| Show witly p okly nt news Ws analysis relief crisis faces congress As runs short of funds t by joseph W la bine EDITORS NOTE opinions ore r expressed la in these columns they ore r those i of tin the news analyst tad and cot necessarily of el the newspaper relief already well worked out in white house circles are major points for leisurely congressional consideration the points 1 addition of millions to social tys tax and benefit plan 2 a federal sta state te health program to cost annually in 10 years and to cost the U S government the first year 3 defense through rearmament and industrial mobilization 4 railway aid to be proposed jointly by management and labor far moye more acute is the problem of feeding U S citizens registered on relief rolls november 5 and whose number has since been slashed drastically to make present funds last as long as possible when congress voted for relief last winter it stipulated the money must last until march 1 1939 but gave president roosevelt the right to advance this deadline to february 1 in case of an emerged JOHN L LEWIS LEIVIS not but fl cy either forgetting this stipulation or hoping to scare the new congress into immediate action acting administrator aubrey williams now warns that must shut down february 7 unless legislators gallop to the rescue with additional 0 I 1 dit ional funds how fast congress will gallop is another matter though president roosevelt predicted last july that a deficiency appropriation would carry from march I 1 to the end of this fiscal year june 30 he has now announced through senate majority leader alben W barkley that an additional will be needed the anticipated situation G 0 P and independent democrat legislators will fight for a thorough investigation of graft and politics P and will probably be reluctant to make a new appropriation until their curiosity is satisfied but whether this reluctance will be displayed over the deficiency fund or next years regular relief appropriation is guess loudest protest has come from john L lewis president of the congress gr ss of industrial organizations demanding that congress appropriate not but for immediate deficiency needs he demands no cuts in relief rolls until private business can absorb the unemployment slack the lewis prognostication prognostic unless action is taken within the first week of january american workers and d at least human beings who depend on them will face disaster Ale medicine dicine thus far no court has determined whether a medical association can be confide considered aed a trade under meaning of the sherman antitrust anti trust act but last october 17 the U S justice departments trust buster thurman arnold decided to find out placed under investigation was the district of columbia medical society the charge that organized washington medical men fought the group health association a medical cooperative of government workers by har rasing its ats doctors keeping its patients out of hospitals and preventing members from getting proper care only two months had passed before mr arnolds investigation was complete at washington a federal grand jury found cause to indict three organized medical associations and 21 professional leaders for violation of the sherman act among indicted associations the district of columbia medical society american medical association harris county texas medical society among indicted individuals dr morris fishbein editor of the A M A journal dr olin west A M A secretary and general manager dr william dick cutter present secretary of the associations council on medical education and hospitals law provides for one year in prison fine or both as penalty for conviction but at best mr arnolds case is nothing more than a test from federal district court a conviction would finally end up in the U S supreme court by which time the government will probably see no more nuisance value in its case behind the battle is organized medicines loud objection to socialized medicine proposals made at list last summers public health conference adamant to the point of anger A AT A called a board of governors meeting in chicago and modified its original stand since then Cali fornias medical society has endorsed a public health program and several other associations have shown favorable inclinations having started its investigation the U S found it held a hot potato that could not be dropped long before the case reaches its its final stages congress will probably approve a federal state public health program S spain pain last december 9 rebel generalissimo francisco franco planned to start a whirlwind offensive in the lerida area suddenly two sets of plans were missing one smuggled across to loyalist officers by a colonel later a british vice consul was found carrying more war plans in his brief case though he was exonerated one rated of responsibility in the end general franco stopped his war temporarily arrested plotters and decided his position was not so favorable as he might well desire chief reason for rebel dis sention is the presence of italian fighters along franco frontiers but to remove premier troops would cost the army considerable strength nor can the general blink at huge espionage activities ies which mean that rebel territory is heavily populated with loyalist sympathizers thi thus general franco will probably delay his long awaited offensive to strengthen the moral position at home meanwhile loyalist spain will be able to relax and recuperate strengthening its own forces through the delay this situation looms important in the light of great britaina Brit ains plan to grant general franco belligerent rights with loyalist hopes much brighter it would be foolish for london to make this concession to win the friendship of italy moreover since the U S red cross plans to distribute wheat freely to both sides in the spanish conflict great britain jin might thus find herself at words swords ends with washington great britain periodically since the munich treaty prime minister neville chamberlain has held his breath while parliament voted on a motion of non confidence each time he has won yet each time the opposition gets stronger though still not powerful enough to threaten mr chamberlains personal pos position his foes have found two definite I 1 points of vulnerability on which the prime minister must soon act appeasement since last summer mr chamberlain has believed that england can avoid war only by keeping germany and italy contented through concessions but every concession has been followed by more dile demands mands and parliament is getting tired of it on january 11 the prime minister will go to rome where observers predict he will of LESLIE HORE lie ile put his boss on the spot fer to win french territorial concessions tor for premier mussolini if he does and if he gets no adequate compensation mr chamberlain will become a virtual political suicide as the result armament though anxious to appease england is also anxious to protect during septembers crisis trenches were dug gas masks distributed tri buted antiaircraft anti aircraft guns installed and defense literature distributed when the crisis passed highly publicized war minister leslie hore balisha arose to tell parliament how hopelessly inadequate and messed up the defenses had been though this situation was mr hore responsibility nothing happened to him but while mr chamberlain journeys about europe in the role of peacemaker levelheaded level headed home bodies are beginning to d demand removal of the war minister and the institution of a greatly speeded greatly expanded defense program this would tie a personal defeat for the prime minister ano appointed mr hore belissa to his present important post agriculture each winter a new crop of agricultural ax grinders appears in congress not to aid this years crop but because the law requires it secretary henry A wallaces wallace s farm experts have just released salient information on 1938 production facts and figures with background from 1933 taking total farm production irom from 1923 to 1932 as per cent succeeding years have seen the aggregate slump to per cent during drouth and cotton plowing drop again to per cent in in parched 1934 zoom to per cent in 1935 sink to in 1938 1936 skyrocket to in 1937 but in 1938 though acreage was 35 per cent below the 10 year acreage lush mother nature came through with a crop of 1048 per cent samples for 1938 I 1 1938 1937 10 yr art as wheat corn 2 0 0 00 oats oat 17 0 0 0 0 0 thus though the total went down wheat went up meanwhile prices on everything went down and foreign nations became more self sufficient than ever three fifths of 15 S senators and congressmen know their farmer constituents have an acute problem as does secretary wallace but while congressional ax grinders may attempt to throw out AAA possibly substituting the domestic allotment plan which would peg home prices and dump surpluses at world prices secretary wallace hopes congress will give AAA another chance critics of AAA maintain that recent referenda on marketing quotas for cotton rice and tobacco gave mr wallaces program a rebuff but the secretary thinks otherwise while rice and tobacco growers turned thumbs down cotton producers accey accepted ted what he calls the most extreme and controversial 7 1 SECRETARY WALLACE will vill AAA get another chance phase of AAA like the farm bureaus edward oneil mr wallace thinks his program sound 1 I am i confident that AAA principles will be continued and that they will be strengthened and improved to be of 1 more benefit to farmers meanwhile not waiting for the much feared acreage reduction or 1 ders which will possibly be small er than many anticipate U S win 1 ter wheat farmers are voluntarily I 1 cutting production in the hope of raising next years price first es 1 on the new winter crop call for bushels the smallest crop since 1935 china last autumn chinas cainas generalissimo chiang kai shek picked up his coat tails and fled to the interior looking little more important than one of his untrained unkempt soldiers with japan pressing him hard the smart benevolent dictator set up headquarters at western democracies watching J japan a close chinas cainas open door thought kai shek was as futile a hope as their once prosperous trade with the orient but during december both the U S and great britain made a surprising turnabout granting china huge loans to develop her western provinces at first it looked like democracies were merely applying a clever squeeze play against china but late developments prove that chiang kai shek not the U S or britain did the squeezing the well confirmed report that kai shek called both U S ambassador nelson T johnson and british ambassador sir archibald dark clark kerr to his stronghold telling them bluntly that democracies could choose between 1 giving in g him aid and protecting their in teresta in the orient or 2 watching in him turn to russia or even germany for help against japan I 1 meanwhile U S british action has given china confidence and aroused japanese hostility while french labor leaders began calling for a boycott on japanese goods tokyo papers urged use of actual power against great britain and the U S one idea to return brit ains crown colony of hong kong to 10 chinese sovereignty miscellany at detroit public bus drivers were ordered to take passengers to their own doorsteps new years eve eva between hours ot of midnight and 6 a rn 0 at mexico city the governa government ent own owned ed telegraph system announced a one hour daily period when complaints calibe can be sent by mexicans to president cardenas tree free of harge charge |
