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Show WALL STREET VIEWS By Jama McMuRin, Financial Obtwvif NEW TORK On of tht noil significant move In th current Industrial picture la the hortn-Inf hortn-Inf of th work week from 40 to 11 hour by a number of automobile au-tomobile factor!. Bulck and Chevrolet announced th reduction whn thy mad It Others- bav alnc followed ault without publicity. But vn th flrat two gav no reaaon for thla atp unprecedented In a period of active production and all th motor maker ar reluctant to diacuao th matter for public-ton. public-ton. Th apparent mystery U height-ned height-ned by th fact that production achadult ar being maintained at high lvla not curtailed com-mensurately com-mensurately with th work week. That' th key to th lnld x-planatlon. x-planatlon. Th manufacturer have shortened hour undr back-atag back-atag pruur from th United Automobll Workr th object being to spread employment while production la going strong. Aa a result, more men are on the factory payrolls, although the Individual weekly earnings of many employes have been reduced. re-duced. The union is silent about its share in the development because be-cause it doesn't want a kickback kick-back from worker whose pay envelopes are thinner. The managements, man-agements, (or their part, are saying say-ing nothing because they would of It on opposite sides af th fence. The Mlasouri aenator has been In the Whits House black book since he led In the aenat fight against suprem court reform and the reorganisation bill. He haa nothing to gain by trying to kiss and make up with the preaident at this lata date. Watch him probe for flaw In every armament arma-ment Item suggested by th administration. ad-ministration. Without attacking preparedneas as such he's com- mltted to it in principle aa a leader lead-er of veterans' organisations- he will be out to deflate the "saber rattlers" Hs privately believes he can make first rata political capital of this for his own benefitIn bene-fitIn the west and south. Louis Johnsun is reported to regard himself aa the administration's administra-tion's chief banner bearer in the battle for hig arms appropria- 1 tions. As a war department official of-ficial who haa presumably studied national defense questions In detail, de-tail, hs will be In a position to strut hi stuff. He hopes to climb on a platform of practical patriotism. As an aftermath of the Lima conference, keen New York analysts ana-lysts classify ths backstsgs alignments align-ments of the western hemisphere nations aa follows: "Loyal cooperators with the United States: Brasll. Cuba, Just as soon not have it generally known that they have mad new concessions to ths union. Th cut in ths work week Increases In-creases manufacturing costs. Why did the auto companies shoulder these without a struggle? Primarily Pri-marily because they see a period of real proaparity ahead in the next few months and would rather mak this sacrifice than have It messed up by endless labor strife, aa It was in 1937. Second, if tha higher costs cut too much into profits, they can always be paased along to tha consumer iu tha form of higher prices. Tha union had both a humanitarian humani-tarian and aelfish objective in pressing for a shorter week. Tha former waa to get Jobs for aa many workera aa possible while the industry is operating near a peak. A seasonal let-down and lay-offs-will come soon enough. But it ia also true that the more men on the payroll, th more dues-paying union members and tha U. A. W. can usa all of those it can get. Informed New Yorkers predict that the president's rearmament program will give two dark horse aspirants for the 1940 Democratic presidential nomination Senator Bennett Clark (Mo.) and Assistant As-sistant Secretary of War Louis Johnson a sweet opening to hit the headlines. What'a more, they are expected to make the most Venezuela. Peru, Haiti. Our relatione re-latione with the first three tall dictator states, incidentally) are exceptionally good at present. Peru relies upon us as a bulwark against possible Chilean aggression. aggres-sion. Argentina ia vigorously Independent, Inde-pendent, with strong Italian and British ties (not German). Uruguay Uru-guay and Paraguay are her satellites. satel-lites. Mexico, with a predominantly leftist regime, u pi res to become a dominant leader in Latin-American affaire. She haa successfully tied the six small Central American Amer-ican states into her orbit, although al-though Nicaragua and Salvador pay lip fealty to the U. 8. because they want American credit. Chll, likewise leftist, ia Independent, Inde-pendent, but leans toward teamwork team-work with Mexico. She ia certainly cer-tainly not pro-U. S. Ecuador ia Inclined to follow Chile'e lead. These two represent a potential north and south threat that Is a constant worry to Peru. Colombia is on tha fence. One political party is friendly to the United States, the other ardently hostile. Bolivia and Santo Domingo Do-mingo blow with the atrongest wind and don't count for much anyhow. There are your 21 nations. Realists Real-ists comment that there isn't much "solidarity" in this line-up. Copyright. 1939, for Th Telegram |