BRIDGE n _ ^ y /_ J y; I *J L-Po liie third longest bridge in the world fell down this 91 ' * collapsed and tumbled into the water. The great -------- V; # rt£. c t iacoi.ia Narrows tjuspension Bridge^ It was a mile long and cost si:- iillion and four hundred thousand dollars to build, and reared its ponderous yet graceful span two hundred feet above Pug^t Sound. //*' What caused trie Tacoma Bridge to fall downT— the w^ind, the xtee mere power of rushing air! Today Tacoma had a violent gale, a thirty-five mile an hour blow. And the great Tacoma bridge began to sway — more and more. It swayed the normal amount allowed — and then went on rocking with a still greater swing. Then tne bridge roadway of steel and concrete began to crack. It cracked and broke, and fell in shattered masses, — plunging ini© PugCt Sound tv/o hundred feet below. The bridge had been struck by heavier winds before, but today the thirty-five mile an hour gale seemed to have just caught the harmonic vibration — that rate of vibration which was the natural swlj&g of the span. Cars were passing across - , en the disastrous swinging began, and they described it as more of a BRIDGE - 2 wave-like notion. Somthing weird -- as if the steel structure were rockinc and heaving. heaving was so violent that a truck on the bridge was overturned. It was then that traffic was cut o : — no stream of autorobiles to be caught in the collapse. Yet one was* A motorist had the'terrifying experience of having a bridge disintegrate beneath him. ‘He couldnrt drive on. He jumped out of nis car, scrambled his way to safety — had to do it part of the time on nis hands and knees. He had his dog A with him. fhe dog fell into the PugCt Sound — the only casualty T in the giant collapse. Tonight all that reaains of tne tnird longest bridge in the world is the tell towers and the huge steel cables. ' ? -r- ^ "J ass ^hat’s nothing. The rLondon bridgei falling down Tacoma bridge fell down today WAR Once more there’s nothing really clear about the situation in Greece — except that the fighting has flared to a nev. intensity. The weather has cleared — after days of storm and rain which slowed down Italian operations. Now, however, the word is that the Italians have renewed their drive in the area ol Janina, and are thursting heavily to break through the Greek resistance. The Italians are likewise said to be hammering at the points where Greek forces broke into Albania. It would appear that some sort of decisive attempt is being made, but there’s almost no word from Rome — and little from Athens. British planes today bombed the Italian naval base of Brindisi - apparently from air bases in Greece. In Lo .don today there was some hint that the R.A.F. might bomb Rome. Hitherto, tne city on the Tiber has been immune from attack, the Italian goverrunent declaring it an open town. But now that Italian planes have ta^en part in the bombing of London, it might be different. The question was raised in parliament today. There’s a new complication between the United States Government and Nazi Germany with referenceto the sending of an American ship to Great Britain to evacuate more Americans there. J Wasliin6ton asked lor sale conduct for such a refugee ship — made the request o: both Rome and Berlin. Rome promptly answered - "yes,” guaranteed that the proposed American vessel would not be molested by Italian sea forces, meaning - submarines. But Berlin replied - ”Noft. The Germans refer back to statements that they had sown mines along British ship lanes, and believed that these mines would be a danger against which they could not guarantee. IRELAND here’s the latest on the question of Ireland and Great britain, ^ quesfion which made headlines today, President deVa^era dec-arjfif^hat Ireland will not give Great britain the i -ght to use Ir^sh harbors as naval and air bases. London reports that in parliamentary circles, there1s a moVement tonight to make an appeal to the United States] to approach the Dublin authorities and try to persuade them to let the British have tscm naval and air bases on the Irish coast. The statement made by deVaiera today was in response to the complaint made by BrXtrTgh-pyiglTT1GtlChurchill day before yesterday - t it was a hardship for th( British, not to be able to use' points on the Irish coast in fighting the German submarine and air menace/. DeVaiera declared: "'tie have our ports, and we do not intend to givy^them up." te * ’ implied the fear that Ireland would be bombed if the British were allowed to use Irish portsl SpeaKing of neutrality, he said:- "It is the only policy, the right policy, for a country which has not a sufxicien air deiense." The sensational spy case in London has all the trappings of a secret agent mystery, hardly a detail lacking - and it turns ou+ now that the melodramatic affair concerns the spy theft of important diplomatic papers from the United States Lmbessy in London. Consider the two characters in the plot.'— One - a cierk employed at the American Embassy. His name is Tyler Kent, and it appears thot heTs an Englishman - because there1s no mention that he mifeht be arkmerican citizen. 4^The other - Anna Wolkoff, daughter of a former Russian admiral who commanded vessels of war in the Czar’s navy. Kent, tne American Embassy clerk, was convicted today.in Anna V.olkoff had been convicted last week. Today they were sentenced together. He gets seven years of imprisonment. She was given a heavier hS 7 5 .V1 Kent wa sentence - ten years ,as convicted of having stolen the diplomatic documents from the American Embassy, where he was employed. He gave them to Anna Wolkoff. She in turn tried to transmit to Berlin the information contained in the documents - tried it by means of a coded letter. So her offense was considered the more grave - dealing directly with the enemy. A and bewi^^ed British justice said:- TTlt is difficult to imagine a more serious offense.” The tantalizing question is - what was in those diplomatic document.?, the information that espionage was trying to send to Germany? We are not told. That remains a secret. The deepest of secrecy has characterized the whole case, the trials held in conditions of almost theatrical mystery, brown paper pasted over the windows of the court room - to keep prying eyes from seeing what was going on. ABGEm.xA xi. Amciica the feovernoent of Argentina is resorting to drastic measures to deal with the business and financial sytea /\ caused by the European V.’ar. These drastic measures have a familiar sound - spend-lendApparently, it*il be a sort of Nev\ Deal, pump-priming j vvith the Buenos Aires government pouring out money to stimulate business. The Argentine President, tflfc acc< spending and lending p^an, stated that it would have a vital effect on financial relations with the United States. Simultaneously, Buenos Aires reports that an Argentine financial delegation is on its way to the United States, and one of its purposes will be to discuss a hundred million dollar loan. . f t i v i ^ H K M g X ' DEBT The public debt is in the news tonj^ht, and tne headline is Going Up. Congress will be asked to raise the ceiling to as high as sixty-five billion - allow the pubxic debt to go up that much. This was stated today by Secretary of -the Treasury Morgenthau. He pointed to the tremendous costs of the armament program. these to be piled in part on top of the debt we already had when we began to build defense in a big way. So he said Congress will be asked to raise the limit to sixty or perhaps sixty-five billion dollars by June Thirtieth of next year. Also, government revenue will have to be increased - to meet the costs of defense. This - 'by immediately removing tax exemptions from securities. In tne ^ast A bonds have been free of taxation, but now this wimi have to be changed - so says the Secretary of the Treasury. AndCongress JL, will be asked to pass a bill to put taxation on all securities - will issue A What about the possibility of inflation, with all that vast increase in expenditure and debt? Secretary Morgenthau was emphatic in stating that there will be no inflation, that measures taken would prevent any resort to the printing press to grind out money. J ROPSLYiiLT President Roosevelt today had a triumphant return to ,ashington - received an ovation. Then he immediately plunged int r, work, ne met with the Defense Commission for tv»o hours, t.li^ summoned - the Priorities Board. That board deals with priorities in the delivering of war material - who shall get what first? In this case it’s a matter of the delivery of armament to the British - war planes, in particular. Who shall get deliveries first - Britain or thearmy? The presidential conferences today concerned tfcfle proposal to provide Great Britain with twelve thousand military airplanes^ mentioned by the President in one of his campaign speeches. Ways of doing it were discussed todwy - jdtiia that much we Know, although the details of the conferences are not revealed. CArli’&T be , / of theCabinet for the third noosevelt Administration. One There are flocks of rumors, inevitably, about the A supposition was fhat remocratic Campaign Ilanager Flynn would be taken in. Hitherto, it has been a custom for theCampaign Manager of a successful candidate to get the Post Office job - like Jim Farley, for example. Today, however, Flynn issued a denial. He stated that he would not accept any post in the Cabinet, had no desire for public office. He added that he will stay on as Chairman of the Democratic NutionalCornmittee. Secretary of the Interior Ickes handed in his resignation today - but that was merely a routine thing for the Secretary. It’a merely to give the President a free hand in appointing a new Cabinet. "My resignation is at the White House, TT said Secretary Ickes at press conference. "This is customary and I did it four years ago. I believe," he added, "that the President should be left a free hand at a time like this to reshuffle or recreate his Cabinet." W'hat about the other memberIckes said he didn’t .inow whether they too were handing in their resignations to give the d Resident a free hand. rU/TJRNS The latest tonight makes it appear as if Willkie has finally carried Michigan. For tuso days this state has been in doubt - lATlM*- the closest ^ind But no^ the figures give the s--- Republican candidate the narrowest dial of lead - Willkie, one A million, twenty-nine thousand, seven hundred and forty-six. Roosevelt, one million, twenty-three thousand, six hundred and twenty. So Willkie has an edge of a little more than three thousand- in a vote of more than two million. Eight jrecincts are still missing. What kind of precincts? The answer to that question is the reason for saying that Willkie a-jparentl^ has carried Michigan. The eight missiiiy precincts ofcrt* in six counties. 0ne of these'count ies bave the President a majority. One was even. The other four counties were for the Republican candidate. So it looics as if the slight Willkie lead would be maintained. If this be true, it would mean that President Roosevelt carried thirty-eight states, >.ij.i.-.ifc ten. Now about the electoral vote. What did President Roosevelt get.' Or rather - what didntt he get? And how does the electoral vote compare with the popular vote? This may be the last chance v;efll have to argue these questions, if Senator Lodge of Massachusetts has his way. If he does - there won’t be any electoral vote. The RepublicanSenator today announced that as soon as Congress goes into session afcain, heTs going to introduce a constitutional amendment to eliminate the electoral college. And he puts it in these words:- "The electoral college is a relic of the ^ast, which serves no useful purpose. It makes it possible for a candidate with a popular vote to be defeated." And he adds: "In this as in every other electoral contest, i let the people rule. . UrJLa_jL n -to propose that presidents hereafter be chosen by a popular majority. This is the more interesting, coming from a Republican. In the past, a couple of presidents that lost the popular vote and won the electoral vote, have been Republicans. Hayes against Tirden and Harrison against Ci.eveland. This, in fact, could onry happen to a Republican candidate - because of the big y bulge the Democrats have in the popular vote in the South. T'jday the presidential election was conceded by one of the candidates. One of the statesmen who ran for the highest office of the land sent the customary telegram of congratulations to the winner. He is Roger Babson, the statistician who ran on the Prohibition ticket. And youfd thinK it wouldn’t take much statistical calculation for the Prohibition candidate to figure out the fact that he had not been elected president, but, those mathematicians with their charts and graphs have a way of making things complicated, and itTs only1 today that the statistical banson sends his telegram to Franklin D. Roosevelt. "Heartiest congratulations", it begins. An'.1, then it goes on with some mathematics, those inevitable calculations on election figures which youTd expect a Babson to make so expertly. "A defected statistician," says the teletram to the reelected President, 'Humbly reminds yon that one per cent of the vote properly allocated would have elected V.'endell Willkie." Spoken like a Eabson! And then a salutary inference is drawn - in these voids:- "Therefore, you will work for coalition with Republicans and minority parties.’Please keep well. Four treat years are ahead remark ab :~: ^oT t vot^fc* kwould iiavc- 6lfect-fed Willki6 is iii^eres4 in^ . K?* «et’s see - one-seventh of one per cent of the vote 'hio, and seventeen-twenty thirds of the vote in kev Jersey — but vait a minute, itfs getting too complicatec. If I zee p on getting tangled up t it fa figures I may end with having on ejected.