MELLON Today w-ord comes that the will of the late Andrew W. Mellon is involved in a strange perplexity. The last testament of the fabulous millionaire and former Secretary of the Treasury becomes entangled in an astonishing puzzle. How big a fortune did Andrew Mellon leave? That has been debated far and wide, with much confusion, the only certainty being - enormous. And today itfs the magnitude of the Mellon fortune that has brought about the singular dilemma. Andrew Mellon1s will is still waiting to be filed in Pittsburgh. There is talk of delay in putting it on record. Why? The law requires that the execut^SaS of a will shall put up a bond. Usually, the bond is equal to the value of the is that the bond shall be twice the value of the estate. Two of than a hundred million dollars. And some estimates put it as high as five hundred million. So you can see - the magnitude estate. When it is a case of out of town execui the custom of the bond - stupendously large, impossibly large^ MELLON - g Bonds are jcixx written by surety companies. The greatest of the surety companies never write any single bond able to go that high. Ami jf ordinary custom were followed, the Mellon estate might require as much as five hundred of those million dollar bonds. So you can see the almeafr fantastic dilemma brought about by an almost fantastic fortune. Therefore, there is delay in filing the will. An attempt will be made to get the court to set a bond at a low amount, though not so low for you and me. Say - ten million dollars. -That would bo about the maximum for the ouroty cumjjdLnleij; and would bos l Hie estate ir -hHn n n H ■■ ^ r-rT 1 t vr.n v in f orr,-.—- For an—Impossible band^jof-fiygHFmhdred million, the fees wOU±dr-eomo to a million. -eight* liuildred t no u sin a aouxars a year. It sounds like a wild dream of astronomical figures, but then theAndrew Mellon fortune includes more dollars than there are miles between the earth and the sun, maybe five times bigger than a million handful of them as many. RACE The Bendix Trophy race is over. Frank Fuller wins. Re flew across country, over Cleveland, and then here to the East Coast —• in nine hours and thirty-six minutes. That»s a half an hour faster than the record for these Bendix races, the previous mark set by Roscoe Turner. Speedster Fuller flew a Seversky monoplane, this makes up somewhat for the mishap the builder had. when Major Severskyr s plane burned and he narrowly escaped with his life. MacMILLAN Today, there’s raore word from the MacMillan Arctic // f * expedition, which is on its way back. Mactt£3&a» has sent a dispatch in which he tells of a visit to some remnants of brick and mortar, bits of pottery, foundations of houses - on the icy shore of far northern Baffin Bayf—Lingering remains of a colony that the great explorer, Martin Frobisher, tried to plant forty-five years before the Pilgrim Fathers landed IT" at Plymouth Rock.” The MacMillan party even found an old abandoned mine. And this recalls the tragic folly of Frobisher, that mighty explorer of the north. He thought he had found Arctic gold, and took a shipload of ore with him back to England - thinking it was a treasure of precious metal. But they found it was ’’fool’s gold,” fcffldkze*; ru£t~ mere yellowissteap$£ttK^ iron^dasti'^^ a pound sterling in the shipload. Now, three hundred and sixty-two years later, a modern expedition finds the relics of Frobisher’s misadventure with fool’s gold. MABVILLE In. five great Hew York papers today a full page adver­ tisement appears. Yes, a. full page on which are printed these fev; words in great black letters: W Ah TED, AH ATTORNEY ..... TOMMY MANYIDLE. Those are the words. Playboy Tommy, as you may know, is renowned'as the heir to a great asbestos fortune, famous also for his lively misad­ ventures in matrimony. Lighthearted Tommyfs millions and Gay Tommy * s wives have been the talk of the town many a time — with legal difficulties and mix-ups in the courts. This time the asbestoes heir needs inspired legal aid in divorce difficulties with Mrs, Tom y Number Four — the blonde and beauteous Marcelle, Today the Manville home at New Rochelle — Bon Repos — was deluged with responses to the full page ads. The Metropolis has about twenty thousand attorneys on record, and of these a sizeable portion put in their applications. Whereupon Tommy passed out a list of qualifications. His new attorney must be a man of action. He must know a thing or two about women and the ways of women . No bashful, innocent, ignorant of feminine wiles riOVIILE - P. He must be born in April. Tommy himself was born with an April horoscope. He says it denotes men of warlike force — because it is under the si^n of Mars* the God of War. I took a look at an astrological book today and discovered that April is likewise under the sign of Aries, the Ram. Well, the ram is also forceful, always butting in. Such is the type of lawyer wanted to solve Tommy1s troubles with Mrs. Tommy Humber Four — the bewitching Marcelle* The complicated question is: ~ How large a slice of the asbestos fortune will the fascinating Marcelle get? I *ve heard it said that she will take a million. But Tommy has an idea. And 11*8 apip. He has an inspira­ tion that will make things easy for his April lawyer. He wants a jury to decide on the claims of Mrs. Tommy Humber Four — this jury to consifet of the three previous Mrs. Manvilles — his three former wives. There* s Florence Huber, to whom he was wedded for six years and then divorced; and Lois McCoin, who stuck around for two years; and Tvonne Taylor, who didn*t last even a year. "They're sweet girls," says Tommy, "and they all still love me" says Tommy. IlAi'; VTLLE - 5 So he wants them to act as a jury of three and pass judgment on the dazzling blondeHareelle and decide how big a slice of the Manville millions she shall get. It's a great idea for the April Lawyer, but ^ wonder what Marc elle will say? She might exclaim. — April fooll ° FLASH. Tommy hired a lawyer today, a former Commissioner of Public Safety of Yonkers. Public Safetyl Thatfs what's needed MUSSOLINI Today Rome was stirred by a sensational story - an air raid against Mussolini! The rumor spread that antl-Fascist warplanes were striking at the Black Shirt Dictator, out to get the Duce. For hours the Italian government has been issuing emphatic denials, trying to scotch the report. With these denials comes the statement of what really happened, an explanation of how the rumor began. Mussolini lives in an old Roman palace, the Villa Torlonia. It happened that four Italian bombers were out on a routine flight, and they chanced to pass over the Duce’s home. They were bound for bombing practice and had aboard cargoes of dummy target hitting bombs. The curious accident occurred when one of these dummy bombs got loose and fell, Just as the plane 'rfr— was passing over the Duce’s residence, and narrowly missed A landed on top of a shed in the villa grounds. People saw the planes and the falling sky torpedo, and immediately the rumor spread - an attempt to sky*»bomb Mussolini. PRECEDE SPAIN There's one sinister phrase in the Spanish news tonight, an evil reminiscence o2 the World War. The phrase - "sink without trace." Twenty years ago_the ugly report was that German submarines were ordered to sink merchant vessels - without trace. Today we hear this expression applied to the sinking - of submarines, those pirate undersea boats which have been so much in the news, H ^ nni nnti suhTna-pj-pm .craft p r p mn thal r wny t-e>-t.hn VTod it.prra naan tn guard flga-Tn<=;t ■torptidu Httacs.s,—such—as—have been made on Bx*i Lish vessels thpytyp OTTjjjMagril >inon crdi«>rt>d tn nnt=» -hhci r dppth-hnmhy. mh A- -s-ink those pirate submarines. a pirate submarine, because it might turn out to belong to - London or Paris. But in Moscow they are not so guarded. The Communists are naming names. The Soviet newspapers today were ?oing frantic with journalistic rage. And mass meetings of fierce Dne report says- that- It might not be wise to capture a " * power. So-sink without PRECEDE SPAIN - 2 Because denunciation were held -fcoday in Red Russia. -T-hoy denounce^the torpedoing of a Russian steamship off the coast of Greece. And, here are some of the phrases used. "The heinous crime of the | writes Italian pirates," xtamix one Soviet journalist. "The mad /T“ A \Communist\ Italian Fascist bandits," shouts the offieialVhewspaper, PRAvSbA, And the daily journal of the Red Army caps the climax with this ( most curious phrase - "the Fascist cannibals." That anthropo^^NA^ epithet seems like Red going purple. With all this sound and fury^ it that ^ Spanish Left W’Ing submarine put Into a French port today and asked for help - the sub damaged. Damaged by bombs, the Left Wing captain said. What kind of^bombs would hit a submarine# except depth charges? The British several days ago dropped depth charges - to destroy one of those pirate submarines. And the Italians have been charging that the torpedo-attacks have actual: been made by the Spanish.Left-Wingers^with the idea of stirring up international trouble ’national trouble.) ght Sir. soi Hght. jim some highly significant logic, feutososaadbgji^fid^^ if it ■:erenTt for the fact that the piracy and depth bombing xeeb BRECEDE SPAIN - 3 were done in the Mediterranean, while todayT s,suVnarine, damaged -4»y hnmhs^ put into a French port in the Bay of Biscay^ •from the Mediterranean. So the whole episode is a puzzle. A y \ SPAli'j Today the text was made public of the official declara­ tion by the clergy of Spain concerning the Civil War. A pastoral letter supporting the Franco rebellion, is signed by two cardinals, six archbishops and thirty-five bishops, and denounces the Government's anti-religious policy — which provoked the military revolt. "The Constitution and the Secularist laws as developed in Spain," says the pastoral letter, "were a violent and continu­ ous attack upon the national conscience. The rights of God being abolished and the church being persecuted," So — the clergy of Spain justify the Franco rebellion as a reaction against religious persecution. The case of the American aviator, said to be condemned to be shot in Spain, is causing perplexity in Washington. The State Department is trying to get a confirmation of a report that a Franco court martial has doomed Harold Dahl, an American aviaotr who fought with the Left Wingers. Dahl* s mother has made an appeal to Secretary Hull. The state Department is described as reluctant to act even if" the report is confirmed that the American flyer has SPAia -2 been condemned to be shot. It is pointed out that the United States government has again and again warned Americans about joining up with foreign armies at var — especially in the Spanish Civil War. The Secretary of State has formally told them that they do so at their own risk, and that they renounce the right to appeal to the United States government — when they get into a jam. I heard a curious, moody story from Spain. I got it from Countess Kina Belmonte, of the Hidalgo aristrocracy, The tale might be called a tragic version of the "three Little Pigs." "Three Pigs and a Hero.” Weeks ago, when the Rebels were driving against Bilbao, they captured a village, and there they sav? a peasant and three pigs _ skinny pigs, just about the thinnest porkers you ever saw. The peasant told how the Left Wing Commissariat had seized his crops — and he determined to save his three pigs. He dug a hidden underground cavern, and kept them there — feeding them what little he could. Again and again the Le.lt Lingers came looking SPAIi'-i - 3 for provisions — hut they couldn11 find the pigs. Finally, the Rebel advance drove them away, and the peasant brought his beloved pigs to the light of day once more. The Franco officers listened to this story with amusement. They, too, could have used some pork chops, but they not only let the simple fellow have his pigs but gave him grain to feed them. In a few days the .ers were becoming as fat and sleek as porkers should be. The peasant was carried away with gratitude, so grateful that he joined the Rebel array and proceeded to perfrom prodigious exploits on the battlefield. Today Hels the bright and particular hero of the Franco regiments in the northwest. A story of heroism and pigsi CHINA ^ The battle of Shanghai seems at its most ferocious tonight^ savage hand-to-hand fighting, troops maddened with hate striking at close quarters, infantry charging machine guns, regiments clashing with bayonets. And the Chinese are said to be winning in todayTs struggle, driving the Japanese back, I^The news that comes across the cables tells of dense masses of Chinese troops, maddened with rage against the Japanese, hurling themselves on the enemy line.^ Reckless of their own lives, eager only to get at the hated men from Nippon, Under that wild mass-* attack, the Japanese line bent and gave way. Fighting with grim bitterness, the Mikadots troops mowed down the rushing Chinese. But more and more of the soldiers of China poured forward in reckless charges. This evening the report is that in some places the Japanese have been driven back to the river - the Whangpoo, along which the Japanese concession in Shanghai extends, ?hifr* ■defies. rather MgaifeeKfcteteg i.hn minounooiBent of jthe Japanese generals that- a big push to drive the Chinese right out of Shanghai, {The vast man power of China is making a push of its ovm^ CHINA - 2 During the battle and storm of artillery fire shells went whizzing into the International Settlement. The American concession was hit. One high explosive missile struck the roof of the barracks of our marines, but it didn*t explode. And now. I’m on my way to another China War assignment. Newsreel pictures have just come in of the bombardment of Shanghai, — across the Pacific by Clipper Ship. Meaning my colleague Bonney Powell has been on the job in the thick of it out there. Also, that singular character, "Nev/sreel” Wong, the Chinaman who is 4)fie most famous cameraman in the Far East. So I'm off now — "Shanghai bound" — pictorially speaking, and SO LONG UNTIL MONDAY.