OCR Text |
Show I Neit8 Itcuieiv of Current Events CHINA'S HORROR GROWS Thousands Die in Unofficial War . . . Senate Confirms Black Appointment . . . House Debates Deficiency Bill M SUMMARIZES THE WORLD'S WEEK Western Newspaper Union. Declared or Not, Its War SHANGHAI'S "war" of 1932 was a second-rate movie sham battle compared with what's going on over there now. The city of 3,500,000 inhabitants in-habitants and its environs are a scene of destruction, terror, flames and death on a mass scale the horror hor-ror of which is unthinkable. Thousands upon thousands of civilians ci-vilians lie dead, dying and wounded, and the toll Increases day after day. No estimate has even been attempted attempt-ed to determine the amount of casualties cas-ualties among the Chinese and Japanese Jap-anese fighting forces. Indeed such an estimate today might be woefully inadequate tomorrow, for reports tell of whole brigades being shot or blown to bits in a single encounter. encoun-ter. Square mile after square mile, especially in the native Chapel district, dis-trict, has been gutted by fires that rise in the wake of bombs and artillery artil-lery shells. Millions of men, women wom-en and children face slower, even more terrible death by hunger, for who is to bring supplies from the outlying farm fields while the whole area is under terrific fire? Even in the International Settlement Settle-ment life is fleeting, insecure, for bombs and shells drop there, too. And with 1,000,000 refugees inside to be fed, shops are rapidly locking their doors to protect their wares from rioters. As this is written, the Chinese land forces, outnumbering the Japanese Jap-anese four to one, are forcing the invaders slowly back to the Whang-poo Whang-poo in fierce ground fighting. Whether Wheth-er expected Japanese reinforcements reinforce-ments will be able to turn the tide of battle Is problematical. At the same time Japanese warships half the entire Japanese fleet must be in the Whangpoo are showering exploding explod-ing shells upon huge concentrations of Chinese soldiers. Eye-witnesses reported that the Japanese had concentrated some 40 destroyers, six cruisers, four dread-naughts, dread-naughts, an airplane carrier and many gunboats in the rivers near Shanghai. Only through a clever maneuver did the Chinese prevent them from regaining the upper reaches of the Whangpoo and shelling shell-ing Shanghai from the rear. The Chinese, in a surprise attack, captured cap-tured six Japanese merchant ships, sailed them into the heart of the channel and scuttled them, preventing prevent-ing passage. American authorities in Shanghai decided upon immediate evacuation by the 3,800 Yanks living there. The danger which confronted them was emphasized when stray Japanese bombs blasted the American Baptist Bap-tist mission, leaving the fate of 20 persons inside in grave doubt. United States marines were on hand, 'of course, to offer what protection pro-tection they could to American nationals, na-tionals, and reinforcements were quick in leaving San Diego, Calif., to join them. The U. S. S. Augusta, flagship of Uncle Sam's China squadron, lay in the Whangpoo alongside the Japanese ships. With shrapnel flying about their ears, Americans were getting out of China on every available ship. It was not considered likely that President Roosevelt would invoke the neutrality act so long as no "official" state of war between Japan and China existed. This would involve the declaration of embargoes em-bargoes on arms and on the extension exten-sion of credits to both nations, a situation which would te of definite aid to the aggressor, Japan, since China is in far greater need of war materials. Japan continued to "defend" itself, it-self, officially, from the wicked Chinese, whom its foreign office characterized as "prejudiced." However the "defense" was being carried on in the other fellow's back yard.. Japanese authorities continued con-tinued to insist that they meant no harm to the Chinese people, and that their aim was still for the cooperation co-operation of China, Manchukuo and Japan. They also revealed that voluntary contributions to the nation's na-tion's war chest, coming from all over Japan, had passed the $2,500,-000 $2,500,-000 mark. -K Question Black's Eligibility 'TpHE senate confirmed the Presi-dent's Presi-dent's nomination of Sen. Hugo L. Black of Alabama to the Supreme court, 63 to 16, but only after a bitter fight, following which the minority mi-nority protested that the confirmation confirma-tion had been railroaded through. Six Democrats and ten Republicans Republi-cans voted against Black. The Democratic Dem-ocratic insurgents, led by Edward R. Burke (Neb.) and Royal S. Cope-land Cope-land (N. Y.) based their objec- tions principally upon charges that he was associated with the Ku Klux Klan, and therefore unfitted to sit with the high tribunal for reasons of racial and religious prejudice. The Republicans, notably William E. Borah (Idnho), argued that he could not legally become a member of the court. That his eligibility might be tested before the court itself was a possibility possi-bility when Attorney Albert Levitt, f " , .... ., -. ' v'--i, . Appointee in judicial mien. former special assistant to Attorney General Homer S. Cummings, filed a plea for leave to pray an order for Black to show affirmatively why he should be permitted to serve as an associate justice. He raised the same legal questions as the Republican Repub-lican minority had: 1. That Black could not become a justice because during his term as a senator the Sumners retirement act was passed, permitting justices to retire at full pay. The Constitution Constitu-tion provides that no member of congress shall be appointed to an office which was created or the emolument of which was increased during his membership in congress. 2. That no vacancy existed on the Supreme court anyway, since Justice Jus-tice Willis Van Devanter had only retired, not resigned, and may still be called for judicial service by the chief justice. It was expected that the Black appointment would become political politi-cal fodder in the next election campaigns. cam-paigns. Grist from the Mill A FTER months of wrangling over the Supreme court measure, the wages and hours bill, the ever-normal-granary bill and other administration ad-ministration "musts" the house of representatives began to act upon some other legislation in haste, with a view to adjournment some day, some time. The house appropriations committee commit-tee reported out the year's last "deficiency" "de-ficiency" measure to supply funds for government operations overlooked over-looked in the regular budget. It called for $78,500,000; two previous deficiency measures, totaling nearly a billion, had been passed. The committee turned down requests from the executive department for $43,000,000 in additional appropriations. appropria-tions. Some of the appropriations recommended were $23,000,000 for new buildings, $3,000,000 for federal participation in the New York world's fair and $1,500,000 for participation par-ticipation in the San Francisco world's fair. Funds for the operation opera-tion of the Jones-Bankhead farm tenancy act and for naval building were denied altogether; appropriations appropria-tions for payments to federal land banks and the Federal Farm Mortgage Mort-gage corporation, and the national labor relations board were sliced severely. se-verely. The house passed the low-cost housing bill, but with so many alterations al-terations that it had to go to a joint committee for the differences to be straightened out before it could be sent to the White House. The senate sen-ate had approved a bond issue of $700,000,000; the house shaved it to $500,000. The house also raised the percentage of funds which local communities must contribute to projects; increased the limitation of cost of a single dwelling to $5,000 or $1,000 a room; and cut the limit of any one state's share in the funds from 20 per cent to 10 per cent. The house also passed a bill designed de-signed to plug the tax loopholes by which, it was alleged, the wealthy have been, legally or illegally, avoiding the payment of income taxes which they have a moral if not a legal right to pay. The extremely ex-tremely complicated bill carried unanimously after only two hours' consideration. -K Strange Doings at Sea pOUR insurgent airplanes dropped 25 bombs upon the Danish vessel ves-sel Edith and sank it in the Medi-terannean, Medi-terannean, came the report from Barcelona. The crew of 20 and a French, observer for the non-intervention control were rescued by two fishing boats. The owners of the vessel, in Copenhagen, said it was their twentieth ship to be captured or bombed by the rebels. The captain of the French freighter freight-er Peame reported to authorities that a torpedo had been fired upon his ship by an unidentified submarine subma-rine which floated beside his ship for several minutes oS the Tunisian coast. When the Spanish tanker Campea-dor Campea-dor was sunk in the Mediterranean, Mediterrane-an, the rebel command issued a communique taking the full blame. But the captain of the tanker insisted in-sisted an Italian destroyer sank it Campaign Aftermath TURNED down by the house rules committee when he demanded a special investigation. Rep. Bertrand H. Snell of New York, Republican floor leader, has carried direct to Attorney At-torney General Homer S. Cummings his charges of violation of the federal fed-eral corrupt practices act by the Democratic national committee. The charges arise from National Chairman Chair-man James A. Farley's ingenious method of selling Democratic convention con-vention books, autographed by President Pres-ident Roosevelt, for $250 each. In a letter to Cummings, Snell charged: 1. That sales of the book, autographed auto-graphed by the President, in 1935, at $250 each constitute an illegal collection of campaign funds and a direct violation of section 313 of the corrupt practices act. 2. That a Colorado man was the "victim of eleven specific acts of reprisals" by the resettlement administration ad-ministration and threats to "put him out of business" since his refusal last October to subscribe $500 to the book sales campaign. 3. That a New Yorker was approached ap-proached by a Democratic campaign committee agent with promise of White House intervention in return for a $25,000 subscription or retainer. Snell attached affidavits and a synopsis of the evidence he had furnished fur-nished the house rules committee. X Rebels Press Santander REPORTS from the insurgent command said that 35 villages and 1,000 prisoners had been captured cap-tured by the rebels in their drive on Santander and the tiny remaining slice of the northern Spanish coast held by the government. The government gov-ernment admitted that some advances ad-vances had been made, but refused to concede that General Franco's forces were threatening the main defenses of the Santander area. Franco, in his new drive, was using us-ing the same tactics which eventually eventu-ally brought about the downfall of Bilbao after a siege of many months. Bombing planes and artillery artil-lery were pounding the fortifications while other airplanes poured machine ma-chine gun fire upon trenches and dugouts. Insurgents planned the Santander advance to require as little manpower man-power as possible, so as to leave enough men at the Madrid front to start a separate offensive there if necessary. They admitted the loyalists loy-alists had caught them napping with an offensive west of Madrid in July, causing them to abandon the Santander San-tander drive temporarily, but declared de-clared that "That will not happen this time." -K Rumor Has Farley Quitting TS "Genial Jim" Farley going to resign as postmaster general to become the executive head of an automobile firm? That's what his friends in Washington Washing-ton say, and Jim has not denied the rumor, as he has promptly denied similar rumors in the past Farley, it is said, seeks to rehabilitate re-habilitate his personal per-sonal fortunes. As postmaster general he has lost $10,000 a year over his salary of $15,000 and is, ac- hi i it J U A Jim Farley cording to his friends, today in debt. The story went that he would become be-come an executive of the Pierce-Arrow Pierce-Arrow Motor corporation, that 5,000 new shares of stock would be delivered deliv-ered to him, and that he would also be allowed to share in the $100,000 stock purchase warrants. Wonder if the Pierce-Arrow sales force is watching the charts for Maine and Vermont? -K French Lifeline Periled? 'THE Paris press disclosed that France considers herself in danger dan-ger of losing her possessions in the Near East and of having her air route connections with the Far East severed because of revolts in Syria. Censorship of the news out of Syria is strict, but some reports have leaked through which indicate the revolt recently quelled was a serious one. According to one dispatch dis-patch the population is extremely dissatisfied with the terms of the Franco-Syrian treaty signed last September 10. As soon as the proper prop-er machinery can be set up, the treaty provides, a unified Syrian state will be. formed from four of the five mandate areas, which the French hold in the Levant. Large sections of the population differ in religion from the Syrians in Damascus. They are willing to be governed by a foreign nation like France, as they have been for centuries, cen-turies, but they do not want to be subjected to the will of the Damascus Damas-cus politicians. -K Protests Lease of Ships T A NACION, influential newspaper 'of Buenos Aires, Argentina, caused some stir by vigorously protesting pro-testing the proposed leasing of obsolete ob-solete United Stales warships to Brazil, declaring that such an act would upset the balance of naval power in South America. Secretary of State Hull had written writ-ten a letter to the senate naval committee com-mittee asking congressional authority authori-ty for the leasing of over-age war vessels to South American republics. repub-lics. When the Argentinian objections objec-tions were noted, President Roosevelt Roose-velt pointed out that the vessels in question were obsolete, and were only to be used for training. |