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Want To Sell W'ii' A 1 ] 1 fTf * 1 he Allegha y limes I DEVOTED TO THE CIVIC, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF ALLEGHANY COUNTY -—1-: ---• T t_: ___ .__ Volume No. 14. GALAX, VA. (Published for Sparta, N.^C.) THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1939. Number 38. _ Hugo S. Sims, Washington Correspondent j THE FIGHT OVER RELIEF Last week the Senate took up the supplemental appropriation to finance the WPA through the rest of the fiscal year, with Sena tors showing the sharp difference of opinion over Federal unem ployment relief that was appar ent during the debate on the confirmation of Harry L. Hop kinr as Secretary of Commerce. Readers will recall that the President requested $875,000,000 and that the House eut this by £150,000,000. • This eut was ap proved by Senate Committees but Administration forces fought to provide the full amount request ed by the President. In this they were aided by outside pres sure. The issue overshadowed for the time other activities of Congress, involving as it does, the whole nature of social Secur ity, of which unemployment re lief is but a part. 1 The amount of funds for relief will not be settled even if both houses agree to the $726,000, 000 figure set by the lower house. In fact, the Senate sub-! ■committee would limit WPA dis missals before April 1 to five per cent, of the present number on the rolls, which means, of course, that the savings effected would be slight until that time. However, on April 1st, drastic reductions would have to be initiated and the pressure from those affected would raise the problem of additional funds again. In fact, the Senate sub committee provided for a new presidential appeal for funds should the unemployment emer gency continue. ECONOMY DIFFICULT The trouble as we see it is that many congressmen are anx ious to effect certain economies that will reduce the total of Fed eral appropriations but the dif ficulty is to secure an agree ment as to what activity should feel the knife. It is one thing for congressmen to vote appro priations to be distributed among the residents of his dis trict and another thing to take funds from people in his dis trict who are insistently demand ing relief. The President insists upon the full amount requested and there is powerful outside support behind him. This means, ir our opinion, that regardless of what the Congress does in the present instance, the full amount requested will be avail able before the end of the fis cal year. THE HEALTH PROGRAM Last week the President - re ferred to Congress “for careful study,” the report and recommen dations on national health pre pared by his inter-departmental committee to coordinate health and welfare activities. Pointing out that losses on account of sickness, disability and premature death account for $10,000,000, 000 annually, the committee- saw a need for a national health pro gram. Sickness, it is said, is more frequent among the low income families, among whom maternal and child-health is in adequately protected. On an av erage day, according to the re port, about five million persons are disabled by sickness. Five reasons are advanced for the program, which involves possible expenditures of $850,000,000 an nually after ten years, as fol lows: • Services to prevent sickness are grossly insufficient; hospital and organized facilities are in-1 adequate, particularly in rural! areas; one-third of the popula tion receives inadequate medical service; a far larger part of the I nation suffers from the economic burden of illness; wage-earners and their families need protec tion during periods of tempor ary or permanent disability. BASED ON AID TO STATES The essence of the medical-aid program is Federal-State coopera tion, says the President, who points out that Federal legis lation must indicate the assist ance to be available to States in a cooperative program for the nation’s health. No great ex pansion of Federal health ser vices is planned, but the pro gram should be worked out and administered by states and local ities, with the assistance of Fed eral grants-in-aid. The cost of the program repre sents a sound investment, argues the Chief Executive, which, in the long run will wipe out cer tain cost now borne in the form of relief. The idea back of the program is the thought that the entire nation can bear the ex pense necessary to insure ade-i quate medical treatment for its people which, in many cases is impossible for millions of famil ies and is financial catastrophe for other families. The Presi (tum to page four, please) I Aii explosion at an illicit liquor distilling outfit was fatal to 3 persons I —last Thursday (January 26) in a dense laurel thicket near Glade Valley. The dead are: Homer Reynolds, 26, Glade Valley; Eugene Murphy, 23, who lived near the North Carolina-Virginia line, and, DeWitt Moser, 25, of near . Galax, Va. According to a I statement made Saturday night in Sparta by Sheriff j i DeWitt Bryan, of Aiiegnany County, who investigated the tragedy, the explosion oc curred about noon Thursday. The bodies, however, were not found until late Friday night, when they were discovered by Stanley Pugh, of Volney, Va., and J. W. Conklin, Mouth of j "Wilson, Va. * | Pugh and Conklin reported the discovery to Sheriff Bryan, who j rode into the hills and found that the explosion had accurred; on property owned by his sister, j Miss Lilly Bryan. Miss Bryan i said she was unaware that the j distilling outfit was on her prop- ; erty. Sheriff Bryan found a mass of j wreckage there in the hills when j he went to investigate. The I bodies were scattered, blown a great distance from where the gigantic outfit was located. The place was rough and re mote, and the sheriff said it was at a place where no one would suspect a “still.” He explained that the three men had located their “still” there in the laurel where a creek runs nearby. “Evidently," said Sheriff Bry an, “when the men went to the ‘still’ Thursday they built a fire under it and the pipes were cold and when they began heating the explosion occurred.” The outlit was oi the steam j boiler type, it was said. Persons who live in that sec-1 tion told the sheriff they heard! an explosion about noon Thurs- j day but “didn’t pay any atten tion to it.” Pugh and Conklin, entered the secluded spot Friday looking for Reynolds, whom they knew, it was understood. The two Virginia men found where the “still" had been and i saw that an explosion had occur-: red. “They said they then noticed | the bodies which were some dis tance from where the ‘still’ had, been,” explained the sheriff. Pugh and Conklin immediately rode out of Glade Valley and went to Sparta to notify Sheriff Bryan. “It was one of the worst things I ever saw,” the sheriff said j Saturday night as he told of | reaching the scene of the trag edy. “The men had been blown, almost to bits. Pieces of their bodies were scattered over a wide area there.” said it might have been as if a bomb had been dropped! squarely in the laurel thicket. Bits of laurel and trees were blown about. Barrels of mash had been blown open and scat tered about the “still” site. The boiler was blown a dis tance of 130 yards, the sheriff said. Drawing a word picture of the tragedy, Sheriff Bryan explained: “Moser was lying there, his clothes torn. His hair was mat ted. Blood had dried in it. A bolt from the ‘still’ had gone through his mouth and stuck through his neck. “Murphy was 40 or 50 yards fnom the ‘still.’ Slivers of the boiler had struck him all over.1 His clothes were in shreds. “Reynolds was in another di rection from the ‘still’—about 40 yards away. It was hard to tell who he ever was. He had been torn and mangled just as badly! as the other two.” Sheriff Bryan said he found! Reynolds’ watch in a pocket of his trousers and that it had stop ped at jl:53. j “I take this to mean,” he said' “that the explosion ' happened about noon. Folks hereabouts sai.d they heard a big noise about noon Thursday. So that tallies.” Dr. B. O. Choate, Sparta, Al leghany coroner, said that death was accidental and, therefore, he held hp inquest. Young Moser was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Moser, who re side in the Mt. Vale community a few miles south of Galax. Last rites for Reynolds were conducted Sunday at Hooker, in the Union Baptist Church, by Elders Mack Bnooks and Quincy Higgins. (Turn to Page 8, Please) Seeks Legion Post I Wiliam T. (“Bill”) Dowd, oft Lee Post No. 18, American j Legion, Sanford, who is a candi-: date for Commander of the! North Carolina Department, to be chosen at the state convention ! to be held in Raleigh. -j Governor Hoey warned the General Assembly: —Tuesday night, in an ad-! dress delivered in person at t a joint assembly of the Senate and House in Ral-I . i eigh, that the aims of so-ealled anti-divexsionists would, disrupt North Carolina’s government, possibly resulting in lower salar ies for teachers and “other damaging reductiana.” “The state,” Hoey said in a fighting speech, “is one body, having many members. “I am unwilling for some to famish and perish while others grow strong and powerful,” he added. “Let’s comprehend & commonwealth of human beings and visualize our duty to pro tect the whole state. “I maintain that the state owns the roads—the roads do not own the state.” The Governor asserted that school children, needy aged per sons and handicapped individuals might suffer unless a provision was made *in the state’s budget for the possible transfer during the next 30 months of $7,000, 000 from the highway to the general fund. The sum is approximately equal to the application of the state’s general three per cent sales tax to the gasoline fund. The trans fer is opposed by anti-diversion ists, who claims that all money collected from a tax on gasoline should be spent for roads. “Upon an impartial review of the whole subject, it must be ap parent that North Carolina has not only been fair, but generous, in dealing with her whole high way system,” the Governor said. “She has provided and is now proposing to provide better for the roads than any other inter- j est in the state. “The roads are going to re-1 ceive ■ preferential consideration and treatment, but you, gentle- j men of the General Assembly, must see the state as a whole. “We must not neglect child hood. Unless we provide edu cation today it will be too late tomorrow. Solicitude has been expressed lest the roads to the schooldhouses shall not be kept in proper repair. . I share that so licitude and have provided and am providing the funds for that. purpose. “But what shall it profit the j children to have a road to the j schoolhouse if there is no money to run the school?” Education Official ! Mat • . i ,D r. J. J Henry Highsmith I (above), of Raleigh, vice presi-j dent of the North Carolina Edu-i cation Association, which will hold j its 55th annual convention in Ra-1 leigh March 16, 17 and 18. Dr. ' Highsmith is also Director of In-! structional Service, State Depart-1 ment of Public Instruction, Ra leigh. Educators’ Head B. L. Smith (above), of Greensboro, president of the North Carolina Education Asso :iation, which will hold its 55th mnual convention in Raleigh March 16, 17 and 18. Mr. Smith is also superintendent of the Greensboro city school system. A seed-judging contest was held at Sparta H. S. —on Monday, January 23, by the Parkway Federation of Young Tar Heel Farmers, which is comprised of the Young Tar Heel Farmers chap ters in Alleghany, Ashe and Av ery counties. The purpose of this organiza tion is to coordinate the work of the local chapters in these three counties. Two officers of the Federation are Alleghany Coun ty boys, Charles Pugh, of Spar ta High School .^having been elect ed president1, Jpt Bruce Osborne, of Piney Creek High School, treasurer. Each of the seven schools in the Federation sent a team to compete in the seed-judging con test, which consisted of the iden tification of 80 samples of grains, grasses, and weedseeds. The Sparta team took the five first places, three of the members of the team failing to identify only one kind of seed each out of the eighty samples. The other two boys on the Sparta team missed two and three, respective ly. The boys representing Spar ta High School were Sam Mil ler, Wilford Cox, Neal Sexton, Ernest Moxley and Elmer Hen drix. ' The Piney Creek Chapter won second place in the seed judging contest. The program of work adopted by the Federation includes the following activities: seed judging; a basketball tournament, to be held at Cove -Creek on February 13; livestock judging, and public speaking, both contests to be held in Sparta on March 20; Field Day, at Boone, April '17 and quarterly, publication of the Parkway Federation Bulletin, which gives the news of each chapter. The Sparta chapter will repre sent Alleghany County in the Federation basketball tournament to be held at Cove Creek on February 17. A FRESH SNOWSTORM SWEPT ACROSS THE WEST TUESDAY —while many laborers attacked some of the deepest drifts in recent years in the North and East. England’s prime minister gave Hitler the terms —upon which Britain would be willing to actually at ! tempt to reach an appease ment agreement with Ger many, in effect, Tuesday. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain de manded that Europe’s dictators produce “concrete evidence” of their “desire for peace” before “we can enter on the final set tlement” of the European situa tion. Willingness to disarm or limit armaments, Chamberlain said, would be proof of the dictators’ peaceful intentions. He added Britain was ready to contribute to a general solution. Addressing an opening session of the house of commons just one day after Chancellor Hitler’s moderate Reichstag speech, Cham berlain, commenting on the ex pressed peace desires of both the fuehrer and Premier Mussolini, declared with emphasis: “What we want to see is not only words which indicate a de sire for peace, but, before we can enter on the final settlement, we shall want to see concrete evidence in a willingness, let us say, to enter into arrangements if not for disarmament at any rate for a limitation of arma ments.’* At conclusion of the foreign affairs debate a motion for ad journment—in effect a test on the prime minister’s pohey of appeasement in Europe and non intervention in Spain—was cheer ed by the government by a vote of 268 to 133. While Chamberlain spoke of Britain’s willingness to limit arms, he mentioned at the same time “enormous additions” to Britain’s own defensive strength. He answered critics of British rearmament progress by declar ing “we are beginning now to see the results of our prepara tions on all sides.” Some observers saw this also as a sign he believed Britain’s growing strength had influenced | the German iuenrer s speech Monday night. , I. , .. ■... 11 .'I'g Cahncellor Hitler delivered an address to the world i ' • in a very moderate tone —Monday, beginning at 2:00 p. m. (EST), in Berlin, Germany. The German dictator, how ever1, said that Germany and Italy will he “side by side” if Premier Benito Mussolini is driven to war because the Reich realizes what her own fate would* be if fascism should be crushed. Der fuehrer, in a strident Millions of Americans danced Monday night ' —at birthday balls for President Roosevelt through out the nation to finance the fight against infantile paralysis. The president, whose 57th birthday anniversary was being celebrated, cheered them with , a radio appeal that “the good cause must go on.” “Only by such co-operation has tuberculosis been brought under I control in our lifetime”’ the President said in a message car tried to dancers at 25,000 cele brations. “Only by the same concerted action will the scourge of infantile paralysis be stamped out.” To those unfamiliar with the campaign, the President said that 50 per cent of the proceeds of the birthday balls will go into the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis created nearly two years ago. The essential job of the foundation is to track the germ of the disease to its source, through research and other ex periments, with a view toward eliminating it. The remaining 50 per cent of the proceeds, he said, will be spent in thd communities where the money is being raised. The Chief Executive celebrated his birthday anniversary quietly. He remained away from the exe cutive offices and conferred only with his legislative leaders. He had as his dinner guests the “cuff link gang,” a group of old friends who wear gold cuff links given to them by the President. Mrs. Roosevelt entertained at luncheon a group of Hollywood movie stars, including Andrea Leeds, Elanor Powell, Mitzi Green, George Brent, Jean Her sholt, Ralph Bellamy, Luise Rain er, Errol Flynn, Lili Damita and the bandmaster, Paul Whiteman. She and the actors and actresses visited seven hotels where pack ed ballrooms attested the capi tal’s enthusiasm in its first citi zen’s fight on paralysis. A legal ban was sought by a Tennessee so Ion —recently in Nashville, when State Senator Lem Motlow proposed that a law to prohibit the tobacco auc tioneer’s rapid-fire jargon be passed. The Lynchburg (Tenn.) law 'make introduced a bill requiring the auctioneer at every tobacco sale in Tennessee “to speak distinctly and slowly enough so that he, may be under stood by the average citizen.” The auctioneer who did not ap ply the oral brakes would be guilty of a misdemeanor and sub ject to a fine of $5 bo $25. The New Sparta High School Building Pictured afbove is a view of the new Sparta High School building which was erected and made ready for use more than a year ago. A portion of the shrubbery around the building can also be seen in the picture.—Photo Courtesy Winston-Salem Journal. . ..A two hour and 14-mmute speech before the 855 deputies of the Greater German Reichstag, said : that Nazi Germany and Fascist ; Italy were “strong enough to j resist any coalition” of the I western powers. Hitler’s speech which left ; him hoarse and fatigued, was tht highlight of the sixth an niversary of his rise to power and keynoted naziism’s strides in its seventh year. He angrily as-sailed foes of naziism in the United States, particularly Secretary of Inter ior Harold L. Ickes, whom he called a war monger. Germany demands restona tion of her war-lost colonies and Germany will remain an ex plosive factor in world affairs until she has “room to live” Hitler said. He told the United States, Britain and other democracies to stop interfering in affairs which are “purely German,’’ in cluding the Nazi anti-Semitic drive. Hitler Said that although Ger many demands satisfaction of her colonial claims she is not prepared to go to war to ob tain them. Europe’s war jitters, he sard, are stirred only by war mon gers abroad and the “interna tional press.” which he con demned as being dominated by “capitalistic and Jewish’’ influ ence. Hitler admitted that Germany is facing “extremely grave con ditions” in her internal econom ic affairs but already has won a “terrific hattle” to feed and care for her 80,000,000 people. Der fuehrer, berating the “theft” of Germany's overseas possessions by the World War victors, said the German people refused to be “eternally doomed as Pariahs,” and implied sup port for Premier Benito Musso lini’s Mediterranean and North African claims against France with the statement: "This applies not only to Ger many but to other nations in a similar position. "Either property will be dis tributed on the basis of force, or on the basis of the right of reason, and then it will be im possible for a few powers to forever posses all the colonies.” | Germany’s problem, he said, i must be solved in one of two | way: 1. An increase in the export of German manufactured goods, | permitting increased imports, i 2. The granting of more “le bensraum”—room to live—for the German people. — The Senate was in rebellion at spending policies —&{ President Roosevelt Friday and, by the dramatic ! margin of a single vote, !>oined the House in order ing a $160,000,000 cut in work relief appropriations. It voted, 47 to 46, to provide $725,000,000 to finance WPA from February’ 1 to June 30, in stead of the $876,000,000 re quested by the Chief Executive— to the dismayed surprise of ad i ministration leaders, who had [waged a hard, week-long fight to (.sustain the President, j The Senate’s “economy bloc,” [consisting of almost the entire Republican membership and tw |enty-some Democrats, was jubli lant at winning the first battle 'of the session, and the first test of strength on this issue since the November elections. The result was a guarantee that the $725,000,000 appropria tion will be in the bill when it is sent to the White House. Since the House, too, approved that figure, it cannot, under con gressional rules, be changed in the House - Senate conference which presumably will be called 1 (turn to page five, please)
The Alleghany News and Star-Times (Sparta, N.C.)
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Feb. 2, 1939, edition 1
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