HOOVER’S VETO

Hokitika Guardian, 5 March 1931, Page 6

HOOVER’S VETO

ON PUBLIC ENTERPRISE. ; (United Presa Association— By .Electric Telegraph.. —Copyright ) WASHINGTON, March 3. President Hoover added another to his increasing list of vetoes against important Republican Party measures when he returned to-day to Congress, without approval, the measure lor the (Government operation of the Muscle Shoals Hydro-electric and nitrate fertiliser project in the State of Alabama on the rapids of the Tennessee river (the river being dammed at Florence, by thy. Wilson Dam, and a great Federal liyrdo plant installed there). The project was begun as a war measure. President Hoover, condemning the principle of government in business, accompanied his veto with a lenth\ and minute analysis of the eugineeiiug and cost factors involved. He pointed out that the undertaking would require an outlay of 127 million dollars, 61 which one hundred million dollars would be required from the Treasury immediately, and said that the entire enterprise would entail approximately two .millions of an annual loss. He concluded:—‘T am firmly opposed to the Government entering any business the purpose of which is that of competition with our citizens. It is a negation of the ideals on which our civilisation has been placed. 1 hesitate to contemplate the future of our institutions, our Government, and our country, if the preoccupation of its officials should be no longer the promotion of justice and equality of oppor- . tunity, but should he devoted to barter in the markets. That is not Liberalism. It is degeneration.” The measure is not expected now to command sufficient support for its repassage over the President’s veto. SENATE Y r OTE FOR BILL. WASHINGTON, March 3. The Muscle Shoals legislation was killed when the Senate failed to override Air Hoover’s veto at a late night session. The voting was a follows; —To override the veto, forty-nine votes; to sustain the veto, thirty-four votes. Therefore the attempt to repass the measure failed by six and one-third votes.