HALL, PA. WHO'S NEWS THIS WEEK By LEMUEL F. PARTON NEV YORK.—Many years ago, i this writer, quite unintentional- ly, aided in making Dr. Ben Reit- mann of Chicago the first king of the . hoboes, by some Bindle Pete newspaper stories Seeks Hobo written with no King’s Head partisan or politi- cal intent. For some reason or other, my name got on the hobo mailing list as a “jungle judge’ or ‘shack’ or something and, from time to time, there comes fraternal greetings, campaign liter- ature or news of the order. The latest, from one ‘‘Bindle Pete,” is quite violently prejudiced against Jeff Davis, the present king, and says he is to be deposed because he rode to Europe on the Queen Mary and because he ‘has been working at Hollywood, helping coach the di- rectors in studies of hobo still-life. This department has been quite indifferent to the hard luck of kings in recent decades, but it would seem too bad if King Jeff Davis were de- throned. He has been a likeable monarch, bald and genial and dili- gent (perhaps that's the trouble) in the interests of his kingdom, and not making any trouble for anybody. His father, James Davis, was a journeyman of newspaper mechani- cal trades in Cincinnati, and young Jeff took to the road at the age of 13, covering more than 1,000,000 miles in his subsequent 40 years of ram- bling. He assails radicalism in the hobo brotherhood and says he will keep it 100 per cent American. He made more than 2,000 speeches on Americanism during the World war. How could a hobo ride these slick new chromium trains with the cat- fish faces? King Jeff probably is working on that. * * * V J HEN she was bad, she was very, very good, and when she was good she was horrid. Not ex- actly, but, in a rough general way, . that was the story Bette in of Bette Davis. Scarlett Hence, while other Marathon stars shy away from the hell-cat Scarlett O'Hara, as not their type, Bette Davis may take her on. Early in her career, Miss Davis played charming hellions with great effec- tiveness and didn’t seem to mind. She was Ruth Elizabeth Davis, a Massachusetts school girl, changing her name to ‘‘Bette’’ at the age of 12 in preparation for her stage ca- reer. She later changed her hair— it is brown—and her general make- up. Entrance to the theater came easily, after a course in a dramatic school. She went to Hollywood in 1932. Her first play, “Broken Dishes,” brought few cheers, but, with coaching by George Arliss and better casting, she hit the up-grade. Trying a break-away from War- ners in London in 1936, a ruthless British court condemned her to con- tinued servitude at a top salary. She is one of the few actresses who like unsympathetic roles and she plays them well. * * * TNTIL recently Franz Lehar was living in Vienna. The news that he is rewriting ‘“The Merry Widow" makes one wonder whether he finds Vienna still merry Lehar Now —whether young Rewriting writers still write Merry Widow their plays in the cafes along the Kurftenstrasse, as he did in 1905. The world has waltzed along quite a way in the interval between the original and rewritten versions. Herr Lehar got $300,000 from his overwhelming New York success in 1907. He waltzed it all right into the stock market and bade it good-by. He returned to his native Buda- pest, lost another lump sum of $75,- 000 and then became a good busi- ness man. His thirty or more operet- tas, five of which have been pro- duced here, have made him rich. He is, or was a member of the Vienna Rotary club, attending luncheons faithfully, singing club adaptations of old tunes, wearing a two-inch button with his name on it and engaging in friendly back-slap- ping—big and gregarious, 68 years old, with his lush mustache touched with gray. He was a ‘knapsack child,” as he put it, the son of a wandering musician. He was a child violinist. Dvorak persuaded him to hang up his fiddle and take to com- posing. © Consolidated News Features, WN rvice, The Grave of Confucius The grave of Confucius is in a large rectangle separated from the rest of the K'ung cemetery, outside the city of Q'iuh-fow, in China. A magnificent gate gives admission to a fine avenue, lined with cypress trees and conducting to the tomb, a large and lofty mound, with a mar- ble statue in front, bearing the in- scription of the title given to Con- fucius under the Sung dynasty: “The most sagely ancient teacher: the all - accomplished, all - informed king.” Agriculture Since 1933, Franklin Roosevelt's administration has enacted three major agriculture laws, spending $3,000,000,000 to end the woes of 30,- 000,000 people on 6,000,000 Ameri- can farms. Chief victim of this headache is Iowa's onetime Repub- lican, Henry A. Wallace, who turned New Dealer in time to become Pres- ident Roosevelt's one and only sec- retary of agriculture. No business can live by spending alone. To match its $3,000,000,000 outlay, Farm Relief’s five-year in- come has been only $969,258,000, ccl- lected in processing taxes before the Supreme court outlawed AAA in 1936. To replace AAA, congress en- acted a soil conservation measure calling for periodic land retirement. Last spring this was incorporated in an intricate crop control law drafted by the Farm Bureau fed- eration. By last week it looked like this latest panacea was failing. To Hen- crops, surpassing last spring's most fervent hopes. Prices were drop- ping, but that was only part of the problem. bought U. S. wheat, corn, cotton and tobacco have started buying from countries. crops, approaching self-sufficiency. That Henry Wallace deserved sympathy, was plain. Whether he department farm income his that fending qharges AGRICULTURE'S WALLACE He needed still more panaceas. dropped back to 1932 levels. His figures: 1938 income would 000,000. Not forgotten was the fact with government subsidies. war status, Secretary Wallace left Canadians a way of splitting the America’s two nations. When he gets back there will be more in- vestigation into the McAdoo-Eicher bentures, generally opposed on the grounds that price fixing against processors would place a new hid- den tax on consumers. But next winter, when Farm Re- lief is again thrown at congress, there must be discussion of the only panaceas yet remaining: export subsidies, federal price fixing and compulsory limitation. Domestic Since 1927, Mexico has seized $10,- 000,000 in American-owned farm lands. Last spring Mexico did even better, confiscating $200,000,000 worth of American-owned oil lands. A month ago, Secretary of State Cordell Hull addressed a courteous note to Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas, asking what his nation in- tended to do by way of repayment. A few days later came the blunt reply, stating in effect that there is no law or treaty making compensation ob- ligatory, but evincing a desire to pay when, and if, it is economically feasible. Cordell Hull mulled this unprece- dented answer through his mind for two weeks, then decided to try again with another tack. Scolded he: “It is proposed to replace the rule of just compensation by the rule of con- fiscation. Adoption . . . of any such theory . . . would result in the im- mediate breakdown of confidence and trust between nations.” Politics Not since early July had Franklin Roosevelt seen James A. Farley. Since then the former had made a cross-country tour, fished the Pa- cific and wished for the defeat of anti-New Deal legislators in Georgia, South Carolina, Maryland, New York. The other had been on his own fence-mending expedition, soothing ruffled New Deal nerves as only Jim Farley can do it. Last week Teacher Farley came to Hyde Park to see his most success- ful political student once more. Be- hind closed doors the President and postmaster general talked all after- noon, all evening, part of the next morning. Though no early official announcement was forthcoming, newsmen got their heads together, decided Jim Farley had urged the President to push his ‘purge’ of Maryland's Sen. Millard E. Tydings. Less enthusiastic, thought newsmen, was Jim Farley's reaction to “purge’ efforts against Georgia's Sen. Walter F. George and South Carolina's Sen. Ellison D. (“Cotton Ed’’) Smith, ® In Mississippi, where Democrat- ic nomination is tantamount to elec- tion, all seven incumbent congress- men were renominated by primary voters. Religion In a cabin near Merced, Calif., Mrs. Ola Irene Harwell sat read- ing the Bible to her husband and two small sons. In the Book of Matthew, Chapter XVIII, she read the eighth verse: “Therefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee cut them off and cast them from thee; it is better for thee to enter life halt or maimed than having two hands or feet to be cast into everlasting fire” She read the ninth verse: “And if thine eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee; it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye into hell fire.” Finishing, Mrs. Harwell picked up her scissors, walked to the wood- shed and gouged out one eye, hacked off one hand. Next day at a ced hospital physicians said would live, she By seven o'clock one night Soldier field was filled with 100,000 jitter- bugs come to enjoy a jam session. Outside, as police closed the gates, milled thousands of ot} who could not 20 dance orches er swing ¢ dicts get in watch amateur it. The mob gates, tore across ded til early next morr SWINngs grew, the turf where be had had gone hon 8 sodding, many Chrysanthemum, To cope with military-mad Adolf Hitler has been France's problem since the Nazi war leader As Ger- fortifications Paris designed her But fort- night ago when Adolf Hitler advanced her the French frontier, took counter steps, many ny's largest peacetime war games, Premier Edouard Daladier was Jerkin their midsummer sluggish- ness, he suc ing the 40-hour week to 48 hours, thereby boosting war industries, in- creasing general manufacturing out- put and aiding recovery. If he expected radical France to take this pronouncement quietly, M. Daladier was badly mistaken. Two cabinet members quickly resigned. Next day, Socialist Leader Leon Blum, whose cabinet was over- SOCIALIST LEON BLUM “The hour is too grave ...” thrown last spring, threatened to withdraw government support of his party. Paris labor unions met, plan- ning a countermove., Two hundred thousand miners threatened to strike by September 15. Along the Mediterranean coast, all stevedores struck and troops took their places. By week's end a potentially dan- gerous situation was apparently smoothed out. Said Leon Blum'’s party newspaper: ‘“We do not ex- ploit the difficulties which Daladier himself has created. The hour is too grave for that, Next evening M. Blum and M. Daladier talked half an hour over the telephone, seeking conciliation to avoid a crisis while Germany is strutting her military strength. Still unsolved, however, was the problem of finding jobs for 340,000 unemployed now on relief— 30,000 more than a year ago. Appar- ently a longer week would only make this number larger, Labor Last week American workers could look to September as the big- gest month of their year, That wide- ly observed Labor day falls in Sep- tember was incidental. What proms ised to make news was another out- break of the tiff between William Green's American Federation of La- bor and John Lewis’ Committee for Industrial Organization. At Atlantic City, A. F. of L.'s ex- ecutive council made plans for its annual meeting in Houston. At Washington, C. I. O. thought about C. 1 0S JOHN LEWIS Will he bow to the ladies? titutional convention atively in September That each group would the other was a certainty, but the biggest lambasting could be expected not at Houston or Wash- but at Mexico City. There, on September 5, Mexican and South American labor unions meet Vincente Lom- a Mexican labor its first con or October. lJambast . Green says is 3 st or extremely succeed leaders have fai led. Sweltering in 140-degree heat, Japanese troops captured Juichang for their first notable victory since the occupation of Kiukiang on July 26. Still 110 miles from their objec. tive, Hankow, Nipponese warriors anticipate from 1.000.000 soldiers strong resistance and 200,000 ci- mobilized. @® For more than one year England ] labored to perfect a 27-nation for withdrawal of foreign troops from war-torn Spain. Last ship pact carried an “‘unwritten agreement” that Benito Mussolini would co-operate in this ambitious plan. But fortnight ago Rebel Gen- eralissimo Francisco Franco blunt ly rejected the non-intervention idea, effectively shattering the An- gle-Italian pact. At Rome one day last week, Brit- ish Charge d'Affaires Sir Noel Charles paid a visit to Count Gale- azzo Ciano, Italian foreign minister. Count Ciano formally announced that Rome is sending new reinforce ments to Generalissimo Franco, Simultaneously, 80,000 rebels were hurled against Catalonia’s western ist divisions. Aviation ard Campbell entered an airplane, delayed their takeoff while a friend gave Commander Hawks a four-leaf clover for ‘good luck.” Minutes later their ship soared, tripped over telephone wires, crashed. At a Buf- falo hospital died the man who set a non-stop Los Angeles to New York record in 1929. Later, Broker Camp- bell also died. @ Forty-five per cent of the stock in China National Aviation company belongs to Pan-American Airways. One day last week, Pilot Hugh L. Woods was flying a China National liner near Canton when Japanese warplanes hove into sight, forcing him to the ground. While Pilot Woods watched, helpless, 14 Chinese passengers were machine-gunned to death. Next day Pan-American asked the United States government for protection, People In January, 1937, Columbia uni- versity's Roswell Magill left his aca- demic post, became the United States treasury’s chief tax expert. Last week Roswell Magill made use of his previous understanding with Franklin Roosevelt, resigning to teach law once more, Senator Persons to Be Hit. considerable amount of courage for an active politician to talk about it is a hopeful sign when one tells the truth about such a politically When Sen. Pat Harrison, the veteran Mississippi Democrat, announced the other day that new taxes are coming, there- fore, it became a matter of mo- ment. It was significant first that Senator Harrison, speaking as chair- man of the powerful se finance committee, should boldly say there nificant in the second place because Benator Harrison has not always stood shoulder to shoulder with the New Dealers. But there is another federal treasury deficit of something like $4,000,000,000 staring us in the face, and the size of it indi- cates that no progress has been made whatsoever in curtailing federal spending. It tells us, too, that the much ballyhooed business recovery of a year ago is yielding less in taxes than had been calculated by the wish- ful thinkers. Thirdly, the probable seems to show there some merit in the ass Senator Harrison and otl gress last winter that some of th L New Deal are g the was at ertions ers In Corn licies the levies taxes must More Persons to Be Hit by Federal Taxes TL - vwhat sources; opie who never hav paid the federal govern- ment before are going to pay hereafter. I am referring to income taxes, directly, but the way the pic- ture looks to me, there will be more taxes that are indirect—and they hit everybody. taxes Ww them there will never be any chance of a balanced budget, and if the future does not bging forth a balanced budget, we may as well kiss our democratic form of government good-by. The reason 1 say there must be additional * taxes,” levies that are included consumer such as the cigarette tax, is that Senator Harrison's own state- den Waste, wreckage, nit-wit plans and | programs—all have cost billions of | dollars. As everyone knows, new | taxes are added, a greater perce | age of the country’s tants are included. So, maybe the Harrison has a two-fold purpose mind, and it takes courage for hir to have either one of the two ideas because he is i sees the neces curtailment of federal sg realizes at the s: life of a polit when veteran nding aver some or » Bankers of Country Some tim ngress n how th oney. It was since It ¢ sharp practices of which some ers had been guilty. | On top of months basted d law this law, some 10 or 1 lat 2 x 1 = Sh later, Mr. Roosevelt X 4 avs ie ie Danke ier on those of, say, $10,000 income and above. revenue gained in that field that there are not enough of those taxpayers. Bureau of internal rev- enue statistics prove that about 60 per cent of the country’s income earners have less than $2,000 per family. As the laws now stand, a person who is married and has an income of $2,000 or less need pay no tax. So it is seen that only a mere drop in the bucket of new revenue can be obtained in that direction, wholly because if all of them were taxed the amount still would be small. Yet, any serious attempt to taxes that apply generally. To Search for New Tax Possibilities Senator Harrison's committee will search through all of the various tax possibilities in the next three or four months. It will have to do that. The house committee on ways and means, which considers tax leg- islation in the house, will not have the courage to go as far in adding to the tax burden. It nevur has had that much courage for the reason that its members come up for elec- tion every two years—and, again, taxes are unpopular things for a pol- itician. Thus, we will have to look to the Harrison committee if prog- ress is made in bringing the nation’s tax receipts into some relation with its spending. The addition of new taxes is a serious matter, yet it appears that new taxes capnot be avoided. We have had our play time, our fun. We have danced; now, the fiddler must be paid. When new taxes are added, the buying power of every person paying the tax is reduced by that amount. But through five years, money has been spent by the government in ways that put to shame the famed drunken sailor ashore for the first time in a year. 288, 1 think the time will when the country will regret law, but that is neither here { there. It is on and the fed 1 deposit corporation has a fun hat banks are properly run. wi 1 rm wu Another Depression Was the Result There came the time when Mr. Roosevelt's policies failed to work ny better than those under Presi- dent Hoover, and we had another depression on our hands. Mr. Jesse Jones, chairman of the Reconstruc- tion Finance corporation, either of his own volition or by White House urging, made several speeches and statements to the bankers as the de- pression got really bad. He sought to stem the tide by persuading the bankers to make more loans. Some of us here got the impression that Mr. Jones wanted the bankers to shove out the money and ask later on whether they could get it back. Anyway, the sum and substance of the situation was that Mr. Jones was urging the banks to find ways to loan money. Then came the climax, the peak, and the laugh. Hardly had Mr. Jones concluded his series of lec- tures to the bankers (who, accord- ing to the Jones picture, really did not want to make money) when an- other government agency gets into the play. The Federal Deposit In- surance corporation had something to say about the bankers, and Chair- man Crowley issued a statement to all and sundry bankers. Said Mr. Crowley, in substance: Bankers, the FDIC insures your de- posits up to $5,000 per depositor; thus they are protected. But that does not mean you can take a chance on unsound loans. You can't take any greater risk than you would if there was no insurance of the deposits. Just remember that, boys be careful and don’t Voit © Western Newspaper Union :
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers