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Show Weekly Nvs Ilviv 1 Gigantic Military Bluff Game Focuses Attention on Europe Uy Joseph XV. Lallinc Foreign i Seldom had the world seen such furious shadow boxing. In France, 100 motor busses burned up the roads, carrying troops to the frontier In a maneuver that made Frenchmen recall Gen. Joseph Simon Gallieni's taxicab roundup ot 1914. Premier Edouard Daladier's cabinet, which a fortnight ago had shuddered at the Idea of a longer work week, now condescended meekly. And Paris looked to England Eng-land as a frightened child looks to Its mother. Back to London rushed German Ambassador Sir Nevile Henderson. Back, too, rushed vacationing cabinet cabi-net members. In the morning, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain walked his wife around St. James' park as if nothing had happened. But by afternoon his cabinet was immersed in gloom. Echoing puzzled puz-zled Britain's thoughts, the isolationist isola-tionist Daily Mail cried: "The British Brit-ish public are disquieted ... rumors ru-mors of all sorts go 'round, but from official sources people hear nothing. It is time that the British public were frankly told what is happening." Much would Mr. Chamberlain have paid to know what was happening. happen-ing. Cause of this international fussing fuss-ing was Reichsfuehrer Adolf Hitler, who even then was doing some fussing fuss-ing of his own. Two days before, England's Sir John Simon had warned Germany to keep its hands off little Czechoslovakia, on pain of war with Great Britain. But Adolf Hitler answered this bluff with a new bluff, preparing to keep his 1,000,000 reserves under arms until mid-October. Flying from one frontier fron-tier to the next, Dictator Hitler proudly surveyed the war machine that all Europe fears he will soon point at Czechoslovakia. For more than a month, Britain's Viscount Runciman has struggled to arbitrate differences between Czechoslovakia Czech-oslovakia and her 3,500,000 rebellious rebel-lious subjects, pro-Nazi Germans living in the Sudeten region which fronts Greater Germany. While Adolf Hitler's official newspapers Whip up Nazi resentment against Czechoslovakia, Sudetens themselves them-selves have been doing their best to stir up trouble Their leader, Konrad Henlein, has obeyed Herr Hitler by refusing all mediation efforts ef-forts by Viscount Runciman or Czechoslovakia's government. Since Germany would" quite likely gobble up the Sudetens if given an opportunity, Great Britain has strongly protested Konrad Henlein's demand for autonomy. Last week, after sitting calmly through these protests, Sudetens pointed an admiring admir-ing finger at England's autonomy arrangement with Ireland (Eire). While Viscount Runciman blushed, they asked why a similar arrangement arrange-ment could not be made between Czechoslovakia and themselves. After a week's bluffing, the end was not yet in sight. For his part, Fuehrer Hitler bluffed that he wanted want-ed (1) complete autonomy for Sudetens; Sude-tens; (2) repudiation of Czech alliances al-liances with France, Russia, Poland; Po-land; (3) Czech non-aggression pact with Germany; (4) Czech customs union with Germany. Though Europe Eu-rope was jittering badly, the disinterested dis-interested observer could count noses and find Adolf Hitler forlornly friendless. Lined against him were France, Britain, Russia, Czechoslovakia. Czechoslo-vakia. Silent, but presumably favoring fa-voring the Czechs, were Rumania, Jugo-Slavia. Even his best friend, Benito Mussolini, warned he would not intervene in the Sudeten squabble. squab-ble. Politics Last month. South Carolinians were treated to the unique political show that no other state can boast. Since law demands it, three Democrats Demo-crats running for U. S. senatorial nomination traveled together, stayed at the same hotels, denounced de-nounced each other daily from the same platforms. These men were: Ellison D. ("Cotton Ed") Smith, who has stayed a South Carolina senator 30 years by championing I 1 f -v- 1 Y ' SOUTH CAROLINA'S SMITH Southern womanhood was vindicated. three stock issues white supremacy, suprema-cy, the price of cotton. Southern womanhood. Under Franklin Roosevelt's Roose-velt's party leadership he has been an "80 per cent New Dealer," opposing op-posing wage-hour and government reorganization measures. For his luke warm New Dealism, "Cotton Ed" Smith's defeat was asked last month by Franklin Roosevelt. God. Olin D. Johnson, strapping, 41-year-old World war veteran, who had Franklin Roosevelt's blessing. His chief campaign argument was that "Cotton Ed" once remarked a man could live in South Carolina on 50 cents a day. Actually, Governor Johnson misconstrued his opponent's oppo-nent's speech in the senate opposing the wage-hour bill. He really meant that South Carolinians could live cheaper than New Englanders. State Senator Edgar Brown, once Governor Johnson's colleague in the state Democratic organization controlled con-trolled by Highway Commissioner Ben Sawyer. Two days before the election, he withdrew and threw his support to Senator Smith. After weathering this stormy battle bat-tle as best they could, South Carolinians Caro-linians marched dutifully to the polls and sent "Cotton Ed" Smith back to the senate. That night, standing under a statue of Wade Hampton, the South Carolina governor who ended carpetbagging and Negro domination, Senator Smith donned his Red Shirts uniform (equivalent to the old Ku-Klux Klan) and intoned: in-toned: "No man dares to come into South Carolina and try to dictate to the sons of those men who held high the hands of Gen. Robert E. Lee and Wade Hampton!" A haven for old folks, California periodically gives birth to pension ideas. Townsendism arose there, so did Upton Sinclair's E. P. I. C. (End Poverty in California). This year's pension plan came from Sheridan Downey, a San Francisco lawyer who would pay $30 each Thursday to every Californian who is jobless or over 50. Downey pension would be paid in script, legal for taxes or goods. Pensioners Pen-sioners would stamp their warrants every week with 2 per cent of their face value, purchasing stamps with real money. At each year's end, every $1 warrant would bear $1.04 in stamps. The state would redeem it for $1 from the stamp fund and re- ! t CALIFORNIA'S McADOO He'll get S30 every Thursday. tire it. On this platform, Sheridan Downey ran for Democratic senatorial sena-torial nomination against 74-year-old William Gibbs McAdoo, incumbent. Last July, Franklin Roosevelt spent three days with Senator McAdoo, Mc-Adoo, asked Californians to re-elect him and censured Candidate Downey's Down-ey's campaign as "Utopian." Same day as South Carolina defeated de-feated Franklin Roosevelt's candidate candi-date (see above), Californians also exercised their franchise. All day they voted, and at Los Angeles the excitement rose to fever pitch. A short, sharp earthquake was felt. By midnight, the President heard about his second defeat of the day. Candidate Downey was nominated. Next day, California's Supreme court met to decide the legality of "$30 every Thursday." Aviation Once a captain in the Russian czar's guards, Alexander P. de Sev-ersky Sev-ersky came to the U. S. when he found himself an exile, established a name for himself designing speed planes. His latest ship: a low-wing, single-motored military pursuit plane which Aviatrix Jacqueline Cochran hoped to fly in this year's Bendix races. To test his new ship, Seversky flew from New York to Los Angeles in 10 hours, 3 minutes, 7 seconds, bettering bet-tering by almost 1 hours the mark set in 1933 by Roscoe Turner. Carrying a remarkable load of fuel in its wing-to-wing tanks, the ship can cruise 3.000 miles, would be a logical convoy for new U. S. "flying "fly-ing fortresses" that cruise 5.000 miles. . Miscellany Fifteen years ago. in 1923, an earthquake killed 150.000 Japanese in Yokahama. Night before this year's anniversary, sentimental Yo-kahamans Yo-kahamans retired, planned to spend the next day in mourning. At midnight mid-night there was a high wind. At 2:45 a typhoon struck, collapsing houses, grounding steamers, flooding flood-ing streets. Pushing on to Tokyo, the typhoon killed hundreds. Thus was an earthquake's anniversary observed. Labor Since coming to the U. S. from Australia, Alien Harry Bridges has become John Lewis' chief C. I. O. aide among Pacific coast maritime workers. Last month the un-Ameri-canism committee of Rep. Martin Dies (Dem., Texas) produced interesting inter-esting charges about Harry Bridges. The charges: (1) That he is a member of the Communist party, having been seen paying a $2 assessment and membership mem-bership dues; (2) that he is more interested in advancing Communism than the interests of his maritime - . . j I ,f , : . ' ' ?-:: ' - j I y i , $ MADAME SECRETARY PERKINS Shirley Temple vs. Harry Bridges. workers; (3) that he once said "To hell with the President of the United States"; (4) that he claims more power behind him than the U. S. government; (5) that Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins had more than enough evidence to deport him. Harry Bridges' deportation was blocked last April pending a court ruling which does not forbid aliens to belong to "the Communist party or any other party except one which teaches overthrow ... of the government gov-ernment of the United States." But, armed with his evidence, Chairman Dies demanded that Secretary Sec-retary Perkins resume deportation action against Harry Bridges. Next day came the answer: "It is not usual for the legislative branch ... to attempt to usurp the functions and duties of the administrative ad-ministrative branch. I cannot accept ac-cept your analysis and evaluation of the evidence ... as it appears to have been made without sufficient knowledge of the law . . ." "Perhaps it is fortunate that Shirley Shir-ley Temple was born an American citizen and that we will not have to debate the issue raised by the preposterous pre-posterous revelations of your committee com-mittee in regard to this innocent and likeable child." Plainly, Madame Secretary Perkins Per-kins did not intend to deport Harry Bridges, and Representative Dies could do nothing about it. Crime At Philadelphia's county prison, 600 convicts went on a hunger strike. Three mornings later, 25 ringleaders ringlead-ers were led to the one-story "Klondike" "Klon-dike" building with its row of tiny cells, each 3 feet long by 4 feet wide. Into each cell, whose doors are solid sol-id except for a slot, whose walls are lined with disproportionately large radiators, guards tossed four or five prisoners. Then they turned on the heat. By noon the convicts were suffering. suffer-ing. By nightfall they fought for the privilege of sucking air through the door slot. By midnight they prayed on their knees for guards to turn off the steam or shoot them. By next morning they cried insanely insane-ly and clawed at their own parboiled par-boiled flesh. By evening most of them lay senseless, but the heat was not turned off until next morning, when guards inspected their victims, vic-tims, four were dead. Into this modern black hole of Calcutta walked Coroner Charles M. Hersch to arrest four guards, charging charg-ing them with homicide. Prison Superintendent Su-perintendent William B. Mills said the men had died from injuries received re-ceived fighting among themselves, but Coroner Hersch thought otherwise. other-wise. As his investigation began involving in-volving not only prison authorities, but all Philadelphia officialdom as well, he threatened: "Before I am finished, everyone responsible for this revolting situation will be punished." pun-ished." Navy . Pet ambition of every navy is a fleet second to none. Never in U. S. naval history has a chief of operations opera-tions voiced absolute contentment with his equipment. Last year, as 1938's war scare was just beginning to sprout (see FOREIGN), congress approved a huge naval building program pro-gram to squelch its navy's growing inferiority complex. Last week, in the seventy-fifth anniversary an-niversary issue of the Army and Navy Journal, Admiral William D. Leahy made a remarkable statement: state-ment: "The new building program will give the United States for the first time a homogeneous fleet, well-balanced well-balanced and equipped with modern weapons and machinery." But naval satisfaction proved short-lived. Though the U. S. now has 18 capital ships. 8 aircraft carriers, car-riers, 18 heavy cruisers, 28 light cruisers, 144 destroyers and 56 submarines, sub-marines, plans were rushed to ask congress for 18 more ships in a 1939-40 1939-40 construction program. |