Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-09

"Alec" Legge will not 60 down in
Hooverian history as a success at WASH
ington. He did not fit into the picture,
and never tried to. The ways of the
Capital are not his ways, and from the
outset of his stormy career as Farm
Board chairman he exhibited a snorting
contempt for them. Legge got his first
taste Of what Federal Office means now
adays when he faced the Senate Com
mittee on Agriculture during a hearing
on his confirmation. Some of the pro-
fessional farm politicians were bent on
showing the Chicagoan up as an ex-
ploiter of the rural brethren and the
incarnation of all that is evil in the
harvester trust" Legge turned on his
senatorial inquisitors like an animal at
bay. Il don't want this job" he fairly
yelled at them. You can fire me right
here and now, If you don't think I'm
the man for 1t. I don't give a d
about it, or you, or the whole business"
or words to that effect. Words to
that effect are Alexander Legge's spe-
cialty He simply can't avoid telling
people to go to HI whenever he
did so repeatedly, both at washington
and points West, during the past year
and a half.
With him to the Farm Board Legge
brought that typically Scotch tempera-
ment known as dour. The dictionary
definition of dour is hard, sullen, un-
yielding" That's Legge all over. II he
has any humor, it's the sort Mark
Twain ascribes to the British-"heavily
disguised" Legge grimly resisted the
glad-handing, the back-slapping, the
elbow-greasing and the applesauce
which are stock in trade of all poll
ticians and of most Washington office
holders. He lodged the social swim as
If 1t were poison-which is exactly what
! Senator Borah says 1t is, and deadlier
than any other form of lobby. Legge
seldom was seen anywhere except in
his rooms at the Willard and his Offices
at the Farm Board. He had only a
hermit's circle of friends. Once in a
while he relaxed long enough to turn
ball cabinet at the White House. One
Of the first new patriots" $500, 000-a-
year men persuaded to serve Uncle Sam
at SO 900 or $4,000 to enter the en-
cheering administration, Legge concen-
trated slavishly on his job. He ran 1t
to the exclusion of any and all consid-
erations whatsoever, save those which
he thought applied to it. He took the
job on that strict understanding.
X X X 4
To a man up a tree it always seemed
strange that Chairman Legge never hit
1t off with the farmers or the farm
politicians. To help agriculture help it
self-the Alpha and Omega Of the new
marketing act-was his all-dominating
policy. He used to like to put IL this
way: Everybody else connected with
| farming has hitherto got his except the
| farmers I'm out to see that the farm
ers get theirs" Legge's feud with the
commission trade, the middlemen CT
agriculture, was in line with his deter
mination TO break what he looked upon
as the stranglehold they had too long
possessed. Yet If a great and solemn
referendum could be held, the strong
| probability is that agriculture would
| vote Legge'S retirement from the Farm
T, Board as a good radiance. Undoubtedly
| his cross was the circumstance that he
| took ONCE on the edge Of the depres-
sion. AS the result OF what followed, he
did lot Of things--like plunging into
| the wheat market for price-pegging
| purposes on q colossal scale--which un-
| uuestionably runs counter to his grain,
as 1t were. Everything in Legges eco
nomic makeup must be opposed to put
| ting the Government in business One
thing Is as certain as nachine-guns In
his home town, he must be happy as
| lark TO be back there again, selling har-
| vesting machinery instead Of sound
farm doctrine TO unwilling buyers.
\
Washington's swagger colony Of West
Pointers, 400-odd, will come together
| for their annual dinner frolic next Sat-
urday evening, March Ia. At the same
hour all over the world. wherever
United States Army officers are sta
toned, other local chapters of the
Association Of Military Academy
Graduates" WIN be making merry, too.