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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS BY JOSEPH W. LaUlNE Balkans Draw Russ Attention Following Conquest in Finland; Allies Retreat From Near East (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 iimnn Congress: What Both Houses Are Doing In house and innate, V. S. legislators limed themselves during mid-March with the following subjects: PAN AMERICA: Blues Song Ever since Europe went to war last autumn, U. S. business men have hoped to capture the profitable South American trade which heretofore here-tofore belonged mostly to Germany and Britain. Loans and credits were arranged, American solidarity was preached and good neighborli-ness neighborli-ness became the order of the day. More realistic, the U. S. department of commerce sent its experts to dig out the facts. Six months later the experts reached a conclusion: "Until . . . definite action is taken on the defaulted de-faulted obligations of South American Ameri-can countries, until . . . the U. S. investing public will have confidence in South American political conditions condi-tions . . . and until . . . the fear of expropriation and nationalistic legislation is overcome, a large increase in-crease in our exports to and imports im-ports from South America cannot be expected ..." Major difficulty was that South American imports from the U. S. far outweigh U. S. imports from the south, a situation which is robbing rob-bing the little countries of theis gold POLITICS. Debate and a threatened threat-ened filibuster delayed a senate vote on amendments to the Hatch "clean politics" act. Aim: To prohibit state employees, who are paid in whole or in part with U. S. funds, rom engaging in political activity. No. 1 opponent was Sen. Sherman Minton (D., Ind.). Passed was one amendment limiting political contributions con-tributions to $5,000. CENSUS. Okayed 9 to 7 by the senate commerce committee was a Neb.) complained about FBI'3 "disgraceful "dis-graceful and indefensible third term degree methods" In arresting De-troiters De-troiters charged with recruiting soldiers sol-diers for the Spanish loyalist army. DEFENSE. Passed by the house was a measure authorizing $054,-000,000 $054,-000,000 in the next two years for 21 warships, 22 auxiliary vessels and 1,011 fighting planes. Meanwhile, the senate weighed n resolution to probe U. S. plane sales abroad. AGRKTLTLRE. Certain to pass resolution 10 strike personal Income questions from the 1940 census. Secretary Secre-tary of Commerce Harry Hopkins ruled that income questions ques-tions may be answered an-swered in sealed, unsigned letters. CIVIL LIBERTIES. LIBER-TIES. J. Edgar Hoover's G-men &3 and silver. AGRICULTURE: Weather and Crops In Texas, farmers were planting cotton. Up in the Dakotas they were limbering up for spring seeding. seed-ing. At Washington, the U. S. weather bureau decided the time was ripe for report and forecast. Points: ft Because soil moisture stands at low ebh, spring wheat producing states wl' yield under-normal supplies sup-plies this (r unless heavy rains or snows hl within the next few ! , weeks. ft Drouth a'to plagues the winter wheat belt from Nebraska south into Texas nnrf from Colorado past the senate and very likely to pass the house were boosts which brought the farm appropriation to more than one billion dollars. Major Ma-jor boosts: $212,000,000 for parity payments. But there were growing fears that next year's congress will be left to worry about where th money is coming from. Meanwhile, its economy program shattered, I congress heard Franklin Roosevelt suggest once more that new taxes may be needed. LABOR. Of 17 amendments to the Wagner act suggested by a special house committee, at least one seemed destined to pass: Enlargement Enlarge-ment of the labor board from three to five members. were accused in the GEO.NORRIS senate com m ere e di fuLm -committee of using wire-tapping and voice recorders to snoop into people's affairs. Meanwhile Mean-while Sen. George Norris (Ind., into the Ohio vaMey. Although some sections had heavy midwinter precipitation, pre-cipitation, poor moisture conditions during the autumn germination months will cut even deeper into already small plantings. C. Below-normal precipitation was also recorded along the Atlantic seaboard, sea-board, but it was too early to base crop forecasts on it. ft Out west, where northern California Califor-nia was just draining off flood waters, wa-ters, the bureau reported unusually heavy precipitation during the winter. CHINA: Thin Ice Primary topic of Far Eastern interest in-terest right now is the Russo-Finnish Russo-Finnish peace (See EUROPE), which may turn the Soviet behemoth's be-hemoth's attention eastward once more. None could tell whether the Reds would reopen their dormant war against Japan in Outer Mongolia, Mon-golia, meanwhile aiding Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, or whether they would work alone. Either development seemed possible, pos-sible, an uncertainty which made inconsequential the manifesto issued is-sued at Shanghai by Japanese Puppet Pup-pet Wang Ching-wei. Said he: A new pro-Japanese government will be established in China almost immediately. im-mediately. Although he regretted that "now is not the time" to reveal his plans for readjusted Sino-Jap relations, , Puppet Wang appealed for a renunciation of Oeneral fjVl THIS AREA jy Jf s. r ? tNW WGHIIO BUILD RAl ( ST " vSHs KOAD ACROSS FIN. S 30 YEAR LEASE ON HANGO sSIWlMiK Cut; ) Fiwl'-'fCy LENINGRAD WHAT RUSSIA GETS "Finland stood alone . . Scandinavia, where Russo-German pressure had helped bring peace, the allies had lost considerable prestige. In the Balkans and Near East, where combined Russo-German pressure has been kept to a minimum mini-mum because of the Finnish war, there sprang up overnight signs that the dictator nations had reached a working agreement. Italy, long fearful of Russian aggression in the EUROPE: Peace in the North 'Finland stood alone against a huge opponent. Wt could not win the war alone. The inevitable end would have been the destruction of our country." Thus spoke Foreign Minister Vaino Tanner as a peace delegation winged its way homeward from Moscow. The war was over and Finland would "soon regain her vitality." Field Marshal Baron Karl Gustav Mannerheim figured Finland had lost 15,000 men to Russia's Rus-sia's 200,000, which was proof enough that the vanquished army was far superior, man for man. But the war had left Finland a shambles, its best men dead, some of its best land lost to the invader (see map.) Ahead lay a tough job, but the kind to which generations of Finns have become inured. Gradually the true story leaked out. First peace overtures had pwsiiBgpwwHwwf come from i-j?t" J"V Finland two M weeks ear- 'Mi : ' ' W 1Ut' vla V Sweden. i - ! : Major factor ! I: Scandinavi- ' 1 . f andefen- -4 i sive alliance ;- AiV which Fin- ' 'Sclf ' ' land agreed 1 H n I to sign with VAINO TANNER S weden and Tough job ahead. N 0 r4UW 8 y once the war Chiang. At Tokyo, Premier Mitsumasa Yonai issued an abstract and high-sounding high-sounding statement promising Japanese Jap-anese support of the Wang government. govern-ment. But abstractions from Tokyo and Shanghai only emphasized Japan's helplessness. Since Premier Yonai was vague, and since Puppet Wang could tell China nothing about his new government's plans, it was a safe guess that the entire peace structure was skating on thin ice. POLITICS: Third Term in England Most Britishers are keenly interested inter-ested in a third term for Franklin Roosevelt, for they feel his foreign policy works in their favor. In mid-March mid-March readers of the London Daily Mail smacked their lips over a story by the well-informed diplomatic correspondent, Wilson Broadbtnt. Said he: "It is now established beyond any doubt that the report of (Undersecretary (Undersec-retary of State Sumner Welles) on his tour of European capitals will directly affect Mr. Roosevelt's decision deci-sion regarding a third term . . . Balkans, was reported negotiating a trade pact with Moscow under Nazi auspices. Meanwhile, Germany Ger-many also worked on a Soviet-Rumanian Soviet-Rumanian non-aggression pact. These things left Turkey out on a limb; soon she will be forced to surrender sur-render her friendship with the allies al-lies and play ball with the Moscow-Rome-Berlin triangle. For Germany, the biggest immediate imme-diate gain was a chance to beat the British blockade. With Russia at peace, the Nazis could now expect oil, munitions and foodstuffs from Joe Stalin. Reaction in the East No sooner had Russia ended one war than she started another one. At least advices reaching Shanghai reported a resumption of hostilities on the Outer Mongolian frontier, where a truce ended the fighting last September. Since then border demarcation conversations have bogged down. Though Tokyo angrily an-grily denied new fighting, she also lodged a strong protest with Moscow Mos-cow against Russian airplane flights over Jap territory in the southern half of Sakhalin island. was over. And as the Finns busied themselves moving refugees from ceded areas, their foreign ministry made haste to weld that alliance. "Peace . . , will not again be broken," promised Vaino Tanner. Tan-ner. (From Paris, Chicago Daily News Edgar Ansel Mowrer reported he knew why Finland never appealed directly for allied aid. Reason: The German minister at Helsinki informed Finland that issuance of such an appeal would bring German troops to assist the Russians.) Rus-sians.) Reaction in the West That Russia's victory in Finland was a defeat for France and Britain, Brit-ain, no observer could deny. In NAMES in the news . . . GOV. LEON C. PHILLirS of Oklahoma Ok-lahoma called national guardsmen to block completion of the $20,000,-000 $20,000,-000 Grand River PWA dam. Reason: Should no peace loophole be revealed re-vealed . . . and the war develops into a fierce European struggle, then President Roosevelt certainly will run for a third term." Where Mr. Broadbent got his "beyond "be-yond doubt" information, Americans Ameri-cans in London could not discover. What mystified them still more but suddenly seemed more logical was the very antithesis of this conclusion, conclu-sion, namely, that President Roosevelt Roose-velt would be a cinch for re-election if he succeeded in bringing peace to Europe. Other political news: C. In New Hampshire, 1940's first primary election placed a full slate of Democratic convention delegates J at the disposal of Franklin Roose- I velt. Republicans, who drew the ' biggest vote, elected an unpledged delegation as requested by Sen. H. Styles Bridges, New Hampshire's presidential hopefuL C. At Kokomo, Ind., Eleanor Roosevelt Roose-velt said she didn't know anything about a third term: "After being the wife of a public official for years, you learn to accept what life gives vou." He claimed the U. S. owed Oklahoma Okla-homa $850,000 for land, roads and bridges to be Inundated by the reservoir. res-ervoir. Result: He got a temporary injunction. JUAN TRirrE, president of Pan-American Pan-American airways, told a Chicago audience that PAA plans daily "local" "lo-cal" flights from San Francisco to Hawaii, cruising 2,400 miles in nine hours. SEN. GERALD P. NYE (R.. N. D.) was divorced by his wife at Fargo, N. D. Grounds: Cruelty. LESTER P. BARLOW, explosives engineer, told a secret senate military mili-tary affairs committee session about his new explosive so "devastating" that it "utterly destroys everything within miles." Minutes of the session ses-sion were burned to prevent the formula from reaching alien hands. DEATH VALLEY SCOTTY asked the U. S. treasury if he would be penalized for digging up the ten $10,000 gold certificates he buried In the mountains back in 1909. (U. S. went off the gold standard in 1934). If not, he promised to try and find them. MISCELLANY: Nihlets in the Netcs C At Washington, the National Broadcasting company applied for permits to build television transmitting transmit-ting stations at Chicago, Philadelphia Philadel-phia and Washington. C. At Hollywood, Walt Disney Productions, Pro-ductions, progenitor of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, became a big business enterprise by filing intention in-tention to raise $4,000,000 new capital. capi-tal. C At McAllen, Texas, a passenger train jammed a truck carrying 50 citrus workers, killing 25. C At Beirut, searching parties started start-ed after 500 pilgrims returning from Mecca, holy city of Islam, who were reported lost on the desert. C At Washington, a survey by the department of labor showed that in 1935-36 two-thirds of the nation's families were living on $69 a month, or $328 a year. C At New York, the national industrial indus-trial conference board discovered U. S. living, costs rose one-half of 1 per cent in February over January. |