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Show Washington Comment Washington, which enjoyed a brief lull from politics after the . Democratic convention," is agog once more: although it's a pretty long way to Elwood, Indiana, the eyes of the capital are upon it, ?ml will continue to be so until Wendell Willkie has made his acceptance ac-ceptance speech on August 17. Congress, which has been dallying with the compulsory military training problem, will thankfully turn westward to hear Mr. Willkie; Will-kie; not "en masse", of course, but the leading lights among the Republicans, and a few surreptitious surrepti-tious Democrats probably will hie themselves to the little Hoosier j town, where the normal population popula-tion of 10,685 expects to swell to 300,000 for one famous day likely to go down in history. With supreme su-preme insouciance, Elwood faces the problem of finding accomodations accomoda-tions for its influx of guests, some of whom have even rented houses for the occasion. Such social functions as picnics for 100,000 guests Elwood tosses off with an airy gesture. While all eyes will be upon the dynamic Mr. Willkie, we'll wager a few glances stray in the direction of his erstwhile rivals, Senator Vandenberg and Senator Taft, both of whom will be there, giving fine exhibitions ! of sportsmanship. Meanwhile, the j indefatigeable IDr.Gallup has just reported a survey showing that Willkie leads Roosevelt in electoral elec-toral votes 304-207. And unofficially unoffi-cially "surveys" around Washing-! Washing-! ton have it that Willkie will carry all New England except Massachusetts, Massa-chusetts, plus Pennsylvania, Ohio, i Indiana, Iowa, South Dakota, I Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Min-nesota, Michigan and New Jersey, which together would give him 1 179 electoral votes, thus needing I only 87 more electoral votes to be elected. While the compulsory military ! training bill is on the boil, it is 1 interesting to remember that a ! lot of congressmen are reserve officers of-ficers in the army and navy and ! they may fight, if a war comes, : regardless of how they vote in ! congress. ' The house naval and ! military affairs committee is made j cf either retired or reserve naval j officers. Representatives Hess, Republican Re-publican of Ohio; Cole, Republican I of New Y6rk; Magnuson, Democrat, Demo-crat, of Washington; Maas, Republican Re-publican of Illinois, are in the reserves. re-serves. (Representative Maas is the only full colonel in the marine corps aviation reserve). Army reserve re-serve colonels on the military committee are Representatives Faddis, Democrat, of Pennsyl- vania; and Sparkman, Democrat, ; of Alabama. Also in the house is the only menVber of congress to I win the congressional medal of j honor .Representative Izac, Dem-i Dem-i ocrat, of California, and a noted ! veteran of the World war. Being . members of congress, none of these gentlemen would (lie subject to the draft, but it is a pretty safe bet that they would be in there fighting if Uncle Sam ever gets involved in another war. (Continued on last paet) Washington Comment (Continued from first page) Increasing precautions are being taken against saibotage or malicious mali-cious tampering in Washington's buildings and plants. Each week sees additions to the list. One of the latest steps is the shortwave broadcalting system to link headquarters head-quarters of our Potomac Electric 4 Power company with its hundreds of emergency trouble shooters and line trucks.. Twenty-seven trucks are now equipped with receiving re-ceiving sets and 300 more will ibe similar!' furnished before long. Extra men have itfcen added to Pepco's special police force and rules regarding visitors have been made more strigent, thus adding Pepco toi the fvigilant-rindjed against untoward occurances a list which already includes Union station, the capitol," navy yard, Washington Gas Light company, the bureau of standards, and the Pctomac yards. The yards, through (Which hundreds of trainloads of j essential war materials pass over its 87 miles of tracks, has banned all visitors and cameras from its precincts, and has instructed guards to be on the double alert for possible saboteurs. This is the second largest freight yard in the country, being the gateway be-, be-, tween the factories of the north and the farms of the south. Fop many years foreign agents have ,6een aware of the importance of these yards and foreigners, who said they- were '"representatives" of various railroads in their native na-tive lands, were beginning to be too, too frequent visitors. I . |