V L.T. - SUNOCO. WEDNESDAY4 MARCH 4, 1956. GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY: “— t^v The hottest bit of news today^the hottest since the Tokyo assassinations, is that scoop feHEFfe Roy Howard landed for the Scripps-Howard papers. As all America knows. Hoy is Number One Man of Scripps-fioward and United Pressj and has some thousands of reporters working for him. Nevertheless, every now and then he goes out and digs one up himself. Perhaps thatrs to remind us that before he became the tycoon of Scripps-Howard and U.P., he was one of the smartest reporters in America. Today*s scoop is an interview with no less a potentate -S-teiLw than Josef Stalin. i-vt^Tpie first nm has given out in two years. the first since he talked to H.G. Wells in Nineteen Thirty-Four. q E am pe it all was the Red Dictator*s reply to a question by Howard. A The gist of the question was: "Will Russia fight Japan if the Japanese attack Mongolia?" The answer came short, sharp, direct. without any Asiatic subtlety. The answer was: "Yes it mm - 2 What's more, Stalin declared that Japan had been so warned. He said to Roy Howard: "If Japan attacks the Mongolian Peoples 1 Republic and seeks to destroy its independence we shall have to help that republic .*1 Then he added: "And Foreign Commissar Litvinoff's assistant has so notified the Japanese Ambassador in Moscow.'* Howard then propounded another pointed question: whether there had been any Japanese activities on the border which the Soviets considered to be "of an aggressive nature". This was the Man of Steel reply: "The Japanese seem to be continuing to concentrate their troops on the frontier of the Mongolian Peoples 1 Republic." However, he added: "So far there have been no new attempts to create border incidents," Evidently, Howard's story had hardly been on the street a minute, before the text was cabled to Tokyo, and is now splashed all over the Tokyo papers. The official reaction to Stalin's remarks came from a spokesman in the Mikado's Foreign Office, His remarks were in effect*- "Pooh! Stalin is bluffing LEAD - 3 In the interview, the subject of conversation was Germany. The American puolisher asked what the big shots in Moscow thought about the chances of an invasion by Germany, a joint attack on Russia by Hitler and Poland. Editor Howard called Stalin's attention to the recent statement from V/arsaw, a statement in which the Polish government said it would not permit Polish soil to be used by foreign troops as a base of operation against a third nation, Stalin's reply to that was interesting. Said he:- "History shows that an aggressor nation always looks for an intermediate state whose frontiers touch on the frontiers of the country it is going to attack" - a country to drive through. Then he pointed out that in Nineteen Fourteen, Germany used Belgium. Again in Nineteen Eighteen, the Germans used Latvia for a drive against Beningrad , Then he added: "I don't know what specific frontiers would be best adapted to German purposes today. But I think they would find a people prepared to lend them a frontier." Later on he made the remark: "There are two focal points of danger - war danger - in the world today: Japan in the Far East, Germany in the West." LEAD - 4 And, there's one more point that's particularly interesting to us. Said Editor Howard: "Has the Soviet Union given up its plans of hringing about world revolution?w And now listen to Stalin *3 answer: "We never had any such plans feat or in tent ion,M Thus said the ruler of Red Russia. Evidently that astonished Roy Howard just as it astonishes us now, Eor he replied:- "You appreciate, no doubt, Mr. Stalin, that much of the world has long entertained a different impression?" And the Dictator answered: "Well, Mr. Howard, that is a product of a tragic laisunderStanding. Ho, a comic one. Well, call it tragic comic.M Then Stalin added a phrase rather amazing, coming from the lips of the Secretary-General of the Communist Party, The phrase was: "To attempt to export revolution is nonsense. Without desire within a country, there will be no revolution," Well, there's surely food for sober reflection in that startling story. One thing that seemed to have struck Roy Howard; particularly was the informality of Russia1 a Humber One Man, LEAD - 5 Stalin, he says, doesn't go in for any dramatics or showmanship. No heel-clicking, no spur rattling. He behaves like a civilian. like an ordinary citizen. BOOSEVELT This is Maroh fourth. And memory goes back to that other March 4thf that ushered in a period of excitement beyond precedent - three years ago. Franklin D. Roosevelt's inauguration the emergency measures:- the gold embargo, the order from the White House that revamped our entire monetary structure, the devaluation of the dollar, the confiscation of all the gold in the country. Then that sensational elgi slative program the beginning of all the alphabet agencies, and the breathless alacrity with which Congress complied with every request from the White House. Never were measures whipped through both Houses with such speed as the A. A. A. , N.R.A., and T.V. A. Of those three, only one remains, the Tennessee Valley Authority. In those days, the first relief program, with its appropriation of Four billion, eight hundred and eighty million dollars, seemed stupendous. But we grow blase even about billions. But never again will there be an inauguration on March 4th. Henceforth, presidential terras will run from January to January. For the constitution has been changed that my. BOO SEVBLT - 2 By the way, Mrs, Roosevelt recently declared that her experience in Washington had been most educational. A newspaper man quoted the remark to the President. The President’s broad should ere shook as he replied with a chuckle; "'That goes for me tool" FABM Well, I see Chester Davis, the A,A,A, tycoon, is losing no time. His men are already on the march, starting up the machinery for their new Triple A, In company with Secretary Wallace they are on their way to Memphis and Chicago, There they'll meet up with the men at the head of the big farm organ­ izations, and try to make the machinery gee and haw with the ideas of the farmers. Some information came out of the Department of Agri­ culture today. It concerned Rex Tugwell's Resettlement Adminis­ tration. We’ve been hearing about this for months but this is the first real bit of knowledge we get on what has been accomplished. Here it is:- Uncle Sam has acquired seven million acres of exhausted land. In so doing he has bought those acres from five-thousand-five hundred farmers, wo fewer than twenty-nine thousand men are now at work, employed by the Resettlement Administration, turning that unproductive land into forests, parts and grazing areas. In addition to those twenty-nine thousand, some twenty-four hundred C.C.C, workers are sharing their work. The word is that the Resettlement Administration is giving relief jobs to one hundred and ten projects in forty states. If you are anywhere within miles of Kew York City — and that covers a lot of territory, donft miss the Sportsmen1s Show, at Grand Central Palace. That huge place, where the National "uto Show is always held, is 1*1111 of the most fascinating collection of this and that ever assembled within those wallste * A which have seen so many expositions. There hasn't been a National Sportsmen^ Show for twenty odd years, until this one. Many states have special exhibits, and so have some of the provinces of Canada. The place is swarming with leather-faced guides, Indians in full war regalia, sailboats, motor boats, live beaver in the New Brunswick exhibit, live deer, live moose — a whole family of moose — porcupine, lynx, fox, live birds of various kinds, pools of -sporty fish darting about — and, T could go on like that for. ten minutes. Right in the center of the floor they have what is supposed to be a lake, but really s* more like a swimming pool, A. several feet deep, nearly one hundred feet long — full of water. In this, log-rolling exhibitions are staged by fellows who spend their lives doing that in the rivers that lead out from the SPORTSMAN * 3 SHOW - 2 big timber country. Also, canoe-tilting, and exhibitions of the most expert fly-casting I ever saw. The State of Maine exhibitors even brought along a Down East fisherman, beard, slicker and rubber boots, who sits there mend ing his fishing nets. The guides from New Brunswick were proud of some wonderful live salmon they were bringing down in a tank. But the fish encountered disaster on the way, and when the guides got here their fish were no longer alive. You can imagine their feelings when they discovered they were landing in New York with a lot of dead fish BRIDGE It seems that America isnrt the only country that can build great bridges. The people o£ southern Rhodesia are celebrat­ ing the opening of a new one, which takes rank as the third largest single-arch-span In the world. It crosses the Sabi River, . 5 » curls through the mountains of^ttee^* •test tortuous stream . /\ A. A Africa. The new affair is called the.Birchenough Bridge, after Sir Henry Birchenough, President of the great British South Africa Companyr of an l-awtiTaoer One peculiar thing aftaut It is that" least A A a hundred and fifty miles from anything that even approaches being a city. Its real importance lies in the fact that it saves travelers five hundred and twenty-six miles. The Sabi River, though not a deep one, is unfordable on account of the quicksands. The consequence was that settlers in certain districts were completely isolated from the markets. There they had a rich, fertile, productive region, abounding in good food produce. But to get^fet to market required a _ , v.’ BRIDGE It seems that America isnft the only country that can build great bridges. The people of southern Rhodesia are celebrat­ ing the opening of a new one, which takes rank as the third largest single^arch-span in the world. It crosses the Sabi River, that tortuous stream '< ^ __ curls through the mountains oi^ Africa. The new affair is called the. Birchenough Bridge, after Sir Henry Birchenough, President of the great British South Africa Companyr of t#B6E^9ir One peculiar thing about it is that itr*"ga grt least A A a hundred and fifty miles from anything that even approaches being a city. Its real importance lies in the fact that it saves travelers a wn-hti-'-r grf, five hundred and twenty-six miles. The Sabi River, though not a deep one, is unfordable on account of quicksands. The consequence was that settlers in certain districts were completely isolated from the markets. There they had a rich, fertile, productive region, abounding in good food produce. But to get^^^3prod^l£^bo market required a A* BRIDGE- 2 journey of more than six hundred miles oyer steep, winding, mountain trails, with rumbling oxcarts-eracking the old bull whip. And motor trucks too, The span of the Birchenough Bridge is one thousand and eighty feet. The only two larger ones are the one at Sydney Harbor and the Bayonne Bridge from Staten Island to New Jersey, The Birch enough Bridge crosses the riyer at a height of two hundred and eighty feet over the muddy waters of the Sab i • J APA£3 fe5E PO STM ASTER There's many a story about the patience of Orientals* The Japanese, for example. Right now the stoic fortitude of those Far Eastern isi aid ers is a point of world importan©e, So let's look at the story the news brings us todayf -- about the po stmaster of Atshushio. Twenty-five years ago he took charge of the mail at At shu sh i o, a tom of three thousand people. And for twenty- five years the At shu shian s have been complaining about him* That's a long time, especially when you consider the offense of which the postmaster was guilty. He has a vivid curiosity about other people's affairs, and he's an inveterate gossip. Being postmaster gave him his great opportunity* All these years he has been steaming open every letter that passed through his hands, and reading the contents -- reading secrets, looking over unpaid oills, chuckling over scandal. And then gossiping about it. And he could do that all the better because he was also the local tavern-keeper. So you can see the plight of the people of At shu ah i o. Their hidden lives were revealed by the postmaster, as he served cups of saki in his tavern. A prominent citizen couldn't write to a geisha, without having it become public. JAPANESE PQ ST MASTER - 2 A house-wife couldn't write expressing her opinion about her neighbour, without everybody knowing it - including the neighbour. So the people of Atshuahio wrote to Tokyo, complaining about the postmaster. For twenty-five years they kept send ing complaints. hut nothing: ever happened. The postmaster went right along reading the mail and gossiping. Today the news tells us that even Oriental patience can become exhausted. After twenty-five years of writing complaints, the people of Atshuahio finally took uo a collection, and sent a delegate to the Minister of oommunication in Tokyo - to present an ultimatum. They couldn't stand it any longer. Something would have to be done. The Ministry ordered an investigation, and now Atshuahio has a new postmaster - who neither opens letters nor gossips. TRIAL One of the most amusing trials I ever heard of is about to be held in London, It's a court martial. Private Leslie Bursel1, of His Majesty's Life Guards, the crack regiment of all the British srmy, is the defendant, tod all because of a .mustache. There is no rule against the wearing of mustaches by those handsome red-coated, six-footers. But Private Burs ell1 s mustache was an exact duplicate of Adolph Hitler's, He not only wore it, but insisted on parading it all over London whenever he had leave. Through Hyde Park, through Green Park, through Regents Park, up and down Piccadilly, Pall Mall, and Knights Bridge. Even along the Embankment Private Bursell flaunted that Hitler lip ornament. The fact that he would be followed by angry crowds of jeering Cocknies, feared not the stalwart private Bursell. It only made him, more determined. That mustache finally became a public scandal. This reached the ears of the colonel. Said the Colonel; "Hrump, hrump] "I'll give you twenty-eight days to have it off, Karrump,Hl Private Bur sell1 e reply was to produce TRIAL - 2 a copy of the "Articles of War", thereby proving himself to be what is known in the army as a barrack room lawyer. He pointed out to his infuriated Colonel and Adjutant and Company Commander that such an order was not legal by those "Articles of War". At any rate, so he claimed as he flatly refused to shave off that heavy eyebrow mustache* The affair ot Private Bur3611*6 mustache got such prominence in the London press, that it finally reached the floor of the House of Commons. M*F.*s have been interrogating His Majesty* s Secretary of War, demanding to know; "Wha^s the meaning of all this?" Several members of parliament are retired generals and are they hot under the collar. But strange to say, they take the aide of Private Burs ell against his Colonel. The exact wording of the troublesome British army regulation is: "The hair of the head will be kept short. The chin and underlip will be kept short. Side whiskers of moderate length may be worn," There is no mention of mustaches a la Hitler. So now the question has to be thrashed out by a court martial. So what? And, SOLONG UNTIL TOMORROW