Thursday, August 26, 1937
THE HERMISTON HERALD, HERMISTON, OREGON.
Washington
Digest j j
National Topics Interpreted JtfRrafjw
By W IL L IA M BRUCKART ' ■ W
Scenes and Persons in the Current News
IDllit
iS.VJolb
about
Japs Killing Chinamen
ANTA MONICA, CALIF.—
NATIONAL PRESS BLOG
WASHINGTON, D C
The formula still holds good.
A Jap kills a Chinaman. That’s
Washington. — Some years ago, minimum of effort. In consequence,
when New England's sharp-tongued there has been some very bad legis another dead Chinaman. A
George H. Moses lation and congress is now wholly to Chinaman kills a Jap. That’s a
war.
Like
Bat ¡n the presid- blame for it.
ing officer's chair
as president pro
tempore of the senate, I used to
marvel at the speed with which he
got rid of legislation. The Repub
licans were in control of the senate.
The late Senator Charles Curtis of
Kansas was the Republican leader.
Between the astute Curtis and the
nimble-witted Moses, the senate
many times really ran in high gear.
To me, it was reminiscent of the
old days, therefore, when I watched
Vice President “Jack” Garner op
erate in the senate the other day to
get the judiciary reform bill through
that body without permitting a del
uge of debate. I think Mr. Garner
performed on that occasion with
even greater finesse than did Sena
tor Moses because Mr. Gamer did
not wait for cues from the floor of
the senate; he simply took charge
and, knowing what the job was, saw
to it that things were accomplished
in record time.
But the significance of this inci
dent should not be overlooked. It
was noteworthy, of course, that the
senate should pass the court bill and
send it to the house in a total of
six hours. It was noteworthy that
the Vice President established a
precedent by granting permission to
senators to include in the Congres
sional Record speeches they would
have made if the debate had been
prolonged. And yet it was the im
plication of the senate action that
seems to me to be the most impor
tant phase of that situation.
The way I see the picture is this:
The ease with which that bill was
put through demonstrates that those
who opposed the original bill to add
six new justices to the Supreme
court were objecting only to the
court packing and not to the re
forms in procedure.
The bill as it becomes law pro
vides for a number of changes in
court procedure to the end that ad
judication of controversy can be ac
complished much more quickly than
has been the case in the past. It
does not include any addition to the
membership of the Supreme court
and it does not include any provi
sion for sending hand-picked judges
into the various circuits and dis
tricts as the White House and the
Department of Justice may decide.
In other words, the new law leaves
the Judiciary system independent
and again establishes it as a co
ordinate branch of the government,
equal in all respects to the legisla
tive, which is congress, and the ex
ecutive, which is the President and
the executive departments. There
can be no doubt that this piece of
legislation is worthwhile although to
the layman the benefits may not
immediately appear. It must be re
garded, however, simply as a piece
of legislation that cuts much legal
red tape and those who must avail
themselves of the courts or those
who are forced under jurisdiction
of courts will come more nearly
obtaining justice than heretofore.
I have said in these columns be
fore that when the senate refused to
accept the President’s orders and
pass legislation that would permit
him to appoint six new justices to
the Supreme court at one time, the
President suffered one of the worst
political defeats he has ever en
countered. He probably will never
meet with another such disastrous
setback.
It was obvious to the vast major
ity of senators and representatives
and to observers here within six
weeks after Mr. Roosevelt submit
ted the court packing bill that he
could not force it through. He re
fused nevertheless to admit defeat.
In consequence, it took nearly six
months of bitter and futile wran
gling in the senate to convince the
President that he was on the wrong
side of the question as far as public
sentiment was concerned.
So, congress has wasted nearly
all of the 1937 session on a proposi
tion for which it was not respon
sible.
It may be said that congress
should remain in session under
those circumstances and give all of
the time that is necessary to delib
eration of measures before it. Yet,
facts must be faced. One of these
facts is that through all of the
months prior to adjournment scores
of members were wearing them
selves down fighting against a prop
osition with which they could not
agree. In the meantime, Washing
ton’s summer settled down. Wash
ington’s summer is a completely hot
and humid summer. Most of the
members of the senate and house
are no longer boys of college age.
They cannot withstand the physical
rigors of heavy work under weather
conditions that prevail in a Wash
ington summer. Thus it is not
strange at all that as July passed
and August wore on, most of the
members wanted to go to places
more comfortable than the Capital
city and that constituted a terrific
urge to get rid of whatever legisla
tion was before them with the very
Old Time»
A friend of mine, a well-known
doctor, who is not a politician,
k n o w s nothing
New York’» about politics—a
man, in short,
Fight
who m i n d s his
own business and tries to do the
best job of which he is capable,
asked me a question the other day
that precipitated this discussion. He
asked me why the newspapers
throughout the country were giving
so much space, front page space at
that, to the political fight over the
Democratic nomination for mayor
in New York.
My doctor friend observed that
which is true, namely, that the may
or of New York is only mayor of
that city and has no jurisdiction or
power anywhere else; he observed
as well that New York City is sim
ply a subdivision of the state of
New York and that New York state
is only one state out of forty-eight
in our nation. Further, he sug
gested that he, and he believed mil
lions of others, could not possibly
have any interest in whether
Tammany or the New Deal faction
of Democrats in New York City
should win the nomination and their
mayoralty candidate.
Superficially, the doctor was
right. His thoughts, however, do
not touch the root of that situation.
Fundamentally, the battle between
Tammany and the Democrats in
New York is a battle between the
old line, conservative Democrats
throughout the nation and the New
Deal faction of the party which is
headed by President Roosevelt. It
is vitally important also to the Re
publicans for the reason that the
Presidential election of 1940 is al
most certain to be a campaign in
which we will find conservatives
from whatever party aligned on one
hand and radicals from whatever
party aligned on the other side. To
that extent, the New York primary
and mayoralty election is the begin
ning of the 1940 presidential cam
paign.
The bitterness that is going to pre
vail from here on has been given
something of a preview by the
charge by Senator Copeland, the
Tammany candidate, that President
Roosevelt was interfering in a pure
ly local fight. Senator Copeland’s
activities in the senate have been
almost wholly antagonistic to the
President and the New Deal gener
ally. Where the President has been
sound, as the conservatives recog
nize sound policies, Senator Cope
land has fought alongside of the
New Dealers. Otherwise, he has
not concealed his opposition to rad
ical New Deal proposals.
Thus, when Senator Copeland
broke openly and accused the Pres
ident of stooping to local politics,
he opened the way for conserva
tives everywhere to strike back at
the political machine managed by
Postmaster General Jim Farley in
Mr. Roosevelt’s behalf. As one
house member suggested: “Senator
Copeland has put fire into the fight.”
The selection of Senator Copeland
by the famous Tammany organiza
tion in New York City was the sig
nal for the New Deal faction of the
great city to take off their coats.
They promptly announced selection
of New York Supreme Court Justice
Mahoney as their candidate against
Copeland. There are four burrough
organizations
behind Mahoney.
There is only the Tammany group
behind Copeland. On the face of
it, it would seem that the senator
cannot win. The fact seems to be,
however, that there will be a rather
close race for the reason that some
of the four organizations behind Ma
honey may not be able to control
the Democratic votes in their baili
wicks as entirely as Tammany Hall
will control Democrats so long af
filiated with that organization. Cer
tainly, according to the best advices
I can get, the Copeland charge
against Mr. Roosevelt is likely to
swing a good many Democrats to
the Copeland ticket. This will be so
because New York City always has
resented outside influences in its
political battles. Senator Copeland
can be counted upon as well to
broaden the charge so that Mr. Far
ley’s tentacles in New York City
politics where he has long been ac
tive will be made to appear like the
strangling, crushing arms of an oc
topus. In other words, the conserv
atives who are supporting Copeland
will not let the charge of interfer
ence by the President become of
less consequence any time it is re
told.
True, Secretary Marvin McIntyre
of the White House staff denied that
the President had talked politics
with the Mahoney leaders. But the
denial was not accepted by Cope
land as being sincere, for he added:
“I am not afraid of Mr. Roose
velt’s reprisals. The President en
joys a great personal popularity, but
his political popularity is swiftly dis
appearing.”
• Wntern Newspaper Union.
S
But before we get too busy de
ploring Japan’s little way of disre-
garding pledges so as
I to gobble more Chi
nese territory let us
look at some records
closer home. Since
the republic was
formed we have de
liberately broken 264
separate treaties with
the original Red own
ers of this land.
From these viola
tions of our solemn
promises border wars Irvin S. Cobb
frequently ensued.
When the Indians started fighting we
called it an uprising. When we sent
troops forth to slaughter the Indians
it was a punitive expedition to re
store law and order. If the white
soldiers wiped out the Indians that
was a battle. If the Indians wiped
out the soldiers that was a massa
cre.
Those who make history rarely
get a square deal from those who
write history.
• • •
Keeping Undercover.
HIS is the land where, in self
protection, you hide your place
of residence and have your tele
phone privately listed. The result
is, if your aged grandmother hap
pens along and doesn’t know your
address, she can never reach you,
but any smart stranger may ap
proach the right party—let us call
him a ’phone-legger—and, by pay
ment of a small fee, get the number
instantly.
So, in about two calls out of three,
you answer the ring to find at the
other end of the line somebody with
a neat little scheme, because here
in movieland neat little schemes
grow on every bush and gentlemen
promoting them are equally numer
ous.
Through long suffering, I’ve be
come hardened to this, but today
over the wire came a winning voice
saying the speaker desired to give
me, as he put it, “ a checking over
for white termites.”
I admit to t. touch of dandruff and
there have been times when I sus
pected fleas—we excel in fleas on
this coast—but I resent the idea of
also being infested with white ter
mites.
I’ve about decided that, to mod
I em tivilization, telephones are what
cooties are to a war—nobody likes
’em, but everybody has ’em.
I
• « •
Camera Sniping.
napshooting of famous folks
from ambush may be upsetting
to the victims of the sniping, but
the subscribing public certainly gets
an illuminating eyeful every time
one of the photographic magazines
appears.
I’ve just laid aside the current
copy of a periodical which could be
called either "The Weekly Expose”
or “Stop, Look and Laugh.” Among
other fascinating, not to say illusion-
ing, illustrations, I note the follow
ing:
A reigning movie queen with her
mouth so wide open that her face
looked like a “gates ajar” design.
If I had tonsils like hers, I’d have
’em right out.
A political idol taken in a brief
one-piece bathing suit. Next time
they snap him, he would be well
advised to wear more than a mere
g-string. A Mother Hubbard would
be better. Or, anyhow, a toga. A
statesman is greatly handicapped
when he suggests a barrel of leaf-
lard with the staves knocked out.
A close-up of Mr. John L. Lewis
with the lips pouting out and a con
gested expression. Would not this
tend to confirm the impression that
lately Mr. Lewis bit off more than
he could chew?
This candid camera stuff is trans
lating into the pictorial fact the
nightmare all of us have had—that
horrid dream of being caught out
doors with practically nothing cn.
1—Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia of New York shaking hands with Thomas E. Dewey, the young racket-
smashing special prosecutor who is running-mate as candidate for district attorney on the Republican ticket
with the mayor. 2—Panoramic view of Shanghai’s famous Bund which was rocked by explosions of bombs
during the attack on the city by Japanese troops. 3—James Mattern (left), famed airman who flew from
California to Alaska to join in the search for lost Russian polar flyers, shown conferring with his navigator.
Robert Ballard Is Soapbox Derby Champ
POWER PLUS
Robert Ballard, twelve, of White Plains, N. Y., smiles as he receives
the International Soapbox Derby championship trophy from Felix Doran,
an official of the race. The contest, held at Akron, Ohio, was attended by a
record crowd of more than 100,000. A handsome cash prize and a scholar
ship to college when he is old enough were the rewards for Robert’s skill
in piloting his soapbox vehicle.
Although her skill and technique
deserve full credit for Jadwiga Jad-
rejowska’s recent victory over Alice
Marble, American tennis champion,
in the tennis finals at Rye, N. Y.,
the power and determination of the
Polish star, demonstrated graphi
cally in this picture, were the major
weapons in her armament. Here,
too, is evidence of the great stamina
that enables Jadwiga to maintain a
killing pace in the pinches.
T
S
Field Days for Reds.
f TNDER the warming suns of tol-
erance and indifference and
even tacit encouragement in cer
tain quarters, many of our hot
house communists are changing
from the pallid, timorous flowerle's
of discontent into full-blown advo
cates of the glad new age when
Lenin will take over Lincoln's niche
in the gallery of the immortals and
government everywhere will be of
the Trotskys, but the Trotskys, for
the Trotskys.
True, there still remain some
wavering souls who are so pink
they'd be red if they weren’t so yel
low I
But these quivering aspens shrink
In number as their bolder comrades
openly profess the blessed doctrine
which is doing so much for the un
dertaking business in Russia.
IRVTN S. COBB.
®— WNV S erv ice.
ENVOY TO ERIN
Here’s ä Brand New English Custom
John Cudahy, newly appointed
minister to the Irish Free State, is
shown as he sailed aboard the liner
Manhattan to take up his ministerial
duties. Until recently he was the
minister to Poland.
A sign of the times in Old England is this photograph, made during
Chatham Navy week, which gives you an idea of the extent to which
Europe is suffering from war jitters. The oilskinned gents at left are
members of a “decontamination squad,” who are rehearsing the duty
j they hope they’ll never have to do—mopping up after a gas attack.
$40,000 Hambletonian Stakes to “Shirley Hanover”
First heat of the >40,000 Hambletonian stakes run recently at Goshen, N. Y., is pictured above with Twi
light Song leading the field around one of the turns. An outsider, Shirley Hanover, owned by Lawrence Shep
pard, upset the dope and won both heats to capture the coveted prize.