Newspapers / The Tyrrell Tribune (Columbia, … / Dec. 28, 1939, edition 1 / Page 2
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WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS BY JOSEPH W. LaBINE Russia s Ouster Fi*om League Is Empty Victory for Finland Because Geneva Is Powerless anfthMP ® NOTH—When opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) Tieleascd by Western Newspaper Union. They Figured in the Battle of Nations "lii i'rriHi .' iwn J 1 JOSEPH AVENOL Secretary-general of the League, he called the special session at Finland’s behest after the little Baltic nation was invaded by Russia. Purpose: To tvin League condemnation of Russia, pos sibly her expulsion, and the support of other League nations for Finland’s cause, if hen the assembly agreed unan imously to offer its mediation services, Avenol sent the bid to Moscow. fl KARL HAMBRO League assembly president and rep resentative of Norway, he was among leading pro-Finnish workers who ar gued for Russia's expulsion following receipt of Molotov’s message. Rudolphe Frey re, Argentine delegate, threatened to leave the League unless this action teas taken. Finally such a resolution ■as passed. Avenol was ordered to give e Soviet its walking papers. ’ said and 15 the gal .ater the house . its first secret s the World war. Sub ject; Organization of supplies for the persecution of war.” There was probably a lot of ex plaining to do. First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill was probably asked why Germany’s $20,- 000,000 Bremen w 7 as allowed to slip through the blockade and reach £ ■ ■ m .-a BREMEN Why, Mr. Churchill? Hamburg, homeward bound from Murmansk. (The admiralty had announced • British submarine had sighted the Bremen but did not attack because it would have broken international law. Germany scoffed at this report, but failed to tell why the Bremen was called home so suddenly from the al leged safety of a Russian port.) Sir John Simon probably had to explain why Britain and France had merged their economic structure into what English financiers called NAMES t ... in the new* ■ *“«*** H. Buried: Screen Actor Doug las Fairbanks, Drug Magnate Charles Walgreen and Michigan’s G. O. P. Rep. Carl E. Mapes. C. Made political news: New York’s Rep. Hamilton Fish Jr., who announced he would enter the 1940 G. O. P. presidential race; Candidate Tom Dewey, who planned a New England drive; Idaho's isolationist Sen. William Borah, who fought a plan to sidetrack foreign policy as a campaign issue. C, New job: Bishop John F. O’Hara, who relinquished presi dency of Notre Dame university to become auxiliary army and navy bishop of the U. S. under papal appointment. 7T M VIA CHESLAV MOLOTOV Premier of Russia, he replied blunt ly by referring Avenol to an earlier Soviet message which said Russia con sidered Finland’s appeal "unfounded)’; that Russia did not consider herself at tear with Finland; that Moscow was maintaining “peaceful relations” with the Soviet sponsored Fin ish “peoples” government; that the r< dar Helsinki government no longer K i. authority. I Ht JAKOB SURITS Russian ambassador to France and delegate to the League, he packed his bags and left Geneva silently while the forces of democracy cheered. But ob servers wondered about the wisdom of this gesture. Would not Russia’s oust er draw the Kremlin closer to Berlin, thereby cementing war forces and spreading the conflict? Moreover, what had the defunct League gained? an “unbreakable combination of financial power.” But aside from u,? ese jr.-it-Vif*. tV* auAes could be fairly well pleased with uie jvar's progress. Day after Germany had an nounced her war aim w 7 as “military destruction of the enemy,” three British cruisers sent the Nazi raider Admiral Graf Spee limping into the harbor of Montevideo, Uruguay, with 36 dead after a 14-hour running fight. Same day, however, this gain was offset when the British destroy er Duchess collided with another warship and went down with 122 men. Intensified warfare was also seen on the Western front, where Nazi raiders provided a mysterious touch by attacking at night wearing black hoods and cloaks. Northern Front Russia could not blame little Fin land for the loss of her steamer Indigirka, which went down off the coast of far-away Japan with a loss of probably 700 lives. But the Krem lin did pout that Finland’s white clad ski units were “using bandit tactics in sudden attacks . . .” Wrote one war correspondent to his Moscow paper: “The enemy does not engage in open battle. Hidden under white robes, they suddenly dart from the woods to shoot at our advancing units. Then in all haste they run, frequently taking off their boots to ski only in their stockings.” Finally, after 14 days of ignomin ious defeat, the Russians reportedly rushed up 1,500,000 men and 1,000 airplanes to bisect little Finland, whose troops were slaughtering hun dreds of Reds each day, disabling tanks and capturing light artillery pieces. Britain announced she would send war materials to aid the Hel sinki government, while Italy con tinued sending planes and pilots. BUSINESS: Asphyxiation Ever since its passage the 1935 public utility holding company act has been fought tooth and nail by America’s No. 1 holding company, Associated Gas and Electric com pany. Last year a senate investi gating committee was outsmarted in its sensational search for myste rious H. C. Hopson, Associated Gas’ guiding spirit. Meanwhile the firm fought Henry Morgenthau’s treas ury department over a tax dispute, but several months ago agreed to pay $8,700,000. Crux of the holding company act is a “death sentence” clause pro viding for integration of all utility systems geographically and eco nomically. This month, its long ar gument apparently lost, Associated Gas asphyxiated itself. Resigned “because of ill health” was Presi dent J. I. Mange, replaced by Roger J. Whiteford. Said the new chief: “It is my purpose to give my at tention at once to simplification of the corporate system . . . inte gration or consolidation of its prop erties . . . and adjustment of the voting power ...” Immo C. SLASHED—Cotton export sub sidy rate, for second time in a week, from four-tenths of a cent to two-tenths of a cent. <L MODIFIED—To pacify Nazis, Sweden formed a new govern ment under Premier Albin Huns son, retiring Foreign Minister Richard Sandler who had drawn German wrath. C. EXCLUDED—Mexican partic ipation in the new low tariff on U. S. crude oil imports, as pro vided in the new trade pact with Venezuela. Reason: Mexico has expropriated U. S.-owned oil wells. C. RAISED—U. S. tariffs on im ports from Danzig and Poland, now controlled by Germany, which pays a higher duty on ex ports to the U. S. than any other nation. WHITE. HOUSE: Trade Pact At his press conference President Roosevelt nosed his ship of state smack into a brewing storm that will break soon after congress con venes. He agreed with Secretary Cordell HuJl that the reciprocal trade treaty act should be renewed in 1940. Though the act has been at tacked by most Republicans, many Democrats and a growing body of farmers, Mr. Roosevelt said it has resulted in many American export gains. The President also: C. Received a message from Fin nish President Kyosti Kallio thank ing him for his sympathy toward Finland. (The President announced the Red Cross is sending $500,000 for Finnish aid; meanwhile the Finns were negotiating to buy gas masks here). C. Joined California’s Rep. H. Jerry Voorhis in attacking the Dies un- Americanism committee (of which Voorhis is a member) for the “un democratic” way in which it re leased a report charging 13 consum er organizations with communist ac tivities. The report, said Voorhis, was "purely and simply the opinion of J. R. Matthews,” committee re search director, who released it be fore other committeemen knew it was being prepared. C. Named 12 new rear admirals for the navy. C. Attended the White House diplo matic reception where assembled the Washington envoys of warring Finland and Russia, Germany and France, Japan and China. THE] Nr Flight from Home In non-warring European nations, news was made by: C. Russia’s Ambassador to Italy Nicolai Gorelchin, who arrived ir. Rome just as Soviet troops reached the Finnish frontier, and left abrupt ly for home without waiting to pre sent his credentials. Reason: Uni formed young Fascists have stormed Rome’s Russian embassy daily, pro testing the Finnish invasion. C. Italy's Editor Virginio Gayda, who hinted how Britain might woo and win his nation’s support. Said he: Italy must have “certain free exits,” all of which (Dardanelles, Suez and Gibralter) are now con trolled by Britain. C. An explosion in Rumania’s cellu lose plant at Zarnesti, killing 80, in juring 200. Following quick on the heels of train wrecks and oil plant fires, the incident was blamed on “foreign agents” who are pressing Rumania from all sides. LABOR: NLRB Probe Introduced before the house com mittee investigating the national la bor relations board was evidence designed to show NLRB is badly in need of a housecleaning. Chief pro testor was the board’s Dr. William Leiserson, whose charges of bias on the part of fellow board mem bers (Edwin L. Smith and Warren Madden) were interspersed with revelations from the board’s corre spondence files. Conservative, prob ably favoring the American Federa- tion of Labor against C. I. 0., Dr. Lei serson has been a mi nority, non co-operative member. Evidence on this and oth er points: C Dr. Lei serson tried to force re moval of the board secre- LEISERSON Non-cooperative. tary, Nathan Witt, charging he lacked “impartiality.” Unsuccess ful, he occasionally declined to par ticipate in board decisions, where upon the other members recom mended disciplinary action. C. One such case involved the Pres ident’s son-in-law, Seattle Publisher John Boettiger, who complained of a board ruling but expressed the hope that Leiserson’s failure to par ticipate indicated “a change of pol icy.” fl. Elinore Herrick, regional NLRB director for New York, protested that two of Witt’s assistants had conducted an investigation in her of fice in a manner “one might expect from the (Russian) O. G. P. U., but not from fellow administrators of an agency of the American govern ment.” j Unde Sam Prepares to Count His Children—and How His Family Has Grown Since First Census in 1/90! lly ELMO SCOTT WATSON (Beleased by Western Newspaper Union.) THE coming of a new year means a big job for Uncle Sam. For 1940 is “census year” and it means that once more he is faced with the task of counting all his children. And how his family has grown since he took the first census of its members 150 years ago! Then there were only 3,929,214 of them. This year it is estimated that there will be more than 132,000,000. The first census, taken in 1780, covered only population. The count was made within a year from the date of the inauguration of President Washington, and the assembling of the first congress of the United States. The enu merators took the name of the head of each family, together with the total number of persons in the family, classified as free or slave. The count began on the first Monday in August, 1790, and the law gave nine months for the completion of the work. Double this time elapsed, how ever, before all the returns were in. Communication then was slow and uncertain. The Amer icans of that day, particularly in the rural districts, regarded thfe census enumerators w'ith some suspicion, and there were those who thought these agents of the federal government really aimed at getting information on which to base an increase of taxes. The report of the first census is contained in an octavo volume of 56 pages. Discolored and crum bling with age, this little book is very rare. Thej census bureau has two of the few copies in ex istence, and ihe Library of Con gress one. Adams’ Prophecy. Four years before the first cen sus was taken, J ohn Adams, des tined to become the second Pres ident of the United States, had a, vision of the potentialities of America which led him to pre dict that the population of the United States would some time exceed 20,000,000. At that time such a prophecy seemed little more than a wild flight of the imagination and was branded as utterly ridiculous. Writing from! London, where he was minister jo the Court of St. James, he said)’, “It has ever been my hobby horfse to see rising in America an /empire of liberty, and a prospect of 200,000,000 or 300,000,000 of |reeraen without one noble or kini among them.” It was Johi| Tyler, tenth Presi dent of the U/nited States, blessed with a similar vision, who made a similar prophecy, though not so extravagantjas Adams’ but at the same time doubtful of fulfillment, and missed j his guess by only a few years find a relatively small number of |hnUlions of population. In a letter Addressed to Col. Sam uel Gardiner of Shelter island, whose sftn married Tyler’s daughter, /and dated from the ex- President’/s country seat, Sher wood For/est, Va., November 26, 1850, Tyler said, “In a little more than half a century, a peo ple who, were regarded as little better a host of murderers or sojpurners among savage tribes /have attained position among /the first civilized powers. “With a spirit of adventure heretofore unequaled by anything which/ has occurred on the map of thf world, there is united a deep / plodding sagacity which crowds the most daring enter prises with success. Such a peo ple,/even had they attained that whifh is denominated a station ary' condition in regard to popu lation, would not fail to attract gr&at and absorbing attention. Bpt, when the reverse is the fact, when our population is known to double in every period of twen ty-five years, when having now a population of 25,000,000 that number, before the child now in the nurse’s arms attains matu rity, is destined to reach nearly 50,000,000, and before that same child shall have passed the boundaries of middle age, to 100,- 000,000.” How Right Were They? Now that Uncle Sam is prepar ing again to count his children, it is interesting to check up on the predictions of these two Pres idents and see just how nearly right they were. Although Ty ler’s prophecy was a bit too op timistic, he was not far wrong. At the time his letter was writ ten the population of the country was 23,260,638. He predicted that it would double in the next 25 years and although there are no figures available for 1875, by 1880 it had reached 50,262,382. It had not reached the 100,000,- 000 mark by 1900, as his predic- Un t r tl l % ha %Br um 1 8 to 45 Inhahiuntts Rjjftjj o Vv/ j\o DISTRIBUTION * <v \£> t or tub vj POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES { * ' FIRST CENSUS, 1790 \\ „ V£^- v^Vl^, tion suggested, for Uncle Sam’s children then numbered 76,129,- 408, and it was not until 20 years later that it reached the mark of 105,710,620 Even though the “doubling” process which he prophesied did not continue con sistently, there did take place the amazing growth in the nation of 50,000,000 people in half a century, or an increase in population of 200 per cent. So Tyler’s prophecy was not so extravagant a9 it must have seemed at the time. And when there is taken into consideration the steady increase during the 153 years since John Adams made r y i rZ' : , • . - VT . - ‘‘S* 1 I v drag mum :'■ '■ •••••.•. v.v.v.v.v.v.vXvX'i'X^'j&v^xL Miss Mildred Keaton has one of the toughest assignments in taking the census. She “covers” the Arctic coast from Point Bar row east to the Alaskan-Canadian line, the route over which she “mushes” to treat ailing natives as a field nurse for the Office of Indian Affairs. known his vision, even his esti mate does not now seem so fan tastic. The 1930 census gave a total of 122,775,046 people under the Stars and Stripes. On June 27, 1936, the population was estimated at 128,403,000, an increase of 5,627,- 954 in six years or nearly 938,000 a year. The census bureau’s last preliminary estimate of the na tion’s population, as of July 1, 1938, was 130.215,000, an increase of 1,812,000 in the two years since the estimate of 1936. That meant approximately 906,000 each year. 200,000,000 in 2000 A. D.? Even though the increase seems to be growing smaller, there is still a large enough gain each year to justify the predic tion that John Adams’ estimate of 200,000,000 may eventually be reached. On the basis of the in crease since 1930, it will take nearly 70 years and we will prob ably reach the year 2900 A. D. before we reach a population of 200,000,000 in the U. S. A.! Officials of the census bureau regard the 1940 census as prob ably the most important and far reaching since that first one 150 years ago. For this one will be much more than a mere counting of noses. As in past years, the census will cover population, oc cupations, irrigation, drainage, manufactures, business, mines and quarries, vital statistics, cot ton production and consumption, and financial statistics of states and cities. In addition, the census takers will also assemble data never sought before and these data will bear upon the new so cial and economic situations which have arisen in the last few years, bringing with them prob lems that are yet unsolved. For this census will also be con cerned with such questions as un employment, migrations from one state to another and addition al vital statistics bearing on pub lic health and facilities for treat ment of disease. Much of the health data may prove to have a decided bearing upon the vital problem of national defense. For instance, the census authorities hope to learn how many men would be incapacitated for mili tary service by disease. Problem of Migration. The problem of migration is one to which President Roosevelt submitted a report to congress, setting forth that population shifts from state to state were not of concern only to the one state into which the great influx had taken place (California being the out standing example) but that they affected the whole nation. Mi gration from state to state is a new social movement in the Unit ed States directly traceable to unemployment. In addition to asking his chil dren the usual questions about age, sex, color, marital status, homes and education, Uncle Sam will also want to know about their present economic condition, their profession or occupation and whether they are employed or un employed. Each person will also be asked where he lived 10 years ago so that some measure of mi gration may be obtained. The most significant data, how ever, in the opinion of the census authorities, will be the figures indicating the trend of population growth, which has been steadily declining, and the distribution, according to age groups. A con tinuing decline in population will have a decided bearing on the future economic and social life of the nation. A smaller population foreshad ows a reduction in future markets at home and abroad. Fewer pu pils in the public schools will in dicate a lesser need for school houses and other plant equipment and a greater surplus of teach ers. An increase in the higher age groups will have important economic effects, in the form of a more persistent demand by the higher age groups for a redistri bution of the profits of industry, such as the various old age pen sion schemes that have caused so much disturbance in the last few years. That, combined with a decrease in the lower age groups will mean lower incomes for the younger Americans. The job of securing all this in formation will require the serv ices of approximately 150,000 per sons, of whom 8,000 will be em ployed in Washington compiling the data gathered by the 142,000 enumerators in the field. The cost of this task is estimated at S2O - 000,000. *' History tells us that the first census ever made was taken by Moses. “Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names every male by their polis; from twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel.’’ Thus spoke the Lord to Moses, and Moses, with Aaron’s assist ance, collected the figures for the first census report, which may be found in practically every home and hotel room. It is appropri ately entitled “Numbers,” the fourth book of the Bible. By its breadth of scope the cen sus William of Normandy ordered for his new r kingdom of England, resembles modern surveys. He commanded his people in 1085 A. D. to record every lord and peas ant, every acre, every ox, every mill, every manor, every weir and every plow the value there of and—this is forward looking— the natural resources, woods, fields and streams capable of de velopment and revenue. The re port to William the Conqueror be came the Domesday Book, un readable today except by schol ars, yet protected in the public record office at London as one of the most precious possessions of England. i Uncle Sam was one of the pio neers in this business of counting his children scientifically. Swe den took the lead before our first census in 1790, but England. France, and Prussia did not see the necessity of regular counting of noses until 10 or 20 years later. Russia took no census until 1897. The first American census, tak en in 1790, was very limited in scope and was directed by the United States marshals. They were allowed 13 months for the job, and when the totals were added up our population was less than 4,000,000. That census related solely to population. The name of the head of the family was taken, together with the number of persons in each family, classified as free or slave. The whites, who were free, w r ere classified as “free whites,” as male or female, and the free whites males as over or under 16 years of age. That was about all there was to it. The marshals who supervised the 1790 count numbered only 17 and the enumerators 650. The cost was $44,000. The deeply religious settlers of America nearly upset our first census w'hen they harked back to another less fortunate Bible cen \ v HU Wfr • mum ft Taking information from a census schedule by means of a card puncher. Facts are trans lated into figures on this ma chine. sus. “Satan stood up against Is rael,” they pointed out to the mar shals, “and provoked David to number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan.” What happened? “God was displeased; therefore he smote Israel. The Lord sent pestilence upon Israel; and there fell of Israel 70,000 men.” Fears that our first census would bring similar destruction upon the nation did not materi alize, so the marshals delivered their reports to President Wash ington within nine months for all the original states, except Ver mont, Rhode Island and South Carolina. Vermont and Rhode Is land entered the Union later. The marshal of South Carolina found workers scarce at $1 per 150 heads counted. With the exception of a compar atively few, when the vast total is considered, the original records of every family enumerated in the 1790 and subsequent census are on file in the census bureau. The missing records have been lost or destroyed by accident. However, the file on John Han cock has been preserved and his family w r as reported as being made up of “two white males over sixteen years of age, three white females and seven other free persons, not white.” In the taking of the 1860 cen sus, each person was for the first time asked to give the value of his or her real and personal prop erty. The records for Illinois show that Abraham Lincoln’s family comprised Mr. Lincoln, his wife, his three sons and a boy, fourteen years old, named Philip Dinkell. Mr. Lincoln said he was worth $17,000 of which $5,000 was the value of his real estate, the remainder being personal proper ty. In the same census James Buchanan listed his household as consisting of himself, his niece, Miss Harriet Lane, and 11 em ployees and servants, all of the latter being of foreign birth. The system of individual enu meration was adopted at the cen sus of 1850, and at the same time a number of new classifications were added—illiteracy, school at tendance, occupation, place of birth, age, etc.
The Tyrrell Tribune (Columbia, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Dec. 28, 1939, edition 1
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