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Suppose we take to- ay as a ba• orneter of the state of
affairs in various nations -- today the first of May* always
troublesome May Day, Suppose we look over the list of nations
and sec how they celebrated May Day, Maybe we can figure that
the ones with the most trouble are also the most unstable
politically. And vice versa.
Well, here’s what we find -- that the loudest reports
come from the Latin American countties. Riots in Chile, out
breaks so "iolent that the Chilean government clamped down a
censorship on news. From Argentina much the same story. The
Argentine government has established a virtual state of siege,
with the army in control, Havana witnessed a wild day of
fighting, with a carnival of shooting. One Man killed and
many wounded.
Well, we know that political conditions in Latin
America a^e in a chronic state cf maladjustment, and that right
now there are threats of revolution in various rlaces to the
south of us. The flay Day barometer seems to work here.
What does May Day tell us about France? It ’ s a story
GOOD EVKNXHG EVERYBODY - 2
of ro vdy demonstrations and outbreaks of fighting, all the way
from Le Havre to Marseilles. The police have been clamping the
lid down with a strong hand. It1© a reflection of the notor
iously precarious state of affairs in France. We've been
watching Spain and the troubles the Spanish Republic has been
having ever since King Alphonso was chased out. The May Day
news from Spain tonight is an enigma, a blank, no news. Does
it mean that the government has squelched with an iron hand
the many disturbances that were threatened? Or does it mean
perhaps a censorship? For example there's a forty eight hour
strike on in Catalonia
ADD MAY DAY
We are all pretty familiar with the state of affairs
in Germany, the iron control of Hitler's l^azis. We have been
suspect!<ig a great deal of discontent under that iron hand.
Well, sure enough. Hitler's big May Day celebration was inter
rupted by one flaring incident. Flaring is right -- the flare
of flames. In Augsburg, the great Singer Hall went up in fire
and smoke. And they say Anti-Nazis, communists, set it secretly
afire.
Russia no disturbances. Only revolutionary songs,
and the waving of the crimson flag of communism.
How about our own country? Is there a secret fire
of revolt smoldering over here? No, apparently not. S’here
were parades and demonatrations aplenty. But they seem all to
have been just so much showmanship. Thousands of police
mobolized. What they did was mostly loafing.
The keynote for the American May Day is sounded in
an incident reported from New York. In Union Square this morn
ing three men in overalls were seen carrying a red flag. They
were stopped and questioned by cops four or five times as they
crossed the Square, but each time they were allowed to go their
ADD MAY DAY - 2
way. It seemed odd to an investigating newspaper reporter.
He went up to the three men with the red flag and asked:
"Are you Communists?'1
"Maw* they drawled, "We're Edison men. We've got
a joh on a manhole up the block,"
And the red flag was just a warning of an open
manhole!
S3,
That was swift aotlon at lUalla. It took just
thirty Minutes for tho Legislature of the Philippines to aooept
Uhole Sam9 s gift of ludependenoe after a ten-year period of
transition# And loud were the obeers that rang as the vote was
taken. It had been supposed that the Philippine law makers might
look that gift horse In the moutht because, while the action of
the American Government will make the Islands free. It will deny
free entrance of Philippine products Into the United States* And
they need us as customers*
Of course there will still be some more xnanmeuverlng, A
Philippine constitutional convent ion will draft a Constitution, and
this will be sutmitted to a popular vote*
Veil, perhaps those Amerloan statesman who opposed the
acquisition of the Philippines years ago were right* Tea, maybe
Bryan mas right and If so, why than Agulnaldo was right* And now
letfs look at this oolnoldenoe:
PBTLTPPCTIBS #B
Th« action of the Philippine Legislature was taken on the anni-
versary of the hattie of Manila Bay9 just thirty-six years to
the day, after that famous naTal engagement that tore the islanda
from the grasp of Spain*
TKhat a sensation it sas hack in *98 — Dewey, Carvera,
the Spanish fleet making a dash out of the blockaded harbor,
while the American ships of war out-manoeurered, out-fought, out-
A
gunned them, trapped and sank the proud fleet of Spain* That day
of gunfire on the sea threw the Philippines into our possession,
and its thirty-sixth anniversary witnesses the Legislature of the
Islands aooepting the offer of freedom that we have made them*
OQSBINQ.
It la remarkable that the Nazis in Berlin should hare
bhosen May Bar to hare a Cabinet ohange. It m
not be of first
4
consequence that Httlerfs right-hand man, General Hermann
Goerlng, has
giTen
up his job as Minister of the Interior of the
umz
State of Prussia* ^He gives up control of the polioe in Prussia^
Sm
still remains^ hmwmnai Prime Minister of Prussia* the
Oabinet declare a that this change is mads at General Goering* s
own suggestion* On the other hand, it leads inevitably’ to
eonsiderable speoulat lon* Is Goer ing slipping?
Sane amusing tales are being circulated about Prussia9 s
Iron Man* One of the principal weaknesses of General Hermann
Goering is his fondness for brilliant and fantastic uniAcns*
The malicious
wags
in Berlin declare that he invents a new
one every week*
\
They tell of one occasion, a performance of the Warier opera
Lohengrin at the State Opera House in Berlin* Chancellor Hitler,
as usual, was one of the most absorbed listeners* After the
first aot, he sent word backstage that he would like to oongratu-
late the ten-or who sang the role of Lohengrin*
QQgRIHO #2
Tlie tenor, at the first opportunity, went to Hitler*a box, all
dresaed up
In
the brilliant golden armour and golden helmet of
the Knight of the Holy Grail* Hitler, who had not expected the
tenor until after the performanoe, turned around and saw thla
warlike figure 4^ shining armour at the baokm of the box* Hot
recognizing the tenor. Hitler remarked, "Oh, oome now Hermann,
that* a going too far*"
If that atory isn9t true, it ought to be*
So mow Haolo Sam has got himself mentioned in the Asian
prooeedlngs of the Lamas on the Roof of the World! The Panohen
Lama whoa I desorlhed last night as making a hid for the monastic
crown of Tibet, is presidio at a great gathering of Buddhists in
the Ghimese city of Hangchow. He's doing the presiding clad in
weirdt magnifioent rohes of the4 Orient —wrist watch* And
he has drawn tEnole Sam into the Lamaistio picture* He calls upon
the United State a to help preserve the poaoe In the Far last* Those
sound like the words of almost any high-powered Far Bastera politician,
which is exactly what the mystical potentate is said to he*
J
apak
2
-
President Roosevelt appears to be imitating Henry tile
Sighth of England. Hot in respeot of hie many wives. Don* t mis
understand me. Hot at all. I mean the poll ay of preserving the
balanoe of power In the lar Bast. It was a favor It# same of Bing
i
Henry the Eighth to play one foreign power against another, a game
*
that has been played instinctively by the Brltisli Government ever
sinoe. Inoldentally, the most skillful hand at this polloy was
wise old Richelieu, the Cardinal in the Bed Robe, who did so much
to make France the power she subsequently became*
appears to be the type of diplomacy that President
Roosevelt Is following in Asia* First of all, he instructs
Secretary of State Hull to send a firm note to Japan. In this note
Uncle Sam teUs the Mikado that the Japanese Monroe Doctrine, which
his foreign office formulated for Asia, was trampling on American
rights. In other words, Japan oannot dictate Uncle San^s polloy
with regard to China. It was an even stronger statement than John
Bull made
JAPAN #g
The iak was not dry on this oomimraication before the
President sent for the S
ot
let Ambassador la Washington, Comrade
Troyanoysky* The moment the Mikado1 e men see any other power
getting too ohatty with Russia 9 they draw In their horns* This
motion of the President worked like a charm* Tokyo backs down*
Of course, not in so many wordst but with diplomatle explanations
to save its faoe9 a most Important thing In Asia*
Of course. It was diplomatieally announoed that Ambassador
TroyanoYSky* e
visit to the White House had to do with the question
of the Russian debts. But Japan knows what sueh diplomatle announce
ments mean* She has made enough of them herself*
On the faoe of things. It looks as though the situation had
been oleared up In the Par Bast, the situation threated by the
extraordinary statement Issued by the Tokyo Foreign Qffioe last
week. But there is no telling how long it will remain oleared up*
All eyes are on Tokyo, today* Nobody really knows whioh way the
Japanese oat will jump*
ATLANTIC CITY
How old do you suppos© Atlantic City 1st
I wonder if you will be as astonished as I was today?
I met the man who founded Atlantic City. And
he did It when he was only forty years old* low he Is ninety*
His name is Colonel Maximillian Brockman*
He and 7 other men and one woman were there
named it Chelsea* The last of the other eight lied twelve
years ago* I saw him today, and the Colonel is as lively
as ever, yes, still spry enough to step high in the gay and
modern seaside metropolis of Atlantic City, which is now known
at the
place was just barren sand dunes. They
The orime trail in the Middle West Is certainly leading
to sene devious ramlfl oat lone. The Bremer kidnapping oase seems
more and more to tie up to the Dillinger moh« The polloe have
arrested a Chioago politloian9 former member of the state Legis
lature t who is said to admit that he reoelved fifty three thousand
dollars of the Bremer kidnapping money* He handled it for the
kidnappers* Xiong with thls> it la revealed that the polloe are
hunting two former oonviots from Oklahoma, who were with Dlllinger
in that battle in the Wlsoonsin woods* They are said to be the
men who actually snatohed Bremer, the St* Paul banker*
Another strand of the criminal, web leads to s swindler
who is said to have originated the plan to kidnap Bremer* The
story goes that this orook was engaged in the oon game, trimming
a St. Paul contractor to the tune of two hundred thousand dollars*
m
the middle of this crooked conniving he leamed about Bremer
CU
and Bremer’s wealth, and the possibility of making big haul by
kidnapping him*
CRMS
fa
By the time the Goyernmeixt agents get through unraveling
all the complexities of the crime trail they may find that a
ah ole series of sensational criminal affairs in the Middle West
may he traced to one organisation of crooks, an organization of
shieh Dilllnger is the most prominent member. It will he quite
In accordance with crime history to find that Mlllnger himself
la by no means the directing mind of his outfit, but is merely
the most flaunting and sensational. Meanwhile, those oops Who
were held up at a filling station In Chicago insist that DlUinger
was one of the gang that barged in with machine guns.
lad now I oantt help harking ha ok to one of the most
ORICTOS.
singular
at or
lea of our history* It is oalled to mind by the
news of the plague of oriokets that Is deraatatIng southern Idaho*
I* 11 warrant the ranohers In Idaho are praying for the same miracle
that ooourred In Utah almost a hundred years ago*
In eighteen forty-eightv the oolony of Mormons, under the
leadership of Brigham Young, had barely become established around
the shores of the great Salt Lake* (The state to whloh the Mormons
had fled| wasn’t oalled Utah then* It was oalled Deseret* It-mam
So oalled because when Brigham and his deToted followers arrived
there In eighteen forty-seven, the country was mostly sand and sags
brush*) Bat They grubbed up the sage brush and they irrigated the
sand and they planted seed, and within a year of their arrival
Brigham and his blshops and his counsellors were celebrating the
sprouting of the first or op* It meant the difference between life
and starvation to them*
CRISgSTS #2
In the midst of these rejoicings„ there arrivedrom
nowhere In particular, a huge cloud of crickets like the plagues
It / -
of locusts in the Bible. They ate their way through everything*
It looked like disaster for the prophet Seer and Revelator and
his Latter Bay Saints*
The Mormons tried to fight the crickets with flails and
with fire# but to no avail* Suddenlyt as If In answer to their
prayer a, thousands of sea gulls arrived from the direction of
California* The gulls swooped down on the orlckets and in less
than two days devoured that entire Insect army* The gulls saved
all the Mormons and their many wives from destruction*
And today at the corner of Brigham and Main streets in
Salt Lake City you see that striking monument to the sea gull*
W®llf talk about traveling In style, deluxe, fir art-class
accommodations — at least for fleas* If I were a flea I oouldnH
ask for anything better. Four hundred and seventy-six fleas are
sailing from Boston to Copenhagen, Denmark* They are not mere
jumping, biting fleas, they are trained fleas* They dance and out
capers* They are travelling on a liner. They are also travelling
on a dog* Their cabin is the back of a terrier. No, you*re wrong*
That dog lsnv t scratching* He has four hundred and seventy-six
fleas on back, but he doesn't make a wiggle of^hlnd paw* That's
because his akin has been rubbed with a special preparation, a food
preparation for the fleas, their breakfast, dinner and supper* So
they won't have to dine on the dog* That's okay with Fido* Anyway,
when a dog doean*t^scratch fleas that's news*
THE PKRFiSCT WIFE - ENDING
I picked up a copy of that historic publication -
the Old Farmers Almanac* You*d think it a mere relic of the
antique horse and buggy days. But in fact, after a hundred
and fifty years of existence, the Old Farmers Almanac is still
going strong. It's now run by Colonel Carroll Swan, one of
the leading spirits of the American Legion.
In that Farmers Almanac I found a bit of triply
distilled wisdom. It is about the ladies and it tells us that
a good wife should be like three things, and also, she should
not be like those three things. First, she should be like a
snail to carry all she has upon her back. Second, she should
be like an echo, to speak when she is spoken to, but she
should not be like an echo, always have the last word. Third,
she should be like a town clock, slways keep time and regular-
<x
ity; but she should not be like a town clock, to speakloud
A
that all the town may hear her.
After that, there*a nothing more to be said, and
SO LONG UNTIL TOMORROW