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Show MONEY & MARKETS By James McMullin Tk Tel, nm't EkImIv Observer Alos W.H Street NEW YORK Any further "peace" negotiations between President Roosevelt and the private pri-vate powtr Industry are almost sura to feature two utility leaden who have not ao far been prominent promi-nent in the picture James F. Simpson and Frank Comerford. Mr. Simpson, formerly head of Marshall Field ft Co., is president presi-dent of Commonwealth Edison of Chicago. He had no utility experience experi-ence when he was drafted for that job, being chosen as a citizen citi-zen of outstanding reputation and ability who could lift the curse of "Insullism" from the company. com-pany. He has been a personal friend of the Roosevelt family for many years and is on a first-name footing foot-ing with the president. He can reasonably be expected to cooperate coop-erate in any White House plan to minimize utility fears and promote pro-mote utility spending for construction, construc-tion, especially as Commonwealth Edison is now strictly an intrastate intra-state system and therefore not act of 1933. Mr. Simpson recently recent-ly withddrew his corporation's membership in the Edison Electric institute in order to emphasize its local character and disassociate it completely from interstate power companies. Mr. Comerford is head of New England Power and Boston Edison. Edi-son. The former's properties are located chiefly, though not exclusively, ex-clusively, in Massachusetts. In any case, they are geographically integrated hence not affected by the "death sentence" and there is no imminent threat of government gov-ernment competition in that area. So their commanding officer will probably play along with ths White House also. Well-posted sources report that Mr. Comerford has made a point of cultivating worthwhile political politi-cal contact Ha worked closely with Jimmy Roosevelt when the latter was active behind the Massachusetts scenes. He does not coordinate at all with big-time big-time utility chiefs, who had clear proof of his disinterest in their problems when they were battling to prevent enactment of the holding hold-ing company law. These two men are likely to prove useful to Mr. Roosevelt in the campaign he is apparently planning to convince the country that the utilities should forget their fears and start spending in a big way. But nothing either of them says or does will have the slightest influence on the policies of the big interstate power systems. sys-tems. Keen New York observers foresee fore-see a bitter end clash between Asiatic and western standards of living. They point out that the United States has been proudly displaying the highest standard of living in history to a puzzled and uncomprehending world. Under the stress of current economic trends, they figure this standard may prove to be a steel-ribbed soap bubble rather than a solid structure. The Japanese see clearly that there is plenty of room between our standard and theirs and are working in the direction of pulling pull-ing the world, including the United States, toward an intermediate inter-mediate level. The growing competition com-petition of oriental coolie labor plus raw materials produced by coolies (via the exploitation of China) will not act as a natural economic force tending to drag us down. Japanese leaders are convinced that our incoherent geographical and economic setup and our lack of coordinated economic leadership leader-ship will be fatal handicaps to ths defense of our standards. The European dictator states have already turned their backs on the American ideal as an impractical im-practical will-o'-the-wisp. Mussolini Mus-solini and Hitler follow the opposite oppo-site system squeezing down wages and living standards to the lowest tenable level in order to strengthen their economic machinery ma-chinery and give their nations an edge in foreign trade. Astute analysts believe that the United Statea haa probably already al-ready passed its peak standard of living and that one of the most painful problems ahead will be that of readjustment to a permanently perma-nently lower level. According to these sources, this country will urgently need a man at the wheel with the courage to recognize that we are headed downhill and to use the brakes instead of the accelerator. (Copyright 193T, for The Telegram.) |