Lowell Thomas Broadcast
for the Literary Digest
Thursday. January S2, 1931
GOOD EVENING, EVERYBODY:-
THE WEATHER IS ABOUT AVERAGE AROUND THESE PARTS,
SNAPPY AND COLD. BUT IN A FEW OTHER CORNERS OF THE WORLD
THERE HAVE BEEN STORMS OF TREMENDOUS VIOLENCE. THESE OCCURRED
TODAY IN PLACES AS WIDELY SEPARATED AS EASTERN EUROPE AND
SOUTH AMERICA.
A MAD TEMPEST IS RAGING IN THE BLACK SEA, AND THE
RUSSIAN PASSENGER STEAMER, JAVARIA IS REPORTED TO HAVE GONE
DOWN WITH ALL HANDS, FIFTY PEOPLE — PASSENGERS AND CREW,
AND FORTY OTHER VESSELS HAVE BEEN DISABLED AND APE IN DISTRESS
ON THE WILD, STORMY BLACK SEA TONIGHT.
THE STORM IN SOUTH AMERICA DID MOST OF ITS DAMAGE
AT BUENOS AIRES. ACCORDING TO THE INTERNATIONAL NEV.'S SERVICE
HOUSES WERE BLOWN DOWN AND ROOFS WERE TORN OFF. THE DRIVING
WIND PLAYED HAVOC WITH THE PARTLY FINISHED BUILDINGS THAT ARE
BEING ERECTED FOR THE BRITISH TRADE EXPOSITION IN BUENOS AIRES.
THE PRINCE OF WALES, AS YOU KNOW, IS ON HIS WAY TO SOUTH
AMERICA TO OPEN THE EXPOSITION, AND THE BUILDERS WILL HAVE TO
HURRY NOW TO GET THINGS READY FOR HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS.
ENGLAND
Pg.
2
LET’S SEE NOW WHAT POLITICAL NEWS THERE IS.
LAST NIGHT AT THIS TIME THE LABOR GOVERNMENT LOOKED MIGHTY
SHAKY. IT HAD BEEN BEATEN IN PARLIAMENT ON A SCHOOL BILL.
AND THAT USUALLY MEANS RESIGN. BUT THE LABOR GOVERNMENT
IS STILL HANGING ON — STILL SHAKY.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS INFORMS US THAT PRIME
MINISTER MCDONALD’S MINISTRY HAS ANOTHER EVEN BIGGER HURDLE
TO JUMP. A BILL WHICH HAS TO DO WITH REGULATING STRIKES.
AND IF THE LABOR PARTY IS BEATEN ON THIS ISSUE IT PROBABLY
WILL BE FORCED TO RESIGN
PAH IS
PG. g
IT LOOKS LIKE AN EPIDEMIC OF DEFEAT FOR GOVERNMENTS
IN EUROPE. THE BRITISH MINISTRY WAS BEATEN YESTERDAY, AND
THE FRENCH MINISTRY TOOK A LICKING TODAY, AND THEN RESIGNED.
THE FRENCH CABINET, HEADED BY PREMIER STEEG, HAS
BEEN TRYING TO FIX THE PRICE OF WHEAT. TODAY A RADICAL DEPUTY
CHARGED THAT THE MINISTERS COULDN’T MAKE UP THEIR OWN MINDS
AND WERE FIGHTING AMONG THEMSELVES ABOUT THAT QUESTION OF TEE
PRICE OF WHEAT* HE SAID THIS HAD BROUGHT ABOUT A WAVE OF
SPECULATION IN WHEAT WHICH WAS HURTING BOTH FARMERS AND
CONSUMERS.
THE DEPUTIES TOOK A VOTE AND, ACCORDING TO THE
INTERNATIONAL NEWS SERVICE THE GOVERNMENT WAS BEATEN BY £93
TO 283, AND IMMEDIATELY RESIGNED. SO FRANCE, TONIGHT, IS
AGAIN WITHOUT A MINISTRY
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SHfifiQR-
-------Bu^-
rh
l ^ TTg3e%-
H=£fitrxf^£rs^br i n 95 back memories of that
old textbook of tfoman history we
studied in high school. Remember
Regains, the Roman General who
sacrificed himself so nobly for his
country?
ftt4±E=B=5=«
Qi
United Press dispatch
states that in/JhRarbor of Licata in
Sicily an ancient anchor was dragged
up in the course of dredging operations.
That anchor belonged to a Roman galley.
In all probability the galley was one
of those that were sunk in a sea battle
between the Romans and the Cartheginians^
—th-e-r-&—in—-tfve—h arbo-r—that—
ha-ver'-be-eni—d-r-eeig-i-Ffgs and the Commander
of the Roman fleet, on that occasion,
T'
was that same Keg’aJiis so familiar
for htfegry centur i es to millions of
sch oo l children.
INfiLA
Page.
It is reported out in India
that the British Government will soon
declare a general amnesty for
political prisoners. According to the
United Press fifty thousand jjjtx people
are in jail in India as the result of
the non-violent rebellion which Ghandi
started. The most important
ik
of a I l,A i s Mahatma Ghandi himself,
and if this ^amnesty is declared, why
he w i rP'b^set free.—
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LIBERIA
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U
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had better send out
a cal I for a second Abraham Lincoln!
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there seem to be a lot of slaves
/A*
who need freeing; and nobody seems to
know how to do the Iiberation act.
Over in Geneva, the representative
of the black repub lie of Liberia told
the League of Nations that Liberia was
willing to free the slaves within her
boundaries, only there was one difficulty.
And that difficulty is the old and
famiI iar bugaboo--Iack of money. It
would take a considerable quantity of
cash, said the delegate, to free the
Liberian slaves, etnd—arW—
—i-s—&—H^bt-he-'-f-i-rvan e4et+—-os o
bo
t-arr&e-.
If somebody would put up some money,
the black republ ic would proceed to
abo I i sh s I avery
Assoc iated
us, the Liberian delegate
Press informs
to the League made a frank admission
that slavery
exist5 in his country.
And that's a
p ecu
I i ar th i ng .
k&'S—
oA^ gf^V-es ^ h:Q--:-WieT,-e^-e-L-:=f^-Er^^rr^ t-hBTt-
bexrame-^tyF-a nn^bca I—-^s lave
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the African Republ ic of
Liberia was colonized by freed slaves
from America. But what did those same
I iberated slaves do when they got control
of a country of their own in Africa?
Why, they proceeded to enslave the native
blacks. Thatfs what they did. In other
words. Uncle Tom turned tat© Simon Legree*
And today, when slavery everywhere
is almost as extinct as the Dodo, we
have Liberia w45d^&=4=s=s4=H-l one country
that maintains the institution of human
bondage. Indeed a strange spectacle,
that.
One of the worst phases of the
Liberian situation grows out of their
system of slavery for debt. Can you
imagine a woman pawned for a four dollar
debt? Well, it happened over there, &a=a
~Lh<2rrwomtstn -was he-1 U
up
si avc—unt i I the
Yes, and then she was
repawned by the slave owner who held her.
And now the whole business is all so
complicated that the woman pawn has no
possible hope of ever being free.
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UaESlA - 3.
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K
Then there’s the case of the man
of forty, a slave, who was pawned as a
child. The one who pawned him died, and
that meant that he must remain a slave
for life.
It sounds incredible doesn't it?
Well, those are only a few sensational
facts about that amazing slavery
situation in Liberia. They are all
given in an article in the new Literary
Digest that came out today. It's an
amazing article, and I wish I had time
to give you a few more excerpts from
it.
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I overs,Iisten to
A
ter^tmjdog
t h i
Out in Austra Iia/^ative cattle
driver, one ot those peculiar dwarfish
Aborigines, drove his herd down to
the river to get water. W i-th him was
his dog. Now these Australian
Aborigines are famous for the way they
are devoted to their dogs. Man and
animal are inseparable. feompjtfla-grrsrE.
Well, according to the United
Press, that stunted Aborigine was
looking after his cattle. His dog
w^as^hjiving a drink out of the river.
fofSB va huge form flashed out of the
water. A great crocodile seized the
dog by one of its front paws and
dragged it down.
That little runt of a brown
man didn't hesitate a moment. He
just took one swift dive into the
water to rescue his dog and fight the
crocodile. A white man on the bank was
watching. The water was still tor a
while, but a thin patch of blood
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AUSISaLlA - 2
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lo.
appeared on the surface. Then there
was a splashing and a heaving:' of the
water as the brown man, crocodile and
dog reappeared. The crocs###® stii 1 I
had hold of the dog, the man was astride
W\-<J
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the
neck as though he were
riding
and his
hands were clamped in a vice-1iko grip.
And his thumbs were sunk deeply into
the crocodile's eyes. They thrashed
about in the water for a violent
moment. Then the crocodile took another
dive, and man and dog disappeared below
the surface of the water again.
Seconds later the dog popped
up and started to swim for shore.
Then came the frizzly head of the
Aborigine. He too swam ashore. On
the bank the dog and his master lay
down to rest.
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IL
There was
a spectacular train
2 robbery today out in Ohio. A Big Four
3 passenger train,running from Detroit
Cincinnati, was boarded by six bandits.
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It is supposed that they g o t o n
when the train stopped for coal. They
held up one Pul I man car and took about
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$6,000 worth of cash and jewelry from
the passengers. One passenger who
shouted for help was shot and badly
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injured. The robbers worked efficiently
and quietly, and people^Jn the other
cars didn,tAknow whatAwas going on.
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The
when the
entering
Assosiated Press states that
train slowed down before
the station of Bellefontaine
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the bandits jumped off and got away.*
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DEiaQII
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Out
in Oetro i t po I i ce .swooped
down on a hiding place where a large
store of weapons was concealed.
According to the International News
Service the Detroit copsseized two
hundred rifles, twenty machine guns,
fifty automatic pistols, and a number
of steel vests. Just whan at I this
armament belongs to is not known.
POTATO
FG, IS
AND NOW FOR A SOB STORY, A STORY WITH A HEART THROB
IN IT — FOR WHAT? FOR THE POOR, PITIFUL, PUNY, PATHETIC
POTATO.
MY FEELINGS WERE INDEED TOUCHED WHEN I READ IN THE
DAY!S NEWS THAT MY OLD FRIEND THE POTATO WAS IN POOR HEALTH.
A DISPATCH FROM THE NORTH AMERICAN NEWSPAPER ALLIANCE
TELLS US THAT THE U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE HAS SENT TWO
POTATO HUNTERS DOWN TO MEXICO. THEY ARE HUNTING FOR WILD
POTATOES.
AND WHY ARE THEY OUT CHASING THE WILD POTATO? WELL
IT*S BECAUSE OUR COMMON GARDEN VARIETY BECOME OVER-CIVILIZED.
THE POTATO, THE EXPERTS SAY, WAS ORIGINALLY A WILD
TUBER IN SOUTH AMERICA. THEN IT WAS CULTIVATED BY THE INDIANS,
AND LATER THE PALE FACE CAME ALONG AND GAVE IT HIS ENTHUSIASTIC
FAVOR. AND THAT WAS THE BEGINNING OF ITS DOWNFALL. AS THE
CENTURIES ROLLED BY IT BECAME DELICATE. NEW POTATO DISEASES
APPEARED AND FARMERS HAVE BEEN HAVING AN INCREASINGLY DIFFICULT
TIME FIGHTING THESE DISEASES
POTATO «- 2
PG. 14
THE POTATO, THEY SAY, HAS LOST ITS POWER TO THROW
OFF ILLHESS,
SO THEY WANT TO CROSS IT WITH A WILD VARIETY AND
PUT SOME OF THE OLD PEP BACK INTO OUR PRESENT OVER-SOPHISTICATED
SPUD.
SO THE POTATO IS SICK IN BED, AND THE DOCTORS ARE
TRYING TO SEE WHAT CAN BE DONE FOR THE INVALID
UIIEE
Page.
/S~
Martha and Judy and Betty are
three little girls who go to school up
in Dutchess County, New York, at Locust
Farm near the village of Poughquag.
The three have written me fascinating
letters about an Eskimo village which
they and their playmates have made out
of snow.
Well, I like nothing better than
to get letters from children. Of
course I would enjoy it even more if I
could join Martha and Betty and Judy
in their igloos.
Here's a story that came to my
desk today, and it may interest them,
and perhaps all of you:--
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AR£I1£ SEASS
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/4
When the temperature! drops down
to zero in your locality and you get out
your red flannels and your ear muffs,
what do you imagine the temperature is
a thousand miles farther north, up in
Alaska? Well, the United States Weather
Bureau tells us that throughout the
past month of December, at Juneau, the
capital of Alaska, the temperature
averaged 40 degrees above zero, and it
often stood at 60. And the total
snowfall for the month was less than
one inch. Grass was growning and
flowers bloomed^out of doors during the
month.
^ ^
V\XW-<2-
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DIGEST - GERM
PG. 17
NOW WAIT A MINUTE FOLKS. IF YOU HAPPEN TO SEE AN
OLD FELLOW ALONG ABOUT NOW TAKING A DIVE THROUGH A VYINDOW —
THAT'S METHUSELAH. HE LIVED A LONG TIME, AS ALL OF YOU KNOW ,
BUT HERE ARE A FEW CHAPS WHO WILL MAKE METHUSELAH SEEM JUST
AN INFANT IN ARMS. INSTEAD OF SEVERAL HUNDRED YEARS OLD THEY
ARE SEVERAL MILLION YEARS OLD. BUT IN SPITE OF THEIR AGE
THEY HAVEN'T ANY LONG WHITE WHISKERS. AS A MATTER OF FACT,
THEY ARE GERMS* MINUTE BITS OF LIVING MATTER THAT CAN ONLY
BE SEEN THROUGH A MICROSCOPE.
THE NEW LITERARY DIGEST, WHICH CAME OUT TODAY,
INFORMS US THAT SCIENTISTS IN EXAMINING ROCKS DEEP DOWN IN THE
EARTH, HAVE FOUND LIVING GERMS IN THEM, AND THOSE GERMS ARE
BELIEVED TO BE MILLIONS OF YEARS OLD.
THE DIGEST HAS AN ARTICLE TELLING ABOUT THESE OLD
BOYS.
GOLD FISH
PG. 18
ALL YOU HUSBANDS HAD BETTER COCK AN ATTENTIVE
EAR AND LISTEN TO THIS* THE LITTLE WIFE MAY SOON BE WANTING
A PAIR OF GOLD-FISH SHOES. NO, NOT SHOES FOR THE GOLD FISH.
I MEAN SLIPPERS MADE OF SKINS FROM GOLD FISH. THE INTERNATIONAL
NEWS SERVICE TELLS US THAT SMART EVENING SLIPPERS ARE BEING
MADE FROM THE SHINY SCALEY EPIDERMUS OF THE GOLDEN WIGGLERS
THAT FLASH AROUND IN THE BOWL.
THOSE SHOES AT PRESENT COST EIGHTY DOLLARS A PAIR.
BUT BETTER TIMES ARE AHEAD, SO DON’T FAINT. We are PROMISED
THAT THESE GOLD FISH SHOES WILL BE REDUCED IN PRICE. IN ANOTHER
MONTH THEY SAY WE’LL BE ABLE TO GET A PAIR FOR THE WIFE FOR
SEVENTY BUCKS. ANYWAY THEY SAY THESE SHOES ARE WORTH THEIR
WEIGHT IN GOLD FISH
bud
I suppose a few husbands are coming out from under
the table now, but I think 1*11 send them right back.
An expert over in London tells us it takes 60 things
to make a woman beautiful, not including clothes. These 60
things are various kinds of beautifiers. The list, as given by
the International Hews Service, includes 6 kinds of lipstick,
5 kinds of rouge, 4 kinds of powder, 5 kinds of cream, 5 eye
cosmetics, 2 skin lotions, 2 kinds of nail enamel, eyelash
comb, and enough , other stuff to make up an even 60 items.
At the same time, the Associated Press informs us that
a beautician out in Los Angeles says that the new fashion for
the ladies will be golden earlobes, silver-tipped eyelashes, and
green, eyebrows! I had to raise my not exactly green eyebrows
at that. This new fashion for our wives and daughters will be
strange indeed, and it w also sounds much too expensive to get
my O.K
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5M
£1111
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Golden earlobes, silver-tipped eyelashes
and green eyebrows. By the Great
Horned Spoon what wi I I they do next?
That green eyebrow item ends my
list of dispatches, and that's lucky
because after that^l've just
enough breath left to say: - So long
unti I to morrow.
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