Evening star., 1934-11-28

Washington looks upon the Edison
Electric Institutes retention Of New
ton D. Baker and James M. Beck in
connection with the constitutionality OF
T. V. A. as the opening gun in the
utilities war on the New Deal power
program. The institute, which repre-
sents 80 per cent of the countrys elec-
trio energy, has authorized its officers
to take any necessary steps" to bring
about "a prompt adjudication and set
tlement of the matters in controversy.
This signals a battle royal, In which
arms will never be stacked until the
Supreme Court of the United States
has spoken the final word. The utll-
ity interests decided upon fight to
the fnsh as soon as they had the joint
opinion of Messrs. Baker and Beck
that T. v. A. legislation is "palpably
unconstitutional" All indications
foreshadow one Of the most stubbornly
contested legal duels Of our time. with
the prospect that its outcome will per-
manently affect national policy In the
domain of public ownership and gov
ernment in business"
President Roosevelt's hospitality to
Undersecretary of Agriculture TugWell
at Warm Springs explodes the theory
that the Adonis of the New Deal has
fallen from grace. He is evidently
still intrenched as planner No. l. Re-
ports that DR.. Tugwell was to be de-
prived of authority in A. A. A. and
correlated affairs became current
after his speech making excursion into
the drought country and the corn belt
last Summer. Though he invaded
those regions shortly after having re-
vealed to the Senate Agriculture Com
mittee that he grew up as farm
boy and had once raised prize calf,
word filtered back to Washington that
the bucolic brethren found that the
young Columbia scholar did not quite
speak the language of the tribe. Then
came his deportation" to Europe for
the duration of the congressional cam
paign. All that seems to be water
over the dam now, and Tugwell has
resumed his seat among the mighty.
r X
F. Harold Dubord, unsuccessful Dem
ocratic candidate for the Senate
against Senator Frederick Hale, Re-
publican, in Maine last September,
will not, after all, contest Mr.. Hale's
election. November 20 was the last
day on which Dubord could have pc
titioned for a recount of the vote, from
which Hale emerged with an official
majority of exactly 1,200. In a pub
lie statement that he will take no fur
ther action and devote himself exclus-
lively to his law practice, Mr.. Dubord
wishes Senator Hale "a successful
term"
Biographies of pre-New Deal states
men continue to be the literary rage.
Henry F. Pringle, author of the Pu-
liter prize winning life of Theodore
Roosevelt, has pitched his tent in
Washington for the Winter, to compile
a biography of william Howard Taft.
William Allen White has q life of
Speaker Joe Cannon under way, and
Frederic c. Howe Of the Consumers
Division Of A. A. A. Is at work On q
biography Of Robert M La Toilette.
Those New England Yankees are in
class by themselves as coiners of
cryptic political phraseology. Calvin
Coolidge had the Nation guessing
what he meant when he said he did
not Choose to run" for President in
1928. Now in subtle words that leave
people wondering what he's driving
at, Prof. Wilbur Lucius Cross, Just
elected to third term as chief mag
istrate Of Connecticut, states that 1T
II not likely that I shall again be q
candidate for Governor" Few poll
ticians emulate the d:rectness Of "Old