NATIONAL I
AFFAIRS
Rtvitwed by
CARTER FIELD
Present sliding scale on
corporation income taxes
to be abandoned in favor of
a fixed rate ... /Vo big boost
in spending to come from
national defense ... 7 tvo
price system blotvs up with
a bang .. . Dumping policy
causes irritation.
WASHINGTON.—Despite all the
propaganda for ‘‘incentive tax re
duction”—both for expansions which
would make work and for profit
sharing with employees—no action
of the sort will be taken. Instead,
corporation Income taxes will be
fixed at 18 per cent instead of the
present range from 16*4 to 19 per
cent. Congress leaders would like
to wipe out the last trace of the
punitive tax on undistributed earn
ings, but any such move may not
succeed because of stalwart White
House opposition to elimination of
President Roosevelt's pet tax the
ory. But another step in that direc
tion seems inevitable.
Congress is set on substituting a
straight 18 per cent for the present
sliding scale because the national
legislators are convinced that the
present system bears more heavily
on small business men and manu
facturers—that the big corporations
are taking advantage of the lowest
rate by paying out their earnings,
having adequate surpluses to make
this possible, whereas little fellows
are forced to insure their future by
building up surpluses, which makes
them pay 19 per cent as against 16Vi
per cent for the big ones.
The treasury department is not
adverse to the straight 18 per cent—
if it could go for it without irri
tating the White House. It believes
the straight 18 per cent would bring
in more money—always Secretary
Morgcnthau'8 chief interest.
Roosevelt will fight again for more
drastic capital gains taxes, but will
be defeated. Incidentally the tax
bill will be slow in passage as no
subcommittees were left on the job
and a start will have to be made
from scratch.
Army and Navy Are Now
Spending a Billion a Year
No big boost in spending will
coma from national defense, how
aver much the White House may
approve that picture for public con
sumption. Actually the army and
navy are now spending at the rate
of a billion a year. A boost of
about $300,000,000 between them,
plus their existing balances, is all
they can spend, experts say, no mat
ter how much more may be author
ized or appropriated.
The real fear of the deficit wor
riers centers on the agriculture,
flood control and health programs.
No one can foretell just how wild
congress will go on these three.
ociitruiij ui a^iauiiuit 111:111 jr
Wallace wants processing taxes to
take care of the increased agricul
tural benefits but congress will dis
pose otherwise. The money must
come from taxes—or increased debt.
Flood control threatens to take
the place of the old rivers and har
bors pork barrel bills of unsavory
memory. Every creek in the coun
try has become a flood menace.
“Why should Tennessee get all the
bacon?” is a popular question.
Federal aid for health services
is nebulous but very menacing to
the treasury's red ink supply.
“Two-Price System’ Blows
Up With Resounding Bang
The subsidized export plan for
relief of the farm problem, better
known as the "two-price system,”
has blown up with a resounding
bang. One shipment of wheat to
England, and it passes into history
as another flop on the well littered
road to agricultural prosperity by
governmental .control.
What happened was precisely
what was predicted would happen.
It is also what was predicted would
happen when the solution of the
farm problem—back in the days of
Calvin Coolidge—was the McNary
Haugen plan.
In those days the McNary-Haug
en plan was regarded by most con
servatives as crackpot. But it had
a good many features which now
commend it to folks who were called
conservative 10 years ago. For in
stance, the much talked about equal
ization fee. That was the ingredi
ent in the plan which would have
prevented the farmers from going
hog-wild on overproduction. Or at
least it was so argued.
It was the two-price system of its
day, but it had brakes. The equal
ization fee was the brake. Theoreti
cally it would not cost the govern
ment anything. The loss on wheat
exported at a lower price than was
charged inside the United States, for
example, would be assessed against
the wheat farmers, pro rata. So the
more produced, and hence the more
the loss on exports, the smaller the
actual price the farmers would get
for their wheat
But it was predicted then, and
apparently with good reason in view
of recent developments, that the oth
er nations of the world would not
stand for this subsidizing of ex
ports. It would be called “dump
ing,” it was predicted, and other
nations would not permit their im
porters to buy any product so sub*
sidized.
‘Dumping’ Policy Causes
Irritation in Foreign Lands
Critics of the present department
of agriculture insisted there would
be loud protests this year if the
two-price system were put into ef
fect. They were right. Along comes
Britain highly indignant about one
shipload of wheat. What did we
mean, just after she had gone the
limit in straining her empire trade
concession plan in order to agree
to a reciprocal trade treaty with
the United States, by dumping
wheat at a subsidized price, thus
irritating Canada and Australia?
French Guiana made a surprise
move—threatened to bar any grain
imports from the United States if
this "dumping” policy were to be
continued.
So there won’t be any more.
Again Secretary of State Cordell
Hull and Secretary of Agriculture
Henry A. Wallace have clashed, and
again Hull has won. In fact, Hull
has not lost a battle since March 4,
1933, when Roosevelt became Presi
dent.
Of course, anything calculated to
help American export of our farm
surpluses must be fitted in with the
Hull doctrine of trade agreements,
or else the trade agreement policy
will be wrecked.
The difficulty would be great
enough if it were just a question of
tariffs. But that is only part of it.
There are quotas to be considered
also. Obviously no foreign govern
ment is going to permit this country
to dump a surplus of wheat at a
subsidized price AFTER it has
reached an agreement with this
country as to just what would and
what would not be done in accept
ing American exports—driven a
bargain, so to speak, that they would
take so much of our products if
we would take so much of theirs.
Morgan Sorrows That Better
Job Is Not Done at TVA
It's a pity that the government is
not doing a better Job at TVA, for
mer chairman Arthur E. Morgan
remarked to a group right after his
last appearance before the congres
sional committee which is supposed
to be Investigating the Tennessee
Valley Authority.
“The point is,” he said, "the trend
all over the world, in virtually ev
ery country, is toward government
operation of the electric industry.
That being obviously so, It makes
no difference whether one likes the
idea of government ownership or
not. It makes no difference wheth
er private ownership is actually bet
ter for the interests of all the people
or not. Regardless of the answers
to any of these questions, this gov
ernment should prepare for the pos
sibility that it will have to operate
the electric business of the entire
country.
“It is like Are insurance. A man
who insures his house against fire
does not necessarily hope that it
will burn. In fact, most of the
time he may still be anxious that
it should not burn. But he sees the
obvious danger, and takes precau
tions accordingly,
“Thus I think that even people
who think that government owner
ship of the electric industry is in
trinsically bad should be anxious
that the government make this TVA
experiment, against the possibility
that, having some day to run all
the electric business of the country,
the government will have learned
how to do it, and thus not make a
fiasco if it should have to take over
the big job.
"No manufacturer of motor cars,
for instance, would start turning out
a car of a new design by the thou
sand until there had first been ex
perimentation, to get out the bugs,
to make sure that it would work
smoothly. Similarly, if the govern
ment will only do the sort of job
for which I had hoped at TVA, it
will not be so likely to have a ghast
ly economic tragedy if some day in
the near future it finds itself operat
ing the entire electric industry of
the country.”
Fears Sacrifice of Flood
Control to Power Creation
Dr. Morgan is obviously proud of
the engineering of TVA. But he is
very much afraid that tragic conse
quences may follow yielding to the
temptation to sacrifice flood control
safety to the production of power.
He still believes that he did abso
lutely the right thing in the Miami
conservancy district in Ohio when
he put engraved plaques on certain
dams stating that the reservoirs
they were holding back must never
be used for the generation of elec
tric current. To do so, he caused to
be engraved on the plaques, might
endanger the people the dams were
supposed to protect from floods.
Dr. Morgan has been accused
many times of being too friendly to
the utilities, but actually he believes
in government ownership and opera
tion of the electric business if the
people in any given community fa
vor it. Moreover, he believes that,
even with the utmost fairness tc
utilities, multiple purpose dams—
those designed for example for flooc
control, navigation and power—car
afford cheaper electricity than car
a privately owned competing utility
Also, he believes strongly in nav
igation on the Tennessee river, i
point which has been of little inter
est to the TVA investigating com
mittee. A great many who believi
strongly in flood control and ever
in public power do not.
C Bell Syndicate.—WNU Service.
Trinidad Isle
Lies Quietly
In Caribbean
Discovered by Columbus,
bund Now Belongs lo
Great Britaiu
1
: Prepared by National Geographic Society,
Washington, D. C.-WNU Service.
Columbus discovered Trin
idad in 1498, on his third voy
age to the New World. In a
letter to Ferdinand and Isa
bella, he explains why it was
named “Trinity”: “A sailor
went up to the main-top to
look out and to the westward
saw three mountains near one
another.” These peaks, lo
cally known as the Three
Sisters, officially are Trinity
hills.
Sailing along the island’s
southern coast, the explorer
saw lands “as lovely and as
green as the orchards of Va
lencia in March.” After cross
ing the Gulf of Paria, he turned
westward along the coast of what is
now Venezuela. This shore he
termed “the most lovely in the
world.”
Convinced that the "earthly par
adise” of the ancient philosophers
lay somewhere in these newly dis
covered regions, the admiral later
petitioned his sovereigns for author
ity to explore further, but his pro
posed expedition was never carried
out. Across the gulf, dimly, Co
lumbus saw the hills of the South
American continent rolling away in
recurrent waves. Dismissing them
as another island, he set around
for home.
Raleigh Burned City.
In 1595 Sir Walter Raleigh came
to Trinidad, on his way to El Do
rado, which had been located be
yond question in the upper regions
of the Orinoco. Being of a mili
tary mind, and knowing the danger
of a hostile city at his rear, he
burned the Spanish capital. He
The island of Trinidad lies
triihin sight of South Amer
ica's nation of Venezuela, in
the southern reaches of the
Caribbean sea.
white cotton, young girls and boys
playing—all "latter under the trees
while the air is cool and the world
good. It will not be the same at
noon.
Trinidad, superficially, seems the
reverse of an ant heap, for its activ
ity shows best at the surface, the
veneer of the water front. You
stand by the cranes where cargo is
fed into the maws of omnivorous
tenders and come to the conclusion
that the island is crudely modern.
The coconut is one of the faces.
Out of the palm groves, mile after
mile of them, come millions of coco
nuts a year. Many of them are
turned into copra, which is the dried
broken meat of the coconut.
In some regions of the island you
see East Indians working in the
flooded fuzzy-green areas of rice
fields, their legs bare, their heads
shielded under big hats, their whole
aspect suggestive of the Orient. But
rice is rare. Mile after mile of sug
ar cane rolls down from the moun
tains, pale-green and high. Water
buffaloes work in these fields at
cutting times. You happen upon a
group of women who are chopping
stalks into small sections.
“They plant these,” says your
guide. "After a while another sug
ar cane grows out of each section.
They get about five new sugar canes
out of each old stalk.”
Use Weapons Craftily.
The cane workers wield their ma
chetes with consummate skill. They
are predominantly East Indians.
Trinidad is crowded with East In
dians; about a third of its population
belongs to that race. After slav
ery was abolished in the island,
they were brought over from India
between 1845 and 1917, under a sys
tem of indenture, to work on the
East Indian employees at work on a sugar plantation, cut
ting up stalks which will be replanted and produce new cane.
1 his, like almost everything else, is an immensely humorous
business to the natives.
tarried in the Gulf of Paria to calk
| his ships with pitch from the fa
mous Pitch lake.
Another arrival. Sir Ralph Aber
cromby, sailed to Port-of-Spain in
1797 and demanded that Don Jose
i Maria Chacon, the Spanish gover
1 nor, surrender the island. Chacon
was a humane man, out of touch
with his times. Sensible of the
bloodshed which was certain to re
sult from any conflict with Aber
cromby’s superior force he turned
Trinidad over to the English. There
and then the island settled into its
| niche, became steadfast, loyal, and
I serene.
Ranking next to Jamaica in size
among»the British West Indies, Trin
idad has nearly twice the area of
the state of Rhode Island. The col
ony of Trinidad and Tobago has a
population estimated (in 1935) at
more than 439,000. More than 1,000
miles of good roads and 123 miles
of government railways help trade
i and travel.
City Not Distinctive.
Perched on the bow of a tender
you see the capital from the hum
ble viewpoint of the early visitors.
Port-of-Spain today is rather enig
matic. Unlike most cities of the
world, it has no established person
ality, no tangible formula of atmos
phere that one can grasp and hold
aloft with triumph. It is a tropi
cal metropolis of about 75,000 peo
ple, with some of the finest hotels
in the West Indies.
Hot in Mid-Day.
Some of the British residents rise
I at sunup while the air is cool to
walk the circle of that vast space
of meadow, Queen’s Park Savan
! nah. It is a long walk. But morn
, ings in the tropics are a compensa
, tion for the day: the English in
white linen, the East Indians in
plantations. After their period of
service was ended, they were either
given free passage back to India or
allowed to remain. Many stayed.
East Indians throng Port-of-Spain.
They crowd the streets and mar
kets with a lusty carelessness; they
regard work but little, and seem to
subsist, almost miraculously, with
out it. They stride on their way
with easy carriage, rather a lordli
ness. and incessant amusement.
And they laugh at themselves,
wholeheartedly. An East Indian
was having his hair cut, or rather
(although unwittingly) having it
shaved. Absorbed in conversation
with someone standing in the door
way, he was unaware that the bar
ber was half asleep at his work; it
was near siesta time. Not until the
patron had risen, clapped on his
hat, and found it upheld only by
his ears, was he conscious of what
had happened.
A flood of terrible abuse descend
ed on the barber. It continued un
abated until finally, screaming
aloud his misfortune, the bald vic
tim emerged onto the street where
he called on the passers-by to wit
ness his misery. Heads popped from
windows, men stepped to the doors
of their stores, even the donkey
carts paused.
Everyone thought it was funny,
very funny. The victim stormed
away, shaking his fists at the heav
ens.
But after a while he came to a
silent alley, where he turned aside
to contemplate himself. His big
hand explored the stubble that stuck
out on top. After a moment a
smile spread upon his face. He
grinned. He put both hands to his
head and chuckled. In a moment,
hands still on his head, he started
to roar.
i ■■■— — ...
BOWL BUSINESS ...
Football's biggest event comes on ISew Year's
Day in this modern world. Bowls of all flavors
attract several hundred thousand spectators.
Here are last year's bowl games, where huge
crowds gather again this ISew Year's Day.
Oldest of the IS etc Year games, Pasadena’s Rose Bowl dates
back to 1916. Last year it attracted 90,000 spectators who
watched California defeat Alabama by a score of 13-0. Above is
an aerial view of the 1938 crowd. The spectacular tournament
of roses always precedes the game.
Shrinera sponsor the annual East-West all-star game at San
Francisco each New Year's day, an event that drew 65,000 foot
ball fans last year at Kezar stadium. The game ended in a
scoreless tie. Brilliant pageantry featured the between-halves
period.
imiinintiii ... f ~ TinrffTin~iD'ninnnnnrii)rrnrinrri' n mwiwni irr HiriPnnimwiii>'iiiniwiniiiiii¥innntnriiirii i ini— hmhi innmfimurnmni ihthi
At Miami, Fla., 18,000 attended last year's annual Orange
Bowl game where Auburn defeated Michigan State 6-0. Half
back Sits (No. 11) carried the ball for many of Auburn's gains.
The Orange Bowl is fast becoming a major gridiron attraction.
Santa Clara beat Louisiana State 6-0 at the ISew Orleans
Sugar Bowl last year. Tteo other “boicia” attracted attention. At
Dallas’' Cotton Bowl Rice beat Colorado 28-14 before 37,000
fans, and at El Paso a crowd of 13,000 watched ff esl Virginia
nose out Texas Tech, 7-6. Truly, (,bowl business” is becoming
I “big business
PATENTS-INVENTIONS
Patents Obtained
formation w rite Arthur Sturm, R^Utend U. 3.
taunt Offict, 302 NuvUU Block. Omaha. Nabr.
Double Bedspread
of Luxurious Taffeta
By RUTH WYETH SPEARS
«'f")EAR MRS. SPEARS: I have
long been wanting a taffeta
spread for a double bed. I figure
that, if I can make one from 10
yards of 39-inch taffeta, it will
cost about half as much as one of
the same quality ready made. Will
you be good enough to tell me
how to cut the material so there
will be no waste? This is impor
tant as I must economize. M. G.”
Here are cutting dimensions for
a double bedspread of 39 or 40
inch material. You will need a
little less than your 10 yards—
r~z-ig-... ....-nioi.-.
9% yards will be enough, and this
makes the spread long enough to
cover the pillows nicely. Cut the
center panel first, then divide the
material that is left as shown in
the upper diagram. Join the two
pieces of ruffle material to make
one long piece, then divide it
evenly; for the two ruffles. These
cutting dimensions allow generous
seams. Enough material may be
taken from the seam edges to
cover cords for welted seams if
desired. A very narrow machine
stitched hem should be used at
the bottom of the ruffles.
Full directions for making welt
ed seams are contained in Book 1,
offered herewith. There are also
directions in this book for making
bedspreads of 36-inch cotton ma
terial. -Today’s lesson is not in
either of the books offered here,
so be sure to clip and save it for
reference.
NOTE: Mrs. Spears’ Book 2—
Gifts, Novelties and Embroidery,
las helped thousands of women
-o use odds and ends of materials
ind their spare time to make
hings to sell and to use. Book 1—.
SEWING, for the Home Decora
or, is full of inspiration for every
lomemaker. These books make
lelightful gifts. Mrs. Spears will
mtograph them on request,
drazy-patch quilt leaflet is includ
'd free with every order for both
>ooks. Books are 25 cents each.
\ddress Mrs. Spears, 210 S. Des
ilaines St., Chicago, 111.
Changing Dances
From 1776 to 1911, American so
cial dancing was virtually con
fined to six dances: the polka,
reel, square dance, minuet, waltz
and two-step, reports Collier’s.
From 1911 to 1938, more than 25
new dances have been introduced,
among them being the turkey trot,
grizzly bear, Texas tommy, bunny
hug, hesitation, tango, maxixe,
one-step, Castle walk, fox trot.
Charleston, black bottom, Lindy
hop, rumba and the big apple.
If you think nil laxative*
act Alike, lust try thl*
all ngetibli laxatlva.
...So mud, thorough, re
freshing, Invigorating. Dependable relief from
sick headaches, bilious spells, tired feeling when
associated with constipation _
Without RiskM0MtM“lho)£
If not delighted, return the box to us. We will
refund the purchase
x quf,orKacidF
INDIGESTION
Powerful Example
Example is more forcible than
precept. People look at me six
days in the week, to see what I
mean on the seventh.—Cecil.
6^^ relieves
0 COLDS
n a**1 a»y
| I Headaches
w and Fever
LIQUID. TABLETS doe to Colds
SALVE. NOSE DROPS In SO minutes.
rry “Rnb-My-Tlsm”-* Wonderful l iniment
WNU—U 52—38
MERCHANDISE
jr 1
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