SEEN
and
HEARD
around the
NATIONAL
CAPITAL
By Carter Field ^
Washington. — An old riddle in
quires: Which came first, the chick
en or the egg? And there is much to
be said on both sides. So it is with
the recent stock market nose-dive.
Did the market reaction slow down
business, or did business, slowing
down, start the market on its gyra
tions ?
As in the chicken and egg riddle,
it is obvious that whatever the
starter, one will go on producing
the other.
But it is interesting in this case
to know that the administration be
lieves the chicken was business jit
ters. while the stock market dive
was the egg the business jitters laid.
This viewpoint is particularly in
teresting because the adminis
tration is quite certain it knows just
what was the matter with business,
and it is now seeking out remedies.
Also because there is bitter resent
ment in administration circles at the
interests it regards as responsible.
The trouble according to adminis
tration insiders is prices. They
were too high and consequently
produced something akin to a buy
ers' strike. This slowed down a
hundred other lines than those ini
tiating the trouble by putting their
prices too high. Hence too many
people have not been making mon
ey, too many corporations face low
ered earnings, too many corpora
tions and people are therefore pull
ing in their belts. And stock prices
follow inevitably.
Blame Steel Industry
Chief miscreant in this picture
still stating it as viewed by the ad
ministration—is the steel industry.
A close second is cement. Textiles
are absolved, not because the men
running the textile industry are re
garded by the adminsitration as
particularly virtuous, but because
the industry is helpless to do any
thing but cut prices to the bone.
Ruthless competition is the answer
to that. The administration knows
a lot about it because of the vexa
tious question of long hours, child
labor and poor wages in the indus
try, and because of the pitious
screams the industry let out a while
back against what imports of Japa
nese textiles were doing to its price
situation.
Now, so far, is the administration
disposed to blame the automobile
Industry. It believes the new mod
els should be sold more cheaply,
but blame here again attaches to
the steel industry, in the adminis
tration view. A long standing auto
mobile policy has been to cut prices
whenever possible in order to stimu
late demand and increase volume.
That is precisely what the admin
istration wants every industry to do.
It’s an old theory with President
Roosevelt. He believes firmly that
the 1929 crash was caused by high
prices in the immediately proceed
ing period. Prices were not ad
vanced during those few years in
terms of dollars. But costs were di
minishing due to improved machin
ery. Hence profits were larger.
Hence a larger percentage of sales
prices was detoured from the quick
spenders and into the pockets of
investors. Hence overbuilding of
plant capacity and gradual drying
up of buying power.
Just what will be done to correct
the present evil, ns the President
views it, is not yet clear.
Utilities Hold Off
Public utilities of this country are
holding back expenditures of $1,000,
000,000 a year for improvements
and expansions, the securities and
exchange commission has informed
President Roosevelt, waiting until
the way for new financing can be
cleared, as they view it, by the Su
preme court ruling that the holding
company death sentence is unconsti
tutional.
This holding back, the President
is informed, has been going on for
three years. The President just
might have thought that these fig
ures, coming from a commission
which has had so little chance to
function since it was organized, be
cause there have been so few new
security issues, was an exaggcra
ion. But within a few days after
his allegation the utilities execu
ives themselves tried to use the
same argument to prove to the pub
ic that the President’s utility pol
cy is all wet. They quoted the Edi
son Electric institute to the effect
i hat there was a "construction defl
[ sit of $2,600,000,000 accumulated in
he past five years."
It was added that the ten-year av
erage of new construction by the
itilities from 1923 to 1932 inclusive
vas $752,215,000 annually. What
nakes this particularly significant
s that it includes the period from
929 to 1932, the last two of which
gyere very bad indeed.
I So much so that if these years
| re left out of the calculation there
^oes not seem to be such a wide
iscrepancy between the figures
' iven the President by S. E. C. and
nose supplied by the Edison insti
fate. Or if the fact that the piled
greater because of those famine
years is added.
Of course the utility executives
cites these figures to prove that
President Roosevelt’s anti-utility
policy, his policy of putting the gov
ernment into competition with the
privately owned utilities, is actually
holding back prosperity, is retard
ing employment, is depriving both
local and federal governments of an
increase in the tax base. But the
President sees it very differently.
Accuse Higher-Ups
He not only believes, but has been |
assured by S. E. C. officials and oth- j
ers, that it is not the operating util
ity men who are responsible for the
log Jam. but the higher-ups in the
holding companies. So his anger at
the holding companies is merely
augmented. In fact, names have
been quoted to the President of offi
cials operating privately owned
electric companies who would be
delighted to expand. Names of hold
ing company officials who have ve
toed the expansion have also been
supplied him.
All of which is rather interesting
to the bystander because it seems
to hftn that the holding company
executives are sacrificing their alj
to defend a city which has already
been doomed by a flank attack.
There may be some senator or rep
resentative in Washington who be
lieves that the holding companies,
whether they be of the public utility
or investment trust or whatever na
ture, will be able to survive the
present trend in taxation, but this
writer has not encountered one.
The answer is simple. Up to last
year dividends were exempt from
the normal income tax—on the the
ory that the corporation paying
them had already given the federal
government 15 per cent of its net
earnings. Moreover, corporations
did not have to pay the full corpora
tion income tax on dividends re
ceived from other corporations, for
the same reason.
But now there is no such exemp
tion. Moreover, the probability is
that the corporation income tax will
be increased. So there does not
seem to be much future for the
holding company as it moves down
this tax chiseling line. It seems
headed for extinction.
Hidden Short Sales
Worried as they have been about
the recent stock market nose-dive,
there is no disposition on the part
of officials of the federal reserve
board or of the securities and ex
change commission to put out any
propaganda about ‘‘bear raids.”
As a matter of fact, the exchange
commission has been studying short
sales for a good many months.
Those of record have not been of
any great signiflcance. But it knows
also that there are many hidden
short sales, and that there is no
way, at present, for any govern
mental body, or stock exchange
committee for that matter, to dis
cover the extent and importance of
these.
Normally, of course, a speculator
wishing to sell short does so through
a broker. The broker, on receiving
the order, borrows the stock from
some holder, paying a certain
charge for the privilege. If the
holder wants it back before the
broker's customer is willing to "cov
er,” or buy the stock so that the
same number of shares'may be
returned to the lender, the broker
simply borrows the stock from
somebody else.
Figures on this sort of trading are
closely followed, and this type of
short position in the market is al
ways known both to stock exchange
authorities and the government.
But the secret system is causing
some concern. In such a case the
speculator desiring to sell 1,000
shares of steel short borrows the
certificate for these shares from
some friend, and tells no one except
the lender what his plans are. Then
he sells that thousand shares. It
looks like a legitimate sale. No one
but he and the lender knows that
actually the speculator, sooner or
later, must buy 1,000 shares of
steel to replace the loan and com
plete the transaction.
A Helpful Cushion
This lack of knowledge is impor
tant. Obviously if it were known to
all the brokers that a greut many
hundred thousand shares of stock
had been sold short, they would
know that sooner or later these
hundreds of thousands of shares
must be bought so that the bor
rowed stocks could be returned.
That reserve buying power, so to
speak, would have a tremendously
steadying effect on the market. In
fact, that is one of the chief argu
ments against the abolition of short
sales. This type of transaction is a
very helpful cushion when the mar
ket starts to slide.
But the secret short sales do not
lend this steadying effect. Other
speculators do not know whether
there is a large or small secret
short interest in the market. For
all they know there may be prac
tically no short interest at all. So
that the secrecy has a tendency,
especially when the market is
nervous, to depress it still further.
Government officials studying the
situation point out, however, that
“bear raids” are ruat nearly so se
rious as they are frequently paint
ed. The raider must always buy
back the stock he sells short. So
unless he is right in his calculations
that the market is too high, or that
the earnings of a particular corpora
tion do not justify the price of its
securities, he is apt to be badly
burned.
C Bell Syndicate. WNV Service
ABOUT THE GOPHER STATE
Minnesota Mail Boxes Ride High Because of Snows.
Minnesotans Boast of Twin
Cities and Mesabi Iron Mines
Prepared by National Geographic Society,
n«f..„K,ngton D c.—WNU Service,
INNEAPOLIS and St.
Paul, grown virtual
ly into one city, pro
vide the chief mart of Minne
sota, St. Paul for animal
products, Minneapolis for
grain. St. Paul also is a
major railway terminus.
Dominated by descendants
of the early German and
Irish settlers, it is famed to
day for such various things
as its meat packing and beer,
its state fair and its printing
business (especially legal
books).
Minneapolis is dominated by its
Scandinavians—the jokes do not err.
It is said that if the cry comes
“Paging Mr. Johnson!” in a Minne
apolis theater, half the audience will
rise. The city has become one of
the world's important grain mar
kets; it is also famed for its lakes—
several large ones within the city
limits—its picturesque mills which
make the artist reach for his
brushes in a happy daze, its knit
underwear, its university, and its
renowned orchestra.
Linseed oil, base of paints and
inks, is a very important Minneapo
lis product; the oil is pressed from -
the flaxseed of the Red River valley,
and by-products are returned to the
farmer as valuable feed.
Thus these twin municipalities
have a wide variety of things to
boast of, including a population of
almost a million people.
The rivalry of the two members of
this one body is proverbial. St. Paul
taunts Minneapolis with being a
“nine o’clock town,” for it is true
that that city’s Lutheran views dic
tate a stricter decorum than the
more worldly-wise city bothers to
maintain. Minneapolis retaliates
thus: “Yes, we re thinking of incor
porating both cities in one, to be
called ‘Minnehaha.’ 'Minnie' for
Minneapolis and ‘ha ha' for St.
Paul.”
The good-humored sparring in
volved keeps moss from growing be
tween the toes of either.
Iron Deposits of the Mesabi.
Toward the end of the Nineteenth
century the Mesabi iron deposits, of
which Daniel Webster and Lord Ash
burton had been ignorant when fix
ing the boundary, at last were dis
covered.
The discoverers were a family of
seven brothers named Merritt. Tim
ber cruisers and woodsmen of the
most expert sort, they were also
amateur prospectors. With a faith
almost unreasoning they explored
the mosquito-infested swamps and
forests of the hill country behind Du
luth. This wild-goose chase was re
warded with a goose capable of lay
ing truly golden eggs: their dip
compass charts located the first of
those vast pools of soft ore which,
soon exploited, built the ships,
bridges, railroads, machinery, and
skyscrapers that a lustily expand
ing nation hungered for.
With incredible energy these same
brothers surveyed the railroad to
carry the ore to port, and then,
brushing aside the mining engineers
who were thumbing their whiskers
and trying to think how to sink the
customary shafts, they turned a
primitive form of steam shovel
loose in that flaky red earth.
The Mesabi mines saw the de
velopment of this new contraption,
the steam shovel. In the process a
series of “the biggest holes on
earth” were dug. all the way from
Coleraine to Biwabik, with the big
gest of all at Hibbing.
Duluth, Minnesota’s third city,
was not slow to respond to the stim
ulus the ore traffic provided; she
grew rich and great. Squeezed be
tween a perfect harbor and a bar
rier of hill that hangs a natural
rock garden above the very chim
neys of the skyscrapers. Duluth is
one of the most oddly placed of cit
ies. But the placing was inevitable.
Here is the natural terminus of
Great Lakes traffic, the key point in
its connection with the huge area of
the plains beyond.
Duluth's Big Steel Mills.
Since it is a3 easy to bring coal to
Duluth as to take ore to Pennsyl
vania for smelting, steel mills have
sprung up near the city, supplying
the needs of a western market.
These form a picturesque sight of
the St. Louis river estuary, that
maze of islands, some green as sal
ads, others black with industry, that
wind inland from the harbor.
Spidery coal hoists and draw
bridges, grain elevators as massive
and stately as Old World cathedrals,
the vast hulks of ore docks make a
picture of unresting enterprise along
those calm waters.
The harbor itself is all that a har
bor should be, ample, safe, protect
ed from the lake by a bar so nar
row that a small boy with a sling
shot could put a pebble across it.
Labor for the mines was recruited
from south Europe. The range towns
are peopled by Italians, and by Yu
goslavs and other Balkan folk. They
form a kind of racial island in
Minnesota’s Teutonic sea, an incon
gruity in a land so uncompromis
ingly northern. But with them came
a people who are eminently at
home, the Finns.
Nowhere have Finns settled tn
such numbers as in Minnesota’s Ar
rowhead country. It is like their
own Finland, rocky, wintry, laced
with countless lakes; they know
without any textbook guidance how
to be happy and prosperous in it.
They dry their hay on racks of
poles, and saw the poplar, birch,
and pinewood that their Finn stoves
devour—metal cylinders reaching to
the ceiling—with Finn saws, sinuous
blades of steel strung across rigid
metal bows. At long-cabin building
they are the master craftsmen. And
as athletes they are famous; such
names as Reino Kylmala or Arvo
Wopjo on a hockey team are just
so many danger signals.
Finns Have Their Baths.
The skis they carve from birch
wood, painstakingly seasoned over
the cookstove, are a treat to the
eye—exquisitely long, narrow, and
arched, like the eyebrows of some
distractingly pretty Hollywood star.
In the same classic tradition are
their Finnish baths, when first the
men, then the women, gather in log
bathhouses and swap the week’s
news in high good humor. A tor
rential sweat, a luxurious soaping
and rinsing down, a breath-taking
cooling process outdoors in the s low
or the frigid waters of lake or riv
er—this is the ritual of the famed
Finnish bath. It limbers up the
joints wonderfully, and sends a man
home whistling tunes as loudly as
a locomotive, for he feels good.
The Mesabi iron range is merely
the most spectacular mineral re
source of the state. The Vermilion
iron range supplies high-grade Bes
semer ore, steadily in demand; the
Cuyuana range's vast resource of
heavily overlain manganese ores
has not yet been worked to the same
extent.
There are also important non
metallic minerals, for instance, the
pottery clays and filter sands of Red
Wing.
The building stones of Minnesota
serve as a basis for an important
industry. They are widely distribut
ed m location and character: the
jasper of the Coteau des Prairies,
Kettle River’s sandstone, the widely
used pink-dappled Kasota and Man
kato stone, the richly patterned
gneiss of Morton used from coast to
coast in cemetery memorials, and
the granites of St. Cloud, which ri
vals Barre, Vt., as a producer of
granite.
The mechanical advance in these
stone-working industries has been
revolutionary in the last 15 years.
A visitor at some such vanguard
establishment as the plant at Cold
Spring, in the St. Cloud district, will
see Minnesota’s stubborn, water-re
sistant granite sawed into slabs per
haps a mere inch-and-a-half in thick
ness, these slabs brilliantly polished,
then recut by carborundum blades
whirling at such speed that they
move in a path of fire despite the
water jets that play upon them.
The pipestone quarry, famed in
legend, near Pipestone, is unique. It
can be worked only by the Indians.
In one of the legends the soft red
stone of that quarry is the flesh of
the whole Indian people anciently
drowned in the flood. They had
fled to the Coteau des Prairies as
the waters rose, but were there
drowned, all except one girl. Car
ried off by the soaring War Eagle,
she became his bride in the skies,
and so bore children who repopu
lated the world.
Cause and Cure
of Rheumatism
By
DR. JAMES W. BARTON
© Bell Syndicate.—WNU Service.
THE oldest ailment known
to man, and despite all
| the wonderful advances in
medicine it is actually in
creasing instead of decreas
ing, is rheumatism or arth
ritis as it is perhaps more
properly called. Arthritis
means inflammation of the
joint (and surrounding tis
sues).
And this great increase in rheu
matism, particularly in Great Brit
Ur. Barton
am and fc-urope, has
so interfered with
the health, happi
ness and financial
condition of the in
dividuals and the
nations that organi
zations to discover
the cause or causes
of rheumatism and
how best to treat it
are being formed
everywhere.
Usually when the
cause of an ailment
is discovered and that cause re
moved the part of the body affected
and the patient himself are restored
to health. However, rheumatism
may remain so long in an individ
ual that "permanent” damage is
done to the joints and tissues and
so methods of giving relief from
the symptoms, even if there is no
chance of repairing the part, now
form a large part of the study of
these organizations for prevention
and treatment of rheumatism.
Factors That Aggravate It.
Thus while it is agreed that in
fection somewhere in the body has
been, and may still be, the cause
of the arthritis, there are other fac
tors such as food, climate, heredity,
gland conditions, occupation, and
even the patient's disposition that
aggravate the symptoms or inter
fere with the recovery of the pa
tient. In Great Britain the damp
climate is known to be a factor in
aggravating the symptoms, and in
America Dr. Ralph Pemberton,
Philadelphia, and Dr. A. A. Fletch
er, Toronto, have shown that an
excess of starch foods may do like
wise.
The first thought then should be
the prevention of rheumatism now
that it is known that it is caused
by infection from teeth, tonsils, si
nuses, gall bladder, intestine and
from the generative organs, both
male and female.
If all sources of infection have
been removed and there are still
rheumatic symptoms, treatment is
usually threefold; fa) heat in some
form, tb) salicylates to relieve pain
and tension; and f3) diet—cutting
down on starch foods.
• • •
Reducing on Five Meals a Day.
A few years ago, whilst lunchuig,
I noticed a lawyer whom 1 had ex
amined physically during his uni
versity course. He hau changed
from a stripling to a huge indiviuuai
of 250 pounds with the appearance
of a miudle-aged man. He was only
thirty years of age.
Whilst I said nothing, he must
have read my thoughts as he re
marked, "I’m getting so heavy I’m
only eating two meals a day—morn
ing and evenmg. Of course I drop
m here for a ‘bite’ at noon—just
a couple of chocolate eclairs and a
cup of coffee.”
1 suggested that as he was 250
pounds now, his chances of reacn
mg 300 were very good but that if
he were to eat three or four small
meals a day mstead of two large
meals, with the extra "bite” thrown
in, he would not only lose weight
but feel brighter mentally.
It is large meals and not frequent
meals that put a burden on diges
tion. The lassitude—sleepiness or
tiredness—and the disinclination for
thought or work that follow large
meals show that the blood is being
used to digest food and absorb this
large amount of food.
Now this same amount of food,
taken in four or five meals a day—
instead of two or three—does not
cause this heavy, sleepy feeling,
and the individual is not only bright
er mentally at his work, but does
not feel too lazy or tired to take
some exercise. Thus all advantages
as far as digestion is concerned
are with small meals taken often.
Thus with those who are over
weight, if they would take or meas
ure out the amount of food to be
eaten in 24 hours, and eat it in five
meals instead of three, they would
not feel so “heavy” and would be
more willing to be about on their
feet or take exercise than when
they ate just the same amount of
food In three meals. This feeling
of "lightness” with its desire to
take exercise instead of sitting or
lying down, would mean that with
more exercise and less rest, more
fat would come off the body.
“Father of Electricity*'
William Gilbert, an Englishman
born in 1540, is called “the father
of electricity."
Known as “Citizen King"
Louis Philippe, ruler of France
from 1830-48, was known as the
1 "Citizen King.”
{
The Newest in Miniature
CEW - YOUR • OWN presents a
^ house frock with the heart to
be up and doing, no matter how
busy you are, how old you are, or
how many calories you’ve forgot
ten to keep count of. Sew-Your
Own also presents the first doll
with a heart (the picture proves
it). And lastly it presents a frock
with a love interest for a Modern
Miss, something usually confined
to the movies.
Ideal for Home.
Sew-Your-Own always has had
a soft spot in its heart for the
Lady of the Fireside, she who
cooks and bakes and sews and
keeps everything right. Today’s
house frock for her (above left) is
as neat and sweet as anyone could
wish. The collar in contrast and
the saw tooth edging piped to
match, make that difference be
tween this dress and run-of-the
mill. Of course, it’s easy to run
up and practically no trouble at
all to launder. Better make two
A Doll—a Dress.
The little lady in the center,
above, knows her heart’s in the
right place because Mommy put
it there. Dolly Dimples is her
swell little playmate and her
heart’s in the right place, too. Ask
your Mommy to send for Pattern
1203 and you’ll have a great big
surprise in storey. Yes siree!
Her Heart Unattached.
You will find Miss Svelt Seven
teen (above right) is good to her
figure! Her frock, an original Sew
Your-Own design, gives her real
distinction — that diffeTent-in-the
right-way look. It is the ultimate
in chic in rayon crepe with a satin
waist front.
Pattern 1405 is designed for
sizes 34 to 46. Size 36 requires 4%
yards of 35-inch material plus %
yard contrasting.
Pattern 1203 is designed for
sizes 2, 3, 4, and 5 years. Size 3
requires 1% yards of 35-inch ma
terial for the child’s dress. The v
doll’s body, medium size, requires
% yard of 35-inch material. The
doll’s dress, medium size, re
quires % yard of 35- or 39-inch
material. One hank of wool is
required for doll’s hair.
Pattern 1377 is designed for
sizes 14 to 20 (32 to 44 bust). Size
16 requires 2Mj yards of 54-inch
material. The topper in contrast
requires % yard of 39-inch ma
terial.
Send your order to The Sewing
Circle Pattern Dept., Room 1020,
211 W. Wacker Dr., Chicago, 111.
Price of patterns, 15 cents (in
coins) each.
New Pattern Book.
Send 15 cents for the Barbara
Bell Fall and Winter Pattern
Book. Make yourself attractive,
practical and becoming clothes,
selecting designs from the Bar
bara Bell well-planned, easy-to
make patterns.
© Bell Syndicate.—WNU Service.
REMEDIES
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isfaction Guaranteed. Great sales opportu
nity. fteinmuth & Sons, Broadwater. Nebr.
'
Retail price, 35^ per quart
Quaker State Oil Refining
Corporation, Oil City Pa.
ii
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\