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Show I Woeklv ews Analysis 1 Paris, London Woo Franco In Weak Bid to Oust Fascists lly Joseph W. La Iline 1 EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those of the news analyst, and not necessarily of the newspaper. Spain Germany and Italy would not have aided Rebel Spain if they had no aspirations in the Iberian peninsula. penin-sula. Nor, presumably, would Rebel General Francisco Franco have accepted Fascist aid if he did not expect to repay that favor. These simple facts are being ignored ig-nored by France and Britain, who now hope to woo the Rebels away from their Rome-Berlin connections to make a peace which would save the defeated Loyalist cause. It is hoped thereby to end the war immediately, im-mediately, giving General Franco a partial victory when he could achieve a complete victory through Business As counsel for a New York state legislative insurance committee, Charles Evans Hushes made a name for himself in 1906 uncovering what he thought to be irregularities. The chief Hughes fear: That insurance in-surance company resources were so large as to make conservative, responsible re-sponsible management increasingly difficult The Hughes remedy: Federal Fed-eral supervision of insurance investments. invest-ments. Since 1906 Mr. Hughes has risen to the U. S. Supreme court and may have changed his mind. At least nothing has been done about it and the vast insurance fund has quadrupled. quad-rupled. Whereas Mr. Hughes suggested sug-gested limiting new policies to $150,000,000 a year per company, some now write $2,000,000,000 a year. Today there are $110,000,000,000 worth of policies in effect and insurance in-surance investments cover a surprisingly sur-prisingly wide field. Samples: Government Gov-ernment securities, $4,500,000,000; railroads. $3,000,000,000; farm mortgages mort-gages and corporation securities, $2,000,000,000; state, county and city bonds, $1,500,000,000. If this business was worth investigating inves-tigating 23 years ago it is even more vulnerable today. Just started in Washington is a 12-month probe by the temporary national economic committee, headed by Wyoming's Sen. Joseph C. O'Mahoney and better bet-ter known as the "monopoly investigating in-vestigating committee." Chiming in is William O. Douglas' Securities and Exchange commission. Pertinent Perti-nent question marks include (1) what influence insurance invest- ments exert on U. S. money markets, mar-kets, banks, railroads, etc.; (2) how insurance executives are chosen; (3) possibility of interlocking directorates direc-torates between insurance firms and utilities. Though the monopoly committee has often reiterated that it is not hunting witches, and although Mr. Douglas maintains he only wants to bring the Hughes report up to date. --,H.t.,-j?w-.iw illegal Irish Republican army. While first arrests were being made and special guards were assigned to the king and queen, Irish Prime Minister Minis-ter Eamon de Valera found occasion to regret the incident. Far from a terrorist, Mr. de Valera Va-lera has won amazing concessions for Ireland by using much gentler tactics than the extremist Republican Republi-can army advocates. Today Ireland is known as Eire, having become an independent state associated with the British commonwealth only for certain minor purposes. British overlordship is gone except for far north Ulster, which is largely English Eng-lish Protestant as opposed to the Irish Catholicism of southern Ireland. Ire-land. Main purpose behind the Republican Re-publican army is British withdrawal from Ulster. Mr. de Valera also wants this but he believes in saner tactics. While soothing London's nerves by asking laws to crush the illegal army, Mr. de Valera probably found himself blushing with embarrassment embarrass-ment when P. T. Kelly, an independent independ-ent senator, arose to "regret that the ultimatum sent by the Republican Republi-can army to the British foreign secretary sec-retary had not been sent by the Irish government." Relief It is paradoxical that this year's anti-administration congress should be the first to admit that federal relief is a permanent fixture. But this does not mean that the White House and Capitol Hill are agreed on how relief should be handled. No sooner had the nation recovered from the shock of congress' independence inde-pendence in slashing $150,000,000 from the relief deficiency bill, than relief again popped into the headlines: head-lines: 'Emergency.' As President Roosevelt Roose-velt signed the reduced deficiency appropriation he begged congress to restore the $150,000,000. Reason: "In my opinion an emergency now exists." The President said WPA's alternatives are (1) to slash 1,000,- 000 reliefers from the rolls by April 1 or (2) to oust from 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 via week-by-week reductions reduc-tions from April 1 to July 1. Since each WPA client presumably has dependents, the President thought 'it was contrary to "human decency" decen-cy" to leave from 4,000,000 to 8,000,-000 8,000,-000 Americans stranded. 'URA.' The house received a bill from Virginia's Clifton A. Woodrum which would completely upset the administration's relief apple cart, creating 'URA' (unemployment relief re-lief administration). The bill's lightly-camouflaged purpose is to give congress complete voice over relief, re-lief, hamstringing the White House. Stipulations: (1) halving the President's Presi-dent's 1939-40 budgetary relief request re-quest of $2,266,165,000; (2) abolishing abolish-ing WPA and creating 'URA' which would report monthly to congress; (3) providing for congressional allocation allo-cation of relief funds to individual state agencies; (4) giving the President Pres-ident $120,000,000 a year to spend as he sees fit; (5) attempting to divorce politics from relief. 'Off Again, On Again.'. Created in 1933, PWA is soon to expire. But Secretary of the Interior Hanold L. Ickes has urged creation of a permanent per-manent PWA to prevent future de- f ' WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? (Shoemaker, Chicago Daily News) a few more weeks' fighting on the Madrid-Valencia front. The likelihood of a complete Loyalist Loy-alist surrender is evidenced by an apparent breakdown in morale, coupled with interna squabbling. An army of 200,000 government troops allowed itself to be routed out of Catalonia. Next day Loyalist President Manuel Azana plumped for unconditional surrender while Premier Juan Negrin boasted he would continue fighting. Meanwhile, Mean-while, in southeastern Spain, Loyalist Loyal-ist Gen. Jose Miaja was a virtual dictator in his own right, ignoring both Senors Azana and Negrin. Whether he wanted to surrender or continue fighting was anybody's guess. Britain and France could hardly expect General Franco to jump at a peace offer from such badly-tattered opposition, but they did. It was reliably reported that Anglo-French interests were offering to supply funds for reconstructing Spain if Franco would oust German and Italian influence. So anxious were the British that they sent a cruiser to carry Rebel Spain's envoy to the Loyalist island of Minorca, where a surrender was asked and won. In return for these gestures, General Gen-eral Franco offered little -to the two great European democracies who refused him recognition until all Loyalist hope was gone. His promise: prom-ise: To' remove foreign troops, which does not necessarily mean removal of foreign influence. Expected Ex-pected daily is recall of the old Bourbon dynasty to Spain's throne. Probable ruler will be big, sport-loving sport-loving Prince Jaime, not a sufferer from haemophilia (bleeding) like so many Bourbons. Highly grateful to the man who restored his throne, Prince Jaime would be more than willing to let General Franco rule as premier, a la Mussolini. Vatican Within 18 days of a pope's death, the Sacred College of Cardinals must meet in Rome to elect his successor. Locked in secret conclave con-clave at the Vatican during late February and early March, these princes of the Roman Catholic church will name a successor to the late Pope Pius XI. Attesting to the futility of prediction was the last election, on February 6, 1922, when Pius only nine months a cardinal was elevated over the heads of many more favored candidates. Favored candidate this time is Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, papal secretary sec-retary of state who serves as temporary tem-porary pope during the interim between be-tween Pius' death and the election of his successor. Though he confesses con-fesses a longing to lead the contemplative con-templative life of a monk, Cardinal Pacelli has the excellent record of papal diplomat that qualifies him for the job of pope in a year like 1939. Only stumbling block to Cardinal Pacelli's election is the growing belief be-lief that a non-Italian might make more headway in settling the current cur-rent European turmoil. Though the position traditionally goes to an Italian, Ital-ian, it is recalled that in 1922 the Spanish Cardinal Merry del Val led early balloting. Great Britain Last January 13 the British foreign for-eign office received a mysterious "ultimatum" demanding withdrawal withdraw-al of English troops from Ireland within four days. Three days later bombs began exploding throughout the British Isles and between subsequent subse-quent explosions Scotland Yard was able to place responsibility with the CHARLES EVANS HUGHES The sins are now quadrupled. there is a good chance of new legislation legis-lation providing federal regulation over all interstate insurance business. busi-ness. This would supplement state supervision now in effect. Adding to their discomfort is the demand by Montana's Sen. Burton K. Wheeler that insurance companies com-panies take a greater hand in helping help-ing reorganize U. S. railroads. The Wheeler charge: That present insurance in-surance company negotiations with carriers feature repeated concessions conces-sions to investment bankers at the expense of bondholders. But if rail aid presents as many obstacles as insurance men claim, the probable solution of this problem will not be a federal whipping post for insurance insur-ance companies but revision in the railroad reorganization statute. Treasury Statutory limit of the U. S. public debt is now $45,000,000,000, which will be reached when and if congress con-gress approves President Roosevelt's Roose-velt's new budget. (Current debt: About $39,700,000,000). When congress con-gress convened last month it was rumored the administration would ask to raise the debt limit another $5,000,000,000. To congressional fiscal fis-cal experts who questioned him about the U. S. financial outlook, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. explained that it might be a good idea to raise the debt limit. Said he: "I would not be worried to see it (the debt) go to another $4,000,000,000 or $5,000,-000,000, $5,000,-000,000, which is the present budget, and we are going to have to ask congress, if you vote this money, to increase the treasury's borrowing borrow-ing power." Mulling over this advice, ad-vice, congressmen decided the official of-ficial request, which will come from the White House, may precipitate another feud between spenders and conservatives. -, , if -. ' 'K ' r; Pi t - V SECRETARY ICKES "Off again, on again, gone again . . pressions. Says he: "American growth has been an 'off again, on again, gone again Finnigan' . . . We owe it to our people to protect them . . . from the strains and stresses of an economic system which . . . periodically has hurtled off the track. A program of 'timed' or 'balanced' public works . . . would act like a gyroscope." For proof Mr. Ickes pointed to PWA allotments last June, when the federal fed-eral reserve index stood at 77. By October the index had risen to 97, and by November to 103. Miscellany In Harrisburg, Pa., State Rep. John J. Baker proposed a $50 "baby bonus" for needy mothers, "not to increase the population but to make sure mothers can depend on proper medical attention." In Cleveland, Safety Director Eliot Ness claimed SO per cent of serious traffic violations are committed com-mitted by WPA workers. |