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Show Washington j Comment During the last week, Washington Washing-ton was treated to a preview of the decidedly emininej flavor I which will pervade the forthcoming forthcom-ing political campaign on the ( Democratic side. The ladies (whose hearts, incidentally, were I net blessed on this occasJcm by their harassed congressmen, for reasons which will be obvious in a minute) marched on the Capital, nearly 5000 strong, to attend, the Institute of Government and learn how to make friends and influence political enemies during the campaign cam-paign months. The fact that only 500 of the little dears were expected and provided for complicated com-plicated arrangements no end. To feed and entertain 4,800 on the spur of the moment, so to speak, sefverely taxed the 'ingenuity of congressional gentlemen who had gallantly offered to help, not to mention the hotel people and the chairmen of this-and-that, who were responsible for the arrangements. arrange-ments. Our union station was the only place really big enough to banquet the visiting hordes, but smaller accomodations were made j to do, and our sports arena, the j Riverside stadium, was called into action as a classroom, where j Postmaster General Farley and such authorities lectured to avid ! feminine listeners on the art of ! effective1 campaigning. Not a j word was missed, judging from j the crammed notebooks but a lot j cf meals were! Plans for lunch- eens and dinners went awry because be-cause of the tremendous influx of visitors, and many a shrinkig political poli-tical violet had to fight her way to a drugstore sandwich counter. The icy weather nipped some of the flowering enthusiasm in the (Continued on last pagt) . Washington Comment (Continued from first page) bud, too; we don't don't intend to pun when we say that the White House garden party was a frost, but it was sure chilly, and the fur-ocated delegate only (turned out some 3,000 strong for that part of the entertainment; as a result of which the three tables of fruit punch and the 13,750 small cakes were hardly touched. In the opposite the Republican Republi-can camp, the ladies are not to be caught napping either. Twenty-two Twenty-two representative Republican women, who direct the affairs of the National Federation of Republican Re-publican Women's clubs will convene con-vene in Philadelphia in June to outline the presidential campaign activities of the 200,000 members. The federation's governing comv mittee will draft a four-months' campaign chart to enlist the service ser-vice of its members in 33 states, meeting on the day following the adjournment of the Republican convention. Meanwhile, John Hamilton promises a quick get-away on the task of i writing the 1940 Republican Republi-can platform. He intends to summon sum-mon members-delegate of the resolutions committee to Philadelphia Phila-delphia a week in advance of convention con-vention opening, June 24. The announced fact that "Princess "Prin-cess Alice" (Alice Longworth to you) has come out for Senator Taft for our next president should boost his stock among the candidates candi-dates no end, according to admirers ad-mirers of Teddy's daughter and those who swear by her political sagacity. The Gallup poll, however, how-ever, doesn't entirely agree. A recent check-up of voters in the 48 states to which this question was put: "If Cordell Hull runs on the Democratic ticket against. Senator Taft on the Republican ticket, which one would you prefer?" pre-fer?" resulted as follows: "Hull, 60 percent: Taft, 40 percent." To the question "If President Roose velt runs for a third term on the Democratic, ticket against Senai- tor Taft on the Republican ticket, I which one would you prefer?" the answer was: "Roosevelt, 5S percent: per-cent: Taft, 42 percent". And the third question: "If John Garner runs on the Democratic ticket against Senator Taft on the Republican Re-publican ticket, which one would you prefer?" drew the following: "Garner, 51 percent: Taft, 49 per-! cent." j The prophet hath spoken and he's rarely wrong! Vice President Presi-dent Garner has set June 8 as adjournment ad-journment date in his annual forecast fore-cast on the closing of congress. I Senator Barkley doesn't quite agree: he puts it earlier, basing his belief on the fact that the Republicans Re-publicans are anxious to gather in Philly well in advance of the convention con-vention date. And here's one for the book! The justice department has dis-j dis-j closed that even Uncle Sam's i 'strongest prisons aren't safe from ; robbers. The attorney general has just requested congress to authorize payment of $475 to a former prisoner .at Leavenworth to reimburse him for his jewelry, stolen while cn deposit with prison pri-son officials! Just about the only thing upon which the executive and the legislative legis-lative .branches of the government see eye to eye at the present time, is the urgent desire to get the session ses-sion over and done with come June, and convention-time. How-' How-' ever congress has been in a receptive recep-tive mood regarding nominations to various offices sent to it by the president. During the present ! session, the senate, for instance, ; has rejected only two of the 5,-: 5,-: 488 nominations submitted by Mr. Roosevelt. Both were postmasters, 1 incidentally. Off iciali figures as I of April 15, showed that one other postmaster's name was withdrawn by the president and there had been no action on 575 nominations. nomi-nations. From the time Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt took office in 1933 to the opening cf the present session, there ware 57,849 confirmations out of 58,251 nominations; in that j period, there were 57 rejections, 105 withdrawals, and 240 not acted upon. j According to the latest treasury report, two nations figuring prominently in the news of late (Norway and Denmark) had around $95,689,000 in cash in this country at the end of January. These figures have been issued three months late, so that they i will be of no value to speculators, and this was the first time that the short-term balances of these countries have been included in j the treasury department's monthly month-ly bulletin. Immediately after these countries were invaded by j Germany, Mr. Rocsevelt by a proclamation, pro-clamation, "froze" the credits of Norway and Denmark. A balance of $66,986,000 was reported for Norway and $28,703,000 "for Denmark. Den-mark. The treasury, by the way, has apparently become the temporary custodian of the $40,000,000 fortune for-tune of "Babs" (Five-and-Ten)' Hutton more formally known as the Countess Barbara Hutton Haug-witz-Reventlow, who is now a Danish citizen, simply panting to regain the American citizenship citizen-ship she so lightly tossed overboard, over-board, presumably to avoid excess ex-cess taxation. (Her plan apparently apparent-ly didn't jell and it is doubtful if she saved any taxes by the move, which has, in view of world events and the war, involved her in considerable con-siderable difficulty). The poor little rich girl comes under the president's executive order locking lock-ing up all Danish and Norwegian money and property in this country coun-try to forestall any possibility of such wealth falling into Nazi hands. So Babs may have to ask Uncle Sam, "pretty please, if he can spare her a dime, for, although all Norwegian and Danish subjects, sub-jects, resident or domiciled, in this country, were exempt from the order, the richest-girl-in-the-wcrld is legally a resident of London Lon-don and is here only on a passport pass-port visa. Unless congress, by a special act, comes to her rescue, Babs may be in a spot iwhich just goes to show that a gal can't be too careful about hitching up with a handsome furriner. And, apropos of foreign finances, fin-ances, it appears that American liquid investments owned by iGer-. iGer-. man citizens are valued at $100,-000,000 $100,-000,000 and are declared to be a reserve "war chest" which may be of decisive importance to Germany Ger-many in the months to come so reads a report in a pamphlet issued is-sued by the New York University Law school. I And here's good news on the domestic front: mere than 1,250,-000 1,250,-000 workers have left the W P A rolls voluntarily during the last 12 months to take private employ- I ment! |