Show news review of current events the world over cre credit dit expansion reopening of banks and rehabilitation of railways planned ocean mail and shi ship deals under investigation by EDWARDW EDWARD W PICKARD RESIDENT ROOSEVELT nOO SEVELT like all pother PRESIDENT other persons knows that the recovery program has been slumping clumping slum ping somewhat of late because the rising prices of commodities have not been met by increased purchasing power and by re em still averse to currency inflation ond and devaluation of the dollar the chief executive called into conference a several e v e r a I 1 high officials of his administration to plan for further expansion secretary of credit and for the woodin woo reopening of closed banks thereby freeing several billions of dollars represented by the frozen assets of those institutions secretary of the treasury woodin not yet recovered wholly from his late illness was one of the conferees the others were secretary of agriculture wallace attorney general cummings gov GOT eugene black of the fede federal ral reserve board lewis IV douglas director of the budget jesse 11 jones chairman of the reconstruction finance corporation walter J cummings conservator of closed banks and J F T oconnor controller of the currency following the conference the president took train for his hyde park home and on the train he had bad a long talk with prot prof james H rogers yale economist rogers then returned to washington and discussed financial mat matters terse with douglas and others this led to the report that some change involving the purchasing power of the dollar was imminent but dispatches from hyde park said no announcement no on monetary policy was forthcoming yet senator thomas of oklahoma announced that several groups working with him for inflation had decided to suspend their campaign for the moment to permit trial of the credit expansion program proposed by president roosevelt it was stated with authority that the president hopes to get a large proportion of the closed banks reopened before january 1 when the deposit insurance system goes into effect in order to qualify for deposit insurance banks must be liquid thousands of the closed banks the president Is advised are solvent but not dot sufficiently liquid to meet the requirements for reopening to make them liquid additional capital must be provided to the extent such additional capital Is not furnished by the communities muni muritt ties les in which the banks are situated it will be supplied by the R F C through purchase of preferred stock in the institutions according to the plan approved at the white house conference TEEL manufacturers under the S STEEL urging of president roosevelt and joseph B eastman coordinator co of transportation have agreed to competitive bidding for the sale of rails to the railways and mr eastman announced that tons of rails will be bought as soon as financial arrangements can be made it if the bids of the teel steel companies show that reductions in the price have been made the money will be loaned to the railroads direct from public works funds competitive bidding and bottom prices it was hoped by mr roosevelt and sir mr eastman also would result in the purchase by the railroads of quantities of 0 rolling stock and equipment which deals too would be financed by the government loans tor for buying rails it was said may run to some equipment loans may surpass that amount reports of railroad business are en cn cou coura ragin gln the first 57 railroads reporting august business had a total net operating income of 1 approximately 1 double that of the preceding ceding august A year ago the figure for the same number of carriers was the increase amounting to per cent the net operating income of these carriers in july totaled an increase of per cent over july 1932 1032 gross revenues of the 57 carriers in august amounted to compared with in july and in august last year M MANY ANY of 0 our larse large clue cities are in desperate financial straits and have been looking to the public works administration for salvation there has been much criticism of the slowness with which the tha or of federal money allocated tor for municipal and state projects Is being handed out by secretary of the in interior perlor ickes the administrator but mr I 1 ickes ekes met the mayors of 65 55 cities at the chicago worlds fair and let them know plainly that the cities themselves Tea were at t fault it lii Is now largely in the bands of the mayors mayor of our cities to deter determine mitie whether the public works program will fully serve lt its purpose in aiding in the economic recovery of the country sold said secretary ickes in bl his address our national treasury iury Is waiting to be drawn upon for hundreds of millions of dollars dollar for useful public works the administration in washington can approve your projects and advance funds necessary to complete c them we have moved and are moving expeditiously if circumspectly but there Is a point beyond which we re cannot go we can give you money we can help you to decide what project to undertake we can aid you in on per your work but we C cannot annot d decide e for you whether you want public works we cannot force you to move apy any faster than you are willing to move OCEAN mall mail and ship construction contracts let during the hoover administration are under investigation by a senate committee headed beaded by senator hugo black of A alabama and interesting deals are being A I 1 revealed on the first day black charged that henry herberman of new york president of the export steamship corporation po ration had directed one of 0 his employees to pay a tailor bill of 0 T v oconnor se senator c ator black B then chairman of the united states shipping board this herberman ner berman flatly denied but he and other witnesses were not able to easily dispose of testimony concerning alleged favors to various former officials it was disclosed that ocean mall mail subsidies paid to the export steamship corporation annually amounted to more than the organization paid the shipping board for eighteen vessels A formal statement that C bascom slemp of virginia who once was secretary to president coolidge had helped to engineer the ship purchasing deal at a price lower than originally asked by the shipping board was wa placed before the committee by herberman in a letter to senator black chairman of the committee herberman Herb Her bermar ermac wrote that slemp had billed him for for legal fees in connection with the sale of the ships at it a ton instead of as asked by admiral palmer of the shipping board the sale price herberman wrote was a compromise and the question involved was the per ton to be paid for shipping board vessels adding that mr slemp acted in connection with this matter and felt that his services were worth as I 1 recall I 1 actually paid him on july 1 1925 and on july 19 1025 slemp resigned as secretary to mr coolidge in january of 1925 mrs mina 0 irvine who was secretary to oconnor for many years at the shipping board testified she negotiated several florida deals tor for herberman she said that after a justice department agent had sought to inspect flies files at her shipping boa board rd office with regard to the transactions she had destroyed the records miss clara mcquown of washington told of her work as a lecturer employed at a month by the american steamship owners association to put merchants marine propaganda before clubs P PRESIDENT RESIDENT ROOSEVELT always a friend of the bavy has turned down a british suggestion that the american naval construction program be cut down the state department issued this statement in reply to suggestions from the british government that the laying down of any six inch gun cruisers larger than ban those now in existence might be deferred during the life of 0 the disarmament conference or at least pending further discussion of the qualitative limitations of future ships the american government has replied that it did not see its way clear to alter its delayed naval construction construct lon program or to suspend the laying down of any projected ships the ships in question are four 10 ton six inch gun cruisers th the savannah the nashville the brooklyn and the philadelphia EN convicts made a sensational TEN escape from the indiana penitent biary at michigan city stole automobiles a sheriff and scattered Follo followed ned a teat great man hunt by hundreds of police of indiana and illinois which was still going on at this writing the entire population of pennsyl eastern penitentiary at philadelphia comprising 1492 long term felons staged a wild revolt because they had lost their special privileges tor for a previous riot they beat the we warden aden severely and set fire to their mattresses but finally were subdued george kelly a notorious desperado known as machine gun wanted for participation in the of C F r urschel of oklahoma city was captured in memphis tenn after a long hunt ills wife also was arrested and both were taken back to oklahoma tor for trial kelly Is also charged with having a part in killings and robberies rob berle in kansas city and chicago postmaster GENERAL jim far furley practical and hard headed li Is going after some gome hundreds hundred of fourth class postmasters postmaster who have hav been bee racketeering at the expense of the government ills his inspectors already have conducted an investigation of the facts and it Is likely many of the sinners will lose I 1 their positions a and n d some gome of them may go to prison fourth class post masters m n s t e r B most of whom are in small postmaster Pt matr villages Til lages receive gen G farley per cent on the first 75 of postage they cancel 85 per cent on the next and 75 per cent on all in excess of to this compensation are added the rental of post office boxes and an allowance of 15 per cent for rent light fuel and equipment they also receive a commission of 8 cents each on all the money orders order this method of compensating these rural postmasters it appears prompts some of them to use various devices to increase cancellations the more stamps they cancel the more they make the inspectors have reported many schemes adopted by postmasters to swell the cancell cancellation atLon fees some of them have mailed bricks bracks gravel and other bulky and worthless articles others who conduct stores sell bell groceries to their relatives and friends in other localities and by affixing sufficient postage on the bags and boxes insured their delivery by ahe the rural carrier in the neighborhood T they hey not only received profit on the sales but also received from the government the amount of stamps placed on the packages plus the usual per cent representative J J cochran instigated the investigation and it Is expected that in the next session of congress he will lead a movement to have the present system of compensation of fourth class postmasters radically changed and thousands thou sanda of the offices abolished thor TROUBLES ROUBLES between organized labor and employers predicted some time ago are coming fast coal miners of western pennsylvania to the number of nearly a hundred thousand were on strike calling it it a holiday in west virginia also there was labor discord at weirton employees employee were forced into idleness in a dispute between company union and an independent union the second attempt in two days to picket the clairton works of the carnegie steel company was frustrated and deputy sheriffs hurried to the plant on a tip that another invasion was planned employees of the ford plant at chester pa struck and the ford company promptly closed down the plant for an indefinite period A federal mediator was sent there but was told there was nothing to mediate the chester workers planned to go to edgewater NJ and ask the ford employees there to join in the demand for more pay it was expected that general johnson recovery administrator would soon announce carefully dratted drafted plans plan tor for a general reorganization of the th from an emergency temporary setup into a cohesive body ready to function through the two year life of the recovery act drawn by thomas ai S hammond of chicago with the aid of the policy board the plan calls tor for greater accent upon self regulation by industries Indu operating under codes with the government to step in only when necessary athe AN N outstanding figure among the statesmen gathered at geneva for or the coming disarmament conference Is dr paul joseph goebbels propaganda minister of the hitler government of germany ile he may not be so important as foreign aln ister von neurath but for the present he be Is more voluble and it Is he who Is I 1 putting forth G ger e r banys demands for t arms equality a and n d who la Is ostensibly do paul joseph ing the he horse trad td goebbels goebbel ing for his country in the discussions that center about the french proposal for strict supervision of arms during a four year tet test period the german delegates it was said in geneva had been given full power by critler to conclude a disarmament accord and an indication that some gome agreement might be reached was seen been in the fact that the french and german statesmen were brought together at a carefully arranged private dinner dinder attended also by sir john simon of england and some gome italians italy has been favorable to germanys germanas Germ anys demands to a certain extent and has put forward a plan allowing partial rearmament of the belch the germans were willing to accept the supervision plan but only it if the commission were authorized to armaments armament but merely effectives in other words it would see that germany carried out its obligations to transform the welchs wehr into a short term militia and disband semi military organizations ING LARDNER one of americas America 1 RING best known humorists died at his home in east hampton nam long island after a long illness at the age oi of forty eight in england mrs A U M williamson an american who wrote many popular novels in collaboration with her english husband C N X wll will damson passed away at bath 0 its s western wan Nw Hr union |