The Alamance Gleaner 1 VOL. LX. GRAHAM, N, C., THURSDAY MARCH 15, 1934. NO. 6 News Review of Current Events the World Over President Asks for Shorter Hours and Higher Wages; NRA Penalty Provisions Will Be Invoked; Desperate Dillinger Escapes From Jail. By EDWARD W. PICKARD SEVERAL thousand members of the code authorities gathered In Con stitution hall, Washington, at the call of the President to revise and strengthen NRA industrial agree ments. The opening session was for mal and rather stately, with the mem bers of the cabinet, other high govern ment officials and many senators and congressmen present. Before this as sembly came Mr. Roosevelt to tell not so much what had been accomplished in the last twelvemonth as what he hoped for in the near future. He warned the Industrial leaders that "the government cannot forever con tinue to absorb the whole burden of unemployment," He called for great er protection of small business, term ing the code authority "the keeper of your small Industrial brother." Briefly summarized, this is what Mr. Roosevelt proposed: Wage increases and shortening of hours to bolster consuming power and spread employment. Greater adherence by the people to the Blue Eagle symbol to make all "play the game." Continued enforcement of the anti trust laws to retain competition and prevent monopoly. Strict adherence by employers to the law allowing free choice by employees of representatives to do their collective bargaining. Permanent reorganization of the economic and social structure along the lines already started. General Johnson, NltA administra tor, wound up the code authority ses sions with the blunt announcement that the Blue Eagle rules were to be tightened up and the assertion: "I have been too gentle. 'You ain't seen nothing yet'" Urging the Industrial ists to play the game fairly, the gen eral uttered three warnings. One was that under specific orders from the President the NRA was reorganizing to enforce the penal sections of the act; the second, that the country faces this spring "the worst epidemic of strikes In our history because of Illegal Interposition of employers In the matter of company unions; the third, that, with the recent Supreme court decision upholding the New York state emergency milk law, the administra tion has dropped all hesitation, and Is ready to use the powers of the Indus trial law to the limit if opposition forces it. To draft his new plan for making more Jobs, Johnson asked the code authorities of the heary goods Indus tries and of the consumer groups to select twelve men each. President Roosevelt, said the admin istrator, has approved the plan for put ting teeth In the NRA. The President himself intimated that he would ask congress to extend the time limit on the licensing provisions of the NRA. The act gives authority to the President to place any industry under license and to revoke the license of any concern In the Industry, thereby compelling It to shut down. This au thority to license expires next June under the terms of the recovery act which granted it for one year only, whereas the life of the act was limited to two years. COMPLETION of President Roose velt's first year in the White Mouse called forth a chorus of lauda tion and of hostile criticism from his admirers and his op ponents. The least that can be said is that It has been a year of excitement and action, of bold experimentation in methods of govern ment, and of the spending of vast sums of money in the fur therance of the Pres ident's determination to establish a New Deal that amounts to President Roosevelt A social revolution. Mr. Roosevelt himself. In a brief address on the occasion of the install ing of Dr. J. M. Gray as chancellor of the American university In Washing ton, said "one of the most salient fea tures of the salient year in our Amer ican life has been the amazing and universal increase in the Interest" of the people In the subject of govern ment. The Joint congressional Republican campaign committee took occasion to Issue a statement declaring that the administration ends its first year "with many platform pledges untried and practically abandoned, with policies unshaped and conflicting, with Its monetary program bewilderingly un certain?a situation baffling enough to prove a hindrance to a return to prosperity." Replying for the supporters of the administration. Senator Hiram John son of California, nominally a Repub lican, said: "It Is not necessary to agree with all that has been done in every con ceivable particular, but unfair and un Just would be the individual who would not emphatically concede that with an enlightened audacity the President has acted, and has accom plished amazing results. "It is a sorry policy that now says to 120,000,000 people that nothing has been done that is right and that the President has brought thein no relief, and the future holds for them no hope. "We are better, and our country is better, and our people are better, and our times are better for what the President has done during the past year." T EGISLATION to restore the air mail to commercial operators will speedily be started through congress at the instance of the President, lie sent letters to Chairman McKellar of the senate post office committee. Chair man Mead of the house postal com mittee and Chairman Black of the special senate committee investigating the air mail, in which he outlined his plan for new temporary contracts and the eventual regulation of air mail rates and routes by the Interstate commerce committee. The new policy will be for contracts to be let for not more than three years "on full, open and fair competi tive bidding, with a limitation of the rates of compensation above which no contract will be awarded." The legislation carrying the pro gram into effect. Senator McKellar in dicated, will fix the limit of compensa tion mentioned by the President far below the prevailing 40 cents per mile. The figure, the senator said, may be as low as 25 cents. Six months before the three year contract expires, according to Presi dent Roosevelt's suggestion, the ques tion of the public convenience and ne cessity of the various routes and the question of maximum rate of pay would be submitted to the ICC. Under this plan transportation of the mails by air would be placed under substantially the same regulation as that of the railroads. JOHN DILLINGER. eminent bank robber, gang leader and alleged murderer, who was captured with great eclat In Arizona and conveyed to In $ diana for trial, be came Irked by con finement In the "es cape-proof Jail at Crown Point. So he made a pistol out of a piece of wood and the handle of a safety razor, cowe