Show SEEN HEARD around the national capital rby by CARTER FIELD washington it was just a coincidence that senator couzens introduced his excess profits tax amendment ou on the hecl beels of another blast from father coughlin who happens to be one of couzens most prominent constituents couzens has always believed in high taxes on the rich OCIL rie ile tins has been at tacked many times by tho those who said that ho he had tits his own fortune in tax exempt government bonds and aa was therefore not as unselfish as it might appear in wanting the taxes on big incomes and corporation earnings cu curiously bously enough bernard il 51 car bar rubb so bitterly assailed by father coughlin and apparently with so little information about the only thing thine he had bad right was as to the closeness between gen hugh S johnson and baruch Is 18 also an advocate of high taxes on the rich and on corporations barucho Ha Ba motive Is slightly different from that of couzens the financier Is a fanatic on the subject of balancing the budget ile he ft agrees rees more inore nearly with the economic and fiscal ideas of lewis IV douglas Pou glas former director of the budget than with anyone else in the new deal apal incidentally tits his advice on fiscal affairs his has never been taken though several times asked by the roosevelt administration just before inauguration baruch consulted as were many others about the inaugural address pleaded with the Preg president ident to stress two points and only two stand by the gold standard and bal balance fince the budget the president gave a little lip service for a few months to the idea of balancing the budget but lie he gave the hint that he would not worry about the gold stand ard in the words an adequate but sound currency then went to europe baruch believed in cutting governmental expenses imposing high enough taxes so that receipts wo would uld equal total expenditures and no emergency budget ile he was pleased when his old friend and lieutenant johnson was appointed at the head of NIIA but hid nothing to do with that appointment As a Ti matter of fact he immediately departed for kerope so that it could not be said truthfully that johnson was jost just a mouthpiece for baruch or just acting as his erfa ture this Is not just supposition baruch told old friends the chief reason he be was getting out of the country for a while was to head off just such talk and as a matter of fact it Is no secret that when he be returned to the united states lit li was not too well pleased with the any things had bad gone washington correspondents who have been bran observing the movements of baruch for these many years are rather intrigued at the amount of misinformation fattier father coughlin had ac q about the financier the two mm differ violently on one tremendously important issue inflation Pi inch Is desperately against it 11 Cour Cout courtlin llin blin Is enthusiastically for it IL roosvelt roo Ro orvelt velt stands somewhere between the two roosevelt Is against printing press money lie he Is for devaluation of the grid gold content of the dollar he fie would like ike to see some system for currency worked out not now lint after commodity prices have reached the level he be thinks proper and the chief merit of the system he would like to see would bp be that it would tend to hold commodity prices where lie ho thinks they ought to be so that the purchasing value of eeb crops and the wage earners envelope would be fairly constant coughlin coush lin Is fa for taking a short cut to iner increase se conini commodity nolty prices by printing enough money so that the dollar doll ir would nd no ion longer pr beso valuable banicki baru ell stands firmly by byllie the gold standard stan thank thinking ing both the Re rosevelt and the coughlin plans fantastic anta but cough lins worse than Roosevel ts because the coughlin Cougil ln plan departs just that much further from what bar achre gards as s sound r cotton situation concern about the cotton situation continues to mount in administration and new deal cirtis of all those about it publicly however tho th only robly high official who reilly gives give s anything ake the real getil picture Is daniel G C roper secretary of commerce ili he Is ove one of the few who openly con code ede edethal that the government has tried to maintain the price of cotton at too high a level that tt if held there it Is only a question of time until the rest of the world either finds an acceptable substitute or a new cotton growing area ile he Is one of the alie few who has libia I 1 had the temerity to talk openly about the menace of the new development in brazil one known result of which already Is that certain important english cotton mills milla have altered their looms a most oper operation ailon hence indicating di permanence so as to handle brazilian instead of Arrie american rican secretary of agriculture wallace while le denying vigorously that any change in the cotton program Is antici did not attempt to predict that lint the ahe amount of money the government would loan on a bale of cotton in 1935 would be as great as it has been the amount the government will ill loan will be cut cul in 16 other words the govern ment has slowly but surely been driven to what it now knows Is the necessity of pegging the price of cotton lower than it has been one of the most convincing points in driving tho administration tn f this po 1111 et el anth is 13 not the lie rear fear of a substitute or or of the future development of a now area ami though both of thase are recognized a as b I 1 real enough it Is the he fact that th the rest of the world Is not now buying anything like the normal amount of cotton from the united states more trade treaties coming right on the heels of the collapse of the effort to barter halt half a ini million filon bales of cotton in a deal with germany mostly for blocked marks which would have hid had h id to be expended inside germany for exports the fallins falling off in american cotton exports has given a decided boost to the pressure for more reciprocal trade treaties manufacturers of this country have been warned by secretary roper that in this drive to provide exchange in this country for foreign countries which might buy our cotton and other products they must stand ready to submit to foreign competition it la Is not enough lie he warned to reduce duties on foreign roods goods which do not compete with american factories it Is necessary to admit a very large volume of goods which do compete with ours or else give up all hope of selling our own goods abroad 4 underneath all this pressure Is one particular necessity to provide a foreign market for american cotton oth er things too of course but cotton Is one thing that Is causing the most worry tills this does not mean that the government hopes to continue the present price of cotton by obtaining additional foreign buying it now accepts as a fact that it must reduce the price as part of what hat is necessary to induce endue foreign buying that and provide in some way for foreign purchasing power the last of course Is why the government Is now pressing for reciprocal trade agreements looking to american purchases of more foreign goods the situation has not been much discussed because it Is so unpleasant nobody Is expected to be happy about it not the southern cotton growers for they must look forward to lower prices for their staple not the manufacturers for they must look forward to keener competition and to sacrificing part of the american market to their for foreign n competitors return of prosperity with greater purchasing drig power in america will help the manufacturers for the cotton planters however it would probably spell higher prices for everS everything Lhing they buy business salvage right night under the smoke screen provided by senator fluey long and father coughlin business has eased into washington and run oft off with more salvage than it had thought possible two months ago or even two weeks ago for instance due to an amazing flood of propaganda repeal ot of the plak pink slip publicity for income taxes provision seems assured also the death sentence for utility holding companies has been reprieved to life imprisonment or at least discretion to do so will be reposed la in government agencies also contractors scheduled to be left high and dry whenever possible la in the four billion dollar work relief expenditures tures now find themselves in such satisfactory shape that ahe the construe construction league spokesman for the reconstruction st ruction industry and michael medon ough of the building trades unions join in a statement singing the praises of the presidential proa program while another big group of contractors the road builders are giving a good imitation of a cat with cream on its whiskers and that would not be all if a few more Indu industries stiles wake up to the situation and realize what they have to do to be saved though so far not many have shown indication of so doing for example the railroads with an army of security holders almost as large RS as the utilities have not thought of making a mass attack on individual s senators and represent representatives atties for what they really want regula regulation tiou of trucks and busses but especially trucks they have been very discreet stating their case in pompous arguments and leaning over backward test lest they be suspected of speaking in self interest if they vou ld get their stockholders writing in to the senators and representatives senta tives in whose states and districts the security holders li botev there might be action very quickly how to get results what the railroads sh should learn and what a good many zither other lines of business should learn Is a very simple fact about nebout linw how to get results in washington it Is a fact that was appreciated to the utmost by the anti anu saloon league it Is a fact which has been appreciated tor for the first time this session by the utilities and a fact spectacularly demonstrated by the forces fighting now tor for repeal of income tax publicity the fact is that the average senator tired and representative can be affected only by backfires back fires from tits his own state or district the average senator f for example Is no more interested to in a referendum by the national chamber of commerce on some piece of legislation than he Is in 1 a treatise on why the ancient As syrians did not drink whisky instead of wine probably not so much rut but lie he does care and tremendously if half a dozen of the very manufacturers who voted in that referendum send him film strong personal person il letters and wires if the lo in question live in that senators seni tors state slate and if they induce a lot of their friends to join the clamor the senator seeks light as a rule very quickly copyright service |