EARTHQUAKES L> /, *S^ H'Vvi. Tu^e / T~ ' \ 1 ? i ;| !'; ii I I have just learned number of earthquakes that have something new about the extraordinary | been happening all over the world in the past two years. Father Lynch, the famous seismologist of Fordham University, tells me that his instruments have recorded shocks every day almost since the beginning of the month. For instance, one in India. In South and Central America not merely one but several. And this morning there was one in Alaska. Well, here’s the thing that’s new about them. Father Lynch says that it is a good sign. The fact that we have had so many in the last few days means that it will be a long time before we can expect any real big disastrous quake. It Is when the earth goes along smoothly for a long period that we need to watch out. Those long periods of calm always end up in a big crash somewhere or other. What is perhaps more serious than the earthquakes themselves Is the freak weather that has been prevailing in several parts of the planet. For Instance, the worst blizzard in many years is still raging in the mighty Andes. Chile has suffered a loss of more than a million dollars through storms, and. there has ttar THQUAKES - £ been a terrific cold v/ave in Argentina. Up in the lofty parts of the Andes, police and railroad employees have been snowed in. -^here is danger of their starving to death if they*re not rescued soon. Traiisportation was stopped some time ago on the Trans-Andean Railway, which crosses the mountains from Buenos Aires to Santiago, in Chile, because of the unusual severity !|i! I? of the storm. Of course we have to remember that south of the I ! Equador they*re now approaching mid-winter. At the same time, even don't have su i in the height of winter, they such severe weather, <i! All this leads one to wonder whether these extraordinary conditions have not something to do with, the unrest that prevails all over the world. When we look at the labor troubles at home, the political disturbances in Europe, the danger of war in the Far East, it is obvious that the human race today has a bad case of the Jitters. It's nerves are on edge. Maybe the blame can be laid on those sun spots. V ^V| !! gQULOlS One 6 ay last February, President Roosevelt called in the head of Uncle bara’s Army Air Corps and asked him; "Can the Army carry the mail?" Major General Benjamin D. Foulois, Chief of that Corps, answered promptly; "Yes, Mr. President, it can." Some say it was his chief, General Douglas Mac Arthur, head of the Army. Anyway, Postmaster General Farley:promptly cancelled all the existing airmail contracts and the Army took over. What happened subsequently is history now. There was a good deal of grief, and a storm of criticism. A Committee of the House of Representatives was appointed to find out, "What's wrong with the Army Air Corps?" Today we have it's report and the General’s reply. The outcome of that Committee’s investigation is the most amazing attack that has ever been made upon a general officer in the United States. The report not merely recommends but clamors for the instant dismissal of General Foulois from his posA as he?d of the Army Air Corps. It charges him with being not merely incompetent and inefficient, but dishonest. In really cruel language -‘•.he Committee insists that the 7QUL0IS - 2 Secretary of War should relieve General Fouloia of his command. Some of the terms of that report are enough to take your breath away. In his reply the General does not tear his hair or show any particular excitement. Ee says he will welcome a public trial. His only complaint is that the Committee did not give him a hearing, gave him no chance to explain. Naturally, this affair is the talk of the day and it has created terrific excitement in army circles. All the more because Benny Foulois is one of the few general officers in the United States Array who did not goto West Point. He enlisted as a private in Connecticut. When the Wright brothers made their first flights, it was he who was selected by his superior officers to fly with them as official observer. ^rom that moment on he studied, talked and lived aviation. He learned to pilot a plane after just ninety minutes of instruction from ho less a great man than Wilbur Wright, In fact he was No. 1 pilot in our Air Gervice. Since tnen his promotion has been extraordinarily rapid. And no doubt this has -mmm m. CONGRESS \tj0 Amei leans ai 0 neeL any "hoo tTT‘ac 1 .oiis to out * C ouptsss Whenever it pets near the enrt of a session, we ,say: "Now you*re nice cute legislators, and v/e donH want you to be»i^ a hurrv, but here^ your hat * and your train’s waiting.” That always seems to me a particularly ungracious attitude to take. After all. Congress makes <X /vo-eU-o news for the newspapers and gives *s^ commentator! something to talk atocs about. Of course, I sometimes get a bit tired of talking about Congress, and you pet tu r»f»d of listening, but. if there vjere no Congress we miPht have more about the Denartm^nt of .the Interior or the Bureau of Statistics or somethin^ lik^* that. Un to quite a late hour Saturday niP*t everybody in Washineton thought the curtain was about to fall on the Seventyfttblrd Congress. But h^r*3 we are or Monday and Congress is still there. It is only small groups of filibusters tha* are holding no the adjournment. But yo\i don1* need large ^rouos of toneless talkers for that. A huge majority of our l^p-i «l are really anxious to go home. Many of tnon had even r^serven railroad soaces for the Journey. Tbay are so anxious to say "good-bye” that they may even droo the Banking Bill. £ ^ I CONGRabo^. r | They eertainly have nassed olenfcy of bills, their full »&>« 1 I measure of measures. No previous Congress has ever put through so much historic and extraordinary legislation. It makes President I Roosevelt todav the most oov/erftxB rnler in the history of the United States, not even excepting President Wilson in wartime. PAMFSTAfcNGL II The journeyings of Dr. Hanfstaengle, for which so many people prophecied tragedy, have turned into the broadest comedy. £» 5his is one of those cases -wh^ the story is that there is story. The joke is on somebody, but I don»t know quite whom. i i ill II Cr* Ernst Franz Sedgwick Hanfstaengl,hKx as you have probably heard is head of the Nazi press bureau. His sole reason for to these shores was tp attend a class ~**CvKc* A. T^W frt^l C a ^***. reunion at Harvard.' A terrific storm and tempest was raised ov< lrutut>. Some excited colximnists said there would surely be riots, battle, murder and sudden death. They demanded that he be taken off the ship at Ellis Island and promptly sent back to the Fatherland with a flea in his ear. Some excited members of the House of Representatives proposed to subpoena Dr. Hanfstaengle the minute he landed here and make him tell them what he knows about Nazi propaganda Jp-S t i ij f f knows about i in the U.S.A. Also what the Black Tom explosion during the War. Some way or other, I don»t know quite how, wiser counsels prevailed. Not a single riot has occurred. Dr. Hanfstaengle has confounded and disappointed his critics by conducting himself with a hahfstaengl - g most un-Teutonic tact. He has resisted all the efforts of the newspaper men to inveigle him into talking about politics. He has not uttered a single word of Nazi propaganda, unless you count one sentence. I mean when he said: wThe position of the Jew in Germany is going to be normal, quite normal before long. Everything is going to be much better.” aticrthen toapejr tempest^has subsided. And my 11 ] ' gmmn wnni r| fwa t-.hfl t-. a good many poople- who got eaeoited -too—soon are fee-ll-Bg sl-ightly sheepish today. ff they aren1!, —they -should be. flEHMAM FOLLOW HANFSTAENGL If Hitler's favorite pi^> ^en so A discreet, he could have found plenty to talk about concerning the state of affairs back in Germany. For instance, he might have commented on the rumors in France that the Nazi regime is crumbling. Of course. Dr. Hanfstaengl would pooh, pooh such an idea. But we have to remember that Paris predicted the German debt moratorium three days before it happened, predicted it with remarkable accuracy. So now, how accurate are the French prophecies that the bell is already tolling the end of the autocracy of Hitler? The French base their prediction on the feverish anxiety % of Hitler to straighten out Germany’s foreign affairs. But there are symptoms within Germany itself to bear out the rumors running around Paris. There seems to 'be a rift in the Nazi ranks, on which 1 commented last week. A clash between Conservative and Radical, old and young. Dr. Goebbels, the Propaganda Minister, ^ascrying: "Down with the critics of the Nazi regime; down with 4 the killjoys; down with the reactionaries! At that identical moment Franz von Papen, the Vice— GEKLIAIIY FOLLOW HAHPSmAEHGL - 2 Chancellor op Germany, was s-ying the exact opposite. "We shoulr have freedom," he exclaimed. We should have freedom of the press." And he added: "There should he an end to abusing as reactionaries all those Y/ho demand freedom." Now, the remarVahle circumstance about these two speeches is that Vice-Chancellor Von Papen13 remarks might be read as a deliberate reply to that of Hitler's Propaganda Minister __ CUBA I suppose that we Americans have rather mixed feelings as we take a look at Cuba. There- 1s a feeling of relief, that with the abolition of our old arrangement v/ith Cuba, v have no reason to interfere in the tangled affairs of the island. On the other hand thereTs a sense of old responsibility. V.e lre used to thinking of Cuba’s business as pretty cldse to our own. And it doesn’t give us a pleasnt feeling to see things going from bad to worse down there. And they’re going from bad to worse. Let’s look at t'ne bearings of that latest murderous outrage in Havana. It comes as a climax to a rapid series of recent outbreaks of violence. It also comes right on the heels of the announce­ ment that Cuba is to have a general election to select a new government. That's oerhaos the most sinister oart of it* What kind of election will they have with such things occurring!, Such things as the machine gun attack on the ABC oarade? Cuba’s most orominent and active political group has been that ABC organization, which took the dominant revolutionary part in the overthrow of the Machado Government. CUBA -2 With flags and banners and blaring bands and shouts of "Viva"; they were putting on an imnressive political demonstration. Their enemies put on a demonstration^ even more impressive^ pithout firry flags or banners or blaring bands or shouts of **VTvaT>, They said it murderously with machine guns. There ttsb ofrlljL said to berve beon-^hootlng^from behind the oillars of a building— and there also was an automobile, A red automobile suddenly sped by the head of the oarade, Men with machine’guns leaned out and blazed away at the front rank of the paraders and mowed them down. Fourteen men and women were killed and fifty wounded. There was a wild panic, as the crowded marchers broke and ran. But they didn't, all run. Scores of men who were armed, returned the fire, and then still shooting chased after the automobile. They caught it and killed the four men who ire in the car. The automobile they say was registered in New York as the oroperty of a Cuban^So, it's the old story in Havana tonight — soldiers on guard everywhere, the military in control and the ominous mutter of revelt extortion Every day or so a story appears in the news, and about the only thing you can say is: "What a plot phat would make for a mystery story writer!" Today we can make that remark over and over again: "What a plotl" If I were a detective story writer I*d kick myself a few times for not having thought of it. A man is accused of murder which he did not commit. He was there when the crime was committed, but another man did it. He xx saw him do it with his own eyes. But this other man is innocent of the murder. It sounds complicated, but life has arranged the plot - life In the big city. Dominick Zerbonio came to New York, an immigrant from Italy. He worked hard, saved his money, and present^was the thriving owner of a small trucking business. down, the old blackhand racket. He refused. They suggested he ought to come and talk it over with the big boss of the gang. Dominick said: "All right" and went. In a stuffy east side flat he met the big boss. An argument started - between the big boss and one of his henchmen. One day two gangsters came to him and tried to shake him KXTORTXON - 2 ( Suddenly the henchman pulled a gun and shot the boss - bangt bang! The boss crumpled to the floor with bloodstains on his face and chest. Then swiftly the door was burst open; Two detectives, flashing badges, appeared. They grabbed Dominick. The other blackhanders nodded. Yes, they said, Dominick, had done the shooting. A doctor in a white coat appeared, examined the big boss, and pronounced him dead. And the charge against Dominick was murder! s ; | |i; I I si He protested he was innocent. They laughed. They started I to take him to jail. Someone suggested the thing could be fixed. Dominick, scared to death, jumped at the chance. After much palaver, the policemen said they would let him go and forget about him for three thousand dollars. He paid two thousand. He had to mortgage his store and trucks to do it. They demanded the balance. He could not get it. In despair Dominick went to police headquarters and Jold his story. And that’s when the police raided one of the boldest and most ingenious extortion gangs in the history of New York. The killing of the big boss was faked from one end to another. The pistol fired at him was loaded with blanks. The blood on his face and chest was out of a bottle of ketchup. The supposed ttyt ORTION - 3 detectives and the supposed doctor too were members of the gang, playing their parts. They had been playing the game far and wide, fake murders, fake abductions of women, fake everything. But the prison sentences they are going to get wonft be any faking. You Know the r ellfcht of a boy \v] o pets the "baseball + • at Babe Ruth slammed out for his mightiest home-run, or , JacV Dempsey’8 autograph on a boxing glove. V.'ell, here’s a case of a New YorV office boy who spent his apare time studying up on aviation, V.e delivered a message to Hotel Gotham, in New YcrV, where h luncheon w a being held in honor of the speed demon, Captain Roscce *urner. They were presenting the eVy- streaVin* aviator "1th one cf Micse no. -destructible wrist- watches. The office boy was having i big thrill as he watched. As he put on the new wristwatch, Roscoe Turner took off his old one, by which -e hid Mmed those spectacular flights of his. "Don ’ * ne- ’ tl ie old hunV of ‘in anymore", he said ’"hen he saw the office boy h^inded hirr the watch. "Here, kid, y u c n have it," he laughed. "It has timed many a '‘light ^r,d maybe rome day you can tiite one with it, And tha+ was ’•he thrill of a lifetime for one New York office boy. :8 : v j-f werf' her^ nov-', he could take a slant at Koscoe Turner's old flying watch -nid tell me right to the 'second that it's time to say:- SO DONG UNTIL TOIiORROW. "