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Newspaper
Cedar Rapids Gazette
Location
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States of America
Date
Dec 31, 1939
Page
29
Ponderous year end thoughts clash with 1939 record as the New Year looms. The piece contrasts calls for national unity with harsh judgments of Hitler and domestic politics, naming figures from Harry Hopkins to James Landis and Harry Bridges amid debates on taxation, pensions, and labor policy.
Cedar Rapids recorded a new low for the season as temperatures plunged below zero on Saturday night. After a high near 18 at noon amid misty snowfall, a cold north wind drove readings steadily downward, reaching 2 below by midnight and expected to fall to around 5 below by morning.
Des Moines logged 7 degrees at 6 pm with 3 below zero by 12:30 am Sunday, as a revised forecast warned of 10 below in northern Iowa and 5 below in the south. Readings across the state included Council Bluffs 9, Iowa City 12, Adair 4, and Montezuma 3 while highways stayed icy and flurries occurred briefly.
Cedar Rapids records a calm New Year Eve with private parties and heavy tavern business. Zero weather drives residents home early while liquor stores report strong sales. theaters draw crowds as outdoor celebrations remain subdued. Most 1940 festivities planned for private gatherings tonight.
By the Associated Press America marks New Year's Eve in typical paper hat style as many parties spill into late hours. The first day of 1940 falls on a Monday, prompting gatherings that continue into the new week.
Arthur "Bugs" Baer comments on trimming wartime excess as the decade ends. He jokes about avoiding lavish projects like marble post offices and corrugated roofs, and suggests forgoing prosperity in favor of maintaining simpler pleasures and a steadier rate of better times.
President Roosevelt promoted Acting Secretary of the Navy Charles Edison to full cabinet status as a recess appointment amid warship program criticism. Edison, 49, draws a $15,000 salary and will be sworn in immediately, with a Senate confirmation planned after Congress convenes.
The German merchantman Tacoma faces a 24 hour deadline to leave Montevideo harbor as Uruguay bills it an auxiliary warship. Britain seeks permission for the Ajax to enter for repairs but may intern the ship if it stays. The Tacoma has been anchored since the Graf Spee scuttling and swastika flags fly atop mast.
Divorce suits filed in Reno in 1939 fell to 2,231 from 2,375 the prior year. The six weeks residence law set a record in 1931 at 4,745. A new marriage license record was established with 10,934 licenses sold by Saturday, surpassing the 1937 high of 8,277.
AFL leader William Green accuses Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins of misleading statements on the AFL CIO split. He demands congressional hearing to probe her report and claims about expulsions and membership numbers, insisting the CIO and AFL differ in actual paid up membership and history of suspensions.
A Muscatine woman admitted to defrauding more than $1,000 in merchandise from two local stores and a Des Moines shop during the Christmas period. Police detained Mrs. Carl Hagemeister, 44, after detectives traced shoe purchases and used undercover work with Killian and Armstrong staff to identify items. The case centers on cheating by false pretenses with more than $1,000 in goods recovered and authorities planning further questioning.
The Sunday Express, citing a Lausanne source, reported Field Marshal Hermann Goering was shot and slightly wounded in a hunting accident on December 18 in the Superthal forest. No details were given beyond the claim that the right leg was hit under mysterious circumstances.
London AP reports Britain shows a deficit of 1.257 billion dollars for three quarters of the current fiscal year with four months of war included. Expenditures total 3.435 billion against revenue of 2.178 billion, a gap covered by borrowing.
Miss Consuelo L. Hanna forty, an attorney of Laverne Iowa, was fatally injured Saturday when struck by a passenger train two miles west of Corpus Christi Texas. She was walking along the right of way and apparently halted as the train neared.
A survey of 23 firms shows Cedar Rapids Industries up about 20 percent in 1939 with production gains expected in 1940. Most executives report strong current business, some export declines offset by stronger domestic demand, and optimism for higher volumes and hiring in the election year. Harry Johnson of Turner Company notes over 100 percent growth and plans for growth in microphones and sound equipment.
Field Marshal Goering warned that a German air counter-attack against Britain would be visit world history with an assault never experienced before. He claimed no land is as vulnerable from the air as the British island and said action requires only Fuehrer command.
London reports a British spokesman says Hitler's new year proclamation follows familiar German lines and that Britain and France will fight on to stop Hitler. Goering announces Germany uses mine laying planes, while Hitler predicts victory in 1940 and claims the western powers will replace Versailles with a greater injustice.
A man, H. C. Davis, reports to St. Louis police that he moved from East St. Louis to an unknown St. Louis apartment, forgot the address, and asks the chief’s secretary to notify his wife for directions home. He says he will keep calling until heard.
Seven members of a rural Tennessee sect face involuntary manslaughter indictments after five deaths in their families within a year. Neighbors prompted the inquiry. the group cited faith healing over medical aid. Defendants include Joe Brady Ashley Luna the Lunas the Grays and the McGees.
Alton giant Robert Wadlow, 21, filed a $100,000 libel suit against Time Inc in U S district court. The claim arises from a Time magazine article dated March 1, 1937. Attorneys said federal court was chosen since Time is outside Illinois.
Detectives suspect a series of planned holdups after a gunman took $36 from Mike Risk at 1334 First Avenue. Neighbors saw a car in the alley 15 minutes beforehand. An out-of-towner and a local man likely cased the job as a second robbery followed the prior night.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr and his wife Ethel du Pont rested at the White House after a minor automobile accident near Winchester Virginia. No serious injuries were reported and both were traveling with minor bruises and scrapes.
The forecast calls for generally fair conditions with rising temperatures at the start of the week, a colder spell in the middle, and a warming trend toward the end. Highs and lows are not specified.
Finnish ski troops repelled a third Soviet push across the border near Kuhmo in central Finland as Mannerheim line defenses held. Reports say Finnish gains include Siberian routes toward Salla and Lake Suvanto positions on the Karelian isthmus with two enemy tanks destroyed and Soviet raiders shot down.
Dr Rudolph Schoenheimer of Columbia University told the eighth national organic chemistry symposium in St Louis that the human body is a seething mass of rapidly reacting chemical compounds. He said whether food is eaten or not the substances in the body constantly change likening the process to a witch s brew in a cauldron. He rejected the fuel burning engine analogy.
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