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Show Economic u Highlights ( Industrial News Review I Happening that Affect the Dinner ; 'puiSi Dividend Checks and Tax Bills of Every Individual. " Nation-j Nation-j a ami International Problems In. separate from Local Welfare. oOo ITlie Republicans call it gag rule the Democrats, for the most part, simply smile and say nothing. Whatever What-ever it is. tlle Roosevelt parliamentary parliament-ary technique works. A major test of president'"1 power came early in the House when Democratic leaders adopted a rule of procedure whereby no amendment could be offered from ; f)0or which would affect the economy econ-omy sections of the independent offices offi-ces bill, then under consideration, or any other appropriations measure that would appear during the session. The rule was unprecedented and it I passed. There were heavy Democratic defections, which resulted in Demo-j cratic leaders working over the mav-i mav-i ericks in their party. Result of that' i was that a move to recommit the rule was slaughtered, 240 to 141. Most' dramatic victory came on January 20, when the Roosevelt dollar devaluation1 " ' bill swept through the Houe by the; colossal margin of 360 to 40. It is! ' ' doubtful if any piece of legislation of m comparable importance ever carried 08 so fast. Debate was almost entirely shut off. All opposition amendments ! were shouted down. Dozens of repre- j sentatives who admit they do hot un-1 i derstand the present dollar policy i 1 thoroughly, voted for it. The measure arc! i has four specific phases. First, the i treasury is given title to all of the j nation's monetary gold etock, includ- j ing that held by federal reserve banks, j "- Second, it fixes 60 per cent of the dol- j j Jar's present gold content as th maximum of gold value after revalu-ation. revalu-ation. Third, it gives the adrninistra-1 adrninistra-1 J ion a fund! of $2,000,000,000, obtained I 'st I automatically from the added value i i of the treasury's gold after devalua- j ' '''' ' tion has taken place, with which to 'erii stabilize the foreign value of the dol-IJTf dol-IJTf j lar. Fourth, it gives the treasury j greater power in issuing and floating i government securities, thus simplifying- the great refinancing task that i RE confronts the federal government Main now. The treasury is allowed ';," pur-chase pur-chase any type of government secur--" ity with ny other type, may sell is- - sues privately without offering them S to the general public. Main opposition the bill is based on the fear of j putting so vast a power in one man's hands it obviously makes Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt a monetary dictator with hardly a restriction. Supporters of the New Deal claim that this is what the i country wants; that it is essential to ; recovery that the president be given free rein. . ; oOo The American Federation of La-tor's La-tor's report on 1934 prospects was a -m deal more interesting and im-S7( im-S7( portant than documents of the kind J I usually are. Furecast was that pros-i pros-i pects for employment and earnings "e considerably brighter, but that one phase of present recovery efforts at:0 i j -threatened inflatTon by fiat money -j,. .-endangers the whole show. Four : specific changes for the better in 1933 the .were chronicled: a gain in employment employ-ment of more than 6,000,000; a drop r:s 0 of 4 hours in the average work Com- T' keter '""Sanitation among industrial in-dustrial workers of all kinds; an in-r in-r eJee "case in workers' Income of 11.7 per cent. The report pointed out, on the v0' :deb't side, that business is still 30 ners 11 y cent De'ow normal, that most important im-portant thing is restoration of busi-,t busi-,t Wjss confidence, that private initiative e. r sti" of paramount importance. Be-c0 Be-c0 jl'ef was expressed that workers al-)inpar.J al-)inpar.J jfrays lose through inflation that . wealthy speculators have a .ar:.iv jthsnce to gain. At about the same tf'niK!me t,le rePrt was issued, the National Na-tional Recovery administration was Hir ;lans, as best it could, bo find PV. -Us many as possible of . the W ;'j0 people still registered as j O 'f',0"oyed. The president has laid plans where public works' activities reat 1 M expansion in private industry will ent'i' rb t,le 4,000,000 now on CWA if tol's. That will still leave the problem oX co' . Per cent unsolved. General John-n John-n "Sieves, the working week must Fne down from its present 40-hour Mage said tnat changes would to be rnatl9 Eradually in the reby .'Pit of industry's financial ability , Wtfl lareer payrolls. Hope is for II . .""-"our day, a 4-day week. Lopping to llVay frn the week would, it is es- WwA' "eate 150.00 jobs. How to ateS "ce working hours, employ more fo'lre' r!USe waSea cut production, in-':aso in-':aso business' capacity to pay the s patr'1". is ths problem. ! If 0 it thU 'ike b'K f'SUrot;' tak(? a l0k "e Reconstruction Finance cor- ?ubi n 'S first coml)1(,te report to the jv 1C- Between February 2, 1932, and cember 31. 1933, it had disbursed MP KHlr; rizetl disbursement of $0,-' $0,-' !??00 t0 8.541 institutions. In Z ?1'500'00 000 was distributed wnt to banks, 20 per cent to jrailwnvs. t1- bnh-ce to ir-.-ur-rvv 'companies, huilding ,,1:in corns, relief agencies, etc. The PvK was due to pass away on January 22. 193.J Rut it was given a new lease 0"n life bills went smoothly through Senate and House extending its activities activi-ties until February 1, 193o. permitting permit-ting it to sell another $S50.000 000 of debentures to the treasury with whie.i to finance future operations. |