Show 0 0 national topics interpreted by william bruckart washington the expanding influence of the federal government on the lives of individual throughout the unit new deal ed states suddenly has become a matter that Is attracting attention and more and more repercussions are to be noted doter in the national capital some observers tell me they think it Is an indication fild leation that the multifarious agencies that have been set up under the new deal are tit at last in full operation and their effects are now reaching to the grass roots of the country however that may be it can be stated without equivocation that the so called alphabetical soup tile the various administrations rations and boards and commissions known only by initials are making their presence felt for better or for worse in the lives of individuals I 1 cannot agree with the exaggerated assertion by a leading republican politician ician that we are subject to hitler decrees from a hundred different sources but there seems little doubt of vast power being abeln wielded by the various new deal agen agencies cles for instance harry hopkins federal relief administrator has decreed that there will be no drought relief funds for cattle owners supplied by the federal emergency relief administration unless the holders of any mortgages on those cattle agree not to foreclose such mortgages and be it said the mortgage holder who ie refuses to make such an agreement Is up the well known stump ile he can take the cattle of course when the mortgage matures but if the mortgages have many months to run the cattle are liable to die of starvation in the meantime without attempting to decide the merit of such a policy on the part of the federal government the illustration shows the power that Is wielded from washington the reconstruction finance corporation has been exercising its influence with banks for some time while officials insist they are not attempting to control policies of banks it nevertheless remains as a fact that they are exercising voting power in the boards of directors of numerous banking institutions they went so far in the case of a great chicago bank as to insist that the man they selected be elected by the board as its chairman in addition through the federal deposit insurance corporation the bank policies on loans are closely watched and this Is happening at a time when the president and some of ills his advisers are strongly urging the banks to make loans front from what I 1 know of the banking business I 1 imagine few banks will hesitate on making loans in large amounts providing the borrower has some security to put up that will assure repayment of the funds borrowed under and the numerous C odes codes various terms and condi conditions eions are laid down typical of for business b u s 1 n e s s how code works practices here Is a typical case the code for the graphic arts industries has a provision prohibiting extension of credit for longer than two years that Is a printing plant owner or publisher of a country newspaper or any one else wanting to buy a linotype machine had been allowed sometimes as much as live eve years in which to pay for expensive equipment of that kind now however lio wever he must pay for it within two years or the manufacturer will be a code violator by selling it on a long term basis thus it is to be seen ahat that the code exerts an influence on what might be called the innocent bystander the country publisher cannot save up lip gold with which to pay for the machinery because he would be a criminal to have gold under present law again declaring that I 1 am not discussing the merit of the proposition it remains as a fact that the federal trade commission is exerting an influence on the type of investing In investments vestin ants individuals divi duals make as a result of its control over the issue and sale of shares of stock or bonds of course the commission cannot reach a corporation that Is doing business only in its home state but the larger corporations engage in business on a broader scale than that and the hulk bulk of shares and bonds therefore must not be issued until the federal trade commissions securities experts have determined ter mined the facts about the corporation that offers them it Is a matter of record of course that numerous corporations have sold purely blue sky stock but tile the point I 1 am attempting to make Is that here Is another federal influence on the lives of individuals there are arc so many other examples that could be cited that they would fill more space than Is aval available lable here in many previous letters I 1 have attempted to show to what extent government m ent hits has assumed control over business through the various laws and it seems there are additions yet to be made to those under tinder the plans for legislation which mr roosevelt has outlined for present presentation atlon to the next congress time alone can tell whether the tha course Is right or wrong or only partially adoptable adaptable to our system of llin hi ing but surely it can ile he stated now that tile the government of file united states stales Is exerting exer tini more influx ence on the lives of its citizens than sit at an other time in its history conservation corps embodies a definite scheme for restoring forests that have been and constitute nothing more than waste land it provides for selective cutting of trees in lumbering operations and it Is designed to create in the minds of all cithens the necessity for sustaining our forests against the time when at the present rate of destruction there would be no more lumber I 1 was surprised vi hen the forestry service told me that forest land was just about one fourth of the entire area in n the united states cut but the forestry officials reminded me at tile the same time that unless there Is a serious conservation movement there Is only enough timber in sight to provide lumber for about thirty years more orl originally it will be remembered there was about 40 per cent of the entire continent in virgin timber I 1 mr roosevelt Kooi evelt Is proposing le legislation isla most of which will be ready for the session of congress meeting in january 1935 to provide machinery for coordinating co the efforts of the federal and state goverD governments ments and for gaining the operation cooperation co ot of private land owners in restoring growing trees A good many washington observers are wondering how soon the federal t trade r a d e commission headed for foi and are going a clash to ock lock horns the two agencies are certainly headed in the direction of a clash it Is generally conceded here that sooner or later general johnsons nita codes that establish monopolies in various fields of commerce and industry are going to be made the subject of pithy comment from federal trade commission circles flow soon it vi ill come or what form the disagreement will take of course can be only a matter of pon conjecture Jecture now it Is necessary to recall the basli basis upon which the federal trade commission was wag created in order to get a clear understanding of the clash that Is to bo be expected first of all the creators of the federal trade commission had in mind the idea of a federal agency that could be watching big business all of the time where it found unfair practices smothering of the little independent units and such other conditions as some sharp shoot ing businesses use the commission can and does cite them publicly it goes after the facts in public hearings bearings anil and exposes the practices it also issues orders directing the offending businesses to eliminate the objectionable practices if they choose to disregard the commission orders the matter Is turned over to prosecuting officers of the government and tougher penalties may be imposed now the national recovery act and general johnsons codes have hav egone gone a long way toward malting making the commissions guardianship of little business nil in its effect the codes permit monopolies or rather the codes provide under the recovery net act that the antitrust anti trust laws shall not apply to those businesses signing the terms and conditions of the codes it Is si seen n there fore that the provisions of the fed cral trade commission act can hardly be enforced that is to say the corn com mission cannot order a bli business siness to cease doing something that chat general johnsons codes declare to be quite all right thus far the commission has kept reasonably quiet about the thing it 11 Is true however that its members have thoughts about the situation that would make interesting reading it if they were to be e expressed openly the commission liis bicke belched d about a few of the codes in a mild sort of way its criticisms have been tern tem it Is said by the fact that thai none knows exactly how to go about effecting a reconciliation of the dl verse positions enacted into law to in the recovery act and the federal forler ni trade commission act apparently there have been no instructions from the white find and so the commIs commission slon Is IQ looted looked upon merely as drifting until such time as in an administration policy Is framed but somebody Is going to have to iron out the differences they cannot go on indefinitely that fact Is ob when one government agency goes ahead and allows a thing to be done that another government agency has been created to prevent it Is axiomatic that a collision Is going to occur between them in due course few observers and few important leaders as well are willing to a pr prediction edition as to the outcome on one reason Is that NIU Is under fire from several directions and I 1 believe beleve it cannot be said to what extent the general principles of are going to become Im bedded in our industrial structure it if nita Is to continue always and the principles upon which it Is laid ar are e found to be th thoroughly orough ly practicable in american economy then it would seem that the activities carried on by the federal trade commission will have to be abandoned the con erse also Is true if L A falls to list last out the fedora federal trade commission can go on doing the job its was cre abed to do and again ca can n become the protector arid anil the father c confessor on fessor for tile the dinall businesses of tile the nation |