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Show Washington Comment Something always happens to lighten Washington's summer doldrums dol-drums and to give people a stimulating stimu-lating and animated conversational topic. This year it's the third-term specter which has chosen to rear its ugly head or more properly perhaps, per-haps, has been dragged out by the scruff of the neck and made to sK'and in the spotlight, to provide a Roman holiday for a somnolent country. From every well-known authority on such matters and from many whom nobedy ever heard o", or gives a hoot if they never hear of again, comes some interpretations of the third-term legend. We are informed by unimpeachable un-impeachable source, that the no-Ihird-term-for-ipiicsident tradition is a tradition and nothing more. It is neither a law nor an iron-bouna rule, but arose solely from the desire de-sire of the Father of Our Country for rest and relaxation at his Mt. i Vernon estate; as a matter of fact ; George Washington would have ' (Continued on last page) Washington Comment (Continued from first page) quit the presidency after one iterm, if the state of foreign affairs had permiUted. So Mr. Roosevelt has an illustrious precedent for an alibi in seeking a third term if he cares for it, or chooses Ito make use of it. The father of Demo cracy, President Jefferson, saw things much the same as Washington; Wash-ington; though originally favoring a single term of seven years, he followed the two-term idea, also concerned about his health, butt indicating in-dicating that he would accept a third term in an "emergency". President Grant and the earlier Roosevelt appear to be the only chief executives really keen about more than eight years in the White House and we all know what happened to their ambitions'. Though an unofficial poll of the country reveals the rather astonishing aston-ishing fact that lots of people have never even heard of Ifhe third-term third-term tradition and consider it unimportant, un-important, there are many who favor a single term, pointing to the inflexible custom of sturd'y little Switzerland as an example of shining success. If you see a New Dealer these days, the chances are, his face is red and it isn't all sunburn! The Republicans have put him on the spot the same kind of spot where a wife puits a recalcitrant husband when she reads him his old love letters. Just off the Republican ' press is the neatest little 100-page1 booklet entitled "Quota. ions from ' Franklin Delano Roosevelt''; it is : published by the Republican Xa- 1 tional cXmmittia as ammunition j for Republican candidates in the current elections and its motif is ' instatstly discernible from the Ben-1 jamin-Franklin-quip on the cover: "Saying and doing have quarrelled j and parted". It contains "quota- , tions" showing Mr. Roosevelt V ! "brazen reversals" in speeches ' covering a wide range of topics, such as a balanced budget, congress con-gress and the president, cost ot government, government and business, busi-ness, politics in relief, Rooseveit recovery, Roosevelt depression, agricultural planning, banking and finance, communism, fascism, the Constitution and freedom of the press. A veritable little gem, this! .... Meanwhile, the mosi novel school in America is functioning func-tioning out in Chicago where 160 members of the Republican program pro-gram committee are going to "summer classes' on the campus of Northwestern university to study six subjects of national importance im-portance labor, agriculture, relief re-lief finance, social security, and political liberty. Here are a few facts worthy of grave consideration by every citizen, citi-zen, which have been gleaned froiji departmental releases this week: The war on the depression has costt th nation $22,000,000,000 since 1932; the Works Progress Administration has spent more than $37 for every man, woman and child in the country since ithe New Deal launched its recovery-belief recovery-belief program in 1935; individuals in the United States had an aggrc gaite income of $30,630,000,000 in the first six months of 1938 (8 percent less than the first half of last year); and the highest salaried sal-aried job under competitive civil service $10,000 annually, was opened to applicants. The age limit is 60 years. The job is the newly created post of director of unemployment insurance in the Railroad Retirement board. Persons Per-sons with railroad background will be given preference, and applications applica-tions will be received from sr.ates east of Colorado until August 10; for Colorado and westward until Augusr. 15. . . Good Luck! |