Lowell Thomas Broadcast for Literary Digest October IS, 1930. Intro. Here's a flash from the Associated Press. Bishop Cannon filed a libel suit today for five million dollars against William Randolph Hearst. Another flash from Boston - this one from the U. P. The American Federation of Labor Convention for 1931 will be held In Vancouver, B. C. Intro. Here’s a flash from the United Press: The body of Lieutenant William Caldwell has just been found in his wrecked plane thirty miles north of Laramie, Wyoming. And that brings disaster to a spectacular episode, a dashing gesture in the big affairs of the world. The Japanese ratification of the London - 2 - of the London Naval Pact is on its way to President Hoover, It was brought ashore from a Japanese ship at Victoria, on Vancouver Island, to be rushed across the continent to Washington, and thence to London. No commonplace bumping along on the surface of the earth for such a famous document. Two army planes were dispatched to fly it across America, Lieutenants W'oodring and Caldwell took off yesterday from Puget Sound. Woodring had the imposing document in his plane. Caldwell was his escort. They flew along together across the mountains—until they got to Wyoming. There they plunged into a blizzard—the worst October blizzard they*ve had out there in years. The two planes tried to battle their way through. But they lost each other. Woodring, with the treaty, landed at Cheyenne. The storm was so wild that he spent last night there. No word from Caldwell. This morning Woodring flew on east via Chicago and Cleveland. Still no word from Calefrell. Woodring is nearing Washington now—and word has just come that Caldwell crashed and was killed soon after the two planes parted company. A wide stretch of Bockias and also of the prairies from Canada south have been hit by that blizzard, according to an Associated Press dispatch from Winnipeg. Great snow-drifts are piled across parts of Saskatchewan and Alberta. Fall threshing has been held up in some districts and traffic delayed. Seven inches of snow has been reported around Bozeman, Montana. Farmers in some localities face the loss of unharvested crops on account of tho sudden change. Winter is coming, and that does make this next dispatch timely. Unemployment Leading business men and financial leaders of New York City today announced a definite plan for providing jobs for married men out of work. They intend raising $150,000 \ a week, and the money is not to be given out as charity. Jobs are to be created— in the city parks, and so on—and the money will be paid out as wages. The minimum wage will be three dollars a day, and the plan is to give work to at least ten thousand men who have families to support. A lot of people are going to be mighty thankful for that three dollars a day—but not the Communists who called a mass meeting in front of the New York City Hall this afternoon. According to the New York Telegram, their slogan was "Better and Bigger Unemployment Relief", and they demanded free rent, free gas, free electricity, free fuel, free food, free clothing, and #25 a week extra. Where is all this going to come from? Oh, that's simple. They suggest that the city fathers chip In with all the city cash, slice off the salaries of the higher-up officials. * and also donate ten per cent of the city’s re-venue as well as all interest from bonds* The police arrived with tear gas bombs, and the mob dispersed. Evidently there are communists in other parts of the country who are busy. Two have been arrested in Oklahoma City, where they shouted insults at Patrick Hurley, the Secretary of War. Mr. Hurley, says the Associated Press, was making an address in defense of President Hoover. Bear Raids Here’s an announcement from the White House to the effect that the conference last Sunday flight between President Hoover and officials of the New York Stock Exchange dealt with the subject of bear raids in Wall Street. Of course that’s official confirmation of what is already known. The Washington Correspondent of the New York Evening Post says that details of the discussion were not made public, but that both the President and the Stock Exchange officials dislike the tricks of the bears. A sustained bearish market, caused by general business conditions, is one thing. But bearish raids on the market, with false reports and pessimistic rumors to depress the value of stocks—that1s another thing. Something ought to be done about itl But what? ~— --- * Our contention is that it*s no business of the government, but that the Exchange officials should look after its own bears. There was a rumor that the Department of Justice would do something about it, but that's denied. Democratic leaders said a few days ago that Congress should take a shot at the bears. And now. Republican leaders come out with the same suggestion. So, maybe there'll be Congressional action. Anyway, it seems to be taken for granted that the meeting of the President and the Stock Exchange officials means something in the present business crisis. dislike the tricks of the bears. A sustained bearish market, caused by general business conditions, is one thing. But bearish raids on the market, with false reports and pessimistic rumors to depress the value of stocks—that1s another thing. Something ought to be done about itl But what? Our contention is that itfs no business of the government, but that the Exchange officials should look after its own bears. There was a rumor that the Department of Justice would do something about it, but that1s denied. Democratic leaders said a few days ago that Congress should take a shot at the bears. And now. Republican leaders come out with the same suggestion. So, maybe there*11 be Congressional action. Anyway, it seems to be taken for granted that the meeting of the President and the Stock Exchange officials means something in the present business crisis. - 7 - President Hoover is taking a lot of interest in business conditions—naturally. I've read through the New Digest, which is just on the stands today, and one of the articles is headed: "How Hoover Hopefulness ^trikes the •E3- Country," Well, how does the country regard the President's attitude? That's an important question now that election day is close at hand. The Digest editors have gone far and wide to get a concensus of opinion, and the article will give you an excellent idea of how the people feel. Here Is a strange story. What is behind it? TENNESSEE Down in Tennessee an important witness was to appear today before the Nye Committee, the Senate Campaign Fund Investigating Committee, that's sitting in Nashville. But last night, shortly before twelve, he was found unconscious, with his throat cut. He is James N. Cox, President of a Tennessee Telephone Co., and today he lies In a t' critical condition., and hasn11 regained consciousness. Yesterday he was named as a contributor to the campaign funds of Judge Cordell Hull, the democratic nominee for Senator, from Tennessee. He is a close personal friend of Judge Hull, and his testimony today was expected to be important. Nebraska Bandits Well, here comes a warning to bandits They are offering a reward to head hunters out in Nebraska. Anyone who kills a bank bandit is to get $3,000. The Nebraska Bankers Association has just posted this announcement. The bankers have also recommended the formation of a special state constabulary to fight bank robbers. This comes as the result of 16 exciting months in the Nebraska banking profession during which 16 banks were held up. One bank robber has just been seized in the middle of the Missouri Rivert According to the A. P., a posse of 150 men chased an 18-year-old youth, who gave his name as Russell Clark. 50 shots were fired but they all missed the fugitive, who jumped into the Missouri River and was half way across when some of the members of the posse caught up with him in a row boat. We are traveling a long distance from Nebraska to get to another scene of trouble. Missionary Chinese bandits are demanding a new high in ransoms. They are asking $300,000 for an American missionary. Their first demand was $50,000, but that was two weeks ago and since then they’ve jumped it up and multiplied it by six. The missionary is Bert Nelson, of the United Lutheran Mission in the Province of Honan. The message regarding Nelson is signed ’’The First Red Army”. It evidently comes from Communists in the same locality where two British women missionaries were beheaded recently, and where two other American missionaries -10 vanished and are- still missing. Hopping on around the globe - Ukraine From Berlin comes a story of A REIGN OF TERROR IN THE UKRAINE, in Southeastern Poland. The New York Herald Tribune has received an exclusive account of it from Foreign Correspondent John Elliott. Here is the way things are popping out there. Southeastern Poland, which used to belong to Austria Hungary, is inhabited by people who are more Russian than Polish. They are against Polish rule, and Correspondent Elliott says they hope to break away and form a Ukrainian Empire. Anyway, they are burning down houses and barns of Polish landlords. The Poles have retaliated by arresting 200,000 Ukrainians. That*s a lot of people In anybodyfs jail. Ukraine villages are being invaded by Polish troops. The Herald Tribune story says:- (Quote) Priests and peasants are being brutally flogged with the knout—a lash consisting of a tapering bundle of leather thongs twisted with wire and hardened so as to mangle the body. And women are being shamefully mishandled. (End Quote) . Columbia Boyd and Connor, the fliers who recently hopped the Atlantic in the veteran monoplane Columbia. announced today that they are going to fly her home—but probably not upside down without a motor. Boyd says that if they have enough gas they111 .jump the Atlantic to Canada and then make a left turn and fly down to South America. But or course he’s joshing about that. Aviation is 0. K. but it looks bad for football. * Football Bill Roper, famous Princeton football coach, predicts that football will be dead within a few years. Roper is serving has last season as director of the Nassau Tigers. He says over-emphasis is going to kill it. He condemns spring football, and brands the night game as brutal and outrageous. he says it will likely result in serious and permanent injuries to the players, and of course will upset the whole college program. "Giving more publicity to a football player than to Mussolini drarfs his perspective and handicaps him for life," says Roper. Last night I told how Knute Rockne, the famous ^otre Dame football coach, had predicted that his team would be defeated next Saturday - by Carnegie Tech by three touchdowns. Now, according to the Associated Press, Rockne has revised his prophecy. Instead of three he says his Notre Dame team will be defeated by ten touchdowns. Gill Dobie, the Cornell coach, is supposed to be the chief gloom dispenser in the football world, but Rockne seems to have gone him one better. Laivrence A few moments ago an international News Service dispatch was slapped down on my desk, and it hit me squarely between the eyes, After what Announcer Ld Thorgessen told in his introduction, you will see why I am you - 15 - picking it tonight as the news item of the day. The story is another good one in the long list of tales about Lawrence of Arabia, Out in Persia a German newspaper man has just been released after more than a month of hard captivity. Of course itTs great to be mistaken for a world famous celebrity. Yes, sometimes. But don’t tell that to Herr von Weisl of Berlin. Von Weisl was out in the wilds of Kurdistan, where they have been having plenty of trouble lately. He is blond and of middle height. Well, so is the mysterious Lav/rence of Arabia. And the Persian authorities somehow think that Lawrence has-been stirring up the revolt in Kurdistan, Any disturbance out Last is usually attributed to the diabolical powers of that mild, blue-eyed young Englishman, Lav/rence. Well, when Herr von Weisl arrived in wild Kurdistan, the Persian government had just sent orders to hunt down the Mysterious Lawrence. The astonished Herr Weisl was seized in the city of Urmia. His protests did Mm no good. He was merely - 14 - third degreed all the harder—and a Persian third degree is a thing to avoid. The Governor of Azerbaidjan refused to let him see the German Consul, for fear it was, an underhand scheme for communicating with the British Secret Service. You see, Lawrence is supposed to have almost miraculous powers. So Herr Weisl was kept a secret prisoner for more than a month. Finally when taken to Teheran, high Persian officials saw to their disappointment that their prisoner was not the much wanted Lawrence, but merely another middle-sized blond fellow. He was released with profound apologies. But that didn’t do Herr von l/Veisl much good. The fact is, Lawrence is now serving as a simple mechanic in the British Royal Air Force, in England, under the name of Aircraftsman Shaw. He is still eager to escape publicity and to bury himself in obscurity. Freak Flashes Out in Sparta, Michigan, barbers have -15- agreed to cut hair for their farmer -clients and accept wheat instead of money. The barbers in Sparta, says an Associated Press wire, held a meeting, discussed the agricultural depression, and agreed to give an artistic haircut and S7 cents in change to any farmer who brought in a bushel of wheat. If that1s a freak - just what would you call this? Bear YouTve heard of ostriches that eat hats and watches, and goats that eat tin cans. But did you ever hear of a bear that ate dynamite? From Blacksmith Rapids, Ontario, comes a dispatch to the New York Times about just such a bear. As a cub he was a camp pat, but he finally grew until he could pick up his masters and spank them. So they decided to get rid of him. They gave him large doses of strychnine but he just - 16 - laughed it off. Then a doctor took a hypodermic syringe and shot enough morphine - fe, into him, to send a human being farther than Rip Van Winkle ever traveled. But the bear did^t mind a bit. So the Greek cook at the construction camp'saidi "Leave him to me, boys." The cook took the bear out into the bush, smeared honey onto a stick of dynamite, gave it to the bear, and touched the fuse. Then the cook ran. There was a bang and then another bang. The cook said: "Well, that's the end of your bear." , " But a few minutes later when he was peeling potatoes, in walked the bear, limping on one leg, patches of hide missing, and an eyebrow gone. But the same bear. That seems to close today's pageant of news. Well, I'll be back tomorrow evening with more - limping a little, maybe - but the same old bear.