Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-01-25
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM E'ILE.

Everybody on Capitol Hill comedies
that Senator Norris has started some
thing with his revelations of Presi.
! dent Coolidge's dealings with the
Tariff Commission. With the Republl-
can insurgent and Democratic packs
in full cry At the administration s
heels, 4 hunt is in prospect. the even
tual results of which 1t would be ra sh
to predict. If it Is congressional cam
paign ammunition that Is sought
as some of the Presidents defenders
allese-the Norris-Democratic group
MAY be timing its attack as badly as
the oil attack was timed two years
ago. 1t was roughly in January. 1924.
that Washington began to seethe with
| Teapot Dome excitement and its allied
scandals But by the time the Novem
Der elections rolled around. the oil
fumes. as far as political effect was
concerned, had evaporated into the
thinnest of air. Senator Norris is
! said by his friends to be loaded for
, bear Before he has stacked arms.
, they expect him to shoot not only
at Coolidge methods with the Tariff
Commission. but administration STRAIT
agy In connection with the Federal
Trade and Interstate Commerce Com
missions and the United States Ship
ping Board. BY all the signs of the
political zodiac, Washington is on
the threshold of another season of
rumor. recrimination and remorse.
y *
DR.. William NJ. Jardine, Secretary
of Agriculture, is back from the
lions den-the radical Illinois farm
ers' convention-wearing no scars
of battle and apparently feeling that
administration prestige out there
stands a little higher than before he
went. When Jardine entered the big
stock Judging pavilion at Urbana,
where he spoke, 1000 farmers cho-
rused at him the refrain, Hello, Jar
dine, you're a friend of ours" That
turned out to be the spirit of the
ture doesn't think he converted
sam" Thompsons embittered and
embattled cohorts into rock-ribbed
conservatives. But he believes he did
show them that there is real Cool
idge agriculture program. based on
a 100 per cent desire to lift the farm :
ers out of their rut. and that 1t
holds promise of doing just that. Jar
dine went one step beyond the policy
hitherto advocated by the admintstra :
! ton, viz. aid in cooperative market
ing organization. The step Is the one
coYnprehended by the Dickinson bill.
whereby a Federal Farm Board Is
to be set up at Washington.
* **
Charles Evans Hughes seems TO
have adopted a novel way of taking
himself out Of the 1928 presidential
race, He has accepted employment
as general counsel Of the American
Petroleum Institute-the nationwide
/ organization Of the oil industry-in
| it's dealings with the Government oil
conservation authorities. At least.
| Washington politicians are certain
, that no Republican with White House
ambitions would knowingly identify
| himself with anything so politically
| odoriferous as petroleum, A couple
of months ago the Petroleum Insti-
tute hired Judson c, Welliver, liter
ary guide and counselor to Presi.
dents Harding and Coolidge, away
from the executive Offices. Now the
| institute has put on its pay roll the
statesman who was Secretary Of State
| in their administrations.
|
Philadelphia Is boiling with indig-
nation over Chicago's capture of the
| 1925 ArtdyNavy foot ball classic. II
Representative Fred A. Britten of
| Illinois, who put 1t over William Penn.
| shows up in the vicinity of the Quaker
| City, dire vengeance probably awaits
him. But Philadelph:ans are ready to
| wreak almost as savage fate upon
| it's own congressional delegation,
| which IL accused Of lifting no finger
| to ward OF Chicago's bid for the game.