Evening Star Newspaper, August 18, 1936, Page 11

THE EVE Borah Anx- ious for Lan- don in West Sees Definite Need of Progressive Approach to Problems. BY DAVID LAWRENCE. OISE, Idaho, August 18.—Sen- ator Borah, the young “old man” of Idaho, whose 30 years of service in Congress have made him one of the outstanding figures in contemporary history, will be returned to the United States Senate by a majority ranging any- where from 20,- 000 to 30,000. This seems to be conceded on almost every side. It is due to the fact that the Senator made such an aston- ishing vun in the primary, defeat- ing his Town- send opponent by 3 to 1. Coinci- dentally, Gov. C. Ben Ross, the Demociatic can- didate, who will oppose him, won the nomination after the Democratic vote showed an almost 50-50 split, an evidence presumably of resentment against the Governor’s sales tax and other levies. Borah, it taken for granted, now will get many of the anti-Ross votes cast in the Democrtic primary as well as | many Democrats who didn’'t vote at David Lawrence, I found the Snator hale and hearty 2d very happy over the outcome of the primari We had a long talk. | not about State issues or the cam- paign here, but about the national political situation. There is not a bit of rancor in his heart over the fact he was not nominated for the presi- dency at Cleveland. His friendliness to Gov. Landon was obvious through- out the conversation. His concern is about the trend of the Republican campaign as a whole in the West while he din’t say 50 in as m it appeared to me & simple inference | that unless Gov. Landon makes right appeal to the folks in the West | his candida than an a a local Re on_suppor in both parties. To Hew to Own Line. Tt should be explained at this point that regular Republicans here have | wanted Borah to come out enthus- fastically for Landon and make a ket who depends | ependent voters | | | geries of stump speeches for the na- | | tional ticket. Borah, of course, is going to make several speeches. That is settled. And he will discuss na- tional issues as he sees them, letting the chips fall where they may. | But Borah has some definite notions | about how a Republican nominee, who really wants to present himself to the | West as a progressive, should go about tt. If Landon senses this problem | and, by his addresses, reveals him- | self as & progressive, then the task ! of men like Senator Borah in appeal- | ing to Western audiences will be rel- atively easy. Much depends on the outcome of Landon's present trip. The speech of acceptance, of course, passed muster and it is realized that he could not cover all the topics on issues in any | detail. Now, however, as he takes up one by one the issues of the campaign, the opportunity to examine the qual- ity of Landon's progressiveism is at hand. | 1l over the State the reports are | News Behind the News Lull Comes in Federal Bureau Spying—Coughlin Expected to Calm Down. BY PAUL MALLON. HEAVY lull has developed lately among the Government's prying squads. The young Hawkshaws in many of the Federal services seem to have lost much of their zest for their business. Some have suspected it is only campaign quiet. Others accept it as a natural reaction to Treasury Secretary Morgenthau's public demo- tion of two secret service agents who spied on G-men. Both guesses may be close, but & more impressive explanation is accredited on the inside. Some weeks before Mr. Morgenthau's decisive action, an investi- gating genius in another Government department was invited to take a job outside the executive branch of the Government, and he accepted. The news of his departure was made public, but no excuse was ever offered. - The inside explanation is that this genius also made the mistake of in- vestigating another Government of- ficial outside his department, this time a friend of Vice President Gar=- ner and Chairman Farley. The in- vestigated official left Washington in a huff and has not returned. Messrs. Garner and Farley are supposed to have engineered the subsequent offer, which led the investigating ex- genius into other fields. Thus, a salutary peace has come to Washington. * oK Ok X The question of whether Father Coughlin has been put under good behavior restrictions for the presidential campaign is still an open one, despite the whoopee made at his Cleveland convention. Several conflicting stories are being spread about what he will do. The inside consensus here is that he will go ahead with what he has started, but in a much calmer tone of voice. His radio mancger has announced, without explanation, the cancellation of his Fal: and Winter series of Sunday afternoon broadcasts, until “some time after the first of the year” The assumption is he will rese’ve a schedule on the Mutual network for the Lemke-O’Brien ticket, but the trade publication, Broadcast- ing, reports that M. B. S. has announced no time reservations yet. Meanwhile, the Communist party has budgeted itself for $60,000 worth of radio time, wherever it got the money. President Roosevelt’s board of campaign strategy is not unanimously in favor of his coming trip to the North Dakota drought area. More than two are supposed to have advised the President not to make the trip, on the ground that it would not do him much good and might do some harm. There is nothing he can do about the drought by looking at it, beyond what has already been done, they say. Also, as' they see it, the trip may encourage the impression that he is using the drought for campaign purposes, especially if he is greeted by large crowds, has con- ferences with the Governors, including Landon, and makes speeches. This probably erplains why definite arrangements have been held in abeyance so long. There is just a vague chance that the trip may be curtailed sharply, but not unless the President himself changes his mind. Usuclly, in matters of this kind, he considers nimself to be his own best adviser, and he probably is. x X X X A group of radio experts attended a private showing of the status of television research by one of the largest radio set manufacturers a few days ago and came away with word that commercial television will not come during 1936. At least this was the company viewpoint The demonstration showed close- ups can now be transmitted in fairly good detail, but long shots are still blurred. The goal set by television technicians for them- selves is to produce a picture as clear as home movies now are, and they are near it. Skeptics have suspected the radio people are in no hurry. The radio set market is at present rather well filled. However, there are technical de- ficiencies and economic obstacles. * %k X x State Secretary Hull was asked in a press conference for comment about the American Olympic victories but pieaded off, saving: “We have been kept so busy by cther nations' sports”’—the javelin throwing in Sapin, of course. Military intelligence is still much worried about the sinking of those Spanish submarines by airplane bombs. A complete report on how it was done has been requested. If airplanes can sink subs, some of our current theories of warfare will have to be revised. A witness at the S. E. C. investment trust hearings was asked for his definition of an investment trust, and gave it: “We invest the money and trust in God.” COMEON AND| STOPFLIRTING administration will produce & chaotlc | this State, 1t will be by a closs mare financial situation. It amounts almost | gin, perhaps not more than 10,000 to to & tremor that is discernible in the | 15,000 votes, which is in contrast to tone of comments by farmer and city | his 38,000 in 1932, or Hoover's 46,000 folks alike. The rising curve of e in 1928. penditures has made a deep impres- | At present writing Mr. Roosevelt sion on some of the Voters. Senator | pas the edge. The Republicans, in- Borah confirmed this to me &s We | yjgorated by Chairman Hamilton's talked of what he found in his tour | yist say the swing now is in their of Idaho during the primary cam- girection, and that is corroborated by paign. | testimony from independent sources. Also the Republicans showed an in- NING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, TUESDAY. Bigger Wars Needed for Pensions Conflict Offers Hope of State Support for All BY DOROTHY THOMPSON. OL. JOHN THOMAS TAYLOR, director of the Leglislative Committee of the American Legion, last week came up to Vermont, the State in which I live, and made a speech to the Vermont Legion and its auxiliary at the eight- eenth annual State convention. Col. Taylor said there would be war in Eu- rope inside nine months. That was ., personal opinion. ' He predicted that we would become involved in it. “Those countries all owe us money, and if war breaks out we are going to sell some of them goods—and the first thing we know we shall be in it But Col. Taylor says that there isn't gcing to be any profiteering in the next war if the Legion can help it. He says that the first objective of the Legion would be to pdss the universal service draft law to see that there would be no draft-dodgers and that no individ- ual would make any profits out of the next war. And he said that now that the bonus had been taken care of, another major objective of the Legion would be to see that all widows and | orphans of veterans of the last war got pensions. Pensions for All Kin Wanted, At present only the wives and chil- dren of such veterans as died or suf- fered injuries during the last war are covered by pensions. The Legion wants pengions for relatives of any man who | served. Maybe he never got farther | than Camp Dix and maybe he never was nearer the front than a Paris cafe;: maybe he will die peacefully in his bed 30 years after the war, but a | grateful Government should take care | of his relicts. Col. Taylor has, with seeming in- nocence, put forward an American Legion plan for universal social se- curity, which may prove more pro- phetic than Dr. Townsend's. There is, Dorothy Thompson. war, and we shall become involved in it. All signs indicate that it will make the last World War look like a sideshow. The Pacific will not be comparatively tranquil. Asia and Af- rica will be in turmoil. It promises |to be a national war, class war, race war and every known kind and variety of a war. and compulsory service. Possibly for women and children, az well as for | he says, going to be another world | men. With aviation what it is, the front may be anywhere and every- where. Therefore every one will be & belligerent; every one will be enlisted: when it is over, therefore, every one will have to get a bonus; and in the end every one will get a pension. Be- cause every one will be either a vet- eran or a widow or an orphan, or ail three. And, of course, if the next war doesn't take care of quite everybody why we can have another war after that. In the course of a generation we would all be under the Govern- ment’s beneficent wing and everybody would be happy. It almost seems worth the wars. Can’t Pay Out of War Profits. I hope nobody is worried as to how we are all going to pay ourselves pen- sions for our patriotic services after the next war. We shan't be able to pay them out of the war profits, which we might tax away from the profiteers, because, of course, there aren’t going to be any profits in the next war. But there will be a lot of land fought over, and a lot of crops destroyed, and so we will cut down more forests and plow up more land wherever there is & spot, if any, safe from shells. And afterward the rains and the rivers and the winds will blow away more soil, so that we shall not only have to pay the patriots bonuses as fighters, but in their capacity as farmers, we shall have to pay subsidies as well. And that will add te purchasing power. Industry will immensely over-expand, ‘because that is one finethingabout war: ‘There is no overproduction. What you produce you blow into bits almost im- mediately; the government buys it for that purpose; it borrows the money to buy it, and when the fighting is over you have got the plants and the debts, a lot of scrap iron, and a Reconstruc- tion Finance Corporation. You sub- | sidize the plants in order to make it | possible for them to move on to s peace-time basis, and that adds to purchasing pow too. Since all the world is poorer, after a first-class war, prices go up, and therefore you have prosperity. For we must all have | learned in recent years that the more we pay for everything the better off we are. And if everything is costing a great deal, and we are therefore all well off, we could perfectly well afford to pay pensions to veterans, their wives and their eventual orphans. Need Bigger, Better Wars. ‘That ought to be self-evident. For ! if the world never made a war, never blew up the contents of mines, never | cut off machinists’ hands or blinded | | draughtmen’s eyes, or brought up| | rickety children or denuded forests | |and flelds, but just went on working | and producing and trading and con- | | suming, we might create 30 much and get 50 rich that prices would go to a point where everybody could buy, and | then, of course, no community could possibly afford to give anybody social security in the form of pensions and | bonuses. | S0 our hest hope of state support | for everybody is plainly to have bigger i and better wars. And if we just keep at it long enough and upon this single | task concentrate the work and genius | of mankind, we may eventually make | & war in which all the veterans, wid- | ows and orphans, will be dead vet- | erans, widows and orphans. Then we There will be universal|shall have achieved the final com- | | plete security which is the grave. [ (Oonvright. 1038 ) eoming in showing & distinct trend | Understanding fanguage Required. toward Landon, but at the same time | many questions are being asked as, for instance, “What does Landon stand for?” Another one is, “Who owns lLandon?” The trek of Eastern con- servatives to Topeka has called up the latter question. But it is significant To sum up, I should say that Lan- don has a very good chance to carry Idaho if he makes a campaign as a progressive and talks to the people of the West in a language they can rec- ognize is the voice of a true pro- gressive. crease of 5000 votes in the recent primary. as compared with two years | ago, and they didn't have contests at all in many counties. The Democrats | polled 13,000 fewer votes and had sharp contests that ought to have brought out the vote. AUGUST 18, 1936. We, the People i Holt Seems to Be Burning All Bridges in Sight and Some Which Aren’t. BY JAY FRANKLIN. R. RUSH DEW HOLT, the “baby Senator” from West Virginia, has delivered the keynote speech at Father Coughlin’s conven- tion at Cleveland. The radio priest has been cleared at the Vatican and got the “Go"” signal from his bishop. The National Union for Social Justice 15 now a formal part of the political campaign. Senator Holt's appearance in the Coughlin camp has puzzled even those who thought they knew the dark and devious ways of West Virginia politics. Holt was elected in 1934 on the Democratic ticket, with the sup- # 5 port of John L. Lewis’ United Mine Workers. 4 West Virginia shares with Colorado the doubtful honor of being the most perfect example of Wall Street absentee-ownership: It is rich in timber, oil, coal, natural gas and water power; it has made fortunes for Eastern and Northern investors; its .Deanie are desperately poor. k¥ X Corporations like Consolidated Coal and ‘West Penn have pretty well controlled the resources and politics of the mountaineers and the Holt election was part of the same ‘revolution” against this control, which swept the New Deal Democrats into power in Pennsylvania, But Holt was under the constitutional age limit for Senators and had to wait until the late Spring of 1935 for the 30th birth- day anniversary which permitted him to take his seat, While Holt was waiting, Senator Neely of West Virginia quite na- turally got the New Deal patronage, and the conservaiive Democrats whom Holt had fougnt retained their power over the State. This was the background for the “baby Senator’s denunciation of “graft” in W. P. A. Few New Dealers would care to deny that there has been somec graft and more politics in State relief, but Harry Hopkins had no trouble in white-washing the West Virginia relief outfit on the specific charges made by Holt Holt had simply been useful ammunition to the Republicans, and the United Mine Workers hao other fish to fry, so did not come to the rescue of their embaeirassing baby. Holt's party can now charge him with the dreadful crime of “irregue larity” in an election year, anc he has openly attacked John L. Lewis as & man who simply warts to make himself President and doesn’t care what happens to the West Virginia miners. He seems to be burning all the bridges in sight and some which aren't. * x x * The move to Coughlin fits with the fact that Holt’s home is in & sirongly. Catholic county, but misses the far more important fact that the State as a whole is militantly Methodist. It also does not reckon on the possible boomerang of political catholicism by the time 1940 comes around. Many thousands of sincere Catholics regard the Coughlin impor- tation of political catnolicism a&s a grave danger to the cause of their religion in the United Statec, The simultaneous convergence on the long-suffering city of Cleveland of Sepator Holt, Father Coughlin and President Roosevelt—who engaged in a “sight-seeing” trip to the Great Lakes Exposition—suggests that there may have been a political explosion in the making there, For the moment, all that can be observed is that the wayward Democratic Semator from the kept State of Wesi Virginic may be either a bridge or a barrier to a reconciliation between the Neu Deal's social security program and the Coughlin demand jor social Justice, * % * % ‘The presence of Roosevelt no doubt served to moderate some of the more bitter words and notions which have inflamed the utterances of the “radio priest.” We may even see a temperate showdown between the followers of Father Coughlin and the great mass of American Catholics who have no desire to witness any revival in this country of the “bigotry” issue which disgraced Mr. Hoover's victory in 1928, ‘The G. O. P. has been banking so heavily on Father Coughlin to drain liberal votes away from the New Deal that we have all overlooked the possibility that the liberal followers of the Microphone Messiah may persuade him to give hir finai support to the President who has done more to promot® social justice in the United States than any man since Abraham Lincoln. (Oopyrizht. 1024 ) Headline Folk and What They Do Once Dealer in Sky- scrapers Turns Hot Dog Salesman. , BY LEMUEL F. PARTON. ' C. BLUMENTHAL, pint-sizg financier in a green suit, restless as a Mexican jumping ® bean—and not much bigger— | got his first few millions by selling something big and expensive to a few deople. Now he switches to selling something small and cheap 1o & great many people. ‘Theaters and skyscrapers comprised his old line, suitable to boom years. | Hot dogs and hamburgers, better de- | pression goods, start off his new one. | He is rigging a chain of roadside stands | in England, which, as things go wita | the Napoleonic Mr. Blumenthal, ought to festoon the British Empire, and lap | over into Antarctica before long. If | anybody can wrap a chaplet of hot | dogs around Brittania’s neck, and make | her like it, he's the man. When Mayor James J. Walker went into his tailspin, “Blumey,” as his friends call him, was in the ship, having made a blazing entry into New York in the mayor's entourage. He parachuted loose and went right on with his nimble careering without missing & step. By the time he ‘rvnchpd his middle 30s, he had sold | 1,000 theaters, gathering broker's fees | of $4.000.000. He had once closed a | 50,000,000 deal in a taxicab in just | one minute of discussion. All this before his footlights turn with the mayor, his Broadway dazzle, his West= | chester mansion, his $25,000 pipe or- | gan, his marriage to Peggy Fears, beau | tiful actress: his whirl of lawsuits, his ain of New England theaters and his Sunday night soirees, at which mingled actors, fighters, promoters, singers, writers, toe dancers and Jim Farley. Never was there a man more given to herding and feeding celebrie ties. I have bought many a bottle of milk or package of breakfast food at his papa’s grocery in San Rafael, near San Francisco. Papa wanted “Blumey™ to be a pianist. & A teacher worked hard for several years, then broke a chain on “Blumey's” head and with~ drew. He went to the University of California in short pants. His yen for celebrities was strong even then. He peeked behind the scenes when Georgs M. Cohan was showing at San Frane cisco and declared himself in &s a sort of a mascot. Everybody liked him. He went along with the show, as the ‘leading juvenile,” but not in the ordinary sense. He was and is so juvenile in appearance that Jimmy , Walker used to threaten to spank him and send him back to school. K Firmly set in long pants, he staréed | dealing in Wes: Coast theaters the | way he now hopes to sell hamburgers, | Properties valued at around $400.000,« {000 have passed through his hands, (Copyright, 1936, that while there are searching ques- | If President Roosevelt should carry tions about Landon, the opposition to = President Roosevelt, even in an agri- cultural State like Idaho, is such that | many independents will vote for Mr. Tandon merely as & protest against the Roosevelt policies and as an in- | surance against the instability of an- other New Deal term. Want High Type Campaign. 1 made inquiries here and found that among independent Republicans and independent Democrats there is A genuine eagerness to know more | about the Landon philosophy. Gen- eralities will hardly do any more than mere negative criticism of Mr. Roose- velt. Thus, notwithstanding all the | eriticism of Mr. Roosevelt, there is a | kindly regard for him, even among those who will vote against him. They | appreciate the fact, as so many ex- | press it, that “he tried to do some- thing.” They will not be swayed by bitter attacks on him. They wantsthe campaign conducted on a higher plane | than mere denunciation. This plainly indicates that Landon has a job of affirmative campaigning %o turn the West. Strangely enough, | many of the topics that the East boils | bver are not mentioned here. The Erlnr‘lml underlying trend, however, | one of fear that the New Deal | Moderate priees. S manship, Fasy credit termas. | CASTELBERG’S 1004 F St. N.W. quoting unheard- GOING OUT OF BUSINESS Only 14 more days of this sale! Time is short! ial trip downtown. to crowd aon extra day’s business 11" prices on Meyers clothing. 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