Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-04
The Political Mill
BIZ C. Could Lincoln.

The Nye Senatorial Campaign In
| vestigation Committee gets down TO
serious work today on legislation to
strengthen the Federal corrupt prac-
| tees act It begins q series Of hear
| ings, with students OF and authori-
| ties on corrupt practices in elections
appearing as witnesses. II the eff
| forts of the Nye Committee are to bear
| any permanent fruit. other perhaps
| than the delay OF election of women TO
the Senate, that fruit will come in the
form OF new legislation TO prevent prac-
| tices in senatorial elections which have
| caused q lot Of candidates a lot Of trou
BILE in the last six years. According to.
! reports, most Of the dirty work in Sena-
torial contests Is done in the primary
campaigns and elections. The present
Federal corrupt practices act does not
cover primary elections, on the theory
that the Newberry decision of the Su-
preme Court definitely settled it that
the Congress has no authority to control
or to legislate in connection with pri-
mary elections in the States. However
there are those who insist that the New
| berry decision had no such effect, and
that IL the matter were brought square
" before the highest tribunal 1t would
be held that a law of Congress regulat-
ing primary expenditures. etc. in the
States where Senators and Representa-
tiveS are concerned would be held con-
Stitutional.
It is entirely too early to say whether
the Nye Committee can bring forth any
thing new in the line Of corrupt prac-
tices legislation which can receive the
approval of Congress itself and the
Chief Executive. If 1t really does sue
,rkf hi 10 80 MT
corrupt practices act and 1t Is enacted
into law, such q law may have far
reaching effect in the campaign OF
1882 Undoubtedly, however. the Sen
ate will set up another Investigating
Committee TO look over the elections OF
next year. An election without q SEN
ate Investigation would be like Hamlet"
with Hamlet left out. Whether 1t has
been the fault OF the candidates or
merely the inclination Of the Senate
committees, most of the attention OF the
Senate committees headed by former
Senator James A. Reed of Missouri and
now by Senator Nye of North Dakota,
has been given TO senatorial elections in
Illinois and Pennsylvania. Perhaps
they spend more money to nominate
senatorial candidates in those two States
than elsewhere. In New York, instead
OF nominating senatorial candidates in
primary, the parties nominate them in
conventions. This may account for the
fact that there has not been an inquiry
into q senatorial election in the Empire
State in these recent years. And per-
haps II the candidates were nominated
by conventions in Pennsylvania and
Illinois, there would not be such huge
expenditures of money as have shocked
the Senate. But that Is plain heresy in
days when the primary Is sacroSanct.
+
An echo Of the 1928 campaign comes
before the Nye committee this week.
Despite the protests of Bishop James
Cannon, jr., the committee insists it Is
going ahead on Wednesday with its in
quiry into the handling of the SOS, 900
Jameson contribution to the anti-Smith
Democrats for use in Virginia. This
money was turned over to Bishop Can
non. The committee is not satisfied
with the accounting that has been made
30 far. The conduct Of the anti-Smith
campaign by Democrats, particularly
Bishop Cannon. caused q world OF Bit
terneSS in Virginia and in other South
ern States. Bishop Cannon'S political
enemies have persisted in their efforts
10 cause his humiliation. This goes for
the wet Democrats and other vets in
the North who have no love for Bishop
prohibition. as well as for the dry DEM
ocrats in the South who stood by Al
Smith in the 1928 campaign and saw
Bishop Cannon and his followers make
it possible for President Hoover to carry
four of the States of the solid South"
Bishop Cannon has written to the Sen
ate committee chairman that it will be
impossible for him to be present We'd
neSday because of church work. But
this has not halted the committee. The
bishop bested the Senate lobby commit
tee year ago when he fatty declined
to answer questions propounded to him
on the ground that the lobby commit
tee had no authority to ask him about
the handling Of the campaign contribu-
tons in 1928. The Nye committee, how
ever, apparently has full authority to
make such an inquiry. 1t looks as
though the Cannon inquiry Is likely to
arouse again a good deal Of bitterness
which grew up during the last preSi-
Dental campaign.
y y
Mai. Gen. Smedley d. Butler, U. s.
Marine Corps, who has admitted he
might like to run for the United States
Senate In his home State, Pennsylvania,
next year, is on his way to oregon,
where he has gone on leave Of absence
to help establish the State constabulary.
Gen. Butler, IL he runs for the Senate,
will seek the seat now held by Senator
Davis. former Secretary Of Labor. SEN
ator Davis is still to appear again be-
fore the Senate Lobby Committee in
connection with the charges that the
Celotex Co. handed over to a mem
Der of the Senate" 500, 900 or so while
the Smoot- Hawley tariff law was in
the making. Davis has testified that
he never received anything from any
body in connection with tarin making
There are PennsylvanianS who say that
Butler could win the nomination If he
went into the race. BY the way, why
shouldn't Gen. Butler become vice
presidential possibility, now that so
many other prominent men are in the
picture, simply because Vice President
Curtis has not made up his mind
whether he wants TO run for Reelection
or to seek his old seat in the Senate?
In 1924 another picturesque figure, Gen.
Charles c.. Dawes, was drafted TO run
with Calvin Coolidge. Hoover and But
Ter also would make an an-Quaker
ticket. for Gen. Butler is one Of the
"fghting" Quakers Doubtless the ticket
would please the drys in the Republican
party.
It's 50 years since Kansas went dry
In that half century there has been no
slackening, it is said by Kansans, in
the states devotion to the dry cause
Kansas has had its bootleggers and its
speakeasies. There is reason to believe
that it still has such gentry and So
called GASES in the desert. But while
the rest of the country, or good part,
has become more and more excited over
the eighteenth amendment, Kansas has
remained comparatively calm. II the
Democrats expect to carry Kansas next
wear, it will have to be on some other
issue than anti-prohibitton. The con-
stitutional amendment which made
kansas dry was adopted by the State
i'm 1880 and became effective q year