Show weekly news analysis AsiaS ysis has britain ceased appeasing paris has reason to doubt it by joseph W la bine i EDITORS NOT EWhen when opia ons are expressed in these columns they are those of the sews news analyst sad and not necessarily of 0 the newspaper europe at rome british prime minister neville chamberlain had received no reassurances but merely benito mussolini s threat to end the span ish war immediately by felpi helping ng rebels against loyalists that done 11 II duce would have his hands free to press mediterranean territorial demands against france england and france could choose between helping the loyalists or keeping hands off and letting mussolini win the war since chamberlain had reportedly made no concession in rome it was first thought a new policy of non appeasement was dawning inferring a franco british plump for the loyalists but within a few days some nega tive results of the home rome conversa eions were apparent back in lon don mr chamberlain paid no at to a letter from clement R attlee parliament parliaments s labor leader it is obvious that the policy of non intervention in spam spain has now be LABOR S CLEMENT ATILEE ATTLEE mr chamberlain ignored his teller letter come the means of insuring that the spanish loyalist government shall be unable to provide for its defense against aggression by a foreign power in pans paris where first news of chamberlain chamberlains s alleged non appease ment was greeted by demands for french assistance to loyalist spam spain as a self defense measure later news from london brought a cool ing off the whispers that cham chain had secretly agreed with mussolini to let rebel spain win constituting an additional appease ment at the expense of france whatever the cause the pans paris chamber of deputies felt obliged to approve foreign minister georges bonnets declaration decreeing hands off in spain meanwhile despite disastrous losses in northeastern catalonia spam spain s loyalists felt their cause was not defeated authoritatively reported from pans paris was the fact that loyalists had reached an un ferstanding der standing with the vatican aided by a growing catholic opinion that rebel generalissimo francisco franco may be using the religious issue merely as a cloak for his fun da mental fascist aims Ne e less loyalist spain still has much weaker friends than general fran co who continues to get aid from both italy and germany pressing their current advantage berlin and rome are hastening diplomatic victories in the east before britain gets around to calling a new four power conference for european peace while italy s county gal leazo ciano visits in and warsaw germany is making hay in at least three eastern countries 1 A 60 credit agreement has been signed with turkey for de livery of german manufactured goods 2 germany has accredited a minister to saudi arabia 3 hun gary and germany have tightened their bonds J agriculture when commodity prices drop U S farmers operating cooperating in the AAA crop control program receive parity payments designed to maintain farm purchasing power under the first AAA parity payments came from processing taxes later out cawed by the supreme court un der the second AAA parity pay ments merely increase the federal deficit since last winter s congress made no provision for them this shortcoming was brought to con gress attention in president roose velt s recent budget message but even the president has failed to suggest means of financing the payments having merely stipulated that no new taxes shall be levied which increase the consumers bur den processing taxes would do this but secretary of agriculture henry A wallace favors pulling this trick from the bag once more hop ing a liberalized supreme court will approve the idea secretary of the treasury henry whose department must handle the deal opposes processing taxes il cannot agree on a meano method of financing cur rent parity payments of congress is in no mood to take the initiative it may well be that this indecision is responsible for re vival of last year years s acad mcadoo oo 00 eicher farm bill just reintroduced in house and senate respectively by north dakota dakotas s rep william lemke and sen lynn J frazier its crux minimum cost of production price levels would be established for do mystically consumed farm prod acts while all surplus products would be dumped on world markets for whatever they would bring pro ceede less marketing costs would be returned to the farmer cost of production critics argue that removal of crop restrictions would glut the market drive prices down and force grain dealers to pay a large margin between the actual market price and the cost of prodoc tion price this margin it is main tamed would eventually be assessed against the consumer taxation two former U S treasury secre tanes andrew W mellon and og den L mills condemned the in equity of tax exempt federal state and local bonds since his soak the rich revenue proposal of 1935 president roosevelt has fought tax exempt securities and one other un popular exemption that on federal state and local employees salaries if these exemptions could be abol dished the U S government figures it would net eventually annually from government ties plus 16 from employ ees income taxes one day before the president of this program to cong congress ress in a special message he sent treas ury undersecretary john W hanes to pave the way before a special senate committee said mr hanes the time for action has come the constitution s sixteenth amendment gives congress power to lay and collect taxes on incomes from whatever source derived therefore the administration thinks statutory enactment rather than constitutional amendment will suf fice later after congress has ken the courts can decide whether its action is constitutional argued mr hanes tax exempt securities now per mit many large income persons to escape income taxes entirely there fore they are unfair the 65 in tax exempt securities now outstanding of which some 50 would be taxable is so for that it discourages invest ment in private enterprises involve ing risk thus industry cannot corn com pete As for income tax exemptions the U S supreme court has already set a precedent by ruling that salaries of such public agencies as the port of new york authority are subject to federal tax aaion As might be expected state and local groups jumped into the fight overnight argued the conference 0 N f e 4 HANES the time for lor action has come of state defense tax yield would not approach the immediate treas ury estimate of 70 a year moreover it would work hardship on states and municipalities by ing financing costs the statutory procedure would be un constitution al most important once congress power to tax income of state and lo 10 cal securities tie has been established a situation could arise in which con gress would attempt to tax state revenues argued the U S confer ence of mayors in a similar vein federal and state governments may recoup from income taxes the high er costs to municipalities in interest on their bonds observers thought income tax ex emption could be repealed easily but were less confident about tax exempt securities people left for the U S brazilian for eign minister oswaldo aranha to confer with president roosevelt the purpose as explained in a rio de janeiro newspaper to discuss practical instruments for continental defense as well as national krotec tion of each of the two countries against foreign infiltration public works two of president pet projects have been the harnessing of tides in mame maine s bay and the digging of a ship canal across northern florida quoddy was started several years ago much of the 7 original appropriation being spent on preliminaries to the actual job when congressional opponents argued that quoddy s power would have ho no outlet because it could not be transmitted profitably to new england industries a new aaion was refused in 1936 since then the buildings have been used by banya NYA likewise a start was made on the florida canal but last year con gross gress balked on more funds the arguments against it that florida s fruit industry might be damaged by seepage of salt water that it was k A SENATOR GLASS it scant happen again unnecessary that southern florida would suffer irreparable economic damages this winter president roosevelt has asked an economy minded con gress to revive both projects and appropriate to complete them on quoddy the time will come when there will be a joint agreement between canada and the united states for the joint development of the larger sized project which would utilize all tidal power in that bay on both sides of the international date line it is my thought that an appropriation for test borings and a small experimental plant would be justified on the canal A florida ship canal will be built one of these days it is justified today by commercial and military needs while the house rivers and har bors committee under texas rep joseph J manfield prepared to ar gue the proposal virginia s out spoken sen carter glass spared no words in 1936 the late senator fletcher of florida came to me with tears in his eyes saying his political future would be ruined if florida didn dian t get the canal he asked me to vote for it and like a old fool I 1 did but it wont won t happen again international last summer oppressed china begged the league of nations to ap prove sanctions against japan this was done but only by resolution sug that league members take whatever action they saw fit noth ing happened until a nonmember non member the U S began applying pressure against export of arms to ja pan great britain followed suit in small measure but thus far the in national ter boycott has failed showing typical oriental tion to fate china cluna s dr wellington koo ambassador to france has again broached the boycott issue in geneva his proposal that an in ter national co ordination coordination commit tee be named to unify world action against tokyo membership would include both league and non league nations only result of dr koo s plea has been to focus attention on the league s weakness also to point out that only britain france and russia now hold that badly battered dorgam bation together the chinese diplo mat knew he could get no anglo franco russian support without first winning U S support hence he pointed out that president roose velt s january 4 message to con gress had proffered the co opera tion of the american people in support of the cause of democracy and peace france britain and russia agreed not daring to speak all three turned eyes westward across the atlantic awaiting washington s leadership religion in prosperous years church mem barship and attendance remains even or shows a very slight in crease during depressions mem barship and attendance will rise through a return to religion fore most among U S religious statistic stati sti clans is rev dr herman C weber whose report for 1937 has just been released salient facts and figures tota membership early in 1938 was 64 church members having in creased in 1937 twice a fast as the population Chur churche chec increased by 1743 A trend tc church unity was evident since 97 of the total U S church pop population lor belongs to the 50 larger bodies about smaller bodies accorn for the remaining 2 7 per CP cip k |