SEEN
and
HEARD
arbund the
NATIONAL
CAPITAL
Washington.—The dollar, backed
by $10,985,000,000 gold reserve, is
the keystone of the new Anglo
French-American system for stabil
izing currency exchanges.
The Treasury department, work
ing out technical details of the tri
power monetary agreement, said a
selling price for gold would be an
nounced only by the United States.
Although gold will flow freely be
tween the stabilization funds of all
three nations, France and England
will keep their selling prices secret,
treasury officials announced.
The American price remained at
$35 per fine ounce, though it may
be changed on twenty-four hours’
notice if necessary to protect in
ternal prosperity.
When America buys gold from
Great Britain or France, Treasury
authorities said, the price will be
arrived at by private negotiation.
If bullion is purchaser from the
British stabilization fund, they sug
gested, the price probably will be
close to the current quotation on
the London free gold market, oper
ated by private dealers.
In the case of France, they said,
there is no deflnite indication at
what price sales might be arranged.
France has no free gold market,
and has not yet fixed an exact basis
for its devalued franc. Recent
French action merely cut the value
of the currency somewhere between
25 and 34 per cent.
Large Wheat Acreage
Another large wheat acreage Is
in prospect in this country, the bu
reau of agricultural economics said
in its summary of world wheat
prospects.
It pointed out that wheat prices
are more attractive than at seeding
time last year or this spring. Seed
lngs for harvest in 1936 of both
winter and spring wheat were ap
proximately 74,500,000 acres, the
largest on record except for 1919.
Abandonment and crop loss due to
unfavorable weather were excep
tionally large and resulted in small
production relative to acreage sown.
If yields of the crop for harvest
in 1937 turn out to be one-fourth
below average, the same acreage
as seeded for harvest in 1936 would
produce fully enough wheat for total
domestic utilization.
If yields should turn out to be
near average or above for the 1937
crop, in view of present seeding
prospects, the bureau said, "produc
tion would be in excess of domestic
requirements and prices in the
United States would fall to export
levels."
Winter wheat seeding in this coun
try is making good progress gen
erally and the early seeded grain
is coming to a good stand. During
the past month the winter wheat
belt, except in some northwestern
districts and in the Pacific North
west, has generally received suf
ficient rain to condition the soil
properly for seeding, germination
and early growth.
Insure More Mortgages
Contrary to seasonal trends, res
idential mortgages accepted for in
surance by the Federal Housing ad
ministration on new construction
during September showed a rise of
147.8 per cent over the same month
last year and 5.1 per cent over
August, 1936, Deputy Administrator
William D. Flanders reported.
Mortgages approved for insurance
last month on new homos totaled
$18,263,950 against $17,367,789 in the
previous month and $7,370,524 in
September a year ago.
Last month's figure for all types
of mortgages accepted was the sec
ond highest monthly total since the
FHA began functioning, reaching
$44,316,900 on 11,174 items. Mr.
Flanders pointed out. The only
higher month was last June, when
the total was $50,156,258. The rise
for all types of FHA insured loans
over the same month a year ago
was $23,031,502, or 108.2 per cent.
One of the chief causes for the
upturn was held to be the increas
ing number of private financial in
stitutions lining up with the FHA
program and making insured loans.
There also is a wider demand on
the part of borrowers for this type
of mortgage, Mr. Flanders said.
September operations of the FHA
included insurance on 43,789 mod
ernization loans totaling $19,394,
303, the largest in several months.
Total insurance business of the
FHA as of September 30 included
120,245 home mortgages accepted
for insurance for a total of $481,
360,088; 1,195,956 modernization and
repair notes insured for $444,670,660
and insurance on thirty-two large
scale housing projects for mort
gages aggregating $45,851,000.
Road Building Cost
The United States bureau of pub
lic roads announced that construc
tion work costing $131,133,227 was
either completed or initiated during
the past year in the campaign for
safer railroad crossings.
With the $200,000,000 of emer
gency relief funds allocated last
year for grade crossing work, the
bureau reported that 2,097 crossings
will be eliminated, 320 old grade
separating bridges will be rebuilt
and 1,037 crossings will be protected
by installation of warning and safe
ty devices.
Forty thousand men have been
given employment on the projects,
while 68.000 were given indirect em
ployment in the production and
transportation of materials and
equipment, the bureau said.
During the past year, 281 bridges
to carry highways under or over
railroads were completed; 136 high
ways were relocated so as to avoid
crossings, and protective devices
were placed at twenty-nine locations
at the cost of $18,203,462.
In various stages of construction
October 1 were 830 new bridges, the
reconstruction of 162 inadequate ex
isting structures, the relocation of
246 highways and the installation of
protective devices at thirty-three
crossings at the cost of $112,929,765.
Construction will start soon on
174 new and thirty-six reconstructed
structures, seventy - nine highway
relocations and 624 protective in
stallations at an estimated cost of
$27,816,526.
Work listed as “programmed
only” consists of 341 new and
seventy - five reconstructed struc
tures. fifty-seven relocations and
351 protective installations to cost
an estimated $43,649,968.
Liquor Mark Set
Distilled liquor withdrawals from
bonded warehouses, considered to
represent consumption, amounted to
10,063,778 tax gallons in the fiscal
year ending June 30. 1936, the high
est figure since 1917, when cellars
were stocked in anticipation of na
tional prohibition. The figures were
revealed at the internal revenue
bureau.
The 1936 withdrawals of ferment
ed malt liquors, chiefly beer and
ale, amounted to 41,890,967 barrels
in the fiscal year 1936, a reduction
from the 41,946,201 barrels of the
years before, but otherwise higher
than in any year since 1918.
Cigarette production set an all
time record in 1936, 141,834,738,730
having been withdrawn on the pay
ment of tax. This compared with
128,490,692,940 cigarettes the pre
vious year.
Judging from trends since the
first of July, the liquor and tobacco
taxes probably will net the govern
ment in excess of $1,200,000,000 in
the 1937 fiscal year. At the rate of
collections so far this fiscal year,
liquor taxes would yield around
$623,000,000 and tobacco taxes $555,
500,000.
It was expected, however, that,
with gradual gain in business ac
tivity and purchasing power, these
figures would be exceeded.
Maritime Commission
The new maritine commission
appointed to administer the ship
subsidy act found its schedule of
work loaded with important prob
lems.
immediate action was necessary
on the west coast longshoremen’s
strike situation. Requests were dis
patched to shipowners and the
union, asking that a 60 day exten
sion be made on the contracts be
tween employers and workers which
expired September 30. This exten
sion would give the commission an
opportunity to confer with other
government departments concerned
and make an impartial investiga
tion in hopes of settling the labor
disputes amicably.
The commission has no direct au
thority over longshoremen. Its pow
ers in the west coast situation are
limited to regulation of minimum
wages, hours and working condi
tions of seamen on subsidized ships.
It desires to intervene in the long
shoremen’s dispute only as an in
terested party. •
Another duty of the commission
will be a scrutiny of 600 regular em
ployees of the shipping board bu
reau and the merchant fleet corpo
ration. These employees will con
tinue their regular work for a six
month "probation period,” after
which they may be replaced or
certified for civil service ratings.
The commission will begin two
studies of vital importance to Amer
ican shipping. It will determine
whether any existing trade routes
are "nonessential” and should be
stricken from the federal subsidy
list. It will soon analyze cargoes,
foreign competition, revenues, con
struction and operating costs, and
other factors which will enable it
to construct a yardstick for allocat
ing subsidies.
National Forests
Approval for purchase of 392,665
acres, to cost $1,946,171, to be added
to the national forests, was given
by the National Forest Reservation
commis^on, Secretary of War
Woodring, president of the commis
sion, announces. The purchases are
divided among 45 national forest
units located in most of the im
portant forest regions of the United
States. The Mary’s Peak area, on
the watershed of Corvallis, Oregon,
was one of the most important pur
chases authorized.
The commission also approved
purchase of the Keosauqua national
forest nursery near Ottumwa, Iowa.
It consists of 99 acres formerly
rented by the government and used
for propagation of trees for plant
ing in the national forests in Mid
west states. The boundaries of the
Chattahoochee national forest i n
Georgia were extended '.o include
the Lookout mountain area of 204,
000 acres, and the Armuchee area
of 250,000 acres, situated in the
Southern Appalachians in the Ten
nessee river basin in Georgia and
Alabama. No land was bought in
these additions.
VVNU dervic*.
Teeth of British Lion Bared for Action
The 16-inch guns of H. M. S. Rodney, pride of the British navy, make an impressive picture, symbolical
of the British lion’s teeth all bared for action. The photo was made off Invergordon, Scotland, where the
fleet was engaged in gunnery practice. H. M. S. Encounter is in background, silhouetted by the setting sun.
Dare Devil Driver Takes Trophy
George Vanderbilt, the donor (left), is shown presenting the new
Vanderbilt cup to Tazio Nuvolari, Italian driver, who won it recently, on
the new corkscrew Roosevelt raceway, in competition with 44 of the
world's most noted daredevils of the jalopi sport. In the 300-mile race,
on the 4-mile twisting track, Nuvolari led all the way and got all lap
prizes except one.
STAR BALL CARRIER
Marty Glickman, sprinter of the
United States Olympic team that
went to Berlin this summer, is one
of the fastest ball-carriers on the
Syracuse university football squad,
Syracuse, N. Y. Marty is a half
back.
MRS. “WALLY” SIMPSON
Mrs. Ernest “Wally'’ Simpson,
American-born friend of England's
bachelor King Edward VIII, who
filed suit for divorce against her
husband in London. Mr. Simpson
announced he would not contest the
action which was said to be a
“friendly one.” The American girl
was married to Simpson, a British
subject in 1928.
| New Aquatic Sport Is Introduced
A new type of aquatic race is introduced as part of water sports at
fashionable Arrowhead Springs, Calif. Pretty contestants are pictured
on the edge of a pool, propelling forward inflated horses and riders with
a kick of the foot. This is the championship team. In action, (left to
right) Vera Scarmaella. Dorothy Barnes, Mary Gilhooly, Phyllis Brad
shaw, Gene Coney, Lucy Ellis, Jean Flint, Frances Bussey. Their
rider is Adalyn Skeen.
Where Stars Will Shine at New York’s 1939 Pair
Planetarium which it is proposed to erect on New York’s World’s Fair grounds. On its dome Fair vis
itors will see a miniature sky studded with stars and planets. Intricate machinery will move the heavens at
will. It will be possible, for example, on the day the Fair opens, April 30, 1939 to duplicate the celestial dis
play which George Washington saw just 150 years earlier on the night of his inauguration, April 30, 1789.
Pretzel Benders in a Reading Factory.
Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington, D. C.—WNU Service.
WHEN historic Georgetown,
D. C.. still was the metrop
olis of the north bank of
the Potomac and the city
of Washington was little more than a
beautiful plan on paper, a bridge
was thrown across Rock creek to
connect the two.
There were 13 stones on the face
of the arch of the bridge. Upon them
were inscribed the abbreviated
names of the 13 states that had
created and successfully defended
the Union. On the keystone of that
arch were the letters “Pa.”
Whether that was the origin of the
nickname of the Keystone State or
only testimony of its earlier use
remains a matter of debate, but the
sobriquet was aptly descriptive of
its role in American history and
industry.
The congress that gave America
its Declaration of Independence
met, deliberated, and acted on Penn
sylvania’s receptive soil. The con
vention that forged the Nation’s Con
stitution labored amid that Com
monwealth’s genial atmosphere.
The financial wizard who averted
the economic disaster which threat
ened to overwhelm the young nation
was that patriotic Pennsylvania
banker, Robert Morris.
The fine old philosopher and
master of humanized science who
won international recognition for the
struggling child among nations, and
brought us alliance with France,
with history-changing consequences,
was the revered and picturesque
Ben Franklin.
So it has been through the genera
tions. When ship sails no longer
met the demands of maritime com
merce, Robert Fulton, a native of
Pennsylvania, laid the foundations
of steam navigation around the
world.
Development of Its Industries.
The industries of the Atlantic sea
board became so vast that wood no
longer served for fuel, and Penn
lylvanians developed their coal re
sources.
Pittsburgh’s Scotch-Irish empire
builders expanded the iron industry
to a point where Pennsylvania prac
tically equipped the factories of the
Mississippi valley and produced both
the rails and the rolling stock of the
nation's railways.
When whale oil and other animal
fats and oils no longer yielded ade
quate lubricants and illuminants, it
was in Pennsylvania, at Titusville,
that Col. E. L. Drake drilled the
first oil well, thus helping revolution
ize the world’s ways of living and
making possible the present motor
ized transportation.
Pennsylvania’s industrial pioneers
inaugurated the reign of steel, thus
ushering in the era of skyscrapers
in a thousand cities, and the speed
ing of traffic on the railroads of the
country.
To the present hour, the land of
William Penn goes forward as one
of the foremost industrial communi
ties of the world. Before the depres
sion it was making one-fifth of the
world’s electrical machinery, refin
ing one-sixth of its sugar, mining a
like share of coal, and producing
an equal proportion of the world’s
steel.
The federal census oi manuiac
tures shows that among the nation’s
51 major industries Pennsylvania
ranks first in 17 and holds third
place or better in 15 others.
In 42 of the nation’s products its
factories lead those of every other
state. From artificial limbs to zinc
products these wares of Pennsyl
vania’s primacy run the gamut of
the alphabet. In such diverse in
dustries as coal mining, chocolate
and cocoa manufacture, pig-iron
production and silk making, steel
rolling and wool pulling, cement
grinding and lace weaving, coke
burning and hosiery knitting, Penn
sylvania is first by a wide margin.
Romance In Its Story.
Pennsylvania’s history is filled
with stirring chapters. The story of
its wild life, from the days of primal
abundance to virtual extinction and
back again to abundance under in
telligent human protection, is a true
romance of forest and stream. The
tenacity with which the many reli
gious sects, drawn there by the
broad tolerance of the founder, have
adhered steadfastly to their centu
ries - old customs, and frequently
their costumes, consitutes a fasci
nating story of quaint survivals in a
progressive age. •
Within Pennsylvania’s boraers are
more people born of native white
parents than in any other state of
the Union. It has nearly a million
more than New York, its closest
rival, although the total population
of the Empire State is approxi
mately three million greater. In
fact, the people of native - white
parentage in Pennsylvania exceed
the total population of any other
state with the exception of New
York, Ohio, Illinois, Texas and Cal
ifornia.
The Pennsylvanian’s tendency to
migrate is no new phenomenon. For
more than a century and a half its
restless citizen families have been
moving from the old home rooftree,
and, with their children and their
children’s children, have pushed out
to the changing frontiers of the coun
try. Their first outpouring was in
the colonial period, when large
numbers moved down into the
Shenandoah valley of Virginia and
into western North Carolina and
eastern Tennessee. \
This was the migration which
carried the Lincolns and the Boones,
the Caldwells and the Calhouns, the
Prestons and the Christians, the
Rutledges and the Breckenridges,
to say nothing of that large group
of Lutheran, Reformed, Dunkard,
and Mennonite pioneers who settled
in the Virginia valley and its high
lands.
As Ohio and Kentucky and the
states beyond opened up to settle
ment, migrants from Pennsylvania
turned westward in regiments;
there they were joined by sons and
daughters of their uncles and aunts,
who had so largely settled western
Virginia, eastern Tennessee, and
western North Carolina—ever on
ward to help open new areas of
plenty.
Some day a historian will write
the saga of the role of Pennsylvania
and its descendants in the settle
ment of the Mississippi valley, and
America will realize the debt it owes (
to the fecund folk bom in or de- k
scended from Penn’s Land who,"
spread over the continent and
played such a vital role in the
greatest of our valleys.
Leads in Home Ownership
Although Pennsylvania has furn
ished more migrants than any other
state in the Union, both in the colo
nial era and up to the present time,
the state is still America’s foremost
land of home owners. The last cen
sus shows more dwellings occupied
by their owners than in any other
state, a total of 1,198,000 owner-oc
cupied homes. Even New York with
one-third more population loses rank
in this regard.
When William Penn came to
America, he had title to some 28,
000,000 acres of woodland, mountain,
and dale. For a dozen decades these
forests yielded only to the settler’s
ax and his new-ground ripping plow.
Then larger towns and cities began
to grow and there was born an in
sistent demand for lumber.
This havoc went on until there was
left in all the 28,000,000 but a beg
garly 20,000 acres of virgin timber.
The lumberman had left his tree
tops and his sawdust piles to make
the most dangerous of fire hazards
on millions of acres and to render
a thousand streams unfit for fish
life.
Forest fires completed the de
struction, and millions of blackened,
barren acres stobd as mute wit
nesses of the profligacy of man in
wasting one of the common
wealth’s principal assets.
Floods became more frequent,
since barren lands cannot hold back
water and give it a chance to soak
into the ground. Low-water stages of
streams occurred oftener; springs
in barren lands cannot collect suffi
cient water to keep the streams fed
in dry weather. Fish by the mil
lions perished when streams were
transformed for long periods into
dry river and creek beds.
Forest Lands Restored.
Then the thinking citizens of Penn
sylvania awakened to the menace
the wasteful methods had wrought.
State agencies and private interests
joined in reforestation and in pro
tection against forest fires.
Today one finds that thirteen mil
lions of acres in the Keystone State
are accounted to be forest land. A
major portion is in young trees.
Wander along the Delaware river,
through the Poconos, follow both
branches of the Susquehanna and
cross their watersheds, travel the
Roosevelt highway across the state
from east to west, dip down to
Emporium, Williamsport, and Jer
sey Shore, climb Bald Eagle, Tus
carora, Laurel Hill, and South Moun
tain, and you will begin to under
stand why some one has proposed
that Pennsylvania be renamed the
Sapling State—because of its tre
mendous number of young trees.
Reforestation is beginning to bear
major fruit. Floods are becoming
rarer and less destructive, for water
is absorbed instead of rushing pell
mell riverward. Springs constantly
fed by seeping water in turn fill
the streams with a more constant
current. Fish are accordingly in
creasing in substantial numbers due
to steadier stream flow, seasonal
restrictions, bag limits, and artifi
cial propagation.
