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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (July 9, 1936)
SEEN and HEARD around the c NATIONAL CAPITAL! By Carter Field ^ FAMOUS WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT Washington—"Edging a little fur ther to the left," the advice given by Democratic National Commit teeman Joseph Wolf of Minnesota to Roosevelt leaders to offset the defections caused by the bolting of conservative Democrats, is not so significant so far as the admin istration policies—assuming Roose velt is re-elected—are concerned. Roosevelt will continue his own sweet way whether his "mandate” to do so comes by a big majority or is of the "skin of his teeth” variety He will be no more dis turbed in his course than was Woodrow Wilson when the expect ed mandate of 1918 resulted in a popular rebuke. What is really important is that Wolf, a very astute observer of trends in the Northwest, is distinct ly disturbed over the Lemke-Fa ther Coughlin-Townsend thira party ticket He is frankly afraid, and so told leaders of the New Deal that the net result might be to throw Minnesota to Gov. Alf M. Landon. Most unprejudiced political ob servers have been figuring for some weeks now that South Da kota. Iowa and Nebraska, as well as Kansas, were leaning Republi can. All of which would do Landon no good unless he holds all the big eastern states. But they had been virtually unanimous in conceding North Dakota and Minnesota, and of course Montana, to Roosevelt. In short, most observer! had come to the conclusion that Landon could be elected if—he could carry New York and Illinois. That goes for Indiana also, and Ohio. But opinion has been that if the tide for Roosevelt should turn in Illi nois, Indiana would be for the Kan sas Coolidge by the same token, while Ohio seems set to go Repub lican regardless of what its neigh bors may do. Experts Are Wrong Putting Minnesota in the balance does not change the essenual ele ments of the situation. But it does contribute to the sporting aspects of the election battle. It keeps it from being as one-sided as the fight experts thought the Joe Louis Schmeling battle was going to be. And the political experts have not been as wrong for 20 years— since Wilson beat Hughes ‘n 1916 —as the spurting experts were on the big fistic battle. And they are not going to be as wrong as that this year, for one very simple reason. Ever since that election when the big eastern newspapers were chagrined at claiming Hughes’ election on the early returns, the big eastern edi tors have realized that the western states had electoral votes also. So they have sent their own political reporters on tours of inquiry, so they would know what to expect on election night. As of the present moment. New York is vital to the Republicans —is not vital so far as the Demo crats are concerned, but would end all doubt The same goes for Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Recent developments have changed the situation in a number , of states, notably Maryland West Virginia, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, North and South Da kota and Minnesota. The Mormon church action on relief has given Utah a Republican instead of a Democratic tinge, and has moved Idaho from the sure Roosevelt to the doubtful column. The whole point is that, while a Roosevelt landslide is rtill possi ble, evidence now points to a close election, with Roosevelt. still the favorite, but in decided danger. Slightly Sour Note One slightly sour note in the Democratic platform situation is not being talked about—openly. It concerns one of President Roose velt's fundamental policies, and is wrapped up in the tax bill just passed by congress. The fact that 18 Democratic senators voted against the Anal bill, that two more were paired against It. and that ■ twenty-first. Sen. Marcus A. Coolidge of Massachusetts, was ab sent and unpaired but is neverthe less against the bill, is rather in teresting in view of the fact that the platform endorses everything Roosevelt stands for. All of which is important be cause of the reasons actuating these 21 Democratic senators. The final draft of the tax bill means a great deal more t-iau just a tax measure. It works toward some of the dearest objectives of the Roosevelt policy. It is a nat ural sequence to his acceptance speech at the convention four years ago. On that occasion he made his views about "piled up surpluses" of corporations rather clear. This tax bill, following up the one of last year, but going a great deal further, is in line with that policy. Roosevelt wants to go still fur ther. He will go still further along this line, if it is humanly possi ble, assuming he is re-elected. So the fact that 21 senators of his own party are against that policy is of more than a little interest. Very little will be heard of it from Democrats from now on. Re publican orators will call attention • to it, in such quarters as the, think it will help their cause to do so. Expect Close House The most interesting angle po litically lies in the future. Unless there should be some tidal wave not really expected even by James A. Farley down in his heart, the next house of representatives will be fairly close. It may be Demo cratic and it may be Republican, but the best guess at the moment is that the majority will not be more than 50 if it is Democratic, or 20 if it is Republican. With a close house, such a differ ence of opinion within a party as was manifested in the senate vote on the tax bill will become of over whelming importance on every vi tal allied issue. It would seem to mean that while the critics of the present tax plan would not be able to force its repeal, they would be able to prevent any further moves toward the Roosevelt objective. On the other hand, there is not the slightest sign that Roosevelt will lose his grip on the senate. On the contrary, the vote on the ax high-war mark of his opponns. On few issues could such a num ber of Democraic dissenters be raised. Reverse Policy Complete reversal of the normal “sock the taxpayer” policy of the internal revenue bureau, the poli cy established under Robort H. Jackson of never compromising, forcing little taxpayers to pay law yer fees and endure court trials even when all the precedents fa vor the taxpayers’ side, is seen in the quashing of indictments against lieutenants of the late Hu ey P. (Kingftsh) Long in Louisiana. The strongest pro-administration paper within a hundred miles of Washington, If indeed there is any stronger anywhere in the country, the Washington News, carried a biting editorial under the heading, “It Smells Bad." Editors of the News suspected what might underly the ahair, which had Attorney General Ho mer S. Cummings squirming in a recent press conference, but they apparently overlooked a fairly im portant detail. This is that the for mer Long lieutenants, now enthusi astic for the New Deal, arranged a special train to run over to Dal las to meet President Roosevelt on his recent trip to the Texas Ter centennial. there to demonstrate their undying loyalty. The News editorial concluded: “When he quashed the indictments, U. S. Attorney Viosca gave the explanation that there was a ‘changed atmosphere' in New Or leans. Better continue to i old your nose until Attorney General Cum mings gives a more deodorizing explanation.” Mr. Cummings' defense was that he had complete confidence in the integrity of U. S. Attorney Viosca! All of which is the sequel to a most interesting political yarn, ri valing that about how the gang ster Chieftain Capone, suspected of every crime on the calendar, was finally put behind the bars on in come-tax evasion charges. Recent History The point is that back some months before Huey Long was as sassinated, there was very grave fear on the part of the New Deal leaders that he might lead a third party movement which might throw the electoral votes of Louisi ana. and perhaps some other states (with the aid 01 Father Coughlin and the Townsend plan advocates) away from Roosevelt. It was at this time that the inter nal revenue sleuths began looking into the income tax returns of Hu ey himself as well as some of his lieutenants. At this stage Dan Moody, former governor of Texas, was called into the picture. He had made his rep utation and been elected governor of Texas on the strength of his prosecution of graft in road con tracts in the Lone Star state. He was called to Washington, con ferred with high officials of the Department of Justice, and con vinced by them that there was a sure-llre case. Amos Woodcock of Maryland, former prohibition direc tor, was also called in and persuad ed the government could convict The whole idea, of course, wa. to eliminate Huey Long and all his lieutenants by the simple expedi ent of putting them behind the bars. The processes were set in motion, and eventually one of the lieutenants was actually convict ed. But then Long died, and his lieu tenants, after some little delay, made their peace with Washing ton. Those not worried about the prospect of incohie tax prosecu tions were interested in other ques tions. Party regularity, perhaps, and the good patronage jobs at the disposal of James A. Farley, Har old L. Ickes, and Harry L. Hop kins. Whatever the reason, they al' be came good New Dealers, and the Father Coughlin and Townsend en thusiasts found no encouragement in Louisiana for their party ideas. 6 Bell Syndicate. — WNII Service. “-fiN CAN \SLAND" rju». ■ Tiu <*a fr-re Kioafoo 01 "T i <V# i» t*t T«W* r*lar.d* Ui r/ S3' South, Jas*, ITS* WMt Stamp Collectors Prize "Tin Can Island" Mail. Prepared by National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C.—WNU Service. CLTHOUGH the south Sea is land of Niuafoo is the top of an active volcano that erupt ed in 1929 and destroyed a village, it remains the happy home of some 1,100 of those superb Polynesians, the Tongans. Dwelling for untold generations on this remote crater in the sea, they have learned to act quickly and shrewdly in volcanic emergen cies, and in recent years there has been little loss of life. How they behave was dramatical ly illustrated at 4 a. m. on July 25, 1929. A hundred or more villagers, the entire population of Futu, on the northwest coast, were awak ened by a rumbling and saw fire breaking out in the hillside less than two miles to the southeast. No time was lost. The alarm was spread in the village, and the babes in arms, the sick and the aged were hurriedly carried off along a good road that led to the northern village of Angaha. All realized that safety lay in reaching there or the high ground of the is land’s circular ridge. From three vents on a fracture that opened northward, the molten rock descended upon Futu. By eight o’clock in the morning most of the abandoned buildings were con sumed by fire and buried under floods of heavy basaltic lava. Pour ing into the ocean, the hot flows killed fish, sent up clouds of steam, and heaped enormous quantities of black sand along the water front. Fringing the shore were patches of cultivated land that remained un injured among the lava streams. In one of these the returning villagers found a few of their horses, pigs and chickens still alive. Thanks to the prompt exodus, every one of the human inhabitants escaped. How It Became “Tin Can Island” Niuafoo reminds one of a hat with a hole in the crown. At the bottom of the hole is an islet-dotted lake of fresh water, with its bed some 200 feet below sea level, its surface only 70 feet above. The wide “brim” has been formed by lava flows. So nearly perfect is the ring which Niuafoo forms about its lake enclosing crater that at first sight it appears to be a coral atoll. The island's highest point is about 800 feet above the waves, but the vol canic cone it crowns thrusts itself up some 6,000 feet from the ocean floor. This detached bit of the Tongan archipelago is a straggler from the line made by those islands north of New Zealand. It lies near the cen ter of the ocean triangle formed by Samoa, Tonga and Fiji. Lacking harbors, the island is ut terly isolated. Precarious was the regular carrying of mail to and from the island until recent years. The monthly mail steamer, unable to anchor, stopped about a mile off the northern landing at Angaha. Natives, fortified with log floats, swam out to it, regardless of sharks, holding above the water brown pa per-wrapped packages of outgoing letters tied to the tops of sticks. The sailors on the steamer low ered a bucket and collected these parcels. In exchange they dropped into the water the more bulky mail from the outside world, soldered in large biscuit tins. The athletic vil lagers towed these tins ashore and thus completed delivery of the mail. An unfortunate encounter between a swimmer and a shark finally caused a suspension of the swim ming mail service, and native ca noes now collect tin cans. It is easy to understand why Niuafoo, called “Good Hope Island” on some charts has become known also as “Tin Can Island.” On the west side of Niuafoo is a desert of new lava flows, but on the east is a tropical glory of coconuts, ironwoods, mangoes and pandanus, yams, taros, papayas, sweet pota toes pineapples, bananas, melons, and manioc. Although the island lies some 15H degrees south of the equator, the trade winds give it a delightful cli mate, much like that of Hawaii. Explosive Eruption of 1886 Explosive volcanic eruptions around the lake have occurred about 72 years apart, and lava out breaks in the western deserts have come at intervals of approximately 16 years. The last steam-blast eruption, which occurred in 1886, was a ma jor event in the history of Niuafoo. There was no loss of life, for the trade wind forced the huge cauli flower clouds of sand and dust west ward, away from the settlements. The site of this eruption was near the northeast corner of the big lake, where large blocks of cliff rock were engulfed, and heaps of sand were piled 200 to 400 feet high. Ponds were left where the explosive craterlets had formed. About three feet of ash fell on the settlements. The story goes that an earthquake shook the island with a gentle sway ing motion at 7 p. m. on August 31, 1886, and smaller shocks continued till midnight, causing alarm. Then came a detonation, a "rocket” as cended 3,000 feet above the lake, and quaking ceased. Violent thun derstorms developed, and lightning struck in many places. A blizzard of black dust and sand weighted down the vegetation dur ing a night of inky darkness. On the leeward side of the island, brok en fragments of rock and pumice, along with sand and fine dust, piled 20 feet deep. The eruption contin ued in spasms, geyserlike, for 18 days, with recurrences of terrifying clouds of dust that shut off the light of day. Only two months before, Tara wera volcano had erupted disas trously in New Zealand, indicating volcanic sympathy between two cra ters hundreds of miles apart on the same general rift in the earth’s crust; and Funuafoo (Falcon is land), nearer to Niuafoo. had begun eruption in October, 1885. Legend of Ahau’s Destruction. Destruction of property by hurri canes and eruptions on the north ern and western sides of the island have been lamentable during the last century. The story of the vil lage of Ahau in the southwest is reminiscent of that of Sodom and Gomorrah. Ahau, legend says, was founded by men and women who, refusing to conform to the laws governing legal marriage, rebelled against the strict high chief at Angaha. They founded their village pur posely on the side of the island most remote from Angaha, and their headman denounced with impas sioned oratory the taxes imposed upon them by the high chief. He called upon the gods to send a sign from heaven to destroy all his peo ple rather than permit them to sub mit to such oppression. Whatever the truth of these sto ries, certain it is that on June 24, 1858, the ground rifted and lava spouted up directly under the vil lage headman’s house. Such de struction of human life by a sudden lava flow is unusual in volcano an nals, for lava is usually so slow moving that people have time to flee from it. An aged woman recalls the fren zied flight of those inhabitants who escaped and the gossip about the village. She will tell you that two thirds of the population, possibly 60 or 70 people, were killed. When a volcanologist visited the site of this village recently, he found the lava flows covered with a mod erate growth of ironwood, some what resembling a pine forest with its small cones and long needles. Not a trace remains of the village green or native huts. There is a 50-foot double spatter cone of black lava at the place where the headman’s house is said to have stood. From this hill all lava gives place abruptly to a lux uriant growth of coconuts and fer tile plantation lands on the slope of the circular ridge. Outbreaks Can Be Predicted. A study of the eruptions and the dates when they have occurred pro vides some basis for predicting, roughly, when future outbreaks may occur. It may be said that Niuafoo is continuously erupting, and that these lava flows and explosive en gulfments are merely punctuation marks in a continuing process. After an explosive eruption in 1814, the intervals were 26, 13, 14, and 19 years. From the 1886 explo sive eruption to the present time the intervals were 26 and 17 years. Con sidering the average lava interval of 16 years, we have reason to ex pect another lava eruption about 1945. Adding the average explosion interval of 72 years to 1886, it may be estimated that the next explosive eruption will occur about 1958. These expectations are not ac curate forecasts, but merely sug gestive experiments in volcanologic reasoning. It is probable that the explosive eruption about 1958 will break down the very high cliffs to the southeast of the lake, and that opposite this the lava flow, about 1945, will extend the crack of 1929 along the northwest shore of the is land, in the direction of the village of Esia, near Angaha. A Charming Sports Frock Trim modish raglan shoulders, no sleeves to set in, make this attractive dress easily fashioned by even an amateur sewer. And the neckline is extremely flatter ing and youthful. Equally lovely No. 1837-11 for office wear or busy shoppers, it answers perfectly, too, for gen eral daytime functions. You’ll appreciate the two roomy pockets, and the back yoke will enable you to “bear your burdens” lightly. Try mak ing it in tub silk, shantung, print ed crepe or linen. Whichever fabric you choose gives a sil houette that is universally flatter ing and a touch of sophistication. 1857-B is available in sizes: 14, 16, 18, 20; 40 and 42. Correspond ing bust measurements 32, 34, 36, 38, 40 and 42. Size 16 (34) requires 3 7-8 yards of 39 inch material plus 1-4 yard for the belt. Send 15 cents in coins for the pattern. The Summer Pattern Book con taining 100 Barbara Bell well planned, easy-to-make patterns is ready. Send 15 cents in coins for your copy. Send your order to The Sew ing Circle Pattern Dept., 367 W. Adams St., Chicago, 111. © Bell Syndicate.—WNU Service. UomeJioid 9 \ 9 Questiohf 1 Air the bread and cake boxes frequently during the summer months. Mould is likely to form on breads and cakes kept in boxes during the warm weather. e e e Mayonnaise may be kept for several weeks in refrigerator if a tablespoonful of boiling water is added to it before bottling. • • • Mix salads with a fork instead of a spoon or ladle. • * • Do not remove husks from green corn until just before put ting on to boil. Corn spoils quick ly, so it should be used as soon as possible after purchasing. • • • A little garlic rubbed over the broiler on which steak is broiled gives steak a delicious flavor. * • * Chamois wet in cold water and wrung dry will polish mahogany furniture that has become cloudy. * • * When cake or bread is too brown or is burned, grate gently with a fine grater (nutmeg grater pre ferred) until the cake or bread is a golden brown. * • * Always strain hot fat used for deep frying through a piece of cheese cloth each time it is used and set in a cool place. Treated in this way fat may be used many times. ©Bell Syndicate.—WNU Service. tlncLe Phll^. I_ See the Bright Side The world may be pretty sor did, but one does not have to contemplate that phase of it too much. It has others that are brighter. The best angle from which to approach any problem is the try • angle. ■' One needs to learn how to en joy two or three hours of quiet reflection. You can’t be enter tained every waking moment. A Friend Cheers When your friend remains with you to cheer you at a time you are unhappy that’s the acid test. All you need in order to revel in Nature is a tent, a cot, a pan of bacon and eggs, and immeas urable love of the woods. Calling a man “man” and call ing him “guy” marks the differ ence between the intelligentsia and other people. Costly Compliment There is nothing so expensive as an undeserved compliment. 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