The Barnwell people-sentinel. (Barnwell, S.C.) 1925-current, May 17, 1934, Image 2

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The Barnwell People-Sentinel, Barnwell, S. C* May 17, 1934 News Review ent Events the World Over Instill, Brought Back for Trial, Defends Himself—Russia % Resents Being Declared a Defaulter—Chamber of Commerce Criticises New Deal. By EDVARD W. PICKARD S AMUEL TNSULL, once the grand old roan of public utilities, has been brought'home to be tried for his alleged alna after his long period of refuge In foreign lands. His "prison shrt>.” the Exllona, ar rived off Fort Han cock, N. J.-, and Insull was taken off at open sea by the Uni tad States coast guard cutter Hudson, which landed him quickly. A.fter an aotomobne tide to Princeton Junction, he was put Samuel Inautl ahoard a traln and transported swiftly to Chicago. His ton, Samuel Insull, Jr., had been per mitted (o join him on the Rxilona and accompanied him on the trip west. Landing on American soil, Insull appeared to recover hla old time con-, fldence. To reporters he said: “I am In America to make the most Important fight of my life. I am fighting not only for freedom but for complete vindication. I have erred, but my greatest error was in underestimating the effects of the financial panic on American securities, and particularly on the companies I was trying to boild. — T worked wTfh aTT my energy to save those companies. I made mis takes—but they were honest mistakes. They were errors In judgment, but not dishonest manipulations. A OCORDING to the unanimous re- port of a house committee of In vestigation, Maj. Gen. Benjamin D. Foulois, chief of the army air corps, acted ‘‘In clear violation of existing law” In the proposed purchase of air planes costing J7.500.000. Coupled with the criticism of Foulois was a commendation of Harry H. Woodring, assistant secretary of war. The report stated thftt late In 1933 the Public Works administration set aside 17,500,000 for the purchase of army airplanes. It asserted that 'Fbulolf hid decided to buy the p)anes7 without competition, from the North rop corporation, the Boeing Airplane company and the Glenn L. Martin company. Ob Woodring’s insistence, “Arbitrarily, f had been instructed the phre for direct purchases wag to resign as head of these companies which I had built and which I had tried to protect. “I was toM that I was no longer needed. Tired from the fruitless struggles to save the Investments of thousands of then and women, dis couraged In my attempts to save the Investments of my friends and asso ciates as well as everything I had, ! got out. M No charges were brought against me until I had been away for ehrae months. My return at that time would have furthet_compllcated the prob lems of the reorganisation of the com panies. “The whole story has hot yet been told. You only know the charges of the prosecution. Not one word has been uttered In even feeble defense of me. And it must be obvious that therm al#© is my side of the story. “Whe i It Is told In court, my Judg ment may be discredited, but certainly my honesty will be vindicated.” R USSIA has been angered by a Pil ing of Attorney General Cum mings and there Is danger that all the plans for re-estahllshing trade with that conqtry will go awry. Mr. Cura- Kffigs WBI (fftirwr on to <relefmTne what nations would be barred by the Johnson set from marketing their se curities In this country or In any way receiving financial assistance. This he did hy announcing the six foreign nations that are not In default to the United States government on their obligations. These are Finland. Great Britain, Cxechoslovakla, Italy. Latvia and Lithuania. Finland has met In full all Installments on Its war debt. The others have made token payments on recent Installments. By Inference, these nations are con sidered in default: Greece. France, Austria. Belgium. Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Jugoslavia. Rus sia. Armenia and Nicaragua have not paid, hut their debts have not been funded. Soviet Russia fell In the default class because It Ignored obligations of the preceding cxarlst and Kerensky governments. The czars sold bonds totaling $86,000,000 In America and the brief Kerensky regime borrowed $187,000,000 from the United States treasury. Dispatches from Moscow said the resentful Russians were likely to take trad# program and tactics. The Brit ish threat was that quotas would be imposed on Japanese goods, but trade leaden In Tokyo said this would not hurt their country seriously, especial ly since Japan's Imports from the British Isles In 1933 totaled 83,000.000 yen or almost as much as was export ed there, 80,000,000 yen. Hence, they said, the Tokyo government would be able to make reprlaala, \ . Trade with the British dominions Is considered far more Important and the Japanese are confident the domin ions will not follow the mother coun try's lead—especially Australia, which sold to Japan in 1033 four times its purchases, and Canada, which sold seven times as much as It.bought B tSHOP GANNON escaped being re tired from the college of bishops “for (aflrmities^' the conference of the Methodist Church, South, rejecting the recommendation of the committee; bet the delegatee, In accordance with their economy program, voted out of ex istence the powerful general board of tempenuaee-and social welfare of which the militant blahop has been the bead. This board has long been a recognised factor In national politics. In a recent report on Its activities Bishop Gannon called for a Methodist drive for e new national prohibition law and challenged the church to make the wet and dry lMue_a, _te|t„9f cyery candidate for public office. According to the vote of the confer ence ell future pronouncements made in the name of the church “on great social questions of national or interna tional Importance, must be made through a collaborative statement of the college of bishops, rather than throngh Individual boards.” dropped and specification! drawn on which competitive bids were asked. DIVANS of the Home Owners Loan 1 corporation provide that building companies must be under the Blue Eagle to obtain any of the $200,000,- 000 worth of business which the gor ernment will create in extending aid for reconditioning homes, including those on which the government takes over the mortgages. O ESOLUTlONiS declaring that the New Deal is destructive of Ameri can liberties and dangerous to busi ness were adopted by the United States Chamber of Commerce at the closing session of Its annual meeting in Washington. This despite the fact that P r e a Went Roosevelt had warned the mem bers of the organiza tion to quit crying wolf and to support his recovery program. However, the resolu- tk>ns were mildly Gen. Johnson worded and the re was in them no outspoken condemnation retailalory steps Tn 'the Tbrra of a rec- ommendation that all Soviet economic organizations refrain from planning any orders from America with the ex ception of such Items as cannot be had elsewhere. This recommendation was made recently by the organ of the commissariat of heavy Industry and. It is understood, already has been put Into effect. The Soviet government Insists It cannot be held liable for the Kerensky debts. A possible explanation of the Soviet attitude—which Is summed up In the prees with the statement that the government will not be coerced Into a Kerensky debt aettlement—lies in the fact that if it consents to nego tiate the qtiestlon with America, It will be compelled m to consider German claims for pay ment of pre-Bolshevik debts to thht country on a basis of equal terms. HEAT BRITAIN aod Japan are on the verge of a big trade war. The British have threatened to take strong ectJon to protect their textile export interests against increasing Japanese eompetltlon. although the British gqr- ernmewt officially declares It win do everything to maintain amicable reia- liens with Japan. The official pool Goo formulated providing for In Tokyo is that Japan can take care of herself, sad there was every tndlca- thm that It would not yield to the Brtt- I* ultima turn that it mast modify its of the major components of the New Deal. Chief among the resolutions adopt ed were those urging: Extensions of the temporary deposit Insurance plan. , ~' Modification of the securities act Use of trade associations as NRA code authorities. Continuation of the right of em ployers and employees to negotiate freely. Opposition to compulsory .unemploy ment benefit legislation. That the federal government should collect its taxes fairly. That Income taxes should be levied on Income alone. That exemption of farmers, who trade their wheat for flour, from the wheat processing tax should be abol ished. At a dinner Gen. Hugh S. Johnson was the chief guest and after his ad dress he submitted to an inquisition on the present and prospective poli cies of the NRA. Asked directly if the principles embodied in the recovery act were to be permanent, he replied: “If there has been any good dem onstrated fay., the recovery act, it. will A TTORNEY GENERAL CUMMINGS A* feels that tho forces of the D«- partment of Justice are inadequate to cope with the gangsters, and will ask congress for about $2,000,000 in excess of the $28,700,778 authorized the de partment for the fiscal year 1035. Next year’s appropriation ia the low est granted the Justice department since the war. With the additional money the^ at torney general contemplates purchas ing for the division’s agents a fleet of high-powered automobiles, a few ar mored cars and ample guns and am munition. Likewise the force o& In vestigators will be added to, and there fs a possibility that the division's 24 field offices will be Increased. W ILLIAM H. WOODIN. who was President Roosevelt’S first secre tary of the treasury, has passed away, succumbing to the throat affection cabinet last December; Tn his death the country loses a business man of the highest type and a gentleman who had the respect and affection of all who. knew him, . He became prasl. dent of the American Car and Foun dry company In 1916, afad also was president of the American Locomotive company. His Interests were varied, for he was musician, composer, art lover and student of government as well as leader in industry. tpXACTLY 30 years from the day ^ Admiral Dewey destroyed the Spanish fleet in Manila bay, the legis lature of the Philippines accepted the new offer of the United States for the Independence of the Islands as em bodied In the Tydlngs-McDuffie act. Under the terms of the measure, the Filipinos win obtain complete In dependence in 1945. During the inter vening years a commonwealth govern ment, to be set up probably next year, will govern the islands. BRISBANE THIS WEEK. V May Day Not Merry Giant Bootleg Industry Good News, New Homhi Converting Criminals, May 1 waa the day Europe to labor and radical demonstratk Fortunately, this country selects later* dage fui Labor-day. 1 Even Chicago and New York were on the alert, fearing that American branches of Europe’s radicalism might become active by contagion. In Paris alone, 40,000 guards, many tanks and ma chine-gun patrols filled the streets. Several were injured. There was a general strike In Spain, and Cuba waa worried about attacks en United States property. -Such was the early news. The advantage of a dictator really dictates was shown in Italy, Germany, Turkey, Russia. In those countries no May day or Labor day agitation develops. The people get or ders and obey them. In Germany, the day was devoted to Nazi speeches, telling how much happier the workingman is under Hit ler than he ever was before. In Italy, Turkey and Russia, It was “business as jisual,” with the dictator In command. The dictator Idea may spread before the world gets over its crop of troubles. carrying the water on their shoulders that they did awhile ago. and it has who teen noted that Mr. Roosevait iaJeaa and leas willing to leap before he ' looks. The government turns an army of 2,500 agents loose against bootlegging, which has become a serious matter. During prohibition, bootleggers only flouted the Constitution. Now- they cut down government Income. Figures supplied by Joseph H. Choate, Jr., director of federal alcohol control, show that bootleggers are manufacturing more whisky than the total-legal consumption. And the boot- iegglng'dlstiiierles ^ pirot Itttte “mooro. shine” affairs, but enormous distil leries, “with stills tall enough to ex tend through three or four stories of well equipped buildings.” In the first quarter of 1034 stills were seized with a capacity for pro ducing 68,000,000 gallons of alcohol spirits a year. Bootlegging enter- prises involve robbing the government of hundreds of millions a year. C HURCHILL DOWNS, in Louisville, provided some 55,000 lovers of horse racing with the annual spectacle of the Kentucky derby. The great race was won by the favorite. Cavalcade, owned by the Brookmeade stable, with Discovery and Agrarian finishing sec ond and third. The winner was ridden with consummate skill by the veteran jockey Mack Garner. Good news,- fortunately, Is not lack ing. Business better iu many directions. The government has $300,000,000 of “new money” available fqr building American homes and modernizing old homps. That should put many to work and create cheerfulness. To live In a home run down, unpainted, dilapidated, la gloomy, discouraging. M AJORITY and minority reports of the investigation Into Dr. Wil liam A. Wirt’s “red plot” stories were made to the bouse, and they were just what had been expected. The major ity of the committee held that Wirt’s charges were untrue and that his com panlous at the famous dinner party did not make the statements he had attributed to them.' Representatives McGugin and I^hlbach, the Republican minority members of the committee characterized the Investigation as a “repudiation of all precedents” and in dicative of intentions to “suppress all Information” which might directly in volve the brain trust live and It ought to live; if there has been any bad It will die and It ought to die.” Admlttlng that there has been a lapse In public interest and enthus iasm, the general said a new cam-' palgn to make the nation Blue Eagle conscious was being mapped. He also admitted that the controversy between labor and Industry is becoming more acute. He expressed tbe opinion that the ideal relationship between labor and management had been worked out in the bituminous coal Industry. \ JUST a few hours before General Johhson had spoken In high praise of tbe bituminous coal settlement, under the lUpeTlo treaty t Fed * rtl DUtrict Jw»»Charlea L Daw. son Id Louisville held unconstitution al the code arranged for that Industry, aa applied to local business, and granted a temporary injunction re straining the government from forcing the code upon unwilling operators in western Kentucky. The operators, who claim to $50,000,000 Invested in the chiefly la Hopkins, Muhlenberg, and Webster counties, orously when the cede a day for seven hours work. Priqr to that the aple was $« flag sight hours work. Moat if their smts than a T HE senate by acclamation accept ed the conference report on the 1034 revenue measure, which provides for an Increase In taxes of $147,000,- 000. The Couzens amendment for a 10 per cent increase In Income tax, which the house rejected, was cut out. W HEN the senate committee ou privileges and elections opened the hearings on the demands that Sen- ators Huey P. Long and his polittcai follower. John H. Overton of Louisiana be deprived of their seats, the political groups that have been seeking especially to oust the “Klngfish” re mained in the back-, ground and left it . to tl\e women of Loui siana to take the lead In the fight These women are headed by Mrs. Hilda Phelps Hammond, who has been Indefatigable In the campaign against Long and hla crew. The womenranrt represented as Mrs. Hammond time acting judge advocate general, who baa pending against Long a salt for libel. Hit opening statement dis pelled tbe Idea that Long’s opponents would bo satisfied to lot Overton ro> main in tha sonata if the ~“K4ngfiah" were thrown out **Wo expect to prove," said General Anaell. “the charge that there waa fraud la the 1962 Louisiana primaries sufficient to vitiate tha election of Senator Overton; that Sendtor Over- ton was an active perpetrator of that trend; that Senators Overton and \ 1 National Topics Interpreted by William Bruckaft Washington.—There la a rising tide of belief here in Washington that President Roosevelt’s Twtfrin* policies are 'leaning Coruervative more and more * way iMwrvmivw from the things that ked them aa the “New Deal,” a year ago. It can be doubted no longer that he la veering away to some ex tent from the experimentation that constituted the program advanced by the myriads of professors with whom he surrounded himdelf at the start of hla administration. Professors are not Upon th4 cut of the fabric at this time, I believe ((he consensus to be that Mr. Roosevelt is turning to a more stable, as distinguished from a theoretical, foundation for the future. The developments have been predicat ed apparently on a swing in public sen timent Obviously, without public sen timent behind any plan, there will be a dearth Of confidence. By all and sundry. It Is said the President is seeking to establish confidence. Most of all. and finally, it seems he has ar- rived at the necessity for winning con fidence of business people, big and lit tle, so that distinct changes can be expected through * the summer when congress is not here to worry him. / ’Doubtless, the trend towards 4he conservative Instead of tbe more radi system, and then during the last dec- tide we saw other things of the same type put through by congress. Pres ident Hoover proposed the Reconstruc tion Finance corporation and President Roosevelt expanded that and • lot of other things. The result: Regulations, red tape, dictation, orders, countless agents. Inspectors, Investigators, exam iners, arid much amateurish adminis tration/of the decree “Thou shalt not” There was. If you pause to remem ber, a general disgust with the steady procession of indict- Cautet ments, arrests and Irritation ,rl, '» , 0 ' “'”° r quor law vlolaton. Even consistent and conscientious sup porters of prohibition now and then burst forth against the administration of It when men and women, otherwise cal course he followed earlier, fa} due to the fact that the bulk of the people now feel* they have a right to state objections. Surely, objections are be- tng stated to a greate any time since he took office. In oth er words, the theories of the professors have proved bad in spots, and any na tion of ambitious people eventually will tire of preachments. The danger la that the pendulum will swing too far, and that the good and practicable things of the New Deal may be washed out by a wave of conservatism and re action. j There are numerous things to which attention may be called in demonstrat- tng that Mr. Roosevelt is not going ~to~ ment-adminlstration. Leland Harvey, notorious jail-break er of Georgia, recently pardoned, by Governor Talmadge, with the advice, “Go and iln no more,” takes the ad vice seriously. He attended a revival meeting conducted by Rev. Wade H. House at'Macon, Ga., and joined the church. This offers an idea, to police that chase bandits and can’t catch any. Let the police buy Salvation Army uni forms, drums, flutes, tambourines and hymn books, and try converting crim inals that they can't catch. Nothing could be more pleasing than to see Dlllinger, accompanied by two policemen In Salvation Army uniforms, walking up a sawdust trail, shouting, “Hallelujah, I’m saved!” The brain trust, using big words, automatically called the small farm on which a man, might make a living for himself and his family the “subsist ence homestead.” Now it appears that some caii’t pronounce subsistence, others don’t know what it means, and a new short name Is sought. What do you suggest? Emma Goldman, who thought fhe waa a Communist until she went to Russia and learned that realRy is un like theory, has left for Toronto, her 90-day permit to visit the United States having expired. Leaving, she says: “The New Deal here is nothing more than an artificial and temporary sus pension of the capitalistic system.” Some capitalists #ouId asstiffe her that the “temporary” to suit them. This depression, even with all en couraging newa—“5,000,000 put to work,” etc.—reminds you of the voy age of the “ancient mariner,” who went drifting along, “the first that ever burst” Into an unknown sea. Who o^ what it was that shot onr albatross, and brought all these troubles on ns, Wall Street, technocracy, overproduc tion, the war, or what, nobody knows. Bnt we have .them, and can only aall on through the gloomy waters, thank ful for occasional encouraging voices. Kamnei „ The birth rata fall* alarmingly in SwUand. tt 1* even suggested hy “»e- spectable” people that “some form of polygamy” may be necessary. W. H. Phillips, head of tho Associ ation of Registran, fears a one-half reduction In population. ; .y Illegitimate births have been numer ous and not too severely criticised In land. Widespread information con- birth control may have dlmin- thelr number, and canoed tha off In the Scotdfc birth he i lorn to tho world, many Scotch mas experiment too much in the future. His flat-footed stand against national ization of silver is one. His determi- tlon to tinker no farther with the currency is another. A third indica tion Is the President's decision to see that the capital goods or durable goods industry can have some relief, and an other intimation is the way congress has acted about tfae legislation to con: trol the security exchanges. The Pres ident could have made congress put teeth In the stock exchange bill if he wanted to do eo^ But he has held off. Likewise, he has taken a position against payment of deposits In closed banks by use of inflationary schemes. All of these things are the vehicles of IhQgfc who would go far on the radical courses. Mr. Roosevelt has not stressed NRA expansion as his radical followers thought he was going to press it Those who conceived NRA still do not admit that NRA has ground down the little businesses In the interest of the big ones, but Mr. Roosevelt apparently sees it He Is represented in high places as hoping that the NRA board of review will show up the weaknesses of the codes so that modifications can be made where necessary. Many of the “NRA crowd,” as they have come to be known here, are disgruntled about it They think that NRA, like the king, can do no wrong. <Being a keen student and a master psychologist, Mr. Roosevelt sees those tilings and he has taken hold of them apparently before they have become so bad as to destroy whatever benfits that may accrue. What Is the cause for the change in the scenery? There are two rea sons of which 1 hear Too Idealiatic (luent:1 y- MaD Y of the plans were too Ideal istic for use universally among a prac tical people, and, the second, there ia i tendency to write “Thou shalt not” Into, too much legislation and regula tion for carrying out the recovery pro gram. The American people, as I judge them, will obey orders that change their Uvea around for Just so long. Then, they blow up in a big bray. For an example of what‘ I mean, the congress recently passed tbe so-called Bankhead bill that will limit the Wo- ductlon of cotton in the United States to ten mUllon bales annually. It is compulsory. Unless a cotton farmer agrees to reduce his acreage and com ply with tho other terms of tbe law, “thon shalt not” market what is grown without the payment of a heavy' taf, a tar so hnMeBsomwaa to remove any possibility of profit Mr. Roose velt signed the bUl and gsvs It bis blessing, bnt I heard any number of newspaper correspondents and observ- era remark when they read his state ment that ha was saying merely that he “hoped” it would bo of some value. Surely, be did not predict Its success. All through the various recovery laws and regulations, one finds so many “Then shaft note” that one of tbe eastern metropolitan newspapers printed a cartoon, captioned “Dreams of Forgotten Age.” The chief charac ter in the cartoon was that figure so famous as representing "Prohibition.* ThO thought behind the cartoon was deeper in. tbe minds of some than Just the humor and lesson that It portrayed. TEerimvgsni Htdry of “too- mt Washington.” Sooner or later, unle I havp misread my history, there is to be a broadside of reaction rise up agalnrit “too much Washington” In the way lives are lived. The current pe riod seems to be the high point, but it had’Its beginning. In my opinion, when the Constitutional amendment was adopted providing for direct elec tion of senators. That was followed some years later by enactment of the law creating the Federal Farm Loan / respectable In their communities, were convicted as criminals because they dared to take a drink. The Department of Agriculture sup* with an annonneement a few dayi ago that two men' In South Dakota had b,een arrested and had pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States In connection with the 1933 emergency bog buying pro gram. The announcement described the case as “of national Importance and Interest as similar fraud cases are pending in other federal courts," under this and other emergency programs handled by the Agricultural Adjust- It will be recalled that there w$a quite a bit of cheating In the admlnlp> tratlon of CWA job planning. Tbeie was some stench, too, in the handling of seed loans In two or three parts of the country, and there Is plenty of complaint about some window-box farmers who have been drafting reg ulations in AAA. NRA has been un der fire from time to time because, in some Instances, vast Industries were compelled to sit across a table In draft ing a code with a man who had bad no experience whatsoever in that Indus try. So what wonder Is It that a man will do as one about whom I heard. He boasted about being a rhiseler. That is. among friends, he said; “OL course, I am a chlseler. Of course, I am making money out of this code. But the reason I am doing It Is because I am thinking of the next few years when the tax collector is going to take virtually all of the profits 1 make to pay up for this waste.” In my roaming around in Washing ton, I find more and more people who are asking which of the two major po litical parties, the Democrats or the Republicans, is going to have courage enough to pull the government back to Washington as a government, and allow the people to run their own busi ness? • • • It Is Important to record. In this connection, that the Department of Agriculture already Looks Like has taken a step Backtracking" 1 t, “ ! '" rw " on of allowing private business to run its own affairs by Its announcement that government con trol of dairy production Is not to be •' «■»«• JSS the In- formation I have been able to pick up here and there in high places, I suspect that dairy production control is never going to be attempted, but Secretary control would the present” One'can only guess whether this la the beginning of a trend, a backtrack ing, from the\governniental control ex treme to which some of the profea sors would like to have yone. They, advanced the control Idea to the ulti mate In the Bankhead compulsory cot ton production control law and they have pushed the control principle al most as far In wheat, tobacco, corn and hog Industries. With regard to the dairy business, however, they to difficulties. The stumbling blc obstacles met In that attempt IUus-\ better than anything that I know Industries In the United States * Hava fttltfaMl too divergent to permit of a universal regulation. I mean by that: practices and problems vary In every locality and there are tew in- doatrles which can be lined up under tha same roles of operation without being handicapped and unduly. give proof of some of others pro: The dal thla fact, ment by Mr. Wi feould be no a dnctlon control support bf a su the Industry. • srww to the annonnee- ice which said there i undertake a pro- tm without the lal majority ef \0 7 V * jv -nil - ' , -MM