Syracuse-Wawasee Journal, Volume 3, Number 10, Syracuse, Kosciusko County, 9 February 1940 — Page 2

—Speaking of Sports— Conn Is Sure Os Ability to Defeat Louis By ROBERT McSHANE (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) DILLY CONN, a slender, good -*-* looking Irish kid, only three or four years away from his pork and bean days, has done more to capture the fight-going public’s fancy than any other boxer since Joe Louis’ early days. When Conn, present light-heavy-weight champion of the world, defeated Melio Bettina for the 175pound title, he weighed 170 pounds, five under the title limit. Old-timers immediately conjured up visions of Gentleman Jim Corbett who wrested the world’s heavyweight championship from John L. Sullivan when Jim weighed only 176 pounds—about four pounds more than Conn weighs today. Corbett was looked upon as an . impudent upstart when he challenged the mighty John L. According to gamblers, Jim lacked the weight, the punch and the intestinal fortitude to make even a dent on Sullivan, who held the same opinion. He W ’ It ’ ,4 ’ ■n Ik * JI. CONTENDER BILLY CONN was ridiculed by those who knew him best. Even Patrick Corbett, his father, thought it was blasphemous for him to point at the great ring god. The world was pop-eyed when Sullivan fell before Corbett’s blinding speed. That was natural—no one knew that for three years, day and night, Corbett had been a slave to the thought of unseating the champ. He concentrated on it so much that defeat, to him, was absolutely unthinkable. Points for Louis In the same way Billy Conn has been pointing for Heavyweight Champion Joe Louis. He is obsessed with the idea that he has Joe Louis’ number. He doesn’t “soundoff” for the press and call Louis a bum, a pushover and a setup. But he’s quietly confident that he will be the next heavyweight king of the world. There are a large number of Conn critics—ring-wise men who feel that Conn lacks the weight and punch to be a serious contender for the Louis throne. They feel that he hasn’t got, and never will have—what it takes to beat the Brown Bomber. Even more authorities, however, have confidence in Billy’s ability to beat the champ. They know him to be a rangy, clever, fast boxer, who loves to fight. He is yearning for a crack at the tltlj and is absolutely sure that the outcome of the hopedfor bout would see the coronation of a new heavyweight king. When Louis won the heavyweight title, wise men of boxing were almost unanimous in their opinion that only a slugger would topple him from his position. Now they’re not so sure of it. Sluggers have proved easy game for the champ. And after watching Louis take far too much time to dispose of Bicycle Bob Pastor, many of them feel that speed and not power will defeat Louis. £>peed Is Unquestioned There’s no argument about his speed. He delights in slapping his opponents around—particularly if they're big. His speed and accuracy have accounted for far more victories than any punch which he possesses. Conn remembers that Jack Dempsey weighed only 185 pounds when he fought Jess Willard. Willard scaled at 260. Many fans thought it was criminal to send Dempsey against such a giant. If you remember, Jack the Giant Killer flattened Willard in three bloody rounds. Billy isn’t unduly cocky. He knows he must pick up 10 or 12 pounds. But when he has tucked away enough steaks he figures on i brewing up a storm of trouble for Champion Joe Louis. Conn realizes that it isn’t the easiest thing to gain weight. He is small boned and even now may be at his best possible fighting weight. An ideal way to solve the.-whole problem would be for Conn to fight Pastor. That bout would furnish a thorough check on Conn’s ability as compared with Louis’. If Conn could deliver a knockout wallop to Pastor in perhaps even less time than it took Louis to do it, there would be a capacity house on the Conn band wagon. That particular fight is by no means an impossibility. Johnny Ray, Conn’s manager, has been angling since last November for a match with Pastor. He may get it—with the blessing of Mike Jacobs.

Sportlight By Grantland Rice — Every Sport Claims Number of ‘Magnificent Midgets’; O’Brien Gets Rice’s Laurel Laurel Wreath Award for Durability. (NANA—WNU Service.) LOS ANGELES —Who were the little giants of sport, the smaller I fellows who have outmatched brawn and bulk with brains and speed? In football the first of the “little giants” was Frank Hinkey of Yale. ; “the disembodied spirit,” who at 150 pounds was tearing 180 and 190pound backs apart with his cyclonic tackles. Ask any survivor of Hari vard’s “faraway and long ago” team, around the early nineties. Hinkey practically exploded when he hit you—and so did the party of the second part—the ball carrier. The Hardiest In one way young Dave O’Brien of T. C. U. and the Philadelphia Eagles gets the main sprig of laurel. 1 talked with Texas Davey just before the Packers-AU Star game. Short in stature, and none too stocky, weighing around 148 or 150 pounds, he looked even smaller outlined against the two sets of mastoW wit fIK bsMSfe J) TEXAS DAVEY O’BRIEN dons and mammoths on each side— Musso at 260, Baby Ray at 245, and others at 240 or perhaps 230. He is a needle in football’s haystack. Yet Dave O’Brien has never had time taken out in three hard years at T. C. U. and this last .year, his first as a pro with the Eagles. As a forward passer they have bounced his head and slender body off the ground more than 200 times, but he has always bounded back with a grin. He has been the rubber ball of the gridiron. And, don’t forget, he can split a line as well as throw a pass. Baseball’s Share Baseball has also known its share of these magnificent midgets. What about Johnny Evers, the "Human Splinter?” Evers was a stout 118-pounder in his early Cub days, but Johnny was a 200-pound thorn in the side of John McGraw and his Giants. And there was Rabbit Maranville of the Cubs and Braves, another chunk of guncotton, who was about the size of a baseball bat. And there was Dicky Kerr of the White Sox, one of the few small pitchers who could make the grade. To keep from being waylaid and assaulted I’ll also give you Wee Wil-

sHII Willie Keeler

lie Keeler from a lost decade, who was smart enough to “hit ’em where they ain’t.” I saw Keeler play 40 years ago and I still think he stands out as the most scientific hitter of all time. An oldtimer by the name iff Denton Tecumseh (Cy) Young agrees with me. “Willie was one

you couldn’t fool,” Cy says. And Cy fooled most of them. In Boxing Who was the all-time top of the little fellows in boxing? There was Jimmy Wilde, “The Great Atom,” a 105-pound flyweight who for years whipped men who were 15 to 25 pounds heavier. I saw Wilde near the sunset of his career when he, Bob Edgren, Jack Wheeler and I played golf together before his fatal battle with Pancho Villa, the pounding Filipino, who nailed him after the bell had rung. Wilde’s frail system was loaded with disaster for his opponents until Villa caught him on the downward trail. And I’d like to give you Harry Greb, who at 160 was whipping Gene Tunney, and Tom Gibbons, and who mauled Jack Dempsey all over the ring in a workout. He almost wrecked 180-pound Jack Dillon, The Killer. Greb thought nothing of giving away 20, 30 and 40 pounds. And he would still win in a common canter, going away. They began to beat Greb when he was blind in one eye and half blind in the other. The all-time top in tennis for the little men was Little Bill Johnston of California, now living quietly along the Pacific. Little Bill once told melis normal weight was around 116 pounds. Yet in 1919 he beat Big Bill Tilden three out of four sets for the championship, and always carried Big Bill head and head into the stretch. Johnston had a forehand drive worthy of someone who weighed over 170 pounds. It was terrific—smoking hot. And that from a man whose normal weight was considerably less than 125 pounds.

WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS BY JOSEPH W. LaBINE Congress ‘Stalls’ on Jap Issue Awaiting Concessions by Tokyo; Economy Drive Hits Farm Fund (EDITOR’S NOTE—When opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) ■ Released by Western Newspaper Union ———_—

Topic-of-the-Day: Wheeler and C. L O.

POLITICS: Labor s Candidate A New Englander who comes from Montana went from Washington to Columbus one day in late January, indicating that Sen. Burton K. Wheeler has been around enough to rate as presidential timber. Day before he left Washington, Senator Wheeler learned C. I. O.’s John Lewis had told the United Mine Workers in Columbus that President Roosevelt would suffer “ignominious defeat” if he sought a third term. Even earlier, Mr. Lewis had scored Vice President Jack Garner, and Security Administrator Paul V. McNutt, both presidential hopefuls. Moreover, John Lewis has always criticized Republicans. And since Senator Wheeler had been invited to address Mr. Lewis’ U. A. W., he

automatically became C. I. O.’s one and only candidate. Despite warnings that C. I. O. support was a “kiss of death” to any c andid a t e, Senator Wheeler stepp e/d into the fire.

LEWIS A kiss of death?

CONGRESS: Embargo Tokyo sat watching the U. S. like a spanked child awaiting forgiveness. Yet there remained enough lack of Japanese unanimity to make forgiveness impossible. Abrogated was the 1911 trade pact, paving the way for an embargo against arms shipments. All this was the disastrous price Japan might pay for flouting U. S. rights in the Orient. (Meanwhile the Japs vented? their wrath against Britain, ’storming the Tokyo embassy and tightening the Tientsin food blockade in retaliation against British seizure of 21 Germans from a Jap steamer. It was freely admitted in some Tokyo quarters that a U. S. embargo would hamstring Wang Ching-wei's “new order" government in China.) »- At Washington neither the state department nor the senate foreign relations committee seemed in a hurry to take further action. Said SCHWELLENBACH He would censure the V. S. one congressman: “The Japs have made their bed with a long list of violations of American treaty rights.. . . . Now let them lie in it awhile.” But Senators Pittman, Barkley, Minton and Austin to the contrary, Washington’s Sen. Lewis Schwellenbach had his own opinions. Whereas the original Pittman embargo resolution would censure Japan for vioNIBLETS~] UTILITIES — Disappointed be- , cause public utility companies had not started voluntary integration programs as provided by the holding company act. Securities and Exchange Commissioner Jerome N. Frank announced the government is “about to begin” proceedings against them. FINANCE —ln Washington the treasury announced that Britain sold nearly 10 per cent of its readily marketable American securities during the first two months of the war, presumably to get cash for munitions. RUSSIA— At Rome, Il Duce’s paper Girnale d’ltalia printed rumors of mass arrests in the Ukraine following exposure of a “vast plot” to assassinate Russia’s Dictator Josef Stalin, Premier Viacheslav Molotov and War Commissar Klementi Voroshiloff. THE WAR— In his second speech of the week, Britain’s Winston Churchill declared Nazi Germany is a far weaker foe than Kaiser Wilhelm’s imperial Germany of 1914, while the British and French “are far ahead of where we were at this time in the other war.”

SYRACUSE-WAWASEE JOURNAL

' IB 'RBh t3|wi WHEELER He accepted ...

Arriving at Columbus he publicly hoped President Roosevelt wouldn’t seek a third term, never- i theles s he promised to ; support him i if the Presi- ; dent was re- ' nominated. He did not agree with

John Lewis that the administration had “broken faith” with labor; that would be a too obvious bid for the labor vote. But he did announce C. I. O. support would be welcome if he decided to run. At the convention Senator Wheeler practically tossed his hat in the ring. Bands blared and 2,400 delegates roared as he mounted the rostrum in an atmosphere reminiscent of a political conclave. There he outlined an economic, social and legislative program which would have been out of place had he not been really presenting his platform. Planks: (1) strict neutrality; (2) increased South American jrade; (3) ‘"‘advancement of organized labor”; (4) jobs in private enterprise; (5) relief; (6) solution of unemployment, which he called “America’s No. 1 problem.”

NAMES in the news... HARRY HOPKINS, ill most of the 13 months since he was named commerce secretary, came back to work. JOHN THOMAS, Gooding, Idaho, banker, was named U. S. senator to succeed the late William E. Borah. KAISER WILHELM 11, exiled German emperor, celebrated his eighty-first birthday in Doorn, Netherlands. EDWARD S. HARKNESS, philanthropist who gave away more than $100,000,000 of the fortune he got mainly from Standard Oil interests, died at 66 in New York. lating U. S. rights, Senator Schwellenbach would censure the U. S. and thereby avoid international complications. The Method: Pass an embargo on the contention that the U. S. is violating the nine-power treaty by furnishing 80 per cent of Japan’s war material. Nor was the senator far wrong in suggesting the embargo as a means of “complying with the wishes of 75 per cent of the people.” Also in congress: < Continued was the economy drive to avoid either new taxes or a boost in the federal debt limit. Having clipped $113,000,000 from the President’s budget recommendations, the house appropriations committee was expected to eliminate altogether more than $200,000,000 for farm parity payments. Reasoning: Foreign developments might force prices up to a point where parity will not be needed so badly. EUROPE: The Neutrals Momentarily in the headlines was a report that the U. S. had asked all American nationals in Sweden to leave for home. The Swedish foreign press department gave as a reason “German troop concentration” across the Baltic, but the state department in Washington failed to confirm this fear. Bigger neutral news came from Rumania, which suddenly found its oil resources both a curse and a bulwark of defense. When Germany insisted that Rumania increase oil shipments to the Reich, King Carol demanded that French-British petroleum interests in his country cooperate. Since this meant that allied oil would be feeding Nazi planes to bomb the allies, both London and Paris threatened to suspend economic relations with Rumania. Though he was in a tough spot, Carol did not overlook the temporary value of this double pressure. Much though he disliked acquiescing to German demands, it meant that Germany would have to defend Rumania against Russian aims in his eastern province of Bessarabia. Russo-Finnish War Just as they failed miserably to cut Finland at its “waistline” a few weeks ago, so did the Russians suffer horrible defeat when they tried to skirt the north edge of Lake Ladoga and attack the Mannerheim line from the rear. After a week of desperate fighting, four Soviet divisions were put to rout. Five thousand were reported killed outright, with an extra 20,000 casualties including several thousand wounded who froze to death before i aid could be brought.

WOMEN: Dressiest Ten When Husband James Cromwell was named U. S. minister to Canada, Doris Duke Cromwell (“richest girl in the world”) ordered a new wardrobe delivered from Paris via Atlantic clipper. Three weeks later, when United Press took its annual poll of Paris dressmakers. Mrs. Cromwell got her reward: For the first time, she was named one of the world’s 10 best-dressed women. The other nine Sail of whom have wardrobes worth more than $1,000,000 each): Duchess of Kent and Windsor, tied for first place: Mme. Antenor Patino, South American “tin princess”; Begum Aga Khan; Mrs. Gilbert Miller. wife of a New York theatrical producer; Baronne Eugene de Rothschild; Mrs. Harrison Williams of New York; Countess Barbara Hutton-Reventlow, “five-and-dime” heiress; Queen Elizabeth. Britain's queen, like Mrs. Cromwell, was a first-timer on the list. Though she buys no clothes in Paris, though she prefers crinoline effects for formal dress, the dressmakers admitted they had to include her. iiy Know your news? Deduct 20 points from each question you miss. Scores: 100, perfect; 80, excellent; . 60, average: 40 or less, poor. K * a \ 5 Avl - I : 1. The above ship, just returned to the U. S.» has in the past six months rescued passengers from a sinking steamer, been captured by the Germans and held by Russia. What’s her name? 2. For what purpose election suddenly called by Canada? 3. Choice: Late January weather in southern U. S. was (a) unseasonably warm; (b) average; (c) unseasonably cold. 4. What noted explorer has just discovered some new mountains, and where are they located? 5. A 10,000-word memorandum released by the Vatican charges Germany with trying to destroy the Catholic religion in what country? 1. City of Flint. 2 To put the dominion government’s war record up to the people, thereby answering widespread complaints. 3. (C) is correct. Millions of dollars’ damage have been done to fruit and vegetable properties in Florida; Atlanta had a 10-inch snowfall. 4. Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd discovered new mountains near Marie Byrd land in. the antarctic. 5. Poland. The memorandum also charges mass shootings, man hunts, plundering and persecutions in Poland. JUSTICE: Christian Front In 1917 the Russian czarist government was overthrown by 23 men. Early this year the U. S. justice department arrested 17 “Christian Fronters” in New York, equipped with a smaller and more crude arsenal than Russia’s 23. But their aim, said FBl’s J. Edgar Hoover, was the same: Revolution. Moreover, he charged, they were antiJewish. Though he “roundly disavowed” any affiliation to the Christian Front when first questioned, Detroit’s Rev. Charles E. Coughlin later labeled himself as “a friend of the accused.” After mulling over this admission for a week, the justice department sent its Assistant Attorney General O. John Rogge to investigate. MEXICO: Oil for Japan? Until Europe went to war, Mexico sold some of its expropriated U. S. and British oil output to Germany. The blockade stopped that, leaving Mexico with much oil and little money. But since the U. S. announced abrogation of its trade pact with Japan. President Lazaro Cardenas has made overtures to the Tokyo government. Japan, fearful lest the U. S. clamp down an embargo on war materials (See CONGRESS), was reported in late January to be ready to invest capital for dredging a Pacific port in Mexico and improving petroleum storage facilities there. NEUTRALITY: Notes U. S. and the war made these headlines: <L A Gallup poll showed 60 per cent of the nation thinks it would be best to consult the public before entering another war. (Last September only a bare majority—sl per centra vored a war referendum.) < Under war’s impetus, U. S. arms exports soared from $83,000,000 in 1938 to $204,555,780 in 1939. Major items: aircraft and air parts

Bruckart’* Washington Digest Democratic Political Pot Now at Boiling Point, but Lull Is Due Attack on President by C. I. O. Lewis Is Followed by Exaggerated Claims for Roosevelt Delegates in Florida and Ohio; It’s All Part of the Game.

By WILLIAM BRUCKART WNU Service, National Press Bldg., Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON.—The Democratic political pot has come to the boiling point. High political temperatures have prevailed now for several weeks. The condition probably will continue for several weeks more before there is a lull. But a lull will come. Political strategists, presidential aspirants and wheelhorses will not be able to maintain the current pace until convention time.? If they attempt it. there is only one end possible: the Democratic patty will be split beyond any hope of repairing the damage. There is one thing to be noted, even now: New Dealers, near-New Dealers and New Deal payrollers have put on one of the really great drives to insure the renomination of President Roosevelt for a third term. They have hit in every ’direction. Some blows appear to have been effective. The payrollers hope all of their efforts have brought favorable results, but that seems improbable. In the period under discussion, there likewise has been a terrific attack upon the present New Deal leadership. This came originally from John L. Lewis and his C. I. O. labor organization. It dragged with it some others who might or might not have become so active at the moment—Sen. Burton Wheeler of Montana, for instance. Lewis Support Like ‘A Kiss of Death* The Lewis attack was important solely because it represented the final stage of a break between himself and Mr. Roosevelt. I have heard many persons say it was a break of luck for the President. Mr. Lewis doesn’t rate so much, any more. That is, his affirmative support is something like a “kiss of death.” It will be recalled how Mr. Lewis called Vice President Garner “a po-ker-playing. whiskey drinking, evil old man." last summer. That attack by Mr. Lewis surely did more to boost the Garner presidential candidacy than any other one thing that has happened. It convinced hundreds of thousands of voters that Mr. Garner must be a pretty good guy if he disagreed with sit-down strikes and attempted dictatorship of the government by the C. I. O. The evidence is that Mr. Lewis gave Paul McNutt a boost, too, by his espousal of a declaration that the Democratic party had not kept faith with organized labor. Mr. McNutt, former governor of Indiana and present federal security administrator, is sticking right close by the New Deal; so close, indeed, that he is not going to seek the Democratic nomination unless Mr. Roosevelt gets out of the way. It is held, therefore, that when Mr. Lewis tried to pin back the Roosevelt ears, he inferentially helped Mr. McNutt for the reason that only a few political students here believe Mr. Roosevelt was damaged by desertion of the Lewis following from the New Deal to which they gave half a million dollars in the 1936 campaign. As regards the Garner candidacy, observers seem to feel that the Lewis outburst was another feather in their cap. Mr. Garner, of course, has said he wants the nomination and wants to be elected and he made no mention at all of the possibility that Mr. Roosevelt may want to run for a third term. Thus, when Mr. Lewis said the Democratic party had broken faith with labor—he obviously meant with his own faction of organized labor—he cbuld not iyive hit Mr. Garner as much as the out-and-out New Dealers. Mr. Garner certainly is not of that stripe. Strange That Wheeler Should Encourage It The demonstration of the United Mine Workers in favor of Senator Wheeler at their Columbus, Ohio, convention, obviously was staged, conceived and promoted by Lewis. The C. I. O. boss has been getting closer and closer to Senator Wheeler. He has given every indication of wanting to endorse the Montana senator, openly. I cannot help wondering why Senator Wheeler encourages it. It strikes me that Senator Wheeler must knovV how a C. I. O. endorsement will be taken out in the country—the small towns and among the farmers. Moreover, there is a growing belief among poIT CAN’T KEEP UP If the present boiling state of the Democratic political pot should keep up, the party would be split, says William Bruckart But a lull always follows feverish moments in politics. The Lewis blast against Roosevelt, the Wheeler demonstration at the C. I. O. meeting, and boasts in Florida and Ohio about delegates, will soon quiet down, and we’U have a few weeks of quiet.

HF a They Part Company ‘NoThirdT erm,’ T hunders C. 1.0. Lewis. litical students that Mr. Lewis can not pull the entire. labor vote, or even a strong majority of it, for anybody. I personally have believed for a long time that political catering to the “labor vote” was simply catering to a myth. But there have been other things happening along the Democratic front. • In Florida and in Ohio, the pot boiled Over. We were treated, in each instance, to some of the usual political bunk. Senator Pepper, who frequently announces his importance as a Democratic leader in his native state of Florida, came into Washington and announced that the Florida delegation to the Democratic national convention would be for Mr. Roosevelt for a third term. That sounded all right. Closer investigation, however, seemed to indicate that Senator Pepper was talking through his headgear. If my information is correct and it came from a trustworthy source, the facts are that every move to direct the Florida vote towards Mr. Roosevelt was badly licked. Indeed, the word that came to me from Florida was that Senator Pepper was spanked by his home folks. He tried to steer the Roosevelt ship and had the rudder taken out of his hands by the state convention by the rather lopsided vote of 72 to 37. And the important. yet unpublicized, phase of the meeting was that the boys who wielded the paddle upon the loquacious Senator Pepper are known to be for Mr. Garner. In Ohio, State Chairman Arthur Linback apparently tried to do the same thing as Senator Pepper did in Florida. He made a lot of announcements about where the Ohio delegation would go. Again, upon my own information, the Ohio delegation appears likely to go in a different direction from any of those pointed out by the state chairman. Those Making Clamor Are Mostly on Payroll Mr. Linback obviously wants to curry favor with the New Dealers. But Ohio sources, political observers mainly, advise me that there is small chance of Mr. Linback controlling the delegation to the Democratic national convention. In the first place, there has been no slate of delegates made up and the primary is quite away in the future. So, it is made to appear that Mr. Linback, like Senator Pepper, was doing a bit of popping off in the hopes that he could start a bandwagon movement, with him in the driver’s seat. From Mississippi, some days ago, there came word of an effort to get a resolution through the state legislature that would have praised the New Deal administration and New Deal policies. It fell flat. These states that I have mentioned, however, give some indication of the scope of the drive by the New Dealers. Obviously, they want Mr. Roosevelt denominated and re-elected, for in thJt direction lies their political future. They are unlikely to get anywhere, to hold their jobs, unless Mr. Roosevelt leads. I doubt that Paul McNutt would keep the bulk of them in office if he were to be elected. It is absolutely certain that Mr. Gamer would get rid of them. Another thing: the last few weeks has shown the same group in the van of the demand for a Roosevelt third term. Men like Secretaries Wallace and Ickes, Senator Guffey of Pennsylvania, Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, Ambassador Davies, are making the original pronouncements. The lesser lights pick up the song and sing it. It would be interesting to know what the total payroll is of the men now heading the Roosevelt third-term drive. But soon the lull will arrive. Senator Wheeler’s demand that Mr. Roosevelt announce now whether he is, or is not, going to seek a third term will get exactly no further than the front pages of newspapers. The Peppers and the Linbacks wil 1 have had their say and their pr> nouncements will measure exacty as much as a summer showery in ultimate importance. It is al’ a part of politics. I believe I am ■joing to have a lot of fun around he middle of June when I look bcfck over the files and see who was important in January and February.