Show SEEN SEENa and d HEARD around tho National Capital Ey 1 By CARTER FIELD FIELD WashIngton TIle The extreme e left lett wing of the adminIstration Is split spilt almost precisely In halt half on what Is actually a fundamental factor In the whole re- re recovery ery covery program Zhe question Is whether to stimulate foreign trade whIch means holdIng down the price of articles this country must e ort or whether to concentrate on boost boostIng lug Ing standards of 01 11 liing ro re regardless of 01 the fact that this cons ma maso so boost the co cost t ot of exportable articles that America will be forced to be beselt self sufficIent At one extreme stands Mordecai Ezekiel rIght bo bower boer er of Agriculture Secretary Wallace He fie has recently In public painted a dire picture of 01 what Ill happen to this country un- un unless unless less international trade Is Increased At he other stands Sidney Hillman labor leader who Is far more con concerned concerned with forcing higher wages and andI I shorter hours for AmerIcan workers of 01 all sorts denies that he hei heIs I i Is an Isolationist but believes that for forthe forthe the time beIng perhaps until the rest ot of the w orld sees the light America I had better be content with Its own 0 n I markets rather than cut production costs so as to make exports possible I tIle the State department Is supposed to be though proceeding with characteristic diplomatic pace pace- with what amounts to reciprocity treaties Only one has bas been con that summated with Cuba But about six others are scheduled to be pro proclaimed claimed In about six months That seems a long time In slew lew ot of the fer fervor fervor vor wIth which the Peel Peek move to en- en encourage courage trade and thus reduce the necessity for plowing under crops and kIllIng pigs was begun But the ways ays of foreign offices are slow It Is rather curious that Ezekiel who seemed a year ago to represent one extreme In the Agriculture depart depart- department department ment while George Peek represented the other should now come out with such a blast actually on Peeks Peek's side In that famous controversy But nothing so devastatIng to opponents of the treaties has come out as the tho recent barrage laid down by Ezekiel For example the effect or of a dr drying Ing up ot of foreign trade on the railroads In Inthe Inthe the United States leading to the ports The Idea ot of the South changing Its crops so as to get the amount of 01 cot cotton cotton ton down to the total that can be manufactured and consumed Inside our tariff walls His remarks about what would happen to shipping docks etc were not so potent because they had long been realized and had never nefer stirred up the excitement their eco economic economic worth perhaps rated Buy Foreign Goods Ezekiel accused by many conserva the e critics some 18 months back or of being a hammered along the line so often made but so seldom carried to Its logical conclusion about the necessity of bu buying Ing goods abroad It If we wished to sell any In exchange This country he pointed out out had trIed to escape that logical conclusion In every way possible For Instance by buying foreign goods which In too many Instances were now worthless so that the goods bought with the pro pro- proceeds proceeds were actually gifts to foreign nations Dy By plain Inference he suggested that It would be better to take goods which I would have hafe some value than promises to pay which had very little I But this runs directly counter to the logic of Hillman and his fellow the theorists I who are not worrying at all about the cotton gro growers ers who want to keep beep on growing cotton and sell It abroad They are worrying about the American workers who could be employed ed at fabricating the goods with which the foreign countrIes would buy the cotton and other exports of this country Dolled Boiled down this difference ot of opinIon Ion In the left wing Is precisely the theold theold old economic supposedly difference at least between the Democrats and the Republicans In the period between Re Reconstruction Reconstruction construction and William WilHam Jennings Bryans Bryan's Introduction of 01 free silver It promises no more ready solution now than It did then Home Mortgages Pressure from all over the country to have the government proceed without limit to take up all the home mort- mort mortgages mortgages gages anyone may desire at 5 per cent and thus definitely force the mortgage rate to that figure gure u Will III not be the de determining factor In what the President President dent decides shall be done Two factors will determine whether whether er the President has congress Increase the amount or of money for home mort mortgages mortgages gages whether private cap capItal capital Ital through the banks building and andI loan associations Insurance companies I etc seems to be filling the need and supplying necessary funds at reason reasonable reasonable able rates ot of Interest Second whether er there should appear to be danger of a new wave a ve ot of mortgage foreclosures ures Which Is really reany two t ways ot of say say- sayIng Ing the same will thing private cap capItal capItal Ital function on the administrations administration's terms or will It not Already there Is In process enough political pressure to stampede con congress press gress under normal conditions For It if there Is a senator or member or of orthe the house whose office has not been deluged In the last week or so with demands that this or that mortgage loan be made whether the money ey set aside for the purpose Is exhausted or not not he is 11 singularly fortunate The poInt ti I there are enough letters In Inthe Inthe the office of every senator and mem- mem member member ber ot of the house to force them under ordinary circumstances to believe that I Cr may be the right or wron wrong of the tho matter hero Is n a need so im- im important I that It must be recognised i But the President Is very much inthe In Inthe the saddle A great many members of I both houses of at congress are so fixed I that they simply must oppose the Pres I dent Ident on the soldier bonus honus I Watchful Waiting The PresIdent however Is pursuing a course ot of Watchful at waiting Ot Of one thin thing he Is determined There Is go- go goIng going Ing to be no wave of foreclosures It If private capital does not finance nance the country's mortgages on homes the gov gov- government will But Dut he hopes ate capital will because there are plenty of at uses for government money and andI andin I In huge amounts to which he would I prefer preter to de ote It instance mortgages for new home borne building There Is no limit practically to the amount of mone money the Administration is eager to pour out In this direction That sort or of loan means something to the return of prosperity It means jobs I for all the varieties ot of building trades It means sales of 01 lumber cement I plumbIng fixtures roofing heating plants paint and varnish It means I that the workers getting these jobs will spend the money and boost the sales of 01 virtually e ery line Une ot of Indus Industry Industry try And the same for the workers In the plants which produce the bund build bundI lug Ing materials even the coal cOll miners I and the lumbermen In the woods I Whereas the funds poured out by bythe bythe the Home Owners Loan corporation byI I simply represent the transfer of debts from private agencies to the gov government They do not represent a single job provided for a jobless man manor manor or woman And the security to the government that the loans will be paId back actually is a lIttle less sound than the mortgages on new property for obvious reasons Silver Sellers Strike With nothing like the total amount ot of silver In hand that the government had planned to acquire It is apparent that the treasury has run Into shallow water In Its buying campaign Ohina and India according to latest reports have simply closed up as far ns as selling silver Is concerned They ha have hae e been finally convinced that the United States government Is determined to put the price up and are waiting for the higher price before selling seIling Which presents one ot of the most curl ous and interesting problems that any government has ever encountered since coinage began And which has Inside administration officials divided as to the proper course of action The point Is whether they should attempt to go ahead and comply wIth the terms of the er act act buying the requisite amount of silver no matter what It may cost The alternative of course Is to stop buying and point out the situation to congress when that body which passed the law convenes So far the governments government's actions have had the effect ot of advancing the prIce ot of sIh silver er more than 10 cents an ounce Starting oft off around 45 cents the price gradually rose on government buyIng until just before It reached 50 cents the government nationalized at that fig fig- figure fig ure It simply commandeered all the sillier er In the country at 50 cents an ounce just as It commandeered aU all the gold at the old price before marking it up to 35 an ounce SInce then heavy government buy buy- buyIng buying Ing has gradually forced the prIce or of silver up In the world market to around 55 cents At just about this point the sellers strike was encountered This was a coincidence which had nothing to do wIth the price or what hat the own own- owners ers ot of silver elsewhere In the world thought It was worth before Because the factor that caused the owners of sliver in China and India to stop sell sell- sellI sellIng I Ing as not the price but the fact that they were finally convInced that the I United States really reany Intended to go I ahead with Ith Its slier er buying policy U S Put One Over Moreover Moreo the United States put one over on the metal or of the world orld on gold and they remembered It very ery sharply It will be recalled that wan Vall Street and Europe both sim- sim simply simply ply refused to believe bellee belle e that the United States was going to devalue the dollar donar In gold and hence sold gold to the United States government at way be- be below below low the 5 15 price despite the fact that the PresIdent had congressIonal au- au authority authority to fix the price of 01 gold In dol- dol dollars dollars lars at something like 42 They were fooled that time but now comes the Ul United ted States government doing the same thing to the world prIce of silver and this time the world spec spec- speculators speculators are not so eager to sell sen It Is true that this time they do not have any accurate Idea of what hat the final goal ot of the United States treasury Is for the price of 01 slIver silver The old coin coln coinage age price Is U 2 an ounce The price being paid for newly mined slIver Is Gly cents The coinage price It If gold goldIs goldis Is devalued the remaIning D cents au and It if sliver silver Is restored to the old coinage level would be So that they know cents Is the positive e bottom line of the govern govern- government's government's ments ment's possible objective and Is the positive top line That Is entirely too much leeway lee aY but since the note to China ended all aJI doubt that the gov gov- gov government would pursue Its slIver silver policy It Is not surprising the world should refuse to sell sen slIver much below helow the positive low figure of this country's goal i Which however presents the flab flabbergasting situation ot of one man frank lIn D Roosevelt being able to fix the worlds world's silver er price at breakfast each morning If he so desires Sen |