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About The Omaha guide. (Omaha, Neb.) 1927-19?? | View Entire Issue (July 15, 1939)
THE OMAHA GUIDE TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION $2.00 PER YEAR All News Copy of Chrurches and-add Organi sations must be in our office not later than 6:00 p. m. Monday for eurren issue. All Adver tising Copy or Paid Articles not later than Wednesday noon, preceeding date of issue, to insure publication. ---- " -- Race prejudice mast go. The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man must prevail. These are the only principles whil will stand the acid test of good. James H-. Williams & James E. Seay—Linotype operators and Pressmen. Paul Barnett—Foreman. - ' -——- .. ' T Published Every Saturday at 2418-20 Grant St. Omaha, Nebraska Phone WEbster 1647 Entered as Second Class Matter March 16, 1927, at the Post Office at Omaha. Nebr., under Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. EDITORIALS LONGER WEEK-ENDS In week-ends nations mirrow their character. In the case of week-ending this will be more time in the future than! in the past for we are in the pro cess of making week-ends for more people. The five day week promises to put the already large week end indus try in the front rank of ©ur laKgest enterprises. There will be more week end mo toring. More building of cottages. More demand for suburban homes for quiet wedk ends. More excurskming. More business for resorts catering to w-eek enders. More planting and gar dening in suburban communities. Say \rtiat you will about the Amer ican as a spender, the faqt remains that he is about as thrifty a mortal as this globe has produced to date. Not many of the five day workers will be ewitent sitting out the other two days. Z)dd jcfos producing a little extr^. money will be at a premium and will put a large share of the country’s ima gination and initiative to work. The week end was not made for fun in everybody’s plan of living. -0O0 i ECONOMIC HIGHLIGHTS ■ Happenings that Affect the Dinner Pails, Dividend Checks and Tax Bills •f Every Individual. National and In tenational Inseparable from Local Welfare To attempt to analyze and project the future course, of business at pre sent amounts to seeking a short cut to the insane asylum. Today and for months past) the purly economic fac tors that in normal times determine what business and industry are going do have been at least relatively good. There is an abundance otf credit. There are almost unlimited opportuni ties for expansion of important indus tries in both the consumer’s and produ cers’ goods fields. The inventory situa tion, with one or twro more or less minor exceptions is favorable. And, ac cording to trustworthy reports, repre sentative business, wrejary of almost endless years of depression broken by dccasional, sporadic upturns, is chaf ing at the bit to go ahead. But business doesn’t go ahead. New industrial financing remains practical ly at the zero level. No major basic industry is expanding on any impor tant scale. Little preparation is being made for the| future. And long-planned expanion programs, some of them of the most ambitious nature, are being held in abeyance for an indefinite time. This isn’t as puzzling as it may seem. For business is still dominated by the political factor, as against the purely economic factor. It is afraid of what politicians may do next. It fears for the future of earning and profits. It fears the constantly growing spec ter of government control and, in some cases, actual government competiton. It is waiting—as it has been waiting for many moons—to see what happens. And so far as it is able it is husbanding its resources, spending almost mothing that is not necessary to the day by day routine conduct of its affairs. You can find eloquent advocates who will say that is the wrong attitude —that business has more than dis counted political conditions and i^n’t justified in its fears. You can find equally eloquent advocates who will say that business is right—that, under present circumstances, it can do noth ing else. But, regardless of opinions, that is the w;*y business at large feels and that is the reason depression hangs tenaciosuly on. In the light of this, a recent event is of potential significance as a possi ble facto! in break the log jam of pes simism that holds baick business. That event is Secretary Morgentau’s “tax Belief” proposal to a Congress which is becoming increasingly economy minded. Mr. Morgenthau has the un enviable job of having to finance a government with an ever soaring na tional debt, and he has long pondered the obtuse problems of taxation. Some time ag© it was announced that he had a definite program he wished enacted in an effort to encourage* business Then the program dropped out of sight, as the President reaffirmed his faith in the spending for prosperity policy. Late in May another change toibk place. Senator Harrison, one of the leaders of the economy bloc in Con gress, went to the White House. And, according to Newsweek, “Harrison started in by telling President Roose velt flatly that, having talked for months about giving business the tax changes it seemed to want, Congress intended td see business get the changes whether the President liked it or not.” The next day the President consulted with Senator Byrnes a Dem ocratic whip who also tends towards economy. Kesuits: A week later Secretary Morgenthau appeared before a meet ing of the House Ways and Means Committee with a detailed tax-revision program recomVnpnded by the Trea sury and, according to the Secretary endorsed by the President. Mr. Morgenthau’s program calls for repeal of the undistributed profits tax, the excess profits tax, and the cap ital stock tax; a change in the law to permit business to carry over net los ses for several yeiars; reduction of the surtax in high brackets; a change in the corporate income tax, to make it a flat 18 per eei|, on incomes over $25,000; reduction in the tax on small corporations. Mr. Garner’s announcement that he will seek the Democratic Presiden tial nomination next year turns a rum or into a fact. It also serves to further emphasize the split in the ranks of the majority party. Mr. Garner has a solid follow ing among the relatively conservative Democrats—which includes the influ ential Southern blo(c almost 100 per cent—and he is heartily disliked by the more extreme New Dealers. He will probably go the convention with enough votes to make it tough for any candidate he opposes. At the same time, talk of nomina ting Secretary Hull, as a sort of com promise candidate, grows. Many feel Mr. Hull would be the strongest can didate the Democrats could put in the field. -oOo IT’S WATERMELON TIME * - • This is the season when sticklers for table etiquette are in partial eclip se; the season when melon pips fly, and the sound of corn on the cob is heard in the land. This is the season when many consider it permissible nay even necessary, to relax somewhat from a strict observance of the formal codes of the knife and fork. So far, corn on the cob has won its own way. But at table one is still expected to overcome the watermelon with a fork. As weM expect the harden ed eater of green corn to face his sea sonal feast in the shape of kernels di vorced from the cob as law down the rule of fork to the genuine' devotee of watermelon. After all, the juice is the main part of a watermelon, and who would eat soup with a fork? If watermelon is to be eaten at the table, 1,hen please, Mrs. Post, let us have knife, fork and spoon, any one or all three as fancy may dictate. A really man size slice of watermelon is a bit of unmanageable on any ordinary sort of a plate however, and hence it is the ordered plan of some to eat it beside the kitchen sink. But, there is the task of cleaning up the; seeds. And there is nothing more elusive than a melon pip in a porcelain sink unless it is a melon pip on the kitchen floor. The pursuit of a melon seed on waxed linoleum really should be .classed a mong the major sports. But, after all, the most desirable place of all for the enjoyment of wa termelon is the bottom step of the back porch. Here in the open air one may at tack the luscious pink half moon open ly and let the seeds fly where they may. —--l/V/V. —■ -- JULY If the time ever comes when the calendar reformers decide that new names should be given to the months, history and romance will lose much by the disappearance of July. Ever since the year 46 B. C., when Gaius Julius Caesar allowed his name to displace that of the fifth Roman month, Quintilis, the second summer month has been known by some term corresponding to the English render ing July. July, which is now the seventh month of the Gregorian calen dar, is fixed immovably in the history of two great republics, for it was on the fourth day of that month that America had its origin as a separate nation, and it was on the fourteenth that France, America’s ally in the struggle for independence, broke with its royal masters and struck out boldly for its own liberty. -oO© HEAT By far the best way to deal with excessively hot weather is to snub it. Be contemptious and superior, Pretend that you aren’t aware of its presence. A considerable reserve of philosophy and common sense is necessary to this way of escape from the extreme dis comforts of summer in this climate. But the fact remains that agitation and feverish attention to leaping ther ometers has the effect of making heat seem hotter than it really is. If you cannot snub the weather, if you are one of those w'ho have indi gnant convictions about it, do the next best thing. Keep in the shady side of the streets. Eat lightly, and wear the lightest and loosest garments you have. Avoid stress and hurry. Then the doc tors will be less likely to get you. -0O0 PLAY NO FAVORITES Seventy three years ago, the capi tal stock fire insurance companies of this country has issued policies totaling less than $4,000,000,000, and their an nual premium income wras $39,000,000. Today capital stock fire insurance car ries the responsibility for more than $60,000,000,000 in property values, and premium income totals $460,000,000. That speaks well for the soundness of this great industry. And it is evi dence of the growth and development of the United States. For fire insur ance is an essential factor in every commercial venture. It is the backlog of all credit. Who could loan money to build a home if there were no means of protecting against loss in the event of its destruction by fire? Who could? se)nd a ship to sea without insurance to guard against loss and ruin? Who could invest in commerce and industry without this all important protection? As America has grown, and fire insurance has grown with it, this pro tection has been provided at a steadily declining ratev In 1938 the average rate was not much more than half what it was in 1913. And, as a fire insurance expert has said “This great construc tive sendee is rendered without regard to any distinctions of wealth, or class or creed, or geography, except in mea suring exactly as possible, hazards in volved in each individual case.” Thus has fire insurance discharged its vast responsibilities to the nation. And, in addition, it has carried on a constant work in favor of fire preven tion, tha establishment of adequate safe building codes, the inspection of building materials and machines and commodities of many kinds in the light of their safety as regards fire, etc. There isn’t an an individual or a busi ness in the land this work hasn’t bene fited. It is responsible each year for saving thousands of lives and millions of dollars worth of property. -0O0 “WEIGHTS ON ANDY JACKSON’S GRAVE” In a recent column, Paul Mallon, the well known Washington commen tator, said: “Weights will probably be placed on Andy Jackson’s grave so he cannot arise against thrse three new financing proposals which would come somewhere near creating a quasi United States Bank (the Mead bill for small business loan insurance, the capi tal financing proposal for big loans and the public works financing for build ing.)” It may be that some of these pro posals are designed to serve a neces sary and deserving end. But there is a very evident danger in a method of achieving suck an end which further extends the power of the government over the banking structure. The money in Amerca’s banks be longs to the people. And, under our private banking system, it is controlled by the people. No type of business is more thoroughly or more stringently regulated in the public interest. Every conceivable safeguard has been creat ed to assure the despositor safety for his savings. * 'i-kC^'y I A very different situation weuld obtain once politics got banking firmly under its thumb. It would be possible to use the money of the people for any political ends desired. The existing safeguards would necessarily be weak ened. And the public—with its millions of bank accounts, and its billions «f savings—would be the goat. -—0G0 UP TO THE INDIVIDUAL There can be cooperation in the hard pressed dairy industry said F. H. Sexauer, President of the Dairymen’s League Cooperative Association of New York, recently. There can be co operation between dairy groups, and th federal and state governments. And he added these significant words: “Three months of united effort will find us well on our way toward rebuild ing prices. Three months of division and fighting among farmers will lead us to continued low prices.” In other words, it’s up to th«-indi vidual producer. He can work with his neighbors, through dairy marketing cooperaties and make his influence felt. Or he can succumb tp despair, and take what come. Luckily judging by the past history of the cooperative marketing movement, he will take fhe first course—and get results. ,
