Show distillers are called to task violations of law will mean alean suspension of license stirred b by Y hiring hariu b of mor morgan moran an by EARL GODWIN ASHINGTON not long W washington ago a group of distillers which maintains at washington an organized conscience of the same sort will hays operates for the motion picture industry thong thought ht it would be good business to employ s some ome one high up in the administration so that whiskey would have an influential representative with the government this is a very old idea and while it works now a and then it work as well or as often as it did once upon a time this group of distillers employed forbes morgan uncle of mrs franklin D roosevelt an and d at the time the treasurer of the democratic national comm committee attee the whiskey business contracted to pay mr morgan a year for five years and put the money in in escrow shortly thereafter wilford S alexander chief of the federal alcohol control board called in in about fifty of the leading whiskey men of the country and read them an old fashioned lecou lecture re it was more or less a distinct notice to the whiskey business that some of its distinguished leaders had been edging closer and closer to violation of the law some of them have been stepping across the dividing line hereafter said he instead of writing letters to lawbreaking law breaking distillers or anyone else in the business when laws and regulations are violated licenses will be suspended the fact that the whiskey business had hired a lobbyist right out of the roosevelt family is responsible for this stiff necked attitude which goes to prove that the one way to have the government get tough under this administration is to try to make the path easy by this particular method the administration responsible in large measure for repeal is growing aware daily of the tremendous loss of life from drunken driving is aware of the increase in drinking among women and has had an official eye on many of the most obnoxious of the liquor ads through the advice of some of its wiser heads the whiskey business is toning down its advertising it does not use the radio for that purpose and is reported to be keeping whiskey advertising out of sunday papers however it seems to have wasted for the five year services of a former number one democrat if it thinks it can get any favors from this administration there are plenty of fine things that mr morgan can do for the distillers or anyone else who employs him but just at the moment the administration seems to have given orders to be just as tough as possible with the whiskey and allied businesses just to show all and sundry that you cannot buy your way into the roosevelt circle of influence 0 let the politicians ravel rave already talking about who will be president in 1941 the conversation if analyzed is really based on the democratic choice for a nominee at the party convention in 1940 because it would be worse than foolish to try to dope out a republican choice and who knows there is always a chance of a third party again although third parties have yet to demonstrate that they can draw a vote large enough to make a dent political sharps drew a quick breath one morning recently when a news newspaper poll reported postmaster general farley as the best choice for democratic nominee and president next term dont take that too seriously in the first place mr Far parleys leys deep seated conviction is that the present cabinet should contain no man who is an avowed candidate for the job one reason why paul mcnutt is in the philippine islands right now instead of in the cabinet as secretary of war the democratic national committee is definitely opposed to nominating anyone not a lifelong democrat this would bar ickes and wallace these two cabinet members members are not democrats of the old school wallace was and as tar far as I 1 know still is a republican harold ickes was a bull from the old T R days and has only recently qualified as a democrat by being a delegate at large from illinois at the 1932 democratic national convention there are several united states senators who could slip the leash and rush out for the presidency now if it were not political suicide to do so at this early date yet the same poll which turned with farley as the potential peoples choice did not mention a single senator except far down among th the also rans the senator who gives powerful indications of running for the job now is Burton Burion JC wheeler of montana sudden dynamic toe foe of the presidents supreme court plan two governors in the headlines who gain ephemeral notice as pos ties for 1941 are murphy of michigan and earle of Perin pennsyl syl vania of earle I 1 have written previously sly he is the son of the ultra rich suddenly eniy gone democratic and to the left wing at that III his pennsylvania success is due largely to solid support from the labor ranks murphy has almost the same story to tell in in michigan but there is no assurance that the labor strength will be the same three years hence in fact no one can predict the political outcome of the present labor upset president roosevelt himself is the unspoken choice of most of top democrats here he has indicated his firm desire to retire and the idea of a third term is comet something hing the average american repulses but the politicians who have won with roosevelt in three national elections the first presidential the midterm congressional and this recent landslide seem to think there is no one else in the country the wagner act gives federal guarantee to workers that they be represented for collective bargaining by any union of their choice this is purely democratic workers in any shop vote whether they want to join a union or not and what union shortly after it was signed by the president in the spring of 1935 a committee of fifty eight power trust and other corporation attorneys met as the vigilance committee of the liberty league and instructed the public and inferentially the supreme court that the law was plainly unconstitutional and a departure from the american way of life on this thesis the president was assailed and assaulted during the remaining months until election as someone who was tearing in g down american standards boring holes in the constitution and all the rest of the heavy artillery that made so much noise and so few hits also as a result of the vigilance com committees mit tees completely fallacious prophecy the supreme court having now upheld the act in five cases many attorneys and one large manufacturers facture rs association advised clients to disregard the law several large corporations and employers followed this advice this resulted in in a lawlessness by certain industrial leaders far more reprehensible in my opinion than the local trespass of the workmen in the sit down domm strikes this disregard of law by leaders of industry big men in their walks of life is one of the circumstances which angered the labor leaders to the point where they have perfected the strike as a coercing weapon the supreme courts right about face which resulted in the five on the wagner act does not settle all the labor problems nor does it reach the administrations objectives which included not alone the right of collective bargaining and union joining but also federal control over hours and wages to see that there is a federal standard of wages and a limit to the hours men and women must work the administration m ini is also determined to wipe out the form of slavery known as child labor in factories the court so far has not peeped on these phases hence the wary new dealer will not heed the plea of the tired crusader who wants to stop now the court must be rejuvenate ed and given a permanent and unmistakable enlightened view not merely a freak five to four combination which depends upon the legalistic whim of a si single riffle member the great flip flo flop p of the court was its acceptance of the idea that goods manufactured in any ordinary factory are in interstate commerce and hence subject to federal supervision through the constitutions interstate ter state commerce clause the old horse and buggy doctrine w which h I 1 c h knocked out the the and caused all this hullabaloo about a new court was that factory goods were not in interstate commerce and did not come under the interstate commerce clause until they were actually rolling along in a freight car it must be recalled that all these discussions leave agriculture and farming out of the picture entirely the supreme court has not yet moved from its position that agriculture is purely local thus makin making 9 it legally awkward and almost impossible for the federal government to use its whole power directly for farm aid in an emergency at least it was that AAA case which aroused the liberal minority of the court to heights of well mannered sarcasm at the conservatism of the majority but as yet the court cour has thas not changed its view one reason is that no case involving the question has reached them and if it did who knows whether or not the court would again deprive farming of federal power to aid 0 one ne more reason why the administration lead ers want the presidents court plan enacted while it is losev Roosevel alts ts desire to reduce the growing tendency toward farm tenancy congress takes a hard boiled attitude which threatens to wreck the administrations plans to lend money to the underprivileged farmer tenant and at the same time help make his farm self supporting congress has before it a presidential message on the subject pointing out that fewer and fewer farms arms are being operated by their owners and accompanying that message is a commission report which shows considerable study of the problem the commission becom mended a government corporation to lend money at easy rates and long term repayments at the same L time providing advice and guidance to the farmers until the land is paid lor for that plan would give security to both the farmer and the government V newspaper New News siMper japer union |