Evening Star Newspaper, December 31, 1936, Page 9

y 7’ ) THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1936 A—9 y|Judging 1936 Is Task of Future Results of Controlled Economy to Be Known After Trial Period. BY DAVID LAWRENCE. OOKING back over the year 1936 from a governmental viewpoint, there can be little doubt that it was given over to & titanic struggle between con- servative and liberal forces, with the presidential election on November 3 as the climax. ‘What happened prior to November 8 must be marked out as the des- perate effort of those who believe in constitutional- ism of the tradi- tional type to defeat those who believe in adapt- ing the Govern- ment to the pur- poses of a welfare agency directly benefitting vast groups in the electorate. And the election demon- strated that the liberals, possessed al- ready of a vast governmental power to bestow direct benefits to the citizen, commanded an unprecedented ma- Jorty. Now the question of definition of what is realy liberalism has been de- posited on the doorstep of the party in power and nothing that has hap- pened since November 3 has given any clear indieation of how far toward the radical left or how much in conformity with the conservative right the second administration of President Roosevelt is to move. More than ever, 1936 emphasized the consolidation of the executive and legislative branches of the Govern- ment as well as the merger of political and economic power in a centralized government. Much of the legislation adopted merely sketched the reforms that now are challenging the ingenuity of the New Deal administrators to make them workable. Evolution of Capitalism. Broadly speaking, the clash between & controlled capitalism and a capital- ism that has been limited in only & few particulars heretofore, has placed upon Government itself some enor- mous responsibilities. The year 1936 will ever be remembered as a turning point in the evolution of American capitalism, for it strengthened the hold of the Federal Government on the national economy and committed the Nation, for the time being any- way. to policies of controlled or man- aged economy. Before the election slow progress was made, due largely to a feeling that the courts would protect the citizen against confiscation of his property and to a more or less wide- spread reliance on the Supreme Court as the last bulwark of American in- dividualism. Since the election no such confi- dence that the Supreme Court will prevent confiscation prevails. This is because the administration has avoid- ed the announcement of any direct plan to place constitutional amend- ments before the people and is in- stead walting for opportunities to ap- point judges who will decide matters along lines pleasing to the political administration that happens to be in power. “We don't need safiy constitutional amendments to get things done—let’s just liberalize the Supreme Court™ that's the viewpoint expressed again and again by high administration offi- cials and by members of Congress, who are planning all sorts of twists and turns to legal phraseology with the hope of giving the present Su- preme Court a chance to reverse itself or with the idea of passing laws that will be ruled upon by a new personnel in the court in the next two or three | years. David Lawrence. Business More Friendly. From the standpoint of business which for the most part feared the | re-election of the New Deal and then | after election made many gestures of | friendly co-operation, there have come indications of a feeling that controlled economy cannot be resisted for a while, .anyway, and that the slogan of the hour is “let the New Deal find a way to make its laws work.” This implies that as the Federal Government assumes more and more responsibility as it passes more and | more laws and issues more and more regulations, the whole thing must some day add up to a restoration of employment to the millions out of | work and also to a dimmunition of | government expenses, or else inflation will reach acute proportions. In the last few weeks the New Deal thas given many evidences of a realiza- tion of the dangers of a sky-rocket price situation. Indications are that the Federal Reserve Board, headed by Marriner Eccles, who has been an ardent supporter of the spending policy, is now switching to a more conservative course lest we have 1929 over again. Too many people have been led to belleve that Wall Street ‘wisards are the only ones who can make financial trouble for the Amer- ican people, whereas manipulation of public funds by excessive borrowings »~ and excessive expenditures can bring precisely the same result—a run on the dollar. Roosevelt Holds Key. Bince the November 3 earthquake the New Dealers have exhibited signs of wanting to keep the struggle be- fween the right and left from forcing their own policies to extremes. The middle-of-the-road idea has become popular, but the keyman in the shap- fng of such 'policies is President Roosevelt. ‘To avoid immediate decisions, to give the country a chance to digest the election and its effects, there oc- curred a breathing spell during which Mr. Roosevelt made a remarkable ef- fort for world peace by means of speeches delivered in Argentina and by treaties proposed by the United | ment intervention in business which, | News Behilld_ the~ News Economic Bells Boom Prosperity Tune, With Some Notable Disharmony. BY PAUL MALLON. HE figures show the country has reached, this New Year eve, a state of what could be called prosperity, yet it is not out of the depression. Look at the accompanying chart of progress made since 1932, especially at the last 10 months of this year. Factories are humming almost & 1929 boom tune. Employment is only 9 rotes under the high- nitched 1929 key. But everything else is more or less inhatmonious. Pay rolls are 18 points lower, freight off 30, sales off 20, prices off 12 and buiding drones a sour bass 61 points below 1929. It means that, in ringing out the old and ringing in the new, some economic bells will sound much louder and more cheerful than others. The whole makes a somewhat uneven chorus. * ok ok % . ‘The chart is made up of official Government figures, except the current month, which has been privately estimated. All figures, except pay rolls and prices, are adjusted for seasonal variations and therefore vepresent the per- centage of normal existing for the period stated. Normal (100) is the average level for the years 1923, 1924 and 1925, except for the price index, which is based on 1926, uoonpoia esnpur atpring JusmsoIaure 4109008 san1a0s (00T srenda e © 3 Sug1) sud o SeROUM - 648 65.9 4.9 80.0 80.6 80.6 9.6 9.7 78.6 19.2 80.5 816 816 815 82.1 December .. 113 835 Note—The empoyment figure is about 5 points above the figure formerly used by the Government. The pay roll figure is about 2 points higher. This is because the Bureau‘of Labor Statistics has changed the basis of its reckoning, It has readjusted its computations in accordance with the 1933 census. . x ko If you will look behind the high employment figure, you will find ‘where unemployment lies. Lowest employment in November was in locomotives. This industry employed only 40 per cent as many people as in 1923-5. Rail repair shops employed 60 per cent; millwork, 53; saw mills, 50; hardware, 73; silver- ware, T4; brick, 49; glass, 64; millinery, 48; cigars and cigarettes, 67; fertilizers, 70. These were worst. The best were steel, 108 per cent; machinery, 111; cash registers, 119; machine tools, 128; aircraft, 532; automobiles, 126; textiles, 104; wearing apparel, 116; food, 113; radios, 210; chemicals, 130; oil refining, 120. What this means is the great bulk of large industries are now employing more men than in the selected normal time. Unemploy- ment is mainly in three large in- dustries, namely, building, rail equipment and tobacco. The to- N bacco deficiency, of course, rep- p resents technological unemploy- s ment. There is no likelihood of heavy re-employment there. But rail equipment is picking up and build- ing has prospects. There is every reason to expect that the improvements in these two industries during the coming year will be strong. Outside the factories, the employment figures do not run as high, Heaviest employment of the mon-manufacturing industries is in general merchandising. [Employment there is 109 per cent. Not one of the other industries is over 100. The prospects of these industries at the turn of the year generally rest with further general business prospects, which all the economists agree are decidedly bright for the next few months, at least. (Copyright, 1036.) —_— i was kept back by Mr. Roosevelt's m—“ fluence during the campaign has be- | come more and more visible on the horizon in the last few weeks. Living Costs Rise. Nineteen thirty-six saw a substantial increase in national income, but the | rate of increase is still not sufficient to | absorb comfortably the tremendous in- | crease in the total cost of the Federal, | State and city governments. Taxes are | rising instead of diminishing, and the | consumer began to feel during the year | an increase in the cost of living. Many of the increases in price are directly traceable to Government | policies, but the full effect will not be noted until 1937 is well under way.| ‘The most significant plece of govern- unless repealed, may change the whole | course of American business, is the law | requiring the distribution of surpluses lest & penalty tax be paid. The use of the taxing power ostensibly to strike at so-called tax avoldance, but actually ; to increase the distribution of dividends , to stockholders has made a profound | impression on the managements of American corporations. The payment of increased wages and bonuses in the last quarter of 1936 was the result in large part of the desire of companies to avoid the effects of the undistributed surplus tax. Many who objected that the new tax is a tax om thrift and will some day lead to vast | unemployment because reserves will | have been depleted have been brushed | aside in & wave of enthusiasm over the | amount of purchasing power sup- Tlfl 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 a Taming the directly opposed to The Star’s. 10 Per Cent Opinion Might Substitute for Law Curbing Recalcitrant Business Minority. BY MARK SULLIVAN. IBENT ROOSEVELT'S press conference Tuesday was re- ported in the newspapers with the fullness called for by the subjects discussed. If some accounts spoke of Mr. Roosevelt as “indignant,” that is because all of us tend a little to emphasize the = dramatic, whether in newspaper nar- § ratives or per- sonal conversae tion. And if head- lines included such words as @ “tight” and “drive,” that is because short and £ striking words ac- commodate them- selves to headline needs. To me, the :’::l‘_“df“t(:f;:"r:: Mark Sulliva and poised. Most of his remarks were ofthand in both nature and manner. They were not premeditated, but were brought out by questions. The per- formance seemed not only a proper method of giving leadership to public opinion, but was leadership at its best. Mr. Roosevelt began with comment on the sale of planes to the Spanish Loyalist government by one American dealer. He said that many manu- facturers had asked the State Depart- ment for licenses; the department in all cases replied that it would grant the licenses if they were insisted upon, because the neutrality law is manda- tory on the department, but the de- partment in all cases appealed to the manufacturers, as a public service, not to demand the licenses and not to sell the goods. The department asked this 88 a help toward preserving neutrality. Recalcitrant 10 Per Cent. About the one dealer who stood on his legal rights, Mr. Roosevelt was rather emphatic. He used an expres- sion about such an action being not patriotic. He then used this incident to illustrate a theme that seems funda- mental in his thinking. He said this is another case of the recalcitrant 10 per cent. Ninety per cent of business, Mr. Roosevelt has said again and again, do the decent thing. It is the 10 per cent that go off bounds. From the airplane shipper, Mr. °| Roosevelt turned to the matter of a possible successor to N. R. A. He did this not in a premeditated way, but in answer to a question. He said clearly that he has no revival of N. R. A. in mind. But he said there has been in some parts of industry lately a | tendency toward unwholesome prac- tices—use of child labor, starvation wages, long hours. In answer to a question, he said that in his judgment this can only be prevented by Federal action—action by the States cannot | do it. He said explicitly that he has no definite plan in mind. From what the President said on this and other occasions, I surmise his point of view to be something like this: That the public will in time come to see that evil practices in busi- ness can be handled effectively only by Federal action, and that when the country comes to this conclusion, some appropriste Federal action will be found. . Again the 10 Per Cent. In this connection, Mr. Roosevelt again returned to the 10 per cent. Ninety per cent of business, he re- peated, does the decent thing. The 10 per cent that follow sweatshop practices are a menace, an unfair competition, to the 90 per cent that are decent. Not only for the good of the country, but for the protection of the decent 90 per cent, Mr. Roose« velt thinks Federal control is indis- pensable. He has explained that State action will not do, because if one State forbids child labor and decrees a minimum wage, the recalcitrant 10 per cent can move their factories into another State. Now the point of view of those who differ from Mr. Roosevelt is that we should not put the 90 per cent, and all America, and all of us as indi- viduals, into a Federal strait-jacket— merely in order to check a recalcitrant 10 per cent. It is up to those who hold this view to show that their contention is practicable. They should show that the desired end can be ac- complished by means other than statutory law uniform for all the varied parts of the country—in short, that there are ways other than merely crying “pass a law.” Can Bad Alonc Be Stopped? ‘The airplane dealer shipping planes to Spain is & case in point. Assuming his action is what Mr. Roosevelt says it is, then it must be universally dis- approved. Are there, then, ways by which this individual can be restrained —other than through passage of a mandatory, intricate law, a law which in its effort to stop the bad is likely to deprive the good of needed flexi- bility? For letting this airplane shipper know that we regard his action as undesirable, and for checking him, what are our resources? There are the newspapers. It would take a bold and callous person to go one under widespread exposure and condemna- tion by the press. There are the churches and the clergy—they are custoaians of peace and here is a call to action. There are the labor unions —would it not be proper and whole- some for the unions to refuse to handle such shipments? There are trade associations—can they not find ways of disciplining a man who does something generally disapproved? There are countless other means by which public opinion could show dis- | approval, even inflict reprisal, upon {indlvidmu and corporations who act |in ways universally regarded as so- | cially undesirable. During the recent presidential cam- paign there were a large number of persons and groups, many besides purely political organizations, who op- posed Mr. Roosevell because they op- { pose his policy of PFederal regulation. To Wish You A Very Happy New Year To Thank You For a Most Successful 1936 We, the People - Bootleg Coal Problem Reveals Humanity’s Secession From Capitalism. * BY JAY FRANKLIN. HE bootleg coal situation in the anthracite regions of Penrsylvania is & scandal. Unless the “stealing” of coal in the greund by un- employed miners is ended, the entire system of corporate and private property (as defined by the Supreme Court) will be made ridiculous. The facts are about as follows: A number of coal companies decided to shut down some of their mines, thereby leaving & number of Pennsylvania communities without visible means of support. People still wanted to buy coal, but not at the price the companies regarded as profitable. The stranded miners began to dig some of the coal from the abandoned seams, transported and peddled it in neighboring cities. While New York tried to protect its citizens from illicit fuel at lower prices and while there was a good deal of law-and-order talk in lower Manhattan, nothing much has been done to stop the digging. Gov. Earle of Pennsylvania has just made a strange tour of this “lawless” region. He has foud sheriffs, State police, bankers, business men and members of the clergy deploring the “moral” wrong of living on “stolen” coal, but frankly ed- TS THiS mitting that the choice lies be- SHAME 2y ONYE /& tween theft and starvation, not > only for the idle miners, but also for the business and professional classes of the coal country. The only occasion on which the State troopers had interfered with boot- leg mining was when a group of “thieves” were working under such dangerous conditions as to threaten loss of life. The only State indictment has been against certain mine officials allegedly re- sponsible for a fatal mine explosion. * ¥ ¥ % This situation raises the old question of who owns the earth. Apparently the mine companies.did not put the coal seams under the_ Pennsylvania hills. Obviously, under our system of property, thevr‘purchane or lease of the coal lands gave them exclusive right to mine this coal. Naturally, they cannot be expected to mine coal at a loss. Have they the right to refuse to the miners a chance to take the coal and sell it? With them, as human beings, it is a ‘matter of life and death; with the companies, it is a matter of profits in property. So what? There will be plenty of glib answers between the “call out the National Guard” of the Union League Club and the radical demand to nationalize coal mines, particularly the unprofitable ones. This column does Inot pretend to know the answer. t does feel, however, that-there is something screwy about i system which finds it profitable to withhold !ror: the p?xbllc [ b‘n::s ;2:: modny_ which people need and which is lying there for the taking by any men with the strength, skill and team work to exploit it. There is also something wrong with a political system which, professedly capitalistic, stepped in to stop the wave of bankruptcy before it touched the banks and businesses which support this system of organized scarcity. If anthracite mining—under present ownership—is unprofitable, let the companies go bankrupt, sell the property for what it will bring, and resume mining with lower capital costs. That is the old system, but when it began to work our rugged individualists couldn’t take it. For business, capital has come out in the open, and since was laid out with Lilies in the darkened parlor, has showr that 1 it believes that business losses should be “absorbed” by labor and by the con- sumers. Prices are held high and, where wage rates are not cut, whole mines are shut down. For this bootleg coal situation has an importance far beyond itself. The thing which has happened in Pennsylvania illustrates the anti- social illogicality which has been finally identified with the old insti- tutions of law, property and wealth. ‘Whereas we are but life occupants on a long-suffering planet, we act as though we owned it and have always tried to freeze the aead hand of past possession upon the welfare, life and liberty of all the people. When- ever humanity has faced such a situation in the past, the human race has seceded from its own institutions. Bootleg mining is & form of economic secession from the American business system, secession of so simple a form as to be appalling. Bootleg coal is a scandal—but the real question is which is the most scandalous, the theft of the coal or the denial of economic employment to men who live by coal. (Copyright, 1036.) States for the maintenance of inter- American peace. This will stand out @s the crowning achievement of the year in foreign affairs plus, of course, the growing determination to maintain & peace-at-any-price policy through the avoidance of entanglements over the shipment of arms and munitions to war areas of the world. While Mr. Roosevelt was in South America, the Nation took stock of the election and business men, assured by New Deal friends that they had little to worry about, went ahead in many instances with plans for expansion. “The demand for goods occasioned by the shortages that have piled up in the last three or four years has given the “‘price level an upward boost and has ‘stimulated re-employment. But the steady growth of a labor erisis which - posedly added to the national income by reason of the new tax. Devaluation Reckoning Coming. Tt is too early to estimate the effects of enforced spending and of the attack on the accustomed principles of thrift and prudent management. Every sym- tom of the historic course that infla- tion has always followed is slowly being introduced into the national picture as 59-cent dollars more and more come to be understood as purchasing less and less than the old 100-cent dollars. Some day America will understand devaluation of the dollar in its truest sense—a means of painlessly cutting real wages or at least cuiting them so that the worker would not realize what or who was doing the cutting of his wages. Some day also America will understand what “reform” taxes mean in terms of unemployment. But when one has said this, he must quickly add that 1936 was, after the election, a period of superficial optimism which will continue for many months and perhaps for a couple years more until the full effects of governmental inter< vention in the economic machinery can be measured and perhaps also evaluated in terms of the real welfare of the average family in America. (Copyright, 1936,) - | & PAINTS Devoe's Porch and Deck Enamel 922 N. Y. Ave. National 8610 ;HDXINE S0 Deeply appreciative of the business you have given us during the year just closing (the ‘largest in our history) we extend to our pa- trons and friends our most sincere thanks, to- gether with our best wishes for a Happy and Prosperous New Year. This public expression of our appreciation carries with it the assurance that we shall, as in the past, put forth an unremitting effort to continue Woodward & Lothrop as "A Store Worthy of the Nation's Capital” . WOODWARD & LOTHROP 10™11™ F AND G STREETS | Cannot these individuals and groups now find ways to take action to make Mr. Roosevelt's policy unnecessary? Here iz an opportunity for presons Vi /501078 i/@Yi/®) 078 Uncle S 1037 * Frederie J. Haskin Almanat believing in “the American way of life” to demonstrate their faith by works. (Copyright, 1936,) V870378 78V /81474 Order the 1937 Uuele Sam’s Almanar NOW!? Every States needs an almanac prac- tically every day in the year. It naturally follows that if one needs an be a good one. It is a matter of regret that millions of shoddy and unreliable almanacs given away as advertisements every year. anl’s- claptrap Uncle cheap price. Headline Folk and What They Do Dr. Raymond Pearl Bares Findings With- out Sugar Coating. BY LEMUEL F. PARTON. R. RAYMOND PEARL is & kindly, genial man, but he does think up some unpleas= ant things. Unlike pool play« ers, scientists don't call their shots, but they have a way of breaking bad news around Christmas or New Year. Dr. Pearl's New Year bulletin is that maybe the race will commit mass sul- cide, like the little lemmings, which, every few years, parade across Nor- way by the million and march into the sea. We're too prolific, and when that happens in a species, there may be a strange mass impulse toward self-destruction. The great Johns Hopkins biologist never slicks up his gloomy answers. When I asked Dr. Robert Andrews Millikan about his cosmic rays, he said they might be incidental to the fashioning of new worlds, ‘and that, having booted our chance to make a civilization on this planet, we might get another workout on another sphere, now being specially made for this purpose. Dr. Pearl wouldn't know about that. In his laboratory he gleans facts and statistics, working with roosters, rats, vinegar flies, mice and men, and when he thinks he has something, he lays it on the line and you can take it or leave it. There are no pietistic elaborations in Dr. Pearl's science, nothing about the new synthesis of life which we must achieve to make up for having intere fered with nature. He lets the facts fall where they may. At 57 he is fairly festooned with titles, degtees, decorations and gare lands; that is, he would be if he didn't put them away and forget them. No avalanche of honors can make him take his mind off his work. He is a native of Farmington, N. H, educated at Dartmouth and the Unie versity of Washington. He heads the Institute for Biological Research at Johns Hopkins. He supports birth control: he thinks the moderate tippler may have a bet- ter chance for long life than the total abstainer, the intellectual than the manual worker; heredity is predomi= nant over environment in shaping individual destiny: the unfit are now enabled to survive and nature can't work things out the way she would otherwise. Dr. Pearl sometimes seems discouraged about the human germ plasm. But he is too much of & scientist to offer any pat answers, (Copyright, 1936, MRS. COOGAN WEDS Mother of Former Child Star Mar- ries Son's Business Manager. LAS VEGAS, Nev., December 31 (P —Mrs. Lillian R. Coogan, mother of Jack Coogan, former child fim actor, and Arthur L. Bernstein, Coogan’s business manager, were | married here yesterday. Mrs. Coogan’s husband, John, was killed in May, 1935, in an automobile accident. family in the United almanac at all it should are Many others of a nature are sold at s Sam's Almanac, com- piled by Frederic J. Haskin, is a private publication assembled mainly from governmental sources, and it is conceded to be the best publication of its kind, for a dime, that was ever issued in this country. This is particularly true of the 1937 edition, which has been en- Paone DIsmict §300 : 10 cents a copy larged by sixteen pages. Every Family Needs This Almanac T enclose ten cents in coin (carefully wrap- ped) for which Order your Almanac Now! Use the Ll attached coupon, or, if more conven- ient, call at The Evening Star Business Office, Penn. Ave. and 11th St. N.W. Street please send me a copy of Almanac. Lo T ———