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Show I Weekly News Analysis- V. S. Survey Seeks Explanation For Small Business Ailments I I5y Joseph W. La IJine 1 Spain Though recognition by the United States again placed Gen. Francisco Franco's Spain in the good graces ot international society (all other major powers had previously recognized recog-nized the Nationalist government) the war-torn Iberian peninsula still faces a tremendous task. Franco's sole ineffectual international gesture as a European power has been to join Germany. Italy and Japan in the anti-Communist pact. Having thus shown European democracies his heels, the tired generalissimo could turn to more pressing internal problems. Among them: Order. Though Spain needs manpower man-power to rebuild, many moons will pass before unemployment will be solved. Still breathing in their second sec-ond wind after 32 months of war, discharged Spanish soldiers will not readily bow to anything less than military law. Franco's answer is expected to be a 1.000,000-man army until early 1940. Health. Substantiated reports from Madrid tell of a scurvy-like disease sweeping former Loyalist EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed in these columns, they ate those of the news analyst, and not necessarily ot the newspaper. Business Most of America's 4,000,000 small business men nowadays make little profit, can raise little capital, cannot can-not widen their markets nor improve im-prove their competitive positions. Whatever the cause, the problem is so serious that an even half-dozen credit-loosening measures are now pending in congress. Realizing that unscientific action would be blind staggering, Harry Hopkins' revitalized revital-ized commerce department recently recent-ly asked amendment of one such measure to direct it "particularly to the vital needs of small business busi-ness enterprises" and provide research re-search facilities. The earliest step in this direction started last fall when Wyoming's Sen. Joseph C. O'Mahoney began surveying U. S. business development develop-ment with a $500,000 appropriation and his so-called "monopoly" committee. com-mittee. Thus far successful in finding find-ing business' pulse, the O'Mahoney committee has been given another $600,000 to find what's wrong with the pulse. Announced simultaneously by Securities Se-curities and Exchange Commission- 5 1 j 1 1 f f 0S 4i t , tions committee which is headed by Virginia's Carter Glass and has a conservative majority. Chief nonpartisan non-partisan question mark is whether state and municipal relief setups may not handle relief funds so amateurishly as to force an eventual even-tual return to closer federal supervision. super-vision. Another question mark: If congress supervises relief allocations alloca-tions by states, will pork-barrelling result? Europe Since Memel fell to Germany, Europe's four great powers have engaged en-gaged in unprecedented diplomatic warfare. The French-British drive is to encircle Italy and Germany with arms, thus preventing further aggression. Italo-German counter-move counter-move is to thwart encirclement. So highly perfected is this warfare that France and England have marked off their sectors of activity, London working with Poland and Russia in the north, Paris with Rumania, the Balkans and Turkey in the south. North Europe. Poland is the key nation in Britain's campaign, though Russian adherence to a Stop Hitler bloc is far more vital to the British cause. But Poland will not allow Soviet troops to cross her soil, which means that Russia cannot aid the anti-aggression bloc until Hitler swallows more territory and reaches Russia's frontier. Traditionally a fence-straddler, Poland has signed a mutual defense treaty with England only after making mak-ing important reservations. With a third of her border already facing Germany, Poland gains new hostile frontiers if the three Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia and Esthonia) accept Hitler's "protection." Moreover, More-over, Poland's friendship with Hungary Hun-gary is threatened because that nation na-tion refuses to burn her fingers on a Stop Hitler drive. Rumania, the only remaining neighbor, has agreed to make the Polish-Rumanian military mili-tary pact operative against Germany Ger-many as well as Russia, but Rumania Ru-mania is too far away and too completely com-pletely under Germany's economic thumb to offer much help. Thus Poland's fence-straddling can be appreciated, especially since the mild defensive gestures she has made thus far have been enough to make Germany threaten to denounce de-nounce the 1934 Nazi-Polish friendship friend-ship pact. South Europe. Of the Balkan states, only Rumania has received attention from both France and Britain. The latter nation has offered of-fered help in event of German aggression, ag-gression, while France chimed in with an important trade treaty. Main French efforts have been aimed at solidification of Jugoslavia, Greece and Turkey into an anti-Italian anti-Italian Balkan bloc. Bargaining was started with Turkey to keep open the strategic Dardanelles and r 'I r ' 4 JULIAN BESTEIRO A humanitarian was court-martialed. territory, caused by lack of fresh fruits, vegetables and milk. Its medicine med-icine chest emptied, short of bandages, band-ages, iodine, salves and medicines, Spain has sent hurry-up orders to cope with the sorriest physical plight an enlightened nation has suffered in modern times. Housing. Though intent on restoring restor-ing shell-pocked Catholic churches in Madrid and other former frontier points, Franco faces a far greater carpentry job in placing roofs over several hundred thousand ex-Madri-lenos who fled the capitol in war, returning in peace to find their metropolis me-tropolis a shambles. Revenge. Most Loyalist leaders like Gen. Jose Miaja fled Spain after hoisting the white flag of surrender. Two notable exceptions were Gen. Segismundo Casado, war minister of the defense council, and Julian Besteiro, a moderate Republican who took no active part in the war except to supervise feeding women and children during Madrid's two-year two-year siege. Humanitarian or not, Senor Besteiro was arrested and court martialed along with General Casado. Finance. Before the war Spain's gold reserve of $740,000,000 was exceeded ex-ceeded only by the U. S., Britain and France. Also on hand were vast hoards of silver. By April, 1938, the U. S. federal reserve bulletin reported re-ported Spanish gold had dropped to $525,000,000, and by this month as General Franco entered Madrid, nobody no-body apparently knew where any Spanish gold might be. One vague hint was that Marino Gamboa, a rich Loyalist-sympathizing Filipino, had moved most of it to Mexico and thereby insured the solvency of Loyalist Loy-alist refugees. Meanwhile Nationalist National-ist Spain held an empty bag. Fifty-mile Strait of rttf J Otranto where Italy could bottle up Jugoslavia's outlet to Mediterranean i if she controlled Albania. SEC'S JEROME FRANK O'Mahoney funds, Jaycee probers. er Jerome M. Frank is an SEC-sponsored SEC-sponsored survey to be conducted with O'Mahoney funds by 561 chapters chap-ters of the U. S. junor chamber of commerce. SEC wll "drench itself with facts" on such problems as (1) needs of small business for capital financing; (2) sources of capital and various financial channels through which small business- may obtain financing; (3) factors which prevent small business from obtaining capital. cap-ital. While "Jaycees" got their survey underway, SEC was already working work-ing on a dozen special surveys. Among them: Omaha, to find problems prob-lems of local industry in prairie states, where business has been affected af-fected by droughts; Birmingham, where southern industrial development develop-ment possibilities will be studied; Fall River, Mass., a typical New England region where business has been lost via depression and increased in-creased competition from other sections; sec-tions; Denver, a typical mountain-state mountain-state section; Detroit-Toledo, a typical typ-ical area with high degree of business busi-ness activity. Quickly dismissed by Mr. Frank was the possibility that his SEC might be to blame, since registration registra-tion requirements for small securities securi-ties issues were liberalized a year ago with no resultant increase in securities borrowing by small business. busi-ness. Starting out without any "preconceived ideas," investigators will not try to pin responsibility on banks or anyone else until the eight-week eight-week probe is completed and findings find-ings tabulated. Relief Growing with other anti-administration congressional sentiment has been resentment against relief expenditures. ex-penditures. President Roosevelt was warned last December that he might expect an investigation this session. Though economizing legislators legis-lators agreed to vote deficiency funds (to last until July 1) before tearing WPA apart, they lopped $150,000,000 off the original $875,000,-000 $875,000,-000 deficiency request. When the White House asked that the cut be restored, rebellion had reached such heights that Mr. Roosevelt was lucky to get $100,000,000 of it. Thus freed to tackle WPA itself, a 12-man relief sub-committee went to work under Virginia's economizing economiz-ing Rep. Clifton A. Woodrum. Favorite Fa-vorite among suggested remedies offered the eight Democrats and four Republicans is a measure proposed pro-posed by Mr. Woodrum himself, to turn relief administration over to states and municipalities, the U. S. to concern itself chiefly with allocating allo-cating funds. Aimed partly to wipe out WPA's huge field organization, the bill would also knock $300,000,000 from President Roosevelt's budget estimate of $1,734,000,000 for relief during the 193940 fiscal year. If reported favorably and approved ap-proved by the house, Mr. Wood-rum's Wood-rum's measure will get a warm welcome wel-come from the senate appropria- People Killed, in an automobile accident, 27-year-old King Ghazi I of Iraq, succeeded same day by his three-year-old son, Crown Prince Feisal. O Introduced, by the duchess of Windsor to Parisian society, the "peeping petticoat," whereby several sev-eral inches of white flounce show at the bottom of dresses. Released, on $35,000 bail pending an appeal, New York's Racket Fixer James J. Hines, recently convicted of conspiracy in the late Dutch Schultz's policy ring. Politics Since Mrs. Harry Hopkins died two years ago, motherless Diana, aged seven, has been cared for by her father and by President and Mrs. Roosevelt. Father Hopkins has bounced about the U. S. for years, coming from New York to become what Republicans call "crown prince" of the administration, administra-tion, first as WPA director and later as secretary of commerce. Without With-out home roots, Mr. Hopkins began rummaging for some in February when he went speechmaking in his native Iowa, a gesture critics thought might be a bid for the 1940 presidential nomination. Hence the press was skeptical when he announced his home address ad-dress would henceforth be Grinncll, Iowa, where he had just been named a director of Grinnell college. col-lege. The Hopkins explanation: He was motivated only by a desire to establish a home for Diana. If a political significance can indeed in-deed be attached to the move, it is that Mr. Hopkins would stand a considerably con-siderably better chance of winning the 1940 nomination as an Iowan than as a resident of New York, where his political following is nil. ITALY'S COUNTER MOVE Who bosses the Mediterranean? Bosphorus so that French-British warships could protect Rumania in the Black sea. In exchange, France was reported willing to give Turkey Tur-key a 10,000-square-mile district in Alexandretta, Syria. But Italy replied quickly by threatening seizure of King Zog's tiny Albania, which would give him a key foothold on the Balkan peninsula. penin-sula. Controlling the narrow Strait of Otranto (see map), Italy could block Yugoslavia's outlet to the Mediterranean, a threat which bid fair to explode France's plans. At the same time Italian and German troops moved steadily into African Libya in anticipation of a drive against Tunisia. When all was said and done, it was questionable whether wheth-er France still controlled the Mediterranean. Medi-terranean. Recapitulation. After three weeks "of "encirclement' diplomacy, France and Britain have still to catch their biggest and most vital fish, Russia, and have gained halfhearted half-hearted military agreements with only three nations, Turkey, Poland and Rumania. In a pinch any of them might collapse. Miscellany Total U. S. expenditures for the fiscal year's first nine months ($6,-764,333,430) ($6,-764,333,430) exceeded income ($4,-390,177,312) ($4,-390,177,312) by $2,374,176,124. Ninety-five per cent of the voters in Europe's tiny Liechtenstein (population, (pop-ulation, 12.000) have signed a privately pri-vately circulated declaration rejecting re-jecting union with Germany. |