The Corrigan Press (Corrigan, Tex.), Vol. 46, No. 24, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 15, 1940 Page: 2 of 10
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THE ROCKPORT PH OT
WHO’S
a”ml NEWS
THIS
WEEK
By LEMUEL F. PARTON
(Consolidated Features—WNU Service.)
VTEW YORK.—Snapping the Unit-
ed States liner, America, new
queen of the American Merchant
marine, through the Narrows, into
quaranti n e
and so on
to her dock,
Capt. Giles
Chester Sted-
man, master of the new leviathan,
handled his ship as deftly as a lad
would handle a toy. Indeed, in his
various maneuverings of the 35.000-
ton luxury liner on her maiden pas-
senger-carrying trip from Newport
News, Va., Captain Stedman evinced
sheer delight in putting his new
charge through her paces. The 900
guests, United States senators, ship-
ping magnates and so forth, must
have cast their thoughts back to
days when amid mountainous waves
and winds ranging from gale to hur-
ricane proportions, this young skip-
per—he is only 42 years old—per-
formed deeds of daring-do on the
deep, deeds that have gained for him
a gold medal from the Italian gov-
ernment; the United States navy
cross; the silver life-saving plaque
from the British admiralty; the
Treasury department gold medal
and other like testimonials of high
courage and skilled seamanship.
True Son of Old
Yankee Breed
Of Shellbacks
There was that tumultuous day
in the mid-Atlantic, October 20,
1925, when the President Hard-
ing, of which Stedman was then
chief officer, steamed to the res-
cue of the Italian freighter, Ig-
nazio Florio, beaten down and
sinking. Stedman stepped to one
of the lifeboats and called for a
volunteer crew. Every man jack
of the distressed crew was saved.
Two years later, westb<fund and
about 1,575 miles from New York,
the wireless operator brought Sted-
man a message from the British
freighter Exeter City. The craft
had lost her captain, third officer
and two seamen and was sinking.
The seas were a veritable
witchbrotli, the wind shrieking
at hurricane force. No possibili-
ty existed for the survival of a
small boat in sueh a sea. So
Stedman maneuvered his vessel
sufficiently close to admit of a
line being shot aboard the dis-
tressed freighter. With tackle
thus rigged, a lifeboat was low-
ered from the American Mer-
chant and pulled to the sinking
vessel and the crew saved. The
seamanship involved was said to
have represented one of the fin-
est exploits in American annals.
Last September, commanding
the United Slates liner Washing-
ton, Stedman rescued the entire
crew of the British freighter 01-
ivergrove torpedoed by U-boat.
As a youngster, deciding upon 8
sea career, Stedman joined thp Unit-
ed Stales Coastguard, where in the
first World war he saw two years*
hazardous service in convoy work
in the Mediterranean sea and Eng-
lish channel. Winn peace came,
Stedman enrolled in the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology for
courses in marine engineering. He
joined the United States Line in 1922.
was made a chief officer in 1925
and at the age of 34 received his
first command.
/“\NE of the most hard-boiled citi-
zens this reporter ever knew
was a bookish college dean who al-
ways spoke softly, but swung from
Colonel Peck of Somewhat "in j
Marines a Full this picture is I
Bushel of Spunk Col. De 'vitt
Peck of the
U. S. Marines, who gives quiet em- j
phasis to plain words in Shanghai,
as the Japanese menace the for-
eign areas and tension increases. '
The Japanese seem to think they |
need an “incident,” and Colonel
Peck isn’t at all likely to provide
one—but he doesn’t back down.
When he is in mufti or in-
formal dress, he is rarely with-
out a book in his pocket and
never without his pipe. lie may
or may not read Bergson, but
he “thinks like a man of action
and acts like a man of thought.”
He won the Victory Medal for
Gallantry in the World war bat-
tles of the Meuse-Argonne and
St. Mihiel, and the Medal of the
Purple Heart for doubling in
negotiating and fighting in Latin-
America. He graduated from
Annapolis in 1915 and is 46.
His career is a reminder that thi3
country has had quite a workout
in handling explosive situations here
and there around the world. In
Nicaragua, Cuba, Haiti and other
Latin-American countries, Colonel
Peck has been a successful trouble-
shooter and has brought things
through nicely without eating dirt
or leaving any hard feelings. He
has built a reputation as a scholar
in his studious application to prob-
lems of naval and military science.
He is six feet tall, slender and aca-
demic in appearance but said to
pack a powerful punch.
Washington, I). C.
GENERAL PERSHING
General Pershing’s, solemn warn-
ing that unless aid is given the Brit-
ish fleet to resist Hitler, the United
States faces certain attack, was not
a reply to the appeasement broad-
cast of Colonel Lindbergh. When the
A. E. F. commander decided, after
a study of confidential military re-
ports, to come out of retirement
and speak to the nation, he did not
know that the flyer also planned to
talk.
Also, Pershing wrote his speech
without any knowledge of what Lind-
bergh would say. However, Persh-
ing did tune in on the latter’s broad-
cast. But it was only for a few
minutes.
The General of the Armies be-
came so incensed at Lindbergh's
views that he turned off the radio
and snapped. “That’s outrageous.
I'm saying nothing about that young
man in my talk tonight, but I shall
make it my business to do so on
another occasion.”
TENANT FARMERS
Despite all the good intentions of
Henry Wallace regarding the share-
cropper and tenant farmer, the in-
side fact is that both have been in-
creasing in numbers and decreas-
ing in security, year by year. For
anybody who wants to write an-
other “Grapes of Wrath,” there is
more abundant material than ever.
It is not being shouted from the
housetops, but between 1930 and
1935. the number of farm tenants
I increased at the rate of 40.000 a
! year to reach the staggering total
| of 2,865,000. The 1940 census, when
■ the figures are out, is expected to
show a still higher figure.
Privately agriculture department
I officials admit that they are just
about licked, and have almost aban-
doned their drive to reduce ten-
antry.
There are three reasons for the
increase in tenant farming:
1. Increased mechanization. Best
index of this is the mounting sale
of tractors. Technological unem-
ployment. which long ago hit the
factory, has now come to the farm.
2. Reduced acreage. To prevent
price-depressing surpluses, AAA !
contracts with farmers to plant less. |
This means fewer tenants are need-
ed to plant, tend and harvest the
crops. Meantime, the rested land
next year gives higher yield, neces-
sitates further reduction of acre-
age.
3. In spite of AAA efforts, how-
ever, tenants and sharecroppers are
not getting proportional benefits of
AAA payments. The money goes to
the landlords, many of whom are
insurance companies and absentee
owners. AAA officials, headed by
Cully Cobb, have insisted they caq’t
make an issue of this or they will
lose landlords’ compliance.
Sharecropper Security.
Economists in the department are
now making a drive for security for
tenants. This represents a radical
shift of direction. For until recent-
ly, the drive was to convert tenants
to owners, with government aid.
Instead, realizing that many ten-
ants are incapable of owning and
operating a farm, AAA planners are
not trying to decrease the number
of tenants but to increase their in-
come and security. It is pointed out
that tenantry in England is much
higher than in the United States
(80 per cent against 42) but that
the English farm tenants have a
degree of protection unknown here.
First step in this direction is to
formalize and legalize the relation
between farmer and tenant by
bringing in a simple, uniform lease
to bind the relation between them.
Over 80 per cent of all tenants
and sharecroppers have only ver-
bal agreements with their landlords.
Conferences in the agriculture de-
partment are preparing for such a
drive. Preliminary material has
been drawn up, under Economist
Dover P. Trent. The country will
soon hear about the "flexible farm
lease.”
Approximately a million tenant
families (5,000,000 persons) move
“very year. Benefit payments,
poured out by the billions, never
touch them. They are the big un-
solved problem of the New Deal’s
agricultural reform.
♦ • *
MERRY-GO-ROUND
Rep. Joe Martin, new G. O. P.
national chairman, has added to his
staff Dave Ingalls, campaign man-
ager of Sen. BoB Taft.
The famed Indiana Two Per Cent
club is virtually broke and practical-
ly defunct. Harshest blow was the
new Hatch act. This is costing the
club hundreds of "dues” paying
members.
• • •
G. O. P. TROUBLES
The campaign organizing difficul-
ties of the faction-scarred Demo-
crats have been widely advertised.
Little has been said about it. But
the Republicans are having their
troubles too.
Real reason for that gathering of
party chiefs at Colorado Springs last
week was to clear away a batch
of inside snags which have caused
the Republican machine, after more
than a month of activity, to be less
than one-third organized.
WEEKLY MEWS ANALYSIS By Farnham F. Dudgeon
Senate Votes to Call National Guard;
War Spreads to Africa and Far East;
England Offers Self Rule to India;
U. S. Armed Forces Start War Games
(EDITOR’S NOTE—When opinions are expressed in these columns, they
are (hose of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.)
. Released by Western Newspaper Union
Boomerangs
r
%
*
m
GENERAL
HUGH S.
JOHNSON
Jaur:
VftlMt fMIurw J WNU SrnM
AS TO PERSHING’S SUGGESTION
NEW YORK.—General Pershing
says that we ought to sell 50 “obso-
lete” destroyers to England to save
our own country from Germany. On
the same subject George Fielding
Eliot says:
“The question which we have to
ask ourselves is u plain one. It
ought not to be befuddled by such
non-essentials as whether the trans-
fer of destroyers to Great Britain
would or would not be 'an act of
war’. It would be of course, but
that is only an academic question
. . . The legal definitions of interna-
tional conduct... are now obsolete.”
It seems that everything is now
obsolete as far as it suits the pur-
pose of those who are hell-bent on
getting this country into a war for
vVhich it is completely unprepared.
The destroyers are “obsolete.” Our
own engagements in treaties and
Roomer arnt throwing, warlike sport
of aboriginal Australia, has an expo-
nent in official If ashington in the per-
son of Henry Wallace, Democratic i ice
presidential nominee. He is pictured
here (left) giving some instructions in conventions and the things we have
j the art to Attorney General Robert always stood and sometimes fought
Jackson. Same day this picture teas
taken, one of the curved throwing
sticks went out of bounds, clipped a
news photographer on the head and
four stitches had to be taken to close
the wound.
Here are the “Big Four” in the new cabinet of Japan, set up after the
resignation of Premier Yonai. Left to right: Premier Prince Fumimaro
Konoye; Yosuke Matsuoka, foreign minister; Vice-Admiral Zengo Yoshlda,
minister of the navy; and Lieut. General Eiki Tojo, war minister. This new
cabinet is pledged to closer co-operation with the Rome-Berlin axis and has
set up its own Monroe Doctrine of the East.
(For further news of Japan, see—Indignation.)
U. S. DEFENSE:
W ar Games
Accent on war came closer to
home for hundreds of thousands of
American families when they saw
310,000 of their sons, brothers, and
fathers march off to the largest
peacetime maneuvers in American
history.
From coast to coast, border to
border, U. S. army regulars, Nation-
al Guardsmen and organized re-
serves were mobilized for a 21-day
training period that swung them in
divisions, corps and armies into sim-
ulated battle conditions in a war
game around the Canadian border.
Congress
Meanwhile President Roosevelt
sent a message asking congress for
authority to call the National Guard
into training for a year and gave
his endorsement to the movement
for peacetime conscription. After a
favorable committee report the
senate readily granted the National
Guard authority (71-7) and sent this
measure to the house.
Senate military committee ap-
proved the modified Burke-Wads-
worth conscription bill, but there
were predictions the weeks of com-
mittee debate are only the prelude
of what is ahead on the senate and
house floor. Bill now confines regis-
tration to men between ages of 21
to 31. Former War Secretary
Woodring opposes the measure and
urges lowering army enlistment pe-
riod of one year and raising pay, in
order to attract volunteers.
House leaders devoted hours of
struggle to excess profits taxes and
defense orders, combination of
which promises to be tightest bottle-
neck. Present plan is to permit
cost of plant expansions to be de-
ducted from taxable earnings over
five-year period, at rate of 20 per
cent each year. Manufacturers
want to net enough from defense
orders to pay for necessary new fa-
cilities, definitely do not want to risk
paying taxes on worthless property,
as many had to do after 1919. U. S.
Chamber of Commerce said: “Prob-
abilities of loss are so great . . .
many business men would rather
not undertake such business.”
Also in Washington:
C. List of contracts approved re-
vealed the navy had agreed to pur-
chase large number of trawlers to
lay submarine nets in principal U. S.
harbors.
C. Alien registration to include
3,600,000 will begin August 27.
C. Assistant State Secretary Welles
holds action by duress comes within
the act of Havana.
C. The house passed and sent to the
senate a bill to permit wire-tapping
in investigations of espionage, sab-
otage and treason.
C. Running for re-election to the
U. S. senate, in the Democratic
and Republican primaries, Senator
Hiram Johnson of California heard
himself labeled by President Roose-
velt as “no longer a liberal and cer-
tainly not a Progressive Democrat.”
4L J. It. McCarl, former comptroller
general, died in Washington.
C, Lord Bcavcrbrook, Canadian-born
London publisher, was added to
England’s inner war cabinet and is
expected soon to replace Alfred Duff
Cooper as minister of information,
fl. Neville Chamberlain, Britain’s
premier and advocate of appease-
ment, underwent an operation and
may retire from the cabinet.
C, Harriet Eliot, consumers’ mem-
ber of the National Defense com-
mission, revealed that body would
stagger buying for the army and
navy to prevent undue pressure on
the consumer and consequent price
raises.
BATTLE OF BRITAIN:
Invasion
Information from unoccupied
France was that German troops in
great volumes were moving toward
the French channel ports. Germany
closed all travel and communica-
tion routes between occupied and un-
occupied France.
Worried about the turn of events
in the Far East, England offered
self-rule to India after the war if
that country would now aid the Brit-
ish cause.
England, with a new army com-
mander-in-chief, Sir Alan Brooke,
changed its mode of defense. Boast-
ing an army of 4.000,000 well-trained
men, it swung back to the old theory
that the best defense is an offense.
Therefore road obstructions laid to
delay movement of an enemy if he
arrived were dug up—to permit the
British army to get at him faster,
if he did.
Bombings
England bombed Germany and
Germany bombed England. Both
sides claimed heavy damage to the
other. Germany claimed the port
of Dover, England, a shambles.
England claimed the port of Ham-
burg, Germany, “pulverized.” Both
sides denied they were hurt much.
Virtually all British raids on Ger-
many and German-held territory
have been night calls, when safety
is greatest for the fliers. On the
other hand, Germans have paid day-
light calls on England. This has
led to the opinion the Nazi fliers
were more interested in observation
than destruction. But several east-
ern and southern English ports vir-
tually have ceased to be open for
commerce.
In Africa
Meanwhile Mussolini began wai
like gestures in Africa. Italian
troops said to number 250,000 moved
from Italian possessions on Egypt
and British Somaliland. London
newspapers warned their readers to
expect some Italian successes.
Duce’s goal is believed to be Suez
and the gate to India.
INDIGNATION:
Japan So Sorry
Arrest of nine British trade lead-
ers and journalists in Japan was
designated by Tokyo as breaking
up of an espionage plot. Nipponese
reported “suicide” of one journalist
soon after his arrest. They said he
unfortunately leaped from a window.
England demanded explanations
and London papers called for re-
taliation. Four Britishers eventually
were released but London was
aroused by now and the arrest of
an undisclosed number of Japanese
in England, and elsewhere in the
British empire, put a further strain
on Anglo-Japanese relations.
Ambassador Namoru Shigemitsu
lodged a “strong protest” with Vis-
count Halifax, Britain’s foreign sec-
retary, against arrest in London of
representatives of two great Japa-
nese banking and commercial
houses. He was said to have re-
quested their immediate release.
There was no official comment, but
unofficially it was said the arrest of
the Britains in Japan and of the
Japanese in Britain was “pure co-
incidence.” Tokyo said the British
action was retaliation.
SPIES:
Nation Alert
G-Men have increased their force,
due to many complaints about espi-
onage, Chief G-Man J. Edgar Hoo-
ver told governors and their repre-
sentatives, called together by Pres-
ident Roosevelt to form a common
front against Fifth Columnists. Prior
to 1938 the FBI investigated 35 cases
a year. In 1938 the number rose to
250 and last year to 1,651. So far
this year 16,855 investigations have
been made.
CAMPAIGN:
The Farmer
Republican candidate, Wendell
; Willkie, bent an ear to the wheat
and corn belt problems when he end-
ed his Colorado vacation by going an ajmecj sh0t at 1,500 yards—espe-
to Des Moines, Iowa, to meet gov-. cial,y when you have nolhing with
ernors and their representatives which to replace it -
from mid western states. What they . ,. , ...
told him form the basis for his ag- ,. * stJ‘P ?,ocsn. nccfsa,rlly be,co™
“rthcnloto" nr "enrnlne ' cimnlv ho.
ricultural utterances in his accept-
for are, in international law, “ob-
solete.”
As to the destroyers being “obso-
lete”: If they are, how does it hap-
pen, as men of this opinion intimate
or argue, that the battle of Britain,
the fate of the world’s freedom and
the safety of our own country de-
pend upon sending them to Britain?
As an American officer said when
it was being argued that we ought
also to send over a million “obso-
lete” Springfield rifles, “No rifle is
obsolete that will kill a man with
ance speech. But he indicated he
will advocate no change in the cur-
rent farm program.
Efforts of Senator Wheeler (D.,
Mont.) to learn the Republican can-
‘obsolete” or “surplus” simply be-
cause it is 16 years old.
Nobody has shown this more
clearly and honestly than Major
Eliot. I don’t know his qualifica-
tions as a naval expert, but apply-
ing well known published naval
didate's views on the conscription standards and opinions as to the
measures failed. Willkie said the
President could have his opinion
anytime he asked for it. Otherwise
they also will first appear in the
acceptance speech.
proper ratio of destroyers to battle-
ships, Major Eliot showed that prac-
tically none of these destroyers is
surplus or can be taken without
stripping our own navy. They are
Democratic candidate for vice n0 more “surplus’* than “obsolete.”
president, Farm Secretary Henry A. I
Just as a sidelight, most of them
Wallace, changed his mind about arp armed wjth four.;nch and three.
staying in office during the cam-
paign. He said he will resign when
he accepts the nomination. He also
had a little trouble with a “boom-
erang” (see cut).
BRITAIN’S PROBLEM:
Naval Losses
inch guns, as well as with anti-
aircraft guns. Except for World
war 75 mm. artillery (about three-
inch), cannon of higher caliber and
anti-aircraft guns are what we do
not have, what we most need and
what we have the least prospect of
getting quickly.
German claims to heavy destruc-1 In Mr- Knudsen's last progress
tion of British shipping show basis reP°rt as published, bottle-neck
rr nf nrnnnrnlYi/mt UmrO HtC-
for alarm. Britain started war with
183 destroyers. They admit 29 are
sunk and more are laid up for re-
pairs. Less than 100 are believed
j in operation. Nazis say British loss
in merchant ships is larger than in
1 the World war, in excess of 5,000,000
tons.
Ships for Sale
| Condition may have reaction in
U. S. The United States has 238
destroyers, twice as many as any
other two navies. Committee to De-
fend America by Aiding Allies is
agitating for sale of 60 “over-age
and unused destroyers” to British.
Those favoring sale argue it would
be better to put ships to practical attacked or "threatened!
use than to allow them to rust These war minded men are p(Jt
in U. S. navy yards, [ jp the posjlion 0f having to say, and
Agitation was brought into the they do say, that we are so threat-
open when Gen. John J. Pershing, | ened now_t0 the death. If that is
items of procurement were dis-
cussed as weil as those in which
there were no bottle-necks. But he
didn't mention cannon. He proba-
bly didn't mention them because the
trouble there isn’t just a bottle-neck.
It’s a needle's eye and a flock of
camels.
Major Eliot is very frank and very
accurate in calling the shipment of
destroyers an “act of war.” It is
war itself. But it is vicarious war-
undercover war. The kind of war
we have always condemned and
pledged ourselves not to wage. The
weakness of this position seems to me
to be this: Our policy always has
been not to be aggressors in any
war. We fight only when we are
commander of the A. E. F„ spoke
in favor of the sale. He said it
might be the last act America
might be able to make “short of
war,” and said by sending help to
the British we “still can hope with
confidence to keep the war on the
other side of the Atlantic ocean.”
Col. Charles A. Lindbergh, in a
speech to the anti-war rally at Chi-
cago, warned that in the future
America “may have to deal with a
Europe dominated by Germany,"
and advocated "non-interference by
America with affairs in Europe.”
For these remarks the “lone eagle”
was branded as “the chief of the
fifth column in this country,” by
Senator Pepper of Florida. This
statement resulted in some bitter
debate on the floor of the senate.
MISCELLANY:
Disappointment
The duke and duchess of Windsor
frustrated the hopes of many ex-
pectant dowagers when they decid-
ed not to come to America, en
route to the former king’s new job,
governor general of the Bahamas.
His royal highness changed plans,
decided to disembark at Bermuda.
There have been rumors, however,
that his Pennsylvania-born, Balti-
more-bred wife soon may visit
America for a plastic operation, de-
tails unannounced.
When reserve army officers of the
medical corps were called to Car-
lisle barracks, Pennsylvania, for
training, the major course was trop-
ical and semi-tropical diseases.
A death sentence was voted by a
French court for the rebel Gen.
Charles de Galle, who fled to Eng-
land when the armistice was signed
and has since organized French
forces for further resistance. Still
to hear their fate are Former Pre-
miers Edouard Daladicr and Leon
Blum and Marshal Maurice Game-
lin. De Galle and Blum still are
not in French hands.
not true, then we ought not to go to
war—evon to this blind-pig, bootleg
war. If it is true, then we ought to
go to war tomorrow—with every-
thing we have. In a fight to a
knockout you can’t "hit soft.”
* * *
LINDBERGH AND PERSHING
You can get a sample taste of
what “can happen here" from the
debate in the senate blasting Charles
Lindbergh's speech.
Three New Deal senators, than
whom there are none whicher,
danced around the torture stake:
Minton, Pepper and—with deep
blushes for my own home state of
Oklahoma—that ineffable ex-teacher
of elocution and Desarte, Josh Lee.
These gentlemen offered to dis-
embowel Lindbergh for saying that
if we are going to do business at
all after this war is over, we will
have to do it with both victor and
vanquished, even if the victor is Ger-
many, that we shall have to recon-
cile ourselves to this idea and that
it would be wise to try to intercede
to stop this war before it destroys
any more of civilization.
Some journals imply that Lind-
bergh's speech had been ghost-writ-
ten by Nazis and contrasted it with
General Pershing’s urging that we
send part of our navy—50 destroy-
ers—into this war by the subterfuge
of "selling" them.
I disagree with part of what Lind-
bergh said, but the man who denies
his right to say it as being un-
American convicts himself thereby
of an un-American state of mind out-
Hitlering Hitler.
Black Jack at 80 is still one of
the world's great soldiers, but he
knows as little naval strategy as I,
George Eliot unconsciously “obso-
leted” his text at the moment of its
utterance. However, it may later
be dragooned by the apostate Knox.
I happen to know that the navy
doesn’t agreewith General Pershing.
1
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Straub, A. L. & Straub, Mrs. A. L. The Corrigan Press (Corrigan, Tex.), Vol. 46, No. 24, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 15, 1940, newspaper, August 15, 1940; Corrigan, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth645281/m1/2/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Livingston Municipal Library.