imoco THURS. , SEPT. 26, 19 good EVENING EVERYBODY: The thing that catcheu hardest at the imagination in the news this evening is a waste-paper basket rolling down a flight of stairs, a metal receptacle clashing and clanging down some stately marble stairs. How did it happen? Why, a man stumbled over it accidentally and kicked it down. The man was a delegate of a nation at the League of Nations, It happened at today's tensely dramatic and history-making session of the League, tod the last nerve tingling fillip of the dramatic, amid the dark tension of world danger, came with that bang, bang, bang - metal on marble - the bouncing waste-paper basket. The League of Nations today took the stroaaf^est .action the League has ever taken. It said to Mussolini: "Don't you dare go to war, not for three months. If you attack Ethiopia in that time, you do it at your own peril." The decision was complete and drastic, also unanimous. The Italians didn't vote. They stayed out of the assembly room while the fateful ballot was cast again st them, J ..................... ^ The decision outlawing Italy if she attacks within three months comes about in a legalistic way, under the Covenant of the LEAD - 2 League. All along, there has been a demand that the Council of the Nations should act •» Section Fifteen of the Covenant. They did that today, put Section Fifteen into operation. What do -,ve find under the heading of Fifteen? There are two paragraphs. One decrees that in case of a dispute between two nations, the League shall try to work out a settlement. The second paragraph provides that if a settlement cannot be worked out, why then the League shall make a full report on the situation. That does^t sound so formidable - until we look at some other clauses. Article Twelve stipulates that a nation in a dispute must not go to war within three months after the League has made its report. If it does go to war Yvithin three months after the report, every nation that*s a member of the League shall consider itself at war with the offending nation. Mot necessarily fighting^-battling war - exactly. They shall take measures, perhaps economic measures, against the offending nation. That's what they mean by that familiar word - sanctions, economic boycott, possibly isiHXKkadE blockade. If Italy attacks before the three months are up, before LEAD - 5 January, the League v.111 go ahead and apply those sanctions. Of course that also applies to Ethiopia. It^s a two way affair. But you Know how much chance there is of Ethiopia rushing to the attack. 1 The King of Kings has been keeping his massed armies ly-. hostile frontier, just to avoid the chance of any of his tribesmen going war-wild, and starting trouble. The full Council of the League of Nations adopted its deadline decision today amid scenes of tense excitement. Everybody knew they were hurling down the gauntlet to Mussolinii Everybody understood how much dynamite there was in that unanimous vote. It was a showdown, zero hour. The vote had just been taken,in that hush and strain when the dye is cast. In that tense moment, a delegate started to cnJt JX descend the marble stairs. As he did so, he banged «©ssxi=^ climax of climaxes, by stumbling o 'er and kicking the big waste-paper basket. Down the stairs it rolled, ringing and clanging, There are twelve steps in that stairway, and the basket hit like a bell, bounced and rang out twelve separate times. It was like-*^ horrendous symbolism - chiming twelve, zero hour! ji L II 11 || 1 I:- I- I i l! i; It P Ilf |!| || 'll!: II FOLLOW GENEVA "’hs stern notion at Geneva is mate all the more stem by word from Paris. French officials spoke up. re-affirming today's French vote against Italy. They added that after league action today the nations would have to slap sanctions and penalties on Italy, if Mussolini goes ahead with his Ethiopian inv a s i on. -tsenind the scenes there’s the understand ing that France has been given her price from England, The French have been saying:- "If we back England against Italy we've got to have assurance that England will back us against Germany. And Paris received a note from London today, Nobody is saying what's in that note. It's one of those mighty secrets of state. But it is understood that England formally assured France of the stand she would, take if Germany should make a move. But what about Rome? That's the most interesting question of all. The decision of the League «£ was answered with statements that now Italy can no longer remain in the League of Nations. Nothing official stated, merely opinions from persons FOLLOW GENEVA - 2 high in the fascist regime - that Italy must get out. They point out that when those same sections of the League were invoiced 'before — the Japanese walked out. And the Japanese went right ahead in Manchuria. What will Mussolini now do? Will he defy today's decree of the League, the decree that he shall not attack for three months? The rainy season has ended in Ethiopia and the ground is drying fast. Three months will throw the time well toward the beginning of the next rainy season. If he attacked in January he wouldn't have time to do a great deal before the rains would come again. It all puts the Duce in a tough spot. Will he go ahead: with his war anyway? The latest from Rome is that Italy will gladly listen to new proposals. But must go ahead with the invasion. But here's ■something much milder. Mussolini has counter t -manded an order for ten thousand troops to sail to Libya, to the Italian province that threatens Egypt, Rome explains that the tension with England has quieted down so much that there isn't need to send more soldiers as a threat to Egypt and the Suez: Canal, ETHIOPIA In Ethiopia the tribesmen have been hearing about air­ planes and bombs from the eky. They also have heard about dug- outs -and bomb shelters, the way the Europeans defend themselves from sky attacks. So they are trying out these western ideas of air defense, Digging hole? in the ground, mere shallow pits, and covering them with sheets of corrugated iron. And they think they’ve got protection against sky hombs. They haven't any idea what high explosives would do to these sheet-iron covered dug- outs, They think the bornhs will just bounce off. So, maybe they'd better stick to their own way, scatter­ ing and hiding, lying in unseen ambush parties among the bills. The most striking story of air defense comes from Rome, where the Pope has ordered a bomb-proof underground shelter to be built in the Vatican Gardens. It will be made of steel and concrete, sunk deep, and big enough to xkk shelter all the people in the Vatican, should planes drop explosives or poison gas. Meanwhile, the Pope today blessed the Eucharistic Congress at Cleveland - oy radio. ETHIOPIA - 2 I And Moscow is guarding against sky attacks, with one of tno se air raid drills. There has been a lot of gas nask practice all over the world, and the Soviets are going to make / sure that their people don’t do any shirking. When the order is given to put on gas masks, you better put them on, because there going to drop real tear gas bombs from the sky - and small charges of explosives. It will only be a sham air raid, but it will be a real gas attack, like the one they've just had in V ienna. V fibht It's Ethiopia all over the front pages, Ethiopia everywhere in the news. And even big prizefight the night before last has an Last African angle. It doesnTt concern the way the fight fans *2 in Addis Ababa whooped it up. They've probably never heard about the prize-ring and Marquis of Queensberry rules. They do their prizefighting v/ith spears. smashing rights and lefts as a victory for the colored race*, and said - "After Maxie Baer, next comes Mussolini." But that isn't -xf*’ the story. It's from Japan.' The Nipponese newspapers played up the -^ouis-Baer scrap with big headlines. They printed blow by blow accounts of the battle. W^fe^epthusiasm around the world? Well, it ties to one angle of Japan's interest in the Italian-Ethiopian row. Japan proclaiming herself a champion of the darker races against^imperialistic white man. So the Nipponese lool^ at the Louis-Baer brawl as just another case of color** against white. The little brown men of Nippon think^S^SM^^a certain kinship Of course we know that in Harlem they took Joe Louis' r they have to the big brown man of Detroit and Harlem. So here are the kind of headlines they slapped on the Tokyo Louis victory. One said* "Brown Man battfifcs White Idol".AAnother FIGHT - 2 proclaimed; “Brown Bomber beats Man Milling Vftiite Bear.” Maybe they’re thinking of the Russian bear - not the Jewish Baer. An anthropologist will tell you there is mighty little kinship between the Mongolian peoples of eastern Asia and the blacks of Africa. But maybe anthropology won’t mean so much if the darker races decide to line up in a united front against the white man. s I i NKI a M Russia denies. The Soviets claim the Japanese trid a lot of shameful lies. This concerns the story we had the other night, emanating from Tokio — that the Chinese far-western province of Sinkiang had joined up with the U.S.S.R., Red Russia biting off a large chunk of the remote regions of China. Today the semi-official Russian news agency issued a complete denial. Atod the Soviet writer sees a sinister meaning in the Japanese story. He says it*4s just an excuse# mhea Tokio say)^tJie Sinkiang province is joining the Soviet5—Japanese w\ excuse to^take something el_se ^ China. JEWISH NEW It seems that ,ve can celebrate Hew Year all year round if we go far enough afield. A couple of weeks ago we celebrated the Ethiopian Hew Year, the first day of the month Tut of the Year Sixteen Eifty-two. Today also we can celebrate. And we don’t have to go to Africa, Asia or any other distant place to find today's Hew Year, For this is Rosh ha- Shanah, ushering in tire Year Five thousand, six hundred and ninety-six for Israel, But, it's rather a sombre Hew Year for the ancient seed of Abraham, what with all the anti-Semitism raging in Germany, And, the dark note is emphasized by Rabbi Israel Goldstein as he calls for the acquisition of new land in Palestine for Jewish refugees. "As the old year goes out”, he says, "the cry of the oppressed and persecuted Jewish masses rises to heaven from all parts of the world ii 55 :• There was *=«« vote tak^ today in St. Louis. The ex-soidiars voted. They oast their ballots on such subjects as bonus, inilation and Grover Cleveland Bergdoll. The actions of a national American Legion convention are watched of course by eve^y politician in the land. And today the big Legion pow—wow at St. Louis iassxiitf tackled that always imposing subject of the bonus. They're foit it. They cast a resounding bonus vote today, demanding immediate payment, of the adjusted compensation certificates. Now about inflation. One wray to pay the bonus would be just to print that much money, about two billion dollars worth, thereby inflating the currency. .The fewglKwaigarag Legionnaires tackled the subject of paying the. bonus in newly printed greenbacks. The verdict was '’No". They don't.want it that way. Congressman Patman of Texas, a prominent bonus champion, . is for the inflation part of it. He was the author of the Patman Bill which xx was the center of the bonus tempest that rallied around Congress and the White House during the lust session. The Patman BUI proposed to print new money. But what happened todayW*** Representative Patman arose at the Legion Convention inflations'll^ was greeted with a storm of boos, booed off the floor. A T/KOlCiN “ 2 national importance was the stand|^;he^Legion ^00^<A0n +J ‘e SU^jec^ Grover Cleveland Bergdoll.l-- made him an honorary merefber, -^o t wait a minute, j^They had previously gone on record against giving clemency to the renowned draft- dodger Number One, and they went on record today — No pardon for the man who wouldn’t serve his country during the war, and nov/ wants to come back. And the Legion elected Hoy Murphy of Iowa as the new National Commander HORSE DOCTQfi We know that the horse has lost ground before the swift advance of the automobile. But what about the horse Doctor? Old Dobbin has lost his place between the shafts for o the family buggy. The gasoline motor, run by Blue ^unoco, has taken his place between the shafts or rather under the hood. Motor trucks for horse trucks. Motorized military units instead of cavalry. And so youTd suppose that the horse depression would likewise hit Dobbins personal physician, the Horse Doctor. But not at all. We have this answer from the Country Home Magazine, which has made a survey and finds that the Horse Doctor is not only surviving, but is flourishing mightily, the Veterinarian. For the past ten years there has been a steady increase in enrollments by the Veterinary Schools. And for the first time women are entering the profession. A lady Horse Doctor. lhatfs something to make an old time Yankee lift his bushy eyebrows. What * s the reason? Well, curiously enough, one reason is the automobile. The Hoseless Carriage, which has taKen the place of the horse, would seem to be the worst enemy of the Horse Doctor, but it's his best friend. Because the auto helps him to H(I)RSE DOCTOR - 2 get over the country to cover more ground, have a bigger practice. The flivver has enabled more horse-doctoring to be done. Of course the Veterinarian has more than Dobbih for a patient, - sheep, hogs, chickens, bees, and fish. I wonder how youTd prescribe for a bee, maybe perform an operation on its stinger. SgX And Fish Doctor sounds interesting. Imagine the hurried call at four A.M. for the Fish Doctor who is summoned to the gold fish bowl, while the anxious father is swimming back and forth. You imagine it, I can’t. GIRL An operation was performed today in a hospital at Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Margaret Kereston was the patient. She'^t^^.-hose ■ Mother and two uncles wouldn't let hep be operated on for appendicitis They had a terror of hospitals, They were seared to death of all the paraphernalia of medicine. And no pleading could persuade them to change their minds and let the girl go to a hospital - until now. Today a priest went to the bedside of the sick girl, and spoke a bit in gentle tones - talking about the Gommandmenta* T,Thou shalt not kill," Those slow soft words about the Commandment, did their work. The family consented. ' ’ -I 1 And the priest rode with the child in the ambulance to the hospital. GISH Don’t rnaVe me laugh, or I’ll divorce you. That sums up one angle in the latest movie star divorce. The courts today parted Dorothy Gish from her husband, James M. Rennie, She* charged cruelty, comic cruelty apparently. She says he would keep her awake, talking to her all night. You wouldn’t think that would make anybody laugh. More likely to make you cry your eyes out, or crown him with a chair. The movie star’s complaint is that it wore her to such a frazzle, her nerves so ragged -- that she would go into fits of laughter, convulsions of giggling. Laugh, and love flies out the window,. Weep and you’re married again. He gave her the permanent giggles by talking to her all night. But I'll not talk all night, and — SO LONG UNTIL TOMORROW.