Lor-'-l: Thomas Literary Tirest Broadcast Monday, October 6, 1950. R-101 ‘•ell, this is one time when it is not necessary to look far for the news item of the day. For the oast 48 hours it has covered the front nare of every nev. pa r in the world, ana th Press Associations are sup-lias hou^ y bulletins. I mean th tragedy of the P-101. The news of that llsaster has flashed around the rlobe i-:e a ball of fire in the nisht, - striking a. not of \ y me horror everywhere. I see that France, where the hure British iirigible fell and exploded, has proclaimed tomorrow a day of mourning for the 40-odd victims. A ^ine sympa'hetic gesture. Last Saturday evening we v/e^e a 1 here just ■ •e -:re now, Mo-t of you were at inner, and I was stan:in," at t microohone telling about this great iner of th air ’lying throu h the night ov r urope—setting out on its 8,000-mile trim to India. It was a pleasant tn ' n' te ll about—that magnificent Leviathan in its sv.ift smooth flight over continents and s-ns on its -y to romanf c Hindustan. ut scarcely more than tv/o hours after I was dr a v, in.* fast rosy picture of those aerial voyagers set" In" of"' on what romiseJ to be another magnificently success ul jowrn‘.grim tragedy stalled across the sly, and the rosy picture changed to one of horror. All the papers today, have been full of the ghastly news of the R-101. diorrie of it has been confusing. IT ve been matching up the printed reports, togeth r with the latest flashes by cable and wireless, try in to cl ear up loubtful points. First, as to the numb r of victims.—There is stil some doubt. Certain it Is that th* r* are 7 survivors. The official list giv* n out by London ruts down the number of Passengers and crow as 5^. Seven from that would leave 47 victims. French officinlr, hc^ev-r, state that they have r< covered from the wreckage charred fragments of more than 47 bodies. A woman’s shoe and a typewriter were round by a French soldier. Mo woman is down on the passenber list, but it may be that a woman, perhaps taken along and not listed. Injured a seenorr*-oher, was survivors 'lace the number aboard at 58, which is a n' ::nr- ' ^ure than either the official British list or tie estimate of the French. The confusion is not so strange. On an important trip like that, a fe\. n 't co n n the list are often aboard. Next I have been putting the reports togeth r in an endeavor to figure out the cause of this frightful disaster. There is some dispute about it. The ’ Hot of the giant dirigible is among the survivors He seve the R-101 hadn’t enough lift—that the storm f reel her down—that she bumped the ground three times and t’r n exploded. Some surmise that the ship got in so a corn- arc current of air. Others think that her elevator rudder broke, and she could not steer upward. There 'as one differ nee between th's ship and othor lighter-than-air craft that have been built to date. The R-101 had a smoking: room. Hitherto, smokin ' has been forbidden aboard airships. Some seem to think a lighted cigar- t or a match may have set off the hydrogen. But most of those who ought to kn:r , doubt that thlr coulr have tokened. At . nv rat , what ’ - cert- -:n is that the cr- ft • ' - heavily loaded "or h. lone trip. She v.-,s n a rainstorm over France, near the city of Be auvais, midv.-ay between Paris and th enelish Channel. She moved oovn in the darkness and mist. •■•is a bump as her nose touched th earth. ?h mi another. A harder one, as she hit again. Then a rend in" crash, as th sagging “iant rammed her nose in“o a French Peasant's field. Instantly there vas a hideous explosion, and an imnense spread of flame as the millions of cubic feet '' hydrogen burned with a raging fury. The cabin of the R-101 was contained within the gas bag—in the envelope, as they call it. It vas not suspended below in the old-style way. A second aft r the explosion, the cabin was enveloped in the ^lare of th blazing airship. Only the men operating ship -'r- astir. The passengers an part of the crew were asleep in their buncs. They never had a chance. Pilo: Harry ueach vas n the smoking room. When the shin exploded, he to up a ch ilr that v as fastened to the floor and ith it smashed through the panels of the cabin and mounded his way out. John hints and Arthur Bell were tending a -5- Diesel engine in the engine gondola. The explosion burr‘ a vat r -'n - ^>0v. m . A delu -e dr .nc- e>- the!n ■ ' th :.r Uv..£ as th y 'ou ht th- ir vay out throuy h thr- f .1 am vs. Victnr ^^voy v.as throvn by tb explosion s ? a ins t ‘'*”a * 1 o?‘ the midship c a s. He '..’as half s'.'in; . :x rernev.b rs little more than that he crawled ^hroir’h "ornin- abr c into the cron. Arthtir : ic . ;y, th ra 'o operator, v as resting on b- d in the v.-iseloss room. He crawled out with the fire raging around him. But he coulan't get through th fabric. xic- • os tr?.x e . The •lam s were racing hi s •.••• ;h■ n hr f'-It v-et grass. He had ‘ound a. hole torn in the canvas, and was safe. The- survivors, as they s tru -"l- cl out into the dr.r’-, could rear th scream of loomed men inside this inferno. Baz- i, and suffering the agony of burns, they crav'1 pc a\r / from the iTunonse torch that _ .a.»iv.ft above them. Ju^t - i h , managed to ret out, and onf of these died. — .;r. ckener great authority on dirigibles. v'or out ov Germany -ith his king airship, the Graf Zen’ 11n, In the same storm that wrecked the R-101. The i - 6 - Graf Zeppelin, by the way, stayed aloft all night, an. in the morning cane in, safely. Dr. ckener said he could make little comment on the loss of the R-101, save it .id not indicate that airships were necessarily unsafe. However, one thine does come into mina--ev'ir nation has had disaster with its big rigid dirigioles since the war, except the Germans. The British previously lost the R-o4. The French lost the Dinmude, 'which sailed away and was never heard from again. « e lost th' Bhenandoah. The Japanese lost a Zepeelin vhich they took at the end of the war. Sir Hubert tilkins, the famous Arctic explorer, who has a wide knowledge of airships and was a passeng r aboard the Graf Zeppelin, on her famous flight around ttv world, comments on the fact that th- caMn of th R-101 was inside of the giant bag. A ron ola suspended below would be less dangerous. Just eh oth r day he told me an interesting story about the loss of th Japanese ciri-ible. zhe .as disabled at ssa. Uearby v/as cn island, on rhich rose a high Q 2 _ 2 .ff. The- co ota in s t-rerec the limp in c j af t -ei the cl:»k '. he brou ht his shop eo that she F'cimmeu jusu ov r jt. That rave th cr : a chance to jump, which they all did including the captain. Not a man was l0£ t. -he bis? bag drifted out to sea again—a wreck. The most striking comment on the loss qc the r.-lOl comes m a United Press Dispatch from Washington. Rear Admiral hoffett, chief of the united States Bur- au of Aeronautics, says that the United States has the only large supply of helium in the world. This gas can he used in dirigibles instead of hydrogen. Helium will burn, but only slowly, •'•'bile hydrogen is desp rately explosive. But the United States will not permit other nations the use of helium. The time was when we had only enourh for our own oirigibles, but now the sunply jis immense. Admiral Moffett calls uoon our government to sell helium to the outside world for use in their dirigibles. According to Admiral Moffett we might possibly have an advantage in war bv preventing other nations from mf1atxng their dir'gibles with helium. But this oossibili y, he thinks, seems too small for us to warrant our imposing a condition which indirectly results m death by fire as in the case of J'h R-lOl. Germany - 8 - s v.-as a bad week-end in the air. Germany had a s rious airplane disaster this mo min: , v an r. Lufthansa plane from Berlin to Vienna crashed near the Dresden flying field. The Associated Press reports ei~ht • oole, six of them passengers, v/ere aboard. All were killed. But there have been renar cably fev; accidents in airplane travel over th■' commercial air lines of 1 umoe. F1 ash -- Shan.'ha i . Int. Ner,s 6,000 inhabitants of Zentang River towns in the Lh-kiana district were drowned and thousands rendered homeless after a five-day torrential rainfall. Fosdick Yest' rd'i ' morning the most talked-of church in th*- country o :ened tts oors -’or its 'irst Sunday service. 1 m - n th- Riverside Baptist Church on the Hudson near Grant1 s tomb in New York City. - The one buill ith Rockefeller money by John D., Jr. Thr church of vhich Harry : nvrson r'osdick is the castor enure*: mat 1 s —; co 3 , , , , r a., ;- co' ' ’ boce-use •- !o. its iirn nse scaf folding war •r’uttea • ith '‘lan,es a year after th construction v. a s started. This is no simple meeting house of old ^ ' ^is u traa l tion• i’he Gothic tov»'or uhich r ars itself 410 feet above the; Hudson Riv~r is in the highly ornate style of the French cathedrals of the 1’ th century. Four very modern elevators go racing up twenty stories. The tower contains the famous carillon of 7t bells, which is r. rockefeller’s memorial to his moth r. The bells are. played from a keyboard an:: this v ill be the first carillon in history with a span of more than five octaves. Underneath the hel tower are twenty-two stor'-e oi' church offices, .unsay school rooms, and other accommodations. For smaller services there is a chapel insoirea by the mediaeval chapel at Care isonne. /* ymnarmm, v.i4h baseball an. * xiieball courts, is in late 20th century American. Probably the most interesting thing about the new church is the elaborati entrance arch, burrounoing it are scores of carven inages — not only of the traditional angels - 10 - ana 'ir: 'r‘ J s, out of • .ny famous scien r ists onn philosophers as well. Only one of these image s ^3 ’ :: •n ' ' - otij l ivlng. fhat man is A-to rt instein, th Oerman scientist and pro pounder of the theory of relativity. hev/ ideas in church construction are ou tlinea in ‘ n informative article in this week1 s Literary Digest, headed ’’Making Church Property Pay.n iou vili fine out rhat up-to-date congregations are doing to meet resent-da; economic conditions. Leaving th‘-se pictures of sabbath and religion calm, we .lump to warlike scenes in coffee growing brazil. <? Brazil The vires have been sizzling thv.s afternoon with more r volu fionary news flashes from an in Brazil, The United Press announces that seven states hav joined tfo uprisinf. Martial law has been declared in hie de Janeiro. The central government is mobilizing against the rebels v.irh 'ant:, • ir, xederol tr1 o o are being sent overland r.j- . soa forces. - : _ s.s ^ ast dS cx *3 ck 'trains Can csimy tticini* Tv/o cruis. r^ c. th. Erar 1 1 i::n n3.vy are steamine through the Atlantic bound f*or the coast of southern Erazi].• And sauadrons of military airplanes are scouting over t?:‘ revciu ~i ?nary states trying to spy out the latest mover.- nts ' the aevancin- rebels. The rrvolurionists have conscripted every man between £1 and £5. They have seized hundreds of railway cars and locomotives to carry their troops. Several clashes between rebel and feder'.l troops have already taken plac , : : considerable loss of life. The Press correspondents tell us that unless the o poo sing oarties can cone to terms, everythin'' points § to bitter civil war in Brazil. Tallin about war ano warriors - American Legion Did you hear that roar that went up t’rom “astern Massachusetts today? Well, that was the annual convention of th- Am' ricf,ri terion just p- t-ing un ier way. 75,000 of tho hoys have stormed Boston. t 4 nnd Concord to Bunker Hill the And from Lexington ana uoncuie ft city has c^^i'uJ.at o to the Legionaires. 1 he b; g event of the day was President Hoover1s -each. He addressed the Legion as an ar .stir of eace. And the former sole iers cheered him to tho echo, -president Coolidge and Genera]. Pershing were on the platform with President Hoover*. The Associated Press wires that there is a Targer crowd at the convention this year than ever before. ^cccrcins to National Commander Bodenhamer, the Lr -ion ha: rovn tremendously this year. In the part twelve months 100,000 new members have been added to the roll, Thir means that thrn are now ayrroximately ')■: , 000 Leyionaires . A little comedy was throvn into the convention bv th, arrival of rancho Hal Grimshav, from Arizona. International News carries the stoi j , Legionaire Hal Grimshav lives in a suburb of Phoeni-”, Arizona, 0v just a matte * ' " e hundred miles or so from the city limits, Hal arrived in the vicinity of Bunker Hill accompanied by more than a hundre of hie frlenc s— ■ ■ jug lizards, Gila monsters, a monkey-faced owl -i; - u ^ 1 r- r y ' horned toads, severa.i. bo: es of - t .c f eed - o td:. tot.c 3 , 16 chameleons , two bull snakes, 4 rattlers, 2 ring-tailed wild cats, and a burro. Tl Ne\ York Herald Tribune says that Hal didn't bring his collection merely for the sake of sociability. Hal r gards his pets as are tty powerful pro.-agon.a for Arizona—the most beautiful spot and the healthiest. If anybody doubts his word, he can point to the dila monsters an: the ring tailed wild cats which ooze health and vitality. Hal intends to hand bis Arizona menagerie over to the- Boston Board of Education—rattle snakes, 7 II cats, and all. The biggest ron, in size, at the convention is Carl «. and ell, a Lenv r traffic cop, who stands 7 ft. 5 In. in his stockings. His particular oal is thr s ho rtf :;t delegat* , Haro 1 Aobott , c Lartfcz c , Wisconsin, "ho is 4 11. 8. ...„ .■ 3y the very, a flash has just come in from the united Press to the effect that PresidentHoover appeared in Boston today wearing a bro-.n suit and a - " -14- brorn t. '• nev s reuort however, -ave no indication as to v.heth r or n =J- it -as a brown derby. 1 assume that it ‘as not. Flash An interna l ,iona ! News Service dispatch put in o my v -’.no states that the^e was no woman aboard the . -101. The woman* s shoe found in the wreckage is accounted for by the fact that one of the male passengers was taking a pair of shoe to a woman in In 1 i• . Vizetelly ileals were once sold in Merrie England not by the plate but by the yare. Our authority for this is Dr. Frank rl. Vizetelly, famous editor o^ the new Funk « "arnall's Standard Dictionary. The current edition of the Literary Digest, by the way, carries an illuminating antic e by wr. Vizetelly. It reveals the remarkably interesting ori 'in o some c. . ■ comTnon, seemingly unr o man tic words you and I use every day. You should, hear Dr. Vizetelly pronouncin' some of the • “■ : + nat you and I never use, and couldn* t tv.ist aroun our tongues if we wanted to. ConeXusion A headline in this afternoon1s New York rvenir. tost cam-ht my eye. It read:- "Best Missouri Minor agree Cards Have Gooo Chance to Capture Viorld Crovn." tf.ell, those best Missouri minds must be disturbed by that home run Jimmy Forc hit. It a thrilling -itchers battle. The score was Nothing-to- Nothing in the Jth, with one .nan on base, an-’ Foxx belt d the ball right over the fencel - That home run be -* t thf Cards . Like th> Best Misrouri Minds, I haven’t a thing to say aft r that, except good-night.