The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-02-17
NORTHWEST TO
\ AID ROOSEVELT,
STOKES CLAIMS
F. D. R. to Garry Area
Despite Townsend Plan,
Labor Trouble.
BY THOMAS l.. STOKES
Times Special Writer

Times Special Writer
SEATTLE, Wash, Feb. 1.-THE
Pacific Northwest is afflicted with
serious political and economic
sores. the most virulent spots being
the Townsend Plan and the ship
ping and lumber industries.
l have encountered the Townsend /
Plan in numerous places from coast /
to coast, but nowhere have 1 found |
the fervor so high a pitch as in
, Washington and oregon. Il have
not yet visited California;
Business men dare not raiseftheir |
vovic Elm criticism-and privately |
confess it-lest they offend custo-
mers and drive them away trade;
a nervous hysteria grips politicians,
who duck, evade and sidestcp or
jump on to the band wagon many
newspapers let the issue alone.
Symptomatic is the attitude of a
barber in small town who regards
the Townsend Plan as delusion,
but who mods acquieScence when his
customers humble it's praises as the
scissors snip.
The Townsend Plan is out in the
open. Not so noisy is the discon-
tent in the lumber and shipping in
dustries.
Sitting on Dynamite
They are grumbling at the Roose-
welt Administration, the lumber men
because of the reduction in the Ca
madam tariff by the reciprocal trade
treaty, the shipping men because
they say the Administration favored |
labor in the longShoremens strike |
settlement and failed to make labor
live up to the terms Of the arbitra-
ton agreement ending the 1884
strike.
I'VE are sitting on a dynamite |
key" said one shipping man who
has participated in strike settle
mentS over long period Of years
Everywhere you hear another |
strike predicted. Shipping is a sick
industry. Much of its ordinary bust
ness was diverted to the railroads by |
the strike and has not come back |
Shipping men complain of petty an
noyances from their workers, tying
up ships on mo provocation." For
the firSC time, no passenger line
links this city and San Francisco.
Blame Miss Perkins
They blame Secretary of Labor
\ Frances Perkins. known here as
Madam Queen"
There are also persistent rumors |
of another strike in the lumber in
dustry, now about so per cent union
lied, but one man who keeps his |
finger on the pulse of the industry |
told me that he believes it will not |
OcCur-largely because the workers |
have not recovered from the $1,000
900 wage loss of last summers strike,
by which they won a 5-centS-an-
hour increase.
Figures on the lumber industry's
plight we're shown me by j. B. Fitz-
gerald of the West Coast Lumber
mems Association, who said by the
reciprocal treaty, which cut from 81
to 81 the tariff on admission of
250,000,000 feet ayear, was just the
last Of a long series of incidents
injurious to the lumber industry.
Workers for Roosevelt
British Columbia made inroads |
into American markets through
preferences granted by Great Brit
ain in the Ottawa inter- dominion
preferential agreement, he ex-
planned, and later moved into the
Chinese and Japanese market.
r He cited British Columbia's lower
wages and the higher charges by
American shipping companies, due |
to wage increases from the long
Shoremen'S strike. This, he said, has !
been a factor in British Columbia
capturing markets along the East
ern Seaboard, since lumber shipped |
there from Washington and Oregon
must by law go in American ships.
Despite general industrial and |
business complaints at the New |
Deal-especially its labor policies
the opinion Of informed persons
here is that President Roosevelt |
should carry both Washington and |
Oregon in November. The rank and |
file Of workers and farmers are still
for the President. they say.
Two Dams Being Built
These two states are much be-
holden to the New Deal. Aside
from benefits to farmers-the larg-
est economic unit in both states
and relief money. the government is
building two gigantic power and |
irrigation projects. Bonneville Dam
in oregon and Grand Coulee Dam
in Washington.
Both projects are criticised out
side the states, but very little within |
their borders. Grand Coulee is at
tackled on the ground that there |
would be no market for power gen.
Grated there, but one Seattle business
man who condemns most New Deal
experiments praised this project
highly. The project, he said is for
irrigation, not power. and will pro-
vide lands Cor hundreds of farm
families driven from WORKOUT acres
elsewhere in this region.
There is one IF" in the situation
here as regards President Roosevelt,
and that is the Townsend Plan. If
a third party were formed, the