Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-09
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Beyond all doubt the 1880 primaries
are no respecters of senatorial persons.
First Deneen of Illinois, then Grundy
of Pennsylvania and now Simmons of
North Carolina. The Tar Heel Demo-
Gratis defeat Is the most sensational, as
it is the most significant, of them all.
If there's any Republican left in Wash
ington who still believes seriously that
the @. o. p. has a future" in Dixie
he's keeping himself out of sight and
incommunicadO. The vengeance that
has overtaken Senator Simmons for his
faithleSsneSS to the Smith cause in 1928
is universally looked upon as hand
writing on the wall for Tom Heflin.
The senior Senator from Alabama faces
the primary guns on August II. He is
under indictment for the same political
misdemeanor charged against Simmons.
Democratic sentiment in the South,
authorities say, runs pretty true to
form on these occasions. If Helm es-
capes Simmons fate he'll be a miracle
man. The Big Noise from Alabam' has
been called many names in his day,
but nobody ever dubbed him worker
of wonders.
It's a tragi-comic coincidence that
President Hoover should find himself
under fire at the same moment from
the two men who rank as his archfoes
in American politics-Senator Hiram
Johnson. Republican, OF California and
former Senator Jim" Reed, Democrat,
of Missouri On the very day that
Johnson was blistering the administra-
ton for refusing to divulge confidential
London conference data Reed was
broadcasting a Nationwide attack on
Hoover which reeked with personal
rancor. Early in the present White
House regime there were signs of a
Johnson Hoover rapprochement. The
California congressional delegation
dined with the President and the Sem
| ator was among those present. Then
came the foreign relations committee
| dinner of painful memory, from which
Johnson was omitted by what was off,
cially described as an inadvertence.
| Things have never been the same 'twiXt
Herbert and Hiram since that mys-
FERROUS mishap.
Everybody in Washington who listened
in on Jim" Reeds radio speech from
| Sedalia Saturday night marveled over
it as an oratorical performance, what
ever anybody thought of it in other re-
| spects. It famed with the old-time
Reed fire. and indicated that the Mis-
sourian still wags silver tongue. The
| blue-eyed Jim considers it almost
| libelouS to mention that he'll be SO
| years old in November. Now that some
folks believe he's flirting with Demo-
cratic presidential bee for l932-When
Reed will be 71--this observer recalls
what the Kansas City statesman said a
year or two ago when it was suggested
| that he Is too old to run for President.
| HE'LL" retorted Jim" as he scored a
bull's-eye on a spittoon 10 feet away,
AL my ancestors lived to be a hun
dred!"
When Prof Max Schmeling of Ger
many meets Prof. Jack Sharkey of Bos-
ton, in YANKEES Stadium next Thursday
evening, to decide the heavyweight
| championship of the world, a distin-
guished compatrIot of the challenger
| will be at the ringSide. He is DR.. Fried
rich Wilhelm Won Prittwitz, the accom-
| plished German Ambassador to the
United States. Dr. Won PrittWitZ has
been invited to be a guest of honor in
| the box of Mayor Jimmie" Walker of
New York city, and expects to be on
hand when time is called Schmeling-
| whose name, by the way, is pronounced
in German as if it were spelled Schmay-
Eng-once paid his respects at the Ger
man embassy in Washington. Naturally
the amba ssadorial staff is pinning pa
triotic hopes on the mighty Max, even
though the diplomatic code DOESN'T per-
NIT them to be backed in cash.
X X X
Senator Key Pittman, Democrat, of
Nevada, had a snappy comeback the
other day for a press gallery denizen
who was inquiring about the progress
Pittman is making in rebuilding his
suburban home, destroyed by fire last
Winter. The Nevadan said work was
going on, but proceeding rather slowly
well" wisecracked the reporter. that's
in accordance with senatorial tradition
isn't it?" Quoth Pittman, like flash
Yes, you see we believe IN doing things
deliberately in order to avoid the mis-
takes of newspaper men,"