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Show WEEKLY SEWS ANALYSIS BY JOSEPH W. LaPASE Congress Tears Budget Apart: Defense Fund May Be Raised But Other Items Are Slashed (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) I .Released by Western Newspaper Union . CONGRESS: Mutilation After almost a month of argument It appeared that congress would grant Franklin Roosevelt his $1,800,-000.000 $1,800,-000.000 defense budget for 1941, but the price would be (1) drastic slashes In all other items and (2) a boost in the $45,000,000,000 national debt limit. In both house and senate, sen-ate, four out of five committeemen kept one eye on the purse strings. The other was cocked carefully toward to-ward the constituents back home, who are more concerned about economy econ-omy than pork barrels, even in an election year. One warning came from Budget Director Harold D. Smith, who told all federal agencies to start training train-ing for a smaller diet next year. 1 - ' i ; - - - " ' i . J - I f i WOOD RING AND STARK They'll win; others will lose. He threatened to be "plenty tough" on requests for deficiency appropriations. appropria-tions. Another came from house appropriations ap-propriations committeemen who threatened to cut. a proposed $25,000,000 farm tenancy fund from the agriculture department's budget. But actions spoke louder than threats: Out from the appropriations committee com-mittee came a badly mutilated independent in-dependent offices bill, usually the catch-all for pork barrel items. It 11,-1 c CO A A tn 1 CO 1 1 t-... , o .ijt.iuu ueiuw trie resident s budget estimate. Gone were all funds for the national resources planning board and the office of government gov-ernment reports. Cut drastically were items for the executive office and the maritime commission. Nor did the house backslide on its appropriations ap-propriations committee; next day, having shouted down $22,000,000 in pork-barrel requests, it passed the bill almost exactly as reported by the committee. Meanwhile the army and navy were getting better treatment. Admiral Ad-miral Harold D. Stark, chief of naval operations, told the house naval committee that he hoped to complete a $2,276,000,000 building program by 1945. Across the street, Secretary of War Harry Woodring told the house military committee about deficiencies in critical ordnance. ord-nance. Fondest congressional hope, obviously, obvi-ously, is to raise the extra $460,-000,000 $460,-000,000 for national defense without imposing election-year taxes. But there still remains the $800,000,000 (originally $1,300,000,000) naval program, pro-gram, suggested not by the President Presi-dent but by Georgia's Rep. Carl Vinson. If this carries, no economies can stop the national debt short of its present limit. Also in congress: . tuuurnea was me iaie tnat Deieil congress' senior statesman, Idaho's 74-year-old Sen. William E. Borah. While house and senate office buildings build-ings kept an ear cocked for news, the man who had served the senate 33 years lay close to death in his Rock Creek Park apartment, victim vic-tim of a cerebral hemorrhage following fol-lowing a fall. C. Vice President jack Garner, whose opposition usually means certain cer-tain death to any proposal, barked against a military loan to be- leaguered Finland. So had the President, Pres-ident, for his recommendation of a $50,000,000 loan through the Export-Import Export-Import bank was strictly for non-military non-military purposes. However, since the Finns wanted money for munitions muni-tions only, their cause seemed lost. C Still arguing for continuation of the reciprocal trade act, the administration admin-istration sent Undersecretary of Commerce Edward Noble and Assistant As-sistant Secretary of State Henry F. Grady to testify before the house ways and means committee. Defense De-fense of the act itself completed, the state department next turned its guns on the senate's plan to seek ratification power over all trade treaties. C The senate foreign relations committee agreed to survey the entire en-tire field of U. S. -Japanese relations, including proposed embargoes against Japan, after the abrogated trade pact expires. EUROPE: The Belligerents Britain's war consisted of (1) a factory explosion; (2) a reported railroad sabotage plot; (3) a fiery defense in commons of Prime Minister Min-ister Chamberlain's action ousting War Minister Leslie Hore-Belisha, and (4) the slaying of Britain's first German on the western front. France's war featured (1) expulsion expul-sion from the chamber of deputies of all pro-Stalin Communists; (2) news of a "plot" to aid Hitler, and (3) a verbal battle with Berlin, where France was accused of backing back-ing down on its promise not to interfere in-terfere with German expansion in eastern Europe. It was not so quiet for the Finns. For five successive days Russian planes defied temperatures ranging down to 51 degrees below zero, bombing Helsingfors, Hango and other cities mercilessly. Though they might be poor soldiers, the SWEDISH VOLUNTEER "Now it is your duly . . ." Russians proved themselves persistent persist-ent in the far-north Salla sector. Forty thousand of them staged a new drive, only to be routed. The Neutrals "Now the world knows what it is to be a Finn. Now it is your duly to show what it means to be a Swede. Make up your mind now. Join the Swedish Vol unteer Army. With Finland for Sweden!" This advertisement in a Stockholm newspaper was one answer to Russia's Rus-sia's order that Scandinavia stop sending aid to Finland. Richard J. Sandler, ex-Swedish foreign minister, minis-ter, demanded that his nation send troops to defend the Finnish Aaland islands. Though both the allies and Germany Ger-many tried to remain aloof from this Scandinavian-Russian spat, they were undoubtedly being drawn into it. One reason was the continued sniping at each other's iron ore shipments ship-ments coming out of Sweden. While tension grew here, it lessened less-ened in Netherlands and Belgium, which only a few days earlier had ordered complete mobilization in fear of a Nazi invasion. But there was still a chance that Germany and Russia would try to confound their foes and hostile neutrals alike with lightning-like blows at both the Lowlands and Scandinavia. Italy, watching over the Balkans like a mother hen, heard a warning warn-ing from Rome to be ready for war "at any moment." Still on the fence, H Duce countered Britain's renewed wooing with a warning that Italians should not be too greatly impressed by "recent demonstrations of international inter-national sympathy." PEOPLE: Confessions CAt Washington, North Carolina's Rep. Robert L. Doughton regarded his advanced age (76) and announced an-nounced he would retire next December De-cember 31 when his current term ends. Explanation: "My private business badly needs attention." C In London Prime Minister Nev.lle Chamberlain told commons that War Minister Leslie Hore-Belisha was dismissed because he was "too energetic." 1 I DISASTERS:' Turkey Again Last December at least 30,000 died when earthquakes and floods hit north central Turkey. About the same time 1,500 more died in the flooded western plains. Late January Janu-ary brought still more tragedy to a nation whose international diplomatic diplo-matic woes are legion. A second major earthquake killed 50 and injured in-jured 160 more in the Nigde district, 200 miles southwest of the first quake area. Luckily, such blows were cushioned by French-British friendship. Available to the Ankara government was some $340,000,000 in loans and credits, Turkey's "price" for keeping the strategic Dardanelles Dar-danelles open to allied warships. (This loan, to be repaid partly through British imports of Turkish tobacco, prompted the government to ban imports of US. tobacco. Mourning at the news, American growers found themselves deprived overnight of an export ex-port market running between $60,000,-000 $60,000,-000 and $70,000,000 a year.) DEFENSE: Mock Warfare From San Francisco south to Santa Barbara, troops awaited an attempt by the navy to land an attacking at-tacking force of 8,000 men. Meanwhile Mean-while the Caribbean sea buzzed as marines, troops and some 20 warships war-ships of the Atlantic squadron staged a mock war. POLITICS: Call to Duty "I realize what it means to be a candidate for the Republican nomination nomina-tion for President what it means in responsibility, hard work, in sacrifice. Yet it is a call to duty no citizen can ignore. My answer is yes." Thus did Frank Gannett, Rochester, Roches-ter, N. Y., publisher, toss his hat into a ring already cluttered with Tafts, Bridges, and Deweys. All he had waited for was a bid, and that came from the Young Republica n Club of Indiana. In-diana. Unless Un-less he gains tre m e n d o u s stren gth, few observers observ-ers expect Candidate Gannett to make much of a showing r - S i&bHsZ M. .-4 nationa lly. But his can- GANNETT didacy does Yes,.'' presage a knock-down-and-drag-out fight for New York's 92 Republican convention votes, wanted also by Manhattan's District Attorney Thomas Thom-as E. Dewey. Meanwhile another prospective candidate was given his camera test: Wendell L. Wilkie, president of Commonwealth & Southern corporation. cor-poration. At New York 400 sales executives applauded him. Said Dr. Paul Nystrom, president of the Limited Lim-ited Price Variety Stores association: associa-tion: "We could expect great improvement im-provement with gathering momentum momen-tum if we had a man running for President like our distinguished guest, Mr. Wilkie." Said Mr. Wilkie: Nothing. Franklin Roosevelt was meanwhile mean-while gaining strength for a third term. Florida's Sen. Claude Pepper Pep-per promised his state's 14 delegates would support the President or any man of his choice, although they would go to the convention without official instructions. From Ohio came word that its Democratic delegates dele-gates would also be in the Roosevelt camp if their favorite son, Sen. Vic Donahey, faileJ to develop. Both Democratic and Republican national nation-al committees were soon to meet, naming times and places for their nominating conventions. |