Evening Star Newspaper, September 28, 1936, Page 9

THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, Press Shows Independence on Trade Paper Backing Landon Opposes His Views on Treaties. BY DAVID LAWRENCE. ANSAS CITY, Mo, September 28.—The independence of America’s press was never bet- ter illustrated than by an inci- dent which occurred here in the last few days and which will, I believe, be of Nation-wide interest. Everybody throughout the country who follows politics intimately knows what & vital part the men on the Kansas City Star played in devel- oping the candi- dacy of Gov. Landon of Kan- sas for the Re- publican nomina- tion and how ar- dently that paper Is supporting him and opposing the re -election of President Roose- velt. But, less, the City Star has just come out with an editorial, consistent with its position In the past, approving the reciprocity agreements negotiated by Roosevelt's Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, and declaring that Landon is right only in part in his criticism of the Hull treaties. The editorial was in comment on Mr. Landon’s speech at Minneapolis, and reads in part as follows: “The Star believes the Governor is right in saying that the reduction of farm production in this country to the needs of the domestic market is & policy of despair. It is in hearty agreement with his fundamental pur- poses in stimulating foreign trade. But because it is in agreement with these purposes, it supports the Hull agreements as the most effective tariff measure to realize them under ex- Isting conditions. Praised as Constructive. “Of course, the agreements are not perfect. Legitimate criticism may be urged against certain details of the methods employed. But, by and large, the adoption of the Hull policy seems to this newspaper one of the really constructive achievements of the New Deal. “Gov. Landon urged some valid ob- fections against the present method of negotiating the agreements and putting them into effect. But imper= fect as these methods are, they are infinitely better than the scandalous log-rolling of a general tariff revision by Congress—and there is every rea- son to believe that specific reciprocal treaties or agreements submitted to the Senate or to Congress would be murdered by highly organized pres- sure groups, “Other factors, as well as tariffs, affect foreign trade, as Gov. Landon pointed out—exchange restrictions, quotas, the ending of political un- certainties, & general revival of prosperity. Currency stabilization is important. “The problem must be attacked on many fronts. But so far as tariffs are concerned, the Hull procedure, in the Star's opinion, is the one effective method so far proposed to get the desired results.” Braves Midwest Hostility. Coming from a powerful newspaper in the heart of the agricultural area, where the reciprocity treaties have been under attack, the Kansas City Star’s editorial is a strong defense for & policy which many Republicans re- gretted was so specifically condemned in the Republican platform in Cleve- land under the domination, in com- mittee at least, of high protectionists in the East. This writer has all along favored the Hull agreements and the reci- procity idea, believing that, while there are some inequities in the Canadian treaty, the general purpose is sound and that the plan ought to be continued, no matter which party is elected this November. This is said advisedly because Presi- dent Roosevelt was not very strong for the reciprocity program and is believed to be still lukewarm about 1t, Secretary Hull having had a hard time getting the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia to cham- plon the reciprocity cause. One reason for this is that Mr. Roosevelt knows the political attack which has been made in the North- ‘west amd particularly against Demo- cratic Senators and candidates where specific commodities are involved. George Peek, who was a part of the New Deal administration, broke with it on this issue, for, while he believes in foreign trade enlargement, he is against the unconditional favored na- tion clause in negotiating trade agree- ments. Peek's Views Voiced. Mr. Peek had a conference with Landon at Des Moines, Iowa, last week and told the press he would not say until after he read Landon’s then forth-coming Minneapolis speech whether he would support the Re- publican nominee. The Minneapons address has portions in it that are absolutely in accord with Peek's ideas. These portions came as a disappointment to the Kansas City Star and others, who believe that the way to build up the unconditional favored nation clause is for America to crusade for its honest application by other nations instead of conceding at the outset that, because it is be- ing frustrated, it is beyond repair. ‘This correspondent has received let- ters from readers occasionally who insist he has not commended the good things the New Deal has done. Quite the contrary. The policy of trade agreements has always received my approval, just as I believe the re- cent aid given France in currency stabilization was a step in the right direction. My only fear is that the administration in Washington will not follow it up, but will leave Europe to drift in monetary mgtters, as well as trade enlargement, much as we have done for the last five years. American credit resources are ample to aid in the rehabilitation of the European economic situation, which, in turn, will help increase employ- ment here in the United States. But the isolationist attitude of Mr. Roose- velt is broken only occasionally by Mr. Hull's ability to win approval for such co-operationist policies as the reciprocity agreements and the cur- rency stabilization move last week. In the latest move, Mr. Hull played no doubt & stimulating part along side Secretary Morgenthau, (Copyright, 1936, I8 News Behind the News Roosevelt Reported Confident of Re-election—Cam- paign to Be Pressed in All Sections. . BY PAUL MALLON. NNOUNCEMENT hss been made that President Roosevelt will make only six major speeches. In the end, he will make more than that, probably nine or ten. But he will not take his planned big swing around the circle to the Pacific, and he will not “do much,” as the Ppoliticos say among themselves. Those who attended the Hyde Park comjerence at which this decision was reached, have hinted the President is highly confident. His private reports, they say, have led him to believe a Coast swing is not mecessary. That may be true, but it was not the basis upon which the decision was reached. More than confldence was dis- cussed in the Hyde Park parlor. * ® % % > Mr. Roosevelt’s technical situation in this most interesting campaign is unusual. When he really starts campaigning, he has three alternatives. He may defend. He may attack. Or he can make more promises. None of these alternatives is inviting. Defense is usually uninteresting, always weak. His main purpose of establishing the fundamental theory that he is for the poor and fighting against the rich has been established, in the opinion of his associates, Similarly, there is not much for him to attack. The chance of a personal attack on Gov. Landon is out. The Demo- ciptic theory is that Mr. Landon = is & good fellow but does not know much, The issues Landon has been bringing up in his speeches do not raise any new points which can be torn to pieces by attack. This leaves the prospect of making more promises. The mere mention of it is its own answer. Promises of crop insurance, balanced budget, etc., have been made or are being prepared, but if there is anything else, his friends have overlooked it. Therefore, from the standpoint of political planning, there is really not much for Mr. Roosevelt to say. * x % % The political planners here seem to be more eager and anzious than supremely confident groups usually are. Latest erample: The Agriculture Building was turned around and faced west throughout Landon’s last tour. Unusual steps were taken to get copies of his speeches in advance, to offset his remarks in advance. The same energy and anziety has been moticeable in connection with other phases of the campaign for some siz weeks past. Ordinarily, a casual observer might comstrue the situation as indicating fright and discouraging inside reports. Opponents have said as much. However, the working theory which the President has handed down to his campaigners belies such an interpretation. They say Mr. Roosevelt not only wants to win, but is personally most anxious to win handily. He wants a vote of confidence. He would be deeply disappointed if he just. squeezed through. This explains, they say, why he went South, why hectic campaigning for him is under way in districts he is sure to win. He wants to draw out the largest possible popular vote. Likewise, it suggests the reason for his newly announced plan of going into New England, which is admittedly lost to him. He wants to cut down opposition majorities there, Note—Another manifestation of anziety was given recently by a New Dealer who does mot know much about politics. After re- turning from a trip, he confided to his friends that the uninspiring and unspectacular way in which Landon had been plugging along was more threatening than it appeared to be to New Dealers. He thought it had caused little change yet, but feared the cumulative effect of flve more weeks. Similarly, Democratic insiders have received many complaints that State organizations (California, for one) are sitting on their hands, too confident to do anything. * % %% There seems to be a good chance that Mr. Roosevelt's meeting Wed- nesday with President Wendell Wilkie of Commonwealth and Southerr will work out some satisfactory solution of the Tennessee Valley competitive situation. The New Deal's rural electrifier, Morris Cooke, and Power Commis- sioner Manly are understood to have been working under cover for an agreement, while T. V. A.-er Lillienthal has been short-circuit- ing them. * x ¥ ¥ Incidentally, Mr. Cooke is the latest White House favorite. Mr. Roosevelt has been appointing the R. E. A. administrator on all drought and farm committees and escorting him closer and closer up front. He is well on the way to becoming the No. 1 brain truster of the moment. Cooke’s had a broader background than most of them have had. He is a consulting engineer in management from Philadelphia, and not a professor, although he once investigated collegiate administrative methods for the Carnegie Foundation. He has served the New Deal as head of the Mississippi Valley Committee in P. W. A, and was on the New York Power Authority. He got his start as a news reporter and worked in the War Industries Board during the war. The only thing against him is that he is a Republican, but his friends explain his listing as such in Who's Who by saying he is the Norris- La Follette kind. (Copyright, 1936.) Hitler Speech Shock to World Extravagant Claims BY DOROTHY THOMPSON. HAVE waited to comment on Hit- ler’s proclamation at the Nurem- berg Party Congress until the German newspapers should reach here and I would have an official Ger- man text before me. Now the papers are here, and the text baffles the im- agination. I doubt if ever a speech was made in his- tory, insulting to & larger number of nations, and insulting to ordi- nary intelligence as well "The speech contains & long list of the specific claims of the German dic- tatorship. Were these claims ten= able Mr. Hitler would stand as the greatest mira- & cle tan in his- tot atit & moet Derothy Thompsen, powerful argument would be mage for dictatorship everywhere. Inside Ger- many not one of them will be chal- lenged in any newspaper or any plat- form or in any publication. Outside Germany it is more difficult to con- test them, because all the facts are not known. But they ought to be analyzed on the basis of what is known because the people of the dem- ocratic world have been treated to very misleading propaganda. Mr. Hitler's insults to Russia are one thing. They are sul generis. As Sir Austin Chamberlain—who will not be accused of pro-Soviet tendencies— remarked, “It will be difficult to find a parallel for such a gross attack by the rulers of one country upon the government of another.” But these remarks were given wide notice here and need not be gone into. What was not so generally noted was that Mr. Hitler did not confine his caustic comments to Russia. He embraced in his disdain all the nations of Europe “with the exception of one great power (Italy) and a few other coun- tries.” “Everywhere else,” he said, “we see the spasms of bolshevist revolution.” Insult to Democracies That “everywhere else” is an insult to every democratic country in Eu- rope, including the “great power” of England, which with democratic in- stitutions is enjoying unparalleled prosperity and social unity. Bol- shevism looms as an immediate threat only in Spain, where German inter- vention has increased its menace; in France there is social disorder precipitated by the fear of German fascism and by the persisted-in de- flation. But it is still a long cry from bolshevism. The many claims which the Nazi government makes for the support of its people and the admiration of the rest of the world display Germany under dictatorship as a modern Eden. Unemployment has been reduced from 5,000,000 to 1,000000. The dis- possession of German peasants has ended, and the agricultural income is higher than in any previous year of peace; trade has increased; the Ger- mar. port towns are lively with ship- building; many factories have doubled, D. C, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1936. tripled and their workers; sutomobile factories are increasing ; and motor cars will in- gggifigi T £2 all young men for s stated period; by the forced emigration of over 60,000 Jews. Limiting Ownership. 2. The peasants have been saved frgm foreclosure by completely limit- ing their ownership rights; no peas- ant may raise credit on his land, mortgage it, or sell it. Nor may he sell his products to any one execept government agencies at fixed prices, and he must deliver fixed prices. Agriculture enjoys & monopoly of the domestic market at the cost of high food prices and definite shortage to the urban consumer. 3. Trade has been restored.to al- most the position which it occupied when Mr. Hitler came into power at the bottom of the depression. Today trade is on the increase everywhere in the world. German trade under the republic surpassed the figures of of 1913. 4. Ships are being built and the government is paying heavy deficits for their building. The whole mer- chant marine has been socialized, and the amount of the deficit is kept secret. 5. Production is enforced, by gov- ernment order, many factories being compelled to undertake reorganization 8t a loss. Armament orders are mak- ing others prosperous. 6. In the democratiec ecountry of England, which Hitler referred to dis- dainfully under his blanked indict- ment, the number of automobiles has increased from 223,000 in 1931 to 384,000 in 1934. Last year Germany had less than half as many autos as England, in spite of the fact that autos in Germany are exempted from taxation because their widespread own- ership is desired for military purposes, and in spite of the fact that there has been a vast increase of party and army orders for motor cars. There are more automobiles in democratic France with less than two-thirds of Germany’s population. 7. The deficits of states and cities have been taken over by the federal government and thus ‘“removed.” Debts owed to foreign creditors have been “frozen.” Increased Tax Revenue. 8. The Reich certainly has an in- creased tax revenue. The income tax begins at a wage or salary of 900 marks ($225) a year, on which a flat 10 per cent is paid. With compulsory party contributions and the compul- sory social insurances, the total taxes are 30 per cent of such an income. 9. The great housing program which Hitler points to with pride has not proceeded faster than under the great building days of the republic. Demo- cratic England has rehoused 50 per cent of her entire population since 1918; Holland and Sweden are almost completely rebuilt. All without dic- tatorship. (Copyright, 1936.) We, the People Landon’s Claim Involves Political Credit as Well as Crop Insurance. BY-JAY FRANKLIN, OV. LANDON has auserted his priority in thinking about crop in- surance “months ago” in an apparent endeavor to take the political credit for Roosevelt's recent action in appointing two committees to devise a specific plan which will meet actuarial and admin- istrative requirements. Prior to Roosevelt’s drought conference with the five prairie Gov- ernors (Landon included) at Des Moines, this column published the broad outlines of the plan the administration has devised for “crop insurance in It features Federal acquisition of crop surpluses from the fat years, either as insurance premiums or by purchase, and theix release in the lean years to cover the crop shortages of insured farmers. The fact that this plan was put forward a month ago should dispose of the suspicion that the Presi- dent’s recent announcement was designed to take the wind out of Landon’s sails on the eve of his farm policy speech. Landon’s at- tempt to assume credit for it seems a pretty short-sighted political maneuver. ‘The truth appears to be that the Republican campaign is sagging in the farm belt and that encrgetic measures are called for if Landon is to keep his own bailiwick from back-sliding for Roosevelt's already established agricultural policies. Reports from Chicago suggest that Landon is going to do more ‘barnstorming in his own territory than was originally planned by the Republican strategists, and there was an elaborate build-up for his second march on Des Moines and his conferences with farm editors, " etc. It is to his credit that he is alive to the interests of the farmers, but there is no possible percentage for him in trying to take credit for the New Deal's projected farm measures. For credit in this fleld belongs to neither Roosevelt nor Landon, but to the savage droughts of 1934 and 1936. s In politics, as in many other branches of life, you do not cross your bridges until they are being burned under you. Just because a measure is good, wise and desirable is no guarantee that it will be adopted. During the fat years of crop surpluses and 30-cent wheat, the idea of crop insur- ance was & mockery. Price insurance was what the farmers who were burning corn for fuel wanted. After the drought of 1934, however, the officials of the Department of Agriculture began a serious study of the problem which Joseph had solved for Pharach. The leaders of this study were two brilliant young economists in Becretary Wallace's office—both, incidentally, civil service career officials of long standing. Their names are Louis Bean and Mordecai Ezekiel. From them came the idea of the “ever-normal granary” an old Chinese custom jor which they sought to devise modern dress. It was F. D. R. himself who finally hit on the idea of combining their “ever-normal granary” with “crop insurance” through Federal acquisition of the crop surplus. But Roosevelt’s brain child saw the light of day only after the drought disaster of 1936 had driven home the notion that the drought of 1934 might not be a freak of Nature, and that the weather cycle of 1at years and lean years was not just a story in the Bible. ‘The original scheme for the “ever-normal granary” contemplated the storage of surplus crops on the individual farm. This was too primitive— and too expensive—a measure for our advanced techniques of handling eommodities. *x % n The A. A. A. had been highly successful with its “sealed corn” and its cotton pool, but these were primarily measures of price control. The A. A. A. wheat contracts had operated as the rough equivalent of insurance for the prairie farmers, but the Supreme Court had called it a foul ball, and the old Hoover Farm Board system of buying up surpluses to peg the price had proven too expensive. The Roosevelt crop insurance plan embodies, therefore, mot only the experience of the Hoover administration and the A. A. A, but also the grim lesson of the drought; the jact that price control alone cannot prevent a food shortage and that our whole technique for marketing farm products is inadequate to protect either the Jarmer from low prices or the public from short rations. Landon’s “me, too,” announcement is but a footnote to the seven years of Pederal effort and experience with the problem of supply and demand in farming. But it is no libel on the human race to insist that, but for the droughts of 1934 and 1936, no crop insurance plan, however good, would stand the chance of a snow ball in Madrid of being accepted on its merits. (Copyright, 1936.) THI opinions of the writers on this page are their own, not necessarily The Star’s. Such opinions are presented in The Star’s effort to give all sides of questions of interest to its readers, although such opinions may be contradictory among themselves and directly opposed to The Star’s. Headline Folk and What They Do Jack Dempsey Speaks for New Deal as Tun- ney Dodges Issue. BY LEMUEL F. PARTON. T IS announced that Jack Demp- sey starts October 5 on his New l York speaking tour for Mr. Roose- velt. A suggestion has been made that a debate be staged between the Manassa Mauler and Gene Tunney. Unfortunately, so far as general public edification is concerned, Mr, . Tunney is in Eu- rope, and one of his close friends informs me that his absence was caused by the possibility of em- ¢ barrassment due to conflicting po= litical obliga = tions. In 1932, he indorsed Mr. Roosevel! and campaigned for him, but, since then, through his social and finan« cial affiliations, he has been drawn into the Landon orbit, according to my informant. It was his close friend, Gov. Cross of Connecticut, who steered him nto the Roosevelt camp. So he has ties there which are not easy to break, and he sits out this round in Europe, although he is said to have some deep convictions about whither we are drifting, ete. Mr. Dempsey will take along & wrestling troupe on his speaking tour. No one knows whether they will be Democratic or Republican wrestlers. Such a division, with one side wear- ing the elephant’s trunks, might help the program, as, without disparages ment to Mr. Dempsey’s native talents, he is no great shakes as an orator. I once heard Mr. Dempsey make a speech at a sports gathering. He moistened his lips, shifted his weight nervously and started weaving. A horse can't kick if you tie its ears forward. Mr. Dempsey seemed simi- larly thwarted with the lack of the conditioned physical reflex approprie ate to his need. He wanted to swing on somebody or something. It came hard. He beaned himself and was hanging on the ropes in no time with the lame conclusion that Dan So-and- So was a pretty good fellow. Speaking of the late James J. Core bett, as pertinent to orating prizes fighters or vice versa, he had all the fluency and assurance of Mr. Tune ney, and became a finished actor. John L. Sullivan had a voice to match his chest and biceps, and was both articulate and resonant. Running his restaurant, wearing gar« lands gracefully and modestly, Dempsey has the fine, bucko assurance of Broadway, in impromptu back-slap- ping and the like, but he's just a modest corner retailer when it comes to gab. He's no such wholesaler as the Squire of Chestnut Hill, the same being Jack Sharkey, who knows how to dish it. There is in prizefighting a certain forthrightness and relevancy missing | in political campaigns. It might be well to shake up this age of over- "specialimnon by letting the orators | fight and the fighters orate. 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