Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-11
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

If political parties are less ungrateful
than Republics, Cordell Hull, Demo-
cratic senatorial nominee in Tennessee,
deserves well of the Democrats, not only
of his State, but of the Nation. To this
observer comes an authenticated tale
Of the days before the lightning of
Raskobian plenty struck the organiza-
Nicholson now command. 1t dates
back to the dark and dreary interval
between the 1920 presidential debacle
and the 1924 national dissension in
Madison Square Garden At the urgent
request of George White of Ohio, Hull
had taken over the national chairman
ship in 1921, in order, if possible, to
heal the breach left in the Democratic
party by the ill-Starred Cox campaign
With the craftsmanship, Hull also took
over an empty treasury. There came a
time when the till didn't contain enough
to meet the meager weekly pay roll at
national headquarters. Hull had $4,000
in Liberty bonds-his private savings.
He told the cashier to take them to
Washington bank and borrow the
equivalent on the chairman'S personal
note. Not for couple OF years after
ward was cash in sight to cover the
loan, and then, with financial falr
weather in prospect, Hull permitted the
National Committee TO reimburse him
and take up the note.
It's difficult to conceive of a more
classic example of penny wise pound
foolishness than the hesitation to go
! on with the second big Navy dirigible,
ZRS-5. Here's Uncle Sam, authorized
under the London treaty to spend
$3.50 900 900 on $50 new deStroyers.
The ZRS-5 represents cost of about
SO 900 900, or the exact equivalent OF
single destroyer! Just what prompts
| the naval authorities to consider dirigl-
| BILE limitation, at the very moment the
performances of the giant lighter
| than-air ships of Germany and Great
Britain - respectively, Graf Zeppelin
and R-100-are challenging world ad-
miration, passes comprehension. Our
reluctance to keep the pace in dirigi-
| BILE construction is all the more amaz-
| ing, considering that the United States
| has the enormous advantage OF pos
sessing helium gas in inexhauStible
quantities. In 1924, when we had the
| Shenandoah and acquired from Ger
many the Los Angeles, we led the world
America will sink automatically to third
place in dirigible strength, and our
prestige as an air power be CORE
| spondingly dimmed.
X X * x
AS the result OF the drought the
| Presidents Camp kn the Rapidan -
| that, by the way, is its official designa
| tion--is now equipped with an adequate
| distinguishing system of its own.
The Marines put it in. The last work
on hydrant installation was completed
only few days ago. Apparatus suffi-
! cient to cope with any likely blaze is
now ready for action A detachment
of the Marine squad, which is the
watch on the Rapidan, has been as
signed the special duty of functioning
! as a fire department. Some day We
may read: Fire broke out on the
Rapidan last night, but the Marines
| have the situation well in hand
r X X
Robert F. Kelley, chief of the East
ern European division at the State De-
partment. and Secretary Stimson's
principal adviser on Russian affairs,
| has Just gone to Europe on protract-
| ed official visit. No man in Washing
| ton has Soviet conditions so thorough
| Iy at his finger tip as Kelley, who is
| also one of the youngest men in high
position at the State Department He's
! lust turned SO. While he will not con-
! fine his researches exclusively to Rus
sian matters, they're bound to engage
| his foremost attention, i'll light OF re-
\ will, OF course, not go TO Moscow. as
we're not ON diplomatic speaking terms
! with the Soviet But he Will inquire
exclusively into Russian relations
with European countries. including
trade conditions. During the war Kelley