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Show THE LEIII SUN. LEHI. UTAH Bruckart's Washington Digest President Hits Top in Precedent Breaking in Thanksgiving Change Stirs Up More Comment Than Any Statement Ever Emanating From a Chief Executive; Element of Uncertainty Injected Makes It Harmful. By WILLIAM BRUCKART U'NU Service. National Press Bldg., Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON. President Roosevelt' Roose-velt' ability to keep things stirred up has been demonstrated numerous numer-ous times since his accession to the White House. He seems to have a highly developed penchant for doing the unexpected. He calls It "precedent "prece-dent breaking." The results have been varied, although it strikes me that more of the "breaks" have been against him in recent months than when he first began to break precedents prece-dents as President in 1933. It appears, however, that Mr. Roosevelt reached a new peak in precedent breaking when he changed the date of our annual Thanksgiving day. Probably no statement ever forthcoming from a Chief Executive stirred up as much comment unless un-less perhaps it was the famous statement by Calvin Coolidge that "I do not choose to run." True, Mr. Roosevelt moved the date only one week, making this year's Thanksgiving Thanks-giving day, Thursday, November 23, instead of November 30. The effect was the same, however, whether the change was one week or one month. Next year, he proposes that the date should be moved forward another an-other week- so that thereafter the date upon which we pay homage to God, as a nation, will be the second Thursday in November instead of the last Thursday of the month. In announcing his plan, the President Presi-dent said he was desirous of rearranging rear-ranging the November holiday so that "holidays will be more evenly spaced." There is Labor day on the first Monday in September; there are no national holidays in October; Thanksgiving day in November and Christmas day near the end of December. De-cember. So, Mr. Roosevelt said it seemed better to move Thanksgiving Thanksgiv-ing day a bit forward. His action, he explained, was taken after many business men had urged it as a means of giving more time for Christmas shopping. It is well known that shoppers do not really get going on their Christmas buying buy-ing until after Thanksgiving day, and Mr, Roosevelt said the change might spread out the usual rush. Thanksgiving Day Change Stirs Up Unusual Comment Whatever the reason for the change, the announcement broke out all of the hissing steam that was pent up. Business interests here and there tried vainly to show a united front. But that was impossible impos-sible because retailers disagreed as to its possible benefits. There was no disclosure by the President of the Identity of those business interests inter-ests he had consulted. Some lines of trade felt that terrific damage had been done them and their shouts were angry. Religious groups have remained silent, as organizations, but their individual members have had unpleasant things to say about the change. Altogether, the picture seems to show a bad reaction throughout the nation. Let us look at the thing, however, how-ever, from a practical standpoint: Mr. Roosevelt made his announcement announce-ment without consulting the state department If he had sought advice ad-vice there, he would have learned that a presidential proclamation can be enforced only in the District of Columbia and the territories of the United States. No state needs pay any attention to a White House proclamation proc-lamation unless it desires to do so. Hence, the declaration that Thanksgiving Thanks-giving day shall be November 23, 1939, is binding only upon us folks here in Washington, and those in Alaska, Puerto Rico and Hawaii. There are 11 states that have laws fixing Thanksgiving day for the last Thursday in November of each year. Their legislatures are not in session. ses-sion. They will not be called into session again before the forthcoming forthcom-ing Thanksgiving day. Which day will they celebrate and praise God for the blessings He has given them? There is no national statute fixing fix-ing the date. It is a traditional ceremonial day, a day which, to Americans, means actually the connection con-nection between our economic life and the Almighty Power that guided our nation from its inception, the link between material things and religion. For the reasons of its establishment, establish-ment, it strikes me that there ought not be a national law on the subject. sub-ject. It is a sacred thing. Eut my guess is there will be a law and that law will say that the last Thursday Thurs-day in November shall be set aside as a national holiday for expression of our gratitude. I think such a law will be passed at the next session ses-sion of congress. Arouses Fear That All Oar People Are Being Regimented Mr. Roosevelt surely could not have guessed the repercussions, the backfire, that has greeted his announcement an-nouncement and that has continued in unabated fury. The politicians seized upon it for some of the dirtiest dirti-est wisecracks I ever have heard. I heard one that really warrants repetition here. The remark recalled re-called that King George, on his recent re-cent visit to North America, reset his birthday so that it could be celebrated cel-ebrated while he was in Canada that being a prerogative of a king and emperor. The question was then propounded whether our President contemplated a flexible holiday schedule that would permit celebration celebra-tion of events whenever the White House thought national morale was low. There is more to that remark than just a laugh. Behind the thought is an indication of a fear that all of our people are being regimented, told when to shout or when to weep, when to work and when to play, what to eat and what to wear and not to think, but to obey. Of course, it is an exaggerated viewpoint; it is not so exaggerated, however, that it is not possible of attainment. It is to be remembered that the people peo-ple of Russia, and then of Italy and then of Germany have gone through that very stage. It was a step which they took, and disregarded disregard-ed as unimportant. It led directly to the conditions under which those people now live and have their being, be-ing, regimented all, controlled, beaten beat-en down, living a life of fear. Now, lest I be misunderstood, I hasten to say that I believe there was no such thoughts as those in Mr. Roosevelt's mind. I believe his action was taken because of his ever-present urge to makehanges. There are many persons who hold that it was another move by the President designed to keep people from thinking of their troubles, to help them forget the terrible struggles strug-gles through which we have been, and are, passing. Take a Look at Practical Side of the Situation Again, as to the practical side and the results flowing from the breaking of another precedent: Let us consider first the lithographing litho-graphing and printing industry of the country. There are thousands upon thousands of other businesses that use the product of the lithographer lithog-rapher and the printer. Consider the calendar that hangs on your wall. It will show November 30 as the Day of Thanksgiving. The annual an-nual bill for calendars, paid for by industry and by each of us who buys a calendar, exceeds $100,000,-000. $100,000,-000. The calendars are not useless, of course, but the fact that the "calendar "cal-endar is wrong" has some indescribable inde-scribable effect upon me. Take the transportation industry. Officials begin planning many months ahead for tours, special rates, excursions. Public events and ceremonies have been scheduled. Each ties In with some other scheduled sched-uled for Thanksgiving day when Thanksgiving day was to be November Novem-ber 30. The printing industry has done its job for most of those things ahead even of today. What a mess that is going to be! Many editorials have been written, writ-ten, many interviews given out, con-cerning con-cerning the effect of the new Thanksgiving date on the college football "industry," for college football foot-ball receipts run into millions of dol lars every year. Through all of the years, traditional games the big games the peak of the season has been the Thanksgiving day game for hundreds of colleges. But if Thursday, Thurs-day, November 30, is Just another Thursday, what about the "gate" of those games? Element of Uncertainty Makes Change Harmful And that brings us to the crux of this situation. It is the element of uncertainty that Mr. Roosevelt injected in-jected into our national life by the change in one holiday date that is harmful. Instead of promoting a feeling of security, my hunch is that the President has spread un-certafnty un-certafnty and has caused confidence to crash in many a spot of which he never dreamed. Instead of creating cre-ating a net increase in business by making a longer Christmas shopping shop-ping period, I believe a cold analysis analy-sis will show that the change will cost the country, as a whole, many millions of dollars in net losses. Our nation has grown up, not in one piece, but in many pieces, each one fitted to another as smooth working as the gears of your automobile. auto-mobile. When the engine turns over, it exerts pressure on the clutch, then on the drive shaft, then on the gears and then on the wheels, and the car moves. When any one unit of industry in America any one phase of life is changed suddenly, the clutch and the drive shaft and the gears and the wheels of others are affected. More than any other one thing that has happened in recent re-cent years, I believe, the President's announcement proves how closely knitted our lives are. It shows, too, that government can wreck natfonal life as well as preserve and protect it. (Keleascd by Western Newspaper CtLon., WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Roosevelt Appeals to Germany And Poland to Try for Peace; England and France Mobilize (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are those of the news analyst and Released by Western in . ripcnPrii i-ffort to avert the to engulf Europe, President Roosevelt appealed directly to Chancellor Adolf Hitler of Germany and President Ignace Moscleki to refrain from hostilities for a "reasonable and stipulated period" and attempt to settle their difference by 1. Direct negotiation, 2. Submission of these controversies controver-sies to an impartial arbitration in which they can both have confidence, confi-dence, or 3. Agree to the solution of these controversies through the procedure of conciliation, selecting as concill-ator concill-ator or moderator a national of one of the traditionally neutral states of Europe, or a national of one of the American republics which are all of them free from any connection with or participation in European political affairs. EUROPE: Near the Abyss Through the doorway of historic 10 Downing street stepped Neville Chamberlain, prime minister of Great Britain, dressed in somber black and more grave-faced than he has been for months. Not even the cheers of the crowd which lined the streets as he made his way to the Parliament building, drove the gloom from his features. Standing in the house of commons, called in emergency session for the eighth time since the World war, the premier, twisting his hands and speaking in a strained voice, made a speech, heard by millions of listeners lis-teners all over the world. No longer long-er an "appeaser," Neville Chamberlain Cham-berlain told the members of Parlia- NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN "Imminent peril of war." ment that Germany was "in a condition con-dition of complete readiness for war," that Great Britain found itself it-self "faced with imminent peril of war," and that a German attack on Poland would mean certain and immediate im-mediate war. "The understanding we gave Poland Po-land was given before any agreement agree-ment was talked of with Russia, and it was not in any way dependent depend-ent on any such agreement being reached," he said. "How can we, with honor, go back on an obligation obliga-tion which we had so often and plainly repeated?" As he went on in a cold, firm voice reviewing the treaties which "formally define our obligations but do not in any way alter, add to or subtract from obligations of mutual assistance which have already been accepted" his listeners realized that he was telling them that Britain would go through with the present crisis to the bitter end, even if that end meant war. And the men who heard him, "appeasers" who had cheered his other "crisis announcement" announce-ment" that he was flying to Munich to talk to Adolf Hitler, now cheered his pledge that there would be no "appeasement" nowt Chamberlain opened his speech by the declaration that "new and drastic steps are required by the gravity of the situation" and that he hoped it would be possible for the Emergency Powers Defense bill, giving his government dictatorial, dictato-rial, wartime powers, to be signed by the king immediately after its approval by parliament Before that time the king had held a privy council at which he signed an order authorizing the government to mobilize the navy, naval reserve and the Territorials (home guard) when necessary. Meanwhile the ominous tramp, tramp, tramp of armed men was sounding in other countries directly direct-ly involved in the crisis. In Poland 500,000 more men were mobilized, bringing the total force under arms up to 1,700,000. In France 2,000,000 men were called to the colors. On this side of the Atlantic President Presi-dent Roosevelt cut short his North Atlantic fishing cruise and hurried back to Washington t ronfer with Secretary of State CordeU Hull and Undersecretary Sumner Welles. His first step was to send a personal message, via Ambassador William Phillips, to Kifg Vittorio Emanuel of Italy expressing the hope that Uie king would find som way of ' t 5 'j ; , , ,', BY HENRY W. PORTER are expressed in these columns, they not necessarily of this newspaper.) Newspaper Union, holocaust of war which threatens exerting his influence in behalf of the maintenance of peace. Five hours later Pope Pius XII, supreme head of the Catholic church, went on the air with an urgent ur-gent appeal for peace. Twelve hours before Great Britain's Brit-ain's parliament met in emergency session to give JNev-llle JNev-llle Chamberlain dictatorial dic-tatorial and wartime war-time powers, another anoth-er meeting was held in the massive-walled massive-walled Kremlin in Moscow. Its purpose was to put the finishing finish-ing touches on an act which had brought Europe to the brink of the abyss of war. Chief figures at this Ribbentrop meeting were Joachim von Ribbentrop, Ribben-trop, German foreign minister, and Viacheslav M. Molotov, Soviet premier pre-mier and foreign commissar. They were there to sign and seal in the presence of Dictator Stalin the non-aggression non-aggression pact between their countries, coun-tries, a secretly negotiated agree ment wnicn previa- f- ed one of the most .n sensational political ucvciuniciiLa in Europe Eu-rope since the World war. Under its terms, these two na- l ; i u uuus wiulu uave been bitter enemies for years, have agreed not to go to war against each other for at least 10 years. Molotov Not only did it free Germany from fear of having to fight enemies on the eastern as well as the western front, as she did in the World war, but it put an end to British and French hopes of getting Russia to join them in a tri-power alliance to "stop Hitler." Instead it gave him the "go ahead" signal for his plans for the dismemberment of Poland and it meant that if England kept her pledge to defend Poland, she and her ally across the English channel would have to do it without the support of the Soviet's 2,500,000 soldiers and thousands of planes. That is the unmistakable meaning of Article 4 of the non-aggression pact which stated that "Neither of the two contracting parties will participate par-ticipate in any grouping of powers which directly or indirectly is pointed point-ed against the other party to this agreement." Little wonder, then, that Germany should hail this coup as the greatest in a series of diplomatic diplo-matic triumphs by Der Fuehrer. Last act in this latest drama of world events which have been staged in Moscow was the departure by airplane of the saddened members of the British and French military missions who for four months have been trying to get wily Joseph Stalin Sta-lin and his advisers to sign a mutual assistance treaty with their nations. As they returned to their respective capitals and saw on every hand the feverish activity of mobilization they must have reflected upon the ironical ironi-cal fact that, when they left Moscow, Mos-cow, the Soviet press was hailing the pact with Germany as "a forceful force-ful instrument for world peace!" PAN-AMERICAN: Argentinian Trade To compete with the trade of "certain European countries" which have been "developing ' at our expense" ex-pense" and to remove the grtatest single obstacle to a united front in the Western hemisphere, the United States will soon sign a reciprocal trade agreement with Argentina. Ar-gentina. Announcement Announce-ment of this plan was made in Washington Wash-ington this week by Sumner Welles, acting act-ing secretary of state, who said that the negotiations 1 would begin at once Characterizing this Sumner Welles as a welcome con structive step in these unhappy times," Diplomat Welles let it be known that preliminary discussions, discus-sions, which practically guarantee the agreement going through, have been completed. When it does go through Uncle Sam will have offered of-fered his strongest inducement, the enlargement of mutual trade, to conciliate a nation which had stood at the other extreme of Latin America Amer-ica in policy as well as geography. Next to Canada. Argentina was the most important trade outlet for the United States in the Western hemisphere during the past year with its imports from this country valued at more than twice its exports ex-ports to its northern neighbor. No less important than enlarging this trade outlet is the fact thst this new agreement may forge another link in Pan-American resistance to totalitarian doctrines. if I ill v j AGRICULTURE: Milk Strike Off Kim Vnrk eitv housewives are get ting milk again for their children after a nine-day "droutn dui mcj are paying of a cent a quarx more for it. After two aay negotiation brought about by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, the strike of the upstate dairy h farmers came to an f' end when the C. I. f$ O. - supported Dairy Farmers' union voted vot-ed at Utica to accept the compromise offered of-fered by the New York Metropolitan Distributors organi- za"on- La Guardia The compromise provided for a blended price to farmers of $2.15 per 103 pounds (47 quarts). The dairymen' j union originally orig-inally demanded $2.35 a hundredweight hundred-weight instead of the $1.50 they had been getting. Two increases in price already had been made since the recent restoration res-toration of federal-state marketing control under orders set up by Secretary Sec-retary Henry A. Wallace. FAR EAST: Japan Says 'Nor Insisting that the economic questions ques-tions at Tientsin are "purely British-Japanese," the Japanese foreign office has rejected a British suggestion sugges-tion that other powers be called in to discuss the question. This rejection rejec-tion was Nippon's answer to British rejection of the Japanese contention conten-tion that Chinese silver deposited in foreign concession banks should be turned over to Japan and that British Brit-ish support of Chinese national currency cur-rency be withdrawn. The British had advanced the view that since economic questions concerned other nations, "all parties to the nine-power nine-power and other treaties must be given an opportunity to express their views." Althoueh the Japanese statement rejected this suggestion, it was careful not to close the door to fur ther discussions of issues growing out of Japan s blockade of the Tientsin Tient-sin concession. Meanwhile the killing kill-ing of two pro-Japanese Chinese policemen po-licemen and the wounding of six others by a British policeman in Shanghai threatened to develop into another major incident in Japanese-British Japanese-British relations. Announced the Japanese embassy: "We take a grave view of this affair." DOMESTIC: Silver Shirts on Parade A tale of visits with German and Italian embassy officials in Washington, Wash-ington, of conferences with Fritz Kuhn, German-American Bund leader, lead-er, of making arrangements with a group ef Arabs to picket a Washington Washing-ton hotel where a Jewish meeting was being held was unfolded this week before the Dies committee investigating in-vestigating un-American activities in the United States. It was told by Henry D. Allen of Pasadena, Calif., formerly active in the Silver Shirts of America and one of the sponsors of the American White Guard, short-lived successor to the Silver Shirts in southern California. More dramatic than the appearance appear-ance on the witness stand of the HENRY D. ALLEN Had Arabs Picket. Californian, who testified that the purpose of the organizations he represented was to "fight Jewish Communism," was the threat of the committee to prosecute 37-year-old Fraser Gardner of Washington whom they accused of seeking a job as a committee investigator in order to spy on its activities. Gardner Gard-ner first denied that he had any connection with William Dudley Pel-ley Pel-ley of Asheville, N. C. leader of the Silver Shirts, but when confronted with evidence that he was receiving $50 a week from Skyland Press, Pelley's publishing house, he cried: "As God is my judge and may I never leave this seat, the Skyland Press. Pelley or any of the people connected with him know of my application ap-plication to this committee." Unconvinced, Un-convinced, the committee asked for action by the United States attorney. attor-ney. After having uncovered plenty of evidence of Nazi and Fascist activity activ-ity in this country, the committee will next turn its attention to Communism. Com-munism. Chairman Dies has announced an-nounced First witness will probably prob-ably be Gen. W.G. Krivitsky. f0 merly a hlgh official of the Soviet mihtary intelligence division and author of a series of magazine articles arti-cles describing the work of Russian secret and political agents. ScS uled for deportation last month. Knvitskys departure was ddayed until e committee could queXon 7n vi i !"n"n V : : r "I : WHO'S NEWS THIS WEEK 'f :, , By LEMUEL F. PARTON NEW YORK. With Edward R. Stettinius Jr. as chairman, the newly announced war resources board can be expected to function , swiftly and War Board Chief sm0othly. The Runs Days on chairman of the board of Belt Conveyor y n 1 1 e d States Steel corporation goes from his home at 21 East Seventy-Ninth street to his office at Broadway and Rector by subway to save moments. He eats no lunch to save more time. He cuts through formalities with his many business callers and saves more. Stettinius is that reputed rarity, rar-ity, a rich man's son who has made good. His father became an industrial leader in St. Louis, and was invited to become a Morgan partner. The son lost little time after his graduation from the University of Virginia in beginning his business career, ca-reer, not because he had to, but because he wanted to work. He was 24 years old when he went into General Motors in 1924, 31 when he became vice president, 34 when he was made vice chairman chair-man of the finance committee of U. S. Steel and 38 when he took the top job as chairman of i the board. Modernity stands out in the strong lines of his figure, his crisp speech, and his attitude toward problems of politics and business. They say he nearly fainted when he first saw the office furniture of the 21 floors of the Steel Corporation building after he became chairman. The rolltop desks and similar items were unchanged un-changed since the days of Judge Gary. The refurnishing began immediately im-mediately under Stettinius and was thorough. , Mr. Stettinius plays neither bridge nor golf; he takes his exercise on the bedroom floor, and occasionally goes out to his 500-acre farm in Virginia. Vir-ginia. QWEN A. TOMLINSON, the man who forbade the building of an 11-foot mound on the top of Mt Rainier so that it might retain its u i, Jaw-els as third Holds No Honor highest moun. Lies in Artificial tain in the Adding of Cubits United States' was once a captain in the Philippine scouts under un-der Gen. J. G. Harbord. Before that he was a buck private in the United States army, in which, altogether, al-together, he served 14 years, participating parti-cipating in the Filipino insurrection. He was born in Whitestown, Ind., 57 years ago, and in 1923, after leaving leav-ing the army, he was appointed superintendent su-perintendent of the Rainier National Nation-al park. When Tomrinson, sorrowfully, refused to permit the Tacoma chamber of commerce to pile, as It were, Pellon on Ossa, thus bringing Rainier a foot higher than Massive of Colorado, he underwent some of the tribulations tribula-tions that used to be his when, as lieutenant-governor of the sub-province of Ifugao in the Philippines, he had some 130,000 head-hunting savages to handle. ' However, report has It that public pub-lic clamor Is dying down, a tribute to Captain Tomllnson's persuasive tact in convincing his fellow statesmen that little of the genuine honor lies In the artificial adding of cubits to stature. QEN. JUAN YAGTJE is named by Generalissimo Francisco Franco Fran-co as minister of air' in the new cabinet he has formed and of which Moral: TalkUp ? h" aamed r n- m . self as pre- io Dictator if mier. So far as You Know How advice from .... Spain are con cerned, this is the most favorable ew? concerning Yague heard since the fall of Toledo. Outspoken always, he Is the man who, In preliminary maneuvers ma-neuvers of the advance upon Lerida, accused Franco of sanctioning sanc-tioning the bombing of open cities and of sounding off too eloquently elo-quently In praise of German and Italian contingents in the Rebel rmy. For this contumacy, report re-port had him behind bars and Utei 'ii suicide-both, to quote Mark Twain, greatly exaggerat-ed. exaggerat-ed. Later, when he was removed from command of hi, Moroccan corps a personal disaster, specifically, he garrote. was reported to awaiting And , what? Nothing short of bestowal cf the aerial poftfSfo and the consequent strengthening of the spSf " backbone of (Consolidated FeatureWNU ServicoJ ' African Sin,:.. music report . "On ing in country chad. . ! of South Afri'a. fi vawmuon-growine ,.; Industry has .uffeS from activities of . i-f K nowa beetle this Africa. i iq fc,.. It has W "?:Uaul pounds of fwrrVSl 1,000 ton, of freight o;4 railroad. 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