£lllu& Lowell Thomas broadcast for the Literary Digest, Wed., Jan. SO, *52. Page_ 7 8 9 ' 10 ' ' 11 12 13 U 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Good Evening, Everybody: Step up, ladies and gentlemen, and gaze at these magnificent cities. What am I offered for them? What am I offered for the greatest capitals in the world? Vi/ell, suppose the auctioneer were speaking his raucous piece and putting the capital cities of the world under the hammer. How much could he get for them? That's a question they seem to be figuring out over in Berlin. The New York Evening Post^cables that the work of the Reparations Commission in trying to figure out the national wealth Germany, has inspired a number of Berliners who have a turn for „ - . • -to ^ figures. They started out by- frgug-ksg- how much money Berlin was worth. If you sold the city outright, how much cash could you get for it? Then they went ahead and made the same calculations for New York, London, and Paris. According to these mathematicians along Potsdammerstrasse, the most valuable city in the world is London. They claim that if the auctioneer put aims - 2 Page. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 1 U-23.J1.3 m London under the hammer, he could get 25 billion dollars for it. New York comes next. They say it is worth 20 billion dollars in oold cash. Third on the list comes Berlin, which is estimated as being worth just half New York. They figure A that Berlin would bring 10 billion. It is at this do J nt that Handsome Adolf Hit ler i ^ He was discussing the reparations question with a group of foreign correspondents when he referred to the value placed on Berlin. He said that ‘f the French wanted reparations so badly, they could come and take Berlin, if they could find out what to do with it, Many Berliners are said to be disappointed because the calculations of city values show that Paris is worth almost as much as Berlin. Paris is a good deal smaller than the German capital, and h asnT t so much modern development, but they say its value is a mere trifle less. The explanation is -- art Page ^ £1I1£S - 3 2 3 4 5 6! ?; 8 9 1 treasures. Artistically, Paris is way ahead of Berlin. The experts add that so far as art treasures are concerned, the German capital does not begin to compare with any one of several old Italian cities. From that point of view, I suppose it would be q-u-i te hopeless tryA to figure the value of Rome in terms of dollars and cents. 10 11 i 12 j 13 14 15 !6 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 U-&3USM! 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 fli££si_^_Q££a£;asiQH Page. ►WVO JL< h >^ l ^ Well, A-ht- vroa hEt^seem-s that times are \ pretty good -- that is, by comparison. You might say we haven’t any depression at a I I -- by comparison. The new Literary Digest prints an article which calls to mind the old philosophic principle of sizing up the present by. comparina it with the past. . Take the year of I893.A Well, our own present difficulties look like a positive boom when put alongside the conditions that followed the panic of 1893. That depression period witnessed a complete paralysis of American trade. The United States government was on the brink of bankruptcy. It was saved by the margin of a day. One-fourth of the railway mileage of the country went into the hands of the receivers. There were w id© strikes, sometimes amounting to actual insurrections. The banking system was flat on its back, and Wall Street was say i ng;-4J?lPfe — "America has no financial future Then the Literary D i gest. q uo t i ng j "•25.3U5K1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 1 1UJ3ESI—_nEERE££iQH - 2 Page. the New York Times, goes back tg the years ^O-tLjQp that followed 1873, when an acute' A depression lasted four or five years. Railway properties right and left were sold by forecIosure*. The largest New York banks failed. And labor troubles reached the stage of actual bloodshed. Well, to read that bit of financial history which the Literary Digest gives us is enough to make a fellow say — "We ought to be thanking our lucky stars that Old Man Depression has let us off so easy." ‘'■a-ii-SM SMMfiHM The news dispatches about the trouble today in Shanghai give a picture of one disturbance following right after another. There was wild rioting in the city with mobs storming against the Chinese--mobs of Japanese who live in Shanghai. They killed two Chinese policemen, one ot whom belonged to the International Settlement. In retaliation :ained by the foreign one Japanese was killed. The United Press explains the outbreak by saying that recently five Japanese monks in Shanghai were attacked After the first rioting the Japanese staged a mass meeting to consider the But this mass meeting, devoted to peace, merely led to further di sturbances . The Japanese staged a demonstration poI ice force opened fire on the mob and by Chinese. The Japanese ganged up^an Chinese in retaliation. situation, snd try to stop the trouble. Page_ A 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 demanding that the Mikado should send more warships to Shanghai to prot4ct his subjects there, and the demonstration was a wild one. Street-cars were stoned and the win dows^of^ ^ho p s we re^jgr oken . Business in the^l nte rnat i on a l^^-t-t I elf&m was paralyzed until the police finally got the situation tn —harrcfe- M'3l sm 8vs:P=te:AShangha i there are ten aviators -- mournful, sad and downcast. They haven't any planes with which to fly anywhere -- and, sad to say, they haven't any money. They're stranded. This is the ■■Dl discouraging end of what began as a warlike adventure. They are five American and five Canadian flying men. They went to China to take part in operations against Japan. They expected to be war-birds, darting through the sky, dropping bombs, fighting aerial battles^. But that seems to be ail off. The Chinese government says it isn't hiring aviators, and hasn't any jobs for war-birds. avt'-at-aiha- as declaring that they were persuaded to go to China by promises made by Chinese in the United States and Canada. They say that at Pacific Coast airports posters appeared adverti s ing for a v i a t or s ^toA go Q h f nafcg and that in Canada a Chinese society recruited flying and told them that they would receive The Associated Press quotes the 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 AilAIdSS - 2 Page. jobs from the Chinese government the momentthey landed at Shanghai. The dec I are that they were enlisted and signed up, but when they got to China they found no jobs, no warlike and no money. And so they're looking for a way to get back to the Western hemisphere.— (VI tft. C-Q-&- , 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Page_ / & It seems that we have a good deal of Shanghai tonight because here!s another dispatch from that city on the China coast, which tel Is of a retired Ame r i c a n Arm y Captajn being held for a 8200,000 ransom. He is Captain Charles Baker,^in commander of a lighter befonging to American Steanship Company, The lighter was drifting along in the Yangtze River in a section infested by bandits and pirates. A gang of bandits attacked the lighter and captured the Shiwec Captain and his Chinese crew, This evening, relates the New York Sun, word came from the bandit gang demanding a 8200,000 ransom. They threatened to kill Captain Baker if soldiers are sent in pursuit of them, and they want the ransom to be paid’ within twenty days. I 2 a 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 1 Page_ I don't want to be a kill-joy or anything like t h a t ^ ui vvitw -HThis is leap year, find I suppose the gjr I s should be encouraged to do the oroposing. But it doesn't seem to work. At any rate, so says Michael <J. Cruise, who has performed countless marriage ceremonies at New York's municipal building. . , YvCL&je-t&z. Well, fc=FjjF=KS3 s quoted by the New York Sun as declaring that leap year has never added any perceptible increase to the number of marriage licenses issued. So far as t h ej^f i gur es go , leap year is just h-frk-e - sepp Aot her year. ,7 , ” 11 Is my observation", dec I ar es Cruise, "that the girls \ r\ do all the arranging in these matters anyhow. The men usually have a stunned look when they come in here." Things donTt look any too good in the marriage market just now. The number of w e d d i n g s has decidedly fallen off. They are blaming it^ on the depression. The makers and sellers of SM I I I 5 1C 1] 12 12 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 SM Page. 1 : wedding rings are wearing sour faces these days. They say that Cupid used to be a fine business partner, but he i ill seems to have the country. Well, this j^s leap year, but it would seem that if the girls are going to help the marriage business along, they1 I I have to do it in the same old way by hooking the3^^ gently, xig giving him a ski lful come-on, and not ^ la porting the question with a loud abruptness. grmt:=^t7^y-frvg■ to b I-cru ■ f-o rc^ ^ it pi m 1: '•!l I: I .ififvO m Page, Let1 s go along to a question which the Associated Press propounds. What do the ladies in Congress talk about? What do the women who represent various constituencies in the Legislative Halls at Washington chat about when they get together. Do they talk about their chi I dren? No, they do not. They donTt tell about the cute thinqs that little I I i i nqs that i it t Johnnie and Maryft did. no rndu-l-g^ in 1 *ornrgff I t~ts- about their grandchildren i i fj iHat This was admitted by Mrs. Florence P* Kahn, Representative from California, and she straightway started in about her new grandchild. SI Mrs. Jack Garner, fe^wife x»f th^ Speaker HTiCK, of the House -iro bo-—e8-e h Av ^|p 1-8 e n 4 r i -3N3ek gran dchi Id , 4n..laxt about her cn^ and then up spoke Ruth Sryan from Florida. She Owen, Congress woman .. - , . , boasted about her three, grand ch i I dren. Then Congress woman Ruthbaker Pratt of New York wrm t h.e corruoe t i t i on when she spoke up an im , six gr an dch i Idrerw Crottg^r^css-^a-t'k^ a boud^H Page / V 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 k 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Now comes that two letter word meaning negative. Secretary orf State St imson today, said^no/’ He refused to make public a^telegram (Jo^- the State Department. The telegram concerns negotiatioms for a loan to the Republ ic of Colombia, a loan that was floated in the United S t at e s . The Associated Press reminds us that the Senate Finance Committee has been investigating foreign loans, especially the connection between loans and oil con ce ssi„pns in South Ame. ica. The Sena to rs^ wan l to see ‘chat telegram which was sent from the American Legation at Bogota to the State Department. Secretary Stimson in repeating his refusal told the Senators that they could see the telegram in privat e session but he wo uId not allow it to become a part of the public proceedings. He explained that making diplomatic documents public was against the pb I icy of the State Department . 1 1 *'•31-SM Page. In the house of Representatives the session today of the House Naval Affairs Committee we|s I ivened up by a bitter attack on the naval economy policy of the administration. The United Press quotes Admiral Upham as declaring that the Pres id ent1 s policy might in an emergency wreck the nation The Admiral was a witness before the Naval Affairs Committee and he declared that for us to cut pur navy down as far as is proposed -w^a-'al ! A wrong and md-y-h-UedBft dangerous. ?'3'3I SM Page / b m 1 1 i I 1 I There seems to he an Archduke who may have to fight a few duels. he has been challenged to four affairs on the field of honor. Well,the cause for all this dueling is to be discovered in a matter of clothing. It seems to be a question of what the well-dressed man should wear. It is admitted that the Archdukefs ' I costume was okay, correct in every detail. The medals and high decorations he wore were also okay. But the costume and the medals didn ft fit The United Press tells the story of how the Archduke Leopold of Austria, member of the ancient family of ha osburg, walked into a fashionable resort of I Vienna. He was dressed in the traditional hunting costume of the Austria^ hills, green shorts and a green jacket, heavy stockings and hobnail boots^^Sl^ chest he had pinned several high military decor at ions^and also the Order of the Golden Fleece, the most treasured decorat ion granted by the ol d umperors LjliLL_r_2 Page____ of Austria. In the resort were four nob lemen who had been great figures in the old days of the Empire. They instantly hunting costume,and especially the shorts, did not fit in with the majesty of the Imperial decorations, especially the iif order of the Golden Fleece. They declared that the Archduke Leopold, by wearing the medals along with the shorts, was casting reflection on the honor of the Empire and making the Order of the Golden Fleece ridiculous. The four noblemen felt so strongly about the matter that they promptly challenged the Archduke to a duel. A Court of Honor is now being formed to decide how, when, w he r e and if the H np I q cihnl I b© held. protested. They declared that the green l (p Page. /&*- safe 11 12 14 15 17 19 20 22 25 24 25 "•&3U5M Aboys, you can't open by throwing rocks at it. This is meant for a bunch of kids whio live near a vacant lot in Brooklyn is a common dumping ground for cTVY « tin cans and a-H ^sgp^s The New York Evening Post tells how a policeman today heard a tremendous uproar in that vacant lot. It was BIFF, BANG, CRASH. He saw tfhyfc a gang of neighborhood boys vrer-a bombarding an iron safe. They were peppering it with a furious barrage of stones and bricks. The cop chased the kids and found that the iron safe belonged to a grocery store, which had been robbed. It would appear that the thieves carried off the small sturdy safe, and thenh^ad failed to open it. Disgusted, they had Uioft dumped it among the tin cans., in the vacant lot. The kids ' 1 1 -t-h&eg and A- decided to find out what was inside, But they soon learned that you can11 open ^ (>C a . ; ill : I if ' it . f ji i | if if. it 1 i id ij t a safe by throwing I j I j 2 - vv\.