Show washington snapshots by james preston the washington braggers br aggers arent bragging about it and tor for obvious reasons bu mr U S government is fast becoming the biggest private real estate proprietor lu in the he world right novvie now he has approximately private homes bomes anil and about farms on his handy hands acquired via the mortgage route A breakdown of his real estate holdings as of march 31 shows home owners loan corporation has seized houses and properties valued at and la is acquiring more at the rate of about every month la is renting many of them for a monthly income of the farm credit administration has farms valued at the federal housing administration with the best record was holding on that date properties valued at defaults in the HOLO operations are running about 10 per cent and in the FOA about 15 per cent tiros thus in a country where more people own there own homes than in any other nation uncle sam Is now low coming to the fore as the worlds biggest private landlord and that leads to another item about government competition in the private field apparently there Is to be no letup in competition with bustness business as la Is indicated in a behind the scene over the spending spree bill bil an effort by the minority group in the house to insert a clause in the bill prohibiting the new spending in fields where it would be in competition with industry was immediately scuttled by the majority forces in the senate the appropriation committee has I 1 inserted n a clause limiting c with privately owned public utilities incidentally the majority forms forces la in the house decided it would be better to have the new audited bl tho the where most of audIt audited eKl by the where most of it will be spent instead of by the expert bookkeepers ot of the treasury some of the side uno spectators tore in Wash washington Logton are predicting that another effort Is to be made to reform the courts that the admi la Is about ready to tear the lid ott off the seated sealed packing case and try to revive the corpse therein they are basing their prediction on the tact fact that the secretary of agriculture has made two recent statements the occasion tor for a verbal broadside at the court this was followed by a broadcast speech by a member of tho the labor board cracking at the court the better informed observers agree with the prediction but bellevo believe the new attack la is only to keep the issue alive and that the real fight wont come until after the fall elections and in the matter of elect elections lobs the thinkers have thought up a new one tor for the citizenry to ponder the suggestion la is now afloat on the political pond that we change ele election day to citizens day on which occasion citizen jones would go to th election counter and transact all hla his business with the government while voting he would supply pi v the government with important statistical data on changes in business crops crom cattle conditions whether he renta or 0 was owns his home and similar information the thinkers think uncle sam could thereby a lot of door lell bell ringing by census takers and other inquisitors Inqui and just to insure a big turnout in election day or elt citizens Izene day the government would asses a 8 5 poll tax to be returned if 11 the citizen voted |