£DBSAK9 L>T. - SUMOCO.. FRIDAY. APRIL 9. 1957 GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY: All quiet on the strike front - that is, so far as the United States is concerned. Labor disputes just drifted along today^ The focus of interest is in Canada, where they’re faced with an extension of our own strike trouble. General i; Motors and the C.I.O. Premier Hepburn of Ontario declared today the company property would be protected^ General Motors could go ahead and operate the plant, and the authorities would guarantee - no interference by the Union. The Premier said he’d put the jnounties on the job If necessary.T^e. we have an assortment of serious events and curious oddities oddities like this. i IDOL In India one of the strangest of court cases has been settle — the final decision given. It,s a law suit against » Sri Sri Iswrai Bahudaneswai Ihk Urani. What’s so strange about A that — except the elaborate name? The defendant is a god, an idol. The suit was brought against a jewel-studded image that stands in a Hindu temple. The testimony before the court told how years ago there were two pious brothers, who were greatly, out of luck. They were desperately poor and couldn’t seem to make a go of it. What did they do? They made an idol. With humble, patient hands they fashioned an image of divinity*. They set it up and V worshipped it^ And at once prospects improved for the two Hindu brothers. Their affairs flourished, and they became fabulously rich. For this they thanked, the idol they had made, the divinity their hands had fashioned. They ao^tat.it with jewels and built a glowing shrine for itj ^Great throngs came to worship*When they died, the^left their property to the idol, great possessions of lands and villages. The shrine of Sri Sri Iswrai Bahudaneswai Thk Urani became more and more a A IDOL - 2 center of religious enthusiasm. °f the two pious rich men went to court^ si3£ft*fc*£k* claiming that they were the rightful heirs - not the ****djl Wv^uJt. PW^ That was tv/enty years ago, and the case has been dragging^^sli ever since. The high court of Bengal gave a compromise verdict, decreeing that the divinity was entitled to only a portion of the land and income. idol appealed to the K A high court in London, its guardians did. And now the high court A has closed the case, by upholding the verdict. And Sri Sri Iswrai £ Bahudaneswai Thk Urani has lost the lav/suit. A SPAXM loday Madrid was a city in the tensest grip of war. The Spanish capital has been beset by battle for months now, but today brought a climax. j^The Left Wing command launched a supreme attempt to breaK the siege, and shatter the lines that haj|i^"Madrid tv/o-thirds surrounded. This morning the Socialist battalions went over the top, and a day of savage fighting was on. The attack was concentrated on those sections where the V Rebel lines are closest to the city, are 'within the city - the university section and the great public parkh There the storming Left Wingers battled all day, smashing against the Rebel trenches. | fg The resistance just as fierce as the attack - so tonight thereTs ^ t no decision. General Miaja, the Socialist commander, told the correspondents today that the fight was going favorably for him - but nothing decisive. On this day of battle, the Madrid government revealed the casualties caused by the five months of bombardisent, a metropolis under fire by cannon and from the sky, shells and air bombs. The loss of life from this has been fifteen hundred}^ thirty-five hundred wounded; four hundred m ^ hundred ® ss-tng. : SPAIN - £ buildings have been destroyed, em A. to the oft«i discussed question of what would happen if a great city were assailed with the weapons of modern ¥/ar. Fifteen c? hundred killed and a hundred buildings destroyed. One might have expected more after the ordeal of fire through which Madrid has gone. There was battle too in the far north of Spain, at Bilbao. There, General Mola’s Fascist battalions are continuing their steady push against the Left Wing port. They*re closing their grip on Bilbao. And the report^from both sides indicate that the capture of the city may not be far off. Gibraltar gives us of a Spaniard sailing for Italy. Significant too, because the Spaniard in question is Juan March, the multi-millionaire. As Spain's greatest capitalist, Juan March has backed the Franco rebellion, helped to finance it. Today he teEXMXfctxtMaciaac boarded the Italian liner SAVOIA, and Is bouna for r.ome. The word is that he is going to see Mussolini. Th*3 Inevitable surmise — that he'll ask the jjuce lor . a OI e help — more Italian help for Franco. DRUNKARD In the town of Treviso in Italy, bastlanotto, A A was di Inking red wine in a tavern. At Treviso, in the Venetian province, the wines are excellent, and Bastianetto drank well and deeply, too well, too deeply. He became uproarious, shouting and brawling. He made such a rumpus, that the carabinieri came, arrested him and hailed him before the judge. Bastianetto, sobering up, was a badly worried man. '•Please judge,'' he begged, "please do not sentence me to pay a fine. Instead, I implore you, send me to jail." "Why?" demanded the Fascist judge. "My wife," exclaimed Bastianetto, with a tragic expressiqn. His wife had a bad temper. She was always raising Cain with him for drinking too deeply of the red wine. So he was afraid to go home. Instead of paying a fine and returning to his hot tempered spouse, he'd rather go to jail. The compassionate judge granted his request, and sentenced him to a few days in the local locx—up. xhe police took Bastianetto to a cell, opened the door, and thrust him in. And what aid he see? His wife* DRUNKARD - 2 There she v;as, in jail on a charge of - intoxication. She, at home, had been drinking too well and deeply of the red wine, had raised a rumpus oil over theplace, and had been put in the Treviso bastile. So there were Signor and Signora Basti- anetto serving their terms together in the same cell. CHINA itoad building seems like an every day commonplace sort of t a.hieln thing, but not when you construct a^highway from Changsha-Chung-King to Changsha-Kueryang. Thatfs in the remote Chinese Province of Hunan, and the road had to pass through the rugged territory of the tribes that are called by the feline name of Miao. It sounds like a cat, but it signifies exceedingly primitive people, hardly touched by the old Chinese culture, not to mention the modern civilization of the west. The road-building engineers first of all had to buy the right-cf-way from the chiefs of the Miao, and they had to make the purchase with Chinese paper money. The Miao had never seen banknotes before,^and it took quite an argument to convince them that you could really buy things with those curious Then the chiefs of the Miao asked - how is this strange money made? The engineers replied — it was made with a machine. Thereupon the wise men of the Miao proposed a _____ compromise^ v-sko^tlne right of way for the ax road. "But," "instead of giving us this money, bring us the machine said they. CHINA - 2 that makes it.,! And then It was the engineers1 turn to meow. But fin­ ally they persuaded the tribal chiefs to be satisfied with the cash. The next thing that bothered the Miao people was:— what for that road? (Why go to the trouble of building a long flat smooth surface?) They had never heard of an automobile, and when the engineers tried to explain, they were terrified by the idea - the idea of a black box that roare d like thunder and swept along like the wind. They insisted that they*6 like to see one before they would allow the road to be built. So the bedeviled engineers were finally compelled to have i an auto carred by coolies along the trails to the village of the Miao. (There, the country was so steep and rugged, that they couldn’t possible drive the car. And they didn’t have bol) The chiefs sat ing the upholstered seats, and were delighted with the comfort. They honked the horn and switched the headlights on and off, and thought it was a miracle. All day long they played around with the motionless car, and had such a good time that they shouted in the Miao languages ”Go on and build your road.” So now the highway construction has started In Hunan, from Changsha-Chung-King to Changsha-Kueryang, in theland of the Miao. GOLD G o I vj . took a tuiiible today, a dizzy, glittering, yellow plunge. There was a gold panic in that metropolis of the precious metal, Johannesburg, South Africa. Wild scenes on the Exchange there as gold shares toox a headlong dive. Some fell as much as forty—five points - as the panic word was screamed:- "Sell, sell, sell gold!" What was the reason for the metallic collapse? There were two. The less important - the French Franc. The word from Paris is that France will let the value of the franc slide down, so as to make French money cheaper, and thereby attract tourists to the Paris Exposition, which is being staged simultaneously with the London coronation. There*s also Indication that the mechanization for stabilizing the value of the franc is not working right. So French currency broke in the international markets today. In New York che franc-collapsed as trade opened this morning - fell nine points, and it*s the same story of the falling franc in the Exchanges of London and Paris. Sfcaife That helped to cause the gold panic in Johannesburg. 11 1 The more important reason was - a mere rumor, a rumor GOLD - £ -sSfe. a-bout the rjnited States, about money policy at Washington. -Z&tvoJlJ! The word ^ot around^hat President Roosevelt plans to cut the price the Treasury Department Is paying #for gold* That was the fear at Johannesburg today, the insidious terror of a rumor. A man prominent in the Stock.Market once told me how credulous people in the market were, -not only customers but also brokers - ready to believe anything, the wildest report. They1!! play the vaguest rumor, stack their money on the whispers that originate nobody knows where. Today President Roosevelt spiked the South African rumor. He declared that he knew of no government plan to cut the present price we are paying for gold* It's still thirty-five dollars an ounce, and the Treasury Department has no intention of changing it. Apparently the rumor originated in Europe, for lifrSUl ytC ^ &**^*~i rxfiZeuKTH- no particular reason. So there for gold to A tumble in theSouth African capital of gold. FQoHAY In the business district of Minneapolis, they have a show 4 “ piaee, a local skyscraper, a tall of fice building, ta tower Back in the boom times of Nineteen Twenty-Eight, Wilbur Foshay, the Minnesota utilities king, built that tower of business as a monument to his own giant empire of power* As a lord of utilities he was second only to Samuel Insull of Chicago. His fortune was reckoned at fifty million. Wilbur Foshay spent a hundred and sixteen thousand dollars on the festivities and ceremonies that dedicated his tower of utilities. In his elaborate private office he had a motto placed - an optimistic slogan. "Why worry? It won't last long. Nothing does.'1 It won't last long; No, there was something that didn't last no long. Shortly after r+f the opening of the tower fctispfc commemorated the Foshay utilities A empire - that empire collapsed - a business catastrophe that shook finances in seven states. The fifty million dollar fortune tumbled to ruins. It won't last long I- that slogan rang out again today. as Wilbur Foshay was released from prison. He stepped out of the FOESRAY - 2 federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, a free man once more* He had been sentenced to a fifteen year term on a charge of mail frauds - in connection with the downfall of his kingdom of power. President Roosevelt cut the term to five years. No, it didn’t last so long as it might have. Today Wilbur Fcshay, back in Minneapolis, declared that not a vestige of his fifty million dollar fortune is left to him. nI haven't a red cent," he said, tie'll have to begin all over again, from the bottom. Now he has nothing — hRxnggy but maybe that I! won't last long iw rn im m m m m m m m m m m m v, - - - ■ TORNADO Storm news from i'Torida today - but it was no giant hurricane blasting its mighty course across the spaces of the ocean. It was something much smaller than that. A tornado perhaps? No , it wasn’t even that big. It was a pigmy tornado, a twister in mere miniature. II hit the residential section of Miami, and cut a swath only two blocks wide, h#® streets and houses along that narrow A A belt and raced on for two miles. A mere pigmy, but it was a xaapjppaauooiMutf rampageous dwarf, a violent miniature. The wild wind blew down communication^ knocked over a house, xhj & swept off^a dozen roofs, and injured several persons. Little — but TORNABO Storm news from Florida today - but it was no giant hurricane blasting its mighty course across the spaces of the ocean. It was something much smaller than that. A tornado perhaps? No ? it was^t even that big. It was a pigmy tornado, a twister in mere miniature* It hit the residential section of Miami, and cut a swath 0# only two blocks wide, taiSi streets and houses along that narrow /t * belt and raced on for two miles. A mere pigmy, but It was a xxBnHL5®raxabranrf rampageous dwarf, a violent miniature. The wild wind blew down communication^ -eLcSil knocked over a house, Hiut swept off^a dozen roofs, and injured several persons. Little - but CK, In i_>o,int LiGUiSj#*-* A1 ick^fc is a born traveller -- '.wnderlust, the itching font, the desire to see the ..orId and. all Its strange places, a 1 works in an express office, where he can't travel much. The packages he handles do the travelling, ■'’or years ^.1 has been sending parcels on their way to their various destinations — far and near* Some very ^far, addressed to India or Siam, New Guinea or Tahiti. Imagine -- the constant incitement to a maHSTem the wanderlust, incessant irritation to A make the Itching foop itch all the harder. More and more A1 ivickif wanted to see the v.ux-id#*Bu he had to stay on the job in the express office. So in desperation — what did he do? He couldn,t be a ..orld traveller, but his hat could, ao, dreaming of the far-off places he wanted most to see at that moment, he sent nls hat Instead — expressed his chapeau on trie distant journey, with a return ticket to bring it back. And when trie licit returned he sent it forth again to latitudes afar. It ..as a substitute, the next best thing, a sort of vicarious fulfillment of his own ____ «i«VyvJ 61 ^AWrvveO>T_s?. -TW.-uWWj an, longing desire. If By now — *1 wichs's hat has travelled seventy- HAT - 2 five thousand miles. It has bearound the globe f a circum— navigating headpiece, it has journeyed on the remotest oceans and to distant isles of romance — through desert and jungle. The news tonight is that the globe trotting hat is on Its way to San Francisco;this time A1 has addressed it to Asia - by air. His dream right now is •— transpacific flight. And his hat's doing it for him. And where's hat - and SO LONG UNTIL MONDAY,