*% Jf/f# / STO' v VE L-3. - f '{icjA^Jj &l; (^4-1 ■ A warm room jammed with skiers is liable to produce a few coughs. SKIERS are packed around me tonight, here in a quaint little room of an old-fashioned Vermont Inn, the Green Mountain Inn at Stowe, near the foot of Mt. Mansfield Here beside me in addition to skiers sits ftri Craig Burt who is sometimes referred to as the Maharajah of Mt. Mansfield; famous 4 hunter, fisherman, and photographer of the out-of-doors, Yio Coty; George Morrell of lie Lodge, the Gale Shaws whose fifteen and sixteen year old daughters are ski champions; Explorer krling Strom,* Austrian Ski Maestro Sepp Ruschp} Tommy Hitchcock who plays polo a little *±t better than he skis and may ot*e”- ^ ift^ame ^ ^e Mxi Western Union wire over which U.P. dispatches have been coming in to me from all parts of the world. One of the most importance of these is of course from the Balkans. JUGOSLAVIA The definite word from Jugoslavia is that tonight the regent frince Paul accepted the resignation of three caoinet ministers. Tney were Opposed to submission to Nazi Germany and resigned as a protest against the pact which Jugoslavia is prepared to sign. They are Serbs, an^-epreaent the opposition of the S'erbian eleiaent^ the moat KflaXXKX numerous in Jugoslavia. The principal advocates of lining up with Germany are the Croats, second largest racial 3r0up - they-re predominant in the present government at Belgrade. Some surmise is expressed that the resignation of the ministers, the split in the cabinet, may delay the Jugoslavia signing. But the general belief is that the thing will go through, and that the premier and foreign minister will leave for Germany tomorrow , llne .rhey say that Hitler Is pressing the to sign on the dotted line, mey a n V „tinn has given them forty eight hours to Jugoslavs for quick action, nas giv hesitation is holding up come into camp, because their < ot freece. tfe hear that as soon as the the Nazi attack against Gree • aattled the powerful bl^zkrieg army in Jugoslav thing is settled, ^ ^ „ thp dri7e for which it is fully prepared. Bulgaria will launch the dri London today identified the two German battle cruisers that are operating in the Atlantict These are believed to be the powerful war vessels to which prime minis as°A ~ tef^Shjjrchill referred some days H» said they were sinking freighters on american side of the Atlantic, So what ships are they? London today answ< the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau.jTwo Nazi sea monsters of the latest type - put into service in nineteen ^thirty £ight. The battle cruiserjT*class which combines size, speed and gun power. They do twenty-seven knots or more and carry heavy batteries of eleven inch guns. London coments that there are few ships in the British Navy that could match the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in either speed or gunpower. Only that newest British type of battleship* would be up to it - the George the fit**. 3 It isn’t known how many of these Britain has launched and completed^ addition to the George the Fifth cISXSX which brought Lord Halifax over here - when President Roosevelt went to. meet him in a memorable ceremony of last spring, the Scharnhorst was of state. la tiae Norwegian campaign reported to have been damaged in a fight with the British sea SEA 2 giant renown. Later it was said that the Royal Air Force had bombed the german battle cruiser several times, while it was if in drydock. The Gn©isenau was reported to have been sunk in the Norweigian campaign, but this was never verified. Now London tells us that the two are not only on rampage In the Atlantic,^ but are responsible for the sinking of several ships^l^tM^. Berlin today claimed a succesful attack on a British Convoy off the African coast. According to the German account, this was done by submarines, and sixty nine thousand tons were sunk. AIR RAIDS Early reports from Britain tonight tell that as this evening came on, Nazi night raiders dropped bombs on a town on the Southeast coast. Nothing as yet to indicate any savage attack, such as was launched against Plymouth last night when King George and Queen Elizabeth had a narrow escape. They were in Plymouth a joraral-hnurc before the tons of bombs came raining down. 4 ^ # UXl A' American born Lady As tor has artome at Plymouth. Her husband, tj* is Lord Mayor of the spent, last night fighting fire, A /v A helping to extinguish the incendiary bombs that fell on her home. defense The House of Representatives today passed a four billion dollar defense bill. Itfs the army share of the series of huge defense appropriations. Four billion dollars to build a great air fleet, and to create a highly mechanized army that eventually is to consist of four million men. In the hearings on the bill, Chief of Staff General Marshall stated that the army is to have eight tank divisions like the German Panzer Divisions which crushed the Allies in Flanders last June. He Said the army has recently received exact data on how the Nazi armored units accomplished that exploit of war, and lessons learned are now being applied. So^we’re to have eight of those armored divisions. a sub-commit tee of the appropriations Committee of the Senate toaay approved the seven billion dollars for aid to Britain - okayed the proposal wfcXXK without change. In the sub-committee only one effort was made to effect an alteration. Senator Nye of North Dakota proposed to cut the seven billions in half, but that was turned down. The Senator says he’s going to continue to press the suggestion - put up three and a half billion for lend-lease instead of seven. At the same time it’s indicated that Britain is soon to get fifty DEFENJE - 2 merchant ships from the United States, They say that the British have asked for fifty as their first requirements. Most all the vessels they’re to get, it seems, are over-age ships which date back to the last war - old-timers reconditioned. A LAJ30R THey've settled that strike at Aright* Field, the labor trouble which caused so much remark and reproof. This afternoon the tLt strike leader announced^the men would go back to work tomorrow and resume tec construction of military aviation products at the lield* For example, the wind tunnel, which has been talked about so much. The A F of L men are calling off their strike at the request of it assistant secretary of war - in the interest A of National Defense. ^The four CIO electricians will stay on the job. It was their presence which caused the A F of L Building men to walk out. One of those jurisdictional strikes, a fight between two unions. It looks as if the danger or a strike at the Ford Motor Company A A has been eliminated. A walk-out there would have tied up a hundred and fifty four million dollars worth of defense contracts. The automobile union was angry because there was a dismissal of a thousand workers. The claim was that they had been let out because of union activities. Now,the Ford Company has made a concession Labor Conciliator James Dewey, who says that the strike danger at the Ford plant seems to be a tning of tne past. UBOR - 2 Today an employee group and a union signed an agreement prohibiting strikes and lock-outs on defense projects. Parties to the compact are the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America and the Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paper Hangers. The terms are that once work on a defense project has begun, no labor dispute will be allowed to stop it. This, they say, is the first instance of a no-striae agreement in the realm of National Defense. STRIDE The New York Bus strike was settled today, when thirty five hundred drivers ratified an agreement* They return to work tomorrow# The differences between the company and the union are to be arbitrated. So ends an eleven day walkout which put to incon/enience nearly a million bus riders^— '' * ' v vv ^ ^ 3TLA.Wi*ENCE There are lively indications of congressional opposition to the St Lawrence waterway project. President Roosevelt today submitted to Congress the new St Lawrence agreement between the United States and Canada. The document is ample and complicated, and provides that in paying for the project, the United States shall foot by far the larger part of the bill. The total cost is two hundred and sixty million dollars. Canada to pay sixty million. The United States to chip in with two hundred and six million. Of this last figure ninety million will probably be marked down or I'jew fork State to pay. Albany will be asked to finance various power developments in the program. The^eceipt of the message from the President brought instant aonmient from Senators Who have oeen fighting the St Lawrence idea all the way along. Senator Connolly of Texas said he was against it when it first came up in nineteen thirty f oil . , and he s going to fight it once again. Senator Adams of Colorado echoed that he was against it then and he’s against it now.^The midwestern attitude is expressed by Senator Clar.-t of Missouri^ I don j see how the mississippi valley will benefit in any way. ft 4-fI CRASH At Hempstead, Lon^ Island, an Army air plane crashed today in a thrilling episode of narrow escape. First of all, the pilot had a narrow escape, lieutenant Craven Rogers. The Lieutenant is a crack flyer, aid to Brigadier-General MacDonald of the seventh pursuit wing at Mitchel Field. The plane was a swift army pursuit plane. High above the town of Hempstead, it went out of control for some reason or other, and took a dive straight to the- ground. Lieutenant Rogers resorted to his parachute, bailed out. lie got clear of the falling sky craft, and went iLx floating to earth. His landing was not exactly perfect, he came down in a tree. There, with a wrenched arm and shoulder, he hung until they got him down. The plane fell straight toward a house in South Hempstead, the home of William Kain. In the dwelling were Mr and Mrs Kain, sixty years old. They had narrow escapes, and so did two children Playing in the vacant lot next door. The crashing plane Just missed the house. The windows ^smashed from tne violence of th^ij^ict. The motor buried itself six feet in the earth. A The gas tanks exploded with a roar of flame, so near ono corner of the house that its two sides were scorched by the heat CRASH - 2 The two children playing nearby were in peril of the flying pieces of steel and shooting flanies. They it badly frightened - but unharmed. &B±ar^ PRISONER. The Georgia chain gang is a thing of forbidding reputation, and should excite tear and apprehension* This however, is not the case with a negro^ youth named Morris Jones. He escaped from the New Jersey State Reformatory, and made his way to Georgia. There the local police picked him up, and Ifew Jersey wants him back. All of which sounds like a reversal of the familiar story of the fugitive from a Georgia chain headlines from time to time, the chain gang convict making an escape, getting away to the north, writing a successful book about it, and putting the story into a motion picture feature. All of which sensationalised the hardships and brutalities of V a Georgia chain gang. Only the other week, governor Edison of New Jersey refused the extradiction demand of the Governor of Georgia - the demand that the fugitive be returned to serve out irtre his chain gang sentence. So now what aoout the fugitive from a New Jersey reformatory who has been pickeu up in Georgia. The nineteen year old negro youth, morris Jones, begged the Georgia police not to send him back to New Jersey. He ^aid he escaped - because the reformatory was too tough. If he had to serve out his sentence, he implored, he’d rasher do it in Georgia PRXSONi® in the chain gang. The New Jersey extradiction request for the fugitive is rather mild and inconclusive. The Jersey authorities asked the Georgia A police to instruct the nineteen year old negro to return. ’’Instruct” - that’s the word used. There wasn’t anybody available to send down to Georgia and bring the fugitive back. The Georgia police acceded to the letter of the demand. They instructed the negro youth to return to New Jersey, and turned him loose. When last seen, he had got himself a job in a Georgia Fertilizer Plant and was working there. So apparently the instructions didn’t take. He still prefers the chain gang - if necessary. USCrlCN in New York on Army day, April fifth, there’ll be a big parade - but the American Legion won’t be in it. tfhich certainly will be unusual for Army day. Every year, since the end of the World War, the Legion has been a dominant factor in every parade celebrating a military occasion. In fact, the Legion usually was the parade. So what has happened now in New York? It only goes to show how time passes and glory fades. The sponsors of the Army day pageant invited the American Legion to take part, but asked the Legionnaires not to take up too much room. They’d be allowed a hundred and eightjyards, in the miles and miles of parade. It was explained to the Legion that the bulk of the marchers would be rookies from nearby training centers - the draftees of nineteen forty one. Also a display of motorized equipment, seven hundred and fifty mechanized units the like of which the dough boys never saw in the Jorld »Var. 3o there wouldn’t be so much room for the American Legion. The Legionnaires are indignant, and today they turned do,,n the invitation altogether. If they’re small a space, they won’t march at all. The Lew York department commander writes to the Brigadier - General in charge of the LEGION - 2 Army day celebration as follows: "you are serving notice on these youngnen marching in the Army of the future," says he, "that a memory of sacrifice and contribution to the perpetuation of a nation will be limited to not more than twenty three years." The Romans had a phrase for it; "Sic transit gloria mundi." Yes a phrase that many of us should bear in mind:- "Sic transit glorio mundi." And now I fH switch back from the nows of Mt. Mansfied and let Hugh say so long for me.