Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS BY JOSEPH W labine welles expedition bears F fruit ruit in shower of peace rumors russo finnish truce forecast EDITORS NOTE when opinions are expressed io in these columns they are those of the news analyst and not noi necessarily of this newspaper released He leased by western newspaper union the wars in brief finnish front soviet troops reached the suburbs of western stronghold ot of the man line northeast of lake ladoga cadoga the finns claimed they had bad destroyed the thirty fourth red tank brigade sent to relieve the badly shredded eighteenth division western front local patrol activity nazis reported building pontoon bridges to reach luxemburg frontier aerial reconnaissance increased by both sides at sea war again invaded the western hemisphere A british freighter was attacked miles east of puerto rico and a nazi freighter burned in the west indies oriental F tont front chinese claimed one of their yangtze river mines had downed a jap destroyer U S AND THE WARS americas growing concern with eu ropes war made news in deml early march from washington to berlin and a rome chiel chief motivating factors were 1 U S loans to finland approved by congress and 2 U S peace feelers ir in european chancel lories mr welles in berlin usually reliable sources vied with informed quarters and unimpeachable sources to inform america about the success and fail ure lire surrounding sumner well welles conversations with european leaders on a peace mission reminiscent of col edward houses junket during the world war the U S undersecretary of state met in rome borne with benito mussolini illien hen rushed to berlin tor for conferences with adolf hitler no official announcement followed but the diplomatic grapevine revealed der fuehrer would have no 30 truck with peace projects which gave him 1 anything short of a strangle hold on middle europe the most generally reported terms were 1 domination over czecho slovakia poland hungary and aus tri arla 2 return of former german colonies and 3 destruction of britaina Brit ains control over world sea lanes but the welles expedition was not without profit europe had suddenly become filled with peace plans and all the powers were talking tough about the minian minimum terms they would accept this indicated they were at least ready to talk peace welles lelles ff sideline aside from his announced mission sumner welles was instrumental in two other developments first his visit apparently paved the way tor for a return to washington of dr hans dieckhoff eckhoff Dl german am cassador bas recalled in 1938 second and most important he had evidently smoothed U S italian friendship by trying to settle italis coal problem the trouble britain enforcing her blockade of german exports had first tried to persuade italy to td buy coal from her instead of the reich palling falling she stopped german coal bound for italy drawing an angry protest from rome whether by accident or not mr welles arrival coincided with reports that italy would seek a credit to buy coal from the U S obviously this pleased the allies tor for italy would not only be freed from blockade pressure but would find her cooperation oper atlon with germany restricted finnish loan passed by the senate in jig time were house amendments to a bill boosting by the export import banks capital purpose to make loans for nonmilitary non military purchases to nations whose war debts are not in default principal beneficiary was finland whose federal loan administrator jesse jones allocated even before president roosevelt signed the bill unexpectedly mr jones Jone salso also announced loans of to sweden and to norway both funds tobi to be used for financing U S exports happiest of all was Fin lands minister hjalmarj hjalmar J procope who immediately began buy ing n ga gasoline s 0 1 inc oil grain rain and p piles U e S S said a I 1 d h he e I 1 1 when the war started most people thought we would be beaten within two or three days weve been fighting three months cowand now and well fight on confident that help will come 17 S mediation even more persistent than rumors of 0 an allied german peace were reports that finland and russia may i soon reach a settlement probably under U S sponsorship european observers who watched sum ner welles confer with adolt adolf hitler also noticed that U S ambassador laurence broke bread in moscow with russian premier molotov whether the initiative came from the U S or elsewhere the finns were indeed ready to talk peace sorely tired they had a choice of accepting dussias Rus sias terms or calling for british french aid something contrary to popular opinion they have not yet done some observers thought the mysterious mediator medhat or was sweden a possibility which might have unhappy consequences should finland be made a sort of russian slovakia norway and sweden would be even more firmly held under the russian german boot CONGRESS politics front center tanned from his caribbean trip franklin roosevelt stepped back into the white house and began his eighth year as president A gallup poll showed 64 per cent of the nation supported his policies yet only 48 46 per cen cent would vote for a third term another gallu gallup P poll showed 55 per cent expect a democrat F D R or somebody e ise else to be next president politics ici thus evident at the wh white ite house also held sway in congress As the senate looked favorably on secretary of state cordell hulls reciprocal cipro cal trade program candidate hulls u 8 1910 pres presidential en a s stock oc too took a precipitous boost jumped It till still higher when republican thomas W lamont lament a morgan partner wrote in support of the trade program in colliers Collier 3 weekly already passed by the house a resolution to extend the hull plan three more years seemed a cinch to get through the senate meanwhile the senate jumped waist deep into politics by arguing a bill to extend the hatch act the plan prohibit libit pernicious political activity among a half million state employees paid in whole or part with federal funds state high way departments social security branches etc still a third political issue was the proposal sponsored by sen charles W tobey rep N H to strike inquiries about personal income from 1940 cenius census questions A senate subcommittee was reported voting 3 to 2 in favor of the tobey proposal MEDICINE indeed a trade almost two years ago the U S justice department brought suit against tho the american medical association cl cia tion two of its affiliates and 20 individual physicians charge that defendants had violated the sherman antitrust anti trust act by opposing activities tivi ties of a group of health association in hi washington last july justice james proctor of federal district court upheld an A M A demurrer his argument the A M A could not be prosecuted under the sherman act because jt it was not a trade the legal concept of the word trade had long been settled he said in a supreme court decision expressly excepting the learned professions last october the supreme court refused to pass on the case but trust buster thurman arnold was adamant ephe up he went to the U S court of appeals which ruled a at long last that the indictment was indeed valid that A M A and other defendants could indeed be prosecuted under the sherman act back went the case to district court for awal pennsylvania sinking city for years the earth under city Shenandoa tV pi pa has been ion n ey combed with anthracite mine a wor workings kingg long since abandoned early one morning after afier a 24 hour rain Shenandoa hans were awakened bya by a rumbling affelt it felt like an earthquake but everyone knew what had happened while police scurried about residents fled from a 16 block area and watched their city sink after seven hours some buildings had settled 18 inches homes split in two widening cracks streaked across sturdy brick buildings gas and water lines broke and pavements caved in UTILITIES death sentence several weeks ago the securities and exchange commission threatened to take the initiative unless U S utilities voluntarily proposed integration plans as provided under the death sentence clause of the 1935 holding company act by early march SEC was well at work the far hung flung middle west corporation operating 25 companies companie s in some 15 states electric bond share company and engineers public service company were ordered to integrate next day similar orders were issued to the united gas improvement company and the cities service power light company both were ordered to show by april 12 how their properties should be re shuffled the act requires holding company systems to be integrated into geographic units ts and simplified in their corporate structure |