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Neiva Review of Current Events
STEEL GOES BACK TO WORK
Two-Thirds of Idle Have Returned . . . Riots Kill Two
In Aluminum Strike . . . Siege of Madrid Gets Setback
SUMMARIZES THE WORLD’S WEEK
© Western Newspaper Union.
C. 1.0. Steel Grip Loosens
THE grip of the C. I. O. con
tinued to loosen in the steel
strike as three big independent steel
corporations—Republic, Bethlehem
and Youngstown Sheet & Tube—
reported more than two-thirds of
their idle mill hands had returned
to work. This covered plants in Ohio
and Pennsylvania. Inland, the fourth
of the steel independents, announced
that it was operating with its nor
mal force of 13,000 in Indiana since
it and the Steel Workers’ Organiz
ing Committee signed a compact
with the state labor commission.
Steel production in the Youngstown,
Ohio, area, one of the principal
scenes of strike violence, climbed
to 76 per cent of capacity, 3 per
centage points above the operating
figure before the start of the strike.
Strike Riot Kills Two
/A NE striker and one policeman
were killed and twenty men
were injured at an aluminum plant
in Alcoa, Tenn., when rioting broke
out as 3,000 strikers started a back
to-work movement. The plant, be
longing to the Aluminum Company
of America, had been closed since
May 18, when the strike was called
by the Aluminum Workers of Amer
ica, an affiliate of the American Fed
eration of Labor. Difference in
wages paid at Alcoa and at the com
pany’s plant in New Kensington,
Pa., was the issue in the strike.
State troops were on hand, but
Adjt.-Gen. R. O. Smith, in charge,
said that they were there merely
to protect rights, and no martial
law had been declared.
Lewis Scans the Sea
JOHN L. LEWIS sought to expand
the scope of his Committee for
Industrial Organization by invading
the maritime industry. With Harry
Bridges, west coast longshoremen’s
leader, he sought to unify scattered
maritime unions in one big industrial
organization dominated by the C. I.
O. The American Federation of La
bor already has two strong unions
in the maritime field, so this action
brings Lewis into another point of
friction with William Green’s or
ganization. The nation has 250,000
marine and coastal workers.
'Compromise' Takes Bow
CENATOR M. M. LOGAN, Dem
ocrat, of Kentucky, presented the
“compromise” version of the Pres
ident's Supreme court bill to the
senate, apparently
with the blessings of
Majority Leader
Joseph T. Robinson
and the chief execu
tive. In form an
amendment to and
substitute for the old
Ashurst administra
tion bill, the new
draft authorizes ap
pointment of one
new justice to t h e
court each year for
every justice remaining on the court
after reaching the age of seventy
five years. Under its provisions the
President would be permitted to
name one new justice this year (be
sides filling the vacancy left by the
retirement of Justice Willis Van
Devanter) and assure him of at
least one new appointment to the
court in each remaining year of his
present term of office. All of the ap
pointments would hinge on the de
cision of justices seventy-five or
older on retirement.
The opposition immediately
charged that the new bill was as
offensive as the old one. Sen. Burton
K. Wheeler, Democrat, Montana,
said: “The compromise is not going
to get through. The new bill is just
as objectionable as the old, because
it seeks to pack the Supreme court
just like the original bill did.” Sen.
Edward R. Burke, Democrat, Neb
raska, said the 43 senators would
vote against any kind of measure
that would increase the Supreme
court.
Some of the other provisions of
the new bill were:
Authority for 20 additional ap
pointments to lower courts in
the event that judges over seventy
fail to retire. The old bill would
have permitted 50 new appointments
altogether.
Speedy intervention by the gov
ernment in cases involving consti
tutionality of federal laws, and
speedy appeal to the Supreme court.
Rebels Fall from Madrid
C PANISH rebel forces which took
Bilbao after the city’s first suc
cessful siege are still finding Madrid
a tough nut to crack. In a two-day
battle the loyalist forces broke
through the siege lines about the
city, captured the villages-of Villa
neuva de la Canada and Brunette,
and threatened to cut the besieging
rebels off from their main forces.
So nearly successful was the at
tempt to rout the rebel forces that
the latter were forced to admit new
troops might have to be withdrawn
I %
Amelia: Lost in the Pacific.
from other fronts, delaying tempo
rarily the drive on Santander, next
rebel objective on the Biscayan
coast.
Meanwhile, the fall of Bilbao was
expected to add 150,000 refugees to
the constant stream pouring into
loyalist Valencia. Although some of
the refugees remained in France,
where they were first taken, the vast
majority preferred to go to Catalo
nia, where the government takes
care of them at its own expense.
Nearly 1,500,000 have arrived in Va
lencia since the start of the war and
300,000 have remained there.
Bingham's 4th of July
O OBERT WORTH BINGHAM,
United States ambassador to
London, became the third promi
nent American to bring down the
fury of Nazi Germany’s officialdom
and press when, in an Independence
day speech before the American
society in that city, he declared Un
cle Sam had been forced by the dic
tator countries to join Britain in an
armament race. Mayor LaGuardia
of New York and Cardinal Munde
lein of Chicago had been other re
cent Nazi targets.
The ambassador was quoted as
saying: “There must be some (of
the dictatorships) who realize that
they have imposed upon the British
commonwealth and the United
States an armaments race.
“We did everything in our power
to avert it, but it is a race, and the
British and ourselves must inevita
bly win. I admit the strongest ar
guments that can be made for dic
tatorships—they offer a better meth
od of preparing for war. But I
am sure that democracies provide
a better way to finish a war.”
The Nazis charged that the am
bassador had insulted Germany and
Italy with his “arrogance and ig
norance.” Voelkischer Beobachter,
the official newspaper, added: “If
there is any talk of defense, then
we should speak of defense against
the arrogant and teacher-like atti
tude of the defenders of western
ideals.”
Navy Hunts for Amelia
UfOUR ships of the United States
1 navy, with attendant airplanes;
two ships of the Japanese navy,
and a British freighter scoured the
vast wastes of the South Pacific
in an effort to find and rescue
Amelia Earhart Putnam, America’s
No. 1 woman flyer, and her navi
gator, Fred Noonan. The pair had
been forced down before complet
ing the 2,570-mile hop from New
Guinea to Howland island, a “leg”
of their ’round-the-world flight.
Signals received from the hapless
flyers were so weak that it was
impossible to tell whether they were
afloat at sea or marooned on some
tiny island, and as the days passed
it became doubtful that many of
the radio messages which served
as clues for the searchers were
from the two at all. Storms over
the area of the sea in which they
were believed lost hampered
searchers and minimized possibili
ties of a rescue.
So alarmed was the world at the
loss of Amelia and her companion,
the United States even sent out the
giant aircraft carrier Lexington
with 98 planes aboard, which, it
was said, could explore an area of
36,000 square miles in five or six
hours.
Mae West Tells All
J T SEEMS Mae West, buxom
1 blonde cinema menace DID mar-
.ry Frank Wallace in Milwaukee on
April 11, 1911, after all. After stout
ly denying the marriage which
aroused the whole nation when it
was revealed in 1935, she did an
about-face and confessed it, al
though denying she had ever lived
with the vaudeville player as his
wife. Her admission was necessitat
ed when she answered Wallace’s
suit for declaratory relief in a Los
Angeles court.
Nation Finds More Jobs
EARLY 35,000,000 persons are
now employed in non-agricul
tural pursuits, the federal reserve
board has announced. This is only
1,000,000 or 1,500,000 shy of the av
erage in 1929 and 8,500,000 to 9,000,-
000 more than in March, 1933.
■ •
Sen. Robinson
Uncle Sam Checks Up
UNCLE SAM wound up the 1937
fiscal year with a net deficit of
$2,707,347,110, or about $150,000,000
more than President Roosevelt esti
mated last April, according to the
report of the United States Treas
ury.
The gross national public debt
climbed to a total of $36,424,613,732
as of June 30, it was shown.
Receipts for the period just closed
were the largest in 16 years,
amounting to $5,293,840,236, com
pared with $4,115,956,615 for the
1936-37 year and about $70,000,000 in
excess of estimates. Expenditures
were $8,105,158,547, including $103,-
933,250 for debt retirement origi
nally planned for that period but
carried over into the current year.
Completion of the debt retire
ment program as previously con
templated would have called for the
expenditure of $404,525,000, which
would have placed the gross deficit
above the $3,000,000,000 mark.
In the 1936-37 period, recovery and
relief costs were more than $400,-
000,000 below the total for the year
before, amounting to $2,846,462,932
against $3,290,927,869.
Reliable authorities around the
capitol said that as soon as all ap
propriation bills for the 1938 fiscal
year were cleared, the President
would direct the heads of all govern
ment departments to impound 10
per cent of their appropriations, ex
clusive of fixed charges, in an at
tempt to balance the budget. Ex
perts said that a maximum of $400,-
000,000 could be saved in that way.
The prospective net deficit for 1938
was estimated at $400,000,000.
Ford Tests Labor Board K
THE national labor relations
board is receiving its most ex
acting test in the hearings at De
troit on the United Automobile
Workers’ union complaint that the
Ford Motor company is guilty of
unfair labor practices. The U. A.
W. U. is a C. I. O. affiliate; Ford is
opposed to the unions.
It was expected that the hearings
might take a long time and may
eventually reach the United States
Supreme court. After the hearings
in Detroit a board examiner will
draw up “intermediate findings”
and send them to the NLRB in
Washington, accompanied by a
transcript of the evidence and briefs
of both sides. The board will then
either order the Ford Motor com
pany to “cease and desist” its un
fair practices or dismiss the union’s
charges. Appeal may be taken to
the United States circuit court of
appeals, which has the power of
enforcement which NLRB lacks.
The case may reach the Supreme
court if the Constitution is involved.
One of the allegedly unfair practices
to which the U. A. W. A. objects is
distribution of anti-union literature
by the Ford company to its em
ployees. The company charges that
a denial of this would violate con
stitutional guaranties of free speech
and a free press.
Mediators Blame Steel
'T'HE federal mediation board
* named by Secretary of Labor
Frances Perkins, .which reached a
deadlock and gave up in its efforts
to help the C. I. 0.-affiliated Steel
Workers Organizing Committee and
the independent steel corporations
solve their difficulties, laid the
blame for its failure at the door of
the steel concerns.
“We cannot but believe that the
bitterness and suspicion which sep
parate the two sides would be al
layed by a man-to-man discussion
around the conference table between
the heads of the four companies
and the union representatives, and
that the only present possible hope of
settlement lies in such a meeting,”
the board’s report said.
On the board were Charles P.
Taft, chairman; Lloyd K. Garrison
and Edward F. McGrady.
Isolates Paralysis Germ
V XT HAT the medical profession
vv considers a major step in the
conquest of infantile paralysis was
taken when Dr. Edward Carl Rose
, now announced to 100 physicians,
surgeons and medical research
workers in Glendale, Calif., that he
had isolated the germ which causes
it. Dr. Rosenow is professor of ex
perimental bacteriology at the
Mayo foundation in Rochester,
Minn.
Work with spinal fluid taken from
nurses who had contracted the dis
ease at the Los Angeles general
hospital in 1934 enabled him to iso
late the micro-organism.
Dr. Rosenow said that now the
germ has been isolated steps must
be taken to develop a serum sim
ilar to the serums used in fighting
other ravaging contagious diseases.
Triple Split for Palestine
PALESTINE would be split into
1 three parts and British man
date over the whole country ended,
according to suggestions made by
the royal commission on Palestine
and delivered to the British govern
ment. The commission was formed
a year ago to find some way of put
ting an end to Arab-Jewish riots.
Under the new plan, about two
thirds of Palestine would be con
verted into an Arab state and about
one-third into a Jewish state. A
small territory, including the holy
cities of Jerusalem, Bethlehem and
Nazareth, and a corridor to the
sea, would bh given to Great Brit
ain as a permanent mandate. It
is claimed that the plan would re
move the Arabs from Jewish dom
ination, give the Jews a home and
protect Christian shrines.
Washington^
Digest
National Topics Interpreted j
By WILLIAM BRUCKART
NATIONAL PRESS BLDG WASHINGTON. D C
Washington.—lt appears that an
other session of congress will go by
without the con-
S pending gress and the ad-
Will Go On ministration doing
anything serious
in the way of cutting down govern
ment expenses; There is nothing
that can be done now toward carry
ing out the expressions made by
President Roosevelt in his message
last January when he told congress
that he wanted to cut federal ex
penses and take important steps to
ward balancing the federal budget.
The reason that federal spending is
due to go on for another year at the
extraordinary rate of the last four
or five years is because a majority
in congress, under the lash of the
White House, refused to require
states and local governments to
bear a percentage of the relief costs.
In other words, federal spending
will go on because congress and the
President have lacked the courage
to start taking the federal govern
ment out of the relief work and
gradually restore it to the care of
those folks in the various communi
ties who know where relief is need
ed.
There had been a very determined
movement in congress to compel
the states to share in the gigantic
relief burden. It took on various
forms and had various sponsors. But
the end and aim of all of them was
to divide the cost in equitable fash
ion.
The proposal that had the best
chance of getting through was one
offered by Senator Robinson of
Arkansas, the Democratic leader in
the senate. He offered an amend
ment to the relief bill which would
have required the states to con
tribute one-fourth of the amount ex
pended in each state, with the fed
eral Treasury supplying the remain
der. When that amount was offered,
it was something in the nature of a
compromise between proposals that
the states should bear 40 per cent
and that they should bear none of
the cost. With the White House op
erating through the President’s lob
byist, Charles West, and Senator
Barkley of Kentucky, the adminis
tration was able to force defeat of
the Robinson amendment.
Now, Senator Barkley is assist
ant Democratic leader of the sen
ate and so we had the spectacle of
one of Mr. Roosevelt’s spokesmen
being on one side and a second one
on the other side. The one who
was spurred on by the President
was victorious.
I am not sure that the Robinson
proposal would have resulted in an
appreciable reduction in the federal
outlay for relief. Os course, it would
have cut the total somewhat but
not by the full one-fourth that ap
peared on its face. It was valuable
as a piece of legislation, however,
because it would have required the
states again to assume some of the
burden which only a few years ago
they carried in its entirety. It was
a principle for which Senator Rob
inson fought and it was a principle
upon which he was defeated be
cause Harry Hopkins, relief admin
istrator, objected and still objects
to returning any part of the relief
obligation to the local authorities.
I suspect that Senator Robinson’s
activities on the relief proposition
will not help his relations with the
White House but I think it ought
to be said that Senator Robinson
demonstrated again his capacity as
a statesman. He demonstrated as
well that he recognizes the dan
gers confronting the United States
Treasury which at the end of the
current fiscal year—-June 30—had
an outstanding debt* in excess of
$36,000,000,000.
From among some of the senators
I gained the impression that there is
considerable worry about the gov
ernment’s spending and they wanted
to see the Robinson amendment pre
vail because they recognized it as
a move that would eventually bring
federal government spending within
control. Also, senators of that
school of thought maintained that if
states were called upon to bear
some of the burden of relief, it would
bring home forcefully the fact that
all of this spending must sometime
be made up out of taxes. People
do not like to pay taxes and they
cannot be blamed for their attitude.
Unless they realize, however, that
borrowed money is being spent and
they and their children and chil
dren’s children ere to be taxed to
pay off the loans, they will not be
in favor of reducing national, state
or local expenses.
The debate in the senate on the
proposition to send some of the re
u ^ef burden back to
City Mayor, the states showe l °
Are Active rather plainly that
most of the sena
tors are disgusted with talk that
hunger and distress will haunt the
land if states are required again
to take over some of this charity
work. The impression I gained from
this debate was that a powerful lob
by of mayors from some of the larg
er cities was turning on all of the
steam it could muster. Mayor La-
Guardia of New York was the bold
est of these as he has been bold
constantly in forcing the federal
government to pay the relief rolls
in New York city and save his own
New York city budget.
Another phase of the debate
should be noticed. It was the re
luctance of congress to reassume
its right to direct and control the
spending of federal funds. The
above-mentioned Mr. Hopkins wants
to be free and unfettered in his
spending and those policies were
the ones he recommended to Mr.
Roosevelt. Consequently, with ad
ministration pressure on many sen
ators, the Hopkins idea prevailed
and so for another year congress
must sit back and watch the Hop
kins organization spend money vir
tually any way it desires.
I think there ought to be a les
son in this whole situation upon
which the country can look back
rather regretfully. The experience
gained by making lump sum ap
propriations certainly shows how a
bad habit can be contracted and
how difficult it is to cure that habit.
Seldom in history until this depres
sion would congress ever vote lump
sum appropriations for executive
departments to spend as they will.
Having contracted the habit, how
ever, it is going to be difficult here
after to deny any President lump
sum appropriations, provided only
that he has a substantial majority
in the house and senate.
No doubt many persons will won
der why this sort of thing consti
tutes an important issue. The an
swer is simple. Governments are
wasteful and the federal govern
ment, being larger than state or lo
cal governments, is just that much
more wasteful and unable to handle
money carefully. If states and lo
cal communities have to bear ex
penses of this sort out of their own
treasuries, they see to it that only
those entitled to relief obtain it. Un
happily, the national relief system
is caring for thousands upon thou
sands of men who could get jobs
and who could support their fami
lies but who will not do so as long
as money is given them from Wash
ington.
Since the national debt is at the
highest point in the history of our
nation, there is a growing convic
tion at the Capitol that a halt must
be called sometime. The present
trouble is that there are not yet
enough courageous representatives
and senators to force a stoppage in
such spending.
* • •
While the steel strike blazed forth
with battle after battle, blood was
nt -r l shed and Property
Baker 1 akes W as damaged, lit-
Labor Job tie attention was
paid to a develop
ment here in the nation’s capital—in
the government itself.
While all of the sensational things
were happening on the steel front,
one Jacob Baker was resigning his
job as assistant relief administrator
and was accepting the job of chief
of a new labor unit to be associated
with John L. Lewis and his Com
mittee for Industrial Organization.
Mr. Baker’s unit is to be made up
of government workers themselves,
a labor union in the government of
the United States.
For some years, there have been
minor labor units among govern
ment employees. They were affili
ated with the American Federation
of Labor. Generally speaking, they
were impotent and did little more
than create a dozen jobs for the offi
cials of the organization.
Now, however, the government
workers are to have a “militant,
fighting labor union which will get
things done for them.” Such at
least is the press agent word that
has been spread under Mr. Baker’s
direction.
Mr. Baker is familiar with the
problems of government service.
Undoubtedly he recognizes that he
cannot use the same methods in or
ganizing government workers that
are used in private industry. If,
for example, he would attempt a
strike, I think probably it would
be the end of labor organizations in
the government of the “militant
fighting” type.
The advance notices concerning
Mr. Baker s plans seem to indicate
that he is seeking members below
the grades of official rank. In other
words, if the Baker plans are car
ned out, the new union will be made
up of the so-called rank and file
This would seem to be an advanta
geous arrangement because it elim
inates some of the dangers that al
ways deveiop where bureaucrats
and division heads assume too much
authority.
There is a danger also in confin
ing the organization to the rank and
file because among the less experi
enced labor leaders there is alwavs
a tendency “to flare up.” That is
to say, lacking experience they may
say things or do things which are
regrettable or which they have
cause to regret later on. The vio
lence that has shown its ugly h ca d
£ \i e S n StFike proves this point
So Mr. Baker has his job cut out for
him in this direction.
© Western Newspape* Vvint
WHO’S imß
THIS WEE®
By Lemuel F. R,®
NEW YO RK „„i*«
t T Morgenthau calls in V
’ h e sends for D r . j ■
of Chicago, currently
Washington to diarnos-w "ig
I bles. Gold, the experts®
i keeps getting out 0 tW
1 ^ay or another. Burvi W
lions of it in Kentuekv / ■L
, to help and there's no
. long Unde Sam
; money to buy ami imp W
i stage, financiers and
. are worried about old
; understood that f r ’ t-,®.
- Partment is shaping a po hc W
Dr. Viners presence in iHr
ton.
• Dr. Viner, of the
■ University of Ci ■. ■
viser to the Tre; ■ -.^®
by the university,
Chicago with th-
• he would be standing *7®
needed him badly, (iyy®
this trusted co :,^®
experiment in ■ .h ®
belongs to the
. of finance. He ) I; , s ti;^®
posed artificial w; ye ..-.j,!®
dlants as aids to
the depth of < on . sior
cry everywhere y.®
wages, he was h r :We ,'„®|
wages—also p:
real wages. ®
He says all this parallel
ing of prices and wages co®
nothing, and possibly
worse; the real wage, detail
by its purchasing power, ®
only important crindderatii®
that, Dr. Viner believes, tis®
with the free and normal
credits and goods around the®
with low tariff-, or no tariffs®
this being his pet idea. He®
initely placed as a liberal.®
doesn’t think we will get an®
by strong-arming economic ®
He is Canadian born, hi®
years old, naturalized in 191®
was graduated at McGill uriv®
took his doctorate at Harvard®
has been teaching, lecturing®
writing since—at one time a®
to the shipping board and ®
for the tariff commission. H:s®
nence is in the field of rada®
He is the author of scree pro®
and, to this department, qtu®
comprehensible monographs ®
money and credit. Fe is vi®
professor at the (had me Ins®
of International Studies at Ge®
and has a towering r rudd®
Europe. ®
* ’ *
Communist Bogey Min,®
p UDGY, bristling little 3d®
* who once seized and ruled®
gary, may or may not have®
executed in Russia. Reports®
meagre and conflicting. A®
weeks ago, a wayfarer back®
Europe told me Kun was sus®
of working with the Trotskyite®
that was just rumor and the®
no explanation of what bas ®
pened—if anything did. ®
In the main ports of entry in®
America and Europe, they ti®
a riot call and burglar alarm®
cry time it is whispered that®
squat, swarthy and mysterious®
Kun is in the offing. ■
For some reason, internatim®
lice have put him down as the®
spreader of the communistic ®
although he has figured in M®
events since Admiral Horthy cm®
him out of the pink and white®
cocco palace at Budapest. ■
Born in Kolozsva, Transp®
he acquired a law degree a ■
University of Vienna. He ®
in the Hungarian army, was®
prisoner by the Russians, com®
to Communism and joined
army. He easily topped ov®
mild Karolyi and for a brier®
ran Hungary. Europe has
steadily pegging him ..
try to another in a lot of-- _
plays—Portugal to Spain to
it was last summer.
Military Politician.
QUICK to act at the first
Russian weakness, w
mans renew their drive to •
Franco-Russian pact and to
their planned coalition 0 ' (
powers against R:!SSia '. ( fs t
Ludwig Beak. German
makes a courtesy ca!l frfl
Marie Gustave Gan” ll1 ’• J ,
chief of staff,
courtesy call, but prompt
preted by French newspH*"
politically inspired. .
General Beck, a shr ^, .Lin
strategist, has been cal ■
of the German army wai
He has been an “«
tarian” war, insisting •
nomic and spiritua 1 ' {afJ
as important as the Jo r ntp i
He was elevated to h.
October 15, 1935, m an
ceremony by which
successor of Moltke. -
Von Hindenburg. He *s^^
army caste, with th
and hts present aebu 5 (
of General Von B ornbeg^
other indication of the , erS
of junkers and army ‘. t , atu r < <.
® C °"‘ Ol ^NU Service. _
Happiness That
True happiness is
good time that brings no
ance.