JOHNSON The "Crack 1 Em Down" news today is ai exchange of cracks back and forth. At the present moment the German Government has had the last crack. It has lodged a formal protest with the State Department against the things General Johnson said in his speech lawt night at Waterloo, Iowa. That protest was fairly certain to come, with the Hitler Governmentj.holding that the^Geiferal ’ s scathing remarks were a breach of international amenity — an official of the United States Government delivering a public attack against a friendly nation. The truculent boss of the N.' R. A. is saying that he meant every word of it and wonTt retract a syllable. He adde* that he was taking as a private citizen and not as a government official. That raises an interesting question. How much of q private citizen is an N. R. A. administrator^ on a vacation, making a speaking tour of the country? This would seem to be a good time to take another look at the blasting, blazing, skin-*em-alive things that General Johnson said. "A few days ago in Germany," he shouted, "events JOHNSON -2 oecurred ±m which shocked the world. I don't know how they effected you. But they made me sick — not figuratively, hut physically and very actively sick.,, He spoke of men in responsible positions being taken out of their homes, stood against a wall and shot. And theB added some more fiery comment. "I have seen something of that sort in Mexico," he barked, "during the Villa ravages and among semi-civilized that, people half drunk on sotol and maraguana. But/if/such a thing should happen in a country of some supposed culture passes my comprehension." * It is well to think a bit about those excoriating words, and then ask why they were spoken by the man famous for cracking down. They were a prelude to a defense of the freedom of the press# The Commander of the Blue Eagle declared he had come around to agree with tho^newspaper publishers who had been so careful about the freedom of the press in their dealings with N. R, A. There's no freedom of the press in Nazi Germany. That's the way it all ties in^ it-*- >W------ ; --- JOHNSON - 3 But you can feel that the real reason for General Johnson^ attack on the Nazis was his own revulsion against those summary executions in Germany, He^ a blustery, outspoken fellow, and he spoke his mind right out. •. r "k a;h1 • - HITLER Those of you who listened to Hitler*s speech on the radio this afternoon were let into something of the secret of the maa,s power. He was almost shattering at times in his storming emotional oratory. There was a strange inten­ sity to it, the way those German gutterals mingled with static growled and crackled, with driving passionate hurste of feeling. It was one of the most intense performances I ever heard. To the trained public speaker Hitler*s style is highly interesting. He hasn't the cool off-hand observations of a Britisher making an address, nor the ringing declamation of the old-fashioned American orator, not the flowing sen­ tentious arts of Mussolini, Hitler goes at it with the harsh crackling strength of the German language and his own peculiar hammering emotionalism and violence. Mow about what he said, there were two points that we hadn’t heard before in explanation of that dreadful weekend. One was his declaration that the Mazi's were not conducting a HITLER £ continuing revolution* He told of elements in tHe Mazi ranks tnat believed that their revolution should keep going? with more and more of an overturn all the time. In other words, to the Nazi**^ triumph was just the beginning of a really big revo­ lution. Hitler denounced this and ja/njrcj h int ed that his revolu­ tion was complete, that once in power his oolicy was, not keep is things changed and aritated, but settle down and iron out problems in a ouiet way. The second point that struck me was his description of two groups of these continuing revolutionaries who were work­ ing in the ranks of the Storm Troopers. One he said consisted * of psychooaths led by the executed ^oehm. The other, ouite normal^ consisted of men who were loyal to Roehm as their com- mander# |fe repeated that he had made a five hour attempt to persuade his old comrade Roehm to be loyal, and then went on to explain it this way: Roehm and his coterie had been taking into the ranks of the Storm Troops new members of all sorts and by the wholesalers was pushing these new men ahead, giving hlTi-iUri S them high«p positions, and keeping back the old timers, the tried and true veterans. These new and disreputable members gave Roehra an element loyal personally to himself. In that five hour argument Hitler insisted that Boehm should clear the Storm Troopers of these new people he had taken in, Roehm refused, kept right on in the same way and the situation came to a head tud burst — in that week-end of shootings. FRANCE One significant bit of comment comes from England, Britishers are saying — it looks like the old days. They mean the old days of diplomacy that led to the World War, when governments made agreements about which the people didn’t know a thing. They're wondering in London how far His Majesty’s Government has committed itself to the new French plan — that plan for a new balance of power* Britishers are not quite sure but that His Majesty’s Ministers may have comitted England more than they admit. You can't blame them, for wondering — that new French scheme has a puzzling amount of novelty. The experts say it would be a sort of^balance of power* according to which the nations of the continent would be lined up in two groups, one headed by France, and the other headed by Italy. Each country now has its own string of alliances. The idea would be to bring in Germany and Soviet Russia. That would just about line-up all Europe into two 7 ^ keep-the-pea»e angle is found in the proposal that each set of nations should guarantee the good behavior of its members -- meaning that France would control the actions of her FRAHCE - 2 smaller allies, and Itlay would do the same on her part* According to that, two small nations belonging to the two different groups couldn»t start a fight with each other with­ out involving everybody else* Any small war would automatic­ ally become a world war* That seems to be the logic of the plan -- possibly with the idea of squelching all small disturbances, even at the cost of risking a gigantic world­ wide disturbance* This new plan would seem to be the net result of the recent extensive travels of the French Foreign Minister, Barthou* He visited one capital after another, and came back with the big idea* And, it's being received with plenty of applause in various nations, applause that may mean much, or ' little* It*ll be in the news from now on BOOK i.11 l*etT s h-jve a book review. This new liter—* -ary work is in two ponderous volumes, k® took seven years to compile, is a dictionary, and concerns every continent, island, sand bank, and coral reef on this globe. Itfs a dictionary of diplomacy. Issued at Paris. The articles under various headings were compiled by twenty-seven prime ministers, fifty Chancellors and more than five hundred assorted diplomats * If all those Dld^aphorisi disguising the truth, the new dictionary should be a masterpiece diplomats believe# in the old aohorism that speech is a way of of fiction. The article on Faeism is v/ritten by that orolific and well-paid author Benito Mussolini. The article concerning war is a long one, Torty-five cages. Under the heading of Peace; — but there* s no such heading. The diplomatic ciictionary is an up-to-date book.and on the subject of Peace it contains nothing - not a bit, not a small, fragment, not a tiny piece. This omission ic creating nuite a furore at Geneva, where the League of Nations is the grand creator and exponent I - ■ ■■ -.................... BOOK - 2 of peace. The League is also devoted to disarmament, but the diplomatic dictionary tells mostly about armament. The figures show graphically how the nations of both hemispheres are building up their gun-power on land and sea. France build­ ing, or rather digging, giant fortresses on her border — Germany stocking up with war planes by the hundred -- Austria arid Hungary in the market in a big way for rifles and machine guns - Turkey getting ready strongly to fortify the Bardanellee — Spain spending millions on cannon and battlements for the Balearic Isles long so pleasantly renowned as bits of Paradise in the Mediterranean CHACO Maybe that book*a right - dead right about peace* At any rate, juat look at thia;- Right now there lea fierce battle raging along a one hundred mile front* Seventy thousand men engaged in that battle* The brown Indian fight era of Paraguay are driving at Port Bolivian, a dominating stronghold of the enemy, in the Gran Chaco* Both aides are claiming victory* Today*s diplomatic slant coneerne that familiar question that many of us havs been asking •• "What are they fighting for* What do they want with that disputed section of tropical max and sub-tropical earth11* It*e a huge area, to be eure* But it* a a remote fastness of plains, Jungle and rain- soaked swamps* A couple of centuries ago that same sort of question was asked by the great genius of hie day, Voltaire, who made a fool of himself in answering it* The French and British were battling for Canada, and Voltaire remarked con­ temptuously that they were doing all that fighting "for a few square miles of ice." Those few square miles of ioe are the CHACO - 2 vast priceless Canadian empire of today. And so it may be witb the Gran Chaco. The experts have been saying that landlocked Bolivia wants a port leading to the sea, a port on the great river system that leads to the south Atlantic — also that the prize of battle is oil, great oil deposits in the chaco. Today we have another explanatory word •- rubber. The newest report is that the directing minds behind the war realize that the Chaco la soon to become one of the great rubber producing sections of the earth to which the world that rides on rubber will pay tribute. This new theory goes on to another question that has been asked, "Where is the money com­ ing from for the war?" Both Paraguay and Bolivia are burdened to the breaking point with debts. The rumour is that they are getting financial backing from other countries, countries that would be willing to get their loans returned in the form of rubber* Let*8 just tie that up with an announcement we had a week or so ago that synthetic rubber has been successfully produced here in the United States. Suppose that should really I CHiiCO 3 develop into a cheap and practical synthetic rubber. Where would Paraguay and Bolivia be then? It’s ironical to think about. Re­ member how nations fought for the Spice Islands and then spices began to be grown all around the world as a conuson crop. maSJJi In Brazil tonight they are talking about an automobile accident in Portugal. Portugese affairs are always a live topic In the daughter reoublic of Brazil. And then the two oeople injured in the crash were the wife and daughter of ^resi­ dent Carmona. The first lady of Portugal was seriously hurt. General Carmona Is a popular figure in the Portugese speak­ ing world,JJe acts as supreme constitutional dictator of his country. By the way, the car that smashed into the presidential automobile was driven b> a party of Brazilian tourists. Hence the quickened Interest in Brazil, MOTORBOAT They say that it’a like the swarming of loeusts of the Bible « those motorboats on the Alleghany river at Pittsburgh. The fiearst Gold Gup Begatta has jumped to big proportions. The outboard enthusiasts are swamping the officials. There are boats from eleven states and the District of Columbia ready for a week-end orgy of speed and splashing. A crowd of two hundred thousand people is expected to line the two banks and thunder cheers through the Pittsburgh smoke. Holy smoke, blue smoke. — from Blue Sunoco! ROOSEVELT Viell, the Presiaent is on his way across the broad Pacific and he seems to be pleased with the way he found taings in the Canal Zone. He sx^iKKiLs speaks of minor questions arising between the Americans of the Canal and the Republic of Panama. ’Nothing,** he explains cheerily, "That can*t be ironed out in the spirit of justice and fair-play." He*s going to do some fishing in the waters around Cocos Island. I had to consult the Atlas to find out who Cocos Island belongs to. The answer is Costa Hiaa. Cood luck «!r. President — the best of fisherman’s luck lEUCATOB , W' ' -,-V ^SiP^s Well they are finally going to have a Pan- American educational conference, fhie has been talked about for years, but somehow it always missed fire. Sow it*8 all set. Educators all the way from Hudson Bay to Cape Horn are to gather this September in Santiago, Chile. X suppose the assembled teachers will do a lot to improve Pan-American education and when the American and Canadian delegations get back X suppose the youngsters up this way will get an overdose of Spanieh, and they’ll all be saying Caramba PROFESSOR ENDING ?i;«- iRiEg Let’s hope those Pan-American teachers have better luick than an American scholastic group now over in Germany. Fifty college presidents, professors and students were invited for a visit by the German director of the Association-for-the-Furtherance -of-Scientific-Knowledge. This German professor had arranged a series of banquets, luncheons, and lectures, and was going to show the .onerican scholastic group the scientific sights of the Fatherland. But, when they got to Germany they couldn’t find the professor. He didn’t meet them at the train as had been arranged. He wasn’t home. After hunting and inquiring they found he was in a Nazi Concentration Comp for some political offense or another. They are now trying to get him out so that he can keep his appoint­ ment with them. One thing makes it awkward and keeps those American college luminaries from raising too moch of a fuss. Their trip is being paid *'or by the German government. The Nazis arranged and financed the visit, appointed a host to receive and entertain them, and then put the host in a concentration camp. Right now t^e American college people are trying to get him out so that he can say^hello -wverybody" while I am saying: ”30 Long Until Monday.”