The Government's Week

Last week the U. S. Government did the following for and to U. S. Business: C. Contemplated resuming "pump-priming" with expenditure of as much as $4,250,000,000 to pull the nation out of depression doldrums (see p. 17).

P: Continued its broad attack upon vast American Telephone & Telegraph Co. Fortnight ago FCCommissioner Paul Walker submitted to Congress the result of his threeyear, $1,500,000 investigation of A. T. & T., recommended sweeping reforms (TIME, April n). For two months before this, A. T. & T. stock was under sharp market pressure, fell from $149 to $111. As soon as the Walker report was out, A. T. & T. bounced up $9.75 in two days. To FCC and SEC this looked suspicious; last week both launched investigations.

P: Extended the Commodity Exchange Act to cover dealings in wool and wool tops. When the act was passed in 1936, wool trading was ignored because it seemed of such minor speculative importance. Presently producers began protesting about fluctuations of wool prices and the Senate appointed a Wool Investigating Committee. Matters came to a head last December when wool dealers in Boston demanded the closing of the New York wool futures market, claiming that speculation was rife (TIME, Dec. 6). Finding that wool trading was similar to trading in other commodity futures, the Senate decided to put wool markets also under the eye of the Commodity Exchange Administration and last week President Roosevelt's signature made the bill law.

P: Considered sponsoring a program of junking jalopies. Last month the automobile industry got together National Used Car Exchange Week. This got rid of some 60,000 used cars, but dealers' lots are still glutted. On Franklin Roosevelt's desk last week lay the results of a Federal survey of dealer opinions on the problem, most of them advocating some sort of scrapping program with Federal funds or sponsorship.

P: Admitted that fear of what the Administration may do next is a primary factor in the current Depression. The admitter: Secretary of Commerce Daniel C. Roper. Said he at a press conference: "We are stalemated by the fear of fear, the fear of each other. . . . Unreasoning fears, engendered by criticism of our processes of Democratic government, have undoubtedly contributed to the recent decline. . . ."

P: Cracked down on the cinema industry's penchant for hooking titles of best sellers to stories that are unfaithful to the originals. Hollywood got away with making Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm a Shirley Temple song-&-dance, Havelock Ellis' Dance of Life a story of burlesque shows. But last week FTC charged Grand National Films with "unfair competition" in releasing a love story under the name In His Steps, after the 1896 religious story of that name by Rev. Charles Monroe Sheldon which has sometimes outsold every book but the Bible.

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