Evening star., 1937-01-27
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

dersecretary Magill's wife was q class
mate at Chicago and they were married
while fellow students. Mrs. Magill has
also been admitted to the bar. The
Treasury's new No. man served under
Secretary Mellon in connection with the
1924 revenue act and under Secretary
Morgenthau in connection with the 1884
law and an investigation of the British
tax system. His recently published book,
Taxable Income" is considered by some
authorities as revealing DR.. Magill's lack
of sympathy with the 1884 tax scheme
Apart from his scholastic duties, he has
been mainly active as lawyers lawyer"
in tax cases and corporate affairs In
which taxability is of Importance.
~ X
Current visits of prominent British
financiers are associated, among other
matters, with defaulted foreign bonds
held by British and American investors,
especially Latin American issues. Over
seas securities in arrears are now the
special care of the American Foreign
Bondholders' Protective Council, of
which the older British Council of For
eign Bondholders is sister organization.
The latter regularly lists in its annual
report the obligations of certain Amer
lean Southern States. which have been
in default since the Civil War and be-
fore. The Britishers are exploring the
possibility of Apglo-American co-opera-
ton in protection of mutual interests
threatened by bond defaulters. Repudi-
ated war debts to Uncle Sam are not on
the agenda.
Probably no tears are shed in the
neighborhood of the American Fedora
ton of Labor over the repercussions from
John L. Lewis call upon President Roose-
welt for quid-pro-quo intervention in
the automobile strike. Should the G. I.
o. leader lose caste at the White House,
or in the labor world as a consequence
of defeat by General Motors, the stock
of his arch-foe, William Green, presi-
dent Of the A. F. Of L., would almost
automatically rise. Authorities think
that the temporarily latent conflict be-
tween the federation and the Committee
for Industrial Organization is bound to
be decisively affected by the outcome
of strife in the automobile field and its
acid test of Lewis leadership. Mean
time, Mr.. Roosevelt's sharp disapproval
of General Motors President Sloan'S re-
fusal to confer in Washington goes far
to take the curse off the recent White
House "rebuke" of Lewis appeal for
administration support.
~ ~
James v. Bennett, new director OF the
Bureau of Prisons, comes close to being
Uncle Sans typical career" civil servant.
He began at the old Bureau of Efficiency
in 1919, later being detailed to study
Office procedure and policies in the ex-
ecutive departments. Eventually he De-
came secretary of the Personnel CLASH
f1cation Board. In 1925 Mr.. Bennett was
assigned to the select committee OF the
House appointed to investigate condl-
tions in Federal prisons. His association
with the Department of Justice dates
from 1929 when he was appointed as
sistant director under Sanford Bates,
whom he now succeeds as head Of the
prisons bureau. It was primarily under
Benefits direction that the present sys-
tenn of industrial operations in Federal
penal institutions was adopted. Soft
spoken native Rhode Islander and forty
ish, Mr.. Bennett is Brown University
man, took his law degree at George
Washington and was in the air service
during the World War. His speedy ap-
pointment to the Bates vacancy was
designed to head off some purely deserv-
ing Democrat in search Of q $4,000 job.
(Copyright. 1872