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Show f I Economic Highlights , Industrial News Review . Happenings that Affect the Dinner fails, Dividend Checks and Tax Bills of Every Individual. National Nation-al and International Problems In separable from Local Welfare. One of the most dramatic acts of the late congress occurred, entirely unexpectedly as far as the general public was concerned, just before the session passed into history. This act was the passage of the so-called "neutrality plan," proposed by the White House, originated by the senate, sen-ate, and forced through the house by administration leaders under a gag rule which forbade any amendments and l'mited debate to the absolute minimum. Reason for this unprecedented unprece-dented occurrence does not require a microscope to discover. Everyone knows that Europe is closer to a major ma-jor war than at any time since 1914. The American state department doubtless has a much better idea of how close war is than any other do-mestic do-mestic agency it 'is a possibility 4 that inside Secretary Hull's hand-some, hand-some, impassive, white-thatched head there is knowledge that, if disclosed, would make headlines throughout the country And, with the memory of the "incidents" that brought America into the world war still fresh, the administration, ad-ministration, which has consistently pursued an extremely cautious for- t eign policy, seems determined to keep us out of future conflicts if that is at all possible. High spots of the neutrality neu-trality plan include: Prohibition of the export of arms and ammunition to any foreign government belligerent belliger-ent until February 29, 1936 (by that -. time another congress will be in ses-sion, ses-sion, and will be able to cope with changed conditions). Prohibition of i the use of American vessels in arms traffic ' until February 29, 1936. Es-I Es-I tablishment of a strict licensing system sys-tem for American mun'tions manu- facturers and exporters. Authoriza-r Authoriza-r tion for the president to require a , bond of any ships suspected of trans- porting arms and munitions. Authorization Authori-zation for the president to restrict or entire close territorial American water wa-ter to the submarines of belligerents. Authorization for the president to forbid ; American citizens to travel ' abroad during war except at their I own risk, unless such traveling is ION m&e necessary in order to escape a zone of conflict. It is an interesting fact that the neutrality b'll passed toth houses by close to unanimous vote? yet a number of congressmen, j including some who voted for it, are fronTi cu')'ous- Senator Johnson, old-time advocate of U. S. isolation, said it r" ' would not prevent our gett'ng into war. And a few voices, including that of Senator Wadsworth, potential Re- ; : publican presidential candidate, spoke -i up against the principle it represents, on the grounds that small, persecuted persecut-ed nations will be harmed by the policy, while big, aggressive nations will not. For example, Italy could get by without purchasing arms abroad while closing of foreign buying to Ethiopia, which has no industrial re-; re-; sources that might be turned to muni-tions muni-tions production, would make it 1m-I 1m-I possible for her to defend herself in i (Continued on last page) cxonomic Highlights I (Continued from page 1) ! the event cf war. However, editorial respon.-e to the p!an has been highly, favorable papers which oppose the president in most of his policies are for h'm when he attempts to keep us out of the pending European super-war. super-war. The provision whereby Americans Ameri-cans traveling on ships belonging to belligerents must do so at their own risk is perhaps the most important s'ngle part of the bill remember the1 straight-jacket regulation. Still in the ' air is the burning question of the bill's constitutionality. Passed was the bill setting up a "little NRA" for, bituminous coal industry a measure whose constitutionality seems more i than doubtful. Passed was a measure! giving the federal government control over liquor, made necessary by the supreme court's abolition of the old NRA. Passed was a bill placing a ban against gold-damage suits after January Jan-uary 1. Passed was a bill to provide interstate compacts to restrict crude oil production. Lusitania! oOo The last congress was usually spoken spok-en of as lethargic, slow-moving, dead on its feet. But, with September approaching ap-proaching and congressmen anxious to get home in order to pay attention to their polit'cal fences, the closing days witnessed an amazing burst of activity. Passed was the banking bill in its final form it represents a compromise between the administration administra-tion and such conservatives as Senator Sena-tor Glass. Government will control the banks but the administering , board will apparently be as non-political as possible. Passed was the ?250,000,00O "soak-the-rich" tax bill, much in the form first asked by the president. Passed was the bitterly debated de-bated ut'lity holding company bill. The "death sentence" clause is out, though there is considerable differ- ence of opinion as to what the bill really provides. Some say it gives the government the power to put holding companies out of business if it wants , to others say it simply provides |