1 L.T, - SUKQCO. ~ ■ '^1 lElWXi * APRIL 1955. GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY; Ifm in Oonnectlcut, tonight, at Bushnell Hall. And here's something of special interest to the people in this, the insurance capital of America. The mystery man of today's news appears In a more dramatic light than ever this evening. The Department of Justice, in driving against, what J. Edgar Hoover describes as a huge inter­ national ring of jewel thieves, brought Noel C. Scaffa into the picture. The Department has brought about a New York Grand Jury probe Into the dark and devious activities of a gem robbing gang which is said to specialize on the angle of restoring stolen jewels for a reward. The return the jewels and collect the reward from the owners or the insurance company, and thereby avoid the problem of disposing of the loot. Noel C. Scaffa has been known for years as the private detective who has displayed uncanny skill in recovering stolen gems and returning them to the insurance companies which insured them* His present experience on the witness stand before the LEAD - 2 Grand Jury is not new to Detective Scaffa. He has been questioned several times before, concerning the way he recovered the plunder swiped by robbers. The police in the past have scowled and hinted that the way Scaffa arranged for the payment of rewards and got back the jewelry was not altogether legal. The immediate case that has brought about the Department of Justice activities is the robbery of a rich woman at Miami Beach. The crooks got a fat haul of precious gewgaws. These were recovered. In fact, the crooks were caught. It was announced that the Miami Beach police had done the recovering. The general in­ vestigation of this case drew Detective Scaffa to the witness stand, to tell what he knew about it. Now comes the climax. The Department of Justice announces that it has dug out the true story of the recovery of the jewelry in the Miami Beach case. It wasn't the local detectives who got the gems back. The real one who turned the trick was Detective Scaffa. It is said that he, the man of secrecy, was merely letting a local Florida Detective take the credit and get the publicity. There is also mention that the local detective was to get the reward. Scaffa himself was being paid by the insurance company. LEAD - 3 as a detective, which would probably keep him from participating in the reward. It's quite a confused affair with plenty of statements and counterstatements, but right now beams of praise are shining on the head of detective Scaffa as the modest and secretive sleuth who wanted somebody else to get the credit for solving the crime. LONG As I am not a United States Senator I suppose I am permitted to say a few words about this wordless subject. It concerns Haey Long not that Huey Is wordless, far from it. He has one of the largest and most peculiar assortments of nouns, verbs, and especially adjectives. What I mean is, that I am allowed to break the silence on the subject of —- silence. Itfs only the statesmen that wear togas who are required to keep as mum as a fish, not a kingfish, but a common mute and wordless fish. In other words the senators once more have come around to the idea of giving Huey the silence treatment. The word hax been passed around the stately halls of the Senate to let the gentleman from Louisiana talk his head off, without anybody answering him or getting into any controversies with him. This information comes right on the heels of Senator Robinson*s conduct while Senator Long was flaying and excoriating, talking about the New Deal chinch bugs and administration ignoramuses. Senator Robinson, senatorial spokesman for the President, | replied with —nothing. The story is that Joe Robinson was all set to arise and smite the kingfish with weighty words but suddenly LONG - 2 changed his mind. He went into a huddle with his colleagues and as a result of their deliberation the silent treatment was pre­ scribed for Huey. So today there is neither word nor sound from the Democratic regulars. Yet, you can feel what they1re saying to themselves silently• One has an intuition of their unspoken, introspective reply to the Kingfish threat that Louisiana would : withdraw from the Union, in a taxation way, meaning - Huey's remarks I about holding up Federal taxes if the administration keeps on re­ fusing to allow the Louisiana Long machine to have a hand in i spending Federal funds. It wouldn*t cause administration leaders j any pain and sorrow if a tax revolt situation were created to give ■ reason for a march of Federal troops into Louisiana. | In the midst of all that silent teatment a sharp ear might detect a slight suppressed chuckle. That’s an administration . * senator or two enjoying a vision of Huey with the United States Army I on his neck. Meanwhile here is no sign of weakening in the stand o the President and his work relief lieutenants — that under no □lipPKi m / LONG - 5 circiamstances will they allow Federal funds to get into the finders of the Kingfish machine. If Louisiana authorities insist on taking control of work relief money why then Federal funds will be withdrawn from Louisiana altogether. There are some indications from Washington today that have an immense bearing on the future of aviation in this country. An unofficial poll of the Military Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives indicates that the McSwain Bill has a good chance of passing. The McSwain Bill calls for the creation of an eleventh Cabinet member, a Secretary of the Air, or Aviation, or of Aeronau­ tics — in whatever way the title be worded. But, anyway, the measure proposes an Air Ministry for the United States, just as they have in European countries. It would mean that there would be a unification of the air corps and the present civilian aviation activities of the Department of Commerce. The two branches of sky defense and the government side of commercial aviation joined and put in charge of an Air Department In Washington. Of course, that has long been a subject of wrangling and scrapping. General Billy Mitchell, former head of the Army Air corps, got himself into difficulties and out of a job because of his belligerent support of a separate and unified sky command. The high officers of the Army and Navy for the most part, have been J opposed. Theyfve wanted to keep the air services within uheir own jurisdiction. They declare that the creation of a separate aviation army, would complicate the coordination of national defense, and moreover would mean more expense. The whole question now comes to a focus before the House Military Affairs Committee, with the signs indicating that there is a good chance for the McSwain Bill to pass. Well, Ifve got a candidate for the post of Air Secretary. How about Commander Musick of that Pan-American Clipper, the one that landed brack in California today, completing that important round trip flight to Hawaii? earthquake Yesterday we had much about earthquakes and this evening comes news of still another tremor. It’s a long way from Formosa in the China Sea to a plateau on the Persian Gulf. I don't know whethei eastern Asia and western Asia can be linked by any sub­ terranean causes far within the shell of this planet. But the fact is that reports from Bagdad tell of a terrific quake that has struck the Mazandarian province of Persia. Five hundred people are reported to have been killed when the houses in whole towns toppled and fires followed the collapse. These heavings and twistings of the rocks suggest a comparison with other earthquakes. The most disastrous in history was just two years short of two centuries. It occurred in India in 1737 and took three hundred thousand lives. The most calamitous in recent times was the Nineteen-Twenty quake in southern China, with a death roll of a hundred and eighty thousand. For the Japanese quake in Nineteen Twenty—three the figure was over a hundred thousand. Besides these major catastrophies, yesterday's Formosan quake with three thousand casualties and today's Persian tremor with five hundred, are minor affaire. They occurred in regions I J earthquake - s much less densely populated than India, China or Japan. The rugged highlands of Persia have relatively few people and today*s quake may ror>resent a terrific convulsion of the rocks which might have been an overwhelming catastrophe elsewhere. J BULGARIA The story of startling political doings In Bulgaria, as further details come in today, brings to the foreground a woman, a royal princess, the sister of the King. She is Princess Eudoxia. She has been known to be a comrade of her brother. King Boris. Shefs unmarried. She's been thought of as little more than a spinster sister of the King. But now she appears in the roll of a political-minded woman, taking a decisive part in imposing and dangerous acts of state, something of a dauntless heroine. They say it was she who stood beside Boris, urging him on, strengthening his determination, telling him with heartening enthusiasm that the people of the nation and that the world at large would applaud his action. This _ while Botis the Third summoned the powerful and threatening army chiefs before him, told them their schemes were unmasked, and put them under arrest. It was Princess Eudoxia who helped him come to the decision not to trust to the regular army, but to cell together a guard of two hundred military students, who stood with fixed bayonets as the recalcitrant high cornmandinf officers of the army stepped into the throne room. The royal coup d'etat had been carefully planned - all important state ^ '"m ritlgabia ~ 2 buildings, the War Office, telegraph bureaus, and police head­ quarters had been taken over by guards of loyalists, before the King put on his showndown act* Behind it all lies a long story of political scheming and maneuvring. The Army Chiefs, in May of last year, staged a coup d*etat which placed them in supreme power and relegated King Boris to an entirely ornamental position. Nobody took him seriously. The Bulgarians liked him but regarded him as the pleasant sort of monarch who doesnft county for much. They thought he would just stick to his two favorite sports, one of which is to drive railway locomotives, while the other is to wheel his only child, little Princess Marie Louise, in a perambulator through the park, But now the royal picture is altogether changed. h Boris stands tonight as the dictator of Bulgaria, yet devoted to democratic ideas and constitutional government. Five days ago the cabinet at Sofia resigned, the cabinet composed of those all-powerfi military chiefs who had seized power. They resigned because the King was demanding more and more insistently a return to democracy and constitutional liberty. They stepped out of office merely for the purpose of planning a new coupe d’etat. They had everything i BULGAitIA - 5 prepared for one big strike whereby they could seize the government once and for all* It was then that the dramatic scene occurred with King Boris and Princess Eudoxia in the foreground — the arrest of the m'*1 itary chiefs, the denouement of their plan and the taking over of supreme power by Boris himself. The flare up in that most singular of family arrangements. Jhe Dionne Household, has subsided. A TBwfr-i-gTBurf Toronto child specialist. Dr. Alan brown, examined the quintuplets today, and pronounced them - on the road to recovery. Four of them, Annette, Cecile, Emily and Marie, have been suffering from a cold, just as any babies might. This follows some minor disagreements in the Dionne family circle with Papa Dionne on the outs with Dr.Dafoe, the physician made famous by the five baby phenomenon. Papa Dionne feels that his rights as a father have been flouted, that he has been deprived of control over his children. The Canadian government wants to quintuplets make sure that there* 11 be no chance of the aKalw.ifcj'alK.i* going on exhibition or used for purposes of profit. A bill was rushed through the Canadian Legislature making the five sisters wards of the Dominion and therefore under the direct supervision cf the Minister of Welfare, David Croll. This disharmony of ideas culminated when four of the five got colds; and to Papa Dionne's paternal dignity was added a fatherly solicitude, such as flourishes when babies are sick. 1 i 1 Mama Dio .ne has not been heard from in any loud declaration. Presumably she has left famil matters in the hands of Dionne Pere, who proceeded to raise the complaint that Dr* Datoe was keeping from him the real condition of the little girls, ^e surmised that they might really be more ill than the doctor admitted. So the father of the five called Dr. Alan Brown, the child specialist, into the picture. And now Dr. Brown's examination is most reassuring. He highly commends Dr. Dafor for the way that renowned country doctor has been taking care of the little heroines of the world famous multiple birth. And being in Hartford, the home of insurance companies. 1 tonight, the question pops into my mind!- "would insurance companies insure quintuplets the sane as other babies?" I've always heard that even twins usually live not quite as long as others. Sharing thd strength of their mother has something to do with itl Or does it? CONNECTICUT I suppose all the world will be visiting Connecticut this year. The nutmeg state is celebrating its 300th birthday. And until you ve seen Connecticut^ well you haven* t seen nothinj In analyzing the claims which it paid to personal Accident policyholders last year, the Aetna people told me today they find that £9.34 percent of the total number of claims were for injuries or death in automobile accidents, including pedestrians struck by autos as well as occupants of cars. More than one third were due to collisions. Accidents to folks who stayed at home followed a close second. Slipping on the welcome mat - and so on. But automobile mishaps are more than twice as serious as home accidents. Sports come third. And the most dangerous in 1934 proved to be baseball, followed by golf, bathing, tennis, and then horseback riding. Huh! And the most dangerous in-door games: gymnastics, wrestling, 0 basketball, and dancing. Well well. Anjso it is most interesting to note that although football is considered to be one of the most dangerous of athletic games, there were about the same number of football accidents as there were dancing accidents! And more people # .. CONNECTICUT - 2 were hurt while playing tennis than while hunting. Well, that surprises me. So I* 11 go out now and indulge in that desperately dangerous hair-raising spine tickling sport calleddanclng, and SO LONG UNTIL TOMORROW.