Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-09

President Hoover's thrust at big Navy
propaganda by shipbuilding interests
will awaken pre-war memories all over
Europe, especially in Germany and
France. Indictment of public opinion
in the interest of what were called
"armor- plate patriots" used to be rec
ognized feature Of international politics
Five. or six years before the war the
leading firm of German small-arms
manufacturers was exposed by the
Social Democrats as having entered into
an arrangement with French news
papers to work up and keep UP a
Franco-German war scare. The Krupps
and the other great Rhenish industrial
lists were constantly under fire from
Socialist and Liberal quarters for main
tanning armament propaganda designed
to influence the Wilhelmstrasse and the
Reichstag. For years the alliance be-
tween the Russian imperial government
and the French press, for the purpose
of enabling Russia to borrow money in
Paris, was a notorious factor in Euro
pean politics. Mr.. Hoover lived abroad
during those days. He is evidently de-
termined that history shall not repeat
itself In the United States.
II
bill" Borah beat the President to 1t,
a full 4S hours, in the exposure of the
Shearer Navy propaganda affair. He
brought 1t to the Senates attention at
noon on Wednesday, September 4. The
White House blast wasn't given out un-
til late on Friday afternoon, September
8. For some unexplained reason the
supervigilant members of the press
gallery didn't attribute to Borah's state
ment the importance which the matter.
in the light of Mr.. Hoover's action, Is
now assuming. There was brief col
loquy on the Senate floor between Borah
and Senator Hale of Maine, chairman of
the naval affairs committee. The
Idahoan had resolution ready to offer,
calling for an investigation of the
Shearer case, but announced he would
defer its introduction until Hale's coms
mittee had made It's report. The naval
chairman forthwith declared he would
call the committee together" and "be
President apparently decided that the
prompt and pitiless publicity of White
House action Is more expeditions on
these occasions than Senate inquiry
II X X X
"There's no more picturesque or below
ed figure in the Republican national
than Pat Sullivan, national committee
A1NA1 AAOuI wyoming Ava AOb OAACoC AAUAJ
years! Pat has been the friend of Re-
publican Presidents. and their trusted
adviser on Western politics. from the
days of Mckinley to Hoover. This OBJ
server has just asked the tall, gaunt
Irishman from the sheep and oil
country how on earth 1t ever happened
that anybody named Pat Sullivan be-
came and remained a good Republican
W e9aht, III tell you said aid Pat in nna his
the time I came to America, James @
Blaine was in the hey-day of his popu-
larity. I heard him say that it was
a very strange thing that the United
States was filled with Irishmen who
worked overtime twisting the lions tail,
but as soon as possible, joined the
Democratic party and yelled for tariff
laws which'd enable John Bull to keep
on dumping the products of Manchester,
Birmingham, Leeds and Sheffield into
this country duty-free! decided to
be Republican and & protectionist."
The cynosure of all eyes at the
G. o. p. conclave is Representative
Ruth Pratt. newly elected national COM
mitteewoman from New York. She took
her seat in the committee with her
honors freshly upon her, for 1t was only
al Lie Gnu O1 ldSb week tIlhI IIC SCaCC
Republican committeewomen elected
her as the successor of Mrs. Charles H
Sabin, resigned. Representative Pratt
swept her opponent, Mrs. Miriam
SCHNEIDER of Albany, into the discard by
the vote Of 223 to 80. The former al
derman" of New York City-first of
her sex to hold that rank on Manhat-
tan Island-has made prompt record
for herself in Congress as a legislator
and politician of unusual acumen.
Asked to explain her success in political
life, Mrs. Pratt once said, 81 like peo-
pie" She Is native of Massachusetts