Show economic E wr 1 1 highlights wc g ah M l ts As ag a business magazine recently said it if was washington that business looked this week for clues to ahead that has been larkely true trpe ever since 1929 1029 it la is probably more true today than it ever was before politics has be come the dominating factor in the b business situation and the business outlook number one late washington occurrence eur rence was the presidents statement made at a press conference bo the effect that he be wishes to ultimate tilla dimate tc destruction of all holding companies but did act further elaborate his views the public utility act ot of 1035 whose constitutionality will be finally decided by the supreme court this term demonstrated the administrations policy of eliminating holding companies in the public utility field but up tip to now no one believed tile the president wag bras looking into other fields ills statement was greeted with both wonder and amazement in ili financial circles which pointed out that about half of all the wide IY ly held listed securities represent concerns which are wholly 0 or partly holding companies by nature I 1 ind and said that it would be impossible sll io to accurately gauge gouge the effect of a wholesale anti holding company policy until mr roosevelt clarifies and explains his bis views and and purposes the holding company declaration coming on top of the recently antimonopoly anti antt monopoly movement further illustrates the widening breech between an administration which lg Is still clinging to its original more or less lem revolutionary objective s and a congress which deenis to bp be dally daily turning more conservative and jiu dubious bibus of white hito house policies it likewise further emphasizes alp afi tremendous ta cleal chiev age of opinion that exists between the administration and amican american bushness at large less headlined but of unusual interest tn terest was an investigation on the iho subject ot of employment which a senate committee recently held As aa time says ailys to tile the public generally a senate investigation means a a scandal hunt bunt this ono one was very different the committee honestly wanted information and the questions asked were generally designed to achieve just that not mot t to smear the guest ionee ono one witness was wag federal chairman Ec eccles clea representative of 0 right wing administration opinion mr air eccles who has baa long advocat adro cat ed cd Ini immediate mediate budget balancing attributed trl tri buted tile the slump to iho abo soldiers bonus payment which ac inflationary sentiment and to strikes increased operating costs tor for the railroads laek lack of expansion by utilities aua and the governments ern ments effort to reduce its contribution trib tribu ution tiou to consumer spending power lie ile said it was necessary to reduce controlled prices and wages which are now too top high another anether witness was waa general motors william knudson who de tho dilemma in tho the automotive industry tho the amazingly fast drop lu ill now new and used car buying spoke of fear psychology as a factor in producing bad times and attributed this in part to govern mints attitude toward business A similar opinion was waa expressed by robert wood sears scars roebuck president who said that business lacks lacka confidence andas and Is scared and observed that mat bust businessman newman has been clubbed over the head bead many times mr wood also said eald that tha it a number of specific factors led to the current slump including overproduction in the ithe spring of ft 1030 sterilization of gold increase bcd ca federal reserve requirements and the fact that private spending did not tako take up the ho slack when the government began slowing down some of its amorgen emergency ey ab activities tivi ties all of 0 sheso witnesses like e agreed that abnormally large in n ven to the lair bla prece rented sharpness of the de cline lanc last fall and early winter the inventory situation Is giad 1 nally being corrected now and in some no industries recent figures in dicato that inventories tire aro erm erces low one of the main facts on which the many economists who look for an upturn this spring or summer put their liapes so tho the debate goes oil in the meantime the actual business lu in them have not changed much lately with improvement in florae lanca offset by further declines in others dean carl ackerman of columbia university has made an exceptionally tio nally interesting map showing how bow censorship of 0 tho the press has spread throughout tho the wor world 11 la in practically all of the far east f freedom of the prom 18 13 un uc U S 8 R china ja pan turkey araua egypt and other countries rigidly control their periodicals and in india belgian congo and french west africa there ts la somo some measure of government cout control Tol in europe a truly tree free press la Is enjoyed only by the inhabitants of lin fingland gland france sweden norway sweden and finland on oil tills continent the press la is completely free in the united states mexico Alex teo canada except for the province of quebec and part jart of south america 4 |