L._ T, - SUNOCO - l&OIJDAY- MAY 25. 1936 LEGION The tale of the Black Legion grows blacker every day, almost every hour# The list of its members accused of murder has now increased from sixteen to twenty-five. That • s the number of skull and cross bones hooded gentry, for whom warrants charging murder were issued in Detroit today. Since I last commented on this sinister organization another fact has become apparent# The ramifications of this society of night riders are not confined to the State of Michigan. The G-Men are on the job, investigating the unholy order. So we’ll soon learn the extent of the Black Hoods and their murderous activities. Perhaps the gravest hint thrown out today is that even some officers of the law — policemen, are members of the band. i. 5 RYAN FOLLOW LEGION H A melodrainatic story, recalling those of our own Dillinger ; and Pretty Boy Floyd and other post-graduates of crime, has just r come to an end in Canada, lor months the peace of Toronto has been disturbed by a mob of dangerous,.deadly crooks. It culminated in an attempt by two of them to hold up ajliquor store. The place was crowded. No fewer than a score of customers buying their weekend supplies, were lined up against the wall. The bandits were scooping up the money, when in walked a Toronto policeman. They shot him down. But other cops were on his heels. Then followed a fierce battle with revolvers. It ended with the two miscreants dead on the floor. And v/hen it came to identifying them, one of them turned out to be the once notorious Re'd Ryan, a malefactor of long record. The tale of this Ryan> whose proper name was Norman, is a curious one* Twelve years ago," he was considered the worst menace to public safety in the whole dominion* fie-wait a gunman, a counterfeiter, a bank robber. That?s a rather curious combination, for as a rule the makers and distributors of false money stay away from crimes of violence. ^aw Canada caught up with Norman Ryan. He was laid by the heels, sentenced to I 111 , i. ! I ! 1 ■ i ■ ;; ■ 'I m ; 11 11 RYAN FOLLOW LEGION - 2 life in the penitentiary at Kingston, Ontario. He made one break, got away for a while, but was caught again.' Thereupon the leopard seemed to change his spots. The worst of Canada’s bad men turned pious. He became the meekest, mildest man in prison. He delivered constant lectures to the other convicts, telling them crime does^not pay. He played this game so well that h^ got everybody to believe in him. Even the Right Honorable Richard Bennett, then Prime Minister of Canada, visited Red Ryan in his cell. Ryan pleaded for "just one more chance.11 He pleaded so persuasively that he convinced the Prime Minister and many other influential Canadians. So the Dominion government issued a pardon to the once dangerous thug. After he got out of jail, he seemed to keep up his journey on the straight and narrow path. He traveled all over the country lecturing on the wages of crime. To many a club he told the story of his reformation. He even became a leader in organizations for treating juvenile delinquency. For many long months he kept up this pious front. RYAN FOLLOW LEGION - S When that epidemic of crime broke out in Toronto, nobody dreamed that the reformed sinner, the organizer of boys* clubs, was also the organizer of robbery, safe-blowing, even murder. Not until the bullets from the guns of the Toronto police laid him low, did the people of theDominion learn the truth about this dual personality. ---.......... o ---------------- -— But here*3 a more cheerful Canadian topic. It was Empire Day today for our neighbors across the international boundary. Empire Day has come to be to Canada pretty much what the Fourth of July is to us. It was first established as a celebration of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Now it continues on the calendar as Empire Day, with all banks and business places closed and a holiday for merry-makers. COLONIES make Ethiopia into Italian territory. He put in the pan the whole system of mandated territories as established by the Treaty of Verse!lies. He opened the way for Hitler to revive and press Vnen Mussolini conquered Haile Selassie, he did more than the demands for the return of the former German colonies. And concerned. As the whole world-knows, they believe that land on which the British lion has once-set his paw, should be forever after British. ' Consequently, every proposal to return to Germany territories over which the Allied powers have mandates, blows up a storm of anger and fear throughout Great Britain. growling British Lion, has had many wide and anxious repercussions. ; If a mandate, are already gloating. Most of them are Nazis and they1 re boasting that before long they*!! be once again living under a German flag. Their optimism is encouraged by a in consequence there!s grave worfy and alarm on the banks of the Thames. Englishmen, particularly the Conservatives, are especially The Italian conquest of Ethiopia in the teeth of the Germans who live in those parts of Africa ruled by England under COLONIES - g considerable movement in England itself. Even members of Parliament are suggesting that John Bull should take the lead in giving back to Germany some of the colonies taken away by the Treaty. Naturally, such a suggestion is treated by British Conservatives as almost tantamount to treason. It’s blackmail they say, blackmail to Hitler to- persuade him to keep the peace. Hitler, of course, has already successfully fepa-frired busted that Treaty wide open. And it’s no secret that his next demand is going to be the return of those colonies, particularly the African ones. Great Britain spent quite a good deal of money developing some of those African territories, especially Kenya. Many Britishers now live there, also in Tanganyika. So that demand, when it is made, is bound to create a terrific rumpus. This threat has caused considerable alarm in the Union of South Africa. It was the troops of the Union that conquered Tanganyika. South African leaders declare that if it is returned to Germany, the menace of Hitler will be sitting on the line of British communications through Africa to the Mediterranean. COLONIES - 5 Consequently, the Union has started strengthening its defenses. It is developing an air corps with a thousand pilots and five thousand mechanics. It is also training an anti-tank batalllon, which could be transported by air five hundred miles in forty-eight hours. The air corps will include twelve squadrons of five high speed bombers in each. No matter what part of the world we turn to, we find preparations for war. BASEBALL All hitting records in baseball history smashed. Surely the palmy days have returned. They faded out for a while when the Sultan of Swat retired - not to his harem, but to his golf* Xt was left to his old pal Push Up Tony, Senor Lazzeri to bring them back. He led the attack - 3 home run a. Knocked in 11 runs* And there's Prank Croaetti who's hitting 353 and has driven in fourteen runs. He hit a homer. And so did the new protedgy from the Pacific Coast, Joe Pi Maggio, Humber Two hitter of the entire American League. All three Italians. I called Tony up today and asked him how he accounted for the fact that he made yesterday the best day in his baseball life. And what a day. Said he:- MX guess I just happened to be hot," he explained. Ho wonder the Philadelphia fans at Shibe Park mobbed him when the game was over. Mobbed him eight thousand strong. They had seen the home team get wallopped by a score that looked more like a cricket match than a baseball game. They were not mobbing him out of revenge. Hearly all of the eight thousand • 1 B h I f I BASEBALL ** 2 wanted his autograph. | | I I i It's another interesting coincideuee about these three aces with the Italian names that they all come from California. All from San Franci ano. Jow, Frank and Push *Em Up Tony, sand lot players from the Golden Gate. Baseball statistics hounds have been busy all day figuring out exactly how many records Tony smashed when he batted in xkiOBK eleven runs* Apparently he broke no less than four. In any three respects he even outdistanced his former colleague the old Sultan, Babe Ruth. Broke three of Buth's records. It was just a year ago today the Babe pulled off his last mwrgr± sensational stunt in baseball:- smashed three home runs in one day playing for the Boston Braves SUPREME COURT > Anotner blow at the New Deal from the Supreme Court. To be sure, the decision handed down today was not exactly of major importance. But it does affect people who hold bonds of municipalities, counties and districts, as well as irrigation and water supply projects. During the flush times, many municipalities went to town, bonding themselves for improvements of all sorts. So long as the goose was honking high, everything was fine. When hard times came, municipalities and such-like suffered as individuals and private corporations. So in Nineteen Thirty-Four, the New Deal Congress passed a law 'permitting such public bodies to reorganize their bonded indebtedness. That's the law that the Supreme justices knocked out today. The opinion, written by Justice MacReynolds, said the statute was a violation of the Constitution. It violated particularly the provisions which forbids Congress to do anything to prejudice the fulfillment of contracts. It also is a phase, says the ruling, of the illegal control of states and other political subdivisions by Congress. POLITICS ^he Republican Convention is two weeks off, but already the platform makers are making headlines. The rumor today is that the Chairman of the Republican Platform Committee will be former Governor Frank Lowden of Illinois, This means that the fans plank will be written with great care, Ex-Governor Lowden has long been one of the foremost men of the middlewest to speak up for the farmers. His neighbors approve of him and believe in him. The two principal middlewestem candidates, Governor Landon and Colonel Knox, are both said to be sympathetic of Lowdenfs ideas and agreeable to having him Chairman of the Platform Committee, The report came today while the politicians were mulling over the dhrft draft of a platform offered by the national Republican Clubs, Ho doubt it will agree with the stinging declaration that takes for its text the sentence: HThe Hew Leal is dishonest," Then it continues:- "It is not liberal except in word and in reckless spedning of the people's money. It is buying popularity at the expense of the future of America - end quote. For the rest, it would pledge the Republican Party to POL I*’10 a - 2 to the principle that the government will see to it that no one should go without food, clothing and shelter. It would have relief administered by non-political, local agencies, responsive to community needs and familiar with community problems. However, those local agencies would get federal loan s. This mad e-in-advance platform would also undertake to tackle the housing problem for people with small incomes. This to be done, however, by the states, local communities and individual enterprise. Nor would it have the Republican Party throw completely overboard the New Beal Social Security Program, But it demands what it terms an honest and workable plan to old-age pensions and unemployment insurance, with federal aid. It would revise the Social Security Act as passed by the Democratic Congress, so as to cut out provisions which Republicans consider unsound, unworkable. The platform also speaks in up for the maintenance of the right of collective bargaining for labor without interference from any source. And here's what will interest the Bowden agricultural POLITICS - 3 school of thought; it would remove all restrictions on agricultural production, and aim to restore the domestic marlret - the market here at home - restore it for the American fanner. It also advocates government aid in the marketing of farmers' surplus crops. Prospective platform planks that have been the talk of the country today THOMAS FOLLOW POLITICS Meanwhile one presidential candidate has been nominated, Moman Thomas, once a clergyman, now a politician, will again carry the flag for the Socialiets in November, He was nominated at Cleveland late this afternoon. That makes | the victory of the Left Wing Socialists complete after a split in the party. The right wing led by Louis Waldman took a walkout today. Said Herman Thomas was too red, Horman Thomas is Socialist perennial candidate. This is his third presidential nomination, Mineteen Twenty-Eight, Nineteen Thirty-Two, and now. Considering that his last attempt was a forlorn hope, he polled quite a respectable vote. He is termed a Socialist of the highbrow, silk- stocking kind. He went to Princeton, thence to Union Theological Seminary, was ordained in Nineteen Eleven; had a pulpit in New York for seven years. Then a passion for social reform seized him and he decided he could put his views over more effectively as an editor than as a preacher. There­ upon he founded the magazine called THE WORLD TOMORROW, and two years later became Associate Editor of THE NATION. THOMAS FOLLOW POLITICS - 2 i*'or some years he has been the most distinguished and best knomi Socialist in America. For twelve years he has been running for office, running in vain. In Nineteen Twenty- Four, he ran for governor of New York, next year for mayor of New York City, and again four years later. In Nineteen Twenty-eight, when he was running for president against Smith and Hoover, he j|x frequently passed up big gatherings to address groups of college men. His theory was that it was better politics to appeal to the thinkers of tomorrow then try to pile up a few more useless votes today. He is no fool, he knows as well as anybody, and has known all along, that he has never had a chance of being elected. Always running for tomorrow, and , SO LONG UNTIL TOMORROW,