Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-13
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

Il year, and, as an incident of
that purpose, to say something
about the name and fame OF Jouett
ShouSe. It's an unusual name and, be-
cause unusual, slightly disadvantageous
for a political career. A man in poll
! tics ought ideally to have a name easy
to spell, such as Calvin Coolidge, Wood
| row Wilson, Herbert Hoover, Theodore
Roosevelt. Politicians are learning the
Importance of names and some sue
| cessful ones have trimmed their own
| names slightly for the purpose OF a
better adaptation to public psychology.
Woodrow Wilson dropped his first
| name, which was Thomas. Grover
Cleveland dropped his, which was
| Stephen.
Even though Jouett Shouse be a
| rather awkward name for man with a
| public career, the bearer has done a
good deal to place it fairly high. He
| came to public life via birth in Ken
| lucky, education in Missouri and mar
riage and residence in Kansas. From
| Kansas as a Democrat he served four
| years in Congress and year as Assist
ant Secretary of the Treasury. With
! the passing of Woodrow Wilson in 1920
| passed also Shouse and most OF the
other good Democrats.
Position Not Clear.
Now, recently, Shouse has turned up
| in a position not very clearly defined,
| but made important by him. ShouSe
| Is not the chairman Of the Democratic
national committee. RaSkob is that.
But Raskob appears to have managed
| the Democratic national organization
with a skill brought over by him from
| the world of busineSs-a skill exceeding
| by far the present and recent manage
ment of the Republican party.
Raskob, with the talent for delegat-
| ing work to other shoulders that con-
| stitutes successful administration in
! business, set Shouse up as kind OF
| No. 2 man to himself Raskob. in short.
made Shouse chairman of the executive
| committee of the national committee
| and then Raskob himself retired to the
| background ShouSe, obviously provided
with plenty of funds. has kept the DEM
! ocratic party on the front page with a
| continuity and favor which the
! Darty's performances in Congress really
| have not deserved.
| In this work ShouSe has been aided
! by a newspaper man who also appears
! to be a fruit of Raskob's extraordinary
/ genius for picking good men. Raskoo
I seems to have come to washington.
! looked over all the correspondents WRIT
| ing for Democratic newspapers picked
! the most experienced one, gave him
| something like four or five times the
! salary that any newspaper man writing
| for one newspaper gets. and then told
| him to "go to it." The newspaper man
! that Raskob picked is Charles Michel
, sen. Nicholson is genius for tins par
! ticular kind of political work and hap
| pens to be the brother of another
| genius. Albert Abraham Nicholson. a
| scientist who gets into the newspapers
| every few DAYS by measuring the dis
lance of another star from the earth.
Work Of RaskOb Aides.
Jouett Shouse and Charles Nicholson
| having been chosen by Raskob, and
| having been provided with ample funds
-, by Raskob, and having been given aot-
ouata quarters in Washington by Ras-
| kob-and then having been let alone
/ by Raskob-Shouse and Nicholson have
! put more vitality into the Democratic
| party than all the partys members N
! the Senate and House combined. In
| desd. most of what the public reads as
! having been done by Democratic Sen@-
| tors or Representatives really Is tile
fruit of the brains of Shouse and
! Nicholson.
About every other day the public
| reads that this or that Democratic Sen
ator or Representative has thunderouslI
! denounced President Hoover, or the
Republican tariff. or the venerable
| Smoot, or some other Republican lsadt
| or the whole Republican party. The
| public reads it because the newspapers
| print it, including the Republican news
papers. The newspapers print 1t b.
| cause it is good Stuff-the laundering
| is put in pungent and emphatic phrases
! Does the public innocently imagine
| that Democratic statesmen have sud-
| denly. all within a short time. become
| Skillful in popular political polemics?
! If so, the public is very innocent ana
very credulous.
What happens in most cases. it is saft
/ to say, is something like this: Jouet;
ShouSe or Charley Nicholson (as fire.
| happen to be reading morning news
paper. They Sc an account of some
thing the Rep s,licans have done
| some hing that is a political mistake-a
rather familiar trait of Republican
party management lately.
That's a good thing to denounce.
says Amos Nicholson. GO to it," says
Andy Shouse.
So Nicholson writes a dsnunciation
Then he calls up Democratic Senator
Senator" says Nicholson, I've writer
| a denunciation and it's your turn tC
stand for it."
OK. with me-" says the Senator
| And the next day the public reads 6
Snappy statement beginning: "'Ths
| Republican administration has again
committed an outrage upon public de.
cency,' said Democratic Senator Blank
last night"
1t is all very we'll done And as q
| we'll done bit of strategy it is merely
| one detail of a picture in which the
Democratic party management SO fal
outclaSseS the Republican that there l.
no comparison.
| Didn't Claim Victory.
| But the particular reason for the Gel.
| ebration of ShouSe in the present con-
nection and in this article is a predic-
ton he has made about how the Demo
! Gratis will come out in this years cleo
tions. Shouse did not-and this is his
title to rare distinction-ShouSe did not
claim that the Democrats will carry the
House. That usual type of grandiost
| geSture-to claim everything-Shouse
allowed a Democratic member of Con-
gress to make. Then ShouSe waited
until a Republican Congressman, Will
Wood, of Indiana, claimed that the
Republicans would hold the House.
Thereupon, ShouSe emitted his own
extraordinarily worded prediction. Then
ShouSe said:
1.-THE Democrats will make large in
creases In their membership In both
houses of Congress. How great those
| gains will be I am not making any
prophecies, except to express the belief
that the figures adduced by Demo-
cratic Chairman ByrnS, predicting that
the Democrats will have majority In
/ tho TOuar House more nearly aDOrOXi-
mate what is going to happen than the
counter statement by the Republican,
Mr.. will r. Wood of Indiana"
There you have the working head OF
a political party on the eve of a CAM
paign year holding himself in from
claiming that his party is going to have
a majority. That is an extraordinary