I'R SILVER
WIVERSARY
14-1939
XTY-SIXTH YEAR
2, MU CASUALTIES HI TURK EARTHQUAKE
wo Negroes On Death Row Kill State Prison Guard
irst Half Os 1940
ill Be Best Since
929, Babson Says
\ Wages, Farm Prices, Rus-incss Profits, j
dcnds to Share Improvement; Second Half
. res on Presidential Nominees.
R >GER* BABSON*!S WORD'S-EYE VIEW OF
NEXT SIX MONTHS I
»)i in to 13 Percent Gain O.or F t PI sir 1929.
I]\ 1 NO: Some Dip From Current Peak Levels,
i OLITICSt No New Important Legislation.
■ i MlKEI'j: t'ptrend But No Runaway Prices.
) '’’MFUS: Prices, Income And Profits Up. *
vVi/RKERS: Jobs. Wages, Strikes Higher. ’
1 I XiI.I.RS: :: Percent Gain In Sale.-.; [h ires Up IPe cent.
, ONS! MKftS: Less Than 5 Percent Rise In Rising Expenses.
REALTORS: Rents, Values, Activity Steady.
1> YFSTORS: Selected Securities To Strer. -.then,
v MMARY: Best Six Months In Ten Years.
ROGER \V. BABSON
:. , Mas.'.. Dec 28 |
peace, business in the first j
1940 v ill be the be.-4 for
south'' period since 1929.
tarm prices, business
dividends should all turn
gains over a year ago. They I
a even average higher than in i
hree n nt - period just elos- '
. At the same tune no sharp gains 1
the cards for either taxes or ;
costs. Considering all factors,
. re. I predict that we will come
t go >d times” in early 1940
.n any year since 19z9.
vs .1 .'ay that I am going ;
■ut the limb with this j
• tvs ( >f tiie troubled and
t.v.es. War, elections, !
.bur. Congress, taxes— j
just a few of the clouds
ser tiie 1940 horizon,
men. investors, and work
re confused and worried
than on any year end since
id War. Despite all these un
ms, however, my forecast is
rash as it at first sounds,
me curtain rises on 1940, the
hart Index of Business will
ing around 115. To be the
' half since 1929, business
age 10 to 15 per cent above
' . ix months of 1939. In
the Babsonchart Index, that
a average of 112. That is
high level, but remember
incss must operate at a
Continued nn Pag* l Two)
Dies Board
ants Ban
Un German
:r:gtun. Dec. 28. —(AP) —The
mutter- recommended today
old Ro.'S. whom it described
Nazi propagandist”, be pre
froi:i ever setting foot again
.erican soil.
has been registered at the
Department as an agent for
German interests, including
picture companies, but the
• expressed the opinion in
Continued on Page Three)
Seaboard’s Business Is
Best Since Year 1929
Vo., Dec. 28.—Tola' op
revenues for the Fen board
y I'o; November, 1929, were
0.151, an increase of $553,814,
0.29 percent, over November,
L. R. Rowell, .Tr., chief execu
announced today. P’reight re
ie amounted to $3,198,266, an in
( of $410,586, or 14.73 percent,
November, 1938. Passenger re
was $427,904, an increase of
.082, or 39.46 percent, over No
ber, 1938. Net railway operating
;o was $490,431, an increase of
978 over November, 1938. Both
,1 revenue and total operating
■' ues for November, 1939, were
!ot Revenue
* nger Revenue
! Operating Revenue
Railway Operating Income ....
IHiutiirrsim HatUt tHsmttrh
ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED IN THIS SECTION OF NORdl CAROLINA AND VIRGINIA.
LE nfr D w WlUn SERVICE OF
I ME As.', II'IATHH CRESS.
Sees Impro\ ement
fky< 1 V"v'
§|p : '4 ' < A;
■ *■ ' $ 'ill
m; ..»#■« at
Roger W, Babson
Fight Over
Trade Pacts
In Congress
By CHART; S V. STEWART
Central Pres., ( ohimnist
I Washington, Dee. 28.—Tiie impend
! ing session of Congress will not be
as non-partisan as the recent extra
session was. To be :
I —g - • • i sure, there was a
JL . I rigid at the extra
Jsfe ' j one on the neu- .
# i. :'UC. but it
, 4 ( p p uty
b>• • . Demociats
end Republicans,
;; New Dealers and •
conservatives were
! I mixed, on both *
U sick.' <•!’ ‘the ques
i yv«|s 'A'< t’on. Partisanship
y aived jj^.
r j The Capitol sea. and oceanic
>! war emo-igericy. Opinions differed as j
i to the best way of keeping the Unit
(Continued on Page Four)
i greater than those O r the same j
month or any ye- • s*nee 1939, and ,
i passenger revenue v a . greater than I
! for the same mo-iln ol any year since j
1929.
1 The i amines for the
i eleven month ; ei J< 1 November 1939
j compared v. ith the same period ol
! 1938, are snovn beiow:
I
S g
i x 7 '*
i £i £ a %
Q n rZ .*1
i Si r". N‘j o
. ~ -1 l- p o
! ~ r . ft jCL.
$30,582,577 $28,077,836 8.92 Inc.
5 599,937 4,393,833 27.45 Inc.
39,940,483 36,114.414 10. ah Inc.
2,683,4 1 i 1 ii) 11 1
HENDERSON, N. 0., THURSDAY AFTERNOON, DECEMBER 28, 1939
Desperate
Escape Coup
Is Failure
One of Men, Sched- j
u1 e d to Die To
mori ow, Confesses;
Death Row Cell Un- j
locked With Paste
board Key; J. H.
Chesser Is Victim.
Eu.leif.rh, Lee. 28. (AP) —j
State Prison Superintendent !
Oscar Pitts said today that j
two condemned men, one of j
wh( m was scheduled to die j
Friday for murder, had con
fessed the killing of a Death
Row guard early this morning
in an “escape attempt” that
failed.
Pitts said the guard, I. S. Chesser,
65, was found at about one o’clock
this morning on the lower tier of
Death Row cells, strangled and
bludgeoned to death.
Confession by Negroes.
At about 3:30 a. m., Pitts said,
Clarence Rogers and William
Young, Negroes, sentenced to die
for murder, confessed they had
killed the guard in an attempt to
escape from Death Row and the gas
chamber.
"Young was due to die in the
chamber Friday morning for mur
der and burglary in Hoke county.
Rogers was waiting for the Su
preme Court to review his convic
tion of murder in Durham county
last June.
Governor Hoey this afternoon or
dered a 30-day reprieve for Young
and a companion in crime, Nathaniel
Bryant, after investigating officers
said they did not think they could
complete their inquiry by 10 o’clock
[Continued on Page Four)
French Beat Off
Two Attacks From
Germans In West
Paris, Dec. 28.—(AP) —French
troops repulsed two German attacks
yesterday in one instance in a hand
to-hand combat during a day of
heightened patrol activity, described [
by military sources today as ex
tending the length of the north
flank of the western front.
The first German action started
in the morning, in an offensive
against a hamlet between the Saar
river and the Vosges mountains. The
second raid started an hour later ?n
the same vicinity, with artillery
barrages directed against the French
advance posts. The German troops
were driven to hand-to-hand fight
ing before being forced to retire, as
the French held the post intact,
military advices said.
i
Pope Visits
Italian King
First Time
Rome, Dec. 28.—(AP)—Pope
Pius'"Xll visited Italy’s king and
queen today in a rare display of
papal pomp and royal ceremony,
signifying the ever closer relations
between the Vatican and the Italian
state.
The glittering pageantry marked
■ the first visit by any pope to the
ruler of the present Italian empire,
and tiie first call on a temporal
prince in more than seventy years.
it formally repaid the visit to
His Holiness by King Vittorio
Emanuele and Queen Elena a week
! ago.
I Tens of thousands of Romans
; lined the streets to cheer the papal
| procession and receive the Holy
| Father’s benediction.
The occasion, rich with color and
formality, symbolized the linal dis
j solution of any discord over unified
Italy’s seizure of Rome from the
j pope in 1879, and the city’s designa
i tion as the Italian capital.
In some foreign eyes, the cere
monial also signified possible co
i operation between the Vatican and
j government toward eventual peace
1 efforts, but fascist authorities dis
claimed any coordination of foreign
I policies.
Nazi Sea Raiders Off on Tour of Death
_____ . - * |
*: . I
• * U*
> iiilli
A flotilla of seven German submarines sets out for sea duty from the naval base at Kiel. Almost the entire
Nazi fleet has now moved out of Kiel, one section turning westward to the North Sea, the other to the
east and the Baltic. Britain believes the Nazis may be planning a desperate effort to break Allied blockade.
iCrpir-:. I> , S il
Finns Bomb
Vital Soviet
Rail Route
Invasion o f Russia
Pressed on 1w o
Fronts; Soviets Re
sisting More Firmly
In North.
Helsinki, Dec. 28.—(AP)— Fin
land’s defensive invasion of Soviet
Russia was broadened today by a
second thrust toward the Murmansk
railway, supply artery for red in
vaders in the far north.
At the same time, Finnish forces
in the Karelian isthmus, southeastern
Finland, reported that repeated Rus
sian tank attacks were shattered on
self with a series of bombing attacks.
Finnish airmen, cooperating with
swift, phantom like ski troops in
white, were said to have carried their
eastern offensive to the railway it
self with a sene sos bombing attacks.
Paralleling the movement of ski
patrols from Lieksa, Finns were re
ported advancing into Soviet terri
tory toward the railway in the Sella
area, where the line runs within 45
miles of the border.
Patrols crossed the frontier with
out intention of invasion, but because
of necessity, in view of military con
ditions within the country ,said a
Finnish source.
On the isthmus front, each side
retained its positions, despite Rus
sian attacks with heavy artillery and
tanks.
(Reports at Copenhagen said a Fin
nish attack on far northern Russian
forces, which dug in near Salmijarvi,
after a 50-mile retreat, apparently
had failed in the face of strong Soviet
opposition. Reports from northern
Norwegian frontier stations said the
Russians were making a determined
stand south of Salmijarivi.)
Hooded Band
Abducts Man
In Anderson
Anderson, S. C\, Dec. 28.—(AP) —
Police Chief Wiley Driskell said to
day that Lanier Pruitt, operator of
a garage just outside the city limits,
reported that a band of about 40
white-hooded and robed men
dragged him from his home during
the night, carried him some dis
tance, beat him and then released
him.
Pruitt was quoted as saying he
“had done nothing” and did not
know why he was thus treated by
the night riders.
Anderson S. C„ Dec. 23.—(AP)—
Police today were investigating re
ports that a band of about forty
white-hooded men dragged a white
man from his bed shortly before last
midnight and carried him away, and
intimidated other persons here.
One report said some of the hood
ed figures entered a Negro pool room
and roughly handled a couple of
Negroes.
City Detective Bill Acker was
quoted as saying he saw some of the
cars used by the men and trailed
them. While following them, he said,
(Continued on Page Two)
U)sxii£i&i
FOR NORTH CAROLINA.
Mostly cloudy and continued
rather cold tonight and Friday;
possibly light rain near the coast.
Another of Bund
Leaders Indicted
New York, Dec. 28. (AP)
Ycat's Wheeler-Kill, secretary of
U a German-American Bund, was
arrested today on an indictment
charging him with perjury in the
second degree, a misdemeanor.
The indictment contained three
counts, which cited 15 examples
of alleged contradictory state
ments made by Wheeler-Hill to
a grand jury during an inquiry
into the affairs of Fritz v'uhn,
bund Bader, now in Sing Sing
prison on conviction of a larceny
charge.
Carmichael
Controller
For U. N. C.
Trustees Unanimous
For Committee Selec
tion ; Debate Ad
mission of Girls as
Freshmen.
Raleigh, Dec. 28.—(AP)—The
trustees of the University of North
Carolina unanimously elected VVill
iam D. Carmichael, Jr., of New York
and Durham, today as controller ot
the school. Carmichael is a native ;
of Durham and an alumnus of the !
university. He is now a member ol j
a Wall Street brokerage firm. He j
will succeed the late Charles T. j
Woollen.
The board debated an hour over
a proposal to admit girls to the
freshman and sophomore courses at
Chapel Hill and N. C. State College
units, of the university, but „ de
ferred action until the June meet
ing.
It was voted to hold the June
session at N. C. State College.
The board refused to recommend
to the legislature that members of
the executive committee and special
committees of the board be reim
bursed for expenses incurred in
carrying out university business.
Awaid of a number of honorary
in June by the three uni
versity units was approved, but the
recipients will not be announced
until the awards are made.
Has New Method
For Treating of
Tobacco Disease
Columbus. Ohio. Dec. 28. — (AP)
The possibility of increasing the dis
oa~e-res.istin,g abilities of native to
bacco with wild types was suggested
here today by Dr. E. C. Clayton of
the Federal Bureau of Plant Indus
try in a paper presented before the
American Association for the Ad
vancement of Science.
C'ting the heavy losses caused an
nually by diseases common to domes
tic tobacco, Dr. Clayton told of ex
periments with native tobaccos col
lected in Mexico, Central America
and South America. Plants grown
from about 1.000 such collections
• howed a wide range of disease re
sistance.
Plants from Central Airterica show
ed resistance to root knot. Samples
from Columbia successfully resisted
mosaic, while some lots from Argen
tine proved to be tolerant to blue
mold.
“It is not intended to suggest.” Dr.
Clayton pointed out, “that inter
species crosses provide anything
more at present than a promising
line of approach to certain difficult
problems in tobacco disease control."
PUBLISHED EVERY AFTERNOON
EXCEPT SUNDAY.
Farmers Are
Satisfied
By Program
P epubl ic 2 n £ urvey,
H o Y v r eve r, Sho w s
Them Gppo se d to
Tra cl e Agreement*
And Concerned Over
Federal Deficit
Spending.
Washington, Dec. 2«— (AP)—-After
a seven-state survey. Representative
Hope, Republican, Kansas, declared
today that the average farmer is fair
ly well satisfied with the govern
ment’s agricultural polices, but is
concerned over the trade agreements
program and the Federal deficit.
Hope is chairman of a 50-man Re
publican committee of House mem
bers which recently sounded out
“grass roots” sentiment at several
hearings. He gave this summary of
the “voluntary opinions” expressed
at the meetings, which he said were
attended by both Republicans anti
Democrats:
1. Comment on the Federal farm
program ranged from “lavish praise
to severe condemnation;” all seem
ed to think there should be “some
kind of a government program”; com
plaints related mostly to administra
tive red tape.
2. The trade agreements were con
demned for the most part, with the
proposed Argentine treaty arousing
the most opposition.
3. “Increasing concern” was mani
fested over the Federal deficit.
4. A desire was expressed for more
empha: is on soil conservation than
on crop control, as under the present
program.
Grand Jury Will
Probe Espionage,
Sabotage Cases
| Washington, Dec. 28.—(AP) —At-
I torney General Murphy said today
1 that a special grand jury would be
convened here January 2 to investi
i gate espionage and sabotage on both
i coasts.
I Murphy told his press conference
I that some of the information de
| veloped in proceedings would be
“parceled out” to various areas. The
Justice Department chief said the
jury would hear evidence also in
connection with activities of foreign
agents and the building trades
monopoly inquiry.
Staff Chief Says Army
Only 25 Pet. Prepared
Washington, Dec. 28. (AP) —Gen-j
erai George C. Marshall, army chief j
of staff declared today that “the army :
machine is probably less than 25 per- !
cent ready for immediate action.”
Addressing a joint session of the j
American Historical Association and :
the American Military Institute,!
Marshall said that “our problem,!
therefore, involves the development
of a war force after the emergency
has arrived.”
The time necessary for the devel- !
opment of such a system, General
Marshall said. Is one of the factors
keut in mind by the War Depart
ment in preparing for national de
fense. The other, he said, is obtain
ing maximum preparation at a mini-
8 PAGES
TODAY
FIVE CENTS COPY
Devastation
Grows With
New Tremors
Twelve Cities, 80
Viiiiages Reported
Demolished; Anatolia
City of 40,000 Lies in
Flaming Ruins*
Ankara, Turkey, Dec. 28.
(AP) —Officials announced to
day 42,000 persons were killed
or injured in the region of
Erzinean alone in yesterday’s
Anatolian earthquake.
New tremors shook Anatolia
today, while a blizzard and
fierce winds increased the suf
ferings of hundreds of thous
ands of homeless.
A heavy storm raged along
the Black Sea coast, tearing
ships loose from moorings and
battering down seaside homes.
With a temperature 22 degrees
below zero, many of the thous
ands of earthquake survivors
who had fled to fields were
frozen to death, according to
reports reaching Ankara offi
cials.
Ankare, Turkey, Dec. 28.—-(AP) —•
Wilh 9,000 casualties already marked
up to on earthquake catastrophe,
fre'-'h tremors magnified terror, dev
astation and suffering today in east
ern and northern Anatolia.
New, unofficial estimates of the
toll exacted by the first of yesterday’s
series of earth shocks revised an
earlier approximation of 8,000 dead.
The nc-w casualty total included both
dead and injured.
Relief brigades fought fires in hun
(Con tinned on Page Four*
f
Germans Say
Allies* Pushed
Finland On
Berlin, Dec. 28. (AP) The
mouthpiece of the German foreign
i office charged today that Great Bri
tain and Fiance had deliberately in
i Cited Finland to resist Soviet Russia
to up. et northern Europe and thus
interfere with the regular flow of
! supplies to Germany.
The semi - official commentary,
Deut che Diplomatische - Politische
Korrespondenx, said that “from the
moment it became certain that Rus
sia was not willing to pull chestnuts
! out of the fire for the western pow
ers, the efforts of those powers cen
tered on bringing about complica
tions in the north, “On one hand, it
i see med desirable to engage Russia
; there with her military and material
| resources; on the other, it was con
: sidcred worth trying, through the re
! suiting confusion, to interfere with
the possibilities of supplying Ger
many from this area, which cannot
be blockaded.”
The Allies have no idealistic in
terest in Finland, the paper declar
ed, but merely are using her lor their
own purposes.
mum of expense.
“If we are to have a sound pre
paration for war,” he added, “we
must have better school text books
and better methods of teaching his
tory.”
In a democracy such as in this
country, he explained, military policy
is dependent upon public opinion,
and the military organization will
be good or bad, depending upon how
well the public is informed. He said
that historian", had been inclined to
emphasize victories and gloss over
mistakes, leaving the people “with a
comfortable belief in our invinci
bility,” which has been reflected in
legislation that sometimes has re
sulted in neglect of the war machine.