Show mow k top ie Inter twisted ay WILLIAM washington the most imbor tant news story in washington and throughout the relief country now Is the dolif politics acs ics use of relief funds tor for political purposes it Is not only the most important news at this time but has been the most important and will continue to bo be the most important for or weeks to come this Is so because the amount of money involved Is vast and the number of votes possible to be influenced by that money Is so great the stakes are high and the unscrupulous are going to play for them to the limit of their capacity I 1 think that perhaps the corruption of the harding administration with its shameful oil scandal was more sensational but surely no one condones the present situation any more than the scandals of the earlier malfeasance of office holders in the harding oil affair there was wag perhaps 5 per cent as much money involved few if any votes of private citizens were at stake certainly no votes of persons who through no fault of their own found themselves destitute it was the late thomas walsh montana democratic senator who conducted the earnest fight to purge the country of the crooks at that time and now that the senate again has taken notice of the conditions one cannot help but wonder whether there will be the same high elgh typo type of statesmanship displayed the same courage shown by some republican or democratic senator for the sake of tho the country I 1 hope that no tone will be left unturned by the senate enate investigation which though order ordered ed belatedly and after an irritable reaction from the country nevertheless was ordered by the senate the senate renate deserves no credit for having moved to expose the cond condition J which senator wheeler of montana described as playing politics with human misery it had three chances to show its courage and its statesmanship before it would take hold of what many recognized as a political firebrand it ran from those opportunities in the most cowardly fashion under the lash of new deal leaders in the senate on three occasions I 1 repeat the senate had a chance to assert control over the borrowing spending pen ding lending bill and prevent to some extent the further use of taxpayers money for or electioneering electioneer ing purposes and I 1 repeat ench each time the vote was against inclusion of preventative clauses in that appropriation measure so none can say the credit should go to the senate even though now it promises to uncover facts which anyone with an eye half open knows exist there can bo be no credit to the ad ministration because president roosevelt spoke not a word in behall behalf of use of funds tor for relief and for the removal of politics indeed ho he praised his relief administrator harry ll for publicly backing representative the new deal candidate tor for the senate nomination in iowa mr was well licked by senator gillette an all old line democrat nor did the president tell the senate publicly that he favored a curb on the esq of the money moncy quite the contrary whether the president urged them to do so EO or not his board of strategy the new name for the brain trust put the steam on and mada nanda enough senators voto vote against the amendments to curb politics to insure defeat they even forced senator barkley of kentucky to ta take kethe the floor in favor of the use of money in any way the relief overseers want to use it and senator barkley is seeking in his native kentucky so no credit tor for the move mova to draw back the curtain can possibly be given to th the white eWhIte house or any of the presidents advisors or strategists no credit tor for bringing the situ a tion to the attention of the country can go to the dodged house ot of depre in in house hous it did not even consider tiny any restrictions on the use ot of the tha money when the bill was up tor for passage there the leadership in the house Is controlled by mr roosevelt but even then it was surprising to see such upstanding shooting men like speaker bankhead and majority leader rayburn ot of texas sidle around the hot spot sam rayburn is one of the really splendid men in the house of representatives but he dodged on this thing and it Is not commendable then where must credit be given why did the senate finally take thabit the bit in its teeth and set machinery in motion tor for putting out the fire before adjournment the answer Is that the people back home and that means largely in smaller towns end and in the country finally caught up tip with the fact act that they are being victim lidd they let their feelings become known and with them nearly every newspaper per inthe in the country criticized the senate until the sen ak r to t 4 attrial ears must have burned to 0 a crisp anyway it braul brought ht action st ct 1 n and tor for that the country ought to be thankful it might be well to review the sen en ate action when it ran away from an honest job on the relief appropriation first there was the amend ment by senator hatch democrat new mexico which was to prevent use of relief funds for political purposes by the simple expedient of dismissal tor for the official who had control over such funds second there was the amendment by senator lodge massachusetts republican which would have required a distribution of the relief relict funds on the basis of the number of unemployed in each state and which thereby would have prevented use of vast sums in some states where the political battle might be going against the candidate with a new deal blessing whether the opponent be an old line lind democrat or a re he publican third there was the amendment by senator rush holt democrat of west virginia which merely proposed to make all federal relief officials responsive to civil service laws insofar as political activity was concerned and fourth there was the amendment by senator austin republican vermont which would have made it unlawful for person whose compensation comes from relief funds to solicit or authorize the solicitation of funds as contributions to any political party well as I 1 said the senate ran away from them and it seems to me that any senator who voted against those amendments has a pretty difficult job to explain that vote As much as I 1 admire senator barkley Dar kley the basis of his argument was BO 80 sour that it smelled to high heaven the kentuckian Kentuck lan told the senate that the amendments would destroy senators and give all of the political power into the hands of state political machines which could use that power against senators seeking reelection election re senator barkley is being challenged for in his state and I 1 suppose the matter strikes right close home with him whether senators who voted against those amendments so intended or not what they have done when the picture Is examined an unbiased fashion Is to put the whole roosevelt administration in a ridiculous position it was their action which makes the record show that the whole administration Is willing to let politics run riot in relief it Is against a fair and equitable allocation of money among the states in accordance with the number of unemployed who must be fed As to the phase of conditions back home the word seeps through to wash r n 11 the folks ington that a good bach home many persons who are seeking house or senate nominations against new deal aspirants are finding strong organizations against again st them and tn in favor of the new I 1 deal eal candidate and the full import of that strength comes to mind quickly when one thinks what a hungry person will give up in order to have food senator tydings of maryland Is the sponsor of the move to clean up the mess in relief of course senator tydings while a staunch democrat seldom has done anything to cause the new dealers happiness on the contrary he was marked for liquidation long long ago it Is much better that an outstanding democrat should have proposed the investigation than to have had tho the proposal come from ft a republican had a republican introduced the resolution the thing would have been called political purely but it would have been a move calculated to demonstrate the genuineness of the new deal it if some soma roosevelt per center would have brought up the proposition there Is a great opportunity tor for this new senate committee to serve the country well it can and should go into every report its investigators obtain to learn to what extent taxpayers money Is being employed to influence elections it has an outstanding piece upon which to work at the very start did not mr hopkins horn into the iowa primary and everywhere there was the ques flues tion whether the and other relief workers in lows iowa would not construe the hopkins announcement in behalf of mr as an order for them to support the same man but more important than mr Hop hopkins kiAs this investigation it if it 1 Is seriously made can point the tremendous fallacy and danger of relief relict being administered from washington instead of from the states and the counties where the money I 1 is spent it if the country Is made fully aware of true conditions I 1 believe bellev i there ethere will be changes in the relief methods that will allow more than 60 or 70 cents out of each dollar expended to be used for food and clothing as Is the case now 0 western newspaper union |