Shamokin News-Dispatch from Shamokin, Pennsylvania • Page 6

PAGE SIX SHAMOK1N NEWS-DISPATCH, SHAMOKIN. THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1949 Victor Riesel We Don't- Believe It Can Be Done Editorials il ii Features, Columns Shamokin News-Dispatch Bharaokln DaUj NawaSbamokln Dlptch (EstahUaheU803) (rounded 1886) Combined September It, 1933 PubUalMd Erery Except Sunday by NEWS rUBUSHINO PRnfTINQ Cor. Rock and Commerce street. Shamokin, Pa. Robert E.

Malick, Prealdent-Treaaurer Joeepb Agor. Managing Editor At newartanda. So a copy; delivered by carrier. In Shamokin and adjacent territory, 30c a week; by mall to all point, $1.23 a month. In advance.

Inside Labor There's a mystery malady haunting a grim western Pennsylvania valley. There trees wither in early summer, youngsters are secluded behind closed doors and windows, hospitals admit mill workers who have sudden "relapses" and townsfolk develop weird wheezes and coughs. Already 22 persons have suffocated. Army surgeons and meteorologists, working closely with the Public Health Service, stalk every inch of the Donora valley searching out poi-onous vapors in the area where men earn their daily bread in zinc and steel mills. By mid-July the military and federal men will finish their tests and report and at that time Phil Murray's steel union'i safety expert, Frank Burke, will be on hand for a fast pickup.

For, whatever he finds in the report that would help save the steel and zinc workers and their families will become part of the demands of the powerful steel union on its Industry, whose leaders, too, are deeply concerned over the mystery malady. One thing more this poison vapor report will do: it will provide the background for a further step In union bargaining. It's the coming thing, it's the next step after wage rounds, welfare funds, health insurance and pensions. It's the safety Issue. It will pivot on a union slogan calling for physical as well as so Entered as second claaa mall matter at Sbumoktn.

Pa. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY If I the grave la mine house: I have made my bed In the darkness. Job 17:13. Popp-off Robeson Paul Robeson, colored singer and actor, was following the true Communist line of exaggeration when he declared at the so-called Paris "peace congress" that American Negroes would not take up arms against Russia in case of a war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Robeson has been fortunate.

As an American citizen and thus guaranteed freedom of opportunity, he has become wealthy. Only the American free enterprise system could give the Negro performer that opportunity. And only his American citizenship (which he appears to value lightly) could permit him the freedom of speech he exercised in his un-American statement at the Paris meeting. If Robeson were a Russian citizen and said a single word against Russia while abroad, could he return in safety to his home? Anyone who knows the Russian system knows the answer to that question. Yet, Robeson, like many other blind, foolish followers of the Communist illusion, supports the philosophy which would strip him of his wealth, his personal freedom and his privilege of free speech.

Robeson cannot speak for colored Americans. All his recent actions indicate his material success has gone to his head. He is not a typical American Negro. Certainly he is not a leader of his race in this country. His accomplishments as an entertainer shrink into insignificance when compared with those of Dr.

Ralph J. Bunche and other outstanding colored Americans. Edgar Durling On the Side Three hundred and fifty cats in one house. That was in the mansion of Mrs. Kate Johnson of San Francisco.

Mrs. Johnson, possibly America's all time greatest cat enthusiast, lived In the town by the Golden Gate In the 1880's. All her cats were valuable animals; Persians and Angoras. Each one had a name and promptly answered to that name when called. Mrs.

Johnson engaged the celebrated artist, Carl Kahler, to do some portraits of her cats. The artist sketched the cats for three years at the Johnson residence. His final painting, considered a classic of its kind, was one of 42 cats. When Mrs. Johnson passed on she left half a million dollars for the care of her cats.

The painting of the 42 felines was sold to a Post Street restaurateur who had an art collection as a feature of his restaurant. The cat painting titled, "My Wife's Lovers," survived the 1908 fire and earthquake and was eventually acquired by Frank Havens of the Piedmont Museum. When the Piedmont Museum ceased to exist the painting was sold to the Julian Art Galleries of Detroit where It can now be seen. I certainly am going to see It the next time I am in Detroit. A couple of San Franciscans named Mc-Nulty want to know in what part of Ireland the McNulty clan originated.

The answer is the County Cavan, the same place the O'Reillys came from A Tacoma, subscriber says: "Our two red-haired daughters wish they were brunettes. Imagine that!" The City of Columbus, Ohio, recognizes astrology as a profession and grants licenses to qualified astrologers. Nloe place, Columbus, but how that town is plunged into gloom when Ohio State loses a football game! An erstwhile resident of Dublin claims O'Connell Street (formerly Sackville Street), In that city is the widest in the world. But he doesn't say how wide O'Connell Street is. Incidentally, Market Street, San Francisco, Is 120 feet wide Am I amazed! So help me I find I have 56 readers named Tallulah The claim Is that the Fleishacker swimming pool, San Francisco, Is the largest outdoor pool of its kind in the world.

It is 1,000 feet long and 50 feet wide. "Eddie, I just saw your picture for the first time. You look marvelous to me!" writes a young matron of Seattle, Wash. A thousand thanks, lady, for those kind words. Make It mirk f0 The Washington Scene Cancer Vicious Killer The call has gone out over the Shamo- kin area for aid in the fight against one of the country's most vicious killers cancer.

Burgess Thomas Landy heads the fund-raising campaign in Shamokin. Because cancer has the highest death rate among American people of all diseases except those of the heart, special effort has been made during the month of April to call attention to the necessity of accelerating the fight against this disease, the cause of which is unknown. An interesting fact in this connection is thy studies at the University of Chi-Chicago on the blood serum of cancer patients, by comparison with the serum of normal individuals, reveal what may be, for all practical purposes, a simple, cheap and reasonably sure blood test for cancer, according to a report made by Professor Charles E. Huggins. For many years a strenuous effort has been made to find a simple and consistent test for cancer.

The fact that most cases, if detected early enough, can be cured, makes the importance of the discovery more significant. If subsequent findings prove that a simple test has really been found, the discovery will be one of the great landmarks, not only in the fight against cancer, but in the history of the battle against all disease. The experimental work was carried on by Professor Huggins, in collaboration with Dr. Gerald At. Miller and Dr.

Elwood B. Jensen under a grant from the American Cancer Society. These gentlemen gave generous credit to the work of a large number of investigators in this country and in Europe, who laid the foundation for their own researches. While the test has been very successful in discovering the early incidence of -r-aacef, it does not locate thecaner in the body. Nor does it determine the type of cancer.

These matters will remain in the field of the examining physician, who will need the assistance of the patient to localize the malignant growth so that it can be eradicated. In the meantime the untiring fight, led by the American Cancer Society, goes on. A vast sum of money will be needed, and the people of this area are asked to give their share. They have never yet failed when a reasonable call has been made. cial security.

Of course, the Donora Valley is the most tragically famous of all. At one moment last October it literally became a death valley for a score of people not to mention the big zinc plant Itself which was immediately shut down. But there are other weird hazards the nation over, which unions are just beginning to investigate. In some areas for example, conditions make husky steel hands peculiarly susceptible to arthritis, rheumatism and pneumonia. Before the final negotiations with the big steel companies wind up, Phil Murray, at least at this moment, hopes to make "safety" one of the big contract Issues this summer.

This will set a national pattern. These mystery maladies discriminate against no area. On the West Coast near Portland, for example, the Reynolds Aluminum plant has Just spent on "air washers" which are designed to clean dangerous fumes from its exhausts. Nor does smog that strange combination of fog and particle-filled industrial smoke belong to any one valley. There are Los Angeles Oil Workers (CIO) who claim they are endangered by fierce refinery fumes on heavy foggy days.

California fruit farmers are also alarmed over the fate of their crops when the smog gets tough. And fumes are fumes with or without fog say the electrical equipment union people. The CIO United Electrical Workers outfit's newest big safety complaint Is over the effect of beryllium a chemical used in fluorescent lamps. This union claims that the stuff has killed several of its New Jersey members. Those infected by beryllium poisoning find their wounds don't heal for months.

The chemical, according to government scientists, is "a poison even though it enters the body in small amounts through an open wound In the skin or through the lungs." The Sylvania Company, which By Peter Edson The first postwar German trade fair to be held in the United States closed in New York recently, with more than usual significance. The fair was arranged by the United States military government in Germany. Before the fair opened, there were a number of threats that it would be pick- a immuii uikiiks. iney am in Duiiaing up my morale, which suffered considerably from another communication from Seattle reading: "Saw your photograph today. You look like a surly gorilla." Did you read that dispatch about the dog who was lost in Kentucky 17 months' ago facturers from the American, British and French zones entered displays of their wares.

They were principally cameras, ceramics, textiles, optical and consumer goods. Some printing and wood-working machinery was shown. All products were within the restrictions against manufacture of heavy industry and military supplies. About half the goods shown were considered competitive to United States goods. The textiles were cheap in price, but poor in quality.

They offer little threat to American business. Since the end of the war, the United States military government authorities have been permitting American business men to go to Germany and reestablish pre-war trade relations. Between 4,000 and 5,000 American business men have made these trips. But their progress has been slow and trade development has been lagging. The Leipzig trade fair was held in the Russian zone in 1947, but Gen eral Clay barred American zone participation in 1948.

Last year, however, western German industries had exhibits at Milan and Stockholm International trade fairs, and they drew well. That led to the idea for the New York trade fair. It cost some $300,000 to put on. If it comes close to breaking even on sale of admission tickets and catalogs, it will probably be taken on tour to other United States buying centers. Now that the German Ruhr, reparations and factory dismantling issues have been agreed upon, the Germans can begin to plan for their future in international trade, with some certainty.

In final analysis, all that the Marshall Plan operation now does is furnish western Germany and all the European Recovery Program countries with goods they can't buy, because of low exports. The idea of having the United States buy more goods from Europe may come hard. But it is the only way to make Europe self-supporting. finding his way home to Waltham, Every now and then you hear a dog story like that. Certainly is wonderful how the dogs can find their way home.

What is even more wonderful is how they manage to travel 1,000 miles or more on highways and never get run over. How they make their way through cities and are not picked up by dog catchers or caught by some of those ghouls who make a practice of stealing dogs and selling them to medical men for experimental purposes. Florence was originally a man's name. That's what Mr. Flprence Sullivan, of Seattle, claims.

He says In the days when there were kings In Ireland there was a King Florence of Munster. Mr. Sullivan further states that at present in the Counties of Voice of Broadway Edson boycotted, run out of the country. But it ran a full two weeks at New York's Museum of Science and Industry in-Rockefeller Plaza, with only two minor disturbances. This record represents a victory for the tolerance and common sense of the American people in general and American Jewish organizations in particular.

Objections to holding this fair came from several sources. First, Jewish war veterans opposed letting any German business men into America, since it was suspected they would all be ex-Nazis. Second, other -Jewish organizations opposed promoting the sale of German manufactured goods in the United States. Third, American business groups feared German competition in the United States and world markets. Admission of ex-Nazis was handled by the United States military government in Germany.

It carefully screened all German business men wanting to come to America. Seven hundred applications were rejected. The 250 finally admitted on temporary visas were all certified as having no Nazi connections. Gadgets Taking Over Every now aod then we get an uncomfortable feeling that the robots are after us. That is old-fogeyism, and silly to boot.

People have probably been com- plaining about over-mechanization since the day when some speed-mad genius invented the wheel and started the whole thing rolling. But we still get that feeling. The latest twinge came after reading about a new device that answers the phone for you when you are out. A wire recorder permits the callers to leave a message, and also informs them of the obvious fact that you aren't at home. We never did figure out what lifts the phone off the cradle and puts it back.

Speaking of telephones, there is now an electric brain that figures out phone bills. The folks who use it say it never overcharges. Occasionally charges you too little, though. There is also an electric brain that plays chess. If that is too deep for the merely human opponent, it will condescend to play gin rummy.

They're rfow boiling water, washing clothes and lighting pipes by sound waves. Highway cops are pinchh.g speeders with the help of radar. More and more everyday activities are graduating to the "look-no-hands" category where things work in a way that is beyond the average comprehension. No doubt this is all for the best. At least the people who invented all these things must have been trying to make life easier for their fellow man as well as make money for themselves.

But we vender what is going to happen to the subconscious lives of a lot of people as their everyday world grows more electronic and atomic. There are a lot of normal, intelligent human beings who are baffled by any mechanism much more complicated than a screwdriver. They are mystified enough by things as they are today. We worry sometimes at what will happen to their egos in a future where invisible, incomprehensible forces wait on them hand and foot. The adjustment isn't going to be quick or easy.

First the human race must get human behavior to keep pace with scientific achievement if it is to survive. Then will come the problem of reconciling average human ingenuity with specialized genius. sionally likes to rinse his own flowing locks in pure tomato juice. Joseph S. Klein, a business man, is a great little predicter on the side.

Twelve years ago he forecast that there would be television sets to sell for only $100 apiece. And now he's seen that come true, Mr. among other items, manufactures strategic machinery for the United States Navy, has discontinued using beryllium. The union will push for sharp control of the material In other huge plants that is, when It gets its mind off politics. And so it goes with special researches in every industry.

Leaders of the wood sawing and logging unions claim theirs is the most dangerous work in the world. The Woodworkers have come up with the following statement as the basis for their future demands: "As we look around at any union meeting we see a large number of workers minus a finger, minus several finppr, or a hand. Scars mar faces where contact with moving saws has left the mark of the industry." There are labor experts who charge that brewing beer is the nation's second most hazardous industry, with casualties exceeded only in the wood cutting mills. And In the past weeks eight more railway workers were crushed to death under wild cars of rammed cabooses. Everywhere, as labor intensifies its search for new types of benefits to add to its demands, ihere is a search for answers to the mystery maladies, so that these answers can become part of the union contracts of the future.

By Dorothy Kilgallen Jean-Paul Sartre, the gloomy authority on Parisian nightlife (and my, isn't it sinful?) is one of the earliest risers in the French capital. He likes to wake at dawn, fill his lungs with good, dirty air, and get right down to writing Alexis Smith, who hardly seems like the domestic type, is a demon rug-hooker. Danny Kaye never has abandoned completely his original intention of becoming a surgeon. He reads all the medical background novels he can get his hands on, and never misses a Doctor Kildare flicker Ingrid Bergman, who likes to drive alone at night, wears a man's hat to fool muggers and robbers on the lonely Hollywood roads Curly Hamner, the featured dancer with the Lionel Hampton band, wears shoes that cost $250 a pair and pays lesser tap dancers a week to break them in for him! Actor Alan Hale is an authority on of all things fire extinguishers If Phil Silvers cared to, he could probably land himself a job as in- Other Editors Soy Now that major industries are cutting back production, retail sales are decreasing, inventories piling up and black market operators going out of business, politicians are beginning to become interested in what's become of all the money. -UMWA Journal Through the administration of the ECA, the United States has shown its willingness to sacrifice a portion of its postwar foreign trade in an effort to restore Europe but it should not continue to do so if Europe persists in its economic selfishness.

Business Action The defense needs of the nation and the well-being of peacetime business demand an integrated system of airlines, capable of bearing the expense of regular service. Any practices defeating that goal must be eliminated. Philadelphia Inquirer Cork and Kerry, Ireland, there are many men named Florence. I am in agreement with Mr. Sullivan that Florence is really a man's name.

Florence Nightingale, the celebrated rurse, was named after the city of Florence. Her fame inspired many mothers to name their daughters Florence in her honor. That is how the use of Florence as a name for females started. Gregg Sherwood, of Broadway and Hollywood, a platinum blonde who is trying to organize a club made up of young women of her rapidly vanishing type. She asks if I know any platinum blondes.

Sorry to say I do not. I did know one who lived in Bronxville, N. but I forget her name. However, I think Miss Sherwood's effort to assemble the last of the platinum blondes is an interesting and noble experiment. After the club Is well organized it should have a parade on Jean Harlow's birthday.

A parade of platinum blondes could be quite an Interesting Military government officials from Washington did considerable lobbying with prominent Jews to get their support for the fair. Leadership in most of the organizations saw the need for building up German exports. But some of the rank and file, remembering Nazi atrocities against relatives and friends in Hitlerite Germany, were dead set against giving the Germans any break at all. Other organizations American Jewish Committee, B'nai B'rith and National Community Relations Advisory Council decided to support the fair and encourage German recovery within the agreed-on Allied limits of industrial production. Aim of the United States military government in arranging the fair was to promote the sale of German manufactured goods in the United States.

There is a selfish interest in this, from the American taxpayer's point of view. The United States government now supports the west German economy to the tune of about a billion dollars a year. In 1948, exports from the three western lones of Germany amounted to about 660 million dollars. That left a German trade deficit of 440 million dollars. The only way this unfavorable balance of trade can be reduced is by helping the Germans earn more, through the sale of their exports.

The sale or orders of German products shown at the New York fair may have been disappointingly small. More than 500 German manu- ikiciii pieiiicLs tnat by the year 1950 that's next year, kids there will be telephones in every automobile. Burt Lancaster isn't the only Hol-lywoodite who could make a fancy living working in a circus. Mike Curtiz is an expert trapeze artist, and Cary Grant is a honey of a stilt-walker, as well as just a honey. Baritone Tad Bruce, who was a child accordionist in vaudeville a few years back, is still daft about accordions.

His house is full of old wheeze boxes used as bookends, lamp-bases, and just plain decorations, and his handkerchiefs and shirts are embroidered with tiny accordions in lieu of initials Imogene Coca, the comedienne, Just loves beer it's her favorite beverage. But she won't drink it from a bottle, a mug, or I glass only from a cardboard container, and through a straw. Could it be that Margaret Truman inherited her voice from her pappy? They say the Prexy's war-blings in his morning shower-bath come forth in a fine, clear baritone Screen Actor George Murphy Inherited a liniment formula from his father, the great track coach, which he bottles privately and passes out to tennis-playing friends in Hollywood. He keeps threatening to market it commercially and make himself a millionaire but nothing's happened to the threat yet. Spectators invariably do a double-take when Maria Collm, the diseuse at Le Perroquet, reaches into her handbag and comes up with a powder case.

Because she powders not her nose, but her hair and the powder isn't pale pink stuff, it's gold dust! Tallulah Bankhead loves clothes made of suede Patricia Morison, a Shakespeare fan. has an almost lifesized plaster bust of the Bard a-settln' on her dressing table back stage at the Century. Most people get an irre-sistabie urge to hang their hats on it. You get a real view of the size of the American labor movement from the number of major union chiefs who have filed non-Communist affidavits in Washington: 84,821. There are about as many more who don't come under the law (railway union leaders), and also aides of such men as Phil Murray and John Lewis who have refused to sign on the principle that they shouldn't be required to do anything employers are exempt from After running through their roster the railway trainmen officials discovered they have a member called Paris France in Falls City.

and another union brother tabbed United States in Renovo, Pa. Brandeis Looks at Life By Erich Brandeis fielder with the Dodgers. His baseball playing is that good Betty Grable won't listen to people who want to give her tips on the horses. Win, lose, or dead heat, Betty is proud of her ability to read a racing form, and she insists on doping out the nags herself Richard Korn, the long-hair conductor, was a champion ball player at Princeton and an assistant on Tom Dewey's racket-busting staff before he became a symphony maestro Howard Duff out-Masons James in his love for cats. He claims that Mason may follow cats, but cats follow Duff.

(Girls do, tool) Barbara Stanwyck, owner of one of the neatest pair of hips in Hollywood, once was a corset model Comedian Jack Gilford is the vic event. A Bostonlan who Is a tonsorialist at a shop near Harvard University says: "Without the shadow of a doubt I am this country's best barber. I can give a man a first class haircut In 10 minutes or less and never use the clippers. I challenge any barber In the United States to do the same." Democracy becomes r. failure when it does not have the unbiased support of its people.

The idea that thu nation should bfc ruled by the professions for the professions is absurd. Looking Backward This is intended only for whom the shoe fits. It is brought on by one of the most astounding perversion of intent and purpose that I have ever seen. A couple of weeks ago, a you have ail read, a rooster, being readied for the oven, got up and walked away. His head had previously been cut off by the butcher, but apparently chickena need no heads to go on living.

Since I have to write this column quite a hit in advance. I dont know whether that rooster will still be alive when you read this. 2 hope not But the fact la that at first its owner thought the whole thing a curiosity, called the headless rooster "Butch" and got herself a lot of publicity. Then, all of a sudden, the phenomenon became a "miracle of God" and the bird's name was changed to Lazarus." When I read the first story Just after breakfast I actuary became sick in my atomach. But when, a couple of days later, saw the incident tied up with God and with feligion.

my blood boiled-Do you think for one moment that Ood would need such a freakish incident as this tc perform His miracles? If God did want to perform miracles today, dont you think He would perform them in other more exalted ajif I must cenfec-s that I have never been very religious. As I described myself to a minister friend of mine a few days ago I am a "lukewarm Lutheran." But I do have the highest respect for people who take their religion seriously and I envy those to whom religion is an integral part of their lives. Unfortunately, however, there are entirely too many men and women to whom religion is a convenient alibi. There are people who can quote chapter and verse for every little thing they do; who can prove by the Scriptures that they are right and you arc wrong. I used to say my prayers faithfully every night I stopped it.

Do you know why? Because I caught myself praying too much for myself, my ambitions, my desires. I used to pray that my will rather than Gods will be done. Heavens knows I am not here to preach, and if I were I wouldn't know how. But do analyze your own prayers some tree, and then compare what you ak God to do for you with what you yourself as doing for others. If I were to say a prayer tonight it mould be a prayer of thanks for another day on this wonderful earth ar.d for forgiveness of the things I should have done and left undone.

Donald MacCargo Lines for Living ANTAGONISMS Sometimes person comes within your sphere And you dislike to ex en kpi i him near A something through the ether stths your mind And try your best, you cin't to it be blind. Just like white hot branding iron it burns; You try to brush it off, but it returns; You try to like the person, don't succeed-There is ernmg you ere forced to heed. Some people se beck in some dim, detk past A urong ues done, the uounds from ulncb still lest. Hou ei er tbet mey be, one thing I know. The feeling steys end simply udl not go.

Sot one thing isible, no, not a sign, Upon the surface eiery thing seems fine; Antagonisms though ere tn the en And mil be just ts long es he is there. tim of a poignant real-life tragedy. He loves popcorn, and can't resist buying a sackful every time he goes to the movies. But he's allergic to the stuff, and always breaks out in bumps afterwards. Mike Brown, a lean young man who sings sophisticated ditties of his own composition chants them, as a matter of fact, in a kind of Fred Astairish fashion owns a Phi Beta Kappa key.

a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Texas and a master's degree from the University at Virginia. He expects to take an instruct orship in English literature at one of the country's leading colleges when he gets bored with singing in night clubs Rita Hayworth can't resist a cocker spanieL This may come as a staggering surprise to the Park Avenue set, but Gene Tiemey, the glamorous socialite, actually was born in Brooklyn Mark, the imaginative hair-stylist shyly admits that he occa Tolerance is not a matter of conversation; it is the business of Twenty-fiTe Years Ago 1924 Fifteen members of Shamokin Motor Club, headed by p. h. Fuhr-mtn. president, conferred with Northumberland County commissioners concerning a new highway from Brady to Excelsior and east to the county line.

Faust, president of Shamokin Game, Fish ar.d Forestry Association, opened a campaign to raise funds to aid in purchase of additional land for game reserves throughout the state. A truck owned by C. A. Schweit-rer, local building contractor, was damaged when -it caught fire after the truck backfired when placed in operation at the lumber yard. Ten Years Ago 1939 Complaint was registered with Pennsylvania Highway Department by motorists over deplorable condition of the concrete flooring on the Cameron Bridge.

The motorists said the ruts created a traffic menace. Edward Gnbbin. senior at St. Edward High School, was awarded first prize in an essay contest on Americanism conducted by Shamokin Lodge of Elks. Ladies Night was observed by Shamokin Exchange Club at Coxs, Elysburg.

The committee in charge of the affair was composed of Carl Chaundy, chairman. Wade Ellis." J. A. McGraiL George H. Jones and Charles SiegeL A man in office is usually appreciated, if at all, when he gets out of office.

People who object to the price of vegetables should try growing their own. Any speaker, or writer who pleases even body says nothing..