The Daily Alaska empire., 1938-12-28


 figures-mostly younger men - ap- peared on the Republican horizon as politicians began to assess the cleo tion results in terms of l940.
 The year was not without its disasters-floods in California, Q tragic train wreck in Montana and deadly airplane crashes in Califor- mia and Ohio-but overshadoWins all was the devastating hurricane that slashed the northeast the countrys richest and most p0pulous territory
 Hurricane Hits East
 Complacently. customers had read of tropical storm moving in from the Caribbean, apparently headed for Florida. Florida knew how 10 handle storms. Presently the dis turbance was coming up the Allan tic seaboard. Still no cause for alarm; it would spend itself soon.
 Then, unexpectedly, it struck in full fury in New York City, on Lona Island and through New Enalard Five hundred died and damage mounted into the millions.
 As the war in China moved through it's second year, Hankow finally fell. and the Japanese en- tered the great South China city of Canton. adjacent to the vital Brit ish port of Hong Kong, without a struggle And yet the war goes on as the Japanese move ever deeper into a country that won't give no.
 Unsettled, likewise. is the ex- change between Japan and the United States ever the "open door;" and the situation on the Siberian Korean border. where the Japanese and the Russian fought an incon- elusive battle, still is ominous. Tn assessing the best stories of a year there always is conflict be- tween these that will find place n history books and those that are one day wonders only.
 S59 and S5G0e00
 Tn the latter category must be placed the incredible wrong way" 1 flight of 31-year-old Douglas Cor rigan from New York to Dublin in an antiquated. single motored, nine-year- crate" The unsanc- tened and unpublished jump of B. 150 miles was made in a little over 28 hours at a cost of $6960 Corrigan had exactly SIS in his jeans when he landed, but he has picked ID a nice piece Of change since-money due an intrepid young man who dared the impossible.
 Against the $69 flight of Corri- gan. consider the perfectly ordered $500,000 dash around the world of Howard Hughes. millionaire Cali fornian. Without any particular fanfare Hughes and four compan- ions circled 15,00o miles of globe in 91 hours and IT minutes halving the previous Wiley Post record.
 With most of the world rearm- ing the United States entered the armament using blue chips -and with an eye on all of the l Americas. At the same time, soli- darity among the nations of the new world was sought at the Pan- American Conference in Lima. On the 1888 roster of extraordin- ary stories which gripped millions although themselves of ephemeral character. place certainly must be found for the jump of John Warde from the l7th floor ledge of a Fifth i Avenue hotel, and the strange dra- ma of Orson Welles' broadcast
 Horror Makes Headlines
 Fer II hours Warde, 26 and un- employed. stood precariously on the ledge, smoking. talking, eating and i repulsing efforts at rescue, as thou i sands watched breathlessly in the street. Then late at night. in a flare lit scene Of hysterical horror, he i jumped
 Similarly, the mass hysteria of the Mars broadcast was gripping news. Welles, a theatrical producer at 23. flashed on a radio program that monsters from Mars had land- ed in New Jersey to wipe out civilization. Millions believed the tale.
 New Workers heaped belongings in