Show weekly news new s analysis farley garner hull alliance arises to plague white house L by joseph W labine la bine EDITORS NOTE wbk W pa pinions are expressed in these columns column they are those ot of the sews news lyst wd and rot dot necessarily or of the news white house aa M chi chief ef of the wor works ks progress administration harry hopkins has spent more money than any previous ii S citizen yet that was precisely what franklin roosevelt R oo sevelt hired him to do if this job as federal santa claus gave ha harry rry hopkins a bad name among conservative democrats and republicans the bad name grew bigger d during electioneering electioneer ing but the cam camj laign expenditures committee of texas sen morris shepard found harry hopkins generally blameless of using funds for political purposes considered a scapegrace mr hopkins is to U S business what a public executioner is is to a pious churchman with this reputation it is therefore considered bad taste and bad political judgment for president roosevelt to name mr hopkins secretary of commerce regardless of gen Iron pants hugh S johnsons opinion that mr hopkins will be the k W politician FARLEY lie he watched for a weather heri ane tane best commerce secretary ever observers think the appointment foreshadows fore shadows a serious permanent rift between democrats hopkins solicitor general jackson interior secretary ickes brain truster corcoran and middle of the road democrats vice resident president garner postmaster G general en farley secretary of state hull A month ago when homer S cummings retired as attorney general chairman farley warned that thai his us potent political organization would be swung to one side or another depending on who was named to succeed mr cummings by choosing solicitor general bob jackson president roosevelt would show left wing tendencies and there by y lose farley support As it ha happened p the commerce vacancy ap seared feared and was filled before mr roosevelt got around to the attorney generalship so this post became the weathervane weather vane mr Far parleys leys current opinion that president roosevelt by naming mr hopkins is boosting him for the presidency in 1940 that bob jackson the alternative for 1940 will be named attorney general that some new dealer like ex gov frank murphy may get a supreme court post if this happens and the wind is now blowing in that direction farley hull garner et ef al will bolt from the new deal whether the president dares to thus bite the hand that feeds him is doubtful vice president garner carries i tremendous prestige in the south jim farley runs the most tremendous powerhouse in U S history cordell hull is the new deats most popular cabinet member with democrats and republicans alike if these men bolt there is a possibility that either 68 60 year old mr garner or 67 year yea ro old mr hull will head a presidential ticket in 1940 with farley as running mate transportation last autumn president roose v alts railroad fact finding commit tee ruled against a wage cut to help sorely pressed carriers on the ground that its benefits would be only temporary but this did not minimize the problem of high operating costs vs low income and the president agreed to ask congressional consider consideration atio n for any readjustment program railway management and lab labor 0 r might offer therefore ep just as congress prepared to open a six man committee offered its plan indirectly laying part of the responsibility at the presidents own doorstep the committees mit tees explanation of rail troubles 1 governments favoritism to competitors such as barge lines 2 lack of centralized transportation regulation the remedy regulation of all forms of transportation by 1 the interstate commerce cammi commission s s 1 on which would fix rates regulate s services e rv valuation and acco accounting and 2 an independent tr transportation board which would it handle andle all other regulations also recommended is a federal transportation court to handle reorganization plans in addition the committee offered tour four other complaints complain ts which could be remedied by legislation it asked removal of rest restrictions dictions on loans to carriers repeal of the long and short haul rate clauses which prevents rails from charging a lower rate for a long haul than for a short haul over the same route in the same direction elimination of low rates for govern government men t freight and discontinuation of gov operated barge lines briefly carriers want less red tape and more efficient government reg regulation over their industry against president Roosevel ts probable approval of the general program observers stack sen burton K wheeler chairman of the interstate commerce committee chief comments to date come from president john J pelley of the association of american railroads who caus calls the report the most comprehensive and constructive ever made and president dent alexander F whitney of the brotherhood of railway trainmen the whitney opinion its just another smoke screen to tickle the public chin defense the satisfaction of U S speech makers from denouncing nazi germany is equalled equal led only by nazi ger banys satisfaction in making reply yet each outburst and retort invites wider rupture of the already strained german american diplomatic relations started during november when each nation withdrew its ambassador over the jewish persecution se issue returning from europe just as protests and replies were charging from berlin to washington and back illinois sen J hamilton lewis commented that the U S must stop its hate wave against european dictatorship must instead substitute peace through conciliation and conference what prompted mr lewis statement was the remark a week earlier by secretary of the interior harold S ickes to the effect that henry biord ford and col charles A lindbergh should be ashamed to accept a decoration at the hand of a brutal dictator hitler who with the same hand is robbing and torturing thousands of human beings result was a german protest followed bytha by the state departments refusal to apologize this latter action was co contrasted n with the hasty apology last spring when new yorks mayor fiorella laguardia similarly cursed Naz idom its significance that the U S has decided to handle adolf hitler with boxing gloves not kid gloves such a revolutionary diplomatic stand requires military naval backing a A VA ita I 1 I 1 BLOCH purposes announced and otherwise last fall when the european E european threat first became imminent president roosevelt roosevel t hinted at the desirability of a two ocean navy to give our eastern seacoast the protection no now enjoyed at our back door at the same time he suggested the U S might enlarge its defense program to encompass the entire western hemisphere As the new year started the state departments stiffened attitude and mr ro Roosevel cosevelt os evelt ts S hints could be seen taking form in in smoke clouds over the panama c canal a eastward from the pacific came the entire fleet except a small submarine and destroyer squadron a at t honolulu led fro from in the battleship new mexico by admiral claude 0 bloch it its s intent to stage the first atlantic c naval aval maneuvers since in 1934 and the second largest in U S history from january to may combatant boats will play hide and seek from brazil to cuba the announced purpose to afford the maximum amount of fleet training training of personnel and tests of material added unannounced purposes 1 to focus U b S attention on naval requirements quire ments while congress is de bating rss armament arman lent appropriations 5 to stage a show tor for the benefit be befit any ambitious european ell dict c w h 0 might 6 be watch watching lg 3 to court latin american A friendship by showing how uncle sams battlewagons battle wags wagons 6 would wela protect south america erica as well as north america balkans obviously italy h has as resented resent edGer ger inva sion of the economic many ballata s states for while the rome berlin axis is her most important has alliance italy never ambitions in yugoslavia long albania and hungary there fore correspondents have wat chedo with tongue in cheek while italy italis s count galeazzo ciano foreign inlaw in law of premier mus ister and son stresses his diplomatic eions SS wit hungary while KS attempting to draw hungary H antly and the berlin axis into the rome anti comma co italo o german japanese of the league Leaeu 0 dist pact at expense of nations count ciano is is probably more interested in making his balkan dependencies of neighbors 01 italy likewise rome has watched with interest yugoslavian yugo premier mi victory in m the lan ian december general election which probably paves the way for a yugoslavian fascist state while count clano ciano works on Stoya dinovitch that gentleman has crawled into his shell to wait bait the outcome 01 of prime X minister neville chamberlains chamberlain s january conference with premier mussolini if mussolini bussoli ni emerges victorious to rious yugoslavia yugo slavia will probably lead the balkans in a pro italian P 11 COUNT CIANO for the cause or for italy movement if he loses the anxious balkans will line up with western democracies for great britain and france who also covet balkan friendship a messiah has appeared in grigore gafencu 47 year old world war flier named as rumanian foreign minister once an influential bucharest newspaper man gafencu has long advocated closer operation cooperation co among yugoslavia hungary and bulgaria thereby averting dependency on either germany or italy germany Gern tany since german policies began a antagonizing n tago izing world democracies the 0 obvious prediction has maintained that german foreign trade would suffer it then follows that germany must increase her domestic production to become independent of foreign imports the difficulty of the task was first emphasized in late november when col von schell was named general plenipotentiary of the automobile industry to speed production and standardization and institute necessary economic measures A few days later dr karl lange was given similar powers over germanys germanas Germ anys machine industry next came dr fritz as general plenipotentiary in charge of all road building such industrial czar ships smell amazingly like communistic rus sias commissar com system and the idea was probably borrowed from that good neighbor to give the entire system added impetus dr wal walther ahr punk funk salesman like e economics economics cono min minister has been named czar of all german industry with supervision over herren von schell lange and always closely supervised german industry will now feel official domination even more severely how an apparently communistic method of industrial overlord will work in a nation which still supports private enterprise remains to be seen germanys germanas Germ anys foreign trade has suffered in 1937 germany built up a favorable balance of in 1938 this was wiped out and imports were more than exports great britain A solidified empire is the united kingdoms goal since nazi fascist states began threatening her position among the empires weakest features is the string of miscellaneous possessions centering in the caribbean sea who individually and collectively have thus far received too little attention from london one of them jamaica recently heard agitation for annexation by the i U S still more recently it was suggested that great britain might pay its war debt by ceding s her caribbean islands to the U S belatedly recognizing some valuable property london now proposes to group au all the west indies into a new dominion 01 its composite parts british i honduras bahamas jamal ca lan leeward 31 islands windward is lands barbados trinidad dad B british guiana kingstro eston centrally located capita r p I 1 of jamaica would be dominion n headquarters pire ni T he united kingdoms eadoms ed oms new ems empire would include tt lude pe people 0 ale mostly descendants of onetime one tim time e ne net gro slaves who depend chiefly on agriculture aide main trouble point the past year ha s been kingston where a royal a investigating commission was recently welcomed by a strike of gas city ass into throwing the entire |