The Corrigan Press (Corrigan, Tex.), Vol. 42, No. 24, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 4, 1936 Page: 3 of 8
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Magazine Section
THE CORRIGAN PRESS
CORRIGAN, TEXAS, THURSDAY. JUNE 4, 1936
BRISBANE
THIS WEEK.
The Big “Blaek Legion”
More and Better Babies
A Worried Empire
U. S. Dollars Emigrate
The “ritual” of the murderous secret
society called the “Mack Legion” con-
tains some oh!
“Know * Nothing”
features. The can-
didate for admis-
sion must he “will-
ing to commit mur-
der, to proceed
against Catholics,
Jews and Negroes”;
he must be “native
born, Protestant,
white and gentile.”
News Review of Current
Events the World Over
Serious Labor Troubles in Many States—Moley Warns the
Administration—Municipal Bankruptcy
Act Is Held Invalid.
Arthur Hrisli.-mr
The “Black Le-
gion," which prob-
ably will not lust
long, had ambitious
plans. Among
other things it proposed to overthrow
the federal government, which Is not
an original Idea. It was also going to
set up a dictatorship, with nlght-rldlng
regiments to enforce discipline. Dic-
tatorship Is not a new idea, either.
Strange things are done or planned
In the name of “liberty" now, as they
were when Madam Roland mounted
the guillotine platform.
By EDWARD W. PICKARD
C Western Nowapaper Union.
Russia wants bigger families, like
Mussolini and others with “plans."
Stalin wants plenty of new little citi-
zens.
A thousand million rabies will be set
aside by Moscow to “subsidize large
families and aid mothers." Birth con-
trol ladles and gentlemen will hear,
surprised, that aid to large families
will begin after the seventh child.
Seven are taken as a matter of course;
that Is Just the beginning of a Russian
family.
Chancellor Hitler of Germany joins
In the “more and better babies" cry.
The German ideal is no longer the
beautiful golden-haired Margaret, spin-
ning her wheel and saying “No.” The
Nazis demand women who, “above
everything else, can become the moth-
ers of several children," and are will-
ing to do so, according to a representa-
tive of Chancellor Hitler.
William Philip Simms, English, Is
afraid the British empire may not sur-
vive, on account of "air fleet peril."
Britain Is disturbed by the thought
that her whole Imperial line of com-
munication, stretching 4,000 miles from
the Straits of Gibraltar to the Gulf of
Aden, Is under Mussolini’s bombing
planes. Except that her empire Ifi'
the biggest, England should not worry
more than other countries. With sur-
face ships losing all Importance, except
in the opinions of some Americans,
anybody’s bombers can break np any
line of communications temporarily.
"Americans investing huge sums In
the Bahamas, to escape Income tax,"
Says the New York Times, big type,
front page.
Americans have been “investing huge
sums” elsewhere, outside of the United
States. Billions of American money
have gone to Canada, England and
other “foreign parts." More will go.
In all the Bahamas, 4,403 square
miles of beautiful territory, there is no
income tax. Think of that for a
happy country.
CWCTORIES and farms In 15 states,
*■ In all parts of the Union, were af-
fected by labor troubles which Inter-
mediaries were trying in vain to settle.
Leaders of organized labor claimed
that from 30,000 to 43,000 strikers al-
ready were out, but employers chal-
lenged the union claims that the strikes
were effective.
Workers in six plants of Remington
Rand, Inc., were out on strike after
union leaders ordered a walkout at
Syracuse, N. Y. They said 6,000 work-
ers In the company’s New York, Ohio
and Connecticut plunts were involved.
Company officials asserted there were
4,200 affected.
Six thousand barbers In lower Man-
hattan, New York, were ordered to
join 3,000 others in a strike which had
spread over a wide area of Manhattan,
the Bronx and Brooklyn.
Striking seamen In New York were
said to number 7,000 and there was a
good deal of trouble over their efforts
to picket the piers and the home of
Mayor La Guardia.
Two hundred office workers and com-
pany police In Portsmouth, Ohio, were
besieged in the strike-closed plant of
the Wheeling Steel corporation; and
in Akron, Ohio, employees of the Good-
year Tire and Rubber company were
arrested for violating an anti-riol law.
In other states the union leaders
thus estimated the number on strike:
Arkansas—Three thousand tenant
farmers.
California—One thousand celery field
workers.
Oregon and Washington—Seven thou-
sand loggers.
Wisconsin — Twenty-five hundred
workers in various Industries.
Minnesota—About 500 millwrights,
fur and cereal workers.
Indiana—About 175 in various Indus-
tries.
Iowa—One hundred employees of the
Burch Biscuit company In Des Moines.
South Dakota—Three hundred butch
ers at Morrell packing plant, Sioux
Falls,
Nebraska—One hundred highway
workers.
Texas—Sixty-two power plant work-
ers at El Paso.
Vermont—Two hundred marble work-
ers near Rutland.
designed to permit cities and other po-
litical subdivisions which found them-
selves In financial straits to effect a
composition, with the approval of two-
thirds of the bondholders or other
creditors, whereby the Indebtedness
could he readjusted, scaled down, or, as
Mr. Justice McHeynolds put It, “re-
pudiated.”
' | 'HE United States treasury will on-
dertake the biggest peace time bor-
rowing operation In the nation’s his-
tory, Secretary of the Treasury Mor-
genthau disclosed In an official an-
nouncement revealing that $2,050,754,-
410 of government securities will be
offered the middle of June. This financ-
ing calls for an even billion dollars
of new money, In addition to the
$1,050,754,416 required to meet matur-
ing obligations.
OENATOR ROBINSON’S resolution
^5 authorizing the continuance of the
Florida ship canal and Passamaquoddy
tide harnessing projects was favora-
bly reported by the senate commerce
committee after Mr. Robinson had told
the members the administration want-
ed the schemes kept alive as work re-
lief measures.
Senator Vandenberg of Michigan
warned the majority leaders they bad
better not bring the resolution up In
the senate If they really wanted ad-
journment by June 6, for he had 21
amendments to offer and each one
would lend to prolonged debate.
Robinson’s resolution authorizes the
President to appoint two boards o£
three engineers each to examine and
make reports upon surveys that have
already been made of the two projects.
They would have to report to the Pres-
ident by June 20 of this year.
VIGILANTES WAR ON RURAL CRIME
Loss From Farm Thefts Is Greater Than From Bank Robberies and
Kidnaping in Illinois; Organize Vigilante Corps
W:
By WILLIAM C. UTLEY
HO is Public Enemy No. 1? The kidnaper? The gang kill-
er? The bank robber? The racketeer?
Perhaps. At least it is these desperadoes whose spec-
tacular exploits make the big headlines. Their ruthless and merciless
work, often conducted right out in the open, is not infrequently
touched up with a bit of showmanship which makes them the type of
characters which fire the public imagination.
The urgency for exercising every method within human means
for apprehending these criminals is not to be minimized. But the very
publicity, ascending sometimes to outright ballyhoo in the enthusi-
asms of the more vigorous press, which 4-
attends their comings and goings, unfor-
tunately overshadows another type of
«-
public enemy, who works quietly and
in most cases Inconspicuously, but
whose evil deeds are often of more
serious consequence than those of his
more spectacular brother In crime.
The citizen who lives In rural areas
or on the farms often entertains tills
Rural Public Enemy No. 1 In his own
back yard without knowing It. For
this Is the common chicken thief. He
and the others of his kind who steal
horses, cattle, and farm produce and
machinery are, collectively, far more
important to the farmer than all of
the bank robbers In creation.
Importance Is Unrealized.
Chicken stealing is usually regarded
as a low type of crime, perpetrated
only by the small fry, the hungry hobo
or the wayward, minstrel-joke darkey,
Often when the thief is caught he Is
brutally murdered while trying to pro-
tect his employer against loss at the
hands of thieves, called for action.
Mass Meeting Starts It.
Action that was taken In this state
has proved so successful that now Illi-
nois’ methods are serving as a model
for the combat against rural crime in
other states. Inspector Saunders,
working under Walter L. McLaughlin,
state director of agriculture, and tn
close co-operation with press and radio,
lias served as the focal head for the
campaign. Already It Is hearing fruit,
for while the decrease In crime through
out the nation generally last year was
13 per cent, the decrease In Illinois
was 40 per cent. Especially tn the
last six months has the fight against
rural crime proved to be a victorious
one for Justice.
It began in Joliet, Will county, with a
mast meeting in which more than 1,000
Needless to say. If enough Ameri-
can money pours in to make it worth
while the intelligent British will find
a way to tax it.
Germany has proved the "48-hours-
from-Europe-to-Amerlca” possibility,
with America looking on.
Now England Is rushing prepara-
tions for a line of henvler-than-air
planes to fly between Engla’nd and
America, starting in a few months,
and Wie French, preparing a similar
line, are negotiating for a half-way
harbor at the Azores. The southern
route was said to tie the wisest by
Lindbergh, shortly after his great
flight.
Raymond
Moley
Many Frenchmen are disturbed and
puzzled by the situation In Europe,
and General Mordacq, close associate
of Clemenceau in the war, discusses
the question, “What would Clemenceau
do If he could come back?”-
France feels the need of "a man with
a fist,” un homme a poigne, and
Clemenceau was that kind.
Concerning that fine old fighter from
the Vendee, It is safe to say that If he
came back he would hasten prepara-
tions for another war. But he would
not have waited until now.
A new comet now approaching us.
discovered by and named for L. C. Pel-
tier, amateur astronomer, who works
In a garage, will he the first comet
visible to the naked eye since 1927,
© Ivins Features Syndicate, lac,
WNU Service.
TO AYMOND MOLEY, who used to be
xA. considered the chief of the "brain
trust,” fears that his friend President
Roosevelt may be destroyed politically
by the radicals within
the Democratic party
who at the same time
would “destroy moder-
ation and destroy the
very system which he
attempted to improve."
In a speech before
the National Economy
league in New York,
Doctor Moley said be
saw confronting the
Roosevelt administra-
tion these dangers:
1. That federal re-
lief agencies will be turned Into politi-
cal machines to perpetuate the rule of
state and local politicians.
2. The tendency, “all too prevalent
In this congress, to engage in muck-
raking, marauding expeditions which
destroy the liberty of all of the peo-
ple while they seek to restrain the
abuses of a few. These orgies of pub-
lic castigation . . . may bemoans of
furthering individual political ambi-
tions, tliey may be build-ups for those
with Presidential hankerings, but so
far ns the public interest Is concerned
they are simply sound and fury."
3. The tendency “of those In
charge of the New Deal to over-empha-
size adherence to the belief In the
philosophy of the movement and to
minimize the importance of competent
technical administration."
Doctor Moley defended capitalism;
declared that already there has beeD
a wide distribution of wealth In this
country, and warned the average man
that he eventually must pay the mount-
ing bills for relief—that he is the “mis-
sionary being fattened for a canni-
balistic feast."
1 p" RANK O. LOWDEN of Illinois
" will be the choice of the Repub-
lican convention for President If he
will accept the nomination.”
That was the confi-
dent prediction of a po-
litical observer who Is
usually well Informed
and close to sources of
national party news.
He declared there was
a steadily growing de-
mand from many parts
of the Union for the
nomination of the for-
mer governor of nil-
This new method of identification is
applied to the car of livestock or under
the web of the wing of poultry, it
facilitates identification of stolen prop-
erty and thus improves chances of con-
victing criminals.
their families are trained to be on the
lookout for suspicious automobiles and
suspicious-looking strangers and situa-
tions. When a theft is reported, the
farmers immediately report any ac-
tions or persons of a suspicious nature
that they may have observed at or
Sent on his way with a kick in the
pants or is simply given a good scare.
It Is not unusual to find the farmer
he has attempted to burglarize protect-
ing him from prosecution which might
net him six months on a slate penal
farm, a sentence that might be regard-
ed as “a little stiff" for Just stealing
a chicken to two.
Stiff sentence? The monetary loss to
0*7 B^veruor ui uu- | /flrmer, hu y(>(ir one Jtatc aLc_///;.
no 9, who always has rwis—from chicken stealing and kindred
been p o pu 1 a r With rural crimes was more than the loss of
farmers and whose the entire nation from hank robberies
qualities of statesmanship are recog- and kidnapings, according to Ross C.
nlzed generally throughout the coun- Saunders, rural crime prevention inspec-
Iry. Mr. Lowden is vigorous and hale, tor for ll,e s,atr agriculture department.
From the 231,000 farms of the state, says
Saunders, there were stolen 1,500,000
chickens, 20.000 head of cattle and un-
counted tools and implements.
Other states have been subjected to
enormous losses from what seems on
the surface to be petty thievery. A
survey conducted In Indiana by a farm
magazine revealed that In a single
I year there were 580,183 head of poul-
try stolen, 2.8.82 hogs, 8,212 head of
other livestock, 7,123 gallons of gaso-
i line, 27,122 bushels of grain. There
and he is always actively Interested
In the welfare of his state and nation,
especially in the problems of the agri-
culturist.
pONGRESSMAN TINKHAM of Mns-
^ sachusetts Is one of those Repub-
licans who think the chances of their
party for victory In November would
he enhanced If a coalition with disaf-
fected Democrats were formed aud the
ticket shared with them.
“ihe country Is facing ns great a were 819 thefts of tools and imple-
crisis as it faced In the Civil war,” ments, 133 thefts of clothing, !>‘)7
lie said. “This Involves the very char-
acter of the government of the United ;
States. The question Is, ‘Are the gov-
ernment and the Institutions of the
United States to remain American op
become European or Asiatic?’
‘This crisis Is so great that It should i
eliminate all party lines, and the Re-
publicans should nominate ns Vice
President a Democrat. I suggest that
they nominate Alfred E. Srnlth.”-
rpiVE Justices of the United States
” Supreme court held Invalid the mu-
nicipal bankruptcy act of 1934, declar-
ing It to be an unwarranted invasion
of state sovereignty. Four Justices dis-
sented, these being Chief Justice
Hughes and Justices Stone, Brandels
and Gardozo. The majority opinion
was written by Justice James C. Me-
Reynolds. The cose was brought by
bondholders of a water improvement
district In Texas.
The municipal bankruptcy act was
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT starts on
* his trip to Arkansas, Texas and In-
diana on June 8, and he told the cor-
respondents It would not be a political
tour. Ills speeches, he said, would be
historical, dealing with early days in
the three states. He has no slightest
intention of stealing the show from the
Republican national convention.
Mr. Roosevelt planned this trip some
(line ago so that he might take a cruise
along the Mniue coast line late la June
with his sons.
A RABS of Palestine, rebelling
against British protection of Jew-
ish Immigration, are causing Britain a
lot of trouble. Englis.i soldiers fought
real battles with the Arabs In several
localities, and Jews throughout the
Holy Land were arming themselves In
self-defense. Casualties in the fight-
ing were few, but the situation was so
serious that Sir Arthur Wauchope, Brit-
ish high commissioner, asked the gov-
ernment for more troops.
Ross C. Saunders, leader In Illinois’
model rural crime prevention cam-
paign.
thefts of goods and 2,253 miscellaneous
thefts from farms.
In Illinois chicken thefts, for ten
years during which some sort of check
has been maintained, have averaged
about a million head of chickens an-
nually and 12,000 head of livestock.
The situation, which readied a climax
when a young man of Will county was
farmers gathered following the murder of
youthful John Blivernichl, who went to
investigate a suspicious car in the neigh-
borhood of his employer's farm and was
shot in cold blood. Eugene Shilcut, the
negro who killed him, escaped, but was
found later in Tennessee, shot tp death
by a bullet from a 22.
Because Will county was the first
openly to declare war on rural crime,
the results of Its meeting and organiza-
tion were watched with Interest by the
entire Middle West. The farmers of
the county themselves were In a fever
heat of Indignation against the three
or four complaints of theft which had
been made to authorities every night.
From evidence uncovered at this
meeting and at meetings In other parts
of the state It became apparent that
rural thievery was not the work of In-
dividuals, but of gangs. Often these
gangs were led by seasoned criminals
who had been driven from the cities
by the elficient campaign against crime
there. These leaders hired men to
make systematic small thefts; the com-
bined total of all of them was enough
to stamp the new racket as important.
Cattle Rustling Returns.
Even cattle rustling became big busi-
ness to the gangs, although It was not,
to be sure, the cattle rustling of the
old West. In these days of smooth,
concrete highways and fast-moving
trucks It Is possible to steal a few
head of cattle, load thorn onto n truck
and move them across n state in a
single night. Often the gangs worked
In relays, one truck spiriting away the
stolen animals and another waiting for
the load to be transferred to it at the
state line. Sometimes the gang’s hide-
out was 300 or 400 miles away from
the area where most of their thievery
was perpetrated.
Farmers, slow' to awaken to the seri-
ousness of the disappearance of their
livestock and chickens a few head at
a time, were often entirely unaware
that their neighbors were experiencing
similar losses. Small losses were sel-
dom reported; farmers in some cases
undoubtedly thought themselves fully
capable of coping with a common
chicken thief. Where It was actually
discovered that the thefts were the
work of gangs or of the more des-
perate type of criminal, farm families
hesitated to report thefts for fear the
burglars would return and set their
houses or farm buildings on fire.
The. answer se.ems now to bn that in
union there, is strength. Thirty days after
the. IF ill county farmers met and organ-
ized, Sheriff linen was able to report
that thievery had stopped.
How did these farmers effect this
efficient clean up so swiftly?
Definite instructions are given all
farmers In the area. Farmers and
Eugene Shilcut, chicken ^h ef who
slew Joliet (III.) youth and was later
slain Ijdmself in Tennessee.
near the time of the theft. More often
than not the information obtalued
leads to a solution of the crime.
How this works may be shown by
a few examples:
Recently a man was convicted of
cattle-stealing In Iowa. He had been
transporting the cattle through Illi-
nois to his farm near South Bend, Ind.
Two women saw his truck at an oil
station and the furtive manner of Its
occupants aroused suspicion. The
women copied the name and address
from the side of the truck. The result
was an arrest, followed by conviction
and the recovery of the cattle by the
owner.
A farmer near Chicago saw a car
parked along the open highway for no
apparent reason. He became suspicious,
took down the license number and re-
ported it. The result uas the arrest of 28
chicken thiex'es uho hod operated as a
gang and had stolen thousands of head of
poultry in northern Illinois.
Cases Just like these can he rattled
off by the hundreds. Co-operatlon by
all the farmers, a really simple thing
to accomplish in areas where losses
have been heavy, Is about all that is
needed. It has been shown that the
gangs pull up slakes when the farmers
unite against them.
Other Methods Help.
There are other methods which can
be of great help. A large number oC
hen houses are now being equipped
with burglar alarms which have proved
effective. But even more important
is the Institution in each state of uni-
form registration of poultry and live-
stock. If It were required that some
kind of Identification mark be put on
the web of the wing of poultry and on
John Blivernicht, whose murder at
the hands of a rural thief stirred Illi-
nois farmers to action.
the ear or some part of the body of
animals that would be a protecton.
It is all too frequent an occurence that
suspected criminals, when their cases
come to trial, are of necessity acquitted
because the complaining farmer lias no
way of positively identifying his poultry
or his live stock. I his “branding” can
make such identification possible.
A method has been developed In Illi-
nois which seems to fill the* hill and
which will probably be adopted soon
by the farmers of other states. The
mark is quickly applied with a simple
tool and the application Is far more
humane than the old-time branding
with a hot Iron and is In effect some-
what similar to tattooing.
Branding, of course, would also re-
move the packing companies which buy
the farmers’ product from embarrassing
positions In which they sometimes find
themselves. They occasionally and
quite innocently buy stolon poultry or
livestock from thieves without know-
ing It, and thus help foster rural crime.
The law makes it mandatory for the
buyers of stolen goods to reimburse
the losers upon proof that the prop-
erty was stolen.
<£) Western Newspaper Union.
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Gilbert, J. R. The Corrigan Press (Corrigan, Tex.), Vol. 42, No. 24, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 4, 1936, newspaper, June 4, 1936; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth643372/m1/3/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Livingston Municipal Library.