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Show WEEKLY . S ANALYSIS HY JOSEl'll W. LiIU.E Congress Fiees New Tax Issue After Hoostinr Farm Budget; Look Covetously at Treasury (I'.lJl'i'Olt'S N'O'J'K Uhi-n opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those of the ni-ws amtlst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) Hclt.jed by Western Newspaper Union POLITICS: F arley's Inning Most important political announcement an-nouncement of the year was Postmaster Post-master General Jim Farley's statement state-ment in Boston that his name would go before the Democratic national convention this year "and that's that." Overnight observers began testing Farley's strength, wondering if he could be President or second I mate. They forecast a positive convention con-vention breach between Farley and President Roosevelt; either third- : coa(;i;i;sS: Morcntlifttis Misery ('Iwl in ;in expensive new Easter suit, the 1IH0-JI farm iippr-opi-ianon hill was ient back to the hou.se. Only a f-w weeks earlier, dressed in threadbare tatters, the house had sent it to a bi'-heartr-d senate. At that time it stood at $714,000,000, well under Franklin Roosevelt's "bed rock" figure. Now It was $1:1,000,000, including $200,000,000 fur panty payments, and there was an additional $!J0, 000,000 for agricultural agricul-tural Joans. Hlown to kingdom come was the self -righteous economy program which featured congress' earlier weeks. The house was certain to okay most of the enlarged farm bill, nor was there much chance that defense and relief appropriations appropria-tions would be slashed substantially. T.ikp ninU- olf.nhnntc in t. nlrrhlmnra The Allies. Premier Paul Rey-naud, Rey-naud, appointed when Edouard Daladier's French cabinet resigned, got (AT to a humble start when the chamber of deputies gave him only a one vote majority in the first ballot. Later, when Reynaud stuck out his chin and announced his determination de-termination to fight the wars both at home and on the western front, the chamber increased its majority to 17. France's political crisis had apparently ap-parently passed, but Britain's was just beginning to brew. Nobody ! knew who would be ousted, but it was a virtual certainty that Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain would reorganize his cabinet to include a few Laborites. The Dictators. Turkey, only Balkan Bal-kan friend of the allies, was busy trying to patch up an agreement between London, Paris and Moscow, thus stavine off a threatened pxnan- ANY MINUTE NOW ! (Jensen in Chicago Daily News) I termites will be incensed if Farley I is nominated or Farley will take a walk if Franklin Roosevelt or his j sion of hostilities into the near east. But the dictators, apparently bent on making the Balkans benevolently neutral, were playing every card in their deck. Germany, with the most to gain, worked for a"reapproachement" between be-tween Italy and Russia. Meanwhile she also pressed new demands on Rumania, chiefly concerning speedier speed-ier oil and agricultural production. There was every reason to believe combined Russian-German pressure made Rumania the next "Finland," given her choice between capitulating capitulat-ing or being beaten to death. DEFENSE: War plane Tempest Ever since World War II began last fnll icnlntinnlcto hnxra personal candidate is chosen. In late March, just as New Dealers Deal-ers were beginning to fear Farley's tremendous following among Democratic Dem-ocratic state and local leaders, the postmaster general left on a business busi-ness trip into the politically important impor-tant border and southern states. It was obvious that political discussions discus-sions could not be avoided, therefore there-fore observers expected Candidate Farley to tell his followers they should begin lining up behind someone some-one like Secretary of State Cordell Hull. For himself, Farley was thought to be satisfied with the vice presidency. Watching these goings-on, many another Democratic hopeful became worried. Indiana's Sen. Frederick Van Nuys, a staunch supporter of Candidate Paul MeNutt sneupstprt ',,' J , , ' that sale of U. S. warplanes abroad is (1) blocking expansion of our own airforce; (2) exposing U. S. military mili-tary secrets to the highest bidder; (3) boosting aircraft prices because of the rush of foreign orders. By late March this tempest seemed headed for a showdown. Both house and senate military affairs af-fairs committees planned hearings frankly that Jim Farley should retire re-tire as Democratic national chairman. chair-man. Said he: "I do not think it is fair that Farley should capitalize on the prestige which that office entails.". AGRICULTURE: Cotton Woe Last winter the U. S. saw a rav TREASURER MORGENTHAU . . the time may come . . the ogre of too much spending appeared ap-peared simultaneously before congress con-gress and Secretary of the Treasury tr,.., ht ,i uii uic auujeci. jrresiaeni rtooseveit injected his two-bits worth by debunking de-bunking the military secrets charge. He advocated mass sale of U. S. planes abroad to build up production produc-tion channels. Next day an allied purchasing commission offered to place a billion-dollar plane order if secret mechanism were included. Shortly thereafter the war depart- .tiiijf muigeiuiiau. Anxious to spend, but not anxious to raise the debt limit or levy new taxes in an election year, many a legislator turned covetous eyes on the treasury's treas-ury's surpluses. One possibilitywas the $2,00C)000,-000 $2,00C)000,-000 currency stabilization fund. Hearing about this, Treasurer Mor-genthau Mor-genthau protested: "... the time may come when we will get down on our knees and give thanks that it's still there." Another possibility was to take the $300,000,000 farm bill increase of hope in its cotton problem. The 1939 crop of 11,500,000 bales was 2,000,000 bales short of domestic and export demand. Thus supplies in storage under loans were withdrawn to supply the market. Meanwhile Great .Britain took 1,526,000 bales in the seven months ending March 1, compared with only 320,000 bales in the same period a year earlier. Then came the blow. At Washington, Wash-ington, British trade officials announced an-nounced that United Kingdom purchases pur-chases of American cotton must be mn-toiln n : . out of the treasury's working balance. bal-ance. Treasurer Morgenthau shuddered shud-dered at this, pointing out that the working balance by next June will be only $500,000,000. Frankly worried, Treasurer Morgenthau Mor-genthau protested again when congressmen con-gressmen hinted that the 31.2 per cent gain in income tax collections might preclude new taxes. Next day, showing that he was disgusted with the nation's fiscal carelessness, he ordered that baby bonds could henceforth be sold only to private individuals. Reason: To hold sales iu aave iureign exenange. A second reason is that British cotton cot-ton ships have frequently come to the U. S. empty; by turning to South America for cotton the British hope to fill their ships with English-made goods which can be sold to pay for the cotton. Unhappy, agriculture department officials predicted the U. S. would again be asked to advance large loans on unmarketable surpluses. Also received was talk of a new export subsidy program next fall, COMMUNICATIONS:. - . y . 1 . Chaos Teletypes pounded out gibberish; Easter telegrams were delayed and radio stations found their transmission transmis-sion distance cut to 50 miles or less. European cables were completely "out" and long distance telephones barked with static. Such were the manifestations of Mother Earth's worst electrical bombardment since 1907, when the U. S. was isolated from Europe three hours. Studying the phenomenon, astronomers figured fig-ured a solar cyclone had created a gigantic sun spot, many times larger than the earth. Much stronger strong-er (about 500 volts) than normal transmission power (160 volts), the bombardment came into conflict at a minimum, thus keeping the debt from mounting too rapidly. While Treasurer Morgenthau sweated, the senate, which had wreaked all this havoc, began discussing dis-cussing the reciprocal trade treaty bill and headed for a close vote EUROPE: Haymakers Late March found neither European Euro-pean belligerent paying much attention atten-tion to actual warfare. The terrific North sea aerial attacks of a week earlier had settled into an allied blockade of Scandinavian shores, aimed at stopping shipments to Germany Ger-many in spite of Norwegian and Swedish neutrality protests. Britain and France were busy setting their houses in order. The dictators were busy making hay in the Balkans. JUGGERNAUT'S TAIL Europe and back, nonstop! ment brought down congressional wrath by permitting foreign sale of some 500 new 400 m. p. h. pursuit ships. Meanwhile, the army had answers to the two other charges: (1) It was maintained that sales abroad have helped development of newer and better planes for the U. S. (2) Assistant Secretary of War Louis Johnson denied that prices were hpin hnnctQ tt... a -,u. j.vduipie; ine Aluminum Company of America (which cut its ingot price from 20 cents to 19 cents a pound) notified him that mass production has resulted re-sulted in a saving of 5 per cent on aluminum. On one unspecified bomber the price would drop $300. To army air experts, more exciting excit-ing than this argument was their purchase of the world's largest airplane air-plane (see cut), a 70-ton jusrsernaut capable of carrying 28 tons of bombs non-stop to Europe and back Double the size of the famous "flying "fly-ing fortress." it will have a 210-foot wingspread and fly more than 200 m. p. h. The first will cost $1,000,000: subsequent ships, in mass with normal directions of the earth's own electric currents. Result; Temporary chaos. MISCELLANY: Immoral Bath At Los Angeles, pretty, 17-year-old Joan Aveline Lawrence complained com-plained because she thought mass bathing in her high school gymnasium gymna-sium shower room was "immoral " Next day the school's attorney announced an-nounced a private shower room would be arranged. CInto effect on eastern railroads went new low 2 cents-a-mile oneway one-way coach rates with round-trip reductions. re-ductions. Meanwhile mainr h,,- vwuui-uuu, wiu cost about $350 000 each. JAPAN: Eyes Abroad For the nonce Japan's problems m China were settled. Gen. Chiang Kai-shek still had 2.000.000 men in the field but Nippon had made considerable con-siderable progress. PuDDet Wan" Cning-wei planned to establish his Tokyo-aormnated government at Nar.Ki.ig about the first of Aoril b'.g.-.eartcdly granting "autonorrv" to vast and rich north China which thus came closer within Jaoan's own orbit. lines cut their rates to keep pace some as much as 30 per cent ft At Disney, Okla.. gates on the federal Grand River dam clanged shut and water began rising in a 52.000-acre reservoir which Gov Leon C. Phillips charged would cause $SS9,000 damage to state-owned state-owned property. But a federal court ruled against his protest ft At St. Louis, Circuit Court Jude Thomas Rowe took under advisement advise-ment a contempt citation against the Post-Dhpatch and three staff members whose editorials and cartoons car-toons criticized the dismissal in Judge Row's court of defendants in an extortion case. |