Evening Star Newspaper, May 12, 1937, Page 11

THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C. Senate Votes Lined Up on ' Court Farley Is Manipulating State Machines for Victory. BY DAVID LAWRENCE. F ANYBODY had suggested one year ago that political machines dominated by political bosses would some day seek to determine the make-up of the Supreme Court of the United States, it would have been promptly rejected as preposterous and impossible in America Yet today behind the scenes in the many covert ways that political manipulation of State machines is carried on from Washington, the votes of members of .. the Senate are ' being lined up by | pressure from the political bosses back heme. Since the Pres- 4dent launched on February 5 his proposal to *“pack” the Su- preme Court Postmaster Gen- eral Farley, who is also chairman of the Demo- i cratic National Committee, has been making trips to various States and has kept in touch with the men who are most influential with the Democratic Senators in Washington. By various devices a national polit- ical machine which has done favors for the local political bosses through the allotment of Government funds can bring to bear pressure on legisla- tors here. McReynolds Due for Post. Perhaps the most interesting evi- dence of the alertness of the New Deal machine to the importance of getting votes for the court bill spon- sored by the President was the appointment of Maj. Berry to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Sena- tor Bachman of Tennessee. Logically the position should have gone to Rep- resentative McReynolds of Tennessee, ‘who is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. ~ Gov. Gordon Browning of Tennessee visited Wash- ington and talked with President Roosevelt before he announced the appointment of Maj. Berry. Mr. Backman was one of those who leaned toward the opposition side of the court debate while Mr. Berry is outspoken for the President's plan. Thus the New Deal has gained one vote. Under other circumstances, in the wicked old days when State Legisla- tures used to elect United States Sen- ators and when improper influences ‘were brought to bear to elect them, there would have been a hue and cry it the President of the United States or any member of his cabinet had taken the liberty of even discussing the selection by a State of its United States Senator. Today the intervention by the Chief Executive in Washington can, with- out exciting more than a ripple of eriticism, extend not only to discus- sion of prospective appointees with Governors but actually to the opera- tions of the Farley machines, which today are arranging to put up candi- dates m the Democratic primaries next year to battle against those Dem- ocratic Senators who have the temer- #ty to vote against the proposal to *“pack” the Supreme Court. Prepare to Pack “Senate.” ‘What is happening before the eyes of the country is the activity of polit- ical machines preparing to “pack” the Senate of the United States next year, especially in those States where the results of Democratic prfmaries are equivalent to an election. The big- gest weapon, of course, of these polit- jcal machinés is the support they get from the National Government in the allocation of public funds to be spent in their respective districts. Almost without exception the polit- 3cal bosses in the big cities which dominate the electoral vote of a given State and likewise who hold the bal- ance of power in State primaries are on excellent terms with the Farley management of the Democratic party. These working alliances have made 8 possible for the chairman of the Democratic National Committee to meke another prophecy — namely, that he has the votes to put through the President’s proposal. On the surface it has seemed that the oppo- sition to the packing of the court ‘was making real headway and that it might have a margin of five or six votes, but when Mr. Farley says he *“has the votes” most everybody who & familiar with the practical politics of the situation is inclined to believe that Mr, Farley knows whereof he speaks. Political Lobby Powerful. It is not surprising that Mr. Farley has the votes, but what is surprising is that few people in America care enough about the way the Farley ma- chines get the votes to insist that the Congress of the United States find out how & number of its members are being influenced, if not coerced, in the exercise of their legislative functions. David Lawrence. Paint your porch fumiture with Im- pervo Water proof enamel. $1.50 uart. 322N. Y. Ave., National 8610 ==t ‘The heating system that air = conditions it heats! Let us give you the facts! NORGE ENGINEERING CO. 1223 Eye St. N.W. Dlistrict 5505 A It News Behind the News Supreme Court Reorganization Now Lacks Original Roosevelt Drive. BY PAUL MALLON, ! RUMOR is abroad that Congress adjourned several weeks ago, when the President went fishing. That is what might be called officially an inaccuracy, but it is nevertheless just about true. ‘When President Roosevelt returns, he will learn the biggest thing that has happened in his absence was the capture by Representae tive S8am McReynolds of Tennessee of & 45-pound channel bass (don't ask an audit on the poundage). It is also true that a couple of the legislators nearly balanced the budget in the fifth race at Pimlico the other day, but failed sensationally by a nose. Outside these two developments, the stillness in Congress has been sufficiently sweeping to cause a major White House problem. The unobserved fact is the leaders have cleaned up their legis- lative calendars of most bills that do not impose additional costs on the Treasury, except Supreme Court packing and Government re- organization. Now it is up to Mr. R. to decide whether he wants to reel in or let out line on the budget, and the leaders will not move until they hear from him directly and specifically on each bill, Note—The Supreme Court packing drive now lacks any semblance of the drive which Mr. Roosevelt personally gave it at first. Some good Judges of opinion in the Senate and House doubt that he could get two additional justices in a vote today. What vim he will put into it, if any, remains to be seen. * % x % Two Prophecies on Berry. Senators have become so accustomed to sensational turns of events they have even stopped talking now about the sudden turn in the career of the new Senator, George Berry of Tennessee. Within a week, he was raised in the public eye from co-ordinator for non-existent industrial co-operation and claimant for around a million and & half dollars from T. V. A. to a seat in the Senate from Tennessee. The only answer now authoritatively available for the Berry appoint= ment involves two prophecies. One is that Gov. Gordon Browning of Tennessee, who made the appointment, will run for Berry’s Senate seat in 1938. Another is that Gov. Browning will become one of the few Governors in the country now enjoying Federal patronage in his State. These two prophecies are as sure as anything ever is in Washington, but, if you want a third specula- tive guess to round out the picture, it is that the T. V. A. claim dispute may be lost somewhere in the shuffle. * ok %k X Sugar Procedure Tedious. ‘The sugar question is hot, and nearly every one who has touched it here is more or less personally acquainted now with the chemical reaction which takes place when sugar warms up. This includes two cabinet members, Agriculture Secretary Wallace and State Secretary Hull, half a dozen lobbyist organizations working at croes purposes, and the House Agriculture Committee, which is over its collar in difficulty. The latest inside development is supposed to be that Mr. Wallace has informed Chairman Jones of the House Committee that the administration is inclined to scrap all sugar legislation rather than take the bill drawn by the subcommittee. If this were officially made public, it might create a roar in domestic cane, beet and refining quarters, whence the ideas for the bill came. The only thing sure is that Jones is trying to work out something which will appease Messrs. Wallace and Hull as well as the domestic interests. It will be a tedious procedure, the outcome of which is yet in doubt. * x x x Distinguished Discomfort. If Pennsylvania’s Senator Guffey did not have such a good reputation as a host, he would probably have walked home from Louisville. Guffey invited con- gressional friends to the Derby, with Vice President Garner as the guest of honor. En route, nothing could have been more perfect. Board and lodging, to use a broadly de- scriptive phrase, were splendid. In Louisville, a special bus met the party and all reached Churchill Downs in the finest of fettle. After the Derby the group returned to the bus: that is, all except Guffey. His guests waited and waited. It was stufly and un= comfortable in the bus. More than an hour passed. If the absentee had been any one except the host—uwell, the procedure would have been more simple. Finally word got to the bus that Mr. Guffey was calling on a nearby telephone. Where had they been? Blankety, blank, where had he been? Oh, that was different. He had forgotten where the bus would be and went directly to the station. (Copyright, 1937.) q'H necessarily The Star’s. E opinions of the writers on this page are their own, not Such opinions are presented in The Star’s effort to give all sides of questions of interest to its readers, although such opinions mu% be contradictory among themselves and directly opposed to T e Star’s. British Remarkable Race Coronation Reminder of Great Obstacles, as BY DOROTHY THOMPSON. ¢ ONSIDER _the English,” said the Grouse, from be- hind the breakfast news- paper. “A most remark- able people. A nation, it is said, of shopkeepers. Producers of cotton tex- tiles, woolen goods, coal, chinaware, the best men's clothes and worst ‘women's, dealers in money, sharp # traders, the an- cestors of qur own Yankees, who dealt in slaves and went to war to free them. Inhabiters of rows and rows of dingy little brick villas, each with a hedge to shield him from his neighbors. Prosaic and shrewd. Noted for common sense and a philosophy glorifying self- interest. Also noted for a love of na- ture, a passion for poetry and the world’s largest and best production of it. By and large a dull people, with a positive dislike of intellect. Yet pro- ducing intellectual giants. Haters of war, who have indulged in as much of it as any race on earth. And at pres- ent engaged in a most amazing cir- cus.” “I presume you are referring to the coronation.” “The coronation is the world’s great- est circus. With even the audience rehearsing. Voluntarily. Nobody makes 'em. Bishops and the arch- bishop; copes and scarlet; choir boys in blue coats and red stockings; foun- tains spraying. perfume; eighteenth century coaches; King with 5 pounds of jewels on his head, and peers crowning themselves all around him. The whole world agog over a young man who six months ago was just a young rentier. Pomp and circum- stance, with every one who manu- factures or trades or has a room to rent raking in the shillings thriftily. “And,” continued the Grouse, “all this happening in a political democ- racy, where a king is shuffied off a throne most speedily and competently because a nation doesn’t aprove of his girl friend; where 44 per cent of the population call themselves Socialists and all except the Communists support the monarchy; where the Communist Deputy arises in the House of Com- mons to add his memorial to the trib- ute for Austen Chamberlain, Tory of Tories; where every man is fanatically Jjealous of his personal political opin- ion and his individual rights, and yet, in a showdown, always thinks and acts like an Englishman.” Difficult Question. “And what, I ask you, does it mean to think and act like an Englishman?” “A difficult question. Those who hate the British—and they are not in- numerous, because Britain is power- ful and strange—say it means to be a hypocrite. The French, a highly log- Dorothy Thombpson. ical people, who admire the British, | Achievements in Face of Seen by the Grouse. great generosity and as though she al- ways intended to do it anyway. The British know, too, how to change the content and preserve the form. The crown, like our own Supreme Court, is a symbol of tradition and continuity in government. And, apropos the Supreme Court, if President Roose- velt was more English and less Dutch, he would also know when to give in. He'd be pleased as Punch if a couple of resignations, or a switch of & vote accomplished his main purpose while preserving the traditional procedure. He would make the most gracious gesture. ok X % “The English have ingrained in them two other things: Respect for personality and a deep, probably un- consclous sense of legitimacy in gove ernment. You can make any kind of change you like in government, provided you make it inside estab- lished principles. That's what legiti- mate government is. And the crown is the symbol of that legitimacy. And because they feel this so deeply there has been only one revolution in Eng- land in a thousand years and that ended in restoration and compromise, Impressive Cathedral Window. “There & window in an English cathedral—Winchester, I think— that seems to me as expressive as anything in England of the British. It was a great window, storied and painted, and Cromwell’s soldiers smashed it to bits. And after the soldiers had gone the people picked up the pieces and put them back again. There's hardly & piece of glass as big as your hand, and the picture which was there could never be restored, but they saved every inch of the glass.” The Grouse laid downs the news- paper. “It amuses me,” he said, “to imagine what England would be like if they ever established communism. I can see the London Times. There would be the court calendar, with the words, ‘Comrade, His Majesty the King was pleased to receive today.’ And certainly some comrade would write in from Great or Little Snoring to express his surprise that another comrade had discovered a cuckoo singing earlier than a lark.” “It all sounds a little mad.” “It does, indeed,” said the Grouse. “And the Mad Hatter was an Eng- lishman, the March Hare an Eng- lish beast and Alice in Wonderland remains the favorite English classic. ‘The greatest poem any Englishman has written to English nationalism occurs in Rachard II, and there's nothing in it about power or empire. Instead, it is an ode to ‘this happy breed of men, this little world!” The English are, I conclude, & remarkable people, and though slightly mad, there is certainly method in that (Copyright, 1937.) Last session much was heard about lobbying by special interests, but not a word is heard this session about the most powerful lobby that was ever let loose on the United States Senate— the lobby of political pressure en- gineered by the political bosses and their allies in Washington, the office- holders and partisans. Maybe there will be satisfaction and joy to the New Deal if it does triumph with the court plan. But more vic- tories of that kind will in the not dis- tant future spell the end of repre- sentative government as it used to be known before the Federal Government by the use of public funds and public offices became the most powerful lob- bying agency ever in 150 years to ap- ply pressure to the Congress of the United States. (Copyright. 1937.) but are baffled by them, say that it | means not to think at all, but to move around muggily by intuition” “Now that is an odd thought.” “Think it over. Britain has held to- gether a huge amorphous empire, not | altogether by kind words and coronets. Oh, no; a lot of force has been em- ployed. But just the same, whenever | the point comes that it's give in or| suffer severe losses, Britain gives in, WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, 1937. ¥ A1l This Changing World Coronation Overshadowing All Other Political Matters in Europe. BY CONSTANTINE BROWN, TH! coronation festivities are overshadowing, for the time being, all other matters in Europe. This is true at least as far as the newspapers are concerned. ‘There is more spectacular printing matter in what the King, the dukes and the exotic potentates who have gathered in London to congratulate King George VI upon his anointing as King-Emperor, than in the secret conversations between Mussolini-Hitler-Goering, or the increasing financial snd social troubles of the Blum government in Paris. * ok % ‘There has been a certain amount of criticism on the part of British labor leaders against the extravagant ceremonial of the coronation. They argue that in these days of politi- cal, economic and social disturb- ance, the coronation of the King should have been less spectacular and more in keeping with hard times. This criticism would be correct, if there were not a commercial motive behind these festivities. Governments in our days keep an eye on any conceivable source of income and are endeavoring to help business in their countries the best they can. According to newspaper reports the coronation will bring to the London merchants, hotel keepers, etc., no less than $250,000,000. This means a handsome profit for the busi- ness world and also an increased income to the treasury through taxes and supertaxes. Governments which are not fortunate enough to have corona- tion festivities are organizing international expositions, bringing out new issues of stamps almost every month (a very profitable racket) and so forth. * ok X % Years ago, when the world was somewhat different, such goings on would have been considered as undignified for the government of an impor- tant state. There was a kind of snobbery on the part of governments not to stoop to such methods to increase the national income. Now it's & ques- tion of covering part of the deficit and any method is good enough for that. While Great Britain is celebrating, the “villain,” like n the old melodramas, is agitating, moving Heaven and earth to disturb the happiness of the bride. The “villain” in the European melodrama is Mussolini. In fact, T Duce does not want to create any disturbance in Europe. He is just worried lest Britain, when her rearmament program is completed, try to prevent the natural expansion of the Italian Empire in the Mediterranean. * x x % It is for this reason that the celebrations in Italy are of a more sober character and the various government offices, including Mus- solini’s Palazzo Venezia are work- ing until the small hours. ‘The fighting forces are work- ing overtime. In conjunction with this, the diplomatic activities of Mussolini are going full speed ahead. Mussolini is afraid of Great Britain and intends to check- mate her by a powerful political combination which he is endeavoring to build around the Berlin-Rome axis. Yugoslavia, Hungary and Austria are already lined up; the latter two states are fully prepared to support their protectors with all their might; the former is ready to remain a disinterested spectator and a purveyor of food and raw materials in the event of another confla- gration. Mussolini is now endeavoring to bring Rumania into line. The German and Italian diplomacy is applying tremendous pressure . to the Rumanian government to detach that country from the French. * This task is assisted by the uncertain political and social situation In France. The reappearance of financial difficulties and the new exhorbitant demands of the French labor unions make the position of the Blum govern- ment somewhat precarious. It is not the politicians this time who are undermining the administration, but the people who brought it into office. * ox % % According to Rome reports, Mussolini shortly will accompany King Victor Emanuel on a tour to Belgrade, Budapest, Vienna and Berlin. This visit, Mussolini’s first outside the territorial limits of the empire, is symbolic of the new era of Italian power. * ok % Ambassador William Phillips is doing his job the best he can under present circumstances. He is popular in Rome, especially with I1 Duce, who receives him frequently at the Palazzo Venezia and inquires with solicitude about President Roosevelt’s health and Mr. Phillipe’ personal views on Italy's climatic conditions. (Copyright, 1937.) Headline Folk and What They Do Rosendahl, Authority on Dirigible Disasters, From Texas. Due to absence of Lemeul F. Parton members of the Consolie dated Press contribute this column, MPORTANT witness in the Gov- ernment inquiry concerning the Hindenburg tragedy, Comdr, Charles E. Rosendahl, U. 8. N, took the witness chair as well qualified as any man in the world to speculate with authority concerning possible causes of the disaster. Long recognized in the service as its most competent and advised authority, practical and theoretical, on lighter - than - air flying, Comdr. Rosendahl came into international prominence through the loss of the ill-fated dirigible Shenane doah,in which he was the senior surviving officer, with a mortality o list of 14 killed i out of 43 on board. Rosendahl Comdr, As in the case of the Hindenburg, so with the Shene andoah and subsequently with the Akron, lost in 1933 off the New Jersey Coast, Comdr. Rosendahl’s testimony was technically interesting and as valuable as testimony can be when actual causes are hidden, as they are always likely to be in disasters in- volving machines and contrivances still in a state of experimental infancy. Of Swedish descent, he was born In Chicago. His father, a railroad man, removed the family to Cle- burn, Tex., in 1906, and it was from this State that young Rosendahl was appointed to the Naval Academy in 1910. His assiduous attention to studies, his scholastic standing marked him down among his classmates as “a boner;” but “boner” though he might be, his love of action was equal to his scholastic enthusiasm. So it was that, as a teacher in the Naval Academy in 1922, he volunteered for training in dirigible navigation at Lakehurst. He rode the first Zeppelin, subse« quently the Los Angeles, across the Atlantic, and since then his activities, not only as a practical aerial navigator, but as a spirited advocate of lighter than-air craft, in print, on platform and in legislative chambers, have been ‘unceasing. (Copyright, 1937.) Soviet Farm Credits. 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