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Show SEEN and HEARD around the NATIONAL CAPITALS I By Carter Field f&XsO FAMOUS WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT jBjf0 money spent money which otherwise other-wise would stayin Europe. It means a lot of food sold in the most profitable profit-able way. But that's just the commercial aspect as-pect of his "Joke Job" that Gerard has undertaken. It's a bromide In the West that the New Yorkers think anything west of the Hudson river is unimportant, unim-portant, save perhaps on election nights. "Out there" is Just the provinces, prov-inces, from which one returns, when one has to go there at all, as speedily speed-ily as possible. But if that "west of the Hudson river" is changed to "west of the Mississippi" a lot of folks in this country might be included! An Eye-Opener The late Charles F. Murphy, famed boss of Tammany Hall when that venerable institution amounted to a lot more than it does now, had plenty to say to friends when he returned from the Democratic national na-tional convention at San Francisco. He told friends he thought every American ought to make a trip to the Pacific coast, just to see what this country was really like. When it comes to Europeans seeking seek-ing to understand America, and usually usu-ally writing a book about it after a few weeks' stay, the question becomes be-comes even more important. It sounds as if Gerard' job is just to sell the cultured Europeans, whom he got to know during his diplomatic service, the western scenery of America. Actually of course that Is all ha is appointed to do, because that is what the national park service serv-ice is Interested in doing. But a visitor cannot see the Grand canyon, and Yellowstone, and Glacier Gla-cier and Yosemite without seeing a pretty good cross-section of the United Unit-ed States doing it And he or she would get a very different slant on this country from that which is normally nor-mally acquired by the average distinguished dis-tinguished visitor on a lecture tour, rushing from lecture to reception to autographing stand In the big store's book section. It may actually prove very important im-portant in future international relations! rela-tions! About Sugar Sugar always has been political dynamite, is now, and probably always al-ways will be. Concern about the in- Washington. What amounts to a bad case of jitters over possible war and its effects on America, aggravating aggra-vating a business situation which is none too satisfactory, is obvious in administration circles, particularly in the Federal Reserve board. This Is the second reason for the recent action desterilizing $300,000,-000 $300,000,-000 of the frozen gold. The effect t , desired to remedy both troubles was to Insure continuance of low interest rates. Primarily, putting this huge amount of gold back in use, so to speak, was aimed at preventing the slide in government bond prices. Government bonds have been selling sell-ing at a price absurdly high from an Investor's standpoint even with due allowance for their tax advantages. advan-tages. Moreover, the banks have entirely too large a proportion of their assets tied up in government securities. But just the same the government did not want to see a decline in bond prices. That would spell higher interest rates on future government financing. But that secondary rion to make money cheaper for investment purposes in order to encourage expansions ex-pansions by existing business concerns con-cerns and the development of new business, was also quite important Most experts in international affairs af-fairs do not believe there will be a world war this year. They think the nations most likely to provoke such a war are not ready. But there is constantly in mind the danger that the situation may get out of hand. Memory is still green about what happened to American business at first, when the war broke out In Europe in 1914. After a while business busi-ness boomed, the war babies in steel and munitions grew and bloomed. The price of sugar and cotton soared. But all this was much later. The first reaction was such a crash on the stock market that it was necessary neces-sary to shut it down and keep It closed for months. The price of cotton cot-ton dropped until President Wilson - himself was encouraging the "Buy a Bale of Cotton" movement. Take Precautions Nobody knows just what would happen this time, should the crisis develop this year Instead of 1938 or 1939. The year 1939, by the way, is preferred by most experts as the most likely time for the next world terests of the housewives and consumers con-sumers generally has been the bunk, in the opinion of this writer and most observers, ever since sugar became an issue under the original protective protec-tive tariff, with Just one exception. 'That exception was under the Underwood-Simmons tariff bill, passed immediately after Woodrow Wilson entered the White House, and which did not prove very satisfactory. It deprived the government of a revenue rev-enue of around $60,000,000 a year, which, in those days, was important money from the Treasury standpoint stand-point For a time also it played hob with the Louisiana cane interests. inter-ests. Then along came the war and sugar prices began to soar regardless regard-less of any governmental policy. From the progressive viewpoint, the worst tariff of all was that passed under President Hoover, in which the duty on sugar was fixed at two cents. It happens, however, that Americans were paying, during that period, just two cents above the world price. In short the duty determined precisely the differential. differen-tial. But under the quota system, which any economist or free trader will admit is much worse than the tariff system In practical workings. Americans were paying, around the first of this month, 2.38 cents a pound above the world price! So the consumer is getting it In the neck even worse than under the Hawley-Smoot Hawley-Smoot tariff. war. So the reserve system is just taking precautions, providing in advance ad-vance the certainty of plenty of " 'cheap money to cushion possible temporary drops in prices, not only of securities, but commodities. This cushion, most experts figure, would be necessary for only a short time. Ways and means would be found by the belligerents to get needed supplies from America despite de-spite any and all obstacles, the neutrality neu-trality law and the reluctance of this country to buy foreign bonds or extend war credits to the contrary notwithstanding. , Very confidentially, of course, officials offi-cials admit that the neutrality law would not prevent United States manufacturers from selling airplanes, air-planes, or tanks, or cotton, or copper cop-per to neutral countries from which they could quite simply be shipped to belligerents. But this would take time that is, to get the new roads to the market in working condition. But the sort cf trade that made Holland rich during the last war would certainly develop in tome way or other. All of which, however, does not reassure the people who seem to want to get rid of their securities so as to be ready to jump into something some-thing new under changed conditions, or perhaps Just with an idea of playing safe. This attitude adds on to the desire of so many to hedge f against inflation. Gets a Laugh ' There are lots of chuckles in Washington, and especially in the State department at James W. Gerard's Ger-ard's new job. The idea of the wartime war-time ambassador to Germany and Democratic war-chest fund provider figuring in a tourist agency strikes the average diplomat and the average aver-age political bigwig as sort of a comedown. But the job is far-from a Joke. Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes does not think it is a jcke. Neither do the railroads leading to the West nor the hotel men from the Rockies to the Pacific. They think "Jimmy" has what it takes to bring them some new business, and very high-class new business at that suites instead of singles with baths In the hotels, drawing-rooms and compartments instead of tourist sleepers on the railroads. For Gerard's job is to make desirable de-sirable to his old friends in Germany Ger-many and throughout Europe and to their friends and through the resulting re-sulting publicity to many more the attractions of Yellowstone, Yosemite, Yosemi-te, Glacier and Grand Canyon National Na-tional parks, to mention Just a few of the highlights. And of course any foreign tourist making this "big circle" cir-cle" would also visit San Francisco, and Seattle, and Portland, yes, and even Hollywood. AD of which means a lot more Hits Consumer Assuming this, it becomes interesting inter-esting to discover just what they are doing to American consumers of sugar in the way of profiteering. According to computations following the formula approved by the United States District court for southern New York, the profits of the refiners during 1936 averaged seven cents on every hundred pounds of sugar. For the year 1935 the refiners' profit averaged six cents on every hundred hun-dred pounds. And in 1934 the profits averaged five cents on every hundred hun-dred pounds. The year 1933 was thrown out of line by some bad calculating' cal-culating' on the part of the refiners as to advance buying under the quota system. Briefly, they were "caught short" They had sold sugar sug-ar at a price in advance and then had to pay more for the raw sugar than they had calculated. This profit seems rather unimportant, unimpor-tant, from the housewives' standpoint, stand-point, when one figures that the excise ex-cise tax on sugar (on both domestic and imported) is one-half a cent a pound, ten times the 1935 refiners' profit And sympathy with the consumer con-sumer is rather strained when it is considered that the administration wanted this tax to be three-quarters of a cent a pcund instead of half a cent! C Bell Syndicate. WNU Service. |