Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-07
StrOther Seeks Solitude

BY WILLIAM HARD.

TN this age of Organization" when
almost everybody thinks he has to
have job with some going con-
L cern." preferably big, there is
great refreshment in gazing upon
the audacity and upon the passion for
solitude exhibited by French Strother
now departing from his LOB" as the
Presidents literary secretary.
The press has carried numerous ru-
mors as to large "jobs" that Mr..
Strother might be offered and might
embrace. These reports are ISLANDERS.
Mr.. Strother's precise main high pur-
uoSe Is to have no lob"
He is going to bury himself In the
cellar. or elevate himself to the attic,
Of his house near New York. In that
cellar or in that attic he is going to
produce literary works and then mail
them to editors for acceptance or re-
lection He will not work for the edi-
tors. No! He will simply give them by
mail the chance to accept or to reject,
as. they please That is as far as he
will go toward association with them
or their firms.
No Mans Servant.
He is going to be no mans man or
mental. He is going to be wholly in
dependent character, at least as long
as his money holds out He will de-
fend his independence to the last cent.
and we hope that you will not even IN
stall a telephone whereby some Or
ganization" might rope you into doing
some grinding, grubby routine toll
And If you ever do again take job
We advise you to take it with Senator
Shipstead, Farmer Laborite, of Mime
sofa. Think how splendidly he does
without an organization.
His senatorial colleague from Mime
sofa, Mr.. Schall, has to worry about
Judgeships and other Federal patron
age" in Minnesota. That is because
he is Republican. It is because he
belongs to one Of the two great politi-
cal organizations" Mr.. Shipstead does
not.
Inapprehensive persons say that he
belongs to the "Farmer-Labor organi-
zatton." That is not an organization. y
1t Is state Of mind. It is a drift Of
notions. 1t is a label 1t is a device
whereby a candidate can say to Re-
publicans, Vote for me; I'm not a
Democrat" and to Democrats, Vote
for me; I'm not Republican"
Responsible to None.
In other words, he can say to them
all. Il am responsible for none of the
mistakes or counter mistakes made by
Republicans and Democrats in WASH
ington and have never refused to ap-
point any of you to a Federal Office
because have never had the power to
appoint any of you to a Federal Office.
and, please God. l shall successfully
avoid acquiring that power as long as I
am seeking your suffrages and striving
to give no offense"
All that Senator ShipStead has to do
during the presidential campaign
season, when every other Senator is
worrying himself sick over possible
to wise crack. Somebody said to him
the other day that the campaign of
1882 would bring up great questions Of
right and wrong
II hardly think So" replied the Sen
ator. II am inclined to think that in
1882 it won't be so much right and
wrong as right and left"
Naturally the Senator hopes so. and
hopes the left" to which he radically
belongs, will win.
The Senator also has contributed a
happy. II not helpful, remark to the
present business depression. He has
defined banker. He says:
"a banker is q man who holds an
umbrella over you when the sun is shin
ing and puts it down when it rains"
Having thus discharged his party re-
sponsibility to the situation, the Senator
is free to travel and to gibe at both
Republicans and Democrats when he
returns. If Mr.. Strother would write
his new free novels in Mr.. Shipstead's
office, the two of them together might
produce some wonderful passages on the
delights and beauties Of "unorganized'
existence.
Another way, though. of being totally
independent is to be right in the thick
of all of the organizations, like Mr..
Adolph Miller of the Federal Reserve
Board. There's an independent and Sc