•1 ,s--- ^U-^OCO f_x/IAY 31st, 19^4 THURSDAY , GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY: The radio - the air of this broad land - all day has been crammed with just one thing - the big doings of Uncle Sam’s Fleet in New York. From the loud speaker has come one long stream of tidings and descriptions of battleships, cruisers, submarines, gold braided admirals, jaunty, hard boiled gobs, and the Presidential party, with || III! m m Ip the Chief Executive of the land reviewing the mighty sea power of which : ' .r- j| I n he is the supreme commander. Driving over the mountains of West Vir­ ginia from Greenbriar - and White Sulphur, to Hinton and Mt. Hope I could hear radios - booming from nearly every house. Apparently the whole nation has been tuned In today, listening to on-the-spot descriptions of the presidential review of the fleet. But It hasnH been all warships and naval review In the world today. There are some other news angles. So let(s get away from nautical festivities for awhile. I certainly am just about as far from , nautical festivities tonight as impossible to get. Tonight was the night that I was going to try and broadcast from the bottom of a coal . mine. And that’s where I am at this moment - six hundred feet unaer ground in the Whipple Mine, of the White Oak Coal Company, near t e INTRO2 tom of Ht. Hope in the heart of West Virginia - seventy miles east of Qharleston. Miners call it being Mown in the hole11. But, then I*m used to being in the hole. MIMS I can't help reflecting on that moody contrast this subterranean mine here, way down in the darkness and depths of the earth, and that gala oceanic spectacle in Hew York today. our High Seas Fleet on parade. All around me are the tunnels -- 50 miles of them from which the coal is brought from distance parts of the mine, by small electric trains, eighteen hundred tons of it, a day. But, to Veep it dry down here four times as much water must be taken out of the mine each day, eight thousand tons of water and eighteen hundred hundred tons of coal. broadcasting studios I've known. A giant steel fan circulates one hundred thousand cubic feet of fresh air through the mine per minute. powder is used for shooting down the coal; the miners use electric lamps on their fibre helmets, instead of the old time carbide flame; and white rock dust is spread all around, non- explosive rock dust, to keep that terrible black coal du from exploding and blowing up the place, as used to happen so The ventilation seems okay, in fact better than many And, to make it as safe as possible, non-inf lammable MiagL - 2 often. Safety se.ma to be the watch-woi'd of these mines. mlne coal is hoisted up this shaft to that framwork which they call the tipple. And they wash it all off to make it as clean as possible, and spray it with Sun Oil ,‘Coalkote', which further keeps down the dust and is a great help to those who consume coal. Some of these gentlemen want to sing their favorite song:- "My sweethearts a Mule in a mine. n But, we’ll postpone that. MINE Ai^D fleet So it's Sown here in the biaol, mine that the coal miners labor in the underground depths, while up there in the harbor of Hew York are the splendid fighting ships swept by the salt breezes of the sea — navigating officers that shoot the sun and sailors that swat the deck. The fleet has captured New York in a tumultuous welcome. And the gets have captured the girls -- at least so far as feminine fashions are concerned. Girls appeared on New York's avenues today wearing middy blouses and gobs' hats and other finery smacking of the Navy, In the grand goings of the day President Roosevelt had beside him a stocky gray haired mwn whom he customarily addresses as Chief, Well, who was it that was "the Chief" to the President of the United States? It was Josephus Daniels, now our Ambassador to Mexico, who during those old war time days was secretary of the Navy. Young Franklin D. Roosevelt served und er him as Assistant Secretary. So Josephus Daniels is the President's old Boss. It wus Secretary of Navy Daniels wbo, as a former Sunday school teacher and Southern editoi, struck a mig *y MI HE ANI) FLEE?.-2 blow for prohibition when he forbade the serving of rum rations in the Navy. He made the Navy dry. And thus he helped to bring prohibition much nearer. And his one-time assistant, Franklin E. Roosevelt is the man who has made the country wet. Just an odd sidelight on that naval extravaganza in New York today T AMHAI\:Y FOLLOV/ PLEET Another of the mighty r^en at that Mg Fleet review in New York was Postmaster General Jum Farley. But, they say it was not merely to see the ships that Brought Jim to New York. It was also to see the leaders of Tammany. And thereby hangs a tale, the sorely twisted tall of the Tammany Tiger. It was really President Roosevelt, before he became President who first twisted that formidable tail. The way that he, as Governor of New York, conducted the hearings into the doings of Jimmy Walker, put Tammany in a hole deeper than this Whipple coal mine. Jimmy resigned and went to Europe. Later Tammany lost the election for Mayor, And then -- no political patronage! So the resignation of the Tammany leader, John Curry, was a natural consequence and now the dope is that if the Tammany braves will choose a new leader approved by the White House, Tammany will be accepted into the good graces of the President once more. And that, say the grapevine corres pendents, is the deeper meaning of the Postmaster General's presence at the pageant of the war ships today. Even from deep down here in a mine that sounds like deep political plotV TAHKAIfY FOLLOW FLEET - 2 Somehow the shade of Jimmy Walker still seems to hover over Hew York City and all that happens there. Where is he? He’s in London. Viscount Castlerose, who writes for the London Sunday Express, tells of just having sat in a poker game with Jimmy, and hy the way Jimmy took quite a sizeable pot from His Lordship. Then the Viscount goes on to say: "You might think the most popular Mayor of Hew York has ever known would be unhappy living in a little Bnglish hotel# ’’-Sut really old chap I am telling you," The Viscount continues, "Jimmy Walker is happier than he has ever been. He has exchanged power for liberty# For one thing now he's never bored. How he doesn's have to attend four banquets a night. Ana now for some more news, yrom the close and con­ fined depths of this subterranean pit. down here in the stygian dark of this black mine where there are so many electric lights that it's almost light as day, let's take a look at the wide open spaces of the West. The word from the West ia — dry, very dry, drought — and more drought. The situation beyond the Mississippi has grown so Cs serious that cattle are starving by the thousands. This terrific drought is putting hundreds of thousands of farmers in the hole. Mot only the grain growers but the livestock raisers. They are now in a hole so deep that the government is getting busy to relieve the situation. The first thing the Federal Relief Adrainistration did iras to allot one million dollars to the farmers of Wisconsin to buy seed and six hundred thousand to buy food for the live­ stock. And tomorrow the government will begin buying up more than a million head of cattle. That ought to take a consider- able burden off the shoulders of the farmers. However, to make metters worse, the farmers out there are now having x cope with a plague of grasshoppers. The better part of slx states being afflicted by the pests Apparently, no lellef is in sight, except government relief - also railroad relief. Governor Horner of Illinois has appealed to the railroads to cut down their freight rates on grain, so as to help the growers out. At any rate, the plight of the farmer in the drought- stricken regions may make these coal miners sitting around me more content with their lot. How about it? MINER Right you are, Lowell. There at least are no grasshoppers down here in a coal mine. And, as far - as droughts are concerned, while we are underground we don1! know whether the sun is shining or whether it’s raining. Nop6, not even a grasshopper would come down here. Only human beings. STRIKE Way Toaxlf in March, General Johnson of the NRA issued this warning; "Raise wages and cut down hours or strikes will sweep the country". Let1 s see how good a prophet the General was. The shipping industry is at a standstill. In Mew England and in the South the men in the textile industries are still threatening to walk out. The situation in the steel industry is still deadlocked. In northern Ohio it*s the electrical industry. An article in this week's M a TIOH declares that the signal for a general strike in northern Ohio may he given tomorrow night. The unions have called for a great torch­ light parade and mass meeting strike - £ However, we should remember that pretty much the same thing I11 nineteen twenty one. In that year the whole country was also svvept by laboi troubles. But we recovered and. ood harvest years followed. Maybe werre not much in the hole alter all. Sam Scott, one of the best known figures in the coal mining world, is sitting beside me. Mr. Scott are things any better in the mines so far as both miners and employers are concerned? Mr. Scott:- We've had our difficulties too. But, for the time being they seem to be ironed out. L.T. Here's hoping every other industry will be able to say the same before long! Here's hoping. CU3A The so-o^llecl terrorist campaign is still golng oa throughout Cuba. The Havana police are taking extra precautions to protect the life of Jefferson Caffery, the American Ambassador. There is particular anxiety about a mysterious green motor car which has been lingering in the neighborhood of the Embassy. The Sleuths believe it has been hanging around for no good purpose. Uncle Sam in still in the hole with the Cubans. The new treaty, which was expected to bring above a love feast, has brought us no popularity in the Pearl of the Antilles. Though Government officials are expressing the usual flowery appreciation, the people at large are still sore at us. American businessmen in Havana express no enthusiasm over the treaty. Some of them declare it is "just another experiment." Others make light of it, saying that it will make no difference in our relations with the islanders. Meanwhile, the Senate still has to ratify the treaty. There was a debate about it in Washington last nigh- an. our friend the Louisiana Kingffsh, got in some choice characteristic CUBA - 2 morsels. Most of his verbal brickbats were hurled at the Q heads of the bankers. If Senator Long doesn^t quit attacking the bankers, he’s likely to make them popular once more. SIAM The King of Siam is going traveling again and a lot of people would like to know why. Also the diplomats of the world are asking questions. Says Prajatipok:- "It's on account of my eyes. I have to go to England, France and America to have them examined by the foremost oculists of the world.^ And his lovely lady, Queen Ham bai barni nods that this is so. But, to this political observers are replying: "eyesight my eye" what the King of Siam is really going abroad for is to get England to finance a Siamese navy." The interpretation is that Siam is afraid of Japan. As in the Philippines and in the Hawaiian Islands, an increasinglyj large Japanese population within King Pra^atipok's domain. And the to Siamese rulers are afraid that the Japs eventually will do that country what they have done to Korea. "So", say the experts, Sik* "King Prajatipok wants a strong navy for protection. And London seems to be the obvious place to go for help. British fin advisers and lawyers have been helping run Siamese more than a quarter of a century. OGPU A little while ago we heard that Stalin, the Red Dictator, proposed to dissolve the Ogpu, that terrifying secret police of Red Russia, And now along comes a singular story which purports to explain it all. They say there is one man in Russia of whom the Red Dictator is afraid. That one man is Yagoda, Yagoda the Terrible. He has long been secohd ! in command of the Ogpu. His superior was Menzhinsky, the head] of the dreaded secret police -- a mild, pleasant fellow besid* Yagoda, Menshinsky signed only thirty - five thousand death warrants. He was Stalin's man and did everything that Stalin told him. Menzhinsky died recently, and Yagoda the Terrible is in line to succeed him. They say that Stalin several times has tried to remove Yagoda, but couldn't do it. One reason given is that the Ogpu has in its archives too mush informatio concerning the Central Committee of the Communist Party, has the goods on too many of the members. So Yago a "errible stayed on the job, even in spite of the Red Dictator. And now the question is will he succeed to the supreme c ommand OGFU - 2 of the Communist Secret Police? Or will the Ogpu or will the Ogpu he abolished? They say Stalin wants it abolished to keep Yagoda from becoming it faster. J Yagod a's father was a political exile, sent by the Czar to frozen Siberia. He himself, before the Russian Revolution, was one of the most desperate plotters among the terrorists. And today Yagoda the Terrible is the only man Stalin fears -- so runs the story from Red Russia, the land of the stories that Tceep one awaVe at night. FIRES Along with the drought and the heat wave comes another old, old American menace. Since the earliest settlers landed on these shores, there have been forest fires to fight every summer. But this year they are particularly devastating anrt they are rasing over an unusually wide area. Five Canadian provinces are being ravaged by the flames. Whole counties are being burned up,, settlers driven out of their homes, with the provincial and dominion governments doing their utmost to help them. In Mew Brunswick the government is sending a fleet of trucks with army tents, blankets food and what-not to the rescue of three hundred families who are homeless. In addition to this, the woods are a-blaze in Mova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario and as far west as Manitoba, South of the border, the same perils are raging. In Michigan, the fires are now under control. But from regions aa scattered as T.'aine, New York, Wisconsin and Minnesota, forest rangers and C.C.C. workers are fighting day and night. More than a thousand of them are struggling in the Adirondaoks alone. Some of the most beautiful country in America scarred by fierce fires. The state and federal governments are doing all they can. For once a loiest fire gets started, only superhuman efforts can stop it. Mother Nature has been playing us peculiar tricks this year, trying to put us in a hole apparently. But usually Mother Nature is not to blame. Man is to blame. Coming over these glorious mountains of West Virginia this morning, looking dovjn on Greenbriar River, I saw a chap in a car ahead pitch a lighted cignarette stub into the brush. If we could all remember not to do that our gradually vanishing forests might be with us a little longer, 1 i I m Iv mine ending Here s a curious thin, in connection with this mine broadcast which .ay give you a chuckle. Do you remember when aviators were superstitious about flowers, and wouldn't take flowers up with them in a plane? Well, coal miners have their pet superstituion too. I brought a couple o, ten year old boys along today, to give them a thrill, and two ladies one oi them a leading business woman of the Shenandoah Valley, business manager and part owner of two daily news­ papers in Staunton - Mfs. C*K.Brown. Ah, but wo£en are not allowed in the coal mines. If a woman goes into one, and the miners know about it, some of them, often all of them, will refuse to work the next day. In some cases they refuse to go back to worl for a week or so -- until the evil spell has worn off, I suppose. So the two ladies came a couple of hundred miles in vain, th« are up on top now7 looking down - outside looking in. For this is a manTs world down here at the bottom of the Whipple Mine. The reaso for the superstituion, *"1 understand, is that usually when Visits a mine, something terrible happens soon after. And usually that something is an explosion. Yes, women cause explosions. And even though I am tax* hundreds of feet under the earth I know there will be sputtering and explosion m the N. MINE ENDING - S room, in New York ^ity, if I donTt hurry up and say GO LONG UNTIL TOMORROW