The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-12-10
Washington
Merry-Go-
Round
BY DREW PEARSON and
ROBERT S. ALLEN.

wv working Henry Morgenthau
has started something really new in
the way of income tax inveStiga-
tions. He is investigating the in
come tax returns of his own Treas
ury Department officials.
This is the third phase Of the
most comprehensive income tax
probe ever undertaken by a Secre->
tary of the Treasury.
Morgenthau began with the high
er bracket incomes. Then. arguing
that it was not fair to scrutini0e r.
these alone, he extended the check
ing to all income tax returns. AS a
result millions of dollars have rolled
into the Treasury.
Finally, Morgenthau argued that
his own Treasury officials should not
escape, in fact should be subjected
to more rigorous investigation. They
have been. Not only income tax
returns, but bank accounts have
been Scrutinized-even those of the
Secret Service.
AS a result, one out of every five
iAlNOAilO bt-A 4AtoRCNNOlo III ANSN L "a
has been dropped. Chief reason was
SuspiciouSly large bank accounts.
XXTHEN the President abandoned
w his old yacht, the Sequoia, in
favor of the newer Coast Guard YES
sci, Electra, it was announced that =
the Sequoia would go back to the
Bureau of Navigation and Steam
boat Inspection Service of the Com
MERGE Department whence she came. -
However, the White House reck- +,
oned without the Secretary of the
Navy. @
The Navy Department has kept
the Sequoia as the private yacht Of
Secretary Swanson.
IN the coming congressional Strug- n
l. gle over next years budget, the 3D..
chief issue will be the question OF :
relief expenditures.
The popular conception of this
melee is of a battle between the Adj
ministration, which favors relief out
lays, and the budget balancers who
do not Actually the tug-of-war
will be three-cornered.
Sharply differing from these two
is a third powerful group-State and
city governments. They want larger
Federal relief.
This was the keynote Of the re-
cent mayors conference in Wash
ington The mayors charged that
the Administration has quietly I'M
loaded on them the bulk of the re-
| lief burden.
1t is a general belief-and one =.
carefully fostered by the Admins .
tration-that the Federal govern.
ment is carrying the heavy end of
the relief load. Particularly is this
idea prevalent in regard to the So
called "employable" idle. =
The truth is that the states and
municipalities are now sweating I'M
der the larger half of the relief
| burden. >.
In the last few months, the Fed
eral government has unloaded on
them not only the full weight of the
"unemployables," but is requiring :
the localities to put up part of the i
funds for the "employables."
To date, the Works Progress ADJ
ministration has allocated total OF,
$1,140,000,000 for job-creating prof.
ects. To this. the localities have
added another S280,000,000. a-
The situation in the Public Works
Administration is even more strik-
ing. In this field the states and
cities actually are putting up a.
larger share than the government
The PWA has 1924, 100000 for Cute
right grants. Localities, through
cash appropriations and loans, have
outmatched this to the tune of
$4,000, 000-one-fo more than
the governments share.
That the states and cities-espe-
cially the latter-are now paying
the greater share of relief is prac-
tically unknown to the public. Harry
Hopkins press statements always
take great pains to play it down.
y
THIS, many of them say, is
Il financially impossible. The only
way out is further pairing of the.
already low relief standards.
At the mayors conference some
city executives openly charged the
Administration with putting the
squeeze" on the localities in order
to make a record in economical
handling of the $4,000, 100000 fund.
They contended that instead of
spending this sum on a one-year
basis, as promised when the meas
ure was before Congress, it is ac-
tually being stretched to cover a
two-year period--with the states,
cities and the needy taking the
rap"
Copyright. 1895. by United Feature
Syndicate, Incl