The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-12-01

Washington. Dec. Horny handed Henry Wallace, secretary of agriculture, has become the hated enemy of the whiskey in- terests:
 averse to taking drink, but does believe in temperance. And he has become the unmovable bulwark in preventing the dis tillers from flooding the United States.
 The distillers must secure from Wallace a code of fair com petition before they can operate. Their original code called for un- limited production of whiskey. Some of them already had begun to construct new plants.
 But Wallace put his foot down. He held out for exactly the same whislxey production as the United States had been able to consume in 1918. The distill- CTS argued that the country had grown, that thirst had inereas- ed. Wallace stood pat.
 Any additional liquor beyond the 1918 production will have to be imported from abroad under the Wallace plan. And another code for liquor importers is be- ing written, so that each liquid consignment entering the coun- try will be licensed. Wallace does not propose to have the USA flooded.
 Coming out of a code confer ence with Wallace's representa- tives, one whiskey distiller re- marked:
 q thought the eighteenth amendment had been repealed" MESSENGER SERVICE
 If Henry Morganthau's policy of Prussianizing treasury guards and messengers were adopted for the state department, a lot of quaint customs in the historic state, war and navy building would cease.
 There is for instance, one col- ored state department messenger who is a lawyer. He sits outside his chiefs door ready to answer the buzzer. But since calls are few and far between, he carries ~on a law practice between buzzes. Colored friends and rela- tives come to consult him on points of law.
 Another messenger served as coachman for Theodore Roose- welt, another as butler for CaI- win Coolidge and valet for Secre. tar Stimson. They are pictur- esque personages know every diplomat in the corps, and in many cases their protocol and international law.
 On the desk of one was re- gently seen the magazine, Com mon Sense," edited by radical Hiram Bingham, Jr., son of the conservative ex-senator from Connecticut. It was opened to an article entitled: Capitalism is Doomed"
 CROSSED WIRES
 Franklin Roosevelt is a past master at handling the press, but no presidential statement even in the days of the press-shy Mir Hoover ever went more haywire than that issued from Warm Springs recently regarding Cuba.
 It was intended as uneQuivo- cal support for Ambassador Sum- ner Welles. Instead it was inter- cepted universally as his recall. Here is the inside story of how the wires got crossed.
 Roosevelt had planned a state- ment heartily supporting the Welles policy in Cuba. But he planned to make it about the time Welles returned to Havana. Then suddenly the state depart ment learned that the Irish Free State contemplated recognition of the Grau government. This would have set a precedent for recognition by other countries. F. D. R. HEADS OFF
 IRELAND
 In order to head off the Irish Free State, the state department rushed through the Roosevelt statement on Cuba. It said that the. Grau government being a high-handed dictatorship, could not be recognized. But if Cuba formed coalition government 1t would be recognized.
 The statement was drafted by mld-afternoon. But then it got lost on somebody's desk in the state department. It was not un- til 1Q:3O p. m. that Acting Sec retary Phillips realized the state- ment had not been wired to Roosevelt. He sent it off.
 The president made it public nt midnight. Usually he is very careful with his press releases.
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