~ SUdOCO - TUE5. „ MARCH 17, 1956
ST. PATRICK
It might seem appropriate right now if I were to say -
"Well, tonight I ought to be broadcasting from Dublin," And yet
that wouldn’t be so apt. The place to broadcast from on St.
Patrick's Day is - right here, hew York, Because today New
York was the shamrock capital, the Dublin of the world; its own
rivals being Chicago and Boston.
But let’s look at Dublin, it’s different over there
then it was in the old times when the Seventeenth of March was
the day of days; when the St. Patrick’s Day parade in the capital
of Ireland was the rollicking event of the year. '"he coining of
Irish freedom has taken the roar and rebelli ousness out of those
old celebrations. In the Irish Free State St, Patrick's Day has
become a sedate national holiday.
So in Dublin today the parade was a mere formal
procession. The pubs were closed as tight as a drum throughout
Ireland, an'* that naturally put a damp er on the jubilation. May
be damper isn't the appropriate word. it might be better to
say - dried up the jubilation, hv eu St. Patrick's Day dancing was
ST. PATRICK - 2
handicapped. To stage a dance they had to get special permission
from a magistrate, and in many parts of Ireland the magistrates
refused to pass out the permits, Ireland was determined not to
have any shindig or Donnyhrook Fair today.
In New York, on the other hand , . the day was c elebrated
by a giant parade. The Gaels turned out forty thousand strong,
marching through a light drizzle, in fact I had to march with
them to get here to Radio City to the R.C.A. Bldg, They were
reviewed by that distinguished Hibernian, Mayor Fiorello
LaGuard ia of the Venetian Irish. Mayor LaGuardia, however,
' I
qualified for the occasion by wearing a magnificent sprig of
shamrock, .which was sent to him by the Honorable Alfred Byrne,
Lord Mayor of Dublin, Moreover, St. Patrick himself was probably
an Italian - a Roman.
From Washington , I am sorry to report, comes d i s-
il Jusioning word. At a group of Irish Congressmen, burst forth
with a St, Patrick’s Pay manifesto in which they speak evil
words about Irish stew and corned beef and cabbage. These, they
say, are not Irish at all --utterly dnknown in the Emerald Isle ,
3?. PATRICK - 3
What would George McManus say about that?
I found this news so disconcerting at lunch over
a plate of Irish stew with my Celtic colleague, John B. Kennedy,
that I asked that eloquent Irishman about it. And John said
it’s true - that both Irish stew and
corned
beef and cabbage
are strictly American inventions.
Then, ’'What do they eat in Ireland?" I asked in
6
ismay,
"They eat Irish potatoes and Irish bacon1*, responded
John in his rolling Irish voice.
So all is not lost
FATHER COUGHLIN
Today - Father Coughlin said:
"I would rather have
seen this one destroyed," And he pointed to a stately structure
of concrete and steel that has cost seven hund
red
and fifty
thousand dollars to build. He could rather have lost his new
magnificent shrine than the humble little frame building that
went up in flame and smohe. The original shrine of the Little
Flower at Royal Oak, Michigan.
Defective wiring, a swift spreading blaze through the
frame structure, and nothing but charred ruins are now left of
the tiny Church that Father Coughlin Ouild ten years ago.
He began his career there, a career that has led him
to nationwide fame as the Radio Priest, Me firs4- began his
broadcasts there, first attracted a hearing outside of his own
small pariah. So today the man of the flashing phrase on the
radio, stood looking at the smoldering ruins, and spoke these
simple words:- "It was my home. I have eaten, slept and read
there for ten years
FLOOD
In the flood news that we hear from various parts of
the east, it's always tempting to make a reference to the
Johnstown flood. That’s the American classic of a rush of
inundating waters, heroism, rescues, bo tonight let's refer to
the Johnstown flood, but not the one of long ago, Eighteen
Eighty-Line. The one - today.
Johnstown, Pennsylvania, is again in the grip of water,
the swollen surge of the Oneraaugh and stoney Creek Rivers. The
business section of the city is under four feet of
water,
isolated,
torrents rushing down the main streets. Telephone
lines down; the city engineers have
ordered
the bridges closed -
they are endangered by the mad rush of the streams.
It’s all bad enough, but luckily there’s no chance of
anything like that classic of flood disaster back in Eighteen
Eighty-Mine
c Elias
The Mew York police today raised a 'boarding^house near
Riverside Drive and arrested a truck driver, a contractor and
his wife, a show salesman, a waitress, and and several day
laborers* That's what the boys 'and girls said they were -- just
innocent foJks, In their boarding house hideout, the cops found
half a dozen repeating rifles and sawed off shot guns, a layout
of pistols, thousands of rounds of ammunition, a cache of gun
cotton
and a
short wave radio transmitting set. The cops say
the gun cotton was used to blow up safes and that the short wave
transmitter was the means of communication between gang
head
quarters and the members of the mob.
Mo, that doesn't sound so innocent. So we find the
police accusing the prisoners of being wanted for a whole string
of crimes -- a forty thousand dollar bank robbery at Kdgewater,
Mew Jersey; a seventy thousand dollar jewel robbery at the Ritz
Carlton Hotel in Boston;, several of the gang have been hunted in
connection with the record-breaking half million dollar Brooklyn
ice plant hold-up of a couple of years ago. And the leader
will be charged with the murder of the son of a former Mew York
assemblyman, and two friends, last Sunday, The cops accuse
another of being the gunsmith for the gang, specialist in
CRIME -
2
putting silencers on rifles and sawed off shot guns. And they
say that^the landlady has an impressive police record^ including
an arrest in connection with the Vivian Gordon murd
A
V.ith these imposing aspects, we find a neat, swift
episode of police work. Detectives had word the gang was gathered,
ready to pull off a big job. They surrounded the old brownstone
boarding house on Riverside Drive, taking care not to give the
alarm. They were about to crash in,, when they saw a man and woman
come out of the place. The man looked something like one of the
suspects they were hunting. Quietly - they grabbed the two,
and questioned them. The man proved to their satisfaction that he
was no more than an innocent visitor to the place. That was a
good break, because they proceeded -to use the couple for a quiet,
unexnected Gntrance — ticid ttiBM &ccornp
s.nv
d©t©ctives
*
A
a
to the house* 3*3Kfc ring the doorbell - and as the couple were
A A
known to the ladlandy, the detectives were inside before anybody
knew what was happening.
id
They found
sitting down to a big
meal in one room.
It was all such a surprise, there was is no
CRIME - 3
■ - __... .
resistance - except for the fact that one man made a dash and
tried to get hold of a gun lying on a window sill. The
detectives knocked him cold with a blackjack. That happened
while the police captain in command was examining the silencer
/C
the excitement? he swung with the silencer
and hit one of his own detectives^ Nothing serious - just a bit
of comic relief to top off a first rate police job.
INCOME TAX
The deadline was last night, and today the Treasury
officials in Washington were cheering. Right up to the
deadline the returns and checks came pouring in — a record-
breaking stream.
The Treasury figures given out today show that the
collections for the first fifteen days of March were three
hundred and sixty-one million dollars. That’s forty—six and
four-tenths percent of the total amount due the government^
according to the tax returns. It represents an increase of
nearly fifty percent over the collections for last year.
YOUNG
Owen D# Young succeeds to the medal of
Grace Moore and Eva LeGalliene* They, of course, are not
bftTttasg^»
Young receives this year's gold medal awarded
by the American Society of Arts and Sciences* Eva LeGalliene
got it one year and Grace Moore got it another -- not to mention
Thomas Edison, John Philip Sousa and
^
science*, who from time to time have copped the honors*
What's the big idea? The society puts it in these
words:* "To bring laurels to the living who have made the
world a better place in which to live.*' So to Owen D* Young
the laurels will be presented at a banquet at the Waldorf.
I don't know for what particular service to humanity
Eva LeGalliene and Grace Moore were decorated but in the case
-
- Young, the reason is as follows:- "Because of great
services in the cause of improved international good-will and
in behalf of the principles of good government, and also for
unique services toward raising the responsibility of organized
business in its relations both to the public and to the State*"
That ought to get a medal
EUROPE
t
hey ’ v e finally fixed up that invitation over in Europe
- invitation and acceptance, {cteriaany nas agreed to attend the
League of nations session that will pass judgement on the rights
and wrongs of Hitler’s rearmament of the Rhine.
Hitler declared that Germany would not attend with
the status of a had hoy going to get a spanking. Mow « German
equality is coaceded. The Berlin delegate will have no vote in
the Council meeting. But neither will France nor Belgium.
Because they are the parties that are making the complaint
against Germany.
Germany accepted the invitation today, with the proviso
that the Hitler peace proposal would be brought up. Brought up
when? That seems to he the compromise angle of the matter.
Great Britain has promised to use her best efforts to introduce
the peace proposals. London all along has been trying to com
promise between the French demand to punish Germany and the
German resolve not to hack down. It’s a success of the com
promise idea - that G -many is sending her delegate, von Rihben-
trop, to take part in the League proceedings on Thursday.
EUKUPk - 2
2u t r>cv. at,
trie
last minute Franc e is bailing - - doesn’t want
negotiaticns with. Gennany -- wants punishutent•
r he compromisers tried to put off any further debate
until the Thursday session. But it didn’t work. Litvinoff,
the Soviet delegate, got up at the League Council and delivered
a bitter attack on the Hitler government. He accused Berlin of
treaty-breaking, of sabre rattling, of trying to dictate to the
whole continent* The Red Commissar for Foreign Affairs admitted
he might be talking a little strongly, but he justified himself
by pointing to the ±3nJz bitter way that Hitler has denounced
Had Russia.
/
Litvinoff said that the Soviets would like to see
(Germany return to the League, but would consent to it only under
jcertain conditions, Germany
would have to make a special premise
J
to observe international treaties, would have to go on record
as renouncing the •settlement of international disputes by
war far e.
Tonight’s closing line about London and the League is,
wait for Thursday
EDITH CAVELL
Tonight, as the world broods over the peril of
another World War, a tragic shadow Is summoned, the ghostly
figure of Edith Cavell. And with that, our attention is called
to two living people - a man ^ust released from prison and a quiet,
secluded French schoolmistress.
UsJLOAA)
The man is Gaston Quien, condemned for a crime against j
the war-torn feelings of millions. They said it was he who
betrayed Nurse Cavell to the Germans, gave them the information
that she was harboring escaped war prisoners. After the War, the
man was tried for this, and sent'to prison - protesting his
innocence. Now he has been released, after nearly twenty years
in a cell. Why? Because the authorities at this late date find
that the evidence against him in that trial of long ago was
insufficient. There might still be doubt that it was actually
YWuu^
Gaston Quien who betrayed Stefc*CavellWho knows what tragedy
may
lurk behind this? May he really have been innocent? Nobody
can say. Mere - doubt.
There1s one person who perhaps might be expected to
VDITh CAYELL - 2
know - that French schoolitiistress* who presides over an academy
.'.or girla on the outskirts of Paris, Her name is Louise Thuliez,
a name linked cn the tragic record with that of Edith Gavell.
She worked with the English nurse in Belgium, Miss Cavell and
Mademoiselle Thuliez were partners in helping escaped war
prisoners, and they both were tried by the German court martial,
and sentenced to death,
Edith Cavell was immediately executed in that episode
of terror that stirred the wrath of the world. In the outcry that
followed, the life of Mademoiselle Thuliez was spared - because
of urgent represerftations made by President Wilson, the Spanish
Ambassador to Brussels, and the Pope, Her sentence was commuted
to imprisonment. She spent thirty-three months in prison, and
was released three days before the Armstice. The Allied govern
ments decorated her with an array of war medals, among them the
Croix de Guerre, the Order of the British Empire, For years now
she has been head mistress of
&
school of fifty girls. She has
seldom spoken* keeping her silence about those events of other
d ays.
Low, the man accused of betraying both Edith
EDITH CAVELL - 5
Cavell and Louise Thuliez has been released -.Mademoiselle Thuliez
speaks. What does
say? She denounces the execution
of Nurse Cavell and says it was merely an act of German bitterness
against England. The deed *SF»cdarried out, before the official
A
A
notice of
1x99
sentence was published. The sentence was unjustifia-
A
A
ble, the haste unforgiveable - so says Louis^Thuliez today.
But what about the man, Gaston Quien? The quiet little
school mistress shakes her head - she cannot judge. Was he-
Or does he stand a tragic figure of innocence, after twenty years
in prison, after having been branded with an infamous crime of
treason? Louise Thuliez cannot answer those questions. So, all
>
A
that remains is - doubt.
...***
W IV KS
From Vienna coiries the story of a man who certainly
represents the height of uneasiness -- the pinnacle of worry#
He married sixty-one wives. Yea, that’s enough to worry anybody.
He married them for their doweyies, and told each that
she was his onlieet only. So hie great problem was to keep any
two of the sixty-one from meeting# That was the great anxie+y.
Suppose Humber Three were to meet Number Fifty-Seven, and that
they compared notes. Or suppose that Wife Number Thirty-Eight
should see hubby in the company of Wife Number Seventeen? Yes,
that surely would be the height of uneasiness, the pinnacle of
worry.
But tonight that gay Viennese is serene and untroubled
of mind -- because he’s in jail. Finally caught up with, he
was put on trial and sentences. Today was his first day in
prison* And when they clanged shut the iron doors of his cell,
he sighed happily and said:- "This is the first quiet moment
I've had for years."
Let’s
all have a
quiet moment,
and --
SOLONG UNTIL TOMORHOW,