Show weekly news analysis relief rehe f crist crisis s faces congress As runs short of funds finias by joseph wo la bine EDITORS S NOTE NOT when opinions a are re espres il in these w h se col columns dumns they ther tie a re those of 0 I 1 he at S sews news analyst 1111 11 11 mod and a set out necessarily of at the be A ne relief already well worked out in white house circles are major points for leisurely congressional co consideration the points 1 I 1 addition of millions to social tys tax and benefit plan 2 a federal state health program to cost annually in 10 years and to cost the U S government the first year 3 defense through rearmament and industrial mobilization mobil izat on W 4 railway aid to be proposed jointly by management and labor barmore far more acute is the problem ot 01 feeding T U J S citizens registered on relief rolls november 5 and whose number has since been slashed drastically to make present funds last as long as possible when congress voted tor for relief last winter it stipulated the money must last until march 1 1939 but gave president roosevelt elt the right to advance this deadline to february I 1 in case of an emerged n zw 14 al I 1 K N SNI T JOHN L LEWIS not but cy cj either forgetting this stipulation or hoping to scare the new congress into immediate diate action acting administrator aubrey williams now warns that must shut down february 7 anle unless s legislators gallop to the rescue with additional dit ional funds how fast congress will gallop is another matter though president roosevelt predicted last july that a deficiency appropriation would carry from march 1 to the end of this fiscal year june 30 he has now announced through senate majority leader alben IV barkley that an additional will be needed the anticipated situation tia tion G 0 P and independent democrat legislators will fight for a thorough investigation of graft and politics and will probably be reluctant to make a new appropriation until their curiosity is satisfied but whether this reluctance will be displayed over the deficiency fund or next years regular relief appropriation is guess loudest protest has come from john L lewis president of the congress of 0 industrial organizations demanding that congress appropriate not but tor for immediate deficiency needs he demands no cuts in relief rolls until private business can absorb the unemployment slack the lewis prognostication unless action is taken faken within the first week of january american workers and at least human beings who depend on them will face disaster medicine thus far no court has determined whether vh ether a medical association can be considered a trade under meaning of the sherman antitrust anti trust act but last october 17 the U S justice departments trust buster thurman arnold decided to find out placed under investigation was the district of columbia medical society the charge that organized washington medical men fought the group 10 health association a medical cooperative ot of government workers by har rasing its doctors keeping its patients out of hospitals and preventing members from getting proper care only two months had passed before mr arnolds investigation was complete at washington a federal grand jury found cause to indict three organized medical associations and 21 professional leaders for violation of the sherman act among indicted associations the district of columbia medical society american medical association harris county texas medical society among indicted individuals dr morris fishbein editor of the A H M A journal dr olin west A M A secretary and general manager dr william dick cutter present secretary of the associations council on medical education and hospitals law provides tor for one year in prison fine cne or both as penalty for conviction but at best mr arnolds ease case is nothing more than a test from federal district court a conviction would finally end up in the U S supreme court by which time the gove government rement will probably see no more nuisance value in in its case behind the battle I 1 is s organized medicines loud objection to socialized medicine proposals made at al last summers public health conference adamant to the point ol of anger A M A called a board of governors meeting in chicago and modified its original stand since the then Cali fornias medical society has endorsed a public health program and several se verill other associations have shown favorable inclinations having started its investigation the U S found it held a hot potato that could not be dropped long before the case reaches its final stages congress will probably approve a federal state public health program spain last december 9 rebel generalissimo francisco franco planned to start a whirlwind offensive in the lerida area suddenly two sets of plans were missing one smuggled across to loyalist officers by a colonel later a british vice consul was found carrying more war plans in his brief case though he was exonerated one rated of responsibility in n the end general franco stopped his bis war temporarily arrested boo plotters and decided his position was not so favorable as lie he might we well 11 desire chief reason tor for rebel dissection dis clis sention is the presence of italian fighters along franco frontiers but to remove freml muss mussolini 11 ri s troops would cost considerable strength nor can the general cheral blink at huge espionage activities which mean that rebel territory is heavily populated with loyalist sympathizers thus general franco will probably delay his long awaited offensive to strengthen the moral position at home meanwhile loyalist spain will be able to relax and recuperate strengthening its own forces through the delay this situation looms important in the light of great britaina Brit ains plan to grant general franco belligerent rights with loyalist hopes much brighter it would be foolish tor for london to make this concession to win the friendship of italy moreover since the U S red cross pl plans to distribute wheat freely to both s sides in in th the u spanish conflict great britain might thus find herself at swords ends with washington great britain periodically since the munich treaty prime minister neville chamberlain has held his breath while parliament voted on a motion of non confidence each time he has won yet each time the opposition gets stronger though still not powerful enough to threaten mr chamberlains personal position his foes have found two definite points of vulnerability on which the prime minister must soon act appeasement since last summer mr chamberlain has believed that england can avoid war only by keeping germany and italy contented through concessions but every concession has been followed by more demands and parliament is getting tired of it il on january 11 the prime minister will go to rome where observers predict he will of rr K 01 1 a wy ON 1 LESLIE he 1 e put his boss on the spot fer to win french territorial concessions tor for premier mussolini it he does and ii if he gets no adequate compensation mr chamberlain will become a virtual political suicide as the result armament though anxious to appease england is also anxious to protect during septembers crisis trenches were dug gas masks distributed tri buted antiaircraft anti aircraft guns installed and defense li ii iture distributed when the crisis passed highly publicized war minister leslie hore balisha arose to tell parliament how hopelessly inadequate and messed up the defenses had been though this situation was mr hore responsibility nothing happened to him but while hile mr chamberlain journeys about europe in the role of peacemaker levelheaded level headed home bodies are beginning to demand removal of the war minister and the institution of a greatly speeded greatly expanded defense program this would be a personal defeat for the prime minister who appointed mr hore balisha to his present im 1 post agriculture each winter a new crop of agricultural c ax grinders appears in congress not to aid this years crop but because the law requires it secretary henry A wallaces farm experts have just released salient information on 1938 production facts and figures with background from 1933 taking total farm production from 1923 to 1932 as per cents cent succeeding years have seen the aggregate slump to per cent during drouth and cotton pl plowing owing drop again to per cent in parched 1934 zoom to per cent in 1935 sink to in 1938 1936 skyrocket to in 1937 but in 1938 though tho ugh acreage was 35 per cent below the 10 year acreage lush mother nature came through with a crop of 1048 per cent sables samples for 1938 1933 1938 1937 10 yr av 37 Wheat corn cora 2 2306 oats thus though the total went down wheat went up meanwhile lean while prices on everything went down and fa foreign r nations became more se self if sufficient than ever three fifths of U S senators and congress congressmen men know their farmer constituents have an acute problem as does secretary wallace but while co congressional agres ax grinders may attempt to throw out AAA possibly substituting the domestic allotment plan which would peg home prices and dump surpluses at world prices secretary wallace hopes congress will give AAA another chance critics of AAA maintain that recent referenda on marketing quotas for cotton rice and tobacco gave mr wallaces program a rebuff but the secretary thinks otherwise while rice and tobacco growers turned thumbs down cotton producers accepted what he calls the most st extreme and controversial 2 x p 3 X SECRETARY WALLACE will AIA AAA get another chance phase of AAA like the farm bureaus edward oneil mr wallace thinks his program sound 1 I am confident that AAA principles will be continued and that they will be strengthened and improved to be of more benefit to farmers meanwhile not waiting for the much feared acreage reduction orders which will possibly be smaller than many anticipate U S winter wheat farmers are voluntarily cutting production in the hope of raising next years price first estimates on the new winter crop call for bushels the smallest 1 crop since 1935 china last last autumn chinas cainas generalissimo chiang kai shek picked up his coat tails and fled ded to the interior looking little more important than one of his un untrained trained unkempt soldiers with japan pressing him hard the smart benevolent dictator set up headquarters at western democracies watching japan close chinas cainas open door thought kai shek was as futile a hope as their once prosperous trade with the orient but during december both the U S and great britain made a surprising turnabout granting china huge loans to develop her western provinces at first it looked I 1 like democracies were merely applying a clever squeeze play against china but late developments prove that chiang kai shek not the U S or britain did the squeezing the well confirmed report that ays K tai chck ih ck C called lied both U S ambassador nelson T johnson and british ambassador sir archibald dark clark kerr tarr to his stronghold telling elling them bluntly that democracies could choose between 1 I 1 g giving IV him aid and protecting their interests in the orient or 2 watching him turn to russia or even germany for help against japan meanwhile U S british action has given china confidence and aroused japanese hostility while french labor leaders began calling tor for a boycott on japanese goods tokyo papers urged use of actual power against great britain and the U S one idea to return brit ains crown colony of hong kong to chinese sovereignty miscellany at detroit public bus drivers driver were ordered to take passengers ty to their own doorsteps new years eve eva between hours of midnight and 5 a m e at mexico city the government owned telegraph system announced a one hour daily period when complaints can be sent by mexicans to president cardenas tree froe ol of charge |