Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-08
Capital Sidelights
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.


Besides his great paternalistic and
benevolent activities for lettering the
lives Of all Americans by drought re-
lief, spending millions on irrigation
and reclamation projects to make the
desert lands bloom, spending more
millions for disqualification of veterans
and countless humanitarian works OF
this sort, Uncle Sam also conducts a
dollar and cents service" to aid Amer
| lean business in finding world mar
kets and thus charging the oppor-
tunities for factory employment and on
the farms and In the mines for bringing
forth the raw materials that go into
the processes of manufacture-thus
creating new wealth.
This dollar and cents service" re-
veals, through countless inquiries from
foreign merchants, the wide variety OF
goods that the world at large is ready
to buy from the American manufactures
not just wheat and machinery and
airplanes and automobiles, cotton and
| textiles, and such other commodities as
we first think of in connection with
foreign commerce, but
The worldwide cry for articles pro-
duced by American inventive genius
and skilled workmanship, coming from
Honduras, Switzerland, Dominican Re-
public, Jugoslavia, Canada, Egypt
Spain, Czechoslovakia and many other
countries, is for-egg grading machines,
handouts, hockey sticks, railway cars,
straight jackets, cigarette paper, rugs
and mats, eyeglass frames and others
too numerous to mention, all found in
| one days list Just announced by the
Department of Commerce.
| \ X
Love tempered in the furnace of the
World War prompted Representative
William P. Connery, regimental color
1 sergeant of the famous yankee Divi-
sion,' on the closing day of the Sew
enty-first Congress, to put into the Con-
| gressional Record to be heralded to
every nook and Granny of this great
land his heartfelt appreciation of his
late commanding officer, who now sleeps
: on Arlington grassy hillside:
| Burial at Arlington of Mai. Gen.
Clarence r. Edwards marks the passing
| of one of Americas most prominent di-
! visional leaders of the World War.
! Memory of those associated with him in
1917 and 1918 will long endure.
His services in the Spanish War and
in the Philippines were relatively in
| significant compared with his later
work as military leader in the World
War. Immediately after the declaration
OF war Gen. Edwards modified all
Militia units in New England, and, az
the 26th Division, so speedily and eff
| fectively trained, they contributed the
first major unit Of National Guardsmen
| from any State to reach France.
But entirely aside from his strictly
military ability was a personal friend
OF his associates in the grim business
of war
He knew that the background of
any army is discipline. He realized
that the difference between mob
a n1N 1,1~ Il
| ways will be instructive and unfailing
obedience to authority. Still he tenn
pered severe discipline of the soldiers
| with human sympathy and understand
| Ing consideration for his men. 1t was
this conspicuous attribute that made
him great"
In the closing hours, Just before the
House burst into song at the close Of
| the session, Representative Snow of
Maine interrupted the feverish rush to
get pet bills passed to introduce to his
| colleagues young man who has
/ brought an old-time spirit of whole
some kindness and meeting life with
! a song into countless homes through
| out the country. Mr. Snow reminded
his associates in the House that Bow
doin College, typical small New Eng
land college, located in the beautiful
| village of Brunswick, Me, graduated
Longfellow and Hawthorne and a little
later a President of the United States,
| Franklin Pierce. He told them that
lin 1896 three graduates Of this little
institution were occupying, respective
ly, the offices of Speaker of this House,
President of the Senate and Chief jus
tice OF the Supreme Court of the United
States-Thomas B. Reed, william p.
Frye and Melville w. Fuller"
Turning from the past to the pres
ent, Representative Snow said: TT is
my privilege to introduce to you this
afternoon another Bowdoin graduate
He is not, however, a poet, a novelist,
statesman or a jurist. He is, in fact,
a mere boy, but is known from one
end Of this country to the other. His
voice is familiar to 30 per cent of the
| membership of the House, but not /
per cent Of you have ever seen him.
I'm my opinion, this young boy is
the source of more Joy and cheer and
| contentment and wholesome enjoyment
| than any person living in the United
States today. 1t Is with a peculiar
degree of pride that now present
to the House-in private life Phillips
| H. Lord Of New York, but on each
Sunday evening lovably known in radio
as Seth Parker of Jonesport, Me-" The
House membership stood and applaud
ed for several minutes while the blush
ing boy in the gallery bowed his en-
barrassed thanks.
X n X
In the rush of legislation in the clos
ing days of a session many human
interest items are buried in the
avalanche, especially in connection
with bills on the private calendar.
Many of these mean the difference be-
tween happiness and misery, between
I heartache and gladstone song. Between
the lines are written anguish and suf-
fering and humble devotion to duty
For example, let's quote from Rep
resentative Campbell of Iowa on one
such private bill the other night:
1T was something like 20 below zero
in our country, and there was a mail
carrier whom I know well-he is one
of those men who, when he has a job
does not loaf on the job. Drifts came
in the road. Other mail carriers had
routes on which they could have covered
carriages, but this man could not get
through the drifts except with q Sled
He went out in that below-zero weather
and the pennies were frozen in the
bottom of the boxes and he had to
reach in and thaw them loose. He
went from box to box along the route.
Finally his hands became numb and
the result was, as shown by this pic
ture, that after he had worked as he
did, Loyalty, when other men would
quit, when my hired man would have
been in the barn-they had to ampu-
tate both of his hands.
There have been men with wrenched
knees and crippled arms who have been
placed on the rolls. This man Is en-
titled to be placed there just as much
as the Others"