L. T , SUNOCO, THURSDAY, JANUARY xe, 1934. GOOD EVENING, EVERYBODY:_ In Warsaw, Poland, a crack of a pistol shot. The target. His Excellency, the German Minister. His Excellency bears the historic name of Von Moltke, a kinsman of the great Field Marshall who won the Franco-Prussian War. Baron Von Moltke was having his lunch in the German legation. He had just sat down at the table. Suddenly a crash, and then another. Several bullets came biasing through the wall from a room adjoining the dining hall. One spilled the ministerial soup. They all missed the Minister. There was an Immediate rush of secretaries and attaches to the adjacent room. There they found a young German with a smoking revolver in his hand, about to escape. He was seized and placed under arrest. It Is understood his motive was — revenge — revenge for some of the Nazi activities from which his family has suffered. NBC disarmament Here’s an old friend we all thought was in a bad way but he’s still alive and kioking; that Disarmament Con­ ference in Geneva, The boys assembled again, John Bull’s Foreign Minister, Sir John Simon and M. Paul Boncour of France were there as large as life and twice as natural. The optimists hoped their presence meant something doing. But when all was said and said and said, it was decided today that until France and Germany can get together, further talk will be useless. So they adjourned. NBC — SHIPWRECK The crew of a British steamer in the horth Sea met with a different fate from that of the folks who were rescued hy Captain Craven off Barnegat yesterday. This British ship went aground on the rocky shore of the island of Texel, off the Frisian Coast of Holland, They were there, stuck fast several hours. During that time two shipe steamed up offering to take off the crew. But each time they refused, thinking they could free their vessel, unaided. They refused once too often. The surf blew worse ! The ship was pounded to pieces by the furious waves, and the crew was lost. NBC THAMES For several weeks the English have been worried over a prolonged drought. In several parts of the country, it had been so severe that John Bull was threatened with a shortage of water. But today thereTs a very different story. Since the beginning of the week, rainfall has been so heavy that old father Thames overflowed banks Aif^many points. Several uooel-e were drowned. A police patrol was sent all up and down the Thames valley, warning the dwellers on the banks to evacuate their houses. This is the first time in six years such a thing has happened. NBC flood Floods in South America have left huge territories in a state of almost complete disorganization. The New York office of Pan-American Airways has just received a detailed description of watery devastation up and down the Cordilleras, Great masses of water roared from the heights of the Andes anc completely wrecked the Trans-Andean Rail­ road, the line that runs from the Pacific coast of Chile to the Atlantic coast of Argentina. Entire communities are isolated. Eight towns along the banks of the Mendoza River were completely destroyed. The floods swooped over an area a hundred and fifty miles long, and the Pan-American observers from a plane got a picture of water, water everywhere in the land where the Condor he flies high CUBA I see Cuba has broken the record hitherto held by La Belle France for the greatest number of governments in the shortest time. The full name of fti e man who is to be President of the Pearl of the Antilles for this weekend is Senor Coronel Carlos Mendieta y Uontefurj El Senor Coronel Carlos Mendieta y ilontefur is one of the ex-heroes of the Cuban War of Indepen- and dence,Aa comrade of Garcia, the man to whom President McKinley —* ent mes - - Sen^niessa^eA ^ ^en01, Coronel Carlos Mendieta y Montefur is the fifth President in five months. His predecessor pretty nearly set up a record by reigning for just two days. What' 3? would- --- all the ox-preoidento of Gutow. will the ’queue be? My Havana friend tells me that U.w. 1 uo uIon &£ El Senor Coronel Carlos Mendieta y Montefur is exceedingly popular with the populace. He is described as the first real nationalist president of the Pearl of the Antilles. By contrast with his oredecessor, the Annapolis graduate, Carlos hevia, v/ho was thirty-three years old, El Senor Coronel Carlos Mendieta y Montefur is sixty-five. He is in every respect heavier than essentially the , - Hevia. He is BXX&hsXblyxs soldier. During the reign of COBA - 2 iiachadOy he was one of the foremost of those agin the government. He became such a thorn in the flesh to that ex-president, that he had to take it on the lam as they say in New York. I hear that Havanna is holding a high festival today. Y/hen I was talking over the telephone I could hear the sounds of guns wank going off, but I learned that it was all in the spirit of good, clean fun. No one was wounded. That*s the way the were celebrating. Immediately after taking the oath of office, El Senor Coronel Carlos ^endieta y MontefujJ took his first step as president. He ordered a swift and emphatic end to the strike in the Cuban electric plants. Evidently those measures were effective, because the juice was turned on again in one part oj) of the city after another. ^ ^ <y a NBC ptmocrats Reverberations today, as a result of President Roosevelt putting his foot down on Democratic Pary Leaders, particularly National Committeemen practicing law before Government Departments in Washington. Yesterday's announce­ ment from the White House has had a prompt reaction. Several National Committeemen resigned. They didn't give up their law offices, they gave up their position in the Party. Among those who stepped down were Robert Jackson, eommittman from New Hampshire, and Bruce Kreamer, committeeman from Montana. A former Governor of North Carolina, and a former Treasurer of the Democratic Committee have also stepped down. All these resignations were followed by a wide spread rumor concerning Postmaster Jim Farley. There has been considerable grumbling about the genial Jim* The complaint has been that he has been holding too many jobs. So they say he is about to resign as Chairman of the National Committee and also of the New York State Committee. NBC MILK Another new deal - milk this time. A new deal in the control and marketing of milk. Mr. Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture, declares that all exciting agreements in this field will come to an end by the first of next month. This will effect the milk markets in Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit, Baltimore, Knoxrille, and other cities, hew licenses are to he issued which will conform to the new milk policy of the A.A.A., the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. HBC I ! : RUSSIA Uncle Sam and Russia have taken the first step towards making commerce easier. Firsty©£=aii, the Soviet^abolished the extra heavy duties on vessels entering Russian ports under the stars and stripes. .President Roosevelt xurfM a similar order A l\ & S ****?!} cutting out all dlscriminaBy imposts on Russian ships A entering our ports, NBC Our friend Huey Long, the Kingfish, & has received an invitation^to receive another black eye. The invitation doesnrt come from Long Island this time but from his own home town. New Orleans. The challenger is no less a magnifico i ^ than His Honor, The Mayor of New Orleans, Mr. T. Semmes Walmsley. || It appears that the Kingfish, with his customary reticence. made several remarks during the mayoralty campaign in New Orleans, 1 77 remarks to which his Honor took exception,--to put it mildly. His Honor not only bridled, but champed and stamped. Said he: ttIf 11 make Huey swallow every insult that he*s hurled against WVna+To my good name^S WhatTs more. His Honor declares that the United States is^t big enough to hide the Kingfish from him ttj ^MdA^urther: "I'll get him if I have to trail him all the way to Washington and drag him out of his notel room." He will fight the Kingfish art any place, at any time, under any colors, — winner take nothing. r.v;~-'saai NBC kidnapping Another big kidnapping. The second spectacular affair to be recorded within a few months from St. Paul. brewer. time^a friend of his^a thirty-seven year old banker named Edward Bramer. He was snatched just as he was approaching his home, after taking his child to school. demanding a ransom of two hundred thousand dollars. The family asked the police to keep out of it. They say they want to fan handle it themselves and are going to pay the crooks. Bramer is President of the Commercial State Bank and, like his friend Hamm, is also the son of a rich brewer. young William Hamm, the son of a rich The kidnappers left a note at a neighbor1s house. NBC SAN JOSE The Grand Jury gs£-dba|^th today in San Jose, California, where thos» two kidnappers were lynched. The A big thing they were asked to consider was the indictment of the leaders of that mob. And when all the evidence was in. the Grand Jury^ everybody expected;- "Nothing doing. No indietments.n But the District Attorney of the County an has'-'hit given up yet. He says he still has charges to prefer against the nineteen year old youth who boasted that he was the one who started the lynching party. And, &dP&$the District Attorney: "I shall continue to press those charges against him." CAPTAIN Well, today I was rebuked, rebuked In the newspapers, rebuked by a sea captain. It seems that last night I caused the salt-incrusted soul of a wind bitten mariner to b> ii with indignation. It was all about that tanker *that went heroically to the rescue, and saved the passengers and crew of a sinking yacht. ik The skipper of the tanker is Captain Harold Craven. He bellows: "Avast there," and takes exception to some of the things I said. In fact he lays a marlin spike over my offending head. He charges that I called his good ship "an old girl." Well, I didn’t mean any harm. He adds that I called his tanker: "lumbering and ungraceful". What I said was: "The oil tanker hove in sight, lumbering and ungraceful, but she was a golden argofy to the imperiled people aboard the yacht." Well, you can’t hang a fellow for calling an oil tanker a "Golden Argosy," j <7*- ■ Anyway Captain Craven is proud of his ship and he’s not xettting anybody make any remarks about the trimness of her bows, or the spic and span neatness of her flAPTAIft - 2 scuppers* And that*s the right nautical spirit. I wish the skipper woulc* pay me a visit the next time he’s in port* I'd like to tell him in person that his tanker is not "an old girl she is a young tanker — and she's every inch a golden argosy. Prosper BIRD The Sputh Pole is breaking-- into the news, I mean, i-very hay ne**s comes oh things hap emi-ng on the Poiar Ice Cap ' r-ere Cor a million years nothing ever happened. Ilex Byrd is each at his old base once more, the frosty camp he built and named "Little lirerlca*r •=• Kackay radiogram from Little America to Big America reports that the Admiral, leading the vanguard of his second e^ecition, cane into cant this afternoon shouting ’'Mush, mush! x w ^ J deg teams. Ths Cake Buppert Is lust tnrse months out of Boston. A' she £t-amed slowly Into the Bay of Vitales, the crew hao a chance to observe the after effects of last veem’s terrific upheaval of ice, tnat icy catacylsm which wrecked the plane of 1. no in HI s '*oz an and Bemt Balonen. -o trece.toous "z. s the force of tons disturbance that sven A amir a- ryr' an_ tnosr vho hat tsen w_ta nln on his first expedition were unable to recognise one Bay of fhales. dts contours had 'oeen change!. live miles of soli! loe nao orohen u; . Admiral Byrd said: "Elsworth must have had a frightful experience* M But soon they recognized something familiar. Carl Peterson suddenly shouted; "There^ a flag and by golly that’s the flag that tuin Blackburn put up in 1929f And there it was, sure enough* Later on William Haines, weather expert, espied the beacon they had put up five years ago. The next thing was, Hump Creagh, the cock, shouted: "There are the radio towers, all three of them, and somebody pay me five bucket" Somebody had bet the cook they wouldn't be there* The sixty-five tons of supplies which the first Byrd Expedition had left there in 1930, had disappeared. Maybe Polar racketeers -- or penguin pirates* One member of the expedition had a narrow escape. The first ^og team was driven by Buckley who used to be on the Harvard boat crew. He drove his team across a narrow ridge of snow. T'he dogs got across, but as iiuckley was following, his foot st ruck a crack in the snow ridge which gave way under- neath him, uown went xmck — disappeared from sight. Fortunately, he kicked out as he fell and caught a ledge only ten feet down, Below was a sixty foot drop into the water, fold. South Foie water. He missed it by an inch. The luck of Buck, Mackay Radio POf? Some folks seem to toe bom lucky , others have to have luck forced upon them. Clay Morgan of the French Line tells a story that illustrates this* On the passenger list of the Champlain arriving in New York today was an American a World War veteran from Salem, Virginia, named Roy Pof f* v/hen the war came to an end. Veteran Poff liked gay Parse where all life is a poff — so he stayed there. In the course of time the owner cf a cafe where he hung out had been annoying him to death to buy a ticket in the drawing of the French lottery. Roy didn’t want to buy the ticket, didn’t believe in lotteries, didn't believe anybody ever won. Finally, to get rid of the persistent cafe owner, he said; "Okay Francois - I’D. buy it." After he had the ticket, he tried to wish it off on several of his friends. Not one ot them would have it - even for the price of an aperitif. So there was our World War Veteran stuck with a lottery ticket ne didn’t want. Yes, you’ve guessed it. He won. A million francs ! That’s not so much when you reduce it to dollars, but it's POPS* - 2 sixty thousand dollars ’ Veteran Poff not only set them up for everybody in the house, but he showed his gratitude oy installing and paying for an orchestra in the little cafe of the owner who had forced the ticket on old boy Poff. What is more, Poff donated twenty-five hundred dollars to the American Legion Post in Paris, kissed the old ladies on the Boulevard, shouted oo la la poof-poof, I'm off for Salem, Virginia. And I say poof-poof and SO LOtfG UNTIL TOMORROW, NBC