MOSCOW L.T. SUNOCO__ Tues. August SR, isxa evening the most dramatic thing in the news is —words, bitter phrases, scathing denunciations. The speaker is a little aging man with a goatee. A rather grotesque figure his name once spelled world wide fear and hatred — when he was lord of the Red Terror and Commander of the Red Army. What does Trotsky have to say? He breathes vengeance, cries out that he is going to unmask one of the greatest crimes in history and avenge the victims. always curt in announcing executions. It is merely stated that the sixteen men convicted of plotting with the exiled Trotsky to kill the Red Dictator Stalin have been shot. /But were there sixteen? That's the number of the defendants on trial. Nobody would question the number of the executions, unless TrotsKy himself had raised the question. Speaking of two of the defendants, he says: "Nobody will know whether the Ogpu's spies, Holzmann and Olberg we e really executed. Thus he raises the surmise that two of the sixteen That followed brief word from Moscow. Che Soviets are men convicted and reported shot, were really not executed at all MOSCOW - 2 Trotsky adds a further creepy thought — will the other two, the Ogpu spies, go on living under other names and be promoted by Stalin? Trotsky, now at Oslo, Norway sits stewing in rage as he sees his name reviled in Russia, his party crushed, his colleagues put to death as Trotsky plotters. All he can do is issue statements: Red Lords of Communist Russia, when Lenin was alive and king­ pin of them all. Then on the Politburo, the supreme organ of power, were: Lenin, Trotsky, Zinovieff, Kameneff, Rykoff, Tomsky exile. The next two names Zinovieff and Kameneff? Those two famous veterans of Bolshevism head the list of the confessed plotters just executed,y And the next two names, Rykoff and Tomsky -- Rykoff is implicated, has killed himself. The last name on the old list of Lenin's Politburo — is Stalin. And In one of these today he sadly recalls the names of the amd Stalin, Where are they today? Lenin dead. Trotsky in today he is the Red Dictator, clearing his enemies from his path, removing all those old Bolshevik heroes who created the MOSCOW - 5 Soviet regime. We can imagine Trotsky's feelings as he sits there in Oslo. Moscow, in condemning h’s colleagues, named Trotsky as the arch-plotter. Today he demands a trial, no he won't go to Moscow to face Stalin's court of Fed Justice, He demands an impartial trial -— in Norway, He insists on an international court of Communists decide upon Moscow's charges against him. And maybe he will have his way. Maybe there will he an inter­ national Communist court, in a mock trial of Trotsky. And that no doubt would be just as strange and curious as those deadly fantastic trials in Russia — but wouldn't mean anything. SPAIN No won :er there Is an international move to check the horrible brutality of the Spanish Civil War. No wonder the French and British governments are reported to be getting together In an attempt to persuade both, sides, both the Reds and the Fascists, to stop the reign of terror and murder. The move is said to have originated among the ambassadors of the various nations to Spain, ambassadors who have now taken refuge across the border in France, They are not trying to stop the civil war, nothing so ambitous as that — they merely want to persuade both sides to halt the executions and the mass killings of prisoners. And it’s no wonder, when we look at the news from Spain tonight I At San Sebastian, the Left Wing authorities began a round up of women and children, families of Fascist sympathisers. The women and children to he held as hostages. Already there are fift en hundred men political prisoners there. SPAIN - 2 And the word frashes that the Left Wing authorities have just had a hard time ftp keeping the Red mob from storming the jails and killing thei Radical fanatics only by promising that for every life taken ^hijy hw v s ^ suqc eeded in holding back the by the bombardment of rebel planes, five of the hostage prisoners will be shot. Then came a report-that a hundred had been killed by Rebel air bombs. That meant the murder of five hundred hostages. But the Left Wing authorities denjtthe report of heavy casualties i&t from the air raid. The latest seems to be^the sky bombers killed only four persons - tha% seems to mean the lives of twenty hostages. Madrid gives us a picture just as grim and savage. A revolutionary tribunal set up - and that recalls the revolutionary tribunal of the French Revolution which sent thousands to the guillotine. The Red revolutionary court in Madrid is working night and day, »clearing the prisons. The jails of the Spanish capital are crammed with political prisoners. Even the convents have been turned into jails. This host of 1 l! I i i I' captives is to stream in swift succession before the revolutionary SPAIN - 3 judges } and fate / The new /V A court is created to satisfy the raging demand of the Red "flT militia for action against the traitors' in prison.''Merciless as it all sounds, they"^fcjel» the new revolutionary tribunal, by having some sort of legal procedure, is better than the present state of affairs - with the. Red workers conducting private execution parties of their own in remote suburbs of the city. So no wonder the other nations are taking action - trying to persuade the return to some sort of humanity in Spain. ABD-EL KRIM Tonight there's a headling packed with implications of strange romance - war and terror, historic reminiscence, horror, dread and absurd comedy. The headline reads — "Abd-el Krim has escaped from his island exile." That's the insistent report. The present Spanish Civil War harks back to the time when the Spanish African army was dreadfully beaten by Abd-el Krim. That defeat led to the dictatorship of Prime de Rivera in Madred, the overthrow of King Aiphonso, the establishment of the Spanish republic and the present fantastic horror. Twelve years ago Abd-el Krim built a su den, powerful empire of nomad tribes in North Africa. France joined Spain and crushed him. The embittered Spaniards wanted to shoot him, but the French had another destiny reserved for him. And this takes us to a reminiscence of American politics. Right now we have a presidential campaign storming through the summer. Thirty—two yea s ago it was the same thing over here. I told a little while ago how the Republican National Convention in the Roosevelt-Bryan year whooped things up with the slogan —"Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead! " The famous bandit Raisule had kidnapped a Graeco-American citizen named ABD-EL KRIM - 2 Per die aris. The Sultan of Morocco had paid a fat ransom for tjie release of Perdicarls, and Raisuli grew richer and more powerful year after year. Then the old bandit chief was crushed by the young empire builder, Abd-el Krim, who inflicted on Raisuli a frightful death* Had him walled up in a cave, entombed alive, with four of his preetiest wives. That was an orthodox horror — because the Prophet Mohammed grants to a Moslem the joy of four wives. Now when’the French whipped Abd-el Krim and had him a prisoner, what did they do with him? They sent him to a remote island, exile him —- with his two favorite wives, Fatima and Aieha, Abd-el Krim might have reflected bitterly that he had allowed Raisuli, the orthodox four v/ives. On the Island of Reunion off Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean, they gave him a mansion to live in - an income of seven thousano dollars a year. Seven thousand aoyear is a good Income on a remote island in the Indian ocean even admitting that abd - el krim - s Abd-el Krim took A ^unilys^wi th him But th'ajfe family has since increased. It now numbers thirty-six persons. If Paris had allowed the mighty sheik to have the orthodox four wives. Instead of a mere two - Abd-el Krim’s family would be still larger. And his financial difficulties w©t*44-bewH* still greater. As it Is - he says he cannot support a family of thirty-six on seven thousand dollars a year, even in the Indian Ocean. Recently, he made representations to Paris - not outright requests for more money. The sheik is too proud for that. But he conveyed vivid hints through indirect channels — that he wanted a raise. Paris paid no attention to the request. So now, the report^ / tbs®. Abd-el Krim hs& escape^ from Reunionf Maybe it he Is just ducking the. bills on the first of the month. Or maybe he thinks that Paris will raise the ant$ to get him back, Such is the story that hit the headlines today. The French Ministry of Colonies thinks enough of Abd-el Krim to issue official statement that it knows nothing of his reported escape, an ABD-EL KRIM - 4 Paris is trying to get in touch with Reunion Island, to check the story. BLACK LEGION The Black Legion today gives us the problem of defining a word — thSZXwm syndicalism. The news tells us that fifteen mo remembers have been ordered to trial on charges of "criminal syndicalism.* That sounds a bit puzzeling — ,pince syndicalism is commonly taken to mean a form of red radicalism ^particularly * A % violent form. And my StoriMnii trugual^v dictionary bears that j?ut_ -■» defining syndicalism as a form of labor organization which originated in France. The reddest x of the Left Wing extremeists in war-torn Spain today are the syndicalists — sometimes called anaroho«*syn^toaliste. The anarchist part of it gives the final touch of red. charged However, no matter what deeds ar^against the Black Legion, nobody suspects the hooded terrorists of being red radicals. Their chief claim is that.they^e out to fight socialism and communism, sa« even.tie faintest shads of plnk.'E^ We find the answer to the paradox in the legal fact that the laws drawn Up against criminal syndicalism include every sort of plot against government - not only red plots, but all BLACK LEGION -2 kinds* And the fifteen Blaflk Legionaires indicted today are accused of a wild scheme to attack and capture government buildings, such as arsenals. That kind of Black Legion revolutionary' foolishness puts the boys under the law against criminal syndicalism* Ifr add ition-te-thiB fogmidabAe* charge tho Jkae—fr Blaete Hoed defewdants-aga aeoueed ef.a whole string of mther» or 1 mas-- -per^Tji, —imiiltir-hAmok jaeking, a ad a ftennplracy ta kill ti new^iaijci r-publieher* LANDON (Governor Landon's tour of the east came to a high spot in |i 1 1 m Buffalo today — huge crowds, thunderous .cheers, showers of eonfetti^tape. The smiling candidate specialized in greeting J! children/ He beamed as he accepted a basket of roses from Pollsh—American kiddies. And at the railroad station he made a |i sudden escape from his police escort to rush over and shake hands with a toe-headed urchin in overalls. Thatfs good old presidential strategy. ItTs^been known for a president to kiss a baby as he ! issued a declaration of war. Democrats are arguing that the governor tossed one small crab apple into the New York Republican situation - when at Ch^taugua he denounced the teachers' oath of loyalty. The bill to enforce has been sponsored by Republican leaders in the state* and it is supposed that they may be chagrined at the Landon declaration that teachers should not be^af out from the rest of the population and made to abjure padical beliefs. Republican strategists are nodding approval of the mild, moderate tone of the Landon speeches thus far - no blazing, hell-bent for election attacks on the Roosevelt administration. LAM) ON - g no flaming, skin 'em alive excoriation. They say it's good policy, and point to two shining examples - one example being A1 Smith, the other Franklin D. Roosevelt.T^hey recall that A1 Smith, in his tremendously effective campaignf dicTnit the cannon crackers too early. He saved them for the closing stretch, the final climax. He took it mild and easy in the beginning, and rorked up to his high point Just before election nc And President Roosevelt right now is taking it easy. He«» not blasting away with all his political ammunition. Just the reverse. HeTs out of the‘ bapitie for the time being. luillrn fattilfci »ii-.gjLpginifty one of teifec morsf ■eaujtltw Tonight at midnight th6 President starts on his drought tour, but he has stated tksOb with the s*&£ct&szb emphasis //(> that it is strictly non-political. gC51;frnothing but drought relief as he goes west to look over the^ and confer ........ mu nrBinnf_ Irn^ht states - including A ► dryness Governor Landon. SicEKEftii They111 meet across the dinner table. LAHDOH - S -- 7 the “two rival candidates — the dinner on the presidential train, to which F..D.R. has invited the drought governors, including his political opponent. So that's taking it easy in the earlier weeks of the campaign. The Republican strategists interpret it as meaning that the President is reserving his oratorical ammunition for the later crisis of the political battle. They point out that the President is supremely well known to the nation, while Governor Landon has to make these early speaking tours of his to get acquainted* i® making them on the take—it—easy plan — reserving his own oratorical ammunition for the crisis. X suppose the crisis will be critical indeed when those rival stores of oratorical ammunition begin to explode. OJ t I'i i! 1 I il I !j fi ill 11 • 1 p : II ll s TOWNSEND At Cleveland today the question was raised - nWhatrs the cost of O.A.R.P.?" And the answer was -"O.A.R.P. has cost a million dollars.” A million buckfour letters. ^Those four letters stand for Old Age Revolving Pensions. It costs money to organize a nationwide political movement, as Dr» Townsend admitted on the witness-stand today. The big financial angle came up in the course of an attempt to throw O.A.R.P. into receivership - legal proceedings instituted by the Reverend Alfred J. Wright, a former Townsendite leader, whom the Doctor has chucked out. The present legal proceedings remind one of the late lamented congressional Investigation of the Townsend Plan — money matters f * V in the foreground. Dr. Townsend testified on thfe witness-stand that he ht3.d complete control of the O.A*R*P* cash register. Of all that came in, it was up to him to say how it %uld go out. I don1! suppose thereTl,I be any national indignation over the fact, which the Doctor admitted - that he used O.A.R.P. TOWNSEND - S dollars to pay his wife’s railroad fare. She took a number of transcontinental journeys on the choo-choo train. A wife’s railroad fare has got to be paid, for she can hardly walk from coast to coast - and presumably her travels fi hmj wnf0.ATR.P. business. Wv- o -VV