Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 2, Number 24, DeMotte, Jasper County, 5 January 1933 — News Review of Current Events the World Over [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

News Review of Current Events the World Over

General Sales Tax Killed by Roosevelt’s Opposition. — Other Ways of glancing, the Budget Sought— Samuel Insull Freed by Greek Court.

By EDWARD W. PICKARD

PRESIDENT-ELECT ROOSEVELT has killed the general sales tax, for this session of congress at least, and Representative James W. Collier,

chairman of the house ways and means committee, is trying to devise some other method of balancing the budget In this effort he is being earnestly aided by Speaker garner and the other Democratic leaders in congress. They placed emphasis on economy in appropriating government funds, examining

closely the fixed expenditures, that amount to more than one billion dollars. Also they renewed their fight to bring about the legalization and taxation of beer. When Mr. Roosevelt was told in Albany that Washington reports said he was in favor of' the sales tax he expressed, through a spokesman, his “horror” at the story, so Mr. Garner and the house Democratic leaders, who had said they would approve such a levy if it were necessary to balance the budget, abandoned the plan. The dispatches from Albany indicated that Mr. Roosevelt might exert pressure on congress to defeat the scheme if it were not dropped. He considers sales tax plans as belonging to two cate^ gories, the general manufacturers’ sales tax, which he opposes, and the tax on special commodities such as the federal taxes now being collected on gasoline and tobacco, which he thinks should be continued for the present. The house ways and means committee planned to begin on January 3 an exhaustive study of federal financing with Secretary Mills of the treasury appearing before it to give his views. Both Mr. Mills and President Hoover have recommended a sales tax to balance the budget Senate Democratic leaders, however, have expressed doubt that such a levy could be passed in that branch, and they have decided to make no efforts to attach financial legislation to the Collier beer bill as a rider.

REPORTS have been frequent that President Hoover would veto the Democratic beer and farm relief legislation and in this connection Senator Robinson, Democratic leader of the upper chamber, said in a statement that the Republican administration was engaging “in a policy of partisan political obstruction to prevent the enactment of legislation, apparently with the Idea of forcing the incoming President to call a special session.” As a matter of fact, observers In Washington were of the opinion that a special session cannot now be avoided. SENATOR PAT HARRISON of Mississippi, ranking Democrat on the senate finance committee, announced that after the holidays he would introduce a resolution providing that a senate committee should hold a conference with the nation's best economists, financiers and statesmen, to find the way to restore economic order. Harrison’s idea would include a study “of the whole economic situation, with a view primarily of obtaining constructive suggestions from leading economists, financiers and statesmen as to methods and policies to restore economic stability.” Such subjects as currency stabilization, InflaHoh and silver would be included in the investigation by the Mississippian, who has discussed his proposal informally with members of the finance committee. He believes the senate would favor prompt action.

FH. LA GUARDIA, the Insurgent • Republican representative from New York, introduced in the house a resolution to provide for the placing

of capital on a fiveday week basis by reducing the legal interest rate in the District of Columbia and the territories to 3 per cent, to reduce the interest rate on government' securities by 29 per cent, and to cut the discount rate of government agencies to a maximum of 2% per cent.

The New York representative maintains interest rates today are untenably high when compared with the earning power of the people and that they must come down. He said he purposely drafted his resolution in simple language and had used the five-day week illustration “so that even our bankers codld understand it.”

FIVE members of the senate judiciary committee have been appointed by Chairman Norris to consider the Black five-day work week bill, and hearings were announced to begin on January 5. The measure, which was Introduced by Senator Black of Ala-

bama, would limit the hours of labor on goods produced for interstate shipment to 30 a week; with six hours a day for five days. Norris, Robinson, Borah, Walsh and Black are the subcommittee, and they will take extensive testimony as to both the desirability of the legislation and its constitutionality. QUICK work on the major appropriation bills went on in the house of representatives. The Interior department bill carrying $43,652,904 for the fiscal year 1904 was passed after $460,000 had been added for a heating plant at Howard university, the federally supported institution for negroes in Washington. In doing this 26 northern Democrats overrode the Demcratic leadership and voted with the Republicans for the amendment. The house then went on to consider the Agriculture department supply bill. The senate was in recess until Friday, but attempts were made to begin formal consideration of the Collier beer bill by the judiciary committee headed by Senator Norris. WHILE the congressmen were struggling with their problems. President Hoover and his party were sailing down the Florida coast, trying to find good fishing, but with small success. They made various ; stops but did not go ashore, receiving local dignitaries at the docks. At St. Augustine Mayor Mickler and a lot of Other officials greeted the Chief Executive at the boat’s rail and Mrs. Hoover received lovely bouquets, one sent by Governor Carlton and the other presented by Girl Scouts. Mail and telegrams that came aboard from time to time, some of them relating to the war debts, gave the President occasional work and took his mind off the poor angling until the vicinity of Miami was reached, where the big fish were biting better. SAMUEL INSULL, the fallen utilities magnate, was set free by the Greek Court of Appeals that considered the request of the American government

that he be extradited, and he is at liberty to remain in Greece or go to any other country he may prefer. After deliberating two hours the court in Athens held that no evidence had been presented that- Insull was guilty of the offenses of grand larceny and embezzlement of $172,000, for which he was indict-

ed by ..the grand jury in Chicago. It ruled that the money he was alleged to have taken might be considered a loan contracted for the benefit of the Corporations involved, and that Insull obtained from it no personal profit, but acted in good faith. Greek lawyers and officials of the American legation said the decision was absolutely binding, and the latter indicated that the United States government would make no further efforts to extradite Insull on the ; evidence at hand. The people of Athens rejoiced in the verdict of the Appeals court, loudly cheering Insull and “Greek justice.” They felt that the Incident was a fine example of a small nation refusing to knuckle down to one of the great powers.

A LARMED by the flight of money from the Union of South Africa? which has increased greatly of late, the government at Pretoria took emergency steps to remain on the gold standard. The cabinet, headed by Premier J. B. M. Hertzog, issued a decree forbidding all export of gold. It also withdrew sovereigns from circulation to prevent hoarding. Premier Hertzog has waged a steady fight to hold South Africa to gold for more than a year, declaring that, the country would resemble a ship In a stormy sea without an anchor if it departed from the yellow metal. He maintains that inflation would depreciate gold to its pure commodity value, thereby benefiting the mines, but not the. rest of the country.

PROMINENT among those taken by death during the week was Brig. Gen. John J. Carty, retired, vice president and chief engineer of the American Telephone and Telegraph company. He died in Baltimore at the age of seventy-one years. General Carty was credited with many important developments in the fields of telephonic, telegraphic and radio communication. During ,the war he was director of telephone and telegraph communications for the American army In France. Norman E. Mack, New York member of the Democratic national committee for 32 years and former publisher of the Buffalo Times, died in Buffalo, aged seventy-four. He was one of the best loved of all Democratic leaders. Col. Richard S. Hooker, commander of the American marines stationed in Shanghai, died suddenly at his home in that city while playing with his children.

T'HOUGH Japan, like all other naA tions, is hard up, its budget is the largest in its history, and in a statement to. the diet the army Office sought to explain why the military expenditures must be increased. The military system is to be readjusted and improved in four ways. The forces in Manchuria will be augmented, while those in Japan will be reduced as much as possible. Supplementary military education will be extended and improved. Army organizations are to be bettered in various ways. Supplies, such as munitions and uniforms, must be replenished. Probably the only important business the diet will transact is the adoption of the budget. The disgruntled Seiyukai party hesitates to oust Premier Saito, though it could do so, and that gentleman is careful to propose a minimum of legislation. Korekiyo Takahashi, finance minister, has announced his intention to ask power to control the exchanges, but has not indicated the method of control he proposes to adopt The flight of’capital takes the form of export of goods, the value of which is left abroad to cover purchases of raw materials. How this can be checked unless export t>*ade is controlled is not, clear. NORMAN H. DAVIS, chief American delegate to the disarmament conference and himself a Democrat, was one of Mr. Roosevelt’s most tm-

portant callers during the week. For two days the two men discussed privately and exhaustively the subjects of disarmament, war debts and world economics, in all of which Mr. Dayis Is an expert. In the course of the conversations Mr. Davis told the President-Elect that he believed disarmament Is necessary to a

restoration of world confidence and credit and said he thought important steps had been taken toward reduction of armament. This, in turn, he predicted, would have a favorable effect on efforts for a successful world economic conference. The first step, he said, would be to persuade France and Italy to Indorse the terms of the London naval agreement of 1930, particularly regarding submarine construction. Disarmament advocates, he stated, believed they could ban submarines In spite of the objections of France and Japan, or at least limit them to coastal defense l . Then, by outlawing offensive weapons, poison gas, mobile heavy artillery anil bombing airplanes and banning the manufacture of aerial bombs, the world would be ready to work toward restoration of confidence. Mr. Roosevelt expressed' thc^lew that world security would returti as the deadly instruments of war were reduced and mentioned that the late Premier Clemenceau of France had once told him that “the one essential for France out of the World war was security.” “I asked him for his definition of security,” Mr. Roosevelt said. “He replied that for a thousand years no French babies had been born and gone through life to three score and ten without knowing some kind of trouble with Germany. Since that was true, he said, the guaranty of no war with Germany would constitute security for the French. I think that belief is still there.” * : d i CANADA’S sensational libel case came to an end in Montreal with the conviction of James J. Harwell, publisher of the Journal of Commerce, on charges of defamatory libel of T. B. Macauley, the aged president of the Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, largest organization of Its kind in the British empire. Harpell was sentenced to three months in jail and to pay the costs of the prosecution. Harpell filed an appeal and was released on bail.

Chief Justice Greenshields, who presided at the trial, pointed out that four of the five days of the trial were give to the defense to prove the "charges against Macauley. He also recalled how Harpell had declared lit opera court that Macauley was a “crook.” “You,” said the chief justice to the accused^ “absolutely failed in one scintilla of proof in your attempt to prove that he was a crook, not to say a swindler. You had no justification. not the slightest, for the publication of those atrocious libels against a man who has occupied an honorable position in Montreal for well nigh half a century.”

ONE of the major mining disasters of the year occurred at Moweaqua 111., when an explosion imprisoned 51 coal miners beyond all hope of rescue For a week their fellow workers dug frantically to get to the doomed men but all they found were lifeless bodies At the time of writing the corpses of all but seven of the men had been brought to the surface. The little town was stricken by the tragedy, which left there 33 widows with a total of 75 children.

PAUL REDFERN, an American aviator who in August, 1927, left Fort Brunswick, Ga., on a nonstop flight to Rio de Janeiro and disappeared, is novi said to have been discovered in th* upper Amazon region. Charles Has ler, an American engineer who recent ly arrived from the hinterlands at > locality on the Tapajoz river near th< Ford concession, said Redfern is now in the Rio Maior zone near Humaytr village op the right shore of the Ma deria river and is enjoying perfect health among the Parantin Indians. ©, 1933, Western Newspaper Union.

Rep. Collier

Rep. F. H. La Guardia

Sam Insull

N. H. Davis