Evening Star Newspaper, August 24, 1936, Page 7

OregonBegins to Think of U. S. Debt Atmosphere of Getting and Spending Still Prevails in State. BY DAVID LAWRENCE. ORTLAND, Oreg., August 24.— For cross currents, this State seems to have about as many as there are anywhere in the Union. That's why, although there is a strong Roosevelt trend here, the Btate is as yet undecided. While Mr. Roosevelt carried Oregon last time by more iy than 75,000, the indications are | that he will have & greatly reduced majority this time, and there are some on the Democratic side who arz not so sure it will be decisive, but only a small - margin victory. Part of this uncertainty in appraisel lies in the fact that the campaign has hardly gotten going yet. Even the business men, who, in most cities have become stirred up about the national campaign, are to some extent apathetic. This partly arises out of a defeatist feeling analogous to that which prevailed among Repub- licans in the East last May. In my talks with persons of every class here, I found the line-up about the same as in the State of Washing- ton—a distinct friendliness amounting to a genuine enthusiasm among the working classes for Mr. Roosevelt and a sharp antagonism in the white- collar groups which, while not par- ticularly active as yet beyond its own sphere, may spread out more in- fluentially as the campaign progresses. Debt Worry in Evidence. 1 talked with a precinct eommittee- i David Lawrence. man from one of the poorer sections | of the city. He was working hard for Mr. Roosevelt, admitted he didnt have much time to get around except evenings, but that he was finding the working folks almost a unit for Mr. Roosevelt. When I asked him what he thought of the outcome in this State he was quite sure it would not be a “walk-away” for the President, but that at the moment the President had decidedly “the edge.” I have been impressed with the number of per- sons who speak of Oregon as likely to be a close State. I had come aere with the distinct impression that it would go overwhelmingly for Mr. Roosevelt. Incidentally, when I asked the Democratic precinct committeeman what subject he encountered most in his canvas he told me that the debt and expenditures of Government was more often mentioned than anything else. He said people were beginning to ask when the debt was going to be paid back and who was going to pay it. Portland is a city that has been especially conscious of financial prob- lems because there’s a mayor here, Joseph Carson, who has balanced the budget, and because of it has just been assured of another four years in office by a& majority vote in the primary. So evidently the people hereabouts would be considerably con- cerned about the national fiscal issue if it happened to be crystallized for them before the campaign is over. Spending Atmosphere Prevails. As yet, the idea of financing the deficits of the national Government has not come to the surface of con- sideration, and the atmosphere is still one of continual spending. The atti- tude is really that while the spending goes on, or rather “while the getting is good,” Oregon had just as well get her share. Hence all sorts of promises of an el dorado character seem to be in the air. There isn't any candidate as yet proclaiming it in so many words but there are many people in Oregon, I am told, who believe the Roosevelt administration means to give them “free power.” Like free seed in the old days it has come to be a slogan in the agricultural areas. The Oregon Journal, leading Dem- ocratic paper in the State, in a recent editorial, throws light on the prevail- ing impression here that the Federal Government is about to finance trans- mission and distribution systems. The editorial contends that the utilities are fighting the administration for these reasons: “Because Roosevelt built the Bonne- ville Dam, which offers cheep power to the users of electricity without any excessive profits to Wail Street hold- ing companies, or ‘profits from write- ups or management con‘racts or fancy bonuses of one kind or 2nother. “Because the Roosevelt administra- tion proposes to build transmission lines through Oregon and Washington from which municipalities and farm- ing districts can buy cheap power and distribute it themselves, through dis- tributing systems financed whclly or in part by the United States Gov- ernment.” U. S. Apparently in Business. Constitution or no Constitutioa, the Government of the United States is apparently in the power business in the Northwest whether the excuse is navigation with respect fo the Colum- bia River or irrigation il the State of Washington. There are, to be sure, legitimate ebjectives of both navigation and irri- gation at the Bonneville and the Grand Coulee Dams, but the sale of the surplus power already has become not an incidental consideration, but & matter of threatened Government competition with existing businesses. Seeing the handwriting on the wall, some of the private companies, rather than become the football of policies, are planning if the trend continues, to sell out their properties to ‘the States or the Federal Government, or the power districts of the farm areas or the municipalities on a basis of salvaging whatever they can of their investment. What is the economic justification for the Government’s going into the power business out here? Certainly there is a huge surplus of power ca- pacity already. Thus one company has a dam at Ariel which, with an additional $7,000,000 investment, can generate 135,000 kilowatts, whereas the Bonneville Dam, with the present investment of $43,000,000 will gene- rate about 90,000 kilowatts. Not all of the $43,000,000, .of course, will be charged off to power. But assuming that ‘two-thirds of it is put cn the books as due to navigation—a very liberal estimate—then the remainirg $14,000,000 is chargeable to power and that's just twice as big an amount &s would be needed to get through pri- vate facilities not the same amount of power, but actually 50 per cent more r THE News Behind the News Food Shortage Queries Give Wallace His Best Lflugh)_——Peflimistl Held “Amateurs.” BY PAUL MALLON. N POLITICS everything depends on where you sit. It is not unusual for two politcos, looking upon the same set of facts from opposite viewpoints, to reach opposite conclusions. But it is news when two officials in the same Government department get cross-eyed from the statistics. For example, the best Iaugh Agri- culture Secretary Wallace enjoys these days comes whenever any one suggests the drought is going to bring a serious food shortage or immediately increased prices. He positively shakes, regularly once & week, when the question is asked at his press conferences. He says such pessimistic speculations by “amateurs” (meaning, of course, politicians in the opposing camp) just roll him on the floor. Some alarm has been felt for his personal condition since his own Bureau of Agricultural Economics predicted a decided shortage in vegetables for canning and said prices would be much higher. Later it also forecast the “smallest domestic supply of manujdctured dairy products in five year:” saying milk production was 6 per cent lower than at this time last year. * kK X While Mr. Wallace jovially brushed aside (without denying) the suggestion that there may be imports of corn and wheat, his B. A. E. offi- cially admitted corn must be imported from Argentina—the only nation with a surplus. No amount was mentioned by B. A. E. United States corn pro- duction is now estimated at 1,440,000,000 bushels, as compared with 2,300,000,000 last year, the deficit being roughly 860,000,000 bushels. Ar- gentina is supposed to have about 264,000,000 bushels available for export. The fault of the B. A. E. apparently is that the economists there are looking at the situation from a realistic rather than a political standpoint. Note—B. A. E. announcements come throygh the official Agriculture Department Publicity Bureua, which also handles Wallace's announce= ments, indicating both a lack of co-ordination or & lack of censorship— depending on your viewpoint. In New Deal quarters, it is rather generally agreed that this drought is going to be a long-term problem. Relief will have to be continued well into next Spring. It is estimated that, during the Winter, probably 2,000,000 persons will have to be fed or given jobs with the W. P. A. * x ox X Railread statisticians believe car loadings will continue to in- crease to a peak of 900,000 in October. The figure for the week ending August 15 was 736,497 cars. The prophecy is being made in the face of the drought. The breakdown on the August 15 figure shows the increase came in miscellaneous freight—lumber, ore, live stock and coal. Grain loadings were off about 8 per cent and similar small decreases were registered in small-lot merchandise and coke. * % % Nothing in the Spanish civil war caused as much excitement within the State Department as the published report that Mexico was shipping 30 carloads of American ammunition. Diplomatists have been twisting themselves in knots trying to main- tain the solid non-intervention front. They kept the wires to Mexico City sizzling until they received word that the munitions were at least Mexican owned, even though they may originally have emanated from this country. Threats made by England, Ger- many and Italy about the same time stirred comparatively little inside interest. * % % % No official huzzahs have spread the news, but American military officers are currently being given all those foreign medals held up by the State Department for many years. The department is distributing 117 in the Navy alone. Naval Chief of Operations Standley is getting the Order of the Crown of Italy. For some reason mot yet clear, Congress, in an off moment, passed a law last sesston releasing the medals previously denied to officers of the Army and Navy. The Democratic Speakers’ Bureau is choosing its Maine stumpers with great care. A few years ago a noted New Yorker was sent into Maine. In the fullness of his dignity, addressing an audience, he said: “Now, I know you will not understand this. but——" He was probably correct, because it was an intricate subject, which he did not fully understand himself, but Maine Democratic arrangers have not forgotten it. (Copyright. 1936.) capacity than the Bonneville Dam's present units would provide. As for effect on rates, the Govern- ment projects might possibly reduce the generating cost by half a mill, | according to engineering calculations, | over the cost at which tre Lrivate | companies can do it. But that's | power districts foot the bill. merely generating cost. The savirg, (Copyright. 19386,) PRIZE CROP TOBACCOS ELCRUG when spread out over all the users n | a sparsely settled State like Oregon, | becomes infinitesimal, especially when | it is considered that the cost of trans- | mission and distribution lines is just | the same whether the Federal Gov- ernment or the municipalities or the EVENING' STAR, WASHINGTON, = D. C, MONDAY, Discontented Democrats Factor Anti-New Deal Swing Will Aid Landon at Election. BY MARK SULLIVAN, T A date 11 weeks preceding A the election, what is the status, the intention, and probable course of those Dem- ocrats who do not like the New Deal? Put another way, what is the extent of the defection of Democrats from Mr. Roosevelt? The defection, measured in terms of organization and public activity, is notasgreatasat ... one time seemed }: likely. At first, from three months to two years ago, there 3 were suggestions # that dissenting Democrats should unite with the Republicans in forming a coali- tion party with a new name, such as “Constitution- al party.” That passed by. Then there were pro- posals that the Republicans, while retaining the party name, should give formal and conspicuous recognition to the anti-New Deal Democrats, by nominating. one of them for Vice President, or even for President. This suggestion likewise passed by. Another group of proposals had to do with the Democratic party inter- nally. One was that anti-New Deal Democratic leaders should go to the Democratic National Convention with delegations opposed to Mr. Roosevelt. There was never any notion that Mr. Roosevelt could be deprived of re- nomination; the idea went no further than to make an organized protest against the New Deal on the conven- tion floor, and perhaps to make the platform Democratic, as distinguished from New Deal. That, too, came to nothing. Anti-New Dealers Meet. With the Democratic convention ended, a new group of possibilities arose. The anti-New Deal Democrats could have set up a third ticket, as the conservative “gold” Democrats did in 1896, when William Jennings Bryan | seized control of the party and carried it to & “free silver” policy. But no serious suggestion of a dissenting Democratic party came forward. Thet only thing that has happened so far in an organized way and on a national scale was the recent meeting of anti- New Deal Democratic leaders at De- troit. This meeting took no step toward a separate ticket nor any other kind of formal, Nation-wide secession. At the present time what have we? First, there is a considerable number of Democratic leaders who have pro- claimed that they regard the New Deal as not the Democratic party Mark Sullivan Photograph Brings Trouble. TAOS, N. M. (#).—Two years ago | Jose A. Griego of Llano went hunt- ing. On returning he had his picture taken, rifle in one hand, cigar in the other, and & fine black bear at his feet. ‘A game warden saw it and called Griego into Justice of the Peace Court here. The fine was $25 for hunting without a license. and that they will not vote for it in November. Some, like ex-Gov. Ely of Massachusetts, have said they will vote for Mr. Landon. Others, like ex-Gov. Smith of New York, have not gone that far. This group of Demo- crats includes former Democratic Senators, Governors and cabinet members. Practically all have & common characteristic. Practirally all are former, not present, office hold- ers. Because their office-holding ca- reers are behind them, because they have no. future ambitions, they feel free to say what they strongly feel. Opinion to Carry Weight. ‘The fact that the active days of ex- Gov. Ely and the others are in the past works two days. Since they are not active, they have no hands on the party organizations in their States. They will have little power to take organized groups of voters to the polls to vote against Mr. Roose- velt. On the other hand, the detached position of these former office holders will carry a weight of its own with the public, including Democratic voters. The public is likely to assume that what these former officeholders | |say frankly is what many present of- fice holders thing but refrain from | | saying. ‘This assumption will be correct. It is common knowledge that many Democrats now in office and expect~ ing to continue in, feel just as strong- F | ly against the New Deal as ex-Gov. Ely or ex-Gov. Smith or ex-Senator Reed of Missourl. Some have said so—Senator Carter Glass of Virginia, Senator Byrd of Virginia, Senator Burke of Nebraska. And for each leader who has spoken publicly, there are many of similar rank who think the same but have not felt it prudent to speak out. What will be the effect of these dissenting leaders at the polls in No- vember? Senator Glass, for example, says he does not recall anything he has said against the New Deal, but that nevertheless he proposes to sup- port Mr. Roosveelt. The theory held by these men is that the best prac- ticable way for them to help end the New Deal is to remain in the party themselves, to keep the party in power if possible and then to proceed to purge the party of the New Deal. While that course may recommend itself to Democratic officeholders, it must have less appeal to rank and file Democratic voters. What is the net effect of Senator Glass' attitude on Democratic voters in Virginia? Many of them, undoubtedly, feel that if the New Deal is as bad as Senator Glass has said it is, the most effective way to get rid of it is to vote against Mr. Roosevelt in November. These voters will vote to return Mr. Glass to the Senate because he is one of the ablest Senators any State has ever had, and also because they can rely on him in the future as in the past to oppose such New Deal measures as seem to him not Democratic. 1t is fair to expect that in Virginia there will be a measurable number of Democrats who will vote for the Dem- ocratic candidates for Senator and minor offices, but will “cut” Mr. Roosevelt. take this course may not be enough to affect the outcome in Virginia, because it is a heavily Democratic | State. But there are other States, doubtful in all elections, the margin of Democrats voting for Gov. Landon may determine the out- come. (Copyright, 1936, Campfire Is Misplaced. KANKAKEE (#).—There was no objection from mother when Billy Howard, 5, stretched a sheet over two beds to form a tent so he could play camper, There was later, though. That was after Billy built his campfire on the bed room rug. Mrs. Howard called the fire depart- ment. The loss was minor. ‘The margin of voters who | in which | "AUGUST' 24, .1936. ‘We, the People’ Size of Roosevelt Majority Held Sole Question Re- BY JAY FRANKLIN. ‘Washington, D. C, U. 8. A. EAR WALTON: e Since you have asked me for my frank on the presidential campaign in this country, I shall try to give it to you. Others might not agree with me, and atill others, who would agree with me, might not be willing to admit so in public. The campaign is already over, in the sense that the only question before the public is the probable size of the Roosevelt majority, whether 1t will be only & respectable plurality or another New Deal landslide, as in 1932 and 1934. The change came about & month before it was expected. Most of us did not anticipate a falling off in the Landon build-up much be- fore Labor Day. It came early in August. He started the campaign with two good-=1. e. real—issues. The first was to offer the public King Log instead of King Stork, the commonplace instead of the dra- matic. A lot of people were tired of being all hot and bothered about public affairs and were looking for & sort of political beauty-rest mattress in the White House and somebody who would guarantee not to call them until the twentieth century was over. The other issue was what Hoover calls the “American system.” A lot of very decent people had allowed themselves to be persuaded that Roosevelt, by hcok or crook, was leading us to & collectivist dictatorship and that the dear old Constitution and the even dearer :h’: mzrbe‘m Court was all that stood between us and a fate worse n 3 Unfortunately, in their zeal to stop the New Deal, the Republicans tied the tin can of “States rights” to the elephant’s tail and proposed a “stop the spending” program in State and Federal administrations. = x e And then came the drought—the worst in our history—to make “States rights” spell suicide for the prairie farmers and the free spending of relief funds the only way of cushioning the disaster. The result was the collapse of the Landon campaign; the “third party” move led by Pather Coughlin also developed blind staggers; and Roosevelt began to romp home to win in & walk. What is really happening is, of course, a development similar to the fight over the Lloyd George budget in England a generation ago. Then, as you remember, Lloyd George proposed to tar incomes and estates in order to pay the cost of a system of social security. (This system, incidentally, assured the loyalty of the British masses during the World War and prevented a revolution after the war.) But that didn’t save Lloyd George from being the worst cursed and most hated man in England while the fight was on. LI I The fight against Roosevelt is equally bitter and equally futile. Decent people are not ashamed to go around saying that they “hate” him, and the passionate reluctance of the upper bracketeers of our income tax to having their money made socially responsible has been the cause of some pretty malicious stuff. They call good old F. D. R., that genial and eminently con- servative squire of Krum Elbow, a “Communist,” and have even gone 5o far as to accuse him of stirring up what they call “class hatred.” Since we have never admitted that we have permanent social “classes” in the Eu- ropean sense, this argument is funny, but has served as a smoke screen for an open appeal to small business and professional men’s fear of violent social change. 2 ¢ The Spanish revolution has been duck soup to agitators of the Hearst stripe, and all in all there will be a pretty smelly mess left standing in cold print once the election is over. As T see it, the job of people like Y= myself is to try to calm the more (Q— = bestial passions and to reassure o i 5 the more irrational fears of the so- called Tories. The big shots of business are not so dumb that they can’t figure out which way the election is go- ing, and they are, apparently, un- loading a lot of anti-Roosevelt po- litical stock on much the same sucker list as that which helped them to get out from under, before the panic of 1929. The country—and business generally—is prosperous and solvent. After the election only the Supreme Court will remain as & barrier to the necessary reforms. And you remember what happened to the British House of Lords when it tried to block the Lloyd George measures. My guess is that e few of the die-hards on the court will resign and a more liberal majority will be thus assured after Roosevelt’s re-election, rather then any direct attack upon the position and au- thority of the courts. Our love to you, Virginia and the baby. Shoot & couple of grouse for me and buy New Deal stock for the long pull. Yours, JAY FRANKLIN, (Copyright, Register and Tribune Syndicate.) Headline Folk and What They Do Crop Insurance Plan Is Proposed by Taber, Grange Head. BY LEMUEL F. PARTON. OSEPH seems to have been the first and last successful agrie cultural adjustment adminis- trator. He told Pharaoh he ought to “appoint officers over the land and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt.” Pharach gave him a ring and a gold chain and told him to go ahead. When thé seven years of dearth began to come over all the world, “all coun- tries came into Egypt to buy Louis J. Taber thinks we can do the same thing here. The master of the National Grange, & some- what austere Quaker, who has pondered both Pharaoh’s dream and the American dream, has been working nearly 30 years for farm stability and solvency. Without going as far in federalization as Joseph did in the Egyptian dust- bowl, he finds a solution, as he sees it. Conferring with President Roose- velt at Hyde Park, he puts forward a plan for crop insurance. While the idea is not new, it is the first sug- gestion that the credit reservoir, fed by the record $10,500,000,000 accu- mulation of gold stocks, be used to Louis J. Taber irrigate arid farm finance in just this manner. The main difference between Joseph and Mr. Taber is that one stored corn and the other would store credit. Mr. Taber is a Republican, a con- sultant of four or five Presidents on agriculture, President Coolidge seri- ously considered him for Secretary of Agriculture. In the prohibition years, he was somewhat diverted from his main objective, as he hated liquor even more than chinch bugs and wheat rust and farm mortgage sharks. “I am paralyzed,” he said, when he heard that women drank gin. He ran a dairy farm near Pleasant- ville, Ohio,. and rose to national lead- ership in farm organization work. He was on President Hoover’s wheat price commission and has served in many other governmental enterprises in re- search, legislation, agronomy, tariffs, facts, fertilizer, finance and farm-fix- ing in general, none of which seem to work as well as the scheme which Pharoah just dreamed and Joseph mnterpreted. But he isn't down- hearted. He says it may take many years, but crop insurance looks like the answer. He is r and, within the cos- mic limitations of the job, an effec- tive farm leader, with 800,000 loyal Grangers behind him. e e Court Stretches Debt. NEW YORK, August 18 (#).—Su- preme Court Justice George E. Brower yesterday ordered Samuel Cline of Brooklyn to pay his estranged wife back alimony of $3,382 at the rate of $1 a week. At that rate, Cline, solicitor for a furniture firm, will be all paid up at the end of 65 years, approximately. /15 nouse.men! We cant stfeal fhe FRESHNESS of Double Metlow OLD GOLDS! OUTWITTED AT LAST! Those three “bad actors” . . . 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