L. Thomas Broadcast - Gunoco. Wednesday, Nov. 1, 19cc. Good Evening, Everybody: President Boosevelt today issued a vigorous reply to the criticisms that have beam heard^Xate^ the complaints that his ffw^riwia^a* program was j&e On the contrary, declared *£L«. J the President, it is^succeeding. The N R A is going strong,^em­ ployment is on the upgrade, and also buying, and he produced figures | to prove it. Harold Brayman wired the New York Evening Post that the present decline in business is not really a downward trend at all. It is merely a temporary halt in an advance that was going at a speed too rapid to be kept up. The President also made public the fact that a committee of three is working out plans for the purchase h ± x S hs ± e by Uncle Sam of gold in Europe.y Th^1committee consists of the chairman of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, the governor of the Federal Reserve Board and the governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Mr, Roosevelt did not say v.hen Uncle Sam would begin ■ l his buying of gold in the London market, but ^the chairman of the RFC intimated that it might start by the end of the week.y LEAD - 2 Coming back to the question of inductry, the President's economists explain the situation by the fact that the steel and textile industries in the summer - this summer - were producing at such a rate that their outlets could not absorb what they produced fast enough. They also pointed out that business seems alack now simply because, that, for instance, in the retail trade, it was abnormally high in August, and present conditions are really a return to normal. As for the farmers, a chart prepared by the President's experts shows that the prices they have received wnet up from, an index figure of forty in March to fifty-four in September. On October 11th they had dropped back to only fifty-two. Again, Miss Perkins, the Secretary of Labor, reports that in August and September the average hourly wages of labor had increased from forty-two to fifty-one, in ratio, while the hours of employment went down from forty-two to forty-six. In other words, labor is getting more money and working fewer hours to get it. NBC GOLD The price of gold continues to soar skyward. Washington today was paying $3£.26 an ounce for the metal. That represents a rise of 14£ over yesterday^ price and is 74^ more than London is paying. ke*>rt. in Paris. A w±r®ife»»*#Afrom there informs us that more than \ ^ one billion Francs in foreign capital has been withdrawn from France in the past ten days. Most of this capital ±s has gone to Amsterdam and Switzerland, but apparently the movement has ceased. ( \ The principal anxiety in French financial circles is over the gold standard. The French are determined to keep their country on tha^ps±ot standard no matter what effect President Roosevelts new gold policy has. Anxiety over this gold policy^seems to be - / NBC GOV^miO^ That meeting between the ten Governors of the middle western states took place in Des Moines today. Governor Herring of Iowa and Governor Langer of Month Dakota are flying to Washington to submit the A program to the President. One of the things these middle A western are urging is g M.R.A. Code for the farmer. They also want the government immediately "to tttteiintH* prices for all farm products. They are also in favor of controlled inflation and the ± refinancing of farm mortgages by Uncle Sam. In other words* the Governors are throwing the farmers1 problem plump into the President*^lap. They want Uncle Sara not only to peg farm prices for them, but to guarantee agriculture the cost of production plus profit. cbfch "to ^ l 'JBC -f*. r DEBTS Here we are again - those good old war debts. Tv/o of the visitors at the V.hitehouse today were His Excellency, the British Ambassador, and the financial shark who is John Bul^s special representative to Washington on this matter. They called on the President to discuss this vexed subject once more. NBC CHAMBER An interesting suggestion was made today by Gerard Swope, president of General Electric and chairman of the committee -- -Aob established by Secretary of Commerce Dan Roper, "Business A and Planming Committee". Mr. Swope1s idea is that a super­ chamber of commerce should be established in Washington, a chamber with wider functions and activities than the present Chamber of Commerce of the United States. The object of this super-chamber, days Mr. Swope, should be to "achieve the self government of Indus try." Incidentally, Mr. Swope announced the appointment of a new industrial advisory board to the HR A Administration. This board includes Mr, Myron Taylor of U. S. Steel, General Robert E. %*-**&• Wood of Sears-Roebuck, Pierre Beupon- and Clay Williams of the /V A. Reynolds Tobacco Company, NBC STRIKE One of the important bits of strike news today is that the trouble in the silk industry in Pennsylvania and New Jersey seems to have been ironed out. Senator Wagner of New York, head of the Labor Board, has been holding long conferences with the employers and thinks there will be a satisfactory settlement. The Senator says that the mill owners in Pennsylvania and Paterson are willing to pay their weavers a minimum of twenty-five dollars a week, providing the New England mill owners do the same, and provided also that the Southern mills are willing to establish a reasonable differential. V/agner thinks the employers will accept and that the workers will be satisfied. have their fingers crossed, about-the -s-i-tua t inn - in -the-eonl—fi-elrd-s-r v/hat is Icnown as the Washington Peace Pact, the agreement between the owners of the Captive mines and meet its first test. Meetings of the local Unions in western Pennsylvania have been called, and it is hoped that most of them will return to work. The iOpe from Pittsburgh is that at theS^trxx^ miners, is due to STRIKE - 2 least seventy percent of the men are willing to go back to the mines provided it is made safe for them to do so. And iFayette the xiik sheriff of County where most of these mines are located declares:- 111 will see that men going to work are protected /’■s. »—e-- i <•*. 'I from troubleAif I Iiave to deputize half the County.” Incidentally a representative of Governor Pinchot of ^ ‘ Pennsylvania will also urge the men to^ga back to warfosu ^ yl’yC However, that does not mean that the strike is over. There is considerable difference of opinion among the miners themselves. Some of them are conservative; feat; others ase insurgent, ”Ehe insurgents have appointed a committee to visit the President and ask him to open up this whole discussion once more. So that looks rather bad for the Washington Peace ?vvvC Pact EAGLE General Hugh Johnson, the Administrator of N R A, sent out another warning to election candidates that they must not use the blue eagle in their campaign^ This warning was sent to a democratic candidate for mayor in Buffalo. General Johnson doesn’t want the blue eagle used on political posters. He said in his jdd£ wire:- it The N fi A and the Blue Eagle are not in politics," And, by the way, I learn that what is believed to be the flag first Consumers1 Service Efara in the country'iwr at Asbury Park, usual New Jersey, is the^blue and white flag of the NBA but around it is a red border on which are sixty white stars. Each of these stars represent sixty consumers w'ho have signed the NBA pledge. This flag was dedicated at a rally last night in Asbury Park, NBC WAR One feature of the International comedy in Europe today is the recrimination that goes on between the various powers,-—* recriminations and accusations of being warlike. France started the ball rolling by saying that the fatherland was secretly ai’ming and in fact almost ready for war. The charge was taken up by John Bull. Then the Hitler government threw the accusation back, saying, ,rIt isnft us, it’s England that is engaging in a regular race for building war equipment.” Today Lord Hailsham, his Majesty^ War Secretary, issued a vehement denial of these charges. ”John Bull”, says his lordship, "is not entering into any armament race* NBC JOCKEY There is tremendous excitement in the English sporting world. It centers around a jockey named Gordon Richards who is the hero today of the British racing public. He achieved the unusual f eah, today^ of riding A /l- four winners in one In fact, I am informed that one day last month, in one afternoon1s racing, he rode six winners in six events. Of course, the most famous jockey of all times in England was the great Free Archer who in the year 1885 had no less than two hundred and forty-six wins to his credit. And now this young Gordon Richards needs only three more w-lnn-ei*# this year to beat Fred Archer*s record. A me HARRY FRANCK I've a dispatch here from Harry Franck, the famous traveler who is on his way around the world. Harry is going to send us material for our Sunoco news from every country that he visits, has just landed in Holland, The first thing Harry did was to jump in a car and ride out to see his old friend the Zuidersee, When he got there he found the Zuidersee was no more* Of course we have heard from time to time of what the Hutch have been doing to reclaim that historic inland sea# If you look at any American map you will see that the Zuidersee is still there, still on the map. But that isn't so. Harry Franck tells me they have just fini shed a six- teen-raile dyke across the mouth of it. Buses and cars drive along the xp top of that dyke, on a perfect cement road. But he says, all the water in the Zuidersee has not disappeared as yet, and what is left inside the dyke is now called Ij selmee?. But the Hutch are rapidly reducing the Zuidersee into rich farm­ land. They are hauling away the huge sand dunes to Hutch brick factories. They are also removing the layer of old animal and vegetable deposits from what was once the bottom of the Zuidersee^ HARRY FRANCK - 2 leaving the fertile soil underneath -- below sea level of course -- below the level of the dyke. Big comfortable brick farm houses and huge red tiled barns are springing up where once was the Zuidersee. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on this, one of the greatest reelaraatioa projects in the world CENSORS There*s an interesting piece in issue of The ^ 4 Nation on the activities of that curious body, the New York State Board of Censors. I learn from this article that the National Council on Freedom for Censorship has published a ninety-eight page pamphlet containing the complete text of all the infainaa-t-ioft u ai3f>cSifcd i by the censors in the fifteen months ending March, 19??. A Thesejin: icate clearly that a great many eliminations made by the censors represent unmistakable attempts to control opinion. In other words, the good ladies and gentlemen who undertake to project our morals from contamination when we enter movie theatres are also quite openly censoring our polities. For instance, we are not allowed to see anything on the screen which suggests that public officials are in league with criminals. We are not allowed to witness any scenes indicating that prisoners are inhumanely treated. In short, we are not allowed to see anything which, in the opinion of the censors, who, I am informed are not an exceedingly highly educated lot, consider wrong for us. The article in The Nation concludes by saying:- "We CENSORS - V. don’t icnow how much the activities of the Board of Censors cost the State of New York, but whatever the sum, it is obviously too much.” THE NATION Movirs Incidentally, I observe In th^Film Daily that there is considerable dlssention among the ranks of the movie producers. * Two of them, Sara Goldwyn etnd Joe Schenck, with a grand blare of trumpets, resigned from the Motion Picture Producers Association the body of which former Postmaster General Will Hays is the head. When they resigned they announced that they did so because they were aggrieved at the attitude of other producers to Article 5 in the N W a Code governing the movie industry. They declared that the proposed code would lead to the association being run by distributors in New York instead of the producers, the men actually making the pictures. This statement aroused a caustic retort from Jack Warner of Warner Brothers. Mr. Warner made the unkind insinuation ■'■hat the statement issued by Messrs. Schenck and Goldwyn was motivated principally by a desire for publicity. He also said that Messrs. Goldwyn and Schenck were disloyal to the spirit of N R A and he also "There are straglers and deserters from every army including the array of progress. it is an unfortunate fact that : jv i: s - r: % there are many in our industry who will do or say wild things to get their names in lie papers," Mr. Warner also took the should attitude that producers^srks^cooperate with the President^ in doing away with some of those monster salaries paid to actors. To this Mr. Goldv.yn retorted by declaring that not the high salaries paid to actors but stock market manipulations and over-capitalization were to blame for the troubles of the film industry. And so the fight goes on. All these things add to the gaieties*#- of nations. FILM DAILY PARTY I thought I was familiar with a pretty wide variety of entertainment, hut here's a new one on me, — a Scavenger Hunt Party. One of these is to take place tonight In the Grand Ball-Room of the Waldorf-Astoria. For this occasion the ball-room will be transformed into a huge beer garden. The idea seems to come from Paris. The people taking part in the hunt are roped off just as in a race. The hunting is done couples. Each couple Is given a printed list of curious objects to be sought. All these objects are scattered in various parts of the city. The hunters are allowed only an hour and a half to obtain as many trophies as they can. At the end of that time they return to -f-Vi o Via T1 _T*r*rM-n n, f V/« 1 ri rvr* f* snrl H -I Cn 1 mr vlnn4‘ hmrA Tvr,r>r>nT,^ri . Governor of Rome, the Grand Duke Dimitri ;and the novelist, Louis Bromfield. The handicapper is Mr. Harold Vanderbilt. The affair is for the benefit of the Maternity Center Association. Mrs. Alsop ABSENT MIKDKD PROFESSOR KMDIMG Here • a another one which must have whiskers. It sounds old enough to be new again. The professor sent his wife to the bank and kissed his money goodby. Maybe the Professor is not so absent minded at that comments the editor of the Louisville and Hashville Employees magazine. And before I get absent minded, I better say SO LONG UNTIL TOMORROW. Louisvilie & Nashville Magazine