Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-14
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS

The clean-cut Democratic victory in
the congressional election this week in
the second district of Massachusetts, was
bad jolt to the Republicans, both in
the Bay State and at the Capital, and
sweet surprise for the Democrats,
with much justif1able gloating. BY
common consent prohibition figured
largely in the outcome, though in Dem
ocratic quarters it was labeled as q
'rebuke" to the administration and
protest" over hard times and unem-
ployment. This was Mr.. Coolidge's own
district, long represented in the House
by Senator Gillett and Republican for
a century. The canny Calvin, however,
who proposes at all costs to keep him
self entirely detached for the present
from politics, State and national, and
who Furthermore, in the present in
stance, perhaps perceived more clearly
than others the impending Democratic
landslide, calmly hied himself to Lake
Dora, in the center of Florida, before
the special primaries in the district and
remained there during the short but
hectic campaign which was waged be-
tween primaries and election. No state
ment before or since election day has
been forthcoming from the States
most distinguished citizen and leading
Republican, who now is pulling up
stakes in Florida and, with Mrs. Cool
idge, moving on to California.
y X *
The nearest parallel in American his
tory to the senatorial fight on con-
flrmation of the nomination of Charles
Evans Hughes to be Chief Justice,
so far as can be recalled, was the
contests which accompanied the nomi-
nation of Roger Brooke fancy of Mary
IQnkCnn'c 0icfr -
century ago. fancy was Attorney Gen.
eral in Jackson'S cabinet, later trans
ferred to the post of Secretary of the
Treasury, an appointment which the
Senate refused to confirm. That dead
| lock lasted nearly two years; then jack
son nominated fancy to be associate
Justice OF the Supreme Court. Again
the Senate refused confirmation. On
the death Of Chief Justice Marshall
Jackson returned Taneys name to the
Senate to succeed Marshall as Chief
Justice. A three-month contest en-
sued, but jackson men finally gained
control of the Senate and Mr.. fancy
was confirmed.
X X X X
Republican party leaders acquainted
with the views of Dwight w. Morrow,
prospective candidate for the senatorial
nomination in New Jersey, declare that
the Ambassador will declare himself on
prohibition when he returns to this
country from the London Naval Farley.
They are nearly unanimous that this
year the Republican party in New Jer-
sey must go either dry or wet; that 1t
cannot go two ways at once, and that
If 1t equivocateS in the senatorial bat
tie 1t will invite the election of another
Democrat. CuriouSly enough, however,
no one processes to be sure whether Mr..
Morrow Is going to declare himself q
dry or wet. His loyalty to the Presi-
dent would tend to incline him to come
out dry. The political exigencies in
New jersey plus, perhaps, his own pri-
vate views, tend to incline him to come
out wet. His prospective opponent in
the Republican primaries, former Sen
ator Frelinghuysen, though heretofore
dry, Is Soft-pedaling on prohibition
until he can find out which side of the
fence Mr.. Morrow is on. Then, accord
ing to New Jersey local prognosticators,
Frelinghuysen will take the other side.
X X X
Senator Thaddeus H. Caraway,
drawing Southern Democratic dry from
far-away Arkansas. and Representative
George Holden Tinkham, big-game
hunter and Republican wet from Bos-
tons Back Bay, f1guratively speaking,
rode the same goat on the occasion of
their initiation this week into the Loyal
Order of Moose. Just what prompted
Caraway to become a Moose does not
yet appear, but Mr.. Tinkham had an
obvious incentive in the fact that the
hotel which has been his domicile ever
since he came to Washington Is years
ago is to become national headquar-
tiers and club rooms of the Moose. He
did not wish to move, and could not be
compelled TO move, even had the new
proprietors desired it, which they did
not, for Mr.. Tinkham had the foresight
to secure most remarkable contract
with the owners of the property, which
does not bind him to continue as a
tenant any longer than he wishes, but
binds them to permit him to remain so
long as he remains in Congress. Rents
in Washington for almost every one else
have doubled and trebled in the past