SEEN and HEAR)
around the v,
NATIONAL CAPITAL!
By Carter Field %
FAMOUS WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
Washington—Most New Dealers
are predicting a revival of the
wages and hours legislation bill
sometime this winter or spring, and
in a form in keeping with the Roose
velt objectives. But at the moment
it is very difficult to see how this
is going to be done. f
The difficulties are not technical—
actually the new bill would start
out with an enormous advantage so
far as parliamentary procedure is
concerned. But the trouble is to
find some formula for government
control of wages and hours, or rath
er government banning of too small
wages and too long hours, on which
enough members of the house could
agree to obtain a majority.
The majority which was apparent
for the bill just a few weeks back,
and which forced the bill out of the
rules committee pigeonhole, was fic
titious. It was a simple log-rolling
proposition, under which a num
ber of enthusiastic farm relief ad
vocates traded their signatures to
the discharge petition, plus the
promise of their votes, in order to
prevent a bloc movement of the
Northern wages and hours advo
cates against their farm bill.
Just before the coalition was
made it appeared that both bills
were doomed. The Southern mem
bers, through their strength >n the
rules committee, had been able to
pigeonhole the wage-hour bill at
the preceding regular session. This
was the surprise of the legislative
year, but what really fooled every
one was that this strength persist
ed. So it looked as though the bill
would stay pigeonholed.
Weakness of the farm bill forced
the coalition, and then it looked
as though both bills were sure of
passage, though neither was strong
enough to stand alone.
There’t the Rub
With that strange episode now
history, the new picture is: How
can the men who want a wages and
hours bill agree on something
strong enough to stand alone?
No compromise so far has been
reached on any of the important
difficulties. For example, who
is to administer the law. William
Green and his friends in the Amer
ican Federation of Labor do not trust
the idea of a board. They fear that
President Roosevelt would appoint
another group as friendly to C. I. O.
as they think the n~*.ioi*a! labor re
lations board is. Neither the A. F.
of L. nor the C. I. O. is enthusiastic
about entrusting administration to
the Department of Labor.
But there enters another compli
cation. Secretary of Labor Frances
Perkins is distinctly unpopular on
Capitol Hill. There are quite a
few members of the house who
would not vote for any bill, on final
passage, which gave Secretary
Perkins this added power. Partic
ularly bitter in this group are a few
Southerners who still resent an un
fortunate remark the secretary
made in her first year in office, to
the broad general effect that a big
ger market for shoes could be built
up for Northern factories if so many
people in the South would stop go
ing barefoot!
But for eleven months, or until
the congressional election of 1938.
this wage-hour bill will continue to
have a tremendous technical advan
tage. It has passed the senate.
That passage holds until the pres
ent congress dies. Nothing changes
between sessions. So it is not a
question ever of beating a filibus
ter. It is merely a question of writ
ing a bill which 218 members of the
house and 49 senators would rather
vote for than against.
The Case of Jimmie
There has been a lot of joshing
about President Roosevelt's training
up his elder son to take his place.
“My Little Boy Jimmie,” as the
President introduced him back in
1932 from the rear platform of his
campaign train, has steadily been
moving into the public eye ever
since. In that campaign Jimmy was
used as a mouthpiece for a
great many things which “Papa”
did not want to say at the time. For
example, he predicted the speedi
ness with which beer would return
if his father should be elected.
Then it was James who en
tangled his father with James M.
Curley, then mayor of Boston and
one of Jimmie's very good custom
ers in the insurance business. It
looked for several years as though
this alliance of Curley and young
Roosevelt were going to march
down through the years. It ap
peared as though Curley would step
from the governor’s chair, when he
got tired of that office, into the
senate, and that James would be
come governor of the Bay state.
This idea of James Roosevelt's
running for governor of Massachu
setts still persists. It would be a
logical stepping stone. Friends in
sist that Jimmie would like it very
much. Mear while the objectionable
alliance with Curley has been ter
minated. The split between the
Roosevelts and Curley became, ap
, parently, irreconcilable when the
President, during a campaign swing
through the Bay state in the closing
days of the 1936 campaign, failed
to mention Curley's name, though
Curley was on the Democratic ticket
with the President, and was at th*
time governor of the state.
As to Curley
It is impossible ever to estimate
the extent of the eifect of any par
ticular thing in politics. There are
too many complications. But en
thusiastic Roosevelt fans believe
Curley would have been elected had
the President supported him with
anything like the ardor that Curley
had shown for F. D. R. in 1932, or
since. And naturally, while the Cur
ley following does not go this far,
it is extremely bitter over the “in
gratitude.”
Which is very interesting, because
Jimmie brought Curley into his fa
ther’s campaign in 1932, sat in with
Curley on Massachusetts patronage
—to the great indignation of the two
Democratic senators, David I.
Walsh and Marcus A. Coolidge—and
then is generally suspected of being
the cause, though he had not in
tended to be, of the split! For there
are many who think that the prime
reason for bringing Jimmie to Wash
ington was not to train him up for
the presidency later on, helpful as
this training might be, but to get
him out of the trouble his father
feared he was getting into in Mas
sachusetts. And part of this trouble
was his association with Curley. It
was suspected by some of the Presi
dent’s advisers that Curley had
made it appear too easy to Jimmie
to capitalize political friendships in
writing insurance. Especially, as
for some reason there is less attempt
to camouflage that sort of thing in
Massachusetts than in some other
states.
But there is little doubt as to
what is going on right now. The
President is putting more and morp
power into Jimmie’s hands.
Farley vs. LaGuardia
Friends of James A. Farley are
telling the big politician that he can
easily be elected governor of New
York in November even if the Re
publicans should nominate Fiorello
H. LaGuardia. Incidentally their
arguments ure rather interesting in
view of the thumping majority that
LaGuardia piled up in the recent
New York mayoralty election.
Time is one of the important ele
ments. They insist that when the
gubernatorial election is held La
Guardia will still have three more
years to serve as mayor under the
term to which he was elected last
month. Yet the term he may be
seeking as governor would be for
only two years.
So many of the New York City
voters who thought he made a good
mayor in his last term, and who
voted for him to have four more
years rather than to turn the city
over to the Democratic bosses, will
think it would be poor strategy for
them to help send him to Albany.
It is also contended that scores
of thousands of New Yorkers who
thought LaGuardia should be con
tinued as mayor would oppose the
idea of the mayor becoming Presi
dent of the United States. On this
point the illustration of Alfred E.
Smith is used. Smith was elected
governor in 1918, was beaten in the
Harding landslide of 1920, came
back in 1922, weathered the Coolidge
1924 Republican landslide comfort
ably, and was re-elected triumphant
ly in 1926. Yet more than 100.000
New Yorkers who had voted for
him for governor at his lowest ebbs,
and several times that number who
had voted for him in his good
years, refused to vote for him for
President It should be borne in
mind here that in 1922 Smith was
at the flood-tide of his strength.
Other Angles
Which would seem ample proof
that plenty of people will vote for
a good public servant for some of
fices, but will not necessarily sup
port the same man for President.
There is another angle, involving
Tammany, which is not so well un
derstood in the country as it is in
New York City. Tammany, at the
recent mayoralty election, was sulk
ing. It had been beaten in the pri
mary Control of the Democratic
party in New York city had been
taken over by the outlying bosses,
those of Brooklyn, Queens, the
Bronx. Many Tammany leaders
were sore—were not at all dis
pleased with seeing the men who
had ousted them from control take
a licking from LaGuardia.
Farley is a master compromiser
and pacifier. His friends do not
doubt that the full strength of all the
Democratic organisations in the
greater city would be thrown behind
him in a gubernatorial race. Also,
Farley has never relaxed his grip
on the upstate New York Democrat
ic organization. He built that or
ganization in the period from 1928
on. It could be depended on to do
its utmost for him.
But there are a good many upstate
Republican leaders who would not
want to aid LaGuardia in his presi
dential ambitions. They would not
be averse to see Farley polishing
him off, and thus clearing the way
to the nomination of “their kind"
of Republican.
Copyright.—WNU Service.
Pumping Water for Irrigation in Inner China.
Four Great Chinese Cities
On the Yangtze and Han Rivers
Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington. D. C.-WNU Service.
F THE four Chinese
cities to which the gov
ernment of the re
public moved due to the
pressure of the Sino-Japa
nese conflict, Hankow stands
out as the city of most impor
tance. Because of its excel
lent communications with
Canton and Hong Kong,
many of the important gov
ernment activities were
moved to this inland port.
Hankow lies about 600 miles up
the Yangtze. The city proper
sprawls over a wide area of the
north bank of the river where the
Han pours its muddy torrent.
Across the Han lies Hanyang, and
across the mile-wide Yangtze, Wu
chang. The latter city is older than
Hankow for it was flourishing when
Hankow was a mere fishing hamlet.
Both Hanyang and Wuchange are
now a part of "Greater Hankow”
with more than a million and a half
inhabitants.
Hankow’s harbor seethes with ac
tivity. Ungainly junks move about
the water manned by expert river
men nearly as easily as,modern
giants of the sea in our busy sea
ports. They range from craft with
rotten hulks and gaping holes above
the water line to huge high-pooped
craft, adorned with brightly painted
carvings and plates that make
them look like floating circus wag
ons.
Small matting-covered sampans
dart here and there by the muscle
power of perspiring coolies whose
families fill the air along the shore
with the singsong chatter of the Ori
ent. It is estimated that 25,000
native boats ply in and out of Han
kow and its sister cities. Mean
while modern steamboats from low
er Yangtze points come and go on
schedule.
The Hankow Bund Looks Occidental.
The Hankow Bund, stretching
along the Yangtze for two miles, is
disconcerting to the traveler seek
ing purely Chinese panoramas.
Trees shade the wide boulevard
while the landward side is flanked by
modern banks and business build
ings that are not unlike those of
New York, London, Paris and Ber
lin.
Beyond the Bund, upstream, the
roofs of concrete warehouses fc;m
a portion of the city’s skyline. Here
hundreds of thousands of dollars’
worth of cotton, silk, tea, wood oil,
beans and many other products
of a vast area of China served by
the Yangtze and Han usually are
stored, awaiting shipment.
Beyond the warehouses begin the
foreign concessions. The British
concession, oldest of all, was estab
lished in 1861 when Hankow was
opened to foreign trade. Then, in
order, came the Russian, the
French and the old German conces
sions, each marked by wide streets
and modern residences and shops.
There are several electric light and
power stations in the city.
A native city in the background
also seethes with commercial ac
tivity to the tune of noises that
strain the visitor’s eardrums. Some
of the narrow lanes are paved with
flagstone while others are mere
ruts. Nevertheless, they are the
playgrounds of thousands of chil
dren, and the busy streets of a city
which has been called the "Hub of
the Universe.”
To the foreigner, the pedestrians
in their loose-fitting clothing resem
ble pajama-clad citizens on parade,
but the wearers are by no means
ready to retire. Business in Han
know is almost a religion, and
nearly every man seen on the street
has to do with the enormous amount
of commerce that flows through and
past the port
If a traveler knows the advertis
ing code in Hankow, he can locate
any type of business by reading the
shapes and colors of the shop signs
which project over the narrow thor
oughfares For instance, gold plat
ers use salmon-colored boards with
bright green characters. Druggists'
boards are gilded. Black, gold, red.
and green are thp predominating
colors. On each sign is a motto
and whan a store changes hands.
the sign is valued somewhat the
same as American “good will.”
Important governmental depart
ments also were moved to Changsha
and Chungking.
Fireworks of Changsha.
Changsha is a city of fireworks,
literally and figuratively. The
Fourth of July firecrackers used by
the American small bey before
the “Safe and Sane Fourth” was so
widely enforced were imported
heavily from Changsha.
It is the capital of the hilly prov
ince of Hunan, important because it
contains enormous coal fields, many’
unworked, and because in il, to the
north of Changsha, is the huge lake,
Tung-ting hu, which acts as a res
ervoir for the Yangtze floods.
Among Changsha’s most interest
ing sights are the wheelbarrows that
climb stairs. Some distance ahead
of the regulation wheel there is an
other smaller one. In climbing over
flagstone steps or bridges, the han
dles of the wheelbarrow are lowered
until the auxiliary wheel rises above
the next higher step. Then the
wheelbarrow, which often carries
300 or 400 pounds, see-saws from
wheel to wheel until the next level
stretch of the flagstones is attained.
Changsha is closely linked with
New Haven, Conn., for there is, just
outside the rapidly disappearing
wall, in which the inhabitants once
took great pride, one of the best
known mission Schools in China,
which is Yale's contribution to the
education of the Chinese.
A large part of Hunan is an un
worked field of anthracite and bi
tuminous coal and at Pinghsiang,
which is connected with Cbangsha by
railroad, there is one of the mines
wtm.ii turutsnrs iuei ior me great
iron works at Hanyang.
With about 500.000 inhabitants,
Changsha rules a province of 22
million and is one of the cleanest
cities in China. Many of the streets
are long and straight and at on*
time the city itself was divided be
tween two magistracies. The ba
zaars are full of life and interest,
some of the candies being famous
for miles around.
Chungking a Busy Port.
Chungking is a busy river port
lying about 1,500 miles upstream
from the mouth of the Yangtze riv
er. It is the chief port and point of
entry for the rich province of Szech
wan, said to contain the natural re
sources of an empire.
The far-reaching trade of Szech
way is conducted entirely by river
craft from Chungking, whose popu
lation of half a million is crowded
into a small triangle formed by the
junction of the Kialing river with
the Yangtze.
Fields at the back of the city, mak
ing the third side of the triangle,
have gradually become entirely
filed with graves of countless gen
erations. This has resulted in hope
lessly enclosing the great port of
Chungking upon its rocky promon
tory between the two rivers, and
making its expansion impossible, an
cestral graves having heretofore
been considered inviolable.
Through the centuries the city has
increased in population, but with
out expansion of territory, until
overcrowding has almost passed be
lief. The city being built on a
rock, there is no possibility of prop
er drainage, so that Chungking
ranks high in odors, even among
Chinese communities.
Many Valuable Exports.
However, enormous wealth is hid
den away behind Chungking’s rath
er dismal exterior. The products
of an empire have passed through
her gates for centuries, rare and
valuable goods destined for the mar
kets of the world. These include
some of the most sought-after prod
ucts of modern commerce, so val
uable as to be worth transporting
1,500 miles to the mouth of the
Yangtze and thence half round the
earth. Among Chungking’s exports
are musk from the glands of Tib
etan antelopes, widely used in per
fume making, and wood oil, pressed
from the seeds of the fruit of a
tree, valuable in the manufacture
of varnish. Chungking's hog bris
tles are famous among brush man
ufacturers the world over and she
exports an insect wax used in the
preparation of medicines.
•
~2kwv\hd about
Magazine Solicitors.
Houston, tex.—what
has become of all the
struggling collegians, rang
ing in age up to fifty-five, who
used to solicit magazine sub
scriptions so they could spend
another semester at dear old
Bushwah?
We counted that day lost whose
low descending sun didn't find us
signing on the dot
ted line. And some
times we got the
wrong magazines
and sometimes we
didn't get any mag
azines at all and
once in awhile we
got the magazines
we'd ordered and
then didn’t like
them.
But our consola- —
tioi. was that we’d |rvin g, Cobb
aided all those ear
nest undergraduates to complete the
education for which they panted as
the hart panteth after the water
brook.
Can it be that the gallant army
packed the campuses until vast
numbers got crushed in the jam?
Or is it that many of them are
getting too old to travel around?
Lately there has been an unaccount
able falling-off in the business. We
are bearing up bravely, since now
we have more time in which to lead
our own lives.
P. S.—I have on hand a complete
file for 1935 of the Northwestern Bee
Raiser which I would like to trade
for a ukulele.
• • •
Matriarchy’s Approach.
SOME inspired philosopher—and
not a woman either—declares
that within a century women will
dominate every imaginable field of
human endeavor.
What do you mean, within a cen
tury? If the prophet will leave out
the ancient science of growing chin
whiskers and the knack of making a
sleeping car washroom look like a
hurrah’s nest I’m saying that wom
en are already away out in front
everywhere.
Since Henry the Eighth, the two
greatest kings England had were
both queens—Elizabeth and Victo
ria. Men thought up war and im
proved the art of war and now arp
hoping to perfect it to the point of
exterminating the species, but 'twas
in the midst of bloody warfares
that Florence Nightingale laid the
foundations and Clara Barton built
the structure of mercy by method
and life-saving by skill and tender
ness and sanitation.
Take this country at the present
moment: for energy, for readiness
of speech, for range of interest, for
versatility in making publicity and,
incidentally, acquiring it, for endur
ance under strain, what man
amongst us is to be compared with
the first lady of the language, Mrs.
Franklin D. Roosevelt?
* * »
Banishing Sectionalism.
ON ONE stretch of road down
here—and it is not a main-trav
eled highway and this not exactly
the tourist season—I saw cars bear
ing license tags of nine separate
states, ranging from New Hamp
shire and Florida to Utah and Ore
gon, besides one from Hawaii and
one from Puerto Rico. And next
summer Texas cars will be boring
into every corner of this Union and
the folks riding in them will be
getting acquainted with their fellow
countrymen and finding out that,
when you know the other fellow,
he’s not so different, after all.
Like most evil things, sectional
ism and parochial prejudices and
with Vermont neighbor to Virginia
and the Dakotas talking it over with
the Carolinas, there’s seed being
sown which inevitably must sprout
a finer yield of Americanism than
any our land ever produced—if only
we keep the tares of communism
and the chaff of snobbery out of
the crop, only make patriotic service
a thing of elbow-grease and not of
lip-movements.
What price, then, the wearers of ]
the black shirts and the white
sheets; the parlor pinks, the yellow
internationalists and the red flag
wavers?
» • •
Freedom of the Press.
DICTATORS invariably cancel
freedom of the press and curb
freedom of education. Otherwise,
they fail.
Although he uttered the words
over 250 years ago, Governor Berke
ley of Virginia spoke for all the
breed of political tyrants when he 1
said: “I thank God there are no
free schools, nor printing, for learn
ing has brought disobedience and
heresy into the world, and printing
has divulged them.”
Foulness in drama or literature,
like a skunk penned under a barrel,
eventually destroys itself by just
naturally choking to death on its own
smell.
Control of the newest medium of
publicity, the radio, is easy. But
information put in type keeps on
traveling. No people ever stayed
free once the press—and the school
teacher— had been muzzled.
IRVIN S. COBB
Copyright.—WNU Service.
- 0P> SEW
4*"" Ruth Wyeth Spears
Making; a Chintz Bed Spread With Corded Seams.
\X/OULD you like to make a
** chintz bedspread to match
your curtains? Of course, such a
spread must have seams in it, for
most chintzes are only 36 inches
wide, while the average double
bed is about 54 inches wide. But
seams need not detract from the
beauty of the spread.
Eleven and a half yards of 36
inch-wide chintz will make this
spread and pillow cover for a
"Quotations"
-A
It it some commendation that we
have avoided to characterize any
person without long experience.—
Swift.
A wise man sees as much as he
ought, not as much as he can.—
Montaigne.
Love is but another name ' >r that
inscrutable presence by which the
soul is connected with humanity.—
W. G. Simms.
Delay is cowardice and doubt
despair.— Whitehead.
The generous heart should scorn a
pleasure which gives others pain.—
Thompson.
Either I will And a way, or 1 will
make one.—Sir Philip Sidney.
double bed. In the diagrams at
the right I have given the dimen
sions for cutting these for a 54
inch-wide bed. It is best to cut
the center portions first; then cut
the 18-inch side sections for the
pillow cover; then the 10-inch
strips for pillow cover and spread.
This leaves a long 26-inch-wide
strip for the side ruffles of the
spread.
Cable cord for the corded seama
may be purchased at notion coun
ters. Prepared bias trimming may
be used for the cord covering.
Baste the covering over the cord,
as shown here at A; then place
the covered cord in the seam, as
shown, and stitch as at B, using
the cording foot of your machine.
Every Homemaker should have
a copy of Mrs. Spears' new book,
SEWING. Forty-eight pages of
step-by-step directions for making
slipcovers and dressing tables;
restoring and upholstering chairs,
couches; making curtains for ev
ery type of room and purpose.
Making lampshades, rugs, otto
mans and other useful articles for
the home. Readers wishing a copy
should send name and address,
enclosing 25 cents, to Mrs. Spears,
210 South Desplaines St., Chicago,
I Illinois.
USE
... the BEST BUY
in TIRE CHAINS
Check
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W skids. Twice the metal to
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h .. >3. Made of “WEEDAL
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er resisting metal especially
" developed for making
WEED Tire Chains.
3. Side chains welded and
case-hardened to take the
punishment from curbs and
ruts.
4. Patented Lever-Lock
End Hook simplifies put
ting on and taking off chains. •
Get Your Money’s Worth
Insist on the Genuine!
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Bridgeport, Connecticut
'IfOKA. Safety
l icensed to manufacture and sell Bar-Reinforced Tire cnaina under i mtea rwee ana <uanmaimn
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