The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1935-07-04

| b0l into tic Wdf-Was htOWD III wan
Street, and oecasiened q 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 M. Baruch was
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 terrific re-
lection 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 aibI-ln
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 on income taxes
And IL readers will pardon q hum
BILE 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 s1,1OO per man Limitation which
President Roosevelt has imposed on
the Work-relief program, as far MS the
selection of projects Is concerned, not
only promises to force a general blow
up In the whole scheme but to make
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 SLIGO ban on this prof.
ect. The President insisted that he
had only S4,0O0,OO0,0O0 and that this
S4.O0O,O00,0O0 must provide work
for three and half million men.
Hence each project must put man to
work for every s1,100 spent.
The senator's 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 n qualm,
and wrote Public Works Admnlstra-
tor Ickes, inquIring whether the sl,1OO |
would actually ban the project, and |
suggesting restudy Of the whole silt
uatlon to determine this point. Ickes
himself would not fudge" on the fig
ures. But he gave some of his subordl-
mates chance to juggle them.
At last accounts the assistants de-
clined to pull the chestnuts out OF the
fire. They made lengthy reports call
Ing attention to the value of the prof.
act, and to the tremendous amount OF
employment 1t would provide indirect
". One Of them even called attention
to the fact while most OF this indirect
employment would be outside the state
of California, some OF 1t would be In
side the state. That would be cement.
Curious Paradox
Which brings up n rather curious.
paradox In the mental processes Of the
resident and some of his advisers
,nrfiapinrIy TIorr, rYa,.t.f.,. ~.