^ SUMOCQ, Tuesday. January 23. 1934 Good Evening, Everybody:- One ot yesterday’s prophesies from Washington has come true. In fact, a day sooner than expected. The State "Department announced today that Uncle Sam has formally recognized the new government of Cuba. This followed close upon the heels of yesterday’s conference at the White House between the President and the ministers of seventeen South American republics. Not only the President’s advisers but the representatives of other American nations have decided that the government of Colonel Carlos Mendieta de Montefur, the provisional President of Cuba, is strongly enough established to carry on. So, Cuba’s troubles may be at an end. All the soundest of President Mendieta is extremely popular. However, there will be a general election soon. Then a permanent president will be chosen by the Cuban people PARIS Of' Another hank scandal in France. Andthis one threatens to be, if anything, even more imsavory than the -TLjLasf) collapse of that municipal institution in Bayonne.^While the Chamber of Deputies was in a riotous uproar owvr the Stavisky affair, Paris was appalled to learn that the great Banque des Functionnaires had closed its doors. It is said to be In the red for something like twenty-five million dollars. What is more, the air is already ^ull of rumors that high officials of the French Government and the Paris police are involved in this one too. As for the scene In the Chamber of Deputies today, it must have been quite a spectacle. Challenges to duels were flying back and forth across the chamber like brickbats. Leaders of the various parties exchanged compliments until the ft din became uproarfrvm that not a word could be heard* Finally the speaker of the Chamber was obliged to step in and call the session off for the day. Even worse was the scene outside the Chamber. A huge crowd had assembled, shrieking charges against th police and the Government. One radio dispatch from Paris PARIS - 2 reports that no fewer than six hundred people were arrested, including three Americans, two men and a woman. Forty others were badly beaten in the scrap. The mob consisted principally of communists and Royalists. NBC apstrii The row between the Nazis and the Austrian government seems to be coining to a head. Chancellor Dollfuss had protested to the League of Nations and asked for WV< j \0 <K protection against Nazi attacks on Austria, ^dispatch from Geneva indicates that the League is ready to back up the Austrian government. , But, it is not quite clear what the League can do. ^ Meanwhile the Nazis were getting attertLon from another source. The four Communists who were tried and acquitted of having set fire to the Reichstag,are still in jail, A communication on this subject was sen t todey to Chancellor Hitler from the British Labor Party. The Labor!tes begged the Chancellor, In the name of humanity , to release those four young men who were found not guilty. And I wonder how Mr. Hitler and the other Nazis will like this^iit at news : It was announced in Washington today A that President and Mrs. Roosevelt have invited Mr. and Mrs. Albert Einstein to the White House tomorrow. NBC ppp»- -■•/I'.,. . 4 graft Another scandal looms in Washington. Grave charges have been flying around that graft is rampant in public works projects. It is said that there has been skulduggery in *x connection with several payrolls. The President took quick action today torget to the bottom of all this. He h^s instructed Secretary Ickes, as Administrator of Public Works, to make a complete investigation. As a matter of fact, there has already been some probing along this line. Officials of the Public Works Administration in Washington admit that they have inspectors at work scrutinizing the payrolls on several Public Works projects. However, thePublic Works Administr' tion claims that the inspection system is so elaborate that all this kind of greft is held down to a minimum Another serious charge has been openly made^. W jt is said there are many cases of men tfio got jobs and had to kick back part of their wages to the contractors who employed them. This state of affaivs, they say, has prevailed on some construction jobs which are being donm with P.W.A. funds. Secretary Ickes declares that he is talking precautions to put an end to this. Anybody whose wages are being wp paid with money borrowed from Uncle Sam,whether on public or private projects, will be proected from such payroll rackets. NBC One of the vital questions of the hour is whether the Civil Works Administration will continue to function after May 1st. This is being discussed in Albany tonight and all over the country. William Green, President of the American Federation of Labor, called at the White House today and had a conference with the President on this subject. 'When Mr. Green left the White House he said that the length of life of the CWA would depend on conditions at the end of April. The A. F. of L. - the American Federation of Labor • believes that at least two and a half million of the men now employed on CWA projects will be absorbed by the P.W.A., the Public Works Administration. Public Works contracts are already delng rushed at such a pace that by spring many of them should be running full blast. Furthermore a great many men will be required on farms and in factories as soon as winter breaks up. Frank Gannett*s paper MThe Albany Evening News," has a vigorous leading editorial tonight stating that the CWA work must continue until the PWA and private industry absorb £ll the workers. STOCKS STOCKS h Mr* Roper, Secretary of CoiMierce , has been at work on a scheme for regulating stock e xchanges. He sent in his report to the White House today. Maybe we’ll know what his ideas are on the sub ject shortly. But it is not certain that the report will be made public. The Beeons truetion Finance Corporation has new lease of life. The President sent the names of all five directors to Congress today for reappointment. , r > -I GOU> President Roosevelt is getting quick action on his Gold Bill* The hill to enable him to take all of the precious metal now in the possession of the Federal Reserve System and turn it over to the Treasury. The bill that will enable him to use two billion dollars of the profit, this move will earn, use it for the Government as a stabilization fund, a fund to regulate the price of Uncle Sam's dollar on the world's money markets. The bill was reported out of committee today in the Senate, by a vote of fifteen to two. However it has been modified by certain amendments. The most important of these provides that the stabilization fund be manipulated not by the Secretary of the treasury but by a special board of five members. Another pro do aed amendment will follow the idea recently suggested by Owen D, Young, that a time limit be placed on this stabilization fund. In other words that it should be treated as an emergency measure, to be operated only for such time as the President deems an emergency condition exi at s r. . ' ' A Joint resolution introduced in both houses of Congress would prohibit any officer, or employee of a National Political Committee from holding any goYemment position in any dapartmentt division or bureau. The bill is aimed in the main against postmaster Jim Farley, who is National Democratic Chairman. Sergeant Alvin York, of Vorld War fame, the lad from the hills of the South who did such a stout Job in France, is in the news again. A bill was introduced in the Senate today to make Sergeant York a Major in the U» S. Army, and then place him on the retired list. Well, they ought to d© that with some others including -- St* S.W. The keels of no fewer than twenty more warships NAVI are to be laid down by the Nawy Department. That is, providing Congress approves a bill now being considered by the House Committee on naval affaiws. The Administration wants to use from fifteen to twenty-five million dollar^, immediately. Thi* to cover the first year’s work on those new war-ships. NBC GENERAL ELECmiO I hive divided my time today between Albany and Schenectady, and of course no one comes to Schenectady without visiting the General Electric plant. In fact I am bread casting xx from a room in one of the vast G.E. buildings. I'd like to spend a week just looking over the House of Magic, the Research Laboratory. Here’s one thing the G.E. scientists are doing that will interest all of us:- The best incandescent light bulb now in use has an efficiency of only about fifteen percent. Well, these wizards 5^ Schenectady have turned out a new one^ called a sodium light, with an efficiency four and one-halfl times as reat as anything we now have# The new sodium lights They are are long and tubular in shape, particularly adaptable for outdoor purposes, ideal they believe* for highways. In fact a stretch of road near Revere Beach in Massachusetts has just been lighted up in this manner, as an experiment. And several of these new tubular sodium bulbs have just been installed on the front of the G.E, building on Lexington Avenue in New York City, about a block from the Waldorf, Each has a reflector that looks like a model airplane. rtCWERAL ELECTRIC - 2 This sodium light gives a strong orange glow. So when fc* you take your sweetie for a ride in the old gas buggy, with the tank full of Blue Sunoco, soon you will make love to her under the orange lights, getting ready for the orange blossoms TA TT.BREAK The Kansas authorities have recaptured most of the fo-f* yi <3 convicts who broke out of the State prison at Lansing, the ji' yA other day. Only tw6 of them are still at liberty. One of the leaders was killed. A posse of penitentiary guards and deputies surrounded three of the gang late yesterday near Paola, Kansas. One of them resisted arrest and was promptly shot. Still another was caught last night in Kansas City. But one of the leaders, who also was a leader of the crowd that got away from the same prison last Memorial Day, is still at large. NBC kidnap Two kidnappers got swift justice from the forces of law in Chicago today. They were convicted by the jury after only two fours' deliberation. They were found guilty of having kidnapped a gambler of Blue Island, Indiana. 0i» of the convicts is a saloon keeper of Peoria, the other a I gambler anJ bootlegger. Each was sentenced to imprisonment for life. The prosecutor asked for a death §■ Wy' sentence^ but, declared himself satisfied with the verdict. There were four in the gang that snatched the Blue Island gambler, bat* dne ©£=tiw>« turned states evidence^ is still at large. I *11 bet thera is plenty of fun in Hew Orleans tonight. The Kingfish is in the middle of a scrap whioh. means x much to his political existence. The home of the Mardi Gras and of some of the best cooking in America, is going through the throes of a hammer and tongs primary battle, a primary for the Democratic nomination for Mayor. Of course whoever wins the Democratic nomination down there is as good as elected. •■si# Huey is in the thick of the fray because a serious attack is being made on his machine. The actual fight is between Senator Long *s candidate and the present Mayor, Mr* Walmsley, the man who offered to hang another haymaker on the L *,s jaw. Walmsley used to be one of Huey Lon-g-La faithful, but he recently turned Maverick and thumbed his t SaegK ^Enoug A. A, build another Great Wall of China. It reached a high spot nose at asas&C Enough mud has been slung in this campaign to ^ A last night when Huey in person turned radio crooner. Maybe you heard him singing ^parodies about Mayor Walmsley. I hear the folks in New Orleans turned out at the polls today in record numbers. Unfortunately, it*3 impossible to say who is the winner* The polls will not close until eight o^lock tonight Eastern Standard Time. The Kingfidi *s enemies say they have a chance of handing Huey a political black eye. But your newspaper tomorrow morning will let you know about that pte The editor of the Woman’s Home Companion sends^ne an item of world-shaking importance. All other news seems insignificant in comparison. The doings of our statesmen in Washington, the latest news concerning Hitler and Mussolini, Cuba, and the bank scandal in France, will leave you cold in comparison with this. The Woman’s Home Companion has just taken a nation-wide census of pie eaters, in order to find out which pie is the most popular. To settle the question, the Woman’s Home Companion made a nation-wide analysis of som«| twelve million meals. The pie industry has suffered considerably from the depression. Americans now eat only one-third as many as they did at prosperity’s peak. In 1929 they consumed seventy-five million dollars worth of pi©i and only fifty—five million dollars worth last year. Can you picture fifty million dollars worth of pies? The pie belt where pie-eating reaches its peak, is found in New England. This census included a scientific investigation into i the consumption of all pies, mince, pumpkin, eustar#, huckleberry, PIE - 2 cocoanut, and so on. It was discovered that the most popular luncheon menu xn America xs the followingA sandwich $ a mug of coffee, and a slab of pie. The outcome of this nation-wide investigation was an overwhelming vote'fc? apple pie as the most popular of all American foods. But the editca- solemnly informs me that cherry pie is gaining, and if the gain continues mt the present rate, cherry pie may outstripigqB apple pie in popularity in another sixty-fige years. In the West it was discovered that women slxmxxKg show a slight preference for lemon meranguo pie* And if I don't stand aside from this microphone, some one is liable to start throwing merangue and custard pies at me, so , as my friend Floyd Gibbons would say? — "Mother, pass the pie I" - ** And: RSTOESMTATIVES While the memhers of the French Chamber of Deputies were on the rampage, a xskb scene of a slightly different nature was taking place in our own House of Representatives*. The Statesmen were all ready to call it a day, and as they were gathering up their papers, chatting and laughing, they were stopped by a solemn announcement from the Speaker, who said:- "The clerk will no* read a telegram to the House of Representatives." The chatter and laughter stopped while our wise legislators looked at each other. So the clerk read the telegram. It was from Congressman Green of Florida. Mr.Green, in formdl terms,begged to offer his resignation as Chairman of the committee to which he had been appointed, the Committee on the Disposition of Useleas Executive Papers. This happens to be one of the joke committees in all legislative assemblies. It is a one-man committee and is always used as a sort of pigeonhole in which to thrust greenhorn legislators for the good of their souls* When the clerk had finished reading this telegram REPRESENTATIVES - 2 telegram there was a moment »e pause. Then the entire House hurst into one loud roar of laughter; whereupon Speaker Hainey banged his gavel and said what I am not about to say; SO LONG UNTIL TOMORROW