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Show I Weekly News Review Germans, Poles, Hungarians Covet Part of Czech Nation I By Joseph W. La Bine I 3tnsK3M, J , r-t if S I UTIMATC OF RACIAL MINORITIES X J Uf . C?S Iasya ESS ES3 E2! EZ3 CZECHOSLOVAKIA AND HER MINORITIES DISTRIBUTION Foreign "After 20 years of peace ue were overtaken by a violent crisis. Dynamic political forces . . . from neighboring states threatened our lands , .". England Eng-land and France, ttvo democracies, informed in-formed us that arbitration could not solve the difficulty . . . The government govern-ment could do nothing but accept the suggestion of the ttvo poivers . . , Nothing else remained, because ue were alone Thus, to her angry, downhearted populace, little Czechoslovakia explained ex-plained why Sudeten borderlands were being ceded to Germany. Two days had passed since faithless England Eng-land and France had capitulated to Reichsfuehrer Adolf Hitler's demand de-mand for immediate "release" of the 3,500.000 German Czechs whose protests have kept Europe in a dither dith-er all summer. Further delay would bring invasion; it was the better part of valor to surrender. The terms: Predominantly German areas would be ceded immediately, while part German areas would be given a plebiscite. In return, Adolf Hitler would join in guaranteeing Czechoslovakia's future. But even while Europe began breathing easier, new troubles were brewing, mostly caused by the hopeless hope-less conglomeration of nationalities from which the Czech nation was carved 20 years ago. (See Map.) The troubles: In Prague itself, democracy gave way to semi-dictatorship as Premier Pre-mier Milan Hodza's cabinet resigned, re-signed, replaced by that of Gen. Jan Syrovy, one-eyed army chief. Meanwhile, Mean-while, blood splattered throughout Sudetia as Czech troops quelled Nazi riots. In Warsaw was heard a growing cry for "liberation" of 82,000 Poles in the Silesian Teschen belt which Poland lost to Czechoslovakia in 1920. In Budapest, Hungarians demanded demand-ed annexation of 700,000 Magyars in Czech territory contiguous to Hungary. Hun-gary. In Treviso, Italy, Premier Benito Mussolini decided treaties mean nothing in modern Europe, therefore urged complete split-up of Czechoslovakia Czecho-slovakia to satisfy Czechs, Germans, Magyars, Poles, Ruthenians, Slovaks. Slo-vaks. Meanwhile, Britain's Prime Minister Min-ister Neville Chamberlain and France's Premier Edouard Daladier ate crow. In Paris, a crisis threatened threat-ened in protest against the Franco-British Franco-British scheme whose stench almost paralleled that of the notorious Hoare-Laval plan for Ethiopia's partition. par-tition. Three cabinet members resigned. re-signed. In London, where the "sellout" "sell-out" created equal protest, Neville Chamberlain had good reason to worry about his Job. As the prime minister boarded his plane for Godesbcrg, Germany, and his second conference with Adolf Hitler in a week's time, there were some indications that Der Fuehrer might eventually reject the Sudeten settlement, might demand complete I division of Czechoslovakia among Germany, Poland and Hungary. Only definite fact was that Germany Ger-many had bluffed her way into Europe's Eu-rope's No. 1 position, relegating both France and England to the classification classifi-cation of second-rate powers. Domestic New England had already weathered weath-ered three days of rain when tropical trop-ical storm warnings were posted on Florida's east coast. By midnight the hurricane was safely past Florida, Flori-da, far at sea. Next morning Jacksonville Jack-sonville warned North Carolina's capes, but high tides and wind had already spread the word. By noon the weather bureau at Washington ordered storm warnings posted from Atlantic City to Eastport, Me. By late afternoon the storm hit Long Island's fashionable Wcst-hampton Wcst-hampton with a 90-mile wind, a 40-foot 40-foot tidal wave. Luxurious homes on the sand dunes were blown to sea and bodies were scattered for miles along the beach. The storm's full force had struck the Island from Montauk down to Queens and Brooklyn. Brook-lyn. Roaring across Long Island sound. It brought flood, wind and fire to Connecticut in n night of horror that cost $30,000,000. At Providence, It. I., waves that broke 1.000 feet Into the cily left 2.r feet of water In some streets. By the lime It reached Mnss.ichur.ftts, four days (if rain had already swollen rivers to flood stage. As only a hurricane can, it ripped northward into New Hampshire Hamp-shire and Vermont, thence across to Montreal where it took two more lives before playing out. I'.chinil was a picture of ani.'iing olal ion that stretched acio: s six slab-:. Next (h.V began tin- 1 . i j , t rehab re-hab i hi a I ion job since I'.i.'i'a : in mg floods. With more than 400 dead, with property damage standing above $400,000,000, with thousands homeless, many communities were so hopelessly shattered they could not help themselves. To the rescue came the Red Cross, U. S. coast guard and WPA, while from Washington Wash-ington President Roosevelt ordered all federal agencies to give every possible assistance. Shortly after midnight. Southern South-ern Pacific's Chicago-bound Califor-nian Califor-nian pulled onto a siding at Tor-tuga, Tor-tuga, Calif., making way for the Los Angeles-bound Argonaut. Though Brakeman Eric L. Jacobson threw the switch, Argonaut thundered through, crashed head-on into the Californian to kill 12, injure 100. Told that he had opened a closed switch, Brakeman jLobson became hysterical, sh rf er and over: "I'm not craiySi don't know why I did it!" Politics All summer the U. S. has waited for Franklin Roosevelt to say yes or no regarding his third term candidacy. can-didacy. Only known facts were (1) that he would retire if a strongly liberal congress approved his legislative legis-lative program by 1940, and (2) that, having control over the Democratic Demo-cratic party, he would then be able to name his successor. Thus it was obvious why he strove to defeat such "obstructionist" senators as Iowa's Gillette, South Carolina's Smith, Maryland's Tydings and Georgia's George. But by last week, as primary season sea-son closed, the President's only ma- i r v . i i V? I V! : j 'k ' ' U f J fciiJ NEW YORK'S O'CONNOR Higgest fish in a summer's angling. jor success had been against New York's Rep. John J. O'Connor, defeated de-feated by administration-blessed James H. Fay, one-legged war veteran. vet-eran. Though Representative O'Connor O'Con-nor won Republican nomination (he entered both tickets), Candidate Fay is a safe bet next November since he carries both American Labor La-bor party and Democratic endorsement. endorse-ment. Since little John O'Connor was the biggest fish Franklin Roosevelt has been able to hook in a summer's angling, at best his so-called "purge" was only 25 per cent successful. suc-cessful. This means the President's program will not be completed by 1910, also that his tremendous personal per-sonal popularity would bog down If he attempted to choose his successor. suc-cessor. Though he can win votes for himself, he cannot do it for others. oth-ers. Apparently two choices remain open. Either Franklin Roosevelt will run for Democratic renomina-tion renomina-tion or lie x-;ii head a new third party, a step not considered unlikely in view of his recent promise to support sup-port liberals, whether Democratic or Republican. In Massachusetts, ex Gov. James M. Curloy staged n comehark. won Democratic gubernatorial nomination nomina-tion over the incumbent. Gov. Charles F. Hurley. Opposing him next November will be 41! year-old Leverctt Saltonstall. liberal Republican, Repub-lican, who scored three limes the vole of his three opponents combined. com-bined. In Wisconsin, where popular Gov. Phillip F. I.al-'nllette could be beaten only by n Demncratic-Repubhrnn Demncratic-Repubhrnn fusion ticket against the powerful Progressive party, November's Novem-ber's gubernatorial nice will again find three candidates: Governor I.aKnllctte, Democratic Robert Henry. Hen-ry. Republican .Julius IV Heil. Most interest will renter in the senatorial campaign, whore pemocratie Sen. I''. Ryan Dolly Ion: I face Rrpul,. lican Ah's.uwlrr Wiley and I'rogres-s I'rogres-s ive I h-i'inan I ,. I- kri n, cm rent ly lieul, nant governor. Business Foremost among American Industry's Indus-try's problem children are the railroads, rail-roads, who jointly fell $180,000,000 short of earning fixed charges during dur-ing 1938's first six months, whose proposed 15 per cent pay cut ($250,-000,000 ($250,-000,000 a year) is met by labor's allegation al-legation of financial mismanagement mismanage-ment and overcapitalization. Last spring, almost simultaneous with the wage cut announcement, congress received rail legislation but tabled it on the insistence of Wisconsin's Sen. Robert M. LaFollette, who argued ar-gued that pay cuts and government aid do not go together. Called for October 1 was a general gen-eral railroad strike which, under federal legislation, can be averted 30 days while a presidential factfinding fact-finding committee deliberates 30 more days after its report is submitted. sub-mitted. Though President Roosevelt plans to follow this procedure, he began thinking early in September in broader terms than a strike. To the White House were summoned three experts of rail management (Union Pacific's Carl Gray, Pennsylvania's Pennsyl-vania's M. W. Clement, Southern Pacific's E. C. Norris) and three experts ex-perts of rail labor (Railway Employees' Employ-ees' B. M. Jewell, Firemen-Engine-men Brotherhood's D. B. Robertson, Railway Labor Executives' George M. Harrison). Their job: To draft for next winter's win-ter's congress a long-range rehabilitation rehabili-tation plan for the $26,000,000,000 industry, in-dustry, one-third of which is now bankrupt. Though the President obviously ob-viously hoped to avert a rail strike by promising legislation, though steadily increasing carloadings plus the prospect of business recovery gave promise of obviating a wage cut, labor remained adamant. At the committee's first session, its three experts told management's three experts ex-perts that no legislation could be talked until wage cut demands were dropped. International Early in Depression it became apparent ap-parent that permanent recovery was a world-wide proposition. Thus, since 1931, each year has brought an International Management congress which woos international prosperity ; through means that have thus far failed to win international peace, namely, co-operation. j To Washington for this year's congress con-gress came 2.000 executives and management experts. But a fortnight fort-night ago. after the first day's session, ses-sion, it was plain that the weight of j American delegates would change 1 an impersonal discussion of business , ills into a field day for protests , against what U. S. industry cor.sid- , ers its No. 1 foe. the New Deal. j From France's Alex Brule came the simple analysis that most of 1 management's problems are reduc- j ible to human problems. Germany's Dr. Gorg Secbauer was interested i in "the social aspects of scientific i management." But one U. S. speak- er after another found reason to lay American business ills at the White ; House door. Samples: j Johns-Manvillc's Lewis H. Brown: ' "Adding to the misunderstandings ' between business and government ... is our present confused state of mind . . . We are torn between con- ; tradictions." j Westinghouse's A. W. Robertson: "Management . . . must struggle to ; maintain the cause of free enter- ' prise in a world threatened by too much regimentation." Labor's complaint came from Robert J. Watt, U. S. workers' dele- ' gate to the international labor office: of-fice: "My message to management ... is that you can have discipline and responsibility within unions as soon as you stop waging war against them and give your workers a chance to develop their own patterns of . . . discipline and responsibility." responsibil-ity." Soundest advice of all came from William Allen White, wizened editor of the Emporia (Kan.) Gazette, who LJJ 'Kf -r- J : r, i T A I -: ' . J . ; i . .. i k-J i --w....J i MPoiti vs i ninm whim: Capital K.u "jiut plain dumb." spanked both capital and labor while speaking as n "representative of the public." Editor White to capital: - "You were short-sighted for not seeing see-ing that the eight hour day was coming com-ing . . . You had to fight it, every inch, and make the consuming public pub-lic think you were greedy . . . You Were just dumb." Editor White to laboi : "The prop-er prop-er business of a labor union is to get higher wages, belter hours and good shop conditions . . . I'.ut when labor en masse plunks it ; vole for its own Ipobticall pally. Ihen the spirit o( loyally In gins to obscure labor's oh jrelives." Nel 1 1 . i -. Sen i v of Coniinorcr I'.ooel ('. Roner promised levs gov c Tlillient inlei feienco U Itll I.IIMIl." . |
