The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-08-28
Reshuffle for Work Relief


 figure, particularly in the lower down as low as $1s a month. Acc will be boosted 10 and 20 per e notches on wage scales was not nationwide strike. Administra- . ton generalissimos are losing no sleep over that threat. They know just as we'll as the union ites that the strike could not be enforced.
 The impelling reasons for the proposed boosts were far more realistic.
 Confidential reports from state and local wOrls-relief administrators indicated wide. spread resentment among the unemployed in all sections of the country, and were coupled with sharp warnings from democratic politicos that the wage levels were causing ser. ious political repercussions.
 This was what induced ad. minlstration master minds to loos,n up the purse strings. War Scare
 Those who follow Europe's war maneuvering did not need to have their ears to the ground to detect distinct change in the tone of British belligerency the minute congress OK'd . hard-and-fast neutrality act.
 For three days, British states men had been talking big about 8 boycott against the Italians, even hinted at closing the Suez Canal to Mussolini's transports. Then, overnight, this talk was hushed. Those who forced the Fittman neutrality act upon Roosevelt probably had no idea of 1t, but they were the ones who hushed the British.
 They did not realize that the British knew all about the presidents counter neutrality act the one he wanted inc stead of the Pittman reso1u- tion--long before anyone on Capitol Hill.
 The British knew also that this neutrality act would have given the president the power to embargo arms, not against both belligerents, but against only the aggressor. (This is what the league has been urg- ing on the state department for years, and what the senate has ' been cpposing.)
 FINALLY, the British knew that the state department favor ed cooperation with the British, at least morally, in order to head off war in Europe.
 Norman Davis
 Though not generally known. the presidents counter-neutral- ity act was written by Norman Davis, close believer in coopera- tion with Europe, especially the British.
 Davis has been working con- sistently and sincerely for dis armament and peace ever since the days of Mir. Hoover.
 He is also allied with big banking interests which push. ed the United States toward the Allies in 1010. He once received large loan from J. P. Morgan, banker for the British government and fl. nanced angels to France and Italy. Davis also Is paid &7O,- 900 by groups of investors in the funct international match firm of Kreuger and Toll.
 Secretary of State Hull. who knew Norman Davis many years ago back in Tennessee, Is able to see above and beyond these come ctions. So also can Sam McReynolds, chairman of the house foreign affairs committee, wo backed the Davis neutrality act in the house.
 But other members of con- gress cannot. Tn fact, 1t was the knowledge that MT. Davis was behind the counter-neutrality act which helped turn congress so emphatically against it. International Tragedy
 The international tragedy is that neither type of neutrality act Is likely to keep the United States out of war. once 1t starts.
 What the Pittman resolu- ton ovcrlOoksi Is that war Is never static. It cannot he con. fined to Italy and Ethiopia. When and. if 1t embraces Austria, Jugoslavia, Germany, France, Japan--no neutrality resolution is going to prevent American business from sell. ing to beIligerents.
 And when such sales are made, history has shown it Is only a matter of time before the United States drifts in. What the state department and the president had in mind were preventive measures, taken i'm time to prevent confiagration. Nothing very definite had been worked out, but Cordell Hull had given yelled hints to Italian Ann bassador Rosso that this country might cooperate with the British in restricting trade with Italy.
 That was the reason for op- timistic British belligerency to- ward Mussolini. That was also the reason for defiated British belligerency after congre blocked Norman Davis's neu- trality act.
 New Wall Street Foe
 Appointment of John R. Ross of Seattle to the securities ex- change commission had behind it two significant purposes.
 FIRST, Tit was Roosevelts slap in the face to the big utilities who fought his holding corpora tion bill. Second it was move -of which you will see more in
 L. ykaw