Foreign
Until he spoke at Nuremburg a
fortnight ago, Adolf Hitler had nev-
er given open, out-and-out promise
of assistance to Czechoslovakia's
Sudeten Germans, If his purpose
was to brew trouble, it was not
dong in coming. By promising his
exiled fellow Germans the right of
‘‘self determination,” Der Fuehrer
gave overnight rise to demands for
a plebiscite, demands which were
not long in bringing bloodshed.
Confident that frightened Prague
would tolerate anything, the hench-
men of little Fuehrer Konrad Hen-
lein organized demonstrations that
ended in riots which took six lives.
By this time the Czech government
was forced to show its hand. Tight
martial law was clamped on five
Sudeten towns, then on three more.
While a jittery world held its breath,
Fuehrer Henlein shot back an ulti-
matum that martial law be lifted in
six hours or his party would ‘‘de-
cline responsibility for all further
developments.”
In the next 24 hours Prague re-
jected the ultimatum, rushed troops
NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN
In a crisis, he took to the air.
to the frontier and won a brief se- |
ries of skirmishes that took on the
temporary aspect of a civil war.
Since further trouble would cer-
tainly bring Germany to the rescue,
since France and Russia are bound
by treaty to aid
since Great Britain must aid |
France, this overnight turn of |
events assumed international impor-
tance. In Berlin, the press cried
out at “terrors of the Czech police.”
France maintained her high-pitched
military machine and looked, as
usual, to London.
Next afternoon came the most
precedent-setting move yet made. A
thoroughly frightened Prime Minis-
ter Neville Chamberlain announced
he would take his first airplane ride,
crossing the channel to Berchtes-
gaden for a conference with Adolf |
Hitler. Said he: ‘I am going to
see the German chancellor because
. . discussions between him and
me may have useful consequences.”
Later the same day he landed at
Munich, sped to Berchtesgaden,
where Der Fuehrer was waiting.
For three hours Britain's strong
man talked to Germany's strong
man, then Neville Chamberlain
emerged to tell the world he was
returning to London, would come
back to see Hitler in a few days.
What happened at Berchtesgaden
was mere conjecture. Best guesses
said London and Paris seek a four-
power pact with Germany and Italy,
since Prime Minister Chamberlain's
visit was suggested by French Pre-
mier Edouard Daladier. No one
could figure how the source of this
trouble, Czechoslovakia, fit into the
picture, but it was clear Der
Fuehrer would accept little short of
outright autonomy for his Sudeten
friends.
The Chamberlain flight brought
little but gloom in Prague, where
resistance stiffened and an angry
cabinet ordered Konrad Henlein’s
arrest. But Fuehrer Henlein, who
had just broadcast a proclamation
demanding Sudeten union with Ger-
many, was already fleeing to Mu-
nich. In the mood she was in,
Czechoslovakia was ripe for loud
broadcasts that came from Moscow
that night, assailing Neville Cham-
berlain’s “sellout” to Fascism, urg-
ing Prague to ‘fight to the last”
against Germany.
White House
Like any other hospital visitor
with time on his hands, Franklin
Roosevelt waited impatiently at
Rochester, Minn., watching Son
James on the mend from his gas-
tric ulcer operation. Finally he
went riding on Minnesota's rain-
soaked roads, found his car mired,
stopped to chat 20 minutes with a
farmer about crop prices. Out-
come: The President promised he
would try to raise them.
From his special train,
served as hotel,
watched the outcome of his
“purge” (See POLITICS), also
watched nervous Europe (See FOR.
EIGN). Finally, interview-hungry
correspondents were told: ‘‘At this
time, Minnesota is not a news
pource for events in Europe, Mary-
land and Maine.”
Czechoslovakia, |
which
the President
Mr Roosevelt's worries about
5
Europe were obvious. To a nine-
year-old visitor who found him
studying Czechoslovakia’s map, he
advised: ‘Just now, more than
ever, it is necessary to remember
my geography lessons. So keep up
your interest in geography.”
That night the presidential special
left for Washington where Secre-
tary of State Cordell Hull waited
to talk diplomacy, where Secretary
of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau
Jr. waited to discuss U. S. money
and stock market action in the
event of war.
Politics
Until August 11, the word “purge”
had little application in American
politics. On that date Franklin
Roosevelt asked Georgians to de-
feat their Sen. Walter F'. George be-
cause: ‘‘He is out of touch with the
broad objectives of the party .
On most questions we don’t speak
the same language.”
Subsequently, ‘“‘purge’’ went after
South Carolina's Sen. Ellison D.
Smith and Maryland's Sen. Millard
E. Tydings. Both won anyway. Add-
ing to the President's consternation
was Maine's historically prophetic
election in which all Republicans
won, all Democrats lost. Only two
days later, Georgians voted to give
‘““‘purge’’ a final shellacking, to bury
with vengeance the gravest politi-
cal error Franklin Roosevelt has
ever made.
Day before Georgia's election,
Manager Edgar B. Dunlap of the
George machine could confidently
predict victory. Major reason was
the President's speech, but Manager
Dunlap himself was another treason.
One-time Georgia chairman of the
Birthday balls, once an RFC at-
torney, he was fired from the latter
job for political activity. Few Geor-
gia Democrats carry more weight.
Against red-suspendered ex-Gov.
Eugene Talmadge, against New
Dealer Lawrence S. Camp, against
Townsend Planner William G. Mec-
Rae, Manager Dunlap drove a cam-
paign that won handily. But while
renominated, so
Rivers with his ‘‘Little New Deal”
@® Among other results in a week
filled with primaries:
Frank Fitzgerald be-
torial nominees, respectively
In Utah, Dr. Franklin S. Harris,
president of Brigham Young uni-
versity, won Republican senatorial
nomination, will face Democratic
Sen. Elbert D. Thomas in Novem-
ber.
Business
No target of New Deal dislike has
been U. S. small business, though a
leading small town business man is
often regarded by his fellow towns-
men as the counterpart of big busi-
ness. Last spring, Franklin Roose-
velt called a meeting of little busi-
ness men at Washington, was later
shocked to see his conference turn
into a near riot.
Not the outgrowth, rather a re-
action from this meeting is the Na-
tional Small Business Men's asso-
ciation, founded by a letter-writing
letterhead manufacturer from
Akron, Ohio, Dewitt M. Emery.
Jokingly called “little in everything
but stature,” 6%-foot President Em-
ery solicited members by mail
from business firms not employing
more than 500 persons, not capi-
talized at more than $1,000,000. Pre-
sumably too inarticulate for mem-
bership are the butcher, baker and
LITTLE MAN EMERY
How little is little business?
grocer who fit into Franklin Roose-
velt’s more logical definition of a
small business man.
To Pittsburgh last week for their
first convention went Dewitt Em-
ery’'s little business men. Though
Pittsburgh's C. W. Elton hopefully
predicted 2,500 delegates, the first
day found a scant 200 whose re-
straint held discussion to a mini-
mum. Next day, with their num-
ber increased to 300, little business
men talked more freely. Drawn up
were resolutions which lashed
fiercely at administration policies in
relation to business.
Their demands: Free enterprise,
less waste, removal of excess bu-
reaus and employees, balanced
budget, lower taxes, sound money.
Crime
Fortnight ago, before his rackets
case against Tammany Leader
James J. Hines was thrown out of
court, New York District Attorney
Thomas E. Dewey was a good bet
to win Republican gubernatorial
nomination. Cause of the mistrial
was Tom Dewey's reference to
Tammanyman Hines’ alleged con-
spiracy in Manhattan's poultry
racket, a reference which Justice
Ferdinand Pecora thought consti-
tuted a breach of court etiquette.
Since Justice Pecora has a Tam-
many-Democrat background, it was
easy for disgruntled prosecutors to
mutter about political influence,
Day after the mistrial decision,
even the august New York Times
pontificated that ‘‘Justice Pecora
has made a profound mistake of
judgment.”
In its efforts to prove Politician
Hines had participated in the late
Arthur (“Dutch Schultz’) Flegen-
JUSTICE FERDINAND PECORA
*. .. made a profound mistake . .."
heimer’'s policy racket, the state
had spent $50,000, presented four
weeks of testimony, gone to great
pains guarding precious witnesses.
But Justice Pecora's decision had
hardly ceased echoing thro the
courtroom before Tom Dewey be-
gan planning his next move. Though
the Republican nominating conven-
tion was but two weeks ray
though Defense Attorney Lloyc
Stryker had sarcastically suggest
that a new trial be delayed until
‘after the political campaign,”
will probably
] h would
rush throug
precluc
tice
For ti
either ask Gov
designate
the case back to a county
rire fOr ¢ indictment ide cal +
Jury for an indictment identical v
thie
sii a ii a
Herbert Lehman t
another judge, ¢
Relief
As enacted, social security |
surance based on a man's li
earnings. 3ut Depression and Re-
cession have shown that some neve
For this reason, also because
has brought
pension
an alarming rebirth of
(Townsendism had
ers in the ngress)
social security will probably be re-
vised next winter in the face of
such “short cuts to Utopia" as Cal-
ifornia’s ‘'$30-every-Thursday’’ plan.
ideas
last con
100 suppo
Changes Franklin Roosevelt re-
portedly wants: (1) Beginning of
old age insurance payments in 1940
instead of 1942; (2) increasing mini-
mum monthly old-age payments
mums from $85 to $60; (3) pay-
ments to widows and orphans of
workers equal to those received by
a man retiring at 65.
Already announced are plans to
expand social security among 16,
000,000 now excluded: Farm Ila-
borers, domestics, seamen, federal
reserve bank employees, and pos-
sibly self-employed persons.
War
In theory the forlorn League of
Nations applies sanctions against
aggressor nations. Ineffective
against Italy’s Ethiopian campaign,
the league has been even less capa-
ble of spanking Japan for her Chi-
nese conquest. Fortnight ago, when
the league began its current ses-
tion. From Hankow went hundreds
of telegrams to league representa-
tives.
But last week all hopes were
dashed when a European crisis (See
FOREIGN) developed into such pro-
portions that China's complaint
drifted to the background. Only hope
remaining is that Great Britain will
force the league's hand to protect
her swiftly vanishing economic
domination of the Far East.
while, Jap troops continued creep-
ing up on Hankow, one-time Chi-
jective, and which they will ulti-
mately capture whatever the cost.
® In Spain, fighting practically
ceased on both sides as eyes turned
strengthened their positions.
Miscellany
On Utah's Bonneville salt flats,
Englishman John Cobb drove his
button-shaped, 2,500 horsepower
racing car 350.20 miles per hour,
capturing the record held by a fel
low countryman, Capt. George E
T. Eyston.
WASHINGTON.—There is a great
We are told in the
lines.
and
along liberal
1is spokesmen repeat
on the government payroll is saying
A lot of Republi-
ers, are saying it, too, and making
just as much of a mess of the propo-
the less slick-tongued
among the New Dealers.
Well, any way, at any cost, there
must be liberalism.
liberal, we are warned, the
will get us. The nation, its 130,-
000,000 inhabitants and all of their
works will sink to the depth of per-
dition. It's a very sorry situation,
indeed.
Recognizing the need, the urgent
velt undertook recently to define it.
I quote his words from a recent
speech in Maryland where he had
gone to try to bring about the defeat
of Sen. Millard Tydings in a race
for the Democratic senatorial nomi-
nation:
“For example, Mr. A is a compos-
ite conservative. He admitted that
in 1933, interest rates charged by
who wanted to finance a farm were
altogether too high: he admitted
that there were sharp practices, ex-
cesses and abuses in issuing securi-
ties and buying and
and bonds: he adm
hours of work s factory
too long: he &
pie, who became
no fat
id
were
t of their own, 1
» nitted
international econ
lation made farn
extremely hazardous
and he even
ul
lem; he adr
occupations;
had not kept pace
power of
with the buying
other kinds of workers
“But conservative Mr. A
declined to take
4
i
any lead in solvis
hese problems in co-operation
the government. He even found
fault with and opposed, openly or
secretly, almost every suggestion
that was put forward by those
belonged to the liberal school of
thought.
“Mr. B, I said, was a composite
He not onl imitted
needs and the prol
ce Mr. A,
but he put his shoulder under the
iiberal.
tive support to working out
ods, in co-operation with the govern-
the filling of the needs.
not claim that the remedies were
perfect, but he knew that we had to
start with something less than per-
fect in this imperfect world.”
Would Force Realignment
Of Politics of Country
Mr. Roosevelt's pronouncement
on what constitutes a liberal
had issued
newspaper correspondents at the
White House, saying that he had no
objection to election of “liberal Re-
publicans.”” Said he: “If there is a
good liberal running on the Repub-
lican ticket, I would not have the
slightest objection to his election.
The good of the country rises above
party.”
The importance of these two dec-
larations?
Mr. Roosevelt has cast the die
for a new alignment of political
parties. He has swept aside all
previous bonds that held men and
women within the Democratic par-
ty or the Republican party or the
lesser political groups and has said,
in effect, “Come with me into a
new fusion of forces and action.” Of
course, no one who has studied Mr.
Roosevelt's course since his politi-
cal ears were first pinned back in
defeat of his malodorous plan to
add six justices of his own choosing
to the United States Supreme court
could have failed to recognize this
eventuality. He was planning to
force realignment in politics in this
country for some months; but now
the thing is out in the open, and
the Democrats and Republicans,
it is their desire to maintain the
What will happen is quite another
question. Undoubtedly, the Demo-
It has to be so, because Mr.
election to the presidency in 1932
and again in 1936 as the candidate
of that party. So many of the for.
mer Democrats have become wed-
ded to the New Deal either by con-
viction or as a result of having won
office on New Deal coat tails that
there is no turning back for them.
Thus, there is a split, with those
who subscribe to the New Deal the-
ory of liberalism on the one hand
and the Democrats who adhere to
the hundred-year-old principles of
the Democratic party on the other.
There will be some Republicans
drawn into the new alignment, but
they will be fewer than the wing
formed from Democrats. The Re-
publicans who will go over to any
new alignment will be of the type of
Harold Ickes, now secretary of the
interior, Senator Norris of Nebraska
(who once wore a Republican label)
and others of the here-today-gone-
tomorrow category.
And further, as to what will hap-
pen: my observation is that these
so-called liberal movements don't
last very long. They crack up on
the very principles which are sup-
posed to be their foundation stones.
Always, there are too many “lead-
ers.” Every “liberal,” who cata-
logues himself as such, shouts about
it and produces plans for saving the
world wherever anybody will listen,
conceives himself to be a leader.
Someway, the ideas and ideals of
these liberal leaders always differ.
Each invariably takes the position
that his plans must be adopted
unanimously or the world will go to
pot.
Ideas Subject to Quick
Change; Try Something Else
Then, too, their ideas are subject
to such quick change that few of
them are retained very long. They
are cast aside something else
glamor. A case in
point is an incident of recent his-
tory. After New Dealer Senator
Pope had been licked for the Idaho
Democratic nor
by the yout!
was tall
for
nation for senator
il Worth Clark, there
the New Dealers
Senator Pope seek re-
election indeg r+ it was
posed and discu d vith
hethe 3 ator Pope
th of the La-
in Ida-
that
had a candidate for
the senate on their ticket. To the
suggestion that he withdraw and let
Senator Pope be their candidate, the
no sire
progressive
enough for us—and Senator Pope
had campaigned as a 100 per cent
New Dealer.
pro-
r
Mr.
sive ticket
nd, however,
1 said
ee! Senator Pope isn't
One can walk around the halls of
congress any when the session
is on and find hundred-per-centers
“reform’ must be
rarried ; it ' means.
And, in Washington,
where the really important head-
men of liberalism are to be found,
they are constantly fuming and fret.
ting at each other. Instances are on
record where two rabid liberals ac-
tually have sought to get each other
discredited in the eyes of the Presi-
dent because of their differences
over what liberalism means.
The only thing about which they
seem to agree is that anyone who
insists on sanity in governmental
thinking—anyone who takes heed of
lessons of experiences and tradi-
tions of the past—must, of neces-
sity be a tory, a bloodsucker, a
trampler of the poor, an obstruc-
tionist, a “‘republicrat,” or some
other animal in human form who is
day
that point, the liberals that we see
in the government these days pre
sent a united front.
Time May Prove Fallacy
Of Today's Liberal Ideas
pointed liberals. To them has been
given the right—in their own minds,
the nation.
But I shall continue to study their
methods, commend ‘what is good
sound. More
important,
that is considerably above the level
the crackpots who look upon the hu-
man race as a fresh litter of guinea-
pigs.
But, anyway, we have liberalism
defined at last by a man who is
qualified to define it, and we find
that it differs from what liberalism
formerly meant. It was only a few
generations ago that liberalism
meant restricting, not increasing,
the powers of government, Neither
Mr. Roosevelt's definition nor his
record ih office coincides with the
former understanding of the word.
It seems to me likely, therefore,
that we will go on for quite some
years with this quarrel, and that
may be—and this is just a hunch—
time will prove the fallacy of some
of the so-called liberal doctrines of
this day.
+© Western Newspaper Union,
~ WHO'S
THIS
WEEK
By LEMUEL F. PARTON
NEV YORK.—In 1918, the Bolshe-
viks were fixing to shoot Maj.
Alexander P. de Seversky, bu
persuaded them to let }
America
could get a
wooden leg.
Seversky Gets
A Wealth of
Things Here Bot, 150 a
000,000 airplane factory,
of flying records, culminating ir
new east-west transce
ord of 10 hours and 3 minutes
New York to Los Angeles
"lying for Imperial Russia in the
World war, he engaged in mor
than 100 dogfights v
and dropped 13 of
day they dropped him
tic. A forty-pounc
had failed to
the ship struck
ft to bits.
Recovering consciousness lat.
er, he discovered that, witless
as he was, he had been clinging
to a pontoon. The water was red
around him, Shifting his good
leg over the pontoon, he made a
torniquet of his torn trouser leg.
He swooned again, as a Russian
destroyer picked him up. He
crow-hopped the Chinese border
on his wooden leg, as a stupid
border guard refused to recog-
nize his papers.
and
ntinenta a
Washington received }
bly, in April, 1018,
& consuiling engi
air service. He
some rough going, but
crack-up in his care
passed in that dre
GIMON LAKE, the
L submarine, 7
su
some day to get ¢
at the sunken cc
Lake Out to
Redeem the
Submarine
rine adaptations ¢
he hopes will
deep sea bot
is 01; his gr
age of 96 and |} 102
though his once red hair is white, he
thinks he is now getting his
start in life.
His 25 basic patents alone made
the submarine possibl Like many,
possibly most, he could
devise a scheme for almost any-
thing except getting what was com-
ing to him. So, in his genial, casual
way, he is broke.
Reading Jules Verne, when he
was 10 years old, led him to capsize
a rowboat on the Toms river in
New Jersey and test his staying
powers in the submerged air cham-
ber. In 1894, he made a wooden
submarine 14 feet long, with a soda
water tank supplying compressed
air. It worked nicely. In 1894, he
made the Argonaut, Jr., in which
he cruised under the water for thou-
sands of miles on Chesapeake bay.
Like the Wright brothers, he
aroused little attention. He final-
ly got Washington interested
when he telephoned to the capi-
tol from the bottom of the sea.
His working submarine came
through. Washington didn’t
seem to care much what he did,
so he took his invention to for-
eign capitols. Czarist Russia
made him some impressive of-
fers but he decided they were a
dissolute lot and, as a self-re-
specting American business
man, he wouldn't have anything
to do with them.
Ail in all, he became fed up with
bureaucrats and red tape and gov-
ernments in general and turned to
deep sea treasure hunts. The sub-
marines, of course, destroyed much
more treasure than they ever
dredged up. This troubles him. Vig-
orous and energetic, with a wrin-
kled, knobby weather-beaten face,
genial and friendly, he plugs along
alone in his hotel to redeem the
submarine by making it a general
cargo and passenger carrier.
20 ideted News Features
WNU Service.
118 sister to
just
J USL
ir Te
InVenivors,
The Letter Writers
The average Englishman writes
78 letters a year; an American
writes 67; a New Zealander, 66;
Swiss, 60; German, 56; Dane, 46;
Austrian, 38; Dutchman, 34; Swede,
26; Freuchman, 26; Norwegian, 20,
Italians, Spanisrds apd Portuguese
write less than 20 letters a year,