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r—iJk.v **»« rfMiiiM:»ii hiwvji .>; J&ygffifi tt-ii < uvu rttLa^mimue^.. jr^ " - - * T ^ Th« Barnwell People-Sentinel, Barnwell, 8. C» Thnreday, December ft, 19S4 ■ s «r ^ News Review Events the orld Over General Butler’s Fantastic Story of Fascist Plot to Seize the Government—Strike in the Great Steel Industry Becomes Imminent. * .-4 By EDWARD W. PICKAR © by W**t*rn Newspaper Union. Gen. Smedley 0. Butler S OBER minded American citizens find it difficult to take seriously the fantastic story that MaJ. Gen. Smedley D. Butler told to the con gressional committee Investigating un-Amer ican activities. This retired officer of ma rines charges that there is a plot, en gineered , b y Wall street men, to seize the govern men t of the United States and set up a Fascist dictator ship, and the chairman of the committee. Rep resentative John W. McCormack of New York, considered the tale of enough Im portance to warrant the calling of wit nesses to prove or disprove It. General Butler made his story public through the columns of the New York Evenlhg Post, as the proceedings of the com mittee are conducted in private. If Butler Is to be believed, he was approached by Gerald P. MacGulre, bond salesman in the stock exchange firm of Grayson M. P. Murphy and Company, and urged to accept the lead ership of a soldier organization of half a million men “which would assem ble—probably a year from now—In Washington, and that within * faw { workers. days It could take over the functions of the government." MacGulre, accord ing to the general, thought the over- furn of the government might be ac complished peacefully and suggested that "we might even go along with Roosevelt and do with him what Mus solini did with the king of Italy." Butler’a story continued: “He told me he believed that at least half of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars would fol low me. "MacGulre explained to me that they had two other candidates for the posi tion of ‘Man on the White Horse.’ He said that if I did not accept an offer would be made to Gen. Douglas Mac- Arthur, chief of staff of the United States army, and that the third choice would be Hanford MacNIder, former commander of the American legion. “So far as I know, neither General MacArthur nor MacNIder has been ap proached. Their names were merely mentioned as ‘alternates.’" The general said he was offered con siderable sums "for expenses’* which be did not accept He said MacGulre in timated that among the backers of the plan were Mr. Murphy and Col. Robert S. Clark, a wealthy New Yorker with offices In the Stock Exchange bunt ing; and he added that later Colonel Clark offered him money to go to the American legion convention In Chi cago last year and make a speech for retention of the gold standard, which speech MacGulre had previously given Butler. Clark, at present In France, admit ted he had asked Butler "to use his Influence In favor of sound money and against Inflation," but strongly denied that he had sponsored a Fascist move ment. He declared he would take ac tion for libel against any person ac cusing him in such a connection. Murphy and other Wall street men said the story was absolutely false and unutterably ridiculous, and Mac Gulre, after being heard by the Mc Cormack committee, said: “It’s a Joke —a publicity stunt. I know nothing about it. The matter Is made out of whole cloth. I deny the story complete ly.” will be worked out by a committee of three arbiters, with the nnlo'u recog nized as the bargaining agent ipr the employees. , - DY ORDER of the national labor' ^ lations board there will be hef soon a great workers’ election which will determine whether organized labor shall dominate the country’s rubber in dustry. ' The board dccrood that the Flre~ stone Tire and Rubber, company-and the B. F. Goodrich company of Akron, Ohio, must allow their employees to ballot on the question of whether they want a company union or an American Federation of Labor union to represent them in collective bargaining under the NRA. • Twenty-one thousand workers, the largest number ever polled by the labor board on an NRA question, will par ticipate in the election. In addition another 15,00Q workers of. the Good* year Rubber company may ballot on the same question. The Goodyear an gle of the case has not yet been passed upon by the board. Both the Firestone and Goodrich companies have opposed the elections now ordered, maintaining that condi tions In their plants are satisfactory and that electioneering in rival unions would only disturb the peace among the D onald r. richberg, executive director of the national emergency council and now perhaps the Presi dent’s chief adviser, addressing the As sociated Grocers of America at their convention in New York, proposed the creation of a new federal body, cobs' blnlng functions of the NRA and the federal trade commission, to define and regulate concerted trade action in the “twilight zone" under antitrust law A Discussing the program for perma nent NRA legislation, he reiterated his opposition to control of prices and pro duction. He said the fixing of mini mum wages and maximum hours had demonstrated its soundness for elimi nating the worst forms of unfair com petition in treatment of employees, and that admittedly dishonest business prac tices should be proscribed. PHILADELPHIA lawyers are tradl- * tionally supposed to be able to unravel the worst of tangles, so Presi dent Roosevelt has picked one to be chairman of the na tional labor relations board. He Is Francis Bkldle, of the famous family of that name, and he succeeds Lloyd K. Garrison, who re tired from the chair manship to resume his duties as dean of the law school of the Uni versity of Wisconsin. Francis Biddle has been engaged in law member of the Phlla Francis Blddls practice as a delphla firm of Barnes, Biddle, and Meyers. He served from 1922 to 1920 as assistant district attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania. In his new post his task will be the set' tlement of labor disputes arising out of the recovery act, especially those involving collective bargaining. S O FAR as the great steel Industry Is concerned, it appears that the industrial truce asked by President Roosevelt cannot be arranged, and the prospect of a strike of the steel work ers is growing. In behalf of the United States Steel corporation, a proposal was made to the American Federation of Labor that recognition of that organization would be granted, but that no contract would be made. This proposal, it was said, would be agreed to by 85 per cent of the steel Industry. The labor spokesmen, led by William Green, president of the A. F of L., re jected the tender on the ground that It was hedged about In such a way to permit collective bargaining with mi nority groups or company unions, and that the employers were still unwilling' to accept the principle of majority rule as set forth in the, national labor re lations board's decision in the Houde case. If a rupture comes the Federation of Labor may find the federal govern ment rather unsympathetic. Mr. Green’s influence in the White House has been waning noticeably and he has had no personal contacts with the President for some time. New Yorkers with offices in sky scrapers were gladdened by the news that a threatened strike of elevator operators bad been averted and an agreement, drafted by Mayor La Gnardla’s board of Arbitration, had been signed by representatives of the real estate latsrssts and the union. The union withdrew its demand for a dosed shop; sad standards of wages "and hours in various types of buildings F RANCE is worried by the admitted fact that Germany has developed a military air fleet of considerable size, composed of modern pursuit and bomb ing planes, and Gen. Victor Denain, French minister of air, estimates that by January the relch will have from 1,000 to 1,100 of these machines, swift er and better than those possessed by France. Consequently he has asked the chamber of deputies for about $230,- 000,000 to finance a program for re covering the ground lost by French aviation. The task Is already under way, $32,500,000 having been spent out of an appropriation for modernization. P RESIDENT ROOSEVELT la revel ing in baths and rest at Warm Springs, Ga., but die is not neglecting the nation’s business, keeping in dose touch with Washington and receiving many official visitors. At his first press conference there he announced with glad smiles that be would again “lend his birthday," January 80, to the na tional committee that arranges birth day balls all over the country for the benefit of infantile paralysis sufferers. * ■ ■ C OMPTROLLER GENERAL*' J. R. M’CARL has thrown a- monkey- wreucb into part of . the machinery of Relief Administrator Harry L. Hop kins. Turning down a check from Hop kins to the officials of the District of Columbia which was to have started*, work on a. housing development, Mr. McCarl held that the federal emergen cy relief act, providing for the grant ing of funds for various relief pur poses, could not apply to the acquisi tion of real estate and the construc tion of homes. This type of activity, be said, would be of a permanent and iot an emergency nature, and the act adopted to meet emergencies. FEKA already has under way a ptogram of "rehabilltatlng’L.i&OOO farm Varailles in homes and on land to be wdd to them by the government X/fORE Ahd more it becomes evident that iVesident Roosevelt Intends to pursue a tniddle of the road policy in his efforts fhr national recovery, and that in the over- elmlngly Democrat- congress there willMx^ no* one faction strong enough to dic tate UAhim. The Chief Executive and the business\ leaders of the country are grad ually comink together, and if and when they reach an accord on methods it will be found that a re radical ideas brain trusters will have been dl ed. The best minds in industry ai finance are no. longer standing ba and merely criticizing. They are tak ing an active part in planning for the future welfare of the nation. Here with are summarized some of the im portant new developments In this dl- rectlenr •lias Strawn BRISBANE THIS WEEK — News of Astronomy . ^ Japan Underestimates Air, Water, Power Paradise for Killing Astronomy marches on. Recent dis coveries Include 1,700 new variable stars, used as “yardsticks’’ to measure the depths of space, also a dew twin star, a double sun, of which there are many in the heavens, as there are many double protons and nuclei inside of some atoms. The double sun has an eclipse laming thirty days. Professor Shapley of Cleveland tells all about it Some of these “yardsticks" of space have a light fifteen times as great as that of<dur sun. Try to imagine that Other suns are one million times as big as our sun, which is a million times as big as the earth. X Japan and England are friendly. Jape© will not demand' naval equality with England, only with the United States. Japan suggests a 5-4-4 ratio, five for England, four for the United States, four for Japan. In 1776 our Japanese-friends were locked up in their own islands, no American having gone to dig them out and Introduce them to the West. Had they been around this neighbor hood in that year they would now com pare, differently, the United States and Britain. Washington.—Administration plans and policies appear to be undergoing a shaking down proc- Shake-Up ess. Safely passing in Polidf the elections and with do need to make moves solely to please particu lar segments of voters the President appears to have started getting rid of Hbplication In the various alphabetical agencies of the government. Further, many conservatives are taking some hoi4 out of other administrative ac tions lately aud are willing to believe that the shake-up among the many emergency groups along with White House pronouncements may possibly Also, if they knew Franklin D. Roose- vdlt, they would know that he will build, on behalf of the United States, whatever he thinks the United States needs, asking no permission from Eng land or Japan. President Roosevelt’s words, pralp- irmct be eliminate tug workers in the Tennessee valley President Henry L Harrlman of the United States Chamber of Commerce, In pursuance of a resolution adopted by the board of directors, has appoint ed a committee of six men, headed by Silas Strawn of Chicago, to co-operate with other business and agricultural associations In drafting plans for the recovery of business. The board of the chamber endorsed the continuation of relief and housing, but signified that business Is still opposed to the unbal anced budget, further reduction of working hours as embodied in the movement for a 30-hour week, new and unprecedented outlays for public works, continuance of the NI?A, the doctrine of majority rule In collective bargaining, and unemployment Insur- IM* , ■ Through the National Association of Manufacturers, Invitations were sent to every manufacturer 4n the^Unittfft States to attend a national Industrial conference in New York on December 5 to draft “constructive recommends tlons’’ for presentation to President Roosevelt. In a petition addressed R> the Presi dent and congress the National Econ omy league has presented a definite program for balancing the federal bud get in the coming fiscal year, holding that only by balancing the budget can sustained national recovery be accom plished. The petition proposes heavy reductions In government expenditures and additional taxes totaling $935,000,- 000. H UGH R. WILSON, American am bassador to Swltxerland, laid be fore the disarmament conference in Geneva a proposal by the United States for international control of arms trafflq and full publicity to pre vent secret arming 1 of nations. The proposal was well received by most of the delegates, and It will be studied by committees In January. By the American plan each govern ment would license its manufacturers of munitions for five year periods. No reserve stocks would be allowed and manufacturers would be required to present bona fide orders before receiv ing a license. Details of war vessels built for other nations would have to be reported. Reports of licenses and orders would be turned over to a cen tral committee at Geneva and made g matter of public record. A perma nent commission, including a mem ber from each signatory nation, would be empowered to investigate transac tions. ■^DTABLES of the Catholic church ^ gathered in Chicago from all parts of the world to take part In the sliver Jubilee of Cardinal Mundelein, who was consecrated a bishop 25 years -ago. The pope sent his persons! greet ings and his blessing. N OT so pleasing to the Industrialists were the two speeches the Presi dent delivered during his Inspection of the Tennessee valley project, for if his predictions are borne out, his “revolu tion" will bring about the death of pri vate enterprise In the power Industry. At Tupelo, Miss., he declared himself flatly for public ownership of public utilities, saying: “What yon are do ing here Is going to be copied In every state In the Union before we are through"; the allusion being to the fact that Tupelo has contracted for TVA power. In Birmingham the President said: *1 am aware that a few of your citizen ry are leaving no stone unturned to block and harass and delay this great national program. I am confident, however, that these obstructionists, few In number in comparison with the whole population, do not reflect- the- views of the overwhelming majority. “I know, too, that the overwhelm ing majority of your business men, big and little, are ip hearty accord with the great undertaking of regional plan ning now being carried forward.” F ORTY-FIVE new bills were pushed through the Louisiana legislature In five days with Senator Huey Long on the rostrum telling the'legislators Just what to do, but seldom stopping to tell them why. The “Ringfish” says he now is In position to make the state a Utopia, or rather, In his own words, “the kind of state nobody has dreamed of.” It is the general belief that hs hopes his "share the wealth" program will ultimately land him In the White House. The senator’s most ambitious legis lation is the statute proclaiming a two- year moratorium for harassed debtor* Another bflT'sets ujj a civil service commission, composed of state admin istration leaders, with power to r» move police and fire chiefs. That will give Long control of virtually ail mn nicipal policemen and firemen. Long said the hill was intended to take them "oat of politics." Some leaders in and out of the gov ernment construed this action as in dicating a conviction by the Presi dent ttjat there were too many agen cies floating around doing odd jobs without • restraint Others believed that Mr. Roosevelt was making an hon- do one-tenth as much as really effort to-hrlng seme semWance of power for att." 7 order out of chaos In the hope that eventually expenses can be reduced thereby. In supp&rtTJfTIils view was the ac tor their efficiency, made one of the most important speeches that he, or any President or ruler of a country, over made. • He promises cheap power. Not all plans to drive away depression Nature gave man free air and free waternot much else Is free. If science 'hpd wise government can add to free x alr and free water power un limited, asVearly free as possible, that will mean ^another step toward the desired mlllel Cheap powdr for farms, factories and homes, clmip power giving the light necessary tor study, power that means conquest V nature and her hardships, will freeXme* from slavery. It is planned, Washington Says, to convert millions of aVes of uneco nomic land, worthless fo\farming, into a "hunter’s paradise. On the*mllllons of aerto wild ani mals will be encouraged toYalse their families, that noble white men may have the pleasure of shooting them. Civilization does progress, but »iow- Ty, when the richest and an allegedly highly Intellectual race plans an earth ly paradise for killing, imitating \he red Indians’ heavenly hunting grou What should we think of our alleg cousins, the gorillas, If they set aside' a million acres of land In Africa for the purpose of breeding and killing human Africans? Wise ones tell President Roosevelt: “You can’t expect prosperity until you balance the budget.” What Is the magic In balancing the budget? What Is balancing the bud get? Do individuals always balance their budgets In times of emergency? If a capitalist Is building a gigantic hotel, to cost millions, does he balance his budget that year or next, or does he borrow, build, pay back when re turns come? Must the government, trying to build prosperity at a cost of billions, spend no more than it takes in? ' Isn’t it enough to avoid spending what you can’t pay ultimately? What Is the great magic in budget balancing? The way to solve railroad problems, serious in the United States, with rail road trains empty, automobile, motor trucks taking their business. Is to do something. In Germany, where stream-lined trains were built and run, as they were in Switzerland, long before anybody built one here, the director of the relch railways announces "stream line^ Diesel-powered freight engines, running at 8QJ miles an hour.” France considers modification of her method of fixing the price of wheat This country endeavors to Increase wheat prices, and the farmers’ income, by paying farmers not to plant so much. Make wheat ^career, thus make it dearer. The French, apparently, have some other plan, which Included encouraging the farmer to plant all he could, France being sometimes a wheat importing country. In London, Anthony Eden, Lord Privy Seal, tells the house of com mons that British troops will not be used to help the French maintain order in the Saar, soon to decide whether it wants to be German or French. The British want their dear conti nental friends to be as happy as poo •ihle, but in this decision about tfife Saar they aay to France: “If you get Into a fight with Germany you jnay have that fight all'to yourself, with our beet wishes for both sides thrown la” War is painful, expensive, and Uncle Sam baa had a ten-blliion-dollar lesson and la not lending. ©. Kiac PaatarM Bradtoat* la* - WNU Sarvlaa. e National Topics Interpreted by William Bruckatt indicate a slight return toward what they regard as sounder fundamental* In a move held by many observers to indicate an attempt by the Pres ident to eliminate some waste the President has brought under one su pervisory control all of the agencies lending government money. It may be surprising to know that there are ten Important federal offices engaged In loaning money. They have been operating largely on their own pro gram* No attempt has been made heretofore to co-ordinate their efforts. The result has been conflicting policies and undoubtedly waste In result* The l President now proposes that this shall end. He has named the com mittee for the defined purpose, of es tablishing uniform policy respecting government loans and has' declare^ with emphasis that the duplication tlon taken by the Home Owners’ Loan corporation which has cut off further loaning on home* In announcing its action the home loan board said it be lieved government aid in this direc tion was no longer necessary, thus In ferentlally at least saying that some recovery had taken place. The home loan agency Is among those placed under cabinet committee control. It will begin immediately to shrink Its organization, turning loose eventually * total of 28,000 workers. The Reconstruction Finance corpor ation, another one of the groups which will be guided by cabinet committee policy hereafter, has announced It will not seek additional funds from the forthcoming session of cbngres* Bor rowers who have been using that agency will be accommodated further, of course, in accordance with the terms of their obligations but the whole tendency will be to cut down on new loans. And so It is for the first time In the current administration we are wltness- a shrinkage, rather than an expan sion, In governmental facilities set np as a part of the recovery program of the New Dealers. Along with the establishment of the loan policy committee, there came an order from the treas- May Export ury, bearing Mr. Currmney Roo*e*«lt’s approval, which once again al lows unrestricted exports of currency, but not goll or silver metal. Hereto fore It has been necessary for private business to obtain a specific license from the treasury before It could ship currency abroad In settlement of ob ligation* This move is expected to have far-reeching consequences because it lifts from business one of those an noying red tape procedures to which business always objects and a kind of ^transaction that * has never crept Into private business in any way. Gold and silver, both having been nationalized under the New Deal, must stay in this country. Gold must stay in the coffers of the treasury. yNever- theless, from many sources I hear fa vor*ble .comment on the relaxation of the restrictions on movement of cur rency because It is generally believed the action will have a psychological benefit Many persons will feel that if the government at Washington Is willing to permit shipment of curren cy abroad, there is no reason to fear embarrassing situations as a matter of dealing In currency. Of course, ob viously, the confidence hitherto repos ing in our dollar by foreigners cannot be fully restored as long as gold can not be shipped but the present change admittedly Improves the situation. It should be explained that the treasury •till keeps its fingers on the currency movement and that it has the author tty to slap on an embargo again when ever it asea fit This appears to be unlikely, however, as long as interna tional trade retains anything like ita present stability. Indeed, experts de clare that greater stability In Interna tional trade ought to be one of the re sults and the treasury is obviously looking, tot that , end to be served In some quarters the lifting of the ban on currency exports was accept ed as meaning that Mr. Roosevelt la not entertaining any thought of fur ther devaluation of the currency. He may have to give consideration to that propoattiM after congress comet back because there are half a hundred sen* store sad representatives who are avidly pursuing the inflation phantom* They think this will solve the coun* try’s economic problems and they can be counted on to bear down with their deas when the forum of congress again is opened to them. Whatever these men may do, it la pointed out now, Mr. Roosevelt would >e only complicating his own problems by allowing^free interchange of cur rency at this time if he had any thought in mind of changing the dol- ar value in the not too distant future. With the time only a month away for selection by the Democrats of their candidate for speak- Sptaktrohip er of the house—se- Fight ' lection that means election—the speak ership fight Is attracting much atten tion. Heat is being shown* and ene mies are being created In every direc tion. There are at least a dozen mem bers of the house who figure or hope that the Democratic caucus to be held late In December will pick their name tor one of the honor posts* speaker, majority floor leader 1 *or chair man of the rules committee. At the moment one can deal only with possi bilities, for the stage of probabilities is yet in the distance- Although, as I said, the fight is wide open there are certain straws that tend to show the way the wind la blowing. There are certain back grounds and conditions as well that must be accepted as having a mean ing. For example, Representative Byrnes of Tennessee, the Democratic leader while the late Mr. Rainey was speak er, normally would be expected to be chosen as speaker. Rut Mr. Bynies ts not sur* In fact, there are many ob servers who declare that the odds are against him. For Instance, he was not Invited aboard the President’s special train to make the recent trip to Har- rodsburg, Ky. . There Is a row brewing between the North and the South. Northern Dem ocrats resent what they regard as sonthern domination of the house. Consequently, some of the harmonls- ers are attempting to effect a deal whereby the speakership will go to the South and the post of'majority leader be filled by a northern Demo crat. In this combination the names of Representatives Rayburn of Texas and McCormack of Massachusett* fig ure most prominently. However, this arrangement has vulnerable spots be cause there are many other southero Democrats-who feel they are entitled to consideration, and they may not -be satisfied with such a combination. On top of all this is a statement from White House quarters that the President will remain aloof. Mr. Roosevelt considers the speakership fight solely a house matter, hut It must be added that the President’s pro nouncement has not deterred some of his stellites. A dozen or more New Dealers are active and some say that they have agreed on Mr. Rayburn and Mr. McCormack. If that be true Mr. Roosevelt Is in a tough spot unless he wants to declare openly that he does not favor Mr. Rayburn and Mr. Mc Cormack. In which event he is ex pected to antagonize their supporters The responsibility which the admin istration carries in having such com plete control of gov. Borah crnmental machinery Criticize* has its thorny cush ion despite the abil ity to muster a two-thirds majority le both the house and the senate. On© of the sharpest of the thorns appar ently is Senator William E. Borah of Idaho, Progressive Republican. Mr. Borah always has played a lone hand in the senate and he apparently is go ing to do so again. The first harpoon which the Idaho senator has thrdwn was directed at the relief policies pressed through and administered by professional reliever* Mr. Borah says there ts an enormous amount of waste In connection wltb the relief activities. He says ther© are thousands of superfluous jobs be ing maintained out of relief funds un der the guise of distributing the money. He has called attention a© well to the lack of co-ordination and the apparent inability of the relief heads to arrive at uniform bases for ministering to the destitute. Having begun the fight well in advance of th© opening rOf congress Mr. Borah can be expected to give It momentum from v t!me to time so that when it reaches the floors of congress It can be count ed on to be more than a puff bail Of course, the administration haa fought to ward off Just such attack© as Mr. Borah has Inaugurated', by an nouncement of employment plans and transfer of unemployed from relief rolls to work roll* I reported to you several weeks ago that Mr. Roosevelt favored elimination of the 4ole and the creation or work for which th© present unemployed would be paid. Yet it is being pointed out In many quarters here that pursuit of such a plan as the President baa in mind re quires an Immense amount of, study, Otherwim It la liable to flop and If 1$ goes off half-cocked, undoubtedly the criticism will be awre vigorous. *w«un WWMMSH U-WL PM