L.T.- SUNOCO, MONDAY. MAY gl. 1934 'iMf2'! \ OOD EVENING EVERYBODY: The topic on everyone’s lips this weekend .ere in Syracuse where I am tonight and from Brattleboro, Vermont •to Pomeroy, Ohio, and from Maine to California, the topic has been that great Chicago fire. '»ell, that latest Chicago fire has been discovered to resemble that most famous old Chicago fire in one It was accidental respect But this sent out the best sleuths to discover evidence of arson time nothing doingI No firebug burned down the world famous Chicago stockyards RETAKE A^t 2 '7 . 1 [ 1 | I f. L.T.- SUNOCO« MONDAY. MAX 21. 19^4, GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY: The topic on everyone*s lips this weekend here in Syracuse where I am tonight and from Brattleboro, Vermont, to Pomeroy, Ohio, and from Maine to California, the topic has been SES that great Chicago fire. V»ell, that latest Chicago fire has been discovered to resemble that most famous old Chicago fire in one respect. It was accidental. As in all such cases, the authorities sent out the best sleuths to discover evidence of arson. But this time nothing doing! No firebug burned down the world famous Chicago stockyards mjhqfe We are beginning a new week with something of a new line-up in the various parts of tt e world, new patterns, on the checkerboard of international politics. There is little need of emphasizing the significance of a new alliance between France and Soviet Russia. It takes us back to the beginning of this century when the startling news in diplomatic circles was - France has made an alliance with Czarist Russia - directed against Imperial Germany. That was one of the most spectacular moves in the sequence of international alliances that led to the 'World War. Ana now once' more we see France and Hussia drawing together with the aim of checking Germany. mis seems to be the latest accomplishment of that Communist diplomat, the shrewd and subtle Litvinoff. His last previous strike of state is particularly fresh in our minds, the stroke he achieved when he came over here arranged with President Roosevelt for the recogni­ tion of Russia by Uncle Sam. And during the last disarmament conference, he was one of the few statesmen who got anything out of it for his country - a batch „f trade I limelight agreements. Some of us will remember how he jumped into the EUROPE - £ in an earlier disarmament poe-wos with the startling but severely logical proposal that the nations should really disarm, one hundred percent, and right away. That made the statesmen gasp. Litvinoff was born Marcus Wallach, in Poland. He used to *be a tailor in »\iew ior^, then a salesman and a librarian in Eondon, where he met his wife, who is the niece of a former British newsnaper correspondent in Washington. HeTs an old time .Revolutionist, but nowadays he dresses in the height of fashion, the ritziest cutaway in the morning, the swankiest tailcoat in the evening. His wife, an Englishwoman by the way, writes novels, and they say she washes her own stockings - in Moscow. Vi ell, Maxim Litvinoff will have achieved his master stroke if that Franco—Russian alliance goes through. .And they say it's all set. The details are being thrashed out right now. One condition is that the alliance must be okayed by France's allies among the smaller powers. This ties up neatly with the latest development in the Balkans - the declaration of a Fascist state in Bulgaria. Today's EUROPE - 2 interpretation is - a new friendship between Bulgaria and her old enemey Yogoslavia. Some of Bulgaria^ neighbors, Greece for exam­ ple, are expressing alarm over the new Black Shirt dictatorship, but not Yogoslavia, which chimes in with cordial approval. One result of the Fascist stroke will be that Bulgaria and Yogoslavia will get together and x± split up the territory of Macedonia about which they have long been disputing. Now Yogoslavia is one of the principal lilK allies of France, which suggests a pertinent relation between the new Yogo- -gj-yy-frar Slav-Bulgarian friendship, and the Franco-Russian alliance. GERMANY But there1s^still stronger relation between that alliance and another new international development - which is rumored. Germany lies between France and Russia, but Russia lies between Germany and Japan, Arre/^he Ehe report is that Germany and Japan are becoming amazingly friendly these days. There has been talk of some sort of diplomatic arrangement between the two countries. ever since a recent visit of a party of Japanese Naval officers to Germany!' Hitlers men outdid themselves in paying honors to the [ visitors from Nippon and tributes to the realm of the Mikado. I wonder what the ex-Kaiser thinks of this. This has led to a curious twist of those curio is ideas the Nazis have about race. The Germans are saying that the Nazi law against non-Aryans does not apply to the Japanese. They explain this by the theory that the Japanese are really not non-Aryans but basically Aryans, Nordics - Caucasians by origin,j Come of the Teutonic wise men have gone so far as to proclaim the Japanese are really not non-Aryans but basically Aryans, Nordic^ Caucasians by origin. Some of the Teutonic wise men have gone so far as to proclaim the Japanese to be viking conquerors who went GERMANY - 2 ----------- -- % storming out to th.© Far East as their blone Scandinavian brethern did in Europe. It all sounds fantastic, and for purposes of practical statesmanship; but likely enough it points to a German attempt to cultivate an alliance with Japan - for which there would seem to be plenty of diplomatic logic. France lines up Soviet Russia to give the Germans something to think about at their backdoor, so Germany starts lining up with Japan to provide the Russians with something to think about at their backdoor. :;ygP£$fe ' - ^ i Trnr.r.OW JAPAN Meanwhile the government at Tokyo is on the anxious seat, sISsr not because of any international development but because of our old I familiar friend - a banking scandal. Fifteen officials, some nx of them prominent in the government, are under arrest charged with a I fancy 1 piece of financial skullduggery. The Prime Minister is being h4avily guarded against possible attempts of assassination. They are afraid of those secret patriotic societies in Japan which in the past have been responsible for sensational political killings, ............... -v-:^— UKHAIHE Soviet Russia seems to be finding out more and more that you can1t improve citizens* morals by shooting citizens. The Moscow government has been proceeding with the utmost severity against officials caught in the act of grafting. Disgrace, long sentences in prison, even capital punishment, have been Inflicted, Two corrupt officials were recently stood up to a wall and shot. But, no sooner had the news of the execution cooled off, than twelve high moguls in the Ukraine were arrested, accused of wholesale grafting. Apparently itfs not only the higher officials who are wandering froni the straight and narrow, Russia is inellned to chuckle over the workman who managed to draw his funeral insurance six times. To be *T*e, he drew it once too often, because the sixth time he was caught and sentenced to spend years in a living tombs in prison. 1 i! Of a different sort is the tale of the woman who was pubished for stealing grain from one of the big Soviet collective farms. The person who informed against her was her ciwn son, a thirteen year old boy. He not only turned informer, but he wrote 1 A UiCRAINE - 2 a poem about it, which was printed in the official organ of the Communist Party. And the government gave the boy a sum of money, presumably thirty pieces of silver, like Judas. I fi CHACO The net result of the efforts of other countries to stop the war in the Grand Chaco has been so far to make the fighting more bitter. It almost looks as though Bolivia and Paraguay, threatened with the inability to buy any more munitions of war, had determined \> to use up what they had as quickly as possible. At any rate, they are girding their loins for the biggest battle of their whole war. A hundred thousand men are lined up. On the Bolivian side sixty thousand, while Paraguay has some forty-five thousand soldiers ready for battle, a battle to end all the Chaco battles. Incidentally, the object of the war appears to have increased. Originally, we understood that the two countries were fighting for the thin strip of land which would give Bolivia an important river port and thence an outlet to the sea. But evidently the Paraguayans are determined that while they are fighting they might as well fight for as much as they can get. They are aiming at certain rich oil fields. And now both sides are all set - determined to make one last desperate terrific effort to end this long drawn out disastrous conflict. CHILE Wtisn our farinsrs ar© so much in need of min for tiiei.p crops^ it Is Ironic to tiave to learn that the farmers in Chile have been getting too much of It. The heavy storm which has been drenching the principal agri­ cultural section of that Republic Is still drenching Chile. And it must be serious when railroad traffic is interrupted and no trains sa even going across the high Andres to the Argentine; the principal highways closed* and so oil. What tough luck that some of that Chilean downpour, can*t be switched a few thousand miles north. Up here in North America the crops are perishing because of lack of rain, Down in South America the crops are being washed awayl Such is life. CANADA • :- r An item from Canada illustrates how immigration laws, in an impersonal way, are frequently inhumane. A Mrs. Qrtenzi, a non-citizen of the U.S.A. but long a resident of Buffalo, paid a visit to Canada with her two sons, leaving her husband and her daughter back in Buffalo. This was in Nineteen thirty-one. Ahen the visit was over she started to return to her home in Buffalo. At the frontier Uncle Sar^s immigration men said in their characteristic way, "Nothing doing. You are an alien. You can1t come back.” There was grief and hardship In that. And ever since, for all these years, the mother and her two boys have been trying to get back to her husband and daughter. But Uncle Sam has remained obdurate. * Banada1s immigration department was somewhat more humane. It allowed the woman an-J her two sons to remain in Canada. Mean­ while xzRZii special appeals were made to the Commissioner of Immigration in Washington. And now Just as the final American permit was expected, allowing the woman and her two son- to rejoin the family in Buffalo, Canada*s patience became exhausted and an order came from Ottawa that they should be deported. The I suppose the best way to get a gist of that famous Darrow report on the N.R.A. is to lift out a few of the more striking pro­ nouncements - almost epigrams - written by the fiery pen - I mean the fierty typewriter - of Clarence Darrow and his principal asso­ ciate, Charles Edward Russell, the old-time Socialist. Here are some of the aphorisms in the Darrow Report. nIt is the consumer alone who must pay for the increases.11 "The small business enterprise is often the consumer's barrier against complete, grasping and irresponsible monopoly." "All competition is savage, wolfish and relentless." "Under the codes, the cost of living increases, but wages have not risen accordingly." These statements, and the text in general, bear out the advance prophesies that the Darrow Report was a blanket denunciation of monopolistic tendencies in the N.H.A. Now let*s listen to the voices from the other side of the fence. General Johnson thunders a blasting denunciation of the work of the Darrow Committee. He recommends that the committee be t think the most scathing thing abolished right away - pronto. But I tninx cue N.R.A. 2 was said by the General's co-worker, Donald Riehberg, who describes the report in these terms: "A Socialist who advocates complete government control of business writes a report for philosophic anarchists who apparently oppose government control of jlrjoc ® anybody, including criminals.” One reflection seems to crop out of the whole raucous discussion of whether the N.R.A. means or does not mean - monopoly. May it not be that the whole tendency in this industrial era is tOTrard monopoly? And maybe you canft get away from monopoly even in an N.R.A. system designed to help the little fellow. One thing is certain, however. There is going to be a shake-up. No matter what the President does about the Darrow Report there are going to be large changes in the N.R.A. The whole organization is heavy and overburdened with too many people, too much personnel. And the present hubbub wil1 be followed by a housecleaning. E../T | MURDER The writers of crime stories certainly get plenty of dope from the news these days. For instance, New York detectives were trying to find the murderers of a policeman. They went to the house of a woman who is believed to have known these killers. They were trying particularly to run down some information about a chocolate colored sedan that used to be parked in front of her apartment. The woman herself denied all knowledge. But as the detectives left her apartment, they noticed her ten year old boy. They asked him h about the chocolate colored car. The, said the youngster: "Sure, itf s a nice car too, but I fd rather have a motor­ cycle.n Then said one of the sleuths: "Do you know whose car it was?" And the lad replied! "Of course, it belongs to Whitey. X used to take notes from my mother to him where he lived." Result: The detectives made two arrests and they claim they have the men who murdered their comrade. And here* s another thing you might think far-fetched in a fiction story. You may recall that some weeks ago I commented on the particularly ruthless murder of not one, but two, of Father Knlckei’bocker ’ s detectives on Broadway, New York, MARITIME Tomorrow will be a day of celebration - but I'll bet there are a lot of us who don't know that it will be National Maritime Day, The Presidait has issued a proclamation asking us to observe May SEnd as a day of honor for the American Merchant Marine, Commander Kennedy of the Coast Guard reminded roe of it in Point Pleasant, West Vir­ ginia, yesterday, where new ships for Uncle Sam are being built. Yes, tomorrow is an anniversary - the one Hundred and Fifteenth Anniversary of* the day when the American steamship Savannah sailed out of Georgia for England. V.‘hy was that important? Well, the Savannah was the first vessel propelled by steam ever to cross the Atlantic, Three weeks later when she arrived off the coast of Ireland with smoke pouring from her funnel the Commander of a British squadron thought it was a ship on fire and wanted to go to the rescue. That was the first time' the ocean was crossed by steam. And tomorrow, with, an American Merchant fleet of hundreds of steam and motor ships voyaging to the great ports of the world, we are celebrating National Maritime Day. So, here s to Uncle Sam s Merchant Marine - passenger liners, freighters, all tanicers, and .all of them. And SO LONG UNTIL TONORRO i ! t . tramps f h