L. T. SUNOCO., Friday, SS^TELBER 13 lsp.fi. GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY:- The first thing tonight is to take a close look at the Laval statement* Various delegates have been putting their countries on record before the League of Nations, but everybody knew what they were going to say. For example, every­ body knew what England*s stand would be. The great question- mark was France. Paris was occupying quite an ambiguous position on the fence. In the last couple of days, the issue has been drawn so sharply between Great Britain and Italy, which A way the Frenchmen on the fence would jump became the grand problem of the hour. Tonight itrs a big black headline — that the Frenchmen laafc jumped to the British side of the fence* At A M.r T least, ftBt has put on leg a long way down on ^ V 1»l Today* s declaration by the Premier of France was guarded, every word. But it spoke right out on one point — LEAD -2 France stands behind the League, ft "France is faithful to the league covenant/" Laval declared, "She cannot fail in her obligations/" Laval admitted that there had been recent diffi­ culties between France and Great Britain, But he added that the two countries were now in complete accord in the effort to preserve peace. Then he came to the crux of the matter — the British Foreign Minister's powerful demand^tSfcjc day before yes­ terday^ that the League should take united action to stop Italy, Laval referred to that British declaration as elevated in thought, and saw in it the liberal tradition of England and England's sense of the universal. His statement of French support was phrased in these terms:- "No country," said he, "has welcomed with greater satisfection the word of the British Foreign Secretary than France," The gist of the matter seems to be, in cooler terms -- that France and England, after some difficult disagree- inentr^ife^l^gether on the subject of peace. But what about A A France and Italy? Laval confirmed what was already known -- that LEAD -5 months ago France and Italy had come to a sweeping agreement on Quite a few questions. Laval today put it this way:- M0n January Seventh last,” he said, "Mussolini and I, not only in the interests of our two countries, but also for the pe^fe of A Europe, definitely settled all those things which might be able to divide us." Continuing, he stressed the value of that Franco-Italian understanding, and said he had s done everything to keep it intact. He put his attitude on a basis of conflicting loyalties, in the middle between the League of Nations and his friend, Italy. He’ll do right by both, "I hall have the satisfaction," he said, "of fulfilling, simultaneously, my duty as a member of the League of Nations and the duty which is dictated by friendship." He said that in conferences with Mussolini k* he had found the Duce eager in the cause of world peace and added:- "I know he is ready to preserve tnis collabor­ ation. " Between these lines it is possible to read a meaning something like this: "He’s my friend, and I think his LEAD-4 friendship io ./oitii a million dollars, but if ha won,t be reason- mce might go able, it’s just too bad.” Franci the length of 6 sacrificing her valued agreement with rtaly, so that she can go along with England in the cause of East African peace. **JtU w -F&JUJl '~<hxSxJ2GjZ&_ *SK- H^xCfc&^cC. ^ " But Laval still keeps up hope that the League will be able to affect a compromise. He said he didnft believe the task of conciliation was hopeless, though he described it in a phrase which sounds curious in the translation from the French. Speaking of conciliation, he said — '"Doubtless the task is a rude one." That word ’’rude” fits in neatly with what we might guess — that this sudden dramatic stand by France before the League puts Mussolini face to face with the showdown. Take it or leave it — or face the consequences. Take what? Or leave what? kxrtx Laval, in his expression of fcpx hope, mentioned that five-power committee which is trying to settle things and doesnft seem to have got very far. He declared the committee was studying every proposition that might satisfy what he called. LEAP - 5 "the legitimate aspirations of Italy*" Tnere are some strong hints about a plan that’s being formulated by that Committee of Five, as a last offer to Home. It is said to go something like this;- "Ethiopia to grant Italy economic and territorial concessions, give Italy rights to the mineral resources of the country, also a chunk of territory. Ethiopia to be policed by an international army, and have her own army supervised by European officers, international military advisors — the bulk of this international military control to be Italian. Italy to take back to Europe the huge concentration of troops from East Africa, except for the humbers that would take part in that international military policing. From Paris there's word that the French government is prepared to join Great Britain in imposing sanctions on Italy. Frenchmen in the know carefully explain -- "economic sanctions, not military sanctions." Trade boycotts of one sort or another, not the use of force in the shape of regiments and battleships. There's even talk that French and British military authorities are ready with a plan of action in the Med iterranean, in case LEAP - 6 violence is needed to restrain Mussolini. The British fleet to control the Eastern end of the Mediterranean, the French to police the Western end. In London, ©pinion is a good deal cooler. The British ■wise men say that, even if the French hack up the British with economic sanctions, why Mussolini111 go right ahead just the same. Yvhat about the Italians? Well, they keep an unchanged attitude. They declare that Laval* s speech to the League today was neither for them or against them, neutral. They say they under-stand he is in a difficult diplomatic position, and make allowance for that. JOHNSON A year anci some months a^o I was on the air, when right in the middle of the broadcast a dispatch brust in - General Johnson had resigned* Tonight it’s pretty much the same, although there’s no hand thrust suddenly at me with a dispatch. ^General Johnson is going to resign. That former time he was quitting as the crack ’em down boss of the N. R. A., the drum-jouijtjt beating General of that Blue Eagle. Now he has informed the President, informed him this afternoon, that he is goiflg to step out of his job as Work Relief Administrator of New York. He will drop back into private life by October fifteenth. The General has had a few uproars in his task of steaming through the Federal Program, putting men to work in the Metropolis. But fusses and arguments are not why he’s resigning. His agreement with the President when he took the job was that he would hold it for only a limited time. He wants to go back to business and make some money* Those stately government jobs and dignities don’t pay so much ROOSEVELT The dispute that was settled at the summer White House today was all tangled up with the problem that*s right down at the bottom, basic in the giant Work Relief Program, The program has two purposes, to build public works and to give men jobs. Emphasis on the which — public works or jobs? The two viewpoints are represented by two men, Secretary of the Interior Ickes, and Works Progress Administrator Harry Hopkins, Ickes was in favor of creating public works of permanent use, Hopkins had his wye on things that would put men to work right away, and lots of them. Ickes had stacks of applications from all over the country, requests to put Federal money ^to building big things, Hopkins objected to the big things, because it would take plenty of time to get set for them, maybe months of planning and organizing. He claimed that if they wwnt irf^to those big-time useful things they couldn't carry out the job program of putting eight and a half million men to work with a five billion dollar tund. The clash of the two men, really a clash of the two ideas. was taken to the President, vacationing at his Hyde Park summer home ROOSEVELT - 2 He was In conference with lakes and Hopkins late last night. He thought it over and today handed down the verdict. The President says -- Hopkins. He votes for — quick jobs. So the Hopkins program for shoving hosts of the unemployed onto quick small public works wins the day DOCTOR On all political subjects I*!!! supposed, to be neutral, and I try my best. And in no election am I to take sides with any candidate. Right now I’m going to break that rule. I'm going to do a bit of electioneering^ for a Sheriff Ain Monmouth County, New Jersey. He has got more enthusiasm for ancient Roman battles and the economic trends of the Middle Agee than any other man I know. He’s also interested in the History of the Nature and Origin of the Black Death,and in the State of Medical Science a wonderf This Tf.onmouth County candidate is Dr. Harry Thomas. during tb QtlJi. Oh yes, I forgot to say -- he’s my BIRTHDAYS Two birthdays are being celebrated tod ayf and the heroes are General Pershing and the town of Concord, Massachusetts, The General is seventy-five, the town is three hundred, Pershing’s career has been the Army from youth to old age. His service goes back to indian fighting days. He was in the Spanish-American War and distinguished himself in the iv jWfeen Philippines. He jumped^iawe^national fame when he led an expedition into Mexico against Pancho Villa, eWorld fame when he took command of the A, E. F. in the World War. The town of Concord jumped into fame in seventeen seventy-four. The county meeting there called upon the State of Massachusetts to convene the First Provincial Congressj One of the first acts in the drama of the American Revolution. The town became a center for supplies and ammunition. And the first struggle in our War of Independence came when General Gage led his British troops to seize those supplied at Concord — and the Massachusetts militia men fought back. Today, on the simultaneous birthday of the town and General --he is on a sympathetic task in France, Chairman of the BIRTHDAYS - 2 American Monument Commission — directing the work of placing monuments to mark graves of American soldiers whose 'bodies were not hrougnt home* It, the town, is celebrating its anniversary joyfully. Soldier monuments in France, anyone in Washington, Tomorrow ground will be broken for a great granite and bronze memorial dedicated to the fifty-one hundred officers and men of the Second Division A* E. F. who fell in France, Cabinet officers and Generals will be there. The principal address will be delivered by General James G, Harboard, who commanded a Marine Brigade at Chateau Thierry and later was the big brass hf»t boss tRr of the Second Division S*. £> . S'. lSrW i The monument was well earned. When the Germans broke through on the Marne in nineteen-eighteen and threatened Paris, the Second Division was thrown into the breach. During its war service it captured more prisoners and artillery, advanced more kilometers against the enemy and won more American and foreign decorations, than any other American Division. Yes, dt and there's another thing to be added, inevitably. It also lost more men, killed and wounded recqpd A bXaze of excitement, a tug of fear, at Santa Ana, California, today* The fastest land plane in tlxe 'world, breaking all land plane speed records, swerved off its course and took a dizzy swing to earth* It looked like a crash, like certain death. But when they ran to the plane, out and uninjured, stepped Howard Hughes, millionaire, motion picture producer, and speed-record-’ smashing aviator. He had run out of gas while blazing his speed record in the air and had had to come down for a forced landing — okay. This was the highspot. It occured in the last of six attempts that Hughes made to set records. And he succeeded, more t^ian succeeded. The previous record for land planes was made fejm by a Frenchman, more than three hundred and fourteen miles an hour. Hughes hit 14 up at three hundred and fifty-three m today. Remember, this always means land planes. Sea planes do much better. Their record, held by Lieutenant Agello, the Italian crazy boy, is more than four hundred and forty. The reason sea planes are faster is because of the long, smooth surface of a calm lake, for taking off and landing RECORD, - 2 Today the speed of man is recorded this way; Land speed, motor car speed, the record made by Sir Malcolm Campbell miles just the other day, more than three hundred and one^Kkjutit an hour. Howard Hughes, land plane record, three hundred and fifty-three. Lieutenant Agello, sea plane and all-around record. four hundred and forty WALLINGrrQi.'i Follow Birthdays There’s just one other bit of ceremony to be mentioned tonight. It's "So long and good luck" to a chap who began life in Rocnester, New York; started out to be a preacher, then to be a doctor. He turned to Geology, then to music, sang in a small town opera company, became a furniture salesman and later on applied for a job as a mechanic at a radio station. He got the job. Only, when he reported for work as a radio mechanic, he found they had marked him down as a radio announcer. Some mistake or other, but a lucky mistake, because he made a success as an announcer, came to New York, to the N. B. C. , and proceeded to win all sorts of diction and populatity prizes. The man of all those varied jobs is none other than * well, he is waiting to go on with the commercial, his last Sunoco Commercial for some time to come. Jimmy Walling^on is leaving tonight for Panama, California, and points West. I'm in the Berkshire Hills tonight, so I'll have to slap him on the back through the ether. Good luck, Jimmy, hurry back - and so long. And, to everybody else -- SO LONG TJN^IL MONDAY.