Evening Star Newspaper, December 6, 1931, Page 39

CONNALLY SCORES TARIFF AS A DEPRESSION CAUSE Senator Cites Shrinkage of More Than: $1,375,000,000 in Exports During 1930, | in Radio Forum Address. HE full text of the address of Senator Connally of Texas, de- livered last night in the Na- tional Radio Forum, arranged by The Washington Star and broadcast over a Natlon-wide network of the Columbia Broadcasting System follows Ladies and gentlemen of the radio sudience Public attention is now centered on Washington. Day after tomorrow Con- gress will convene under unusual and remarkable conditions. Since the crash of 1929 the country has been stagger- ing under the most far reaching and heart breaking depression that has blighted the commerce and the in- dustry of the United States within half a century. The country is filled with demands that Congress shall restore prosperity—that it shall cure this eco- nomic ailment, that it shall remedy that business ill, that it shall give a stimulant to industry's heart action, that it shall bind up the fractures in finance—in short, that it set up a business financial and industrial clinic to treat and cure all the ailments in business, industry, agriculture and finance World Trade Breakdown. Our difficulties do not arise from ghortage of crops or of manufactured articles or lack of transportation or the breakdown of any other normal function of our business life. Para- doxically enough we have an unusual surplus of farm products, of food and the raw materials out of which clothing is made. We have a plentiful supply of useful articles of general consump- tion. scarcity. Stark want is surrounded by swollen surpluses. Six or seven millions of unemployed with idle hands end hungry stomachs must face the shock of coming Winter. Farmers with bountiful crops have no means to pur- chase manufactured goods and manu- facturers are unable to sell their ac- cumulated stocks. There has been a breakdown in exchange between the nations of the world of commodities and the products of human industry There is a cause for that breakdown. Somewhere and somehow the channels of trade have been clogged and ob- structed. I do not charge that the Hawley- | Smoot tariff bill enacted by the last Republican Congress is entirely respon- sible for the present economic distress. There have been several contributing factors. Post-war deflation, the over- capitalization of industry énd the wild orgy of stock market gamblings, the fall in the price of silver and the in- crease in the value of gold, war debts both national and of corporations, in- dustries and individuals, have had their effect in producing present conditions. | Bome of these abuses cannot be cor- | rected by legislation. Some lie beyond our shores. Question of Tariff. I cannot deny the conviction that the unfortunate enactment of the tariff act of 1930 largely contributed to the dis- asters which now surround us. In 1930 the Democratic campaign for Congress- men and Senators made the Republican tariff an outstanding issue. The Demo- crats regarded the act of 1930 as ex- orbitant and unnecessary. The rates theretofore in effect in general were more than adequate, They made a fight against its provisions. They voted against it. They thought the President should veto it. But the President an- nounced he would sign it before it reached his desk. Before passage it was proposed &s an aid to the farmer and the laboring man. After its pas- sage farm prices dropped to the lowest general level reached in 35 years. Be- | and higher wages. In the midst of plenty, there is | | barriers are hurdles over which trade | and commerce cannot easily vault. The | people of the United States possess sur- | pluses of goods needed in foreign lands. | we need |of the exchange of such commodities. | World trade is in a trafiic jam. There | 15 congestion and_stagnation. |is not moving. The tax upon it is too | great | to buy foreign goods they refuse to buy ours [law and | McCumber rates has | with foreign nations. No one now knows | majority is Democratic, the Senate is | burdens. | be willing to lessen the high rates now | far as lies within their power they will | fore passage it pretended to aid the laboring man with more employment After passage labor- ing men without jobs are increased by the millions. Where is the laborer whose wages has been increased? Where are the new jobs it promised? A billion more dollars out of the pock- ets of the consumers. Where has that billion dollars gone? It has not gone to the farmer. It has not gone to the laboring man. It was intended to go to increase the profits of a few power- ful interests. In the long run, how- | ever, because of shrinkage in trade, | these very interests may lose more than | they gain Denies Trade Promoted. And what has it done for American trade? It was declared to be an act to promote United States trade. How has it promoted that trade? For the year 1930 the value of United States exports shrunk more than $1,375,000,000 under exports for 1929. For the first 10 months of 1931 they have fallen more than a billion under 1930. For 1930, imports of goods to the United States were $1,338,000,000 below the im- ports for 1920, In the first 10 months | of 1931 imports fell more than a billion under 1930. There was a reason for that. Back of it was a cause. Some- thing made our exports smaller. Some- thing kept out imports. Something | slowed up international trade. Thz| Smoot-Hawley skyscraper tariff barrier aroused foreign nations to retaliation. Canada lifted her walls higher. Great Britain has reversed her traditional pol- icy and imposed tariff duties. Other countries in lesser and greater degrees | have done likewise. Tariffs and trade | Other nations possess stocks of goods International trade consists Business ‘We cannot sell our goods abroad unless we also buy When we refuse Time Required for Revision. General revision probably could not be undertaken for lack of time at this session. A bill repealing the present restoring the old Fordney- been suggested. There are those who propose the enact- ment of legislation based on reciprocity what may transpire. While the House still in_control of the Republicans. A Republican President is in the White House. It is assumed that the President will veto any amelioration of tariff No one believes that he will in effect. While moderate tariff re- vision could be passed by the Senate, it would certainly meet an Executive veto. Legislative control always carries legislative responsibility. The Democrats will not shirk that responsibility. So open up the channels of foreign trade. They hope to move our surplus of wheat and cotton and agricultural products | and other export commodities to foreign markets—they are willing to exchange such goods in those markets for goods which our people need. Business will never revive until the purchasing power of agriculture, labor and the producing classes is restored. Trade, commerce, exchange, & busy and bustling market- THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. ., DECEMBER 6 1931—PART TWO. “Mr. Henry Pu,” Ex-Emperor Youth Who Twice Has Sat on China’s Dragon Throne Again May Rule Manchuria. BY LEONEBEL JACOBS. IKE figures glimpsed for a mo- ment in the light of ascending flares and then lost again in darkness, the slender form of “Mr. Henry Pu,” last Emperor of China, is revealed in momentary news flashes from the Flowery King- dom. Now here, now there, the beam plays on the phantom “ruler” as he is moved around on the political chess- board of Manchuria. One day we read that under a mid- night smoke screen of banditry and rioting the Son of Heaven, wearing the faded blue gown of a coolle, has fled from the barrack-like building at Tien- of Dairen Again the light flashes and we see him, still in disguise, being whisked north by special express train on the South Manchurian Raflway, bound ap- parently for Mukden. We hear that decked with chrysanthemums, are being |tsin, where he has lived, obscurely but | sofely, for seven years, and has boarded | |a vessel for the Japanese-controlled port | | ¥ { | new banners are being woven for him | | |by eager hands and triumphal arches, | . | erected. Japan, one surmises, is plan- | ning to put “Mr. Henry Pu” back on the | ! throne of his ancestors. Then the struggle in Manchuria be- we lose sight of this royal chessman, | comes more intense and for a few days | only to learn, on November 19, that he | 50 miles away, and that the old Manchu palace of the Ching dynasty there is being prepared for his imperial occu- pancy. Among the thousands of loyal Chinese in this country, who have for years contributed to his support, there is" rejoicing that the empire of the rorth is once more about to be rein- carnated. But these rejoicings apparently are premature, for two days later, on No- vember 21, we are told that the Gover- nor of Kwantung has issued a statement intimating that Japan does not favor the move to restore Mr. Henry Pu-yi to the throne of Manchuria; that Nippon is, in fact, so determined not to let him be used as an excuse for political in- a prisoner. In Currents of Intrigue. As T write this no one can predict what will finally happen to this slight young man, who all his life has been currents of international intrigue. The tide may turn once more in his favor. He may don for the third time the yel- low robes of state, be carried aloft by 106 bearers in & glorious silk palanquin and wield the jade scepter of empire, or he may remain in Japanese-protected obscuri! To those who have known the Boy Emperor personally—his se- cluded training and his almost childlike pleasures—the vision of him in the cen- ter of the Manchurian caldron is fan- tastic and disquieting. It is impossible to believe that he would enjoy being thrust into such a part. 1 first came to know the Boy Emperor when I was staying at the Hotel de Pekin in 1922. From the window of this modern hostelry, with its steam heat, private baths and other Western con. veniences, I could look over the outer walls and glazed yellow roofs of the Forbidden City. Somewhere in that large and—for foreigners—almost inaccessible domain lived the 17-year-li Son of Heaven, his person surrounded still by much of the wealth, beauty and cir- cumstances of his imperial ancestors, but entirely shorn of their power, since China had become a republic. Pu-yl, a crying, protesting infant of 3, had been taken from his bed one midnight in 1908 by order of the then trigues that she is keeping him almost | swirled hither and thither by the flerce | |is not at Mukden, but at Tangkangtzu, | bronzes. Unusual rock gardens, beau- tifully carved white marble, spirited || screens, staircases and balustrades de- lighted the cye. Conventionalized | dragons, clouds and sea were interwoven in every conceivable pattern and in endless variety, Famous Well Passed. We passed the famous well just in- side the gate of Tung Wha Men, where the unhappy Pearl Concubine had met her death. This beautiful little lady, one of the two daughters of the Viceroy of Canton, was the close friend and almost the only loyal supporter at court | of that inept end tragic figure, the Emperor Kuang-hsu. While Kuang- hsu was kept a prisoner for nearly two years for his supposed treachery against the Dowager Eivess, the Pearl Con- cubine also langiished in a filthy little room, given only enough food to keep | her _aliv | il LEONEBEL JACOB'S PORTRAIT Dowager Empress, “Old Buddah.” He had been carried in the arms of his| amah to the palace and inaugurated as Emperor to succeed his uncle Kuang- hsu, whose body still lay, warm and distorted. on his deathbed. ~Almost im- mediately the old Empress Dowager herself had died also. The baby had | held the title for four brief years, until | in 1912 an edict of abdication had been signed in his name. Power Briefly Held. ‘The imperial scepter had been once more placed in his hands for a few brief | days in July, 1917, when the monarchial | forces had enjoyed a brief success, but after that he had lapsed again into ob- scurity. For five more years he had lived in the Forbidden ~City, almost never going outside its walls, as com- pletely cut off from the turbulent cur- | rents of war and -politics swirling | around him as a character in a story | book. | T knew that Pu-yl and his wife, the Empress, who now calls herself “Eliza- | beth,” were still surrounded, in their secluded life in the ancient palace, with | much of the pomp and circumstance of | | the old courts, but already, I felt sure, | | the moths of war, democracy and mod- | | ern industrialism’ were eating into this | centuries-old fabric and in a few years | it might be gone forever. I yearned | to record on canvas some of the splen- | dor of old China before it was too late. | However, entry into the Forbidden City | and eudience with the Son of Heaven | were no easy things to achieve. Dis- | tinguished foreigners had lived in Pe- OF THE MANCHU EMPEROR. king a lifetime and never been inside the mysterious gates. Moreover, noth- ing is done in China in a hurry. End-| less tea drinking and polite formalities must precede everything. Peking, both native and foreign, hndi been very hospitable to me. I had made | many portraits of members of the old | court and of visiting foreigners, one of | the latter being Rabindranath Tagore. | This last picture particularly interested | Mr. R. F. Johnston, English tutor to his Imperial majesty, and he told the Emperor about it. It was this interest which first opened for me the gates of the Forbidden City, that mysterious, fairy-tale place where so many cen- turies of Chinese rulers had lived in a pomp and grandeur almost beyond ‘Western imagination. We drove in Mr. Johnston's car to the massive vermillion outer gate (China is & succession of gates), and then changed ro yellow satin up- holstered chairs mounted on two poles. On these we were carried joltingly, un- comfortably on the shoulders of eunuchs over mure than a half mile of | stone pavements beside high walls top- ped with yellow tiles. Through courts and reception rcoms and more courts we went, and gardens which seemed older than the memory of man. The gardens, like the dynasty, had fallen into decay. Stone and tile gleamed brightly behind tufts of grass that grew rankly wherever a seed had found sprouting room. Many Chinese court- yards are severely plain, but some of these in the Forbidden City were peo- pled with ancient and marvelous | during the hours of garkness When “Old Buddha,” frightened by the anger she had stirred up among the “foreign devils” for her encourage- ment of the Boxers, was forced to fiee from Peking, she felt it inconvenient to leave this 'prisner behind, and is therefore repited to have given orders to her eunuchs. So they took the Pearl Concubine and hurled her into the well, and since her cries could still be heard by those above, the second eunuch pushed a huge rock over the edge; then the well was covered over, 1 Tooked at this grim spot and shiv- ered. Rumor hus it that even today, moans may be heard from the depths by those who care to listen We finally reached Mr. Johnston's quarters, and there I had my first meeting’ with the Son of Heaven. At that time he was only a boy. He was slender, of medium height, with beau- tiful tapering hands. He wore the street dress of a Chinese gentleman, a gray silk robe, plain black silk jacket and & little round cap, in the front of which was & large jewel. He might have been, so far as appearances were goncerned, one of his own ancestors ut for a very modern touch— and slightly shaded tortoise shell a‘f{:gf tacles. ~ The Chinese loves Western spectacles. I think they make him feel modern and sophisticated, and this was apparently ‘he Boy Emperor's own attitude toward fhem. Later, when I painted his portrait, I tried to get him to take them off, but was unsuccessful. He clung to them s a child to a toy, On the occasion of riy first visit was struck by the fact that the in- heritors of the Manchu power, like the Ferbidden City, seemed gently helpless before the changes time was bringing about. Just as the marbles and bronzes were overgrown with grass, 50 this most celestial of celestial cou- | ples had let Western civilization and China’s new freedom impinge on their life and customs withcut adaptation or absorption. Black and Gold Wood. In the palace rooms, for example, we frequently came on some priceless bit of jade, scme beautiful antique, standing on a square of cheaply prin ed American kitchen oflcloth! A room rich with black and gold wood, in- tricately carved and hung with rare examples of k'cssu, or embroidery, would have at its modern glass win- dows tawdry cctton “lace” curtains of a type familiar in poor American homes of the period. The doorsills in most Chinese courts are high, and this was true in the Forbidden City. But I noticed with curiosity that between the gates and exits to the courts where the Emperor and Empress lived, small inclined, bridgelike approaches and descents (Continued on Fourth Page.) a bustling world market will go far toward restoring prosperity and normal business. Turkey Makes Bid for Power Among Six Nations at VIENNA, Austria.—The most inter- esting recent development in Eastern Europe has been a new and peaceful bid for power in international affairs by Turkey, following the second Balkan conference just concluded in Istanbul. The “Terrible Turk” is being tamed at last. Turkey, long the bad man of the Balkans, is going out of its way these days to take the lead in new ad- justments of Balkan affairs, and is vig- orously committed to prepare grounds for future Balkan union. Hav- ing lost the Balkans by war, Turkey #cems trying to get them back by peace. Immediately after the Balkan con ference M. Litvinoff, the Russian for- eign minister, arrived in Turkey for en important series of negotiations, which culminated in the extension for | The rocts of the tree extend to em- five years of the present Turco-Soviet friendship treaty. Greece and Turkey Friends. Turkey already has waved the olive branch at Greece, and the recent meet- ing of Ismet Pasha and M. Venizelos, the Turkish and Greek prime ministers, in Athens put the seal on the new found Greco-Turkish friendship. The Turks have just taken another forward step—the recognition of King Zog's regime in Albania. The reason why recognition was so long withheld is obscure. of personal bad feeling beteween Zog and Mustapha Kemal Pasha, the Tur- kish dictator. But officially this is now of the past, if it ever existed, and nor- mal diplomatic relations between Tur- key and Albania have begun. Greece, in the old days, was always the first of the traditional enemies of Turkey; Bulgaria was next launched a friendly entente Greece, Turke garia. The new Bulgar premier, M Mouschanoff, has been invited on state visit to Ankara. He has accepted Thus the world moves. on the Greco-Turkish model! something to make old Balkan heads turn with incredulity. Conference Results Meager. The results of the Balkan confer- ence were meager in practical details, but perhaps significant from the point of view of atmosphere. | The conference was unofficial, but the Turks did everything they cculd | to make it as formal as possible, and | Ismet Pasha, the veteran prime min- ister, received the delegates as host. He stood in the same room in Yildiz Palace where only 20-odd years ago Sultan Abdul Hamid and his successors | did their utmost to persecute and sub- Jjugate the representatives of the same countries. And Kemal Pasha himself concluded the conference with a speech in Ankara. ‘The conference immediately fell afoul of the minorities issue. The Bul- | sclentist, daring fever and snakes, has| gars complain bitterly of the treat- ment given to their Macedonian na- tionals by the Jugoslavs. If Turkey wants genuinely to be a Balkan peace- maker, this is the first great dispute | which it must try to mediate. | The six Balkan countries at the con- | ference fell, acccrding to the London Times, in three groups. Jugoslavia end Rumania, the biggest and the nearest to Europe, had a big-brother air, perhaps not entirely friendly. They were inclined to be a bit condescending. Albania and Bulgaria were the two countries with outstanding grievances. They lost by the peace treaties and their minorities are suffering. Greece and Turkey, finally, are mcre or less neutral and, having made & friendship between themselves, are working neral ce am the others. e P M%Mnafl‘n visit the | nothing " else, Balkan Conference ference is probably a coincidence, but it did not pass without comment. The renewal of the Turco-Soviet treaty binds both countries very closely. If Turkish efforts eventually lead to some sort of Balkan unicn (of course highly remote), then Russia, as an avowed partner of Turkey, might claim a share in the whole Balkan region under the Turkish sphere of influence. Finally, the conference, if it did| gave excitement to the| philatelists. * Souvenir stamps were | issued and scld by the Turkish post office during the meetings. They are a rare item, showing, probably for the | first time in the history of Balkan postage, all the Balkan countries united in a symbolic design, an olive tree. brace comprehensively the seven Bal- kan capitals, in one friendly group— There have been rumors | So, having with has turned now to Bul- Bulgars and | gre very ‘Turks officially sipping coffee tgether | frequent, in the Turkisn capital, while sgnibg | from Hawaii to Japan and bec what will no doubt be an amity treaty | prominent there. s is | Istanbul, Ankara, Athens, Tirana, Sofia, | | Belgrade and Bucharest. The stamps came in nine denominations and | 300,000 ~complete sets were printed, probably making & tidy sum for the depleted Turkish exchequer. (Copyright, 1931.) pan Shows Interest In Sports of Hawaii | HONOLULU.—Hawali’s prominence as a spcrts center has been recognized in an unusual manner by the news- { paper K okumin Shimbun of Tokio, Japan. The Kokumin has just sent a staff sports writer, Itsuro Hattori, to | be stationed in Hawaii for at least two | vears and to “cover” Hawail sports particularly. |, Swimming and base ball news will | form a large part of his correspond- ence, inasmuch as Hawaii is promi- nent in both these sports and they popular in Japan. There are instances of athletes going ming The leading pitcher in the Japanese empire this year is “Bozo” Wakabayashi, an American- born Japanese, who was formerly a grammar school and high school star here. Subsequently, he went to Japan and entered a Japanese university, where he scon became the star twirler, Hawail's swimming prowess is one of the stimulants to swimming in Japan; visits of swimmers from one country another are frequent. Hattorl, the okumin's writer, was an all-around athlete at Kelo University. Jungle Bug to Kill Hawaiian Sugar Pests HONOLULU, Hawali—Down in the steamy jungles of Malay an American been experimenting with a predacious bug and the result is an announcement, in coldly scientific language, which may mean & lot to people who slap and scratch after the visits of the common garden mosquito, C. E. Pemberton, entomologist with the Hawalian sugar planters’ experi- ment station here, is back from his trip to the jungles with news that this bug is hardy enough to be transported and can be brought to Hawali and even to the mainland. It needs direct trans- portation, for the bug must be fed en route and transshipment is dangerous. Dr. Pemberton is importing a number of parasites to ..tucgo insect pests in | Hawail. Some of these pests would be economic menaces if allowed to flourish BY GASTON NERVAL. N less than a month three moving pictures exhibited in Washington theaters depicting—or rather sup- posed to depict—Latin American scenes have added to the general misconception of Latin American life, customs and people which has long pre- vailed in this country. A misconception for which Hollywood movie producers and fiction writers throughout United States are principally sponsible. talkie re- The first | Douglas Fairbanks, jr., showed an am- bitious American young fellow playing nonchalantly with the politics of a Central American republic, where cabinet officers were at his mercy. The stability of the whole government of that country depended on the wit of one, a starring who bribed every official he came in contact with. “Shot for Grafting.” ‘The President, the minister of finances and his colleagues, all were grafters, profiting with the country's funds, and trying to keep thelr private financial deals from the public to avoid another revolution. In this they were only following & tradition of the country. In a certain scene Pairbanks, Jr., is shown at the presidential palace, where pictures of the former ministers of finances and treasurers hang from the walls. These have inscriptions which show that all of them had been shot for grafting” “deposed for | treason,” and so on. Tibbet and Lupe Velez in the cast, was embarrassing to Cuba, where the main developments of the story occur. The views of Havana, as usual, are deceiv- ing. They feature only the antique and dirty spots of the city, neglecting en- tirely to show the modern Havana, one of the most beautiful and luxurious metropolises in the New World The scenes in which the Havana “.nd ridiculed by the American “blue- jackets,” are offensive to the pride of Cuban institutions. Adds to Misconception. The indignation which this picture caused among those who have lived in Havana bad hardly died away when another film now comes to add to the | bad reputation and discredit of Cuba | which the movies are succeeding in cre- ating. “Suicide Fleet,” exhibited last | week in & local theater. even surpasses the others in thoroughly misrepresent- ing the life and habits of Cubans. Street scenes leave with the spectator 8 very poor impression of the material progress of the Cuban capital. And night olub and cabaret scenes of & Havana which only exists in the im- agination of the film's director make the distortion more complete. Of course, the Havana police force could not be spared this‘time either. Once more three gallant, robust Ameri. can sailors give the Havana policemen a lesson in quickness of mind and in quickness of fists. They get away with it, and & police corps which is actually renowned for its efficiency and dis. cipline serves once again to provide excitement and laughter to ‘“movie- unchecked. For instance, the mealybug has been attacking sugar cane, but ‘The fact that fmmediately followed the Balkan con- Pemberton is importing which prey on the mealyl lv;n” in thel United States, 'or many long years, as 1 hy occasion to point out in these :;fumhfi pictures * U. 8. A" have gone on dhcnxl-:gxeun‘: l":; MOVIES IN LATIN LANDS BREAK DOWN GOOD WILL U. S. Directors Display Lamentable Igno- rance in Pictures Which Ridicule People and Customs. the | this daring young man “from the U.S."” | illegal enrichment,” “executed for high | The second picture, one with Lawrence | police intervene, only to be outwitted | ridiculing things Latin American with | ingenious persistence. In their in- satiable desire to give the movie fan something new, something different, film producers have let their imagina- tions run wild in making up most fanci- ful scenes about the life and the people of Latin American countries with a contempt for truthfulness and reality which can only be attributed to lam- entable ignorance. Ignorance of Latin American conditions and ignorance of the harm they are doing, which is even more regrettable. And I say ignorance, | for the idea must be rejected that there !is anything maliciously intentional in the situation, although this charge has been made often in the Southern con- | tinent. Especially during the last few years, | since the rise of tre talkies, this ab- solute ignorance of the Latin countries | | has made itself particularly felt, Every | film with a Latin American background | reproduces the same erroneous con- | cepts, gives the same misleading de- tails and leaves the same mistaken im- pression on the public. Picture Scenes of Century Ago. They all picture Latin American cities as the old, ugly, unkempt towns they were 100 years ago. Those nar- row, twisted streets of Colonial days still are typical of every Spanish- (Continued on Fourth Page.) U. S. PLANS SU PERLINERS TO MEET FOREIGN RIVALRY 1,000-Foot Vessels to Make Four-Day Crossing and Carry 4,000 Each V oyage Revealed by Naval Architects. Note—With the exception of per- haps the Leviathan, vessels of other nations rule the North Atlantic high- speed passenger and mail service. For years England, and now Germany and France, have built the fastest and best ships. 'But the United States is offer- ing a challenge to this supremacy. - A recent announcement presents plans for future superliners equaling those of any foreign power. The day of American leadership as typified by the Yankee clipper may et return. The unique features of these coming Ameri- can liners are presented in the fol- lowing article, personally proofread and | approved by the man who designed these monster ships—Mr. Theodore E. Ferris, naval architect and marine | engineer. BY ROBERT D. POTTER. WH!LE European nations at Bremen, Majestic and simi- lar vessels, the United with ships capable in every respect to challenge the existing supremacy. Naval Architects and Marine Engineers was one by Mr. Theodore E. Ferris, present rule North Atlantic shipping with the Europa, States s not idle—for plans have been revealed that will provide this nation A feature of the papers presented at the recent meeting of the Society of member of the council of that society, BTOCKHOLM.—Sweden now has the unusual distinction of belng run by a political party which controls less than one-eighth of the seats in the Lower House and, what is more important, is very likely to lose a number of those | seats in the next general elections. A finishing touch was added to the already incongruous position of the prohibition party, which has been in control since June, 1930, when the minister of finance, F. T. Hamrin, re- cently indicated that the government intended to use receipts from the liquor monopoly to balance the budget for | 1032-33." That a party whose principal | plank is to turn Sweden into & drinker’s Sahara should strengthen the power of the liquor monopoly oy making the state dependent upon it for revenue is something which dry voters fall to fathom. Needless to say, Prime Minis- ter C. G. Ekman and his colleagues will Fave to do some tall explaining during next electoral campalgn. mesome idea of the Swedish political situation may be gained from the fact that the Prohibition partv has only 28 seats in the Lower House, while the Conservatives have 73 and the Social Democrats 90. Likewise, it has but 22 seats in the Upper House, whereas the Conservatives control 50 and the Social Democrats 54. Herr Ekman’s cabinet 1;13 tolerated by Conservatives and Soc! Democrats simply for the reason that the Ekman group holds a balance of power which could hamstring either one of the stronger parties if it M\ffc“.} trol. At present the Swedish polit A game is one of watchful waiting and o trying to stay out of power, rather of to secure it, % the elect; y for bring an | than eral one Small Minority in Riksdag of Sweden Controls Government Paradoxically of the stronger parties to secure a work- ing majority. For a country of slightly more than 6,000,000 ple, Sweden has an as- tounding large number of active po- litical parties, inany of which do not even hold seats in the Riksdag. In the Riksdag there are representatives of six distinct groups—conservatives, farmers, liberals, prohibitionists, social Democrats and = Communists. The Swedish national Communists, who alone are represented, count eight seats in the Lower House and one in the Upper. “Left” parties are numerous outside of the Riksdag, and each one seems to have enough financial backing to sup- port & newspaver. In Stockholm, in addition to the Social Democrat, a daily, and the Folkets Dagblad, which represents the national Communists, there are newspapers representing the Moscow Communists, the syndicalists and the political anarchists.” Thus it is possible for weeks at a time to pick up at least one paper every day and read about impending revolutions, gross ebuses on the part of the gosernment, criticism of the royal family, as well as exciting items about the caplitalistic countries in which freedom of the press is not as real as it is in democratic Sweden. Despite its somewhat precarious po- litical position the Ekman government is proceeding with the principal busi- ness in hand—the balancing of the budget—and is apparently expecting to stay in power uniil the general elec- tions next Fall. The absence in Sweden of the European institution—"vote of which gives complete specifications for American-made and American-owned superliners, Nearly 1,000 feet in length, as safe s s humanly possible to build a ship at the present time, with a speed of from thirty to thirty-two knots and a crulsing radius of 6,450 miles at twenty-five knots, these future Ameri- can liners may put the United States back in the long-desired position once held when the clipper ships set records for transatlantic runs. Result of Long Research. Backed by research, covering a period of a year and a half, the detailed plans have now been approved by the Ameri- can Bureau of Shipping, Lloyds and the Navy Department. Construction rests with legislative matters coming before the next Congress. A score and more of twenty-foot models were tested in the Navy's ex- perimental model basin at Washington for every concelvable hazard, ease of maneuverability, seaworthinéss and other nautical considerations. In light of these tests it is felt that these new express liners—the blue ribbon ships— will surpass all others in safety. Since the days of the fated Titanic disaster this question of safety has been siven Increasing importance. It has been the object of innumerable con- ventions and meetings by all maritime nations. Not that it is conceivable that such ranking collisions as that of the Titanic will ever happen again, but maritime architects must provide for every possible emergency. And the way to guard against this possibility is to install water-tight bulk- heads crosswise throughout the ship. It a single bulkhead is injured and the in- closed compartment becomes open to the sea the ship can still remain afloat and maintain some degree of maneu- verability. Starting in the old days with few bulkheads, naval science has so pro- gressed that ships successively were built capable of staying affoat with one, two and finally three compartments open to the sea. The crowning achievement of these new proposed superliners will be the fact that they can still float with four compartments flooded. This is the American answer to the rigid require- ments of safety at sea. No other ship afloat has ever obtained this factor of capacity, but Yankee ingenuity has solved the problem. Flooding Compartments. And when one says that the ships will stay afloat with four compart- ments flooded it really means that for certaln parts of the vessel it will be necessary to provide for the flooding of five or six compartments. The possible listing of the ship makes this necessary. Designed especially for the require- ments of high-speed North Atlantic traffic, these vessels will be constructed | with a high freeboard forward for top speeds in rough weather and in general appearance remind one of an enormous model of naval cruisers because of the comparatively low height aft and the absence of overhang at that point. And inclosed within 11 s us decks will be & small-sized city of nearly 4,000 people—2,769 passengers and 1,181 in the crew. \ confidence”—gives reason to that it may do £o. bt (Copyright, 1931.) licate plans have been pared (wD:fthm p;:_neul turbine @2 (Contini on Fourth Page.) Merge With G. BY MARK SULLIVAN, T would be the usual thing, but quite futile, to invent some gen- eralization about the Congress that sits on Monday and the condition of Government that will accom- pany it. A few important character- istics can be pointed out. They do not | all point the same way and they do not lend themselves to generalization. First of all, there will be no “coali- tion government,” no agreement for | non-partisan action. Something like | that, judging by letters coming to | ‘Washington, is anticipated or yearned for by a large part of the public. The idea was put in their minds chiefly by | the example of Great Britain, where in August Prime Minister MacDonald summoned leaders of all parties and factions to unite in a “national gov- ernment.” Mr. MacDonald’s action, translated into terms of American poli- tics, would mean that President Hoover would appoint a wholly new cabinet, consisting of, let us say, Democrat Al- | fred E. Smith to be Secretary of State, Progressive Robert M. La Follette to be Secretary of the Treasury, Social- ist Norman Thomas to be Postmaster General and so on. | ‘That is not possible in America be- cause of the difference in form of gov- ernment. Great Britain does not have the clear division that we have between | executive and legislative. In Britain the cabinet members are also mem- bers of Parliament; the cabinet in Brit- | ain, indeed is, speaking broadly, made up of the heads of important commit- | tees in Parliament. In sbort, coalition | government in the formal sense is made impossible by the forms of our gov- ernmental institutions. Informal Coalition Unlikely. A different thing, an informal coall- | tion government, while possible and conceivable, is so unlikely that the possibility can be dismissed. Informal non-partisan Government would take the shape of an agreement upon com- mon action by Democratic Speaker Garner controlling the House, together with his Democratic associates, and on the otber side Republican President | Hoover together with the Republican leaders of the House and Senate. That can be written down on paper; it can hardly exist, in fact. It would‘ hardly be yielded by the Democrats | and it would hardly be asked by the Republican President. A request by President Hoover that the Democrats controlling the House | act in a non-partisan way would | amount to a request by him that the | Democrats facilitate his re-election as | President. The reason is plain—the chief cause of the arising among the | public of a wish for a coalition gov- | ernment is the existence of the busi- ness depression. The chief purpose of | the dreamed-of coalition government | would be to facilitate recovery from de- pression. The principal political ebi fect of recovery from depression would be to make re-election of President Hoover next November more probable. | Everybody—and especially every poli- ticlan—knows that. ; To ask the Democrats to participate in a coalition government would be to ask them to cease to be an opposition party. It would be exactly the same if the situation of the two parties were reversed. The thing is impossible in nature. If there 1s business recovery the Democrats want it to seem to come as the result of measures initiated in Congress by them. If there is no busi- ness_recovery or insufficient recovery, the Democrats as the opposition party want _the responsibility to rest on the Republican administration, and want not to participate in whatever actions are taken that fail to bring recovery. In the essential nature of the situation, under our form of government and our party system, with a presidential elec- tion approaching, the party out of power wants to mark itself off from the party in power. It would be precisely the same if the situation were reversed, with the Democrats in power and the Republicans out. Must Make Impression. The outstanding fact in the coming Congress will be continuous conscious- ness of the approaching presidential election. Every Democrat knows the arty’s principal hope next November ies in the impression it makes on the public by its conduct this Winter as the majority controlling the House. The Democrats could hardly make any im- | pression at all if they should merge themselves with the Republicans. Even if dissent from mutual agree- ment were not dictated by the condi- tions, it would come about through the | personal and political convictions of | Speaker Garner. Mr, Garner is to a strong degree a “party man.” He be-| | lieves there is a Republican party nnd; a Democratic party and that the public should never be in doubt as to which is_which. ‘Mr. Garner was dublous about even that degree of co-operation which President Hoover brought about when on October 6 he called leaders of both parties together and submitted to them proposals he was about to make for a National Credit Corporation and other measures of relief for the depression. Speaker Garner, as reported in the newspapers at the time, said to Mr. Hoover, in effect: “Mr. President, you are writing your party program-—and asking Democratis to underwrite it.” Mr. Garner continued to voice his doubts after the conference was over.| He prefers action on a strict party basis. _Previous to that occasion, in| June, when President Hoover by tele- | graph submitted to leaders of both par- | ties his proposal for postponement of intergovernment debts, Garner was one Democrat who preferred not to com- | mit_himself. | It is true and no doubt will be brought up that a year ago, socn after the election of November, 1930, when the Democrats won the control of the House, which now takes effect—at that ; time Garner joined with other Demo- cratic leaders in making a voluntary public pledge of something like co-| operation. But the co-operation when | attempted in the Congress that sat a year ago did not work out. In Amer- ican politics as it is, non-partisan co- operation can be an aspiration, but rarely a reality. Even if Speaker Garner did not have the temperament and conviction that lean backward from non-partisan agree- ment, he could hardly co-operate if he would. His speakership and his party leadership are going to rest on the slen- derest sort of a majority, not over four or five, out of a total House member- ship of 435. To put through any policy or measure whatever, Garner must have the support of almost literally every Democrat in the House. He could not have any such unanimity, or any near approach to it, if he were to commit himself to a policy of co-operation with the President. ‘The sum of which is that there can hardly be any ‘“coalition government” or any other form of serious or con- tinued co-operation. The reverse, a rather tensely partisan feeling, is the greater possibility. One thing we know about the Con- gress that sits on Monday. It will have & very troubled session. It would be troubled enough as the result of any one of several causes. Here is a divided government—the Republicans control- ling the presidency and seeming to cone trol the Senate, with the Democrats controlling the 'House; the executive branch of the Government set off from the legislative branch—and the two bodies that compose the legislative branch set off from each other. Not only that. The control of the Senate by the Republicans is by a mar- gin so faint as to be in ice non- existent. The paper majority of one, the blicans wl seem, to in'the Senate, ia Toduced torpothig— i 3 CONGRESSIONAL COALITION HELD NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE . Democrats, With Task of Making Record for °32 Election, Cannot Afford to O. P. Forces. to about 18 less than not! the fact that some 14 of the Repul calling themselves Progressive Repubs licans, will vote with the Democrats more often than with the Republicans. . In the House the situation will be somewhat the same, with the parties reversed. The Democrats in the House, like the Republicans in the Senate, have a paper majority, but not a real . one. Speaker Garner was raised in the “‘cow country.” He knows what is meant “by riding herd.” He knows that na cowboy friend of his youth ever had s0 hard a job as he himself is now about to have. Garner knows that and the marks of anxiety that go with his knowledge have already appeared in deepening lines on his ruddy counte- - nance. Garner knows the inherent cleavage - among the Democrats, party leaders know it, political observers know it, every one on the inside of politics knows it. ‘The public does not know it yet, but soon will. The public has been fa- miliar for years with the chasm be~' tween “Republicans” and “Progressive Republicans.” What the public is now about to learn is that there is in the Democratic party a latent cleavage deeper and wider than the one in the Republican. The Democratic cleavage does not fol- low the same line as the Republican one. The Republican cleavage between '™ Western Progressives and Eastern con< servatives is mainly on economic issues. The Democratic cleavage between the Southern States and Northern ecities, especially Tammany, includes to some extent’ economic issues, but also sece tional self-consciousness and sectional pride, dissimilarity of tradition, acutely controversial difference of policy about' immigration restriction and also proe hibition. The difference between & - Tammany Democrat and a Southern one on such issues as prohibition and immigration is very real. Now that the Democrats have responsibility the cleav- age will come to the surface. Motive for Harmony. It will take a miracle of tact on the part of Speaker Garner to keep his party from flying to pieces. The Demo- | crats have, it is true, many good rea- sons to strive hard for harmony. They are in power in one branch of the Government for the first time in 13 years. They are, therefore, and fof other reasons, conspicuous in the sight of the public. This they realize. They know their behavior in this Congress, the impression they make on the pub- lic will be the largest single factor bearing on their chance to win next year’s presidential election. They want desperately to win the presidency; that is the most urgent motive they have. ‘They genuinely want to avoid rows, genuinely wish to show the country that they can run the House of Repre- sentatives in a decorous and or(&fiy way. They know that on this particular * point the public is a little suspicious of the Democrats, that the public re- members the 1924 National Convention and the fight between McAdoo and Smith, which lasted over two weeks. They know the public tends to think the Democrats are rather given to chaos, to Donnybrook fairs and Kil- kenny noises. The Democrats know all this and they want desperately to be harmo- nious. Maybe they can achieve it. If they do Speaker Garner should go down in history—Texan and Ameri- can—as the greatest rounder-up of mavericks, the most soothing crooner of pacifying melodies that ever “rode herd” on beasts or men. There is one possibility in this ses- sion of Congress which—if it comes to the front at all—will overshadow every- thing else. This possibility can be called the “money issue,” or the “cheap money issue,” or the “silver issue,” or the “bimetallism issue.” If it comes to the front in this Congress it will re- main to the front for the coming presi- dential campalgn, and if it comes to the front at all it will overshadow everything else; it will come with the force either of a tide or of a cyclone; and in either case it will come for- { midably. Whether it will come depends on the" price of commodities. I cannot put it better than I put it in this paper once - before, on October 18 last: “Tell me whether the price of wheat six months from now will be, roughly, the same as now, and other commodis . . ties the same. If you can tell me that, then I can tell you the ‘money ques- tion’ will overshadow everything else in the presidential campaign. But if you tell me that six months from now wheat will be $1 a bushel and other commodities likewise up—then I can® tell you the presidential campaign will be fought on prohibition or something. else, something other than the ‘money question.’ " At the time I wrote that, in October, Wheat was, roughly, 50 cents & bushel; :gox: bz!tfr”:)t rose",s rather sensationally, ul cents, and theres - ceded to about 55 cents. afler 2 May Escape Money Question, The rise of about 40 per cent in the course of some 10 weeks shows how Quickly and how greatly the price of : Wheat can move. If during the next few weeks or months wheat should g0 on up toward 80 or 90 cents or $1 & bushel (and other commodities in simi lar proportion) —in that event we may gig:spen r‘;gel maney que’sd}mni in this Con- n this presidential campalga, Otherwise look out, for it. Syt e price of wheat (and other, commodities) remains low, it is easy to Vvisualize what will happen. The thing will start with a movement for the re~"" lief of debtors, especially farmer debtors, Some representatives of the farmer in. politics, somebody in Congress or some aspirant for the presidency like Gov. Murray of Oklahoma, will point out the burden put upon farmers (and other debtors) by what has happened during’ the last two or three years. The cru- sader in behalf of the farmer will cite a typical example like this—which ex- ists in literally hundreds of thousands of cases. A farmer, two or three or five }yesrs ago, borrowed $5,000 on a mort- gage on his farm; at that time the price of wheat was, let us say, $1.50 & bushel—therefore he borrowed, in effeet 3,333 bushels of wheat. ‘Today, how- - ever, in order to pay his debt, he must give to the holder of his mortgage 10,- gggl eb\;.zgelslor wheat. Since wheat or er farm commodity is the tmntggahe ?L“u vflim whlcl:y to pnymhz mortgage, terally a f | debt is tripled. D | This is the angle from which the | money question is most likely to emierge (if it does emerge). Some exponent of - the farmer in Congress or in the presi. dential campaign will cite the condi- ton here described, only at much greater length, and he will demand that « money must be made easter to get, dollars must be made chea) hence that the country must g:rve money of some sort, some 1932 equi lent of the “greenback” issue the 1870s and 1830s, or of Bryan's “silver” or bimetallism issue of the 1890s. | Church Luther Built " Being Restored ". va- BERLIN, Germany.—The chapel of " the Hartenfels Palace in Torgau, which * was built according to Martin Luther’s ~ directions in 1545 as the first Protestanit church in Germany, and which was .