The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 7

ifapifiiiaiu'myjyggAihjiifiiii-iit -i-i-ajtfMiyayMMW'- iftlyititfftiJfcijfijflByWIyiin SECTION 1 THE COURIER-JOURNAL, LOUISVILLE, Y. THURSDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 16, 1936 IIHMW PEARSON a Spanish-Russian Relations Endanger U.S. Investment, Columnist Says laree erouDS of Snaniarrfc uhn -mjhiii jj 1 1 run -ii mr in mT in ir i (v A I 1 1 1 I I I -m volt. A change from Franco to some military leaders, such as General Munoz Grande or General Garcia Valino, would only align two rival Army groups against each other. But the most serious problem is Spanish flirtation with Russia at the top and a drift toward communism at the bottom.

The Franco Government has nothing in common with the democracies except getting American dollars to bolster its regime. But Franco does have something in common with Russia upsetting the French in North Africa and expanding WASHINGTON. Behind the headlines from Spain are some disturbing facts that indicate our billion-dollar investment in Generalissimo Francisco Franco rests on shaky ground. Here are the high lights of the pessimistic intelligence from Spain: 1. Franco is getting old and is tired.

2. The Franco bloc is gradually disintegrating. It's split with bitter internal quarrels among the monarchists, the Falange youth, and various business groups. 3. There is uneasiness among workers, open revolt among students, a general weariness after 17 years of dictatorship.

have resisted the dictatorship for a democratic form of Government have received no encouragement from the Western democracies. So they have been veering toward communism. There has been deep Communist infiltration among the students, workers' syndicates, intellectuals, even among public officials. The tragedy is that totalitarian fascism has prepared Spain for totalitarian communism. Under both fascism and communism, there is no middle Toad.

NOTE United States aid to Spain largely came about as a result of the persistent efforts of the late Senator McCarran of Nevada; Franco's lobbyist, Charles Patrick Clark, and Representative Keough, a Brooklyn Democrat. 'I'll Spanish domination in that rich area. Comparing Notes For years, Franco has been stirring up the Arabs against the French. Now Russia is doing the same; so Franco is comparing notes with Moscow in regard to a common policy in North Africa. At the bottom, meanwhile, The big Spanish problem, as in all dictatorships, is: Who will replace the dictator when he goes? A democracy is geared to take changes in its stride, but not a dictatorship.

A Spanish monarchy would get nowhere. There would be immediate re Core Goes Along SENATOR GORE Tenn), picked to carry on the gas-lobby probe, is a young senator of unimpeachable integrity. He stood up against Senator Lyndon Johnson in backstage discussions of the gas lobby, and insisted that the whole gas-lobby Ray In Kansas City Star PASSING OF AN EFFECTIVE CRITIC it ,11 a it He 11 i 11 BILL LADD'S Almanac Here's the score on TV applications for channels throughout Kentuekiana SEEMS as though this desk answers a letter a day asking for information about Kentuekiana television stations, when and if they are going on the air and what happened to some of them. According to the Television Digest fact book, this is the situation in this area as of January 15. Stations already on the air are not listed.

Channels are in parenthesis. Ashland (59) Granted to Polan Industries, Huntington, W. but no indication of any plans for going on the air. Lexington (27) Granted to owners of WLAP; no plans to go on air. Louisville (21) WKLO-TV operated until April 20, 1954, when it left the air and reverted to construction-permit status.

Extension of time for "construction" asked; local manager has not been advised if it was granted. Louisville (41) Granted to operators of WLOU radio. No information that construction is in definite plans. Operators have said Louisville plans depend on success of affiliated WQXI-TV, Atlanta, which went off the air last May. Newport (74) Granted to operators of WNOP.

Ni plans for going on the air reported. Owensboro (14) No decision on application of Aircast, of Louisville to the Federal Communications Commission. Owensboro (9) Operators of WVJS have applied for this channel allocated to Hatfield, across the river. Same people held a construction permit for Channel 14, but relinquished it. No decision yet by F.C.C.

Owensboro (9) Publishers of Owensboro Messenger and Inquirer and operators of WOMI have applied for this channel also. No decision. Paducah (6) Columbia Amusement Company has applied; initial decision of F.C.C. examiner recommended grant. No final action.

Paducah (6) Paducah Newspapers, operators of WKYB, have applied for channel. Initial decision of F.C.C. examiner recommended denial. No final action. Evansville (7) Granted to Evansville Television, recently; no starting time announced.

Indianapolis (13) Four applicants for this channel; initial decision of F.C.C. examiner recommended it be awarded to Mid-West TV Corporation. No final decision. Princeton (52) Operated until July 15, 1954. when it reverted to construction-permit status.

Extension of "construction" permit asked. Cincinnati (54) Granted to operators of Louisville WLOU and WQXL-TV. No plans reported to go on the air. Dayton (22) WIFE operated on this channel until March 13, 1954, when it reverted to construction-permit basis; extension of construction time requested. Bristol, Tenn.

(5) Tri-Cities TV has asked for channel, but initial decision of F.C.C. examiner recommended denial. Bristol, Va. (5) Appalachian Broadcasting Company has asked for channel; initial decision of examiner has recommended grant. No final action by F.C.C.

Knoxville (10) WBIR-TV was granted permit for channel January 13. No starting date reported. Gilmore Nunn of Lexington's WLAP is a part owner, along with operators of Cincinnati's WKRC-TV. Memphis (10) Educational grant made to group of Memphis citizens; reported about ready to go on air. Nashville (2) Foundation composed of Nashville citizen has applied for an educational station.

No action yet by F.C.C. Plans for these TV stations, mentioned from time to time in the past, have been dropped or their permits have been canceled by the F.C.C: Paducah (43); Richmond, Ky (60); Indianapolis (26); Indianapolis (67); Marion, (29). be investigation should Mencken Beat The Critical Drums For Literary Realism and Simplicity broadened. When Senator Hennings Mo.) was called to Johnson's office to persuade him to sidestep the probe of the $2,500 offered to Senator Case of South Dakota, Gore went with him at Hennings's request. As 2 p.m.

approached, Gore and Hennings were still closeted with Johnson, and Johnson was still arguing that the regular Elections Committee, of which Associated Press Writer Hv WILLIAM (, SENATOR GORE Called on Johnson both Hennings and Gore were members, should not investigate. Finally Gore became impatient. "Let's go," he told Hennings, "it's after 2 p.m. and Senator Case was scheduled to meet with us at 2." "Go ahead," shot back Johnson, "I didn't invite you here." ISo Hungers SOME WEEKS AGO, I accompanied Alcohol Tax Unit agents on the raid of a moonshine still near Roanoke, Va. Except for a near case of frostbite, I encountered no dangers.

But the other day, Representative Gary of Virginia voiced some alarm over the incident when he was talking to Treasury Secretary Humphrey. "It is entirely possible that a person accompanying a raiding party of that kind could be seriously injured and present a question as to whether the Government should compensate that person for his injuries," Gary said. Pressed by Gary Humphrey said that ho wasn't personally acquainted with the case, but Gary pressed him: "I am just questioning the propriety of a raiding party going out to raid stills, which we all admit is a very hazardous undertaking, carrying along with them reporters and photographers." "I do not know," Humphrey replied, after some thought. "I do know from watching the television that in some of the shows, newspaper reporters unearth a lot of facts. I do not know any more than you do about this, but I should think there should be a good reason for it if they accompany a raiding party.

"I would kind of like to go myself," he added wistfully. Copyright, 15 The new wind sweeping across the dusty pages of letters was not all boon, Owens adds. "Much of the movement was froth, of course," he says. "The new literary creed produced its share of poseurs and frauds. But it produced, also, a magnificent list of writers." Among these, Nathan recalls, was the emergent Sinclair Lewis.

"It was the point of view, not the style of writing simply, that Mencken hailed when Lewis wrote 'Main and it was his influence that persuaded Lewis later to write Nathan says. To Knopf, the of Mencken's influence was this: "He was a very courageous man and the most consistent man I ever met. He believed exactly as he wrote. "The difference between him and others was that he said what he believed. How he said it was what got under the skin of others.

Basically he was polite. But he wasn't polite in his writing." Not An Iconoclast Both Knopf and Owens point out a paradox that has become part of the Mencken legend in these later years. As a reformer, he was not an iconoclast; and in seeking change, he had what Owens calls an "almost puritanical" devotion to the "basic human virtues." "He didn't go against the established mores," agrees Knopf. "He was always in favor of the decent things." Adds Owens: "His war was against frauds and scoundrels." It was, as a matter of fact, Mencken's race against quackery as he conceived it anywhere in the world about him that more and more diverted his attention from emphasis on literature. As the years passed, he took on an endless array politics, religion, national prohibition, medicine and discoursed long, loudly and colorfully.

"He became obsessed with politics," Nathan points out, "and he wasted a lot of fine writing on transient matters." Knopf feels differently: "Mencken changed his emphasis in the '20's because the type of literature he wanted was being produced at last." with Joseph Conrad and Theodore Dreiser, respectively, leading the British and American contingents of the contemporaries," says Owens. "What he wanted," explains Knopf, "was a hearing for the worthy author who was not widely read such as Conrad or the man who was widely attacked, like Dreiser. "It is impossible today to understand the atmosphere that surrounded writing in the early years of this century," the publisher declares. Nathan calls it an era in which U. S.

novelists were "bogged in sentimental claptrap" and "dosed with the pap" of weak criticism. From Owens comes these words: "His battle was against those American writers who borrowed their styles, their characters and even their setting from British models and paid little or no attention to the roaring gusto of the country which nourished them. Almost the whole list of polite writers of the magazine serials of the period came under attack." Mencken's greatest influence on fiction was wielded during his editorship of the magazine Smart Set, starting in 1908, and on through the American Mercury in later years. Nathan was his cocditor for much of the period. Exuberant Assault Another outlet for his robust, exuberant assault on literature or any other situation in the contemporary scene which became game for his scorn was his "Free Lance" column in The Baltimore Sun from 1912 to 1917.

"There is a general impression that this column endured for many years but (its influence) was all exercised in that relatively brief period," Owens points out. Mencken was the idol, Owens adds, of the whole younger generation. "The bright young men who had been Wilsonian idealists during World War I now became the passionate cynics of the '20's," the newspaper editor says. "Not many of them managed to break into the highly selective pages of The Mercury, but thousands tried. "All of them read Mencken, quoted Mencken and did their best not only to write like him but to talk like him." FRANCISCO FRANCO Getting old and tired NEW YORK "The Roaring Twenties," we call those years and the words set off a flood of memories.

Remember? Bootleg gin, flaming youth, tin lizzies, the monkey trial and "Oh, you kid." It all seems now quaintly giddy, pleasantly scandalous and long wrapped away in the sentimental lace of nostalgia. But one of the strangest, liveliest and most important upheavals of that zesty age is likely to be overlooked. It was one man's revolution. A headline recalled the era the headline over a man's obituary. A man named Henry Louis Mencken died in his beloved Baltimore at 75.

For Mencken, more than any other single force, brought about one of the most amazing changes that ever hit a ration's literature. Half A Century Listen to those who knew him well and judged him long: "He began that almost-singlehanded crusade for a new American literature (created according to his specifications) which came to such a triumphant blooming in the 1920's," says Hamilton Owens, editor in chief of The Baltimore Sunpapers, where II.L.M. worked for half a century. "His was undoubtedly the most important influence on the fiction writing of his time," adds George Jean Nathan, the man who worked by his side as a magazine editor for 20 years. "He released a nation's literature from the fetters of prejudice," declares Alfred L.

Knopf, publisher of his books. And what does this mean today? "That's like asking whether the first atom bomb had any influence afterwards," Knopf rumbles. "Obviously what Mencken did influences whatever follows in literature, forever after." These three Owens, Nathan and Knopf perhaps knew Mencken's work most closely. But the list of those whom his pungent, raucous efforts affected reads like a Who's Who of Letters for an entire generation. "He beat the drum constantly for the writers he admired Mark Twain at the top of the classic American list perhaps, i STAN DEI.

A PLANE'S Postcard 3 Hoosier In Mitla Paints To Support His Hobby with the pine-stuffed pillows of Niagara Falls. "The ancients used ash trays?" I said. The lady did not bat an eye. "Yes, why not, Senor? Absolutely authentic antique ash trays." After awhile, we went over to surrounded by the original decorated walls. There were Mitla women all around the church, and they rushed over with baskets of carved Indian figures.

"Antiques! Antiques! Buy, Senor! Cheap!" "Made by hand or by machine?" I said. "Antique, Senor. Puras anti-guas!" They were persistent. Some of the figures had been antiqued. But many of them were fresh from the village factory.

One lady offered ash trays carved with Mitla designs. They were perfect tourist souvenirs and needed only a carved "Memories of Mitla" on them to compete LEADERS FLAM AH then act in time the little posada in the village I to see Howard Leigh, who knows more about Mitla than almost anybody. Howard Leigh is an artist from i The Neighbors llv Mrge Clark 'i Don't fail YOUR family! Come in today and talk with one of our trust officers, all of whom are experienced in analyzing and planning the financial affairs of others for the best protection of their families. This service of our bank is without cost or obligation on your part. The difference between success and failure is often the absence of and accurate timing.

The difference between SECURITY and INSECURITY for ones family is often the failure on the part of the husband and father to plan carefully his financial affairs before it is too late. New Castle, Ind. You might have seen his exhibitions in the Find-ley galleries in Chicago. He came down to paint and got into archaeology as a hobby. "First you collect a piece you can afford.

Then you find pieces you can't afford." He said he painted now to support the hobby. He said the carved figures sold by the church was a kind 'II 1 mi Oaxaca. THE OTHER DAY, I drove over from Oaxaca to the little town of Mitla, in the Zapotec Indian country of Mexico. Mitla is translated roughly as "The City of The Dead." But when we arrived, the fiesta of San Pablo was starting. And the little town along the river was quite lively.

A traveling fair had set up Its whirling rides. And most of the Indians were belting home brew and throwing rings to win terrible-looking celluloid dolls. A bullfight was programmed for the afternoon, and small boys chased through the rough dusty street crying: "Pyramids, Senor! I show!" "Beat it," I said. "Andale." This turns ort to be quite a mistake. Most of Mitla's streets cross the river.

Between fences of planted cactus. The road wrenches your car painfully. But if you get a boy to show you the way, he will take you over a bridge. Pure Zapotec Mitla gets it name from the pyramids, where Zapotec kings and priests were buried. It is pure Zapotec, and the walls are encrusted with zigzag designs.

Only one pyramid is in good shape. The Spaniards tore down the others and used the stone to build the great church that stands just back of the ruins. They limed over the walls of surrounding buildings. A few years ago, the lime was knocked off. And now the church is TRUST DEPARTMENT CITIZENS of cottage industry.

"The boys make them from a stone that cuts easily when it is wet. Some of it is really very good." "How did it start? Just when the tourists started coming?" Barrels of Antiques "Now that's a funny thing. Apparently making these fakes has gone on for years. There was an American general down here during the war with Mexico in 1847. He shipped barrels of antiques back to the Smithsonian Institution.

"Well, this stuff laid around for years. Recently they got around to classifying it. The majority of it was pure fake." He said tourists constantly bought homemade figures and then asked his opinion on it. "Then they get mad if I tell them it's a fake. So now I just say, 'Well, that one seems doubtful." FIDELITY Pi -1 Since 1858 Kentucky' leading Bank MEMBER FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM "I'm not worried about automation.

Can he buy a machine that will laugh at his tired jokes or sympathize with his upset stomach?".