f.l. 1 Today the reigning question was - what about the Greer? {AJ-tTvJ^ What attitude WashingtOTi take toward the submarine attack made on a Unitea States destroyer? There*s no better authority on that point than the commander-in-chief, the President. So let*s take ourselves to the White House, to the press conference today - and let*s pay close attention to what the President said. It*s only too obvious that some explosive incident might plunge this country into the war. And what kind of incident could have more explosive possibilities than an attack on a United States warship? The destroyer responded wyh hurling depth charges at the attacking submarine - result unknown. So there are no ascertainable casualties, but the fact that a torpedo attack was made on a United States destroyer is grave enough. The White House, the President*s office, Franklin D. Roosevelt at his desk, facing a crowd of news writers bursting with questions. They want more facts about the Greer - the Navy story of the affair was so brief and terse. And what about the repercussions? Has it increased the danger of war? The President stated that the Greer was carrying mail to Iceland, and was alone when the Incident occurred. He Indicated GREER -:a that more than one attack was made^ more than one torpedo fired He did not say how many or during how long a period of time. He did not make clear whether the torpedoes were fired in quick succession or whether some while elapsed between torpedoes. The President said he did not know the nationeility of the submarine. but of course it was undoubtedly a Hazi U-boat - one of the undersea craft that range the ocean in the battle of the Atlantic. The Preiident made clear his poinion that the attack was deliberate - no accident, no case of the submarine mistaking True, the Greer for a British destroyer. the ship was one of the old ones, launched in Nineteen ^ei^hteen, and resurrected from the boneyard, the same type as the fifty destroyers that were turned over to Britain. So it might be suspected that the submarine commander might have mistaken the Green for one of those American built British craft. But that seems out. The President stated that the visibility was good, a clear day, no fog. The Greer, he said, was clearly marked with the American ensign. Moreover, her identifiCc*tion number was clearly marked on her sides. The submarine commander, deeing the destroyer, would necessarily recognize it as American. GREER - 3 The President added that most torpedoes are aimed visually, by means of eyesight — through a periscope. He admitted however, that some torpedo shooting is done without vision - by means of sound. Submarines have listening devices with which they can locate the position of a vessel Virith a good deal of accuracy. By listening to the sound of engines, they can aim a torpedo without displaying a periscope. So that might possibly have been the case - and you couldn’t tell the nationality of a boat by sound. It makes no difference. No mitigation, no amerlioration - said the President. To go shooting torpedoes blindly, by mere sense I of sound, is Just as grave an offense as a deliberate, knowing attack. We can’t allow our naval vessels to be submitted to the danger of being torpedoes by submarines who shoot without looking. > GREER -4 reply was - that we do not recognize that belligerent area. Vi/e do not agree to the blockade that Berlin has decreed. And we ^^on*t tolerate attacks on our ships in those waters. So what are we going to do about it? The President told of one thing that is being done. Navy vessels are hunting for the submarine. And what will they do if they find it? The President allowed himself to be quoted on that subject. He used the word - "eliminate”, and observed it was a good word. They’ll eliminate the prowler of the deep. The President explained the United States attitude by means of a parable, fie said - imagine some school children on their way to clashes, and they kuxjux are shot at by a prowler concealed In some bushes. And the father of the clildren takes the position that the^e-s nothing to do about It, not even search the bushes, because the children were not hit by the gunfire. That, he emphasized, is not the position f the United States. The bushes are being searched, he said. He was asked might this take the United States Into war with ilazl Germany? Might the attack on the Greer be the beginning I GREER -5 of an undeclared state of hostilities? The President refused to answer the question - said it was too hjipothetical. So there we have the transactions at the White House t news ccnference^day, and we find the President firm though calm about the affair of the Greer. And equal calmness is to be observed in Congressional circles. Both the interventionist lawmakers and the anti-interventionists express the opinion that the attack on the destroyer is the sort of th ng to be expected - under the American policy of trying to keep the sea lanes to the United btates free of ^is warships. Berlin says-;- know southing about it. Nazi sources today declared they had no knowledge of the attack U.B.B. Greer, and the Hitler people are making remarks about the Japan, a most interested spectator, k gives us the opinion that the incident should not bring the United States into the war - unless it's used by either side for that deliberate purpose. incident being not at all clear, rather kxgiue vaigue and inconclusive. | jm The situation around Leningrad is a good deal clearer tonight. Today*s Berlin claim is that the Blitzkrieg forces are within artillery range of the city and that the bombardment of the birthplace of Bolshevism has begun. However, not against Leningrad proper, but is aimed at military objectives on the outskirts And one military objective is named, a Russian town with a German name - Bchftlisselburg. That's a strategic place, and Jt jci vividly clarifies the situation - a glance of the map tells a lot. f Bchltsselburg is an important railroad junction a few mixes east of Leningrad, and is on the shore of Lake Ladoga. The Geography is fairly simple. There* s a narrow neck of land between Lake Ladoga and the Gulf of Finland. That neck of land, running north and south, is called the Karelian J-^thmus. Leningrad is at the southwest corner of the Isthmus - it's on the Gulf of Finland. Bo if the Nazis, driving east, have reached the shore of the Lake at Bchlisselburg, it means that they've driven a 12 line of encirclement across the southern border of the Isthmus, and have cut neniagrad off from the rest of Soviet Russia. The Berlin dispatch does not claim the capture of Schlisselburg. It merely states that the place is under IE f •I f 1 % r WAR - 2 artillery fire. They’re bombarding the railroad line there - the last linlc of rail conimunication left to Leningrad. They say they’ve been bombarding it for two days. So th-at’s what Berlin meant v/hen it claimed that the last Leningrad railroad was cut - they had it under cannon fire. Berlin does not make clear whether the Blitzkrieg army will try to storm the second largest city of the Soviets, or whether i they will put it under siege. The defense are immensely powerful, a triple line and it might be too costly to storm the fortress. The Soviets admit that the Germans are within artillery distance of the outskirts of Leningrad and are bombardlngruj^ but today’s Moscow dispatch tells of fierce Red Army counter attacks. the Nazis driven back, four villages recaputred. This ) V^AR -S coimt'ir-attacls is said to have been accomplished by what they call the people's guard - the proletarian masses of Leningrad defending their city. The people's guard is described as being led by heavy tames in furious counter-attacks against the Germans. all of this is to the south of the city. To the north are the Finns. Their line extends across the northern end of the Karelian Isthmus, and they're driving ahead. The latest is - Finnish cannon within range of Kronstadt, the great naval base of Leningrad^ Famous for centuries as a fortress of the sea for the Russian Czars, famous too as a hatching ground for the Bolshevik Revolution - Kronstadt tonight is bombarded by Finnish guns, so we are told. Far to the Bouth, the central sector of the vast battel ne, the story still continues - driving Red Army attacks. Moscow tells of ^azi positions captured, Gecmiin units annihilated. Berlin too describes the fury of the Red onslaught, and guardedly admit^ that Boviet troops have broken through in places, making advances of as much as fifteen Ailes. But Berlin claims that this is because of the flexibility of the defense and maintains tnat the counter—attacjis ar j aaways defeated in the end. VV h R -4 Moscow gives lis a Nazi personality dispatch. It states that £iitler*s propaganda minister is Hi - Goebbels. Moscow contributes the diagnosis that Goebbels is suffering from hysterical fits. That hardly sounds like news, he might just be maKing a speech. London I jbjls tells of a British subiaarlne V^ictory at the t expense of the Italians. Bhips torpedoes, merchant vessels and warships, a big crusier said to have been damaged. And in London Today there was a call for an invasion of Italy. George Gibson, Chairman of the Trades Union Congress, proposed a landing in Sicily or 4n tlie ItaliaaiL main , This important British Labor leader stated that the British Air attacks to help the Red army are not doing the trick. Bo he wants an invasion of the continent. Of Italy in particular. In France, the anti-Nazi disturbances are still continuing. Today's news tells of the shooting of four persons by terrorists. Three German Army men were attacked, shot and bounded. The fourth vlctlin ±9 ^7 V»AR - 5 an important Frenchman who favors collaboration, He*s A a former Communist leader who turned against the cause of the RBsiax Keds when the Hitler-Stalln pact was made. Since the fall of France, this former Bolshevik has been a supporter of collaboration wltK with Nazi Germany, and today we hear at that he lies wounded after an attempted assassination. ROOSEVFXT It seems like dipping into Ancient History to read President Roosevelt’s magazine article - published today. Xet it tells of events of only four years ago — happenings that were the biggest of exciting headlines at the time. The Supreme Court fight. the Virhite House plan to change the highest tribunal, the violent debate over what was called - the bill to s|} pack the Court. It was the number one dramatic thrill of the New Deal - until the internation- il crisis and the war came along to push domestic questions of economics and the Constitution into the background. In the COLLIERS article, the President describes the Supreme Court affair in these words:- ’’Among the most important domestic achievements of my first two terms in office.” So he thinks the court fight that he lost was well worth w'hlle. He reviews tne series of anti-New Deal Court decisions. dulminating with the tossing out of the N.P.A., and goes on to say that, if the Court had been permitted to continue in this w^ay, it would have been a grave danger to American Democracy. This nation m ight have been compelled to resort to some other kind of Government - if the President had not done something about the Supreme Court. ROOSEVELT -1 This is the deliberate judgment of Franklin D. Roosevelt after time and new events have made the whole thing a matter more of history than of news. The President indicates that his intervention was decisive. Yet we know, of course, t hat his Court Bill was defeated - he lost the Congressional battle. So what’a the presidential reasoning on that? That question will be answered in his next article. The first of the series ends with that quality of suspense beloved by magazine editors. The old thriller teclinlQue:- Heroine lashed to the railraod tracks, the locomotive comes roaring. and the story ends - "To be continued next Sunday." 1 TAX BILL The Senate has just passed^ tax bill. The vote occurred a minute or two ago, turning the giant taxation itaa into law. Tne vote was fifty-seven to five. The bill now goes back to the House where committees will have to harmonize the two versions, the Senate version and the House version. The provision for Joint income tax returns by husbands and wives is eliminated from the Senate bill. There was too much opposition. The idea has been shelved. It was taken out of the present bill but will be brought up later on when another tax measure In is introduced. RAILROAD RI£ Important labor news — the zlia. railroad men have voted in favor of a strike. More than a million members of nineteen railroad brotherhoods took a ballot, and today it’s they’ve announced that^^thEgc:^!* authorized their leaders to order a A r strike on September the eleventh. A general xi±2L railroad walkOout would be an enormous affair, but today’s strike vote does not necessarily mean that it will occur. Under the law. President Roosevelt has the power to delay the threatened strike for sixty days - while a federal commission studies the dispute and makes recommendations for a settlement. -J I \ LINGO On this program some days ago I read a letter quoted in the news as an example of weird grammar and cock-eyed syntax - an amazing mix-up of the English language. This now brings a response - from Brazil of allplaces: I have a letter from J.E. Millender, Vice-president of an electric light company at Porto Alegr#. He says he heard the broadcast of the remarkable specimen of English, and sends me another to match it. Tt*s a letter written by a local Brlziliam^in English - a complaint because the electricity had not been installed. It goes this way. ”Dear Mr. Millender: Hoping to your permission, I have to start a question and to importune you on account of the electric light. Mj lovely wife is waiting for the light. I have bought her one of your electric smoothing iron - and now she wishes to smooth. Dear dir - have you ever heard once the sing-song of wives when the whole day is stormyT If yes, then you have a cognizance of the quarrelsomaiess what my wife has to me because she has the wires, electric^lamps and smoothing iron in the house, and she cannot use theqj. And now the matter is this - if you are unman led, you should be forced to marry my good wife, then I shou d be convinced that you would immediately LINGO - 8 order all your workmen to my street for put posts and wires.” Xes, that too is an exhilerating example of English as she is spoken, down in Brazil. And now an example of English as she is spoken by Senor Hugh James.