Evening star., 1932-10-31
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC EILLIAN HILE.

If the fates decree the wreck of his
hopes next week. future historians will
at least be able to record that Herbert
Hoover went down with his ship, fight
ing TO the last. No presidential Candi-
date in our time ever waged a SITTER
battle to the bitter END than the
incumbent Of the White House The
travel schedule that will lie Just behind
the President by election day will have
been worthy Of Theodore Roosevelt in
his most strenuous days. DR.. Boone,
custodian of Mr.. Hoover'S health, is
authority for the statement that his
eminent patient is bearing up bravely
under the physical rigOrS and emotional
strain to which the last phase Of the
campaign subjects him. This is really
the first time in his life that Herbert
Hoover has haG to go out and scrap for
his official existence. In 1928 the three
Ps' did his fighting for him-ProSper-
ity. Prohibition and Prejudice. In 1882
there is no prosperity prohibition Is on
the wane, and prejudice isn't an issue
or wasn't until Al Smith made 1t one at
Newark week ago.
One would think that there are not
two Democrats alive-at least, if the
~.
politically farther apart than that pair
of Johns-John w. Davis Of New York
and John N. Garner Of Texas. Mr.
Davis speaks as special counsel fo1
nearly all the corporate money on
Manhattan Island and his middle name
is conservatism itself Speaker Garner
according to his political foes, Is
red and rabid radical. Yet when the sill
ver-tongued Davis was making a Demo-
cratic campaign speech at Ithaca, N. Y,
Saturday night, did he assail or ignore
Cactus Jack? He did nothing OF the
sort He called the first citizen OF
Uvalde (whos worth a million or two
by the way) that battle-scarred vet
eran" and spoke of him in other en-
dearing terms.
Surprisingly few of the plutocratic
administration offlceholderS names ap-
pear in the list of those who have con-
tributed Sl,554,817 to the 1882 Repub-
lican war chest. Ambassador Mellon
and Secretary Mills are down for S25,-
600 apiece, which is considerably more
than the annual salary Of each of them
The next biggest administration but
ter-and-egg- man is Ambassador Sackett,
with S6,000 Mrs Harry F. Guggen-
helm, wife of the Amba ssador to Cuba
gave $1,000 A similar amount is set
opposite the name of Gardner Cowles,
d director of the Reconstruction Finance
Corporation. UnderSecretary of State
William R. Castle, jr., donated Sl25
AS a sign of the times and the slim
pickings both parties have run into this
year, note the contribution OF William
H. Vanderbilt-sl00. If any other,
especially among the well-to-do. mem
bers of the Hoover Federal household
have dug into their jeans they have
not yet been revealed.
Although permanent residents Of the
disfranchised District of Columbia can
not vote, Washington contains tens OF
thousands of more fortunate American
citizens who do have the privileges OF
the ballot box The Democrats are
making a special effort in 1882 to
drum up so-called absentee voters who
enjoy the right of suffrage ! their ovr
respective States AS an indication OF
how vital these District of Columbia
voters can be, Mrs Lester j. Pollock, in
charge of the Democratic Absent Voters
Bureau, recalls that it was the absentee
ballots cast from the District of Co
lumbia that elected Harry H. Woodring
Governor of Kansas in 1880. He ran
neck and neck with mis- Republican op-
ponent, but when the handful of Kan
sans living in Washington was heard
from the die was cast in his favor ano
he carried the State by a majority Of
646 votes.
Hiram johnson ardently advocate!
alterations artful application. While
he was hammering Hoover at Sar
Francisco last week he peeled off thi!
pithy paragraph: 1T has been fol
those prating most of their purity anc
patriotism to use the power of posi-
| ton to debase the elective franchise
Despicable as he is, if choice mus
be made, I prefer the petty precinc
politician. who brazenly buys the vicious
vote of the willing ward heeler. to tn,
callous so-called captains of commerce
| the money-hungry raucously roaring
now throughout the land, who brutal,
hrovbeat and bllldpeon the men at thei