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Show News Review of Current Events the World Over Test Vote in House Encourages Wets Sales Tax Meets Strong Opposition Two Famous Men Take Their Own Lives. By EDWARD W. PICKARD TXTET leaders In congress, greatly ' encouraged by the test vote In the house, have started a vigorous campaign to compel the major parties v.' , v.;ai' i : A L a t A to place in tneir platforms plat-forms planks declaring declar-ing for resubmission of the prohibition question to the people. The motion before the house was to discharge dis-charge the judiciary committee from jurisdiction juris-diction over the Beck-Llnthicum Beck-Llnthicum resolution for amendment of the Eighteenth amend- . ment. which had been defeated In the committee com-mittee by a vote of 14 to 6. The test vote was forced under the liberalized rules by l-l.T petitioners. On call of the roll, 227 members voted against the motion, 187 for It, and there were 18 not voting. Following Follow-ing the custom. Speaker Garner did not vole. The strength shown by the wets was greater even than many of them had expected and they were correspondingly cor-respondingly jubilant. Their cause had gained 59 votes since the house voted December 17. 1917, to submit the Eighteenth amendment. Beck and Linthicum, co-authors of the resolution, declared the fight was all but won and that all that was needed was one more election. Mr. Beck said : "This vote makes it plain that If the Republican party adopts a dry platform in June it will court disaster." He predicted it would not be necessary to wait for the meeting of the next congress for action to modify the dry law, believing that this congress at the session next winter, win-ter, as a direct result of the November Novem-ber election, will submit the antl-pro-hihltion amendment Leaders of the drys, for their part, though admitting wet gains, declared they were undismayed, calling attention atten-tion to the fact that the- wets were still far from having the necessary two-thirds majority. Both sides, in the Republican party, have been hoping that President Hoover Hoo-ver would declare himself, but there was nothing to Indicate that he would depart from his neutrality in the pre-conventlon pre-conventlon contest A close associate of the President was quoted as saying Mr. Hoover has not changed his belief be-lief that the country Is still preponderantly preponder-antly dry. Representative Fred Britten of Illinois Illi-nois Introduced in the house a bill for repeal of the Jones "five and ten" law which stiffened the penalties for violation of the Volstead act DEBATE on the billion dollar revenue rev-enue bill continued in the honse throughout the week, . and the opponents op-ponents of the sales tax sought to form themselves Into a bloc. Their determined fight against this big feature fea-ture of the measure at least resulted In changes, for the ways and means committee agreed to accept an amendment amend-ment omitting certain canned goods and press telegrams from the list of articles upon which a 2.25 per cent sales tax is proposed. The committee also was considering amendments exempting cheap clothing, electricity used for irrigation ir-rigation projects and radio company leased wires. Prospects for adoption of the sales tax were lessened in mid-week when leaders of organized labor and of the farmers came out In opposition to it Wllliaoi Green, president of the American Amer-ican Federation of Labor, declared "labor will call on Its friends In congress con-gress to defeat that section of the taxation measure"; and Fred Brenck-man Brenck-man of the National Grange said Imposition Im-position of the sales tax would meet "the unqualified disapproval of the 27,000,000 people upon the farms of this country." Should the bill substantially as it stands get through the house, its sales tax feature will face strong opposition In the senate. A group of senators is ready to Junk it, these Including the men who are classed as progressive Republicans. Some of the more liberal lib-eral Democrats want a substitute bill providing for selective sales taxation and possibly for Increased surtaxes on incomes above $100,000. The house surtax is 40 per cent from $100,-000 $100,-000 up. TWO of the world's famous men decided de-cided that life was no longer worth living and committed suicide. George Eastm1, Internationally known as the develops of the camera and the pho- tographlc film and 1 also as one of the country's greatest philanthropists, put a bullet through his heart at his home in Rochester, N. i'., because be-cause he was In ill health and. as bis farewell note said : "My work is done. Wliv wait?" Mr. East- - . man, who founded the Ge' Eastman Eastman Kodak company and was ichairm&r. of its hoard, had made a Jvast fortune but had given away all but about $20,000,000. His philanthro pies, estimated at $75,000,000, were scattered over the world, the recipients recip-ients including universities and schools and dental clinics in many cities in this and other countries. He was seventy-seven years old, a bachelor and a lover of music and art. Mr. Eastman's many friends mourned his death but none was found to criticise his decision that it was time for him to go. Ivar Kreuger, head of the great Swedish match trust and one of the world's most noted In- gwiOTOTraraa dustrialists, was the f wsa otiler notable suicide. ' merous Interests had is been hammered on the ' exchanges of Europe V and his losses were V supposed to have been S tvT heavy though his re- , maining fortune was si very large. He had . K .j just failed to obtain a $10,000,000 loan in Ivar Kreuger T , . . New York, where he had always been able to obtain vast sums for the asking, so he sailed to Paris and there ended his life with a revolver. Like Eastman, Kreuger was unmarried. His death created a- sensation In financial circles, especially espe-cially In Europe, and the shares In his companies declined sharply. The Swedish government obtained from parliament in special session permission'' permis-sion'' to declare a moratorium on the debts of those concerns to prevent a raid by creditors, and the Stockholm exchange was closed for a time. MANAGERS of the Republican party are busy making the arrangements ar-rangements for the national convention conven-tion in Chicago, and many of them In their Informal talk In Washington felt certain cer-tain that Hoover and Curtis would be the nominees, on a liberalized lib-eralized platform which would serve to conciliate the wets without outraging the drys. The members of the national committee com-mittee charged with selecting the presiding l officers of the con- . ,. ventlon at first B,H' Sne" thought it would be well to have Charles G. Dawes for temporary chair-1 chair-1 man and "keynoter," but It was said he was unwilling to accept the honor. For permanent chairman it was virtually vir-tually agreed that Bertrand H. Snelh congressman from New York, would be the best man available. He is one of the party's strong men and a skilled parliamentarian. However, both posts were left unfilled, the final choices to be made at a meeting in Chicago on April 9. The arrangements committee decided that four radio broadcasting booths should be put in the Chicago Stadium. It also named Dr. A. M. Harvey of Chicago chief of the staff of physicians and nurses, and George L. Hart as official stenographer. Democratic managers also are slowly slow-ly completing the details for their convention, but have made no announcements. an-nouncements. In general, they will take over the Stadium as the Republicans Repub-licans leave it. RUMORS, rumors, and more rumors, all proving false. Clews leading nowhere. Theories swiftly exploded. Investigations and negotiations that have no result Such has been the course of the Lindbergh baby kidnaping kidnap-ing case up to the time this is written. writ-ten. Toward the close of the week the authorities were Inquiring into a story told by Charles Oliver, a prisoner pris-oner on Welfare Island, New York, to the effect that the plot to steal the child was hatched in a jail, being proposed pro-posed to him by one William Gleason of Cilffside, N. J. The latter was taken Into custody and denied everything every-thing Oliver said. An Ingenious theory originated in Philadelphia that henchmen of Al Capone stole the baby for use as a lever to pry that gang leader out of jail. PAUL VON HINDENBURG maintained main-tained his place as idol of the German people In peace time as well as in war. In the Presidential election elec-tion he soundly beat his chief rival, j Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazis or Fascists. But the aged President failed by one-half of 1 per cent to get a majority of the total votes cast so there must be a run-off election on April 10. At that time. It Is admitted by nearly everyone, he will triumph. As against nearly 19,000,000 votes for Von Hindenburg there were about II, 500,000 for Hitler. Ernest Tbael-mann, Tbael-mann, Communist, polled almost 5,000,-000; 5,000,-000; Duesterberg, Nationalist gut 2,000.000, and Winter, Independent, III. 000 odd. Hitler's vote was so far ahead of the Nazi vote In the relehs-tag relehs-tag elections of 1030 that he decided to remain In the contest. Toward the close of the week the Prussian government claimed it had discovered plans for a civil war and therefore raided Nazi headquarters throughout the state. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT and Gov. W. H. Murray of Oklahoma were the contenders in the Democratic Democrat-ic primaries of North Dakota. The returns from the rural districts were slow In coming in, but on the basis of partial returns it appeared certain that the state's delegation would be instructed for the New York governor. However, Alfalfa Bill had captivated the imagination of many of the farmers farm-ers and was making a fair contest On the Republican side those seeking seek-ing the preference of the voters were Dr. Joseph L France of Maryland and Jacob S. Coxey of Ohio. France was well in the lead. Mr. Hoover's name had not been entered but he received some votes. Mississippi elected a new congressman congress-man to fill out the term of the late Percy E. Quin. He is L. Russell Ellzey, Democrat, superintendent of a college at Wesson. NEGOTIATIONS between Japan and China for the withdrawal of Japanese Jap-anese troops from the Shanghai area were reported about to open, after conversations engineered by the representatives rep-resentatives of the United States and Great Britain. It was understood the Japanese forces should be withdrawn gradually and that the Chinese should not enter the evacuated territory until un-til final agreement was reached. The operation will be supervised by a commission com-mission with neutral members. Under this agreement China abandons aban-dons the point that Manchuria must be considered simultaneously with the Shanghai problem, and Japan abandons aban-dons the point that the status of Shanghai -must be fixed prior to her withdrawal. Meanwhile the Lytton commission sent to Shanghai, by the League of Nations, with Maj. Gen. Frank McCoy Mc-Coy representing the United States, began investigating the doings of the Japanese in and about Shanghai. Mayor Wu Teh-chen of the Chinese municipality was guide and chief informant in-formant of the members and after telling them of the outrages committed commit-ted by the invaders he took them on a tour of inspection through many miles of devastated areas where, as he said, , "you can see for yourselves how thoroughly the Japanese war machine has accomplished Its mission of wanton destruction." That new Manchurian state of Man-choukuo, Man-choukuo, established by the Japanese and headed by Henry Pu-yi, is in trouble trou-ble already. Dispatches from Tokyo said there was revolt in the province of Heilungkiang which is ruled by Gen. Ma Chan-shan, war minister of Pu-yl's government. The Chinese troops there declined to transfer their allegiance. From Changchun, capital of the new state, word came that a strong Chinese force, equipped with artillery, had captured Fu-yu, a city of 80,000 people 100 miles southwest of Harbin. ADJOURNMENT until April 11 was taken by the international disarmament conference at Geneva. Correspondents there relate an inter-estine inter-estine incident during the discussions in the naval commission. Vice Admiral D. P. K. Pound of Great Britain Bri-tain naively proposed that they eliminate from the draft convention con-vention of the conference con-ference an article in the Washington treaty providing that a nation na-tion engaged in war shall not seize a war vessel of another Sen- Swanson country being constructed in Its own yards. He said it was not logical to expect a country at a moment when It is straining to the utmost not to lay its hands on all available material. mate-rial. But our own Senator Swanson was on the alert at once, declaring this would not do at all. Ships constructed In time of peace for another power should not possibly be considered available to the builders in time of war, he said. Otherwise, there would never be a chance for the governments govern-ments to agree on their relative strengths. Mr. Swanson exclaimed. Other delegates supported Senator Swanson's argument, and later the British admiral smilingly Intimated that his proposition had been misunderstood, misun-derstood, and withdrew it POSTMASTER GENERAL W. F. Brown, In a memorandum submitted submit-ted to the special economy committee of the house of representatives, pointed out many ways in which the cost of the postal service can be reduced, re-duced, but said all of them require legislation. He admitted that the postal service Is overmanned for the handling of the present reduced volume of business busi-ness due to the depression. He suggested sug-gested that economics could be achieved by reducing the force, reducing reduc-ing pay, consolidating rural free delivery de-livery routes and providing government govern-ment buildings for post office stations, branch post offices and garages which under the law are now leased. Such economics, however, said Mr. Brown, would not balance the Post Office Of-fice department budget which can be effected only by Increasing postal rates also. Mr. Brown submitted for "careful consideration" the proposal of Senator Sen-ator W. n. King that rural free delivery de-livery routes be let to the lowest bidders, although the postmaster general gen-eral recorded himself a3 opposed to such change because "it would be likely to result In a substantial Impairment Im-pairment of the general excellent service serv-ice which Is now rendered to rural patrons." (, 1932, Western Newspa.pr Uoiet.) |
