Salt Lake Telegram | 1939-02-16 | Page 6 | Wall Street Views

WALL STREET VIEWS :; . ly JimM MeMulin, Financial Obtrvf - NEW YORK-gtrong backstage pressure by kualnaaa leaders and tbair agent (with the auk rosa cooperation af I ha Amerlcai. Federation Fed-eration af Labor) haa ucceaa-fulre ucceaa-fulre eliminated feature of the Walsh amendment ta the Walsh-Healy Walsh-Healy act whirh Industrialist considered particularly oopectlon-able. oopectlon-able. As arlflaally written, the amendment contained a provision sponsored by John L. Lewis that would have barred any company which contested a ruling of the national labor relations board in the courti from receiving government govern-ment contracts. The inference of a Lewis "dictatorship" over every sizable concern doing business with Uncle Sam aroused business chiefs .la vigorous and affeatlve action but they were smart enough thle time ta confine their pressure to behind-the-scenes Washington contacts Instead of attacking the proposal publicly. The CIO knew about their efforts ef-forts ts kill this provision and fought bark as best It could, but It seems to have lost Its political punch. With this nightmare banished. Industrial blg-timero regard the remainder of the Walsh amendment amend-ment with some equanimity. There is, however, one other section sec-tion of it they are trying to have toned down or cut out the stipulation stipu-lation that limits profits on naval contracts to 10 per cent. Actual profits on current naval contrarts average leas than that but that isn't the point. Some manufacturers fear that the limitation limi-tation of profits by law on government gov-ernment business might put similar sim-ilar Ideas Into their private cue-" tomers' heads end that would never da! Secretary of State Cordell Hull T atepped politely but herd aa the suggestion af "Cotton Ed Smith and some of his southern colleagues col-leagues that we should try to negotiate ne-gotiate a barter deal with Oer- ' many ta get rid of part af aur huge cotton surplus. Mr. Hull ivws horrified at the thought af such a blatant violation of his trade treaty principles, but he waa tactful about it and persuad- ad the aenatora ta sea It his way at least temporarily. The barter bar-ter Idea Is likely to come up again. The secretary, however, waa not nearly so unsympathetic to an alternative plan produced by the deeperate southerners. Ha gave them to understand that he would Interpoee no serious objections If they wanted to try ts repeal or modify the Johnson act forbid-ding forbid-ding the extension of AmerirsA credit to nations In defsult on their obligations to the U. S. government. gov-ernment. Senator Smith and his associates feel thst, if we can't dispose of our cotton any other way. we ought to lend our money to other countries to ensble them to buy It. As this column has prsvlously reported, pert of the 128.000 000 credit to China ar- ' ranged by the Export-Import bank will be used for this purpose, pur-pose, and the bank could be a useful agent In similar deals with other prospective foreign purchasers. pur-chasers. But any attempt ts nullify the Johnson act will stir up a strenuous stren-uous shindig In congress. The veteran Hiram Johnson (Cal.) will put up a furious battle with the help of many other isolationists isolation-ists to prevent the destruction or weakening of his pet law. He'a much more concerned about keeping keep-ing us clear of foreign entanglements entangle-ments than about the worries af eotteet farmers. Copyright, 1S3S, for The Telegram