The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-06-03
HELL AND DAMN ARE EXCITING
 POLITICIANS
Ambassador Dawes and General Smedley Butler Are Throwing Them Around PrOfusely
BY RAYMOND CHAPTER United Press Staff Correspondent


 Washington, June 3.-(UP)-An- other political issue is likely to be thrown on this already heavily bur- dened nation if men like Ambassa- dor Charles G. Dawes and General Smedley Butler keep on saying what are known to small children as bad words.
 Swearing already has become a problem for the federal government. It has turned up before the federal radio commission. This week the United States supreme court had to rule on Q case in which "hells' and "damns'' appeared frequently. The latest outburst has come from Dawes, here as White House guest. who remarked, and there were wit nesscs to the episode, that "diplom- acy is easy on the mind but hell on the feet"
 The incident took on immediate political significance when 1t was recalled Dawes first got his start in public life by shouting damn" and "hell maria" in a shrill voice at a house investigating committee every time congressman asked him a question.
 
 summoned before congressional in- vestjgating committees had been berated for honest efforts to answer questions of the congressman. So when the general began to swear, he was hailed as man of rare cour- age and conviction and forthwith was pushed willingly into one high office after another.
 Now General Butler is going about the country shouting "hell' and damn" into microphones with every intention of being the next United States senator from Pennsylvania. He is reported to have gained thou sands of prospective votes when a studio manager in Philadelphia re- gently cut him off the air for sasy- ing damn"
 If he turns out winner by these tactics, the situation is expected to become serious, for political observ- CTS believe there wuolud immediate ly spring up crop of interruptions imitators who would go to any length to get votes-and then it would mt be safe to turn on the fam fly radio until women and children were excluded from the room. Re- publicans are aware of the serious disadvantage such a state of affairs would leave them in with MT Hoov- CT who being Quaker, never swears in public.
 There are laws against swearing. The federal radio act forbids pro- fane language over the air. A num- Der of states include swearingf un- der common nuisance statutes mak- ing unlawful obscene, indecent, or profane utterances over the tele- phone, or in a public place. or in the presence or hearing of children, or in the presence of a female, with out provocation (note that, men) or near a dwelling house and in the presence of the owner or a member of his family."-See brief U. S. in Robert Gordon Duncan V. United States of America.
 In the recent conscientious objec- tors case, Justice Sutherland of the United States supreme court held that i've are a Christian people (Holy Trinity church V. United States 143 US 457). And in the ra- dio case this week the court re- fused to interfere in the conviction of Robert Gordon Duncan, who op- erated radio station in Oregon. The court of appeals helud that while his language was not obscene. it was profane and therefore a violation of the federal radio act. He could have avoided a good deal of trouble by having said, instead of what he did say, 'by gad" and "dum scoundrel."