SEENand HEARD
around the y
NATIONAL CAPITAL!
By Carter Field
FAMOUS WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
Washington.—A flood of mail pro
tests, a considerable percentage of
which criticized President Roose
velt’s lack of action sharply, is what
precipitated all the recent talk
about a "White House conference"
on the sit-down strike situation.
Most of the senators and represent
atives who began talking about this
"conference” knew perfectly well
that there was nothing the federal
government could do, within the
Constitution, unless movement of
the mails or interstate commerce
were directly affected.
But they also knew that some
thing should be done for reasons
of political expediency. Some of
them hoped to wring from Presi
dent Roosevelt a scathing denuncia
tion of this method of forcing deci
sions in labor disputes. That seemed
to be what most of the letter writ
ers thought he should have done
long since.
Failing this, at least the idea that
the President was taking an in
terest—was holding a conference on
the subject—would be a partial re
ply tolhe criticism that was pour
ing in from men and women known
in many instances to the senators
and representatives as hitherto ar
dent Roosevelt supporters.
It Just so happened, of course,
that these complaints from Dem
ocrats throughout the country co
incided in many instances with the
views of the congressmen getting
the letters. There has been very lit
tle sympathy on Capitol Hill with
the sit-down strike, and many ar
dently pro - Roosevelt legislators
thought the President would lose
nothing and gain a great deal by
coming out strongly against this
new labor weapon.
The situation was aggravated by
Secretary of Labor Frances Per
kins.
Miss Perkins Annoys
Rightly or wrongly, Miss Per
kins’ ‘‘backdown’’ in her letter to
Representative John W. McCor
mack of Massachusetts was hailed
as a victory by congressional lead
ers who had been transmitting pro
tests from constituents to the Pres
ident. They believe (irmly that this
letter was ordered by the chief ex
ecutive.
Incidentally it gave considerable
satisfaction to other cabinet mem
bers, and quite a few high admin
istration ofllcials, with whom the
first lady cabinet member is none
too popular.
It seems that Miss Perkins has
been annoying some of her fellow
New Dealers not only by her ac
tions, but by her lack of terminal
facilities in conversation. Washing
ton society has heard descriptions
of cabinet meetings at which the
secretary of labor rambled on and
on, with not a soul present save the
President himself who dared in
terrupt her.
Just recently a group of impor
tant personages, about to visit
Washington, wished a round table
luncheon with a group of govern
ment ofllcials. Presence of the gov
ernment ofllcials at the meeting was
approved and arranged for in ad
vance by the White House. The
agenda called loudly for representa
tion of the Department of Labor
as well as other departments.
Simultaneoulsy came highly un
official grapevine suggestions from
five of the other agencies to be
represented: “Couldn't this lunch
eon be held at the Metropolitan
club?"
It was. The Metropolitan club
does not admit women.
Snarling Question
The same question that snarls up
the Wagner labor relations act
does the federal government have
power to regulate something wholly
within a state because the effects
of that regulation would be im
portant in interstate commerce?—
is of the essence in every proposal
lor the federal government to deal
with the sit-down strike situation.
Some very learned constitutional
authorities believe that the federal
government does have the power—
without changing the Constitution—
to regulate a factory in Detroit or
a coal mine in West Virginia or a
steel works in Pennsylvania, on the
theory that stoppage of any one of
them affects immediately and di
rectly the flow of interstate com
merce.
It is curious how often the sen
ators discussing the situation refer
to Grover Cleveland. When they
apply the illustration of his forceful
action, however, they are citing a
case where there was never any
real question of federal authority.
For example, it was the operation
of railroads that was involved.
There has been no question for a
long time that operation of a rail
road was interstate commerce, and
therefore directly within the power
cf the federal government.
But there was another point. All
the evidence shows that Grover
Cleveland acted for one reason, and
one reason only. That was that the
then railroad strike was holding up
the movement of the mails.
So that when critics of present
l?ck of stamina by officials bring
up the comparison with Cleveland,
they are within the realms of logic
if they apply the criticism to gov
ernors of states, mayors of cities
or other local officials, but up to
date there has been no clear-cut
case where application of this com
parison to the federal government
seems logical.
Can Ask Federal Aid
There has been some loose talk
about local governments calling on
the federal government for aid but
thir is scarcely a question calling
for new legislation. That power ex
ists today.
For instance, if a sit-down strike
slpuld occur in a condensed milk
plant in the state of New York, and
if the New York state authorities
sought by force to eject the strikers
from the plant, precipitating riots
with which the state forces were
unable to cope, the governor of
New York could appeal to the Pres
ident for federal troops to aid him
in restoring order.
There has never been any ques
tion about the power of the state
governors to call for such help, or
of the power of the President to
extend it if he considered the re
quest justified. It is purely a ques
tion of policy with both local and
federal executives. No legislation
for such an act would be necessary.
Indeed, senators studying the situ
ation say that no legislation is like
1: which could add anything to ex
isting powers.
One development may be forced,
however, by the conference on this
situation and by subsequent at
tempts to obtain legislation. Up until
now labor leaders have rather avoid
ed responsibility for sit - down
strikes. They have affected an at
titude of not having planned or or
dered them, and of being slightly
embarrassed by hot-heads among
their lieutenants.
But in any federal move to curb
this new weapon it is certain that
John L. Lewis and his lieutenants
will be forced to take a different
position.
Supreme Court
Most of the new arguments for
and against President Roosevelt’s
Supreme court enlargement plan
continue to be Just as beside the
point, and not actually applicable
to the controversy, as those ad
vanced originally. Take, for in
stance, the latest attack on “star
chamber” methods by the court in
deciding on writs of certiorari,
made by Senator Kenneth D. Mc
Kellar of Tennessee.
Senator McKellar apparently
would have the Justices hold ia pub
lic their discussion of whether or
not they would issue a writ of cer
tirari. In short, all the reasons
why the individual justices might
think a case should be ordered up
from the lower court, to be heard
by the Supreme court, should, if the
McKellar proposal means anything,
be spoken in open court, with news
paper reporters and lawyers and
the public present.
Actually, of curse, there is never
any such public discussion of cases
by the court even in cases which
are heard. The nearest approach
to it is when, in hearing arguments
in a case, individual justices ask
questions of the counsel.
Sometimes these questions are of
profound interest to lawyers try
ing to figure out how the court will
decide the case then being heard.
Once in a while the questions make
a good newspaper story.
Secret Discussions
It is the secret—"star chamber.”
Senator McKellar would call it—
discussions of the justices later,
with no reporters, no interested at
torneys, and no public present—
where the real views of the justices
on the case involved come out—
where the real deciding arguments
are made.
The present point is that if Sen
ator McKellar's attack on the meth
od of handling writs of certiorari
is sound, it would seem to be equal
ly sound that the discussions by the
justices on cases which have been
formally heard by the court should
also be public—not “star chamber.”
This would be mighty interesting
to lawyers—and reporters. Beyond
question, the thing most Washing
ton attorneys would rather do than
almost anything in the world would
be to hide under a sofa while one
of these discussions was going on.
But then there are reporters who
would like to hide under sofas at
cabinet meetings.
However, most lawyers, com
menting on the McKellar proposal,
take the view that certainly such
open discussions would not accom
plish the situation desired by the
President—or by Senator McKellar.
For obviously, if such discussions
were in public, there would be con
siderably more talking than at pres
ent, and considerably more oratory
addressed out the window—as the
diplomats say. Which means that
in the nature of things the justices
could not resist talking more to the
country than to their colleagues.
Which, as the senate sessions dem
onstrate, is scarcely conducive to
speed or efficiency—and perhaps not
even to sound decisions.
C-WNU Service.
Spring Scene in a Paris Zoo.
Prepared by National Geographic Society,
:Washington, D. C.—WNU Service.
PRING flows across Paris in
waves of Joy. Tender leaves
bring shade to the boulevards.
Horse - chestnut candelabra
lighten the masses of new green.
In the Jardin des Plantes, the Lux
embourg Gardens, and the Bois,
hoops, skipping ropes, and all sizes
and colors of balls give outlet for
a new surge of energy and delight.
At Pre Catelan and Armenonville
tables and chairs, reappearing after
their annual hibernation, invite con
viviality. Along the boulevards un
scientific but heart-warming bra
ziers, around which cafe patrons
clustered all winter, give way to
green tubs of pink hydrangeas.
Overcoats are laid aside. Windows
open wide in unconditional surren
der to spring.
Alonj the Seine the workmen’s
clubs shine up their houseboats, and
ragged laborers, stripping for a sun
bath, become as well dressed as
any man.
Poor devils along the quays lie
for hour: on the warm stone stair
ways, savoring the blessed novelty
of being neither cold nor wet. In the
industrial suburbs, mild weather
lessens the misery.
In the Tuileries Gardens, human
beings suddenly outnumber the stat
ues, and at the Palais Royal, where
John Howard Payne wrote “Home,
Sweet Home,” little boys welcome
staunch sailboats after adventurous
voyages amid the waterspouts of
the fountain.
The Gingerbread Fair, with its
roaring lions, skin-deep beauty
shows, merry-go-rounds, wheels of
fortune, and photograph shops,
starts its annual round under many
aliases.
As the “Fair of the Throne” on
the Place de la Nation, this street
carnival has its biggest success, for
there it is among its own, the com
mon folk who get a thrill out of hav
ing gingerbread pigs “baptized”
with the names of their proud
youngsters.
Under other titles, the Ginger
bread Fair later spreads its tents
before the Invalides and paves the
Avenue de Neuilly with pleasure
from the Porte Maillot to the Seine.
Along the outer boulevards it com
petes for custom with cinema and
cabaret.
How long it can last, none of the
sellers of nougat or spinners of for
tune wheels can say. “People don’t
seem to buy live turtles any more,”
one veteran sighs.
Plenty of Zoos There.
There are zoos from one end of
Paris to the other. Giraffes brush
at the clouds with inadequate ears;
a fat sea elephant tips its head
back like a man gargling, in order
to eat fish from the hands of a
keeper standing on its back; mon
keys chase fleas, lions obey a train
er, and elephants, doing elephantine
tricks, collect tips in their trunks.
As for donkeys, ponies, ant’ goats,
there are squads of them, each
ready to go into action any time a
pair of chubby legs straddles its
back or a dainty miss of four takes
the reins.
Paris offers its children countless
simple delights. A youngster can
ride a camel, drive a llama or an
ostrich, lance rings from a merry
go-round, whirl to music inside a
miniature plane, dig in the sand,
sail a yacht, or forget the world
at a puppet show.
Then there is the Zoo of the Little
Ones. Any city might have one. A
| dozen lambs, two dozen pigs, six
i donkeys, twenty kids, rabbits, duck
lings, guinea pigs, and monkeys to
suit the taste—this is the recipe.
| Paris adds a baby camel and its
mother. But that is mere swank.
The magic lies in those mutually
timorous contacts through which
confidence and companionship are
} established between a child and a
| pet. Tiny children feed woolly
lambs from bottles and squeal with
delight when the little beggars suck
the nipple off and spill milk down
mother’s black dress. There is
something enormously appealing
about being allowed to feed another
person's livestock when you are
young in Paris in the spring.
Every afternoon, governesses and
their well-dressed charges invade
the generous expanses of forest,
park, and square. On Thursdays,
when the schools are out, and Sun
days, when everyone is, Paris goes
sylvan to an unbelievable degree.
Lying on the grass is a major sport.
Within smart race tracks at Long
champ or Auteuil, nature lovers
stretch out under the sun, some
scarcely raising their heads as
prize-seeking hoofs pound by.
The Buttes Chaumont.
Homes of the rich overlook the
Parc Monceau, but "Liberty, Equal
ity, and Fraternity” obtain in the
park itself. Working people come
in from across the Boulevard de
Courcelles as well as children from
the aristocratic Avenues Velasquez,
Ruysdael, and Van Dyke.
Strangest of the Parisian parks is
the Buttes Chaumont, laid out by
Haussmann, the boulevard builder,
on the site of the old plaster-of-Paris
quarries. Rising in the middle of
its artificial lake is a seeming moun
tain, and surrounding verdure glori
fies what was once a hideous hole.
It is pleasant to think that Hauss
mann, ruthless wrecker of medieval
buildings, could create as well as
destroy.
Baron Haussmann did to teeming
Paris what L’Enfant had done on
paper for a nascent Washington,
destined to be the beautiful capital
city of a new republic. Haussmann
thought in terms of boulevards, with
the result that whole regions fell
before the hammer of the auction
eer and the onslaught of the house
wrecker. But, thanks to him, mo
torcars move. He was one of the
few road builders of his day whose
mind was broad enough for any
thing but pedestrians. His boule
vards have brought new notes to a
city whose very cobbles have been
cemented with human blood.
Spring brings life to the parks
and visitors to the Place de l’Opera.
People think of the Opera as hav
ing always stood there. Yet when
the Germans entered Paris in 1871
Garnier’s masterpiece was not fin
ished and the Communards, who
wreaked their vengeance on hun
dreds of buildings, spared this splen
did structure, down whose grand
staircase not an aristocratic evening
gown or shirt front had yet passed.
The three-acre opera and ballet
school, library and museum is
younger than many of the specta
tors.
In this Parisian show place, where
evening dress is again compulsory
in the best seats three nights a
week, you are quite likely to hear
Tannhauser singing German to Eliz
abeth's French, a use of harmony
which shows how far art outruns
politics. As ballets, "Coppelia” and
"Gisela” are much beloved.
On Two Famous Streets.
From the Opera, two famous
streets lead south. The Rue de la
Paix passes Cartier’s jewels, Coty’s
perfumes, the Ritz, and the Hotel du
Rhin, now empty, once leased by a
Boston club for its members to use
whenever they came to Paris. The
Avenue de l’Opera passes Bren
tano’s and the Comedie Francaise
on its way to the Louvre.
From the Louvre a broad band of
beauty—like the Mall in Washing
ton—stretches westward to the
Seine, hurdles a few smokestacks,
and continues to St. Germain, St.
Cloud, and Versailles, 12 miles
away.
Standing in the Place du Car
rousel and looking up that incom
parable vista past the obelisk in the
taxi-infested Place de la Concorde,
one can almost forgive the destruc
tive mania of the Communards, for
it was they who, by burning the»
Tuileries palace, opened this view
toward the sunsets.
The Tuileries gardens seem to
have been laid out with square and
compass. As if fresh from a beauty
shop, Paris here challenges “Am I
not fair?”
Yes. more than fair, lor this com
bination of promenade and garden,
forest and art gallery, playground
and yacht pond, woos with friend
liness as well as artifice.
Children adore that honest artisan
Pere Guignol, who carves and
paints his puppets, including Punch
and Judy, and then gives them
voice and action in his little theater
among the trees.
Conspicuous in Paris in the spring
are the students. Paris is the Mecca
for students from all over the world.
Near the Sorbonne or Polytechnique
one can eat soup in many languages
and curdled milk in many more.
University education, born in the
cloisters of Notre Dame, soon
spread to the Left Bank. Poor but
proud, this republic of scholars
made Paris the intellectual capital
of the Middle Ages, the leavening
pan of the Renaissance. The per
son of a student was sacred, as the
Count of favoisy learned to his cost
when his residence was destroyed
and he was banished because his
lackeys started a brawl with the
devotees of Latin and learning.
A Crocheted Party Dress
Pattern 1388
She’ll be proud of this dainty,
crocheted frock, in a clover leaf
pattern. In one piece, gathered to
i contrasting yoke, it’s effective
in string or mercerized cotton.
Pattern 1388 contains directions
for making the dress in sizes 4 to
My *Tavotite |
By
Irene Castle
McLaughlin
■
Marshmallow Sweets
Boil some sweet potatoes. Mash
and mix in a little cream and a
good-sized lump of butter. Place
in a baking dish and bake until
brown.
Remove and cover the top
with marshmallows; put into the
oven again and just let them get a
rich brown on top.
Copyrlifbt.—WNl) Service.
Dyeing Pickpockets
In certain provinces of Rumania
a person convicted of pick
ing pockets has his hands and
ears painted with a special blue
dye which lasts for four weeks.
At the end of that time he has to
return to the police station for a
fresh coat of paint, and so on
for a whole year. When a year
has passed, if he has committed
no further offense, he gets a clean
sheet. It is said that thieves so
treated nearly always reform.—
London Answers.
8 (all given in one pattern); an
illustration of it and of all stitches
used; material requirements.
Send 15 cents in stamps or coins
(coins preferred) for this pattern
to The Sewing Circle Needlecraft
Dept., 82 Eighth Ave., New York,
N Y.
Write plainly pattern number,
your name and address.
Present Helpers
Give the help you are able to .
give now rather than wait for the '
greater gift you hope to bestow by
ana by. If the poor widow had
waited to cast more into the
treasury when her fortunes im
proved, she never would have
won that commendation of the
Master.
There may be far greater need
for that help you can give now
than there will be for your great
er assistance at some later time.
"I was a sucker <o
bet I wouldn’t shave
again until you had to
buy another Quart
of Quaker State 1’’^^
GO F/tXmeK.
BEFORE YOU NEED A QUART
Try the “First Quart" test. Drain
and refill with Quaker State. See
how far you go before you have to
add the first quart. That’s because
there’s an ' 'extra quart of lubrication
in every gallon. ” And remember...
the oil that stands up longest is
giving your motor the safest lubri
cation. The retail price is 35j£ per
quart. Quaker State Oil Refin
ing Corporation, Oil City, Pa.
r~~7t
pfiga
^ OH, mother—
SEE THE DOS I BOUGHT A
With the money uncle )
^ MED GAVE WBl^S
/ See here,''
( VoUNG AAAN—
/ I W/LL NOT
( HAVE A DOG
\ AROUND 1HIS
\. house' y
VoU TAKE THAT DOG A
AW See right back where
MOWER- You GOT it/ I HAVE /
PLEASE TROUBLES ENOUGH —
LET ME v WITHOUT A DOG/ V
KEEP ^ ^ A
_ A'
BUT, MARY- - 'X.
WHY CAN'T HE /WHY DON'T VouX
KEEP IT? A DOG l / THINK OP A4E FOR '
IS SOMETHING / A CHANGE ? WITH
EVERY SMALL / MY HEADACHES AND
, Boy Should j nervousness.THAt
X HAVE/ \ DOG'S BARKING
--- \ WOULD DRIVE ME /
X CRAZY/__
WHY don't you GET
RlD OF youR HEADACHES'
AND NERVOUSNESS --- •
BY GETTING RID OF YOUR
COFFEE-NERVES WHY
DON'T YOU QUIT COFFEE
AND SWITCH To FbSTUM /
FOR 30 DA/S, LIKE /
<THE DOCTOR SAJD^^
30 DAYS limATA HAPPY HOME THIS HAS
LATER. 4 BEEN SINCE MOTHER 60T RID OP
Your, money back—\
IF SWITCHING lb POSTUM J
DOESN'T HELP Ybu( ^
If you are one of those who cannot safely
drink coffee...try Postum’s 30-day test.
Buy a can of Postum and drink it instead of coffee for
one full month.
If...after 30 days...you do not feel better, return
the top of the Postum container to General Foods,
Battle Creek, Michigan, and we will cheerfully refund
Copr. 1937. Kina Features Syndicate, G. F. Corp. Licenses
the full purchase price, plus postage! (If you live in
Canada, address General Foods, Ltd., Cobourg, Ont.)
Give Postum a fair trial...drink it for the full 30 days!
Postum contains no caffein.lt is simply whole wheat
and bran, roasted and slightly sweetened. Postum
comes in two forms... Postum Cereal, the kind you
boil or percolate...and Instant Postum, made instantly
in the cup. It is economical, easy to make and deli
cious. You may miss coffee at first, but after 30 days,
you’ll love Postum for its own rich, full-bodied flavor.
A General Foods product.
(This offer expiree December 31,1937.)
