The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1935-07-12

got into the war-was known in Wall
Street. and occasioned a terrific crash
In the stocks of companies manufac-
turing munitions for the allies. Thorn
as w. Lawson of Boston, of frenzied
finance fame, charged that certain peo-
pie had made millions on advance in
formation. Bernard NJ. Baruch vas
put on the stand, and admitted max
ing half a million the day the news
broke, though he convinced the com
mittee that he acted on news from
London, not Washington.
Pinned on Reporters
But the point is that at the end of
that investigation some five or six news
paper men were pilloried as the real
source Of the leak. Some of them lost
their jobs. Some were just reprimand-
ed. All were in disgrace. The whole
thing was construed as a terrific re-
Election on newspaper ethics.
Everybody in Washington knew
there had been a real leak-that the
kilograms sent by the newspaper men
thus besmirched were just an alibi-in
short that Thomas w. Lawson in es-
sential was right.
But this administration, having
watched the Lawson and other leak
investigations, is taking no chances.
This was evidenced by the fact that
at II a. m., on June 10, the President
would not admit what his message
that afternoon would be about.
Yet hours before the stock market
closed this writer and several others
were working desperately to confirm
tips from Wall Street reporters in their
organizations that the President was
about to propose high inheritance
taxes and big advances on the higher
brackets IN income taxes!
And If readers will pardon a hum
Die confession, the Washington report
ers were not able to confirm the re-
port! But the smart Wall Street op-
orators knew. You can draw your own
diagram of what that means.
Relief Plan in Peril
The SLIGO per man Limitation which
President Roosevelt has imposed on
the work-relief program, as far as the
selection of projects is concerned, not
only promises to force a general blow
up in the whole scheme, but to make
a lot of trouble, politically and other
wise.
For instance, the big water project
for central California, for the San
joaquin and Sacramento rivers. Re-
Gently Senators johnson and McAdoo
called on the President. They urged
him to lift the $1.1OO ban on this prof.
ect. The President insisted that he
had only $4,000, OOO. 900, and that this
$4,000 100000 must provide work
for three and a half million men.
Hence each project must put a man to
work for every s1,1O0 spent.
The senators urged the President to
consider that purchases of materials,
machinery, ETC., would provide work far
in excess of the jobs actually provided
on the site Of the project. But the
President was unmoved.
Later on, however, he had a qualm,
and wrote Public Works Administra-
tor Ickes, inquiring whether the 81, 100
would actually ban the project, and
suggesting a restudy Of the whole sit
uation to determine this point. Ickes
himself would not fudge" on the fig
ures. But he gave some of his subordi-
mates a chance to juggle them.
At last accounts the assistants de-
| o1fno1 20 mil Tho ohacfr,,<e nut 80 xho
fire. They made lengthy reports call
ing attention to the value of the prof.
ect, and to the tremendous amount of
employment it would provide Indirect
ly, One of them ven called attention
to the fact while most of this indirect
employment would be outside the state
of California, some of it would be in
side the state. That would be cement
Curious Paradox
Which brings up a rather curious
paradox in the mental processes of the
President and some of his advisers
particularly Harry Hopkins. ut must
always be remembered in this come
ton that Ickes himself has no sym
pathy for this policy-he approves this
particular California project, and is
keen for providing employment indi-
rectly.)
The country has been divided for re-
lief work purposes into some three
hundred odd districts. Apparently the
administration is trying to conduct
them as though they were water-tight
compartments. The number of unem.
ployed in each has been surveyed, and
the idea Is to provide sufficient employ.
ment in each to take care of that stu.
alton.
This policy does not take into &C.
count the fact that a district which
happens to be big In steel manufactur.
ing would not need work relief II
enough work relief projects requiring