Show news review of current 3 events the world over secretary roper offers plan for big tp cut in commerce department expenses congress 0 tackles lei le legislation I S lat ion for relief of small home owners S SECRETARY of commerce roper has laid before president roosevelt a plan to make drastic reductions la in the expense of his department which has long been pointed to as an outstanding example of the extravagant bureaucracy reau cracy of washing mr roper proposes to slash the ex expenditures of the commerce department from in the current year to in the next fiscal year a secretary reduction of roper or 42 per cent if the report Is approved and secretary roper Is successful in operating his department at such a saving it Is believed lie he will proportionately far outdistance in economy promotion tiny any of the other departments the secretary plans to consolidate many activities of the department and to abandon others the figure of which he be proposes spending in the 1934 fiscal year beginning next july 1 Is not only 42 per cent under the 1933 figure but it Is nearly dearly under the actual appropriations made for 1934 by the last congress the appropriation bills carry an expenditure of for the lie commerce department part ment in 1934 this Is the first time in the history of the govern government mew according to secretary roper that an administration has suggested it Is not wise or safe gate to use money which congress itself has appropriated but he be dc fl dared that the administration intended to carry out faithfully its campaign pledges of economy mr roper plans to establish six bureaus to take over the work heretofore done by ten the six bureaus will be the transportation patents ic census it aares fisheries and foreign and domestic commerce the bureau of transportation will embody a supervision of the government over all forms of transportation land air and water the roper plan contemplates merging under one subordinate to become the new assistant secretary of commerce for transportation supervision over the interstate commerce commission and the activities of the united states shipping board the agriculture departments bureau of weather and public roads the federal radio commission the commerce departments bureau of aeronautics geodetic survey lighthouses and navigation steamboat inspection the war departments inland waterways corporation the naval observatory and the national advisory committee for aeronautics HE ambitious scheme conceived T THE by president roosevelt to make the tennessee river valley the scene of an industrial economical and social experiment has been laid before congress in iii a brief message mr Roosevel ts hope Is to demonstrate in the tennessee valley that great economic changes tor for the better can be made by conserving and developing natural resources such use if envisioned in its entirety norris said the prossen ident in ills his me message asage transcends mere power development it enters the wide field of flood control soil erosion elimination from agricultural use of marginal lands and distribution trib ution and diversification of industry in n short this power development of war days leads logically to national planning for a complete river watershed involving many states and the future lives and welfare of millions it tow tombes aps bps and gives life to all forms of human concerns 1 I therefore suggest to the congress legislation to in create a tennessee valley a corporation clothed with the power of gun but possessed of the flexibility and initiative of a private enterprise it should be barged with the broadest duty of planning for the pr arwe We e conservation and develop I 1 avi me aft r f the natural resources of the T bessee river drainage basin and 1 its adjoining territory tor for the general 1 social and economic welfare of tile the nation this authority should also be clothed with the necessary power to carry these plans into effect 11 the presidents president plan includes the running of electric power into every farm to control crop productions to build dams dains and promote forestation tore station projects in the interest of relieving unemployment ment it Is a tar far reaching plan which will take years to work out but it if a plan Is agreed upon and it appears successful even before it is fully tried out the president expects to apply sli similar nilar projects to otiler other river valleys of the nation to carry out the presidents scheme Seli senator ator norris of 0 Ne nebraska braka introduced in the senate a bill for or government operation of the huge hug ge wartime war time pomar and nitrate plant at muscle shoals which to date has cost the american taxpayers some in the house a bill similar to the norris bill was introduced by representative Bf cSwain democrat of south carolina ELIEF for small home owners who R RELIEF are staggering under of mortgage debts Is asked by president roosevelt in a special message to congress bills with that end in view were introduced in both houses in his message the president laid down a new national policy to protect owners of homes valued at not more than from foreclosure and excessive interest rates as the next step in his program for economic recovery the proposed legislation would set up the home owners loan corporation to be organized and operated by the federal home loan bank board tor for the direct and immediate delici relief of small owners and holders of small home mortgages the corporation would have a capital of subscribed by the treasury and would be authorized to issue 4 per cent bonds up to these bonds would be exchanged for mortgages on homes not exceeding in value up to 80 per cent of the property value home owners would pay 5 per cent interest to the corporation with fifteen years to pay off the loan A special provision Is made for a moratorium not exceeding three years on interest and principal payments direct loans up to 80 per cent ot of the assessed value of thel the I 1 property may be made by the corporation to home owners if the property Is not otherwise encumbered SECRETARY of the treasury woodin has laid down the law to the new york clearing house composed of twenty of the biggest banks in the city he has told the clearing house banks in diplomatic language that they must keep their word and make good the deposits of the narriman national bank and trust company now in the hands of a federal conservator the pressure brought by woodin it Is ex pecked will cost the sectary secretary y woodin clearing house banks in the vicinity of the firm stand of the secretary was made known simultaneously with the arraignment in court of joseph W harriman former chairman and president of the bank bearing his name sir mr harraman Harrl man ill since his arrest was brought into court in a wheel chair the indictment charges that he caused false entries to be made in the banks books covering the use of of the depositors money for speculation in the banks stock secretary Won dins action Is based on a pledge given to the controller of the treasury at a time when the bank was in financial difficulties that the clearing house would support the bank have been hied filed with the P united states senate from citizens of louisiana demanding the removal of nuey huey P long as senator from that state the petitions accuse the senator of personal dishonesty and corruptness the petitioners petition ers assorted asserted they could furnish witnesses to establish long was personally dishonest corrupt and immoral and added longs continuance in office is repulsive to the respectable and law abiding citizens of louisiana and to the catl nation 0 n they contended among other things that long had created and maintained in louisiana a system of corruption and debauchery UD unparalleled paralleled in the history of the state Fw legislation for a 30 hour working week in industry was assured when the administration placed itself squarely behind the measure the bill has already passed th the e senate and it Is expected to be quickly approved by the house and signed by the president the bill regarded as one of the most radical labor measures to win vilo the administration support provides in its present form that for an emergency period of two years no articles may be received in interstate inter state shipment which have been manufactured or produced by labor working more than six hours in any day or more than five days in any week BY 13 Y A vote of 09 90 to 1 I constitutional convention went on record as aa favoring the abolition othe eighteenth amendment and so ml achl gan lias has the distinction of being the first state to ratify the twenty first or amendment submitted by congress con there were great cheers and hand clapping when the roll was called on the ratification of the twenty first amendment the lone dry vote was cast by eugene davenport of hastings barry county former dean of the college of agriculture of the university of illinois on the tarm farm relief bill was A ACTION delayed by a controversy aroused over the simpson price fixing plan which has been written into the administration bill this developed at a time when the roosevelt program tor for increasing the farmers income and lining the burden ot of mortgages was bumping along on a rough road sprinkled with demands for currency expansion as a means of restoring agriculture the mortgage section of the administration bill to Is almost certain to have the approval of the house in anticipation of the passage of the bill henry chairman of the federal farm board Is getting his department fully prepared to speed the actual application of the relief some delays in putting into effect all the credit relief facilities planned by president roosevelt and mr will be occasioned by reason of the fact that the consolidation order under which the president joined all farm farin credit activities become effective for a period of abo about lit six bix weeks but mr has reached out into ane other agencies which soon will come under his head and as soon as the credit bill becomes law he exa ex pacts to bring about a prompt organization of the work of issuing 4 per cent bonds to be exchanged tor for the present farm mortgages averaging higher than 6 ca per cent president roosevelt Is reported to be firmly of the opinion that the biggest help that can be given to the farmers at this time Is a loosening of their credit once the farmers debts are erased debts contracted when land values were high and crop prices up it may not be necessary in the opinion of many of the administration advisers outside the group controlled by secretary of agriculture wallace to resort to price fixing and allotment schemes to help the farmer 2 CENT postal rate within cities aa A retaining the 3 cent rate tor for ter postage Is recommended la in a plan for balancing the post office budget submitted to president roosevelt by postmaster general farley it Is mr air Far parleys leys hope that by increased postal revenues and a program of economy to balance the budget which at the present rate Is running into an annual deficit of the postmaster general said he be had received rec elved opinions that it if the postal rate Is cut the volume of business will be so restored as to yield greatly increased revenues and he added that some advisers felt that a flat 2 cent letter postal rate over the country would bring in enough revenue to balance the postal budget the postmaster general also dis dl closed a study Is being made on whether the department shall continue the heretofore somewhat farcical practice of giving examinations to I 1 first arst and second class postmasters alost EDUCATION literature and religion lost one of its most distinguished leaders in the death of dr henry van dyke wartime war time ambassador to the netherlands and luxemburg lie ile died in his sleep at avalon his home in princeton N J he was eighty years year of age dr van dyke had succeeded as one of his friends said as poet crigle es samist novelist educator lecturer fisher man dr van dyke resigned his diplomatic post in 1917 so that he might say what he thought about the world war holding degrees from several american universities he also had bad been honored by oxford and the university of geneva ile he was commander of the legion of honor had been president of the national institute of arts and letters was moderator of the general assembly of the presbyterian church in america in 1902 1901 2 2 and 1903 and from 1900 to 1923 held the chair of english literature at princeton university THE T 1113 immense importance attached to the washington conference by the british Is indicated in the personnel of the party ac compani compan ing premier Bl macdonald acDonald no more important group of british officials has ever gone abroad and it Is evident that much Is expected from the meeting between the VZ british prime minister find and president roosevelt the chief delegate after macdonald him self is 13 sir Pren bremler Pr emler riler robert obert macdonald permanent undersecretary of the foreign office sir robert Is the permanent chief of the foreign office no matter what foreign secretaries cone come and go and all the threads of british diplomacy are in his hands ile he knows america well his first wife having boon been an american the next member of the party Is sir frederick leithross leith ross treasury expert who has represented great britain at all financial meetings for some years the third member Is A E overton assistant secretary of the board of trade whose specialty Is tariffs and international nat national loal trade relations P PRESIDENT RESIDENT ROOSEVEL TS indita inalta tion to japan to join the trade and political conferences in washington has cause caused a complete change in the attitude of japan toward america practically oi overnight er night friends of america ica express jubilation seeing the first ray ort of hope for the return of relations between the two nations to the friendly state existing before the mukden incident on september 18 1931 1031 japan not only Is gladly accepting the invitation but the question la Is being made of the greatest importance 0 1933 western newspaper union |