Evening star., 1925-03-28
WHEELER LAUNCHED.
ON NEW VOCATION.
"Dodging indictments" Now
His Life Work, MiId-Manner-
ed Senator Says.
BY ROBERT II. SMALL.

When CASTOR 3. Means was appear
ing almost daily at the Wheeler IN
vestigation into the conduct of the
Department of Justice, he testlhed
that his chief occupation in life was
facing indictments. Senator Wheeler
joined in the general laughter. To-
day this same Senator, Burton h.
Wheeler, of Montana, declared that
it looked as if answering indictments
would be his avocatton, II not ms
Iife's vocation, for the Department OF
Justice is on its prowl and Senator
Wheeler is the prey it wants to bag.
Washington is Withholding its
judgment in the various cases brought
against Senator Wheeler, for there is
an atmosphere or background of pos
sible political prejudice which his
friends have been prompt to seize
upon and exploit. 1t is felt here that
trial by jury, first in Montana and
later in the District of Columbia, will
settle the issue once and for all and
place the blame where it belongs.
The leftover friends of Harry
Daugherty in the Capital, and he still
has a few, were jubilant today, de-
claring that now two succeeding At
torney Generals of the United States
have passed upon the Wheeler case
and have permitted indictments to be
brought.
Is MiYd-Mannred Man.
Meantime the people of the country
are asking what manner of man is
Senator Wheeler. For one who has
been accused of so many high crimes
and rnisdemeanors, including the in
formal charge of being sort of
'parlor pink at heart, he is very
mild sort of person-in manner all OF
the time and in speech when not on
the stump.
Tall, somewhat angular, clean
shaven, rather rugged of feature and
with a jaw that is square when he
faces you hut softens on side view,
Senator Wheeler is more or less typi-
cal of the man born in Massachusetts
but adopted by the West-if there is
such type. He Is genial in COM
panionship, and perhaps that is why
when he came back from the political
wars of last year, the Democrats in the
Senate just grinned at his discontinue
and made no move to oust him from
the party conferences. Wheeler's
chief in the campaign, Battling Bob
La Toilette, was thrown neck and
crop out of the Republican counsels
he had graced for so many years, but
not d single Democrat said boo" to
Senator Wheeler. Maybe it was be-
cause Wheeler is not the same sort of
fighter as La Toilette. is not so much
to be feared on the floor or in COM
mlttees, has not the popular follow
ing. And, anyway, Senator Wheeler
claimed that for everything but vice
presidential purposes he was still a
Democrats all through the campaign,
supporting his colleague, Senator Tom
Walsh, for reelection out in Mon
tana.
Accused of ssRed' Lcaninss.
Senator Wheeler always has been con-
sidered something of a bear on evil
dence and indictments and all those
sort of things. For five years he
served as United States District At
torney in Montana under appoint
ment by President Wilson His poll
tical enemies always have claimed
that as a prosecuting attorney he
was too lenient on the reds" or near
reads, or alleged reds. He had owned
up to being sort of radical even
before he accepted second place on
the La Toilette ticket.
Few Senators ever have had such
rapid flight as Wheeler. He had
not been in the Senate two years
when the famous Daugherty investi-
cation started, with Wheeler acting
as prosecuting member of the conf
mittee presided over by Senator
Brookhart That committee went far
and wide. Frank Vanderlip supplied
it with needed money to conduct its
far-fung Investigations. But gruff as
he was with witnesses on the stand,
Senator Wheeler will never be known
to his friends as Battling Burton"
He is altogether too mild hammered
for that. And he loves golf.