Evening star., 1933-08-28
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Behind the scenes of the Reconstruc-
| tlon Finance Corporation a battle royal
| Is IN progress between those ancient
| ana 1ncorrlglble Texas rivals, Houston
/ and Galveston. Strife revolves around
! the authorization of S1100.000 for a
noatlng dry dock for the Houston ship
canal, famed waterway which con-
Verts the inland city into a sea port ''
| on the Gulf of Mexico. Arrangements
were about completed with the Todd
Shlpyard people in New York to build
! the dock when Galveston weighed in
with vigorous protest 1t was repre-
sented that Galveston since 1918 has
owned big floating dry dock, which
has never made money or been occu-
| pied to much more than 80 per cent
OF its capacity. and that a second dock
IL the Gulf region IS unjustified by any
snip repair business of the visible fu-
ture. Under the circumstances Gal
weston considers the Houston scheme
an unwarranted waste of public funds
and contrary to the spirit of the N
R. A Piquancy is lent to the squabble
by the fact that Houston is the home
town of r. F. c. Chairman Jesse H.
Jones. He is not wading into the fray,
but letting matters take their rou-
tine course. Meantime. Representative
Clark w. Thompson, Galveston's new
| White House in the controversy and
received the promise of Col. Howe that
| Galveston'S protest will be brought to
President RooseVelt's attention.
x X x
Former Vice President Curtis. who is
Just back from a business trip to Mexico
City. paid his first call. on reaching
Washington, at the State Department.
iv, 70 Tor Iy1111 of
the high esteem in which Ambassador
Josephus Daniels is held by the Mexi-
can government and people. Curtis
predicts that the former Secretary of
the Navy. who was President Roose-
velt's World War chief. is going to be
as popular down there as the late
Dwight Morrow. even though Daniels
is not financially equipped to do the
many handsome things that helped to
ingratiate Col Lindbergh's father-in-
law in Mexican favor. Curtis family
note: Dolly Cams autobiography will
be published in October.
When Senator Borah is back on
Capitol Hill he intends finding out
whether the one Senate amendment to
the national recovery act, which
amendment was introduced by him, has
that before approval of codes which
would sanction monopolieS or monopo-
listic practices" in any industry already
investigated by the Department of
Justice or the Federal Trade Commis-
sion such codes shall be submitted to
the Attorney General or the Trade
Commission for scrutiny. Oswald F.
Schuette, Washington trust-buSter, who
brought about the unScramblipg OF the
so-called radio trust and is now gun
ming for the Mellon aluminium trust"
has already reminded Gen. johnson
and General Counsel Richberg of the
Borah amendment Schuette says that
five codes might come into question
those covering RADIO aluminium, shoe
machinery, music publishing and
cement
"Old Gimlet Eye" autobiography of
Smedley D. Butler, "as told to Lowell
Thomas" just off the press, discloses
that when the former Quantico Marine
commandant faced court-martial in
1881 fer talking about Mussolini,
Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Governor
of New York, was among those who
offered to testify on Buffers behalf.
One of the best stories in "Old Gimlet
Eye" concerns Gen. Buffers late father,
Representative Tom" Butler, when the
latter was chairman of the House Naval
Affairs Committee A pacifist button
holed the Congressman at the Capitol
while Butler was leading the fight for
the Inflated 15-cruiser bill, and said
to the old Quaker statesman: Thee is
fine Friend" Replied Butler: Thee
is a damn fool"
X X
Thomas Jefferson, who arrived on
horseback for his Inauguration as Pres
ident of the United States, had nothing
on a man named Howe in Secretary
Perkins Board of Labor Statistics. Mr..
Howe comes and goes from his daily
task astride his horse and does his de-