About the Texas City dis; ter, 11 fir re . reported ou, or under control toni ht. evert eless, the police, fe~rin more explosi s, ve s arte evaouatin all p~rsons, includin fir fi hers, fros he still burnin waterfront area. Flames from burnin oil t nks are lickin toward two huge onion-shape ~ontainers olding either highly explosive propane or butane, -- now Deputy Mayor announced th t the danger w ~ s over. But minutes after that, another oil . takn exploded. · This afternoon three other explosions occurred. Another freighter going up-- carrying ammonium nitrate. And fragments of wbite bot steel rained don on t~e alre dy demolished town. Now comes a threat of till another explosion; and another exodus is on. In one cafe in the downtown area, diner, cooks, and waitresses fled into the street, leaving half-cooked and half-eaten dinners be ind. In still another c fe, reporters huddled under tables with an open telephone beside them, hoping they'd not have to flash the news of another explosion. th n Pre i ent T r u ~ pl ced tbt'f{sources of Uncle S3a at the disposal of the devastated area. Amon those taking part in the s m· ri t n work today is D no Uier ++•• Gf)nernl JooeQsua=rs. a in ri ht, hero of Bataan. After all ---'~d-a-~., he nt through on Corre idor nd durin g his ye rs of /\ im rison ent in Japanese cam s, ·as tn,wp Wa in right declared that he had never in all his expe r ience seen a rester M' tragedy th n ,A. 14- Tex as City. WHh the e-eES if I; uLJ:1,ht! L - n in er ere l l in to ~ · y th ~ t t enty-six ye r o n e lo ion of ammonium nitrate destro ed n entir e Gr n ton. ) hundred eo le. ~ i l l ~ a l n l t f ifteen ~opigat the W8Pf± i i over iD ta& Texe• eit,f , c..alvee~eft lff§Mu TQ.a f Jaare -tut P&f'O& &leag \A92¾. ttsd u11 . d.er cobtral: w•terfron\ are Jaee bet een six-hundred and six-hundred- n -fifty 4',P ..... Four hundred~ definitely known to have perished. It has been impossible to et at any accurate figures beceuse~-&.t,~~ ~ t ~ : ~ ~ u i n a . Not until this afternoon, were rescue workers able to search the premises of the reat nsanto Chemical pl nt. ~ ~N'..,~day 1:::t: is j:mCt one hue riined shP.11. There was reason to fear a terrific a ditional de th toll there, since ei ht hundred pe ons · ere at work ye terd y .L - 3 morn in h n he n h f i t r Gr n . m b ew up. Bo ve , the C ~ f . 1:(, ~ d f . . ross 1 ur s ~ e 1n I\ - a total de h roll o ix-hundr - n fifty. Mor than three thous n ~ injured. 'l!:la.5urvivors ~ are wal in a r o ~ mi 1r . . ~ w-i-bh the ■ Ha al r,e i:.s one 11t,terly eruRe&;,{ numb fro■ the shock and tra edy. Nobody s iles to~ay 1 in Tex s City. 7P ucb of the dis st er news c o mes A<Nt!Y from Houston, lllleft&., where refugees ~ p o u r i n in all day.~A A # ore of doctors and sixty-six nurses are taking care of som o th ounded in the hue Houston u·itoriu•• ....._.._....-- - aa et11erl!:ency hoepi,..t,tr.H HeleAivee and friende ePe, As soon 8B the rescee werkexs hfive 9pgu~At--i,n.....a-, f-11ub viGt.im, t,Aey uk, DMay we have the etretcher beek-. aooa. • 11 . u d th at of it>self t.e lle "f ri■ t. ale=- Texas City tonight presents a s.ertacle of utter desol tion. Not~ s·n l e hous te @Bb-iPe~ -fPo ■ t»h · e elt!ploe ion wee so Y iolent that it looaenet! ~ - 1-e \ID d at i o g • , j e i e i, e end t i mb er s • The a wt a er i t..i@ s :t pent many en, i eue he \H'B t,h is e f t@rnoon. Tbe f>e p n by Ma-y or : "The yet." Fortun tely, it fumes ut over t e , fresh devasta ion wou XPLOSI O N - NE W SREEL --- ~------- ---- ~ has been one of the bus iclst of days in the newsreel studios. Going over all the incoming films of the Texas City explosion. Tens of thousands of feet of film. Yesterday morning, at Movietone, my co-worker, Arthur De Titta, was at the News Desk -- when the press wire flashed the first news. Be immediately grabbed a telephone and tried to get Galveston. In spite of strike conditions, emergency c a lla were being put through, and Arthur was able to reach the only newsreel contact that Movietone had down ax there, a free-lance cameraman; the manager of a Galveston radio station, who takes motion pictures as a hobby. Tibia ■ an was right in the middle of broadcasting news of the disaster, but he took tiae out to say that his father already was in a plane, filming the catastrop Bis father, too, seems to be an amateur cameraman. Shouted De T it ta : - " R us h the f i l m ! • That was all. And at that moment the telephone ........ -- . EXPLOSION - NE SRE L - 2 _______ .., _____ ._. __ ...,. ______________ _ lines went out; the explosions co nt inuin, the torm of fire spr ead in g . Which left hing~ in a do ubt ul stat~ hereupon Arthur De Titta hastil du g up some old records with names of free-lance c mer en all over that section of the South. Many of them had not been heard of for years. But Arthur sent a ire to all that he could find, more than a dozen, giving them instructions to hurry to Galveston Bay and film everythin g they could of the explosions and fire. At the same time, he sent wires ordering re ular newsreel cameramen to the scene. That was all that could be done; then nothing to do but wait. So what hap ened? Well, the film began to - come in, pour in, tens of thousands of feet. At Movietone we've been lovking at it all day, cutting ana editing -- and in a moment I'll be on my way to Movietone again, to work the rest of the night on the newsreel of this appalli g dr ~ ma of disaster. ~ / / Ber's a story bout some explosi ns -- 11 arr n ed on purpose. Tomorrow the British Navy is going to touch one off t . at may even riv 1 our Operation Crossroads at Bikine. hat they propose to do is to blow an island of the map -- the mous island of Beli ol nd, blow it right into the North Se: No longer o be there off t~e German coast, a menaot to Jon Bull's ship in g and avy, and an impregnable fortress protec ing Germany's northwest coast. Beligoland is a rocky island, only mile long and a third of a mile wide, with some two-thousand-five hundred inhabit~nts -- or did hav. Its name men Roly Land, because t ere used to be temple to the orse God of Justice there. Once it belon°ed to the Danes, but the British took it early in the Nineteen Century, an held it until Eighteen Rinety. The Marouis of Salisburv, ten Prime Minister, was loudly criticized because e tr ed it to the Germans for some other conces s ions. B LIGOL/N - 2 ~--~~----~- Sali bury co n ~ i ered the 1 c e lu 1 ss bee use under British rule it as crumblin w y, from erosion. But the Gem ns took it, built re t seawalls, nd made it impregnable, as stron a . fortress as you'a find anywhere in the world. So that it prevented any Britieh ittack on the great seaports of Hamburg and Bremen, or the Kiel Canal. During the firet World ar, Beiigoland provided a perfect haven for German U-boats, and even larger vessel• th t lay in wit there, for any British craft that love within range. After the First orld ar, the British for so ■e unfathomable reason, allowed the Germans to keep the place. So, in•~• World War Two there they were again, in comman of a large portion of the North Sea. Now, apparently, they've decided two lessons are enou h. So, they've planted six thous a n, seven hundred tons of hi h explosives, in strate ic ositions, round that f moue isl a nd. These ch r es are connecte · C" b e ship - - - - -- HELIGOLAND - 1 ---~__, __ ._.-..-,---- will lie nine miles off At a signal from the B.B.C. in England -- which will m ke it a R a dio show - a British naval officer will press a button on the cable ship, and then will follow the explosion, or rather a aeries of explosions -- and up will go Religoland. The first will be just a small explanon to scare off the islaoi bird life. The rest will blow all the ■ i1ht7 fortifications to lingdom Come and leave Beligoland a harmless sand dune where a fishing fleet can take refuge in case of a bad storm -- or maybe there won't even be a dune left. RUSSIA -------- 've h rd a lot bouts orta es in Sovi t u ~ ia, but in one ind us try they' re hav in a spectacular boom. I viation• m,~- filrincipally mi itary aviation. Bill Courtney, uropean co res ondent for Colliers, re p orts that the Soviet w a r lords are utting everything .. they h ve into air rep ara tions. The rincipal reason for that celebrated iron c u r t ~ t o prevent Uncle " Sm's fliers from seeing the prodigious pro resa of the H-tt.---~,-tl...,_ Soviets in the air. ~I)( aim to produce one hundred thousand planes this year, military and civilian: and ~ ~heyare fast catching u with Uncle Sam. Two years a o, the Reds had - sixteen-thoucandr four-hundred-and-t enty planes: and that included four thous n ,-two -hundred bombers· and seven-thousand fi hters. Th at , s ys Bill Courtney It- Colliers, the re resents,. total stren th of Uncle Sam's Army Air Force to ay, though many of our planes are held in reserc an ot e~s a r , a~ en le ro oft em out est on m rAcent ri . Uncle Sam' ir strergt . tod y is do n o w at Rus ia' s was two years ago. But, Rus , i to a double its . military viation, as represented b the Nineteen F•rty- Five figure. The Red puttin out three-~undred-and sixty tr nspor planes a mont, were we made on1v hundred-and-six -seven in 1 Nine een For y-Six. And transports that fly civilians one day can fly tr·oops the next. ALL E ---- ~---_.-- Wh tever his on coun ry m n think o f Henry al l ace , the Left in era in ~ritain are loud in their p raise of him. The ••tt■■ D ily Herald, organ of the Briti h L abor Party, announcei" th a t Henry hai made a A " sound case for bimsel~ Wall ec ~ s on his way to " Scandinavia, to tell the Swedea and Norwe ians what he thinks about President Tr~man's foreign policy, and to ask th e m to be kind to the Russi a ns. Before Henry left, a hundred Left ing members or arliament signed a testimonial letter, giving him a glowing send-oft. The English Labor editor thou ht that the denunciations of Henry over here were hysterical, and QJ!2~~ completely unreasonable.~ aroused Senator Alben Barley, min or ity leader in the Senate, wno is over in Paris. Bark l ey s id he w ondered what the British would think o f an En lishman, a former Cabinet Minister, who went to Ame ric a to denounce is own governmentp and that without any backin g from the people. AD LLACE ------------------- .... again. But late re p orts inform us t ha t Henry is at it allace has just landed in Stockholm, Sweden, a nd in his first words to reporters voiced this complaint:"A co si erable number of Americans•=•k1N just don't want - to have any underst a nd with Russia.• allace added: wNinety-nine percent of the British people strongly favor an understanding with the ioviets.• Presumably, Wallace gleaned th-f information from his one week's stay in Britain. ~ Henry Wallace could assay . the feeling of ninety- .,-. nine percent of a country in so short a time. RAILROA __ .., ... ___ _ The nation•s oldes labor di u te h be n the ei hteen-mont o r i r o 1 ri ' in. + e Toledo, Peoria, and 'e ern Railro a . A simultanecu~ announcement from union and ~ · na . ment in eoria 4 Tii ~ Te surprise set lement came only ~irty-ei days afte~ t e brutal and unsolve murder o _ Ceor e lcNear, Presiden of the road, who was killed ne r is home in Peoria last . mont by an unknown aeeii.lan . death was not the only violence in the long and bloody dispute. To union pickets were killed in February, Nineteen Forty-Six, and on numerous other occasions shotgun blasts and threats of dynamite punctua~ed t~e strike. Tonight, the long strike is endei, tre unicn coming to terms with UcNear's aucces~o s, but YcNear is dead; his murderer still no a~prehended. HOLLY OOD --...--------- If a Su~r e me Court J u tice is in e e~ ed in pickin u a little extr chan e, he should t ke iaself to Hollywood. e found oqt today t a t some movie bit J. ~ . yPr get more per d y for portr yin Supt-eme Court Justices than the august min d of the bench g et for pondering their weighty decisions. The story c a me out of a suit being tried in a Superior Court and a witness te tified t a t bit playet's who acted the part of the hi h court judges -in the WILSOI made Three-Hundred-to-Four-Hundred Dollars a day. They'd much rather be bit player ■ than Suprem~ Court • Justices. So our tip to Supreme Court Justices is, •go west to Hollywood where the work is easy and the pay is high.• Except for one thing. Ac - ting director might say, •Bow can I help it if you are a Supreme Court Justice if you don't look like Supreme Court Justice?• Tat would sound just like Hollywood. And hear somet in g t t sounds like Nelson C s ~. PR ~ SS --- - The greate t menace to freedom of the pres · ana freedom of speech in the a.s.A. is a certain g roup of Labor leaders. So says Wilbur Forrest, President of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. He aade the statement today at, a meeting of the Society, in Washington. Some Labor bosses, be went on, now have more power than they ever dreamed of. They have becoae pettf dictators, defying the Government, and indifferent to public opinion. Be says that Labor Onion chiefs can control the production of new ■ papers -- in fact can shut down one or all of the newspapers in any given community, do it overnight. Then he went on to warn the country's editors - that a campaign is no• brewing to smear the press ,x -- this inspired by Communists who have wormed their way in to On ions. Whereupon everything Wilbur Forrest said was Assistant prettr much confirmed by Thurman Arnold, former}-._ • Attorney General, unde~ Franklin D. Roosevelt. Testifying before a sub-committeejof Senators, he told them about the unf a ir methods of the Typographical Uni o n, a union that he said is proceeding so ruthlessly that it is crushing many small independent newspapers to whom free speech means so much. Thurman Arhold pointed out that instead of trying to help a small newspaper cope with its •*• disadvantages, the Typographical Onion is ruthlessly aggravating the small paper's burden, in many cases even making it impossible for newspaper to exist. . And, President Roosevelt's Attorney Gene • al went on to say that Onion leaders are implaccable about featherbedding customs that compel publishers to hire more printers than they need. That union chiefs have refused to bargain with publishers, and that union locals have no independence, must take their orders from headquarters. Newspaper publishers, said Thurman Arnold, are cau~ht in the grip of absentee control over their own composing rooms; and are quite helpless against the force of the Onion. LABOR --..-.----- The fi ht about the new Act of Congress to control Oni o n labor is a bout to begin in earnest. The Representatives today finished ll!!! work on it, and sent up to the Sen a te the strictest bill in the histor of the country. One that would do away with closed shop contracts and forbid industry-wide bargaiDiDI• A Congressman who visited the bite House today came out with the news that President Truman will most cert~inly veto it. However, he added tha\ Ir. Truman had not authorized him to say this. The Senate will paas a less drastic billi but, rumor is, the President will even veto that. One i•portant feature of the Bouse bill ia that it would forbid the National Labor Relation• Board to recognize Onions whose officers are now or ever were, meabers of the Communist Party. - TELEPHONE --------- A g le m of o-pe h ne re . n rdin e t lPp one strike to ay . Henr ay er , c o unse l for t~e Ma ional Feder ~tio n of Teleph ne Worke ~ , announced t t~e girls and boys c n o c to ork i f t e Be Com a ies will give them an imme d i a e r a ise of six dollar. And that's a compromi r e t~e ori g inal demand oft elve dollars. Mayer eaplained t e they would consi~er the six dollars a token increase, a token of the Co•nr'a willingness to arbitr te. Then followed the statement of Joseph lltz~■■ Bierne, President of the Union, who said the strikers would have to b~ve what he called "a down payment• .. before he would be wil l in g fort em to arbi a e. Beirne announced that the union leaders o ed to have a settlement before the week is out. Well - that sounds bet te r. And how about a good word from you, Bugh.