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Show News Review of Current Events the World Over Drouth Crisis Brings Federal Aid Business Revival Continues in First Half of 1936 Steel Industry Indus-try Fights Drive for Unionization. By EDWARD W. PICKARD Western Kewa reaper Union- BRECKINRIDGE LONG, American Ameri-can ambassador to Italy, submitted sub-mitted his resignation to President Roosevelt because of illness. The diplomat declared that he hopes to recuperate his health during the summer and to take an active part In the presidential campaign in the autumn. Mr. Long's place will be taken by Undersecretary of State William Phillips. He will represent the United States government in Rome in an effort to solve Italo-Ameri-can problems arising from Mussolini's Musso-lini's conquest of Ethiopia. Mr. Phillips has had a distinguished distin-guished career in the diplomatic service. He has held posts in Europe, Eu-rope, the Far East and Canada and has three times been sub-secretary In the state department. The most pressing problem facing fac-ing Mr. Phillips in his new post is the regularizing of America's relations re-lations with Ethiopia, now claimed by Italy as a territory, but still recognized by this country as independent. inde-pendent. The importance of this question, observers declare, is indicated in-dicated by the selection of Mr. Phillips for the Italian post. Only on rare occasions in the past have active sub-cabinet officers been given diplomatic posts. WHILE representatives of leading lead-ing powers gathered in Geneva Gene-va to lift League of Nations economic eco-nomic sanctions against Italy and rpEARS that drouth may lrre- trievably destroy farm crops in North and South Dakota, eastern Montana and Wyoming prompted President Roosevelt Roose-velt to marshal $500,000,000 in relief re-lief funds to corn-bat corn-bat the damage and to develop further fur-ther plans for fighting fight-ing drouth. Secretary of Agriculture Ag-riculture Henry W. Wallace, who left Washington for a personal survey of thestricken areas, flprlnreH that from i Secretary Wallace the refugee emperor emper-or Haile Selassie of Ethiopia prepared pre-pared to plead the cause of his nation's freedom, European Statesmen considered consid-ered the possibility of a reorganization and reformation of the League. Observers agreed i -'Li in the case of past depressions, that measure of business recovery already achieved has been preceded preced-ed by an advance in farm income. "Income circulates more freely as spending is made possible among those consumer groups whose need for goods is particularly particular-ly great. For a period of years prior to the depression farmers had suffered a disparity of prices which returned them a relatively small share of the national income. During Dur-ing the depression this disparity increased. An enormous accumulation accumu-lation of farmer wants was dammed up. This deferred demand de-mand awaited an increased Dow of income." The agricultural administration, the report revealed, had disbursed $1,529,114,0G0 up to December 31, 1935. rEFYING a drive to force union-ization union-ization of its 500,000 workers, the steel industry in a strongly worded statement issued by the American Iron and Steel institute declared "it will oppose any attempt at-tempt to compel its employees to join a union or pay tribute for the right to work." Although the statement did not mention him by name, it war regarded re-garded by observers as the first official response to the recent announcement an-nouncement by John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers Work-ers of America, of a campaign to unionize steel employees. In order to prevent the "closed shop," the industry said it "will use its resources to the best of its ability to protect its employees and their families from intimidation, intimida-tion, coercion and violence and to aid them in maintaining collective bargaining free from interference from any source." The unionization attempt comes at the time when steel operations have set a new record for 1936. Reasserting its belief in the principles prin-ciples of collective bargaining, the industry's statement pointed out that employees now pick their own representatives for collective bargaining bar-gaining by secret ballot. TN ESTES PARK, Colo., Go1. Af- fred M. Landon, Republican Presidential nominee, continued his vacation begun with his family the nil reports conditions had become as serious as they were in 1934, due to lack of sorely needed rains. The secretary declared that un-les un-les rains descend in the sun-scorched sun-scorched regions the government will buy 30,000,000 head of cattle in the next month. In St. Paul, Minn., the governors of the five drouth-stricken northwestern north-western states met with Federal Works Progress Administrator Harry Har-ry L. Hopkins and administrators from the various states. Mr. Hopkins Hop-kins ordered relief jobs made immediately im-mediately available for from 25,000 to 50,000 farmers who have seen their sole source of livelihood destroyed. de-stroyed. The jobs were to be made available on water conservation projects, farm-to-market roads, rural schools and recreational projects. proj-ects. President Roosevelt, in Washington, Washing-ton, appointed a special committee composed of Secretary Wallace, Budget Director Daniel Bell, Aubrey Aub-rey Williams, Assistant Works Prrgress Administrator and Dr. Reicford G. Tugwell, resettlement administrator. They will work in cooperation with a committee of department of agriculture officials. The President instructed Budget Director Bell to study government appropriations to determine what funds are available. CONTINUING business recovery during the first six months of 1926 fulfilled the hopes of optimistic optimis-tic prognosticators and surpassed the expectations of conservative forecasters. All the leading trade barometers registered fair business weather at the close of the first half of the year. The production of automobiles automo-biles reached 2,400,000 units in the first six months of 1936, the best for the period since 1929. Improvement was further reflected reflect-ed by the steel industry, the operations opera-tions of which rose from 49.2 per cent of capacity at the start of the year to 71.2 per cent at the end of June. The output of electricity climbed steadily to reach an all time peak in June. The steady recovery of the railroads rail-roads was indicated by carloadings . which worked up to approach their best levels since 1931. The figures for the first six months of 1936 were substantially better than those for the similar period of 1935. A strong upsurge of home building build-ing gave impetus to the construction construc-tion industry although it still remained re-mained at subnormal levels. Another barometer of improved conditions was the stock market which extended the gains it made in 1935 and reached the highest ground it has held since 1931. AN INCREASE of 90 per cent in the cash farm income on cotton, cot-ton, wheat, tobacco, 'corn and hogs from 1932 to 1935 was recorded un- ill iflii weeK betore ana made plans for reconvening re-convening of the Kansas legislature and for the acceptance accept-ance speech he will deliver in Topeka on July 23. Although Governor Gover-nor Landon was resting preparatory to the rigors of the campaign, affairs of that while informal discussions on the League reformation would be held, it was probable that the question of reorganizing the international pact body would be postponed until the September assembly. YIELDING to the urgings of party leaders, Gov. Herbert H. Lehman of New York announced an-nounced that he would run again for the office of governor. The governor gover-nor had announced several months ago that he would not be a candidate candi-date again, giving as his reasons the press of personal business and a desire to retire to private life. Democratic leaders declared the governor's decision will help the national ticket to carry New York in the election next November. In a statement issued to newspapermen, newspa-permen, Governor Lehman said he could "no longer resist" the appeals ap-peals of national and state Democratic Demo-cratic leaders. The statement said: "Regardless of personal considerations, consid-erations, however compelling, I feel that I can no longer resist the pleas of my party both in the state and in the nation or of those with whom I have worked in closest association as-sociation for many years and with whom I have waged the fight for equal opportunity and social security. secur-ity. "Therefore if my 'party in this state chooses to nominate me again and if the people of the state again call on me for service I shall proudly proud-ly accept the call and will devote de-vote myself wholeheartedly to the interest of the people of the state." DESPITE his previous decision declaring unconstitutional the tax on railroads to permit pensions, Justice Jennings Bailey of the District Dis-trict of Columbia Supreme Court ruled in an oral opinion that the railroad retirement board could pay pensions to railroad workers. The justice declared that his previous pre-vious decision on the validity of the rail pension laws could not be construed to mean that the retirement retire-ment act itself was unconstitutional. unconstitution-al. He ruled that the government could proceed to collect from rail workers a sum amounting to 3 1-2 per cent of their salaries and could, use the money to pay retirement pensions to the workers when they reach 65 years of age or have worked 40 years. He also ruled that the railroad retirement board could proceed to collect information on which to allot al-lot the pensions, provided it did so at its own expense and by recompensing recom-pensing the railroads for any clerical cleri-cal work inv,olved. Justice Bailey's original decision in the case had specifically enjoined en-joined the railroad retirement board from taking any steps to compel the railroads to furnish information. in-formation. The decision ruled that the tax law adopted to finance the pensions was unconstitutional and ruled that the tax measure and retirement re-tirement measure setting up means of paying the pensions were "inseparable." "in-separable." rLOODS which followed a series of cloudbursts in south Texas caused property damage estimated at millions of dollars and cctt the lives of 22 people. Rains which fell at the rate of nine to ten inches a minute swelled the creeks and rivers of the afflicted af-flicted areas into wild floods. It was reported that thousands of acres of farm land in Gonzales and adjoining counties were inundated. As the flood waters receded they revealed a grave picture of destruction. The flood ripped through the settlement of Kyle, between be-tween Austin and San Antonio, washing out bridges and wrecking a train. It was here that the loss , of life was greatest. , der the Agricultural Adjustment act, invalidated in-validated by the i Supreme court last January, according to the annual re- 8 port of Chester C. Davis, former ad- ! ministrator, made public in Washington. Washing-ton. 1 Cash farm in- j 1 come from these Gov. Landon his state and conferences confer-ences with political advisers occupied occu-pied considerable of his attention. When the Kansas legislature reconvenes re-convenes a proposed amendment to the state constitution will be introduced, intro-duced, giving the Gtate broad power pow-er to provide far-reaching legislation legisla-tion for social welfare and to cooperate co-operate with the federal government. govern-ment. Governor Landon was quoted quot-ed as describing the proposed amendment as "satisfactory." The amendment, which ma be the basis for similar action in other oth-er states, reads: "Nothing contained in this constitution con-stitution shall be construed to limit lim-it the power of the legislature to enact laws providing for financial assistance to aid infirm or dependent depen-dent persons; for the public health; unemployment compensation and general social security and providing provid-ing for the payment thereof by tax or otherwise and to receive aid from the federal government therefor." there-for." Charles P. Taft and Ralph W. Robey, two members of his research re-search and advisory staff, were scheduled to join the Republican Presidential nominee and to provide pro-vide him with further data for the notification ceremony speech the first major political statement since his Cleveland nomination. In the meantime, John Hamilton, Hamil-ton, newly elected chairman of the Republican National committee, was on a tour of the East conferring con-ferring with political leaders and laying lines for the party's strategy strate-gy in the coming Presidential campaign. cam-paign. RETIRING from the post of Comptroller General, J. R. Mc-Carl Mc-Carl announced that following the expiration of his term of office he would aid in the government reorganization reor-ganization study undertaken by the senate committee headed by Senator Sena-tor Byrd of Virginia. General McCarl criticized New Deal emergency agencies as "loosely and extravagantly set up" and as "tax consuming in the extreme." ex-treme." He declared that a systematic syste-matic reorganization of both regular reg-ular and emergency agencies would improve government administration administra-tion and veduce the cost to taxpayers taxpay-ers ; Chester Davis Bve major farm products which came under production produc-tion control, rental and benefit payments pay-ments was $1,365,000,000 in 1932, the year before the AAA became operative. oper-ative. For 1935 it was $2,593,000,000. The report pointed out that cash farm income from all other products prod-ucts increased in the same period from $3,012,000,000 to $4,307,000,000. Mr. Davis, who was recently appointed ap-pointed by President Roosevelt to the Federal Reserve board, declared de-clared that cash available for living liv-ing expenses, taxes and interest from farm cash income was the highest in 1935 since 1929, and two and one-half times greater than it was in 1932. Under the AAA, the report sets forth, rental and benefit payments accounted for one-fourth of the increase in-crease in all cash farm income from $4,377,000,000 in 1932 to $5,-900,000,000 $5,-900,000,000 in 1935. Mr. Davis' report re-port concludes: "Increased buying power among farmers has been translated into increased business activity, and as |