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Show News Review of Current Events the World Over rresidfMit Sii'iMs Anx-mlnif-nt of Constitution but A.-Ln Slo)-(;;i) Legislation to IVrmit Continuance Continu-ance of the Mew Deal Program. By EDWARD W. PICKARD 'C Wtnrern Newipaper Union. niii:siri:T i:oosi:vi:i.t has ' cn-au-il a maur issue f.r the ui i;t I 'ii of 1:1,11; ;n,, f, t i i-r- I up w i ilcsji il debute iiml controversy w-y '"'IT 11 (piestlun that the nation hail 'i thought ih settled ' I In Us early (lays. Furthermore, It Is ; '"J .), likely ho has start- ' j ei the tniiveiiierit : ' i fur a complete re- ' I alignment of pullt- . v 11,1,1 forces Into . JT what, will lie virtu- y a ;',"y tw "7 p"r- . ties. I'.rlcfly, he Bainbridge , ' C lb proposes that the 0 y Constitution be changed to take from the stales and give to the federal government power pow-er over the chief social find economic eco-nomic (uesllons so that the New Ileal may he saved from the doom pronounced upon It by the Supreme court. In the course of a two-hour talk with the Washington correspondents the President sent up a trial balloon bal-loon on the plan he had conceived for remodeling the government to fit his program, declaring that he favored curtailing tho sovereignty of the states and giving the central government full control over agriculture, agri-culture, Industry, commerce and all other occupations nnd enterprises. He said this question of amending or re writing the Constitution must he settled by a vote of the people. In some ways, lie said, the Supreme court decision was the best thing that could have happened to the country because It clarified the issue is-sue as lie presented It. The Issue must be met by moving one way or the other, he said, back to the 13 Mutes or forward to the modern Interpretation. In-terpretation. We are the only country In the work! which has not solved tills problem, Mr. Roosevelt said. We thought we were solving it, but now It Is thrown right back In our faces. We are relegated to the "horse and buggy" Interpretation of the interstate inter-state commerce clause. That many prominent Democrats will be alienated from their support of Mr. Roosevelt by tills pronouncement pronounce-ment Is certain. Already there has been launched a moven out for those of the party who seek "a return to constitutional government" to unite with the Republicans who are of like mind. Its leaders are Baln-brldge Baln-brldge Colby, who was secretary of state in President Wilson's cabinet, cab-inet, and Chief Justice William R. Pattangall of the Massachusetts Supreme Su-preme court. Mr. Colby has written to a number num-ber of Democratic leaders of national na-tional repute proposing they meet In a southern city, preferably Richmond, Rich-mond, "to consider some form of political action thnt Is for our country coun-try and above party." In a letter to a friend in Washington Washing-ton It was revealed that Chief Justice Jus-tice Pattangall had decided to resign re-sign In order to join with other Jef-fersonlnn Jef-fersonlnn Democrats to bring about a coalition with Republicans and the restoration of "constitutional government" to replace the New Peal. Neither of these gentlemen hopes to prevut the renomlnatlon of Mr. Roosevelt, but they believe he might be defeated at the polte by a coalition coali-tion movement. (f Democratic senators a number, num-ber, like Smith of South Carolina. Connolly of Texas. Clark of Missouri Mis-souri and King of Utah, frankly ex-pressed ex-pressed their opposition to the President's Pres-ident's views. Others expressed rather mild approva, All were surprised. sur-prised. The conservative Republicans Repub-licans of course were outspoken In their disapproval of the abrogation of states' rights, and the more radical rad-ical men of that party were divided. Senator Rorah of Idaho voiced the opinion of many others when he said : "There Is plenty of power, absolute abso-lute power, to deal with all national nation-al problems. We don't need a constitutional con-stitutional amendment nearly so much as we need some one to draw bills In accordance with the Constitution. Consti-tution. You can't draw a bill on great subjects of this nature as you would draw a resolution for a town meeting. Let It be understood that the construction which the Supreme court has placed on the interstate commerce clause gives ample and complete and plenary power to deal with all matters of national concern." con-cern." LJAVIXG startled the country by 1 his proposition for changing the basic law, Mr. Roosevelt turned his attention to speedy legislation that might salvage part of the NRA, considering, it was authoritatively said, that amendment of the Constitution Consti-tution was not a matter of the. Immediate Im-mediate future. He asked congress to pass the Clark resolution In modified mod-ified form extending the NUA until April 1, 1930, with the understanding understand-ing that It would be a skeleton organization or-ganization to collect and classify data but without power to enforce wnges, hours or fair trade practices upon linlu-lry, except in the case of work dune fur the government. This was agreeable to both the sen-ate sen-ate and the house, majorities. The President said there would be no attempt at-tempt to circumvent the Supreme court decision or to persuade business busi-ness men to enter Into voluntary Code agreements. Attorney General r'uiiiuiings, Solicitor So-licitor General Kee.l, Felix Frankfurter Frank-furter and others were studying numerous proposals for substitutes fur the NRA, hut Secretary Early of the White House staff said none of the suggestions had met the requirements. re-quirements. Secretary of Labor Perkins had a plan for using the government's taxing powers as a means toward interstate regulation. Senators Nye and King Introduced in the senate a bill to expand the powers of the federal trade commission. com-mission. And there were many other oth-er propositions, but none of them seemed adequate. CONGRESS, It now appears, will be in session until September, for tile President handed to the leaders a "must" program of legislation legis-lation that will keep the law makers mak-ers busy for a long time. Here is tho list: 1. Social security bill. 2. Omnibus banking bill. 3. Holding company bill. 4. Wagner labor relations bill, and Guffey coal regulations bill. 5. Tennessee valley bill. 0. liiinkhead cotton act extension. 7. AAA amendments. 8. Tax extension bill. 0. Temporary NRA extension. 10. NRA government contract requirements. 11. Federal alcohol control legislation. legis-lation. 12. Federal oil control legislation. 13. Central statistical board set up. 14. Electrical farm and home authority au-thority set up. The holding company measure has been resisted firmly In committee by two Democrats, Pet-f Pet-f tmgill of Indiana I j -J j and Huddleston of 1 Alabama. In a sen- is ; ate debate it was Jf m vigorously attacked " ; by Dieterich of II!!- s mf nois. Democrat, and I T Hastings of Dela- ; j ware, Republican, f! ?J; us an uneonstltu- ' idf jfa tl0na' scheme to de-' de-' ' ""! stroy the govern-Thomas govern-Thomas N. menVg etit0r3 McCarter In the power business. busi-ness. Mr. Dieterich said it was his honest conviction that the measure would destroy all private ownership of public utilities in the country, together to-gether with the millions upon millions mil-lions of dollars invested in them by private citizens. This measure was naturally the chief topic of discussion at the annual an-nual convention of the Edison Electric Elec-tric Institute at Atlantic City. President Pres-ident Thomas N. McCarter told the assemblage that the privately owned power industry must fight for lis life agakist the administration's "most devastating and destructive attack." He told of presenting "in person" to the President "a dignified digni-fied memorial" setting forth "facts that seemed to the trustees to threaten the existence of this Industry Indus-try and appealed to the government for a get-together policy for the elimination of whatever abuses and wrongs might be found to exist," but said he got nowhere. SOLELY on account of ill health, Ramsay MacDouald has retired as prime minister of Great Britain Brit-ain and gone to Lossiemouth, his home in Scotland. .. for a good rest. V v vT His successor as head of the na- & tional cabinet is I Stanley Baldwin, I the veteran leader N of Conservatives P 1 who has been serv- A , ing as lord presi J dent of the council t and in reality has .Jl N y j been the deputy . prime mi n 1 s t e r , , ey .. , Baldwin since the national government was formed seven years ago. Mr. MacDonald exchanges places with him, thus remaining in the cabinet, but without departmental depart-mental duties. The date of his last cabinet meeting as prime minister was the sixth anniversary of his assumption of the office for the second sec-ond time. With the exception of H. II. Asquith he has held the office continuously for the longest period In modern times. Of the other changes In the cabinet cabi-net the most Important was the transfer of Sir John Simon from the foreign office to the home office. He Is succeeded In the former by Sir Samuel Hoare, who has been chief secretary for India. Mr. Mac-Donald's Mac-Donald's son. Malcolm, only thirty-four thirty-four years old, was made colonial secretary. TPEMFuRAIill.Y the work-relief - program was halted when the oilicials found that the projects were too Cos';;,', and they set about hunting up projects that would provide pro-vide maximum work at minimum cost, so that the promise to enipiuy :',..ifi) persons can be carried out. .Meanwhile approval of a:i applications applica-tions was held up. They have an average of ?1.1.0 per man to sp.-nd. Yet the :l,'.,l"."l','-M in projects already planned will cost approximately $2.tJ(J for every person taken otT relief rolls and kept on government pay rolls until July 1, To reduce the average, Mr. Roosevelt instructed Progress Director Di-rector Harry L. Hopkins to search the country for local, quick work where material costs will be low with almost all the money going for labor and wages. The plan for enlarging the Civilian Civil-ian Conservation corps from :(iki,-xx :(iki,-xx to uKJ,() was In process of revision re-vision because it was believed the additional men could not be enrolled en-rolled If the present eighteen to twenty-five-year-old age limit wero retained. The probability was tho age limit would be raised to thirty years. A new compilation of government statistics shows that between 25,-0(X),r(0 25,-0(X),r(0 and 3U,CKI0,(VK) persons out of a population of 127,000,000 draw money for food, clothing and sliel-I sliel-I ter from the treasury. rOCISSON'S French cabinet hav-" hav-" ing fallen almost Immediately, President Lebrun had great difficulty diffi-culty finding another premier. Pierre Laval, former foreign minister, finally undertook to form a new government gov-ernment and to "save the franc." He kept the foreign ministry post himself, and put Marcel Itegnier in as minister of finance. JAPAN'S army, which appears to " rule Japan's foreign policy, has decided that Gen. Chiang Kai-shek, dictator of China, must retire. This - was announced at Tientsin by Col. Ta- kashl Sakai, chief S: of staff of the Jap-1 Jap-1 anese troops in rtjw fsnfx' t North China. He ffi said: " "Chiang Kai-shek, !Ss i using his financial i "S and military power ' 1 under the pretense ?J? " of uniting China, Is V -hi," actually corrupting uen. Chiang . . . ,. and disintegrating Kai-shek. North Cnlnai whicll Chiang regards as a colony. Hence the Japanese army now feels that it is the wisest policy to uproot Chiang Kai-shek's influence, especially espe-cially in North China. "It is not the Communists but Chiang Kai-shek who will put an end to the existence of China. The Japanese army Intends to take the necessary measures to compel the Chinese government to abolish the Tientsin garrison corps, the Kuo-mintnng Kuo-mintnng political branches, the Blue Shirt secret police and patriotic patri-otic societies encouraging the consumption con-sumption of native goods. These societies have been responsible for ' anti-Japanese sentiment as well as disturbance of peace and order within Manchukuo." There are reports in Shanghai that China Intends to withdraw entirely en-tirely from the territory north of the Yellow river, so probably Japan Ja-pan will soon have in its grip that region, as well as Inner "Mongolia which Is likely to be transferred to the puppet state of Manchukuo. ONE of the most prominent figures fig-ures in the World war passed from the scene with the death in Essex, England, of Viscount Byng of Vimy. As a young officer of cav airy Byng distinguished himself in campaigns in the Sudan, In South Africa and in India. In the great war he won undying fame by his desperate defense of Ypres when It was attacked by overwhelmingly superior German forces which for the first time used poison gas and flame throwers. He was given a baronetcy for this and other gallant gal-lant work, and after serving as governor-general of Canada from 1921 to 1926 he was made a viscount and later a field marshal. He was called from retirement in 1928 to become commissioner of London's police force, but ill health forced him to resign this post In 1931. Another war commander who died was Gen. Alexander von Linslngen. who was at the head of the German southern army after having fought through the earlier campaigns In northern France. LITTLE George Weyerhaeuser, eleven-year-old lumber fortune heir who was kidnaped from Ta-coma. Ta-coma. is safe at home. ' but the "snatchers" who held him captive for a week got away with $200,000 ransom money paid by the lad's family. They fled In a fast automobile, automo-bile, and at this writing are still at large. FLOODS and tornadoes wrought havoc In Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Texas and Kansas a region re-gion that only recently was afflicted by drouth and dust storms. It was thought as many as 250 lives were lost, and great numbers of families were rendered homeless. The worst flood area was In southern south-ern Nebraska, where the Republican Repub-lican river was swollen into a raging rag-ing torrent Several entire villages j were swept away, and utility plants I and transportation lines were all washed out. |
