fflcKESSOfi & HO^Iap I* I - A- voice from the grave spoke today in the McKesson & Robbins affair. The suicide letter that the President, aiusica-Coster, wrote just before he killed himself, published. And it gives an answer to the question that has been so mystifying all along, "What happened to the eighteen million dollars?" Tha vast sum involved in the frauds, the amount of shortage found on the books. The voice from the grave answers - "There is no such money - it doesn*t exist, it never did exist." Musica-Coster, before he died by his own hand, wrote a i bitter nete denouncing others connected with the Company, officers, directors, auditors, financiers, and Wall Street, he declared that his own crooked manipulations were merely to save the company from them. And - save it from bankruptcy. How did he try to save It? By showing profits, by putting large earnings on the books - false profit§, ficticious earnings, hence the shortage> the assets listed in the books that could not be found, that did not exist. And that's the nature of the missing eighteen million - just figures on boohs, a mythical piling up of ficticious profits. The eighteen million never was there. Such is the explanation given in the suicide note. McKESSQfl & HQ-blilflifi PI - -i^nsr Si**'. Ip A- voice from the grave spoke today in the McKesson & Robbins affair* The suicide letter that the President, Musica-uoster, wrote just before he killed himself, — 4HH£ published* And it giyes an answer to the question that has been so mystifying all along, nWhat happened to the eighteen million dollars?’1 The vast sum involved in the frauds, the am unt of shortage found on the books. The voice from the grave answers - nThere is no such money - it doesn’t exist, it never did exist." ausiea-Coster, before he died by his own hand, wrote a i bitter note denouncing others connected with the Company, officers, directors, auditors, financiers, and Wall Street. He declared that his own crooked manipulations were merely to save the company from them. And - save it from bankruptcy* How did he try to save it? By showing profits, by putting large earnings on the books - false profit^, ficticious earnings. Hence the shortage, the assets listed in the books that could not be found, that did not exist. And that's the nature of the missing eighteen million - Just figures on books, a ethical piling up of fiotioious profits. 1 : The eighteen million never was there. Such is tne explanation given in the suicide note. M c KBSSO h & RQjjjjlMP, - 2 In the previous life of F. Donald poster, as Philip Mu sic a the Swindler, he alvtays took the blame for his family - took the rap. And today once again he does the same - as the voice from the grave, he speaks with deep feeling of his wife, and exonerates her of any knowledge of his financial misdeeds. He exonerates her brothers, his own brothers-in—law - saying that whatever they did was at his order, which they innocently obeyed. But what about his own brothers, the three Musieas? With altered names and altered identities, whom he took into the firm? They were involved with him in those other Musican swindles of long ago. He covered them then, took the rap. So what about the suicide note of today? There!s one curious thing about it, the morning Coster wrote it, he must have known that he had been exposed as the swindler, Philip Musica. That startling news had broken the afternoon before and it was headlined. With that knowledge he wrote the note , and it*s intensely emotional. Yet it makes no mention of his former identity as Philip Musica, ignores it completely. iior does he speak of his three brothers in the company as his own brothers, never refers to them by their common family name of Musica. He calls them by the names they assumed, their false identities. But he exonerates them, declares that in anything they did they merely carried out his orders. Alive, Philip Musica always took the rap, and as Coster’s voice from the grave, he again takes the rap. mwm f The Hollywooci verdict the Snyder trial is*— guilty. Guilty &£ on one count, and it*s the main count. "hoe the Gimp” went to trial on six charges. But the prosecution itself struck out one of them during the trial — the charge of kidnapping, the way aj Myri Alderman come along with him. Today the jury acquitted the Colonel of attempting to kill his daughter and Ruth Ettlng, his former wife — who were in the apartment to which he took O' Alderman, They also found him not guilty of violating the ■ state firearms law — although he did have a‘gun. They disagreed on another count connected with making Alderman come along at They convicted him of shooting his former 4 wife* s present husband, murder. And that1s the main thing — it carries a possible maximum penalty of twenty years in prison. The minimum penalty is six months in the County Jail, So the fate of Colonel Martin Snyder, "Moe the Gimp,*' will fall is : somewhere between those two extremes CHRISTMAS Today at Deep River, Connecticut, a poor widow and three children mosred into a brand new up-to-date house — a new spic and span home stocked with everything, furniture, clothing, groceries* A Christmas present, and the three children ran through the rooms,iKxlfaKxftarity laughing and happy. But the mother spent the day in tears* The story is one of Christmas happiness, following close on mournful tragedy. The Beckwith family had eight children. Some weeks ago, their house burned down. Five children perished, the father too - trying to save them. The mother was left with the remaining three, penniless, homeless. Then the Connecticut neighborhood chipped in, contributions came from far and wide. Five thousand dollars was raised, aid carpenters were put to wrork to build a new home. It wras ready today, and the surviving Beckwiths mowed in - the children romping with delight, Jos* the smaller ones^BuuidSJ^understand why their mother was crying. LIONS Tiie The town of Holdenville in Oklahoma, is in an uproar. 't&L iw clamor be ing raised to tne uproar is - precise, A A high heavens by four lions. .oaring incessantly. They belong to a small circus, and the keeper explains t hat the roar is because of the weather. Oklahoma is having something of a cold snap, and the African lions are uncomfortable. In addition to the lionine roaring, there’s somethirg else, And it isn't muttering either, although it*s a lot of mutts that are doing it. All the dogs in the surrounding country are gathered around the roaring lions, an* are barking at them, a**** It isn't often that dog gets a chance to bark at a lion, and the assorted hounds and pooches are taking full advantage of the opportunity. The town is in pandemonium;^the citizens are muttering. trying to get the circus man to take his menagerie away. The lior^ are roaring^asrt the dogs are barking. Iktsi & doggone uproar. A**a, CO I.W1 ThiT-t* HOPKINS The rumor we heard the other night went buzzing around in Washington today with renewed insistence — the report that W.P.A* administrator, Harry Hopkins, would be named to succeed retiring Secretary of Commerce, Daniel Roper. Today*s Washington gossip applifies the supposition by naming a successor who is to take Harry Hopkins* place - when he*s appointed to the Commerce Department; Colonel F.C. Harrington, who Is now chief engineer of the W.P.A. They say he will be the new W.P.A. Administrator. The President on his pact has already said that he would not announce the appointment until after Secretary Roper's resignation becomes effective. And that's tomorrow - at midnight. So we won't have the announcement before Saturday. STABILIZATION The Treasury Department is going to ask the new Congress to keep the Stabilization Fund going* That’s a neat little pot of money to the amount of two billion dollars, which the Treasury Department uses to steady the value of the dollar* The law creating it expires on June Thirtieth, so the Treasury will ask Congress to extend that law for another period* Secretary Morgenthan was asked today about rumors concerning the dollar, reports that soon after Christmas the dollar might be devalued, it1s gold content cut* The Secretary described the rumors in this fashion: *1 don't consider them important enough to begin denying them1*, said he. MARITIME rates Tiie west coast quarrel about rate cutting by Japanese steamship lines, was settled today. The complaint was that the Japanese were disorganizing maritime trade by slasning freight rates. The United States maritime commission was holding an investigation of the matter today, when the two Japanese lines involved announced that they would join up with the other companies. They agreed to become members of the board that governs the schedule of freight rates, and thus come under its rules and regulations. The kind of shipping involved is the coffee trade, carried on between Vinw nnttrenl—ip Pacific coast ports and tne eastern coast of south America - the coffee growing section. This is indicated by the name of the hoard, of which the two Japanese lines now become members. It's called the Pacific coast-River Plata- urazil Steamship conference. MM / , l ( agreement at Lima. The delegates of the twenty-one / Pan—American nations have finally okayed a declaration of Western hemisphere solidarityThe dispute was between the United States and the Argentine delegations, and Argentina nas ~tihkz won out. The declaration agreed upon embodies the Argentine thesis., that the pronouncement must not be directed against European Asiatic nations, that it must be all-inclusive and include American powers too. So now^the declaration as formulated today will be a general declaration of Pan-American unity against any sort of military or political drive against the soverignty of an American nation.^ The word from Lima is that Argentina has won out. but that the American delegation does not consider that it has sacrificed any important principle. PROTEST One large question tonight is 3 will Germany officially break off diplomatic relations with the United States? That certainly may happen after the way Washington rejected the Berlin protest. The rejection was verbal, not documentary, but it was In the strongest words. t 1 f At the State Department called Dr. Hans Thomsen, the I German Charge D’Affaires. Dr. Thomsen told acting Secretary Su > 1 Welles that the German Government expected the United States government to make an expression of regret because of the anti- Nazi speech made by Secretary of the Interior Ickes• To this o Acting Secretary replied, "No, emphatically no!*1 He said the German protest was In singularly ill grace. PROTEST - 2 The rejection made by Secretary Ickes in denouncing Colonel Lindbergh and Henry Ford for accepting German «azi decorations. The Acting Secretary told the Charge dfAffaires that these comments by the therefore were our own private xz affair#. Second, the Ickes denunciation of the flazis, saying that they took the world back to a period of history when man was - unlettered, benighted and bestial. Those were the Ickes because the country agrees with what Ickes said. He told Charge d1Affaires that the recent aazi persecutions and suppressions had shocked tne American public, and that an overwhelming proportion of the American people agreed with the Ickes remarks. Moreover, he pointed out the recent anti-American diAfr»ilKS=Sfi2fc the German newspapers are controlled by the words. apology for that either the ACting Secretary, attacks in the German press. jjte^6m^idS3^1teQerman=charg*. government, and the government is responsible for what they say - the United States government. and yet theytve been making abhfiy? and scurrilous remarks about UrHt.fld States government, and its chief officials. SPAljV From both sides in Spain come similar|stories - huge espionage plots. And in each case this evening’s news is an expansion of word we’ve had before. From the Franco side, the story concerns that spy plot sympathizers have been on a greater scale than had been reported, widespread arrests, many executions. of the trial of a few days ago - the trial that resulted in hundreds of convictions and executions. The Republicans state that Franco agents have been active everywhere, especially in departments that have the job of distributing food. There’s widespread hunger in the Republican areas, food shortage and discontent. Franco S? taking advantage of tnis to stir up a connected with the luggage of a British Vice Consul. And the report is that activities by Republican agents and Republican A conspiracy for counter-revolution. PRINCESSES There’s a variation tonight on the old theme of the poor little rich girl* and this time it’s - the poor little princesses. Do they get dolls for Christmas? I’ll say they do( id .it's all so sad , / They’ve already got so many that an exhibition of them has been made at St. James's Palace. And today the exhibit was thrown open to thousands of little girls who file past and gazei A at the hundreds of dolls. All those little girls were so sorry for Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret Rose. Because the two royal children can’t play with the dolls. There’s one for example, named Marianne, tit* gift sent by the school children A of France, worth fifteen thousand dollars. Now no child, not even a royal ^ a fiftee7tho^d^l;^llASo for Poor liUle Princesses playthings are not to be played with, they-re to be put on exhibition NAPOLEON FIRE Tonight one of the world*s most famous buildings, is in danger of destruction. One of the worlds most renowned monuments threatened by flames. Today fire broke out in the Hotel des Invalidss, which contains the Tomb of Napoleon, The flames began in the roof of the building, near the great golden dome which is such a landmark of Paris, Fire fighters hurried to put out the blaze — rushing to save the Tomb of Napoleon, They found the water mains frozen; all of Europe having a bitter cold snap, Paris in the grip of ice. No water to fight the fire; only ice. At last reports the flames were burning high in the upper part of the structure, flames glowering and glaring around the great golden dome on the banks of the Seine, And there was fear the dome might collapse, the building be destroyed — the tomb of Napoleon engulfed in a catastrophe of fire. If that were to happen, if they*re still unable to put out the blaze — it will be another dramatic episode in the tremendous legend, of Napoleon. And SO LONG UNTIL TOMORRO.W