| Show NATIONAL NA AFFAIRS Reviewed R by CARTER FIELD II 1 the tIle promised rice drive in congress matures it might fright start a n business rf rc re- re viral Increased taxis ta sure to be lie considered b II by congress Mounting ex cx- and lI decreasing receipts continues a n leaf Why IChy wanta franco to win wu in iu Spain Sf i i is explained If It that promised economy ec nomy drive In congress which Sen Son Pat HarrIson chairman of t the senate finance committee re is pi pre dieting matures It very conceivably might start the business revival r th that President Roosevelt and Secretary v a of Commerce Harry Hopkins ha have been trying to start sta rt 4 The trouble about the oil olive branches that Roosevelt and Ho Hokins hop o kins have been bec n bra bran dishing is that a ap jJ they ha hanot have k not been per ce cent convincing to the I In av vesting vc public L Lus Let Letus 1 r. r us consider mere merc merethe merely ly the electric Industry and see sec how tl the thing works out The electric Indus Indu 10 k r try It ft so happens Is the one on which Sen Harrison II both bolh the President Preside and Hopkins are arc counting mo moot moat t It was to get the wheels turning In this Hi particular line that the surprise se set were made by TVA TV A wit with first Chattanooga and then Men Mem The object was to start pr vote vale utility spending which spending which piled u up of ot needed Investment that Chairman W W. O. O Douglas of S E E. C C. has been harping on I In conversations with the President and Hopkins But look what was going on even eve while the olive branches branche were being waved even while several million mUllo dollars dollar more was agreed upon tha than need neld have been paid the Ule Common Commonwealth wealth A k Southern and the Electric Bond A k Share if It the original Wilholte thal WIlhoite ideas had been beer carried out First every ounce of ot pressure possible was exerted to force toree the appropriation lion of ot money by congress not only to complete the dam already start start- started ed ell d but the Watts Bar dam as well welt Second the report of Chief Engl neer peer of ot the special congressional congressional committee which has been in in- TVA IV A was suppressed during these maneuvers to get got the full amount of TVA TV A appropriations desired Investigation Obviously Intended as IS a Whitewash ash No attention was paid to this last by the dally daily dall newspapers which long since lost Interest In nn on Investigation tion so obviously Intended to be nothing but n a whitewash But nut sure surely ly Iy no one directing this thought that the private utilities would not know about it especially It-especially when the active Republican members mem mern hers bers of the Uw committee knew that the report had been submitted that It was In the hands of Vic Donahey chairman of the committee and that thata n II copy of It was in the hands of Francis Diddle counsel In chief on the whitewashing job who had hud been rewarded by the White House with witha a federal judgeship The really perplexing part of all this is b that critics of ot TVA lVA knowing the opinion of ot Engineer Tom Pan Pan- ter given the committee publicly by Arthur E E. Morgan deposed chair chairman man of TVA TV A In protest against Pan Pun Punters ter's appointment do not think for tor forn tora a n moment that the Uie report will be anything but favorable to TVA They suspect that there may maybe maybe be some little point in the report however on which administration lion leaders figured TVA TV A critics might be able to make muke capital And when It is considered that the change of half haU a dozen votes in the house would have stopped the building of Watts lots Bar liar dam the point ant Int might t really rep real ly y have been very important por ant Two things if U they could be den dell promised with assurance that the promises would be kept would beyond the slightest doubt cause a construction spree by the electric industry which might easily pro pre produce duce the wave of prosperity for which Roosevelt and Hopkins hope bope One would be that the government would construct no nomore more hydroelectric trio projects The Tho other would wo ld be that the government would make no more free grants and cheap in in- interest interest terest loans for construction of lo lo- local local cal electric systems In short a promise of no more subsidized government gov government competition Question of Tax Boosts Boost Certain to Be lie Considered I Despite all the promises about no tax Increases there is very vert likely tobe to tobe tobe be considerable serious discussion of tax boosts before the present session congress adjourns Anything else will run rum the government into a II situ situ- atlon which no administration likes to face during a presidential campaign cam cam- campaign year which of course is what next year will be First lets let's look at the attitude of congress The house one day when a lot of Democrats were not around voted to cut some out of the TVA TV A appropriation The sena senate restored the cuts The house cc corn con yielded to the senate enate ai end and the house then voted to to spend the money Close yes b but plenty Take Talle another sample the sliver silver policy polley Administration critics attai attack it as perhaps the most foolish thing the government Is doing from i fin an economic standpoint though standpoint though son some experts contend nothing compares compan with what the government has dor done about cotton cotlon The silver policy Is divided in two t parts paying a sub sub- sul silly sidy of It more than 20 cents an ounce on all silver sliver mined Inside the United Unite States Slates and buying silver from for for- foreign fo I eign countries Minority members a few days at ago ago forced a vote on an amendment 1 to the bill bl In the house which would woul have eliminated the buying of silver silvi from but would have Ic left the domestic subsidy But Dut even th this failed The Tho vote vole was to IS against the proposed f r post tl economy C nomy While hUe Mounted MOl Receipts n cd It Materially lit I I ria 11 y Dropped ro I p Now lets let's take a n look nt at the treas ury situation In view of this evident I prospect that congress is not going to reduce expenditures The latest figures available as this is written ore are for tor the fiscal year which began bega July 1 I last up to the end of the da daon day dayon I Ion on February 27 Expenses for this this I year year referring referring to this period nn and lind not the full year of course were course I as compared with 4 8 for the corresponding corres pc per pc clod of ot last year Receipts how how- however however I ever were 2 4 for this I year yc nr and 38 for tor last year I ISo So that thaI while expenditures mounted I Iby by more than receipts receipt fell tell oft by about So Sn that for practically lily two thirds of the fiscal year we now are pass poss passing passIng Ing through the treasury Is about abou worse oT MY than for tor th the comparable period of cf the last fiscal yearl As this is reflected In debt am and foreshadows what Is going to happen happer to this government along that line it might be of interest to say that figures for the same day day the the close of ot business on February 27 of ot this year show year show that the public debt 01 of Uncle Sam was wall This had risen from on February 27 1038 Shows I Why hy Britain Wanted a Franco ramo to Win Rin in Spain I The answer to why the British foreign office has consistently want want- wanted ed Franco to win in Spain despite the fact tact that obviously such a n vic vic- victory victory vic vic- victory tory would Increase not only the power power lower but the prestige of Italy and Germany is very clear once stated whether one agrees with the login dictating It or not Indeed the fact that hat It is the tho Rome Berlin axis that keeps British statesmen awake at night night-a light a fact tact which on the surface would i seem to create a desire In downing street for a n crushing de de- feat eat of ot Franco Is Franco Is an nn Integral Inte part ot of if the reason for wanting Franco to win The rho logic behind this Is also the logic ogle which has hns caused President Roosevelt and anel Secretary ry of State Stale Sta te Cordell lull Hull to be leaf deaf to the pleas plena of at if the liberals In this country And believe It or fir lr not hatred of commit comma here and fear fent of ot the hear benr that walks like a n man in England land has hils precisely nothing to lo do with it Simply stated this rn mystifying log log- logIc Ic c revolves ves around a the thc route roule from England to In India and the th East via the he Mediterranean sea It If you will take a good look at any Imy fair scaled map nap of the the- Mediterranean you OU will willee wills see s ee why Look at nt the narrow pas sage age between the tip of ot Sicily and the he projecting point of Tunis In North Jorth Africa Every cry ship going from rom England to India East Africa or T the Far East must traverse that narrow strait or at- else Ise the still smaller small small- er r passage between Sicily and the mainland ot or Italy Before the days of the thc World war this ils did not seem Important The Italians might speak of the Mediterranean as l M Nostrum but the British controlled both entrances Gibraltar and the Suez canal But with Ith the World war came the real real- atlon Iza of the Ule military Importance of I the submarine and the airplane airplane- and rid of floating mine fields Prior Priori to i that time the British navy could assure control of the surface of the thea thet sen a therefore of free passage for r her merchant notions t vessels and those of any other nation to which she might ight choose to grant g ant passage So Great Gnat Britain Had Hada To a ne Be Friendly With Italy So the British made up their minds that come what may they the would simply have to be friendly with Ith Italy Little as they might like the e new attitude In that country countr the e conquest of Ethiopia obvious as as- rations in Africa which threatened d British interests in that continent they ey figured they would have to put up j with it lt If U you will consider the Ule strategic location cation of the little Italian island of Pantelleria Just beyond the narrow nar- nar narrow row iw passage between Sicily and Tunis Tu Tu- nis s and figure in terms of submarines rines nes airplanes and mines you will begin gln to wonder if it maybe the Brit Brit- Brith British Ish h are not right after all aU Reconciled to this the British have ive turned their energies In the Ule thelast last st few tew years to cultivating Fran Fran- Franca co ca i. i They rhey ha hav hat t s convinced them them- themselves selves Ives and the Washington admin admin- that they have ha done a good od Job at this that with the com com- coming ing g of ot peace Spain would find that England not Italy is the Ue market for r its exports O m C sell Bell Syndicate NU Service |
