CHINA —— ''\ Tonight the great Chinese city of boochow is in ,■ I flames^— in -che hands o:_ the Japanese. After months of desperate battle, the Mik:adofs generals have captured the place xixx uhat \ias tiieir foremost imnediate sh^EEiifi objective. They captured it with a tremendous effort, a huge battle of the fiercest fighting. J ^ bispatches from the Far East tell usthat the result of the capture of Soochow is three-fold. First — it saves face, so important in tne Orient. Chinese military successes and victory celebrations meant a sex dangerous loss of face for the men of Nippon, bo they say the Japanese strove swiftly, overwhelmingly for boochow — to touch off a stupendous victory celebration of their own, a counter-celebration designed to offset the oninese victory parades. Second:- boochow is the dominating railroad center — between the Japanese-controlled northern provinces and the territory the Mikado's generals seired around Shanghai and Nanking. They were out to link up these two conquered areas, v'toSi and in this the xi railroad is a factor — especially isnanese era now in command the railroad center at boochov.'. j CHINA of the lines they can strike at the Chinese provisional capital -Hankow, Third:- the capture of hooehow breaks the great Chinese system of fortification, the line along which they made a desperate defense. The Chinese battlefront i now stands crashed, untenable. i>o now they will have to resort to that other kind of warfare they wage so successfully — broken front tactics, guerrilla warfare, the11 scorched earth.,, The Japanese say the Chinese resorted to their "scorched earth" strategy in a big way at Foochow, setting the city afire before it was captured — so that tonight the flames are sweeping and scorching In trtip doomed ^^ ^ FRANCE Those much advertised talks between France and Italy seem to be a discord^* sort of conversation - on the verge of a breakdown* •eae-r*Which might seem to be indicated by a statement p& Premier Daladier made to newspaper men in t>aris today - saying that France stood ready to defend herself, frontiers and colonies, that France is strong and if necessary would fight. of defense and strength. And so, it was quickly surmised that they in a bad way. The fei1 uufcrlc is g&id--to C'One«rn Russia and Muscaldrrl-^. alliance / -and kaep .»ub"of-»he 3pan±sh-*itUact4*»»% A dispatch from Rome today declares that Mussolini is much disturbed by large supplies of war material on their way from Jlrance to theSpanish Left Wingers, to help them fight Franco. However^ here’s another report from Paris - the French Foreign Office announcing that France is sticking strictly to non-intervention in Spain. The xm announcement^as raper4;ed.$ makes | - ii I if I 111 i| 1 ‘ There seemed to be no special reason for the sudden assertions i l ■ ! ' i ! 1 meant indirectly that the Franco-Itallan talks were conversationally 'I ii * I I I1' ! FRANCE - £ the special statement that France will not permit war materials from any other nation to be trans-shipped across French territory to Spain - no matter if some other nation might want to do this. Obviously, the other nation meant is Soveit Russia. UF.XICAK OIL In the House of Commons today, a proposal was made to strike back at Mexico for the seizure of the British oil properties* Mexico has a favorable balance of trade with Great Britain, sells more than she buys* And^conservative spokesn^n expounded a plan whereby Britain would take the money for its excess imports from Mexico, and apply the cash to the payment of the expropriated oil wells. shipments Meanwhile, Mexico is making oiljEtoti* - in spite of all f\ A the difficulties, two Norwegian tankers are reported to have sailed from Tuxpan today, with two hundred and eleven thousand barrels of petroleum aboard - petroleum from the seized British and American properties. All that oil is bound for Europe* What nations will get all that oil? isn't stated. but it may be the Fascists. diplom QI In Congress today a bill was introduced to correct our a condition in^KRisk^diplomatic service — a condition » that will surprise many of us. Do you ruiow that if a career diplomat becomes a minister or an ambassador, he is out of the government service entirely wnen he leaves that post? ^He rises in the service 'or years ana then gets to the top — a minister or ambassador^ *£hen there*s a change, other appointments are made — ana the career diplomat is out of the regular service, out of his career To remedy this Represent*tive^^acon of New York introduced a bill that would create a new class in our foreign service — Ministers of oareer. The io.v. would ma^e it legal for them to be appointed to legations or embassies, oe removed and still be eligible for employment in the foreign service. HOPKINS Three million names on the W.P.A. rolls - that*s the pessimistic forecast by Harry Hopkins today. He said that the present slump is so severe, the need for relief is so great - that the W.P.A. rolls would have to be expanded, probably to a new all-time high.^ Right now the figure is two million six hundred thousand. Hopkins thinks this may have to be expanded to two million eight hundred thousand, or three million - a record. RELIEF .LoG&y rexiei in Chicago meant mostly beans and Tice, The City relief fund Is nearly exhausted and the food tickets handed to four thousand families are good for only a restricted list of edibles - chiefly beans and rice, with some cabbage, butter, celery and oranges. The machinery of the law is expected to shell out some more relief money around the middle of next week. At Cleveland, the relief sit-down strike in the City Hall is still going on - an average of seventy-five holding the fort in Cleveland's municipal headquarters. TheyTre staging the demonstration in protest against what they call - "starvation relief." Meanwhile, the Ohio Legislature is holding a special session at Columbus to do something about the relief crisis. Way to the north-, in Newfoundland, we hear about relief troubles too. Today, a crowd of unemployed, demanding relief, raided the food stores at Hickman’s Harbor. That’s fifty miles north of St.John’s farm The government will lend money to farmers on two hundred million bushej^JL of surolus wheat this year. The crop is estimated at nine hundred and fifty million bushels. There will be a market for seven hundred and fifty million^ domestic kelsi consumption and export trade. On the remaining two hundred million, the surplus, there will be Federal loans to the farmers. AIR LINE Today. Congress was asked for immediate action, action by Monday. It wasn't the White House urging a swift congressional hearing in some great affair of national policy. It was a mere company, an air line, Pan-American. Unless Congress acts promptly, the Clipper service across the Pacific will haye to be suspended. And all because of a curious twister, an oversight. The Trans-Pacific service is based vitally on two bits of remote oceanic land. Wake Island and Midway Island. These are way stations for the ocean flying airliners, way stations where crews totaling sixty men handle the Job of refueling, reprovisioning the craft on xfc wide wings./so inevitably on Wake and Midway Islands v there must be ample supplies of gasoline and food, supplies that ^must be constantly replenished by regular shipments#^ For this supply service, Pan-American bought a vessel built in Canada, a schooner named "Trade Winds." The ship was loaded with an abundant cargo of all that was necessary and sailed to Kingman Reef, with orders to proceed from the reef to Wake and Midway and land the supplies. There was only one bit of neglect AIR LINE - 2 one oversight - nobody thought of the United States law enacted by Congress, which forbids trade betweenAmerican ports in anything but American vessels, American built♦ The air line never stopped to consider that their ship "Trade Winds, being Canadian built, was forbidden by law to carry out its mission of transporting supplies to Wake and Midway. They have just found it out - and itfs almost too late. Clipper ships are running low. They wonft last long enough for stocks of gasoline and food to be loaded on another ship and sent. Only the "Trade Winds”, the forbidden vessel, is in a position to the Clipper service will have to be suspended. So that*s why Pan-American is asking Congress for quick action, action by Monday - to pass a special statute that will make it legal for "Trade Winds" to deliver its cargo to Wake and Midway - and thus keep the Clipper service going. At the two way-stations, fuel and supplies for the make prompt deliveries. If that STAMPS Today a batch of mail was collected at Marlin, Texas, nine years late. Back in NineteenTwenty-Eight and Nineteen Twenty-Nine, the report was that there was to be an airmail stop at Marlin, and stamp collectors, always in search of some new philatelic wrinkle posted letters with instructions that they be picked up by the flying postman at Marlin. However, the airmail rumor was false. The planes with the mail bags never did make a stop at the Texas town. And so the stamp collectorsf letters Just stayed there - twelve hundred and forty-four of them. Today, however, an airmail plane^d^ff-feSke^a stop at Marlin, this in connection with airmail week. And so the postal plane picked up all those letters - nine years later. @ne is addressed to King George the Fifth of England, who since has died and been succeeded by two subsequent kings. The first airmail flown from Long Island to Washington made it in three hours and fifty minutes at the rate of sixty miles an hour. Today, Major Alexander deSeversky, as a special tribute to the air mail service, flew the same course in fifty- five minutes. Instead of sixty miles he did it at an average of two hundred and sixty. CRUISER No, cries the Navy - the presidential cruiser did not spring a leakI There were sacrilegious rumors that on the recent F.D.R, fishing trip,^U.S.S, PHILADELPHIA} Ree5ev^lt--paj^ty“ahoar4^ didn11 quite keep the water out - sprung a leak, in t4» humiliating nautical parlance. But the Navy Department denies that. True - the PHILADEU'HIA is undergoing repairs at the Navy Yard. But the explanation is - that some of the new gear aboard the warship didnft work. And, because of this, there was QUOTE some water in one of her storerooms UNQUOTE. That, however, didnft interfere with the presidential fishing, so the Navy statement declares. And the PHILADELPHIA did not spring a leak TREE A truly vicious story of vandalism comes from Boston - the cutting down of the "monarch of Apple Island." That monarch, landmark of Boston Harbor, was an historic elm tree, a knar led wind-blasted elm, ninety-five feet tall and a hundred and twenty—four years old. An elm famed in legend and poetry — a ieg£BL,of a strange hermit, a poem^by Oliver Wendell Holmes, legends also of John L. Sullivan. va ndal ha a o u t-down-^-he -monarch-of- Apple islands A school boy passing the tree noticed that it had been mutilated, cut, half cut down, ^e ran to tell the authorities - and when they got there, the vandal had returned and completed the Job. The venerable and storied elm lay shattered on the ground where it had fallen. Now why would any vandal cut down that tree? A tree planted by the strange hermit, William Marsh, a mystery man of the early days, believed to be an English political refugee. Some said he was a relative of King George the Fourth. When the tree grew up, he became a recluse, and built his cabin beneath the *&&&. A* TREE - 2 itiiLb be Mar va] Maybe vandal read the poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes which is a bit heavy - after the fashion of New England transcendental verse. The poet wrote of the elm, the recluse and the cabin - in these meters* "He lived at ease beneath his elm tree’s fehad?». Did naught for gain, yet all his debts were paid; They said his house was framed with curious care. That on the platform of his chamber door Hinged a loose square that opened through the floor.*1 And a lot more like that. Maybe the vandal read the poem, „ and rushed out and cut down the tree. Somewhat less ponderous are the stories of John L. Sullivan and the monarch of Apple Island. The A Boston strong boy lived in those parts when he was a lad, and is said to have fought many a scrap with the other kids in the shade of the elm. They say that John L. learned how to fight in those nose-busting battles beneath the ^monarch of Apple Island. But now the monarch, landmark of Boston harbor, is no more, cut down by a vandal. PRi^ILVANIft Celebrations should be appropriate — that’s what they think in Philadelphia. night now they’re dedicating a shrine, synd prominent on the pgBncs program are scientific lectures, tho reading on the latest progress in science. That’s appropriate — because it’s a shrine in honor of Benjamin Franklin, who flew the kite, got a spark out of a thunderstorm. and was. one of the fathers of the science of electricity. A Likewise — the printers of Philadelphia are taking a prominent part in the festivities, ben^4ng£ar Franklin was a printer, In fact that mighty scholar and statesman signed himself merely ^ as — B. Franklin, Printer. i»fc=£ix«*Poor Bfchard £3»fc^is doing its bit in honor of the author of*'Poor Bichard’s Almanac Altogether, appropriate — as appropriate as a sun colored blue would be painted on this microphone signifying Blue Bunoco. advertising Here s something for the baby giant panda In the Chicago Zoo to think about with solemn logic. I won't suggest it to Dizzy Dean, because the logic of Dizzis seldom solemn - and sometimes it isn’t logic. Anyway, the giant panda and the speed ball pitcher are partners as advertising attractions.. They were nominated today as the star Chicago publicity features. The Chicago advertising men neld a poll to choose - Chicago’s ’’Outstanding Advertising Attraction for Nineteen Thirty-Eij'ht, ” and today we learn that right at the top of the list $Jj^the giant panda and Dizz. I don't know what it all signifies. The panda can't pitch a baseball the way Dizzcan. But, on the other hand, to get a mate for the panda theyto the jungles of China M '