Evening Star Newspaper, September 5, 1926, Page 21

EDITORIAL PAGE NATIONAL PROBLEMS SPECIAL FEATURES Part 2—8 Pages EDITORIAL SECTION The Sundiy Shat WASHINGTON, DT, 5 DAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 5, 1926. HERBERT HOOVER TAKES A LONG LOOK INTO THE NATION’S FUTURE Sees Vision of a Coming Time, When U. S. Will Utilize Its Waterways. Power and Navigation to Make Life Better and Rieher for All of Us. BY BEN McKELWAY, eight vears since the close of the World War N the nearly the Nation has struggled through the s scraping the mud off its boots and reveling in the feel of firm ground underfoot. Looking back over few sterdays—there was Wilson with his eyes on the stars: there was Warren Harding g to the breeze a banner emblazoned with the word * and put it at the head of the column. Then Calvin a short who flu m Iy “Norma Coolidge ordered the band to strike up a tune which caught and | still holds the popular fancy, and swinging in step to the music of “Lconomy” the Nation has come out of the mire. The going is smooth and the weather is fine. And now speaks Herbert Hoover. It booms. His voice is deep and resonant. Hoover has been scouting out in front. He has gone ahead to peer over the ridge and to see what lies beyond. The Nation | wants to move forward, to progress. Hoover has been studying the map and has figured out a route. A\ little over a week ago he described it to an audience in Seattle, Wash., and in the short time that has clapsed since his speech scores of editorial writers, starved and hungry for an idea, have pownced on it with enthusi- astic determination to make it last. “We have for a century and a half concentrated ourselves upon development of our land and our mineral resources,” says Mr. “We have conserved our forests and developed our rail and highway transportation.” Hoover. Water, says Mr. Hoover, is today our greatest undeveloped | Therefore, “we have need that we formulate a new zation of our streams, resource. and broad national program for the full util our rivers and our lake That, he believes, is the Nation's next step. * Kk ok %k Herbert Hoover is a forward-looking man. But with this vision he has an abhorrent and deep-seated dislike for anything that goes to waste. He probably clenches his fist and grits his teeth at the sight of a merry-go-round, for the thing gets nowhere. At the outset of his administration at the head of the Department of Commerce a committec of the Federated American Engineering Societies estimated that 40 per cent of the capital, labor. thought, effort and time put into industry was a total loss and an absolute waste. In terms of money this waste, it was concluded, was somewhere around $24,000,000,000 a year. The statement made Mr. Hoover tear his hair. He reached for a paving brick. not with the idea of hurling it at ince that t'me he has| American industry, but to standardize it. gone after grocery bags, bed blankets, shovels, picks, milk bottles and many other commodities which play their small parts in the daily life of nearly every citizen. Tle has gleefully standardized them. In eight classes of goods alone affected by his simplifica- tion program, the manufacturers themselves have estimated that approximately $250,000,000 will be saved annually. Mr. Hoover's is a progressive economy. He dotes on saving things, on preventing waste. And this penchant, combined with an ability to look into the future and to see over the hill, has actuated him in the new program that he outlines for the Nation. “Lvery drop of water,” chants Mr. Toover, “that runs to the sea without viclding its full commercial returns to the Nation is an economic loss, and that loss in all its economic implications can be computed in billions.” * For the past tive vears the Department of Commerce has devoted much of its energies to study of the commercial possi- bilitics of waterborne transportation, power, irrigation, reclama- tion and flood control. In gathering information upon the subject it has had the co-operation of other Government agencies which are constituted to deal directly with particular phases of the whole In addition, Mr. Hoover, who is the administration’s Jack-of-all-trades. is chairman of the Colorado River Commission, chairman of the Rio Grande chairman of Great Lakes-St. the New England Super-Power Commission, and a member or officer of various other commissions, committees and what-nots that have been created to deal with waterway or water-power projects 1is position has enabled him to obtain a bird's-eye view of the thing as a whole, and to convince him that the country would do well to join him in considering its possibilities. problem. River Commission, the Lawrence Commission: chairman of The situatior \Ir. Hoover's words, is this: “Our streams and rivers offer us a possible total of 55,000.000 horsepower, and of this less than 11000000 has been developed inland waterways probably less than 7.000 are reslly modernized. and the utility of much of these 7,000 miles is minimized by their isolation into segments of what should be . in miles of possible e ¢annected transportation systems. “\Ve still have 30.000000 acres of possibly reclaimable and jrrigable lands the Union; the great basins of the Columbia, the Colorado. the Sacramento, the San Joaquin, the Mississippi, the Arkansas, the Flatte. the Missouri. the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, the Warrior. the Hudson. the Great Lakes, the 'St. Lawrence and many others. “Almost unnoticed, the progress of science and engineering has revolutionized the possibilities of our water resources. In- ventions in construction methods and tools enable us economically to deepen channels and safely construct great dams These ad- vances; together with improvements in water craft. enable us to transform the local packet hoat into trdnsportation systems for great trains of barges and ccean-going vessels. The discov- oughs of Readjust-| ment, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation and stands today | Of our 25000 \nd these water resources lic in cvery part m'l | { | | | 2% 14054177, 10 ) i iz | | For Farm and Factory and Home Program Would Be a Boon in Years Ahead. | i | | Politics and Selfish Interests Would Need Be Barrgd to Realize Plan. | wheat 1.000 miles upon lake and ocean steamers for $20 to S30. {on modern barges for $60 to $70, as against $150 to $200 by rail. There will be urgent demand for more and more hydroelectric power as the sure base of our great interconnected power systems “All this has brought us to the threshold of a new era in utilization of these various resources of water where we must I broaden our foresight and determine great policies and programis. i’]'he great policy we need to adopt is a resolution of vigorous development. The program is a problem of cach great drainage l\\'c must no longer think in terms of single power sites or singl storage dams or single land projects or single navigation | provements ; we must think in terms of co-ordinated, long-view | development of each river system to its maximum utilization !\We have also to face the regrettable fact that these great possibilities of development of water resources are fast drifting into the muck of political opposition and interstate quarrels. iwl\ich could be solved by the determination of broad national cost of developments for othe by the war and reconstruction; national wealth that we now h resources make possible.” Malthus, an English clergyman, ing his theory that the popul control. from the long postponement of national construction imposed projects as our expanding neceds require and our undeveloped means of support, unless check beings or unless man himself a The Malthusian theory still provides a bugbear with|the necessar eries in transmission of clectricity now enable distant water-| power to be brought to a market as a vital contribution to flm{ r purposes. We have: emerged | we have recovered so gréatly in ave the capital to compass such * K wrote a series of essays elucidat- ation increases faster than the ed by famine, pestilence, war or dopted some. artificial method of But so far it has not been put to a conclusive test. | BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE. E. irsky, de facto Soviet “Ambassador” at Washington, is spending the Summer in Moscow, where plans are under way for new approaches in the direction of Ameri- can recognition by the United States | Government, Mr. Skvirsky, whose of- ficial status is that of chief of the “Russian Information Bureau” in Washington, went to Moscow In July and is not expected back until some time in October. While the State De- { partment pleads ignorance of Moscow reports that the Soviet authorities are preparing to recognize the debt of $187,729,000 owing the United States Treasury, it is known in Washington that important American commercial and financial interests now sym thize with the Moscow government's {anxiety for full official relations with this country. Well informed authori- ties look for far-reaching ments by the time Congress reas- sembles. g ‘Washington has been much im- pressed by a 40-page special edition of the New York Journal of Commerce, which is just off the press, and is de- voted entirely to ‘“financial, industrial and commercial Russia.” The editor of the Journal of Commerce, H. Parker Willis, was recently in Russia. He de- clares thdt the field of American trade development in Russia is ‘“tremen- dous” and that unlimited opportuni- ties await those who enter it. Holds New Revision Needed. Mr. Willis' conclusions with refer- ence to American-Russian political re- ‘ations are summed up in this state- ment: “Experience in the past three or four vyears has shown that Russia wants American business and Ameri- can technical methods. So far as she obtained them hitherto, she has paid for them at remuneralive rates. Experience has also shown that other countries want the Russian field and are willing to pay high for it. For- eign business men are now entering the field in large numbers and are rapidly taking it up. The only con- | clusion to be drawn is that if we wish to enter further upon the Russian | field. or even to retain what we have, it will be necessary for us to revise our point of view in respect of credit and selling conditions to reach a defi- to the safety of investment and prob- |ably to turn over a mew leaf in our | diplomatic policy In the same edition in which the above views are set forth is a mes- |sage from L. Kamenev. Soviet for- {eign trade commissar, reading: “In trade and indusiry there is no di- vergence of interests between the Soclalist Republics. They can, and therefore should, work hand in hand on the basis of peace and friendly | co-operation.” American business men who back the project for recognizing Red Rus- sia are making widespread use of the argument that, under present con. ditions American goods can _prac- tically _only be marketed in Russia through German middlemen. The | German embassy - force at Moscow is virtually a ‘go-getter” trade or- j=anization and is exceptionally well IR It s said to number the |RUSSIA BELIEVED PLANNING NEW DRIVE FOR RECOGNITION' TO RETIREMENT FUND JUST NOW | Now Is in Moscow. .Iple and as globe-trotting tourist | develop- | | nite_conclusion in our own minds as | United States and the Union of Soviet | T | gigantic personnel of approx 300. Germany is now far and the biggest seller of goods to Ru and also is Russia’s best market for | her own produce. Although Uncle Sam boycotts the | Soviet diplomatically, he places embargo either on trade with Ru: or on the visits of American citi: to the ostracized country, American passports are now issued “good for all countri Any citizen of the United States who wants to enter Russia can have his passport visaed by the Soviet authorities without ob. jection on the part of the State De- partment. Americans have been go- ing to Russia in increasing nymbers in recent times, hoth as business peo- Trade Greater Than Before War. Soviet statistics just issued a Washington claim that American trade with the Russian government— through which all business must be done—showed a turnover of, roundly, $34,000,000 during the first six months of 1926. This is a decrease of 48 per cent from the same period of 1923. But, even with the lower figures, they are said to represent a trade volume 50 per cent higher than the pre-war rate of business with Russia. The Soviet government maintains in New York a concern called the Amtorg Trading Corporation, which is the sole representative of Russia 1in this country for import and export activities. The Amtorg claims to be doing business with the most eminent firms and corporations in industrial America, and to be buying regularly equipment for ofl wells and refineries; dredging machiner: construction equipment, mining ‘machinery, ma- terial for blast furnaces, lathes and presses, printing machinery and lino- {tvpes; textile and cotton cleaning cquipment, electrical, telephone and | teleffraph ‘supplies; radio equipment machinery for the glags Industry, re | frigerating. machinery, agricultural {implements of all kinds; automobiles, {trucks, tractors, fire engines and mo- |tor ~cveles: machine tools, type- | writers, adding machines and other | offica equipment: non-ferrous metals, |leather goods and chemicals. From Russia the Amtorg imports into America furs, lumber, sheep casings, wool. caviar, hides, skins. carpets, feathers and chemical Secretary Kellogg, despite the con- tentions of the Russian trade au-{ thorities and American business in- terests represented to be longing for Soviet recognition, is not aware of any specific demands to that end. If ‘and when they are made, the Department of State, with President Coolidge’s _unqualified indorsement will say, in effect, that America terms are well known and remain unchanged. Moscow™ has been quainted with them for six Yy Three Presidents and three & taries of State have proclaimed and reploclaimed them—Presidents Wil- son, Harding and Coolidge and Sec- retaries Colby, Hughes and Kellogg. Russia must solemnly pledge her. self to do, and actually do, four dif- | ferent_things: 1. The S WContinued on Fourth Pag et government must dis. {cent of each Government salary in Within ‘the brief sp';u'c of 25 years, however, within the time | that the children who ride their tricycles along the sidewalks | looking out beyond. today have finished college and gone out into the world, the!put of tomorrow. States will have increased by 40,000,000. | could be transformed into crop-laden farms with the waving of population of the United They must be fed, clothed and housed, but that is the simplest|a wand. Mr. Hoover says There is plenty of room for many more.|the wand. part of the program. | programs. Many of the problems are interstate and can he solved by no single local effort. * ok ok K Mr. Hoover, it will be remembered. His picture is not the picture of today. If the millions of acres of irrigable land s standing on the ridge. s that he would be in favor of suppressing 1f the railroads of the country were to be relieved The, important thing is ‘that the standard of living set by the [overnight of the burden of carrying the Nation’s commerce American people be maintained, and that it will not be lowered. | suitable for transportation on the country’s potential inland In the early part of the nineteenth century Thomas Robert ahead of the pursuing theory of the late Mr. Malthus. | Mr. Hoover has outlined a program that will keep several jumps | waterways, Mr. Hoover would be the first to affix his name to a petition asking that the sun stand still and the coming of night “True conservation,” he says. “is to get our water at work. |be indefinitely postponed. The changes should be wrought slowly. 3y g | N pasty There are imperative reasons fc r it. Before expiration of the Today there are and industry duc to It is demonstrated by | through the vears. But today, and not tomorrow, is the time i years required for major construction we shall need more food |to begin. some other act of God that would rid the world of excess human | sypplies than our present lands will afford. many economic distortions in agricultur. increases in freight rates from the war which can|the rod and level. Science has long since mastered them. The which biologists and economists delight to battle for long hours | he greatly cured. by conversion of our inland waterways into | difficulties are those of human nature. Men are sclfish, and many into the night by writing ream upon ream of other theories.|real connected transportation systems. There are difficulties, many of them. which stand in the way. | The difficulti e not those to be solved by the steam shovel or {of them go into politics. A democracy is a slow moving and ctual rates’ current today that we can carry 1,000 bushels of‘unwield.\' machine: it cannot be pushed or shoved into action. WORK FIGHTS U. S. CONTRIBUTION New York Business Paper’s Special Edition Draws Secretary Takes Sharp Issue With Board of Actu- Attention to Question—Trade Emissary [ aries, Saying Payments to Annuitants Are at Present Just Half Total Income. ' BY “',\LTER; K. “McCALLUM. Taking a stand in opposition to a ommendation that Congra appro s nd annually there- after a_con: m of money to be added to the retirement fund a dy deposited in the Treasury b Government employes, Secr of the Interlor Work is sharply ariance with the views of many of those who administer the fund and the members of the board of actuaries | whose duty it is to investigate its status ev Winter and report 1o him, With more than $60,000,000 in the retirement fund at present, accretions by the end of the next calendar year will bring it up to more than $70,000.- The new retirement law, which zed the deduction of 312 per stead of the per cent which ha heen in existence for several y will raise employes’ contributions to the fund by more than $8,000,000 a vear. Under the old percentage jittle less than §18,000,000 a vear wa contributed by the o: 39 3 6,190, 5 wiil be contributed by the same | group of emploves a: the end of the current fiscal year, according to com- putations by the Retirement Div of the Pension Office, the administra- tor of the retirement fund. Burden on Employes. There are today 12,524 retired an-| nuitants drawing annuity pay from | the retirement fund, to which they contributed in small measure and to which their colleagues still in the jovernment service will continue to contribute until their retirement or separation from the service. For even those who have only recently ave contributed a S The retirement law has been in existence only since ugust, 1920. The burden of retire- ment payvments, as was pointed out to s during the successful fight ximum annuity, of §1,000 last Spring, must be borne by employes now in the service who will remain in the Government harness until they re- tire. So that those who retire during the first few years of the law will be drawing and are drawing substan- tially the accretions of money from their active associate For the next 10 years the retire- ment roll will mount in number -until by 1936 there will be a few more than The Retirement ves there will be a gross se each year of 2,500 annuitants and a net increase of 1,500. The other thousand will either die during the vear or will after retirement for dis- ability again become eligible to actiy service by reason of the fact that the cause of their disability has disap- peared. Another case wWhere retire- ment pay- may be stopped is that of an employe who may have been invol- untarily retired before the legal re- tirement age is reached and be again employed. Called Unsound Situation. In taking a stand opposing Federal | exaetly offset the contributions to the fund Secretary Work is going directly against the theories set down by the board of actuaries. which has repeatedly u appropriation by Congress to prevent an “economically unsound situation.’ The quotations are from the a fes themselves. The Government is making no pre vision whatever to cover the labil: ties of the fund which are not cov- employes’ contributions,” the point out, “and is not mak ing any provision whatever to liqui date the accrued liability for annui ties on account of the service of em ployes which was rendered prior to the establishment of the reijrement fund. failure to rec ion for its a nment is ac the employe: Vs to cover the actual ac- cruing labilities of the Government on account of current service of em- ployes. “By continuing the practice now followed * * * the ( in the position of actu money to pay its current and expecting a future generation t repay the amount horrowed. The tual cost of the services of the 388,62 Government employ vered by ‘the reason of thi: from vstem is really the amount of their | vearly salary plus the amount which, if paid to the retirement fund, would ultimate pensfons for which the Government will be liable for the year's service. The Government is making no appropria- tion whatever, and is permitting the pensions to begpaid by loans from the contributions of empioye: ince un- der the law the Government must re- turn every cent borrowed with compound interest, it is evident that a future generation will be faced with this debt. The practice is not only economically unsound, but it will have a tendency actually to Increase the liabilities of the Government.” Secretary Work takes the position that the time when contributions will be made from the Federal Treasury by appropriations is in the distant future, and he can see no need now for contributions by the Government, in view of the fact that accruals from employes’ salaries now average some- thing like $2,000,000 a month, and that drafts upon the fumd to pay annui- tants and other expenses are about $1,000.000 a month, or ahout half the income of the fund. This view is not supported either by the actuaries or by the Retirement Division. No Plan by Congress. deeply involved last Spring in a retirement fight which finally resulted in a compromise meas- ure—the present law, which has been referred to as the administration law -—did not write into it any provision for contributions from the Treasury to augment the fund, and deferred the day when the Treasury may be obliged to pay part of the amounts paid to retired employes. The present law came into being after President Coo!- idge had let it be known that he did not favor the §1,200 annuity provided in the identical Stanfleld and Lehl- bach bills. ‘1t was a compromise measure, drawn up at the Budget atinuea on Fourth P;'M sovernment s | Iy borrowing | expenses | for it recoils, and the kick is dangerous. Tt must be led, per- suaded and cajoled. There must be built—before the dams are raised, before the irrigation ditches are dug, before the channels arc deepened—a public sentiment to provide the force to turn the wheels in the right direction. The caterwauling of Senator | Nitwit, bellowing for action on his bill to dredge Pussywillow {Creek. must give way to tie patriotic proceedings of statesmen: the balderdash of Representative Emtypate as he swashes about damming the waters of Hog Wallow Run must be silenced t« allow cool discussion among intelligent men. The United States possesses resources in water greater than any other nation in the world. It has the wealth and the abili turn these rivers of water into “rivers of gold.” and to provide | for its children’s children the heritage of the child who is born today * %k ok % Mr. Hoover has not been content to describe conditions and to take refuge behind the popular declaration that “something | ought to be done about it.” He has outlined the problems, and told lhow to meet them. Politics, jealousies which exist between nations, states, counties and even municipalities, and the lack of any co-ordinated plan of development—all these offer obstructions {to be overcome. Nor will they be overcome by the creation of 1 another Federal bureau. national commission or a conference {of the best minds. The problems which must be solved before a national program of development can be realized existed and were solved by the | Lower Mississippi River Commission, which through a period of |years has evolved from chaos peace, finance, construction, navi gation and flood control. Mr. Hoover would like to see the establishment of such commissions on all of the great water- power development projects, on which the Federal Government and the State governments concerned would be represented and which would include in their memberships independent technica! advisers. He would give these commissions the power and the task of spending money, of construction and of administration. “The job of these commissions should be to consider the engineer- ing data, to think, to plan, to devise, advise, co-ordinate, negotiatc. ,persuade and set upon the obstreperous. They shuuld determine Imajor lines of policy to be undertaken ; they should organize the | financial support and recommend what administrative bodies !Xaliona!, State or local—should undertake cxecution and they ishould make reecommendations to Congress or State Legislatures |for action.” | There is no need for an extension of the basic authority, Mr. Hoover says, for under the Federal control of navigation, power and publi¢ lands, “we have enough authority to stop almost any- | thing even if we can't move forward.” ! There is need for better organizations of the agencies for construction and administration, Mr..Hoover says, with the view of reducing conflicting agencies in the Federal Government and to build up a center point for real and constructive national policies and for administrition in engineering and construction and greater economy in expenditure. Mr. Hoover fails to mention one important consideration upon | which the successful launching of the Nation upon any program— | whether it be war or peace time economy—largely depends. That consideration is the man wheo’ will be in a position to lead. He { may purposely and with becoming modesty have left this for ‘others to suggest, G