Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Tht Barnwell People-Sentinel, Barnwell; S. C m ' .-va.- ;• •„•' ' N ' ' «*. *J . Events the World Over Electric Utility Interests Get Cold Shoulder From the Administration—Vast Program Reported by National Resources Board. By EDWARD W. PICKARD e by WMt.rn Newspaper Union. CM-EmUC utility companies of the United States, worried by the pow er program of the New I>eal. appealed to President Roosevelt to abandon the movement toward pub lic ownership which threatens, they say. to deprive millions of se curlty holders of their savings. The plea was presented to the President personally by Thomas N. Mc Carter, president -of the Rdlson Klectrlc In stitute. That gentle- man promised that T. N. McCarter the ut || itIeg wou | d ef . feet the reforms In financing that Mr. Roosevelt has called for, and then re quested that the government Join with the Institute In a suit to test rhe con stitutionality of the Tennessee Valley authority. In the memorial he handed,to the President, Mr. McCarter gave It as his own opinion that the government In the TVA experiment Is exceeding Its constitutional powers and Infringing the sovereign fights of the state. He cited rhe Joint opinion of Newton D. Raker, hemocrat. and James M. Beck, Republican, that TVA Is unconstitu tional and the “similar conclusion" of United States Judge W. I. Grubb In a recent decision. —Mr. Roosevelt turner! the-memorial be charged with coordinating public ity. combating disaffection at home and enemy propaganda, ‘‘establishing rules and regulations for censorship" and ‘‘enlisting and supervising a voluntary censorship of the newspaper and peri odical press." ? Lieutenant Colonel C. T. Harris of the army said he never heard of a plan to license the press, and LleuL E. E. Rrannan said nothing more than voluntary censorship was contem plated. over to Frank R. McNInch, chairman of the federal power commission, and he and his aids speedily prepared a sharp reply rejecting the proposal of co-operation In carrying the matter to the Supreme court “In all the history of the American people,” It said, "no parallel for such a proposal can be found. . . The call Is not for the government to halt, hut for the industry to catch step and move forward along progressive lines." “The Edison Electric Institute has, of course," It continued, “a legal right to promote lltlgatlon^to test the act creating the Tennessee Valley Author ity or any other statute, but It will make no substantial progress toward placing the Industry on a sound and permanent basis until It cleans Its own house, reduces excessive rates to con-* sumecs and ollmlnsroa fhn malpractice and abuses which are responsible for Its * present condition.” Attacking McCgrter’a contention that rates are reasonable, Mr. McNInch said Canadians pay on an average 2 1-6 cents for a kilowatt hour, while Amer icans pay 5Vi cents. He said the Cana dian figures cover public and private plants, the latter supplying “46 per cent of the consumers.” “It Is the purpose of the adminis tration,” he set forth, “to narrow this excessive gap between what the con sumer pays for electricity In this coun try and what Canada has proved It can’ be generated and sold for. This pro gram does not Involve either ‘destruc tive comi>et1tion or strangulation'." B USINESS leaders of the country who met In conference at White Sulphur Springs, W. Va., drew up a long list of things they want the gov ernment to do or not to do, and then created a “business conference com mittee" that will have headquarters in Washington and maintain "liaison" with the administration. The conference’s recommendations to the government are phrased In In offensive language and the idea Is con veyed that the business men earnestly dcsln to co-operate rather than criti cise. The things they ask are substan tially the same as those sought by the National Association of Manufacture^*, and the Chamber of Commerce of the United Stiites, previously summarized In this column. The essence of It all Is that government should attend more to Its traditional functions and permit tmstnpRs to ptn men and Capital back" to work. t - ■— v x D R. HUGH S. MAGILL, president of the American Federation of Util ity Investors, entered the utility con troversy with a hot attack on the fed eral trade commission, charging that it Is throwing out a smoke screen to befog the public mind In Its desire to win approval for the entry of the fed eral government Into the. electric light and power business through such ef forts as the Tennessee Valley Au thority. The smoke screen, he declared, was the pronouncement of the commission to the effect that public utility com panies had boosted pre-depression prices In a market In which Investors afterward lost millions of dollars. “The clamor for the government to enter private enterprise." said Doctor Magili. “enjoys the sponsorship first of the Communists who have no re gard for private property, second of those influenced by socialistic propa ganda to believe that the production of efectrlc power under government own- ershlp would he In the Interest of pub lic welfare, and lastly of the spoils men In politics who see the tremendous opportunities such a system would offer for added power and political ■polls." ./ DRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S na tional resources board, appointed Inst June to devise “a plan for plan ning,” with Secretary of rhe Interior Ickes ns Its chairman, hag submitted a long report offering a pro gram, covering 20 to 30 years, for develop ment of land, water and resources at an expenditure of $105,- 000,000.000. Il sur veys projects which presumably Include the administration's relief- and public Haro d L. works program for the c ^** Immediate future, these being s: - “ v L Improvement of highways and the elimination of grade crossings. 2. National housing. Including slum clearance, subsistence homestead, re habilitation, and low cost housing projects. 3. Water projects. Including water supply, sewage treatment, flood con trol. Irrigation, soil erosion prevention, and hydro-electric power developments. 4 Rural electrlfleatlon. Secretary of Labor Perkins, a mem ber of the board, has said that If its recommendations are carried out, all unemployment will be eliminated for the next 26 years. These, she says, are the results that might be expected: 1. Provide a much greater develop ment of water resources. 2. Stop menace of floods. 8. Stop soil erosion. 4. Remove all marginal or sub- marginal lands from attempted produc tion. 6. Stop waste of mineral re sources and substitute a national policy of conservation. 6. Create great new recreational acres. 7. Assemble basic data for map ping, public finance^ s*(l population, 1 necesary for natkJhal planning, with a mlddecennlal census In 1936. 8. Co-ordinate soclally-useful fed eral, state and municipal public works. 9. Provide for continuous long- range planning of land, water and mineral resources “in relation.to each other and to the larger background of the social and economic life In which'they are set* ^ /CARRYING on ft* anti-crime cam- palgn. the Department of Justice caused the Indictment and Jailing of two attorneya on chargea of complicity In the kidnaping of O. P. UracheL Okla homa oil magnate. In 1933. The two men represented the defendants In the klfl* nap trial. They are Jamea G. Mathera of Oklahoma and Ben I^tska, veteran member of the Denver bar. The men are charged apeclflcally with handling part of the 1200.000 ransom loot that wenlfto Albert Batea, one of the actual kidnapers, who Is now serving a Ufa term at Alcatraz Island prison. Both the lawyers were released on ball, and I-aska replied Informally to the accusations by offering $60,000 re ward to anyone who can prove that he passed any of the Urschel ransom money. National Topics Interpreted by William Bmckart C'lNAL estimates of this year’s crops, " Just released by the Department of Agriculture, show that agricultural wealth, based on farm prices Decem ber 1 of the five leading grain crops, exceeded that of last year by $314.- 000,000, despite the fact that total pro duction of these crops was 1.248.000,- 000 bushels less than In 1933 and the smallest in 40 years. Estimates for production of wheat, corn, oats, rye and barley total 2^641,- 000,000 bushels, compared with 3,789.- 000.000 bushels ast year, and the five- year average (1927-31) of 4.900.000,- 000 bushels. Aggregate farm value of these crops Is given as $1,894,778,000 as compared with $1,680,888,000 in 1933. The extensive destruction of crops Inst summer hy the heat and drouth Is forcibly Illustrated by the fact that total production of the lending grains this year was 866,000.000 bushels smaller than the corn crop alone In 1932. W OULD-BE lynchers of a negro youth and National Guardsmen fought ‘desperately In Shelbyville. Tenn.. and two members of the mnh were killed and others wounded by bayonets and bullets. The Infuriated crowd; described Ify a deputy” sheriff ns “crazy drunk,” dynamited and burned the courthouse when It was learned that the negro had been dis guised In militia uniform and gas mask and spirited out of town. f IF ANY doubt existed thaf-Japan * would denounce Jhe Washington naval treaty. It was dissipated by the action of the privy council. That pow erful body of statesmen, meeting with all ceremony, unanimously recommend ed abrogation of the pact to Emperor Hlrohlto, whose speedy approval was expected. Baron Klichlro Hiranuma, vice presi dent of the council, read the report to the emperor and afterward said to the press: “The"nnperial government de sires continuation of clauses of the Washington treaty relating to llmlta- tlon 6f fomfleations lind^navaF bases in the Pacific ocean, hut. If such clauses are terminated, the government Is preprred to cope with the sttua- tlpn." In* plain words, then. Japan wants equality on the high seas with the United States and Great Britain, hut wants the United Stares to remain re stricted as to Its Pacific ocean de fences. Secretary rDem S ENATORIAL Investigators of mu nitions and the War department clashed when Clark of Missouri sug gested. In a committee hearing, that the war mobilisation plans of the de partment, long held secret, should be laid befj)re congress In peace time to be debated at leisure He held that, under the array's plan, the eight bills embodying the scheme to mobilise the nation's resources would be rushed to congress to "pasa under whip and spur" without proper consideration: War department witnesses replied that the wir policies commission be lieved certain legislation might be held unconstitutional in peace time but le gal In a war emergency. Senator Claft^ also nought to learn what degree plated by the army control was contem- tp” plan of the This calls for in administrator public relations who would mobilise "all existing mediums of publicity so they may be employed to tba beat Ible advantage." He also would A RMY and navy officers jire con cerncd by the attempts of Cora-* munlsts to spread dissatisfaction, mu tiny and rebellion among the armed forces of the nation, and have asked the house committee on un-American activities to approve a law permitting punishment of those who urge any sol dier or sailor to violate his oath of al legiance. ' Commander V. L. Klrkman of the navy told the committee that the Com munists’ campaign was planned and supervised from headquarters in New York city, and he submitted a num ber of pamphlets and leaflets circu lated In the navy which, he aaid, "ac tually Incite to mutiny, sabotage and assassination." He described bow the propaganda work Is carried on, good looking girls taking an active part I T MAY be the war In the Gran Chaco must be fought to a finish, for Paraguay has rejected the peace plan of the league of Natlona which had been provisionally accepted by Bolivia. The Paraguayans, at present victorious In the Jungle contest, said in their note to; the league that certain conditions would make It Impossible to discuss urgent matters like the return of Bo livian prisoners, "which hy number and' quality constitute as army very supe rior to that which Bolivia now baa la the Cbacd" — * >. S ECRETARY OF WAR DERN la no leas Insistent on the necessity of strengthening the army than Is Secre tary of the Navy Swanson In the case of our naval defenses. In the first section of his annual report Mr. Dern asks that the of ficer and enlisted strength of the army be Increased to 14.000 commissioned officers and 166,000 enlisted men. Other recom mendations Include: Purchase of (KKhalr- planes over a period of three years to give the air corps 2,320 serviceable planes, as urged by the board headed by Newton D. Baker, which Investigated the air corps and Its needs. Allocation of sufficient funds to com plete the army housing program at home and abroad. Construction without undue delay of a War department building to house all its activities under one roof In: stead of In 17 buildings, as at present Enactment by congress of legislation to improve the promotion system, so as to give k more uniform and satis factory flow of promotion without necessitating heavy additional ex- penae. Increasing the pay of officers, par ticularly In the lower grades, when the condition of the treasury warrants. Mr. Dern praised highly the efficien cy and morale of the regular army, the National Guard and the organised reserves, and defended the work of the air corps In Its brief operation of the air mall service last winter. M uo..MARY HARRIMAN RUMSEY, who fought valiantly but not alto gether successfully to protect the In terests of the consbmera against the contentions of Industry and labor, ta dead In Washington. Always Int^v ested In sociology and public affairs this daughter of E. H. Harrlman and Inheritor of some of hts millions took an active part In promoting the New Deal and was made head of the Na tional consumers' board of the NRA. Two men of note who died were Eugene R. Black, former governor of tba federal reserve board, and Mar tin W. Littleton, New York lawyer, who appeared In many sensstional cases and for a time Seared aa eon enssing this little controversy that It can become of great magnitude or It can sink out of sight easily. My own thought Is that Mr. Roosevelt’s control of congress Is not going to be serious ly disturbed by It It Is possible, how ever, that there are enough dissatisfied members of the house and senate to constitute a bloc which will speak Its mind collectively as" well as Individ ually. If that should come about, there will be fun. • alt Every once In a while some one dis covers some new letters written by George Washington. Washington Such a circumstance a Lobbyist? has J U8t developed. —— The Chesapeake and Ohio railroad,- preparing to celebrate the one hundred and fiftieth anniver sary of the original corporation from which It came, has found a letter signed by General Washington which, authorities tell'me, .represents among the first petitions ever filed with a leg islative body In behalf of private In terests In this country. In fact. If the Washington letter In question were to have been presented to the present- day congress, undoubtedly those in opposition to the general’s plan would have described him as a lobbyist H. O. Bishop, a noted writer and historian here, found In the Library of Congress that General Washington had sought legislation in the general assembly of of the Mtqattoa ibaie found that to 4h< I Virginia, In hfihtlf of the. Jamestown Washington.—It begins to appear that the country as a whole may have a chance to know Now Deal how many laws and Publicity executive orders is sued thereunder have -come out of the New Deal in Its twen ty-one months of life. President Roose velt has determined upon publication In an official manner as the means of informing Mr. Average Man what he is not supposed to do under the New Deal. It has not been determined yet whether there will' be an official gov ernment newspaper for publication of all of these laws, executive orders, codes, regulations and other means of' official expression, but everything points that way. Courts have always said that Igno rance of the law excuses no roan. It remained for the Supreme Court of the United States, however, to say that when the average man was deluged with hundreds of orders of Inhibition and prohibition from Washington, be was or la quite likely to be unable to comprehend what it la all about It was almost unprecedented for criticism to come from a member of the Supreme -Court of the United States. But Associate Justice Bran- dels. one of the outstanding liberals of the highest tribunal, made no effort to conceal his grievance when, in the course of presentation of an NRA case to the court, he learned to his amaze ment that there had been no publica tion of the numerous orders, regula tions or rules In a manner that could conceivably reach the country as a whole. Of course, the newspapers have attempted to keep the country Informed trat thcrr *eeimr ttr be no doubt that the number of official pro nouncements was too great for any new’sjmper, however large, to keep track of and publish them all. Conse quently, the Associate Justice gave voice to a feeling that has prevailed among newspaper correspondents In Washington for a long time, namely, that the bulk of the citizens of this country were uninformed concerning the vast qunaber of new regulations forthcomlng^nder the New Deal. It Is a regular practice for congress to enact legislation and Include In such laws a phrase to this effect: “Authority to Issue regulations car rying out the terms of this law Is here by extended. That phrase whenever lt hi included, as It Is almost Invariably, gives to the rules and regulations, proclamations and pronouncements, the full force and effect of the law Itself so long as the administrative promulgations are with in the terms of the law Itself and with in reason. In other words, these be come law and they can be sustained by any court that can find the lay It self constitutional. • • • The magnitude of the problem with which the President has now deter mined to deal was Weighty suggested recently by Problem ■ committee of the American Bar asso ciation which estimated) that in the first year of the NRA alone more than ten thousand pages of such "law" were* written by executive authority with out adequate provision for notifying the public. “The total legislative output by or in connection with this one adminis trative agency,” the committee de clared, “actually staggers the imagina tion.” , The committee added that any cal culation Involved guess-work and If con cluded after something more than a superficial Investigation that between four thousand five hundred and five thousand methods of business conduct were prohibited by the codes and sup plemental amendments to codes pro mulgated by the National Recovery Administration In Its brief period of life. The Brooklyn institute In a study unless careful supervision over such a publication la maintained, some un- acrupuloua Individuals may take ad vantage of this new avenue of public ity for selfish means. It is to be as sumed that Mr. Roosevelt will protect against this potential danger, but 1 find In many quarters expressions of a fear that the thing may get out of hand unless the President Is fully fore warned so that he can be forearmed. • • • Much significance attaches to tha President’s projected plan to take tha profits out of way. Presidents It is looked upon by Shrewd Move tho8t * who know as a very shrewd move,af fecting both domestic and internation al politics, tt will be some time be fore Its full Import can be pieced to gether In one picture but when that time comes, wiseacres tell me, among the things to be seen will be: 1. Notice to congress that the Presi dent is not going to allow the legisla tive body to run away with things that gain publicity, If the scheme Is one In which he desires to participate. 2. Notice to the world that the Unit ed States la not going to surrender leadership In world affairs even though the London naval conference has failed and even thougH Japan has renounced her signature to the Washington arms limitation treaty of 1922. It la too early to make a guessv wheChdV the senators who railltanUp- 1 fought back after Mr. Roosevelt’s pro nouncement will get anywhere. Those senators were the leaders in the, sen- ate committee’s munitions Investlga- I into tha tldn. Senator Nye, the committee *hot It. rtialnnan, with all of the breeze, of hla-J Charles BRISBANE THIS WEEK 105 Billions. ,Be Calm 103 Eyes for an Eye The Unexpected Pleaeea Fourth Place for Us Secretary Ickes has a real plan, and possesses what might be called vision in spending. He has confidence In thla country and its wealth. As chairman of the resources board, Mr. Ickes fa vors spending $105,000,000,000 In the next 20 or 30 years on public works. Do not “stand and gaze,” or fall back ward; that Isn’t so much money for Uncle Sam. Mr. F. H. Ecker, whose Metropolitan Life Insurance company, biggest In the world, has assets of $4,- 000.000,000, will tell you that In really good times the United States’ income was $90,000,000,000 a year, $60,000,000,- 000 for wages, $30,000,060,000 of other income. "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” may suit old-fashioned “cap italistic" countries. It does not appeal to Russia. There, to avenge the killing of one man, Kirov, Stalin’s friend, 28 more have been shot, making a total of JOS, : —— "A hundred and three eyes for one eye, a hundred and three teeth for one tooth,” is a high price, and the number killed may be increased. The unexpected is interesting and ta the essence of humor. Two old gen tlemen, failing In their attempt to ■trike oil, retired to the poorhouse. In the poorhouse backyard they found,, first, a good coal deposit, then struck OIL Louis Mosenza of New Jersey went hunting deer, walked 20 miles, found nothing. At night he found a large deer hanging In bis kitchen.—It walked Jront yard, Mrs. Mosenza North Dakota plains, accused the Pres ident in effect of trying to stop the munitions Inquiry. Senator Vanden- berg or Michigan challenged the Pres ident’s right to Interfere. Bach thought, as did some of the other mem bers of the committee who did not be come vocal, that Mr. Roosevelt' was trying to steal the show because if is a fact that the committee was on the front pages day after day during the investigation. Some observers here are inclined to the opinion that Mr. Roosevelt will be able to lull the recalcitrant members of congress Into a kindly feeling to- ward his program which is designed to draft far-reaching legislation and that they will eventually hush-up. At this writing I am unwilling to agree fully with Chat belief. One must not he unmindful In dls- atrte artist,: with friends went moose hunting, trav eled far, by buckboard In the Maine- forest, found nothing, packed guns, drove back to the station. A fine bull- moose and two cows walked across the track. They could not get out their guns in time. An NRA report says the United States comes fourth among nations in the march toward recovery and is grati fied. There was a time when fourth place did not particularly gratify Americans, but "small mercies thank fully received.* —Interesting In the report Is the state ment that countries still on the gold basis—France, Italy, Belgium, Holland* Switzerland—show the |east progress. Catholics and Protostants fo-Ger- many unite In a pro-Deo ("For God’’> movement to counteract the “godless Bolshevik propaganda.”- At the same time various religions authorities in Germany quarrel among themselves and the head government seeks to "Germanize” the Christian religion, annoyed perhaps by the idea that the "one God” should have been given to the world by the Jews. federal government there are sixty dif ferent administrative tribunals which, as the Instltute’a statement said, are "making judicial decisions affecting private rights.” The institute’s state ment added that “these do not pro ceed. according to any single form, do not follow any uniform procedure and do not fit In aa Integral parts of a co herent or Intelligent system.” During the World war there was an official publication Issued by the com mittee on public Information which was designed to acquaint the general public with the myriads of orders from the White House, orders from the War and Navy 7 departments, orders from a score of other placet. In the hope that pnblic understanding would simplify the administration's problem. That la the only time, aa far as I have been able to ascertain, when the produc tion of rules and regulations and ad ministration-made "law” was ao great that other than normal press channels had to be used. Mr. Roosevelt aald (n announcing his decision, that frankly there never had been machinery of government for the publication of such decrees and lawa. Obviously now that atten- company, a< corporation which In later \tlon to the lack of a central compila tion or publication of auch order*, something constructive ta going to be done about It There la, however, a possibility of danger In that cotira* Attention has bsm difstii litfo to the threat that, years was to become the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad company. General Washington Interceded with the Vir ginia assembly on the ground that If the United States ever were to become of consequence as a'nation in thla world there must be expansion west ward and If there were to be expan sion there h&d to be means of transpor tation. The general, according to the Li brary of Congress records, personally surveyed a westward route over which ' the Jamestown company was to op erate. That la the route now followed by tha line of the present railroad. Disclosure of the Washington letter haa brought again to the forefront the question of what constttutea lobbying before a legislative body. There are those tn this administration, the same as there have been In numerous pre ceding admlnlgtrtuions, who accuse anyone'attempting to present tils side of the story to a legislative body of being a lobbyist. I believe, however, tkat the hulk of the people look upon that sort of thing as an exercise of the right of petition. It will be interesting to note how when ana efforts of General Wishing- Rumania’s parliament discussed young lady with red hair named Magd*y Lupescu, for whom the Rumanian king/ Oarol, haa ahown some partiality. It waa suggested In defense of King Carol that “hi* critics are too weak to be Immoral." That new view of immorality would, surprise several well-known charac ters, including the good St. Anthony. It was not understood that the man who aald he could "resist anything ex cept temptation” was a person of un usual strength. Mr. Joseph J. Flake observes that Among the "one hundred and eighty- one who had Incomes of a million dol lars a year during the war, the Jews may be counted on the fingers of one hand." He thinks this Interferes with Hitler’s theory that members of the Jewish race control the world’s money and own most of IL That theory, of course, Is nonsenseJ There is no Jew among the richest men In the United States, who are, or were until recently, John D Rockefeller, An drew W. Mellon, Henry Ford and George F. Baker. Wise King George cf England knows which way the straws are blowing. Friends wanted to give him, by sub scription, a new yacht costing $160,- 000. He thanked them, said he 'could get along well with bis old sailing boat, and advised that the $160,000 “be applied to people out of work." That kind of king stays on his throne. ton in behalf of tha Jamestown com pany are generally known, his exercise of the right of petition will be accept ed. Surely even foe most ardebt re fonneqi will not desire to call the of our Country a lobbyist The marquess of Donegal tells the London Sunday Despatch that Chancel lor Hitler, flying over east Prussia, waa attacked with gunfire from another air plane, that fled at high speed after missing. Perhaps that did not happen, but It might happen. United States cotton growers decide by a Vote of 9 to 1 that they want an extension of thef Bankhead act,’ limit ing tha production of cotton. Conse quently, production will be kept down and prices forced up. So far bo good. Another result will be that foreign countries will gratefully Increase their cotton production, safe from onropfr- tltlon of United State* surplus and thla country’s cotton export trade will gradually fode away. - Perhaps that. Is "all right” Cotton growera should know. ^ fe tiu* FMtarM 87Bdl«u*i&