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WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS BY JOSEPH W. LaBINE
Potential Enemies Help Reich
Build Powerful War Machine;
"Neutrality’ Looks Like Myth
(EDITOR’S NOTE—When opinions are expressed in these columns, they
are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.)
__________ Released by Western Newspaper Union.
INTERNATIONAL:
Armaments
What constitutes absolute "neu
trality” in wartime has never made
itself quite clear. Superficial neu
trality under the U. S. law bans sale
of arms and munitions—“lethal
weapons”—yet under the amend
ment of Ohio’s Rep. John M. Vorys
such indispensable war-making
equipment as trucks and commer
cial airplanes may be sent abroad.
Early July, when the neutrality bill
was making its way through con
gress, found the agriculture depart
ment proposing government subsi
dized export of cotton in a program
whose chief benefactors would be
aggressive Germany and Japan,
both of whom need cotton to stuff
into their ammunition.
But U. S. participation in dictator
rearmament is only part of the pic
ture. Though France has just
banned shipment of scrap iron to
Germany, though Britain’s new min
istry of supply will have the right
SCRAP IRON SHRAPNEL
British steel, British deaths?
to ban such shipments, profit-con
scious democracies and dictator
ships have no moral compunctions
about such things; scrap iron or any
other material of Mars is sold
abroad to the highest bidder until
domestic rearmament demands
that it be kept at home. Samples:
Last month Britain’s liberal Lord
Davies told how scrap iron and
steel exports from the United King
dom to the Reich rose from 4,500
tons in July, 1938, to 17,00(1 tofts in
August, 21,000 tons in September
(month of the Munich crisis) and
23,000 tons in December.
France gave Germany 350 tons of
pig iron last August when the Czech
crisis was just rising, gave her 19,-
000 tons in September when the cri
sis was at its peak, and 75,000 tons
in November. In March, when
Germany took Bohemia, Moravia
and Slovakia, France still had no
compunctions, selling the Reich
67,000 tons.
Still more revealing are Ger
many's 1938 foreign trade statis
tics, showing that 1,059,800 tons of
Germany’s total 1,146,027 tons of
1938 scrap iron came from Bel
gium, Luxemburg, France, Great
Britain, Holland and the U. S., all
potential enemies. In March, 1939,
the same countries contributed 161,-
344 tons, which would make 1,936,128
tons if the same import level were
maintained throughout the year.
From the U. S. in 1938 came 462,782
tons; in March, 1939, came 20,175
tons.
HEADLINERS
DR. JAMES MONROE SMITH
Nine years ago the traveling
president of Louisiana State uni
versity arrived at Baton Rouge
in a Model T Ford and a 35-cent
haircut. Late in June when he
left for Canada, two New Orleans
banks and one at Baton Rouge
said he had $500,000 of their
funds. The university missed
SIIB,OOO in good bonds.
A follower of the late Huey P.
Long, who set out to build Lou
isiana State as
revenge against
Tulane, where he
had been denied
an honorary de
gree, Dr. Smith
earned his doc
torate at Colum
bia university
teachers college,
New York, in
1927. Meanwhile
he served 10
years 1920-30)
as dean of educa
tion at little Southwestern Louisi
ana institute.
Dr. Smith’s disappearance cli
maxed a stormy career, a fea
ture of which was his censorship
of the school newspaper in 1934
to protect Huey Long from criti
cism. It is now reported that he
raised his salary from $12,000 to
SIB,OOO a year without the super
visory board’s knowledge. Lush
with oil and gas revenues from
the state, busily spending money
on an amazing building program,
the university voted bond issues
on which signatures were alleged
ly forged to secure the money
with which Dr. Smith is said to
have traded in more than 1,000,-
000 bushels of wheat.
Other import figures for Ger
many:
Iron Ore (tone).
„ , 1930. 1937. 1938.
Sweden 8,725.432 9,083,751 8,992,331
France 2,779,868 5.739.513 5,056,121
Spain 1,824,880 310,540 1,082,551
_ _ „ Copper Ore (tons).
G. Britain 20,121 60,081 32,055
France 2,779,868 5,739,513 5,056,121
Belgium 64,970 66,752 53,710
Manganese Ore (tons).
u. S. S. R 173,653 61,336 60,924
Brit. India 78.353 121,318 17,226
Australia 53,668
S. Africa 290,679 268,044
Nickel Ore (tons).
Brit. India .... 2,711 3,593 60
Greece 8,839
Canada 99 13,250 1 3,368
Most logical deduction is that the
next World war may find British,
French, Canadian, Belgian—and
possibly U. S.—troops dying of
wounds inflicted by armaments
made of metal from their own
homelands.
MEDICINE:
Cancer
Standard treatment, but no sure
cure for cancer is 200-volt X-ray
treatment. Ten years ago Dr. Al
bert Soiland of Los Angeles began
experimenting on animal and plant
tissues with half-million volt X-rays,
finding no visible difference in the
biological effectiveness of the heavi
er ray. Only obvious result was
that higher voltage penetrated deep
er, with less burning of skin. Clin
ically, Dr. Soiland found something
else. Reporting at Oslo, Norway,
to the Northern Society for Medical
Radiology, he said hundreds of can
cers have been cured by the heavi
er ray after the 200-volt charge had
failed. His conclusion: “A biologi
cal difference in action must exist
if the final analysis is drawn from
observations based on clinical facts.
PHILIPPINES: .
No Fears
World economists have long enu
merated reasons why Japan should
want the nearby Philippine islands,
which even now are undergoing an
orderly withdrawal from U. S. su
pervision. But never have military
strategists told why Japan should
not want the Philippines, moreover
why such a conquest would be mili
tarily and financially impossible.
Such, however, is the opinion of
Gen. Douglas MacArthur,; former)
U. S. chief of staff and now military
adviser to the Philippines. Asked
point blank for his opinion, General
MacArthur admitted there were “so
many imponderables involved I
GENERAL MacARTHUR
No prophet, but he has opinions.
would be a fool to play the part
of a prophet,” yet offered an opin
ion based on “broad basic facts.”
The opinion:
Such a war must be brought to the
Philippines, would cost more than
$5,000,000,000 and 500,000 men, would
risk almost certain foreign interven
tion by a powerful fleet, and might
not then insure concentration of su
perior forces at any vital Philip
pine area.
Whether Japan even covets the is
lands is doubtful to the general.
Puzzled over such popular beliefs,
he told reporters such ownership
would actually be a strategic weak
ness to Japan, splitting the empire
militarily into two parts separated
by broad oceans and with Chinese
enemies between the two parts.
POLITICS:
Invitation
Soon each major political party
must choose its 1940 convention site.
Though both groups look favorably
on Chicago, no city or state could
frame so flowery an invitation as
that received by Democratic Chair
man James A. Farley from the Cali
fornia legislature:
“V'hereas, California is an ideal state
within which to hold such a convention
because of its adequate convention facili
ties ... unsurpassed cuisine ... best enter
tainment in the world . . . most equable
spring climate . . . unexcelled vacation at
tractions ... magnificent lakes ... friendly,
loyal people . . . foremost and most pro
gressive state in the greatest nation on
earth, now therefore, be it
“Resolved: That the assembly and sen
ate of the state of California memorialize
the national Democratic committee ... to
designate a major city in the slate of Cali
fornia as a place where the 1940 Demo
cratic national convention shall be held.”
BAKER COUNT! NEWS
TERRITORIES:
Paradox •
As a newspaper and magazine ed
itor Dr. Ernest H. Gruening became
an opponent of “big-stick” policies,
a foe of U. S. colonial acquisi
tion and general all-around irrecon
cilable anti-imperialist. But time
found him entering the interior de
partment to head the division of ter
ritories and island possessions,
which heretofore maintained juris
diction over Hawaii and a few other
territories.
But July 1 found this anti-imperi
alist assuming the most imperial
istic job ever created by the U. S.,
an enlarged division of territories
and islands which smacks of Great
Britain’s “colonial office.” For the
first time in history all U. S. off-
DR. GREENING
Imperialist, anti-imperialist.
shore possessions excepting Guam
and Samoa are included under the
division’s jurisdiction. Paradoxical
ly, Dr. Gruening becomes chief ad
ministrator of colonies whose ac
quisition he has many times at
tacked. He also becomes the butt
of “imperialist” and “dictator”
charges.
Quitting his job would be one sal
vation, but he prefers to stick it
out and continue crusading for lib
eralism, meanwhile seeking a solu
tion for his No. 1 problem child,
Puerto Rico, now applying for state
hood and presenting one of the most
difficult tasks in insular administra
tion.
EUROPE:
August Crisis?
Continental crisis have come with
such regular frequency the past
year that most Americans have be
come bored with them, confident no
boil win ever burst. By early July
this sentiment was also felt in
France and London, despite Nazi
war counsels at Hitler’s Berchtes
gaden retreat and mysterious go
ings-on in Danzig, which is Germa
ny’s next goal. No such confidence
was felt by Paris and London offi
cialdom, however. There were inti
mations that the most serious crisis
yet is expected in August, delayed
simply because German and Italian
farmers must harvest their wheat
before going to war. By that time
both Nazi and Fascist war maneu
vers will bring dictator armies to
their peaks.
Neither Premier Edouard Daladier
nor Prime Minister Neville Cham
berlain will confirm this fear, but
confirmation is needless in view of
preparations:
Britain. Summer leave for the
home fleet has been advanced from
August to July because of a deci
sion to hold “exercises in August.”
More than 400,000 officers and men
of the territorial army (like Ameri
ca’s national guard) have been in
structed to pack their furniture and
wind up personal affairs before re
porting for annual training period
in August. A “white paper” an
nounced an 89,300-man increase in
the standing army. Meanwhile the
first 34,000 conscripts under the uni
versal service law were ordered to
report July 15. Trial “blackouts”
were planned at strategic points
throughout July, followed by a big
“blackout” smothering half of Eng
land August 9 and 10.
France. After telling parliament
of a propaganda plot to split France
and Britain, Temporary Dictator
Daladier recessed his audience for
the summer, but warned that an out
break of war was momentarily pos
sible, hence parliament might be
recalled at a moment’s notice. With
an estimated 3,000,000 armed men
on his borders, M. Daladier placed
the nation on full war footing.
WASHINGTON
HOROSCOPE
QUIZ — Congressional investiga
tions always precede the last leg
islative session before an elec
tion year. Forecast in the com
ing recess are these highlights:
Monopoly committee hearings;
house committee hearings on
banking and taxes; investigations
of the national labor relations
board and fair labor standards
administration; WPA quiz; Dies
committee on unAmericanism;
civil liberties committee.
DATE— Originally set July 15,
then advanced to August 3, ad
journment of congress is now un
predictable. A special session
may result if all “necessary” leg
islation is not passed.
ADVENTURERS’ CLUB
HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES
OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELFI
“Ghost at the Door”
Hello everybody:
You know, boys and girls, Old Lady Adventure is the
most democratic female in the world. She doesn’t confine her
attentions to any particular class of people, but visits her favors
on all alike. Why, kings and queens have had adventures, and
so.have doctors, lawyers, cab drivers and preachers.
Today I’ve got a yarn from a dentist—Dr. Robert Lentz of
Danvill*, 111.
This adventure happened to Doc along about the summer of
1912, and in those days he was living in Williamson county, near
Wolf Creek, 111. That’s down near the Ozark ridges and in 1912
there was some pretty lonely country in that neighborhood.
Doc knew, because he used to ride through some of it
pretty regularly. He was courting a girl who lived about
five miles from his home and he used to ride out there on
horseback, along a winding road that was almost impassable in places
because of the thick growth on either side.
That road led down into a place known as Big Grassy Creek bottom,
and that bottom was midway between his home and his girl’s house.
There was a ford across the creek, and near the ford, an old tumble
down church that hadn’t been used for upwards of 50 years.
Woman Burned to Death in Bygone Days.
Near the church was an old chimney—all that was left of a house
that people told strange stories about. According to one tale a woman had
been burned to death when that house took fire.
There was something eerie about the old church and the old
chimney. Doc used to feel shivery when he passed them riding
home at two o’clock in the morning. Bnt one night he made the
mistake of going into that church, and then—
It was one dark night when Doc was coming back from a date.
It had started to rain just after he left—a thin drizzle at first.
But, as he rode along, he heard the rumble of thunder and the rain
began coming down harder. He had reached the bottom then, and the
It was a human form of some sort, standing there with arms outstretched,
church would afford ; shelter of a sort. Doc tied his horse tf/a^ sap
ling’ and blunged through the underbrush to the door.
The church was all but fallen down. It leaned over crazily to one
side as if it had been pushed over by some giant hand into a great paral
lelogram. The windows were out and the floor was partly gone, but
guided by intermittent flashes of lightning, Doc worked his way forward
to a point near the rostrum, where the roof was good and the rain
didn’t come through. The rain didn’t show any signs of letting up, so
Doc lay down on a front bench to go to sleep.
Hunch Makes Him Stay Awake.
“I lay there about 15 minutes,” he said, “when something
caused me to open my eyes and look at the doorway at the other
end of the church. Lightning flashed just then—flashed just
enough to enable me to see dimly through the door. Something
told me to stay awake and, with sleepy eyes I gazed at that door
inspecting it each time the lightning would permit me.
“I heard a twig break outside, and could tell that my horse
was uneasy. I felt the hair rise on the back of my neck, and my
heart began to beat faster. It seemed that it would be hours
before the lightning flashed again to tell me what might be
there, and in the meantime I straightened up just as quietly as
I could."
And along about then there entered Doc’s mind the thought that
this old church might be haunted. There was that old chimney—charred
remnant of the house in which a woman had burned to death. And as
if that wasn’t enough, Doc began thinking of the countless people who
must have been buried from that old church—whose bodies must have
lain in their pine coffins before that same rostrum near which he
was lying now. Those thoughts were running through Doc’s mind then,
suddenly, lightning flashed again.
And this time Doc saw something in the doorway. It was a human
form of some sort, standing there with arms outstretched, touching both
sides of the door. “Now,” says Doc, “I wanted to make my exit. I
began to get ready to do so, but how was I going to go about it? The
only door was blocked, and the windows were too high up. I waited
anxiously for the next flash of lightning.
“It came, and my ghostly visitor was disclosed standing in
the doorway looking at me. It was plainly silhouetted and it
seemed to be an old woman with matted, twisted hair hang
ing down to her shoulders, no hat, no shoes, and wearing some
sort of a sack apron.
Lightning Reveals the Thing Coming at Him.
“She moved with as little noise as the spirit itself. Could it possibly
be a spirit? I couldn’t move. How was I going to get out? Was the
Thing coming closer? To my disordered imagination, it seemed as if
it was. What would it do when it discovered me? Would it block my
entrance? Would it take out after me? All those things I anticipated
before the next flash of lightning. When it came, the Thing was about
two feet closer, coming onward with outstretched arms!”
Still there was no sound. The apparition had advanced noiselessly.
In the darkness before the next flash Doc could imagine cold, clammy
fingers on his face.
“Now," he says, “I decided it was time to move. I slipped
up slowly, heping to get past the Thing before the next light
ning disclosed me. I reached the position that I thought was
by her side, and then came another flash. I jumped, and yelled
out loud. She followed suit with a yell equally as intense and
made a grab at me. But too late!
“Just one jump and I was outside the door, running to my horse
and off like a streak. I believe if Tom Mix could have seen me ride
he’d have envied me.”
And what was the Thing that Doc saw in the doorway? Well, the
next day Doc heard a report that an aged insane woman had escaped
from the Anna asylum not far away. And that was Doc’s ghost.
(Released by Western Newspaper Union.)
Cowbird Unfriendly
The cowbird is not only a wild
^ird but is totally lacking in a social
conscience. Cowbirds do not even
build nests. They deposit their eggs
in others’ nests and leave the up
bringing of the young to other birds.
“Like the European cuckoo it leaves
all family care to others,” writes
an ornithologist in “Birds of Amer
ica.” He continues: “It might well
serve as the emblem of free love.”
Golden Egg Goose
Jacob Putman, Bellevue, lowa,
believes he has the goose that laid
the golden eggs, and here’s why:
Since last spring the goose has laid
more than 200 eggs and for 10 days
in October averaged two a day. In
addition, the goose laid 21 eggs
while she was sitting on a nest
in the hatching period. She started
with a nest of 16 eggs; ended
with a brood of 37.
Strange Facts
f Regional Moods
Ears to Hear With
• Who Is Perfect? •
Motion-picture producers, wish
ing to adapt movies to different
regional tastes, have been known
to make pictures with two types of
endings—a tragic one for the East
and West coasts and a happy one
for the Middle West.
Among the remarkable physical
features that have been produced
in animals through selective
breeding are the enormous ears
of the “lop-eared” rabbits. Some
on record are six inches wide by
twenty-eight inches long.
In at least 90 per cent of the
American people, the left eye is
nearer to the nose than the right
eye.
An analysis of the 400 most im
portant inventions and discoveries
made throughout the world in the
past 400 years shows that 95 per
cent of them originated in four
countries: United States, Great
Britain, France and Germany.
Probably no man who ever
lived has shot firearms as many
times as a rifle tester in the Win
chester plant in New Haven, Conn.
During his 52 years on this job,
he has tried out and approved
about 2,500,000 rifles with approx
imately 17,000,000 shots.
The tropical American vine
called the ceriman, Monstera de
liciosa, bears a peculiar fruit that
resembles a pine cone and is
about a foot in length. This fruit
deteriorates inch by inch as it
ripens, and must be eaten as it
matures, a period that extends
over several days.—Collier’s.
Quick
uotes
Sentinel Feature*
CRUTCHES
“'pHERE are too many Americans
x advocating the construction of
crutches to put under the arms of indi
viduals and too few expounding the
ideals which made America great”—
U. S. Senator William H. King.
There’s a Good Reason
You’re Constipated!
When there’s something wrong
with you, the first rule is: get at
the cause. If you are constipated,
don’t endure it first and cure it
afterward. Find out what’s giving
you the trouble.
/Chances are it’s simple If you
eat the super-refined foods most
people do: meat, white bread,
potatoes. It’s likely you don’t get
enough “bulk." And “bulk” doesn’t
mean a lot of food. It’s a kind of
food that isn’t consumed in the
body, but leaves a soft “bulky”
mass in the intestines and helps
a bowel movement.
If this is your trouble, you
should eat a natural “bulk” pro
ducing food—such a one as the
crunchy, toasted, ready-to-eat
cereal—Kellogg’s All-Bran. All-
Bran is the ounce of prevention
that’s worth a pound of emer
gency relief. Eat it every day,
drink plenty of water, and “Join
the Regulars.” All-Bran is made
by Kellogg’s in Battle Creek.
Cause and Effect
Every effect doth after a sort
contain, at leastwise resemble,
the cause from which it proceed
eth.—Hooker.
MEDICATED PROTECTION
AGAINST CHAFE IRRITATIONS
Relieves bq soothing-cools prickly heat rashes
MEXICAN S POWDER
Cowardly Surrender
He who refuses what is just,
gives up everything to him who
is armed.—Lucan.
mbe miserable with
and COLDS when
C C C will check MALARIA fast and
U U U gives symptomatic cold relief.
LIQUID, TABLETS, SALVE, NOSE DROPS
Duty Nearby
The path of duty is near at
hand; men seek it in what is re
mote.—Japanese.
bloodshot eyes
are relieved in one day by
Leonardi’s Golden Eye Lotion.
No eye remedy in the
world as cooling, healing and
strengthening for weak eyes*
LEONARDI’S
GOLDEN EYE LOTION
makes weak eyes strong
• "'‘h Dropper— 50 cents
KRLeon Jr al a Co. Ine., New Roehril., N, T.
WNU—7 28—39
-(CLASSI FIEO)-
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the house you would like
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sified ad. The cost is only
a few c^nts and there are
probably alotof folks look
ing for just whatever it is
you no longer have use for.
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