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Show Merry-Go-Round By DREW PEARSON and ROBERT B. ALLEN WASHINGTON The big behind-the-scenes sensation In .the battle over ths) antilynchlng bill is inside word that Vice President Jsck Garner favors allowing the measure to come to a vote in the senste. Inability to get a vote on the senste floor is the only thing that has blocked enactment ot this legislation tor years. In the last big fight over sntilynchlng In 1937 there wss an overwhelming over-whelming majority in the senste for the bill. But its sponsors were unable to force a vote. A determined southern filibuster lasting nearly six weeks barred action, and in the end the bill was Junked. Garner gave the filibusters potent undercover aid in the 1937 struggle. Throughout his long congressional career he has always been against antilynching legislation and still is. He considers consid-ers the bill now psssed by the house to be unsound un-sound and impractical. But with his sombrero In the presidential ring, he has chsnged his tune to the extent of permitting a showdown vote. That's an important impor-tant concession because only a vote Is needed to put the measure on the statute books. However, there Is no inside Indication that Garner's stand will produce results. None of the other southern leaders hss been won over. They are Just as adamant against a vote as in the past. Snappy Pound Chunky, walrus-mustachioed Roscoa Pound may be the retired dean of Harvard law school, but he is establishing speed records aa the civil aeronautics authority's special trial examiner hearing arguments over the proposed consolidation consolida-tion of United Air Lines and Western Air Express. This case Is one of the hottest potatoes yet tossed at the C A A: Transcontinental & Western Air is violently opposed to the merger, on the ground that It would seriously affect its business busi-ness in the far west. Likewise, minority W. A. E. stockholders are fighting it The outlook was for a long drawn out and tedious legal battle. But Pound has idess of his own about that. The first thing he did when he accepted able C A A Chairman Robert H. Hinckley's Hinck-ley's request to conduct the hearings was to summon the contending attorneys to a private conference and get them to agree on "points of issue." With these established, he then tackled another time-consuming problem. "Nothing delays government hearings more," Found declared, "than hemming and hawing over the 'expert status of witnesses. Pm going to put an end to that All who are witnesses in this esse please stand up." About 30 mystified persons arose. "Anyone object to any of these individuals qualifying as experts?" demanded Pound. No one did, so he continued: "Okeh, I'll swear you all in right now. This will shorten the hearings by several weeks at least" 1 Pound doesn't hesitste to Interrupt lawyers when he thinks they are "sawing air." Bluntly he cuts them short with: "Whoa ... we agreed to cut out extraneous remarks. Get back to the point and stay there." Republlcaa Priming Midwestern G. O. P. leaders are quietly doing do-ing a lot of powwowing among themselves on a plan to organize a midwest bloc, which would wield a decisive hand in selecting the G. O, P. candidate at the coming national convention. The grain belt is in a strong strategic position posi-tion to do that First with the exception of Ohio, the midwestern states have no serious favorite son candidate to complicate things. Second, the midwest is a crucial, if not the crucial, battleground battle-ground of the campaign. So the state and local leaders have it in their power to command a big influence at the convention if they unite, and that is exactly what they plan to do. The movement is one ot the most significant political developments in months. Whether anything comes of it remains to be seen. But the boys are doing a lot ot quiet visiting visit-ing back and forth. They also are using various state political affairs, like the Kansas day banquet ban-quet In Topeka, the Nebraska Founder's day and the Iowa Farm institute meeting all to exchange ex-change views en plans and tactics. Distributed by United Feature Syndicate. |