Show weekly news analysis election cleanups Cleanup 9 suggestions leave Vote Buying loopholes lo 10 op holes by joseph IV ln la bine EDITORS EDITOR 8 NOTE a 0 ions M in 0 columns ihly atif ased 01 0 M i n a analyst lad and not act necessarily el 1 he newspaper politics since the dim day when americas ameris first pork barrel w was va s burst open politicians have legal legally y or illegally used federal funds to further their personal ends pork b ir was timple and usually honest when it involved no more than a V U S sponsored post office highway or bridge but since 1933 the old fashioned pork barrel has been supplanted by relief projects building up huge payrolls among anem unemployed aloyed people who will cast their votes riot not necessarily for or the right man but for the man who will protect their jobs three square meals a day have a far greater vote getting appeal than any miscellaneous favor a congressman could pull from the pork barrel in an election year political a buse abuse of relief funds becomes a pa paramount r danger therefore congress congre s received no jolt when texas se sen 1 I 1 5 W SENATOR SHEPPARD R recommendations ons were ivere easier morris sheppard offered his committees mit tees report on campaign expenditures di tures skipping lightly over the ro routine u tine fact act that some campaigns co cost st nothing while another that of chios robert P taft cost 37 the committee outlined results of relief politics inquiries in 18 states sample allegations kentucky gov albert B happy chandler collected about abot it from state employees whose salaries came partly or wholly from federal funds his successful opponent sen alben W barkley received from federal employees but his campaign manager denied au all but 2000 pennsylvania state highway work cards were issued to high school children who returned to their classes without doing any work ten tennessee essee federal employees were soli solicited clied for contributions labor was used to repair private roads illinois in cook county men were added to state highway crews 70 of whom did no work other than canvass their respective precincts no criticism was directed at former or administrator harry hopkins nor was action taken against any candidate the tha pathetic truth is that no individual office seeker could be singled out without ripping open an unwholesome futile investigation instead the committee contented itself with 16 suggestions for cleaning up elections most of which would provide loopholes few of which could be enforced without ut interfering with private rights sample suggestions 1 prohibition against political contributions by relief recipients and legislation forbidding relief officials to influence votes 2 legislation limiting individual contributions to candidates preventing corporation donations and requiring complete reports of campaign costs 3 consideration of legisla legislation tion to make all political contributions by federal workers illegal the most applauded recommendation called for curtailment of the congressional franking frej free mailing privilege this recalled the annual report of postmaster general james J farley made a few days earlier which pointed out that abuse of the franking privilege was in a large part responsible tor for th the e post office departments deficit international january I 1 found the U S and great britain invoking their new low tariff trade pact designed warily to stimulate business but also to furnish a st strong rong white man mans 8 front against dictator states A few days later britain made a strong show of enthus enthusiasm laim over president Roosevel ts anti dictator speech see frite HOUSE but if these two signs fags indicate a policy of parallel action between washington ington and london several other ge gestures teiei by britain hardly fit into the picture smart par parallel a alel action would call for british adoption of the U S policy of refusing to consort ico economically no with germany italy or japan but when Gover governor norMon montagu norman of the bank of england land w went ent to berlin and when prime minister neville chamberlain visited italy each carried plans tor for stimulating british trade with the two dictator states meanwhile britain has extended china credits of only 2500 compared with U S credits of 0 though britain may some dambe day be forced into a life and death battle with both germany and italy the ehe is willing to overlook this possibility for the sake of 0 her foreign tride trade the theory that every effort must be made to keep the hard pressed german and italian buyers solvent otherwise british export to these nations will decline and debts owed british commercial interests will not be paid white whit house ious before congress opened president Roosevel ts critics believed hi his 3 rising enthusiasm for rearmament was merely a cloak to focus public attention away from last novembers election defeat by shouting for larger army navy appropriations by keeping silent as a sphinx on every other subject the president was expected to build for or himself a storm shelter until the torrent rent of congressional criticism ha had d passed but rearmament turned out to be a recognized national problem and mr roosevelt turned out to be a smarter psychologist than his critics expected jt it rema remained ined tor for his speech on the state of the union to sound the keynote its essence the U S is beset by threats from dictator nations therefore we must rearm and take sanctions against aggressors gres sors but rearmament is also an internal proposition therefore we must set our house in 0 order and defend ourselves with social and ec economic 0 reforms some reforms already made social security farm legislation labor act need ima machining down 11 others governmental reorganization transportation are still to be made on spending it does not seem logical to me at the moment we seek to increase production and consumption tor for the federal government to consider a drastic curtailment congress did not need long to figure out that if military rearmament would cost real money internal rearmament would be even more expensive when the budget message was delivered their figures were verified the presidents Vs budget requests the expected income the net deficit tor for the fiscal yearn year by june 30 1940 when the year ends in a burst of political campaigning the administration will therefore have a public debt of ODO to explain As congress dove headlong into its six seven or eight month task president roosevelt Hoo sevelt may have been surprised to learn his initiating utterances te rances won more public acclaim in france and great britain than at home definitely on the defens defensive lve for the first time since 1933 he faced 4 0 V HAMILTON FISH at JB he fie offered a comment an independent congress congre s s and a very wary public which hoped he appie appreciated the magnitude of his act actions lons and while london and paris pans ap applauded the strongest official officials U S statement yet made against dictators berlin and rome sang thi the next stanza in the intern international hymn of hate which has now reached ached an alarming orthe at at home intensity little comment was f forthcoming orning A sample fromnes from new yorks rep hamilton fish jr true to his devotion to internationalism and the league of nations mr roosevelt urges collective tive security and military alliances ot of democracies I 1 do not belleve believe that congress will scrap our tr traditional adl foreign policy of peace for one 0 ne in which we would quarantine and police the world with american blood and mone money y 1 I people fifteen year old deoria gloria who has in the bank u anic s spent pent last year an accounting in new yorks surrogates surrogate ls courts court reveals 9 phillip F lafollette defeated ted governor has left on a look see visit to england france italy germany and sweden asia war torn chinas cainas biggest boast Is her her constantly growing nati national oril unity a product of rims necessity siti that has made generalissimo chiang r kal al shek the strongest C linese chinese ruler in modern lil history story pt but despite this AbLis well publicized unity china his has no not be been enable able to make much of a showing against hir her Ja japanese pinese invaders indeed foreign military obier observers vers find and toky os paper thin front lines so 00 vulnerable that they say american british or french troops could put the enemy to rout but in jap occupied ferri territory tori are civilians and armed N P i GE generalissimo CHIANG tune time to stop hinging buffing guerrillas whose I 1 3 spirit of national unity is still not strong enough to inspire a sudden inevitably successful a attack better than the national unity argument mentis is the theory that smart general chiang has been staging a f fake ake show of chinese nationalism offering a good front at the eap exp expense of his wavering governa government e nt though ch headquarters are overrun with nepotism corruption and inefficiency many abuses have been tolerated to make the outside world think china is strong in the end general chiang wan wangled glea handsome loans and credit arrangements from both the U S and britain proving the stunt was working at least temporarily not no t anticipated however was the walkout of onetime one time premier wang chang wl wel who celebrated new years by reaching peace terms 1 with japanese premier konoye long a silent bulwark of chinas cainas nati nationalist on alist party mr wang reportedly adly met a at thongdong hongtong Hong tHong kong with Jap japanese anise agents ind and reached terms which would make him chinas cainas head bead man leaving eav general chiang out in the cold terms 1 china should open diplomatic lor natle relations with japanese puppet state Manchu kuo 2 china should agree to acono economic ale cooperation i with japan japa n 3 china should adhere to the jap italo ger man communist anticommunist anti agreement 4 china should accept japanese garrisons while the communist anticommunist anti pact was in force s interpretations of the Wang demarche ha have acome come thick and fat fast in tokyo happy japanese tha thought aught it meant a breakdown of the and the spotlight of publicity on chinas cainas internal troubles with chi ang weakened japanese puppet states would no longer seem pointless in shanghai Shang nai still chinese despite its Js japanese anese ownership observers thought the wang dec declara laia tion was a well timed jap move tc to cot counteract interact U S and british c credits to i general chiang with the die cast general chiang no longer saw need for hiding his troubles arom came word ot of a wholesale ale purge from frore the of 0 some p peace bace partisans expelled was deserter wang charged wi with th hiving having at attempted i eato to gain cupo support rt fr from om military leaders in Sze chuan and cunnan provinces miscellany for the first time in its history new yorks sing sing prison pr son has executions execution severy week leek during janvary january total tor for the month already scheduled 10 U S correspondents returning return ing from eighth pan american confer lima Ll maJeru peru have ie reported ported censorship intimidation and spying unlike that tha Vever ever before seen at a pan american assembly 0 army participation in in the U S navys three month atlantic fleet maneuvers has been cancelled because of friction army officials claiming the exercise offers little value for its officers and men aviation in 1937 as head of 0 the U S maritime commission joseph P ke kennedy n urged construction of smaller smallen ocean vessels as protection against the day daiy when seaplanes sea planes would speed mail and passengers passengers geri from europe to america test flights had already been underway a year and the kennedy prediction has now been sustained by announcement that imperial airways of london will start weekly transatlantic service before next june 21 hour pass passenger inget service between so southampton and montreal four pound flying boats will make two flights each way every on first flights bights the boats will carry 6 pounds of mail and 18 geri gers abound though ah only mail will be trans ported until the schedule js is thor hughly still to be announced are plans for nex next suimei s beans arans all atlantic atlant antle lc travel by U S operated pan airways air franci trans trani will start in 1941 |