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Show News Review of Current Events the World Over United States Steel Cuts Dividend Rate and Will Reduce Salaries Germany Now I3 Helping Ilerself. By EDWARD W. PICKARD r""' T TNITED STATES .r , 1 J steel, generally f regarded as the ba- rometer of American ""5 Hr"' business conditions, K ; went on record when J It. ' tlie llrector3 at their , : meeting In New York J reduced the quarterly ' Jk? dividend on common f'-ifp" J stock sharply from Ituiilk.... J2 $1.75 to $1. The new dividend rate amounts J. A. Farrell to $4 a share Instead of .$7 and Is the lowest paid by the corporation in sixteen years.' At the same time the directors dealt with the wage question through a recommendation that salaries of officers of-ficers and employees be adjusted, leaving It to the management to determine de-termine the nraount of reduction In pay. There was no mention of readjustment read-justment of wages and the officials would not comment on the possibility of tills action, but In some quarters It was thought the directors were authorizing au-thorizing the first move In a program that would be extended to Inbor In case this became apparently unavoidable. unavoid-able. President Hoover's administration administra-tion took occasion to repeat Its plea that there be no lowering of wage scales In key Industries and of living standards, and President James A. Farrell of the United States Steel corporation cor-poration has been regarded as one of the stanchest supporters of this policy. pol-icy. The reduction In salaries, It Is understood, un-derstood, will be put into effect as soon as the adjustments can be worked out The proposed cut will be applicable to all salaried employees and will average about 10 per cent. It Is believed. One rumor Is that some of the higher executives will accept larger reductions. President Farrell himself Is In this latter category. The exact amount of his salary has never been made public, but one guess places It between $100,000 and $150,-000. $150,-000. The reduction of the dividend rate affects more than 200,000 stockholders. stockhold-ers. Steel stock Is owned and traded In throughout the world. Wall Street took the news of the directors' action quietly, though it had hoped the dividend divi-dend rate would be placed no lower than $1.25 a quarter. rjOTJR more bold aviators success-" success-" fully crossed the Atlantic ocean, though the first pair were far from reaching their destination. Hugh Herndon, Jr., and Clyde Pangborn took off from the New York municipal airport with the Intention of flying to Moscow nnd theuce around the world. All the way across the ocean they flew through dense fogs and they were compelled to land In a farm field near Cardigan, Wales. They went on to London and continued their flight from there. Kussell Bonrdman and John Po-lando, Po-lando, who left at the same time and from the same airport on o flight to Turkey, were more successful, for they landed sufely in Istanbul, beating the non-stop distance record established by Coste of France. pOL. CHARLES A. LINDBERGH and Mrs. Lindbergh started from Washington on their long and perhaps perilous aerial Jaunt to Japan in their big scarlet and black seaplane. The first hop, which was Intended to take them as far as North Haven, Maine, where Is the summer home of Mrs. Lindbergh's Lind-bergh's parents, ended In Flushing bay. New York, In the midst of a thunderstorm and heavy downpour of rain. The colonel announced that the radio tests had proved unsatisfactory unsatis-factory and the flight was accordingly delayed until the apparatus was got in order. The tour of the Lindberghs will take them up across Canada to the Far North, across Alaska and to Japan Ja-pan by way of the Aleutian Islands. Their Lockheed Sirius plane has been equipped with every device needed to iimke the trip safe and successful. The colonel Is chief pilot, his wife chief navigator, and both are qualified quali-fied to work the wireless. CHEERED up by ""JT the encouraging . s promises and predic- tlons of Prime Minis- f . ,: si tor MacDonald of ,.,. - ,w Great Britain, Secre- fc tary of State Stimson S ,s . 1 of the United States and other eminent J ' xj statesmen, Germany ,. worked hard during , k"j the week to rescue herself from financial collapse. The distin- Htrr Sehmtz guished visitors were received in Berlin Ber-lin with uproarious demonstrations and were the chief figures at banquets and conferences. "Britain's confidence in Germany is undiminished," declared Mr. .MacDonald. "We are filled with admiration for Germany and we are firmly convinced that If she continues her efforts, If she exerts all her Intellectual, Intel-lectual, moral, und economic powers to get on her feet again, without giving giv-ing way to despair, other nations will help her and not suffer her to go under. un-der. A free, self-respecting Germany is indispensable." Mr. Stimson. before leaving Berlin for London, Issued a statement In which he said : "The American people have faith In the German people and believe In their future. My faith in Germany has been strengthened by my visit here. I believe the present difficulties are due mostly to temporary lack of confidence and that through courage and renewed confidence Germany's welfare will be restored." The German government announced the formation of the "Acceptance and Guarantee" bank with a capital of $48,000,000 to facilitate the Immediate financial transactions of the country and to make possible the re-opening of nil German banks. The Relchsbank and eleven other leading German banks guaranteed the credits to the new bank. In addition to removing the restrictions restric-tions on banking activities throughout the country, Dr. Hnns Luther, president presi-dent of the Relchsbank and Chancellor Chancel-lor Bruening said they hoped the new bank would also help re-establish the closed Darmstaedter und National bank, and save other small banks now tottering. One Important step taken by the government was the appointment of Herman Schmltz to assume control of all German banks during the crisis. tie was made controller of the country's coun-try's financial structure with power to draft plans to stop the flow of funds from the various banking houses. Herr Schmitz has been closely identified identi-fied with the great chemical Industries of Germany. p.--vw "CONSIDERABLE t CV - interest Is evi- S'- s denced in Washlng- 3 ton In the political I future and plans of t j Henry P. Fletcher, f i i veteran diplomat, who j ' 4 has Just tendered to a ) President Hoover his P a resignation as chair- I A man ' e tariff commission, effective on November 15. Bert. Be-rt. P. Fletcher ,ng mterviewedi Mr Fletcher said tersely: "My plans are Indefinite, but I certainly don't intend to go Into a convent." There were rumors ru-mors that he would seek the Republican Republi-can nomination for the Pennsylvania senatorshlp as successor to Senator Davis, but this he denied. . Also It was thought he might be appointed governor-general of the Philippines. In view of the long experience of Mr. Fletcher In the diplomatic service and the fact he served as ambassador to both Italy and Belgium, there Is talk that, if any change should be made in the office of secretary of state, he would be a logical man for the post Following the election of Hoover In 1928, he was mentioned freely for secretary of state and for ambassador to Great Britain and ambassador am-bassador to France. Long a friend of President Hoover, he accompanied him on the good-will trip to Latin-America Latin-America soon after the Presidential election. NORMAN H. DA- r ? vis, one of Amer- sS ' ica's most eminent t financiers and at pres- I ent trustee of the ) Bank of New York and Trust company, a . announced that he js- had accepted a post on the finance com- " " . mittee of the League I of Nations and would K-aassai! sail for Europe al-m al-m o st Immediately. N' H- Dav,s His first business there will be to attend at-tend a conference on European credits cred-its which will open August 20. He will then take part In a meeting of the finance committee early In September. Sep-tember. He will return home in October, Oc-tober, nnd will not be obliged to relinquish re-linquish any of his business Interests in this country, as the finance committee com-mittee of the league is called together togeth-er only three times a year, each meeting meet-ing as a rule, continuing for only a few days. Mr. Davis is entirely familiar with European finances for during his distinguished dis-tinguished career he has been a member mem-ber of numerous International commissions commis-sions and conferences. In 1920-21 he was undersecretary of. state. NE more report has come from the Wickersham commission. It deals with the American prison Bys-tem, Bys-tem, which it condemns as inefficient, antiquated, fulling to reform the criminal crim-inal or protect society, and ns using brutal and unjustified disciplinary measures. Much of the report is a denunciation of prison conditions, characterized as "almost incredible," under which men are imprisoned In overcrowded cells without sufficient light or fresh air or benefit of modern plumbing. It attacks also the system of prison discipline described as "traditional, antiquated, unintelligent and not Infrequently In-frequently cruel and inhuman." Asserting As-serting these methods "contribute to the Increase of crime by hardening the prisoner," the commission urge3 they be changed by law. Outlining what Is considered the Ideal, the commission asserts segregation segrega-tion of the diseased, Insane, drug-addicted and hardened criminal Is on of the first requisites. It holds fortresslike fort-resslike prisons of the Auburn type are unnecessary save for the worst types. Under the proposed system all prisoners pris-oners would be paid wages, their treatment would be more humanized, the choosing of prison officials would be removed from politics and guards would be trained specifically for their task. It Is advocated that "no man should be sent to a penal Institution until It Is definitely determined that he Is not a fit subject for probation." Extension of the parole system also Is urged as the "best means yet devised for releasing re-leasing prisoners from confinement." IN ONE of the most strongly worded opinions ever handed down In a prohibition case, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals at Chicago severely attacked the tactics of dry agents in entrapping offenders, declaring de-claring their methods to be "a shock to the court's sense of Justice" and observing that there Is "an ever increasing in-creasing frequency of similar cases." The opinion reversed the conviction of five policemen of Indianapolis who last year were found guilty of conspiracy con-spiracy to protect a speakeasy. "That there was a conspiracy to violate the prohibition law, there can be no . doubt," said the Appellate court's opinion. "The conspiracy was conceived by the three prohibition agents, who enlisted the services of a decoy, Lyle, to more effectually accomplish ac-complish their object." Horace Lyle, who managed the government operated oper-ated speakeasy, Is a notorious colored dry spy who has been Indicted for bribery and arrested several times for drunkenness. THERE Is a lot of labor trouble In the East. In New York 30,000 workers In the men's and children's clothing Industry went on strike on orders from the Amalgamated Clothing Cloth-ing Workers of America. The objects of the strike, according to union officials, of-ficials, are to prevent a return of sweat shop conditions and to put an end to gangster's Intimidation of union workers and officers. The two unions in the textile Industry Indus-try at Paterson, New Jersey, which are affiliated with the American Federation Fed-eration of Labor, had scheduled a strike for August 3, but their hand was forced by a premature strike engineered en-gineered by the radicals, and the mora conservative ones were compelled to quit work earlier than intended. Thousands of workers walked out and the mills were stopped. BWSWMIWI "CARLOS IBANEZ, l'vs4Ufe$'"l president and diets.- I tator of Chile, who Xi held his own through- O out all the Latln-Kjt Latln-Kjt n American revolutions f J of last year, has fall-g fall-g v 1 en at '"St. The "man KS ' destiny," as he 14." A 1 styled himself, faced I vvith a Popular upris-feiMKawi, upris-feiMKawi, iJ ing that was all ar- ranged, resigned ver-Carlos ver-Carlos ibanez bally Just before tne time set for a general strike. The congress promptly accepted the resignation resig-nation but apparently withheld the safe conduct out of the country which Ibanez asked. Therefore, In the early morning hours the overthrown dictator, dicta-tor, accompanied by bis wife and three army officers, fled from the palace In a motor car. At Los Andes they boarded a special train for Argentina, and It Is considered unlikely that any attempt will be made to bring him back to Santiago for trial. When Ibanez fled, Pedro Opazo, president of the senate and vice president presi-dent of Chile, became acting president, but he lasted only a few hours, for the people were convinced he had aided Ibanez to escape. He, therefore, stepped out in favor of Juan Esteben Montero, who presumably will be chief executive until a president is elected. Montero Is one of the country's leading lead-ing lawyers. Chile hailed with approbation the annoncement that Pedro Blanquier, one of the most popular men in Chile, had agreed to accept the post of finance minister. His "bread and water" wa-ter" policy during his eight-day term as premier has been accepted by most Chileans as a great step to rid the nation na-tion of Its economic distress. FRIDAY saw the belated dedication of the marble column at Put-in-Bay. Ohio, memorializing the victory of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry over the British in the battle of Lake Erie in 1812. The 330-foot shaft has been completed for 15 years, but the ceremonies were put off from time to time until the present. Dedication addresses were made by Senator James Hamilton Lewis of Illinois Il-linois and Gov. George White of Ohio. Among others on the program were Webster P. Huntington of Columbus, president of the Perry's victory memorial me-morial commission; John H. Clarke, Cleveland, former associate justice of the United States Supreme court, and Edwin A. Scott, president, and A. W. J. Flack, secretary of the Canadian club of New York. SAM C. MAJOR, representative In congress from the Seventh Missouri Mis-souri district, died In Fayette, Mo., and the Republican majority In the next house was thus restored to two, for Mr. Major was a Democrat, one of the twelve in the present Missouri delegation dele-gation of sixteen. He was sixty-two years old and was elected to his fifth ternv, last autumn. cl. 1931. Western NawipaDar Uttloa.1 |