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WEEKLY NEVS ANALYSIS BY JOSEPH W. LaBINE
Anti-Administration Congress
Hangs Up Paradoxical Record
With Unprecedented Spending
(EDITOR'S NOTE—When opinions are expressed tn these columns, they
are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.)
____________ Released by Western Newspaper Union. _____________
CONGRESS:
‘Res Ipse Loquitur*
“It speaks for itself,” said Frank
lin Roosevelt in Latin after the
house refused on roll call to pass
his $800,000,000 bill expanding FHA's
lending power. To both house and
senate he forwarded “my good
wishes lor a pleasant vacation.”
Then he bundled up some 350 last
minute bills and left for Hyde Park
while his loyal friend from Florida,
Sen. Claude Pepper, was holding up
adjournment by denouncing t}?e “un
righteous partnership (Democratic-
G. O. P. coalition) of those who have
been willing to scuttle the American
government . . . and jeopardize the
peace of the world because they hate
Roosevelt and what Roosevelt
stands for.”
But when the first session of the
Seventy-sixth congress was safely
■L ... I.*?? ‘s^
FLORIDA S PEPPER
".. . niUuif to scuttlr .. . jeopardise . .
packed away, observers meditated
on its record: A rebellious, anti-
White House gang had nevertheless
appropriated the record-shattering
peacetime total of 513.344.077,162
(we rhart>, including a last-minute
$119,000,000 farm loan fund for the
sake of quick adjournment. Appro
priations tabulated:
Reties. WPA * 000.000
Relief i supplemental > 100.000.0X'
Relief 1.755 SOO OW
First deficiency 13.765.(Hl
Independent offices I.6SS SIS 3*5
Legislative establishments.... it 651.779
Treasury-post office 1.T00.615.0M
Military establishment:
War department v... 508 789 SO*
Supplemental war depart-
ment 50S
Nonmilitary 305.1*8.51*
Navy department ".0*&.lSl
Second deficiency 157.619.059
Agriculture and Farm Credit. 1.19* *.-8.633
Intenor Department 171679.765
District of Columbia *7.081,3*7
Department of Lalor 35 535.179
State-justice-commerce depart-
ments .... 127.177 330
Urgent deficiency 3 59- 3'7
Third deficiency ISS '.78 OSS
Permanents and indefinites .. 367* 511.775
Total SIX3M.OTT.Mt
Observers also examined the
piece-by-piece record of legislation
and found Franklin Roosevelt's
early-session victories almost offset
his late-session defeats, though they
knew no switch back to the senti
ment of last January is in prospect
when a permanently anti-admin
istration congress meets again next
winter. The record:
White House Victories. Ccq^gress
was not all bad to the President.
The senate confirmed all but 10 of his
13.933 appointees (including New
Desi sh Supreme Court Justices
Frankfurter and Douglas, equally
New Dealish Commerce Secretary
Hcpkms and Attorney General Mur
phy). Passed were his unprecedent
ed peace-time defense program {in
tact except for Guam fortification);
modified governments! reerganixa
t on (which wiU save about W.OW.-
iW a year), and his IMO relief pro
gram. laden with restrictions. Con
tinued were his gold content devaru-
J l I ! U LIJ. ’lll
SWONS Os DOLLARS
111 L■■
C ,
i—
APPROPRIATION RECORD
I p *■ aa aari_N«v Dt«Z year.
alien power and his Si.XC.KX’.X'C
currency stabilization fund
White House Defeats. Vivid in
retrospect, they include C- his $3,-
200.000.1X0 spend-lend plan, emascu
lated by the senate, killed bv the
house; (2) his SSOO.WCW hcusmg
expansion bill; (3) neutral.ty revi
sion. on which much of the nation
agreed with him; (4) a 1939 relief
deficiency appropriation of
O 00; (5) rejection by the senate of
two appointees (Virginia's Floyd
Roberts, as federal judge, and Ne
vada's William Bcy>. as U. S. at-
torney for Nevada), and withdrawal
of two more whose rejection was
imminent (Wisconsin’s Thomas Am
lie, ICC appointee, and Donald
Wakefield Smith, NLRB appointee);
(6) refusal to hike debt limit above
$45,000,000,000 (but long-term bond
ceiling was raised).
Other legislative moves, some mi
nor New Deal victories, other minor
defeats, but only one (Hatch bill)
carrying important political implica
tions:
< House approval (over White House ob
jection) of $50,000 to probe NLRB.
< Abolition (with apparent White House ap
proval) of undistributed profits tax in
"business appeasement" tax revision bill.
Bill also provided reciprocal taxation of
federal and state employees.
< Postponement to next term of badly need
ed railroad-aid legislation. one of the ses
sion's greatest failures. Only move in this
direction: Approval of voluntary rail debt
adjustment without necessitating bank
ruptcy.
< Postgwnement of much-debated revision
of il) farm program. i3> Wagner labor re
lations act. and (3) wage-hour act.
< Defeat of Townsend SdiXVa-month pension
bill and passage of far-reaching social se
curity amendments which treese old age an
nuity pay roll taxes at 1 per cent for next
three years, extend coverage tn 1.300.000
more people and liberalise benefit payments.
< Passage of Hatch "clean politics" bill
(received coldly by White House because it
eliminates much of the administration ma
chine from 19*0's campaign) which pro
scribes political activities cd all except top
bracket federal Jobholders.
< Refusal to revive Florida ship canal (a
White House proposal).
C Continuation (over White House objection)
of Dies committee on un-Americanism.
which was called a "forum of disgruntled
politicians."
POLITICS:
Truths
Open for public inspection this
month are two great, pertinent po
litical truths: (1) That the right kind
of publicity can turn a third rater
into a first-rate presidential candi
date almost overnight; (2) that to
day as always, public sentiment is
sufficiently pliable to make room for
7
PAUL McNUTT
Gosjir up?
any new face
that may pop
up. The con
elusions:
First, that
presidential
campaigns
are largely a
matter of
smart public
relations
work; sec
ond, that
1940's elec
tion is not in
the bag for
any man.
Cause of this excitement is Pau,
V. McNutt, who pepped back from
the Philippines two months ago, got
his handsome picture in the papers,
was called a "charming young
man" by President Roosevelt, then
ended up by getting himself named
federal security administrator.
From here he may develop into the
President's crown prince.
In June Candidate McNutt ranked
fifth among Democratic hopefuls as
tabulated by highly accurate Gallup
polls. In order: Garner, 47 per cent;
Farley. 16; Hull, 13; Hopkins, 5;
McNutt, 3. Six weeks after his fed
eral appointment, Paul McNutt had
jumped to second place. Jack Gar
ner, still well in the lead, suffered a
mite. The standings: Garner. 46
per cent; McNutt, 13; Hull. 13, Far
ley, 13; Hepkms. X
Other political news: Ohio's Sen.
Robert Alphonso Taft, bad trailer in
G. O. P. Gallup pells, became the
first to toss his hat ia the ring.
While finding his senatorial eff.ee
“interesting." Candidate Taft mag
nanimously agreed not to “ran away
from a harder jcb."
RACES:
One IT ay Out
Since last March thousands of
Cbecho-Sicvakian Jews have fled to
the U. S. on visitors' permits, their
property confiscated. their only hope
lying in refuge on some distant land.
Semetimes even this hope is futile,
Within two days the U. S. had this
problem brought shockingly to mm 3
twice:
C In Chicago, 43-year-ald Mrs. Adele
Langer swife cf a Cne-oh Jew whose
$1.5«.1’X textile mills had been ceo
fiscated). took quarters m a Lccp
hotel with her two sons, six and four.
Late that night she threw her sens
from the thirteenth doer window,
slashed her wrists and jumped.
£ la New York. German Refugee
Albert Aaron. whose wife died two
weeks earlier free an overdose of
sleeping tablets, hung himself from
his apartment doer.
LOUISIANA:
Hot Oil
Heaped atoc several score other
indictments facing prominent Lcsuis
iaaans was a federal charge sr-.r-c
former Gov. Richard Leche, whose
feet bad heretofore been kept clear
of the muck surrounding state aff
oialdom. The indictment: Charging
Leche. Politician Seymoor Weiss
and Freeman Barfood. Texas od
man. with stepping up productoce
of Rodessa cd a ells and ra/ming the
contraband cr “hot" oil ever site
Texas, violating the CoocaHy act.
BAKER COUNTY NEWS
INTERNATIONAL:
Chess Game
For two months jittery France and
Britain have forecast another "cri
sis” in August or September. As
August was born, it indeed looked
like a crisis in which Japan had be
come of great nuisance value to
Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
What bothered Americans was that
their own nation seemed being
drawn into this chess game as a re
sult of justified U. S. retaliation
against insults in the Far East.
At Italy’s Lake Como was played
the key move in this game. There
met Toshio Shiratori, Japanese am
bassador to Rome, and Lieut. Gen.
Matahiko Oshima, ambassador to
Berlin. Their purpose: To perfect
a military alliance binding Japan
■MM
3^ll hf /
MF -
1
J
AMBASSADOR SHIRATORI
He rowed honr-kui.
frith Italy and Germany. If it failed,
said their friends, the ambassadors
had vowed to commit hara-kiri (sui
cide by disembowelment). Simulta
neously, at Tokyo, youngish army
leaders began a drive to purge foes
of the military alliance.
Meanwhile there was every indi
cation these three powers were do
ing their best to confuse and fright
en not only France, Britain and Rus
sia (who opened joint military con
ferences in Moscow) but also the
U. S. Sharp on the heels of U. S.
abrogation of the Jap trade treaty
had come anti-American and anti-
British demonstrations in China. Jap
airships destroyed two Yangtze riv
er steamers. At Tientsin a mob de
stroyed offices of the British Inter
national Export corporation. With
democracies' attention shifted away
from Europe for the moment, the
axis exerted pressure on Spain and
the Balkan states, dragging them
into line should Europe become em
broiled in war.
While Washington tried desperate
ly to remain aloof. Prime Minister
Chamberlain told the house of com
mons he might have to send a pow
erful fleet to Asia. More interesting
to Americans, however, was the pro
posal of Labcrite John Morgan that
British and American Asiatic fleets
be combined under a U. S. admiral
to keep order in the Orient Said
he: “I would regard it as a first
class move.”
AGRICULTURE:
Barter
Forgotten by surplus-ridden U. S
lard producers is the humorous situ
ation several years ago when they
bartered lard for German machin
ery. finding themselves holding sev
eral thousand musical but useless
harmonicas. Today Germany still
needs lard, for which she will pay
60 per cent above the present do
mestic price of 5 to 54 cents a
pound.
Contrary to the state department's
reciprocal trade program is the bar
ter plan producers would now insti
tute. Rebuffed by Secretary of State
Cordell Hull, producers and German
barter emissaries turned to the
treasury department where Under
secretary John W. Hanes agreed to
a bearing. The plan, which obvious
ly seeks legal circumvents® of very
definite foreign trade regulations, is
something like this:
U. S. packers, having arranged a
transaction in Germany, would sell
lard to an American importing firm,
which would trade it to private Ger
man buyers for "askunarks.'' usa
ble only in that country. The un
porter would then purchase German
products new on the U. S. free list
paying in Germany money about
one-fourth what he would pay else
where. Products, turned ever to
lard producers here, would be
largely of farm nature: Machinery,
cream separators and fertilizer.
BRIEFLY...
SIGNED— One-year coEtmua
rixs c-f Russs>-U. S. trade trea^
inner wiles Soviet will buy mini
cd $40,000,000 in American
goods.
SETTLED—(But tentatively),
C. L O-’s United Automocule
Workers strike against General
Motors at Detroit.
FORECAST— By Chieagc stat
isticians. an aggregate U. S.
wheat crop ci 719.000,000 bushels
LZ7.XE >X‘ winter, and 183.000.-
spring), or just about enough
for ccanesoc requirements.
FLOWN —By traiblaring.
ocean spanning Pan-American
airweys, about 3.500.000 Atlantic
and PactSc miles in three mccths
■ June 3D, wtth 57.900 pas
sengers.
ORDERED-By SEC. bearing
ce Germany’s effort » float a
$73,906.0® bend issue in the U. &
ADVENTURERS’ CLUB
HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES
OF FEOFLE LIKE YOURSELFI
t
^Adventure in al Pickle Factory ,f
Hello, everybody:
Well sir, here’s a yarn that’s going to sound a sour note in
our adventure saga. When I read it I thought of that old song,
“Down by the Winegar Woiks,” and I’d be willing to bet that
place was right next door to the one where John Mains, of Long
Island, had his life’s big adventure. You see, the concern John
works for is one of those outfits that catch juvenile cucumbers
before they get a chance to grow up, soak them in vinegar and
send them out into the world to decorate ham and cheese sand
wiches. John has a job in a pickle factory.
The factory is in East Northport—John’s home town —and I’m
willing to admit they’ve turned out some pretty good pickles
there. But if they keep on making pickles until pickles stop hav
ing warts, they’ll never turn out a tougher one than the pickle
John got in, just from trying to keep the machinery going and
the pickles moving out in a steady, uninterruoted acidulous
stream.
John is a machinist at that East Northport pickle foundry,
and it was on January 18, 1935, that he ran into Old Lady Ad
venture. The machinery in the factory is run by a big 50-foot
shaft suspended just below the ceiling. Belts running from this shaft
furnish the power to the various machines, and on this day one of the
belts had broken.
John was ordered to replace that broken belt, and he went
to work at it. The machinery, of course, was stopped while he
was doing the job. When he had finished he turned the power on
again to see how it worked. Well, it wasn’t working so well, at
that The new belt was slipping. Now one way to stop a belt
from slipping is to wax it So John got a can of wax and started
up the ladder toward the shaft. But this time he neglected to
shut off the power.
Ladder Slides Out From Under Him When He Reaches Top.
The machinery was still running, but John thought he could keep
Out of the way of those spinning wheels and pulleys. Besides, waxing
a belt is a lot easier when the motor is turning it for you. John reached
fl
El tsarM ।/U
ML \ K tumip I II
He was dazed—bewildered—gasping—when suddenly
his clothes started to rip.
the top of the ladder and went to work. But he had hardly started
when he lost his balance. And the ladder went sliding out from under
him!
Instinctively, John threw his body to one side—and he landed
right up against the whirling shaft. The ladder went tumbling
to the floor, but John didn’t follow. In the few seconds while he
was jammed up against that shaft it had caught his clothing—
began twisting it around and around!
In two turns the shaft had taken up all the slack in those duds of
John's. Then it began putting on the pressure. John felt his body being
squeezed until he thought his ribs would break. His chest was flattened
until he couldn't breathe. He was hammered and pounded against
the ceiling until he was bruised and covered with blood. And still that
shaft twisted, and still it tightened the clothing around his body. There
was no one in the room at the time, and John couldn’t get enough
breath in his lungs to call for help. For a minute he thought he was
going to die there, alone, 15 feet from the floor and dangling in mid air.
He was dazed—bewildered—gasping—when suddenly his clothes started
to rip.
Again the shaft began turning, taking up the slack. It tore every
stitch of clothing from his back and arm, and didn’t stop until it reached
his wrist. There the machinery began twisting the end of his sleeve—
twisting it so tightly that John thought sure it was going to take his
hand off.
His chest was free now of that terrible tension. He could
breathe—he could even have called for help. But by that time
John was too far gone to cry eat. He hang dangling from the
shaft, the bleed streaming down his body—conscious enough to
know what was happening to him, but not conscious enough to
do anything about it.
It was a thought that finally saved the day. AU of a sudden
John thought of his wife and child. What would they say when
they learned what had happened to him. How would they get
along when John couldn’t bring home the weekly pay envelope
any more? “That thought roused me.” John says. “And then I
must have let out a scream. I don’t remember crying out. but
my brother, who also worked at the factory, and who was in the
next room, heard a yell and eame running in to see what
was the matter.”
After Last Scream. John Loses Consciousness.
John’s brother didn't come a minute too soon, either. For after that
last thought and that last scream he had lost consciousness. His brother
ran and shut eff the power and then ran back and picked up the fallen
ladder. He climbed to the tap, cut John loose with a pocket knife,
and carried him down that ladder on his back.
John's brother rounded up a couple of other fellows in the factory
and they took John to a doctor. John was there quite a while before
be came to again. When the doctor heard what had happened he just
simply couldn't see how John had managed to live through his experience
Aad that's a thing John doesn't quite understand either. “I
thought that rd at least lose my arm,” he says, "bat the doctor
fixed it ay and aww it’s in good shape again. Wbea it was all over
I thought I was the haekiest man on earth. And I STILL think so.”
They're still makmg pickles out in that factory at East Northport.
But it will be many a long day before they produce another one lika
that one John got into. At least. I hope it will.
BeJfcfcseC ty Westerx Neww&per Unxm.)
New Process Produces Soft Coal From Sugar Cane
NEW YORK.—In an emergency.
American farmers may grew the
country's soft coal tn their Seles
The fact that famly good soft ccai
is now being made from sugars, the
carbohydrates of farm crops was
reported to the American Institute
of Mmmg and Metalhxrgical Engi
neers by E Bert, at the Carnegie
Instiune at Technology.
The sugar coal is too expensive to
te practical, but was made to settie
an old ccntreversy about the origm
of coal and cfl.
In the Carnegie Sabcratones.
whose experts include scene of the
leading sciert:sts of the coal fietos.
the artificial coal s trade a two
ways. Sugar heated m water at
togh temperature produces a sandy
form of coai.
When weak alkali is added io the
water, Berl said, “excellent coking
coals'' are the resuit. Adding pres
sure to the ho* sugar water in
creases the amount of carbon in the
man-made coal.
These farm-product coals, Berl
said, can be treated with hydrogen
to make the same products which
the Germans and English obtain
from “hydrogenated” coal. These
products include gasoline and oil for
motor cars.
The old idea, said Berl, that coal
came from the wvody. or lignin,
part of plants is as dead as the idea
that petroleum is from dead fish.
He said that the Carnegie expert
meets show that coal, oil and bi
tumen all come from carbohydrate*
® darts.
Jlsk Me Jlnother
£ A General Quiz
1. What is polyandry?
2. How does a whale feed ita
young?
3. What shapes the destinies of
a people? . .
4. How does a patriotic Ameri
can woman salute the flag?
5. What political figure was
known as the “Plumed Knight”?
6. What is the most abundant
metal contained in the earth?
7. What is meant by referring
to a diamond as being so many
carats?
8. Which is the country of origin
of the word (A) candy, (B) mus
lin, (C) millinery?
The Answers
1. The possession by a woman
of more than one husband at a
time.
2. The whale, a viviparous mam
mal, suckles its young.
3. Their modes of thought.
4. By placing her right hand
over her heart.
5. James G. Blaine was known
as the “Plumed Knight.”
6. Aluminum.
7. When we refer to a diamond
as being so many carats, we refer
to its weight.
8. (A) Candia, old name for
Crete, (B) Mosul (Iraq), (C) Mi
lan; milliners being originally sell
ers of Milan goods.
By burning 25% slmree L
than the average of the 15 I
other of the largest-selling B
brands tested-slowerthan B
any of them-CAMELS give I
smokers the equivaient of I
■■EXTRA I
■^SMOKES I
T PER I
Repack I
^^OOLER, milder smoking in
longer-burning Camels. Extrs
smoking, too, as shown by the fol
lowing results of a recent impartial
laboratory comparison of 16 of the
largest-selling brands:
4 CAMELS were found to eomain
* MORE TOBACCO BY WEIGHT
than the average for the 15 ocher of
the largest-selling brands.
O CAMELS BURNED SLOJTER
A THAN ANY OTHER BRAND
TESTED-25% SLOWER THAN
THE AVERAGE TIME OF THE 15
OTHER OF THE LARGEST-SELL
ING BRANDS! By burning 2596
slower, on the average, Carnets give
smokers the equivalent of 5 EXTRA
SMOKES PER PACK!
Q In die same testa. CAMUS FFTri
** THEIR ASH FAR LONGEg.
than die average time for a& the
other brands.
Yes, Camel's fine, slow-burning, more
expensive tobaccos Je wke a differ
ence. Delicate taste...fragrant aroma
...smokiog pleasure at its best, and
etere es lit Camel is die quality rig*,
rettt ««wy smoker can affocd
CAMELS
COSTLIER TOBACCOS
^nny fer finny
your bwtdfarrtto buy!