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Show THE BULLETIN Weekly News Review Agriculture One feature of the 1938 farm bill calls for U. S. loans on crops affected by falling prices. When crops are sold, loans must be repaid. Due November 1 were repayments cm loans covering 48,000,000 bushels of corn. But by with corn iVoKepli selling on the farm from 33 to 38 cents, and at market for 44 ers gullet was NLRBs denial of disgusted farmers saw they cents, would White House the Republic contention that many be money ahead to default on loans to election close workers should not be reinstated be- and give Uncle Sam their com. Inconveniently day have come piecemeal reports cause they engaged in violence. An- Thus, overnight, the U. S. governand offhand predictions concerning swered NLRB: It must be remem- ment became the worlds largest the U. S. fiscal situation. When bered that the acts of which the re- com broker. President Roosevelt talks finance spondent (Republic) complains were This is but one phase of a Chinese before congress on January 3, he committed by strikers in the heat known as the American farm puzzle may ask almost anything. But right and turmoil of bitter industrial problem. Since 1933 it has been the now, as the President busies him- strife, in which the threat of vio- personal headache of Iowas Henry self with budget planning, he can lence on the part of the respondent A. Wallace, secretary of agriculbe guided by facts and forecasts: against the strikers was ever preswho can remember the halcyon Fact: Despite upswinging busi- ent and frequently carried into exe- ture, when all surplus wheat and' days ness, the U. S. treasury deficit for cution. cotton the two basic crops were the current fiscal year jumped above one billion dollars October 20, leap- Domestic ing forward several million dollars new wage-holaw affecting a day. Gold reserves, mounting theThelives of some 11,000,000 people since the European scare, hit engaged in interstate commerce inRevised, the 1939 fiscal dustries, has gone into effect with Btands at deficit prediction much less bluster and coercion than second largest in New Deal the NRA. Placing a floor next June when the 30, history. By (25 cents an hour) under wages, and a ceiling (44 a week) over hours, the act brings pay raises to 750,000 people, with shorter hours for 1,500,000 more. Responsible for the acts smooth inauguration has been Administrator Elmer F. Andrews, g whose policy has left many employers puzzled over their compliance requirements, but has nevertheless been a potent force in encouraging peace between government and business. Since NRA was outlawed because it attempted to regulate intrastate as well as interstate commerce, the administration hopes each state will formulate its own fair labor act, thereby making SECRETARY WALLACE . the national-stat- e program comPoor people ore olso o problem. regulation is plete. But wage-horeadily by foreign nations. due for headaches before its numer- bought But markets are now glutforeign ous bugs are removed. At Austin, American farm surpluses must ted. Texas, where several thousand either be dumped abroad at any pecan shelters were thrown buyers are willing to out of work, and in Puerto Rico, price orforeign to rot in U. S. gran- left be pay, where 120,000 more workers were aries. Most have favored the people SECRETARY MORGENTIIAU ousted, laborers wondered if low latter policy, meanwhile deploring Coolest of oil concerned , , , wages werent better than none. thd economic unbalance that allows fiscal year ends, the U. S. public many U. S. citizens to go hungry debt will hit $40,000,000,000, compared Politics despite bountiful crops. with $16,800,000,000 in June, 1931. In an organization the size of The easiest remedy would be to ' Forecost: Though WPA, corruption will creep in re- let low prices drive American farmwill help business, the 1940 budg- gardless of who holds the reins. ers off the land, but this is socially et will be unabalanced. Only by con- Spasmodically pecking away at New inhumane, politically unsound and tinued spending can the administra- Deal prestige for three years, cor- economically foolhardy. When the tion hold a mass vote for the 1940 ruption has again raised its ugly New Deal started in 1933, AAA was election, thereby forestalling the head at the crucial election time. formulated to pay farmers for limnormal swing to Republicanism. But In New Jersey, where Fascist-lik- e iting their acreage. Funds came it is far more painful to pay than Mayor Frank Hague at Jersey City from processing taxes levied against merely file away the bill, and next is the Democratic party's head man, manufacturers, but ultimately paid winter's congressmen will present indictments have been returned by consumers. When the Supreme at least five new methods of making against 16 corporations and 32 per- court ruled processing taxes invalid, sons. The charge: conspiracy to a soil conservation program was John Public pay: (1) A 10 per cent one shot in- defraud WPA of $250,000 in purchase set up to pay farmers for retiring come tax levy to gamer $263,000,000 of sand, and stone. their land, ostensibly to give it a But a much more distasteful case rest but actually to limit producneeded for increased armament; (2) a processing tax to pay for the has arisen in New Mexico, where tion. Thirty per cent of customs agriculture departments proposed a crusading grand jury returned in- receipts were set aside to pay for it. 73 persons domestic dumping program for dictments against Last spring, with surpluses still crop surpluses; (3) removal of tax charged with making political cap- piling up, congress passed a new exemption from future issues of fed- ital of WPA. Behind this wicked farm law, too late to limit production this year, which partially aceral, state and local bonds, also on picture stands Democratic Sen. official salaries; (4) extension of Dennis Chavez, who, like every oth- counted for its failure. Under it the social security to include farm la- er senator,' has wangled every pos- government may (1) control producborers, domestics, bank employees, sible cent of WPA cash for his home tion with consent of a majority of seamen, etc.; (5) state. New Mexico's indictments farmers; (2) make payments for relowering of income tax exemptions naturally do not touch Senator Cha- tiring land; (3) make additional vez, but they strike very close to "parity payments as a protection under $1,000. Coolest of all concerned with fiscal home. Among indictees are his sis- against less than production cost and his cousin. affairs has been the man in direct ter, his (4) loan money against of threat and in- prices; If compulsory control is enuse The charge: of the crops. charge. Secretary Treasury timidation against WPA employees, forced next year as provided-wh- eat Henry Morgenthau Jr. Unworried and cotton acreages must be by mounting gold reserves, he has reduced one half. Agricultural rechosen not to deny the hope that next years budget may be balbellion would result. Still seeking the answer, Secreanced. tary Wallace recently tried export War subsidies, which the state departments Undersecretary Francis B. With 42,000 troops, Japan covered Sayre condemns as the uneconom100 miles in nine days, capturing ic giving away of our substance to Canton without dropping a single Though U. S. foreign nations. bomb. Such peaceful aggression has subsidized the are farmers being hitherto been unheard of in the Chidifference between export prices nese war, giving rise to charges of and the domestic market price, a Cantonese sellout. British, many observers consider it ridicuwhose nearby crown colony of Honglous to sell surplus foodstuffs abroad is kong seriously damaged by the at a loss when several million new Japanese conquest, claim the Americans are going hungry. Conbeof Canton military governor next winters congress sequently trayed his trust for a handsome will be asked to adopt still another fee. Communistic Chinese choose at farm bill, the most instead to blame Generalissimo g tempt yet made to kill two birds k for withdrawing with one stone. The birds: farm tons crack troops into the Hankow and poor relief. The Walproblem battle sector. lace plan: surplus farm products But these squabbles have become would be distributed to U. S. secondary to Chinas completely deNEW groups instead of being MEXICOS CllAVEZ spairing picture. With both Canton abroad. home. close to struck dumped Lightning Hankow in their grab bag, Japs and Though the federal surplus comintend to push on until all Chinese enforced political contribution on modities corporation already disopposition crumbles. Generalissimo pain of discharge for noncompli- tributes potatoes, prunes, milk and Ghiang is ready to resign, and the ance, enforced membership in po- other minor products not affected by brave nations amazing defense is litical clubs disguised as social would about to crumble under internal organizations and diversion of WPA AAA, the new plancorn and include cotton. wheat, beef, pork, strife. funds for personal use. it would follow New York Broadly, at Great BriVirtually sneering Indictment in one form or anmethod of selling milk to retains charge of a Cantonese sell- other is almost a prerequisite for citys cents a quart, for families lief out," angry Chinese trace their fast- nomination in Pennsylvania, where the city paying eight difference. If the sinking morale directly to Great Republican Sen. James J. Davis to a national proposition, Britains own sellout" at Munich, (once indicted for running a Moose expanded the U. S. would pay retailers the when it became apparent the British lottery) and Democratic Gov. between standard price lion was unwilling to help her Euro- George H. Earle (indicted for al- difference cost price. and pean neighbors much less a distant leged graft in office) are opposing To pay for it, Secretary Wallace nation. each other for the senatorial seat. asks restoration of processing taxes, Although Pennsylvania tax payers which theoretically fall on manufacLabor have good reason to dislike their turers but ultimately strike the conSecond only to taxation in unpopu- Democratic state administration, sumer. Opponents argue that relarity among U. S. industrialists is observers are wondering whether tail prices would rise, that consumpthe national labor relations board, the opulent Republican machine has tion would drop and substitutes which last April 9 ordered Republic very much more political prestige. would be encouraged, thereby hurtSteel to reinstate 5,000 workers who Reason: The five angels of Penn- ing the farmer. But since the govstruck in May, 1937. To correct pos- sylvania Republicanism are Joseph ernment hopes to stabilize farm sible technical errors, NLRB quick- N. Pew, oil millionaire; Moses I. prices, its is that ly withdrew its first order and held Annenberg, Philadelphia newspaper producers would have steady inmore hearings which critics termed publisher who has purchased an im- come and increased purchasing powstar chamber proceedings. What mense interest in the party; Ernest er, thereby boosting U. S. prosperNLRB gained by its second T. Weir of steel fame; Jay Cooke, ity. These are the arguments next hearing is a mystery, since a rich Philadelphia political leader, winters congress will hear. new order substantially the same and Joseph N. Grundy, a reactionwas handed down recently. The ary of amazing tenacity. Without People result may be an important test of bothering to question the motives of Betrothed: Sally Clark, NLRB's power, for Republic Steel these men, shrewd politicians nevof Son John Roosevelt, who surhas already filed an appeal with the ertheless recognize that in 1938 a renders New York night club career U. S. circuit court of appeals. What quintet of millionaire sponsors is an to marry George X. McLanahan oq stuck in many an impartial observ- - unpopular asset for any party. December 3. At Least Five Tax Measures To Get Congressional Hearing W. La iiino Ily mid-Octobe- Platinum , Once Worthless , Now Joins Metallic Nobility Heat and acid resistant, capable of withstanding intense heat, this ore now competes with gold on jewelry counters and commands high prices on the world's metal markets. r, Geographic Society. Prepared by National Washington, D. C. WNU Service. quantity of heat and equipment such as platinum and its alloys afford the laboratory, the tremendous progress of chemistry in the last hundred years would not have been possible. Platinum utensils, able to withstand white heat necessary for analysis, have helped geologists determine the composition of rocks, and chemists to make many alloys. WITHOUT ur $3,984,-000,00- 0, ill-fat- For absolute el accuracy, per cent platinum and 10 per cent iridium their untamishable nature insuring constancy. Again, in apparatus, and in measuring extremely high temperatures, platinum serves the scientist. With it operations may reach a temperature up to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. A continuous circle here; but not one to cause economic pain! Fantastic now the thought of that South Seas merchant who cursed his luck on receiving payment in bars that he platinum debased could neither dispose of, nor find any means of refining. Incredible, too, that a metal prominent now in jewelry cases the world over should have been used in remote Siberia for hunting-bulletjust as gold bullets were used in old North Carolina. electric-- low-salari- ed ; . metal-hungr- s, . I g -- Two important new sources came suddenly to light, a wealth of platinum metals mixed with copper-nickores of Canada, and in large rock deposits of South Africa. Or, as one British platinum house naively put it, these opportune finds came with the good luck which so consistently favors this country. Individually, however, prospectors make few lucky hauls. Big platinum nuggets, such as excite gold hunters, are rare. The nugget discovered in Russia in 1843 is the largest the world has known; today it is worth about $12,800. But few others compare. A shining heap of all platinum yet recovered, it is estimated, would weigh little more than 580 tons, or less than half the weight of the gold produced in 1936. Canada, Russia, Colombia, and the Union of South Africa furnish the bulk of our platinum needs and for a time controlled the industry through an in' ternational company. Other countries, including Spain, Panama, Brazil, Australia, and Japan, as well as Alaska and some of our own states, also yield the metal. From many placers only a few are regrains of crude platinum covered from each ' cubic yard of y material treated. To supply a world, however, even such tiny amounts are worth the effort. Worth tqo, hardship in primitive country and struggle against hostile nature. furnace ur son-in-la- New Diggings the national bureau of standards in Washington, D. C., as well as similar institutions abroad, uses weights of 90 slow-movin- "pump-primin- the world's market, until the World war and the Russian revolution for a time halted activities. Accumulated stocks could not hold up. Once more platinum users worried, but needlessly. . Cents to Dollars Dredgers and Divers But platinum was not always in the luxury brackets. The crude metal sold for as little as 34 to 41 cents an ounce in the early 1800s, in contrast with that high, after the World war, of more than $150 an ounce. It was then apparently because of its scarcity and high price, that a fickle public reached for platinum jewelry. Wedding bands, cuff links, pencils, knives, cigarette cases, settings for jewels aU turned pale to meet the demand. Riding small steamers up the San Juan, passengers meet strange contrasts. First a dredge, insatiably scooping up mammoth mouthfuls of sand, gravel, and water, to pass through screens and over riffle boards. Then, just around the next bend, brown diving girls tie heavy stones to their bodies before sinking to river bottom in search of -bearing sands. Some dive without stones, working fast at depths from 6 to 12 feet. Emerging with all-ti- platinum- -- -- w far-reachi- Chi-an- Kai-she- low-inco- counter-argume- nt five-mon- th sister-in-la- w A few years ago, this writer had the job of getting up an amateur entertainment. Robert Sherwood was just an added starter, but he Bob Sherwood, ran away with XTEW YORK. dimensions and has a trick of undulating both his chest and his Adams apple at the same time, when he sings. To hear him sing, Comes When the undulating Bob - Bob - Bobbin', through a full octave, and flapping his long arms, is rare entertainment. He could have filled the theaters that way if he hadnt become a playwright. With all his gift for foolery, his is the weltschmen of a shy, sensitive, thoughtful man, and his are the peculiarly civilized qualities which enabled him to portray Abe Lincoln in Illinois with insight and fidelity which have brought the heartiest critical salvo of years and many cries of "the great American drama at last. Some of the reviewers see here a thrilling play within a play in the skilled and timely dramatization of Lincolns timeless utterance at just this moment of national wavering and Mr. Sherwood may be a man of destiny. He would dismiss all that with a slight thoracic undulation and perhaps a modest quip. He is the least pontifical of men, as he proved in the when he was a drum-majwar. Unable to make the grade in our army, he joined the Canadian Black Watch. They put him in kilts, gave him a shako and a huge baton and enjoyed him tremendously as he quickly mastered the necessary stunts. twirling and But they also used him in plenty of fighting, in several hot engagements. The trouble was that the trenches were only six feet deep and he was a constant lure to enemy sharpshooters. He was gassed and sent to the hospital for a long stretch about two feet beyond the end of the cot. He read a great deal, and decided to be an author. Demobilized, he connected with Vanity Fair as dramatic critic, did a two weeks' turn as a reporter in Boston, joined the staff of Life and later became its editor. He was born in New Rochelle, in 1896, and left Harvard to get into the war. This is his eleventh play, not Tom Ruggles Surcounting prise, which he wrote at the age of eight. His fame as a The playwright began with Road to Rome, which he wrote In 1927, "just to lift a couple of as he put it. In mortgages, 1922, he married Miss Mary Brandon, the actress. He has an apartment in Sutton place, New York, and a modest estate in Surrey, England, where he has been helping Alexander Korda produce films. lath-lik- e g. or stick-tossi- Af ANAGER Welding platinum to fashion a setting for star sapphires. It is hard to realise that this metal , which brought more than $150 an ounce shortly after the World war, sold for 31 cents an ounce in y Siberia. the early 1800's and was used for bullets in far-aica- Like silver and gold, platinum has its rushes and speculative booms and its depressions. Small finds, scattered over the globe, add their bit to problems of adjustment between scarcity and surplus. A few years back, when platinum fields were discovered in northern Alberta, Canada, nearly every available man in the region made for the diggin's. A de luxe rush, writers called this short but enthusiastic stampede, because parlor cars and comfortable river steamers made the trip easy for sourdough and greenhorn. In South Africa, on the burg stock exchange in 1925, platinum madness took its place beside diamond frenzies and gold fevers. Everybody was buying or wanted to buy shares in the unexpected platinum rock deposits. Lode deposits in the Bushveld wrote orte comComplex alone, mentator, probably contain in the aggregate more platinum than all the rest of the earth's crust. Yet later this industry came practically to a standstill because of the low prices then prevailing for platinum. Some years ago the course of native life in a deserted plain at Yub-dEthiopia, took a new turn when an Italian explorer and prospector discovered there platinum-bearin- g sands. Fringing the edge of shallow d ponds, whole villages of huts sprang up. Men and women stooped to wash the sands in crude wooden basins, a primitive method still used in many places. By 1840, a total of 21 platinum mines had been opened. Here was enough to supply per cent of had ever-changi- ng o, rough-thatche- 00-od- d riw. H. i. Gayer Stout. ng EDWARD JOHN-SON- S musical autarchy at the Metroplitan comes along slowly, and we arent yet quite musically self - sustaining. For the opening of its new season, the Met announced 14 new There is one American singers. contralto, 11 Germans, Austrians, Italians and Swedes and two new American male singers, John Carter and Leonard Warren. Over in our Rockland county, N. Y., we have been quite excited over a popular local farmer, as one of tbe parochial sheets had it, making the grade at the Metropolitan. He is the Mr. Carter, who has been growing beans and potatoes, singing at his work, near New City. Mr. Carter, born in New York city, studied engineering at New York university. The depression turned him to vaudeville and later to his joint cultivation of voice and garden truck. He and Mr. Warren were winners in the Metropolitan's audition of last March. Mr. Warren, also 26, was bom in the Bronx, son of a Russian-bor- n fur dealer. He felt constraint in turning his big voice loose in town, but let it run in the big north woods, with his father on trips. That was how he first knew he had a voice. He studied at Columbia university and night school. 0 Conolirt;ited New Feature!. as much gravel as they can carry, they give it to men waiting along the banks to wash in shallow basins. Along meandering rivers of the vast Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, quantities of platinum are annually extracted by modern electrically equipped dredges, to which peasants working by hand add a considerable amount. Five such monster robots were made in the United States and In shipped to Leningrad in 1925-2n pieces they went over the railroad to the foothills of the Urals and thence through the mountains on specially constructed rails. It was even necessary to build dams on two of the smaller rivers to get enough water to start several of the dredges. Since it happened that the November day in 1927 when the first of the o dredges went into operation at Shaitanski Zavod was also the tenth anniversary of the celebration of the revolution, the Soviets made an official occasion of it. To the strains of the local band, the district Soviet manager carefully cut the red banner tied about the bucket line and digging ladder. WNU Service. Representatives of the supreme council from Moscow gave official How the Expert Shoots blessing. Heads of various workThe best and most effective shooters' organizations spoke, and finaling form requires little movement ly in accord with the formal invitations issued 'for this triumphal of the hands and arms, once the gun start of electric dredge No. 11 all has been put on the shoulder and forgathered for a glass ' of tea at the comb is against the cheek. From that point on, the direction of the the school of industry. These dredges must have been muzzle is changed by moving the successful reasoned the San Fran- entire upper part of the shooters cisco company which sold them, body, the gun remaining in the same because we have heard so little of relative position with respect to the cheek and shoulder. them since. 6. Trans-siberia- Vis-im- fur-buyi- |