Evening star., 1926-04-14

Senator Daniel +. Steck OF Iowa is
an outstanding figure In the Ameri'
can Legion. In the capacity or chair
man Of its legislative committee he
probably had more to do with the en-.
actment Of the bonus bill than any
other man in the United States.
Steck functioned on that occasion in
close, collaboration with Col. Hanford
MacNider of Iowa, now Assistant
Secretary Of War, then the legion's
national commander. He is q sturdily
built Hawkeye in the middle forties
and of old-line Pennsylvania Demo
cratic ancestry, his father having
emigrated to the corn belt after the
Civil War. The newest Senator was
captain in the Signal Corps Of the
34th Division, National Guard, made
up Of men from Iowa, Minnesota and
the Dakotas, and served with that
command throughout the World War
after tour of duty on the Mexican
border. He practices law at Ottumwa,
Iowa, and once was elected county
attorney in q rural district. Capt.
Stocks friends are confident he will
give a worthy account of himself in
the assembly to which Iowa in days
gone by sent such men as James
Harlan, William. b. Allison, Jonathan
P. Dolliver and William S. Kenyon.
Smith Wildman Brookhart will go
cunning for Senator Albert 3. Cum
Minis scalp In the Iowa Republican
primaries on an agricultural platform
calling for the same sort of govern
mental aid to the farmer that Is given
to the railroads-that is to say.
Brookhart advocates the solution of
the crop surplus problem through a
guarantee to the farmer of @ price
for his output equal to cost Of pro-
duction, plus per cent" The gentle
man from Iowa, who has just been
pitched outside Of the senatorial
breastworlls by the colleagues among
whom he served since December,
1922, thinks that what is sauce for the
| transportation goose ought to be
GAUGE for the agricultural gander.
Under the Esch- -Cummins railroad
law the carriers are assured u fair
return" Of 5% per cent, while public
utilities generally are guaranteed" a
little more than that. Brookhart,
only day or two before he "ad-
journed" sine die on Capitol Hill, set
forth his farm panacea in a New
York magazine article. "Cost Of pro-
duction, plus per cent" has the
ring of his paramount issue.
y X j. u
President Coolidge is not wearing
mourning for his father, having never
resorted to that practice on any oc-
casion of previous bereavement. For
a while after little Cal" passed on. in
1924, the President carried a mourn
ing band on his sleeve, but he has
eschewed even such a badge at this
time, nor is Mr.. Coolidge affecting
black clothes or neckties. Mrs. Cool
idge, too, apparently does not believe
In mourning garb. She wore white
after her sons death and her Easter
clothes this year, only a week or SO
after the loss of Col. Coolidge, We're
white throughout.
X Il X X
DIR. William Mather Lewis still gets
newspaper clippings from all over the
world about the keep-awake test con-
Quoted by students Of George Wash
| ington University last Summer. One
notice that arrived this week from
the British Isles convinces DR.. Lewis
afresh that English humor. after all.
| is not heavily disguised" as Mark
| Twain used to allege. An English
newspaper, commenting on the test,
observed, Eight students Of George
! Washington University kept awake
! for so hours, but the rest Of the
| university attended lectures as usual. ;"
X y v y
Washington's Pan-American jour.
nalist guests, who gave the Capital
80 delightful Latin flavor for a
| week, left town unanimous in the view
that the program which they so
| valiantly survived win be of lasting
| effect upon North, South and Central
| American relations. Banquets and
speeches do not obliterate deep.seated