KING A world gazing philosopher today might *&Pf well have taken his eyes oil the spectacular dr.r ma of kingship in England, and turned his glance across the ocean to this land of ours. In Washington he would have seen that the House of Representatives met for ten minutes and then adjourned for the remainder of the day - as a sign or respect^ He v/ould have noted that President Roosevelt today cancelled the Congressional reception at the White House, which gala event had been planned for tomorrow night, In New York the Cotton Exchange closed at noon, and so did the Board of Trade in Chicago. If our philosopher had strolled along Park Avenue today he would have noticed the Waldorf i with two giant flags at half mast - the Union Jack and the American flag, each twenty by thirty feet, as symbols of mourning. And he would have seen the newspapers morning and evening, devoting mnrTT-nkTTtr^i^vf their front pages^he predominant part of their entire news and picture space, to the one overwhelming story. The radio Jammed with words, including these words,* on th^therne that crowds out other themes/ Special short wave KING - 2 ^P| I* broadcasts from England - twice. And Everywhere across this broad republic - people talking about the two kings of England, R^njt the King that was and the King that is. there** a national A /v reaction on this side of the water to the death of George the Fifth, and the ascension of Edward the Eighth,^ If this philosopher of ours were merely a wit, he would likely propound some very clever variation of the old cynical gest, of how the citizens,of a republic adore a king. a He.might snort that Americans don’t mind having^democracy, so § ill I ■ : jf* &*>***£ long as somebody else has a king. But, if he were more reasonable.* W*!*. plain ssia^common sense, he might perceive more comprehensive meanings*- |hat in a unique way today the ancient rank of the King of England symbolizes the British Empire, that the monarchs of Great Britain have been able to make themselves the very personification for that stupendous realm which rea'cLies fram the Arctic to the Antarctic, from the Greenwich Meridian to the Hundred and '1 I ill Eightieth. So, the attention given the King is one form of iryju1a^A the attention that Great Br itain^comraands. that is seen in the worldwide response today - from, friendly ueneva of the KING - 3 League of bitterly antagonistic Italy, In 0ur own United States there ie the added factor of the ties of blood, culture and language. The British King seems not only greater, but also closer to us who fought a British King so bitterly a Hundred and Fif^y years ago. And then — Americans do love royalty. Moreover there’s an unusual and unique interest, from a human point of view, in the two monarche, the one who has passed, the other who has come to the throne, La^: night at Fox Movietone while we worked all night long getting out a special reel on the King, Lawrence Stallings made a remark curiously apropos. He said that King George, coming to the throne, had inherited a deadly international situation, a brewing storm that was none of his own making. That was true. He inherited what was swiftly to become the post of war king. Yet he, least of all men, was the sort to play a dangerous game, a game of ambition, a game of war. He was above all things simple, moderate, reasonable and kind. That’s what, on his gorgeous throne, endeared him to the British and to the world. His father. King Edward, was another sort of man - flashy, gay, a hard player SING - 4 In ohe game of lii«* a master player in the game of international politics. It was Edward who formed the Entente, the line-up of Allies - for the World War. filing George took his qualities rather from his grandfather. Prince Albert - the calm, sedate, family- loving and utterly respectable Albert of the Victorian era. Geori inherited little from Edward, save his crown and the bronchial malady that KKXixfctx caused his death. Edward the Seventh, too- died of a chronic bronchial ailment.^ The British royal family seems to be a skip-generation affair. Prince Albert's father was a.gay blade, who chased wildly after amusement. Albert himself a model of propriety. Edward the Seventh, like his grandfather and unlike his father, srf£ a merry-maker. George - propriety incarnate. And now', Edward the Eighth? He is one reason why the royal succession in England is so fascinating today. ^ Certainly, the two Edwards, the Seventh and. the Eighth, have their resemblances. The Seventh - Vr was in his time the fascinating Prince of Wales of his era. “nd we all 11 remember the fascinating Prince of Wales of our own oeriod. the Prince Chaiming v.ho came over here , and swept public interest the fluttering of all the debsThe world1 s most royal young inan^e he was at the same time the world* s most charming young man. Lover of a good tirae^ of laughter, social gajc gaieties and dancing. He was also salesman for the British ■ Empire. Yes - and the worlds incorrigible bachelor. [ What kind of King will he make? / Instinctively, we all know - an able kin^. Mth all his merry zest for life, he has against: and again shown stern and able qualities of character, In the last century a gay Prince of Wales became the wise and brilliant King, Edward the Seventh. And ^he best guess now is thatjhistory will once more repeat itself - that another gay Prince of Wales will show himself to have become a wise and I brilliant kinr. j (But there fs one thing unique about him - he»s a bachelor.king. Thefone more duty that Edward has never underta, en - A the dynastic obligation of marriage and succession, jfle is the | first bachelor king to come to the throne of England since the dim days of the seventeen hundreds. George the Ihira, SeeiIiS highly probably KING - 6 But after becoming King he got married. '*It A that Edward the Eighth will remain a bachelor - a royal rarity indeed I The only other important bachelor kin^ that I can think TA/zX^ , . , . and of §• Charles, the Twelfth, the great conqueror^Jj^rriilitary genius of Sweden*-^((e never married. The news from London is formality^ most formal and most stately. The Privy Council, the Lords and the Commons, acted with solemn promptitude, proclaiming - Edward the Eighth. \ All was solemnly in accord with age-old tradition - ) ' save one thing. The new King flew from Sandringham to London to receive the allegiance of the Privy Council, the Lords and the Commons. Other kings of England have journeyed to the same function, riding on war charges or in coaches of state, but now - the airplane I F<yi ^ BONUS BILL We might as well write the word- the end to the great bonus question that has perturbed politics in four administrations. Today's word from Washington is that the House of representatives tomorrow will accept the amendment tacked onto the bill bp the Sea Senate, and do it pronto. And Speaker Byrns will sign the measure, with just as xkh much speed. That will send it to the President's desk -- probably tomorrow. Nobody knows what Mr. Roosevelt will do. But Washington says It won't matter. If there's a veto, Congress will over-ride the veto. And that also will be. -- pronto. All indications are that we might as well consider And Bonus Bill. The total sum it appropriates for the war veterans is two billion, two hundred and thirty-seven million dollars. The money will be whacked up among more than three and a half million World War veterans. The whole thing how­ ever stiws does not necessarily involve cash payment. The gjdt cash, if they A BONUS BILL -E The veterans now compensation certificates which entitle A them to various sums of money* They'll get bonds for the amount of those sums. They'll be allowed to cash those bonds at any -<? postoffice after June Fifteenth, or they can hold them until >/ 1945 and draw interest There waa pistol firing in Louisiana today, and the crash of the gun had a reminiscent sound, it seems almost like a reverberation of the crash of that other gun, which felled Huey Long in his own State Capitol. Louisiana went to the polls today in a primary election And the overwhelming point at issue was:- shall the mighty political machine created by the Kingfish still continue to rule the state? The Long machine waged its fight with the old slogan . . ■ ... made famous by Huey — "Svery man a king.” It was a bitter political battle that culminated in the polling booths today, Huey Long alive made animosities burn fiercely — so fiercely that they produced those pistol shots that killed him in the state capitol. Nor did that assassination of the Kingfish add any touch of meekness or mildness to the Louisiana political scene. Today1s election was featured by charges of intimidation, graft, coersion, fraud, dishonesty, corruption, malfeasance, chicanery, charlatanism, demagogy, and all the epithets that one politician can fling at another. It was also featured by two hundred thousand additional voters. They went to the ballot boxes because of a law passed by Huey Long before he was killed. long -£ Louisiana Jjad^always had a poll tax* Everybody had to pay a dollar before he had the right to vote. it seems that two hundred thousand Louisianians in the past didn't have the dollar or would'nt put it up for the right of sufferage. Any­ way the abolition of the poll tax promptly boosted the number of voters by two hundred thousand. And that added to the election excitements today. With all the agitation, it's no wonder there was a flash of* pistol fire.tqrtNfoa A prominent political leader named ^etta.. Gill was shot* Joe Schultz is accused of having shot him. He's a leader too. The last time we heard of political shoot- an Ing in Louisiana was when^anti-Long man fired the deadly few±±± bullets at Huey himself. And toddy^it's an anti-Long man charged with blazing away. ^£et£Gill, a prominent leader of the Kingfish machine fell wounded. fcttteg row at a polling place POLICE r ton ay otorl es a'botrb- Lc t * a be dark, mysterious yarn that’s floating around in ivurope. It concerns that always melodramatic theme - the British Secret Service, London’s far flung net for the gathering of secret Information. The story goes that the British Secret Service ixxxxteamat Wvou-dL? has a haunt v.'hich wouldA^s#'—' ^ood"1 for any mystery novel A. of melodramatic intrique. t is described as an old castle in the south of England, somewhere in,Dover. A mysterious castle shrouded In secrecy, v/ith aa^rir* passages, trap doors, hidden A A rooms and strange trappings. A sinister place, creeping with ghosts andi^^ra^“doings. There, .they say, are twenty-four A WA picked young men, studying for the Secret §ervice, for the-most difficult and dangerous exnloits.of British espionage. There they study the art of disguise, .how to assume dilferenu personali- tiesj they ory into the difficult art of secret codes «nd They a e schooled in •theAw^^of spies, how to worm their way into the confidence of high foreign officials., m. st is of foreign nations. These twenty-four young men take a POLICE - 2 scholastic course in the ways to employ women in secret agent work - the beautiful spy, so frequently the blond spy. And they even take a post-graduate course in the art of removing incon­ venient figures from their path, secret assassination. It sounds like sinister romance. That’s what the -British say it is. Exceedingly sinister, and entirely romantic. They tell us that the story of the mysterious castle is a sheer myth, that the legend originated in Poland, and has spread far and wide* That there* s nothing to it* There is no such strange castle in Dover. It was all invented in Poland. JBut Scotland Yard is developing a real Innovation. An extended use of women in police work. There are now sixty-seven Scotland Yard women, and they have proved so efficient that the Yard has asked for lady sleuths to the number of a hundred and two. Xf any of you girls are thinking about becoming one of those renowned crime hunters of Scotland Yard, here are the specifications:- You must be between the ages of twenty-four and thirty-five; you must be at least five feet four inches tall. You may be either a spinster or a childless widow. &ot you can*t ROGER WILLIAMS Somewhere in the otner world, there's a stern-faced Puritan who must be smiling in way. Hoger Williams, that mighty battier for the Lord, in the earliest days of Hew England. Yes, in his far away paradise, Roger Williams would be amused to heax the glad tidings, i although in life he was not a man given to much merriment. But now, the word is that Roger Williams mag be allowed to return to Massachusetts. Whether he can return to earth at ill, is doubtful. But if so, maybe he can come back to Massachusetts. The Legislature at today took under A consideration a bill to revoke the sentence of exile passed against©that doughty Puritan three*hundred years ago. They chased him out of Massachusetts at that time. So he went on and founded Rhode Island, It was all a theological quarrel. The stony-faced divines that ruled, the colony found Roger Williams even too stern a Puritan. Anyway, he didn't quite asree with their theology. So they took harsh measures against him. And he fled from the Massachusetts colony and took refuge on Narraganset Bay, among the Indians, There, with some otner ROGER WILLIAMS - K ---- cJ'-f — liKe-minded men of bleak religion,^he founded the City of Providence* And so Rhode Island began. To this day the decree ggainst Roger Williams has stood in Massachusetts law. But now Representative Washburn of Middleboro has arisen and saids ."Let1 s take It all back. Let* 3 revoke the exile of Roger Williams!" ItTs on the basis of "better late than never", although itfs mighty late, about three hundred years late. The Massachusetts Legislature is debating the proposal, and I suppose they*11 pass it - with the full fervor of that spirit: "Come back, all is forgiven," A So, no doubt, Roger Williams will be allowed to return to Massachusetts. The qnly tro‘ ble is that if it should happen that he can get back to the world at all - he mi^ht choose to return to Rhode Island^ and wouldn’t that make Massachusetts^ mad! And I’d better choose to say, SO LONG UNTIL TOMORROW.