The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-01-08

throw a wrench into the That country is Bolivia.
 The case involves the alleged purchase of four Curtis bombing planes by Bolivia in violation of the arms embargo against her and against Paraguay. The four planes left the United States on the pre-. tense of exploring Q new air route to Bolivia, and were finally grounded in Peru ct the order of the State Department.
 The Department of Justice is now attempting to prosecute sub- sidiaries of the Curtis Airplane company of Buffalo. But company officials have refused to answer certain important questions on the ground that they would in- criminate 6 friendly" govern- Inent.
 Friendly Enemies
 There Is no secret that the "friendly" government in Bolivia. State Department officials say that the trail leads directly to the door of the Bolivian consul in New York.
 However, the Bolivian consul, 90 far, has been unwilling to testify. And under com. snerciaI treaty between the United States and Bolivia, neg0. tiated before the Civil War, there Is no way that he can be compelled to testify.
 Justice and State Department officials predict sensational dis closures If the testimony can be brought out. Meanwhile they are at 0 dead end.
 NOTE-Officials consider this cases extremely important as a precedent for enforcing the Neu- trality Act now before congress. If foreign officials cannot be forced to testify, 1t will be diffi- cult, if not impossible, to prose- cute American firms violating the act.
 Not So Secret
 The Securities and Exchange Commission has pulled quiet fast one on business executives who have been squawking to high heaven over the publica- ton of their salaries, and other financial "secrets".
 It Is the contention of the SEC that this information Is not really confidential. To prove this, the commission recently launched Q secret test It as- signed one of its experts to study various financial reports published regularly by Q nuni- Der of corporations.
 He found that In practically every instance, he could uncover selling costs and other pertinent business facts about the concerns which had claimed these were firm secrets.
 The commission did not stol there. It sent @ letter to some of the complaining corporations asking them for secret data about their competitors. Tn every case, the answering company disclosed that 1t knew ell about It's competitors affairs.
 In other words, the "bustness secrets" were secrets only insofar as the public was concerned.
 NOTE-The SEC plans to rec veal the findings of It's secret tests when 1t goes into court to defend itself against suits filed by American Can and several other corporations.
 Business Census
 The nationwide Business Gen. sus launched by the Commerce Department last week almost didn't get started.
 A few days before the start, Secretary Dan Roper suddenly woke up to the fact that he didn't have enough canvassers.
 With thousands clamoring for government jobs and Uncle Dan only too eager to dish out patron- age, such Q situation would seem impossible. But the reason for 1t was a k-Relief rule.
 The census Is being financed by Work Relief funds. Such projects are required to employ 90 per cent of their workers
 from relief rolls. In the larger cities there was no lack of per- sons on Relief who came up to
 tho specifications laid down for Canvassers. But in the smaller communities there was . distinct shortage of white
 collar unemployed.
 Fearful that the whole census might be discredited by undesir- able personnel in a few sections, Roper made personal plea to the President for an exemption from the 90 per cent rule. He laid great emphasis on the neces- sity of obtaining the right type" of canvassers. Lack of them, he argued, might antagonize business men and cause them to refuse to give information.
 His plea went over with the President. Uncle Dan was given permission to go outside relief rolls for canvassers in those locali- ties which suffered a dearth of