The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-10-23
Washington
Merry-Go-
Round
BY DREW PEARSON and
ROBERT s. ALLEN.

XXTASHINGTON, Oct. 23.-When
w the President disembarks
from the Houston, the most press
ing problem facing him will be the
disastrous snarl of the Works-Relief
plan to put 3.5OO,OOO men to work
by November l."
This chaotic condition is an open
book.
known to only a few insiders,
however. is the fact that the much
ballyhooed program for the elimina-
ton of railroad grade crossings is
virtually at dead halt.
Out of the $500, 100000 TO have
been spent, only S2,000,000 has been
allocated.
First snarl was the ruling that
S1,l40 must be spent per man per
year on works-relief jobs. This left
insufficient funds for materials.
After weeks of delay the order final
~ was modified.
Then it was discovered that a
joker had been slipped into the
WorkS-Relief Bill by the railroad
lobby eXempting the carriers from
bearing any of the cost of grade
crossing elimination
This put the entire financial
burden on state and Federal gov
ernmentS.
The states share was fixed as the
land necessary for grade crossing
| projects.
The result has been a chaos of
| haggling between state authorities,
property owners and railroads. To
date, ons Ohio and Texas have
succeeded in getting under way.
solely because they were able to
! persuade some of the railroads to
put up a part of the cost.
Note-The railroads are anxious
to keep secret their cooperative
attitude in Ohio and Texas because
they fear if it became known. other
states would demand similar corceS-
| sionS
! NNE reason the French were so
~ reluctant to pledge British use
of their naval bases in case of war
| in the Mediterranean, is the fact
that Toulon, their chief naval sta
ton, is only 40 miles from an
Italian air base.
British vessels in Toulon would be
tempting excuse for an Italian air
raid which the French don't want
| to risk.
ID EHIND tempestuous European
- debates over a naval blockade
against Italy is one all-important
fact. Geneva has just begun TO
realize that sanctions mean nothing
without blockade to enforce them.
For years the League of Nations
has been hummipg blithely along,
pointing with pride to its machinery
for imposing economic and financial
boycotts against an aggreSSor.
But only within the last few days
| have the Geneva statesmen sud-
denly realized that, in order to en-
force such a boycott, most nations
require special legislation.
President Roosevelt, for instance,
could not have declared his arms
| embargo had not the Senate rushed
through the Neutrality Act during
| the closing days of the last congress
Sional session.
Argentina, for instance, as a MEM
Der of the League, started to apply
sanctions; then found she had no
laws empowering her president to
cut off trade with Italy. Her con-
gress has just adjourned, so it will
be next April before a law can be
passed permitting Argentine sane
| tons against Italy.
Many European nations are in
the same fix. Furthermore, parlia-
ments are VIGOROUSLY inclined to
think of reelection rather than
world peace. And if severance OF
trade with Italy is going to harm
local industry, cause unpleasant po-
litical reverberations, new legiSla-
ton may wait even longer than
April.
Meanwhile Mussolini moves on
in AbySsinia.
Harry Hopkins has hired NJ R.
Werner. New York author, to write
running account of what progress
works-relief is making.
Il don't expect to go out in the
field much" says Werner. L can
see the works from Washington. I
wrote the life of Barnum without
meeting him, and the life of Bryan
after meeting him only once as a
kid
Before I finished my book on
Tammany Hall I tried to go down
and look the place over. But it
was the Fourth Of July and there
were so many policemen standing
around that I got frightened and
went away"
Copyright. 1885, by United Feature