ROOSEVELT *5* l , i ^ policy. J?, ^ ^Qb/U^-'-2-^ / 7 ^7' Today brings us a radical sjuxgx shift in tte Nev# Deal intended to have far-reaching consequences. The President announces a change in government expenditures* which is designed to have a considerable effect on such tremendously important matters as business recovery, boom in industry, and the possibility of another depression, What#s the new scheme of things to be? The relief agenS&es^^S£^build^s8"many ponderous dams, « huge steel bridges and other simlar giant public works. Instead- A they'll go in for such projects as dredging rivers and harbors, building dams of earth, reforestation, soil conservation. It's a change from the stupendous type of public works to a smaller sort. But how on earth will that so much affect the cycle of business recovery and possible depression? s way*.!- The President today declared that there was too much of a boom in the heavy industries, such as steel and other metals. They're doing too much business. Their prices are rising too rapidly, too high. Steel - six dollars a ton. Copper - seventeen cents a pound. Prices out of proportion to the eai*ning capacity of people at large. The President fciBC£Sf±f t*- ROOSEVELT - 2 remarks that it*s this kind of disproportion which helps to bring a depression - high priced over-production in the heavy industries, when the consumer has not enough earning capacity to buy. One reason for the boom €3** in the heavy industries has been government purchases, ifi&terials used in the giant public works - like dams and steel bridges. So, the presidential logic is - cut ix out that heavy type of construction. The government is compelled to buy a huge quantity of steel anyway, for the naval program, building warships. That can't be helped - you can't build battleships out of wood or clay. But the massr , ^ works can be eliminated. do not call for huge purchases or tne neavy materials^ wnmrm most of the need is labor - most of the cash going into the pockets of the workers. That's where the dredging, earthen dams and conservation projects come in. They require little "A materia.l and much work — and so the money will circulate mx ROOSEVELT 3 among the little fellows mnd increase their buying capacity. That will boost the retail trade and increase sales in the light industries. smaller articles, merchandise. Such is the Presidents reason^^"he announced the A shift of New Deal policy today, a change intended to keep recovery smooth and even, without any part of it running away into a boom BASEBALL Congress went in for baseball today - not that the senators and representatives staged a game, hitting theball and I running bases. It wasn’t anything so jolly and frolicsome as that. It was a congressional attempt to put a strike over on the big leagues. Representative Cannon of Wisconsin raised the old question that has been curving around the ears of organised baseball for a long time. Are the big leagues a monopoly in restraint of trade, and thereby violating the anti-trust laws? Representative Cannon says - yes. In Congress today he read a letter that he thas written to Attorney- General Cummings, calling upon the Attorney-General to investigate. What is there about the big leagues that might seem to make them a monopolistic trust? Representative Cannon answered that^ with the familiarjcontention s* that the club owners in the various cities have an agreement among themselves not to engage a player who is on another club. When the contract of a pitcher or outfielder expires, the player is not allowed to go out and sell his services wherever he can, to the highest bidder. Re can only renew with the club he has been working for - becauv. BASEBALL - 2 the others won't deal with him. He has to take what one particular boss offers him, or hefe out of baseball. His only alternative is to quit the game* So pity T the poor catchers and short-stops, says Representative Cannon, They1 re prevented from getting the best they can in the open market - blacklist, conspiracy and restraint of trade, "No such thing would be permitted in any other kind of industrydeclares the Representa­ tive therefd be prosecution under the Anti-Trust Law." This congressional blast declares further, the baseball magnates are deceiving and hook-winking the public. They publish the fat salaries of a few top-notch stars, but refuse to let the public know how much they pay the rank and file of left-hand pitchers and hook-sliding base runners. These are grossly under-paid, says Representative Cannon in his cannonade today. HARIMMAN Our prospective new minister to Norway has had quite a career, not only as a society woman hut also in political affairs. In 1213 president Wilson appointed Mrs. E. Borden Harriman to the Coramission on Industrial Relations, the only woman member in war time. She served on various wartime boards and commissions and organ' ized a Red Cross Motor Corps to serve in France. Since then she has been a leader of the Progressive Wing of the Democratic Party, and has been an enthusiastic supporter of President Roosevelt. The only, other feminine minister we've had was Mrs. Ruth Bryan Owen — who, as Minister to Denmark married a Danish official, incurred a good deal of criticise thereby and retired. Mrs. Harri­ man' s reported appointment serves two purposes. First — it will answer widespread comment, that the New Deal should do better by the ladies. Secondly, it is recognition of the unwavering support that Mrs. Harriman has given the President. Today the Parliament of Canada was debating a new treaty with the United states. SoaNyt* Friday is an appropriate time to tell about it. Because it's not a whale of a story — it*s a 14 halibut story. That appetizing fish^ taken largely from the north Pacific and Behring Bea, off the coasts of the northwestern United States, Canada and Alaska. That makes the halibut fisheries an international affair. Today I talked to Mr. Frank T. Bell of the United States Bureau of Fisheries in Washington and he told me that this year the halibut catch would run to about forty-six million pounds. Wholesale the price is sixteen cents a pound which makes the halibut catch worth eight million dollars* That's the kind of money which causes treaties to be made. The agreement under discussion betwean the United States the and Canada regulates^fishing season, which is from February 15 to November first .‘^Fishermen who haul in their nets and sell their catch in the off season , the forbidden time are punished, / Confiscation of boats and equipment, finds and Jail terms have HALIBUT - 2 been the penalty — hitherto.The new agreement eases this somewhat, and. cuts out jail sentences. The United States Senate has already okayed the treaty, now tfaw Canadian Parliament is debating it — as the halibut season has just opened in the Pacific, with scores of fishing boats out after the big fish, fron fifty to four hundred pounders 1 E2 STRIKE The coal mine strike has been just about the mildest bit of labor trouble we’ve seen in a long time. The Union still refrains from calling It a strike - terms it a stoppage of work* Call it whatjyou like - four hundred thousand miners were out today. J-esterday they were idle, but it was a holiday anyway, so that hardly counted. But today was a working day, and still the four hundred thousand out. This huge labor phenonenon got only the slightest attention, no blazing headlines. And tonight the word is - itfs all over anyway. ^The Companies and the Union have signed up. The American Federation of Soft Coal Operators and the United Mine Workers put their okay on a new contract today. The miners will get a raise^more pay. And they’re to receive an extra wage for overtime. When they work beyond the regular hours, they’ll get - time and a half. The mines will remain idle as they normally would - over the weekend. The men will go back to work on Monday. So in this interesting labor dispute we have one day of stoppage of work, which, however, was a holiday; mayday of stoppage STRIKE - 2 which was the real thing - a strike in fact,if not in name. And then the weekend holidays. The most languid and lukewarm sort of labor war. A good deal more of heat and vigor is in a mere letter - emanating from General Motors. That Company doesn*t figure in any strike flare-up today. In fact, two of the plants that were closed by sit-down strikes yesterday, opened up and went into operation again today. So interest centers on a mere epistle, a letter written by Alfred P. Sloan, President of General Motors. He it was who negotiated that much advertised strike agreement with John L. Lewis of the C.I.O. But the Sloan letter today, written fry the stockholders, takes a fling at Lewis and the C.I.O. It told the stockholders that the Lewis organization plans to control the workers of the entire automobile Industry, and from that to go on to the command of all the workers in all mass production. This, declares the Sloan letter, will lead to the economic and political slavery of the worker. An important step, it continues, toward an economical political dictatorship STRIKE - 3 There was a sit-down flare-up in Congress today, vd.th Senator Brown of Michigan answering various remarks made about fcfee strike m iwHUfTia in his state. "Neither Michigan nor A n Detroit," said he, "Is in a condition of insurrection. Michigan," declares its Senator, "needs no advice on how to handle its labor problems." To this Senator Borah gave an indirect okay. The Senate was debating an amendment to put an extra clause into the Guffey Coal Bill, a clause to forbid sit-down strikes. Borah declared the government had no right to interfere in sit-downs, which were none of its business. They should be taken care of by state and city authorities. ------ ------ O ---------- ------ Yesterday we had a strike item concerning Charles M. Schwab, the steel magnate - with the remark that it was not a sit-down strike in steel, but had to do with potatoes. For tonight's news we can change the words a bit, put in the great aluminum name of Mellon, and say that it's no case, however, of a strike in the aluminum industry. And instead of potatoes, we STRIKE - 4 might say - fox-hunting. Andrew W Ligoner, Pennsylvania. The farm-hands there are striking for .A higher wages. The fox-hunting angle is like this - the neighboring farmers are in sympathy with the strikers and so theyfve closed their farms to the steeplechase riders and fox hunters. It,s fashionable horsey country, and ordinarily the farmers cooperate, and allow their acres to be ridden over by the galloping equestrians. The Mellon strike has changed and former Secretary of the Treasury, has a^country estate near and hunt the fox. So, for the time being, the Mellon farm is , the 1 A shut down. WEDDING wedding bells is in the news tonight, with orange blossoms and bridal veil. Or rather, I should say - the cherry dance, a Shinto melody, the waving of laurel branches and nine cups of wine. Meaning - that itTs a marriage in Tokyo, with important political The day chosen for the ceremony is a sign of how mmdL •XSRi^teaaa^the wedding is. ^Coday is' the Japanese feast commemorating the death of the Emperor Jimmu, who, so legend relates, was the first mortal ruler of Nippon. Before him, the emperors were divinities. Jimmu, the first royal mortal, was the fifth descendant the sun goddess - she Japan’s first sovereign. No day more sacred could be selected for a wedding. So we find that it’s a high affair of state^ international politics. The bride is Hiroko Saga, granddaughter of the Marquis of Saga, one of Japan’s lordliest nobles. The groom is Cavalry Lieutenant Tu Chieh, He’s the brother of the Emperor Kang-Teh of Manchukuo, Japan’s puppet state. Kang-Teh has no children, so today’s bridegroom stands as the next heir to the throne of the WEDDING - 2 Manchus. The marriage obviously Is designed to strengthen the bonds between the Mikado!s empire and the Kingdom it has created on the Asiatic mainland. The nuptial ceremonies are of ancient date and splendor. ThereTs the time-hallowed cherry dance, led by a tuinkling twinkle-toed ballerina, whose age is ninety-nine. She^ a dancer of the greatest renown,- Haruko Katayama. She has tripped the cherry dance for nearly seventy years, and has lived through the reigns of five emperors. They say she dances like a damsel of twenty, as nimbly and gracefully as the girls she leads today, three hundred and sixty of them. As the first ballerina, she inspects the noses, necks and eyelids of the girls. Hose and neck must be as -white as the moon, eyelids must be as delicately pink as, the rose. Then Haruko Katayama, in her ninety-ninth year, leads her three hundred and sixty girls in the cherry dance. All the while, musicians' play ancient Shinto melodies, while the priests wave laurel branches at the four points of the compass, driving away evil forces WEDDING - S Finally, wine is brought in those Japanese thimble cups and the bride and bridegroom drink each - nine cups of wine. Thereupon the wedding is complete, this most political marriage alliance between Japan and Manchukuo HUSBAND The blissful theme of marriage, hearts united at the altar, is likewise found tonight in the stately realm of American society, the bluebloods, the elite, the social register. Today in California a bride made an appeal- She is Mrs.aNan Pierson Brooks Macy Brill of the New York social set, daughter of a steel executive. Her appeal v/as made to the police - wouldnft they please find her bridegroom* Las^ Monday she was married to William Hunsaker Brill, wealthy sportsman. The next morning he went out, and she hasn*t seen him since. "I hope it’s funny to somebody," says Mrs. Nan Pierson Brooks Macy Brill, "but it’s not funny to me." ^ff^hey were wedded at Yuma, Arizona, married in a hurry and a rush. They had so little time to spare, that the wedding ring was from the "Five and Ten." It cost a dime. The next morning the wealthy sportsman replaced It with something more appropriate to their social rank and riches. He left right afterward. "I haven*t seen Bill in person since," says the bride. "but he keeps telephoning, apologizing for breaking our appointments - and saying he loves me very much indeed^« HUSBAND - 2 The latestas that the police found the bridegroom. He had gone on a party and had been on it ever since. He was last seen getting in a car, but the news dispatch doesn1t say where he went. //* ) <Z<l sjLtx+^ lA^&l W-****+g-