Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS BY JOSEPH IF labine labane congress may out spree in boosting defense budget despite election year fears EDITORS NOTE when opinions are expressed in these columns they are those ot of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper released by western newspaper union CONGRESS on guard biggest item on the congressional agenda was franklin roosevelt Roosevel ts s 8 budget which the senate voted to investigate via a joint super committee but there here was more talk than action while congressmen fumed to bury their teeth in i n the defense program major budget item they hey also hesitated watching developments abroad in an election year there must be economy talk but congress may end up by spending more on defense than even the pres resident asked there were probes aplenty even though the house might kill that unprecedented super committee four more groups were hard at it the house naval affairs committee began by slapping newly appointed navy secretary charles edison the slap pigeonholing pigeon holing a proposal that the president be given peacetime power to commandeer factories materials and ships next came admiral harold stark chief of naval operations who opened opined 1 that the U S now has no two ocean 0 T EDISON LEFT AND VINSON the committee was jealous navy and 2 that ton battleships be a bad idea now building are two bonners with two more provided in the current bin bill chairman carl vinson stepped in at this point with the weeks no I 1 surprise a proposal to boost naval strength 25 per cent the next three years through a added appropriation with this suggestion admiral stark agreed in in toto another house committee appropriations showed neither spend thriftiness nor laziness in okaying for immediate emergency defense army navy coast guard and FBI the committee simply knew not where to turn but if the senate approved this fund the current years defense bill will be higher than next years next day when carl vinson learned the appropriation committee might okay another to fortify guam he boiled over that question he insisted should first come to his attention said he this committee naval affairs is jealous of its prerogatives two senate committees meanwhile got up steam foreign affairs looked suspiciously at guam wondering how japan would swallow TREND H HV how V the wind is blowing BANKING at san francisco L M giannini threatened to withdraw his bank of america from the federal era banking system unless secretary of the treasury treasur y h a u r I 1 0 halts persecution of its officers 0 f if i c e r s 4 through the securities 11 1 exchange commission which has been examining records of T trans r a n GIANNINI america corporation owner of 40 per cent of the banks stock next day henry struck back POLITICS at washington it was indicated that chicago can have both republican publican Ke and democratic national conventions for the asking providing the city posts a financial guarantee for each the fortification plan see ASIA appropriations under colorados colorado s alva adams wanted to junk the emergency defense fund and 1 a bly ably would what would eventually happen most observers were willing to guess investigations will probably string along several months until Eu ropes war gathers steam then overnight congress will shoot the works and forget that its an election year also in congress C the house passed rep joseph gahagans agans D N Y perennial anti lynching bill imposing posing irA fines on county or state officials who fail by negligence to prevent mob killings the bill went to the senate which customarily defeats it two years ago by a south sponsored filibuster 41 the house ways and means committee heard secretary of state cordell hull defend his reciprocal trade act which expires june 12 unless renewed score ten republicans republican s against it most of 15 democrats in favor but on the floor it will face greater opposition probably bein being 9 renewed only on the condition that the senate shall ratify all pacts Mian meanwhile while doughty sen bill borah of idaho inferred that the breakdown of trade talks with argentina and uruguay was a plot to win continuation of the act CA 41 adolph dolph sabath of illinois chairman of the house rules committee said he opposed any more money for martin dies un americanism americans m committee reason after all mr dies has had enough publicity for any and all purposes and perhaps he will be still in demand for public speeches and writing magazine articles ASIA naughty U S by mid midIa january nuary the U S was giving japan so much trouble that the cabinet of gen nobuyuki abe was ready to fall it was not enough that emissaries had been unable to wina Nr ila new trade treaty replacing the pact being a abrogated this month by washington washing japanese japanese also learned 1 that the senate foreign affairs committee was talking again of imposing an embargo on war material shipments to japan leader of the move is nevadas sen key pittman committee chairman such yellow 1 sea china ina sea so will MI WANGS EMPIRE IN BLACK what would an embargo do a step would sound the death knell of japans war in china 2 that washington was again talking about a big navy see the guam fortification plan pigeonholed pigeon holed last year when japan objected was making ne news ws again tokyo papers were warning that the U S would soon be no I 1 offensive defensive power in the pacific but the public suffering from an internal stomach ache was unexcited it seemed likely meanwhile that the abe cabinets sole accomplishment and last act would be to launch the puppet government of wang ching wei over japanese dom sections of china see map but if the U S embargo falls lack 01 of military supplies will make it hard to preserve what japan has already won PEOPLE outstanding stassen at chicago the U S junior chamber of commerce chose min desota s G 0 P gov harold stassen as most outstanding young man C L off to australia from shanghai went clarence E gauss U S consul general just named the first american minister to canberra THE WARS in the west germany and the allies seemed to be fighting everything else but each other as midwinter mid winter arrived there was sporadic sea warfare a great battle over german air base and a nazi raid over miles of english coast but despite those threats of heightened conflict public attention was focused elsewhere germany nazi soldiers were reported massed along the baltic shores as the reich eyed neutrality taking a more positive pro russian stand in the soviet finnish war and threatening to invade sweden and denmark but germans were more worried about internal developments supplies from russia and rumania were held up by disputes poor rail facilities and frozen river routes the greatest cold wave in 11 years struck hard in berlin where there were shortages of both coal and food at this time it was rumored workers would soon be paid lous IOUs instead of cash allies france was rumored about to shake up her cabinet something britain had already done while the london press still railed at prime e minister neville chamberlain tor for dis dismissing war minister leslie hore balisha chamberlain chamberla in turned about and rallied the empire to more vigorous prosecution of the war both hore balisha and chamberlain were soon scheduled to unburden themselves in a secret session of commons by general con census chamberlains position was none too secure in the north catching their breath during a temporary lull in fighting the finns estimated they had destroyed three and possibly four russian divisions in one month still undetermined was a battle raging on the salla front where correspondents heard that soviet relief troops were being encircled counting worth of booty seized when the forty fourth russian division was annihilated the finns forecast a several weeks lull THE BALKANS carols choice back to budapest from venice went Hun garys foreign minister stefan csaky in his pocket was a plan italy would safeguard the balkans from either ru russian asian or ger man aggression provided that stubborn rumanian king carol could be whipped into line all rumania must do is guarantee territorial revision with hungary and bulgaria in which case italy and her neigh hors bors will help rumania if russia tries to recapture Bes sarabia but should rumania refuse her neighbors will not only let russia come coma in but will invade king carols carol s precinct themselves actually this italo hungarian agreement constituted an important step in breaking italy away from germany details of the pact were not published for fear of giving offense to the reich and russia |