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Show News Review of Current Events the World Over Economic and Monetary Conference Opens in London Illinois and Indiana for Prohibition Repeal Varied Doings in Congress. By EDTARD V. PICKARD SIXTY-SIX nations were represented ! by some of their best financial knd economic authorities when King George formally opened the world 'fsfc. economic and mone-SpN. mone-SpN. ? tary conference In London. It was a momentous occasion, for on the results ob-1 ob-1 IjSTJs. tained from the con- . - i ference depends In ,AV 4 great measure the . ' welfare of the world, sbss- X at least In the immedi- iVV ate future- The de,e" VVk tes will be in ses- , , sion for many weeks, R.W.Morrison and he success of their deliberations rests on the mutual mu-tual concessions that may be made, for no one nation or group of nations ran expect to obtain only advantages. Most vital of the problems to be tackled Is admittedly the stabilization bf currencies, which involves the return re-turn of all nations to the gold standard stand-ard or at least to a metallic standard; stand-ard; and this return must be a synchronous syn-chronous movement so that all countries coun-tries will be on the same level at all times. In the debate on this question leading parts will be taken by Senator Key Pittman of Nevada and Ralph W. Morrison, retired banker of Texas, the members of the American delegation to whom the monetary problem was especially given lor tormuiauoD or the policy of the United States. Senator Pittman before the conference confer-ence opened told something of a plan lie had devised by which the nations could use silver as a certain percentage percent-age of their currency reserves, thereby there-by economizing on gold and stabilizing the price of silver. He insisted this would "not constitute bimetallism as gold would still be the standard. The rations appear to be In agreement, Mr. Pittman said, that the currency reserve of gold should be lowered below be-low the 40 per cent now required in the United States. Twenty-five per cent gold coverage was mentioned for purposes of Illustration by the senator, sen-ator, who said that one-fifth of this reserve should be silver. When the price of silver was low the governments would buy and maintain main-tain reserves of the metal, which they could sell when the price was up, the 6enator said. The other major aims of the conference con-ference are the raising of the world price level, and the lowering of international inter-national trade barriers. Of course the three are inextricably intertwined, and they affect all other problems that will come up. Back of it all is the matter of the ten billions odd owed by European nations to the United States. War debts were excluded from the agenda by Washington, but they will be continually In the minds of many of the delegates and eventually eventu-ally something must be done about them. ILLINOIS and Indiana by popular vote added themselves to the list of states that assure their ratification ratifica-tion of the amendment repealing prohibition. pro-hibition. In the former state the vote was about 4 to 1 in favor of the wets, and the Hoosiers voted for repeal by approximately 2 to 1. There had been no doubt as to the result in Illinois, but Indiana, loDg one of the driest of states and the very center of the Anti-Saloon Anti-Saloon league's power, was counted on by the prohibitionists to stand against ratification. One of their leaders, L. E. York, explained their defeat by saying : "The repealists had ample funds supplied by the breweries and distillers distil-lers and the state organization had paid workers at the polls." SENATOR PAT HARRISON'S plan for financing the public works-Industry works-Industry control measure was adopted by the seriate finance committee, which then reported r out the bill for de- p"'"""'Ns. ; bate. The backbone i of the Harrison pro- ; gram, which Is cnl- 'f?f I oukitod to raise $227.- I 0O0.0OO. Is a capital y, P stock tax of one-tenth f -of 1 per cent on the pyjfmtr'p? net worth of corpora- ' -Jf tlons. This tax Is ex-ported ex-ported to raise CfriL':-, OnO.OOO. Corporations are to be allowed to Sen- Harrison declare their own valuation, and as chock on this provision a penalty tax Is provided of 5 per cent on surplus profits of more than 12'i per cent. Second feature of the Harrison program pro-gram Ih the Imposition, in lieu of ni,r-Iuiil ni,r-Iuiil tax rates levied on the Individual as the house bill contemplated, of a 5 per cent tax on corporation dividends to be levied at the source. This Is expected ex-pected to bring In OiHi.Ooo. Third In uti additional one half cent tax on gasoline, calculated to rai.e in, if m. In-i.ad of the throe-loarths throe-loarths of a eej,t tax proposed hv the )lOI-o. 'I lie railroad reorganization bill in,, the s:','i 0,':'ii.n o !,t,nio mortgage measure meas-ure v e-o an, ong ih.- Important hills In ,: ;,: 'i he ,i iter ri passerl hy th'- ' a 1 V. , ' hoi;t ; reeord Vote. pvEMOCRATLC revolt against some of President Roosevelt's measures meas-ures created discord In both the house and the senate and the administration's ad-ministration's program for national recovery was not having a smooth road. The first upset had been the senate's action In voting a 25 per cent limitation on reductions in compensation compensa-tion payments to war veterans, which added about $170,000,000 to the independent inde-pendent offices appropriation bill before be-fore It was sent to conference. Mr. Roosevelt, accepting his first defeat, sought peace by compromise. At his direction Dew regulations were prepared pre-pared governing the payments to disabled dis-abled war veterans and to the dependents de-pendents of deceased soldiers, under which the veterans would receive an additional S50.000.000 or $60,000,000 over that which was contemplated in the President's original orders. The reduction In payments nnder the new orders would be about $400,-000.000 $400,-000.000 Instead of the $4:.0.000.000 originally contemplated. The veterans' vet-erans' bloc In congress was not at all enthusiastic over this compromise. CYRUS EL K. CURTIS of Philadelphia, Philadel-phia, one of the oldest and best known of American newspaper and magazine publishers, died at his home at the age of eighty-three years. He had been ill since Mav of last venr when he was stricken with heart disease dis-ease while on his yacht near New York. The Ladies Home Journal, the Saturday Evening Post and the Country Coun-try Gentleman were Mr. Curtis' magazines, maga-zines, and he was also president of the Curtis-Martin Newspapers, Inc., publishing the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Public Ledger, and the Evening Public Ledger in Philadelphia, and the New York Evening Post His gifts to charitable and educational institutions totaled many millions. 7"HY the government should have ' paid Richard B. BeYier $1.40 apiece for 200,000 toilet kits for men In the conservation corps a price that i)Revsi-. the War department said was 53 cents too 'J':-' high was a question f ' ' that the senate mlli- 1 -vv tar-v committee found ; Vt5 -''' i hard to answer. Louis I ' l McIIenry Howe, sec-p sec-p :'3 j retary to the Presi- ') J dent, talked with Bete?". Be-te?". jrt ' Vier 15 minutes be-f be-f ; ?;, vC fore the signing of LaijJkfc. the contract by Rob-Louis Rob-Louis Howe ert fechner, director of the conservation corps, but Mr. Howe told the committee commit-tee he never directly or Indirectly attempted at-tempted to influence any decision as to the purchase. He said he transferred trans-ferred the whole matter to I". W. Low-ery, Low-ery, assistant to Budget Director Douglas. Then Mr. Lowery took the stand and declared he never had any responsibility In the matter, simply making a recommendation to Mr. Fechner. This Mr. Fechner testified he construed as an order. There was no least Intimation of improper motives on the part of any of the gentlemen Involved, but the senators seemed agreed that Mr. BeYier Be-Yier was a "supersalesman." When Mr. Howe was on the stand Senator Dickinson of Iowa asked him why he did not turn the matter over to the War department Instead of "starting up all this new purchasing machinery." "Well," Mr. Howe replied, "this seemed to be a complaint against the War department Itself. I was told the War department was about to make a purchase that would be disadvantageous dis-advantageous to the government." "Who said It would be disadvantageous?" disadvan-tageous?" asked Senator Robert D. Carey of Wyoming. "Mr. BeYier," responded Howe, CREDIT must be given the council of the League of Nations for Inducing In-ducing the IIith'r government of Germany Ger-many to abandon part of Its warfare on Die Jews. The council, acting on the petition of a resident of upper Silesia, unanimously adopted a report declaring that the boycott of Jewish shops In that territory and some regulations reg-ulations affecting doctors, lawyers and notaries were In conflict with the Polish-German minorities convention. Thereupon Kriediieh von Kellar, spokesman for the relcli. told the council the German government would restore Jews In German upper Silesia to positions they had lost since the beginning be-ginning of the Nazi regime. WHEN Princeton's scholastic year opens In the fall the old university univer-sity will have a new president, lis fifteenth, lie Is Dr. Harold Willis Dmlds, who has been professor of poll-ties poll-ties In the university and chairman of the administrative hoard of the school of public and Internal Joual affairs. af-fairs. professor Dndds, who Is not quite forty four years old, Is the youngest man to be chosen for the presidency of Princeton In 175 yearn. Ho Is recognized rec-ognized as an International export on electoral methods, mid Is rognn'trl as an authority on municipal government. CONVENTIONS by the dozens and scores are being held In Chicago this year, numerous especially because of the World's fair. Most of them are commercial or professional, but among them was one. just held, that exhaled a delightful perfume. It was the annual an-nual meeting of the Garden Clubs of America, held In the Drake hotel which overlooks Grant park and the lake front. The organization Is a federation fed-eration of local garden clubs whose members are for the most part women of position and means in their various communities. Their interests are especially es-pecially in the conservation of wild flowers, the preservation of the redwoods red-woods of California and the elimination elimina-tion of the billboard along highways. Mrs. Jonathan Bulkley of New York city was re-elected national president. Mrs. Oakley Thorne of Milhrook. N. Y., Is the honorary vice president. The hostess clubs were the organizations In Lake Forest, Kenilworth and Evanston. A feature of the convention was a supper held In the Shedd aquarium, where the ladies gave evidence that their interest in gardening Included an interest In the culture of gold fish In rock garden pools. TPRDINAND PECORA. counsel for " the senate committee that has been investigating the doings of J. P. Morgan Mor-gan Co., undertook to bring to light the details of the op- w. erations by which the ,JiMi Van Sweringen broth- f' ige ers of Cleveland financed their exten- F" 4 sive railroad expan- m. ; it . sion. He said he In- j tended to show that " J those men, with asso- f 4 dates, "purchase rail- , ..v roads with money paid fcs3" f by the public, but al- LIaL. 1 ways they sit in the saddle." O. P. Van - P" Van Sweringen was the Sweringen chief witness, and he was the "forget-tingest" "forget-tingest" witness yet to appear before the committee. To almost all Mr. Pe-cora's Pe-cora's questions he replied, "I don't recall," or "I don't remember," until he drew a sharp rebuke from Senator Barkley, who was presiding. "It seems incredible that a man of as large affairs as yours could have so little Information about them," the Kentucky senator said sharply. "I don't want to depend on guesswork." guess-work." Van Sweringen replied. About all he remembered was that he and his associates received from the Morgan firm two loans totaling almost $40,000,000 on October 21, 1030. I Persistently, however, Mr. Feoora ' drove at two matters first, to show that the Van Sweringens had built up their railroad holdings, not through Investment of their own money, but through borrowings, the pyramiding of holding companies, and the sale of holding company securities to the public; pub-lic; second, to show the rise of the Morgan Interest In the Van Sweringen Swer-ingen holdings, beginning with equipment equip-ment loans which were used in several sev-eral Instances to buy from companies doing business with the Morgans, and ending, as future evidence is meant to show, by Morgan & Co. acquiring control con-trol over the Van Sweringen Interests. XrOCIFEROUSLY and loudly Sena-" Sena-" tor Arthur R. Robinson of Indiana, Republican, demanded In the senate that Secretary of the Treasury Wood-In Wood-In be Impeached and that Norman Davis, "ambassador at large," be recalled, re-called, because their names were on the lists of "preferred" Investors of the house of Morgan. And he Included in his denunciation Robert Worth Bingham, ambassador to Great Britain. Bri-tain. "I say you have a secretary of the treasury that ought to be removed immediately im-mediately because t lie American people peo-ple have no confidence In him," shouted Senator Robinson. "Time after time he accepted gratuities from the house of Morgan. Is he beholden to Morgan? Of course he Is. or else he Is an Ingrate. If the President does not remove him, the senate should impeach him." RUSSELL T. SHERWOOD, that elusive gentleman who was reputedly reput-edly the financial and business agent of Jimmy Walker while the latter was ' ,"n.vor f "e,v York, , ' ' anrl who disappeared when he was wanted : as a witness during I the Scahury Inquiry Y?yf'f& ln,n Walker's affairs, jj came bark from bid-... bid-... ; log and was promptly ; ' called before a federal grand jury In New York that was Investl-A Investl-A Pal Iiik the former ., . mnvor's Income tax R. T. Sherwood , ... returns. Ills nttorney, Michael F. Deo. was In an nnleroom but Sherwood did not call on him for advice, which was taken as an Indication Indi-cation that he answered fully and freely free-ly nil questions put to him. Whim dismissed dis-missed Sherwood hurried to his temporary tempo-rary residence In New Jersey so that he would not he arrested on the slate charges ponding since he fled riming the Seahury Inquiry. At that time he was lined I.Or 10 for contempt, and, as Attorney Deo said, he did not wish to be Jailed for default In payment pay-ment of 1 1 10 fine. pKI'.SIIT.XT KOdSliVI'.I.T lioml-' lioml-' tinted South Trimble, Jr., of Kentucky Ken-tucky to be solicitor for the Department Depart-ment rif Commerce. He nK'o sent (n l lie senate the fid-lowing fid-lowing nominations of United Slates attonii'vs: John A. Garvor for Idaho, William J. Barker for New Mexico, Carl C. Donaugh for Oregon, and William Wil-liam McClanahan for western Tennessee. Ten-nessee. (C , Vpwt"in NHffijiir Uuleo. |