Evening Star Newspaper, May 7, 1937, Page 11

|| G.O.P.Enjoys Opportunity in Crisis New Deal Foes, What- ever the Name, Must Lay Issues Bare. BY DAVID LAWRENCE. OR several days now there have been discussions hereabouts concerning the future of the Republican party. Members of the Senate and House have partici- pated in these informal deliberations, THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, FRIDAY, MAY 7, 1837. News Behind the News House Startles Observers by Beating Pension Bill, Indicating Economy Move Is Real. BY PAUL MALLON. HE millennium arrived last Monday. On that day, the House of Representatives declined to pass a pension bill. Lobbyists, old- timers and insiders may not believe it, but the Congressional Record shows the House then refused to consider a bill appro- priating $5,000.000 a year more for soldiers, sailors and nurses of the Span- 1sh-American Waz. THE 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. Taxation and Criticism Second Article on Theme Fears National Rudder Is Seriously in Need of Repair. but the net result has not been to S bring forth an: definite formula § of action. The } underlying ques- tions appear to be I these change its name? : 2. Shall & new | : party be formed ¥ out of Demo- § crats who have broken with the & New Deal and Republicans who opposed the President’s re-election? ‘The answers being given to the first question are numerous, but it is curious that the sentiment for a change in name is diminishing. As for the possible coalition with Demo- | crats, it is being pointed out that the | matter is complicated by the existence of local county organizations which are essential to the national party organization and which do not wish to be swallowed up or eliminated in |ny reorganization plan Not being a Republican myself, never having voted the ticket or con- sidered myself a follower of its doc- trines, I perhaps am disqualified to discuss what the Republican party ought to do. But it is important that all those who do not believe in the alleged democracy of the New Deal should have an opportunity to express their beliefs through the medium of a two party system. David Lawrence. Constructive Opposition Needed. real pr velop a cons party in pow political machi through Government funds and pub- lic offices as to keep itse renched for several vears to come unless there is an upr voters who care nothing for party as such and a great | deal for principle. | Men like Senator Borah of Idaho | do not favor & change in name of the Republican party. For one thing, it would do no good to change the label ff the men behind the label were ! dominated by the same reactionary viewpoints that have been so domi- nant in Republican national conven- tions. The Republican party does not need to undergo a change of name but a change of heart. Like the present | £o-called Democratic party, which at times has professed a deep interest in the welfare of the common man, the Republican party first had the true touch of devotion to the public interest and lost it in the maze of political patronage and gcvernmental favors guch as now envelop the New Deal party and will in due time lead also to defeat. The Republican party has an extraordinary opportunity. A cross- section of the 17,000,000 who voted the Republican ticket last Fall might be asked what they really want the | Republican party to do. Surely 17,000,000 cannot have been ‘“eco- nomic royalists” or interested in tread- ing on the rights and opportunities of their fellowmen. Seventeen million persons constitute an enormous part of the electorate and their co-opera- tion is essential in making the eco- nomic system of the country function. 17,000,000 Forgotten Voters. | For several months now there has | been a studied attempt on the part of the President and his followers to *bow out of existence” the 17,000,000 | Voters who registered their opposition to the New Deal. The frequent ridi- cule of Maine and Vermont indulged In by New Deal speakers, headed by Mr. Roosevelt himself, is designed to | foster the impression that the Nation voted almost unanimously, by 46 to 2, last Autumn to give the President the right to do as he pleases with every- thing from the Supreme Court to the smallest agency of Government. The Republican party management, on the other hand, has assumed that ®ll of the 17,000,000 who voted the Republican ticket were Republicans, | nor have any plans been made to take into the opposition ranks the persons who now feel that they made a mis- | take last Autumn when they assumed | that Mr. Roosevelt was not going to | try to change the American system of | Government. | There is, to be sure, need for a| mnew political party in America, one | that will repudiate the selfishness | of republicanism of recent years and the fascism of the New Deal, which | is slowly but surely developing its own adaptation of German and Ital- fan concepts of an all-powerful State in which the rights of the individual are subordinated if not gradually ex- tinguished. Such a new party might carry the pame Republican or any other name 50 long as it was plainly recognized by the masses to be a party truly in- terested in the average man. Today the New Deal is bringing about every month & bigger and bigger cut in the pay ‘envelope of the workers by in- creasing the cost of living. The de- cline in “real wages”—as purchasing obleni so much | disposal | Send Mother Burton's FLOWERS Burton's flowers say the things mother likes to hear. Send her a beautiful box of flowers or a potted plant. Our selection includes all sea- sonable flowers at reasonable prices. We telegraph flowers anywhere. Free delivery to city and suburbs. Drive out and make your selec- tion. Plenty of parking space. 'IDR 4000 Balt. i3 ’Qc..” i, Md. Ar. 0162 NUBTRYMEN Hyetts. 785 Open Evenings and Sundays When legislators decline to vote for pension bills, you may be reaconably certain that something is wrong with the world. In this instance, it is a fairly good indication that the appropriators are downright serious about setting President Roosevelt’s budget aright. In fact, those who have joined the House and Senate Appropriations Committees in their corner sessions lately have it on top authority that Mr. Roosevelt’s recommendation for & one and a half billion dollar relief appropriation would be cut to a flat billion. A majority of the two committees are agreed on it. Their decision will be made public eventually. The committeemen also have some bad news in store for In- terior Secretary Ickes. The Sub- committee of the House Appropria- tions Committee has decided to trim his P. W. A. expenditures down to a point approaching abolition. ‘What the subcommittee says usu- ally goes, which means that the Ickes era of P. W. A. spending is probably nearing an end, by con- gressional edict. P. W. A. expires June 30. years has been under consideration by the subcommittee. A resolution ertending it for two Mr. Ickes has obligated the Federal Government for erpenditures amounting to $282,000,000 during this two-year ertension period. In addition, he has a $145,000,000 revolving fund, which amounts to a drawing account on the Treasury. The subcommittee has decided to of obligations, but to cancel his drawing account. let Mr. Ickes spend his $282,000,000 His $145,060,000 revolv- ing fund is to be abolished. The money automatically is applied to cur= tailing the national debt In a word, this would be the end of the far-flung P. W. A., pet child of Mr. Ickes. * ok k% If these things work out. you will have to hand it to Congress. The workings of this democracy down the ages have created the general supposi=- tion that Congress is the irresponsible spending agency and the executive is the sound retrenchment force Now you have a situation in which the Congress, under able and quiet leadership, is taking the budget in hand to do an effective job on it. You havi e serious-minded legislators bent on & common sense revision of Federal expenditures instead of trying to hog all they can from the Federal Treasury for their local districts. It may seem to be too good to be true, and it probably is, but, if the current drive is carried through, a lot of legislators who have just been ordinary congressmen for the last few years, will edrn justifiable renown as statesmen, What papa said, went. The Farley candidate for the secretary- ship of the Federal Communications Commission still is with the Democratic National Committee, h Department. oping for a job in the Commerce The successful candidate for the post was Thomas J. Slowie, secretary to Representativ e William S Jacobsen of Iowa. His sclection was dictated by the President’s son and secretary, James Roosevelt. Mr. De Valera's new Irish state He was papa’s candidate. proposal impressed authorities here far less than the headline writers. As they see it here, even if Mr. De Valera can achieve his goal. he does not intend to remove himself from the British commonwealth He wants a status like that of Canada and Aus- tralia, but the big guns of the British Royval Navy are too comforting to be abandoned. « . e e The latest check indicates Mr. Roosevelt cannot get six justices, no matter what he does. Even the House is against this. Many think the best he can get there is two justices and a constitutional amendment pro- viding automatic retirement of judges over 70 or 75. The President, how- ever, has given no indication that he would compromise even to the extent of half an eyelash of the sixth justice. The truth is most legislators never been offered. They would that it is only a personal important than he seems to believe it. like to forget issue wish the court-packing plan had about it. They feel with the President, and less Rumor also persists at the Capitol that two court members intend to resign after the present term ends. If TUE TRUSTS MusT e GO/ 2%, that should develop, then all the hard feeling engendered by the court fight would have accom- plished minus zero. The demagogue ciub is grow- ing rapidly. Legislators find it an excellent outlet for objections they do not care to voice in public. It has become so well organized now that groups of members are being assigned subjects upon which to debate. One group has the Power ‘Trust, which is always & superbly denouncable subject. To another group is assigned war, etc. One member strolled in the other day and spent 20 minutes denounc- ing a bill. After having aired these conscientious objections from his chest, he announced he would go out and vote for the bill—and he did. Another member pointed out that the lobbyists of a veterans’ organization were sitting in the gallery to keep a check on the votes of members. He denounced them in forthright terms, but decided that, after all, perhaps he had better keep on the right side of the veterans. I can be as demagoguic as he can He proved his point. (Copyright Said he: “I will show the head of that organization that power of money is called—has been | noticeable for some time. There are many persons who voted the New Deal ticket last Autumn nnd‘ | who do not care about party labels. | Many of these people today, rightly or wrongly, consider the Republicans to be indifferent to the true welfare| of the masses. If the new party which | emerged from the present situation were called Republican but were fun- | damentally interested in a program | to bring about a stabilized prosperity and leaders of such a new party arose | whose sincerity were established by their action in behalf of truly pro- gressive measures, the opportunity for New Deal fascism to be extended through a controlled judiciary, legal- ized monoplies and centralized gov- ernment might be considerably cur- tailed. (Copyright, 1937.) BY DOROTHY THOMPSON. HE NEW STATESMAN AND NATION,” Soclalist in ori- entation and an unofficial organ of the British Labor party, has attacked the new British supertax on the profits of heavy indus- try on grounds strongly reminiscent of the unheeded e criticism launch- *% ed in this coun- -} try against the undistributed profits tax. The essence of that criticism is that the tax discrimi- natesunjustly against “precisely that section of capital which at least can claim that it is shoul- dering the maxi- g‘u‘;'t"r;“x&r :;; Dorethy Thempson. pure rentier goes scot free.” Produc- tive energetic enterprise, which em- ploys labor and produces goods, is to bear the brunt of high governmental costs, while the rentier—bond and mortgage holders in general, and espe- cially holders of government and municipal bonds—remains protected. “By what standards, capitalist or socialist, is it justifiable?” asks “The New Statesman.” “From the Socialist standpoint,” continues the criticism, “this new tax (national defense contribution) is superficially an attractive proposition. It doubtless will suppress stock mar=- ket exuberance and ostensibly it satis- fies the just demand that prosperous citizens should not make undue profits out of rearmament * * * Effects Cause Misgivings. “It is when the practical effects of this tax in a capitalist system are considered that misgivings arise. Adroit though it be from an election- eering angle, there is room for grave doubt whether ‘N. D. C' may not prove administratively a nuisance, occasion considerable hardship and injustice and intensify economically | the very trouble in the way of an inflationary boom which it professedly sets out to check. “The unsheltered (non-consumer goods) industries are now beginning to enjoy ampler profits . . . accru- ing in much greater degree from world recovery. Their capital needs for re- equipment are great, and in many cases—e. g., shipping—adequate pro- vision for depreciation has not yet been made; yet their earnings are to be mulcted, while those of the con- sistently prosperous ‘consumer’ indus- trise will scarcely be touched unless they can be proved to be earning huge percentages on their ‘real capital’ “As between similarly situated con- cerns, the tax- will create gross anomalies. . . . In its incidence the holder of true risk-bearing bonds and prior charges, whatever may be his wealth, is left unscathed. Its burden falls exclusively on the entrepre- neur.” ... The psychological effect of the tax, it is further pointed out, is likely to be adverse, above all in the case of “new” industries such as those pro- Jected for the distressed areas. In the light of this criticism, which in England comes from the intelligent opposition of the Left, consider again the arguments which the United States Chamber of Commerce urged against the undistributed profits tax before the Senate Finance Commit- tee last year: (1) The tax would not provide the | additional $620,000,000 in taxes—to balance even the so-called ‘“regular” budget. (2) It would repiace a method which is certain with an untried and highly complex one. (3) The measure discriminates against enterprises which are new or financially weak in favor of those which are intrenched with ample sur- plus funds and available sources of capital. Companies with heavy debts or with depression-depleted reserves, and new and unseasoned enterprises, could not accumulate sufficient earn- ings to attain an adequate capital po- sition, (4) The banking, investment and general credit position of many busi- ness enterprises would be needlessly impaired. Those with bonded in- debtedness would be penalized for attempting to retire it. (5) The measure is apparently based on the false assumption that a cor- porate surplus consists of idle cash. (8) The plan disregards the need of companies with widely fluctuating earnings to put aside a substantial portion of their incomes in good years to carry them over bad ones, whereas other corporations with fairly steady | earnings would be in a position to escape the imposition of the penalty rates. (7) The heavy penalties upon re- tention of earnings for business ex- pansion would retard re-employment and recovery from the present de- pression. Experience Upholds Criticism. Already, a year from the date of these criticisms, experience is begin- ning to show how justified they were. They were made, not only by business men, but by most of the economists of the country. They were disregarded, | purely—as far as I can see—because of the sources from which they came, and because, in the last two years a curious thing has been happening in | America: Without any socialist party | or philosophy seriously contending for | responsibility and power, faith in capitalism, and the recognition of its assaulted by a Government ostensibly pledged to its maintenance, and policy has been colored by unconscious | Marxian dogmas based on fallacious and oversimplified reading of the human motive and society. The result is that we move neither toward the establishment of clearer capitalist principles nor toward a socialist state, but only into a confusion, in which productive enterprise is being drained to support a Government constantly extending its respomsibility for the maintenance in one way or another of larger and larger numbers and groups | idea of where the process will stop, or | how, in the long run, it is to be sup- | ported. Obviously, at such a time, a criticism | which constantly demands the state- | ment of objectives, and analysis of the | means we are taking to achieve them, is urgently necessary. And this leads me back to the original point of these | | two columns. | (Copyright. 1937.) ITS A SECRET - BUT MOTHER SAYS JTLL BE THE TOAST OF THE TOWN/ BREWING CO WasnINGTON D€ N\ BEER %ol /s Had Hih A ! laws and realities, has been continually | | of people, without any half-way clear | This Changing World Menace to State by Fourth Internationale Causing Anxious Moments in Moscow. BY CONSTANTINE BROWN. HE world is changing so rapidly that sometimes it is difficult to keep up. The Soviet government was considered a few years ago a danger to other countries. Germany and Italy still harp on the Bolshevist menace to the world but this is another matter; Russia has im- mense supplies of raw materials which Germany wants to acquire. Now the Uommunist govern- ment in Moscow s worried to death about the menace to the founda- tion of the state from the Pourth Internationale which is slowly gaining power and tends to sup- plant the Third Internationale with headquarters in Moscow. To the real Communists who advocate a fight to the bitter end by the world proletariat against capitalism_are dissatisfled with > the policies of the Moscow government. The Soviet government has become recently just another bourgeois regime where all national resources and the activities of individuals are subject to the supreme idea of state. From that angle there is practically no diflerence between the U. S. S. R., Germany, Italy and the other authoritarian governments which ezxist today or are in process of being created. x ok oK x The idea of a world revolution where the proletariat will reign supreme has been abandoned by Stalin and his collaborators. The real revolution- aries throughout the world have now gathered in a Fourth Internationale, much more advanced than the Third. For the time being their activities are more or less undercover. But the flare up in Barcelona between the Communists and the so-called anarchists is the result of these two different political philosophies. The Soviet government apparently is more worried about this new move than any other country. As in the Czarist regime, the G. P. U. is taking the same measure as the Czar’s Ochrana to pre- vent the infiltration of insidious ideas in the Soviet territory. In- dividuals suspected of spreading revolutionary propaganda are arrested. It won’t be long before the Soviet government will adopt the same methods against revolutionaries coming over from France and other Western countries, as these states took against Communist agitators in the early days of the Russian revolution. The idea of the preservation of the Constitution is played up big with the Russian people. Their nationalism is also being exploited by the administration. It is said openly that the attempt to disrupt the present organizaticn of the State comes principally from Russia’s outside enemies, principally Germany, which is encouraging the anarchists to work against the Moscow government. And to show that this argument is correct, the Russian people are reminded that Lenin and a carload of his followers were smuggled by the German army in 1917 into Russia to upset the Kerensky regime. History is likely to repeat itself, say the Russian leaders, unless the government keeps a watchful eye on these German maneuvers, * ox ok % The fighting value of the Italian army is being seriously questioned by army experts. After the Ethiopian campaign it was conceded by Euro- pean general staff officers that the new army could no longer be com- pared with what the Italian used to be during the war. In the Spanish civil war the blackshirts have not given such a good account of themselves. They were defeated before Madrid and now it appears that they are having a hard time to destroy the resistance of the Basque militia. It may be that the Italian militiamen are not as good as the regular army, if we are to believe that no regulars have been sent to help Franco. It may also be that the Italians are better fighters when they fight for their country. that is to say when they know that a viclory means some material advantage for the kingdom All these things are possible. The cold fact however is that the blackshirts are no match, not only for the International brigade which fights with the loyalist for an ideal, but not even for the Basque militia. * % x The Anschluss (union) between Germany and Austria has practically been achieved by delayed action. This is the correct interpretation of the Mussolini-Schuschnigg interviews at Venice, when Il Duce opposed the reinstatement of the Hapsburg dynasty and of the subsequent interviews of Mussolini- Neurath-Goering, after Schuschnigg went back to Vienna, a some- what disappointed man. ‘Whether the European powers like to admit # or not, it is an indis- putable fact that the central European block composed of Germany, Italy, Austria and Hungary is now a reality. It is composed of about 120,000,000 people who will shriek louder than in the past for expansion and raw materials, - HOLDS LN Headline Folk and What They Do Czar of London Bus Strikers Like Late Sam Gompers. BY LEMUEL F. PARTON. ‘There isn't a line in the British “Who's Who" about the one man who can make or mar the coronation and who is causing more headaches and loss of sleep in certain quar- ters than any other person. Stanley Baldwin's fervid plea to “rend and dissipate this dark cloud which is gathered over us’ is addressed, in effect, to big, husky, moon-faced Er- nest Bevin, head of the Transport Workers' Union and czar of the London busmen's strike. England, it seems, is going to have company and doesn't want any trouble in the family. Mr. Baldwin's plea is one of the most impassioned and eloquent of his career Mr. Bevin has made quite a score tying knots in the lion’s tail, even when the lion wasn't on parade. Transport is Brittania's Achilles heel. Leading the big dock strike in 1926, he dealt the country a case of t jitters from which it hasn't yet re- covered. In 1924 he had 100,000 dock workers out in a strike for a 2-shill- ing-a-day rise On that ogeasion he proved that coronation impresarios have mo- | nopoly on snowm: | with statistics, assaying a wee purchasable by the dock The professor showed that ceuld get fat on his ear: | money left over pating this, brought in a few bags of food, bought out of a weekly wage. The total was not impressive. The employers granted a shilling increase. | Mr. Bevin got a fanfare of publicity out of this which made him a power in England. He became the “docker’s K. C.” the initials standing for King's counsel He 1s, if anything. a shade more conservative than Stanley Ba He runs Commu 3 cries down Commur doesn’t want any t snubs the ism and nationalism. Like Samuel Gompers, he is ag intransigent John L. Lew of the left-wingers | He doesn’t tell Mr. Baldwin whether | he will or he won't “rend and dissi- | pate the dark cloud,” but he does hold in check the trolley car and | trolley bus workers who want to head | into the strike. He comes from the | Limehouse district. never represented in British pageantry, and probab | has more to say about things in Eng- anybody else ever born in ion (Copyrignt also a foe 19579 e — Year Record for Tourists. While only 7,000 visitors came, and most of them spent only a day, the | Dominican Republic is pleased be- cause 1936 was its record tourist ye ITS HEAD HIGH —Tlike the great racing driver—covers a lot of ground in setting its sales record. In homes, restaurants and hotels, the demand speeds on, for there is universal appeal to the Senate flavor. That’s because the tang is not too tingly, but it’s there, and the yeast has brought it across the finishing line with the help of picked quality ingredients. 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