THE CENTRE REPORTER, CENTRE HALL, PA.
Bruckart’s Washington Digest
———Weekly News Analysis Europe
EDITOR'S NOTE-—When opinions are
expressed in these columns, they are those
of the news analyst, and not necessarily
of the newspaper.
Trade
Today’s high pressure internation-
al salesmanship runs counter to the
reciprocal trade program of U. S.
Secretary of State Cordell Hull. De-
voted to the cause of low tariffs
and ‘“‘most-favored-nation’’ pacts,
Secretary Hull's idealistic and hon-
est, efforts must compete with such
devices as the German barter plan
and a series of multi-colored trade
ideas which emerge annually from
congress’ halls. This month Mr.
Hull saw his beloved program
threatened on several fronts:
Argentine. Of all South American
is least friendly with the U. S. At
Lima's Pan-American conference
Argentina spoiled President Roose-
velt's ‘‘continental solidarity’ dec-
ism’’ was still rampant. But the
real roots of this dislike are com-
monplace things like hoof-and-
mouth disease, drouth and depres-
sion.
ed with hoof-and-mouth disease.
But congress failed to ratify it.
prosperity forced héavy
from Argentina. This business
curtailed her imports from the U,
S. Result has been a trade unbal-
ance and subsequent strengthen-
against the U. S., encouraged by
Germany's increasing willingness to
swap machinery for Argentine food-
stuffs. This sentiment reached a
climax with Argentina's
He didn’t want German harmonicas.
tion that imports from the U. 8S.
1935-36,
slash in exports,
plums before Argentina's eyes, se-
reciprocal program.
Germany. Barter trade like Nazi
Germany's is allowed in the U. S.
provided it does not interfere with
the ‘““most-favored-nation” plan. But
artificial currency devices like Ger-
man payment for U. S. goods with
“trade marks’ (good only for pur-
chase of Nazi goods) are taboo.
Mid-February found U. S. lard
prices low and likely to drop still
more when the spring hog run
starts. Meanwhile Germany hun-
gered for fats. Putting two and two
gan contacting midwest packers to
swap lard for machinery.
Though the Reich apparently pro-
gressed on two deals, most packers
turned their backs, uninterested.
Recalled was the experience of one
firm which arranged a swap deal
with Germany several years ago,
only to find itself burdened with sev-
eral thousand Nazi harmonicas.
Typical was the comment of R. H.
Cabell, president of Armour and
Company, who dismissed the bid by
simply stating that ‘‘the big pack-
ing houses are not interested in bar-
tering, but in the sale of products
at market rates.” Next day pack-
ers were pleased to note that lard
futures were selling up, but Mr.
Hull could not fail to note that the
Nazi program had made a mite of
progress in his bailiwick.
Agriculture: Crux of the ‘‘cost-
of-production” farm bill now before
congress is that domestically con-
sumed products shall have a mini-
mum price. All surpluses would be
dumped abroad for whatever they
would bring. Whatever the bill's
merits, Mr. Hull presumably re-
gards it as an artificial trade bar-
rier in the field of agricultural
trade, which would be reflected in
other branches of commerce. If
“‘cost-of-production’ fails, the state
department must still hurdle a sec-
ond new farm measure which would
extend governmental loans on three
major crops (cotton, wheat, corn)
equivalent to three-fourths the
‘‘parity price’’—an amount higher
than the current market price.
Farmers would then be expected to
turn their crops over to the gov-
ernment for the loan price. Do-
mestically consumed products
would sell at not less than the loan
price. With surpluses the U. S.
would attempt to recapture its lost
foreign markets.
Significance. Though world eco-
nomic satisfaction must be a pre-
lude to permanent world peace (an
important principle in the Hull pro-
gram), each nation seeks to further
its own admittedly selfish interest
with self-preservation as a justifica-
tion. Still to come is the showdown
in which nations will decide whether
world problems will be settled via
economic treaties, at the expense
of selfish aims, or via force, at an-
other kind of expense.
Trend
How the wind is blowing . . .
MOVIES—Historically taboo,
motion pictures may now be
shown in Vermont on the Sab-
bath under local option.
KNEES—No clothing which ex-
posed the knees could be worn
in Provincetown, Mass., under an
ordinance which was passed,
then withdrawn because no rec-
ord was kept of the vote.
POKER—-U, S. card manufac-
turers report more women now
play poker, also that it may sup-
plant bridge as No. 1 card game.
MEDICINE—James B. Conant,
Harvard president, recommends
one eight-year course to replace
two current four-year courses for
physicians.
Last December President Roose-
to-convene seventy-sixth
Two months later it had
friends, thanks to clever
maneuvers and a
Great Britain voted
boosting
5,500 first
making the Pan-
Certain of
Chief features are
naval air and submarine bases,
But there was little unity in this
Closely allied to re-
armament is the problem of U. S.
other de-
After a California
S. manufac-
after President Roose-
affairs committee that U, S. “fron-
tiers are in France,” the White
de-
(1) Shall the U.
foreign policy secret?
S. keep its
(2) Is Pres-
deals?
After a week's debate there pre-
sumably were no longer any secrets
about either the French deal or the
administration's foreign policy. Ac-
tual cause of the rumpus was ap-
parently removed, but not congres-
sional resentment.
Thundered California's Sen. Hi-
ram Johnson: “No epithets applied
to senators or newspapers will re-
lieve the situation of its secrecy
. . There is resentment among
the administration that anybody
should ask the facts. But if there
SENATOR JOHNSON
He resented White House resentment,
comes a war it will not be fought
by the President alone , . . "
Facts themselves are startling.
Faced with U. S. military orders
under the new defense bill, plane
manufacturers already have their
hands full with export orders. Start
ing with $25,000,000 in 1936, plane
exports have roughly doubled an-
nually, approximating $200,000,000
this year. In the past eight months
France have ordered
1,200 ships. Chief congressional
wonder is which orders will get
plecedenée, U. S. or foreign. Mean-
while aircraft firms are reluctant
to expand their plants to satisfy
production requirements which may
be only temporary.
In modern Europe no month is
complete without its crisis. Janu-
ary’s crisis was Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain's visit to
Rome.
Barcelona and its decisive implica-
tions. In March the crisis will again
center on Spain if three signs mean
anything:
(1) Germany and Italy
helped Spain's Insurgents win their
battle thus far, France and Eng-
land siding with Loyalists because
they were anti-Fascist.
Loyalists on the run,
granted
Gen. Francisco Franco's
gents, encouraging France to fall
in line. Obviously a policy of ex-
Britain has
to help rebuild Spain.
Franco, Paris and London will posi-
to new wrath,
(2) Combined British home fleets
will maneuver around Gibraltar in
March, just as Germany completes
its most thorough Mobilization since
last autumn’'s much-feared troop
concentration,
doubling its garrison in Libya (ad-
joining France's African Tunisia) as
an admitted step in retaliation
against reputedly increased Tuni-
sian garrisons.
(3) Closer conformation of Anglo-
declaration to help Paris in event
of war, also in Britain's de facto
recognition of Insurgent Spain while
awaiting official French action.
Such parallel policies, coupled with
the bold British decision to spend
$1,000,000,000 more on armament,
illustrate how Europe's two de-
GEN. JOSE MIAJA
His 300,000 against 1.000.000,
mocracies are drawing closer togeth-
er and preparing to meet the next
totalitarian demands. Probably
these demands will be Italian terri-
torial claims against France, com-
ing immediately after the Spanish
war.
Meanwhile that war has gone
merrily on its way as Gen. Jose
Miaja finds himself practically the
boss of Loyalist Spain's civil and
military branches. With an esti
mated 500,000 unenthusiastic sol
diers under his command, General
Miaja recently heard that his friend
General Franco was about to
charge against Valencia and Ma-
drid with 1,000,000 men.
Labor
In Washington John L. Lewis
could peek at the calendar for
March realizing it probably held the
fate of his Congress for Industrial
Organization. At the core of trou
ble is United Automobile Workers
of America, torn during January
when President Homer Martin
simultaneously resigned and was
booted from C. I. Q.'s executive
board. Reason: U. A. W. under-
lings thought Mr. Martin was con-
niving for personal control of Ford
Motor company's heretofore inde-
pendent labor vote, while Mr. Mar-
tin thought C. I. O. was turning
communistic, Now split in two
factions, U. A. W. opens a pro
Martin convention in Detroit during
early March, and an anti-Martin
parley in Cleveland March 27.
First victory was scored by the
Martin faction when property of U.
A. W's Plymouth local (Detroit)
was pulled from court custody and
returned to Martin cohorts. Still
pending is a replevin suit instituted
by anti-Martinites.
A.W.
Green's
Labor, Mr. Martin answered with
an emphatic negative,
ning public support from such Lew-
is henchmen as Sidney Hillman
and Philip Murray, Mr. Martin
stands a good chance of emerging
not only as undisputed head of U.
A.W, but as leader in a C. I. O.
conservative movement,
People
In Moscow, Secretary Earl Brow-
der of the American Communist
party hailed President Roosevelt,
Cuba's Col. Fulgencio Batista and
Mexico's President Lazaro Car-
denas as opponents of Fascism.
@® Breaking a bottle of champagne
to dedicate an aquacade at New
York's World fair, Swimmer Elea-
nor was cut by flying glass.
@® One hundred and two years old,
Banker Edmund J. Reardon of Cam-
bridge, Mass., celebrated his birth-
day by staying away from the office.
@® Having too many other responsi-
bilities, President W Walter 8. Gifford
of the American Telephone and Tel
aph company, will resign as a
of the United States Steel
corporation April 3.
into alliance with William
WASHINGTON. — Through nearly
of our nation's history, there
has been a continuing controversy %
prerogatives of the President of the
United States and the senate, It
alternately smouldered and
It has been char-
times and it has made or destroyed
the political fortunes of a great
Washington has been regaled with
a fresh revival of the controversy in
The funda-
mental differences are the same as
There are,
however, new names and new faces
and obviously the political fortunes
of individuals who have entered
upon the public stage in recent years
are bound up in the boiling kettle,
these rights, this one will prove
The current fight must be said to
invited by President
Roosevelt. Perhaps, his course of
action was urged by some of the
“inner circle,” which so often has
advised him lately, men |
ignore political history—but the fact |
remains that the President carried |
the fight to the senate, and there
are more than a few observers who
expect that he will come off a bad
loser.
Mr. Roosevelt,
in these columns earlier,
ing upon his own selection for po-
litical appointments where the sena-
tors from a particuias state were |
not receiving his smiles. The pro-
cedure was not pleasant but there
was no sensational outcry from the
senators concerned until
nation of Judge Floyd Roberts, to a
United States district judgeship, was
sent to the senate. Mr. Roberts
was picked without consultation
even over others recommended
with Senators Glass and Byrd of
Virginia. It proved to be the signal
for a riot.
Advisers Reckoned Not
With Senatorial Courtesy
After the manner of senate pro-
cedure, Senators Glass and Byrd
rose in their places in the senate
and pronounced Judge Roberts |
“personally offensive” to them.
That was enough. The senate, as it
as 1 have reported
was insist-
has done so many times before,
promptly rejected the Roberts nom-
ination by the terrific jolt of 72 to 0.
It was such a slap that even the
Virginia senators were surprised at
its overwhelming character. It
surely made the fact abundantly
clear that Mr. Roosevelt could not
get away with his theory namely,
that a President can pick nominees
without ‘the advice and consent of
the senate’ as the Constitution spec-
ifies. But it did not have that effect.
And here was where the President
made a great political mistake. He
sought to discipline the senate by
publication of a letter to Judge Rob-
erts in explanation of the senate’s
action. He scored Senator Glass and
he tarred Senator Byrd. They were
almost guilty of conduct unbecoming
gentlemen.
It was rumored that the strategy
of the “‘inner circle” was to have
Mr. Roosevelt smear the two sena-
tors and thus create a serious defec-
tion in their own political machines
in their native Virginia-—which any-
one acquainted with Virginia poli-
tics will tell you is much easier
said than done. It was reported
even that Mr. Roosevelt would send
the two senators and if that were
rejected to send up still others.
believed the “‘inner circle,”
But the President and his un-
trained political advisers reckoned
senatorial courtesy is an intangible
thing. No one ever has been able
to define or describe it. One simply
has to say that it exists and let time
prove the statement. The proof al-
ways can be found, and the action
of the senate on the Roberts nomi-
nation, and since, certainly seems to
demonstrate that the senators will
fight for their rights, or what they
believe to be theif rights, on a col- 1
lective basis. Each sticks by the
others; none knows when he may
need the same kind of help.
Senate Is Thoroughly
Embittered at Roosevelt
Thus, after several weeks of this
lashing back and forth—because
Senators Glass and Byrd did not fail
to tell the country what they thought
of Mr. Roosevelt's action—we find
the senate thoroughly embittered at
Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Rooseveh
saying, xepagredly; that the senate
A ind dig pe gfe
Chief 1 said, that
difference has existed
fundamental
since the formation of our govern-
ment, It is going to continue to ex-
ist because of the form of our gov-
ernment, its system of checks and
as our system of political parties ob-
tains.
Coldly and without bias, it must
be said that each side to the battle
predicates its conclusions and con-
ception of its rights upon a thirst for
more power. Mr. Roosevelt, as
President, conceives that he should
tives of sovereign states, conceive
that they are the elected represent-
atives and they are not going to
have a single individual, even
though it be the President of the
United States, dehorn them of the
strength that an election by popular
vole gives them.
Moreover, the President must do
political knitting. He must keep the
weave as free of knots as is possi-
ble. In the case of the present in-
cumbent, it is quite apparent that he
desires to be complete boss of his
political structure. He had a taste
indeed, a full meal—of it for five
agine that he liked
it; anyone would, if that person is
human. When some of his
rubber stamps became blurred and
did not print clearly what he said
should print Roosevelt,
ruthless politician,
get rid of th
in the “purge’’ during the
ign, and failed.
are sure that the present
flame is intended to destroy this
’ 14s
other
ng to
mpa Many
"or
opp
Old Line Democrats Seek
To Regain Party Control
Nor are the
Glass and Byrd alone, but all of
them, blameless, if one desires to
turn purist. The senators have their
political machines. They seek al-
ways to keep those machines well
oiled, smooth running. Upon the
functioning of the machines depends
whether the senators can be re-
elected time after time; upon hat
machine depends the retention or
the loss of the power which every
politician loves. I imagine they can
not be blamed for that, any more
than the President can be blamed
for wanting to keep his hand on the
throttle. That is politics.
Selection of the men to judicial
jobs, or to any other political post
in the nature of a plum, is vital to
Politi-
cians continue as leaders only so
long as they can dominate the scene
and get for their followers the things
their followers want,
But in the current battle there is
somewhat deeper disagreement be-
tween the senate and the President.
It is too well known to warrant more
than mere reference here that old
line Democrats are determined to
regain control of the Democratic
party label. They have had more
than enough unpractical direction
from the regiment of college pro-
fessors, crack-pots and long haired
dreamers without political training.
senators, not just
tatingly that continuation of Demo-
such men will be destruction of the
party and its conversion into a ve-
hicle guided by e=ocialists, commu-
nists and a complete rainbow of
colors. Naturally, they want to ad-
here to Democratic doctrines and
Democratic principles. And that is
the line of cleavage.
The result? 1 doubt that Mr.
Roosevelt can win over the senate.
Wants Judges Who Will
Be Friendly to New Deal
The other phase of the differences
is less clear. I can report it only
as the belief of quite a few sena-
tors. Some of them believe it, defi-
nitely. I give it here simply as a
subject for thought.
By irsisting upon his own choice
of nominees for judgeships in the
federal courts, Mr. Roosevelt is at-
tempting to place men in the ju-
diciary who will be friendly to all
of the New Deal laws, or so some
members of the senate and the
house firmly believe. That is to say,
the belief is held that Mr. Roosevelt
is seeking to do by use of the ap-
pointive power that which the con-
gress refused him the power to do
when it killed off his sc to
pack the Supreme court of Unit-
ed States with six new justices. By
filling the judiciary—the federal dis-
trict courts and the circuit courts of
appeal—with men known to be fa-
vovable to new deal laws, in-
surance against adverse decisions is
provided for years to come, or so
some of the senators and representa
tives will tell you.
It would be only incidental, if the
completely subservien
to him. It would be only
HS ouid be a center
‘Western Newspaper
Pattern 1721
Color for your bedroom! Use
gay scraps for the lilies,
line and single stitch for
Pattern 1721 contains
pattern pieces; diagr
instructions for cutting,
and finishing; yardage ch
gram of quilt
Send 15 cents in coins for this
pattern to The Sewing Circle,
82 Eighth
New York, N. Y.
and out-
accent!
accurate
of block;
sewing,
art;
am
cia-
Nee-
A x "1
Avenue,
( saFeTY TALKS )
Most Hazardous Occupation
Most farmers probab wou
scorn the use of indust
opt toed safety shoes, har
to protect their he ads
objects, and gogg
able lenses to war
from the grindstone
from the wood-cutting
If this be true, it
account for
first as the mos
occupational enterpris
The National Safet
ports that of
occupational
1837, agric
dents,
goggle
Ww
A
a
apr s11%4
agriculture
and servi
)
sponsible
NO FUSS
RELIEVING COLD
DISCOMFORT THIS WAY!
Just Follow Simple Directions Below—
and Use Fasi- Acting Bayer Aspirin
1)
1. To case pain and
discomfort and re-
. Guce fever take 2
2. I Throat Is raw
from cold, crush and -
dissolve 3 ow 3
Tablets In 1; glass
Ly
It's the Way Thousands Know to
Ease Discomfort of Colds and Sore
Throat Accompanying Colds
The simple way pictured above
often brings amazingly fast relief
from discomfort and sore throat
accompanying colds.
Try it. Then — see pour doctor.
He probably will tell you to con-
tinue with the Bayer Aspirin be-
cause it acts so fast to relieve dis-
Sonsiarts of a cold. And to reduce
ever
This simple way, backed by
scientific authority, has largely sup-
planted the use of strong medicines
in easing cold symptoms. Perhaps
the easiest, most effective way yet
discovered. But make sure you get
BAYEF Aspirin,
When you play, play hard; when
you work, don’t play at all.—The-
odore Roosevelt.
Why do Luden’s con-
tain an alkaline factor?
To help build up your
alkaline reserve when
you have a cold.
LUDEN'S 5°
better and an ill man worse. —
Thomas Fuller.