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The Alamance Gleaner Vol. LXVI GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 1940 No. 6 ^ WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS BY JOSEPH W. LaBlNE Battle Over Income Questions Threatens Entire 1940 Census; In Em-ope; Peace Talk Revived (EDITOR'S NOTE?When opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) Released by Western Newspaper Union SHOEMAKER ROSSELLI AND HIS COBBLING SHOP "I'm answer census questions when they put polite CONGRESS: Census Censure From Washington to' his Racine, Wis., office Census Director William Austin rushed a telegram: "Withdraw Rosselli charges immedi ately. You have disregarded instructions that before taking legal action such cases must be submitted to Washington office for disposition. You will be held strictly responsible for this procedure . . Thus was closed the latest in a series of eruptions which threaten to wreck Uncle Sam's 1940 decennial census. James Rosselli, a Kenopha, Wis., shoe repair man, had been handed a federal warrant for refus ing to answer census questions about his business. The census taker also charged Shoemaker Ros selli had thrown him out. Answered Rosselli: "I'm answer census questions when they put polite . . . Everyt'ing can be explain. I walk out on him, yes . . . But I don't chase him." Gaining steam at Washington was the fight of Sen. Charles Tobey (Rep., N. H.) to have personal in come questions stricken from the 1940 nose count. Franklin Roose velt had denounced it as "an obvi ously political move," and the cen sus bureau was willing to let citi rens refuse the question if they wished. But Senator Tobey was adamant. Said he: "The Ameri can people cry out, 'Hold! Enough!' . . . Those in authority will do well to face the issue . . . !" After several days of this, the sen ate commerce committee voted 10 to 5 to postpone temporarily its consideration of an anti-personal question resolution. Meanwhile Census Taker Austin wrung his hands, for his house-to-house can vass is to start April 2. Should congress continue to squabble, ? he knew not what would become of the decennial census. aiso in congress: Wagner Act. Twenty-one changes to the present act were recommend ed to the bouse by a special investi gating committee, but defeat was predicted. Chief proposal: Divorce ment of NLRB judicial and admin istrative functions. 'Clean Polities' Act. The senate lulled a move to repeal the Hatch law's prohibition of political activ ity by federal employees, then be gan arguing a proposal to extend the act to state workers who get part of their pay from federal funds. Agriealtare. While the President signed legislation extending the farm mortgage moratorium, five Democratic senators introduced a bill to restore independence of the farm credit administration, recent ly placed under the department of agriculture. TREND I How the wind it blowing ... RELIEF?Patterned after the suc cessful surplus foods stamp plan, a cotton stamp plan for distributing clothing among relief families will be started this month in five or six eifies. AGRICULTURE ? According to Chicago crop authorities, U. S. win ter wheat prospects in early March showed "some improvement" over the December 1 condition thanks to better-than-normal winter moisture and snow protection against sub zero weather. THE WARS: Peace in the North? Early March found Finland's war riors valiantly trying to save Viipuri from the invading Reds, who let off excess steam by "deliberately" bombing a hospital in south-central Finland. Biggest news of the Russo-Finnish war, however," was the effort all Europe seemed mak ing to bring these belligerents to peace. Background for this peace was the obvious fact that every Euro pean nation would gain by it. Scan dinavia would gain by side-stepping the combined pressure of France, Britain, Germany, Russia and Fin land. Russia would gain by turning 1 her attention to a sorry domestic situation. Knowing this, observers were not I surprised when London, Berlin, Brussels, Paris and Stockholm be gan bristling with reports that Sweden was mediating, that the Russo-Finnish war might be called off at any moment. Most likely terms: Surrender of the Karelian isthmus (including Viipu ri), part of Lapland, Petsamo and the Hango naval base. As a "dead line" drew near, the Finns practi cally admitted such overtures had been made, yet there was small chance they would be accepted. More War in the West? For the moment, northern peace talk had no effect elsewhere. In what was a day of wild and woolly warfare for the western front, 20 Britons were captured by the Nazis. ITALY'S COAL SOURCES Wore from Britain? A new wave of torpedoing*, bomb ings and mine explosions cost the neutral Dutch 12 ships. But Britain's foe-of-the-week was Italy, which protested furiously when the allies clamped an embar go on Italian coal imports from the Reich. Within 48 hours 16 Italian ships were hauled into British ports and their coal cargoes discharged. Rome threatened the situation would become serious unless Britain backed down, but there was no sign of this. Already getting more than a fourth of her coal from Britain <? chart) Italy seemed faced with the choice of declaring war (an im probability) or swapping her muni tions and airplane motors for Brit ish coal. Welles Mission Completing the first half of his European fact-finding junket, U. S. Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles left Berlin, gathered his strength and his luggage in Lau sanne, Switzerland, then headed for Paris. In Rome he had talked with a mild-mannered Benito Mussolini. In Berlin be had met a tough and de termined Adolf Hitler. [NAMES in the news . . . GEN. GEORGE ' C. MAR SHALL, U. S. army chief, was welcomed to Hawaii by a flight of 60 army planes. Embarrassing note: Two ships collided in mid air, but pilots parachuted safely. FRANK ASHTON-GWATKIN, Britisher, and CHARLES RIST, Frenchman, WUtWMkUICU a special allied apple-polish ing expedi tion to soothe U. S. anger over difficul ties arising from th e German blockade. Biggest com plaints: (1) censorship of U. S. mails; (2) taking U. S. ships into contra band control ports. Arriving in Washington, the delegation was closeted with Secretary of State CORDELL HULL. MOST REV. SAMUEL A. STRITCH was enthroned new Roman Catholic archbishop of Chicago. AS HTON-G WATK1N Apple polisher. POLAND: Atrocity News From three sources this month came news of trouble in Nazi-occu pied Poland and Czecho-Slovakia: (1) In Berlin it was revealed that deportation of Jews to the newly established state southeast of Lublin, in Poland, has been stopped because local administrators complained about lack of facilities. At the same time Berlin announced that time of worship in Polish Catholic churches was being limited because priests "misused divine services for polit ical purposes." (2) In Paris, Poland-in-exile claimed that 136 Polish schoolboys had been executed at Bydgoczcz; that 6,000 men and women had been executed there up to December 31; that 350 Poles from Gdynia were shot after being forced to dig their graves. , (3> Paul Ghali, writing from Paris for the Chicago Daily Nm, had "authentic sources" for his in formation that Polish landowners have been dispossessed, and that Czech children must submit when little Germans in the same school bully and tease them. KUMAINIA: Prayers Keystone of Balkan security is Rumania's neutrality, often threat ened the past six months by the economic tug-of-war being waged between Russia, Germany, France and Britain. Cognizant of this, Pope Pius prayed in early March that Ru mania might be preserved "from the scourge of war." What hap pened in the next three days made no sense, but it did indicate that Rumania was also praying: First day: Rumania was report ed rushing a little Maginot line along her Bessarabian border front ing Russia. Second day: It was announced by Russia that Soviet Premier Viacheslav Molotov will soon visit Bucharest to initial a non-aggres sion pact. This was a shocker, for Russia has made no secret of her designs on Bessarabia. Third day: King Carol opened his parliament, promising to main tain a permanent 1,600,000-man army regardless of cost. Adding it up, observers wondered if King Carol might not at last be withering under pressure from all sides. POLITICS: Biggest Barrage For months ? Franklin Roosevelt has parried third-term questions. But each parry is more difficult, for each press conference brings more definite questions. In early March the President returned from his Caribbean vacation to face the biggest barrage yet. Only the day before his name had been entered in Pennsylvania's Democratic pri mary and correspondents were hun gry for a comment. But they got nothing except his remark that all third-term rumors fell into one of the four newspaper categories sug gested by Thomas Jefferson: (1) news; (2) probabilities; (3) possi bilities; (4) lies. Nobody knew into which of these categories the latest rumor fell, but it bore authentic earmarks. Out at Washington came reports that Franklin Roosevelt feud with John Nance Garner would burst into flames before Illinois' April 9 pri mary, first crucial Roosevelt-Garner contest support. Somehow, the wiseacres learned Mr. Roosevelt will plump this month for a New Dealish presidential slate, thus fbro? ing an answer from the sphynx-liks Mr. Garner. Bruckarfs Washington Digest Advocates of Public Ownership Make Real Bid for Their Plan Group of Government Officials and Other Interested Indi viduals Mix 'Movement' Into National Affairs and Politics. By WILLIAM BRUCKART WNU Service, National Preis Bldg., ? Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON.?Behind the thick veil of ofHcial secrecy, a thoroughly active group of individuals is de veloping a broad plan of public own ership. It is using the established machinery of government and it is mixing into national politics to an amazing extent. We, here in Washington, have heard recurring and increasing ru mors of late that a new public own ership drive was contemplated by the extreme radicals nesting in the New Deal henhouse. It was a situ ation, however, where few details were obtainable. The leaders were making use of the veil of official secrecy that always is available for use by those supposed to be servants of the public. Suddenly, however, the magnitude of the movement be came discernible. Its scope is astounding. It strikes me that it is a situation that contains elements of greater danger than did the in famous plan to pack the Supreme court of the United States. Exposure of the group's intense effort came largely through stupid ity of some of its members. Proof of the underlying motives came in the form of a sudden and slimy at tack on John W. Hanes, former undersecretary of the treasury. Mr. Hanes was slated to become trustee of the gigantic, but bank rupt octopus, the Associated Gas and Electric company. Mr. Hanes has not been named as trustee, although his official record has not a blemish on it so far as has been found. In stead, Dr. Willard Thorp, economic adviser to Secretary Hopkins, of the department of commerce; Denis J. Driscoll, chairman of the Pennsyl vania Public Utilities commission; and Walter H. Pollak, New York lawyer, were named. Billion-Dollar Utility Property Wca to Bo 'Proving GroantP The public ownership group want ed to swing the trusteeship for this billion-dollar utility into the hands of the Securities and Exchange com mission, as might be done under the SEC law. They proposed to use this great property, so badly mussed up, as proving ground for their public ownership ideals. It was contemplated that the Associat ed properties eventually would be welded into TV A, and a great north and-south system under government ownership would have become a fact. To accomplish this program, how ever, it was necessary to dispose of Mr. Hanes, who favors private own ership in industry and who wants to see America retain its fun damental traditions. In due course, we were treated to publication of the views of Senator Norris of Ne braska, who was the father of TVA. I doubt very much that the aged Nebraskan knew that he was being used in the fashion that was the case. But the scheme worked and the Norris criticism that Mr. Hanes had been a stock broker smeared the former treasury official who had done more to prevent New Deal financial mistakes than most of the others. The attack on Mr. Hanes, how ever, failed to get the trusteeship into the hands of the Securities and Exchange commission. The schem ers failed to cover up their tracks. But, while they failed on one track. they did succeed in getting the gravy of trustee fees for men of their own choosing?Thorp, Driscoll and Pollak. Dr. Thorp's beliefs were so contrary to sound views that only a few years ago the senate refused to confirm his nomination as assistant secretary of commerce. Mr. Driscoll's affiliations in Penn sylvania show how he has been linked consistently with nearly every wild-eyed proposal that had New Deal ownership. He was licked for re-election to congress a term or two ago and became a lame duck appointee to the Pennsylvania commission by the then Governor George H. Earle. So, while it is accepted that the gravy is impor tant, it was much more important that the trustees should think right, according to radical lights. Third Term for President Was in Political Strategy Such is the picture of how the public ownership crowd operates. That picture fails, however, to dis- i close what is going on beneath the surface. Here is that story: The strategy to be used, political ly, contemplates that support of the payrollers, who seek to nominate President Roosevelt for a third term, shall be had for the public ownership theories in return for support of the third term program. A good political horsetrade. It is good because the public ownership segment figures that an apparent national political party endorsement will be available, or folks will be induced to believe there is such an endorsement. My information is that the public ownership crowd is counting on a repetition of condi tions in 1933, when, it will be re called, Mr. Roosevelt's political wings covered 57 varieties of polit ical thought and theory. Important members of the Wash ington group that heads up the pub lic ownership group are placed in nearly every department of the gov ernment. They are in . key posi tions. Whether they are influenc ing national policies is a question I cannot answer, but I can say they are in a position to use such in fluence very effectively. A decision here and a ruling there could be of vast help to such a program without ! there being any visible connections. Then, as to rumors, again. We hear a great deal of gossip about some members of the Supreme court serving as advisers to less ex perienced agitators in the executive branch of the government. I repeat that I do not know whether these stories are true. There have been many signs indicating that frequent conferences take place, and no one denies that close ties of friendship exist between several of newer Su preme court justices and their pro teges in Washington's downtown section. The rumors, therefore, are very disturbing to those of us with the old fashioned idea that the Su preme court should be an agency to serve the people in a judicial capacity and that its members should confine their activities to that field. Advocatea of Public Ownerehip Arm m Government Payroll The general situation becomes all the more threatening, in my opin ion, when it ia known that there have been numerous advocates of wholesale government management of private industry operating on the government payroll. Some of them have taken the poeitkm that the way to obtain government ownership of private industry ia to get industry so far into debt that the federal government would have to assume control. That ia to say, only the federal government would have suf ficient credit and borrowing power to pay off the debt. As I said earlier, many details of the snakelike operationa of thia gang remain in deepest secrecy. Some facts have'leaked out, how ever, that cause shivers to run up and down my spine. The thing that nooe of ua here know about, definitely, is whether Mr. Roosevelt has been persuaded to adopt the program. Some of my informanta asaure me that R does not matter whether Mr. Roosevelt even knows about the plan, because its tentacles extend like those of a jellyfish into many hidden places. In other words, a few of the cocky leaders believe the movement has grown so large that it is beyond the President's control. i I JOHN W. HANES Speaking of Sports Records Prove Feller Is A. L. Hurling Champ By ROBERT McSHANE (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) HOUGH American league rec ords do not give young Bob Feller top ranking among pitchers in that circuit, those same records prove the Cleveland flrebalier is the best hurler in baseball today. Ever-important statistics show that Feller won the most games in the league, 24; that he had the most strikeouts, 246; that he pitched the most innings, 297; and that he made the first 10 in the classification of earned runs and winning percent age, with an earned run average of 2.85 and a won-and-lost average of .727. Granted that he also threw the most wild pitches and walked the most batters?145. Manager Oscar Vitt of the Indians wasn't a bit per turbed. When a pitcher's strikeout total exceeds his total of bases on balls by the wide margin of 246 to 145, it is easy to see that he has mastered the art of hurling. While comparisons may be odi ous, it is interesting to note that after four years of professional baseball. Bob is leading Walter Johnson in strikeouts. Johnson, who disappointed more batsmen than any other pitcher who ever lived, fanned 3,497 batters in his 21 year career, an average of 167 ? year. Feller has totaled 712 strikes outs, a phenomenal average of 178. New Handicaps In his first four seasons in the American league, Johnson fanned 701 hitters, though he appeared in many more games than the Cleve land lad. Remember, too, that in Johnson's day the pitcher was favored by all the breaks. Feller is working under opposite conditions and under many more handicaps than the pitcher of 30 years ago. The Big Train never struck out more than 14 men in a nine-inning game. Feller has beaten that one game strikeout record three times. He started by striking out 15 men, came back a short time later and fanned 17, then established a new modern record by fanning 18 men on the closing day of the 1938 sea son. Feller un t breaking his arm by j attempting to set a new record. And chances are a hundred to one that he will never reach Johnson's mark. Pitching has been made more difficult, and not even Feller la good (or 21 years of action in the big leagues. Another difference between John ton and Feller is the fact that John son relied almost entirely on his burning speed. He never developed a good curve. Bob throws one of the best curves in baseball, and by using it, along with a change of pace, be can win ball games without set ting new strikeout records and can ease the punishment to his arm. Other Great Records Christy Mathewson has the second best lifetime strikeout record. He fanned 2,399 hitters in IT years. There have been other pitchers who have established remarkable rec ords for themselves. In 1904 Rube Waddell fanned 343 men. But he didn't last. Almost 99 years ago one Matthew Kilroy of the Balti more club struck out a total of 906 men. However, the distance from the pitcher's box to the plate in those days was 90 feet. It's 00% now. And that extra difference makes a whale of a difference! Since he broke into big league baseball, only one American league club has had the edge on Bob in victories. Naturally, this is New York, which has woo seven out of thirteen from the Iowa boy. BOB FELLER T OS ANGELES.?Two youthful, ?*-' venerable, sprightly, ancient members of the sporting fraternity are setting a new record in Cali fornia this spring. Both are on ac tive duty and their combined ages nank tkiA ti/trr tn+al of 154 years. Their names are Connie Hack and Amos Alonzo Staff ?Connie and Loo nie. As Lonnie Staff starts spring prac tice for his College of the Pacific foot ball team, Connie Mack starts a new year as manager of the Philadelphia Athletics. Connie and Loanie are each 77 years old. Both have been high lights in competitive sport for over 50 years. Both go well hack into the eighties for their start, so far back that only a fading few today remember the period that happened to start them off and away on the long, long trail. About Connie Mack The amazing point concerning Connie Mack is the youthful spirit and the youthful keenness he still holds about his job of managing n ball club. On this spring trip to Anaheim. Calif., he gives you the impression of a young manager anxious to make good. Yet Connie Mack 1ms won at least nine American leagne pennants, and he has packed swap more than his share of Woeid Se ries triumphs. He has been in base ball as player and manager for ? years. But thoae <0 years base taken nothing away from the fire : that still blazes in his soul. The vital spark shows no sign of any smoldering ash. In his day he has had at least three great teams. Far ana ntna or another, largely finamlal. ha has had to break these ap and Md again. Today ha is jnst as keen and eager to baOfi aastber as ha ever was before. Connie expects and hopes to win another pennant before he marches into baseball's Valhalla. He rtnernt think it will be this year?not with the Yankees and Red Sox barring the road. He has paid sat as aeaeh aeaanp paid *00^?possibl/ more. And Oen ererytbieg aba he waats aae mesa American ieagaa fieg am aaere wwr ?en ft a ,11 e e m a ae^MAk n or mi ocna mapMnfi Connie Mack was 41 years old . when I first met him in the Giants Athletic clash of 1908?the aeries that lifted Christy Mathewson to the heights. No ooe could hare figured then that this lean, middle-aged sportsman would still be driving far ward 38 years later, as young in 1940 as he was in 1908?as he ?a he 1890. .1 He Know* the Game What makes Connie Mack a great manager? /djjm "Ha is eae ef ths greatest I sear knew." Ty Cobb told me roeeaffr. "Possibly the greatest, whan yam ?gars the smaller baakroB ha IS had to watjlfc Ceemto was najjKj age you. Bat ha was seam any aefty. He^jdwvs tuJaadMB-i IS>Md>wMiM ptoy.^basabaH strategy, haatibell eeitiikih^H f ".Uy" far anyone." ... Grantland Rice CONNIE MACK
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
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March 14, 1940, edition 1
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