The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, September 21, 1937, Page 6

‘The Bismarck Tribune An Independent Newspaper a THE STATE'S OLDEST NEWSPAPER pt State, City and County Official Newspaper Sunday by The Bismarck Tribune Company, Bis- at the postoffice at Bismarck as second class mail Mrs. Stella I. Mann President and Treasurer Kenneth W. Simons Secretary and Editor ‘' Published daily except a Archie O. Johnson Vice Pres. and Gen'L Manager Subscription Rates Payable in Advance (in state outside of Bismarck). Member of Audit Bureau of Circulation Member of the Associa\ ted 2d Press A ‘i Asso! Pi te exclusively entitled to the use for republica- on ot the news diopatcnes credited to it or not otherwise credited in this ewspaper and also the local news of spontaneous origin published herein. All rights of republication of all other matter herein are also reserved. Black Case Discloses Lax Political Morals “Perhaps the most discouraging thing about the case of Jus- ffice Hugo Black and the Ku Klux Klan is its revelation of the efective standard of public morality current among politicians. ‘A senator of considerable service and distinction, Mr. Black f& nominated to the supreme court and duly confirmed. Then fomes the charge that he was, and still is, a qualified member Of the Klan, Immediately a whole host of brother politicians tome forward to give testimony on the case, pro and con; and mall of their talk you can notice one peculiar thing. They joined the Klan, many of these men. not because they pelieved in it or felt that its policies and ideals were sound, but simply because it looked like the politic thing to do; and they Bssume that Mr. Black joined it, if he did join it, for the same teason. That is to say that, according to the prevailing code in po- Jitics, a candidate for office may join any group under the sun and subscribe to the most fantastic of creeds without actually tommitting himself to anything, if he has reason to believe that a fairly substantial block of his constituents are interested. It THE BISMARCK TRIBUNE, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1937 The Mediterranean Behind Scenes Washington of Brain Trusters This is the third of six col-, umns on the president's “brain trusters” by Rodney Dutcher. By RODNEY DUTCHER (Tribune Washington Correspondent) ‘Washington, Sept. 21.—There was & queer period of New Deal history in 1934-35 when Roosevelt was giving his best super-colossal exhibition of traveling “right” and “left” at the same time. . Outstanding presidential advisers in that period were Donald Rich- berg, Frank C. Walker, Rexford G. Tugwell and Felix Frankfurter. Of these, Richberg rose to and fell from the highest peak of power. WALKER AND RICHBERG- Richberg, now practicing law in Washington, came first as NRA's general counsel and had won the president's complete confidence by the time General Hugh Johnson left NRA. Richberg helped write the NIRA and still loves it passionately. His almost religious emotion about it may have clouded his judgment as a lawyer when he picked the Schechter “sick chicken” case for & supreme court test. There was some technical justification for the selec- tion, but most other lawyers think it was an error, is taken for granted that he will do such things with his fingers crossed; that his “oath of allegiance,” if he gives it to a frater- nity, club or politicai group, means nothing more than a vague gesture of good-will. It is precisely this widespread acceptance of a lax, easy- going way of dealing with things which ought to be matters of definite conviction that is so discouraging. Now the Klan, in the days when it had its health, advocated ® most rigid and uncompromising set of principles. No man could be neutral about it. You either believed in the things the Klan advocated or you actively disbelieved in them. If you qwere a man of honor—as non-politicians understand the word you could not conceivably pretend to believe in them when you actually did not believe. All of which makes some of these politicians’ remarks about the Black case almost incredible. Why, they say, if Black joined the Klan, he did it just because everybody was doing it; he didn’t believe in the Klan’s program—in fact, he was a good friend to the Catholics and Jews in his state. We all joined the Klan in those days, and it didn’t mean a thing. Which is where they are wrong. It did mean something. It meant that in the world of politics we have developed a moral code which would shame a Botany Bay exile; that the men who make a profession of seeking and holding public office have built up an atmosphere in which the very nature of truth and simple decency get lost to view. That such an atmosphere exists is even more disheartening than the prospect that we may get a supreme court justice who holds a passport in the Invisible Empire. Sectional Division How the East and West divide on many issues is made apparent by the West’s enthusiasm for the exemption of home- steads from taxation and the East’s failure to enthuse about the idea. Minnesota at its last session exempted homesteads from taxation up to $4,000 of taxable value and the only reason North Dakota didn’t adopt a similar measure was that the state could not afford to lose the revenue. Many of our lawmakers scrapped dreams of such an act with great reluctance. The same is true in some other Western states. In the South a solid belt’ of homestead exemption states extends from Florida to Texas. But the electorate in Eastern states fails to enthuse. Thus Rhode Island recently defeated such a proposal, despite ap- proval by the legislature. One reason for this difference in attitude maybe that too many Easterners are apartment dwellers, whereas most of the folks in the West and South live in HOMES. Alien Teapot Tempest A Washington correspondent recently remarked that con- igress is not likely to get very excited over the recent exposure of Nazi organizational activities in the United States. Twice tm the last seven years congress has investigated propaganda activities of foreign groups, and neither time did its own find- _ ings stir it to enact eny sort of remedial legislation. The con- ‘ gressmen just don’t seem tc think that these activities really _ fmenace the country much, In that stand congress is probably quite right. The ordi- mary citizen unquestionably hates to read of active groups which take their orders and draw their inspiration from Rome, Moscow or Berlin; he is apt to forget that such groups cut very little figure in our national iife. After all, there are 130,000,000 people in the United States. If ten or twenty thousand of them go haywire for Hitler, Stalin or Mussolini, it doesn’t really make very much difference. Industry's Real Market The American Iron and Steel Institute recently made a study of steel plants in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and it reported the other day, as a result, that the average steel worker is now an automobile owner. Of the 157,000 steel work- es covered by the study, 117,000 owned cars; if this ratio holds good throughout the industry, 400,000 American steel workers : One's first reaction is that this is pretty nice for the steel workers, who are not—either by American tradition or by Zuropean practice—ordinarily supposed to be prosperous enough to drive their own cars. But the second reaction is that is also pretty nice for the automobile companies. ss ‘We sometimes forget that our vast productive machinery is based on a prosperous working class. If American working Richberg was at his peak of power only a few months. Amiable and charming, he nevertheless departed perhaps the most uhpopular man in ‘Was! ee * Wolves Were on Him Richberg’s outstanding achieve- ments had to do with NRA code- drafting and policy making. He lost organized labor's friendship even be- fore his promotion. His co-ordina- tion efforts largely failed, perhaps because he was impatient. Cabinet members and administrators refused to take orders from him and sought to undermine him. ‘The wolves were on Richberg when the court killed NRA. Secretaries Perkins, Roper and Ickes; Messrs. Tugwell and Johnson; many con- servatives as well as nearly all the liberals, labor and sections of congress were after his scalp. And there is reason to believe that Roosevelt, who himself caused his grand vizier to make too many speeches, grew tied of seeing Rich- berg’s name in so many headlines. But Richberg today again is very close to the throne. Eloquent and a man of many beautiful words and ideas, he can charm birds off trees. Out of office he has made “educa- tional” speeches critical of the su- preme court, earned plenty of money as a lawyer-lobbyist, was @ “liaison Richberg Highest, Feil the Farthest \ ANOTHER RIFT IN THE LABOR LUTE One of the really sad things about Politics is the lack of apprecaition which so often is the fate of the nobie and unselfish. Jealous of his deserved success, the tongues of envy and mal- ice are always busily engaged in dis- paraging the heroic figure risen to the heights, Bravely baring his breast to the assaults of the common foe only makes it more painful for the hero to be kicked in the pants by his in- timate friends. ‘This happens more frequently in labor politics than in any other kind. There appears to be something about labor politics that engenders bad feeling among the brethren who got to the top. Their feuds seem especially bitter. The abruptness with which they can turn upon a brother and beat him up is little short of amazing. For example, take the case of Sen. man” with business men in the presi- dential campaign and apparently was ‘one of but three or four men who ad- vised on the Roosevelt supreme court plan which emerged last February. Richberg wrote most of Roosevelt's message to congress presenting that historic one A Mystery Man Frank Walker, successful New York lawyer-business man, stands out as the only New Deal exponent of that “passion for anonymity” demanded taries he seeks. A politician who helped dish out the original New Deal gravy, is still a mystery man to nearly every-one here. He served a5 & would-be New Deal co-ordinator both before and after the Richberg ascend- ancy, drafted by Roosevelt because he was loyal, conscientious, devoted and sercetive, George L. Berry, of Tennessee, for- merly federal co-ordinator of in- dustry, and president of “Labor's Nonpartisan League,” which is the name given by Mr. John L. Lewis to the political instrument of his CIO. Major Berry was chosen by Mr. Lewis as head of the league. He was re- garded as second only to Mr. Lewis as a leader of the movement, his right- hand man and trusted lieutenant. Serving without pay, certainly no one could say that the major’s heart was not in his work. He became gen- erally recognized as labor’s outstand- spokesman, by Roosevelt from the six new secre-/| ing Actually, he seemed to be speaking most of the time. No man in Wash- ington has ever been more articulate; pone has issued more or longer state- ments. In lambasting the Liberty League and depicting the horrid traits of the greedy the major has been unsurpassed in both vol- Walker set up the national emerg- ency council, with state offices, as a New Deal ake of the federal housing tion Program. And after his second and last draft by Roosevelt ne worked like 2, dog through NEC in setting up the %4,800,000,000 works program infor- mation service and machinery for ap- Plications for allocations. Walker worked patiently and pain- fully to get the heads of federal agen- cles together and did his best to con- retary Roper. Some officials say Walker never got anywhere because he was too cagey, cautious and easy- going, trying to avoid making ene- mies or fighting. NEXT: Tugwell and friends. BIT OF HUMOR NOW AND THEN 1S RELISHED BY THE BEST OF MEN SAFETY JINGLE “My brakes are good,” said Driver ‘Wood And down the hill he coasted. Now he’s asleep just six feet deep— His brakes weren't as he boasted. Pete—Say, Tubby, why did the fore- iterday? men could not buy things which workers in other lands cannot our greatest industries would find their ume and force. And not even the Hamil. two-way information | on quent use of the word liberal. of this helped make it natural for the major, with a little push from the president, to succeed to the Ten- nessee senatorship when the vacancy occurred. One would have thought that labor leaders generally would have rejoiced; that this would have opened up ways for even more noble OUT OUR WAY and unselfish work by the major and that certainly it would enhance his status as a labor leader. Curiously, none of these things happened. On the. contrary, the major has come in for some very heavy criticism, not from the de- graded and debased representatives of Wall Street and the interests but from sources which he had every san League, whi he to advertise, and Mr. E. other friend of Mr. Lewis, has be- come its acting head. It is further charged that under Mr, Berry the league largely existed on paper, but that the new management has al- ready “energized” many of the state chairmen and committees into build- ing @ mass membership and lobbying effectively for state and national legislation. There is the further made by Mr. Max Lerner, writing in The Nation and evidently close to the allegation The Great Game of POLITICS Copyright 1937, by The Baltimore Sun which position he has held for twenty years, And he still has his million Your Personal Health Dr. ease or Brady will answer ai sis. Write let fly an oe Tribune, All queries must be accompanied by « stam! nvelope. PROSTIGMIN FOR MYASTHENIA Asthenia is a five dollar word meaning weakness, Neurasthenia means weak nerves, but no such state is conceivable in physiology or pathology. Neurasthenia was a fine cld quack diagnosis to string along the idle rich of the gay ninetees. It just doesn’t do today. Psychasthenia is a handy term though—because many who have it resent being called weak-minded. and on the level or downhill, but not upgrade, another seizure in a few minutes. This is probably supply to the leg muscles through arteries affe excessive indulgence in tobacco, from alcoho! lead poisoning. Best emergency relief is probal seized with an attack. . Another condition, not so common, is myasthenia gravis, a chronic pro- gressive muscular weakness without apparent atrophy or wasting, affecting muscles of the face and throat, in some cases other muscles as well. At first the affected muscles as well. At first the affected muscles function normal- ly, but they tire quickly and presently refuse to function at all. Difficulty of swallowing or regurgitation of food may occur after the patient has eaten part of a meal. The upper eyelids tire and droop. Effort to smile quickly fatigues and gives a pathetic expression. A dose of prostigmin, either h; striking change. An hour or two after the dose is taken the patient recovers practically normal strength and function in the affected muscles, The smile is quite normal. But as the effect of the medicine wears off the muscle weakness returns and in the course of four or five hours the condition seems the same as it was before the medicine was given. However, the medicine paratively harmless, not in any way habit-forming, and may be con- tinued indefinitely as long as it gives relief. When prostigmin is given to patients with paralytic or other conditions than myasthenia gravis, it pro- duces fibrillation and twitchings in various parts of the body preciable benefit in the paralyzed or defective muscles, QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Plan to make a tour of Mexi doriabotr 30 dard vaccinated 20 years a ico. eee + aes Ere eae oe wer—] necessary. But be sure to be imm' Beatin SDLON, snd [Pray Dnola 2 end by by one and no ap- amebic and other intestinal in- Oeny Notes are and eat only cooked food (opyright, 1087, John ¥. Ditle Co2 fections dictates that you alink during your stay in Mexico. ITALY) othe. Eel ey’ i i & anything. 23 Note To vacrionta, 22 Nol i sen sS 72 26 Flour box. <82 And, if i