OCR Text |
Show AMERICAN FORK CITIZEN WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS BY JOSEPH W. LaBlNE Lengthy Congress in Prospect Despite FDR Peace Overtures; New Tax Measure Faces Fight (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) Released by Western Newspaper CONGRESS: Keynote 'Dear Alben" Barkley settled down for six months In Washington. "We'll be here until June." he told reporters, "but I doubt 11 there will be much new leelslatlon. There probably will be efforts to. amend the Wagner act and the wage-hour law. The reciprocal trade treaty program probably will cause the greatest controversy." He told no lie there, and Preal dent Roosevelt knew it Striking fast, before the opposition bad chance to open its mouth, the Presi dent keynoted the second session of the seventy-sixth congress in a state- of-the-unlon speech which attacked the "destructive mine-field of trade restrictions." Plumping for renew- KENTUCKY'S BABKLET Tt'fl 6 Aero unU June." al of his "most-favored-nation" pro gram in which the administration not congress has the power to sign trade pacts, he offered this defense: ". . . it is advisable to provide, at times of emergency, some flexibility to make the general law adjustable to quickly changing conditions." Only one other concession did he want tit 1940, because it it an election elec-tion year: "I am asking the congress con-gress for army and nary increases which are based not on panic but on common tense." Conservation of resources, protec tion of national health, extension of soc'cl security and the merit sys-tel.- were also mentioned, but in a moderate voice. Only out-and-out political dart was a crack at G. O. P. Hopeful Tom Dewey, who recently accused the New Deal of "defeatism." Said the President: "To warble easy platitudes that if we will only go back to the ways that have tailed, everything will be all right is not courage." Nexc day congress got the budget. Items and total: National defense Work relief programs .... Agricultural programs ... Public works and Investments Invest-ments Pensions, retirements and assistance Interest on the public debt. Regular operating .$1,800,000,000 , 1.300.000,000 . 900.000.000 , 1.100.000.000 , 1,200.000,000 , 1.100,000.000 , 1.000.000.000 Total S8.4O0.00O.00O This, said the President, was an estimated cut of $675,000,000 from the current fiscal year, while treasury treas-ury receipts are expected to rise 1382.000.000. EsUmated Jiet deficit for 1940-41: $2,176,000,000, compared with $3,933,000,000 this year. But to further cut the deficit, Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt recommended that hk $460,000,-000 $460,000,-000 boost In defense costs be paid through new taxes. Commented loyal Sen. Pat Harrison from Mississippi: Mis-sissippi: "It's not easy to raise $460,000,000 right off. I'm not strong on this tax business." Rolling up its sleeves, congress found the Democrats enjoyed a C Ilarry Bridges, West coast C. I. O. leader freed on deportation charges, announced he would seek naturalization naturali-zation "at the earliest possible moment." mo-ment." C. Charles Edison, inventor's son. n. uned secretary of the navy, began studying means of speeding up the .naval construction program. C. Louis (Lepke) Buchalter, sentenced sen-tenced to. 14 years in prison for violating vio-lating "the federal -narcotic 'taw; heard that New York's District Attorney At-torney Thomas Dewey hoped to "put him away for 500 years' on racket charges, ,..L Jme H. R. C,lQrn well econwn it; t and husband of Doris Duke, "richest girl in the world." was named U. S. tnlfiis'ttTttt' Canada. ' ,C John W. Finch, director of the bureau bu-reau of mines, was requested to resign re-sign by Interior Secretary Harold Ickes "because the bureau needs a director who has enough iron in his blood ft Neville Chamberlain, president of Britain's Midland Salmon and Trout club, ,,,MKrt:. hl7.cr.oiies.'- l ylear that there is little prospect of my finding time for fishing under present pres-ent conditions." - .- v'vv v't.- I ; t . a v- ... .'. ' , f . . ' " ' (V ' S . - " y ' , : Lm three-to-one majority in the senate, and a three-to-two lead in the house. Major issues, aside from the reciprocal recipro-cal trade act and national defense: 1. Whether to raise the national debt limit, now nearing its $45,000,-000.000 $45,000,-000.000 legal peak. 2. What to do about new tax proposal, pro-posal, such as Secretary of Agriculture Agricul-ture Wallace's "certificate plan" (in effect, a processing tax) to pay farm benefits. J. Whether to amend the Wagner labor relations act, under fire from all sides. 4. Whether to continue Martin Dies' un-Americanlsm committee. COMMUNICATIONS: Wire Merger Western Union maintains 20,000 branch offices employing 43,000 people; peo-ple; Postal Telegraph, its competitor, competi-tor, has 4,400 offices and 14,000 employees. em-ployees. Thanks to air mail, telephone tele-phone and radio, Western and Postal are both having financial troubles. This month, as a result, came a paradox: While Trust Buster Thur-man Thur-man Arnold was busy breaking up monopolies, the much-concerned federal fed-eral communications commission recommended to congress that Western and Postal be allowed to consolidate. INTERNATIONAL: Something in the Wind 'It was big news in early January that hardy Finnish troops had cut 16,000 Russians off from their base at Salla; bad trapped another division divi-sion near Suomussalml; had captured cap-tured a Russian base at Aittajoki; had repulsed countless shock troops on the Karelian isthmus; had even blasted a Red air base in Estonia. But the biggest news came from a little Madrid' newspaper called Alcazar. Said its editorial: "Finland "Fin-land is defending with its flesh and bravery the treasure of occidental civilization. Fighting so bravely for independence she fights also for all Christianity, and it is inexplicable that after a long month of war she hasn't received tangible aid . . ." Looking about them, European ob servers wondered if the Atcaxar plea wasn't being answered. They saw a series of potentially related moves PAUL EMILE NAGG1AR Lonriome in Mote me. that might eventually lead to peace among the allies and Germany, and to a European attack driving the Russian bear to his den. Indications Isolation. Home from Moscow to London went Ambassador Sir William Wil-liam Seeds to write a white paper on Russo-British relations. Gossip had it that his conversations with Premier Viacheslav Molotoff had been stormy, and that he probably wouldn't return. Also homeward bound was Augusto Rosso, Italian ambassador. Left in Moscow, un comfortable and lonesome, was French Ambassador Paul Emile Naggiar. Shakeup. The. newspaper. Parisien reported from Italy that Germany was planning a drastic political po-litical reorganization to woo the allies. al-lies. It would include Adolf Hitler's becoming president, succeeded to the chancellorship by moderate Her man Goering; purging of radicals like Heinrich Himmler, Joe Goeb- bels and Dr. Robert Ley; management manage-ment of foreign affairs by a moderate mod-erate like Dr. Hans von Macken-sen, Macken-sen, ambassador to Italy; slacken ing of relations with Russia and pro visional recreation of Poland and Czechoslovakia. Aid. : In an embarrassing spot. Germany announced she would wink at allied shipments of munitions to Finland, but could not tolerate troop movements.- Thus it was obvious the Reich would like to see her "al ly," (Russia) driveh back, yet could wit risk exposure to allied troops from the North sea. ' Western War Following custom, there was more horseplay' fhari Warfare. , The western, west-ern, front was tprnb, but al Buctwis. Aires German sailors fronf the scuttled scut-tled Graf Sie Joined their enemies from British battleships in a night of rrvclry British preparations included in-cluded a plan to call 2,000,000 more men to the colors this year, and a .report that 20 freifihters had been 'scuttled- at the mouth-of Scapa Flow. Purpose: TO prevent Nazi U-boats from ntering the harbor and sink ing more ships like Royal Oak. Immnimuii i mil rmmmmmm aw r 4 XV, " mi Know your netctf On hundred U perfect tcore, and deduct 20 for each question you miss. Score of 60 or more u acceptable. 1. This English peer's dangh-ter, dangh-ter, an ardent Hitlerite whe has been In Germany since before the war started, returned to England on a stretcher with a revolver ballet la her neck. What's her name? X. Why did Irish Premier Eamon Do Valera ask parliament for dictatorial powers? 8. True or False: Martin Dies has asked congress to discontinue his nn-Americanism probe because be-cause of 111 health and became the Justice department is now prosecuting alien "isms." 4. What do the following have In common: Robert Fechner, bead of the CCC; Gny Ballard, head of the "Great I Am" cult; several thousand residents of the Turkish earthquake area; the 163rd Russian division on the Finnish front. 5. If the U. 8. began taking its decennial census January 2, why hasn't an enumerator knocked on your door yet? Hews Quh Answct 1. Unity Valkyrie Freeman-Mltford. X. He feared an uprising of the outlawed out-lawed Irish republican army. 3. False. He asked congress for more funds. 4. They died. Most of the Russian division was killed. 5. The business census started January Jan-uary 1. The regular "nose-count" doesn't start until April 1. COURTS: Tell It to Congress Well-timed if its intention was to heighten congressional demands for revision of the Wagner act, a decision deci-sion by the Supreme court upheld the much-criticized National Labor Relations board on three counts: (1) For refusing to place an allegedly al-legedly company-dominated union on ballots used in a bargaining agency election at the Fa lk corporation, corpora-tion, Milwaukee. (2) For designating a C. I. O. union as collective bargaining agency for waterfront workers along the Pacific Pacif-ic coast (3) For ordering employees of the Jackson, Mich., power company to vote on the question of affiliation with C. I. O., after a ballot on C L O. versus A. F. of L. had brought no majority vote. These decisions offered no particular partic-ular commendation of NLRB. however. how-ever. Commented Justice Harlan Stone: ". . . this failure (of con, gress) to provide for a court review (of NLRB decisions) is productive of peculiar hardships . . . But these are arguments to be addressed to congress and not to the courts." TREASURY: Easy Taxes Tenderly breaking the news that income tax time is Just around the corner, Guy T. Helvering, commissioner commis-sioner of internal revenue, soothed taxpayers with the announcement that this year's report forms have been simplified. Instructions, once as complex as the report form Itself, It-self, have been pared down and shaved of technical phrasing. POLITICS: Appointments Fast on the heels of President Roosevelt's Judicial and Justice appointments ap-pointments came a baker's dozen of explanations. Among them: Attorney At-torney General Frank Murphy was named to the Supreme court (a popular pop-ular appointment) to get him out of the 1940 presidential picture;" Solicitor Solici-tor General Robert H. Jackson was reclaimed from obscurity and made attorney general as grooming for a place on the 1940 ticket, probably as vice presidential candidate under Cordcll Hull; Judge Francis Biddle of the circuit appeals court (a life time Job) was boosted to the solieK ' tor generalship to make a place for unpopular Warren Madden, NLRB chairman. Thus were several birds killed ''with one stone. .-.. Other political news: ft Democratic Chairman James A. Farley announced. the national com- mittee 'would meet in Washington February 5 to select a time and city (probably Chicago) for the 1940 convention. Thus he made the G. O. P, victor in the winter's biggest stalling game, permitting Repub licans to hold their convention and name their candidate later. ft Secretary of State Cordell Hull dis- wwd presidential ambitions and denied knowledge of reports that President Roosevelt had picked him as No. 1 choice for 1940 candidate. lllf I' ' v I Bruckarft Washington Digest 'Pressure Groups' Already Are Worrying Members of Congress New Deal Agencies, Seekers After Justice and Promoters Promot-ers of Various Movements Active as Usual; Old Age Pensions, Unemployment Insurance Not Neglected; By WILLIAM BRUCKART WNU Service, National Press Bid;., Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON. About the time congress reconvenes each year, the national capital Is deluged with what have come to be known as "pressure groups." It is a poor description. de-scription. I believe most of them can be called "selfish groups" for the reason that the self-righteous individuals in-dividuals who lead (or promote) movements or causes or demands for Justice usually have Jobs of their own at stake They want to keep their followers happy, especially the saps who eeav trlbito kard-exaed dhsMo or del lars so that their repreaentattYO or their delegatus assy trisS good frost ta ta city of Washington. Any way, It is the open season for them, again. They are busier than a hive of bees. They are engaged in the annual invasion upon senators and representatives and among the numerous New Deal agencies, seeking seek-ing Justice, urging help for those whose liberties are being trampled into the mud, appealing for this and that and the other. There are the usual spokesmen for corporations and groups of corporations. cor-porations. They, too, are seekers after Justice. They are no more selfish than the lesser racketeers. Those fellows, however, have a different dif-ferent kind of stake in the results. The seekers after Individual Justice, 'PRESSURE GROUPS' BUST Harass members of congress with various causes. May be tuning up for the coming com-ing campaign. Many movements will not get very far. Union labor and the American Legion active. Bruckart doesn't believe it is possible so many new injustices could have arisen. Few are able to analyze the situation. those who urge maintenance of "civil liberties," etc.. usually are concerned with keeping themselves In their Jobs, while the seekers after Justice for the corporations and business busi-ness interests are trying to preserve their own material fortunes. May Be Just Tuning Up For the Election Campaigns There is, however, something disturbing dis-turbing about this year's invasion. It seems to be utterly impossible that so many new injustices could have arisen within the last year. There always has been a considerable considera-ble amount of this low form of high pressure around Washington, but the increased number of seekers after justice this year would seem to prove that the whole country has gone to pieces. It may be. of course, that they are tuning up for the election elec-tion campaigns. Seriously, however, few persons have been able to analyze the situation. situ-ation. Some suggest that the current cur-rent trek of seekers after justice results from the fact that the national na-tional government has become the focal point for "relief from everything every-thing since the depression fell upon us in 1930. Others feel that a sense of futility about life, itself, has crept into this country from the lands where dictator hold a human life to be nothing more than a chattel. If either of these answers la correct, cor-rect, we have a dangerous condition on our hands. It is the defeatist attitude. It represents s decaying civilisation civilisa-tion and national leaders had better wake , ap to .what It means. Now, lest someone charge me with having changed my tune from several years ago, I want to recall that I once feebly attempted at-tempted to pin a senator's ears back for seeking legislation legisla-tion to make everyone every-one register who visited a senator or a representative in behalf of legislation. He wanted to brand each one as a lobbyist. lob-byist. That senator was Hugo Black. j: Bags Black whe now writes binding legal opinions opin-ions as a member of the Supreme court of the United States instead of blabbing for hours on the floor of the senate. I maintain that everyone ev-eryone has the right of petition 4 any government agency. What I' am trying, to do horo, however, is to show that there are so many more "petitioners" now than heretofore aftd to fkid thereason tor it. v ' Many Seeker After Justice in Washington Of course, most of these movements move-ments will not get very far. They will not get as far, in fact, as when I used to crawl under the comcrib for eggs out on the farm. But there are enough dissatisfied and discour-: aged folks throughout the country to pay the freight and the hotel bills-tor bills-tor an extraordinarily large num- her of seekers after Justice in Wash lngton. It Is astonishing to see the lengths to which some of them will go. Tor example, there Is one great church organization that sought to force the census bureau to Include in the forthcoming census certain questions ques-tions that would have given that church a powerful leverage in the future administration of government affairs, according to well-authentl cated reports. The church representative repre-sentative tried for weeks to high pressure the census officials into inclusion in-clusion of three tuestions. He made soma threats about the conse- ejuences of their refusal. The government gov-ernment attorney to whom the cen sus officials submitted the question had the guts to say "no" and that was the census bureau answer, It was a despicable thing, however, how-ever, and Illustrates the dangers In herent In the conditions I have tried to describe. The old ago pension movement and the unemployment compensa tion movement and the other "wel fare" movements are represented in full force. Other Croupe Are Working For Gifts From Government There are half , a dozen other groups around town, working for one thing or another in the shape of gifts from the government Nearly all of them have found something wrong witn the present social se curity law, but they do not agree on what Is wrong with it The wnoie circumstance rather con vinces me that maybe the law ought to be tossed overboard. I doubt that the federal government can ever administer such law. There probably is little possibility that any such law ever can be made workable worka-ble on a national basis. Some of the dreamy New Dealers who con ceived it have faded out of Wash ington officialdom already and have left their baby for somebody else to nurse to maturity. The one service they performed was to the New Deal finances, because the original program has brought six or seven hundred million dollars into the fed eral treasury and it has been spent Organized labor has its represent atives on the scene in a big way Both the Congress of Industrial Organizations, Organ-izations, which is headed by John L. Lewis, and the American Federation Federa-tion of Labor, which is headed by William Wil-liam Green, have national headquar ters here. What a poor politician go ing to do, however, when Lewis and Green are fighting John L. Lewis each other and seldom, if ever, agree upon what changes must be made in the national labor relations act The labor row may get more than Just an ordinary airing daring the session of congress sow under way. I have written heretofore about the special house committee investigation investi-gation of the National Labor Relatione Rela-tione board. Exposures by that com; mittee already have brought demands de-mands for the ousting of Commissioner Commis-sioner Smith and Chairman Madden. Mad-den. Commissioner Leiserson, appointed ap-pointed only a few months ago, apparently ap-parently is seeking to clean up the stinking mess, but the Lewis faction fac-tion of labor which has dominated the board thus far is making Mr. Leiserson' s Job pretty difficult There will be little consideration for the Green faction if Lewis can prevent it American Legion Can Really Pitt on High Pressure There is an offshoot of organized labor's setup here known as Labor's Non-Partisan league. I don't know what it is supposed to accomplish, but it has a press agent and a staff of "executives" and they al seem to get paid regularly. The American Legion is getting active again. It wants more government gov-ernment money for the ex-soldiers, and make no mistake about it The American Legion can really put oh high pressure when It sets out to do the Job. I haven't scratched the surface to naming the pressure groups that are to be found hero for the Current session ses-sion ef congress. There are at least SO business organizations and trade 'a8s6tiitiMa."-,Th'''purpbs'es' of ' an are the same, namely, advantages tor them. The advantages may be In the form of cash such as the pension pen-sion petitioners and the Legion seek, or advantages that can be turned into eash after the methods of business. busi-ness. In any event they are all beaded down Washington-way. It seems to bode no good at all for the (oiks who are going to pay the bill, including a national debt that is now $43,000,000,000 or more. WHO'S NEWS THIS WEEK - I By LEMUEL F. PARTON NEW YORK. Word comes from London that Sir Seymour Hicks, who, last September, became offi cial bucker-up of British civilians. , sailors and Sir Seymour's ,oldl,rg, lB Laughter Bombs exploding Back Up British 1,urh m all over the kingdom, which eventually may blow down the Siegfried wall like the trumpets of Jericho. Sir Seymour, who had a similar Job in the World war, is England's favorite light comedy actor, a lead ing producer and actor-manager, a writer of consequence and a rallying point for both Tnaites and classes. as they both claim him as their own, He is 78 years old and last month celebrated his fifty-second year on the stage. He started life as a call boy In a London theater. His next Job waa as an undertaker's mate, a hired mourner, sometimes some-times filling in as an emergency pall-bearer and the like. Be wore black well and did nicely In his new career, until his memories of the theater obtruded obtrud-ed at an unfortunate moment He was walking solemnly behind be-hind a hearse, when a distant band strnck np a tone, which carried him back-stage again. He swung open the door of the hearse and called out, "The overture begins now, sir." That shunted him right back to the theater, which, by all accounts, he never should have left He has written and produced 64 plays and is the author of eight books of reminiscence, remi-niscence, comment and criticism. He was knighted in 1939, and May- fair made a tremendous fuss over him, with similar cheers from the populace. In the World war he organized or-ganized concerts and shows for the soldiers and kept up a drum-fire of spirited humor which rated him as the leading empire morale-builder. DINING with Henry F. Grady many years ago, this writer noted that he had that old-time free-trade free-trade religion. He has never back- r ci z. slid. He is CradySttcksto secretary Old-Time Free Hull's Jeph- Trade Religion tthah- ird;d to smite the Ammonites hip and thigh as they assail the secretary's trade agree ments program. Mr. Grady, 57-year-old Celtic and incurably optimistic specialist spe-cialist in foreign trade, Is assistant assist-ant secretary of state and baa taken over the Job of expounding expound-ing and putting forward the agreements. The law authorising authoris-ing the plan will expire June 12, and the continuation of this trade policy will be an early and exciting kick-off la congress. Mr. Grady, a San Franciscan, ed ucated at St Mary's university, Baltimore, Bal-timore, is a man of encyclopedic learning in trade matters, a lecturer lec-turer at many universities, the author au-thor of many books and treatises and a member of many learned so cieties. He boils down a mountain of data and statistics to his vehement vehe-ment insistence that do matter how we may tinker with tariffs and quotas, quo-tas, the only helpful reality is the flux of good through the international internation-al bloodstream. TPHE Russian Baltic drive, aide-tracked aide-tracked by the Finns, was. ac cording to the meager evidence obtainable, ob-tainable, the pet idea of Andrei Finns Hammered tiy Z Wedge Between f erred to In Stalin, Zhdanoft 109 la,t years as Sta lin's possible successor. Later news is that Stalin has other ideas about M. Zhdanoffs future, as the latter takes the rap for the debacle in r inland. He was designated secretary of the Leningrad Communist party committee on December 16, 1934. That made him a virtual vir-tual dictator of the Leningrad district, the Pittsburgh of Russia. Rus-sia. M. Zhdanoff has been particularly par-ticularly bitter against Britain, and several correspondents have attributed to him the disruption ef last summer's negotiations of the allied powers with the Soviets. So-viets. He'ls 43 years old. a RavoVutiriniRt since 1912. when,be. left school to engage in agitation against the czar-1st czar-1st government Until 1917. he warn chle? J owwPlfiA lodging 4he, police n n4 UI..J .1 uu juuicu uio army as a germ-carrier germ-carrier for - the -Bolsheviks: In the early revolutionary years, he waa one of the leading organizers of party propaganda and was thrown into closo association with Jnpf Stalin. It was the beginning of a ocauwui friendship, which, quite possibly, the skiing Finns hav. dv- namited. He is of a middle class tamuy, one of the cleverest word-smiths word-smiths of Led Russia. IConwalidatM s'aaturca WNV Service.) Easy Afghan SinaJ JJoneinTwoSha l 0 51 sssr i'rttna Sc. f Pattern G505 An aiehan for . i . , wun ris if formins' a tu.n-i.-i .t '"Kuvue os Pattern 6505 contains dJrecl for making afghan; UJuMr.tJ " ouwnes; materials quired; color schemes: Di - vi oci-iwu oi aighaa. Tt obtain this pattern sec, cents m coin tk. o de Household Arts IW Al im CM.., new XOTK, N, Y Please write your name dress and pattern number pa THE AMERICAN SPIRm f T F EVERY citizen will x to Washington in iiii nJ tress and strain, anil imliviiln.!! ume the responsibility of teif-imp ment, ol lell-advancrmrnL al wlf ervation, I believe the Uirnin men mar be reached, url feu. instant we begin again ta be a lu J contented, a prosperous people with raised high to greet a aew day. Tl the American way, this u the A me creed, this it the American lair U. S. Kenresenbtfive Albert L Ai COriSTIPATEt Dta'tLet Gas, Rene Prj sore Keep Too Miseril Wbea aoaatipated tw thina mrf Wrf TI&ST: Aecunml&tea wuu wS upl oowus ana prea on nervea in u Of tract. Tail aerre prraaura oftea mum ia atohw, a dull, Jaty Ming, Ion of tm and diiaiBaa. BKCUNU: rVtlr M loa tcarta to decay lormioi OAft, kn a aour atonaeh, aod indigrstion, and M bura, blasting yon up unul ya unq gaap Ir braato. rnen you tu l aM. cm t aawn. Your atoniDcli is tour. Ym tired out. arouchv. and mermbk. & ANCRU Jidlerik containing thrae lust and Sva uminative girai ym IX) I ACTION, ltrchrvctt.n .wMOASii a oaea, and uaunlly clear tha aowca a than two hour, ho waiting lorovtmnWr SaU at all drag Kottt Granted Wishes If a man could have half wishes he would double bis bles. Franklin. Beware Coi frnn common COldl That Hans wVIIIM""" I J tacreaae secretion and sWnaWfl soothe and heal raw, tender, WW . ul.1 Miuwuil WiaCUall! No matter how many jmednsil have tried, teu your m tz::- . ta mat yuu at. n)iVr aTl&Tfl tBS r aiiays or you axe w u" Z7 sTDcnuilL S 10 iorCongh$,aestColdi,Bnfc No. No. Ne riM vkr.tr for DOthicf der no circumstances. WirN Salt UkVs NEWEST ho TDS ! m m Mm ft, i'l n, !rtve ;"4wS Ifta I TEMPLE SQUARE i clou cros , A. CI IsJ Won gates jrr;, ! I d sourer c. Bosarn" from ffl Mil 1 rifrui UuOTESfl II S : 4 sh |