30GD I., :, IWI l KTE ,DY:- Hore :3onple+ e •••epc r+- 3 be;Taji *• norne in t,ctf -ay of tLe toll of ^ea*- :-4 ruin left in the wahe o* that hurricane which has been tearing throu:f-i "exas. J, H. Davis, Secreta^y to Governor ka Ferguson, told me today *hat it is difficult as yet to figure the tvauber of dead and injured, correctly. The eo.rly reports cuming in to the Governor’s office at Austin, indicate 4'v at no less than two hundred were hilled and fifteen hundred injured. A terrific total. however, hr. Davis says he hopes those res will prove to he exagger at d when an official check is finalIy raad e. The hurricane left a wake of devastation all along the Gulf from Tampico in Mexico to- Brownsville, in Texas, and a long way up the valley of the Rio Grande. It was the worst storm in the memory of the inhabitants. All the crops in that region are ruined, a terrific lossl A Pan American Airways plane which mad e a survey of the flood area came h-ck with the information that the coastal region of "exas, all around Torpus Christi, looked like one vast lake L a . w - 2 Relief is unr^er whv . a hundred and fifty soldiers Rev " been sent to the area from Port Van Houston, The oorrplet e fc roe of t oe Texas hangers 'ras been raobolized .and the work is be inn supervised by the "exaa Relief Commission of the American Bed Cross, They have dispatched trains with nurses, •d or to rs, rr ed i ca 1 supplies and f ood . Sc moh fo the we at h e r hu r ■ i e :.m e, now f q r f he r .-r o 1 u t ion a ry h'.ir ?'lan»?, {h :.e ^ ram a of Cuba, reached new heights tod -y. T'\e swart •-y 'ergeant Ha4’ 1st a nd hi a soldier -‘‘ol lowers ^ i1-1 h; control of flie Island, with "he r.hip . +’ stat:: being no'T.i ’’ally steered by 4 hj f Junta of five c p Cuba1 s radical leaders Ait cough, out wait? order is being maintained, a st ate of terror x -' er a i 1 s a m o - - g t h e Arr e r i c an r e a 1 d e n t s. Wh en I w a s f al ked to Hstvarnr on the telephone today I mentioned the* a thousand of Uncle Sgim.’s leathernecks - Marines - wo.re on the way. To which my info mant replied with a sigh of relief: "That certainly is rood news.” ' h e at mo s pht're is c ha g ed w i t h rurao r s, t en s i on an d fears. It looked so unhealthy Aor our countrymen that every (' steamer leaving Havana today was crowded with American refugees In fact I am told that, at the Hotel Naconial, which as I mention ed las* evening had been proclaimed American territory with the Stars and tripes fluttering overhead, more than seven hundred Americans spent the night, including even Uncle Sam’s Ambassador Sumner Weller. The rooms of the hotel were crowded with women a d chi Id r en . an d 4 h e CUBA - 2 sen had to spend the night in corridors and lobbies. The block A on v..lieh the hotel stands was surrounded by a cordon of* members of* the Havana Post of the American ^egion,all veterans of the World war. They were equipped with two machine guns and two hundred shot runs. is being run by a radical-Communist element. From the headquarters of Sergeant Batista it was announced that they possess ten thousand rifles and half a million rounds of ammunition. KfiDcsn® Anyone who walks in and proclaims himself in sympathy with the cause The ruling group seized control of the three local broadcasting stations and ii was significant that each speaker started his broadcast with the words "Comrades". The discourses would run,I am told, something like this: "Comrades, the time to strike is at hand. You have seen Americans and what they have done. you ill know them when you see them. When the time liy informant tells me there is no doubt that Cuba today ^nH!. ’t'A&tsympu thy gets a rifle and round of ammunition express COB. A. 5 comes to stride drop them in their tracks whenever you meet them. ^ Pi ell theannounced emphatically they would permit no_intervention by the United States, But Uncle Sam was not without friends. These friends were the thirty-eight thousand members of what is called the A.B.C. the secret soeiety of students so largely responsible for turning out the Machado regime. The A.B.C. are secretly arming and helping individual Americans and the American Legion in every possible way. They declare emphatically that they will not present accept the rule of thede facto regime unless it is approved and officially recognized by the United States Government. I was also told that - this latest upheaval is not m without its comic opera element. ' As in so many rebel movements, every''Qd.y wants to be^^eneral, although cerg©ant Batista who1 is at present acting generalissimo, denies there is any dissension among his sol-dados. c. CUBA % The high tension in Havana prevailed in a measure at Washington also. Apparently both the White House and the State Department were able to do little else but get busy on methods of unscrambling the Cuban omelette. President Roosevelt called Secretary of State Hull and Admiral Stanley to the White House* Of course the trans-oceanie telephone was prodigiously busy conveying conversations between the president and Ambassador Welles. Secretaries were scurrying around like rabbits, and all official Waslmgton was jibbering and chattering like a colony of frightened chipmunks. In the middle of the forenoon came an order reading: nThe Seventh Regiment of the United States Marine Corps will mobilize at once at ‘sjuantico, Virginia, with full equipment and packed for over-seas expeditionary duty." Thereafter columns of Marines were marching through the streets of Annapolis, Philadelphia, Washington, and Norfolk to entrain for Quantico. Then Admiral Standley, as he left the White House, more said: "instructions have been issued by radio to eight fBW&l warships A CUBA - 2 to proceed to Cuba at once**1 Meanvfeile Uncle San^s new ten thousand ton cruiser Indianapolis was steaming for Havana with no less a potentate 0**1 than Secretary of the Navy Swanson aboard* This was not by order of the President, as Secretary Swanson had been planning for some time to go to Cuba* He was on his way to the 8x Pacific Coast, and his intention was to stop off at Havana on the invitation of Ambassador Welles. At any rate his arrival will be timely. Among the men of war on the spot will be the battleships Mississippi and Maryland, two of Uncle Samfs biggest dreadnaughts* And when they show up in Havana Harbor they certainly should calm the nerves of American residents* NBC s rttajo r eneral Harbo-U'cl, "hai'Tflan of the Board of the fa^ic 'Corporation of America, gave oat an interecting piece of inf o rms t ion today. General Harboard tells us that the Marchese Gunlielrnc Hare on i, the great scientist and invent or to whom ns ultimately one +he nerfe^tion of the device which, enables me to be t civing to you new, is going to visit this country next “etcher, mhe famous inventor will sail with the ’ archesa on September 22 cd and one cf *he principal objects of his visit -vill be •fchj* to see the World’s Fair. In fact General Harboard tells me October 2nd has been set aside at the Century of Progress Exposition as "Marconi Pay". HBC * W 0 ESCAPE The escape of the convict Bailey from the Dallas County jail, and that of three men from the Tombs, imus evidently aroused a spirit of emulation in New Yori^s mad house at Mat tea wan, the state hospital for the criminal insane. Four criminal lunatics made a try for it today, but fortunately they did not get away with it. Dr. Raymond Kie'b, superintendent of the hospital, tells wanted to go home. The attendant just as calmly told him to go to sleep. Thereupon the prisoner swung a chair and kn* eked the three other inmates jumped him^ The four prisoners succeeded in mkking their way downstairs into the recreation room of the asylum where they locked themselves in. New York state troopers and coppers from the town of Beacon were sent for. The troopers were equipped with gas bombs, three of me the affai] the affai] ^ arly this morning. One of the inmates A this morning. One of the inmates calmly told his jailer that he had been there long enough and attenden- second guard ,rushed to the rescue and at that And here comes the peculiar part of the episode ESCAPE - 2 which z hey tor©w ana C£isn waited, lour hours lor the ras to got in its work ant tans chose four prisoners. At the end of lour hours the troopers broke in the door of the recreation roosa and one of thc-s flashed his lights and saw one of the innates with a pistol in his hand. Ac that the trooper fired, killing the prisoner rich the pistol and wounding another. That ended the attempt at escape, but when they cane to examine the dead man they found that his p stol was ._c.de of glass. N.r-.C. BELL BOY Herefs a chance to win a prize or at least a bit of publicity. Ur. Ralph Hits, who runs the aotel New Yorker and the Hotel Lexington in New York, the Hits Carlton in Atlantic City and the Book Cadillac in Detroit, want.s a new word to describe a bell hop. Mr. Hits tells me that the word bell boy has become thoroughly out of date. In the first place they are not summoned by a bell; in the second place they are not boys and he thinks they ought to have a more dignified name. What do you think about it? N.B.C BAHKEES The American Bankers Association^!!! Chicago today expressed themselves freely on the subject of the latest banking 1 egi81 atiO'n|—tne emergency laws passed by Congress last summer at the request of the President, after the big crisis in March, On the subject of inflation the bankers guarded terms. The nearest they came to opposing inflation was a resolution disapproving what they call ^experimental manipulation And oh how those bankers hate the clause in the law providing for insurance of bank deposits. The Bankers Association declared that if deposit insurance is enforced at the beginning of 1954, genuine and serious dangers are imminent. They claim that the putting of this law into effect should be postponed, and they sent a copy of their resolution to itat* Roosevelt, A a . WRECK It v,as beca^s^^ an engineer _ faLLscl to- s-.:e danger s 1 gna 1 s that fourteen people lost their lives in that train wreck on the n.y Erie Railroad near Blnghamptony^As usual, after such accidents, a frenzy of investigation has been precipitated. In Washington Ik it was announced that the Interstate Commerce Commission is going to conduct its inquiry. linghampton police headquarters informs me that the District Attorney of Broome County in which the accident occurred, is already making his investigation with the help of the police. When that milk train crashed into the rear of the Atlantic flier of the Erie Road, not only were fourteen people killed, but thirty were injured. The line has been cleared and traffic is normal today. Hundreds'—of poop I e 'have- o omc to» Bi xiig uir-e—fo-p—frlend-fi—or xvas who wer-e—On. tlr^r N.B.C CELEBRATION I should like to have seen the big aerial show in Chicago today. It was a celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of air mail in America, Part of the show was the spectacle of a hundred, planes zooming through the skies over the Worldfs Fair, Air mail pilots from all over the country were there. Also Captain Lon Yancy, the man who made the flight from New York to Rome, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmie Mattern, Bennett Griffin, Jimmie Doolittle, Jimmie Hazlip and Colonel Roscoe Turner. The first air mail flight was fifteen years ago today between New York and Chicago. The pilots on that occasion were Max Miller and Eddie Gardner, who subsequently lost their lives in Uncle Samis air mail service. PKLR Th-^t '': j ,’C u !3 ^e:.r of 'agVins rleri, the animal that r‘'*i? ^ f-he ^rcnf ages cf every newspaper in America for ten ;tay3, ha - cl imhe^ ^own off his rooky perch at last. But not before getting more publicity probably than, ever before huppene- to any unsurnesting stag. Also he has been the means of xiiEJL 2 ±ioLx attracting visitors by the thousand to the Glen Park up there in the hills o** tew York. I understand about a nal■£* a million people went to take a look at that poor dumb stag. It was net until Ifr. John Gibbs, Deputy Conservation Commissionekof new York, went there himself, that they finally gof the animal away from his ledge. For a couple of days they had pu+ things 3 nfo his ^ood to numb his senses. And finally 1 0 J ay two fOame wardens were lowered ^rom a cliff overhead and shooed hr. Deer o^f the ledge so that he slithered down the twenty-five foot ravine and ambled off into the woods. NBC SPECS At Southbridge, Massabhusetts, they are celebrating a birthday this week — the American hundredth anniversary of American Optical Company began the manufacture of eyeglasses in America, and the quaint little Massachusetts town has ever since been toga devoted to the fabrication of specs. The whole town is celebrating with banquets, receptions, decorations and parades. In fact it is quite a spectacular affair. The sponsors of the celebration have sent me a few odd facts: - The first use of glasses for reading purposes is ascribed to an Italian some six hundred years ago. The inscription on his tombstone reads: "Here lies Salvino dfArmati of Florence, the inventor sins , of spectacles. God forgive him his wtoa Died in the year of our lord 1317." X don't know if they figured that inventing specs sins, was one of Salvino* s but that's the way it reads. specs, glasses, cheaters. Just 0PECS - 2 In the United States, previous to 1833, all spectacles were Imported and cost seventy-five dollars or more a pair. That was a lot of money for anybody*s peepers. And so the Am<=»ri nan manufacture of eyeglasses began at Southbrldge, Mass.; and all the time it has beenin the hands of the Wells family, which is still hard at work putting specs on American noses. The discovery of spectacles is attributed to the Chinese who wore them on their celestial noses many centuries ago. The ancient mandarins, however, did not need glasses because their eyes were bad. They wore specs for luck, also to denote social and intellectual prominence, 3ust ss some people nowadays wear them to look int<3Ligent, and as some dowagers use lorgnettes to put the rest of us in our places. And ray place right now is homeward bound. And SO LONG UNTIL TOMORROW