LOWELL THOMAS BROADCAST November ££. 13S4 Good Evening, Everybody Predominant in the news of the world today is a diplomatic move that’s been talked about for weeks* Ever since the assassination of King Alexander of Yugoslavia statesmen in their chancellories have had the jitters every time they thought of what action the Yugoslav kingdom might take. The situation was ticklish indeed, with the Jugoslavs blaming Italy for en­ couraging the Croatian revolutionists who plotted the deed. There is no love lost between Yugoslavia and Italy anyway. The crisis was hardly improved when French police investigation indicated that the assassins of the King had been refugees of Hungary. There is even less love lost between Jugoslavia and Hungary. For the Yugoslavs took quantities of Hungarian territory at the end of the World War, and Hungary wants to get it back. There were reports that the South Slav government was going to issue a harshly worded ultimatum to Budapest, accusing the vnr.osLAV - £ Hungarians of responsibility. European diplomacy got mighty busy to stop any such ultimatum, which might easily have provoked a war. But Yugoslavia still remained determined to do something about it. And that something was done today. The government of the boy king Peter handed a document to the League of Nations — a strongly worded protest. Demanding that the League investigate the assassinations of Marseilles. Yes, and it declares outright that the blame is to be laid at the door of Hungary. The tenor of the note is that Hungary should be brought to the bar of the League of Nations to answer. The Yugoslav protest takes a high international attitude and declares the investigation should be made because assassinations like that of King Alexander are a threat to the peace of the world Geneva statesmen are wondering whether any drastic investigation will not be an even greater threat to the peace of the world. The encouraging angle Is that the Yugoslav move is noi action between one country and another, which is always dangerous. ynaosLAV - 5 In the ease of the Austrian Archduke in Nineteen Fourteen, Austria conducted its dealings directly with Serbia, and the result was war — war between those two countries and a whole World War, But in the present instance it is different. The danger is minimized when Xugoslavia does not present its accusations directly to Hungary, but goes to the League of Nations, a third party. The League will justify its existence if it can function success­ fully as a kind of buffer and shock absorber in controversial questions between one nation and another i/r 4 ^' '2 7-7 ^ , ^T*f- 2?7^3^ INTRO TO THORPE I am in Cleveland tonight, sitting in a room with a great crowd of gentlemen of the automobile world, at the Hotel Cleveland# Hitting next to me on, one side is a man I think you*ve heard of, Graham McNamee/ And alongside Graham is another chap. I guess youfve never heard of him — Ed Wynn# On my left sits one of the most famous editors in America, Merle Thorpe, editor of that fine Magazine, !,The Nation*s Business**1 Mr. Thorpe is going to make a big speech at this banquet later in the evening# He*s probably busy right now thinking up important things to say# Mr. Merle Thorpe, may I interrupt your thoughts for a moment and ask you if you are thinking about anything that you could share with the rest of us? MR. THORPE;- Lowell, you and I, at this moment are sitting in the same banquet room with an important group Ox the great automobile industry. They make and sell the innards of the engines that make our autos go. MR. THORPE - 2 The automobile found us shackled to our front porches. ait these gentlemen of The Perfect Circle organization haye changed all that. They*ve made us masters of time and space; citizens of a larger world. For the automobile has shifted values of land and increased all land values, by making them usable; it has dislocated shopping areas; it has caused hundreds of miles of suburban electric lines to he abandoned; it has changed city life, making it richer; and it has changed country life, making it richer. But, more than thatl The automobile is responsible for the economical triangle within which each of us lives and works today. It brought forth mass production, mass selling, mass credit, all to conquer time, —o — ED WYNN:- Just fancy! Think of that! —o— MR. THORPE:- And what of the future? Ho man can say. In Washington they tell me of a solitary figure who wandered for ft. MR. THORPE - 3 a number of years through the corridors of the patent office. I .1 Clerks poked fun at him. He had a fool idea. They called him I 9 1 "the freak who would ride on air," but from him came the pneumatic tire which, in turn, made possible the automobile. j Be alertt There is another fool somewhere in the United States with just as big an idea. GRAHAM:- Maybe Mr. Thorpe is thinking about Ed Wynn, here. He used to be the PERFECT FOOLl 1 1^.:- This afternoon we were talking about that old name. The Perfect Fool, and the curious thing that happened. Ed Wynn spent thirty years on the American stage making himself famous as - The Perfect Fool. He thought that was what he would be known as for the rest of his life. Overnight, his whole career was changed. The name. Perfect Fool, that he had spent thirty years building up disappeared, i Graham McNamee has been an outstanding personality in the radio world since the days of crystal sets, for more than twelve years now. So, I salute him as a pioneer. In radio he^ the man with the long beard. Coming out on the train together we | were talking about football and athletics in general, and he made what, I believe, was a wise observation. He said that the whole matter of amateurism and professionalism in athletics needed to be revised in this land; that it was rotten and absolutely unfair to the young fellows who took part in amateur sports. I believe we all agree, and I hope Brahara McNamee will start a crusade along that line. You'd look fine as a knight in armour leading a crusade, Graham! . I iS^BPSSSS: \ Uy^ ■ yU^' ZZy'?3?' f. rah am McNamee;- Yes? I’d make a fine knight’ M Wynn:- Good night! nEPRESSIOI The depression may have produced a shortage of money, but it certainly has produced an oversupply of bright ideas. All sorts cf strange schemes have been rigged up to cure the economic crisis. And one of the strangest now comes from a newly elected state senator out in Idaho. He proposes — bull fights. "Fight the bull", declares the state senator, "and It will remedy the oversupply of cattle, also the oversupply of unemployment." His plan calls for a vast program of bull fights. Which would not be limited to bulls. Cows would also be included. And the unemployed would be the bull fighters. Yes, the unemployed would march into the ring with cap and sword and all the gaudy paraphernalia of the Spanish toreador. Amid the blaring of trumpets they would display their bull fighting swords­ manship on the bulls, cows and steers. In that way, declares the Idaho statesman, the oversupply of cattle would be reduced. He doesnTt say whether the supply of bull fighters would be reduced. That Isn’t the idea. The bull fighting unemployed would get the gate receipts paid by the countless throngs that would flock to the nttPRESSIOm - 2 American Plaza de Los Toros. And Graham McNamee, instead of broadcasting his exciting descriptions of football games, would broadcast bull fights. In other words, he!d go right on throwing the bull. PAY FLAM The Relief Administration in Washington has announced a new departure, a new pay plan for the legions of workers employed by Harry Hopkins administration# Right now the government pays a minimum of thirty cents an hour to those employed in relief projects There has been a good deal of complaint about this, because normal industrial wage scales differ so greatly in various parts of the country. This objection is now being met by a sliding scale. Government relief wages will be based on prevailing rates of pay in coramunities where the men are employed. In communities where living costs and pay rates are low that minimum of thirty cents will be reduced — all the way down to twenty cents in some cases. In cities with high living costs that thirty cents an hour minimum will be increased, 11*3 an attempt to adjust relief pay to local condi­ tions, and it will go .into effect at once. •ROOSEVELT i The intention of the Administration to push ahead with such social projects as unemployment insurance and old age pensions, was clarified today by a message from the President himself. Of course ■ in ji| if i Mr. Roosevelt had already come out with full emphasis on the subject/ of unemployment relief and old age pensions. The question was how soon would the government take action. flerefs the answer. The 11 annual Conference of American Mayors is now meeting in Chicago. ■ One of the prominent mayors there is LaGuardia of New York. Today t If i i! ill m Mayor LaGuardia read before the conference a message which the President sent him. In this message the President predicted that |I the present Congress will take up the subject of unemployment in- !S; : j'; surance and old age pensions - together with various other projects,| public works and housings It doesn't take much of a social philosopher to see that insurance against unemployment and old age will deeply change the outlook of human beings in this country - will moderate uncertainties and anxieties for the vast mass of the population. J An editor enjoys those ironic happehings of life which provide a story with an unexpected twist, a surprise ending. Henry Goddard Leach of the Forum and Century magazines is on* of the country*s foremost dditors. And now he personally has run into an ironic twist, a most surprising ending, but I bet he doesn* t enjoy it. Yesterday Henry Goddard Leach was feeling fine. He had just been elected president of the Poetry Society, and he had an editorial to write which was right up his alley. It was a theme concerning which he felt strongly. He had convictions and indignations. The theme was crime conditions, the prevalence of robberies. So he sat down and wrote his editorial with a blazing pen. Or rather a blazing typewriter. Anyway it blazed. He denounced the way crooks are allowed to carry on. He took some pot shots at the authorities, the police and the courts, for the way crime was on the rampage. And he pointed out salutary measures to be enacted, ways of checking crime, ways of combating the criminal. > Having completed his editorial, having got his indignation off his chest, Henry Goddard Leach felt better. He felt fine. At night he went out to take a stroll in Central Park, the way a man does who jjMCE 2 % 1 has done his job and fiels at peace with himself. His editorial he felt was a scathing indictment of the crime situation. He was walking in the park along the dark path, when two thugs jumped upon him, knocked him down, and robbed him. They beat him up and took forty dollars in cash, a gold watch and a pen knife. When the police found him he had two badly swollen eyes and a lacerated face. He will be confined in his I i bed for a week. And it happened in Central Park. Today I was privileged to see an advance copy of the editorial that Henry Goddard Leach wrote. It will appear in the December Twentieth issue of the Forum. It Is entitled ttfhe Revolt against Crime .11 The article ends with a recommendation, a way to stop crime. What way? Why, parks — build more parks, Henry Goddard Leach demands in that editorial. He points out that the streets are infested by gangs, while in parks the youth of the land will grow up in playful Innocence, In the last paragraph of the editorial® he writes:- "It is the duty i of each of us to urge jbarks and playgrounds in our communities." And having written that, he went for a walk in the park, and was robbed and beaten up. P • Graham:- Can you beat that! Guess we1 ll^have^to quit sleeping ,| -* ooeass ■ - Any of you want to hire a nursemaid? she doesn’t wear a uniform. In fact, she doesn't wear any clothes at all. But just so nobody will get excited about it -- she is a chimpanzee/ And she needs a new job — looking after the children. Her name is Meshie, and just now she is a member of the household of Dr. Harry Raven of the American Museum of Natural History, in New York. Dr. Raven got Meshie ever in Africa a few was years ago when a chimpanzee mother/killed and a chimpanzee baby was captured. Dr. and fitrs. Raven took the tiny ape back to America and brought her up with their own small children. And Meshie progressed much faster than the human babes. She could hammer nails, brush her teeth, and thump a piano before the little Raven baby could hold her own bottle of milk. In a couple of years Meshie was a full grown chimp, and was given the job of being nursemaid to little Mary Raven, rocking the child to sleep in a cradle, calling the mother if the baby cried, playing with the tot and keeping her quiet for hours. And Meshie just w loves to sweep the kitchen floor. , ^ (70+ fl new lob because the Raven However, Meshie has got to get an j ffrrmPAMZKE -2 family are going to Burma, and the doctor feels that that is too wild a country for a chimpanzee nursemaid, Meshie has got used to riding in elevators and living in a nice apartment, and she wouldn*t be happy in a ^ jungle. So here*s your chance to hire a nurse-maid who never goes out at night and is^t always thinking about clothes ,qns?aRiNg_s Therefs something fishy about the latest story from the Navy Department, — fishy names for fishy subnarines. The Navy is building a flook of new undersea boats, and Secretary Swanson has announced that these will be baptized with real deep-sea names. There won*t be any more of that prosey K17 and K23 after the fashion of the Gempan U-boats and the English E-boats, Uncle Sam's new submarines will be named after fish* The names thus far announced all begin with the letter "P", One will be Pickeral, another Perch, a third Pompano, Maybe when they get around to the other letters of the alphabet we' ll have such undersea terrors as the Herring, Smelt and Sardine* But wait, I'm starting to flounder — so 30L0NG UNTIL TOMORROW