Transatlantic Air, Cable Lines
Focus on Tiny Azores Islands
NC-4 Stopped There 20
Years Ago During
Pioneer Flight.
ifrepared by National Geographic Society,
i Washington. D. C.-WNU Service.
Welcoming the Yankee Clip
per on its transatlantic flights
at Horta, Azores islands, is
not a new thrill for citizens
of the city.
The navy plane, NC-4, which
took off from Newfoundland
on the first transatlantic flight
4n 1919. landed at Horta on May 17.
Commanded by Lieutenant-Com
mander Albert C. Reid, the NC-4
was one of three planes that made
the “hop.” Two planes failed 200
pniles short of the Azores. One was
forced down and abandoned by its
crew and the other was lost in fog,
landed on the sea, and taxied to
Ponta Delgado, the metropolis of the
Islands.
Lindbergh Stopped There.
Again the citizens of Horta peered
Into the skies on November 21, 1933,
;and greeted Col. and Mrs. Charles
A. Lindbergh as they descended
into the harbor from Lisbon on
their epochal flight around the north
Atlantic.
The Azores port, since then, has
frequently been visited by transat
lantic flyers, especially during 1938,
which was a boom year in transat
lantic flying. Among the planes
alighting on the harbor were the
German Nordmeer and British Mer
cury, the latter the famous picka
back plane. The city was also host
ito the crew of the German Branden
burg and the French Lieutenant de
Vaisseau Paris.
It took 17 hours and 33 minutes
OLD AND NEW —Aviation
history is made twice at the
Azores. Upper photo shows the
NC-4 riding at her moorings
there during epoch-making trans
atlantic flight of 1919. Twenty
years later, in lotver photo, the
Yankee Clipper stops at Horta.
tor the Yankee Clipper to reach
Horta but the NC-4, two decades ago,
was in the air only 15 hours and 17
minutes. A glance at a map of
the Atlantic shows that the differ
ence in time is explained by the dis
tances flown. The Yankee Clipper
took off from Baltimore, Maryland,
about 2,800 miles west of Horta; the
NC-4 started from Newfoundland to
the northwest, which is about half
the distance.
Transatlantic Cable Station.
Horta is the principal port and
largest city on Fayal island. Near
ly one-third of the island's 20,000
inhabitants live in the city whose
white, red-roofed buildings sprawl
along the shore of one of the finest
harbors in the Azores.
Situated on the southeast shore of
the island, the harbor is subject to
heavy winds, but a half-mile-long
Jetty makes it a sought-for haven
during stormy weather. Fifteen to
twenty large vessels may safely an
chor in the harbor at a time.
Horta was significant as a trans
oceanic communications center
even before transatlantic flights
were made. It is the most impor
tant junction point of transatlantic
cables. In one of its buildings six
companies—British, German, Italian,
French, and two American—are
housed. They handle messages for
stations in North America, Europe,
and South Africa, and by intercon
nection for stations in every part of
the world.
World Eyes
New Bolivia:
Tin Coveted
Dictator Busch Can Sway
Market of Important
Raw Metal.
Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington, D. C.—WNU Service.
Bolivia’s newly established dicta
torship can affect foreign countries
more than would changes in many
other parts of South America, be
cause Bolivia's government is
financed mainly by the revenue
from its exports, and its exports—
particularly tin—are in strong de
mand.
Tin, one of the strategic metals
highest on the United States’ want
list, is Bolivia’s number one product
and is responsible for its biggest
business. As the third greatest tin
producing country of the world, Bo
livia is the nearest source for that
metal to all countries of the New
World, since its chief competitors
are the Federated Malay States and
the Netherlands Indies in Asia.
Most of Bolivia’s tin ore exports,
however, go to Great Britain, since
there are no tin smelters in Bolivia
or the United States. Bolivian tin
returns to the Americas from Brit
ish smelters.
Not a One-Metal Land.
In Bolivia "the tin standard” sub
ititutes lor the gold standard. This
metal constitutes from two-thirds to
nine-tenths of the country’s exports;
and export duties in this land of
Impoverished agriculture and limit
ed industry are the chief sources of
the government’s income. During
1937 the nation produced 12 per cent
of the world's tin output
But Bolivia is by no means a one
metal land. Some 98 per cent of her
exports are minerals, tin being fol
lowed in value by silver, lead, anti
mony, zinc, tungsten, copper, and
bismuth. In antimony, too, the
country ranks third on the list of
producing nations. Its position is
now of added importance because
China has previously been the lead
ing source of supply but is no longer
a factor in the world market.
In addition to utilitarian tin and
the Spanish silver of such romantic
lore, experts of rubber, quinine, and
exotic chinchilla fur helD to make
DICTATOR — Col. German
Busch, youthful president of Bo
livia who dismissed his congress
and set himself up as dictator,
promising to give his people an
election in a few months.
Bolivia known to the outside world.
Some estimates rank Bolivian for
ests second to those of Brazil for
production of South American rub
ber; since much of the smaller
country’s forest products float down
the headwaters of the Amazon to
Brazilian ports, their origin is ob
scure.
In an area more than twice as
large as Texas, Bolivia supports
only 55 per cent as many people as
the Lone Star state. This is the
only South American nation without
access to the sea directly from its
own ports; Bolivia lost her coastal
territory to Chile after the War of
the Pacific nearly 60 years ago. The
land-locked Andean plateau, cradled
12,000 feet above sea level between
two snow-capped ranges with peaks
exceeding 21,000 feet, has so im
pressed popular imagination—with
its ’’world’s highest capital. La
Paz,” and its "world’s highest
steamer service” on Lake Titicaca
—that the low tropical plains to the
east of the mountains are frequent
ly forgotten. Yet these extensive
lowlands constitute about 70 per
cent of the nation’s 537,792 square
miles. On the south they merge
into the Gran Chaco, scene of the
most recent war in the Western
Hemisnhere.
NATIONAL
AFFAIRS
Reviewed by
CARTER FIELD
Political strategy of the
I\ew Dealers seems to be to
start hitting the most likely
opponent early . . . Ameri
can merchant marine in
danger of receiving anoth
er blow . . . Developments
in the Democratic sparring
match for the presidential
nomination are thick and
furious.
WASHINGTON.—It has been rath
er widely quoted that President
Roosevelt, in introducing Senator
Arthur H. Vandenberg of Michigan
to King George at the famous Brit
ish embassy garden party, com
mented: ‘‘This is the man who
thinks he is going to succeed me
next year, but he isn't.” Also that
the President did not mention Van
denberg’s name.
It has not been widely quoted at
all. even in Michigan, that the fol
Senator
Vandenberg
lowing day, when
Senator Vandenberg
was presented to the
king in the Capitol,
the king said: ‘‘I am
very glad to get
your name in order
to connect it up with
what occurred yes
terday.”
All of which is
chiefly of interest in
that Mr. Roosevelt’s
feeling about this
particular candidate
for his seat cropped out so visibly
that even a visiting ruler, whose
mind was concentrated almost en
tirely on trying to do the right thing
and make an Impression which
would not let England down, noticed
it
It is of a piece with the Presi
dent's reference to Thomas E. Dew
ey as "that little two-spot,” and to
the campaign the New Dealers have
been so consistently conducting
since last winter against Senator
Robert A. Taft of Ohio.
The point here is not whether this
is sound strategy or not. If the best
political traditions are to be fol
lowed, it would seem to be. Start
hitting the most likely opponent
early.
The importance at the moment is
that apparently this is the strategy
of the New Deal, and that the No.
1 target has changed three times
since last November. In that month
the remark about Dewey being a
"two-spot” was made. By Febru
ary apparently the New Dealers
were figuring that Taft was the man
they had to beat. By June of this
year Vandenberg had moved up to
this dangerous position.
Later On It Probably
Will Be Some One Else
Next September it may be some
body else. Undoubtedly three or
four more Republicans will be on
this hot spot before next June, when
all doubts will be resolved by the
Republican national convention.
Dewey is still the most popular
Republican for the nomination if one
believes the polls. But inside New
Deal information is that he began
slipping rapidly some time back so
far as the men apt to control the
delegates are concerned. Dewey
does not hit the New Deal and
Roosevelt himself so hard as most
Republican leaders would like.
So Taft went into top position, as
far as they are concerned, and it
didn’t take the New Deal scouts long
to find this out. Then Taft was hurt
by two things. One was his failure
to make a hit at several important
gatherings where he spoke, of which
one was the annual dinner of the
newspaper editors. The other was
the reported dislike for his chief op
ponent for the Buckeye delegation.
Gov. John W. Bricker of Ohio, by
the county chairmen of that state.
This put Vandenberg out front,
which is the reason he seemed the
I chief menace to continuance of the
| New Deal early in June. It may be
of course that Mr. Roosevelt was
also especially annoyed with the
Michigan senator because it was
Vandenberg who directed the suc
cessful fight to block further appro
priations for the Florida ship canal.
American Merchant Marine
To Receive Another Blow
Something is always cropping up
to prevent the development of an
American merchant marine. Now
it is about to receive another blow
The house foreign affairs committee
went out of its way to prevent it.
but the blow is almost surely com
ing when the so-called Bloom bill
(introduced by Representative Sol
Bloom along the lines advocated by
Secretary of State Cordell Hull) gets
over to the senate.
The trouble lies in the “cash and
carry” provisions of the measure.
The bill provides that munitions
! and war materials may be sold
abroad, even to belligerents, and
! may be shipped, but it also pro
vides that title to the goods must
be transferred from American own
ership before the goods leave Amer
ican harbor3.
The original cash and carry pro
j vision, regarded as going a long
way toward removing the danger
of possible incidents, forbade their
shipment in American vessels. The
Bloom bill was changed in this re
spect so as to permit the use of
American bottoms in shipping war
supplies abroad. The prevailing ar
gument in the house committee was
that if ships flying the United States
flag were barred from this trade,
this would be another blow to Amer- |
lean shipping, and a deterrent to
building American ships.
Under the Bloom bill ships fly
ing the American flag may trans
port anything they please except
that they may not enter zones which,
after the breaking out of war, may
be declared dangerous by the Pres
ident of the United States.
But on the senate side of the Capi
tol this idea of permitting ships fly
ing the United States flag to carry
munitions of war to the ports of a
belligerent country seems a very
dangerous doctrine to the group of
senators anxious to isolate this coun
try—or insulate to use the latest
word—against every possible danger
of war.
Danger of an *Incident'
That Might Lead to War
Senators in this group insist that
the danger of an “incident” is just
as great—just as apt to inflame the
people of this country to a stage
where war might result—if a ship
flying the American flag and
manned by United States seamen
were torpedoed as though United
States nationals also owned the
cargo she was carrying.
They do not see any difference in
the possible effects. They do not
think that the shipment of muni
tions to belligerents should be per
mitted at all, and would like to pre
vent the shipment of all war sup
plies, but recognize that the opposi
tion to them is too strong to permit
their going this far.
But in the amendment of the pres
ent neutrality act they are sure they
can work up enough popular senti
ment on their side to prevent ships
flying the United States flag from
sailing with loads of foreign owned
munitions—though produced in the
United States and sold by United
States nationals — to belligerent
ports.
Bitterness Against Jones
Something to Write About
Developments in the Roosevelt
Garner-Farley-McNutt presidential
sparring are as thick and furious as
though this were next spring in
stead of the Democratic National
convention being a full year off.
Within the last week bitterness of
many of the New Dealers against
Garner has reached the danger
stage, all of it resulting from what
tfle New Dealers assumed to be a
Garner-inspired story which stated
that the vice president would stick
to the end, regardless of any other
development, in his fight for the
nomination.
As a matter of fact, Garner did
not know about this story before it
was printed. But it so happens that
it was written by the Washington
correspondent of a Texas newspa
per owned by Jesse H. Jones!
Hence bitterness against Jones is
something to write home about. The
New Dealers are calling him ev
erything from an “ingrate” up and
down.
Moreover, they are trying to cut
in on Gamer’s Texas strength now
by flirting with Sam Rayburn,
Democratic leader of the house, on
the notion that Rayburn may be
nominated for vice president, with
Roosevelt as head of the ticket, next
year. This same hope is being held
out to a number of other Democrats
who they have reason to fear might
not go along with the Roosevelt
forces—otherwise—at the conven
tion.
Not Disloyal for Any
Democrat to Make the Race
“Why shouldn’t any Democrat run
for the nomination?” one of them
demanded of the writer. “Roosevelt
has not said one word to indicate
that he intends to run. But even if
he did tomorrow, does that mean
that it is disloyal for any other
Democrat to have aspirations? And |
disloyal to whom? They talk about
Garner’s pledging himself for the
‘duration’ at the Philadelphia con
vention. What do they mean ‘dura
tion’? As long as Roosevelt lives?
Roosevelt doesn’t own the Demo
cratic party. If he wants the nomi
nation nothing will prevent his go
ing after it. But there is nothing
disloyal, to the party or to anybody,
in any Democrat who chooses mak
ing the race. Our man is in the
fight, and he will win.”
One development that caused 1
much surprise was the statement of
Sen. Minton
Senator Sherman
Minton of Indiana
that Paul V. McNutt
would be a candi
date only in the
event that Roosevelt
decides not to run for
a third term. As few
people in Washing
ton really doubt that
Roosevelt will try,
or that McNutt
thinks anything else,
this is taken as a bid
by McNutt tor tne vice presidential
nomination.
As a result, the Texans have been
digging in further on the Indiana
situation. They had been making
cautious inquiries before, trying to
get second-choice commitments. An
insider in the Garner movement
tells the writer that unless there are
some unexpected upsets Roosevelt
will probably get 19 of Indiana’s
delegates and Garner nine.
(Bell Syndicate—WNO Service.!
Tloyd
ADVENTURERS1 CLUB
HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES
OF PEOPLE LIKE VOURSELFI
“A Dog’s Life’’
Hello everybody:
Today’s Distinguished Adventurer didn’t write his
own story. He can neither read nor write.
That, of course, is nothing new in the realm of adven
ture. Plenty of great adventurers couldn’t as much as sign
their own names, but that didn’t stop them from getting
into tight spots or from living lives that were packed full
of thrills and danger.
And it’s the thrills and the danger we want in this col
umn. I don’t give a whoop how well you can write, or
whether you can write at all. The writing part of it is my
job, and all I want you boys and girls to do is give me the
facts. Write ’em down on an old piece of wrapping paper,
or if you can’t write, get somebody else to write ’em down
for you.
That’s what today’s Distinguished Adventurer did. His
name, by the way, is Jip. He is one-half foxhound and one
half pointer, and he’s one of the best all-around bird and rabbit dogs in
the state of Illinois.
Jip's boss, Newton Belgum, of Chicago, sent me all the dope about
Jip’s adventure. Newt raised Jip from a pup, and he was right there
when things began to happen. It was on a cold day in December, 1933,
and Newt and Harry Russell and Frank Blackford were off on a hunting
trip along the Kaskaskia river near Sullivan, 111. Newt, of course, had
Jip with him.
After Breakfast They Started for the River.
They arrived in Sullivan about four o’clock in the morning, had break
fast and started for the river. It was a bitter cold morning, with the mer
cury down to five below.
Newton was hunting through a cornfield, when suddenly he heard a
yell that came from the river.
There was Jip, swirling about in the icy water. He had be
come thirsty and started out to get a drink, but the thin ice near
the edge had broken and he had fallen in.
The three men stood on the bank and looked helplessly at one another.
There wasn’t a thing they could do for Jip, so they stood watching
on the bank while the game little animal did his best to help himself.
The current was strong at that spot. Already it had carried him down
from some point farther up the river. Now it was tugging at the poor
And then Newt had another idea. He loaded his gun and began
firing at the ice.
little animal, trying to pull him away from the bank and whirl him out
into the stream.
Gamely, Jip tackled the ice with his paws. He broke it for
about five feet toward shore, but he couldn’t climb up on it when
it became too thick to break.
Again and again the current pulled him out. Each time he managed
to swim back. But already he had been in that icy water for 10 minutes,
and he couldn’t keep on fighting that current forever.
And all that time, Newt, standing up on the bank, was going through
a hell that was almost as bad as the one his dog was fighting.
"Each .time Jip fought his way back to the little cut he had
made in the ice,” Newt says, "he would look up at us with appeal
ing eyes, as if he were trying to say, ‘For God’s sake, save me!’
"By this time I was bewildered and desperate. I wanted to
try to go out on the ice, but the other fellows told me it would be
suicide and reminded me that I had three daughters at home
depending on me.
"As I stood there, watching him fight for his life, I felt as though the
tvhole world was going to pieces. To Frank and Harry I said, ‘Fellows,
he's done for, and I can’t go home without him.’
They Started to Gather Up the Dead Branches.
“Finally I hit on an idea. We started gathering up all the dead
branches we could find and throwing them into the water, hoping the
current would drive them back of my dog, giving his hind legs some
thing to kick against and enabling him to climb up on the ice.”
But that idea of Newt’s didn’t work. The current was in the wrong
direction. Jip had been in the water for 15 minutes by that time.
"There was ice on his eyebrows and nose,” Newt says. "I
couldn’t stand it any longer so I went back and got my shotgun.
I was going to shoot him and put him out of his misery, but my
friends stopped me—told me not to shoot him as long as he had a
fighting chance.”
And then Newt had another idea. He loaded his gun and began firing
at the ice!
Jip was out in the stream again, fighting his way back. The first
shot ripped out a chunk of ice, lengthening the cut Jip had already started.
Newt fired again—and again—and then the other two men got the idea.
Newt was blasting a channel in the ice so the dog could swim closer to the
bank! They picked up their own guns and started to help.
They cut that channel almost to the shore. Jim swam into it,
but still he couldn’t get his hind legs up on the ice. Then
Newt had another idea. All three men fired at once at the ice on
the upstream side of the dog. That did the trick. A big, triangular
piece of ice, half sunken in the water, floated down and got un
der Jip's hind legs, and Jip kicked himself up to safety.
They called Jip down to a spot where the bank was lower, and then
went and got him. The poor pup was all in. His tail was frozen stiff by an
icicle. He was cut and bleeding, and there was ice on his face and ears.
Newt put his coat around him and rubbed him until he could stand
up. He carried him to a gully where he’d be out of the wind. As he set
him down, out jumped a rabbit from a brush patch a few feet away.
"And when Jip got through chasing that rabbit,” says Newt, “he
was O. K. again.”
(Released by Western Newspaper Union.)
Children Greatest Reason for Home Buying
Out of every 100 American home
owners, 50 buy their first house “to
have a better place to bring up the
children.” The next greatest motive
is just a sentimental longing “for a
home of our own.” Investment runs
a poor third as a reason for home
ownership. The average American
couple buy their first home when
they have been married five years;
when the husband is 32 and the wife
is 29. The average price paid by
the families studied was $4,899, al
most exactly two years’ salary, the
average annual income reported be
ing $2,452. New homes were built
by 31 per cent of the families ques
tioned. Sixty-nine per cent pur
chased older houses, and there were
children in 61 per cent of the fami
lies at the time their first home was
purchased.
I ..
Star Dust
★ So On Through Life
★ Rudy in Another Role
★ Ingenious Quiz Program
- By Virginia Vale —
IT BEGINS to look as if
those girls who made ‘ ‘Four
Daughters” what it was (with
the aid of John Garfield),
have a life-time job. They
appear again in the new
“Daughters Courageous”
with him, and will shortly
m^ke ‘‘Four Wives.” The studio
had intended to have them do “Four
Mothers” as the next of the series,
but now the wives will come first.
Of course, they could go on forever,
becoming grandmothers, widows, ^
and then possibly “Four Second
GALE PAGE
Wives.” Just see what you, the pub
lic, started when you acclaimed the
three Lane sisters and Gale Page in
that first picture! |
In case you’re interested in that
picture Samuel Goldwyn has been
making, bringing Jascha Heifetz to
the screen, the title has been
changed again. “Music School” has
been abandoned in favor of “They
Shall Have Music,” which is going
to be a bit harder on the men who
fit the names of pictures into thea
ter marquees.
-*
When you see Brian Aherne in
"Juarez”—if you haven't already
seen him—you might pretend that
you’re a movie mogul and study his
performance with the idea of of
fering him the role of “Christopher
Columbus” in the movie version of
that famous Italian’s life. That’s
what Edward Small did.
On second thought, maybe you’d
better not bother. For it would be
a shame to do anything that would
take your mind off the grand picture
that Aherne, Paul Muni and Bette
Davis made together. “Juarez” de
serves all your attention.
-*
For a long time It seemed likely
that Rudy Vallee would be remem
bered as the man who started the
"crooner” wave that swept over the
country. Now it seems far more
likely that he’ll be famous as the
fellow who discovered and devel
oped more celebrities than anybody
else.
Tommy Riggs, Edgar Bergen,
Bob Bums—they’re just three out of
a list of more than one hundred
radio celebrities who owe their
fame to the chance that he gave
them.
-*
Those quiz programs, in one form
or another, seem likely to go on
forever, which is bad news for all
the singers whom they have crowd
ed off the airways.
One of the newest and most in
genious is that presided over by the
two writers of mystery stories who
sign their output “Ellery Queen.”
It’s known as “The Adventures ol
Ellery Queen.” Each week a mys
tery story is dramatized, with Mr.
Queen and four guest detectives lis
tening. As soon as Queen knows
who the murderer is he stops the
play, and each guest is asked to
give his solution of the mystery.
Then the dramatization is re
sumed and the author’s solution
i given. It’s lots of fun to follow from
your own arm chair.
-sis
One of the radio singers for whom
quiz programs hold no threats is
Felix Knight, who’s Just had an
other renewal of his contract on
that half-hour preceding the Vallee
show. He appeared on it for one
guest appearance, something like
84 weeks ago, and has been a regu
lar ever since.
-*
Lum and Abner are going back to
their old home in Arkansas this
summer, partly for a vacation,
partly to make sure that they
haven’t lost their accents (as if they
could!) and the homefolks are be
ginning now to prepare a proper
celebration.
-*
ODDS AND ENDS—“Tarzan Finds
a Son,’’ with little Johnny Sheffield a*
the son, is a lot of fun. and just about
the time it was released Maureen O’Sul
livan. who plays “Tarzan’s’’ male, was
celebrating the birth of her first baby
... Metro has once more temporarily
postponed filming “It Can’t Happen
Here” . . • Now it’s Benjamin Franklin
whose life is to be screened . . . Joan
Blondell gives her usual expert per
formance in “Good Girls Go to Paris,
Too” . . . W hatever you do, don't miss
Jack Benny and his valet, Rochester,
in “Man About Town.”
(Released by Western Newspaper Union.!