Altoona Tribune from Altoona, Pennsylvania • Page 8

One waiter or Futler serves Tour people Tn Vnt White Rouse 'dmlngroom The Altoona Tribune 8 Saturday, September II, 1937 BOO! ALTOONA TRIBUNE How Chinese Got Money For War Material This Morning's COMMENT By HENRY W. SHOEIuAKEB By THE TIMES TRIBUNE CO No. 1110 Twelfth Street, Altoona, Fa. Mail Subscription Bates One Month (In Advance), .60 Six Months (In Advance), $275 One Year (In Advance) amount is assumed in banking cir Member of Audit Bureau of Circulation Entered at Altoona Postoffice as Second Class Mail Matter Member of The Associated Press The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for republication of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this paper and also the local news published herein. All rights or republication of special dispatches herein are also reserved.

Sole National Advertising Representative: Fred Kimball, New York, Neutrality in Central Bank of China buys enough gold bullion to keep a good credit rating abroad and at home, maintain elaborate embassies and purchase war material. Chint took eight million dollars worth from us during the war month of August! No wonder Japan clamps down with a blockade. Since the beginning of 1934 we have absorbed approximately a half billion dollars worth of Chinese silver. Without this, China would be helpless today. Fair enough, for without our purchases of Japanese gold Japan would have no credit either.

There are those who maintain that taking a lot of silver for which we have no use will do us less harm in the long run than taking the world's gold and chucking it into a Kentucky hole. It is not only fair that we should have enabled China to fight for self-preservation. It is in direct line with our policy. But it may help toward a realistic view to point out the extent to which we have our finger in the pie. China ships her silver to us through ongkong.

She buys gold from Japan which she has to ship all the way across the Pacific sometimes via Panama to New York. Some wag has asked why we don't just arrange for Japan to turn over her gold direct to the Chinese at Hongkong against our account: But the insurance companies largely British would want to know why they were being discriminated against. By UPTON CLOSE This is the fifth of a series of articles by the brilliant radio news Interpreter and America's foremost authority on Pacific affairs, who two years ago indicated in his book the present bloody developments, and here tells us what to expect next. Author of "Revolt of Asia," Eminent "Outline History of China." One learns some astonishing things about this current warfare in Pacific Asia when he digs into it. For instance, he leavns that the United States made possible China's resistance by buying China's huge supplies of silver bullion for years unwanted by the world and totally useless in establishing credit.

By a strange chain of circumstances Senator Pittman of Nevada becomes China's greatest friend and his silver purchase act may refashion the face of the world. One of the Nevada sena tor's arguments when he was advocating our unlimited sil ver purchase policy was that it would help China buy American goods. For a year it did exactly the Upton Close opposite by making currency scarce in China causing China's silver coinage to be privately melted and sold, boosting commodity prices and throwing China into a money-scarcity depression. Then smart T. V.

Soong, China's financial genius and brother of Mesdames Chiang Kai-shek, Sun Yat-sen and Kung, caught on to the Chinese end of the trick. The Nanking government abolished silver currency, bought its people's silver with paper, sold the silver to us for U. S. gold dollars and opened an account in the New York branch of the Federal Reserve bank. Through that account the NEW YORK DAY BY DAY By O.

O. Mclntyre STUDENTS OF FAR EASTERN affairs express the opinion that President Roosevelt's demand that all Americans get out of China at once will pave the way for a neutrality proclamation. Certainly such a proclamation should not long be delayed. If it is the administration is likely to be laid open to the charge it is "playing Britain's game' along the Chinese coast. As a matter of fact the charge already has been made in some circles by persons who claim to have intimate knowledge of Anglo-Chinese relations.

They say that a state of war would permit Japan to blockade all ports, search all British and other neutral shipping and "pre-empt" all ships and cargoes destined to China. This would put a crimp British aid to China which they say is now afforded on a large scale. The word "pre-empt" is a Japanese invention. When the British government intercepted and took into port American vessels in 1915-1916 the practice was called "requisitioning." American vessels with non-contraband cargoes, not destined to the enemy, were freely requisitioned and American commercial relations with other neutrals were completely interrupted. Britain now seems to fear that the Japanese have learned the trick.

But there is growing demand that the United States invoke the neutrality act at once. In the line-up that demands application of that law are the national pacifist societies, the American Legion and a majority of the Washington department secretariats. This is odd, for these three elements usually are at loggerheads. So strong is the pressure for neutrality that claims are being maae even publicly that the administration is under the control of the "munitions makers" and "international bankers." The allegations are laughed to scorn by friends of Secretary Hull's state department. Opinions by impartial experts in the state, war and navy departments agree that neutrality ought not to be long delayed, because of the danger arising from interference with American shipping by a foreign navy that is not yet legally regarded as a belligerent.

These experts insist that serious complications may arise at any time much more dangerous than anything that might be expected in an open state of foreign war, in which the United States is neutral. Two things are certain. Americans should get out of the war-torn country as quickly as possible by heeding the president's warning and the president should invoke the neutrality act. We should make up our mind what we want to do in China and then do it. If we want to keep out of trouble evacuation of our nationals should be speeded up and our armed forces must be brought home before we become entangled in the Sino-Japanese war.

There must be no hesitating on the burning deck. THE URGE TO EXHIBIT Henry Shoemaker, President Theo. Arter, Vice President and Editor Robert W. Boyer, Managing Editor Carrier Subscription Kates One Week 12 Six Months (In Advance) One Year (In Advance) the Far East GET STARTED National Whirligig BehSdRw, SALE OF FAMED SWITCHBACK RAILROAD AT MAUCH CHUNK RECALLS INCLINE PLANE ROAD AT MOUNT UNION. News reports of the sale of the historic switchback railway at Mauch Chunk, one of the oldest railroads in America, to a Potts-ville junk dealer for $18,000 recalls the similar line on Jack's Mountain near Mount Union.

The Mauch Chunk switchback was one hundred and ten years old, having been built in 1827 by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation company for the transportation of coal from its mines in and about the vicinity of Summit Hill to Mauch Chunk where it was loaded in boats for further transport on the Lehigh river. In 1870, with steam railroads transporting the coal by way of Lansford, the switchback was given over to pleasure travelers over the picturesque scenic route. When the depression hit the Lehigh Valley in earnest in the hot summer of 1930 joy riders decreased in numbers and in 1933 the xancient route was abandoned. The tourists used to start their ride over the switchback from Mauch Chunk, the barkers calling the trip "the eighth wonder of the world." The cars ran by gravity to the base of Mount Pisgah, a distance of half a mile from Mauch Chunk. There they were drawn up the plane by an engine at the top.

From Mount Pisgah the cars ran by gTavity along the top and side of the mountain to White Bear, near Summit Hill, thence back to Mauch Chunk along" the side of the mountain, crossing the original tracks twice. Now the rails and iron drums and cables will be torn out and may go like most old iron to help the shrewd Nipponese arm for a possible war oh poor old Uncle Sam. Mauch Chunk, in the Indian language, means "bear," and tradition has it a white bear of tremendous size, held sacred by the red men, had its cave on the mountain but was slain by the early white settlers who seemed to enjoy destroying everything the aborigines valued the most. Just before old Jay Cooke's bank crashed in Philadelphia in 1873 precipitating the panic and depression of 1873-1881, contracts were signed at Mount Union for the construction of a rival "eighth wonder of the world." This was the Jack's Mountain Thermal and Transportation corporation chartered by the legislature at Harris-burg in the spring of that fateful year. The purposes were to build the largest health resort in the world to be known as "Hotel des Invalides" on the crest of Jack's Mountain overlooking the busy town of Mount Union.

Modelled after the "Grand Hotel Thermal" atop of the 6,500 foot peak, the Righi, in Switzerland, the hostelry was to contain the largest indoor swimming pool ever constructed, the water brought from Jack's Spring where tha "Wild Hunter of the Juniata" once had his retreat and cabin, a spring which today is the principal source of Mount Union's water supply. The giant spring itself was to be walled and in the centre a fountain, a replica of one of the largest at Versailles in France, lit by colored was to ba visible at night to passing trains on the. Pennsylvania railroad main line and the Orbisonia branch-Surrounding the spring were to be formal gardens and graveled walks and rustic benches, planted with clipped limes, where guests could stroll and rest after quaffing the medicinal waters. But the crowning wonder was to be the inclined narrow gauge railroad, the observation cars to be sent up to the hotel 1,500 feet above the valley, by a giant steam stationary engine made a landmark by two tall brick stacks. The press agent and publicity manager was the youthful W.

M. Allison. son of one of the founders of the Altoona Tribune. Just as the prospectuses went out poor old Jay's bank went "flooey" and the "Hotel des Invalides" became one of the chief "invalids" of the depression. Yet there are those who claim when business picks up the idea may be revived.

Now Mqunt Union and Wayne township school children who climb to the cloud-encircled crest of Jack's Mountain call the granite foundations of the mammoth hostelry the "Indian Fort." Yet there are very old people living In the Long Hollow who say that it was a spell placed by the red men rather than the "Jay Cooke panic'' which caused the abandonment of the hotel and incline plane railway. They, point out that even "Black Jack," the "Wild suffered continued misfortunes after he built his cabin on the mountain which bears his name. His wife and children were killed and scalped, his cabin was burned, he was rejected as a volunteer by General Edward Braddock, although the even greater Juniata Valley frontiersman, ColonM George Croghan was similarly turned down by the haughty CoM Streamer. At the end of his life Black Jack was beaten down by debts and harassed by enemies, until th-i great outdoors was the only joy which remained to him. cles to be larger than that of last year's direct purchase which Sec retary Morgenthau let slip at "about fifty million dollars." Can the average reader see what a reversal of policy would be the declaration of neutrality and Its consequent embargo? This war settles down into a battle between Japan's gold ammunition and China's silver ammunition, with Uncle Sam picking up the spent bullets and burying them.

Prospects at the moment are that China's silver will outlast Japan's gold. In May last, brother-in-law Kung announced that China's reserves abroad had reached 120 million dollars lu New York and 25 million pounds in. London, a total of a quarter of billion dollars. It should be better than that now. Japan, getting ready for the present excursion, has pulled her gold reserve down to about 375 million dollars from the more than half billion she had before her ideas of grandeur broke loose.

Japan augments this with a home gold production including collections of trinkets of fifty million dollars a year. Japan must buy more to keep invading than China to keep resisting, and in addition Japan must buy a hundred million dollars' worth of raw cotton per year or let her number one industry die. China has no essential industries save planting and harvesting, and her peasants replant on the heels of marching armies. If Nippon can be kept from realizing her imperial dream by any means short of the use against her of the United States navy, Senator Pittman's silver bullets, freely supplied to Chinese bitter-enders, may accomplish that result. Here is something for anti-imperialist pacifists, harrying our Staa Department for "lack of policy," to think about.

Tomorrow we shall find some more surprises in this undeclared war. Was the war itself a surprise or did both sides know well when it would start? Copyright McClure Newspaper Syndicate liam D. Leahy, chief of operations but practically secretary of the navy; Admiral Yarnell, who commands the Asiatic Fleet; Rear Admiral Arthur St. Clair Smith, who presides over the 12th naval district with headquarters at San Francisco; Admiral C. Bloch of the Battle Fleet; and Admiral Arthur Japy Hepburn of the U.

S. Fleet, now stationed In the Pacific. The first three Messrs. Leahy, Yarnell and Smith hail from Iowa, Mr. Bloch was born in Kentucky and Mr.

Hepburn comes from Pennsylvania. The boys from the country apparently make good on the water! NOTES Combined membership of A. F. of L. and C.

I. O. is claimed to be 7,318,000, but experts say these figures are padded They insist total unionized membership is about 5,000,000 Mellon National Gallery of Arc will be built of Tennessee marble Treasury officials risk another prediction they figure September income tax receipts at $500,000,000. Shortage of tung oil from China is expected as result of Fourteen separate government agencies are handling forest lands President's committee on re- organizalists 133 new federal agencies At last session tha House passed 700 claims bills in less than 12 hours. KEN MURRAY SAYS: HOLLYWOOD, Sept.

10 I am certainly glad to know that "clashing ideologies" are the cause of this Sino-Japanese rumpus. All along I'd been thinking it was Japanese bombs clashing with the Shanghai pavements that started it. You just live and learn. Bu personally I think the experts have made a mistake and it's clashing idiots we can blame for it all. It looks like the whole world might pitch in and fight it out now, that with Russia shaking a fist at Mussolini's chin and II Duce howling right back into the' public address system loud enough to be eavesdropped in Moscow.

In fact, some of the leading statesmen feel the United States may even become involved. Well, folks, I still remember the last World War and if Uncle Sam gets sucked into another one, that's just when I'll be out to lunch. (Copyright 1937, McNaught Syndicate, Inc.) Woman Seeks Release On Habeas Corpus Writ Mrs. Martha Mock of Altoona, held In the county rail without bail as a witness in the investigation being conducted to ascertain in what manner Thomas D. (Ofeish) Fisher, met his death in July, has made application, through her attorney, Frank J.

Reiser, for release on a writ of habeas corpus. The writ was issued by Judge Patterson, and was uiade returnable Wednesday morning- next at 10 o'clock. It is alleged Mrs. Mock was in the company of Fisher on the night of his death and was cie of Uhe last, if not the last, persons who saw him alive. Thus it it thought she knows more than sh has told of the tragedy.

denly realized he did not have the 35 cents necessary to carry him to the branch line station nearest his farm. In his predicament he went to his uncle, a lawyer, and sought the loan of 75 cents. The uncle very gravely chided him for his extravagance and refused the loan but agreed to sign a note at 6 per cent interest for the amount. So Bill, still dizzy, got home in time for the evening milking. I like the English term "Nursing Home" for hospital.

Hospital, for some reason, has taken on a harsh meaning a precursor of pain. And nothing in our lexicon is so cruel sounding as "Home for Incurables." All of which is inspired by passing a pleasant colonial haven on the Connecticut countryside labeled "Convalescents' Rest." The stage's most successful woman director is Mrs. Frank Frueauff, who as Antoinette Perry, was David Warfield's leading lady in "The Music Master." Rialto talk often brackets her as a financial backer of the Brock Pember-ton productions, which is not the case. She has directed several of his successes, but not financially interested. Her daughter, Mar garet Perry, has essayed several successful roles and Miss Perry's husband, young Burgess Meredith, is a foremost young actor.

A long established Broadway friend is Dave Levy, who, beginning as an errand boy, became general manager of Nat Lewis' haberdasheries. For years Dave was a Sunday night regular at Palace vaudeville, sitting across aisle from another variety enthusiast. Russell Griswold Colt. It occurred to me in passing Dave's the other day that he is the sole survivor of my Broadwayites I knew by sight during early days in town. A list including George Rector, Capt.

Jim Churchill, A. Toxen Worm, Leander Richardson, Bat Masterson, and others. All gone over the horizon or to other vocations. (Copyright 1937, McNaught Syndicate, Inc.) MOTORCYCLIST INJURED A motorcyclist, Lloyd Hallman, 18, of Bellwood, was slightly injured at 1:45 o'clock yesterday morning when he drove his cycle into a parked car at the top1 of Hutchinson's hill, near Belle Meade He received treatment at Altoona hospital dispensary for brush burns of the right knee and left hand. The injured youth was taken to the hospital by a passing motorist, Joseph Kelly, of 431 Grant avenue.

ByFredNehcr NEW YORK, Sept. 10. Some one sends a sallow, curled clipping of the first column I ever wroti to reach print. It was distressingly sophomoric, the feeble gropings of a novice to appear seasoned and worldly. Sprinkled with such fancy words as "eclat" and "insouciance." I doubt that any columnist ever struggled so valiantly to catch the editorial eye.

I would re-write .1 single line a dozen times, then tear it up and begin hopefully all over again. For two years I wrote a column a day that never got into type. At least 50 time I determined definitely to abandon the idea. Columning is easier by far today. But the savor of striving is gone.

We sprout our journalistic pin feathers, preen them awhile and moult. Or that seems the process of most. Somewhere on antiquated typewriters a new crop of columnists is whittling phrases in the first carvings of careers. And they will not be denied. Columning gets in the blood, a raging fever that breaks out in a rash of inky splotches.

The only panacea is reproduction on the printed page. Newspapers may get along without columns in the future, but somehow it is my guess they have come to stay. One of my early worries in columning was a newspaper in Tennessee that spelled my name "Mclntire" in the by-line. I winced every time I saw it. Finally I notched up courage and wrote the editor a timid note suggesting a correction.

I eagerly ripped open the exchange copies daily to see if the request had been granted. In a week it had been, and so simple are our early gratifications it was occasion for a jollification I took my wife and a couple down the hotel hall to an 80 cent table d'hote, vin compris, in celebration. Martine Windsor Corum, who unduded his name to the Bill Corum, whose sports column is hailed far and wide, is probably the world's champion merry-go-round rider. From one of his old friends I learn of his feat of acquiring the championship. It was during the 1910 Booneville, Street Fair and Bill, who lived on a near farm, gathered all the egg3 on the place to take it in.

Tha gilt Numidian lion of the caroussel caught and captivated him utterly. He became its willing slave and to shield himself from its interruptions turned his entire assets of $2.65 over to the proprietor for continuous service with the proviso he was to be served hourly with a bottle of root beer and a hamburger. When he dismounted at quitting time he sud LIFE'S LIKE THAT WILL -YUM Through the financial arrange ment, China has been able during the past year or two to buy all the airplanes our factories could make and ship paying cash by a simple bookkeeping transaction. Our factories are right now behind on ordered and paid-for stuff. The United States treasury, on July 7 last, a day after the outbreak of hostilities at Marco Polo Bridge, made an agreement with Finance Minister Kung for direct purchase of another huge quantity of Chinese silver amount carefully kept secret.

The American people are not to know how much silver they own, it seems. The cast bewilders the beholder into wondering whether, he is gazing upon a grizzled seadog or a cardinal of the church. Yet few naval officers have 'participated in more adventurous episodes. He served aboard the Oregon when it made its famous dash around the Horn to participate in the battle of Manila. He was with the fleet when, to warn Japan, Teddy Roosevelt sent it around the world after the Russo-Japanese war.

He was with Sims when the latter took command of all American vessels in European waters during the World war. He has headed' the engineering department of the navy, commanded aircraft and destroyer forces and served as naval adviser at disarmament conferences. He is one of the navy's four full admirals. F. D.

R. got to know him when he served at the Capital during the latter years of the World war. Admiral Yarnell is acting without any specific instructions from the State or Navy departments. He is virtually "Secretary of Navy in the Orient." But insiders in both departments confide that his off-the-bat decisions have been invariably correct. So far he has upheld American honor and lives without endangering the national welfare.

SAILOR Like Ambassador Johnson, Admiral Yarnell is an Oriental specialist. He first conceived an interest, in Far Eastern affair3 from participation in the Boxer Rebellion, and subsequently in the Philippine insurrection. Before he took his present post he commanded the 14th naval district with headquarters at Pearl Harbor, P. I. For years he has studied international law as it affects Far Eastern problems, treaties governing the Pacific, precedents in crises similar to the present trouble.

From long study he knows the China Sea and Pacific ocean its distances, harbors, reefs, rival navies, storms as he did the pebbles and flowers in his backyard at Independence. Though he delivers decisions decisively and quickly, they are born of a sure background. His study and training stand him in good stead now for he is the superior officer of all foreigners on the scene, outranking Sir Charles Little of tha British navy and Admiral Le Bigot of France. He is a deeply religious man an Episcopalian and a martinet In requiring sailors to attend Sunday services. Otherwise he is an informal person who prefers an evening of talk with fellow-officers and newspaper men to official functions He's a sailors' sailor, realizing that a few spots of dust on the brass rail don't count if the ship is otherwise ready for action.

INLANDERS "Landlubbers" from the corn belt dominate the naval councils which are problems precipitated by the Spanish and Sino-Japanese conflicts. Some of them never saw the sea until they had reached the voting age. Five navy officers have direct charge of various matters in connection with the Oriental conflict, which is wholly a naval question so far as the United States is concerned. They are: Admiral Wil- DOWN CLAYSBURG WAY the Community Agricultural Association has made arrangements for the seventh annual farm products show. It will be a two-day event that will see placed on display the finest products of the grower's art.

And like its six predecessors the exhibition will attract thousands of persons. Antis township will close its annual exhibition tonight after a three-day period. It has been the best ever held from the standpoint of exhibits and the attendance was far greater than ever before. Other sections of the county have done similarly. These annual events indicate the urge by farmers and other soil tillers to place on display the success-ful efforts of their contacts with nature.

No one takes a bigger pride in his accomplishments than the farmer; nor no one gets a greater thrill out of exhibiting the best of the products. It is regretted that these local exhibits commendable as they are and deserving as is the pride that sponsors them that the efforts of all could not be coordinated into a comprehensive county-wide event or annual fair like in the old days. If it is within the province of the Altoona Chamber of Commerce to be the instrument in setting up an organization to plan for a county fair next year then it should be done. If we are to have an industrial exposition, food and automobile show to develop a newer appreciation of commercial enterprises and local manufactured products, then there is certainly no reason why we should not have an exposition such as a county-wide fair to further develop an appreciation of agriculture and the possibilities for its further advancement for the mutual welfare of all of us. By RAY TUCKER EXPERT The selection of our diplomatic and naval representatives in the Far East Nelson T.

Johnson and Admiral Harry E. Yarnell appears to have been providential for the current crisis. The fact is that President Roosevelt personally picked them because of their peculiar ability for handling tough problems ami their understanding of Oriental psychology. Mr. Johnson, our ambassador to China, happens to be our ablest expert on Far Eastern affairs.

Thirty years ago, as a blond, round-faced, pink-complexioned boy fresh from Washington schools, he chose to specialize in China as a career man. Up and down the Orient he has served in almost every conceivable post. He speaks Mandarin Chinese and several dialects perfectly, frequently surprising native audiences by responding to toasts in purer Chinese than his introducer. Mrs. Johnson has organized Girl Scout troops in various cities, and their son teaches Nanking playmates how to play baseball, translating cries of "Kill the umpire" into their own slang.

Ambassador Johnson's principal asset in the land of mystery is his possession of a mind as naively childlike as that of the people to whom he is accredited. Beneath his diplomatic exterior of dignity lies an incredibly attractive and wistful spirit of play. FACE Few days- before he left the Capital for his Nanking post a Washington newspaperman walked into Mr. Johnson's office with a pocketful of miniature airplanes. For several hours the two lay on the floor while they catapulted the toy ships through the room, shrieking with laughter as the planes caromed off the photographs of august, bearded diplomats on the stately walls.

Next day the correspondent sought to replenish his supply at a Pennsylvania avenue toy store. He was informed that there were no more planes in stock because a "man named Johnson at the Stats Department had requisitioned the store's supply." In indignation the newsman asked the ambassador what the idea was. "Why," explained the diplomat, "the Chinese youngsters will go crazy over these playthings, and so will their parents. I'll make a hit when I land in the Orient with these toys." He did. Mr.

Johnson also has the sort of humorous complex which the Chinese appreciate; he doesn't take himself too seriously. At his farewell dinner somebody hailed him with the song: "My name is Yon Yonson, I come from Wisconsin Certain diplomats would have called out the marines at such an indignity. But Washington's last most vivid memory of our envoy to China is the spectacle of his directing the chorujB and orchestra while they poked good-natured fun at his name his blonde complexion his ancestors. He gained "face" by grinning a neat stroke which the Oriental understands. UPHOLDER Admiral Yarnell is a curious combination of fighter and scholar.

Born In Independence, Iowa, 62 years ago, his spare, wiry frame and intellectual NOW LET'S A YESTERDAY'S conference at city hall on the pro-J- posed airport at Wopsononock offered possibilities for getting started at once the matter appears to rest entirely with the city officials. State bureau of aeronautics officials, county commissioners, leaders of the national youth administration, representatives4 of the Chamber of Commerce and members of city council heard that a plan was ready for acceptance under a new set-up whereby work could be started almost immediately. The cost to the city would be practically the same as that listed under previous works progress administration projects for the same job. The work would be started off under the previous plans prepared for the proposed airport. It was explained yesterday at the conference that a number of so-called agencies of the state and federal government were actively interested and were ready to offer support.

It was the thought of these who attended the meeting that the city is nearer to the actual beginning of this work than ever before. But the city officials must make the decision. It would be to their credit and to the' welfare of the city if they made that decision quickly and fav6rably. "Gee School Has to Slsrt Just When I'm Learnin' to Throw a Curve." li.