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A NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE UPBUILDING OF ROWAN COUNTY __
FOUNDED 1832—104TH YEAR SALISBURY, FRIDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 27, 1935. VOL. 104 NO. 22. PRICE 2 CENTS.
WASHINGTON
There’s a new "Third Party”
movement looming up to compli
cate the politcal situation in the
Presidential election year of 1936.
It is big enough, and has enough
votes behind it, distributed all over
the United States, to make the sea
soned politicians of both major par
ties sit up and take notice.
This is the "Townsend Plan”
Party.
Washington regards the an
nouncement by Dr. Townsend that
he will put a third party ticket in
the field, unless the Democrats or
the Republicans satisfy him and his
followers, as the biggest political
news since the death of Huey Long
and the consequent collapse of the
Louisiana Senator’s third party
threat. It is big news, and some
thing to be taken seriously, for two
major reasons.
1. Neither the Democrats nor
the Republicans can satisfy Dr.
Townsend and his followers.
2. As every fresh arrival in
Washington testifies, if he has kept
his ear to the ground while back
home, The Townsend Old Age Pen
sion plan has enrolled literally mil
lions of voters in its thousands of
Townsend Clubs, all pledged to
work and vote for $200 a month
pensions for every man and woman
over 60 years old.
POWER OF THE GROUP
Politicians know the power of
organization. Those with long
memories recall the way in which
the Anti-Saloon League put over
Prohibition, by organizing the
church people in every community
and using the "pressure group”
method to defeat "wet’ candidates
and elect "dry” ones. They were
laughed at as fanatics—but they got
Prohibition. The Townsendites are
looked upon by the politicians on
Capitol Hill as equally fanatical—
but they are beginning to feel the
pressure.
It is believed here that there are
more potential votes behind the
Townsend movement than there
ever were behind Prohibition. To
most folks, -the Prohibition move-1
ment was somewhat abstract, based5
upon moral principles. The Town- ;
send movement is decidedly con
crete, and is based upon the funda
mental human itch to get something
for nothing.
CONGRESS ACTION
PREDICTED
One inevitable effect of the
Townsend threat, observers here
believe, will be a desperate effort
to put through at the coming ses
sion of Congress some amendment
to the Social Security Act, to make
the Old-Age Benefits provided for
by that measure payable imme
diately and in full to every quali
fied person, instead of at some time
in the distant future. Also, to
"raise the ante” from the present
sliding scale, which runs from $10
to $85 a month, to come nearer to
meeting the demands of the Town
sendites.
There is little belief, however,
that such a program can be put
over. It is fairly certain that
President Roosevelt would veto it if
it were passed. The Social Securi
ty Act only received his approval
after the parts which would have
required direct appropriations by
the Federal Government were
stricken out, and the plan put on
an actuarial self-perpetuating basis.
The political implications of the
Townsend threat as it may affect
the choice of the Republican candi
date, and the election next Novem
ber, are being carefully appraised.
It is a quite general understanding
(Continued on page two)
f;an Expects
further Grant
4 _
Possibility of Additional
$1,300,000 Develops Af
ter Conference
Raleigh—George W. Coan, Jr.,
State works progress administrator
for North Carolina, said Monday
indications were North Carolina
would receive an additional grant
of $1,3 00,000 for the WPA pro
gram. Coan has just returned
from a regional conference in New
Orleans.
A recent boost of $1,000,000 in
Federal funds for the WPA gave
the State $8,400,000 in all to spend
for obs. The additional allotment
would raise this total to $9,700,000.
In addition to announcing the
possibility of an additional allot
ment, as suggested in conference
with Regional Field Representative
Malcom J. Miller, Coan asserted the
majority of the states in the South
ern region had been ordered to re
duce administrative expenses.
Coan said North Carolina would
be expected to make consolidations
as well as transfers of administra
tive personnel to the project opera
tions.
District WPA directors in North
Carolina already have been given
instructions to proceed with the
consolidation pragrom.
Coan stated his intention to “as
sign all available qualified relief
labor, except those now working t
on WPA projects carrying No. ,1 '
priority” to the ‘Feut?f 1-aid lligii-1
way program which has been ham
pered by a scarcity of labor in the
areas where road-building is con
templated. Regulations of the Fed
eral Bureau of Roads require that
80 per cent of relief labor be used
on the road projects.
It has been calculated that the j,
$9,500,000 allocated to North Car
jolina for highway work should •/
(give employment to 12,000 heads of J
families in the State.
So far, the State WPA has given
employment to approximately 40,
000 persons, said Coan. Ten of
the 12 states in the Southern region
exceeded theif Quotas before the
end of November, the State ad
ministrator-reported.
■ «--• s
Scorns Change
For $1,000 Bill
———
New York—The American Air
lines finally got rid of $900 in spare
change when the owner to whom
they had originally offered it de
cided it belonged to him after alL
A Detroit lawyer, leaving on the
morning plane for his home town,
gave the ticket agent a Dili ana
received change for $100. The
ticket agent later discovered a
bonafide $1,000 bill but no $100
note. The lawyer said the money
was not his. No other passenger
would claim it.
Later the Detroit man radioed
the airline offices here that the
money was his after all and he
would be delighted if they would
send it on to him.
The Milky Way or Galaxy is a
tremendous group of stars con
taining probably 500 million suns.
Girl Breaks Off Talk,
Gets Gun And Kills Self
North Wilkesboro—Jennie Ka
nutt, 16-year-old high school girl
shot and killed herself at the home
of her parents near here Sunday
night.
According to reports she was in
the home with a friend and they
were conversing when she excused
• herself, went into another part of
■ the home, procured a .32 calibre
i pistol and'shot herself in the fore
head. She died a short time later.
No reason was attributed for the
act and no inquest has been held.
She was a daughter of Russel and
Blanche Miller Kanutt, who recent
ly moved into the Fair Plains com
munity from Catawba county. In
addition to'her parents, she leaves
the following(brothers and sisters:
Margaret, Rfobert, Richard, Edward,
Jack and Billie Kanutt.
Funeral and burial services were a
held Tuesday afternoon at Hickory. ^
President Refuses To Restore Relief
i ___. _
Chief Holds
Local Units
Responsible
Administration Will Stay
Within 3,500,000
WPA Limit
BUDGET DISCUSSED
Washington—Full responsibility
for caring for all needy unemploy
ed beyond the 3,5 00,000 on Federal
work-relief was placed squarely up
on local governments and private
charity Monday by President
Roosevelt.
The $4,000,000,000 work-relief
fund, the President said at his press
conference, was calculated to take
care of only 3,500,000 persons. He
said he had to stick to that limi
tation, and that any other needy
persons, either employable or un
employable, must be cared for
locally.
His statement followed by a few
days a report from Harry L. Hop
kins, WPA chief, that the relief
situation had been affected "ad
versely” by winter conditions, andj
attributing the small decrease in
big-city relief rolls to the fact that
many now were seeking aid for the
first time.
Responsibility for the unemplov-!
ables already has been handed back
to the States. The Chief Executive
further expressed confidence that
the 3,5 00,000 estimate of the na
tion’s needy and jobless employables
was an accurate one.
Asked about estimates that there!
were 11,000,000 unemployed in the
nation, the President answered by
asking for a definition of "unem
ployed.”
He asserted a census of the-job
less was impossible because of the
difficulty in finding such a defini
tion.
Out of SO housing projects, the
President said in discussing this
last point, 48 were under contract
on the mid-December deadline date
and 88 per cent of the funds for
other public works had been placed
under contract excluding those
projects held up by litigation or
other outside circumstances.
A question aboift how nearly
WPA came to taking care of the
3,S00,000 employables on relief
started the President’s discussion of
the problem.
He pointed to the last report
showing the works-relief drive was
only 20,000 short of its goal.
Asked whether the public was
justified in believing the Federal
government was committed to tak
ing care of all employables, Mr.
Roosevelt replied that it was a pre
sumption to say the public had any
thought on the subject because he
(Continued on page two)
Girl Who Killed Father
Not Sorry He Is Dead
Anadarko, Okla.—The dreary
prospect of spending Christmas in
Jail was faced by Emma Willis, 18
year-old farm girl who killed her
father because he would not let her
have a date with a farm boy neigh
bor.
"I’m sorry about it if I am a
murderer, but I’m not sorry that
he’s dead,” the brunette high school
sophomore frankly told visitors.
She drew some comfort from the
support given her by her mother,
two brothers, and two sisters.
"I just don’t see how any man
could have been as mean as he
was,” Emma told Haskell Pugh, as
sistant Caddo county attorney.
Pugh filed a murder charge
against the girl after she confessed
she took a shotgun at the Willis
farm home near Eakly and killed
her father, I. H. Willis, 52, while
he was asleep.
"I started lots of times to run
away from home and then mother
would cry and I would hate to
leave,” she said.
"Mother never did talk back to
him when he abused her, but just
took it quietly.”
Emma asserted she reached the
end of her patience when her fath
er refused to permit the “date”
or let the family spend Christmas
with relatives at Hugo, Okla.
* MARTIAL TANGLE *
* PUZZLES COURT *
* _ *
* Chicago—A strange story *
* of how Norbert U. Kolb’s *
* first wife allegedly posed as *
* his sister while he courted a *
new prospective bride for *
* himself and shopped around *
* for a new husband for Mrs. *
* Kolb presented Circuit Judge *
* Harry M. Fisher with a tang- *
* led martial problem. Kolb of- *
* fered the story as his *
* defense in a $75,000 aliena- *
* tion of affection suit brought *
* by his former wife, Mrs. Ella *
* Kolb, against his second *
* spouse, Mrs. Gertrude Kolb. *
Serious Fire
At Faith Sun.
Fire Destroys Three Resi
dents; Damaging
Fourth
A fire which broke out about 3
o’clock Sunday morning destroyed
three homes and damaged a fourth
before local and Granite Quarry
citizens and the chemical truck
from this city were able to check
the flames.
It is thought that the flames,
which originated in the home of
Dick Jones, were caused by a short
:ircuit in the wiring of the lights
)n a Christmas tree. However,
this was not definitely known.
The three homes burned were
those of Mr. Jones, Mrs. Bob Wil
liams and J. C. Barger. H. D.
Brown’s home was damaged.
Only one living room suite was
recovered from the Jones home, and
about half of the Williams furni
ture was saved while practically
all of Barger’s furniture was re
moved to a place of safety.
The damage, which was practi
cally covered by insurance, was es
timated at about $6,000.00.
Henry L. Barger, 63 year old
citizen dropped dead while fight
ing the fire. It is believed that
over exhaustion, excitement and
congestion from smoke caused a
heart attack which resulted in his
sudden death.
Mr. Barger had lived in Faith 40
years and had been in the best of
health apparently.
Funeral services were held last
Monday, the Rev. J. L. Morgan
conducting the services. Interment
was in Faith Lutheran church
cemetery.
He is survived by his widow and
three children, and several sisters
and brothers.
Heiress Seeks To
Divorce Nobleman
Fort Worth, Texas—Princess
Marion Snowden Rospigliosi, twen
ty-three, New York heiress, left
here by plane for Mexico City,
where she expects to get a divorce
from the Italian Prince Girolomo
Rospigliosi. She said there is noth
ing definite yet regarding reports
she would marry Louis F. Reed, Jr.,
of Orange, N. J.
Bandits Rob Bank
$17,000 Old Bills
Fort Leo, N. J.—Four bandits
armed with revolvers and machine
guns, held up the First National
Bank and escaped with $17,000.
The money was mutilated bills
which had been locked up in a
vault preparatory to being sent to
the United States Treasury to be
exchanged for new currency,
Joseph Cook, treasurer, said.
Three out of every four race
horses never earn their keep.
Candy-House Postoffice Shrine at Santa Claus
rm\ ? ' V q, :
SANTA CLAUS, Ind. . . . The fame this small town has attained, aa
thousands upon thousands of pieces of mail are sent here during the holi
days for re-mailing each year, is to be perpetuated by a new post office
building, dedicated as a shine to the children of America. Above is an
artist’s drawing of the “Candy-House” postoffice which the Santa Claus
Chamber of Commerce has approved. Below is the present postoffice which
has carried on through the years . . . to.fame.
— ' ■ " ■ ■ -q-“------ -
Pilot Drops 2,000 Feet
In Ripped Chute-Unhurt
Bell Buckle, Tenn.—Out of gas
8,000 feet above the mountains,
Pilot Joe Greer bailed out of his:
airplane, saw his parachute rip af
ter a 2,000 foot drop while he
fumbled for his rip cord and still
got to earth safely.
Greer went up to the 18,000-foot
level as a substitute observation
pilot for the U. S. weather bureau
at Sky Harbor, 20 miles from here.
The weather closed in on him. |
The 34-year-old flyer explained
that his radio went out while he
was reaching the 18,000-foot alti
tude.
"I started down,” he said, "hop
ing to get a break in the weather
and find a landing place. I stayed
up five hours and 15 minutes—un
til I ran out of gas.”
Then at 8,000 feet, he declared,
he decided "it was a case of riding
a dead plane down into those moun
tains or bailing out.” He said the
jump was the nearest he had come
to death in 14 years of flying.
Reveals Son’s Hideout
On Promise Of Photo
I Columbia, S- C.— Martha Greer
land her boy, Booker Washington,
1 are going to have their pictures in
I the paper.
Sheriff T Alex Heise of Richland
county told the Eastover negro so,
and she believed him.
So much so, that she told him
where 33year-old Booker was hiding
to avoid a charge of murder.
Heise said she revealed the hide
out upon condition that her photo
graph and that of her son be pub
lished in the newspapers.
When officers acceded to the
mother’s novel request, the son was
found and gave himself up without
resistance.
The mother accompanied the ar
resting officers to the Richland jail,
where she and her son were photo
graphed by the sheriff in several
poses.
"She even had me take a picture
of her praying for her son,” Heise
said.
The son was held to answer
charges of killing John W. Jones
with a table leg in an argument
December 5.
The Columbia Record announced
it would publish the pictures.
- SAYS JAPS PLAN INVASION
Moscow—Soviet news agency re
ports that Japanese army head
quarters in Manchoukuo is studying
a plan for the invasion of outer
Mongolia were displayed promin
ently by Moscow newspapers, but
without comment.
Cotton Ginnings
Near 10 Millions
Cotton of this year’s crop, gin
ned prior to December 13, was re
ported this week by the census bu
reau at Washington to total 9,757,
680 running bale?, counting 23 8,
547 round bales as half bales and
including 13,557 American Egyp
tian.
Ginnings to that date a year ago
totalled 9,173,295, including 174,
5 69 round bales and 11,079 Am
erican Egyptian.
South Carolina registered 720,
5 36 bales and North Carolina 555,
176,
Woman Admits
Robbery of Bank
Albert Lea, Minn.—A prisonei
authorities described as Minnesota’s
first woman bank robber was ir
jail here. She identified herself as
Mary Lyon of South Bend, Ind
County Attorney Elmer R. Peter
son said she confessed she held u{
the Twin Lakes State Bank neat
here, taking $700. A posse cap
tured her.
Matter is either organic or in
organic. Organic matter is eithe:
alive or once formed a part of i
living thing.
* STRANGE CULT *
* OBSERVES YULE *
* ON JANUARY 6 *
_ *
* Kinston—A small group *
* near here will "ast as on any *
* other "day” on December 25. *
* They insist January 6 is the *
* birthday of Christ. The Old *
* Testament, they say, proves *
* it. Here and there in eastern *
* North Carolina are groups or *
* individuals who keep "old *
* Christmas,” but the group *
* near here carry their observ- *
* ance to the point of getting *
* out of bed at midnight to see *
* cows and other animals "kneel *
* and face the east.” This hap- *
•"'■pens, they insist. Members *
* of the group claim to have *
* seen the sun rise twice on more *
* than one January 6. It "comes *
* up,’ retires and rises again af- *
* ter about an hour, they assert. *
Income Taxes
Continue Rise
Final Analysis of 1933
Payments Show Gains
In Virtually Every
Category
Washington—Gains in virtually
every income tax category over the
previous year were disclosed by the
Treasury in its final analysis of re
turns on 1933 incomes.
The gains were continued dur
ing 1934, preliminary reports of
the department made public earlier
this month indicated.
The final report on 193 3 activi
ties disclosed 3,723,558 persons sub
mitted returns of which 1,747,740
were taxable. The aggregate in
come for the year was $11,008,754,
the taxable income was $7,372,
660,3 52 and the tax liability $374,
120,469.
In the previous year 3,877,430
returns were submitted of which 1,
936,095 were taxable.The aggregate
income was $11,655,757,000 and
the tax liability $329,962,0 0.
rreliminary statements tor Lyi*t
incomes, based on reports received
through August 31, showed 3,988,
269 returns of which 1,750,843
were taxable. The aggregate in
come for the year was $12,452,
262,491, while the tax liability was
$506,481,123.
A total of 50 persons reported
'incomes of more than $1,000,000
during 1933, which was 30 in ex
cess of the number reported dur
ing the previous year. This sum,
jhowever, dropped to 32 in 1934, the
! preliminary report showed.
| The report for 1933 showed 14.13
iper cent of the population of the
District of Columbia filed income
tax returns for 1933 to lead all
other geographical sections by a
wide margin. On the other ex
treme was Mississippi which show
ed only .53 per cent of its popula
tion filed returns.
On November 1 the sun passes
the meridian about 16 minutes be
fore the clock shows 12; in Feeb
ruary it passes the meridian 14
or 15 minutes after 12.