T>« B«niw«ll People-S«ntiB<L B«r»wtll. & C. Thgniday. XnKunt 27. 193«
BRISBANE
THIS WEEK
Spender* of Y«*tenre*r
Gone With Their Billions
Paris Hotels Empty
England Learns Also
Europe learns that political ex
periments cost money. England de
cided to prevent
Mussolini taking
Ethiopia, camp
ing along the im
perial British
highway, and
controlling Lake
Tana, source of
Nile water. The
attempt failed.
England hacked
out of that situa
tion, hastily, aft
er her war de
partment had as
sured our so-
called war de-
partment in
Washington that Mussolini could not
possibly conquer Ethiopia in less
than three years, probably not at
all.
When the dust had settled and
• England, with her chicken-feed as
sortment of 51 league nations, had
apologized to Mussolini and tossed
Haile Selassie into the waste-bas
ket, England found her foreign
commerce much damaged. She had
missed Mussolini, and shot herself
in the pocketbook.
Tor a little while she will copy
Job: “I will lay mine hand upon
my mouth. Once I have spoken
. . . yea twice, but I will proceed
no further.’*
Arthar ilrlaban*
Paris, which is France, decided
to sing and dance a new car
magnole with Russian dressing;
clenched flsts raised in air a la
Russe; red flag waving; the dole
ful strains of the Communist hymn,
1'lntemationale. and its Communist
injunction, ’’Arise, ye prisoners of
starvation,” excellently sung from
the Arc de Tnomphe to the Place
dr la Bastille
You can hardly imagine what Are,
fury and enthusiasm thousands of
young and old French gentlemen
put into that hymn, although many
of them showed few outward signs
of starvation.
There were, and are. manifests-
tions everywhere Now in the
chamber of deputies. Monsieur
Gaston Gerard, practical French
statesman, asks. “What has be
come of our foreign tourists and
their spending money
M Gerard tells the deputies
something must be done In IW7.
2.123 000 foreigners from all over
the world visited France, spending
much money Visitors now number
only 700.000. as a rule with little
money to spend--oysters containing
no peart. many that come to help
smg TInternationale bring no moo-
•>
Foreign visitors, says M Ger
ard. used to give highly paid em
ployment to half a million French
men and women; spent 300.000.000
francs for Kre ich railroad and
steamship tickets. scattered
throughout Franc* from 12 to 13
thousand millions of francs
Fifteen billions, even in francs,
are •‘real money” here. M Ger
ard tells the chamber French prices
are too high There is something
m that, with the four-cent franc
costing six to seven cents in the
United States—a comic-opera situa
tion. considering the relative wealth
of the two nations.
M Gerard thinks there should be
some cabinet official to look after
foreigners, with better propaganda
and fewer vexatious taxes on for
eigners; there is nothing in that.
Foreigners do not voluntarily
travel and spend money where they
feel they are not wanted. The cos
mopolitan, educated Frenchman is
ns polite and hospitable as ever,
but ask him what sort of reception
the crowd gives to the foreigner,
British especially. It offends the
British ear to hear A bas les Ang-
lis!—“Down with the British!”
An innocent American, in an in
nocent average American automo
bile, sallied forth on July 14 to help
France celebrate the destruction of
the Bastille, and perhaps give a
few feeble cheers for Lafayette, or
Woodrow Wilson, or somebody.
Great crowd in the Champs
Elysees, especially around the in
nocent American car, with new
paint, shiny Chromium and several
cylinders. ^A polite policeman says
monsieur should know better than
to appear in a car of ‘‘grand luxury”
on such a day. Such luxury cars
you may see by the thousands and
millions on American roads.
Nothing happens to the car of
grand luxury; it crosses the Ave
nue of the Champs Elysees, about
300 feet, in less than twenty min
utes The French, newly self-iden
tified as ‘‘prisoners of starvation.”
are interested in the auto Ameri
can, which is careful not to bump
anybody. -
The bourgeois, the “rich,” an ex
tinct species, although it does not
yet know it, are nervous. In a
vague way they feel that they are
held responsible for all those “pris
oners of starvation.” with their
strong voices, deep chests, power-
Sul flsts and pink complexions.
g X F-fc'ijr** Syndiuai*, ium,
wsv
News Review of Current
Events the World Over
United States Won’t Interfere in Spanish Civil War—Crop
Control May Be Dropped by AAA—Jeffersonian
Democrats Organize.
By EDWARD W. PICKARD
£ Western Newspaper Union.
EFFORTS of European nations,
notably France, to persuade the
United States to join in a neutrality
pact concerning the civil war in
Spain are not likely
to succeed. Howev- :
er it is the intention
of our government
not to interfere in
the situation in any
way whatsoever. In
structions to this ef
fect were sent to
all American repre
sentatives m Spain
by William Phillips,
acting secretary of
state. While assert
ing that the American neutrality
law prohibiting assistance to war
ring nations does not apply to the
Spanish civil war, Mr. Phillips said
that the United States intended to
conform with its “well established
policy of noninterference with in
ternal affairs in other countries, ei
ther in time of peace or civil
strife.”
Most of the nations invited to
participate in the non-intervention
agreement were willing, but Ger
many temporarily blocked the plan
by announcing that its answer would
be delayed until Madrid gave a sat
isfactory reply to German protests
regarding the execution of four
German nationals in Barcelona.
France aet August 17 as the dead
line for completion of the agree
ment. and it was expected that, if
general neutrality failed, the
French government would lend aid
to the Leftist government at
Madrid.
Dispatches from Seville said Gen
eral Franco, rebel commander-iiv*
chief, had received a large num
ber of German and Italian planes
manned by aviators from those
countries, and was about to launch
an attack on Madrid from the air.
The flghUng for possession of San
and in the mountain
north of Madrid continued
unabated and loss** were heavy on
both aides General Queipo. rebet
commander at Seville, announced
he was about to adopt new colors
of the rebellion, red and yellow,
which are the colors of the Spanish
monarchy.
/''OFFICIALS of the agricultural
adjustment administration dis
cussed in Washington the advisa
bility of drastically reducing or re
moving altogether the planting re
strictions on com and wheat next
year No dect sion was made and
farmers will be consulted before
any changes are ordered. It was.
however, definitely stated that
wheat acreage will be expanded.
Secretary of Agriculture Wallace,
passing through Chicago on his way
back from Iowa, said he believed
government-controlled crop insur
ance would prevent wild price fluc
tuations in farm produce. The plan,
he Slid, has not progressed be
yond the embryo stage, but probab
ly would entail storage of crape in
government granaries. Each farm
er. depending on the percentage of
his normal crop he wished to in
sure, would make his “insurance”
payments in the form of bushels to
be stored in a common pool.
The plan, preventing “lean years
and fat years,“ would tend to stabi
lize market prices because it would
assure a continual adequate sup
ply of whatever commodity was to
be insured. Gradually, he said, it
might be worked out to include all
major farm produce.
FOLLOWING
^ PrgsciHont f
a conference of
President Roosevelt, Chairman
Harrison of the senate finance com
mittee, Chairman Doughton of the
house ways and means committee
and Secretary of the Treasury Mor-
genthau, the administration’s fiscal
program for the coming year was
thus outlined:
1. Assurance that no request will
be made to the next congress for
the levying of additional taxes or in
crease of present tax rates.
2. Launching of an immediate
study by treasury and congressional
tax consultants of present revenue
laws as a basis for recommenda
tions to the next congress for elimi
nation of inequitable taxes, especi
ally those unfair “to consumers or
to trade.”
3. Treasury assurance that “with
continued recovery” the revenue
yield is approaching the point where
it will cover government costs and
provide a surplus for reduction of
the public debt.
Mr. Roosevelt then started on a
three-day trip to the vicinity of
Johnstown, Pa., where he talked
over flood control problems with
Governor Earle and others, and on
to Cleveland for a visit to the Great
Lakes exposition. His itinerary pro
vided then for a visit to Chau
tauqua, N. Y., to deliver a speech
on foreign affairs.
tinuation of the rate of decline was
shown for the first week of Aug
ust.
On the basis of an index kept by
the agency since the end of 1932,
July insolvencies were at the an
nual rate of 38.2 for each 10,000
firms in business. It compared with
44.6 in June and 52.8 in July, 1935.
In January, 1933, as business was
heading for the banking holiday, it
was above 170.
July failures numbered 639, a fig
ure exceeded on the downside only
twice for the month since 1894 de
spite the growth of population and
business in the meanwhile. It com
pared with 902 in the same month
last year and 2,596 in July, 1932,
around the peak of the depression
liquidation movement.
For the year to August 6 failures
totaled 6,157 against 7,355 in the
corresponding 1935 months, a drop
of 16.3 per cent:
J. A. Reed
E'ORTY - THREE Democrats,
1 most of them prominent nation
ally or locally and representing
twenty states, gathered in Detroit
to tell one another
and the world how
much and why they
disliked the New
Deal. After two
days of conferring,
they organized
themselves as the
National Jefferson
ian Democrats and
named Former
Senator James A.
Reed of Missouri as
their national chair
men. They decided to establish
headquarters at once In St. Louis
and to set up an organization in
fjtery elate. Then they gave out
a 1.300 word declaration or plat
form in which they declared they
"will not support for re-election the
candidates of the Philadelphia con
vention for President and vice presi
dent, and we call upon all loy
al and sincere Democrats to con
sider the question of their duty to
their country in the appre aching
election with the same earnestness
that has guided our deliberations—
joining with us If they feel that our
ronclustona are sound and our anx
iety foe the future of our party
and our country ta justified ”
The name of Governor London
was not mentioned In the declara
tion, but a number of its signers
are openly supporting the Republi
can candidate. Among these are
Joseph B Ely. CbL Henry Breckin
ridge. John Henry Kirby of Texas
and Robert S. Bright of Maryland.
W rfEN the American Bar as
sociation convenes in Boston
soon it will receive two widely dif
fering reports from a special com
mittee named to study the effects
of Nfw Deal legislation on the
rights and liberties of citizens. They
were made public in' Washington.
The majority report, signed by
John D. Gark, Gieyenne, Wyo.;
Fred H. Davis, Tallahassee, Fla.;
George L. Buist, Charleston, S. C„
apd Charles P. Taft II., Cincinnati.
Ohio, “deplored” the action of
President Roosevelt in reducing
congress to a “rubber stamp” body
to carry through his program of
legislation.
“Novel legislative and govern
mental trends of the New Deal are
just as uncertain today as they
were two years ago,” the report
said. “Laws specifically proposed
as emergency measures with limit
ed life have been declared by im
portant members of the administra
tion to be the beginning of perma
nent changes in national policy.
“There has been a continuing
conflict between such officials as to
whether a new social and economic
order is in the making or the old
institutions are being perfected so
that they may be preserved.”
These findings were challenged
by Kenneth Wynne, New Haven,
Conn.; Fred L. Williams, St. Louis,
Mo., and James G. McGowen of
Jackson, Miss. In their minority
report they said: “If the purpose
of the resolution creating the spe
cial committee was to get the opin
ion of the American Bar association
regarding legislative trends de
signed to meet changing economic
conditions, the report is superficial.
It does not deal with the problem
but concerns itself with a short
range attack on surface triviali
ties.”
The sharp divergence between
the two reports presages a conflict
and heated discussion at the as
sociation meeting.
Washington|
Digest xm
Natiqna! Topics Interpreted
By WILLIAM BRUCKART
NATIONAL PRESS BLDG WASHINGTON D C Himl
DREMIER BLUM made good one
* of his campaign promises by
putting the French leftist govern
ment in control of the Bank of
France. The board of regents, in
existence for a century, was abol-
| ished and replaced by a council of
> seven headed by Leon Jouhaux,
| president of the conference of la
bor. The others are representatives
I of the ministry of finance, savings
i banks, consumers’ co-operatives.
handicrafts, chambers of commerce
j and chambers of agriculture.
The new board » expected to
' continue the anti-devaluationist pol
icy of the retiring board of the insti
tution.
H ENRY MORGENTHAU, secre-
1 tary of the treasury, and the
national commission on An* arts
have given their approval to the
design for a memorial half dollar
which will bear the likeness of
Phineas T Bamum The coin will
commemorate the centennial anni
versary of the establishment of
Bridgeport. Conn., as a city, and
Bamum ta honored not for his
achievements as a showman but
for his grest philanthropies snd
rich gifts to Bridgeport.
CMGURES compiled by Dun St
* Bfadstreet for July show a de
cline In commercial failures to the
lowest figures since 1920, and a con
T iVO veterans of the senate. Wil
liam E. Borah of Idaho. Republi
can. and Joseph T. Robinson of
Arkansas, Democrat and majori
ty leader, won their fights for re-
nommotion without much difficulty.
Borah defeated Byron Defen bach,
who was backed by the Townsend-
item. His Democratic opponent at
the polls In November will be Gov.
C. Ben Ross In the Democratic
primary to select a congressman to
succeed the late Joseph W. Byrna
of Tennessee the Townsend influ
ence gsve victory to Richsrd M.
Atkinson of Nashville by the nar
row margin of 13 votes.
In the Presidential contest the
American Federation of Labor, as
an organization, will maintLin its
traditional non-partisan policy, ac
cording to the firm declaration of
President William Green. The fed
eration, said he, is not in the Non-
Partisan Labor league, which is
backing President Roosevelt. “We
will not formally indorse any candi
date this fall,’’ Mr, Green contin
ued. “Our non-partisan committee
will merely prepare parallel reports
on the labor records of the two
chief candidates and of the plat
forms. We will send out all data
to our membership. They will have
to make up their own minds.”
A. P. Sloaa
OEBELLION among the Town-
^ sendites, smoldering ever since
their Cleveland convention, has
broken out into civil war. Dr. Fran
cis Townsend has just summarily
ousted from the organization three
of the eleven directors. Apparently
the reason is that they are support
ing President Roosevelt and object
to Townsend’s effort to swing hi^
followers to the support of Lemke.
The three men thrown out are
Dr. Clinton Wunder, a former Bap
tist preacher, now living in New
York; John B. Kiefer, Chicago re
gional director, and Maj. William
Parker of New York, eastern re
gional director.
f EADING officials of Class I rail-
roads, meeting in Washington,
voted to petition the interstate com
merce commission for an advance
in freight rates to replace the tem
porary surcharges which expire at
the end of this year, and to meet
the rising expenses of the roads.
The petition also will ask the
commission to give the railroads
relief on the long and short haul
clauses in the various commodity
classifications.
CECRETARY . OF COMMERCE
ROPER'S department has Just
put out a "world economic review”
for 1933 which contains many
mteresting state-
menta. It says, for
instance, that
f u t u • i business
prospects a.t condi
tioned in port upon
the possibility of
narrowing the gap
between gov* ra
ni ent expenditures
and receipts. It as
serted that “the
government deficit
springs from the
root of unemployment, which Is
still the major problem confronting
the country,” and continued:
“Most of the recent increase in
the public debt has resultec from
emergency expenditures which will
be reduced as the need diminishes.
At this date the evidences of need
are still manifest.”
As to “the part played in the re
covery to date by the heavy govern
ment expenditures," the report said:
“This question is not easily an
swered, but it is certain that such
outlays have had an influence
in many directions — tor example,
on retail sales, on farm income, on
the growth of bank deposits and on
the prevailing level of interest
rates.”
The latter statements may well
be compared with the report of
Alfred P. Sloan, president of Gen
eral Motors, to the stockholders.
Business recovery thraughout the
world — in which the United States
has participated — is being gen
erated by a combination of various
factors, Mr. Sloan explains. In
this country the automobile indus
try has been helped, he says, by
principal influences. Only one of
these, he points out, has its roots
in the New Deal financial schemes
and he finds that particular influ
ence a bad one because it creates
a temporary fool’s paradise , in
which sales and earnings are bal
looned by extraordinary govern
ment expenditures.
L incoln steffens, long
prominent as a journalist, writ
er and lecturer, died at Carmel,
Calif., at the age of seventy. He
was creator of the so-called muck
raking school of journalism and in
many magazine articles he exposed
the corruption in municipal politics.
Another well known American
writer, Arthur B. Reeve, passed
away at his home in Trenton, M. J
Washington.—President Roosevelt
again has changed courses on re-
lief. This time he
t ne# G.O.P. has launched an
Relief Plan experiment that
becomes most sig
nificant and interesting because he
is trying out in a small way the
Very heart of the relief proposal
contained in the Republican plat
form.
Without any ballyhoo or any de
tailed statement, the President has
allocated $22,700,000 of Public
Works Administration funds for use
in direct grants to states and has
laid down a formula for use of this
money that takes it into the same
category as the Republican plan.
The President took this action per
sonally. He has not only prescribed
the conditions under which the
grants will be made but has laid
down rules for "PWA which will, in
effect, bring to his attention any
completed arrangements involving
these funds.
The program provides that the
federal government will bear 45 per
cent of the cost, a municipality or
county contributing the other 55 per
cent out of its own funds, and be
fore the allocation is made definite
ly, the municipality or county re
ceiving the funds must agree to em
ploy 100 per cent relief labor.
In this manner, the “need for re
lief” becomes the measuring stick.
If the local community is unable
to supply only unskilled labor from
the relief rolls and the project of
construction planned for the com
munity requires the use of skilled
labor, it does not get the money.
The projects considered to fall with
in the category of this new experi
ment include a great many worth
while construction jobs such as
school houses, sewage systems and
water systems The things pro
posed. therefore, may be said to be
of permanent value and to Uiat ex
tent represent a* veering by the
President to the theory which Sec
retary Ickes of the Department of
Interior always has held, namely,
that if federal funds are expended
they should be used in the construc
tion and maintenance of permanent
Imorovemenls
• • •
Although the general idea of this
new experiment in relief, new to
u .. , the New Deal, was
ffnnmlea practically forced
Locally upon the President
by the necessity of
the present relief mess, it neverthe
less represents a return to a method
long regarded by many students of
the problem as the only way in
which relief funds can be properly
handled It places back in the hands
of local communities the task of
looking after their own destitute and
charity cases. The federal govern
ment contributes a share of the
funds, of course, but it does not boss
the job as has been the practice un
der Harry Hopkins and his Works
Progress Administration further
than the requirements that relief
labor be employed
As stated above, the plan now on
trial constitutes the very heart of
the Republican proposal for han
dling federal relief. The Republi
can platform calls for “federal
grants in aid to the states and ter
ritories while the need exists upon
compliance with these conditions, a
fair proportion of the total relief
burden to be provided from the rev
enues of states and local govern
ments; all engaged in relief admin
istration to be selected on the basis
of merit and fitness; adequate pro
visions to be made for the encour
agement of those persons who are
trying to become self-supporting.”
I hear much discussion around
Washington that the President’s ex
periment meets the Republican
program in every way except as
to the second provision which re
lates to the selection of the adminis
trative personnel “upon the basis
of merit and fitness.” There are
many who believe Mr. Roosevelt
has reached the conclusion that
there is considerable merit in the
contention that unless steps are
taken to get relief of the unem
ployed back into the local com
munities, it will become an unwork
able monster, a Frankenstein.
On the other hand, some of the
bitter critics of the Roosevelt ad
ministration are contending that
Mr. Roosevelt seeks to try out the
Republican proposal in this manner
in order to demonstrate that it is
unworkable. They point also to the
omission of the second provision,
just mentioned, and declare that
the President will use political pat
ronage rather than merit as the
means of creating supervision.
• • • v -
While the new method has not
U**n made fully operative,, so that
anyone can see it
Way to in f u u detail, the
Dodge restriction which
Mr. Roosevelt has
laid down that only relief labor
shall be used is looked upon as pro
viding a means of dodging complete
operation of the plan. It if to be
noted that the Republican plank
does not limit the workers wholly
to relief. In making such a restric
tion as the President has done, it
is held in some quarters that there
will not be too many communities
able to take advantage of the fresh
federal funds. The reason for this
is that particularly in the smaller
communities there is not a great
amount of skilled labor. This com
paratively small proportion of
skilled labor, comparatively small
when measured against the amount
of common labor, or unskilled
labor, available makes it impos
sible ,in a good many instances for
the smaller communities to obtain
money. .
The situation is simply this: in
the construction of sewage and
water systems and most other con
struction jobs, there is more skilled
labor required than will be avail
able in the communities where *
these public works are to be un
dertaken. Further, with the pick
up in industry, however small it
may yet be, the skilled artisan has
more chances to get jobs than has
the common laborer. In addition,
I think it can be fairly said that a
skilled worker is of the type to be
among the last to go on relief rolls.
In any event, he will not go on
the relief rolls until there is no
other alternative. He is able te
earn a much higher rate of pay
than is available to him as a relief
dole and naturally is not content
to remain on the relief rolls longer
than is absolutely necessary.
In this direction then, trouble
may lie. Possibly some communi
ties will be guilty of'seekmg to in
duce skilled workers to go on relief
rolls for a sufficient length of time
to enable them to carry out an
agreement to employ only relief la
bor. This is a regrettable possibil
ity but it is a very real one.
In all fairness to the President,
1 think it must be said that he is
proceeding on a method to reach
communities and unemployed that
hitherto have been rather like step
children. The big relief p. ojects
under the former PWA system, and
the Harry Hopkins method of han
dling relief in some way or other
have managed to be concentrated
in the great cities While some per
sons may be unkind enough to say
that the President is expanding his
vole-getting machine to the small
communities, it nevertheless re
mains as a fact that the system
now undertaken will let some relief
dribble down to those who have not
had it before In any event, since
it ta the Republican proposal and
it is being tried out by the New
Deal, it is an experiment very well
worth watching.
• • •
The nations at the world find
themselves in one of those peculiar
, and almost humor-
Quirkb of ous situations that
Diplomacy can develop only
from the queer
quirks of diplomacy. It has not
progressed far enough yet for any
one to say what the outcome of
this new diplomatic situation will
be but it is not devoid, neverthe
less. of possibilities both from the
serious as well as the humorous
side.
It may have escaped Ktneral
notice that, under Mussolini's or
ders, King Victor Emanuel is now
not only king of Italy but he is
also emperor of Ethiopia. He was
given this new title immediately
after the conquering hordes of
Italians had held their triumphant
march in Rome and. as far as Mus
solini was concerned, Ethiopia had
gone out of existence, a dead na
tion.
Despite the fact that Mussolini
would like to have Emperor Haile
Selassie known only as a plain Mr.
Tafari, most of the nations of the
world still are compelled, through
treaty agreement, foreign policy
or plain desire to consider that Mr.
Tafari still has the title of emperor
of Ethiopia which he and his an
cestors so long bore.
There is, however, this circum
stance: since no nation has extend
ed formal recognition to Italy as
embracing Ethiopia, no diplomat
can be formally received in that
capacity. For example, the new
Italian ambassador to the United
States will come to Washington as
the plenipotentiary of the king of
Italy and emperor of Ethiopia but
our ambassador to Italy, Mr.
Welles, will go to Rome when he
returns to his post this fall as the
ambassador to the court of King
Victor Emanuel — nothing being
said about Ethiopia.
All of this results from American
foreign policy and the foreign poli
cies of other nations who oppose
the taking of territory of another
nation or race by force. It is a
policy firmly footed, as witness the
course of all of the nations except^
ing only Salvador in their attitude
toward Manchuria which is now un
der Japanese control. Salvador
recognized Japanese sovereignty
over Manchuria largely because it
was thereby enabled to consummata
a great coffee sale.
C toMtera N«««p«p«r Ust««