Lowell Thomas - Sunoco - Feb,23,1933. > Good Evening, Everybodys I*m in Detroit tonight. So naturally my broadcast will taka on a Detroit flavor. The evening papers are featuring the big news of the day in this section, the straightening out of the bank situation. The Detroit Times has a seven-column heading reading* M270 Millions for Depositors.*' The stories go on to explain that the Reconstruction Finance Corporation has come to the assistance of the banks and everything is working out okay % WASHINGTON Representative Lewis Douglas of Arizoha is to play an important part in the new Democratic regime. Mr, Roosevelt gave out the word today, from his home in Dutchess County, New York. Hr announced that Representative Douglas is to be the Director of the Budget. That sounds like a tough job. % RflOSEVaLT CABINET Mid-western papers are all commenting on the interesting political background of two of the men who are to b© in Mr* Roosevelt *3 cabinet} Harold Ickes, next Secretary of the Interior, and Henry A. Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture. In the ^ast these men have been known as Progressive Republicans. Both were followers of the great "T,R.M, Both started along the road to political office back in the days of the Bull Moose bolt. In fact, Mr. Harold Ickes of Illinois was one of Theodore Roosevelt's intimates in the days %<rhen the Bull Moose ran rampant across our political stage. Mr. Henry A, Wallace of Iowa, who is slated for kkfc the difficult berth in Mr. Franklin Roosevelt's official family, is the son of Henry C, Wallace, Teddy Roosevelt's associate and Secretary of Agriculture in two recent Republican administrations* Otherwise, for the most part, Mr. Jay Hayden, Washington Representative of the Detroit News, think* the Woodrow Wilson Democratic element domina es the new cabinet - except for Mr. Woodin, next Secretary of the Treasury, whom Mr. Hayden regards as of the Conservative-Republican . \ - r !! , .. M E005BVSLT CABIMET,,2 type I opposed to drastic change in our financial system - as conservative as Mr. Andrew Mellon or Mr. Ogden Mills. But that remains to be seen. All Newspapers are commenting on the fact that Mr* Roosevelt failed to name any of the men whojran against him at the Convention*- Newton D. Baker, Alfred 1, Smith, Albert C, Ritchie, Harry F. Byrd, Alfalfa Bill Murray, or Owen D. Young, omitted such conservative Democrats as John ff, Davis, and Bernard Baruch, Also, he James M, Cox, A curious old controversy is back in the news. It concerns the often suggested idea of splitting up Texas. This has been mooted from time to time; nothing has ever come from it. Recently no less a potentate than Speaker Garner, the Vice-President Elect and the foremost statesman from Texas today renewed this suggestion in all seriousness# Three years ago Mr. Garner made a speech in Congress declaring that Texas should be s^lit into five states. He has repeated this opinion several times. The Texas legislature could cut anywhere from one to fon* additional states out of its ^resent huge territory. Recent news from Austin, the state capital, says that there is a growing indication in favor of the use of a legislative carving knife to slice off the Panhandle and the South Plains and make them into a new and separate state. In fact it is quite on the cards that a deal to this effect will be oifered during the ^resent session of the Texas legislature. That oncoming gtorm in the Far East that we*ve been hearing abo.it these last few days, apparently has struck. The Japanese sent wave after wave of green-clad troops against the Chinese in Reyho - that rich province the Japanese seam determined to take from China. The Japanese ambassador to Washington called on the American Secretary of State today. He is supposed tc^have done this under direct orders from Tokyo. Exactly what transpired at that conference is unknown, but the word around Washington tonight is that the Ambassador from Nippon stated that the armies of Japan do not intend to go South, beyond the Great Wall, unless, unless!—Attacks by the Chinese compel them to do so, I wonder what that means? Apropo of this I heard a talk recently that I'a sure everyone would have enjoyed. It was made by an old friend of mine, an authority on world affairs, who has spent his life go. ng around and round the globe studying political problems in every land. His name is Herbert Adams Gibbons. You probably have road some of his books. Anyhow, in his talk he reminded us that most of the people in China do not even know they are at war with Japan. He reminded us that China is not a nation, but is a FAR BAST .. 2 civilization. Its people are not unified because they have no system of transportation. They even haven’t any roads. He reminded us that since the downfall of the Empire a£ the Chinese have been unable to get together. And then he added that if they were able to act in unison they could handle the Japanese easily enough 5ARTHQUAKB The Andes Mountains of South America have long been known as the home of earthquakes. And the earth down that way is at it again, doing a jig or a shimmy, or something. Word comes froa Guile of a violent quake* The lightning flashed. Weird noises rumbled under the surface of the earth. Walla gave way. People fled from their homes in a number of towns. It ia believed that great damage has been done in the remote interior of Chile, ADRIFT ON ICE It my be like spring where you are. It certainly is her© in Detroit. But they are having winter in some localises. For instance, I saw a thrilling story in the Detroit News, from Alpena, Michigan. Five fisherman were out on the ice of Thunder Ray. Suddenly the ice broke loose, and there they were like Polar bears on a cake of ice in the Arctic Ocean* They had erected wooden huts on the ice. Frantically they burned these as a signal of distress. People on shore saw the fires. Then the fisherman and the ice and the burning huts disappeared from view. Their friends fear that the ice they are on may break up and drop them all into the waters of Lake Huron. Boats have gone to the rescue ICS RESCUE On my across the province of Ontario this morning, when the train stored at St. Thomas, I picked up a copy of the Buffalo morning paper, the Courier-Express. And, the first story that caught ray eye was a tragic one. There was a picture of a crowd of people around the lifeless form of a small boy. He had been skating, had gone through thin ice - and they had been too late. Artifical respiration had failed to bring him around. A few minutes later I started going through a stack of mail. I'm usually way behind with mail and a train journey gives me a chance to catch up. Well, the first letter was from Mr. Norval Spinnly, principal of a High School in Springfield, Maeachusetts, asking me to congratulate some of his boys on a thrilling skating rescue. Mr. Spinnly enclosed a clipping from that famous newspaper, The Springfield Union, an article in which the boys said they had heard me tell how to save people when they go through thin ice and had followed my instructions. They probably heard Captain Scully, the famous Red Cross life-saver, the night I had him on the air. At any rate the Springfield rescue was a thrilling one and it turned out happily, so I'll tell you a little about xti I-0& RnbitSOUS »#2 Five boys were skating on the Connecticut River, on a stretch of backwater where the ice was thick. Fourteen year old Chester Kusek dared ten year old Willie Callahan to skate clear across the wide river to the Chicopee side. They had heard that some other kids had made it the day before. So little Willie Callahan took the dare. Off he went lickety split with Chester Kusek right behind. Three otner boys watched them, saw them go about a quarter of a mile, and then saw Willie vanish, Chester, the bigger boy, didn't have a chance to swerve, so in he went, too. Both bobbed up and yelled for help. The other three boys, Russ Degielle, Joe Rodek and Buddy Doolittle, skated out to see if they could .ielp, when they came to the thin ice, they got down on their stomachs, caught hold of each others skates, made a human chain and got hold of the big boy Chester, pulled him to safety and then tried to haul out little T/illie Callahan, who was screaming with fright. Willie, nearly frantic, almost pulled his rescuers in; and by now they were all scared. Indi by inch, digging their skates into the ice as they moved back, they pulled Willie out. ICE RSSCUE ... 3 And here was the funny ending!- when a Springfield Union photographer went to the home of ten year old Willie Callahan, Willie ‘3 parents didn't know what had happened. Willie had come home, slid in quietly, jumped into bed and was sound asleep. Yes, their High School principal is right. All five deserve to be congratulated? the two who are mighty lucky to be alive and Buddy, Joe and Russ, who ke^t cool, did the right thing and saved their friends' lives. I've told this story in detail because this is an open winter, a skating winter, and I hardly ever pick up a paper but what I read about children going through the ice. Sad to relate, usually niijc they are not saved. So, be careful boys and girls. And if ou > break through, try and keep your wits, get yours arras on the ice, raise your feet and sort of half swim and half crawl to safety. If you are going to the rescue, slide out on your stomach, with a board or ladder in front of you, if possible TOBAGGO Hore 'a a curious item from Csnsda. Up in the Dominion they are feeding tobacco to sheep, and making tnem like it. 7/hat is more, Canadian experts on animal husbandry say it is good for them. The information comes from the Department of Agriculture in Ottawa. 7/hat they do is mix a hundred pounds of crushed tobacco leaf with a hundred pounds of salt. It has been found an excellent preventive against internal parasites. Well, if this didn’t come from an official source I should say it was a tall story, but obviously it is true. GoahJ We thought it was baa enough when our women started to become heavy consumers of tobacco witnout our sheep going in for it, too DEMV.-3K There is nothing particularly new from Denver in that kidnapping case, except thie, Claude Blettcher, the wealthy Denverite, today swore by all that was holy that he would get revenge on the men who have kidnapped nis boy, if they do him any physical harm. In fact tne father said that he would spend five times the sixty-thousand dollars the kidnappers demanded, yea ten times that amount if necessary. He went so far as to say that he would spend his whole life in tracking them down. S’ M 5MPFt£S3 In the Toronto Star I found an amusing tale, the tale of a French Baroness w-to set herself up as an Empress of a tiny island in the Galapagos Group; these are the islands off the Sotth American Coast where my Friend Dr. Beebe made some of his most interesting scientific discoveries, and wnere Commander Gene McDonald of Chicago made some humorous non-scientific discoveries when he found a German professor and a friend living a la Adam and Sve. But this story concerns a French Baroness who descended upon the Island of Floreana in the same Galapagos archipelago. There she established her court and a military force consisting of three ex-soldiers of the German Army. She ruled her do.nain, it appears, with en iron hand, driving off visitors with rifle fire and allowing no one to live on this tiny island witnout her permission. The island in question belong to the Republic of Ecuador. Some Citizens of Ecuador made a visit to the island sometime ago on a hunting and fishing trip. There they found the island in possession of tde so-called Empress who informed them that she had bought it from the government of Eeuador. 'When t i©y tried to continue their hunting and fishing tney were shot at by the Empress’s Army. The visitors returned to the mainiaind of South America and told the officiaxs of the Ecuadorean government of their EMPRESS ,.2 experience. The governaent discovered that no such sale of any island had taken place, so now a detachment of Ecuadorean troops is on its way to the Island of Fioreana to dispossess the Empress, and drive away her back-to-nature courtiers and her army in their uniforms a la naturel GLIDES I mot an interesting chap on my way out from New York. His name is A.C.''Gud,, Haller, of Pittsburgh, Gus Haller is one of the directors of tne Soaring Society of America. He had been in New York planning the next annual soaring contesti- '"' at means with glid=rs, of course. And it looks as though the next National Glider Meet will be held at Elmira, New York, whero they’ve been Holding them in recent years, Gus told mo that over in Germany, in 1931 and *32, there were approximately 51,590 pilots registered with the various German flying clubs - amateur pilots practicing with power flying and gliding. He said that seven thousand three hundred of these were under twenty-one years of age. But here in the U.G.A. we hnly have 10,297 amateur pilots. And of tnese only 209 are glider pilots. Of professional fliers in this country we have only 1280 pilots in the Army Air Corps, 803 in the Navy, 64 Student pilots in the navy, 133 pilots and 12 stuu^t pilots in the Marine Corps; 7,000 Transport pilots, 1224 limited oDramercial and 29 industrial pilots. 3o, according to gliding expert "Gus” Haller, Germany although a much amaliar country than tha r.S.A. han more than four time, ao many amateur pxlota Who fly for sport than .a havo. In fact O.rmany has more GLIDERS ..2 than two and a half timeg aa many amateur pilots as we have aan teurs and professionals combined. _________ __ _________ ________ RABBITS Art, here a one. Is it true, or la it a tall story? I leave it to you. I saw it in the Detroit News, Farmers in Ohio, near the lovely town of Norwalk report seeing big rabbits horp..ng around, colossal rabbits, gigantic rabbits, gargantuan rabbits. And they say Norwalk is a dry community. Maybe its an invasion of kangaroos from Australia, What do you think about it? I wonder what our friend Orin Butts of Bay City, Michi an will have to say abo t those giant rabbits? perhaps, you’ll recall that some time ago I told how Orin Rutta had been crowned champion liar of America. Butts now says that he wants to retire as tue cnaini-aion liar. He fell downstairs on his way fxa home from a meeting of t^e Liars Club, Well, maybe one of the farmers around Norwalk who started that rabbit story should be elected to take his *,iace. And, Belong until tomorrow.