International Tariff Truce
Seems Assured — Progress
OE of the busiest men in the world
these days is Norman H. Davis,
American ambassador-at-large in Eu-
rope, and it would appear that he Is
doing his multifarious
Jobs very well, It was
up to him to persuade
the British govern-
ment to accept the
proposal of President
Roosevelt that there
be an international
tariff truce pending
the outcome of the
world economic con-
ference in London.
This he accomplished,
according to an an-
nouncement by Prime Minister Mae
Donald in the house of commons, al
though Great Britain made important
reservations providing that the trade
pects now being negotiated by Britain
should not be affected. The text of
the agreement between Davis and Mae-
Donald was cabled to Washington for
the final approval of the American
government, which was promptly
given,
France, Italy and Belgium have ac-
cepted the tariff truce, the two former
stipulating that it be based on the
present dollar valuation and that a
superduty can be imposed if the dollar
depreciates further. Favorable re
sponses were expected In Washington
from Japan, Germany, Holland and
China.
N. H. Davis
RIME MINISTER MAC DONALD in
his speech to parliament also took
up the subjects of war debts and world
disarmament, throwing considerable
light on the negotiations between his
government and President Roosevelt,
He declared that the world economic
conference cannot be fully successful
unless the war debt difficulties have
been removed before it comes to an
end. He said that on this “there Is
complete union of opinion.” The pre
mier asked parliament to hush up dis
cussion of this question and not ask
embarrassing questions concerning his
negotiations with the United States.
He sald that if the world disarma-
ent conference was to couie to any-
thing like a satisfactory conelusion,
the United States would have to take
part In a consultative pact, “the ef.
fect of which would be to increase the
security of European nations and the
safety of threatened nations against
war.” The United States, he said,
had so agreed and an announcement
would soon be made in Washington to
that effect.
President loosevelt presumably
agrees with MacDonald concerning
the necessity of settling the war debts.
He sent to congress a message asking
that he be given authority to deal with
the other nations in settling the debt
issue, at least temporarily. Secretary
of State Hull admitted that the debt
matter would be taken up concurrent.
ly with the issues before the economic
conference, but both he and MacDon-
ald insisted it would not form part of
the conference discussion. MacDonald
sald the June 15 due date on debts
was “an awkward hurdle” and asked
parliament not to make it harder to
surmount by premature debate.
France hopes for a moratorium or
its equivalent on the payment It owes
June 15, and the cabinet confirmed
its decision not to pay the nineteen
million odd defaulted in December un-
less it is granted, rejecting Herriot's
proposal that the debt interest due he
pald immediately. In Washington it
was said the administration felt
strongly that no consideration should
be given France on the June 15 pay-
ment unless she first paid up the sum
that was due in December.
In his message to congress President
Roosevelt also asked for a grant of
blanket power to negotiate tariff re
visions so he can carry out his pro-
gram for stimulating world trade by
breaking down high tariff barriers.
ae
URNING back to the matter of
world disarmament, we again find
Norman Davis active. He had a long
talk in London with Dr. Alfred Rosen.
berg, who is Chancellor Hitler's chief
adviser In foreign affairs, and is said
to have told him flatly that the United
States is utterly opposed to any in-
crease In armaments by anyone, and
that America regards Germany's pres.
ent policy of demanding a larger army
as an obstacle to the success of the
disarmament conference. He let the
"German know that the United States
government thinks Germany is tend-
ing to become a disturber of European
peace.
Rosenberg in return, it is said, dis
claimed any Intention on Germany's
part to disturb peace, but reiterated
Germany's claim to equality of arma
ments, preferably to be obtained by
disarmament of other nations to the
present German level than by Ger
many's rearing to their level.
The Wheeler resolution, urging
American delegates to the world
economic conference to work for an
agreement to remonetize silver at 16
to 1 with gold, was approved by the
senate. The resolution merely calls
on the delegutes to “work unceasingly
for an International agreement to re-
monetize silver on a basis of a definite
fixed ratio of not to exceed sixteen
fine ounces of silver to one fine ounce
of gold”
HE international wheat conference
opened in Geneva and the Ameri
can delegation was on hand, its mem-
bers Including Henry Morgenthau, Sr. :
George C. Haas, member of the federal
farm board, and Frederick E. Murphy,
publisher of the Minneapolis Tribune.
HE Simpson price-fixing amend-
ment to the farm bill was rejected
by the house by a decisive vote—283
to 100—because Chairman Jones of
the agriculture committee declared the
President was opposed to it and Ma-
Jority Leader Byrns urged the house
to stand behind the administration.
The senate agreed to the report on
the measure by the conference com-
mittee after vain protest by advocates
of the price fixing amendment. [It
also yielded to the house by agreeing
to broaden the power of the secretary
of agriculture to Initiate and approve
agreements for marketing farm prod-
ucts, without regard to the anti-trust
laws, and to license the handlers of
agricultural commodities. Under the
bill as finally passed the secretary may
include under these provisions not
only the seven basic commodities em-
braced by the benefit and production
control portions of the bill but all ag.
ricultural products processed and mar
keted in this country,
RESIDENT ROOSEVELT contin.
ued his economic conversations
with foreign statesmen, and the most
colorful of his visitors was T. V.
the youthful
appearing minister of
finance of China, who
was presented by Min-
ister Alfred Sze.
Doctor Soong
ally was
interested In what
stand the President
might take in the
Sino-Japanese quar
rel. and he stated in
detall the position of
China, No informa
tion was given out Indicating Mr
Roosevelt's Intentions in the matter.
but press dispatches from Washington
were received in Peiping quoting
Soong as saying he had been assured
of American Intervention in China if
Japanese troops captured Peliping.
These dispatches probably were mis
leading If not entirely false.
Viscount Kikujiro Ishii is on his way
from Japan to Washington, and when
Soong,
nature.
CRP inlly
T. V. Soong
be concerned mainly with the Ameri-
can attitude toward the Far East em-
broglio. He is prepared to defend the
Japanese conquest of Manchuria and
will urge American recognition of the
puppet state of Manchukuo. One of
his important tasks will be to learn
how tar the idea of a consultative
pact to implement the Kellogg Briand
anti-war treaty has developed. As
was said above, Mr. MacDonald told
parliament that the United States had
agreed to take part In such a pact.
Others who consulted with Mr.
Roosevelt “were Dr. Hjalmar Schacht.
president of the Reichsbank, who
brought up the questions of German
equality at arms and boundary re-
visions; and Albert J. Pani, finance
minister of Mexico,
OING ahead with the President's
program for federal regulating of
most things, the senate passed the ad-
ministration bill for the control of se
curities sold in interstate commerce.
Differences between the senate meas-
ure and that already put through the
house were mostly slight and easily
compromised. The former, however,
contained an amendment offered by
Senator Hiram Johnson of California
setting up federal machinery to ald
holders of foreign bonds that are In
default. °*
Under the bill, the federal trade
commission will become the governing
body of the securities trade. Persons
or corporations about to sell securi-
ties in Interstate commerce and agents
of foreign governments about to sell
foreign securities must register each
issue with the commission, together
with detailed information concerning
the issue,
Large groups of securities ard ex-
empt, such as short term commercial
paper, government, state, and muni-
cipal bonds, securities of raliroads and
other utilities subject to federal regu-
lation, national bank securities, and
securities issued by educational and
benevolent organizations,
WAR dgainst Bolivia in the Gran
Chaco dispute was formally de-
clared by President Euseblo Ayala of
Paraguay, the peace negotiations con
ducted by neutral South American na-
tions having failed. The warfare has
been going on unofficially since June,
1032. Neither nation shows any signs
of yielding. The Paraguayans hailed
their President's action with joy, and
the Bolivians sald they were ready
to fight.
UMNER WELLES, the capable new
American ambassador to Cuba,
was received at the dock in Havana
by a few officials and about 100 other
. persons who were per-
mitted to pass through
the strong gunrds es-
tablished by the gov-
ernment to prevent a
demonstration, Along
the sea wall drive on
his way to his hotel
he was cheered by
thousands who hope
he can help in restor.
ing prosperity and
peace In the island
republic, In a state-
ment handed to local newspaper men
the ambassador referred to the his
toric bonds between the United States
and Cuba.
“1 will give my most earnest con-
sideration to the fundamental problem
of regenerating the healthy flow of
trade between us,” he said, “1 hold
the sincere conviction that It is
the prime interest of Cuba. as well
as to the Interest of the citizens of
the United States. that there be con-
sidered at an appropriate moment the
bases for an agreement which will
stimulate the advantageous Inter.
change of commodities to an equal
extent between both countries”
Concerning the Cuban political sit-
uation, Mr. Welles said:
“The govermment of the United
States reiterates the (Elihu) Root In
terpretation given to the Platt amend-
ment In 1001; that is, that the Platt
amendment is not synonymous with
Intermeddiing In the domestic affairs
of Cuba.”
Sumner Welles
to
EPORTS from Washington that
President Roosevelt planned to
provide emergency rellef to avert a
food shortage In cities were ignored
by the National Farmers’ Holliday as
sociation at Des Molnes, and an ap-
peal was issued by It to every planter
and cattleman in the country to join
In the farm strike,
Mile Reno, president of the assocla-
tion, sald that when the house of rep
resentatives kilied the Simpson amend.
ment to the farm relief bill, which
would have guaranteed prodoction
costs, all of cancelling the
strike were shattered.
The other four points of the assoc
ations demands are: Settlement of
mortgages on a low-interest, long-term
basis, lower property taxes, free silver
and payment of the soldier bonus,
Meeting In Montevideo, Minn. mem.
bers of the Minnesota Farm Holliday
association voted to joln In the strike.
They demanded that the Presi
dent remove Secretary of Agriculture
Wallace from because he op-
posed the amendment. The
4.000 delegates they would
not pay interest, taxes or other debts
until the dolinr became an “honest
measure of value.” The association de
manded federal operation banks
and other credit agencies and a
tional Presidential moratorium on
farm, city home and personal proper.
ty foreclosures, and other relief mens
ures. R. L. Rickard, president of the
Oklahoma Holiday association,
dicted that 50 per cent of the farmers
of Oklahoma would withhold thelr
products from market,
hop ®
also
office
Simpson
decided
of
ARVARD adds itself to the list of
universities with young presi
dents, the corporation having selected
James Bryant Conant, forty years
old, to succeed A.
Lawrence Lowell. He
is Sheldon Emery
professor of organic
chemistry in the uni-
versity and is widely
known among sclen-
tists for his research
work In special fields,
Born at Dorchester,
Mass., March 26, 1803,
the son of James
Scott Conant and Jen-
nett Bryant Conant, Dr. J. B.
he entered Harvard Conant
college In 1010, after preparing at the
Roxbury Latin school. Completing
his college work in 1013, after three
ors, Conant was graduated with the
degree of A. B. His degree of Ph. D.
was conferred In 1016 and the next
year he received an appointment as
instructor at Harvard.
After serving during the war with
the bureaus of chemistry and’ mines,
he returned to Harvard in 1010 as as
sistant professor of chemistry. In
1925 he became an associate profes
—
Washington,—As the special session
; quitting, it seems
Experimental to me that interest
Legislation c¢¢vters chiefly on
two pleces of legis
Singularly enough, each must
I re-
fer to the farm bill, with its inflation
powers, and the measure designed to
transform the Tennessee river valley
into a gigantic laboratory for develop-
perimentation with theories, with the
Muscle Shoals nitrate and power
plants as the center,
The special session has worked at
top speed. Seldom has so much been
accomplished, if the measure be by vol-
ume, as has resulted from the labors
of congress under the lash and com-
plete domination of President Roose-
velt. But we are concerned now with
an aftermath, with a continuing force.
Hence, the two enactments mentioned
stand out, for the effect of the farm
bill will be direct and that of the Ten-
nessee river experiment may mark an
economic milestone in the nation's his.
tory.
President Roosevelt declined to as-
sure success for the farm bill, He
termed It a gigantic experiment, an
effort offered in search of relief for
downtrodden agriculture, a hope for
better conditions, The so-called Mus.
cle Shoals legislation is experimental
by Its own language.
The provision of the farm bill dele
gating to the President authority to
use Inflationary measures with the
currency is, of course, vital to every
one. It has been analyzed In this col
umn heretofore and while every one is
Interested In what the President may
do with those powers, it does not par-
take of the same conditions or eirénm-
stances as the farm or Muscle Shoals
legislation.
While each of these measures is de.
signed to aid agriculture, there is a
point of striking dissimilarity be-
tween them. The farm relief measure
is designed to have an immediate ef-
fect. No such thought is entertained
respecting the Muscle Shoals develop
ment proposal. Tt purpose is pre
dicated on a belief by those who fos.
tered It that it will be of lasting bene.
fit to the human race. If the theories
prove workable and partially tried
plans can be carried on to sucecessfol
conclusion, the hope doubtless can be
realized,
* 0
President Roosevelt told congress
when he asked enactment of the farm
relief bill that he
A New and deemed it emergent-
Untrod Path ly necessary to take
constructive steps
in ald of agriculture,
“Deep study and the Joint counsel
of many points of view.” the Presi.
dent sald, “have produced a measure
which offers great promise of good re.
sults. I tell you frankly that it is a
new and untrod path, but I tell yon
frankness that an un.
precedented condition calls for the
trial of new means to rescue agricul
The President added that If It failed
and advise
We
The first principle of the bill 1s most
It would have cotton farm.
i
and which will be held by the secre.
:
i
i
purchasers until 1035, if they desire.
The purchases therefore can be made
on credit,
The purpose of this, of course, is to
reduce production and thereby reduce
i
tract. The farmers cannot buy the
sor. His present position of Sheldon
Emery professor dates back from the
year 1020,
ENATOR GLASS produced a new
banking reform bill that was ex-
pected to have the backing of the ad-
ministration. It was approved by the
senate banking subcommittee after
that body had made an Important
change which would require private
bankers to abandon either their busi.
ness in deposits or in securities. The
bill is designed to curb the use of fed-
eral reserve credit in speculation and
to insure deposits In federal reserve
member banks through a $2,000,000,000
corporation,
Lp by the budget bureau, the
navy agreed to cut its expenses
£63,000.000 in the next fiscal year, As
a part of the economy move, officials
tentatively have decided to place one
third of the fleet on the “rotating
plan,” or inactive status. Recruiting
and training at the Norfolk, San
Diego, Newport and Great Lakes train.
ing stations also will be stopped tem.
porarily. Tt was understood a 1.000
reduction in officer personnel is con.
tempinted,
©. 1933, Western Newepaper Union.
a resulting decrease In acreage. Sim.
ply stated, then, this principle is de
kigned to shorten the supply and cause
&n Increase In price. Of course, the
farmer takes the chance that there
will be no increase In price, but here
again, It Is “a new and untrod path”
The second section of the measure
has been attacked by Its critics as
“robbing Peter to pay Paul” It gives
the secretary of agriculture authority
to lease agricultural lands, pay.
ing the owner agreed sums as rental,
to accomplish a reduction in acreage
by removing those lands from erop
productive use. That, as is readily
discernible, will be an expensive
proposition. The government could
not do it without having funds come
from somewhere to make such pay-
ments, So the sponsors of the bill laid
a tax on the processors of agricultural
commodities to obtain needed revenue,
It hardly need be sald that the
processors—the packer of meats, the
miller of flour, the spinners of cotton,
ete. ~are going to fight this section.
. * »
Then, this complex plece of legisla.
tion also provides for use of the allot.
ment plan, and other
Consumers taxes on the pro
cessors and use of
Will Pay the tariff against im.
ports to drive the prices of farm
commodities higher, This section like
the others has been questioned as
to its constitutionality, and it has per-
haps the strongest array of opponents,
for the consumers will help pay the
bill in a big way. That is, all except
those who are unemployed and with-
out funds. They cannot buy now, and
charity or public relief sources will
pay the added costs,
The amount of the tax to be levied
on the processor, and paid the farm-
ers who agree to reduce acreage—and
that agreement must be made—is a
thing which must be worked out by
the secretary of agriculture, Never
before, as far as my research has dis-
closed, has an official of government
in this country had such wide pow-
ers. But the President justifies them
on the ground of the necessity for
preservation of agriculture.
- . *
The processors’ tax is to be added
to the price the farmer receives for
that portion of his crop consumed in
the United States, Normally our ex-
ports as a whole are only about 10 per
cent of the total, The bill, however,
is not applicable to all commodi-
ties, It takes In cotton, wheat,
rice, tobacco, sugar beets, sugar cane,
milk and its products and hogs, but
the secretary of agriculture has power
to make It inoperative as to any one or
all of them If market conditions are
such as make the ug= 57 the law inad-
visable,
The processors’
under the guise
“parity of prices.” It Is the purpose
to lift the returns which the farmer
receives to a bugis where compensation
for his labor shall be proportionately
levied
cailed
is being
what Is
{ax
of
pays for things he buys, as the ratio
between the sale and purchase stood
in 1814. That is involved, It Is com-
plex in the extreme,
But there i8 no need of services of a
soothsayer in pointing to the tre
mendous organization that ig going to
be necessary in carrying out such leg-
Islation. A thousand and one things
must be considered, Ingpected, guarded,
negotiated enforced. Government em-
ployees must do that work. The ma.
chine can be click and in
smoothly, say supporters of the plan.
It is the most gigantic political ma-
chine in history, say opponents of the
program. Whichever view is correct, it
remains a8 a fact that there will be
government agents In every county to
tell farmers who enter into the agree.
ments on acreage reduction what they
shall do and what they shall not do:
there will be inspectors galore In
processing plants and accountants
checking books when necessary, and
there will be taxes collected In what
ever amount the secretary of agricul
ture decrees to be needed to pay the
cost,
It is In the appointment of the per.
sonnel for carrying out the act that
made to
the greatest danger. They hold that it
will be Impossible to obtain men and
women who will construe the law In
discretionary power to the same ex-
tent.
ee » *
Now to give consideration to the
Muscle Shoals legislation:
Renator Norris, of
Muscle Shoals Nebraska, has been
: promoting a program
Experim ent of development of
the Tennessee river since the national
defense act of 19168 provided for an
experimental production of nitrates
with water power at Muscle Shoals.
The late President Wilson obtained
legislation In 1917 for construction of
two dams there, and for power plants
and laboratories for the fixation of
nitrogen from the air. That was for
military purposes, but as soon as that
need passed, the atmospheric nitrogen
was to be used for fertilizer. Senator
Norris has argued for years for utiil-
zation of the country’s water resources
in development of electric power, and
the use of that power In providing
cheaper fertilizer for farms. He is
known as an especially bitter foe of
power companies, and times unnum-
bered he has charged on the floor of
the senate that the power companies
are a trust. He has accused them of
constantly bleeding the public who
have to buy those products.
But the present Muscle Shoals pro-
gram, as enacted into law, goes far
beyond the original Norris dream. It
is, indeed, the dream of a future
Tennessee valley ag a man-made para
dige, a laboratory for the good of the
human race, a public benefaction on
the part of the government,
In’ addition to completion of the
nitrate plants and the great power
program, the new law prescribes con.
tinued tests of various kinds, improve
ment of navigability of the river
ftealf, reforestation of the cutover
hillsides and “proper use of marginal
lands” In that later authority, it is
conceded, lies permission to accom
plish a great many things. Marginal
lands is, of course, an economic term.
It means lands, the use of which for
certain crops is questionable. De.
termination of the proper use of such
Iande, therefore, Is undoubtedly a mat.
ter of great moment. The Tennessee
Valley Authority, the oficial name of
the government-owned corporation that
will direct the great experiment, can
and probably will find wayk and means
of using marginal lands
© 1931, Western Newspaper Union
Watching Out
The Alarm Bell
The Youth Movement
By ED HOWE
OVE of wives for husbands 1s oft.
en said to be a very unstable
thing, but Silerius expresses the be-
flef In his memoirs that it is more
stable than the love grown children
show parents,
Silerius mentions with approval and
thankfulness that his third wife once
#éald to him that the blunt regularity
with which he was called on dally for
money with which to pay household
expenses, and the hard way in which
he was compelled to earn all his
money, excited her pity, and caused
her to resolve to be more frugal in her
expenses,
Sllerius adds a note (page 82, 2nd
vol), that none of his grown children
ever said an equally agreeable thing
to him.
* . *
Another Great Man has gone to the
dogs. The trouble seems to be he
didn't watch out on his way up.
In climbing, one must be constantly
careful: see to it that every round
above Is as sound as those below
which carried him safely.
And such care Is always easier than
a fall
I do not believe Samuel Insull was
a rogue, but became careless as he
climbed, and developed dangerous con-
celt,
1 cannot understand how any man,
Intelligent enough to fully realize what
a man necessarily Ig, can become con-
celted,
- * -
In youth and age only natural things
have impressed me,
And natural things have Impressed
me only because of the power behind
As =n
ashamed
young man | was often
because of youthful incom-
judgment ;: because those
demonstrated more capa-
of the older men In
under-
of
able
of
to
Youth
been
Confidence
I have
the
never
\ - »
1 met an
luxuriously.
The other day old fellow
had long He
seemed “about all In” as the saving
I said the
had ever found was
yeelf., His reply im-
iy
lived
“Yes.” he sald, “I know about that,
but I did not begin early enough”
I send out another general alarm to
lost in the magnificent errors of
today. Most live like greedy
children until something serious hap-
people
One should begin taking care of him-
long before forty or fifty. The alarm
sll began ringing very early in my
: 1 believe it does in the lives of
We frequently hear exclamations as
World. 1 think it is the dullness, in-
efficiency, carelessness and dishonesty
of adults who are permitted to run at
large, bear children and vote, although
they refuse to learn the simplest les
sons we birch children for not prac
ticing.
* * *
Men who are careless, not honest,
and do not pay their debts, have bad
judgment in other respects: It has
been discovered that one-fourth of all
automobile drivers having collisions
are listed as dead beats In their com-
munities,
* . .
As moving an Incident in life as 1
have ever heard is this: A young gir)
of average good family in my town
married at seventeen, and had five
children In seven years. One day she
disappeared and has never been heard
from since, except a letter she wrote
her mother from a distant town, which
sald she couldn't stand the burden of
being married. She found no faolt
with her husband saying he was as
great a martyr as she had been. “You
may be sure,” she added, “there is not
another man in the case; the mandack
in my life has been completely satis
fled.”
* » -
One of my greatest humiliations is
the manner in which politicians make
a fool of me; my helplessness In pro
tecting myself from the harm they
constantly do me. 1 frequently work
myself into a frenzy about it. and
splutter to others who are also angry.
and hurt, but we get no relief out of
our exchange of indignation.
. » 0»
Some one excited us long ago by de
claring we were not being treated
right. . . . The people were never
promised, by any real authority, any
thing they are not getting.
I lately tried to read a book about
Abyssinia, the author having traveled
extensively in that strange country
But he lacks judgment: he devotes
most of his pages to “Jokes™ , , |
Mark Twain, best of our moders hu
morists, was frequently dreary while
trying to be “funny.” Books of hu
mor are almost as rare now as books
of poetry, so many serious things hav.
ing developed requiring serious consid.
eration,
© 1933, Ball Byndlcate.—WNU Bervioa \
Le
Pi