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Show Ecnoomic Highlights Happenings That Affect the Dinner j P ils, Dividend Checks and Tax Bills of Every Individual. ..National ..Nation-al and Internal! nal Problems Inseparable In-separable from Local Welfare. I - As a business magazine recently raid, "It was to Washington that juoiness looked this week for clues to what's ahead." That has been largely true ever since 1929. It is ;:-GJjCly more true today than it aver was before. Polities has be-;:me be-;:me the dominating factor in the ,-usiness situation and the business .utlook. Number one late Washington oc-urea-ce 'was the President's state-.eat, state-.eat, made at a press conference, .j the effect he wishes the ultim-oe ultim-oe cits. ruction cf all holding combines. com-bines. He specifically mentioned ranking holding companies, biu noi iu ther elaborate his views. .:ae Public Utility Act of 1935 .nose constitutionality will be iin-i.y iin-i.y deeded by the Supreme Ccur. .rs to.ln LV'.nonst.ai.ed the Ad--mstrauon's policy of eliminating olding companies in tne pub.ie utility field, tut up to now no one -olieved the President was looking iito ether fields. His statement .as greeted with both wonder and amaM.nent in financial circles, vhich pointed out that about hall jf all the widely-held listed securi-.ies securi-.ies represent concerns which are X'Oclly or partly holding ccaipanie ay nature, and said that it would j o iiiop-ssibie to accurately gauge 'he effect of a wholesale anti-hold- j aj; company policy until Mr. Rcose-:M Rcose-:M cia.ifies and explains his views .:.d. p.'. poses. j The holding company dooiara- j .n, coming on top cf the recently; .laug-urated anti-monopoly move- : .at, furtac.- illustrates the widen- j a; b:oech bet.veen an Administra-'cn Administra-'cn whio ": is still clinging ' to iU -riiinal more or less revolutionary -.e- ivss. and a Congress which .lis io bo daily turning more: ative and dubious cf White .lousD policies. It likewise fur;her l aasizos the tremendous cleav-a cleav-a :f opinion that exists between io Ai -ninistra icn and America n .jsiness-at-large. o.eo -iieadhnej, but cf unusual Ate est. was an "inves:igation" on ,o subject of employment which . 5e::a.s e-amittee recen'.ly held. m Tim says, 'To the public gen-1 -i'::.y, a Senate investigation means . soandol hunt." This cne was iy difTereat the cc.mmitt.ee hon-..it!;.' hon-..it!;.' wan ed info (.ration, and the !Uc-:iioos asked were tenearlly dc-ior.ed dc-ior.ed to achieve just that, not to :.v.car t'.e questicnee. ; O.io witness was Federal Reserve Chairman Eocies, repiesentative of igl.t-i-.ing Ad.ninis. ration opinion. .l:. Eoc'.es. who has long advo-'aUol advo-'aUol immediate budget-balancing. : :i Ibuted the business slump to ho soliiers' bonus payment, which :cte.Uuatcd in:lati:nary seniment. nd to strikes, increased operating oots f r the railroads, laok of ex-an-i.n by utilities and the government's govern-ment's effort to reduce its ccn-: ccn-: .bati'. n - to consumer spending trwiv. Ho said it was necessary to othjoe "vcnoptiisticaliy controlled prices ond wages whioh are now too high." Another witness was General JI. tors' Wi'.Uan Knudsen. who io-cribed the dilemma in the atttrmctive industry, the amazingly fast d op in new and used car '.-trying, spoke of "fear psychology" as a factor in producing bad times, and attributed this in part to gcv- -'iv-ii-'s -'titut'e tov.-o.rd husire. :A similar opinion was expressed by ' Robert Wood. Sears Roeoue : pre.;-' pre.;-' lutnt. 'ho s.tid chat "business : latlts ccotklenee and is soared," and c'esErvcd that the businessman "has been chibbed over the head many times." Mr. Wood alsa saia that a r.v.r.tor cf opooific factors ied to 'he carrent slurp, including: includ-ing: Overp. oduction in t.re spring of 1938; sterilization of gld; increased in-creased Federal Reserve requirements, require-ments, and the fact that private spending did not take up the slack when ;he government began slowing slow-ing ciewn time of its emergency activities. All of these witnesses likewise agree;', th:t abnor..rally large inventories in-ventories had contributed to the , unp.ecf dented sharpness of the decline !ar f rail and early inter. The inventory situation is gradually gradu-ally being corrected new, and in . : i t; indust ies recent figures indicate in-dicate that inventories are excessively exces-sively lew cne cf the main facts ( on which the many economists who look "for an up urn this spring or 'rummer put their hopes. So the debate goes on. In the roantirne, the actual business in-! in-! 'rices have not changed much j lately, with improvement in some '. lines offset by further declines in j o he s. 4 Dean Carl Aekenmau of Columbia University, has made an exceptionally excep-tionally intersting map, showing 'oj,v censorship cf the press has spread throughout the world. In practically all of the Far East, f 'eedorn of the press is unknown the U. S. S. R., China. Japan, Tim key. Arabia. Egypt .and c:her coitntiios rigidly control' their periodicals, peri-odicals, and in India, Belgian Congo Con-go and French West Africa, there is scare measu e of -government control. In Europe a truly free press is enjoyed only by the inhabitants c England. France. Sweden, Norway and Finland. On this conttner, the press is completely free in the United States, Mexico, Canada (except for the province of Quebec) and part of South America, |