i
CONGRESS:
Keynote
“Dear Alben” Barkley settled
down for six months in Washington.
“We'll be here until June,” he told
reporters, ‘‘but I doubt if there will
be much new legislation. There
probably will be efforts to amend
the Wagner act and the wage-hour
law. The reciprocal trade treaty
program probably will cause the
greatest controversy.”
He told no lie there, and Presi-
dent Roosevelt knew it. Striking
fast, before the opposition had a
chance to open its mouth, the Presi-
dent keynoted the second session of
the seventy-sixth congress in a state-
of-the-union speech which attacked
the ‘“‘destructive mine-field of trade
restrictions.” Plumping for renew-
KENTUCKY'S BARKLEY
“We'll be here until June.”
al of his ‘“most-favored-nation’’ pro-
gram in which the administration—
not congress—has the power to sign
trade pacts, he offered this defense:
“ jt is advisable to provide, at
times of emergency, some flexibility
to make the general law adjustable
to quickly changing conditions.”
Only one other concession did he
want in 1940, because it is an elec-
tion year: “I am asking the con-
gress for army and navy increases
which are based not on panic but
on common sense.”
Conservation of resources, protec-
tion of national health, extension of
a moderate voice. Only out-and-
out political dart was a crack at
G. O. P. Hopeful Tom Dewey, who
recently accused the New Deal of
“defeatism.” Said the President:
“To warble easy platitudes that if
we will only go back to the ways
that have failed, everything will be
all right—is not courage.”
Next day congress got the budget.
Items and total:
National defense
Work relief programs
Agricultural programs
Public works and invest.
ments .
Pensions, retirements and
assistance .. cans
Interest on the public debt. .
Regular operating
This, said the President, was an
estimated cut of $675,000,000 from
the current fiscal year, while treas-
ury receipts are expected to rise
$382.000,000. Estimated net deficit
for 1940-41: $2,176,000,000, compared
with $3,933,000,000 this year. But to
further cut the deficit, Mr. Roose-
velt recommended that his $460,000,-
000 boost in defense costs be paid
through new taxes. Commented
loyal Sen. Pat Harrison from Mis-
sissippi: “It's not easy to raise
$460,000,000 right off. I'm not strong
on this tax business.”
Rolling up its sleeves, congress
found the Democrats enjoyed a
a
« Harry Bridges, West coast C. 1. O.
leader freed on deportation charges,
announced he would seek naturali-
zation ‘“‘at the earliest possible mo-
ment.”
¢ Charles Edison, inventor's son,
named secretary of the navy, began
studying means of speeding up the
naval construction program.
@ Louis (Lepke) Buchalter, sen-
tenced to 14 years in prison for vio-
lating the federal narcotics law,
heard that New York's District At-
torney Thomas Dewey hoped to “‘put
him away for 500 years’ on racket
charges.
« James H. R. Cromwell, economist
and husband of Doris Duke, “richest
girl in the world,” was named U. 8.
minister to Canada.
«John W. Finch, director of the bu-
reau of mines, was requested to re-
sign by Interior Secretary Harold
Ickes “because the bureau needs a
director who has enough iron in his
blood . . .”
«Neville Chamberlain, president of
Britain's Midland Salmon and Trout
club, wrote his cronies: “I fear
that there is little prospect of my
finding time for fishing énder pres-
ent condition.”
three-to-one majority in the senate,
and a three-to-two lead in the house.
Major issues, aside from the recipro-
cal trade act and national defense:
1. Whether to raise the national
debt limit, now nearing its $45,000,-
000,000 legal peak.
2. What to do about new tax pro-
posal, such as Secretary of Agricul-
ture Wallace's “certificate plan” (in
effect, a processing tax) to pay farm
benefits.
3. Whether to amend the Wagner
labor relations act, under fire from
all sides.
4. Whether to continue Martin
Dies’ un-Americanism committee.
COMMUNICATIONS:
Wire Merger
Western Union maintains 20,000
branch offices employing 43,000 peo-
ple; Postal Telegraph, its competi-
tor, has 4,400 offices and 14,000 em-
ployees. Thanks to air mail, tele-
phone and radio, Western and Postal
are both having financial troubles.
This month, as a result, came a
paradox: While Trust Buster Thur-
man Arnold was busy breaking up
monopolies, the much-concerned fed-
eral communications commission
recommended to congress that
Western and Postal be allowed to
consolidate.
INTERNATIONAL:
Something in the Wind
It was big news in early January
that hardy Finnish troops had cut
16,000 Russians off from their base
had cap-
tured a Russian base at Aittajoki;
had repulsed countless shock troops
on the Karelian isthmus; had even
blasted a Red air base in Estonia.
But the biggest news came from
a little Madrid newspaper called
Alcazar. Said its editorial: *‘Fin-
land is defending with its flesh and
bravery the treasure of occidental
civilization. Fighting so bravely for
independence she fights also for all
Christianity, and it is inexplicable
that after a long month of war she
hasn't received tangible aid . . .”
Looking about them, European ob-
servers wondered if the Alcazar plea
wasn’t being answered. They saw
a series of potentially related moves
PAUL EMILE NAGGIAR
Lonesome in Moscow.
that might eventually lead to peace
among the allies and Germany, and
to a European attack driving the
Russian bear to his den. Indications:
Isolation. Home from Moscow to
London went Ambassador Sir Wil
liam Seeds to write a white paper
on Russo-British relations, Gossip
had it that his conversations with
Premier Viacheslav Molotoff had
been stormy. and that he probably
wouldn't return. Also homeward
bound was Augusto Rosso, Italian
ambassador. Left in Moscow, un-
comfortable and lonesome, was
French Ambassador Paul Emile
Naggiar.
Shakeup. The newspaper Petit
Parisien reported from Italy that
Germany was planning a drastic po-
litical reorganization to woo the al-
lies. It would include Adolf Hitler's
becoming president, succeeded to
the chancellorship by moderate Her-
man Goering; purging of radicals
like Heinrich Himmler, Joe Goeb-
bels and Dr. Robert Ley; manage-
ment of foreign affairs by a mod-
erate like Dr. Hans von Macken-
sen, ambassador to Italy; slacken-
ing of relations with Russia and pro-
visional recreation of Poland and
Czecho-Slovakia.
Ald. In an embarrassing spot,
Germany announced she would wink
at allied shipments of munitions to
Finland, but could not tolerate troop
movements. Thus it was obvious
the Reich would like to see her “al-
ly,” (Russia) driven back, yet could
not risk exposure to allied troops
from the North sea.
Western War
Following custom, there was more
horseplay than warfare. The west
ern front was a tomb, but at Buenos
Aires German sailors from the scut-
tled Graf Spee joined their enemies
from British battleships in a night
of revelry. British preparations in-
cluded a plan to call 2,000,000 more
men to the colors this year, and a
report that 20 freighters had been
scuttled at the mouth of Scapa Flow.
Purpose: prevent Nazi U-boats
from entering the harbor and sink-
ing more ships like Royal Oak.
Know your news? One hundred is
perfect score, and deduct 20 for each
question you miss. Score of 60 or more
is acceptable.
AA AI
1. This English peer’s daugh-
ter, an ardent Hitlerite who has
been in Germany since before the
war started, returned to England
on a stretcher with a revolver
bullet in her neck. What's her
name?
2. Why did Irish Premier
Eamon De Valera ask parliament
for dictatorial powers?
3. True or False: Martin Dies
has asked congress to discontinue
his un-Americanism probe be-
cause of ill health and because
the justice department is now
prosecuting alien “isms.”
4. What do the following have
in common: Robert Fechner,
head of the CCC; Guy Ballard,
head of the “Great 1 Am’ cult;
several thousand residents of the
Turkish earthquake area; the
163rd Russian division on the
Finnish front.
5. If the U. 8. began taking
its decennial census January 2,
why hasn't an enumerator
knocked on your door yet?
News Quiz Answers
1. Uniiy Valkyrie Freeman-Mitford
8. He feared an uprising of the out
lawed Irish republican army.
3. False. He asked congress for more
funds
4. They dled
sion was killed
5. The business census started Janu
ary 1. The regular “nose-count” doesn’t
start until April L
Most of the Russian divi
COURTS:
Tell It to Congress
Well-timed if its intention was to
heighten congressional demands for
revision of the Wagner act, a deci-
sion by the Supreme court upheld
the much-criticized National Labor
Relations board on three counts:
(1) For refusing to place an al
legedly company-dominated union
on ballots used in a bargaining
agency election at the Falk corpora-
tion, Milwarkee.
(2) For des) ating a C. 1. O. union
as collective bargaining agency for
waterfront workers along the Pacif-
fc coast.
(3) For ordering employees of the
Jackson, Mich., power company to
vote on the question of affiliation
with C. 1. O., after a ballot on
C. 1 O. versus A. F. of L. had
brought no majority vote.
These decisions offered no partic-
ular commendation of NLRB, how-
ever. Commented Justice Harlan
Stone: *. . . this failure (of con-
gress) to provide for a court review
(of NLRB decisions) is productive
of peculiar hardships . . . But these
are arguments to be addressed to
congress and not to the courts.”
TREASURY:
Easy Taxes
Tenderly breaking the news that
been simplified.
as complex as the report form it
self, have been pared down and
shaved of technical phrasing.
POLITICS:
Appointments
Roosevelt's judicial and justice ap-
pointments came a baker's dozen
of explanations.
tor General Robert H. Jackson was
reclaimed from obscurity and made
attorney general as grooming for a
place on the 1040 ticket, ‘probably as
vice presidential candidate under
Cordeli Hull; Judge Francis Biddle
of the circuit appeals court (a life
time job) was boosted to the 'wlici-
tor generalship to make a place for
unpopular Warren Madden, NLRB
chairman. Thus were several birds
killed with one stone.
Other political news:
@ Democratic Chairman James A.
Farley announced the nat'onal com-
mittee would meet in Washington
February 5 to select a time and
city (probably Chicago) for the 1040
convention, Thus he made the G.
O. P. victor in the winter's biggest
stalling game, permitting Repub-
licans to hold their convention
name their candidate later.
ql Secretary of State Cordell Hull dis-
avowed presidential ambitions and
denied knowledge of reports that
as No. 1 choice for 1040 candidate.
Already Are
WASHINGTON.—About the time
capital is deluged with
“pressure groups.’ It is a poor de-
1 believe most of them
lead (or promote)
They want to keep their foliowers
tribute hard-earned dimes or dol
lars so that their representative or
front in the city of Washington.
Any way, it is the open season for
them, again.
a hive of bees.
in the annual invasion upon senators
and representatives and among the
numerous New Deal agencies, seek-
ing justice, urging help for those
whose liberties are being trampled
that and the other.
There are the usual spokesmen
for corporations and groups of cor-
porations. They, too, are seekers
after justice. They are no more
selfish” than the lesser racketeers.
Those fellows, however, have a dif-
ferent kind of stake in the results.
The seekers after individual justice,
‘PRESSURE GROUPS
Harass members of
with wvarious causes.
May be tuning up for the com-
ing campaign.
Many movements will not get
very far.
Union labor and the American
Legion active.
Bruckart doesn’t believe it is
possible so many new injustices
could have arisen.
Few are able to analyze the
situation.
BUSY
CONgress
those who urge
“civil liberties,"
maintenance of
etc., usually
their own material futures.
May Be Just Tuning Up
For the Election Campaigns
There is, however, something dis-
turbing about this year’s invasion.
that so many new injustices could
have arisen within the last year.
There always has been a considera-
ble amount of this low form of high
pressure around Washington, but
the increased number of seekers
after justice this year would seem to
prove that the whole country has
gone to pieces. It may be, of course,
hat they are tuning up for the elec-
tion campaigns.
Seriously, however, few
have been able to analyze the situ-
ation. Some suggest that the cur-
rent trek of seekers after justice
results from the fact that the na-
tional government has become the
focal point for “relief’’ from every-
thing since the depression fell upon
us in 1030. Others feel that a sense
into this country from the lands
where dictators hold a human life
to be nothing more than a chattel
If either of these answers is cor-
rect, we have a dangerous condition
on our hands. It is the defeatist
It represents a decaying civiliza-
Now, lest someone charge me
several years ago,
I want to recall that
1 once feebly at
tempted to pin a
for seeking legisla-
register who
behalf of legislation.
He wanted to brand ©
each one as a lob- a
byist. That senator
was Hugo Black, Hugo Black
who now writes binding legal opin-
jons as a member of the Supreme
court of the United States instead
of blabbing for hours on the floor
of the senate. I maintain that ev-
eryone has the right of petition to
any government agency. What Iam
trying to do here, however, is to
show that there are so many more
“petitioners” now than heretofore
and to find the reason for it.
Many Seekers After
Justice in Washington
Of course, most of these move.
ments will not get very far, They
will not get as far, in fact, as when
I used to crawl under the corncrib
for eggs out on the farm. But there
aged folks throughout the country to
extraordinarily large num-
ber of seekers after justice in Wash-
ington.
It is astonishing to see the lengths
to which some of them will go. For
example, there is one great church
organization that sought to force the
census bureau to include in the
forthcoming census certain ques-
tions that would have given that
church a powerful leverage in the
future administration of government
affairs, according to well-authenti-
cated reports. The church repre-
sentative tried for weeks to high
pressure the census officials into in-
clusion of three questions. He made
some threats about the conse-
quences of their refusal. The gov-
ernment attorney to whom the cen-
sus officials submitted the question
had the guts to say ‘no’ and that
was the census bureau answer.
It was a despicable thing, how-
ever, and illustrates the dangers in-
herent in the conditions I have tried
to describe.
The old age pension movement
and the unemployment compensa-
tion movement and the other “wel-
fare’ movements are represented
in full force.
Other Groups Are Working
For Gifts From Government
There are half a dozen
around town,
other
working for
found something
wrong with the present social se-
on
on
what
whoie
The
con-
is wrong with it.
circumstance rather
tossed
the
to be
that
I doubt
government can
law. There
probably is little possibility that any
overboard.
federal
Some of
the dreamy New Dealers who con-
ceived it have faded out of Wash-
left their baby for somebody else to
nurse to maturity. The one service
they performed was to the New
Deal finances, because the original
program has brought six or seven
hundred million dollars into the fed-
eral treasury—and it has been
spent.
i
Organized labor has its represent-
atives on the scene in a big way.
Both the Congress
izations, which is
headed by John L.
Lewis, and the
American Federa-
tion of Labor, which
is headed by Wil-
liam Green, have
national headquar-
ters here. What is
a poor politician go-
ing to do, however,
when Lewis and
Green are fighting
each other and seldom, if ever,
agree upon what changes must be
made in the national labor relations
act.
The labor row may get more than
just an ordinary airing during the
session of congress now under way.
1 have written heretofore about
the special house committee investi-
gation of the National Labor Rela-
tions board. Exposures by that com-
mittee already have brought de-
= A
John L. Lewis
den. Commissioner Leiserson, ap-
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stinking mess, but the Lewis fac-
the board thus far is making Mr.
Leiserson’'s job pretty difficult.
There will
for the Green faction if Lewis can
prevent it.
American Legion Can Really
Put on High Pressure
There is an offshoot of organized
labor's setup here known as Labor's
Non-Partisan league. I don't know
what it is supposed to accomplish,
but it has a press agent and a staff
of “executives’’ and they all seem
to get paid regularly.
Tie American Legion is getting
active again. It wants mere gov-
ernment money for the ex-soldiers,
and make no mistake about it. The
American Legion can really put on
high pressure when it sets out to do
the job.
1 haven't scratched the surface in
naming the pressure groups that are
to be found here for the current ses-
sion of congress. There are at least
50 business organizations and trade
associations. The purposes of all
are the same, namely, advantages
for them. The advantages may be
in the form of cash such as the pen-
sion petitioners and the Legion seek,
or advantages that can be turned
into cash after the methods of busi-
ness. In any event, they are all
headed down Washington-way. It
seems to bode no good at all for
the folks who are going to pay the
bill, including a national debt that
is now $45,000,000,000 or more. :
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