The Omaha guide. (Omaha, Neb.) 1927-19??, May 20, 1939, City Edition, Page 7, Image 7
THE OMAHA GUIDE Published Ev.ery Saturday at 2418-20 Grant St. Omaha, Nebraska Phone WEbster 1617 Entered as Second Class Matter March 15, 1927, at the Post Office at Omaha, Nebr., under Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION $2.00 PER YEAR All News Copy of Chrurches and add Organi zations must be in our office not later than 6:00 p. m. Monday for curren issue. All Adver tising Copy or Paid Articles not later than Wednesday noon, preceeding date of issue, to insure publication. Race prejudice must go. The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man must prevail. These are the only principles whil will stand tha acid test of good. James H. Williams & James E. Seay—Linotype operators and Pressmen. Paul Barnett—Foreman. EDITORIALS ECONOMIC HIGHLIGHTS Over a considerable period of time, the factors influencing business are almost purely economic—purchasing power, abundance of credit, supply and demand, labour conditions, taxes, etc. But, as a private research service re cently pointed out, over a shorter per iod of time these economic considera tions may carry weight than what may be termed an emotional factor—that is, the reactions of individuals to the events taking place in the nation and the world, and their fears and uncer tainties as to the future. That factor has been unusually forceful of late. Rightly or wrongly, many have become convinced that war is inevitable. A considerable number believe that eventual American parti cipation is likely. This tragic outlook has clouded all our acts and opinions. It has lessened our faith in the world of tomorrow. And the tremendous wbrry and uncertainty involved has cast a shadow over our economic and commercial affairs. This helps to explain the abnormal shrinkage that has taken place in se curity values. Every authority seems convinced that industry in this coun try is in nowhere near as unhealthy a state as late stock and bond prices would indicate. They feel that there has been much unwise panic selling, and an equally unwise disinclination of potential purchasers to buy. Economic factors dictate that point of view. But, logical as they may be, they have little weight at present when pitted against the emotional factor. Many people as sume that the outbreak of war would send security values crashing down ward, in spite of the fact that past pre cedent indicates that for some months at least they might soar, so far as many manufacturing industries are concern ed. And so the markets remain stag nant. ‘ : i The writer of this column has read a considerable number of forecasts of conditions in the business world, all of them of a responsible character. Prac tically all hjold that the longqMime outlook for domestic industry is defin itely favorable. And1 all of them are sure that there will be no significant drop in industrial producton for a rea sonable period of time. It now remains to be seen whether public sentiment, which has been of a severely pessimist ic character ever since the turn of the year, will take another tack. Some business briefs of interest fol low: RETAIL TRADE: Outlook is good. Recent business has been at ex cellent levels, comparatively speaking, and the March rise was better than seasonal. There seem to be very few sections of the cpuntry where trade has declined. BUILDING: Residential construc tion is still one of the best of the good business signs, and better-than-season rises have taken place month after month. Non-residential building, ex.* cept for public works, has also shown signs (of improvement. Public works projects have been considerably under past levels. STEEL: Production has tended down and consumption up, which means declining inventories. Upshot is a forecast of considerable improvement this summer. LIGHT AND POWER: This indu stry is still perplexed by its political problems, notably that of just how much farther government competition will extend. There has been a consider able amount of private expansion, how ever, due to increased demand for electricity by both industrial and resi dential consumers. Big scale expansion will depend on whether or not talked about “peace pact” between the utili ties and the Administration is effected. RAILROADS: Car loadings re cently took a sharp decline, due pri marily to a sharp reduction in soft coal production, as a result of labor trou bles. The immediate future of carload ings therefore depends on just how long those troubles will continue. MOTORS: Latest available fig ures, for the end of March and early April, show a sharp rise in sales, and summer business, as figured now, will be good. -- Congress hasn’t been doing much of late. European troubles have taken most of the lawmakers’ energies, and discussions of possible changes in our neutrality law have kept Capitol Hill busy. Many a solon is going gray try ing to figure out a way to keep us out of war, and at the same time to help the much beset democracies across the sea. However, the sentiment of Con gress toward domestic issues becomes contantfy more clear. And the trend is strongly to the right. Never was Mr. Roosevelt’s influence at so low an ebb. And those White House advisors who used to write most of the major bills and who threw a tremendous weight, are far out of the limelight. The attitude of the White House is in itself proof of this. When the Pre sident wants something done, he makes requests which are moderate in tone, and there have been no “must de mands” for a considerable time. And his plea to his party to keep internal peace shows the way the wind is blow ing. --0O0 THE MOST PRESSING PROBLEMS The officers of one of the leading public utility companies of the nation, in their annual report to the stockhold ers, recently said: “The problems fac ed by the federal power program are the most pressing now confronting the industry and its investors. “It is to be presumed that the ob jectives of both government and the utilities must be the widest possible use of electric service at the lowest possi ble cost—the achievement of this end and the solution of the existing pro blems of competition lie in cooperation between the government and the pri vately owned electric utilities and the coodinated use of the existing genera ting and transmission facilities of both. We believe that such a program would go far beyond the direct benefits which would accrue and would be helpful in encouraging general business expan sion and increasing employment.” One of the wforst phases of the whole federally subsidized government ownership movement has been the ram pant, unnecessary duplication of faci lities which already existed. Towns have applied for and have been given federal grants and loans for the pur pose of building municipal systems in spite of the fact that adequate, up-to date private companies had abundant generating an ddistributing equipment to serve their needs. Down in the TV A area in the Southeast, the government has built transmission lines which vir tually parallel existing lines more than capable of carrying the load. And out in the Pacific Northwest, it is propos ed to build a costly federal transmis sion network to carry Bonneville and Grand Coulee power—a network which will actually blanket a territory which has been served long, well and cheap ly by the private industry. Responsible utility executives have signified thier willingness to cooper ate with the government 100 per cent. They have offered to buy and distri bute the power generated at the gov ernment dams, at rates to be approved by government officials, and to be re gulated by government bureaus. Yet the wasteful duplication goes on—to the destruction of private enterprise, and at the expanse of every taxpayer in America. Is it any wonder that the thinking public is becoming weary of the drive to socialize the electric industry—and that the opinion is growing widely that fair treatment for this great industry, which under favorable conditions would spend billions of private dollars (not tax dollars) for expansion, is es sential to orderly recovery? -0O0 TAX GOVERNMENT BONDS The Supreme Court’s decision that government employes may be taxed, in the opinion of a number of well known, opens the way to stopping the issuance of any additional tax-free government bonds, if Congress will pass a bill to that efFect. According to the legal experts, the principle is ident ical and there is no constitutonal obli gation which holds that government securities must always be tax free. Various high government officials including several Presidents, have at times spoken of the desirability of tax ing government bonds. At present, government issues are a haven for those who wish to escape taxation of income. In many cases, where large sums of money are involved, the net r eturn to the investor on a government bond paying three per cent is larger than on a private security paying five or six. Two unfortunate results follow this. First, the nation is deprived of tax revenue from the billions of dollars worth of government issues now out standing. Secondly, the acttractiveness of tax-free bonds deprives private in dustry of capital it sorely needs. Certainly there is no reason why a man with an income in five figures from government bonds should entire ly escape taxation, while a man with an income from private sources is tax ed to the hilt. And, as matters stand now, when private industry goes into the money market for the capital need ed for expansion and improvement, it cannot compete with the tax-fr^e is sues. More and more of the nation’s wealth is going into non-productive channels—at the expense of private employment and opportunity. The court decision making possi ble the taxation of government work ers on the same basis as private work ers is a long step in the right direction. The next step should be a refusal by Congress to permit the issuance of any more tax-free securities. -0O0 YOUR DESTINY AND YOUR COUNTRY’S DESTINY ARE ONE Booker T. Washington’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave but his phil osophy goes marching on, as we have found in the fact that your freedom and America’s freedom have become one and indivisible. Last week’s news columns carried a story in which a Louisiana district at torney called in unmistakable termp for Negroes to not only on petit juries but on grand juries. Why? Well, it is, as one might expect, be cause as a nation we have reached the place where we are observed by all the world—even to how we treat our peons and other all-but-enslaved citizens. Our international complications at this time have grown to such proportions that our potential enemies abroad are pick ing flaws in a social system which we have been able to keep hidden in the past to the extent that when we shed crocodile tears and reached sympathe to hands across the sea to the disad vantaged Jew, Herr Hitler, Japan and Mussolini not only told us to stay in our own back yard but asked us to con sider the beam in our own eyes. The powers that be in Washington see the effect of this and are calling on our Federal courts—even those bran ches that operate in faraway Louisi ana of the “deep” South, to lay the em phasis on the Law rather than on the local custom of going lax where Ne groes are concerned. It is so much so cial or legal reform; it is not a situa tion which at all approaches the mile nium:—it is merely a matter of self defense where the skeletons in our na tional closet are being aired interna tionally. This is but another straw that shows which way the wind is blowing. It is also an indication that we of a mi nority group should stand up and do our part toward meeting the new chal lenges that will come to us as a result of new points of view and the oppor tunities for us that grow out of them. These opportunities will arise out of the army, navy and air service situ ations, which steadily improve in our favor; out of the educational situation in which we have not only the. recent decision of the supreme court favoring our full opportunity in the schools of all the country but the increasing ac ceptance of our scholars in scientific fields and in positions of responsibility the country over. The economic advan tage, as well as the intellectual recog nition that these advances carry are not to be accepted lightly. One door of opportuniy easily opens another, so that we may confidently look forward to seeing those who are beneficiaries of this position show that in many a way our destiny is tied up with that of the other citizens of this country, and that the great problem is to get all con cerned to see that fact clearly. -0O0 PERSISTENCE PERFORMS A PUBLIC SERVICE i We’ve all heard the jokes concern ing the persistence of the life insur ance salesman. And we’ve all been an noyed by him personally. But, as many a man has learned eventually, that quality of persistence performs a tremendous public service. Most of us dislike to spend money for things that bring us no immediate plea sure or return. It has to be dredged out. of us. We admit life insurance is good and necessary—but if it weren’t for “super-salesmanship” not one of us in ten would buy it. A life insurance salesman’s persist ence has saved many a man from a poverty stricken old age—and many a family from want when the bread winner died. An El Paso man bought a second hand flivcr which he soon took back to the dealer. Seller: “What’s wrong with it?” Owner: “Every blamed part of it makes a noise but the horn.” i “Since I met you, I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, I can’t drink.” “Why not?” “I’m broke.”