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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 1938)
Gulf Current Draws Strange Ocean Species Coming Winter Focuses Attention on Queer Air Current Prepared by National Geographic Society, Washington. D C.—WNV Service. Voyaging southward from New York toward tropic wa ters on a midwinter day, you gaze out over a leaden sea of dull-green color, lashed by. the stiff, chilling ,wind. But the next morning you awaken to a balmy air and go on deck to behold the ocean miraculously changed to ul tramarine blue, the dark swelling waves crowned with snowy foam which churns up in the wake of the vessel in turquoise turmoil before reaching the surface. Petrels follow the ship, skipping from wave to wave. Toward afternoon a school of porpoises glides in and out of the sea in never-ending chase, while flying Ashes, glinting in blue and silver, dart anxiously from the water and sail long distances, flick ing the wave crests with their tails to gain momentum. You are in tfie Gulf stream, that marvelous river in the ocean, which gives the North Atlantic its unique character and profoundly affects its temperature even as far as the North sea, bestowing upon the Brit ish isles and Scandinavia the inesti mable boon of a chastened climate. We can imagine the surprise of Ponce de Leon when, sailing along the coast of Florida in 1513, he found his ship borne irresistibly northward in its current. The Gulf stream exerts an influ ence on the spread and distribution of the marine life of the Atlantic which cannot be over-estimated. Haven of Marine Life The main current warms the whole North Atlantic, and spurs set ting in toward the coast have a striking effect on the distribution of floating life off the Middle Atlantic states and southern New England. Here, however, the warm stream is separated from the shore by colder waters forming what is known as the “cold wall." South of the Grand banks of Newfoundland it meets the icy Labrador current which flows Here it the beautiful but dangerous whip ray, a denizen of tropical Atlantic waters. a whole aeries of cordlike filaments, spirally adorned with close-set beads similar to those on the short er strings, but larger. These slen der cables are continually extend ing and contracting independently of each other, thickened knots pass ing each other up and down on neighboring strands iike elevators. Constant Movement A sudden breeze ruffles the water surface. The floats change shape, twisting in such a way as to "trim sail.” The long, submerged cables, being attached to only use side of the bladder, act as a drag anchor, enabling the craft to head up into the wind and thus counteract a too rapid leeway. On board the boat you have a tall glass jar. Reaching over the side, as the vessel drifts with the cur rent, you pick up a fine example of physalia, being careful to lift it by the float and thus avoid contact with any of the bead-adorned streamers. This caution is essential, for every bead is a battery of powerful sting cells loaded with minute barbed threads, thousands of which, at the slightest touch, will penetrate the skin and inject an irritating poison. Once while wading near Ponce, on the south shore of Puerto Rico, a scientist attempted to lift one of these creatures into a pail of wa ter. The trade winds were blow ing strongly, and, as the streamers came clear of the surface, the wind caught them and blew them around the bare arm with which he held the pail. Immediately a pain as of living fire shot through it He quickly dropped the physalia into the pail and began to unwind the clinging streamers with his free hand. When he had finished, each finger pained lik£ a toothache. The arm was fiery red and swollen to 1 the elbow, and his armpit ached Ichthyologists hail with delight the capture of this inch and a quarter sailfish, smallest ever recorded. Caught in a net at the Miami City yacht basin, it proves that sailfish tpaten in the tropical waters around Miami, according to fish authorities. The spawning place of the deep sea fighters has long been a matter of guesswork. down from the north, bringing a northern fauna and making its in fluence felt along the shore, particu larly north of Cape Cod. The Gulf stream, on the other hand, extends the range of many West Indian and other tropical spe cies far to the northward during the summer, some of them being borne to the British isles, so that the pelagic life of the mid-Atlantic is more tropical in character than that of the same latitude on the North American coast. Sail out across the Gulf stream in a southeasterly direction, keeping your eyes open for evidences of its float ing life. Suddenly you see a grace ful, translucent object, like an oddly elongated bladder, floating on the surface. As you come nearer you see still others, and soon you realize that you are steering into the midst of a fleet of these fairy craft. Each one erects a crest resembling a succes sion of iridescent, foamlike bubbles along its summit, bordered with an edging of deep crimson. These are the Portuguese man of-war (physalia pelagica), an or ganism related to the hydroids and jellyfish, but consisting of a whole colony of connected individuals floating as a unit At first glance only one member of the colony is visible. BiA, as you look downward through the trans parent water, you see masses of smaller-tube-shaped projections de pending from its lower side, just beneath the surface. Looking deeper, you finally per ceive, extending far into the depths. where the poison had spread to the lymphatic glands. He did not sleep that night, and the pain passed away slowly dur ing the next day. Fortunately he was not seriously affected, but some people, more susceptible, have been known to collapse. Live in Colonies The cluster of individuals Imme diately under the float is of several kinds, each having a special func tion. The blue, tube-shaped mem bers are feeding polyps, with mouth openings at their lower extremity. They do the feeding and digesting for the entire community. The green, tapering Angers are feelers and tasters, very sensitive. The fine ly divided pink clusters, reproduc tive in function, develop the sex cells. Male and female cells are found only in separate colonies. The streamers, of course, are fighting polyps, the longer ones, as above stated, having a stabilizing function as well. Fishes or other organisms that chflnce to swim against the streamers are imme diately stung to death and drawn up by the contracting filaments to come in contact with the mouths of the feeding polyps, which suck out the victims’ body fluid, digest the food, and pass the excess on to the mouth less members of the colony. A species of small fish, the Por tuguese man-of-war fish, appears to be immune to the sting, and seeks shelter among the tentacles from its enemies. In return, it perhaps acts as a lure for larger fish preyed upon by its host, and doubtless nib bles at the feast! NATIONAL AFFAIRS Reviewed by CARTER FIELD A survey of the vote in the recent election shows that had Roosevelt been running for re-election he would have won a sweeping vic tory ... Southern conserva tives seen as the greatest menace to continuation of the New Deal . . . W ould combine Commerce and Labor departments, WASHINGTON.—Leaving out the possible effects of anti-third term sentiment, which of course has nev er been tested, Franklin D. Roose velt would have won a sweeping victory had he been running for re election on November 8. In fact one wonders why Harold L. Ickes, nor mally so positive about everything, would only say “I think” the Presi dent would have won. The answer is very simple. It is based on the states that the Demo crats carried conclusively, and elim inates partial victories. These give the Democrats a total of 302 elec toral votes. As it requires only 266 electoral votes to name a President, it would appear that the Democrats had a very decided advantage on Novem ber 8. though the headlines for the next few days and for that matter ever since have been telling a dif ferent story, or at least giving a different Impression. Incidentally, there are 25 states in the list, represented in the sen ate, of course, by 50 senators. A majority of the senate is 49. It so happens that just 49 Democratic senators represent those states at present. That fiftieth senator is George W. Norris of Nebraska who votes with the New Deal more often than most Democrats. Actually there are several other ways of calculating which would Senator Van Nuys give the Democrats an even greater ma jority of electoral votes. For instance, if the test were the majority of state wide officers, or their importance, Indiana would have to be added to the Democratic list, for Sen. Frederick Van Nuys was elected. Or if the majority of total votes for con gressmen were the test Colorado, which also re-elected a Democratic senator, Alva B. Adams, would have to be counted. Swelling the Democratic Electoral Vote to 322 If one were compelled to exer cise judgment as to whether these two states should go into the Demo cratic or Republican column there is not a political observer in Wash ington who would not put them in the Democratic. This would swell the Democratic electoral vote, as of last November 8, to 322—56 more than necessary to elect. Also there has been a lot of loose talk about the closeness of the New York election, based on the race made by Thomas E. Dewey, who was only defeated by around 70,000. But the plain fact is that the Dem ocratic ticket carried New York by half a million, and Dewey ran some 400,000 ahead of his ticket. Voters who wanted to vote straight Demo cratic except for Dewey cut for him to that tremendous extent. But it is less than half as good a show : ing as Alfred E. Smith made in ! 1920 when he ran a million votes | ahead of his ticket and yet was ! defeated. Also, Dewey was running against Herbert H. Lehman, not Roosevelt. ; and it was demonstrated two years ago that Lehman was not as good a vote getter as the President. Which boils down to just this, that the tide is running against Roose velt, but not at a speed calculated to defeat him in 1940 unless the prejudice against a third term ! should tip the scales against him, or unless some new activity by the I President in the next two years should alienate another bloc of vot ers. Neu) Deal Is Menaced By Southern Conservatives What are commonly called the Southern conservatives on Capitol Hill are recognized as the most menacing group to perpetuation of the New Deal, either by hamstring ing the Corcoran-Cohen proposals or by threatening the nomination of an anti-New Dealer for President in 1940. Hence it is of interest to appraise their strength as a result of the election, they having tri umphed over their New Deal foes so impressively in the primaries. Three of the most outstanding Democratic victories in the nation on November 8 were in Maryland. ■ where Sen. Millard E. Tydings was re-elected by more than '100,000; Missouri, where Sen Bennett C. i Clark rolled up more than 200.000. and Illinois, where Republican con gressional gains were held to a min imum and Scott W Lucas was elect ed senator overwhelmingly. Tydings and Clark are leaders in i the group of Southern conservatives. ►* while Lucas, though a member of the house, which never officially considered the Supreme court en largement bill, went out of his way to attack it anyhow. He succeeds Sen. William H. Dieterich, a 100 per cent New Dealer. In Maryland this Democratic sweep eliminated a sit ting Republican governor, and sent a solid Democratic delegation back to the capitol. In Missouri the Re publicans re-elected their lone mem ber of the house, Dewey Short, while the Democrats elected 12 represent atives. One of the biggest upsets in the entire election was the huge major ity rolled up in New Jersey against William H. J. Ely and for Ex-Sen. W. Warren Barbour, which is sig nificant for several reasons. Had it not been for the strenuous efforts of Mayor Frank Hague’s minions in Jersey City the majority against WPA Administrator Ely would have been prodigious. One Opponent of President Goes Down in Defeat Interesting also in this appraisal of the northern #nd western “allies" of the southern conservatives is Col orado, where Sen. Alva B. Adams triumphed handsomely although the Republicans won just as easily in their fight to elect a governor. Iowa presents the same picture, with the Republican trend proved by heavy congressional gains as well as by the election of a Republican gov ernor, George Wilson, and yet the triumph by a small majority of Sen. Guy M. Gillette. In fact, of all the nine Demo cratic senators who voted against the President on the Supreme court issue the only one to fall by the wayside was Augustine Lonergan of Connecticut. Which is rather curi ous, for Lonergan never capitalized his opposition to the President. He was fond of remarking, in the cloak room: "I vote against the Presi dent when I disagree with him, but I don't talk against him.” Loner gan never made a speech against any White House proposal. Thus he never gave the Connecticut news papers a chance to exploit him in dramatic fashion. It is probable that nothing could have saved him. Forces over which he had no control were working against the whole Democratic ticket in the Nutmeg state. There were scandals calculated to hurt the whole ticket, and the Socialists piled up an enormous vote. In winning four of the six congressional seats, all of which were held by Demo crats, the Republicans defeated Her man P. Kopplemann, who had been the New Deal candidate against Lonergan, so that it is reasonable to presume that a New Dealer would have done no better than the de feated senator. But the real importance of all this is that these facts are known to every senator and representa tive. They form a ready reference library which will be consulted whenever an issue arises, and which will be highly significant in the next two years. Would Combine Commerce And Labor Departments One of the best things that Presi dent Roosevelt could do, if he gets some authority to reorganize the government, would be to combine the commerce and labor depart ments, according to Washington ob servers who like to dish up some sound logic occasionally. Com merce and labor were united until 1913 and if industry and labor are supposed to get together and recon cile their differences in the public interest, the move might start with in the government that, as organ ized at present, tacitly recognizes their divergent interests and ap pears as the advocate of both. And what an opportunity for the Presi dent to name a cabinet officer worthy of the confidence of both capital and labor! Regulation of terminal produce markets will be a lively subject in the next congress, with chances in favor of legislation blending federal and state authority in a corporate setup to operate physical facilities. Sen. L. J. Frazier of North Da kota has sponsored a bill for three years hand-running to set up a na tional marketing corporation but that smacks of purchase and sale by the government, and the most ef fective opposition has been work ing with Mayor LaGuardia of New York, and trade representatives on voluntary measures but not getting very far. Administrator Andrews h aces a Real Show-Down A real showdown confronts Ad ministrator Elmer F. Andrews. Em pioyers want to know why they can’i legally cut wages on a work-week over 44 hours and use the saving to pay time and-a-half for over lime, thus continu ing the status quo Andrews admits that the law merely says that cutting wages as a result of the act shall not be E. F. Andrews justified. Accordingly, he rules that overtime must be computed on go ing wages, not reduced wages. Many employers are advised by counsel that the law is merely a congressional wish and that An drews' ruling would not be upheld in court. They think it is doubtful if congress can, constitutionally, freeze wages by forbidding cuts. A test case is likely. Unions will cast around for an amendment if labor loses out in the Supreme court. C BeU Syndicate.—WNU Service. WHO’S NEWS THIS WEEK By LEMUEL F. PARTON NEW YORK.—In Europe, a few years ago, this writer met a friend who had just interviewed | Gen. Ismet Inonu, who is today Tur , key's new dicta Dictator Inonu tor, succeeding An Iron Man, Kemal Ataturk, Yet a Diplomat who died ly. “He s the smartest hombre I ever met,” said my friend. “He talked to me for two hours, frank and honest, look ing me right in the eye and never holding out on anything. He was charming and brilliant and he didn't ask me not to print anything. I thought I had a great story. But, when I started to write it, there was just nothing there. I saw him several times after that, and real ized that he was a master in heart to-heart talk which left no commit ments whatsoever. I saw cagey dip lomats kissed off just as I had been. The man is a marvel of brains and ingenuity.” The small, fragile, deaf, ingratiat ing General Inonu is the hero of the Turkish army, premier until a year ago, when he was mysteriously benched by Kemal Ataturk. There were rumors that he was engaged in international negotiations of such subtlety that he found it necessary to keep out of office and off-stage. It was in 1920 that young Colonel Ismet joined Mustafa Kemal in Anatolia. By 1922, he had driven the Greeks out of Anatolia and Smyrna and in this period and thereafter he was Kemal Ataturk’s chief mili tary aide. He added to his lau rels, when, at the 1923 Lausanne conference, he ran rings around British and Italian diplomats and won for Turkey virtually its demands. He was one of few men who re tained the confidence of Ataturk to the end. He was a firm and exact ing and, at times, ruthless ruler of the army, and is said to lack none of the traditional specifications of the iron man. It is apparent that Ismet Inonu is Intent on keeping Turkey diplomat ically liquid, that he fully realizes the bargaining power of Turkey’s hegemony over the Moslem bloc, and that he probably will use this and other strategic assets in mak ing some shrewd bargains. HpALL, austere Sumner Welles, a deft precisionist in career diplo macy, is merely undersecretary of state, but off-stage he’s the key-man of a critical in Sumner Welles ternational en A Specialist in counter and a S. A. Relations P°licy draughts man in whose hands a chart of our South Ameri can procedure is taking shape. He helped initiate and has diligently fostered the “good neighbor" policy in Latin-America, and his radio ad dress urging a get-together in the Western hemisphere received a good press in those countries. But a bad press in Germany. His plea for joint defense against “any threat of attack” is in interesting contrast to his speeches of a year ago, when he appealed to the “nations of the world for a new world order, based on justice and law.” He weighs the actualities of trade, finance and the collective safety and solvency of the Western world. Something like a picture of a western league of nations be gins to emerge as the great imperialisms turn toward the vast raw material storehouse of South America. After his graduation from Har vard in 1914. Franklin D. Roosevelt, then assistant secretary of the navy, helped him enter career diplomacy. In his early thirties, he was high commissioner to the Dominican Re public, the author of “Naboth’s Vineyard,” a two-volume study of that country. He was made am bassador to Cuba by President Roosevelt in 1933. He became un dersecretary of state last year. D OBERT DONAT, the English ac tor on the up-take in "The Cita del” and other films, made so many unsuccessful tries at the screen seven years ago Laughing at that they called Despair Gets him “Screen Donat Fame Test" Donat. A competent actor, he met hard luck and was all but desperate, as something always went wrong. One day, in what he was sure would be his last try, the director told him to register despair. The irony of his merely imitating despair sent him into demoniac laughter. Alexander Korda, in an other room, heard him. . “Sign that man up. whoever he is,” said Korda. "That’s a great performance.” He had what it took, and they routed him right through to fame and riches. He won by challenging • homily—“Do not despair.” 0 Consolidated News Features. WNU Service. [ Stranger In Town By Sarah Jane Clark IM saw Joan first as she stopped in at Du Vail's grocery. "Mother wants a T-bone steak, the kind she always gets, and a pound of bacon.” Her voice was that delightfully husky kind. Jim, having finished his purchase, got out his money slowly, counted up the amount of his purchases and looked over his change carefully be fore he pocketed it. She looked like a grand girl. He wished he knew her. But he was a stranger in the big city, and he'd have to wait. Couldn’t rush things with a girl like that. And perhaps she had a boy friend already. Un consciously he slowed down at the corner of his apartment building. Stupid, to have to eat all alone, the night before Christmas. Jim turned to look back at the store he had just left, and found that the girl had overtaken him. Hello, there, you going my way?” he asked. "I'm a stranger here, and it’s mighty lonesome at Christmas—” But the girl, with a cool, ‘‘Ex cuse me, please,” hurried on. Jim's cheeks burned. He hadn’t meant to be fresh, really. He turned the corner and entered the doorway of his apartment. Then he saw the girl the third time. She was just opening the door and going up the stairs. She lived in the same ‘building with him! He ate his solitary supper in his one - room kitchenette apartment. Then, what was there to do? His first Christmas away from home. His job here was so new that he hadn’t dared to ask for time off to go home. Well, he supposed he could go to a show. But when Jim got out onto Dela ware Place he almost changed his mind. A snow had begun to fall, a heavy leisurely snow with big flakes There was a bump and a crash as an armful of packages landed on the sidewalk. that made a thick carpet on the streets and sidewalks, already icy from the drizzle of the afternoon. He hesitated & minute about start ing out on such a night, then think ing of the lonely room he had just quitted, he shrugged his shoul ders and started up the street. With his head down he trudged through the snow, plowing his way with difficulty against the strong wind. Too late he saw a dark figure directly in front of him. There was a bump, and a crash as an armful of packages landed on the sidewalk. Startled, Jim looked into the face of the girl he was thinking about. His face red with embarrassment, Jim picked up her bundles. Strange to say, the girl laughed amusedly. “Why go around barg ing into people this way? It’s just my luck, Christmas eve, to have my bundles all scattered, and,” a little ruefully, “some of them broken.” "Say. that’s a shame. You must let me replace anything that’s brok en," Jim insisted. “Really I’m aw fully sorry about this. I was fac ing the snow and had my head down. I’ll never forgive myself if you don’t let me do this last minute shopping with you. I am Jim Sheridan, from Dubuque, working for the Times.” "Well, I’m Joan Siegfred. I’ve been feeling sorry for the way I squelched you a while ago. So I’m glad of a chance to say so.” Her eyes were bright and sparkling and her cheeks glowing from the cold. Walking down the busy streets with a pretty girl, replacing Christ mas decorations that had been smashed in the fall, and being al lowed to help put them on the tree later, was a lot better than going to a picture show alone. And when Joan's cheerful, friendly mother asked the homesick lad to have dinner with them next day, Jim felt that he was no longer a friendless stranger in a big city, and that Christmas was a time of peace and good will, after all. ©— WNU Service. Christmas on the Highway CHICAGO.—With traffic increased by the Christmas rush, more Amer ican lives were lost in automobile accidents during the month of De cember. 1936, than in the Revolu tionary war. But last December, in a campaign led by the National Safety council, the toll was reduced by 400 lives. But still 3,890 people were killed that month. 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