Show news review of current events the world over administrations billion dollar housing bill introduced epidemic of sit down striker St townsand Town convicted of contempt of house u by EDWARD W PICKARD vi gestern Ne stern newspaper un on SENATOR ROBERT F WAGNER u of new york and representative henry B of alabama intro deuced simultaneously in the senate and house the ad ministration bill set ting up a program for the construction of homes for cami lies of low income under the measure the government may lend to state or local housing authorities 1000 1 from july 1 1937 to july 1 1941 the money sen wagner for ov this purpose to be raised by bond issues and the loans to be supervised by a new department the united states hous ing mg authority to supplement the loans congress is asked to ap ate 50 to be paid in out right grants the loans are to bear interest at not less than the going federal rate and are to be payable over such a period not to exceed 60 years as the authority may determine competition with private indest industry ry is guarded against according to the authors by insuring that housing projects shall be at all times avail able only to families who are in the low income groups the four year program calls for the construction of family dwelling units at an average cost of 4 a unit wagner and insisted that the bill called for decentralization all the direction planning and management in connection with publicly assisted housing projects are to be vested in local authorities springing from the initiative of the people in the communities con berned they stated the federal government will merely extend its financial aid through the medium of these agencies the only exception to the strictly decentralized admin is that the federal govern merit may set up a few demon stra tive projects in order that local areas without adequate instrument ms ins tali ties of their own may benefit by an experience in low rent housing H I virtually countenanced the sit down strike in the case of the general motors contro controversy versy the administration found itself em barr assed by that favorite ma heuver of john lewis committee for industrial organization out in monica calif about employees of the douglas air craft corporation went on strike and sat down in the big plant corn plemely stopping work on 24 worth of airplanes the company is building for the government the men defied a trespass warning and an order to evacuate the plant sent them by the police and mr doug las refused to negotiate with the union until the strikers got out of the buildings the situation was complicated by a quarrel over worker representation between the automobile workers union a C 1 I 0 group and the machinists union allied with the A F of L finally the strikers were indicted for conspiring to violate two old california laws against forcible en try and trespassing tres passing and when armed deputies appeared at the plant they surrendered and were taken to los angeles for arraign ment another big government job was halted for a time by a sit down strike of employees of the electric boat company at groton conn which is building submarines for the navy there however the local and state police soon evicted the trespassers and arrested them and the rest of the employees a large majority resumed work speaking not as an officer of the administration secretary of corn merce daniel C roper said that any sit down strike that under takes to take over private proper ty is a very serious and fundament fun damen tal thing and in my opinion will not be long endured by the courts there was almost an epidemic of strikes throughout the country many of them of the sit down van vari ety some were settled in short order but others are still on at this writing among these was the strike at the fansteel metallurgical cor horation po ration in north chicago where the disgruntled workers refused to leave the plant gov henry hor tier was striving earnestly to bring about a settlement john L lewis threat during the general motors strike that I 1 ford and chrysler are next is being carried out the united automobile workers union sent to walter P chuyler demands that the U A W be recognized by his corporation as the sole collective bargaining agency OPEN warfare by the govern ment merit on private power inter ests will be started soon if the rec commendations of president roose velt to congressional leaders are acted upon favorably in letters to vice president garner and speaker bankhead the president urged that prompt action be taken to provide for the sale of electric power from the 51 bonne ville project on the columbia river in oregon arid he intimated this might be taken as the forerunner of a national power policy the rec commendations were in accord with a report from the committee on na dional power policy and also with the position mr roosevelt took in the controversy with dr arthur E morgan TVA chairman who fa bored operation cooperation with existing power companies and consideration for their investment here is what the president pro posed 1 that not less than 50 per cent of the power generated at bonne ville be reserved for sale to public authorities such as states districts counties municipalities and other sub divisions and to operative cooperative co as of citizens 2 that the government construct it own transmission lines sub sta eions and other facilities for trans porting power so as to make the government project independent of existing utility companies 3 that the federal government control the re sale rates to colsum ers through regulation by the fed eral power commission 4 that the power be sold at rates low enough to promote the widest use of electrical energy par ticul arly to domestic and rural consumers these rates the dent insisted should be fixed with relation to only that part of the to tal 51 bonneville investment that the government saw fit to charge to power generation 5 that the federal agency ad ministering the project be author iced to acquire by eminent domain if need be land franchis s exist mg ing transmission lines R FRANCIS E E TOWNSEND athe the elderly californian who de the old age pension plan bearing his name was found guilty of contempt of the house of re presenta lives tives because he re fused to testify before a house corn cittee that was in vesti gating h his i s scheme last spring and took a walk out of the commit tee room the ver diet rendered by a ury jury in the district dr townsend of columbia court made the doctor li able to a sentence of one to twelve years in jail or a fine of from to 1000 or both judge peyton gordon deferred sentence until he could pass on a motion for a new trial townsend seemed rather to wel come the verdict saying he had expected it lord bless you III be all the more active he said when asked what effect a condic tion would have on his movement I 1 think it will be the general ion that I 1 have been the victim of an injustice our organization will be spurred to greater efforts FOLLOWING the example set by 1 the five operating railway broth engineers firemen con doctors trainmen and switchmen the sixteen non operating brother hoods with a membership of have voted to demand wage in creases averaging 30 cents an hour this action was taken at a meeting in chicago of the general chair men of the brotherhoods besides the pay increase the men ask the guarantee of full time employment for all regularly assigned worker and two thirds time for standby employees the non operating brotherhoods embrace the clerks telegraphers carmen shop laborers machinists blacksmiths dispatchers boiler makers drop forgers sheet metal workers electrical workers freight handler express and station em maintenance of way men signal men and sleeping car con doctors p LANS for the complete blockade I 1 of spain by the other european powers in order to starve out the civil wa met with difficulties ow ing to the bringing up of points in m evolving the national honor of france and ru russia ruia ia the french made certain objections to the land patrol and the russians to the sea patrol the spanish loyalists were mak mg ing a desperate effort to capture oviedo where the insurgent garn garri son was attacked by dynamite throwing basques the defenders numbering about 12 men were hard pressed and it seemed im possible that relief forces could reach the city in time to save them in the madrid sector too the rebels were getting the worst of it for the government forces were about ready to make a mass assault on Pin hill from which the franco artillery has been shelling s e madrid valencia road IN N ORDER to curb unwarranted speculation by members all securities exchanges are asked to adopt certain regulations suggested by the securities and exchange corn mission the proposed rules would put exchange members on the same trading ba bais is as the general public they would have to put up the 55 per cent margin required of other securities purchasers and would be required to do this by 5 p in of the day of purchases in announcing the commission commissions s step chairman james M landis told reporters thib procedure is in accordance with a plan of the commission to agne the exchanges the opportunity to regulate the trading activities of their own members thi thic course which has been adopted by the corn mission on previous ons will allow greater flexibility in the ad ministration of the rules and will permit minor adaptations to the va r ous exigencies of individual vidual ex changes while the responsibility tor for the enforcement of these rules will thua thu lie with the exchanges the cammi sion will observe both their enforcement and their ef festiveness CHAIRMAN HENRY F ASHURST of arizona gathered together the members of his judiciary corn cittee and began formal consider aaion of president roosevelt s tion for federal ju reform i in n C eluding luding the packing oyve of the supreme court it was under war stood the committee would arrange tor for t t public hearings a t i t w which h i c h opponents V and proponents proponent of the plan would b e sen ashurst privileged to speak their minds not long before mr ashurst and several other senators were called to the white house to discuss the strategy of the fight the administration faces the arizona senator and majority leader joe robinson of arkansas who was among the conferees only recently were vociferous in declaring a con amendment was the only proper way to accomplish the pres ident s purpose but now they are obediently supporting the adami measure senators frazier of north dakota bone of washington and nye of north dakota also were summoned to the white house but what they heard there did not change their stand against the president presidents s plan mr nye indeed soon after de livered a radio address against it he did not especially defend the supreme court but aid caid he thought there are better ways of attaining the objective in conformity to the constitution than the way of packing the court proposed by mr roose velt ex president herbert hoover in an address before the union league club of chicago uttered solemn warning that the president presidents s plan was a serious threat against the ultimate safeguard of liberty and condemned any uch quick and revolutionary change in the con ution at this writing 42 senators have declared against the bill 32 are on record for it and the rest have not committed themselves the ad ministration leaders expected to pick up at least 12 from the non committal group and claimed more G WINANT who as chair john J man of the social security board had a lot of trouble with certain senators over patronage and whose reappointment to membership on the board had not been confirmed by t the h e 1 senate sent his res ignation i g n a 11 n to the president mr roosevelt said mr win ant was retiring to attend to pressing private business and would be back in the federal service be fore very long the arthur J former governor of altmeyer AIt meyer new hampshire lias has been considered a logical candida e for the post of secretary of social welfare if that department is created by congress succeeding mr winant as chair man is arthur J altmeyer AIt meyer already a member of the board to fill the vacancy in the membership the president nominated murray W latimer of new york 0 to make peace with v the chinese communists against whom it has waged war for ten years the national government at announced the terms on which those red would be allowed participation in national affairs the s demands are tion of the communist army and its incorporation in the national go gov forces dissolution of the chinese communist state and its unification with the central govern ment merit cessation of red propaganda opposed to principles and stoppage of the class struggle which divides society into ant antagonist anta goms agonis tic classes and invites mutual de st ruction that the government is steadily growing stronger is made evident in the more conciliatory at adopted lately by japan A spokesman for hayashi Hayas his s new cab met inet in tokio indicated japan was willing to abate its demands for simultaneous settlement of all pend ing sino japanese incie indents ants a ana n a negotiate ep arate settlements toi for each |