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Show WEEKLY AWS ANALYSIS BY JOSEPH IF. LaBIXE Tax Revision Brought to Fore By Administration Objection Over Huge Farm Appropriation (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) Released by Western Newspaper Union. I CONGRESS: Spend, Tax, Save Excess spending was the complaint com-plaint of U. S. Chamber of Commerce Com-merce members at their annual convention. con-vention. This has also been congress' con-gress' complaint against President Roosevelt. A few days after the Chamber adjourned, Secretary of Commerce Harry Hopkins returned from a Potomac cruise with the President to radiate optimism, pooh-pooh pooh-pooh the Chamber's complaints and plump for another year's spending as "essential." Almost as he spoke the senate passed a record agriculture appropriations appro-priations bill which totaled $1,218,-000,000 $1,218,-000,000 (compared with the President's Presi-dent's budget estimate of $842,126,-051). $842,126,-051). Restored were $225,000,000 in parity payments to growers of wheat, cotton, corn, tobacco and rice, earlier shelved by the house. Added was a $113,000,000 item for disposal of surplus commodities, and an extra $25,000,000 to the original $24,984,000 estimate for a farm tenancy ten-ancy program. If the senate thought Mr. Hopkins' Hop-kins' spending plea meant a green light from the White House, it soon learned otherwise. At his press conference con-ference the President rebuked congress con-gress for breaking its promise to levy new taxes to meet out-of-pocket costs. Recalled was last session's $212,000,000 farm parity appropriation appropria-tion for which no revenues were provided. pro-vided. Chimed in Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau: "The bill . . . disturbs me greatly. rl think that if they are going to add ... to the present deficit, it should be up to congress to meet the increase in-crease . . . It's about time we began be-gan tapering off." Probable upshot is that the farm appropriations squabble will force consideration this session of two issues is-sues treated superficially thus far, namely, economy and tax revision. Said Georgia's Sen. Richard B. Russell, Rus-sell, floor leader for the farm bill: "I am strongly opposed to singling out the farm program as the only one which must be reduced, or for which we must levy new taxes . . . I am willing to economize, but not solely at the expense of the farmer." farm-er." Since the President opposes new levies on small taxpayers, tax revision re-vision (probably the price congress j x" rx?: Si'"'. ; X V ' fx- ; F v 4 - - , I vyx . ; it : SECRETARY MORGENTHAU "It's about time . . ." must pay for its huge farm bill) would likely mean a mere shakeup of upper bracket taxes to secure more revenue. If the farm bill is any sample of congressional economizing, this cause will also go unsung until another an-other year. Already having appropriated appro-priated record-breaking army funds under the new defense program, the house coughed up $773,414,214 for the navy, $17,015,212 more than the President asked. Meanwhile a house committee investigating WPA heard Chicago's Mayor Edward J. Kelly, New York's Fiorella H. LaGuardia and other municipal chiefs testify that congress must not curtail relief spending this year lest city folks go hungry. EUROPE: Peace? History may relate that Edward, duke of Windsor, helped avert a European Eu-ropean war in 1939 when he spoke from Verdun's battlefield "simply as a soldier of the last war" to ask that national leaders "renew their efforts to bring about a peaceful settlement." set-tlement." Windsor's speech gave voice to a whisper already in the wind; within 24 hours the dove could raise its head without risking decapitation: de-capitation: Poland. To stop Germany from seizing Danzig and part of the Polish corridor, Poland needs Russian help. Britain's effort to line up the Soviet were blocked by (1) Prime Minister Chamberlain's wariness, and (2) Polish hesitancy over letting Russian Rus-sian troops cross her soil. Stopping at Warsaw en route home from Turkey, Bulgaria and Rumania, Russia's Vladimar P. Po-temkin, Po-temkin, first assistant foreign commissar, com-missar, had a two-hour conference with Polish Foreign Minister Josef Beck. Upshot was a lessening of Polish suspicion. Next day the Soviet So-viet proposed a four-power (Russia, France, Poland and Britain) mutual assistance pact to safeguard European Euro-pean peace. Reason: Hitler's denunciation de-nunciation of pacts with Poland and Britain have made a new "peace front" imperative. Vatican. Pope Pius XII, himself a one-time ace diplomat, had his papal nuncios to Britain, Poland, France, Italy and Germany invite K ' X !XS VLADIMAR POTEMKIN Polund grmv less suspicious. those nations to a conference over the Polish-German question. Though shunned because (1) anti-Axis nations na-tions feared it would mean a new Munich appeasement conference, and (2) anti-God Russia was not invited to participate in a discussion discus-sion which vitally concerns her, the proposal nevertheless brought one possible ray of hope: Hitler and Mussolini rejected it because they believed the European situation not sufficiently serious to endanger peace. The Vatican thought this might mean Hitler does not intend to precipitate trouble right now. Scandinavia. Foreign ministers of Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden apparently rejected proffered prof-fered non-aggression treaties with Germany. Such pacts are still possible, pos-sible, but by their reluctance Scandinavian Scan-dinavian states remain a bulwark of neutrality which obviously wants no truck with Der Fuehrer. Japan. Often reiterated the past month has been Japan's reluctance to turn its anti-Communist pact with Germany and Italy into a military alliance. Reason: Japan wants no war with democracies, which would inevitably result if a new Russ-Brit-ish-French-Polish entente were to fight Hitler. PEOPLE: Charlie Again One summer day in 1874 curly-headed, curly-headed, four-year-old Charles Ross and his brother were taken for a ride by two men who promised them Fourth of July fireworks. Charlie's brother was found a few days later but Charlie himself was never found despite 23 ransom letters demanding demand-ing $20,000 for his release. The best clue was lost when two burglars were shot five months later on Long Island. One, Joseph Douglas, gasped before he died that his dead partner part-ner had helped him steal Charlie Ross. . Since then hundreds of abandoned children have been identified as Charlie Ross, but this spring a new candidate arose in Gustav Blair, 65-year-old carpenter at Phoenix, Ariz. Blair claimed his traits and appearance appear-ance resembled Charlie Ross. Lincoln Lin-coln C. Miller, whose family reared Blair, testified his (Miller's) father had told him Blair was a kidnaped child, that he had guarded the four-year-old child in a cave. Aiter deliberating eight minutes, a Superior court jury at Phoenix decided de-cided on the basis of this testimony that Charlie Ross had been "found." At 65, the horny handed carpenter looked to radio and film contracts. POLITICS: GOP Liberalism Though U. S. political power swings pendulum-like from conservatism conserv-atism to liberalism and back again, there is a long-run trend to liberalism. liberal-ism. New Deal liberalism will probably prob-ably be followed by Republican conservatism, con-servatism, but no alert Republican believes his party can win by junking' junk-ing' all New Deal reforms and going back to the theories of Coolidge and Hoover days. A good sample of progressive G. O. P. thinking is that of Minnesota's youthful Gov. Harold Stassen who, according to Dr. Glenn Frank of the party's program committee, believes be-lieves something like this: Republicans should accept much of the New Deal's social legislation, first auditing the New Deal's results and soliciting constructive statements state-ments regarding G. O. P. philosophy philoso-phy on political and economic problems. prob-lems. Though believing farmers "are ready to repudiate the New Deal," Mr. Stassen warns that the party cannot favor any individual clique like farm, business or labor groups. Stassen on the 1940 convention: "It is very important that delegates represent genuinely and honestly the sentiment of their states. They should not just be a delegation picked by political bosses. Among them should be some youngsters, some real farmers, real workers." WHITE HOUSE: Plan No. 2 Legalized by the newly passed governmental reorganization bill, President Roosevelt's No. 1 federal shakeup (effective June 24) created new agenciesor public works, lending lend-ing and welfare. Plan No. 2 followed fol-lowed quickly, a roundup of long-misplaced long-misplaced bureaus whose abolition or consolidation the President believes be-lieves will save $1,250,000 yearly. Its most significant feature: Abolition Abo-lition of the unique national emergency emer-gency council and transfer of its major functions to the President. An immense elaboration of ex-Presi dent Hoover's famed "secretariat," NEC has been and will remain a sensitive, nationally organized ears-to-the-ground device whereby the Chief Executive can keep his finger on the public pulse. Its 38 state administrators will probably be retained. re-tained. Its director, Lowell Mellett, will probably be named one of six presidential assistants with a "passion "pas-sion for anonymity." Other changes (with former affiliations affili-ations parenthesized): To COMMERCE: Inland waterways commission (War); to AGRICULTURE: Rural electrification administration (independent); (in-dependent); to JUSTICE: Federal Prison Pris-on Industries, Inc., and national training school for bovs (independent); to NATIONAL NA-TIONAL ARCHIVES: Codification board (independent, to be abolished). To INTERIOR: Coal commission (independent, (in-dependent, to be abolished); bureau of insular affairs (War); bureau of fisheries (Commerce); biological survey (Agriculture), (Agricul-ture), and Mt. Rushmore memorial commission com-mission (independent, to be placed in Interior's In-terior's park service). To STATE: Foreign commerce service serv-ice (Commerce); foreign agricultural service (Agriculture), and foreign service serv-ice buildings commission (independent). To TREASURY: Bureau of lighthouses (Commerce, to be placed under Treasury's Treas-ury's coast guard); director general of railroads and War Finance corporation (independent, both to be dissolved). Expected soon is Plan No. 3, probably shifting jurisdiction over deportable aliens from labor to justice jus-tice departments, and ironing out jurisdictional overlapping concern ing public lands. ASIA: Up the River Twenty-two months ago China's capital was Nanking. Japanese aggression ag-gression pushed it westward up the Yangtze to Hankow, next backward into Szechwan province and the ancient an-cient walled city of Chungking. Playing Play-ing a retreating game, Gen. Chiang Kai-shek knows that the deeper he can draw Japan into his bailiwick, the easier will China's resistance be. I . I . . NANKING ICHENGTU '. ?X? HANKOW . r CHUNGKING f CHINA AND HER CAPITALS Japan is prepared to follow. But Generalissimo Chiang did not expect what happened next. Into Chungking (normally 635,000 population) swarmed 1,500,000 refugees, refu-gees, in itself a grave problem. Then one day 45 Japanese war planes swarmed over Chungking, dropping incendiary bombs and demolitioners, more than 100 in all. When the smoke cleared China could count 5,000 casualties, a ruined capital and temporarily blasted morale. Germany Ger-many and Britain found their embassies em-bassies destroyed. For all concerned it seemed best to move the capital-on-wheels again, this time 150 miles northeast into Chengtu, whose normal nor-mal half million population will automatically au-tomatically double overnight. Peace-loving Chengtu might well regard this official invasion as a death sentence. General Chiang probably hopes an off-the-river capital cap-ital may break his bad luck jinx, but Tokyo thinks otherwise. Despite British protests that Chungking's bombing was purely terroristic and without a definite military objective, Nippon's warriors announced their death planes were prepared to follow fol-low China's capital wherever it may roam. |