Subscription Price Pi a year V* in advance in Alleghany county only himself.' DEVOTED TO THE CIVIC, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF ALLEGHAN Y COUNTY Series 1987 GALAX, VA. (Published for Sparta, N. C.) THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1937. EIGHT PAGES Number 9. IAT OF NAVY? ine of the questions soon to Be before the people of- the ited States will require a deci i in regard to the Navy. The rid situation has been greatly nged by the steady growth of ' Italian, French, German l Russian fleets and the recent louncement of the British plan resume the construction of bat hips on a stupendous peace e scale brings the problem to United States. tThile the Administration mptly ordered the construction the two battleships authorized ^qngress last year, when it was wn that the British planned to d two new dreadnaughts, the a now is that the British will t work on not less than five deships in 1987 and that be > concluding its present pro n there will be not less than mammoth floating fortresses show the world again that tania rules the waves. TIAN TO BUILD 1 facing this situation, the irican people will first of all 5 to decide whether the much onged insistence upon parity i Great Britain, now fully es ished as an agreement between two powers, is worth the cost lew construction necessary to e it something besides a pa program. Generally speaking e is hardly any suspicion that British government has the led States in mind in its new nam and, in fact, most ish writers insist that a de >n from this country to build iqual fleet would be hailed as ctor for world peace, particu r in the Pacific. PTLESHIPS VINDICATED he British decision to build a 2 fleet means that in a few ■s that nation will have 26 bat lips instead of 15 and a fleet posed, for the most part, of em cruisers, destroyers and oarines. Plainly the battle will be the backbone of the iah plan, which means, after that the insistence of Ameri adminals that this country itain its faith in battleships been vindicated by the action the British admiralty. The an fiasco of a few months ago thrown quite a scare into the ish, who feel that, to be se i, they must be able to handle situation in that area, and, at same time, maintain vigilant id around the North Sea and fhting force in the Far Blast, d upon Singapore. t RESPONSIBILITIES his writer has little idea what final decision of the United es will be in this regard but President is a strong navy i. His course up to this time indicated very positively a rmination to build a fleet it to that of the British. Our Sion is influenced by the fact Japan broke the recent naval nation pact and seems deter ed to build a greater fleet, sther the United States wishes >ermit the Far Easterners to mild this country is a ques that the voters of the nation some day have to answer. ersonally, the writer strongly | sves in a powerful navy, the il if any, in order to protect rights and, territory against ons which in some future ■a may become aggressive. The ngth of the hungry nations— p, Geirmany and Japan—ias as their willingness to use e to accomplish international 5 and seize territory for their purposes when possible, ad s us to be strong enough to fict not only the United States also South America, as well, :ss we wish to invite these na g to make an excursion in this isphere and set up trouble for in other years. E COURT FIGHT he fight .on the President’s josal to enlarge the mcmber , of the Supreme Court, under ain conditions, will be settled he Senate, where an imposing salons are lined up icst the. plan. Both sides ap i- confident of the necessary ,g. Meanwhile public opinion, ch at first registered itself [nst the suggestion, has vea’-ed aid a more, even keel, although far no predominant surge has ie for the President's side, eever, as pointed out in other iggles the supporters of the ninistration are not as audible ;hose. arrayed against him and best bet, in our judgment, is ; before the buttle is over t^e if Executive will have the sub CTO rn to Page 6, Please) President Comes Out Flatly For Wage, Hour Law Says Such Legislation Should Be Enacted And Expresses Hope That It Will Be Soon EMPHASIZES STAND Report Of Committee Urges That Future Attempts To Regulate Business 'Be Made More Flexible Washington, Mar. 2.—President Roosevelt came out flatly and emphatically today for new wage and hour legislation at the present session of congress. He said at a press conference that such a statute ought to be enacted and that he hoped it would be before congress goes home. The president's assertion, in the midst of his fight for power to name six new justices to the su preme bench where the old NR A was killed, stirred immediate speculation as to the possible ef fect upon that controversy. Some administration supporters^ have predicted that labor groups would campaign unremittingly for the proposed court reorganization if assured new federal regulation of working conditions. In disclosing his attitude, the president warned reporters against quoting him as saying the legis lation “must" be passed. He said none of the legislation he has ad vocated is in the “must” cate goary as far as he is concerned, and urged that that term be dis carded- It ha* been used widely in the past to describe bills want ed by the presidnt. His press conference closely followed the sending to congress of a report by a presidential committee which conducted a post mortem on the dead NRA. It urged that future attempts to regulate business be more flex ible and simpler. The report, containing the re sults of exhaustive research into the functioning of the national recovery administration was sent to congress by President Roosevelt. He, expressed beliefe “it will point the way to the solution of many vexing problems of legis lation and administration in one i of the most vital subjects of na tional concern.” The committee credited NRA with lifting wages and putting more than 2,000,000 persons to work. But it hit at what is call ed “uncertain” policies and “im practical and unenforceable” pro visions of codes. Several of the committee find ings drew a hot challenge from General Hugh S. Johnson, first NRA head, who asserted the group was “packed1” with persons “inimical to NRA.” Known 35 the president s com mittee on industrial analysis and composed of three cabinet mem bers and four outside economists and business men, the group said that if the NRA type of business controls are to be tried again they “should be limited to a few important industries.” Sheriff Inquires Into Death Of Man At Mouth Of Wilson Tuesday Sheriff Walter M. Ir win was called to Mouth of Wil son to inquire into the death of Henry Brinninck, who was found dead in bed at his home Tuesday morning by Emory Burchett. Mr Burchett had tended him on Monday night and, when be re turned next morning, found him dead in bed. Mr. Brinninck, who was about 73 years old, lh(«I alone- He had been in bad health for some time. Mr. Brinninck, a German, came from Iowa several years '■SO- ’ Dance To Be Held Fri. Night In “Gym” Of Sparta H. S. A dance will be held tomorrow (Friday) night, from 9:30 to 1:30, in the Sparta high school gynfnasium. Fred Moore’s orchestra, of Boone, will furnish music. RED CROSS MEMBERSHIP CARDS BEING DISTRIBUTED Red Cross membership badges and cards have been received here and are being distributed to those who have contributed as much as one dollar to the Red Cross. Contributions to the Red Cross hajve been received recently as follows: Wolf Branch school, $2.75, and Glade Valley high school, $10.00. Detroit Strikers Are Injured By Flying Missiles First Sit-down Strike Of “Five-and-Ten” Store Girls Is Started. More Than 100 Girls Join Detroit, Mar. 2—Three strik ers, one a woman, were felled by flying missies here Saturday in the first violence of the unrelated la bor disputes that have spread in the city’s industrial plants since the General Motors strikes were settled, The injuries were received as union workers holding two build ings of the Fenro Stamping com paney in a sit-down strike of sev eral days duration ousted about 20 non-union employees from the administration building in a brief but spirited attack. Wayne Marlett, strike chair man, said Anna Gouci, 23; Alex Laslo, 21, and Peter Kuhn, 23, were struck when the nonunion men hurled lead missies three inches in diameter at the strik ers. Burwell E. Allen, assistant treasurer of the company said, “there was no lead thrown to my knowledge,’ and added he believ ed one non-union striker was in jured. The largest strike in the city affected 1,000 foundry workers at the Michigan Malleable Iron com pany, where 100 “stay-in’’ strik ers held the factory. J. K. Ken nedy, assistant organizational di rector of the United Automobile Workers of America, said the strikers demanded reinstatement of four union members discharg ed last week, and wage increases of 10 cents an hour. Picketing of main plants of the Northern States Power company at Minneapolis continued as police guarded substations. Secretary of Labor Perkins sent Father Fran cis Haas to mediate. Vandays in terrupted the flow of electricity of some 2,000 homes. Minneso ta’s attorney-general studied the legality of state control of the fa cilities pending settlement of the strike. Strike leaders strove to gain new recruits in an attempt to prevent the scheduled resumption Monday of submarine building at (Turn to Page 8, Please) Freedom Of The Seas Insisted On By Borah Washington, Mar. 2.—Senator jo uiopaaaj,, ueouauiy uodn Acp -jnjos pajsisui ‘(oipapi ‘-g) qtuog the seas” and announced-he would fight proposals to restrict wartime trade when Senate debate on pro uugaq uoijBjstSai Xji[aajnau pasod The Pittman bill, up before that body, imposes restrictions on American commercial and finan cial transactions and tratfet in wartime as insurance against the United States becoming embroil ed in future conflict*” “I am for those provisions which would prohibit the shipment of arms, ammunition and imple ments of war to belligerant na tions,” Borah said in an inter view. “I am for a strict prohibition of loans and other financial as sistance to warring nations. “I favor a prohibition on Americans traveling on the ships of belligerent nations. "I am, however, against provi sions of the neutrality bill which throw away our right to canry our own goods through the seas, when two other nations are at war.” Asked when he would get into the debate, Borah replied: “I’ll get in as soon as I can.” j Rubber-Tired Covered Wagon Headed East irAji.ll BT LOOTS . . . They look a bit like ‘44era except that they're headed and th*lr oorerad wagon la rubber-tired. They're from California, Washington to tha-American Tooth Congress, to a tin providing training and employment of W% lift to rttht, Oaevga Kauffman, Cecil Mu Marta Nathan Bream an and Dorothy Mount Airy Negro Sentenced To Die In Gas Chamber Was Convicted On Charge Of 1st Degree Burglary. Friday, March 26, Set As Date For Execution Mount Airy, March 2.— A Surry county jury late Fri day found,, Tom Mattin, 24-year old Moijnt'Airy Negro, guilty of first dgnie burglary and was sen tenced to die in the lethal gas chamber at Raleigh on Friday, March 26. The first person to receive a death sentence in Surry county in over twefcty years, ‘IjtyttAn will be. the fourth man and the only Sur ry Negro ever sentenced to die, according to existing records. The case which had consumed four days of superior court at Dobson, was given to the jury at 4 p. m. and a verdict was re turned at 5:25 p. m. The jury was polled at the request of Mat tin’s attorneys Wilson Barber and Judge A. E. Tilley and with the (Turn to Page 8, Please) Sparta Physician Dies Following Auto Accident )r. Guy Duncan Succumbs To Injuries Received When Car Strikes Bridge Abutment. Funeral Mon. Dr. Guy Franklin Duncan, 61, of Sparta, one of the best-known physicians in Northwestern North Carolina, died on Saturday night, February 27, at seven o’clock^ at Hugh Chatham Memorial hospital, in Elkin, of injuries suffered last Thursday when the car in which he was riding was wrecked five miles south of here. Dr. Duncan . had visited a patient near Laurel Springs and was returning to Sparta, riding in a car driven by Tam Bledsoe, of Sparta. Charles Taylor was also a passengeir. About five miles from Sparta, the car struck a culvert abutment and turned over several times, it is said. Dr. Duncan sustained a crushed chest and internal injuries. He was re moved to Elkin Friday. Pneu (Tuirn to Page 8, Please) Columnist Talks About Alleghany Representative In Raleigh Papei (Below is reprinted a portion of the column, headed “Under the Dome With the Legislature,” pub lished in the issue of the Raleigh News and Observer for Saturday, February 27, concerning Repre sentative D. P. Taylor, of Alle ghany county. In view of the fact that many readers of THE TIMES will find the reading in teresting, the portion of the col umn relating to Mr. Taylor is reprinted.—Editor). The reference follows: PATRIARCH—Alleghany coun ty produces a hardy breed of folks. North Carolina’s elder statesman, Congressman “Farmer Bob” Doughton, goes back up there every summer to pitch hay. His older brother, former Lieut Gov. “Rufe” Doughton, now in active after a long career in politics, is a product of the same county. Yesterday, another Alleghany county man, who has been » de light to the members of the 1987 House of Representatives, stepped out and showed his met tle. The otdest man in the Gen eral Assembly, Representative D. P. Taylor, of Alleghany is a newcomer to State politics at the age of 74. “I am 21 days older than Bob (Doughton),” he said yesterday. When Cleveland nan for president the first time, Mr. Taylor voted for him but Bob Doughton was one day too young. They were horn within two miles of each other and grew up to gether. “We went to school to gether and we were playmates,’ said Mr. Taylor. From Alleghany county, Bob Doughton went .to Congress and to the most important chairman ship in the House. D. P. Taylor was content with a career as a country trade and, for a time, as a funeral director. After he had passed his prime, the depression swept away his fortune- “I am as penniless as a beggar on the highway,” he said yesterday. But, he seems to have retained one or two priceless' possessions, good sound horse-sense, and a strain of humor of the kind that only country stores and farms can produce. Those two things have given him stature in a House of Representatives that normally would pay no mind to an old man. And so it was that the House listened yesterday when Mr. Tay lor made the longest speech of his legislative career, to condemn the small loan bill. They expected the speech to be quaint and funny, and sometimes it was- They remembered when, in the middle of the liquor debate, Mr. Taylor stepped out from • be hind the Speaker’s stand and said, "I’m a little deaf, but I kept hearing soundls of ‘Bring Liouor Back. Bring Liquor Back.’ What I want to know is when, in the name of God, did hit left here?” They recalled the day when there was discussion of a bill to allow a wife under 21 years of age to join her husband in sign ing away their home site. Again, Mr. Taylor, whose fondness for smoking a black old pipe, and talk ing often takes him into the House lobbies, stepped out. “I’m the oldest man here,” he said, “and I don’t think a man ought to marry women less than 21 years old.” As usual, that speech was only one or two sentences long and all the more effective for its brevity, socking the nail right on the head. One day his entire dis course consisted in nothing more (Turn to Page 8, Please) NEW THEATRE TO OPEN MON. NIGHT IN ELKIN The Elk Theatre, in Elkin, a new and modern picture house just constructed and equipped by Dr. and Mrs. W. B. Reeves, will open next Monday night, at 7 o’clock with “Sea Devils,” star ring Victor McLaglen, Preston Poster and Ida Lupino, as the first attraction. “Nothing New In Brannock Case,” Says Sheriff Irwin Investigation Continues, However, In Earnest, And Authorities Are Hopeful Of Ultimate Success No late developments have arisen in the Elva Brannock assault-murder case in Alleghany county, North Carolina, accord ing to Sheriff Walter M. Irwin, of Alleghany, who talked recently with a representative of THE TIMES. However, the investigation is going forward quietly and it is hoped that something definitely indicative of the true identity of the killer of the pretty school girl will “turn up” soon. It seems that every effort is being put forth by Sheriff Irwin and his associates in trying to bring the guilty party, or parties, to jus tice at the earliest possible mo ment. Reports have been circulated in some quarters during the past few days that new and incriminat ing evidence had been obtained in connection with the case, but Sheriff Irwin emphatically stated in his conversation with THE TIMES that there was “nothing to” such reports and that there have been absolutely no new developments in the case during the past several days. The girl’s body was found on February 12 after she had been missing from her home since February 8, when she was last seen alive in the community where she lived, and in which was the region through which she had to pass on her wajF' to the Dividing, Ridge school, about three miles from her home and to which she had started when she was issaulted and apparently strangled to death by the un known assailant. It will be recalled that the vic tim usually walked to and from school, traveling the scenic high way from her home about half the distance to school and then turned to the right on to a dirt road which leads by the school building and which runs parallel (Turn to Page 8, Please) Roosevelt Court Plan Scored By Senator George Washington, March 2.—The charge was matte Sunday night by Senator Walter F. George, of Georgia, that President Roosevelt had “(repudiated" Loyal Demo crats who had publicly pledged the Democratic party would take no “short roads” to solve the nation’s social and economic proD lems. The Georgian, a member of the 1936 Democratic convention plat form committee, attacked the presidents’ proposal to appoint an additional supreme court justice for each incumbent who did not retire upon reaching the 70-year age mark. George contended such a proposal had not been ad vocated in the convention or cam paign. “Without warning,” George de clared, the president has now “de manded of the national legisla ture a subservient judiciary.’' Senator Copeland (if., N. Y.), also criticized the Roosevelt recommendation to Congress. In a radio address Sunday night Copeland asserted it was an at tempt to “reshape our institutions by usurpation.” In Newark, N. J-, New York State Supreme Court Justice Wil liam Harman Black entered the (Turn to Page 8, Haase) N. C. “Bobs” Say They Will Urge Finishing Parkway Representative Doughton, Of Alleghany County, And Senator Reynolds Discuss Topic Tuesday STRESS SCENIC BEAUTY Governor Hoey Compares Parkway With Appian Road That Leads To The “Eternal City” Of Rome Raleigh, Mas-. 2.—Members of the General Assembly were told by the two North Carolina “Bobs” in Congress, Senator Robert R. Reynolds and Repre sentative Robert L. Doughton, at a dinner here tonight that they will urge the appropriation of necessairy funds to complete the Blue Ridge parkway. Saying he believed President Roosevelt would see that funds were made available to complete the park-to-park highway, Dough ton said the road “to me at first was a dream, then a reality and then almost an obsession.” He added, “I believe its scenic beauty will be unrivaled anywhere.” The proposed road would stretch from Front Royal in the Shenandoah Park in Virginia to Swain county, in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in North Carolina, a distance of ap proximately 475 miles. About $7,000,000 has been spent on the road in North Carolina and Virginia, and about $25,000,000 is needed to complete the road, Capus M. Waynick, state highway and public works commissioner, estimated. Doughton, introduced by Demo cratic National Committeeman A. D. Folger, prefaced his talk with compliments" to Waynick and to former Commissioner E. B. Jef fress, of Greensboro, during whose tenure of office efforts for building the road were begun. Declaring that no money is necessary to advertise the “Moun tains of Western North Carolina,” Doughton said that the parkway would attract thousands of travel ers and prove an economic asset to the state. “It pays to advertise,” said Reynolds, “for since I kissed Jean Harlow, I’ve never had to kiss so miany women in my life.” He congratulated the legislature for its efforts to appropriate $25, 000 for the systematic advertis ing of the state and credited Governor Hoey with being instru mental in obtaining advantages for the state. “But it was Bob Doughton who put over this parkway,” said Rey nolds, “and we are proud of him, Chairman of the most important committee (ways and means) in Congress.” Reynolds answered the. intro duction by Gregg Cherry, of Gas ton, speaker of the House, with compliments for the General As sembly, declaring it was the first time he, ever had addressed a legislative gathering. Governor Hoey, who was in troduced by Lieut-Governov W. p. Horton, thanked t' e congres sional delegation for their efforts in urging the completion of the (Turn to page 8, Please)