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Show News Review of Current Events the World Over Grand Jury Asked Ly Ickes to Investigate FYv'A Graft Charges Tulare of Nit A Hangs Upon Outcome of Suit Against Little Sawmill Operator. By EDWARD W. PICKARD 9, Western iew.spa,er L'riion. THOSE who view Russia's growing grow-ing military strength with alarm were not comforted by a statement made hy the vice commissar for defense de-fense before the seventh Ail-L'nion congress of Soviets In Moscow that the lied army has grown from OjO,-000 OjO,-000 to 910,000 men In four years. Fortifications along the eastern and western frontiers have been strengthened, and all branches of the military service, particularly aviation, avia-tion, have been Increased, the vice commissar stated, and more will be spent for defense In lTK'.o than was spent last year. The delegates, who' were meeting to review Bolshevist Bol-shevist progress since 19:51, greeted the vice commissar's speech with roars of applause. Impressive Increases In armament were cited by the speaker who said that light tanks have been increased 700 per cent, tanks of the middle classification 700 per cent, submarines subma-rines 435 per cent, light torpedo craft 370 per cent, and machine guns In the army 700 per cent. Heavy artillery and ammunition has also been greatly Improved In quantity quan-tity and quality, he declared. TN AN effort to build up an alibi for Bruno Richard Ilauptmann his attorneys have called a strange collection of witnesses a minor (IT ! ON EST HAROLD" Ickes has - been subjected to lots of abuse by congressmen and others, but he docs not Intend to let any- g.r,r--, 1 r - ? thing be put over on the 1' u b 1 1 c Works administration, administra-tion, of which be Is the administrator. administra-tor. At his request a special grand Jury has been summoned sum-moned to meet In Washington February Febru-ary G to Inquire Into charges of graft In thel'WA. Assistant United States At- Sec'y Ickes tv.'n league bootlegger, a speakeasy operator of various names, a young Swede whose stories have been somewhat vague and conflicting, and a man who has ad-m ad-m 1 1 1 e d that he served several jail sentences a not particularly impressive impres-sive lot upon which to depend when you are fighting to Bruno Hauptmann handed such a vast sum to dispose of an lie pleases. A strong possibility Is s-een that the bill may be split Into two separate sepa-rate parts, so that the 8S0 million dollars needed for relief purposes may be passed without delay, and the senate can then take Its time In considering the extraordinary measure which gives the President such unprecedented powers In spending spend-ing the four billion dollars. One development which was of Interest to many was that the measure meas-ure was prepared under the supervision super-vision of Mr. Bell, the budget director, di-rector, thus making him a candidate candi-date for the "physical hanging" advocated ad-vocated by Senator James Couzens of Michigan. PEARIXG the anger of their aroused constituents more than the administration's whip, the senate sen-ate kicked over the traces to defeat ratification of the World court protocols. pro-tocols. The final count was seven votes short of the necessary two-thirds. two-thirds. Frantic efforts to force the measure meas-ure through were made by the administration. ad-ministration. Several revolting senators sen-ators were called to the White House, and the President even agreed to amendments to the resolution, resolu-tion, but was unable to overcome the effects of thousand of protesting protest-ing telegrams which had been pouring pour-ing Into Washington from citizens all over the country. In private, many Democratic senators sen-ators who face re-election in 1036" heaved sighs of relief as the measure meas-ure was defeated. Administration forces accepted the verdict, apparently appar-ently -without rancor, although the long memory of the man in the White House is well known. Seemingly Seem-ingly the issue is dead, for the present pres-ent at least. Senator William Borah, who with Senator Hiram Johnson, led the attack at-tack on ratification, was jubilant over the outcome, declaring that it was a great victory for the American Amer-ican people and for this country's traditional policy of keeping aloof from foreign entanglements. Observers at the Capital refused to view the World court vote as any Indication of a spreading revolt against Roosevelt's policies, since the court controversy cut deeper than party lines. Several senators who opposed the tribunal will undoubtedly un-doubtedly support the administration administra-tion on other measures, although victory of the small band of irre-concilables irre-concilables who led the fight has undoubtedly added to their prestige. THAT serio-comic "civil war" in Huey Long's domain is becoming more serious than comical and almost al-most any day may develop into real torncy John W. I'iheily has the matter mat-ter In hand for the government and will present first teslimony concerning concern-ing the $1,000,000 canal project In Texas. It was asserted that the contract for thin project was withdrawn with-drawn after Mr. Ickes?' Investigators had uncovered evidence that there was a huge conspiracy to defraud the United States. Eight or ten persons, including federal ollleials, are said to lie Involved. Mr. Ickes himself said : "The Public Works administration Investigation division has made a long and careful study of the Texan project upon the direction of the adminlslrator (Ickes) and presented present-ed to the proper prosecuting ollleials olll-eials of the government a full report re-port for such action as they deem proper to take." This Texas case may consume several weeks, and afterward the grand jury Is expected to Investigate Investi-gate some oilier projects and also charges of fraud In the War de-partmen de-partmen t. A LMOST unnoticed among the spectacular issues of the day, yet of momentous Importance, the case of the United States against Belcher will be set for hearing by the Supreme court within a few days. This case opens up discussion discus-sion of the constitutionality of the heart of the entire NRA experiment the power of the federal government govern-ment to regulate wages and working work-ing hours through the codes. Upon this refusal of a small Alabama Ala-bama sawmill operator to comply with the code hangs the entire fate of the NRA, for If the government loses there will be nothing left of the NRA except an empty statement of desirable business ethics. If the government cannot control wages and hours in the production of goods Intended for Interstate commerce, there is a strong likelihood that the course of legislation to extend the NRA beyond June 16 will be strongly strong-ly affected. Other cases now pending pend-ing before the court touch upon certain portions of the vital question, ques-tion, but this case goes straight to the basic power of the recovery act. It affords a clear-cut determination of the fundamental issues, because there Is no dispute as to facts, no technicalities of law upon which the Issue can be avoided. The case comes almost as an. original case, since the attorney general took advantage ad-vantage of legal machinery permitting permit-ting an appeal directly to the Supreme Su-preme court from the decision of a federal District court without recourse re-course to a Court of Appeals. The defendant openly violated the lumber code. Instead of adhering to code provisions requiring payment of 2-1 cents per hour for a 40-hour maximum week, he admitted paying pay-ing h in men 10 to 15 cents per hour and tli at he worked them as many hours as he saw fit. What the government's line of defense de-fense will he is not known. The case involves all the constitutional objections which might be raised against the recovery act. Decisions De-cisions of the court in the recent oil cases did not touch upon the constitutionality con-stitutionality of the main body of the act, but involved only a special section. Tl'UEN the senate passes the v $4,000,000,000 work relief measure, as it certainly will after all the orators get through, there need be no fussing as to who Is to administer the huge fund. President Presi-dent Roosevelt himself, according to an authority high in administration adminis-tration circles, will undertake that job and will allocate the money to the various agencies as he sees fit There will be no new set-up for this purpose, unless it may be a small group of advisers selected by Mr. Roosevelt. These may be members of the cabinet or technical tech-nical experts more likely the latter. lat-ter. This Information was given the senate finance committee as It began consideration of the bill, and was designed to quiet some of the opposition and also curb the ambition am-bition of certain gentlemen who had hoped to handle the $4,000,000,-000. $4,000,000,-000. It did not, however, silence those senators of both parties who still contend that too much power It tlven President when he Is K ' ! warfare. It was centered for the ; present at the state ; capital. Two tain-j tain-j dred armed men, directed by leaders of the Square Deal association, seized j the parish courthouse court-house in East Baton Rouge and held It until assured that one of their friends who had been ar- escape death in the electric chair. One of the peculiarities of the trial is the number of persons who only saw Hauptmann for a few minutes min-utes or seconds, but who are able to identify him more than two years later. The man accused of killing the first Lindbergh child is not outstanding out-standing in appearance or one who would be likely to indelibly impress himself on a person's mind, but both the state and the defense have been able to produce persons who swear he was the man they saw the day the crime was committed. The battle of handwriting experts has also begun, with the state producing pro-ducing experts to swear that the handwriting on the ransom notes does not resemble that on the admitted ad-mitted writing of Hauptmann. Their statements are Just as positive as were those made by the defense witnesses, wit-nesses, and it all proves just a little lit-tle confusing to the jury. Considerable comment was caused when one of the jurors, a woman, smiled broadly at Hauptmann as he left the stand following his examination, exam-ination, and some wagers have been made that a hung jury will be the outcome of the trial. Such predictions predic-tions are hardly in order, since a single bit of testimony may yet change the entire course of the case. JAPANESE forces continued to advance in their drive. Two towns were captured by troops operating op-erating in weather 34 degrees below be-low zero, and the forces appear to be converging on an area of disputed disput-ed territory which lies south of Manchuli and Hailar, where northwest north-west Manchukuo overlaps Outer Mongolia. The indefiniteness of the border is blamed for the contention. con-tention. Intimations that the Japanese garrison In Manchukuo might be increased in-creased were made in the Japanese diet, based upon assertions that the Soviet government had continued to enlarge its army in the Far East, and that Soviet penetration into Outer Mongolia has resulted in virtual vir-tual communization of that territory. terri-tory. XJO DISTURBANCE was created in the senate when the bill to increase the government's borrowing borrow-ing powers by $11,000,000,000 was passed, except for the attempt of Senator Elmer Thomas, avowed advocate ad-vocate of inflation, to hold up action. ac-tion. Senator Thomas based his argument argu-ment on the possibility of the Su preme court holding gold clause contracts valid and that changes would be needed in this event. Senator Sen-ator Burton K. Wheeler also sought to amend the bill to authorize issuance issu-ance of greenbacks instead of bonds, but did not press the change to a vote. The bill as passed revises the bond authorization carried by the second liberty loan act, which has been virtually exhausted. It also provides for issuance of baby bonds in denominations as low as $25. Details De-tails have not been worked out, but the interest on the first issue will be at the rate of IVz per cent and the bonds will run from 10 to 20 years. DICHARD WASHBURN CHILD, former ambassador to Italy, attorney, at-torney, and author, died of pneumonia pneu-monia at his home in New York. He left a post as editor of Collier's Weekly in 1921 to take that of ambassador am-bassador to Italy, where he gained prominence as the chief representative representa-tive of the United States at the Genoa and Lausanne conferences in 1022. Ke was the author of several works and collaborated with Premier Pre-mier Benito Mussolini on the Italian Ital-ian leader's autobiography In 1927. Huey Long ed was released. They then dispersed dis-persed with a warning from one John Appel to "be sure you have enough ammunition and be ready for the call at any time." The Kingfish was in New Orleans at the time, but he hastened to Baton Rouge while Governor Allen called out some troops and proclaimed pro-claimed partial martial law in the capital. Huey Immediately ordered the recently appointed Judge J. D. Womack to start an Investigation of what he described as a plot to murder him, in which "four sheriffs and a district attorney" were involved. in-volved. The senator declared: "We picked up two men, one of them was going to drive the murder car. It was all fixed up. He was going to block my car on the highway high-way between here and New Orleans, Or-leans, make it stop and force me in the ditch, and then 14 or 16 were going to come along in another car and kill me. "We found all the stuff In the fellow's car. There was sheriff's equipment, and everything." Long blamed the Standard Oil company for the armed assembly of his enemies in Baton Rouge and said that unless the company stopped the "violence" his compromise compro-mise with it over the 5-cent oil refinery re-finery tax would be called off. Despite this warning another armed group of Square Dealers gathered at the Baton Rouge air field ; but someone betrayed them and a detachment of the National Guard advanced on them in battle array. The sight of machine guns was enough for the citizenry ; they surrendered, were disarmed, placed under technical arrest and permitted permit-ted to go home. |
