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Show I NEWS BEHIND THE NEWS I Vyrtten for The Telegram By Ray Tucker tools military needs will force technological changes far mora revolutionary and far-reaching than those which have already contributed to present day unemployment. un-employment. Thsy will also aggravate ag-gravate and accelerate the movement move-ment which places a premium on youth rather than age in industry. Society may eventually readjust Itself to a more productive and streamlined industrial organisation. organisa-tion. Aa the auto and radio provided pro-vided new and different Jobs, so a made-over America may bring higher wages, lower prices, shorter short-er hours, greater emphasis on recreation, education and production produc-tion of consumption goods. But the experts who are always peeking peek-ing around far off corners foresee fore-see a period of painful transition. Washington's diplomatic and economic lookouts are sharply divided di-vided over the meaning present -ni .... U i 1 ' - Jl.-I - - WASHINGTON Almost every " foreign embassy at Washington has been conducting canvass of isolationist sentiment on Capitol Hill. European powers are anxious anxi-ous to ascertain the congressional attitude should war eventuate In the spring, as Messrs. Bullitt and Kennedy fear. The foreign findings are distinctly dis-tinctly disappointing to the so-called so-called democracies England and Franca and pleasing to the dictators. dic-tators. Both branches sre overwhelmingly over-whelmingly isolationist. It Is estimated es-timated that tha minimum aenata vote for keeping aloof from turbulent tur-bulent world affairs I , while at least 190 "on the house side would line up 'against even the faintest American participation In any move toward collective security se-curity for our 191T allies and ourselves. our-selves. They want Uncle Sam to go It alona. The three teats of this spirit of aloofness will revolve around any effort to lift the Spanish embargo or to modify tha neutrality act to give the president more discretionary discretion-ary power, and possibly fortification fortifica-tion of Guam. The latter proposition propo-sition may carry there is sharp resentment over Tokyo's defiant reaction but the other two moves will surely fail in a showdown. - i The ' ranks of the -budget ! ancers at the capital are thinning. Tha only economy they anticipate from the seventy-sixth congress is the "token" variety few gestures ges-tures toward saving money. The legislators will probably lop off eevsrai hundred millions from presidential budget requests W P A, flood control, power development, de-velopment, ate. Even this retrenchment re-trenchment won't count for much In view of the nine billion of proposed pro-posed expenditures for the 1940 fiscal year. Then again, there are other unmentloned outlaya which pack such a general appeal that no congress will dare to deny them. They explain why F. D. ft haa abandoned all hope for equalising Income and outgo in favor of the Eocle spending security expansion suggested sug-gested by Mr. Roosevelt will undoubtedly un-doubtedly cost an additional $500,-000.000 $500,-000.000 in the 190 fiscal year if his amendments are accepted and they will be. P W A will probably prob-ably get a new grant of $4M,-000,000 $4M,-000,000 (maybe more), and extra ' bounties for the farmers will amount to at least t3O0.0O0.O00. On top of those sums, the White House will ask at least $30,000,000 to finance the first year's start on a national health program. When these blocs unite to roll their logs, the dam or treasury is sure to break. The nation's Ufa insurance companies com-panies are quietly dressing up their investment accounts so as to make a civic showing when they are grilled by the O'Mahoney anttmonopoly committee early next month. Together with the banks, they have been frequently I assailed for being tlghtwaddish with their funds. For the six weeks ending January Jan-uary 7, 1939, leading companies invested almost (600.000,000 in all kinds of securities and mortgages, as against only IZ7S.000.000 for tha same period a year ago. Likewise Like-wise they placed almost three times as much money In government govern-ment securities as they did in a similar period In 1937 and 193. Incidentally, these totals do not include th large amount of insurance in-surance funds which were invested invest-ed In maturing issues. It's a good guess that they have been even more generous in handling "other people's money" than these figures fig-ures reveal. Their willingness 4o purchase both public and private securities slso testifies to returning confidence confi-dence among investors who must be cautious in their transactions. The inside information is that, more aggressively than in several years, tha Insurance people are seeking new uses and outlets for idl funds. New deal economic plannera are privately fearful over the long-time economic consequencea that may follow from the grandiose gran-diose reaarmament program, now getting under way throughout the nation. They figure that, like the industrial expansion and speeding up from 191 to 1919, it may provoke new and insoluble problems The revelation that sirplsnes can now be manufactured from "plastic" materials gave them a shock. Besides throwing men out of employment, the new method will narrow the market for products prod-ucts now utilised In construction. In shnost every ether field utilities, utili-ties, railroads, munitions, machine ment of Hjalmar Schacht by Walter Wal-ter Funk a head of the reichs-bank. reichs-bank. One group figures It as an act of desperation like substituting sub-stituting Father Coughlin for Morgenthau as secretary of the treasury. Another school reads into it a more aggressive commercial commer-cial and diplomatic policy In preparation prep-aration for a spring offensive. Technically, der fuehrer's economic eco-nomic position suffered In 1938, despite his Austrian and Ciecho-81ovakian Ciecho-81ovakian triumphs perhaps because be-cause of those costly ventures. Germany's note issue increased by 31 per cent while production levels rose only per cent. That seems to spell Inflation. It underscores un-derscores his command that Funk keep wages and prices in a atabls position relative to tha mark. His adverse trade balance may, unless un-less remedied, handicap the barter bar-ter system on which he depends for raw materials. The public debt has leaped from 24 to 80 billion marks since he appeared on the scene. The "hunch" players here insist that these figures spell an eventual event-ual crack-up as well as popular suffering that will undermine th dictator; they admit they may be Indulging in "wishful thinking." Ths read-'em-and-weep school insists in-sists that as long as Hitler can maintain his people's morale, he can continue indefinitely as ths world's plague and puszla. Copyright, 1939, for The Telegram. |
