as the National Collegiate championship 8 two-miler, second only to Don Lash, ' formerly of Indiana, as far as this " country is concerned. Bice's time of 9 minutes, 2.9 seconds. Is bettered j> only by Lash's S:5S.4 outdoor ree- b erd for Americans. 1 In breaking the 5,000 meters run record, Greg shaved 23 seconds off * c CAPTAIN QREG RICE the A. A. U. mark of 13:41.1, made by Joseph P. HcCluskey in 1937. i His all-time Notre Dame rec- i ord is as follows: One-mile run indoor?4:16.3, made in 1937. One-mile run outdoor?4:13, made in 1937 state meet. Two-mile run indoor ? 9:03, made in 1939 Chicago relays. Two-mile run outdoor?0:02.0, made in 1939 N. C. A. A. meet. 1,900-meter run indoor?3:38, made in 1939 Illinois relays. Mile and one-half run?0:44, made in 1938 exhibition. 3,000 meter run?8:34.1, made in 1939 Chicago relays. 9,000 meter run?14:90.9, made in 1939 Lincoln A. A. U. meet. His best time for the 3,000 meters run is only 7.7 seconds behind Paavo Nurmi's world record. . Rice's most beautiful exhibition of running came this year at the Drake relays, when, on the first day, he shaved .0 second off Lash's two-mile record in 9:10. The next day he came back to run the mile in 4:12.3 with the four-mile relay team, and 1:94.8 in the half-mile with the two mile team. The marks were the best of his career. Ifs not an easy task to keep an eye on his twinkling toes, but it will be well worth while. Coach John Nicholson will see to it that he's in the best of condition for next year's Olympic try outs. And with a heart that must occupy the largest part of his under-sized chassis. Captain Gregory Rice is a man to watch. The American Way "pHE not-at-all sissified activities 1 of American ball players have a shocking effect on Mr. Walter Ley smith of London, England. Walter, a veteran of Britain's cricket and football fields, comes to the United States as a student of the American Way. He wants to learn all about this country's sports and skyscrapers. la his candid opiaiaa, the ?hsla thing is in rather bad taste. Fist fights, pep bettle brawls sad general attempted mayhem an unheard af ia England. la fact, ?hen Id a cricket player g? se far as te share an umpire, he would he baaished from the game for life. He weald be come an outcast, a social pariah and a thing of evil. Football in England isn't quite so gentlemanly, Walter stated, but ifs still a pink tea proposition in com parison to U. S. baseball. The vis iting Britisher cited an instance or two where the official was roughly handled by a team. In every case the football, association secretary (an absolute dictator) closed the grounds for two _or three weeks. Which meant a tremendous finan cial loss to both clubs. He also advanced the information that a pop bottle thrower would be bunged up by the crowd before the police could slap him in JaiL Which to decidedly not the Ameri can Way! ZkitJfi t... i i. . ... r ..... skiing to the Front } ESULTS of the national *ki tour x nament held recently on Mt. lood, near Portland, Ore., demoo trate that skiing has at last gained is rightful place on the American ports program. Diek Dorranee, Dartmouth col ege student, was tap nun is the a ornament, which attracted the tai nt of seven nations to Timberlin# ?dge ski fields. Durrance won four of six possi ile men's titles. His competition Deluded Hannes Schroll, the Aus rian alder now plying his trade in California; Rfldar Anderson of Nor way, Friedl Pfeiffer, Sun Valley's Lustrian coach, and Walter Prager, rho coached Durrance. Six Americans finished among the irst 10 in combined dewnMll and Is lorn standings. All of t^sm ere oong, with perhaps their best years f skiing ahead ef them. The open downhill race was won y Toni Matt, 18-year-old Austrian cm New Hampshire ski instructor, rho is in America to stay. American amateurs iron fifth, ixth and seventh places in open om petition. They were Wendell Cram. Rutland, VL; Dick Mitchell, Tniversity of Nevada, and Gordon Vren, Steamboat Springs, Colo. Oth r ranking Americans included WB iam J ansa and Peter Garrett. That these native sane were able ? make snch an eetatinding shew ng is remarkable in that only i ew years nge, skiing was ssnM hing an American saw h news reels ir travelogues. A few isthaslsils, if coarse, had long been Intrusted n the sport. Bat they weee in n dis inct, and scarcely beard, minority. During the past few years 0. S. ithletes have had opportunity to ivail themselves of more wide ipread skiing facilities. Their fond ness and aptitude for the sport was ?vinced by the results of the Mt. Sood tournament. Sport Shorts 'rSiE first bat Johnny Vander A Meer, Cincinnati pitcher, ever owned was given to him for winning s spelling bee in the second grade . a . In 18 years in the major leagues, Lou Gehrig had a lifetime batting average of .341 for 3,717 hits in 7,937 times at bat ." . . During Ty Cobb's 24 years in the majors he was at bat 11,438 times, made 4,181 hits and struck out only 358 times, or once every 33 times at bat Babe Ruth fanned 1,330 times in 8,388 times at bat, or once every six times m. U T I 1 Btlftl'LV ? ? . OUUUIQ MM 9 Angeles ever lend a berth in the National Football league. Crooner Bing Crosby will finance the club. He is as inter ested in pro foot ball as he is in horse racing . . . Football seers are predicting that Bernie Bierman will have what it takes again when Minnesota's Gold /? U kit tk. ^11 CU UU|IUCIS 1UI UIC NIB (all . . . Charley Brock, Nebraska football center, is attending sum mer school to complete work tor his degree ... A record-breaking throng of 54,272 attended the Fourth of July doubleheader at Detroit... Paulino Uscudun, former beery weight boxer, has been named com missioner of physical education for all of Spain. 'Der Moxie' Wilis Herb max schmeung, al most forgotten in fistic circles, has again clambered back info the spotlight. "Der Moxie," ahowbw his countrymen a trick he picked up from his American contemporaries, belted out one Adolph He user, an other German heavyweight, in er ectly 47 seconds. Approximately ? suits later Max Udut if iuiy sttr*to America. When ashed it he planned to extend his comeback lour ney to America, Ma* repBed: "I want to have a few mora fights Brat, either here or over there." it la Uketj that he win tea* he Sfhtinf ae American sail, la pick op another chant at U. 8. maaey. And he's Jest as Ukaly to be wet Though it is improbable that ha will ever again face Louis in the prize ring, a meeting between Max and Lou Nova might appeal to fight fans. Ma* isn't the world's worst heavyweight, and in view at the present situation in this country, a Schmeiing-Nova bout would be just as logical as any that might be ar ranged by the powers that be. Uteleurd by Waataia KnapafM tJnhe.) ? ?' " niM
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
July 20, 1939, edition 1
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