NEWS VIEWS AND REVIEWS
News Views and Reviews Editorial Opinions from the Press of the Nation No Time For War Talk (From The Sheboygan Press) WE have known Michael G. Eberlein of Shawano for a great many years, and we...
...He made no pretense of being other than what he was...
...And here in the United States we have the Communist Dairy Worker, following the Stalin line, gloating over the Soviet grab in Finland with the headline: "Unite For Further Victories Over The Warmakers...
...The Soviet policy in the peace in Finland is as sickeningly hypocritical as the Soviet policy in the war in Finland...
...Vandenberg...
...Meanwhile the lid is off, the answer is definite (white house, please copy...
...It is virtually certain that Alfonsi will enter the contest with the handicap of William T. Evjue, one of the leading Progressives in the state, opposing him...
...4. MARKETING CO-OPERATIVES—Development of a strong farm producers' co-operative marketing movement...
...7. BANKS—A government owned central banking system to break the grip of the money trust by carrying out, among other things, the congressional power "to coin money, and regulate the value thereof...
...Ronert M. La Follette joined with Sen...
...About half a million Finns have been driven out of the area grabbed by the Reds—"liberated" from their homes, as some 30,000 Finnish soldiers were "liberated" from their lives by the war...
...GOV...
...Hold your belly—It is a big laugh...
...We believe that the whole situation is leading toward what must be the final solution...
...It w-as a challenge to the whiners and wailers who complain that they have no chance...
...a plebiscite on wars which would send American soldiers to foreign soil...
...with the federal government underwriting the sleighridc...
...Regardless of political affiliations, the concensus of opinion is—'There was a man...
...2. WAR PROFITS — Elimination of war profits...
...When the Soviet launched its criminal assault on its peaceful neighbor, Finland, it brazenly offered the excuse that it was going to "liberate" the Finns...
...THE COURTS—Liberalization and reform of the federal judiciary, including the U. S. supreme court, to curb the threat to democratic government that lies in judicial autocracy and usurpation of power...
...Heil, badly in need of rehabilitation as the 1940 campaign nears, grabs at the political dividends in this issue and announcement is made that 33 married women are to be dismissed from the Wisconsin department of taxation...
...5. PURCHASING CO-OPERATIVES — Development of a strong farm-urban consumers cooperative purchasing movement...
...an American couple with an earned income of $2,800, $800 more than the English couple, pays 80 rents...
...The die is cast, the Rubicon crossed, the bugle sounded...
...Into the confusion at Wisconsin politics in a presidential year steps governor little more than a year old politically...
...But this administration is kidding you and apparently you are falling for it...
...Didn't Steve Bolles, when he was campaigning for congress make all sorts of extravagant promises to the old people in the Townsend clubs in his district...
...They have reached right into the heart of the big Insull utility company in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Power and Light Co., and picked a fellow named John G. Kaiser, the chief clerk of the Insull utility, as the new secretary of the commission...
...The private utilities have been having their way pretty much with the commission for years and this new inroad is in line with the trend...
...He is a candidate for delegate running for Senator Vandcnbcrg, and speaking in Milwaukee said: "If you want a repetition of 1917, re-elect Franklin Roosevelt...
...The federal government would guarantee all losses under this program...
...Stephen Bolles of the first congressional district in Wisconsin, came out with the following caustic editorial criticism: The quadrennial rush of promises from seeking politicians is on...
...Small Fry Cut Off While Corporate Wealth Gets Gravy WORKING wives on the public payroll have always been targets for the demagogic politicians...
...Soviet Hypocrisy In War And Peace THE conduct of Soviet Russia follow-ing the surrender of Finland has been quite in keeping with what the world might have expected from a brutal aggressor ruled by a dictatorship from which the mask of hypocrisy has been torn...
...The power trust in Wisconsin is in its glory now...
...Vandenberg himself, who is now seeking the presidency, gave out a statement to the effect that we ought to break relations with Russia becau.e of her invasion of Finland...
...and American with the same sized family and identical earnings, doesn't pay any income tax to the federal government...
...Apparently his viewpoint would extend to other big public power projects such as the Bonneville dam and the TVA...
...Newspapers from eoa.-,t to coast are still printing special articles about Sol...
...Then the picture would be complete and anarchy and disorder would prevail and everyone would have all the personal freedom and personal initiative they wanted...
...Following the same logic, let's tear up all the laws that are enforced and administered by state employes and let anarchy rule unrestrained...
...9. RELIEF—Adequate poor and unemployment relief and the restoration of purchasing power in the hands of the great masses of the people...
...Eberlein or Mr...
...In signing a treaty with the old Finnish government, the Soviets forgot their own creation and dealt with the wicked Helsinki government which it formerly scorned as "the oppressors of the people...
...Instead, the Soviet writers are gloating over the peace treaty and loudly proclaiming that the assault on Finland became necessary because the "imperialistic" war in the west compelled the Reds to take precautions against an attack on Leningrad...
...It was a rebuke to those who malign the government...
...Candidate Alfonsi (From the Marinette Eagle Star) JOHN WYNGAARD, who writes a Madison col-lumn for several state newspapers, makes the unqualified statement that Paul Alfonsi, assemblyman for the Iron-Vilas county district and speaker of the assembly twice, will be a candidate for governor on the Progressive ticket...
...When it came to formally concluding the peace terms, the Finns found that the tricky Soviets had rung in a new map of the boundary line on them, the changes in every instance meaning a new land grab for the Reds...
...Sol Levitan was an example for the youth of the land—particularly those of the rank and file —to emulate...
...The average citizen seems inditterent to these beneficences to corporate wealth...
...Has Mr...
...There Was A Man (From The Galesvllle Republican) THREE weeks have elapsed since Sol Levitan, Wisconsin's former picturesque treasurer passed to his reward...
...The Finns, since making peace, have seen what this Soviet "liberating" means...
...Meanwhile, what has become of the new "democratic" Finnish government, the puppet of the Soviets, which was set up at Terijoki...
...Bob La Follette...
...War is serious and we have no right to jeopardize our country by mixing it with politics...
...an American in the same happy circumstances, pays only $528,240...
...Qualification would be on the basis of "ability to pay" which would be determined by a politician, not a financier...
...The Heil administration has already changed inheritance tax laws in such a way as to cut down inheritance taxes more than $2,000,000 each biennium...
...Approximately 82,000 low income families in Wisconsin are being required to pay an income surtax for the first I'm;' because the Heil administration sneaked through a provision in the tax bill lowering surtax exemptions...
...Others will follow suit, eager to be apprised if the people want them...
...Didn't he hypocritically promise his support of old age pension schemes that he knew didn't have a chance and which he would not have voted for if they had had a chance to pass...
...Whitney and Peterson have now turned up with to take the place of Mr...
...The Russian Reds even set up a puppet government on a piece of seized Finnish territory, proclaimed it the legal government and denounced the constituted Finnish government as a group of outlaws...
...When the country was under a Republican administration, did the government set about to develop great power resources like those that have been developed under the New Deal...
...All the pair propose to do is outlaw foreclosures, reduce farm mortgage interest from five to three per cent, and issue loans without regard to the financial condition of the applicant...
...Some day we'll realize this in Wisconsin and lengthen the governor's term...
...Plain and fancy pipe-dreams are in order in a campaign year but surely, Bob and Burton, we aren't expected to be entertained by one like this...
...That was the profit that it admitted...
...And while you people out in Wisconsin are being gypped to the tune of $20,-000,000 a year, as Congressman Rankin has pointed out, by the private utilities, you are now going to have Messrs...
...Whitney and Peterson wanted to get rid of any semblance of Progres-sivism on the commission, and so they put the skids under Calmer Browy, the acting secretary of the commission...
...THE PROGRESSIVE is not going to get excited about this penetration of the Public Service commission by the private utilities that are now running hog wild in this state...
...Mike" Eberlein knew that it was a falsehood when he uttered it...
...This is not one of those unchancy things...
...It is the hard way, but as the utilities grow more arrogant and the public is victimized more and more, the realization will come that regulation is futile and that the only answer is public ownership—for the people to take over these utilities and enjoy the benefits of cheap power...
...The utterance does show how slight is the New York district attorney's grasp of the nation's power problem...
...If there Is one man who has steered and kept us clear of war, who has fought for a neutrality that some of "Mike" Ebertein's cronies opposed, it has been President Roosevelt...
...The Heil administration handed another present of $200,000 to big utilities by cutting down license fees on their buses...
...Long after some of the alleged great are" forgotten, Sol will be remembered...
...tell the world that...
...Sol Levitan, crude in a way, had a soul and • great heart...
...The chances are that there was the usual utility bookkeeping that hides real profits and that the actual profits were much higher...
...Those who complain that Uncle Sam is robbing them, should consider the figures...
...In his youth he was a pack peddler...
...A married couple In England, with a wage Income of $2,000 a year, pays $246...
...it is the order of nature...
...This little maneuver on the part of the Heil administration will cost these low income families $600,000...
...This, of course, would run into billions of dollars...
...Br.' under this "business administration" now in power in this state, the big utilities don't need to worry much about any restraint oh the part of the Public Service commission...
...governmental monopoly on the manufacture and sale of munitions...
...And the other half trying to forget what they said In the campaign and patch something together...
...Whitney, Peterson, and Kaiser protecting you...
...But there will come a day of reckoning...
...HEIL gives out many astounding and bizarre statements about government, politics, and economics, but the one that caps the climax was his remark to a delegation that called on him Wednesday that he thought it would be "a damn good thing" to close up the capitol building for a month to save the salaries of state employes...
...He will live on and on...
...Within a short time loans would be going to all applicants, because a politician couldn't afford to anger one...
...It is a deplorable fact that this action against married women in the public service will bring political gravy to Gov...
...Dewey forgotten that the vast power development at Muscle Shoals, now part of the TVA system, lay idle year after year because a Republican administration refused to complete it and wanted to sell it at a terrific loss to private interests...
...Here's how it operates in the upper brackets: An English bachelor who gets $800,000 a year from his investments, turns over $663,000 to the public treasury...
...Most people will be unable to follow Mr...
...If this is a good argument, then for the sake of economy let's wipe, out all government, if it is a good thing to close up the capitol for a month, why not keep it closed for a year...
...The Heil administration made a present of $1,500,000 to the Wisconsin Telephone company by refusing to re-enact the tax on telephone companies for relief...
...Only the Republican party ran he trusted lo keep us out of war...
...let us say that our posit i n and that of the president of the United Stut-s is to keep out of every quarrel in the nations abroad...
...When the new set up went into effect, Messrs...
...Wheeler to turn the Federal Land bank over to Santa t'laus...
...When a candidate will make a statement of that character for political effect, knowing that the whole world is beset with war, it calls for cn'i-cism...
...It is an astonishing fact that the same public which will get all steamed up over a few women in the public service is absolutely indifferent when the Heil administration passes out special favors and concessions to corporate wealth involving millions of dollars...
...He was proud jf it, and well he might have been...
...La Follette need not take second place to any member of congress for conscientiously standing by the platform upon which he sought office...
...Heil...
...For one thing, no governor of Wisconsin gets a chance to show what lie has in one term of two years—unless he has been cradled in politics...
...That comes as close to a declaration on public power that the country has had out of Mr...
...As soon as he's in, there's a legislature...
...Incidentally, the Wisconsin Power and Light Co...
...If Mr...
...And should the unexpected happen and Alfonsi wins the Progressive nomination, Evjue's support of the former assembly speaker will be half-hearted, at best...
...Wheeler to sponsor a program that would make things a bit easier for mortgage ridden farmers, the Janesville Gazette, whose editor is Rep...
...INCOME TAX—High inheritance and income taxes to be levied on the beneficiaries of monopoly...
...As for the "liberating," little is now being said by the Soviets on this score...
...First of all, Sol Levitan was a man...
...Applying the same easoning to local governments, why not fire all our sheriffs and county officers, all our policemen and firemen, and all our school teachers for the sake of economy...
...He was an American citizen of the first order...
...A Governor Who Advocates Anarchy GOV...
...Dewey's reasoning that public power projects should be under the direction of a political party that for years has demonstrated its opposition to public power development and has been the political vehicle of the private power trust...
...Heil when asked if he 11 run for a second term...
...A District Attorney Discusses The U. S. Power Problem AFTER taking a look at the Grand Coulee dam project in Oregon, Thomas E. Dewey, candidate for the Republcian presidential nomination, remarked to a Portland audience: "It is important that you get the Grand Coulee project under a Republican administration to insure the use of its power in free private enterprise...
...We have sympathized with Finland, but it is not our fi?hl and we haven't any rlg.-it to break off relations with Russia or any other country, thereby becoming involved in a European situation that is serious...
...HEIL recently put two nice gentle fellows on the commission — Bill Whitney and Reuben Peterson, who are quite content to let the utilities do as they please...
...News Views and Reviews Editorial Opinions from the Press of the Nation No Time For War Talk (From The Sheboygan Press) WE have known Michael G. Eberlein of Shawano for a great many years, and we thought he was above misrepresentation...
...And who do you suppose Messrs...
...Of course, Gov...
...who never was bad at promises or good at fulfillment, teams up with Sen...
...Formal announcement will be forthcoming soon, Wyn-gaard predicts...
...Eberlein will, we hope, live long after this primary, but it will take a long time for the people to forget the un-American attitude that he assumed in Milwaukee and the unfair tactics that he employed against a peace-time president who has rendered every service possible in the interest of perpetuating peace...
...Mike" Eberlein knows full well that when he makes such a vicious attack upon President Roosevelt he is doing it hopeful of getting votes rather than protecting the welfare of our American boys...
...You are being overcharged millions of dollars by the big utilities and you don't seem to give a damn...
...We have no second sight wherewith to predict, but it looks like a real fight...
...Julius Will Run (From The Milwaukee Journal) ''I DON"1" kn°w' whether the people want me," remonstrates Gov...
...Unlike many who rose from humble stations to a high rank, he did not try to cover up the past...
...and then he continued, "Senator Vandenbcrg promises American mnthr h he will fight any attempt to send their sons in any foreign war...
...Sen...
...Evjue has not indicated whom he favors if Phil La Follette doesn't enter the contest, but it won't be Alfonsi...
...We finally have a governor who is saving the people money...
...They Reach Into The Old Insull Empire For A Secretary YOU people out in the state of Wis-consin—this state administration is certainly playing you for a bunch of suckers...
...The present administration skillfully diverts your attention from these things by firing some married women out of the state capitol and you throw your hats in the air and yell, "Attaboy...
...6. UNIONS—Development of a strong trades union movement...
...8. SOCIAL SECURITY—Adequate old age pensions, unemployment insurance and an improved security program...
...made profits of $1,500,000 last year...
...Heil has made just another silly statement, but absurdity ceases to be funny when it reaches the point of advocating anarchy...
...Both governor and legislature are likely to spend half the session trying to learn what It's all about...
...Vandenberg cannot win through a fair presentation of the facts, then their cause is not a righteous one...
...The qualifications of Alfonsi do not measure up to the gubernatorial standards set by Evjue and other party leaders despite that he was popular enough to be speaker of the assembly and despiti Alfonsi's service to the party when he steered legislative matters for the Progressives in the assembly...
...This kind of criticism from Steve Bolles' Janesville Gazette is the rawest kind of political fakery, and the Gazette knows it...
...But raise the issue of married women on the public payroll and there is a bargain counter rush...
...He was a man...
...Then, with one of those quick, vital decisions we read that great executives make, he says: "I am going to run for governor...
...To "Mike" Eber)<-to Mr...
...Sen...
...The Progressive wonders how the Janesville Gazette can print an editorial like the above with anything like a straight face, considering Steve Bolles' own record of broken promises...
...There would be no incentive to repay a loan with the borrower informed in advance that foreclosure was impossible...
...We have an agency of government here in Wisconsin called the Public Service commission which is supposed to protect your interests and see that you are aot, gypped by the big utilities...
...His life was an illustration of the possibilities in America...
...Browy...
...Income Taxes— British and American (From "Labor," Publication Of Railroad Brotherhoods VWASHINGTON newspaper makes an enlightening comparison between income taxes in the United States and England...
...Steve Bolles Talks About Political Promises WHEN Sen...
...It was a testimony of appreciation of the benefits of being a citizen of the United States...
...THE PROGRESSIVE PLATFORM 1. PUBLIC OWNERSHIP of natural resources and of those activities with a public interest—light, heat, power and transportation...
...Dewey...
...10...
...It will be interesting to watch developments after Alfonsi announces his candidacy, particularly the attitude of Evjue and other high priests of the party which will doubtless be reflected in the Capital Times which Evjue edits...
...Congressman John E. Rankin of Mississippi, one of the ablest and best informed members of congress, made the statement the other day that Wisconsin is paying $20,000,000 a year more than it should for electric light and power...
...An Englishman with a wife and three children, earning $4,000 a year, pays $646...
Vol. 10 • April 1940 • No. 14
