The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-05-26

SS@AAAAAASSNS1 convulse the farm belt.
 It is a public document which cost the taxpayers of the country $500, GOO but for three months it has been carefully hidden.
 The report deals with farm incomes and was compiled by the Federal Trade Commission under a Senate resolution.
 THE FIRST complete and de-
 tailed figures ever compiled on
 the sales, profits and fancy sal- aries of packing companies, mill-
 CTS and other big firms dealing
 in farm commodities.
 THE EXTRAORDINARY
 profits made by dealers in farm
 produce-wilo were among the most violent foes of the Supreme
 urt-invalidated AAA.
 HOW grain and cotton specu-
 lators manipulated prices on
 commodity exchanges to the
 enrichment of themselves and
 the loss of tens of millions of
 growers and consumers. These
 operators also were vehement
 enemies of the AAA.
 UndercOver struggle
 The behind- the-scenes story of the Trade Commissions struggle to unearth these closely guarded secrets is as remarkable as the facts uncovered. In some cases investigators were met with open defiance and the Commission had to go to the courts to compel the recalcitrants to open their books. In other instances firms produced their accounts only when threat ened with citation for contempt of the senate.
 Virtually the entire economic staff of the commission worked on the report and experts who have seen it rate it as one of the most comprehensive and searching ever compiled by the agency.
 Yet, when it was sent to the Senate committee it was orr dered irnpounded and merely a brief summary was released, giving no inkling of the sen- sational contents.
 Chairman of the agriculture committee is Senator "C0ttOn Ed" Smith. When the AAA was in operation, the veteran South Carolinian violently opposed amendments which would have empowered the agriculture depart rnent to examine the books of packers, millerS and other farm produce processors and dealers.
 NOTE Senator Smith has five members of his family on the government payroll.
 Big Liquor Beggars
 The big liquor distillers seem to be having a hard time getting a man to fill the shoes of the late Forbes Morgan, (uncle of Mrs. Roosevelt) as cZar of the liquor industry.
 Jim Farley already had turned the job down, General Hugh John son wasn't keen about it, and the other day they offered it-with the accompanying honorarium of $75, 5,000-to Charley Nicholson, publicity brains of the democra- tic national committee.
 To which Nicholson, without a moments hesitation, replied:
 "What in hell would I do with seventy five thousand dollars?" Economic Acorn
 Not much has been said about it publicly, but State Department officials, particularly Cordell Hull are highly pleased at the victory of Norman Davis at the recently concluded International Sugar Conference.
 This is the first economic con- ference in years, regarding sugar or anything else, which has suc- ceeded. Many previous attempts have been made to confer on sugar, all of which failed. This success, MT. Hull believes, was due partly to the adroid diplomacy of his old Tennessee friend, Norman Davis, partly to the fact that the world is seeing the light of day re- garding economic cooperation.
 Mir. Hull is a man who be- lieves that big trees from little acorns grow, and it won't be long now before he moves out into wider economic fields.
 Power Deal
 Henry Wallace's Agricultural Department believes heart and soul in Roosevelt's policy of com batting the big power companies, but so bitter has become the feud between Agriculture and the In- terior Department that Henry is now playing into the hands of the power rlogulS.
 This particular row is over the distribution of power from the newly completed Bonneville Dam on the Columbia river. It was originally proposed that the Interior Department, whose PWA built the dam, should distribute the power.
 Now the Army Engineers have stepped in and claimed the job, And the Agriculture Department, its eyes fixed upon the goal of keeping everything away from OFF THE RECORD