Evening Star Newspaper, October 7, 1936, Page 11

THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON D. C, WED. NESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1936. e e e e T e AL One Per Cent of Vote May Win Ohio Toledo Labor Peace System Working to Settle Strife. Today's dispatch begins a three- day survey by David Lawrence of Ohio, ome of the pivotal States which may decide the election. This is the twenty-eighth State pisited in a tour of 40 out of the 48 States. RY DAVID LAWRENCE. OLEDO, Ohio, October 7.—The first impression that greets the X | visitor to Northern Ohio is that the State is close, indeed very close. Out of the 3,00000 votes expected to be cast, 1 to 2 per cent of the voters will probably decide how the State’s 26 electoral votes will be cast. A majority of 75,000 votes will be large for either Gov. Landon or President Roose- 3 velt ‘When it is con- g gidered that, not- withstanding the Jandslide every- where else in 1932, this State was carried by Mr. Roosevelt by only about 74,000 votes, out of the 2,500,000 cast, it means that a change of mind on the part of about 40.000 persons would give Mr. Landon a majority. One might ask, why not a change | from Mr. Hoover's vote of 1932, 50| that 40.000 who voted Republican last | time would vote now for the New | Deal party? The answer is that the various polls being taken show a shift the other way. Nearly every poll of importance conducted by newspapers shows that there are more votes| coming over to Mr. Landon from | those Republicans who cast their bal- Jots in 1932 for Mr. Roosevelt than | there are Republicans who voted {nr‘ Mr. Hoover in 1932 now going over to Mr. Roosevelt. Thus, the Literary| Digest reveals two persons are going | to Landon from a 1932 Democratic | vote for every one person .(h\(!mzi from Republican in 1932 to Roosevelt in 1936. Other Roosevelt Losses. But these switches in the voling are not all. Mr. Roosevelt is losing | votes to the Lemke-Coughlin ticket that might otherwise have gone in | large part to Mr. Roosevelt. Take the poll being conducted in Lucas County by the Toledo Blade. A mailed ballot is being sent to every | registered voter in the county, which | means every kind of voter, irrespec- | tive of class. The polling of a total registration vote eliminates the ques- tion of whether the ballots reach everybody. | Lucas County went Democratic in | 1932, with Mr. Roosevelt getting 56.6 | per cent of the total vote. This year the Toledo Blade poll shows Mr. Roose- | velt getting 52 per cent, Mr. Landon 37 per cent and Mr. Lemke about 11 per cent. If this percentage is applied to the cities of the State, where gen- erally Mr. Roosevelt's vote is strong, it would show that Lemke is taking away enough votes so that the rural districts and towns, which seem this| year Republican a bit more heavily fi David Lawrenee. News Behind the News Importance of French Tariff Reductions Since Deval- uation Held Overemphasized. BY PAUL MALLON. IT CERTAINLY looks like the millenium has arrived in Europe—if you do not look too close. Headlines are shouting: “Paris cuts tariff 15 to 20 per cent.” Published opinion is responding: “Most important step any great nation has taken since the world economic crisis started” “Complete reversal of French economic policy of self-containment,” “World trade revival seen.” . Unfortunately, descriptive adjectives often add up to more imposing conclusions thaa cold figures. If you will set your pencil to the French action and perform a simple arithmetic upon it, you are likely to conclude the millenium may be still around the corner. The tariff decreases turn out in reality to be increases. The additional tariff protection automatically granted by de- valuation more than offsets the rate decreases, * X % % The realities of the situation become apparent if you put your pencil to the problem of a dollar watch being exported from the United States to France. Before French devaluation the watch would cost the French importer 16 francs plus the tariff. For the purposes of simplicity, assume the tariff was 25 per cent. The watch would then have cost the French- man 20 francs. But now, under devaluation, there are 21 francs in the dollar instead of 16. The French cost of the watch becomes 21 francs plus the tariff. Reduce the tariff 15 per cent and the current French cost of the watch becomes 25 francs. Thus the net eflect of devaluation and a 15 per cent tariff re- duction is an increase of 5 francs in the French tariff protection on this hypothetical American dollar watch. French manufacturers are said to figure that devaluation gave them generally the ecuivalent of ap additional protective ad valorem surtax of 40 per cent. This figure may be too high, but whatever it is it more than offsets the encouragement to immediate world trade involved in the tariff reductions. * k% These icy figures do not, of course, take into consideration the purely psvchological effects of French action, which are really encour- aging. For instance, the United States did not even make a gesture toward the reduction of our tariff rates when we devalued. The reason the French are doing it is to put & ceiling on domestic prices. They do not want that competitive French-made dollar watch, for instance, to increase too much in price. What France is doing is solely in her own interest. It is not final. She may eventually devalue further. She will have trouble with her prices. Also there is the problem of French wages, which are still low, But, at least, her action has started world to thinking and talking about such remote objectives as stabilization, trade and economic peace. In the minds of trade realists, that is something. * o K X Those confidential United States proposals for a neutrality pact with Tatin America are really intended to be an invitation to the League of Nations to go and do likewise in Europe. That is what is in the mind of at least one top official here. . ' The proposals are simple plans to get Latin American nations to adopt the present meutrality law mow in eflect here. Onme im- portant additional provision is made: Neutrality bans would de applied against nations which go to war without formal declarations. Just what United States officials are up to in also suggesting a consul- tative commission of nations in the ‘Western Hemisphere is not yet clear. The proposal specifies that the commissioners shall be foreign ministers of the respective coun- tries, that they shall pay their own expenses and pool the expenses of the commission. In that routine it works just as the League is organ- ized. But just how important the commission would be has not yet been determined. There are several proposed drafts, and in none is there any mention of specifications, such as how often the consultative commission should meet. * x * % Behind the current political debate over the social security program lies the inside fact that its New Deal sponsors long ago decided many changes would have to be made in it. They began discovering faults in their plan even before the President signed the bill. Most important is their conversion to the theory that it will be unwise to establish any such huge reserve fund as the act now calls for. A substantial number of brain trusters have privately come around to this view. The President himself is said to have changed his mind about it since he signed the act. The situation is not ripe for such a public announcement now, and it may therefore be denled, but you may bet more than a nickel that the reserve fund theory is definitely out and that there will be an overhauling of the act next year, no matter who has charge of it. (Copyright. 1936.) ing. IU's a city that will bear watching | covered the evils of its own negligence, in the next decade, as it reconstructs | and is catching the spirit of a recov- In the lan- ertlt 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. On the Record Resiliency of Democracy Strikingly Portrayed in French BY DOROTHY THOMPSON. HE rapid evolution of public opinion in France in the last few weeks deserves to be stud- ied, because it indicates what are the extreme limits to which democracy will go in condoning the dominating influence of one extreme or the other. The amazing thing about the French situation—studied in the light of __ . recent history in other °countries with shorter tra- ditions of demo- cratic govern- ment—is that de- spite the fact that aggressive groups have emerged at both right and left, an equilibri- um is being kept. And apparently it is being kept by that vague thing, public opinion, and by the much criticized instrument of democratic control—the senate, chamber and a parliamentary government — upon which public opinion demonstrably ‘works. ‘When M. Blum came into power as the first Socialist premier of Prance, at the head of a coalition embracing all the Left and supported by the Communists, there seemed an obvious danger that the Communists, most aggressive of the lot, would turn the victory into an exclusive one for them- selves. Public Sympathetic, But it now looks as though this toleration of illegal action was possible only because it was supported by a very considerable public opinion. The French public, who, like our own, were unaWware of actual conditions among the workers, were amazed to learn how very bad they were. They were con- vinced that most of the material de- mands of the workers were justified on purely humane grounds. This was reflected in the entire Paris press, which, despite its capitalistic interests, was relatively mild in eriticism. As a| result the strike, which engaged prac- | tically the whole of industry, passed without any serious public disorder and ended in victory for the workers. But when it came to intervention in Spain the Left government took ex- actly the opposite course to the one to be expected. In logic, one would have presumed that & Left government which owed its power to a wave against fascism, which was supported by Communists and which had sound legal grounds for sending aid to the legally elected and diplomatically rec- ognized government of the Spanish Loyalists, would have done so. ‘The neutrality proposal was & rec- ognition that the public opinion for peace was stronger than the hatred of Pascism. The same people who had registered themselves & few weeks be- fore as unalterably opposed to Fascism in France were unwilling to engage in an anti-Fascist crusade abroad. And the Left government intuited and re- sponded to this feeling. That the government had the cor- rect intuition is indicated by the fact that when the Communists, having voted for neutrality, began to show } cism, | there are bounds over which govern- Crisis. even with Communists in power, as long as the expression of opinion is not bottled up. Devaluation Danger Rises. The danger of devaluation made by & Left government, which is a prey to demagogic pressure, was— and still is—considerable. Devaluation is in itself an inflationary measure and if it is accompanied by automatic and drastic increases in the wage scale, as recommended to Blum by the com- munists, no progress in recovery is achieved. The precedents all show that prices do not rise in exact ratio to devaluation and that stability does not therefore demand such drastic and automatic action. The pressure on the Blum government to under- take price and wage regulations was immediately made by his Left Wing supporters. In fact, the communists had only voted for devaluation for fear of disrupting the Popular Front, and wished immediately to be com- pensated for their vote. But the public, which accepted de- valuation of the franc with such docility, was not prepared to accept the price and wage-fixing agreements proposed. Devaluation has been ac- companied by an almost intuitive | swing to the right, which registers in | spite of the fact that a Left govern- | ment is in power. Blum has the choice either of com- plying with the tendency or of re- signing. The Senate again asserts its authority and the government is helpless, because this time the Senate has public opinion with it. The events, telescoped in France into a few days, are not unlike what has happened here. No Quiescent Congress. In France, Blum acted under very difficult conditions. He has not, like President Roosevelt, enjoyed full power delegated by a quiescent Con- gress. He has no safe majority in the upper house, and himself heads the government of disparate elements. But there, as here, the public has shown itself disposed to go only a certain distance and apparently re- Jects, before it is tried, a French ver- sion of the N. R. A. Since the riots of February, 1934, many people have been expetting— and this column, among others—that the same process which took place in Germany in 1933 might occur in France. It is certainly too early to conclude that it will not. A government with a revolutionary program may be voted in by the peo- ple, as it was in Germany. cannot go beyond limits as long as public opinion is functioning. As long as the democratic instruments are retained, even if they are sub- jected to widespread and cynical criti- it will be demonstrated that ment cannot transgress, and that there is a consensus with which it must conform if it is to stay in power. Apparently Leon Trotsky is right when he says that when the Com- But it | munist revolution compromises with democracy it cust its own throat, (Copyrisht, 1936.) We, the People Power of America Lies in Crusade Against Want and Waste. BY JAY FRANKLIN. OT only because they are effective statements of the New Deal’s social and economic purposes by a competent economist, but because they give us & hint of the sort of country América might become if we relessed our moral energies in 2 crusade against waste and want, this coluran recommends the writings of David Cushman Coyle as “home work” for the voters of America. Coyle’s two recent booklets—“Uncommon Sense” and “Waste"— un- doubtedly will be used as Democratic propaganda in this campaign. They are attractively printed and the prices put them within the reach of many people who cannot afford to buy books normally and who distrust free hand-outs. In “Uncommon Sense” Coyle explains, patiently and simply, the na- ture of the New Deal's money policies, stressing the fact that the bank credit by which we now live is “make-believe” money, and driving home the idea of “spending to save” in national administration. If a million-dollar dam prevents a two-million-dollar flood, it is poor economy to say that we cannot af- ford the dam. & Coyle is on shaky ground when he argues that income taxes do not affect prices. Since they are col- lected in arrears, they amount to & mandate to the upper bracketeers to make sufficient profits with which to meet the demands of the Internal Revenue Bureau. On the other hand, he is correct in saying that income surtaxes pre- vent over-investment in uneconomic production. His books should mot be taken uncritically but should be read and discussed before the election by those who want to vote with their eyes open. ok k% In “Waste® Coyle touches on the tremendous possibilities of an America which he envisages as a sort of gigantic Gulliver held down by Lilliputian bankers. He reminds us of the tremendous dimensions of our “rendezvous with destiny,” in a passage which is worth remembering: “We need to look with a cool eye at the fact that this is a big country with 127,000,000 people in it. No little two-for-a-cent program will swing the scales of destiny for a Nation like ours. “Wars are not won by feeble gestures and timid parsimonious pecking at the enemy. “Wars are won by whole-hearted, unstinted use of men and money, by hard-hitting, well-directed action, backed with every fighting resource of a virile people. This is no Sunday school picnic. We win or lose the highest stakes that any nation ever played for, in these mext 20 years.” Coyle agrees with Stuart Chase that these stakes include the fertility of our soil, our dwindling forest and mineral resources, our land and water, and the health, skill and morale of our people. And the alternative to victory is not Landon, it is the desert and the flood which destroyed the Mayas and the Babylonians and which are destroying the Chinese under our very eyes. This is important but it is negative, a confession of the things which we have done that we ought not to have done and vice versa. Not by such fears and calculations can a race be saved from self-destruction. * x % What we need, what Coyle and his fellow New Dealers glimpse buf cannot describe, is & vision of the power and the glory of an America set free from its timidities and inhibitions., National power is too often a mere matter of navies, air formations and marching men, of bugles calling up the dawn by palm and pine, and the flag over all. re is another glory, which need not exclude the fact of a national power capable of self-defense. Where is that America which Jefferson and Whitman saw? Where is that land at peace with itself because it has learned to cultivate its own garden? We must be “bigger Americans,” “super-federalists.” if we are to find the promised land where our people may indeed live simply, but where they will be strong, self- confident and content, under just and equal laws, to compete for the eternal human rewards of honor, wealth and happiness. ‘Where are the promised Americans who were to talk like philosophers, act like men and bear themselves like kings? Where are the sons of the pioneers? Here is our goal—a goal far removed from the mamby-pamby talk of subsistence wages, old-age pensions and municipal power plants. To breed stronger, wiser, better human beings in a dynamic civilization is the purpose of our race. The trouble seems to be that, although men like David Cushman Coyle realize that this is no “Sunday school picnic,” too many of his colleagues have acled as though it were. (Copyright. 1036.) - This Changing World British Worried Over Talk About King’s Private Affairs. BY CONSTANTINE BROWN, ING EDWARD has replaced, to the sorrow of the English peo ple, King Carol of Rumania on the front page of the news- papers outside England. The scandal columns of the dailies and weeklies throughout Europe are full of details of his “private life.” And the British don't like it. The sorrow of Edward’s subjects is | pathetic. They . | realize the young monarch is play- ing with his crown. And that is a pity because the British sov- ereign is an ex- ceptionally gifted man. Not only does he understand the new social world trends and intend to be a New Dealer —in the British man- ner—but his un- derstanding of international affairs is unusually keen and penetrating. * % * % ‘The present British statesmen are slow. They all believe in Britain's luck, devoted to the theory that delay rather than action has always been helpful to the empire. Edward is more impulsive. He wanls to do things and complains openly that the great tragedy of the empire is that the young generation which would have been the backbone of the country now is buried in Flanders. T} present young men of Great Britain are old as far as their ideas are con- cerned. Among the British Intellectuals there is & saying that there are oniy two “young” men in the empire at the present moment: The octogenarian, | Bernard Shaw, and the King. Mr. Brown * % ¥ % In the field of international affairs the King is as sharp as a needle. This Summer he went on a trip which included the Balkans. He saw all the rulers in Central and South- eastern Europe, talked to them quietly and managed to undermine the mere spectacular work of Goering and Dr Schacht by talking common sense to the regent of Yugoslavia, Kemal At- taturk, Boris of Bulgaria, George of Greece and others Before the World War there was a sontinuous diplomatic struggle between Emperor William of Germany and | Edward's grandfather, King Edward VIL Once more there is a duel between the British and the German rulers. | And it appears that Edward VIII has been able to convince the Balkan statesmen that their interests lie | more in a close co-operation with jGren! Britain and France than in ‘;gfl(mg permanently entangled with Hitler and his friends. It is because the British monarch | bas such steriing qualities that his | subjects hope and pray he will soon, | see light and put some order im his private divided feelings in the matter, they rapidly lost ground. It appears that the Prench satrical adage, “Always to the Left, but no further,” is true than usual in Ohio, would be able to | : | 3 ' 101 its municipal affairs and builds anew | ered economic situation. rp:ntflr:nl::r;m:cu‘o]tl'";:\em!:t::\gn {on the foundations of local self-gov-| guage of the day, Toledo is “going BLpTsLY SPATE. | o nment, which is the root of Ameri- | places.” Lucas County includes such & 1arge | can democracy. For Toledo has dis- population of pro-Roosevelt labor ele- | FXCITING VEW STUDEBAKERS (Copyright, 1936,) ments as to present & fair cross-section | of Northern Ohio. Toledo, it should not be forgotten, has had more than its share of strikes and disturbances and had plenty of banking troubles before 1933. Today retail business men are not saying | thuch publicly about it, but privately | they are inclining more and more to | the theory that, because their indi- | vidual businesses are humming, they | do not want a change of adminis~ tration. Managers of large business enter- prises, with few exceptions, are, how- ever, opposed to the Roosevelt adminis- | tration and want a change because | they declare the Roosevelt spending will bankrupt the country and bring an | end to good business unless he is| stopped, especially when mounting | taxes are added more and more to the | prices of goods and bring on buyers’ strikes and diminished consumption. Incidentally, the more I study the viewpoint of business men, the more I am convinced that the administra- tion's one-sided handling of labor con- troversies by Federal law, even though temporarily giving labor an advantage, has bullt up such antagonisms as to lead to serious industrial disturbance. Works Out Labor Relationship. Toledo, curiously enough, has had {ts experience with labor agitators and extremists and today the leaders of thought in this city have begun to understand their responsibilities and obligations to the social welfare of the city. I believe Toledo is entitled to be called “the city of co-operation,” for it has introduced an industrial peace plan that appears to me to be capable of being used on a national scale. ‘The plan was described in a recent public address by Grove Patterson, £ T Remember... we gave it to you in 1933! GROSNER OF & FOR 1937 What's all the excitement about? The full-chested, handkerchief drape sleeve and suppressed hip idea in men’s clothing was first introduced by our CHESTY g pubc addres by Grove Pieson, model in 1933 . . . and we've im- THE SPOTLIGHT CARS OF 1937 sconoMY oF A ol likwta “We have an individual peace * board, always organized, always ready proved it every year. We know DEEP TONE NEW UNDIRSLUNG REAR AXLES ;«r :lct:n. lwly: alert to lend a quick n the settlement of those labos . . . . e o we're ahead in style but, honestly, PLAIDS drive! Their beautifully rounded one-piece Wi c.r'c:l:onollnu:ums'll:ll‘:“ controversies which are inevitable in any industrisl community. hood tops lift up from the front! Their * doors stay closed tightly even when shut WORLI ARSI LUonASE TWO-TONE STRIPES “The board is made up of five men CAPACITY drawn from the ranks of organized only lightly! * DOUBLE labor, five from the ranks of em- Take a new Studebaker out for a trial NRORKI‘S SARSISE CEOMME ROORS VERSION . . . See it today! SHADE ployers, eight citizens at large. The citizens at large include a priest, a 2 . 9 WITH EXCLUSIVE NON-RATTLE drive! See how its exclusive new dual ROTARY DOOR LOCKS rabbi, & merchant, two lawyers, two range steering halves the turning effort * Judges. Employed on full time, is a of parking! Luxuriate in the roominess of MONCE W RS - AR S C N NOTCH SHAWL WORLD'S FIRST CARS WITH DUAL ITH their silvery “winged victory” radiator grilles and hood louvers— with a paint finish twelve coats deep on their beautifully air-curved bodies—they're easily the most sightly cars that have appeared on the motoring scene in years! But that's only the beginning of the appeal of the magnificent new Studebaker Dicta- tors and Presidents! They have the world’s largest luggage capacity! They're the world’s only cars with the dual economy of the Fram oil cleaner and the gas-saving automatic over- we didn’t know we_were so far ahead. YOU’LL LIKE THE 1937 highly qualifed executive manager WARM AIR DEFROSTERS and secretary. the charming new interiors that have been * “By reason of the presence of this peace board, and its co-operative ma- : ' i EXCLUSIVE NEW EASY PARKING so richly styled by Helen Dryden! Experi s e ence the safety and convenience of the o automatic hill holder and the world’s fin- WORLD'S STRONGEST, SAFEST AND est feather-touch hydraulic brakes! it i b s chinery, most Toledo sirikes now are settled before they begin. Those that bhave taken place, since the Toledo peace plan became operative, have been practically devoid of disorder. ‘The plan is the invention of* Edward P. McGrady, Assistant Secretary of Labor. It has lately been introduced into several other American cities. It forms a constant panel from which arbitrators can be chosen, although 1t is used almost exclusively as an in- formal court and in an advisory ca- pacity. I commend it to all American industrial cities.” Toledo, be it noted, has driven pol- ftics from its city hall and installed & city mansger plan. It has brought to- gether in a co-operative spirit all the groups common tq American city life. There is a new Toledo in the mak- A ? STUDEBAKER'S C. I. T. 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