NATIONAL CAPITAL;
By Carter Field
FAMOUS WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
Washington.—Treasury officials
are working day and night, virtually,
to dissuade congress from doing
•omething that a good many con
servative leaders in both houses
seem set on doing—modifying sharp
ly the undistributed earnings and
the capital gains taxes.
Incidentally the administration
has changed its tune entirely on the
undistributed profits tax. One would
think, to hear them talk now, that
when the administration forced this
tax on an unwilling congress there
had been no ballyhoo In behalf of
the little stockholder, looted by a
conscienceless management of his
corporation.
President Roosevelt himself, at
the time, pointed out that the small
stockholder had some rights in the
matter, that he should have a voice
in whether the earnings on his
investment were plowed back into
the company or whether he should
receive his share of them.
This would be forced, the Presi
dent then pointed out, by the un
distributed profits tax. If this tax
were made high enough, obviously
corporations would not pay it, but
would distribute their earnings
among the stockholders. The good
feature about this from the govern
ment standpoint would be. he point
ed out, that the government would
get much larger individual income
taxes from the stockholders. But
the good feature from the stand
point of the stockholder would be
that he would get his earned divi
dends, and could then decide, ac
cording to his own circumstances,
according to his own judgment of
the management of the corporations,
etc., whether he would put his
own money back into the company.
If managements earned a reputa
tion for business ability and sa
gacity, the President pointed out,
stockholders would be eager to re
invest their earnings in the com
panies which paid them dividends.
Wander Away
How far the administration has
wandered from this line of argu
ment is 'seat illustrated by the fact
that the brain trusters are now
talking stock dividends, providing
the Supreme court will reverse its
decision of some years back and
hold that they are taxable as Indi
vidual income!
This of course would serve the
government's point by forcing the
corporation earnings into individual
incomes from which it would derive
taxes, but would remove from the
stockholder the much talked about
advantage that he could elect wheth
er he would reinvest his earnings
in the same corporation.
In conversations with congress
men, Treasury officials are using an
illustration.
“Suppose,” they say, “you (con
gress) should repeal boll) the undis
tributed earnings tax and the cap
ital gainB tax. Then suppose a rich
man should put $10,000,000 in a cor
poration. That corporation might
have vast earnings, and yet, for tax
purposes, not disburse them. Ten
years later, the company having
meantime added twenty million of
earnings to this original investment
of ten, the rich man could sell his
stock for $30,000,000.
"He would have paid no income
tax on these earnings during the
ten years, and, if there were no
capital gains tax, he would pay no
tax on the profit when he sold the
Stock. Thus he would have obtained
$20,000,000 of profit without paying
any tax on it.”
One congressman said that would
be all right with him, for the gov
ernment would be getting 15 per
cent of every dollar earned by the
corporation every year under pres
ent tax laws. He added, however,
that the 15 per cent might be jacked
up a little, if the other taxes were
repealed, insisting that he thought
the corporations might pay more in
'.axes providing sucli taxes as mter
'ere with management problems
were repealed.
Meaning Lost
One of the reasons why Franklin
3. Roosevelt was pleased with the
Section of Fiorello H. LaGuardia as
nayor of New York stands out a
ore thumb every time a group of
Republicans get together. The
’Little Flower” has used the Re
lublican label many times to his
■wn advantage, but he has never
•een regarded as a Republican by
he wheel horses of the party
hroughout the country.
One Republican senator, discuss
ig this angle of the situation short
ly after the New York city election,
aid: "If I want a New Dealer, why
ot take Roosevelt himself?”
Underlying this is the fact that
Republican" and “Democrat”
ave lost their meaning, as far as
• je words meant anything to voters
f just a few years back. Old-time
li emocrats would now be regard
I i as Tories, just the same as old
|»tshioned Republicans.
|| Complicating this situation is the
Hbuth, with its fiery devotion to the
democratic label, which yet re
gains the most conservative section
Ik the country.
■ it is pointed out by many Re
publican leaders that District At
torney-elect Thomas E. Dewey of
New York county seems to have cap
tured the imagination of the coun-(
try. For one reason and another
Dewey has had the most marvel
ous publicity any recent arrival on
the political stage has been able
to obtain.
Actually nothing has developed to
disclose whether Dewey is a con
servative or a radical—to show to
which of the two really important
groups of political thinkers in this
country today he belongs. There is
talk, however, of his running for
governor of New York.
Question Arises
This may be history repeating it
self, but the question arises, which
chapter?
Old-timers think of Grover Cleve
land, the fearless sheriff of Buffalo
who became governor, and later
was twice President. Others think
of Theodore Roosevelt, who used
the executive mansion at Al
bany as a way station to the White
House. And of Franklin D. Roose
velt, who became the logical nomi
nee for President the day he was
elected governor in 1928, when A1
Smith was losing his own state in
his presidential race.
, But there are other chapters.
Charles S. Whitman made his repu
tation, as has Dewey, as prosecut
ing attorney in New York. He, too,
captured the popular imagination
when he broke up the rackets of
that day, when he sent Police Lieu
tenant Charles Becker and four
gamblers’ gunmen to the electric
chair. And Whitman dreamed of
the White House! Let no one be
mistaken about that. But for one
reason and another he just did not
fit into the picture.
Charles E. Hughes made a reputa
tion as an attorney in the life insur
ance Investigation. He became a
great governor of New York, but he
was sidetracked.
So it would seem the tradition is
better for Democrats than for Re
publicans, except this—there is sim
ply no one elBe on the public horizon
so far as the Republican party is con
cerned. That’s why you are going
to hear a lot about Mr. Dewey from
now on.
New Dealers Pleased
Considerable satisfaction, but very
little guidance, was given to Presi
dent Roosevelt and New Dealers
generally by the elections. There
was scarcely a result which did not
give the President a certain per
sonal pleasure.
Even the silk stocking Seventeenth
Congressional district of New York
going Republican, curiously enough,
had its compensations. It happens
to be the richest district in the Unit
ed States, and the President can
point to it and say, “1 told you so.
The economic royalists are against
me because I am for the plain peo
ple.” etc.
As a matter of fact, the Repub
licans capturing the Seventeenth
New York district, the district of
Ruth Pratt and Ogden L. Mills, was
very much like the Dutch capturing
Holland. It always goes Republi
can except in Democratic land
slides.
Defeat of the original Roosevelt
man in Massachusetts, James M.
Curley, in his attempt to come
back, running for mayor of Bos
ton. was not hard to take by the
President at all. For there was a
parting of the ways as between
Roosevelt and Curley.
So that Curley would not—it
might be presumed—be a friendly
mayor to the White House if he had
been elected this year.
It was an open secret that the
President wanted Fiorello H. La
Guardia re-elected mayor of New
York. He could not do anything
openly—though Secretary of the In
terior Harold L. Ickes came out for
LaGuardia openly. The President
was handicapped here by the fact
that all his friends, the bosses of
the Bronx, Queens and Richmond,
were fighting for the regular Demo
cratic nominee.
The Lewis Setback
But it was these Brooklyn.
Queens. Bronx and Staten island
Democrats who were really fighting
for Jeremiah T. Mahoney, and they
were all political lieutenants of long
standing of James A. Farley. Which
explains why the Postmaster Gen
eral had to go through the motions,
despite the known fact that his chief
was really for LaGuardia.
The bad setbacks which John L.
Lewis took in the Detroit, Akron
and Canton elections were no blow
to the White House. The President
had shown several times that he
resented Lewis’ assumption that the
C. I. O. had re-elected Roosevelt,
and was therefore entitled to a
break. The President has no sym
pathy with the idea of any powerful
bloc in politics unless he and his
friends can control the bloc.
Most observers and politicians
had suspected that Lewis and the
C. I. O. were overrating their polit
ical strength. They regard these
elections as proof they were right.
® Bell Syndicate. WNU Service.
rSouth 1
China’s
■ Cities A
One of Hongkong’s Picturesque Streets.
Great Britain's Hongkong and
Other Seaports of South China
Prepared by National Geographic 8oclaty.
Washington. D. C.-WNU Service.
ONGKONG, like Singa
pore, is a tribute to
British commercial en
terprise in the Far East.
Ships of the Seven Seas en
liven the harbor and bring
business to the vigorous city
that now rises on the once
barren islands where dwelt a
few fishermen, stonecutters
and bands of pirates.
"It is a delusion to hope that
Hongkong can ever become a com
mercial emporium like Singapore,”
wrote the despondent colonial treas
urer in 1844.
But instead of delusion, the mira
cle has been achieved! Large busi
ness and government buildings
along the water front, palatial
houses clinging boldly to the precipi
tous hillsides, schools, universities,
shipbuilding docks, cement facto
ries, and sugar refineries; a strate
gic commercial and naval base—
this is Hongkong.
Several times tonnage figures have
placed it among the world’s princi
pal seaports. At present, approxi
mately 50,000 vessels, carrying in
their holds more than 40,000,000 tons
of cargo for foreign trade, cut fur
rows in and out of the harbor an
nually. And British colonials find
romance, not dull figures, in these
shipping statistics, because, except
for a few articles of local consump
tion, Hongkong is a free port. Con
sequently, its very existence de
pends upon its service as distribut
ing center for all South China.
To be geographically accurate,
one should call the city Victoria,
but, save for official documents, the
port has taken the name of the is
land colony, derived from the
Chinese Heung Kong (Fragrant
Streams, or Good Harbor).
To the mountainous Hongkong col
ony. Kowloon, on the mainland oppo
site, was added, later to be extend
ed again by the inclusion of the
specially leased New Territories. In
all, this oasis of British-controlled
activity now embraces 391 square
miles.
After you have explorea Hong
kong’s Chinatown, splashed with its
colorful hieroglyphics, the stair
stepped streets, markets, and curio
shops, take a ride up the cable
tramway to the Peak; or, if you de
sire, you can make the steep ascent
in a bobbing sedan chair, carried on
the shoulders of perspiring coolies.
Here, high above the noise of com
merce, you are among the palaces
of the wealthy.
Looking Down From the Peak.
At your feet the teeming city
spreads like a mighty sweeping
sickle along the harbor. Lying along
the Praya, tied to midharbor buoys,
and churning up slender white
wakes in the jade-tinted waters, are
the argosies of half the world. A
mile beyond, sprawling white on the
red earth, is Kowloon, with its ho
tels, warehouses, and jutting piers.
A plume of white steam rises
above a liner-s funnel—another ship
is oil for San Francisco, London, or
Marseilles. Tiny junks lift their mat
ting sails; back and forth between
Victpga and Kowloon ply double
nosed ferries, carrying 35,000 com
muters daily.
Come up again at night, when
the city lights have sprung to life
and naval greyhounds are convers
ing in flash-beam semaphore; you
will see a magic land. Day or
night, it is an unforgettable pan
orama.
On several occasions Hongkong
has been visited by the typhoons
that brew their viciousness in the
China sea. These storms, in which
the wind blows as much as 120 or
125 miles an hour, have ripped
through the harbor, causing great
havoc ashore and among the ships.
Sets of signals, however, are ar
ranged to give sufficient warning, so
that the launches, junks, and sam
pans can find refuge in the three
typhoon shelters and larger ships
can get to safe anchorages in pro
tected bays.
Baggage comes aboard, winches
are tattling, and hundreds of Chi
nese are shouting and strewing bun
dles and babies over the steerage
deck—it is sailing time for the lo
cal steamer, bound for Swatow and
other ports to the north.
Northeast from the narrow Lye
mun pass through which you sail is
notorious Bias bay. Ever since early
days this district has had unsavory
reputation as the headquarters of
pirate gangs who infest the coast.
Outwardly the settlement of 10,000
people of Bias bay is agriculturist,
but the activity is less serious as
farming than as camouflage.
Pirates of Bias Bay.
During the old sailing days these
freebooters usually intercepted
passing vessels by stretching a ca
ble between two junks; then, as
soon as the rope was caught by the
victim’s bows, the junks would be
pulled alongside, so that the board
ing of the vessel was an easy mat
ter.
With the coming of steam
propelled ships, their technique
changed to boarding the steamers
as passengers and at the opportune
moment taking possession, then
forcing its officers to sail the ship
into Bias bay for looting.
When riding a coastal steamer to
day, you are comparatively safe
from becoming the victim of these
piratical attacks; buf'you do experi
ence the feeling, strongly sugges
tive, of traveling in a floating patrol
wagon, for the first-class accommo
dations and the bridge are protected
by heavy iron grilles.
Many thrilling tales are told of
these menaces to coastal shipping,
some of which contain accounts of
unusual bravery against heavy
odds. Officers have accounted well
for themselves in cracking pirates’
heads with deep-sea leads and other
weapons, and British judges have
brought some of the cutthroat lead
ers to unpleasant “necktie” parties.
In these South China waters, too,
are other pirate groups, some led
by women, who specialize on Ash
ing fleets and lighterage junks. Act
ing under the guise of "protection,”
they reap heavy tolls from the own
ers of these craft.
Spreading fanwise on the silt land
built by the Han Kiang, Swatow has
little to recommend itself from a
visitor's viewpoint.
Its main importance lies in its
service as shipping point for pro
duce coming from Chaochow and
other Chinese towns along the lower
portion of the Han.
Needleworkers of Swatow.
Its chief exports are linen em
broidery and laces—and Chinese
coolies. Fifty years ago the latter
were in such demand that many
traders began the lucrative business
of kidnaping the natives and taking
them to distant lands, where they
were sold into what amounted to
slavery conditions. With the hatred
that these acts soon engendered, for
eigners were barred from Swatow
for several years. Now thousands
of Chinese leave Swatow in legiti
mate emigration.
A woman sitting beside the door
way of her home working deftly with
needle on a piece of fine linen or
grass cloth, is Swatow’s chief sym
bol of industry. Walk through the
side streets or visit the surrounding
villages and you will find hundreds
of women and girls thus employed.
The delicately embroidered linen,
laces, and drawn work which they
produce, usually under foreign di
rection, are exported almost entire
ly to American markets.
Amoy, of tea fame, was once con
sidered one of the dirtiest and most
backward cities of all China; it has
been undergoing complete transfor
mation during the last few years.
Wide streets are being cut through
the old ramshackle settlements;
men and women are breaking rocks
for the new roads and an extensive
Bund, and are literally carving
away some of the rock hills to make
room for new developments; a park,
the finest in all South China, has
been recently built
Across from Amoy is tne island
of Kolongsu. where are located the
foreign concessions. Hundreds of
gaily painted sampans afford trans
portation across the harbor and to
the ships that anchor in midstream.
Bad Effects
of Fast Eating
By
DR. JAMES W. BARTON
© Bell Syndicate.—WNU Service.
—--<
WHEN food enters the
stomach the walls of the
stomach contract and squeeze
this food onward and out of
the stomach.
Now the food should not be
I squeezed out of the stomach hur
Dr. Barton
rieaiy or in 100 snun
a time, as the long
er the food remains
in the stomach the
better it is mixed
with the digestive
juice of the stomach
and that much more
digestion of the food
occurs.
An interesting ex
periment whereby
digestion of food in
the stomach was
actually photo
graphed in the form of moving pic
tures is recorded in the British
Medical Journal by Dr. J. Russell
Reynolds.
The moving pictures showed that
the stomach is divided into three
parts as far as digestion is con
cerned. When food enters the first
part nothing happens for a few
minutes until there would seem to
be some pressure from the amount
or weight of food. When this pres
sure gets to a certain height the
walls relax enough to let the food go
into the second part. When this sec
ond part gets enough food or weight
in it, the muscle walls of the stom
ach begin to squeeze or contract
against the food, and the food is
forced into the third part—the part
nearest the opening into the small
intestine into which the food en
ters when its digestion in the stom
ach is complete.
Some Squeezed Back.
An interesting point was noted
in that when the stomach muscles
squeezed the second part of the
stomach sending a large amount of
the food downward Into the third
part, some of the food got squeezed
back into the first part again.
When the stomach was high up in
the abdomen some of the food was
actually squeezed into the small in
testine within twenty minutes after
it entered the stomach. This is
a condition often found in the nerv
ous type of individual and Dr. Rey
nolds says: “This accounts for the
digestive trouble caused by tak
ing meals hurriedly; the muscular
coat of the stomach, having no time
to adapt itself to the bulk, respond
ed by forcing the food out of the
stomach before it was sufficiently
mixed with stomach digestive juice.
This means that food should be eat
en slowly, to give the stomach the
proper amount of time to handle or
digest it properly.
* • m
Underweight Causes.
Many underweights trying to in
crease their weight have found that
despite eating extra food the in
crease in weight has been little or
none at all. Overweights all lose
some weight when they cut down
on their food. They lose weight
whether their overweight is due to
eating too much food or to not get
ting enough juice from the thyroid
and pituitary glands.
Now why do the underweights not
increase in weight when they eat
more food?
There is always the fact that
just as there is a tendency to over
weight in some families, so is
there the tendency to thinness, un
derweight or malnutrition running
in other families. This doesn’t mean
that the weight cannot be increased
but it does mean that the increase
cannot be expected to be large.
If, however, the individual has
weighed more, has been of normal
or average weight, and has lost con
siderable weight, the reason for
this loss must be sought. If there
has been worry, anxiety, grief or
other emotional disturbance which
has caused shock, then all parts of
the body including the digestive sys
tem have been disturbed; food will
go through the stomach and intes
tine and be only partly digested;
diarrhoea may carry away too
much fluid, or constipation will
cause absorption of waste poisons
that will take some of the body's
fighting forces to combat.
Further, the loss of rest from
these emotional disturbances or
from any cither cause, uses up the
body’s tissues and energies, for rest
is as important as a body builder
j and tissue saver as is food itself.
Another factor is that some focal
infection may use up the body tis
I sue and body energy, thus causing
; loss of weight.
And finally, just as lack of thyroid
and pituitary juice makes all the
body processes work more slowly
thus preventing less of body tissue,
so can an increase in these juices
make all the body processes work
more rapidly, thus using up more
body energy and more body tissue.
—
Making the Fortune
It is not true that you have made
a fortune when you don’t know how
to enjoy it.
Parliament in Royal House
The house of parliament still
ranks as a royal palace. The cor
rect name, when not in session, is
palace of Westminster.
OP° SEW
Ruth Wyeth Spears <±3$
n
3«
Silk Shades Give a Soft Glow
'T'HERE is subtility in the light
that glows through a silk
shade, and many decorators are/
using them for the room that!
needs the softness of plaited folds\
and the mellowness obtained by
placing two tones of fabric one
over the other.
Two tones of China silk, one to
be used for a plain lining and
the other for a gathered outside
covering will make an attractive
shade. Try samples in daytime
and over artificial light. You will
also need a roll of silk binding
tape matching the top color of the
shade. This tape is to wrap the
wire frame. And fancy braid ei
ther in gold, silver or a harmoniz
ing tone of silk is used to bind the
top and bottom of the shade. Use
cotton thread to match the out
side tone of the silk.
Slip the binding tape off the roll
and wrap a rubber band around
it as shown here at A. Working
from the inside end of the tape
wrap the frame as shown at B.
The outside layer of silk is put on
next. This is gathered both top
and bottom and pinned to the wire
covering as at C and D so that it
is stretched quite tight. Joinings
in the outside covering need not
be sewed but may be hidden un
der the folds. This material is
sewed in place as at E.
Next, cut a straight strip for the
lining and fit it around the out
side of the frame as shown here
at F. Trim the joining allowing a
seam as shown at G. Sew to the
frame at the bottom as at H. Trim
quite close at the bottom.
Turn lining to inside as at I.
Slip stitch the joining. Turn
in raw edges at top and whip
around top of frame. Pin the
binding around and then sew it
with stitches buried in the mesh
of the braid.
Every Homemaker should have
a copy of Mrs. Spears’ new book.
SEWING. Forty-eight pages of
step-by-step directions for making
slipcovers and dressing tables;
restoring and upholstering chairs,
couches; making curtains for ev
ery type of room and purpose.
Making lampshades, rugs, otto
mans and other useful articles
for the home. Readers wishing a
copy should send name and ad
dress,’ enclosing 25 cents, to Mrs.
Spears, 210 South Desplaines St.„
Chicago, Illinois.
4 t
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in Tire Chains
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*
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•
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•
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•
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jfcrt. 'IfottA. Safety
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