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Show News Review of Current Events the World Over New Tax Program Stirs Hot Debate Black's Seizure of Telegrams Norris Dam Is Completed Italo-Eihiopian Peace Draws Nearer. By EDWARD W. PICKARD Western Newspaper Union. pOXfiRKSSMAN SAM B. HILL ' "f Washington and his subcommittee subcom-mittee of the house ways and means committee took up the heavy task f vpecr" of determining how i-'"k.-4 I "ie new revenue ; " ' of .$1,137,000,000 t, . called for by Presl- , 4 dent Roosevelt : - - V?f should be raised. - j Treasury ollicials ''s,? j recommended that 4 I an average tax of i, 1 3 3 per cent should be levied L -L. on undivided cor- Rep. S. B. Poratlon pronta rHjn and a tax of 90 per cent on all refunded refund-ed or unpaid AAA processing taxes. Jn this the fiscal experts followed the suggestions of Mr. Roosevelt. They told the subcommittee that the proposed corporation surplus tax would yield the government $020,000,000 annually. The President Presi-dent has estimated that this amount will he needed to finance the new farm program and the soldier bonus. The so-called "windfall" tax on processors who successfully challenged chal-lenged the AAA in the courts, It was believed, would yield another $200,000,000. This will be used to reimburse the treasury for losses suffered as a result of the Supreme court's invalidation of AAA. There remains an additional $317,000,000 which It Is proposed to raise through excise taxes on a wide range of farm processors. Chairman Hill said the experts and the members of the subcommittee subcommit-tee were agreed that the tax on undivided surplus should not apply to banks and life Insurance companies. com-panies. There was wide divergence of opinion concerning this tax among leaders in congress. Senator James Hamilton Lewis of Illinois, Democrat, Demo-crat, for Instance, declared himself against it as an unnecessary additional addi-tional burden on business, and indicated in-dicated he would support, Instead, a plan to tax the Income from federal fed-eral securities now exempt. Senator Sen-ator Borah, Republican, said that in principle he endorsed the plan of taxing undistributed earnings, while Senator Hastings of Delaware, Dela-ware, also Republican, denounced it as "confiscatory." Senator King of Utah, Democrat, and Representative Represen-tative Knutson of Minnesota, Republican, Re-publican, were moved by the program pro-gram to demand immediate cutting down of federal expenditures, and in this Mr. Borah concurred. Speaker Speak-er Joseph W. Bryns and Majority Leader W. B. Bankhead professed to see no difficulties in the way of the proposed measure. One thing that boosted the chances of the President's tax program pro-gram was a report from Secretary of Commerce Roper that corporation corpora-tion income In l!)3n was 300 per cent higher than In 1032. IN THE course of his probe Into the affairs of enemies of the New Deal, Senator Black of Alabama, chairman of the lobby committee, assumed the right to seize and examine ex-amine their private telegrams, and thus his investigation was carried Into the courts. Silas Strawn, Chicago Chi-cago attorney, learned the committee commit-tee was about to subpoena his telegrams tele-grams and he obtained a temporary injunction blocking such action. He has asked the District of Columbia Supreme court to make this injunction injunc-tion permanent. The wholesale examination of telegrams tel-egrams was attacked by Representative Represen-tative Wadsworth of New York, and defended by Senator Black. "It strikes me," Wadsworth said, "that we have reached a strange stage In the development of democracy democ-racy when private correspondence can be seized without court procedure pro-cedure or search warrant." Black said : "Repeatedly It has been held that the senate can call for what it pleases. There appears to have been a concerted effort by those who seek to influence legislation legis-lation behind the scenes, through subterranean channels, to prevent Tis from getting evidence." It was reliably reported in Washington Wash-ington that the federal communications communica-tions commission, which has jurisdiction juris-diction over telegraph companies, has seized millions of telegrams from the Western Union and Postal Post-al Telegraph companies and turned them over to the Black committee. ON THE third anniversary of his inauguration President Roosevelt Roose-velt pushed an electric key in the White House which set in motion machinery that closed the sluice gates of the Norris dam in the Tennessee Ten-nessee Valley project. This signalized signal-ized the completion of that part of The vast work on the Clinch river. "I hope as many people as can will go to see the Norris dam In eastern Tennessee," the President said In a formal statement. "It ex-nmplllies ex-nmplllies great engineering skill, high construction ellicivncy, and, above all, it Is the key to the carefully care-fully worked out control of a great river and Its water spread over parts of seven states. "The Norris dam is a practical symbol of better life and greater opportunity for millions of citizens of our country. The nation has come to realize that national resources re-sources must not be wasted and the Norris dam is evidence that our program pro-gram for conservation of these resources re-sources is going forward." OENATOR BORAH and Senator Van Nuys of Indiana, the latter a Democrat, introduced a bill directed di-rected against certain practices of the chain stores. The measure would make it unlawful for any person engaged in commerce to grant any discount, rebate, allowance allow-ance or advertising service charge to a purchaser over that available to the purchasers' competitors. It also would prohibit sales "at prices lower than those exacted by said person elsewhere In the United States for the purpose of destroying destroy-ing competition or eliminating a competitor." Co-operative associations would be exempted from provisions of the measure. Violators would be subject sub-ject to a $5,000 fine and a one-year jail sentence. The so-called Robinson - Patman anti-monopoly bill, also aimed at chain stores, will be passed by the senate before very long, according accord-ing to a promise made by Senator Robinson to a mass meeting of 1,500 independent merchants who went to Washington to lobby for the measure. meas-ure. This bill legislates against special prices, rebates, advertising allowances and brokerage fees giving giv-ing sales advantage to chain stores. THROUGH its committee of thirteen thir-teen the League of Nations appealed ap-pealed to Benito Mussolini and Emperor Em-peror Haile Selassie to consent to , , immediate negotia-gM-Siy tions for an end to hostilities and a definite re:estab-s re:estab-s 1 lishment of Italo-. Italo-. Ethiopian peace. ' " i Though considera-?s considera-?s tion of the propos-- propos-- i 'J a' Dy "is cabinet council was delayed L- a few days, Mus- J solini, according to advices from Rome, Giuseppe wag disposed t0 ac. Motta quiesce provided territory In Ethiopia already occupied occu-pied by Italy is considered hers and left out of the negotiations. Haile Selassie accepted the proposal pro-posal without reservation. In recent re-cent days his armies in the northern north-ern sector have been routed In big battles and have lost many thousands thou-sands of men, and the Italians have penetrated far toward the Interior of the country; and in the South the invaders were preparing for a rapid advance. Back of the league's appeal was the standing threat of extension of sanctions to include an embargo on oil. This suddenly brougnt about a situation rather disconcerting for the league. Dr. Giuseppe Motta, Swiss foreign minister, gave a warning that if the oil embargo was applied his country might feel it necessary to leave the league in order to preserve pre-serve its neutrality if the consequent conse-quent threatened war In Europe resulted. re-sulted. Motta pointed out that if Italy quit the league and hostilities ensued, Switzerland, through her membership in the league, would appear in Italian eyes as a party to a hostile coalition, and would be subject to invasion, by Italy on one side and perhaps by Germany on the other. BRITAIN'S government evidently believes another war is coming, and Intends to be well prepared. It made public a gigantic program for increases in the army, navy and air forces and for swift mobilization of man power and industry. No official cost estimate was given out, but authorities said the total over a three-year period would be not less than a half billion dollars. The program pro-gram Includes these features: Army Four new battalions of infantry in-fantry are planned. All units are to be mobilized, mechanized, and re-equipped. Especial attention will be paid coastal and anti-aircraft defenses. de-fenses. Navy Two new battleships next year and an increase In cruiser strength from 50 to 70, with five new ones to be luld down this year. Naval personnel also will be increased in-creased by 0,000, a new aircraft carrier will be constructed, and the air arm of the navy will be strengthened. Air Force About 2.10 new war planes will be added to the home defense squadrons, bringing the total to-tal to 1,750. Twelve new air squadrons squad-rons for Imperial defense that is, air forces available for transfer to danger areas will be added, an! more pilots will be recruited. JAPAN was calming down after the amazing revolt and attempted attempt-ed coup cle' etut of a thousand soldiers sol-diers led hy a group of young "fascist" officers who thought the Okada government was hampering the military progress of the nation. So far as can be judged at this distance, dis-tance, the net results of the uprising upris-ing were: Admiral Viscount Makoto Saito, former premier and lord keeper of the privy seal; Korekiyo Takahashi, minister of finance, and Gen. Jotaro Watanabe, chief of military mil-itary education, were assassinated by the rebels. Premier Okada escaped es-caped death, his brother-in law being be-ing mistaken for him and slain. The mutineers, threatened by loyal troops and the fleet, obeyed an edict by Emperor Hirohito and surrendered. surren-dered. Of their 23 leaders, two committed suicide and the rest w.jre put in prison to await probable trial by court martial. The Immediate concern of Emperor Em-peror Hirohito and his advisers was the selection of a man for premier who could form a new government that would satisfy the various parties. par-ties. First Prince Fumimaro Kon-oye, Kon-oye, young president of the house of peers, was asked to undertake this task, but he declined on the ground of voor health. Then the choice of tiie emperor fell upon Koki Hirota, a moderate who Is well known in both the United States and Russia. Hirota at once began picking out his ministers, saying: "My cabinet will be composed com-posed of young, able statesmen." Hirota's selection was taken to mean that the emperor has determined deter-mined to proceed with the modernization modern-ization of the country, and to exercise ex-ercise his power to rule instead of permitting himself to be the exalted ex-alted agent of military overlords. MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM WEIGEL, retired, one of the army's most reliable commanders, died in the army hospital on Governors island at the age of seventy-two. He served 44 years, through Indian campaigns, in the Spanish-American war and in the Philippines, and went to France in the World war as a captain. He was rapidly promoted promot-ed through grades, to brigadier general gen-eral on August 15, 1917, and to major ma-jor general on August 8, 191S, when he was given command of the Eighty-eighth division, a new national na-tional army unit which he trained and took overseas. Previously he had commanded the Fifty-sixth brigade, bri-gade, Twenty-eighth division, a Pennsylvania outfit, at Chateau-Thierry. Chateau-Thierry. The brigade crossed the Marne and captured Epid and Cour-poil. Cour-poil. From July 4 to September 5, 1918, General Weigel was continuously continu-ously under fire. He - led the Eighty-eighth division in the final days of the war, taking part in all the operations In the Toul sector and beyond. liDEMEJIEEIl the Alamo," the battle cry of Texas, was heard all ovpr the state as its centennial cen-tennial celebration opened at the village of Washington-on-the-Bra-zos, where the declaration of independence inde-pendence from Mexico was signed. The old "charter of empire" was taken there from Its place in the state capitol rotunda in Austin and Gov. James V. Allred of Texas and Gov. Philip LaFollette of Wisconsin Wis-consin went along to take part in the ceremonies. The party then went to Huntsville, where Gen. Sam Houston gathered an army of Texans to fight the Mexicans, and there Gov. Hill McAllster of Tennessee Ten-nessee made the address. San Antonio An-tonio and other cities followed on the progra"hi, and the celebrations will continue for months, reaching a climax in the opening of June (i of the centennial exposition at Dallas. IMMEDIATELY after President Roosevelt signed I he new soil conservation-farm relief act passed to take the place of the Invalidated AAA, Admlnistra- lor Chester C. Da-0fi Da-0fi '".;s v's began p I a n- fpi: :1 ways to spend ; $500.0K),000 author- Wfp 'i lzfil1- Under his or- , t i ilers more limn five (' j ' Ihousand employees t , of the AAA who hail been waiting 4 ' ' ' since January 6 for ;: something to do got. "c". C.' Davis ' hUSy l'laclDg .tl,e new program inlo effect. The goal of the new law, Mr. Roosevelt said In announcing his signature. Is parity, not of farm prices but of farm income. lie said the New Deal has "not abandoned and will not abandon" the principle of equality for agriculture. Davis planned, as the first move, a series of four conferences wilh agricultural leaders In Memphis, Chicago, New York and Halt Lake City 10 formulate plans to take 30,-000,000 30,-000,000 acres out of commercial production this year and place them In legumes and other soil conserving con-serving crops. THE federal reserve board announced an-nounced a big shake-up that will lerminate the services of six regional bank chairmen, effective April 30. The men to be dropped are Eugene M. Stevens, Chicago; F. 11. Curtiss, Boston; J. II. CaTe, New York; It. L. Austin. Philadelphia; Philadel-phia; J. S. Wood, St Louis; anil C. C. Walsh, Dallas. Three present chairmen were ties-ignated ties-ignated fo continue until December 31. They are E. S. Burke. Jr., Cleveland; II. W. Martin. Atlanta; and W. B. Gerry, Minneapolis. |