Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-02-23
WAR PROFIT CURB
IN PRICE CONTROL
AND LEVY STUDIED
Senate Munitions Pr0berS
to Hear Bethlehem Off,
Gals Monday.
LETTER EXPLANATION
BY NAVY WILL FOLLOW
Ickes Denies knowledge of Grant
of 100000 for warships
Late Last Year.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
Proposals to curb war profits by
price control and to gnaw at them
with income taxes were studied today
by the Senate Munitions Committee
as 1t neared the time for showing the
Senate what it has accomplished with
its 100000 appropriation.
With examination of two shipyards
completed, the committee will begin
Monday to question officials of the
Bethlehem Shipbuilding Co.. headed
by Eugene Grace, who will be the
major witness.
Afterward the investigators plan to
call Navy officials to explain a letter
attributed to Assistant Secretary
Henry L. Roosevelt and saving $780,
100000 in warships had been put I'M
der contract late last year with public
works funds. Secretary IckeS, in gen.
eral charge of the P. W. A program.
denied yesterday any knowledge OF
such sum being made available in
addition to previous ALLEGATIONS of
about $27S,O0O,0OO.
Letter Sent Last August.
The letter was addressed to william
j. Otter. former Representative from
Pennsylvania, and sent last August.
The matter was not cleared up by
Mr.. Ickes' testimony" Stephen Rau-
shenbush, committee counsel COM
mented. Earlier Chairman Nye had
announced naval officials would be
called as soon as questioning Of the
Bethlehem officials was complete.
Under terms of its second appro-
priation of 1000 made by the Sem
ate in January, the committee was re-
queSted 20 submit not later than April
l report of progress and proposed
legislation aimed at taking the profits
out of war.
While Senator Nye expressed oppo-
Sition to the McSwain bill in the House
carrying a proposal to put ceiling"
on prices at the outset of war, it was
indicated in other sources that some
sort Of price control legislation was in
the program studied by the committee.
Nye advocated an income tax to
trim profits of the war industries,
coupled with a general industrial draft.
Incentive Will Be Gone.
at is my idea" he said, that if
the profit is taken out of war. much
of the incentive to war will be gone"
Secretary Ickes, in his testimony
yesterday, declined to say whether he
himself approved the idea of allotting
S238,000,000 P. w. A. funds to warship
building, which has been criticized by
some Senators. He did say that such
work did not produce as much en-
ployment as some ether undertakings
He let it be understood the funds
were allocated by President Roosevelt
and that the expenditure was COM
mitted before he became P. W. A.
chief. He said he believed the de-
ciSion was reached after due and care
full consideration.
The allotment, he pointed out, was
made by executive order on the day
the public works fund was created by
Congress in 1888
Ickes said that of the amount set
up. only sec, 500, 900 had been spent by
January l, although he understood"
all of it and an additional $40 1000 900
allotted later was under contract.
While he was testifying before the
Senate committee. Rear Admiral N
M. Smith, chief of the Navy Bureau
of Yards and Docks, told the House
Naval Committee of plan to build
up Pearl Harbor and other Pacific
ports for use in event of an emergency.
Shearer Anxious to Testify.
Devoting all of yesterdays session
to Secretary Ickes, the Senate COM
mittee dashed the hopes of William
B. Shearer that he would be able to
reply at once to testimony that he
once threatened death and scandal to
Shipyard officials for failing to pay
him $3.50, 900 he claimed due as a rep
resentative of their interests at the
naval limitations treaty in Geneva and
later in Washington.
He advanced toward the witness
chair as Ickes left it, only to be told
by Chairman Nye that he could sub
init any records he had, but would not
be questioned until they had been
examined.
Secretary Ickes told the committee
the executive order put the 1898 ,O00.-
600 under control of the Navy and out
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