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Show News Review of Current Events the World Over Russian Conspirators Against Stalin Plead Guilty Italy and France Sparring Over Spain Roosevelt Roose-velt Primed for Drouth Area Tour. By EDWARD W. PICKARD Western Newspaper Union. SIXTEEN men, arraigned In Moscow Mos-cow on charges of plotting the assassination of Dictator Josef Stalin and the seizure of power in the Soviet republic, r . " ' ' I calmly pleaded f", '1 guilty. Two of them, f ""'A Gregory Zinoviev I ' 1 and Leo Kamenev, I ' were members with ; Stalin 13 years ago of a triumvirate ?- i 1 that governed Rus- ? e- J sia and are well f ' known to the outside iUkxh world-e cn'cs; sions did not end Gregory lne trial or the de. Zinoviev rendants contradicted contradict-ed and accused one another until the case was in a jumble. Some of them, like Zinoviev, proudly accepted ac-cepted responsibility for the plot, which was said to have been engineered engi-neered by the exiled Leon Trotzky. It was believed all sixteen would face the firing squad. Twelve more men and one woman, wom-an, the government announced, were held for examination and probable trial. Some of these were involved by the confessions of the sixteen conspirators. In the case or. trial the defendants defend-ants revealed the fact that not only were they plotting the assassination of Stalin and four others, but planned also to betray Trotzky and place Zinoviev and Kamenev in supreme su-preme power. Trotzky, at Hoenefoss, Norway, scoffed at the Moscow proceedings as "humbug," "For political vengeance," ven-geance," he said, "the trial puts the Dreyfus scandal and the reich-stag reich-stag Are in the shadow. The confessions confes-sions were forced by the 'Ogpu' (secret police), which gives the accused ac-cused a choice between confession according to the Ogpu's desires and taking lesser penalties or death." . PREMIER MUSSOLINI, insisting that neutrality in the Spanish war must mean absolute nonintervention, noninter-vention, suddenly put Italy's air force of 1,500 war planes in readiness readi-ness for flight to the aid of the Spanish rebels if France would not abandon her support of the Madrid regime. News of this stirred the People's Front government of France to indignation. in-dignation. Officials in Paris said if Italy sent arms and munitions to the rebels in Spain or otherwise openly aided them, France would have to abandon her neutral position posi-tion and help the socialists. For a day this situation alarmed the statesmen of Europe, but soon it was stated in both Rome and Paris that negotiations for the neutrality neu-trality accord were going forward nicely with prospects for a satisfactory satis-factory agreement that would include in-clude both Italy and Germany. Whether Germany would come in, however, was still in doubt. Berlin Ber-lin was further provoked against the Madrid government by the stopping stop-ping and search of the German steamer Kamerun by Spanish warships war-ships off Cadiz. German warships were ordered to protect German shipping "by all means" and the German charge d'affairs at Madrid was instructed to "protest immediately imme-diately and in the sharpest form against the action of the Spanish warships, which constituted a violation vio-lation of all international law." DISPATCHES from the French border said Spanish rebel warships war-ships finally had begun the long threatened bombardment of San Sebastian and Irun, j vj and that the loyal- , N S ists were carrying i" out the threatened 1 execution of the j 1,900 Fascist hos . $v- t tages they were j holding there. The 1 battleship Espana s.-s 1 fired a lot of heavy 1 1 shells toward Fort 'l Guadalupe but for a , j time at least was apparently not try- Wio ing to hit that CabaneUas stronghold because many of their sympathizers were held prisoners in the fort. The Guadalupe garrison garri-son was hesitant in returning the fire for fear that shells would fall on French territory. Already the French government was angered by the dropping of bombs on French border towns, though it was disputed disput-ed whether they came from loyalist or rebel planes. The Fascists captured the important impor-tant town of Badajoz, near the Portuguese Por-tuguese border, at the point of the bayonet, and were reported to have executed 1,500 government adherents adher-ents taken there. The rebels also reported a victory near Zaragoza after a bloody battle. General Franco met General Mola and "President" Virgilio CabaneUas at the northern rebel headquarters in Burgos and planned for further advances ad-vances of their ;outhern and northern north-ern columns on Madrid. CATALONIA, which for four years has been an autonomous region within the Spanish state, and which has been supporting the Madrid government against the Fascist rebels, reb-els, sees in the present conditions the opportunity to establish its full independence. The generalitat or government council decreed confiscation confis-cation of all private property; and then, "to eliminate dual control con-trol and place all responsibility in one place," all magistrates, judges and others appointed by the Madrid government were relieved of their duties. The council also announced it would act henceforth in complete independence in maintaining order. The Catalonian decree promulgated promulgat-ed plans for a single tax and speedy suppression of multiple taxation. The basis for the new tax plan, although al-though undecided, was presumed to be income, not land, as the large agricultural properties are to be collectivized. nOPE PIUS XI, addressing pil-1 pil-1 grims from Malta, took another whack at communism. Alluding evidently ev-idently to the civil war in Spain, he said: "The world is upside down, and sick from a grievous malady which threatens to become graver and more dangerous still. It is not necessary to say to you Maltese what this illness is, because you have a definite part in the tribulation. tribula-tion. "There is only the hand of God to aid humanity and put an end to the horrible massacres which are going go-ing on and all the offenses against human fraternity, against religion, priests and God." PREPARATIONS for President Roosevelt's trip through the drouth region of the Middle West were practically completed and the Chief Executive was supplied with all the facts and figures needed to give him a comprehensive understanding under-standing of the situation before starting. This information was furnished fur-nished mainly by WPA Administrator Administra-tor Harry Hopkins, who was selected select-ed to accompany Mr. Roosevelt on the tour. Mr. Hopkins told the President that in the drouth area 90,000 persons already are on the WPA payrolls and that the number eventually will be 120,000 to 150,000, the relief work being continued through the winter. At this time the cost per man is about $50 a month. Additional appropriations by the next congress will be necessary, Hopkins said, to care for the load placed upon his organization by the drouth crisis. The amount of new money necessary has not been determined. de-termined. Estimates of the amount of money mon-ey deemed necessary to meet the situation in the "dust bowl" were given the President by Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau and Acting Budget Director Daniel Bell. NEITHER Fascisim nor Communism Commu-nism will be tolerated in Czechoslovakia, Czech-oslovakia, which is "a firm, indestructible inde-structible lighthouse of democracy," democra-cy," said President awKs. Eduard Benes in a f ' speech at Reichen- f berg. But he told the German minori x- ty which he was ad s dressing . particular -k y 17 j ly, that he hoped ' that in the faU "the Locarno powers will f s Ji : be able to work out L a plan for general European co-opera- .. , . j President tion and that good . , , , . Benes neighborly relations rela-tions will be established between Germany and Czechoslovakia." Leaders of the German minority in Czechoslovakia charge that unemployment unem-ployment in their part of the country coun-try is greater than anywhere else in Czechoslovakia 73 unemployed per 1,000 population, compared with the state average of 38 per 1,000. They charge that this is partly the result of the government's failure fail-ure to place orders in German Bohemian Bo-hemian factories and failure to give state jobs to members of the German Ger-man minority. SOIL conservation compliance is to be checked by a system of aerial photography, if the experiments now being carried on by the AAA are satisfactory. The plan is still only on trial but several millions of acres have already been photographed, photo-graphed, it was learned today. So far it is proving cheaper and more efficient than the usual way of checking farmers' soil conservation compliance. The air pictures also are being extensively used by the soil conservation service to map erosion and soil depletion and to determine de-termine remedies. STARTING its 1937 building program, pro-gram, the Nr-vy department opened bids on twelve new destroyers destroy-ers and six submarines. The bids came from private shipyards and estimates were submitted by navy yards, according to law. It was found that the cost of construction con-struction has advanced approximately approxi-mately $1,000,000 per vessel in the last year. THERE is enough wheat m the United States for the usual do- ; mestic requirements of the season j of 13U6 37, according to the midsummer mid-summer report of the bureau of agricultural ag-ricultural economics, but the supply of red spring wheat and durum is short and consequei tly importation of those varieties will be continued. The amount, however, will not be large, Secretary Wallace stated. "It is probable the spring wheat mills in the 1936-'37 season will use a larger percentage of hard red winter and Pacific northwest wheat than last year," said the report. "A larger than usual quantity of soft red winter wheat is also likely to be used in bread flour.- As a result, re-sult, imports of milling wheat may be less than in 1935." Wheat prices in the United States may be expected to average about as high relative io world price levels lev-els as during the 1935-'36 season, when the price of No. 2 hard winter at Kansas City was 15 cent? over Liverpool, the bureau said. During the last three years short crops together to-gether with other influences resulted result-ed in wheat prices in the United States being maintained unusually high relative to the world market price. "Farm prices probably have been 20 cents to 30 cents higher than might have been expected with more nearly normal yields in the United States," the report continued. contin-ued. "A return of average or greater great-er than average yields in the United States would result in an export surplus sur-plus and prices would adjust toward to-ward an export basis. "The acreage seeded for the 1936 crop, 74,000,000 rcres, was the second sec-ond largest in history, and seedings as large for the 1937 crop would produce fully enough wheat for total to-tal domestic utilization even if yields should turn out to be one-fourth one-fourth below average." PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT was at his best as a radio orator when-he when-he addressed the summer camp at Chautauqua, N. Y., on foreign rela-f rela-f - sw? tions. He expressed v n's deep concern t J about tendencies in I other parts of the world and spoke bit- f $ I terlv about the vio- 1 lation of both the I , letter and the spirit p of international agreements "with- out regard to the i , simple principles of &muxSab& honor." President ..Qur closest Roosevelt neighbors are good neighbors," the President said. "If there are remoter nations that wish us not good but ill, they know that we are strong; they know that we can and will defend ourself and defend de-fend our neighborhood." Mr. Roosevelt said he had seen war on land and sea. "I have seen blood running from the wounded," he said. "I have seen men coughing out their gassed lungs. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. I have seen 200 limping, exhausted men come out of line the survivors surviv-ors of a regiment of 1,000 who went forward forty-eight hours before. I have seen children starving. I have seen the agonies of mothers and wives. I hate war!" . I Germans felt that Mr. Roosevelt's speech was aimed at them and resented re-sented his criticism. A Mexico City newspaper saw in it evidence that the Monroe doctrine was to be revived. re-vived. The press of Buenos Aires warmly applauded the address, one journal saying: "Without the intention of making a parallel between discourses recently re-cently heard from Rome or from Berlin and whi-:h proclaimed violence vio-lence and expansion as the two sole aims of the modern states, we recommend reading this dignified and sincere Roosevelt speech, ennobled en-nobled by the spontaneity of human hu-man content and with which Roosevelt Roose-velt raised his figure above the stature of all dictators." SEVEN minutes of lively fighting put Joe Louis of Detroit once more on the road to the heavyweight heavy-weight championship. He made his come-back by knocking out Jack Sharkey, one time title holder, in the third round at New York. The Lithuanian sailor from Loston was plucky enough but proved no match for the much younger negro. Louis now wants an immediate return re-turn match with Max Schmeling, but the German insists his next fight must be with Jim Braddock, the champion. FOLLOWING the recommendation of Father Charles E. Coughlin, the National Union for Social Justice, Jus-tice, in convention in Cleveland, indorsed in-dorsed the candidacy of Representatives Represent-atives Lemke and O'Brien, heads of the Union party ticket But, also on the advice of the priest, the Lemke platform was not indorsed. The 25,000 members of the N. U. S. J. present enthusiastically and unanimously elected Father Coughlin Cough-lin president of the organization. Lemke and O'Brien both appeared before the convention, delivered speeches and were given a rousing reception. AN EQUITY suit attacking the constitutionality of the commodity com-modity exchange act, chiefly on the ground that it seeks to regulate in- ; trastate rather than interstate commerce com-merce in violation to the Constitution, Constitu-tion, was filed in the federal district dis-trict court in Chicago. In his petition Mr. Moore asked that the commodity exchange act be declared unconstitutional, void, and unenforceable. |