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Show I NEWS BEHIND THE NEWS I 1 Written for Th Telegram By Ray Tucker X WASHINGTON The federal trade commission has sidetracked its regular batch of work while it executes the presidential order to hunt down "monopolies." It will tell the boss what he expects ex-pects to hear: namely, that artificial arti-ficial control "of prices precipitated precipi-tated the recession. The F. T. C.'ers had hauled two alleged trusts cement and soil pipe makers before it in advance ad-vance of F. D. R.'s November 16 message. Next it will investigate producera and distributors of all buiiding auppliea steel, brick, lumber, roofing to explain the homebuyers' strike. It will also look into the books of almoet all the nation's food companies tor evidence of unjustified price levels. lev-els. Meanwhile. Attorney General Gener-al Cummings will press prosecution prosecu-tion of the auto industry and financing fi-nancing affiliates. Thus the purveyors pur-veyors of three major necessities homes, food and motor cars-face cars-face the economic firing squad. Mr. Roosevelt haa privately notified no-tified th sleuths that he wants a report before the adjournment of the regular session. The findings find-ings will furnish the basis for a special message to congress urging urg-ing sharper antitrust weapons and a jumplng-off place for grand Jury inquiries. Monopolists are now economic enemy No. t Lawyers are still splitting legal hairs over the propriety of the A. G.'s violent abuse of Judge Geiger of Milwaukee. But the inside in-side story suggests that political as well as judicial motives lay behind the administration aid's hint at impeachment. While one assistant attorney general waa begging the federal grand Jury to indict Ford, Chrysler Chrys-ler and General Motors financing financ-ing companies, another Cummings man (Robert H. Jackson) waa dickering with defendants' lawyers law-yers for a consent decree. Judge Geiger got wind of the maneuver and resented it; he felt the government gov-ernment was simply using his court as an extra-legal threat Mr. Cummings learned of th judge's reaction and rushed into print with a statement that under un-der no circumstances would ha enter into an out-of-court agreement. agree-ment. The Jurist's dismissal qf the grand jury before it returned indictments in-dictments ha embarrassed the trust busters. They chose Wisconsin Wis-consin for the action, aa they did in th oil cases, because they ' hoped for progovernment juries on the La Follett horn grounds. Now they must seek another jurisdiction, jur-isdiction, probably less favorable. And they may not get a conviction convic-tion if they get it in time to bolster the antimonopoly issue on capitol hill. Note: There will be no impeachment of Judge Geiger. Gei-ger. despite his personal unpopularity unpopu-larity in legal and congressional circles. The LaGuardia-Lewls influence affected house members' lineup on the wage-hour bill more heavily heav-ily than White House pressure, if any. Members from the cities who supported the measure were buying political insurance against reprisals by the American Labor party in 1938 and 1M0. The Tammany delegation, for Instance, voted almost solidly for the bill, although normally they split their ballots fifty-fifty between be-tween the laborers and the coupon-clippers; they alwaya play both sides of the street More important still, every New Yorker York-er was on hand for the roll-call, even Tammany Boss "Christy" Sullivan ahowing up for the first time during the session. He realizes re-alizes he can never recapture city hall without the labor vote. Postsession recriminations among Green-Lewis laborites have a hollow sound. John L l ventriloquists ventril-oquists accuse the A F L of knifing knif-ing the working man'a Magna Charta and bill of rights. Perhaps Per-haps the Green lobby did, but the CIO leader didn't raise a finger during the fight He's simply sim-ply using the issue now to damage his rival. Christmas carolings of "Peace on earth, good will to men." will hardly have died away before President Roosevelt is expected to ask congresa for a naval-military expanaion second only to the World war program. Like Great Britain's naval building, it will be a warning to bellicose nationa that Uncle Sam means business. (Sea Mr. R-'s not to Alt Lan-don.l Lan-don.l As exclusively forecast In Whirligig, the president will call for a tremendous increase in th naval forcea. especially auxiliary ships and planes. He will probably prob-ably suggest that the regular army be increased from 188.000 to 200.-000 200.-000 men. and that fund be ap- ' propriated for enlargement of tha national guard to a well-trained and well-equipped fore of 900,-000. 900,-000. The high command figures that 700,000 men, preferably a million, are th minimum needed in any emergency action. Fourth move will be appropriation requests re-quests designed to mechanise and motorize land forces only one regiment now fills requirements in this respect. The time for a showdown between be-tween th democratic and fascist nation may not have arrived yet though Washington reluctantly believe It lurks around th corner. cor-ner. But F. D. R. is determined to prepare for the dread day and not to repeat 191T's blunders. Although the machines tabulating tabu-lating the Biggers' unemployment canvass have been rigged so that operators cannot see the final figures, preliminary report indicate in-dicate that the jobless total may exceed 10,000.000. That will match even th gloomiest estimatea of antinew deal economists. Promoter of the project are presenting advance alibis for the probable bad news, with many "ifs" and "buts" and "whens." They question th accuracy of their own count, suggesting that thousanda on part-time or wanting want-ing a better job stepped up and registered aa down on their luck. They have agreed to rechecks by the census bureau, whereaa originally orig-inally they opposed such a mopping mop-ping up as unnecessary and expensive. ex-pensive. And, anyway, they're beginning to ask: "What will we do with the figurea when we get them?" Mr. R.'s own economic experts place more trust in their periodical periodi-cal samplings of conditions in typical industries, and th Biggers Big-gers results won't mean a thing to them. That almost makes it unanimous. NOTES: Federal housing ad-miniatration ad-miniatration has loaned $650,000,-000 $650,000,-000 for modernizing homes. . . . Twelve western states object to regional planning bill. . . . Federal Fed-eral licensing of corporations will be a live question at next seasion of congress. . . . Building and loan associations are working on conferees to change new housing bill. . . . Distintegration of union labor predicted unlesa two big wings get together. (Copyright, 1937, for The Telegram) I |