____________ ^i-». T. — SUNOCO, X)3SC£MB3iiH 29, X953 GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY: Once again we have a spectacular hit of history It's another political assassination - in Europe.’ ( A wireless 0 J from Bucharest, by way of London, brings the news that M. Uon (pronounced Yon) Duca, after only one month as Prime Minister of Roumania, was murdered this afternoon by a young student. The crime took place at a railroad station where the Premier had gone after an interview with the King. I learn that this is the fourth attempt on the life of the Roumanian Premier, four attempts in one month. This message arrived only a few moments ago and extrem ly few details are available, M. Duca was fifty-six years old and before becoming Premier he had been minister of Foreign Affairs. One of the puzzling questions in this assassination is: "Why,should anyoody assassinate the Prime Minister when the actual ruler of Roumania today is the king? Since King Carol was recalled by the Peasants’ Party, he has been exercising a virtual dictatorship over his country. In fact Roumania today offers the ASSASSINATION spectacle of the nearest approach to an absolute monarchy in the entire world. M. Due a represented the Peasants1 Party and the inference is, without more exact information, that the student who assassinated him was of the Liberal^^S^ which has !! i I I i a back seat ever since the recall from exile, of King Carol, NBC ,s " - ...... I . DUBLIN A curious verdict of "Yes” and "no" was rendered ' today in Dublin. A military court was trying Commandant Cronin, one of the leaders of the Blue Shirts, the Irish Fascist!. Mr. Cronin was accused of sedition against the Government of the Irish Free State. This military tribunal said'^lO,,'and found him not guilty on that count. Then it said * yes'and sentenced him to orison for three months for being a member of an unlawful organization. However, the judges added a further complication of yes and by saying that sentence will be suspended if Commandant Cronin will piom se not to do it again. 33C ROOSEVELT SPEECH The president seems to have hit the bull's eye again. He whanged it right in the middle with that speech he made last night before the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. In all the capitals of the world his remarks calling for no been armed InterventionH in any cause hav^recelved with admiration and enthusiasm. To be sure, >n some quarters the international <sM.t statesmen believe the Fresidentii^x more bulls-eyes than one. They read meanings into Mr. Roosevelt's words which he probably c^d not intend. In Geneva, parts of his soeech were ^Germany) interpreted as a criticism of abramiutf^and Italy. Others took them as a slam at those who have been responsible for the breakdown j - of the League of Nations. It is rather difficult to see how the statesmen jj «et that way when remark about the League was: -We are not members a^ we do not contemplate membership." However, statesmen will be statesmen. FF weekly news letter from Europe. I never expected to hear my friend Harry Franck expressing himself as though he were fed up with travel. Harryfs in Hungary now and the troubles he had getting there led him to say: "I wonder why we Americans don’t all stay home.” You have new passport troubles on every frontier. You must also sho?/ all money or paper valuables when leaving a country and again when entering another, and they are to be registered on your passport. Harry goes on to say: "This nationalism is getting I worse instead of better. Little islands of races amont: other races tighteninp-up instead of loosening-up their mutual hatreds and desire for revenge." And he continues: "The war taught Europe — nothing I Ho man in Europe wants another war unless he thinks the time is ripe for him to have a gambler’s chance to take something away from the other fellow." That's the way Harry puts it. for an oi^gy of racial trouble. He informs me th&t in Budapest they’re going in uble. The Hungarians boast that FRANCK - 2 Hitler fs persecution of the Jews is old stuff to them. Twelve years ago Hungary put all Jewish people out of government and similar jobs. The Government passed a law that only six per cent of the enrollment in universities can be Jewish. Re­ cently some of the non-Jewish boys raised the claim that there were more Jews than the lav/ allowed so they insisted on a check-up. The rioting got so troublesome that the Minister of Public Instruction closed all the universities for a v/eek and threatened to close them for the entire semester if the boys did not shut up and behave. In spite of what he says about the difficulties of travel, Harry is still on his way around the Globe for World Letters, and sending us a special weekly news note.* on everything under the sun for the Sun Broadcast. L.T.Person.Corres. JOHN ROOSEVELT . Another Roosevelt Idea, but nothing to do with Franklin D. John Roosevelt, the Presidents son, had the idea. Several months ago, without the aid of a brain trust, he hit upon the notion that there should be some function at which fellows from all the universities, colleges and schools could get together. The result was that the first Inter-School and College Dance was held last Easter and some six hundred men from Harvard, 2ale, Princeton, Brown, iVllliams and other colleges, as well as the foremost Prep schools, were there. The second of these college dances will take place tomorrow night. Tt was to have been held on the roof of the Waldorf in Mew lork, but so many applications came tw A-that it had to be switched to the Waldorf Grand Ballroom. ■EXECUTION I- Y Li> L ___ ________ Out in Colorado there is ±Mmxmt. earnest agitation about a boy vmo isunder sentence of death. The point is that if he Is given the extreme penalty, it will be the first execution in a new lethal gas chamber which has just been built. They have had an execution of that kind — in Nevada the first in to be carried out in this country, The Colorado case Is that of an 18-year-old lad from Nev. Jersey who was convicted of having murdered a cab driver, Gowernor Ed Johnson of Colorado 'has bean urged from all sides to exercise executive clemency, but today he gave his final decision, which was NO. Kowev er, th e Go vernor added, unofficlal1y, tha t he believed the boyfs attorneys weald take an appeal to the Supreme1 Court. A strange, terrifying affair - - that weird device of death, the lethal chamber — and an 18-year-old boy as Its first victim. NBC WEATHER B - r-r-r Don’t be alarmed’ That was the echo of gome twenty million people shivering with cold. Is it cold? In the words of my old Colorado colleague Damon Hunyon, "It's colder than a banker's heart". I understand that Runyon coined that phrase way hack in his cub reporter days in Denver, when he probably tried to make a touch at the local bank. But if you hear sounds of cheering, it comes from Pennsylvania, from the coal districts. I learn from Philadelphia that the telephone wires of all coal dealers have been blocked all day, taking orders. prom all over the country come reports of below zero temperatures. In most of the eastern states a sixteen year old record was broken. Even in the Province of Quebec, where they expect to be cold around this time of year, they had a record low. At my house this morning it was twenty below. I ha wire from upstate Hew York eaying it's 54 below. And me bound for Lake Placid tonight. WEATHER - 2 And while we were shivering and stoking up our furnaces a couple of girls at ii.iaroi were establishing an endurance record up in the air. At five o*clock this afternoon Frances Marsales and Helen Richey had added twenty-four more hours to their new endurance record. Just to coneole us for our shivers, they sent us the tantalizing message, "everything is fine". Sez you! The weather sharks promise warmer temperatures for tomorrow BAfllliaG Even the sub-zero temperatures can't make New York bank depositors cool under the collar today. For the one hundred and thirty-eight banks of New York City with their dozens of branches have drawn up a service code which is avowedly designed to squeeze out all smal.1 depositors and increase the banking expenses of all others. The New York banks have drawn up a service code and th jy hope the President will okay it under the National Recovery Act. They will charge for innumerable services which hitherto have been free. Every transaction you make through a bank will cost you something. If you deposit money, it will cost you (A) For the Deposit Slip (B) For every separate Item you deposit whether in checks or currency. If a bank cashes a check for you drawn on another bank, it will cost you anywhere from ten to fifteen cents. newspaper. You will find the details in your favorite It's no use my repeating them here. When General Johnson, Administrator of N.B.A., was shown a copy of this code, his answer was: suicide, let them do it. "If the banks want to commit NBC An imx apparently trifling item of news from Washington seems to have behind it some real stuff. There was a mi meeting at the White House today, a conference between the President, Senator Borah of Idaho, Senator Hye of ^outh Dakota and General Johnson. Ho announcement was made when it was over. But it is known that they discussed the recent criticisms that the N.R.A. has been benefiting big business at the expense of the little fellow, that the N.R.A. has led to a gx break down of the anti-trust laws, and is becoming the means of throwing the hooks into the consumer. The grapevine telegraph information is that the President and his advisors were considering whether extra legislation will be needed to protect the forgotteh man. NBC WAGNER SBHHta* Here's some more about the N.R.A. Senator Wagner of New York, v/ho has rendered invaluable service as Chairman of the National Labor Board, wants to resign. He feels he canft function both as Chairman of that Board and Senator at the same time. However, ;■ hefs willing to stick along until the President and General Johnson can find a successor. NBC tug \, ell While echoes oT Bry&n u i . i-* Dry^n we,e being heard in Washington, Aflenry George and his single tax on the land propaganda^ being BexfordJ revived in Philadelphia. There,ProfessorJ^ugvvell, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, was addressing the Joint meeting of the American Economic Association, the American Statistical Association and the Farm Economic Association. Dr. Tugwell psdbsixpHEiitfcKii painted a picture which will strike exceedingly few land owners with pleasure, for he told his listeners that all land, both public and private, will one day be under government control. Private oymership and management of land, he said, had been going on too long. Private control has not worked out for the benefit of the community at large. Even though private ownership of land will be permitted, such land will have to come under government control so as to keep it continuously productive. And all land such as is not being used effectively under private ownership will be held by the government as public forests, parxs, game preserves, graljuing ranges, recreation centers. 1 I I wonder what the real estate business will think of thatI TAXES Three cheers and a tiger for Senator Pat Harrison. He*s tne Claairman of the Senate Finance Committee and he says that those income taxes have gone about as high as they can.^ As he puts it, they’ve reached the saturation point, "Instead of increasing taxation", as Pat puts it, "it’s time to start in the other direction. It’s useless to expect business to recover with a heavier burden of taxes on its shoulders than it already has," he adds. And the Senator continued: "As I see it, liquor taxes and other excise revenues should take care of the needs of the federal gov eminent • ^ Let's all give Pat a pat on the back. NBC w— ;? I; KFXIEF (Follow Taxes) yjZJl:. \^&gc^1fe^l^L-JiL ■ 'ni^ Harry Hopkins, Administrator of Federal ReliefJ yid^ask Congress for more money. His office calculates that the funds now available will be exhausted April. So he will ask for a hundred million dollars more to enable them to carry on until the first of July. rvu ul -U^ tyo bc^$~ , 'A Ut BT-MFTALXSM Much of the talk now going on in Washington recalls the balmy days of William Jennings Bryan, when the air was full of arguments for bi-metalism. Twenty-six senators, led by Senators * Wheeler and SssKCfcoe King, held a meeting in the capitol today and passed a resolution on this subject. Said they^ «We favor bjl- metalism, the free and unlimited coinage of both gold and silver at a ratio to be established by law." This resolution will be communicated to the President. Senator Wheeler declares there are enough members of the Senate in favor of this idea to push it through, that is, providing the President does not object. So everything depends on the White House. ADLEK dL What did you learn between the ages of five and six? A celebrated scientist says everything depends on that, and if you kick over the traces in after life, itfs all because of something that happened to you at that early age. So says Dr. Felix Adler, the chap who invented the term: "inferiority complex." NBC I 3PB RESCUE It was a wild night on Lake Michigan, but the plane took off just the same - the passenger plane on the regular run from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, across the lake to Muskegon, Michigan. That is, it started. But it never got there. There were no passengers aboard, only the pilot and his assistant. When they were an hour overdue, a rescue was organized. The coast guard cutter Escanaba plowed out through the ice pack of Lake Michigan, hunting for the missing plane. Meanwhile, where were the two pilots? they were tossing about in the helpless plane, in the ice and the high seas. They were adrift for .eight hours. They had made a forced landing some twenty-five miles out of Milwaukee The Coast Guard cutter finally found them and brought them back to port, none the worse for wear. NBC OPERATION Now Pome more about the sensational flight that Jimmy Wedell made from Texas to Baltimore in a blizzard to bring a baby to a hospital,, The operation was islexh performed at Johns-Hopkins this morning. What * s the latest news? Itfs good. Jimmy Wedell didn't fly those fourteen hundred miles through the blizzard in vain. The hospital reports that the operation was successful. The little girl will recover with good health and all that — and £fc£±2: she'll bless speedy Jimmy Wedell as long as she lives. NBC TMITATlOli Have you ever been afflicted with friends who can do imitations? A V.ho not only caa but will a*, the slightest provoea- tion or without provocation^ A writer in the Boston Transcript \ describes how one such was holding forth one evening. He imitated everybody from Mae West to the pelican at the zoo. Finally, one of the company, who could stand it no longer, made a suggestion, saying: ”1 know something we’d all like to see you imitate.1’ 11 What’s that?” sskiK asked the performer eagerly. And the reply came in a loud voice: nA homing pigeon”. And that1 s what I’m going to imitate myself and a Happy New Year’s Fve to you and no hang over, and SO LONG UNTIL NEW YEAR’S. LITERARY DIGEST