Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-05-16

When Dwight Morrow's wet bomb
shell blows the naval treaty out Of pre-
ferred position on the front page-as 1t
has done-the country has a graphic
indication Of what constitutes big news
nowadays in these thirsty United States.
From now till primary day IN New Jer-
sey next month, the prohibition con-
troversy will rivet national attention to
the exclusion Of nearly all other politi-
cal issues. If Representative Franklin
Fort or some other outspoken dry turns
the Jersey Republican senatorial race
into a three-cornered scrap, it'll come
mighty close to being a great and SOL
emn referendum on the paramount
issue. Certainly nobody OF Morrow's
stature has 20 far thrown down the
gage Of battle In such clean-cut terms
as his proposal to repeal national pro-
hibition. The Jersey lawyer-banker-
diplomat has the nmelight full force.
II he wins the senatorial nomination,
and then the election, nothing can pos
sibly keep him out Of the Republican
presidential picture in 1882. Morrow
would typify the wet side Of the pro-
hibition argument even more wildly
than Al Smith did in 1928.
Nothing so much like the Spanish
inqusition has ever been seen in Wash
ington as the Senate hearings on the
naval treaty. The ferocity with which
certain members Of the foreign rela-
tions and naval affairs committees have
gone after Secretaries Stinson and
Adams and Admiral Pratt resembled at
times the browbeating tactics of prose-
cutting attorneys with prisoners in the
n.
servers at the hearings expected explo-
sions from the cabinet members, who
were theoretically accused Of selling out
their country at London. Probably 1t
Is q good thing for the peace of the
Nation that HELL Maria" Dawes,
who was also an American delegate at
the conference, isn't here to be put on
the rack by his one-time senatorial col
leagues. It was exactly under such
provocation - ruthless cross-examina-
ton Of Dawes in connection with war
costs-that he blew up before a con.
gressional committee In 1920 and told
querulous and quibbling statesmen ex-
actly where they headed In.
-
What's going on at the naval hear
ings is, in effect, parliamentary gov
ernment"-i. e., the practice Of requiring
executive department heads publicly to
answer questions on Government bust
ness. But, in countries where the sys-
tenn Is in vogue, cabinet officers have
rights which our Senate inquisitors deny
them. Ministers, for instance, are en-
titled to demand notice" of any ques-
ton which takes them unawares and
finds them unable or unwilling to give
offhand replies. The parliamentary"
system also permits cabinet officer to
state, in reply to given question, that
an answer is refused because the in
formation could not be publicly disclosed
without injury to Government interests.
No such inhibitions restrained the per-
tinacity Of Senators on Capitol Hill this
week. They did not shrink from extort-
ing facts and figures about the Navy
which, had he even inadvertently d.
vulged them, would have cost q COB his
uniform and his honor.
n n ~
william Knowles Cooper. longtime
director of the District Of Columbia
Y. M. c. A. organization, Is headed for
England to tell the British world all
about prohibition In America. He's been
invited to deliver a Fourth Of July ad-
dress before the International Council
of Congregational Churches at Bourne
mouth, and has chosen 1.-THE Economic
Phase of Prohibition" az his theme.
Cooper says he hasn't fully made up his
mind yet whether to say that the eight
zenith amendment Ia q noble experiment
or not, though he personally Is an un-
compromising dry.
II
"a cadet named eagle" who has just
married himself out of West Point and
the Army, has almost made himself q
hero at Annapolis-some feat in itself.
The how-come of it Ia that eagles plans
to capitalize his foot ball experience at
the Military Academy justify. In the