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About The Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 19??-1984 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 9, 1937)
Thursday, September 9, 1937 THE HERMISTON HERALD, HERMISTON, OREGON Tloyd ADVENTURERS’ CLUB H E A D L IN E S FRO M TH E L IV E S O F P E O P L E L IK E Y O U R S E L F I “ C la w s o f th e C o a s t ” By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter ello everybody -. Wireless Operator Barney Murphy of Richmond Hill, N. ,Y., brings us today the first yarn I’ve seen about the wreck of the Ill-fated Red Cross liner, Florizel off Cape Race, Newfoundland, In 1918. And the tale of that wreck is a grim and tragic story. It was on the night of February 23 that the Florizel poked her nose out of the harbor at St. Johns, Newfoundland, into a screeching gale. At one-thirty a. m., when Barney took his watch in the wire- less room, she was all but looping the loop in the mountainous seas. H She pitched and tossed, and hit floating ice cakes with loud, resound ing thumps. But at 4:50 a. m. there came a heavier thump than usual and a seaman burst into the wireless shack shouting, “Captain saya •end S O 8.” Barney had hardly thrown the switch when Carter, his senior operator, burst into the room with two Hie belts. He threw one to Barney, crying, “Here, take this, Murph. Go get our position from the captain.” Barney turned the radio key over to Carter and started out, feeling his way along the deck. The ship had run on the rocks ten miles off Cape Race and the jagged points bad gone clear through her hull. Her bow stuck clear of the raging sea, but her stern was under water clear up to the stack. Barney got the ship’s position from the captain and took it back to Carter. Carter barely had time to tap out his message a couple of times when the seas carried away the topmast—and the wireless an tennae along with it. They abandoned the useless instruments, went outside and hung on the rail on the lee side. Took Refuge in Wireless Shack. “About eight of us were hanging there,” says Barney, “while the heavy seas cams tumbling over the top of the wireless room, drenching us with icy water. One man, trying to cross the hatchway to shelter on the bridge was washed overboard almost immediately. We had left the wireless shack because we feared it might be carried away by the heavy seas, but the frequent icy drenchings convinced us it would be better to take a chance and go back in. Soon the room was filled to capacity with straggling survivors. Everything movable was thrown out to make room for them. The vessel quivered violently at every wave, and water poured in through a ventilator in the roof. “We had a few blankets in the room and we spread them over everyone they would cover. One unfortunate man was wedged in directly under the gaping ventilator hole, and he finally lost consciousness under the icy deluge from above—and died there. Reluctantly we moved his body outside to make room for some one else.” Twelve Hours of Agonized Waiting. Over the howling of the gale they could hear cries, but couldn’t get through the pounding seas on the deck to go to the rescue. The second mate arrived in the wireless room, his face lacerated and his teeth knocked out, crying that the bridge and smoking room had been washed away carrying sixty-flve people to their deaths. Everything on the decks had gone by that time but the wireless shack and the smokestack, and no one knew when they would go too. They didn't even know if their S O S signals had been heard. They waited in that cramped little room for TWELVE HOURS, drenched to the skin, without food or water. It was late afternoon before they saw ships approaching from far off, and darkness had fallen before they arrived on the scene. The first ship to reach them was the S. S. Pros- pero, and they signaled to her with a flashlight while the Prospero an- swered with long and short blasts on its whistle. All through the night one ship after another tried to launch life boats. They were battered to pieces by the seas the minute they hit the water. At last the Prospero’s whistle signaled that nothing could be done till daylight. But with the first streak of dawn the volunteer Newfoundland seaman who manned the rescue ships lowered their dories in the still violent sea. Gallant Work of Newfoundlanders. Says Barney: .“The first dory reached us after a battle which only a Newfoundlander knows how to fight in an open boat. They threw a line aboard and scooted off hanging onto the end of it. That line helped the other dories to hold a steady course to us, and as each one arrived, bobbing up and down alongside, the survivors had to slide down the icy deck, now bereft of rails, and make a hit-or-miss leap into the boat belew. “In twos and threes we all finally landed aboard. Some of us got cold baths when we leaped for dories and missed, but we were fished out. I was taken aboard a whaling ship that was standing by, and I had to be undressed by the sailors for my hands were so numb with the cold that I couldn't use them. I went right to sleep and landed in St. Johns in about six hours, none the worse for the experience except that all my clothes, and everything else I owned were lost.” Only Forty-Six Survived the Tragedy. But even so, Barney was running in luck. The final roll call showed that NINETY-TWO PEOPLE WERE LOST in the wreck. Only forty- six out of the original hundred and thirty-eight were saved. The gen eral manager of the steamship line and his daughter were among the missing. The chief steward, when last seen, had been carrying a child in his arms, trying to get it to safety. Both of them were washed over board. Two Spanish firemen sought refuge on a grating in the fiddley, a room where the ashes are hauled up from the flreroom. Those two poor fellows, scantily clothed and coming up from the hot boiler room, gradually froze to death and tumbled back down into the ash pit. And a woman passenger, dragging a sea-sick friend out of her stateroom, got her on deck only to see her torn from her arms and washed overboard. And those are just a few tragic incidents out of the ninety-two that occurred that dreadful night of February 24, out on the Newfoundland coast. “When it was all over,” says Barney, "the water was full of the dead and a good sturdy ship was being beaten to pieces on the rocks. The Graveyard of the Atlantic had once more lived up to its name. And Newfoundland had once more proved what stuff her sons are made of.” • - WNU Service. World's Oldest Pier Pleasure piers were an invention of the Nineteenth century. The old est in the world is probably that at Ryde, Isle of Wight, which was built by a private company in 1812, ac cording to Pearson’s London Week ly. Southend's remarkable pier holds the record for length. Black pool was also a pioneer in the mat ter of piers, and the famous North Pier was opened on Whit Monday, 1863. The venture met with such success that two others were built at the same resort. The North Pier was the first to be illuminated by electricity, and it is one of the grandest and most spectacular in Europe. Piers are costly to build as well as to maintain. Brighton's West Pier, opened in 1866, cost 35,- 000 pounds, but its pavilion was not added until 30 years later. The pier at Southport, built more than forty years ago, cost over 100,000 pounds. This was the first pleasure pier in the world to be constructed entirely of iron, and it stretches nearly a mile out to sea—second in length only to the pier at Southend. Among Famous Hymns “Lead, Kindly Light” was written by Newman nearly 100 years ago, when he was on his way home from Rome. The boat on which he was traveling was becalmed for a whole week and it was during that time he penned his famous lines. Few hymns are more popular than Top- lady's “ Rock of Ages.” One day the young curate was overtaken by a heavy thunderstorm in Barrington Coombe, and seeking shelter under the massive rock was inspired to write these beautiful words. “Abide With Me” was written in Devon by Henry Lyte, the beloved pastor of the fisher folk of Lower Brixham. A dying man, he wrote the words as the summer sun was setting one September evening. Tradition says that Wesley was inspired to write “Jesus. Lover of My Soul,” by a dove, which was driven to the shel ter of his bosom in a pitiless storm. Cecil Alexander’s hymn, "There Is a Green Hill," was written amid the green hills of Ireland.—Pear son's London Weekly. mat u KV jo LL Z Z k w v fez) c ù b o ü t _ F arm 1 T o p ic s [,| I NEGLECTED BIRDS NOT GOOD LAYERS Cures for Communism. ANTA MONICA, CALIF.—A Low Summer Production certain rich man out here— May Continue Into Fall. rich but indulgent—got a letter S. Dearstyne, Head of Poultry De from his heir, a sophomore at By Roy partment, North Carolina State College.—WNU Service. one of the big eastern colleges. S The lad announced he had been converted to communism and was contributing to the cause. So what about it? The old m a n wrote back: I "Son, you have a , perfect right to fol low the dictates of y o u r conscience. But as a consistent communist you nat urally would n o t continue to live on the ill-gotten gains | rvin g. Cobb of a wicked money- grabber. Today I am cutting off your somewhat generous allowance. You will also vacate the luxurious apartment you now occupy because I’m not paying the rent of same any longer. So go ahead, my boy, and commune freely—with my bless ings! But from date that’ll be about all from this end of the line.” Exactly four hours after the ar rival by air mail of this ultimatum, the hard-hearted parent got back a rush telegram stating that the young man had been thinking things over and had decided not to take up the new doctrine. • • • The Art of Listening. Low egg production in hot weath* er often causes poultrymen to ne glect their flocks, with the result that production continues low in the fall when it should be increasing. Good management in hot weather not only keeps birds in better con dition for heavy production later, but it also keeps up production through the summer. Shade to protect birds from the sun during the hottest part of the day is essential to thrifty birds. A portable range shelter provides shade where birds can feed and rest. Since range crops usually become dry and unpalatable in summer, the birds need an ample ration in their feed hoppers. Plenty of fresh water should be available at all times. Plenty of grain should be fed dur ing the developing season. A good mash should be fed also as it con tains vital food elements that are not provided in a grain diet alone. Where crippled and subnormal birds are found in the flock, they should be culled out at once. Such birds never pay a profit and their low vitality often makes them the starting point for an outbreak of contagious disease. Lice and mite infestations occur frequently in summer and result in heavy losses unless checked at once. Fowl pox can be prevented by vaccinating the birds at an early age. The disease usually breaks out in the fall when the birds are in full lay and making a profit for their owner. Leghorns are especially sus ceptible to pox. E HAD a party at which there appeared what I may call the dumb poets—Sam Hoffenstein and Ogden Nash. At the studios where they’re both turning out epics, there’s a rule that neither shall burst forth into poetry while he’s under contract—no thumbing of the harp, no sounding of the lute. Cine ma’s gain is creation’s loss. Maybe that explains why they made such good listeners the other Creep-Fed Calves Thrive night. And isn’t a good listener a boon! I don’t mind being interrupt on Corn, Cottonseed Cake | ed, provided the interrupter chooses Calves creep-fed made their best the right subject. Mute and rapt, I and most economical gains on a ra can harken for hours on hours if tion of shelled corn and cottonseed someone is talking about me, say, cake in a test by the United States or even reading from my published Department of Agriculture in co works. But these two minnesingers operation with the Missouri state only broke in to ask that the pickled experiment station at Sin-a-Bar shrimp be passed or gently to sug Farms, Grain Valley, Mq. gest that another little drink or two At the end of thg 140-day test wouldn’t do any harm. calves fed the shelled corn and cot j Ogden Nash has attained the high tonseed cake averaged 8 pounds est peak of distinction attainable for more than another group fed ground a writer. His chief imitator has an shelled corn and cottonseed cpke, imitator who is bringing up his old 13 pounds more than calves fed est boy to be an imitator. ground corn, cottonseed cake, and * • • alfalfa-molasses mixture, and 22 Resurrecting Old Words. pounds more than a group receiv HEN a word gets fashionable ing shelled corn, cottonseed cake, —especially a new word which and alfalfa-molasses mixture. some wordsmith thought up right The calves receiving ground corn, out of his head—it gets too dog cottonseed cake, and the alfalfa-mo gone fashionable. The same applies lasses mixture, ate 25 per cent more to old words which have been dis feed and acquired a better finish at interred from their forgotten tombs the end of the feeding period than in the dictionary. those fed shelled corn and cotton I seem to see grave robbers seed cake. The difference in mar prowling through the unabridged, ket price of the two groups, how starting in at “aard-vark,” which is ever, did not justify either the cost an animal formerly common only of grinding the com or the addi to Africa but not frequently found tional cost of feed. in cross-word puzles; and working Calves from each group, when fed on through to “zythum,” a very in dry lots for 196 days after wean strong beer drunk by ancient tribes. ing, on the same rations they had I guess those old-timers imbibed co received before weaning, showed no piously of the brew and then named significant difference in total gains. it. It doesn’t sound like the sort of Those fed shelled corn and cotton word a dead sober party deliberate seed cake were the heaviest at the ly would make up. end of the experiment although not Do you remember the run “in- I so well finished as the ones fed trigued” had? I never got so sick ground corn. of a word in my ife. And then High-grade Shorthorn calves were along came "provocative,” and it used in the feeding tests and the turned out to be a pest. People went market value was estimated at the around just looking for a chance to end of the feeding experiment by work “provocative” into the conver commission merchants on the Kan sation. The only way to lick ’em sas City stockyards. was to pretend to be deaf and dumb. And now the reigning favorite is In the Farmlot “allergic.” Folks spout it every where, whether they know what it Careless handling kills live stock means or not. I don’t mind saying on its way to market. • • • I’m getting awfully allergic to "al lergic.” There must be many others The greatest boon to farmers and like me. their wives is running water in • • • stalled in the home. s e e Campaign Books. ET us not cavil too much be- Except for dresses, shoes repre cause high pressure salesmen, j sent the largest clothing item working on commission, have been bought by farm families. unloading upon the faithful, at • • • fancy prices, the gift book put out The horse’s collar should be thor by Washington headquarters to pay oughly cleaned each evening after off campaign debts. In fact, 15 the day’s work is done. cents’ worth would cover practical • • • ly all the cavil I personally have For safety dairy products are best used up in this connection. kept covered and in the coldest The result tends to prove the grat- . place in the refrigerator. ifying fact that, while more Demo • • • crats may not necessarily have Alfalfa leaves are worth saving; learned how to read and write, ob they are about three times as valu viously more of us have got money able in nutritive value as the stems. than formerly was the case when • • • the Republicans were in power. Unless cows have an abundance Besides, think of what the strain of pure water to which they can would have been upon the poor post go at any time, milk flow will be man if the national committee had affected. • • • ' boen stuck with all this bulk litera ture and congressmen had started The general belief that grasshop franking copies out to their constitu pers make an excellent turkey feed ents with Uncle Sam paying the was not upheld in experiments at freight. To give you a further idea Oklahoma A. and M. college. • • • •bout this franking privilege, I may state that It was named for Frank, Except for air, water is the most Jesse's brother—and you'll remem common, most readily supplied, and ber how careless those James boys often the most inexpensive sub were with the United States mails! stance that poultrymen can give to IRVIN S. COBB. their hens. • — W NU Service W W L Washington D ig e s t g National Topics Interpreted By W ILLIA M BRUCKART NATIONAL PRESS BLDG WASHINGTON, D C Washington. — Political students and observers in Washington find e themselves in a H a s ’E m quandary concern- Guessing ing the objectives of the New Deal administration because of a series of late developments. Frankly, most students of politics have to confess their inability to fathom the various developments of recent weeks or to measure their significance. I have written, heretofore, about the wide open split in the Demo cratic party and about the presiden tial moves to heal that split bat, instead of the new developments be ing of a kind designed to heal wounds, they appear superficially at least to be doing directly the oppo site thing. Confessing my own in ability to understand the political strategy, if there be strategy, let me merely call attention to such things as: The recent radio speech by Sena tor Guffey, Pennsylvania, Demo crat, which thoroughly read out of the party such able men as Sena tors Wheeler of Montana, Burke of Nebraska and O’Mahoney of Wyo ming. The speech of Postmaster Gen eral Farley before the Young Demo crats at their Indiana meeting, stat ing that there will be no reprisals against those Democrats who have seen fit or now see fit to object to parts of President Roosevelt’s New Deal program. The so-called harmony dinner of Democratic senators at a Washing ton hotel after the election of Sena tor Barkley of Kentucky as Demo cratic leader of the senate, and the absence of President Roosevelt from that meeting. The renewal by President Roose velt of his criticism of “Economic Royalists” in his speech in celebra tion of the birth of Virginia Dare, the first white child born in Amer ica, at Manteo, N. C. The speech of Senator Guffey in I New York declaring without equiv ocation that the Committee for In dustrial Organization, headed by John L. Lewis, should provide a nucleus for an American Labor par ty. This party should have among its objectives the political destruc tion of any one who fails to carry j through the New Deal policies or who opposes a program designed to make the court structure of the United States subservient to the President. There are other phases, other cir cumstances that might be included in this list, but those enumerated serve to show the confusion that prevails. They present to me a wholly nonunderstandable and un explainable hauling and filling— breathing hot and cold without a change of face. • • * There has been nothing of a pure ly political nature create quite so much of a stir in G u ffe y a iong time as did C ause* S tir the radio speech of Senator Guffey in which he called for defeat of all those who opposed the President's plan to reorganize the Supreme court of the United States by adding to it six justices of the President’s own choosing. It was in this speech that Senator Guffey singled out Senators Wheeler, Burke and O’Mahoney for destruction. He did this because these three senators led the fight against the President’s plan to pack the Supreme court. Senator Wheeler and Senator Burke conducted the fight on the floor of the senate; Senator O’Mahoney wrote the devastating report by which the senate judiciary commit tee advised the senate to kill the court packing bill. Senator Guffey’s speech was made at night. When the senate convened at noon the following day, Senator Wheeler took the floor and delivered one of the most vicious speeches of which he is known to be capable. It was excelled in bit terness only by the attack which came from Senator Burke. Senator O’Mahoney likewise made sure that the senate record revealed the feel ing of those who were convinced the President had made a vital mis take in proposing the court reor ganization. • • • asked many times: What can 1 . President gain W h a n the making Sena A n s w e r? Guffey or a man of his typ« spokesman for the administratic Further, can the President aff< politically to strike at the very he; of the Democratic party by pern ting even secretly the political i ■traction of such brilliant men Wheeler, Burke and O'Mahoney? The answer to those questions, far as I can see it, or as far a: have been able to gather opinit on the point, must inevitably 1« in the direction of a party pur By that I mean, the President ■ his closest New Deal advisers m be eeeking to drive out of the Der cratic party, the machinery JEB which he controls, any and all Dem ocrats who are unwilling to be one hundred per cent for the theories of economics and social reform which the New Dealers counte nance. If that be true, and I re peat it is only an assumption, then the President evidently is hoping to create a class party, a radical party which can be made to include such outfits as the John L. Lewis follow ing, the communists and half-baked nitwits who are opposed to the prin ciple of individual employment, the accumulation of personal belongings and even the idea of owning homes by individuals, free from debt. On the other hand I cannot con vince myself that Mr. Roosevelt would make a political mistake of this gravity. For it would be a mis take in two ways, namely, a virtual destruction of the Democratic party and the blighting of any hope the President may have for being elect ed a third time. It is these com binations that make the whole situa tion so'difficult to understand. It may be that one result will be that Senator Wheeler or Senator Burke may find himself in a politi cal situation where one or the other will be forced to seek the Demo? cratic Presidential nomination in 1940. It is quite apparent now that the split in the party is going to cause a violent explosion in the next Democratic national convention. There is no way to avoid it. It may be added in the same breath that Mr. Roosevelt can go into that con vention and force his own renomi nation because surely the Farley political machine cannot be dis lodged unless the factional dispute spreads to the rank and file of Dem ocrats throughout the country. This is to say that, having control of the party machine, Mr. Farley can muster the election of enough dele gates to the party’s national conven tion to assure the Roosevelt nomi- natioQj especially since Mr. Roose' Veit demanded and obtained the re peal or the age-old Democratic rule that required a vote of two-thirds of all the sitting delegates before the convention nominates a candi date. With further reference to Senator Guffey, Senator Barkley told the senate during the violent Wheeler- Burke-O’Mahoney attack that Sena tor Guffey had tendered his resig nation as chairman of the Demo cratic senatorial committee a week previously. Senator Barkley’s state ment, however, was not accepted generally; it did not have the ring to make it convincing, nor did it appear to be anything more than an attempt by Senator Barkley to save Senator Guffey’s face. • • * It may well be that the rupture in Democratic harmony will turn out to be a great is- M a y Be sue as early as B ig Issue the 1938 congres sional and sena torial elections. There are a num ber of senators who opposed the court packing bill and, therefore, fall within the Guffey castigation, who will be up for re-election next year. If the Guffey attack is fol lowed up at all in the state organi zations, those Democrats who op posed the President’s will necessar ily must defend themselves. The only way they can defend their course of action is by a counter at tack on the President and those policies of his which the candidate for the senate opposed. I predi cate my prediction of continuation of the row in 1938 on the statement made by Senator O’Mahoney in an swer to the Guffey radio tirade. In that statement of position, Senator O’Mahoney stated, to quote a single paragraph: "I would rather walk out of the door of this chamber and never re turn, than to surrender any honest convictions I have. I say to you, senators of the United States, so long as I am in this body I shall raise my voice and cast my vote as my conscience dictates and nobody, whether he comes from Pennsyl vania or from New York or any other state, can tell me or the peo ple of my state what I should or should not do.” Contrast that statement with the following declaration by Senator Guffey in his radio speech: “I was elected to the United States senate in 1934 because I as sured the voters of Pennsylvania that it was my intention to support loyally and without wavering the program of the Chief Executive.” And in calling attention to that statement of subservience. Senator Burke of Nebraska declared: “Pennsylvania may want that kind of representation in the senate, and, if they do, God bless them, let them have it; but to me it would seem that if the senate is to have that kind of representation, it might as well have a parrot in a cage in the secretary's office and bring it in when the senator’s name is called and have him say, ’Yes, Mr. Roose velt, count me for that, too.’ That is not my idea of what a senator should do.” • Western Newspaper Union.
