OCR Text |
Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS BY JOSFJ'II W. LnBlNE Lengthy Congress in Prospect Despite FDR Peace Overtures; New Tax Measure Faces Fight (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed in these columns, they arc those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) ' Released by Western Newspaper llninn CONGRESS: Keynote "Dear Alljcn" Barkley settled down for six months in Washington. "We'll be here until June," he told reporters, "but I doubt if there will be much new legislation. There probably will be efforts to amend the Wagner act and the wage-hour law. The reciprocal trade treaty program probably will cause the greatest controversy." He told no lie there, and President Presi-dent Roosevelt knew it. Striking fast, before the opposition had a chance to open its mouth, the President Presi-dent keynoted the second session of the seventy-sixth congress in a state-of-the-union speech which attacked the "destructive mine-field of trade restrictions." Plumping for renew- 1 , ,-s-X . "-it::---:-':.;i i xry - I '" ? : i f ' - j ! K - -7 - ) ' . 4 KENTUCKY'S BARKLEY "He'll be here until June." al of his "most-favorcd-nation" program pro-gram in which the administration not congress has the power to sign trade pacts, he offered this defense: ". . . it is advisable to provide, at times of emergency, some flexibility to make the general law adjustable to quickly changing conditions." Only one other concession did he want in 1910, because it is an election elec-tion year: "I am asking the congress con-gress for army and navy increases which are based not on panic but on common sense." Conservation of resources, protection protec-tion of national health, extension of soc'&l security and the merit system- were also mentioned, but in a moderate voice. Only out-and-out political dart was a crack at G. O. P. Hopeful Tom Dewey, who recently accused the New Deal of "defeatism." Said the President: "To warble easy platitudes that If we will only go back to the ways that have tailed, everything will be all right is not courage." Next day congress got the budget. Items and total: National dofense Sl.800.000.000 Work relief programs 1.300.000.000 Agricultural programs .... 900.000.000 Public works and investments invest-ments 1,100.000.000 Pensions, retirements and assistance 1,200.000.000 Interest on the public debt.. 1,100.000.000 Regular operating 1.000.000.000 Total $8,400,000,000 This, said the President, was an estimated cut of $675,000,000 from the current fiscal year, while treasury treas-ury receipts are expected to rise $382,000,000. Estimated net deficit for 1940-41: $2,176,000,000, compared with $3,933,000,000 this year. But to further cut the deficit, Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt recommended that hts $460,000,-000 $460,000,-000 boost in defense costs be paid through new taxes. Commented loyal Sen. Pat Harrison from Mississippi: Mis-sissippi: "It's not easy to raise $460,000,000 right off. I'm not strong on this tax business." Rolling up its sleeves, congress found the Democrats enjoyed a three-to-one majority in the senate, and a three-to-two lead in the house. Major issues, aside from the reciprocal recipro-cal trade act and national defense: 1. Whether to raise the national debt limit, now nearing its $45,000,-000,000 $45,000,-000,000 legal peak. 2. What to do about new tax proposal, pro-posal, such as Secretary of Agriculture Agricul-ture Wallace's "certificate plan" (in effect, a processing tax) to pay farm benefits. 3. Whether to amend the Wagner labor relations act, under fire from all sides. 4. Whether to continue Martin Dies' un-Americanism. committee. COMMUNICATIONS: Wire Merger Western Union maintains 20,000 branch offices employing 43,000 people; peo-ple; Postal Telegraph, its competitor, competi-tor, has 4,400 offices and 14,000 employees. em-ployees. Thanks to air mail, telephone tele-phone and radio, Western and Postal are both having financial troubles. This month, as a result, came a paradox: While Trust Buster Thur-man Thur-man Arnold was busy breaking up monopolies, the much-concerned federal fed-eral communications commission recommended to congress that Western and Postal be allowed to consolidate. INTERNATIONAL: Something in the Wind It was big news in early January that hardy Finnish troops had cut 16,000 Russians off from their base at Salla; had trapped another division divi-sion near Suomussalmi; had captured cap-tured a Russian base at Aittajoki; had repulsed countless shock troops on the Karelian isthmus; had even blasted a Red air base in Estonia. But the biggest news came from a little Madrid newspaper called Alcnzur. Said its editorial: "Finland "Fin-land is defending with its flesh and bravery the treasure of occidental civilization. Fighting so bravely for independence she fights also for all Christianity, and it is inexplicable that after a long month of war she hasn't received tangible aid . . ." Looking about them, European observers ob-servers wondered if the Alcazar plea wasn't being answered. They saw a series of potentially related moves PAUL EMILE NAGGIAR Lonesome in Moscow. that might eventually lead to peace among the allies and Germany, and to a European attack driving the Russian bear to his den. Indications: Isolation. Home from Moscow to London went Ambassador Sir William Wil-liam Seeds to write a white paper on Russo-British relations. Gossip had it that his conversations with Premier Viacheslav Molotoff had been stormy, and that he probably wouldn't return. Also homeward bound was Augusto Rosso, Italian ambassador. Left in Moscow, uncomfortable un-comfortable and lonesome, was French Ambassador Paul Emile Naggiar. v Shakeup. The newspaper Petit Parisien reported from Italy that Germany was planning a drastic political po-litical reorganization to woo the allies. al-lies. It would include Adolf Hitler's becoming president, succeeded to the chancellorship by moderate Her-' man Goerrng; purging of radicals like Heinrich Himmler, Joe Goeb-bels Goeb-bels and Dr. Robert Ley; management manage-ment of foreign affairs by a moderate mod-erate like Dr. Hans von Macken-sen, Macken-sen, ambassador to Italy; slackening slacken-ing of relations with Russia and pro-visional pro-visional recreation of Poland and Czecho-Slovakia. Aid. In an embarrassing spot, Germany announced she would wink at allied shipments of munitions to Finland, but could not tolerate troop movements. Thus it was obvious the Reich would like to see her "ally," "al-ly," (Russia) driven back, yet could not risk exposure to allied troops from the North sea. Western War Following custom, there was more horseplay than warfare. The western west-ern front was a tomb, but at Buenos Aires German sailors from the scuttled scut-tled Graf Spee joined their enemies from British battleships in a night of revelry. British preparations included in-cluded a plan to call 2,000.000 more men to the colors this year, and a report that 20 freighters had been scuttled at the mouth of Scapa Flow. Purpose: To prevent Nazi U-boats from entering the harbor and sinking sink-ing more ships like Royal Oak. COURTS: Tell It to Congress Well-timed if its intention was to heighten congressional demands for revision of the Wagner act, S decision deci-sion by the Supreme court upheld the much-criticized National Labor Relations board on three 'counts: (1) For refusing to place an allegedly al-legedly company-dominated union on ballots used in a, bargaining agency election at the F'alk corporation, corpora-tion, Milwaukee. .' (2) For designating a C. I. O. union as collective bargaining agency for waterfront workers along the Pacific Pacif-ic coast. (3) For ordering employees of the Jackson, Mich., power company to vote on the question of affiliation with C; I. O., after a ballot on C. I. O. versus A. " F". of L. had brought no majority vote. These decisions offered no particular partic-ular commendation of NLRB, however. how-ever. Commented Justice Harlan Stone: ". . . this failure (of congress) con-gress) to provide for a court review (of NLRB decisions) is productive of peculiar hardships . . . But these are arguments to be addressed to congress and not to the courts." TREASURY: Easy' Taxes Tenderly breaking the news that income tax time is just around the corner, Guy T. Helvering, commissioner commis-sioner of internal revenue, soothed taxpayers with the announcement that this year's report forms have been simplified. Instructions, once as complex as the report form itself, it-self, have been pared down and shaved of technical phrasing. POLITICS: Appointments Fast on the heels of President Roosevelt's judicial and justice appointments ap-pointments came a baker's dozen of explanations. Among them: Attorney At-torney General Frank Murphy was named to the Supreme court (a popular pop-ular appointment) to get him out of the 1940 presidential picture; Solicitor Solici-tor General Robert H. Jackson was reclaimed from obscurity and made attorney general as grooming for a place on the 1940 ticket, probably as vice presidential candidate under Cordell Hull; Judge Francis Biddle of the circuit appeals court (a lifetime life-time job) was boosted to the solicitor solici-tor generalship to make a place for unpopular Warren Madden, NLRB chairman. Thus were several birds killed with one stone. Other political news: ft Democratic Chairman James A. Farley announced the national committee com-mittee would meet in Washington February 5 to select a time and city (probably Chicago) for the 1940 convention. Thus he made the G. O. P. victor in the winter's biggest stalling game, permitting Republicans Repub-licans to hold their convention and name their candidate later, ft Secretary of State Cordell Hull disavowed dis-avowed presidential ambitions and denied knowledge of reports that President Roosevelt had picked him as No. 1 choice for 1940 candidate. |