Show Merry Merry-Go Round Merry Round By Drew Pearson and Robert S. S Allen WASHINGTON WASHINGTON-It It is an unpublished but tragic fact that various regional offices of the securities and exchange commission today are preparing for an avalanche of bankruptcy cases expected as a result of the defense program Thousands of little business men whom the new deal vowed to help will have to close their doors because of the dearth of raw materials and the S SEC E C established to aid id in the registration of new business is now charged with the job of officiating at the funeral Companies manufacturing enamel now considered con con- s dered a luxury cash registers now not so essential essential essential es es- bicycles and scores of other commodities ire bore having increasing difficulty getting steel copper brass and other essential metals Meanwhile in Washington Floyd Odium who once fought the S E C in a terrific struggle has signed a truce and is in charge of a new office to save Jave little business Odium was one of the biggest biggest biggest big big- gest operators on Wall Street amassed millions But this is the toughest operation he has ever tackled So far he has been stymied by military red tape tapo and the fact that army ordnance men either cant can't or wont won't get out of the habit of ordering from irom the same big companies Odium has received excellent cooperation from Undersecretary of War Patterson and the army men at the top Its It's the e men below who give him trouble Patterson has set aside 00 of army orders out of the last congressional congressional congressional appropriation for Odium to allocate to little companies But getting the majors and colonels down below to make malte these allocations and also to find the little companies equipped a and d ready to fill the orders quickly is something else elso again Small Business to Get Priorities t However here is the provisional plan Odium has evolved First he finds that out of the total manufacturing plants in the United States or 72 per cent employ only 20 men or less These small plants use only 5 or 6 per cent of the nations nation's raw material Therefore he figures figures figures fig fig- ures these small companies should be given priorities and allowed to get their metal It Jt wont won't disrupt the defense defense program to do this and it would disrupt thousands of little firms todo to todo do the opposite Next Odium figures that the army has on on its list firms which it has worked with in past years and had given them educational orders even before the emergency He thinks the army should be able to keep these firms busy though he has his fingers crossed on this point Actually the red tape artists in the war department depart depart- department ment have not given orders even to At any rate rale Odium calculates that excluding the little firms which hire only 20 men there will be about companies to be cared for These are the firms to which he will try to shoot some some of the set aside by Undersecretary Undersecretary re ary Patterson Whether or not not- he can do it depends very much on the red tape boys who love the easy routine routine routine rou rou- tine of letting contracts to their old friends in inthe inthe the big companies even more than they love an afternoon of golf Great Senate Debate The senate debate over the revision of the neutrality act lasted two weeks From the sizzling statements that daily poured out over the press wires particularly from isolationist orators the country doubtless gained the impression impression im im- pre sion that a terrific battle was in progress Outwardly the senate showed no sign of it Most of the time during this two weeks the chamber was largely empty and as peaceful as a library An attendance of eight or ten was a abIg abig abig big crowd On one occasion Senator Alexander Wiley Wisconsin isolationist talked practically to himself Only three other senators were prese present lt and two of them were not listening to Wiley Even when Wheeler No 1 congressional isolationist iso iso- isolationist delivered his six-hour six speech there was never llever more than 30 present on the floor and most of them were his partisans Capital Chaff The German embassy in Washington has been writing reports which pile up in a closet because they cannot be sent to Berlin This is because the nazi nazis diplomatic mail pouch no longer can come corne via Russian-held Russian Vladivostok Nor can it come via the Atlantic where Britannia rules the waves Therefore the embassy must communicate communicate cate with Berlin by cable at tremendous expense And mail just remains In Washington Leon Henderson Is living up to his demand for the drastic curtailment of automobile production by buying a 1936 car The Canadian government would like to strengthen its press representation in Washington since many Canadian officials feel their problems particularly conscription are not properly understood here But Canadian Minister McCarthy is opposed to the plan and once threatened to pack his bags if press representatives representatives sent to Washington were not directly under tinder his control |