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Show NEWS BEHIND THE NEWS Written for The Telegram By Ray Tucker WASHINGTON -- Wendell Willku-'s silence and Floyd Carlisle's Car-lisle's effusiveness after their respective re-spective conferences with President Presi-dent Roosevelt furnish an inside tip on the chances for permanent perma-nent peace between the administration adminis-tration and the utilities. It's fur from being around the corner. Mr. Carlisle promised to stop fighting and build $100,000,000 worth of new plants in two years aftr eonl ya short talk with F. D. R. Several topnotch hydroelrc-tricians hydroelrc-tricians wondered more or less audibly what kind of U?i the White House served to the Niagara Niag-ara A Hudson magnate They noted that he could afford to headline an armistice because the government's threat to his empire - the St. Lawrence project -is still in the dreamy, blueprint stage. Mr. Roosevelt must cajole both Canada and congress before developing enough juice to light a single bulb. But T. V. R. Is a going concern and active competitor of Mr. Will-kie'a Will-kie'a Commonwealth A Southern. It shadow prevents refinancing C. 8. securities at lower interest inter-est rates. It also happens to be Mr. Roosevelt's particular power baby, and for him to kill it outright out-right wilt be political homicide. Unlike Mr. Carlisle, Mr. Willkie has discerned and felt the thorns of the White House olive branch. Mr. Roosevelt's several cancellations cancel-lations of cabinet meetings has been due to the headaches his official of-ficial family give him as well as to his toothache. For the first time the cabinet no longer functions func-tions as an "echo" to F. D. R. They squabble and wrangle and dispute with each other and with the "boss." On recent occasion oc-casion Mr. Roosevelt has ordered the disputants to meet somewhere some-where distant from the White House and settle their arguments. He has shown surprising irritability irrita-bility at their tendency to cross and question him, especially on the issue of extending real reassurance re-assurance to business and industry. indus-try. Numerically a conservative-minded conservative-minded group dominate the circle cir-cle 5 to 3, with Messrs. Swanson and Cummings rarely participating participat-ing in the bickering. Messrs. Hull. Morgenthau, Farley, Woodring and Roper see alike on most Issues, while Secretaries Ickes. Wallace and Perkins still compose the more radical clique. The questions ques-tions on which they split most frequently are federal economy and a friendlier handshake with large scale employers. Not so long ago the president instructed Messrs. Ickes. Wallace ' and Woodring to compose their disagreements over the proposed j multi-pie power measure (the seven sev-en b;iby T V A'si at a private session. Secretary Ickes is keen for it. providing he is given jurisdiction, juris-diction, while the other two figure fig-ure it as a threat to their domains. do-mains. The trio assembled formally and exchanged views and prejudices for several hours without benefit of a stenographer. Few days later Mr. Ickes conferred with the pres-i pres-i ident and his report to the White House attributed statements and concessions to his colleagues which they couldn't remember having made. It caused a sharp row in the inner circle, widening rather than narrowing the gulf between them. Next time they got together Mr. Wallace and Mr. Woodring had a stenographer (not a dictaphone) on hand, so that the president would have factual information on what his subordinates thought of his pet bill or what used to be his favorite before he got chummy chum-my with private utility chieftains. The incident depicts the change which ha come over the cabinet as well as U.e congress. Treasury officials hint that they would welcome abolition of the U. S. board of tax appeals along with the office of controller general. gen-eral. Both moves to centralize and control agencies dealing with money Uncle Sam collect and pays out have provoked an undercover un-dercover furor on Capitol hill. There ha always been a secret feud between the treasury and the tax appeals board. Federal financiers finan-ciers suspect that the independent independ-ent judges give too much of a break to the taxpayer and not enough to the government. Since 1924. when the board was established, estab-lished, the treasury has won only one-third of the deficiency cases which went to trial In other worde, the government demanded from certain taxpayers 200 per cent more than they owed. Under the existing system, the taxpayer ha hi day of protest in court before he pays, whereas, under the unofficial proposal, he would have to pay first and litigate liti-gate later in slow and costly suit as in Great Britain. In the old days this lopsided method wrecked, many estates and industries which were forced to sell at a sacrifice sac-rifice in order to raise cash for tax payment later found to be excessive. The Green-Lewis squabble has slowed down the unionization e movement, which hit a peak during dur-ing the wage-raising and collective collec-tive bargaining days of late 1936 and early 1937. Recent elections conducted by the national labor relation board reveal a trend away from the A F L and CIO organizations. In eight out of 19 contests, the two t national labor agencies have lost out. Independent Unions won out in three and in the other five the majority of the employes voted vot-ed against Mr. Green or Mr. Lewis. Lew-is. The outcome is more significant signifi-cant than appears on the surface, for ordinarily the CIO and A F L don't seek a showdown unless fairly sure to win. Industrialists also have sensed the need for establishing more human relationship with employes em-ployes If they expect to offset the unions' threat. Most significant proof lies in choice of E. R. Stet-tiniu Stet-tiniu as U. S. Steel board chairman chair-man on Myron C. Taylor' retirement retire-ment next spring. While with General Motors the new steel king achieved a fine record in handling han-dling industrial and public relation, rela-tion, Extreme new dealer will take to the radio and movie to propa-gandlze propa-gandlze the administration' achievements, if Harold L. Ickes and "Tommie" Corcoran can sell the idea to F. D. R. That shouldn't be hard, for in a recent speech the president mentioned these educational ed-ucational agencies without referring refer-ring to newspapers. Mr. Ickes ha already inaugurated inaugu-rated a eerie of broadcasts on the accomplishments of his department. depart-ment. Mr. Corcoran, who seems to be the behind-the-scenes inspiration in-spiration for the radio-movie strategy, has been flirting with Pare Lorentz, AAA producer of those excellent features. "The Plow" and "The River." The idea seems to be to steal him from Henry Wallace for the more elaborate elab-orate assignment of HollywoooV ishinir the new deal between now and 1940. Cynic suggest that there is a strong resemblance between be-tween Washington and Hollywood these day. Notes: Farm organization are playing rival politic with the farm bills . . . Internal feud hamper ham-per administration of bituminous coal commission . . . Strong opposition oppo-sition to Sumnera bill suspending suspend-ing issuance of patents on labor-saving labor-saving devices ... A congressman proposes a census on idle money . . . Backfire in Canada complicates compli-cates move for trade agreement with British empire. (Copyright. 1937, for The Telegram.) |