LA FOLLETTE'S COMMENT

...It is an augury full of hope that, in the new decade which is just opening, we should be concerned first of all with the efforts being made at London to make peace more sure by coming to an agreement regarding naval armaments...

...The statement by President Hoover concerning the "gain" in employment'during January caused Labor Commissioner Perkins of New York to take sharp issue with the president...

...On the whole the consumer has fared better than seemed possible when the bill was reported from the senate committee last August...

...One very important saving to the consumer was the action of the senate in voting to retain the existing duty on sugar instead of adopting the senate committee's recommendation, which would have added $66,000,000 per year to the country's sugar bill...

...Is the Republican party, which has lived politically for the past 10 years on the bally-hoo of prosperity, afraid to get the facts about unemployment...

...If the debenture plan adopted in the senate can be retained in the bill when it finally becomes a law it will be of great' benefit to the farmers growing the staple crops of corn, wheat, hogs, cotton and tobacco...

...The senate finance committee's bill was not much better from the point of, view of the consumers as a whole or the farmers in particular...

...Figures collected from more than 50 per cent of the Empire state's 1,700 leading industries which report regularly showed that fewer employes have held jobs during the first IS days of the year than in any cor-lesponding period since 1914...

...SECRETARY MELLON GIVES IMPETUS TO DISARMAMENT 'T'HE WASHINGTON STAR of January 26th publishes an authorized interview with Andrew W. Mellon, secretary of the treasury, by Basil M. Manly, the noted economist...

...Manly if the large proportion of the government's revenue goes for the payment of past and future wars, the secretary of the treasury replied: "That statement still holds true...

...If the coalition can secure further reductions upon industrial rates, retain the debenture and the Norris-Simmons amendment for a congressional flexible tariff revision, a public service will have been rendered and a victory achieved...

...Let us substitute facts for bally-hoo, then we "will have a basis for tackling the problem of unemployment and its solution...

...Its enactment would have greatly increased the present disparity between agriculture and industry...

...Upon the most pressing of human problem confronting the people today—unemployment—we have nothing but the wildest guesses...

...They must have made deductions from meager data improperly analyzed...

...Under the legislative procedure amendments will now be,offered to the different schedules by individual senators...

...This is notably true of the compensatory rates upon wool, which are higher than in the infamous schedule K of the Payne-Aldrich bill...

...The increases that have been given on industrial products as well as the high rates of the existing law that have been retained will continue to subject agriculture in some degree to the discrimination which it has suffered since the passage of the I-'ordney-McCumbcr act of 1922...

...It cannot be intelligently dealt with until we know the facts...

...There will be anorher vote upon these rites and an effort will be made to save the people who wear wool clothing from the inevitable rise in price which will follow the enactment of the wool rates as they now supd in the bill...

...In a few instances the welfare of the consumer has been disregarded and higher rates voted than can be justified...

...The spector of unemployment is always with us.' The figures from the New York labor commissioner indicate that it has become acute...

...In the meantime it is of value to consider'some of the improvements in the bill during the months it has been in the senate...

...The government of the United States spends millions of dollars a year getting statistics about the production of everything from toothpicks to locomotives...

...It is strange that the president of the United States, whom many have looked upon as a scientifically trained man, should be indulging in the same tactics which have been followed by Harding and Coolidge concerning unemployment...

...Instead the new tariff commission will investigate and report to congress on one schedule or paragraph at a time and no other schedules will be opened for amendment...

...Commenting on the statement of President Hoover, the New York official said, "The department of labor's work must have been done so rapidly that it can hardly be called statistical work...

...terest and principal of the public debt...

...SENATE IMPROVES TARIFF BILL ' I HE SENATE has about completed consideration of the finance com--*¦ mittee's amendments to the tariff bill...

...WE NEED FACTS ABOUT UNEMPLOYMENT THE statement by President Hoover that there had been a distinct increase in employment during January has brought to the attention of the public the utter inadequacy of authoritative information upon this vital problem...

...The report of the senate committee on education and labor under the La Follette resolution strongly recommended the establishment of adequate facilities for the gathering of unemployment figures, but nothing is done...

...This docs not mean that the bill will give agriculture the equality with industry promised in the last campaign...

...The state of New York has one of the best organizations for the gathering of unemployment statistics in the country...

...The statement from the secretary of the treasury that 66 cents out of every dollar expended by the federal government goes to pay for past or future wars is startling...

...The Noris-Simmons amendment providing for the repeal of the law giving the president power to raise and lower tariff duties and providing for a reorganized tariff commission which will investigate and report to congress is "a very important victory won by the coalition...

...These crops in which we have an exportable surplus cannot obtain one penny's benefit from a tariff rate no matter how high it may be, unless the debenture plan is a part of the law...

...The house bill was dictated by the great industrial interests...

...we know the hog, sheep, cow, horse and other farm animal population from year to year, if not month to month...

...When asked by Mr...

...All of these expenditures have to do either with the liquidation of past wars or with the prevention of future ones...

...The facts might not lend themselves to such fortunate and favorable statements...

...It should make every citizen realize that the success of the London conference from the point of view of the people of the United States will be achieved only through a reduction of armaments and not by an agreement for parity which will mean great additional expenditures on the part of our government...

...President Harding's unemployment conference of which President Hoover was a leading figure, recommended that the government gather the statistics upon unemployment so that there might be an accurate estimate of the extent of the problem in order that it might be dealt with intelligently...

...The Progressive Republicans have demanded that agriculture be given full protection where duties could be effective...

...There was a precipitate drop in October," the statement continues, "and every month following has shown a proportionate decrease...

...Manlcy says the interview gives powerful impetus to the world movement for reduction of armaments...

...Under this amendment no further general tariff revision, with all the evils of logrolling, will be considered by congress...

...The senate bill as it stands today is a great improvement over the house bill and over the bill as it came from the finance committee...

...This will provide flexibility, fix responsibility upon congress, where it has been placed by the constitution, and eliminate the unscientific methods now employed in general tariff legislation...

...As a result of their efforts the senate bill more nearly meets the reasonable demands of agriculture than did the house bill...

...By Robert M. La Follette Jr...

...It will no doubt take several weeks to thrash out the issues thus raised by these amendments and then the bill must go to conference...

...This problem must be solved...

...Secretary Mellon stated: "War is still responsible for the major part of our expenditures and it is in the light of these facts that we must give our wholehearted support to all intelligent and honest efforts on the part of the various nations to bring about a reduction in the heavy burden of armaments to the lowest point consistent with the safety of the world...

...The commissioner also declared that December, 1929, was "the worst December since 1914 for employment...

...My last report to congress shows that for the current fiscal year approximately two-thirds of all government expenditures, exclusive of postal expenditures, go for national defense, for military pensions, retirement pay, annuities, World War allowances, life insurance claims, and for payment of in...

...Do the powers that be find it more convenient in times of depression to make optimistic and time serving "estimates" that "there has been a distinct gain in employment in January...

...The time has come when the greatest industrial country in the world should have accurate information upon the employment situation...

...Pointing out that most of the country's key industries were located in New York, the commissioner stated that "there has been a steady decline in employment since August...

...December, 1929, showed a greater fall from November, 1929, than in any other comparison in our history...

...As to the rate schedules generally, many duties have been lowered below the recommendations of the senate finance committee, and increased rates on industrial products recommended by the committee have in a majority of cases been rejected and either existing or lower duties adopted...

...The issuance of statements based upon inadequate data' hastily analyzed will not help the situation...