Show Round Merry By DREW PEARSON AND ROBERT S. S ALLEN AILEN WASHINGTON WASHINGTON-In In In front of the White House these days a group of about 10 women pace back and forth back and forth They look a little bedraggled a bit weary Over their shoulders are signs which identify them themas as part of the perpetual vigil being staged by the American Peace Mobilization These women may not know it but they are only a small cog in a tremendous propaganda propaganda propaganda ganda machine Behind them and behind other phases of the streamlined lobby now bearing down on Washington is one of the most adroitly maneuvered campaigns the capital has seen in y years The The- lobby against the holding company company company com com- pany act was peanuts in comparison Origin of the campaign was a secret meeting meet meet- ing of the inner command of the America First committee spark-plug spark of the entire isolationist isolation isolation- movement At this meeting America First leaders reported reported re reported re- re ported that Roosevelt was hesitating about convoys convoys convoys con con- voys because of the uncertainty of public senti senti- ment So they decided that the best way t to keep him from acting was to pound him with witha a barrage of hostile demonstrations Mass meetings meetings meetings meet meet- ings street rallies picket lines newspaper advertisements advertisements ad ad- advertisements and especially the mails were tobe tobe to tobe be mobilized for the attack To carry on the campaign large donations were solicited or volunteered from various big industrialists most of them from around Chicago Chi Chi- cago also cago-also also from other sources The committee is not required to file its finances with congress congress congress con con- gress so so 3 the extent of the contributions may never be known But was to be spent on newspaper advertisements alone Opening gun of this carefully planned drive was Lindbergh's speech in Madison Square Garden Later came Herbert Hoovers Hoover's anti- anti convoy broadcast There will be more Big Biff Weapon Is U. U S. S Mail But the chief pressure weapon decided upon was mail mail aimed aimed not at congress but directly at the White House The isolationists wisely concluded that the question of convoys would not be decided by congress but by the dent So he became the chief target of their fire Thus all the speeches rallies picket lines etc are the ballyhoo for the mail drive And they are producing results The White House has said nothing about it but mail has jumped tp to huge proportions in m recent weeks Truckloads are dumped at the executive offices daily most daily most of the letters against convoys As a product by-product a lot of this mail also has been going to congress Roosevelt's Speech Real fact is is that the deluge of letters had a lot to do with the change in Roosevelt's original original inal plan to deliver a Pan-American Pan speech May 14 Close advisers urged him to use the radio to mould public opinion rather than let letan letan an an organized mail campaign mould for foreign ign policy Inside reasons for the subsequent postponement postponement postponement postpone postpone- ment of the speech were 1 He didn't think congress was ready to go along on anything as drastic as convoys and 2 This was one of the biggest decisions to be made by a president of the United States in to years and Roosevelt Roosevelt Roosevelt Roose Roose- velt didn't want to make it without further furthers s study udy B BABs A Bs British Alphabet Bureaus The administrative machinery which Great Britain has set up in Washington to expedite war shipments is becoming almost as bureau- bureau as the new deal and the resemblance doesn't end there The British also have taken to new deal nomenclature the nomenclature the alphabet stuff There are now six different missions and commissions located in as many buildings in on the capital with a total staff of over 1200 of which are American clerks and raphers The agencies are the British admiralty technical technical technical tech tech- mission devoted solely to procuring naval supplies the air commission the merchant shipp shipping ship ship- p ping Ig mission the food mission the purchasing commission and the military mission All are offshoots of a central governing body known as the British supply council We have begun to refer to our different branches alphabetically a la the new deal says affable Leslie Chance of the supply coun coun- cil Its much handier The admiralty mission mission mission mis mis- sion is known as the B BAT A TM M the purchasing commission as the B P C and so on NOTE NOTE NOTE-A A reporter asked Chance how to pronounce his name Suit yourself he grinned In Inthe the south of England they call me and in the north its it's Chance Capital Chaff During the recent uproar over Secretary Frances Perkins' Perkins bungling of defense Strikes Mrs Roosevelt paid her an unexpected visit Visitors heard cries of Eleanor and Fanny as the two prominent ladies embraced Miss Perkins long ago would have been replaced but for the strong support of Mrs Roosevelt Albert W. W Hawkes new U. U S. S chamber of commerce president gets his liberal labor policies policies policies poli poli- cies in part from his background Forced to togo togo togo go to work at 15 as an office boy for a Chicago chemical concern he eventually beame its vice president Most of his formal education was at night school Vice Ex-Vice President Jack Garner Gamer is still using the official stationery supplied supplied sup sup- plied him free while he was in office Washington Washington Wash Wash- ington friends have received letters from the Texan written on letterheads and sent in envelopes envelopes envelopes en en- bearing his former fonner title in embossed printing which was partially scratched out with a pen Distributed by United Feature Syndicate |