The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-09-10
S,P. RAILROAD
SENATOR Is A
BORE ON FLOOR
Press Gallery Groans at
His Reelection
Especial to The Daily wOrker)

Especial to The Daily Worker)
WASHINGTON, Sept. s. FPl -
Triumph of Senator Sam Shortridge
Of California in his campaign for re-
nomination at the hands of the repub-
lican voters of his state has been
met by groans from the veterans of
the senate press gallery. Not be-
cause Shortridge is a reactionary,
whose devotion to the service of the
Southern Pacific Railway and to the
big banking magnates OF California is
canine in its completeness.
The senate has always had its ma
iority of servants of big business. The
reason why newspaper correspondents
hoped that Shortridge would be lost
somewhere outside the Golden Gate is
because he is the dullest bore among
all the tiresome persons in that as
semblage.
He Takes Punishment.
Tall and cadaverous, with solemn
horse. face which is apparently incap-
able of CLINT of humor or CLEAN of
enthusiasm, Shortridge rises in the
midst of almost every serious debate
to ask, pompously, some silly question.
Sometimes he repeats his query three
or four times, in a measured tone and
with slow gestures which he considers
impressive to his fellow-senators
Usually his question stops the debate
| for five or tan minutes hooovea bo
never is satisfied with an answer such
as the mental quality of his interrupt
ton warrants. Jim Reed of Missouri
once became so irritated at the show
off tactics of the Southern Pacific SEN
ator that he remarked that mo man
in human history has ever been so
wise in fact as the senator from Cali
fornia looks" Whereupon Shortridge
assumed a lordlier pose than before.
Don Chain Paroled.
Parole of Don Chain, former sher-
iff Of nonunion Logan county, West
Virginia, from Atlanta penitentiary,
has been granted by the federal parole
board. Chain applied for release last
June, but another indictment was
hanging over him. due to his activities
as partner in bootleg enterprise, and
the parole was delayed until that in
dictment could be quashed. Chains
downfall after nearly score of years
Of terrorism In Logan was not due
to his lawless intimidation of trade
unionists who ventured into that cor
ner of the coal fields of West Virginia.
Big Bill Coolidge, head Of the Island
Greek Coal company, dominating the
Logan field, saw to it that Don was
elected sheriff year after year, on the
democratic ticket. The Island Greek
and other coal companies, thru their
funds for the hiring of a private army
of deputies, with which he patrolled
the road entering the county from the
north, searched every passenger train
that arrived, and dragged strangers
from hotel beds in the middle of the
night to explain their errands in his
bailiwick. Occasionally they killed a
man, and often the miners whom they
Jailed were beaten. None of these acts
brot any punishment from the federal
authorities.
Don Gets Too Fresh.
But in the campaign Of 1924, Chain
tried to carry his county for Davis
against Calvin Coolidge. He had
delegate in the national convention in
New York City, and felt that it was
Iup to him to arrest or drive into hid
ing all voters who would not support
the democratic nominee. His strong
arm methods aroused the republicans,
and as soon as the machinery could
be set in motion they had him indict-
ed and convicted on a bootleg con-
spiracy charge. Chain seems to have
considered that federal liquor laws
did not apply to his territory.
His release after little more than
year in prison is credited to "Big
Bill" Coolidge, cousin of Calvin. The
coal operator visited his cousin in the
White House last May, and made a
request that his friend be turned
loose. Then big Bill' went home to
Boston and reported that the White
House would be all right on coal mat
ters.