Evening star., 1934-06-15
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

While Senator Smith, Democrat, Of
South Carolina was assailing DR.. Tug
we'll in the Senate this week he
termed American farmers the Chi
nese" of the United States, portray
ing them as forgotten men. Cotton
Ed" also went the length Of charging
that agriculture is a fiabby. morgan
lied element that has difficulty in
making itself heard in Washington
and getting its deserts at the hands
of ar Indifferent government. No re-
cent figures are available, but the grand
total of Federal aid extended to farm
ers during the past few years, in one
form or another, must run pretty well
into billions of dollars. AS for agri-
culture being without adequate repre-
sentation, no interest Is more effec-
lively organized than the one for
which the American Farm Bureau
Federation, the National Grange and
the Farmers Union act. to say nothing
of the farm bloc, a ruling power on
Capitol Hill since time immemor1al.
Both parties traditionally cater to,
and compete for, the farm vote, a
fact which accounts for the super
generous financial assistance con-
stantly extended to the Nations basic
industry. Agriculture is a long way
from being the stepchild of the Re-
public, and the Treasury can prove 1t.
x
n.rra1f rNfU h.
ington to remain a purely residential
beauty spot, unmarried by the smoke
stacks of industry. The National
Capitals greatest single industry,
which belches propaganda instead of
smoke, is the representation OF those
special interests of all hues which
have Federal axes to grind. They
constitute the gentry irreverently
called the grand army of lobbyists.
The classified section of the new tele-
phone directory reveals the ramif1ca-
tions of this major local industry.
Three solid pages Of small print
under the caption Associations de-
pict how the Federal City has swollen
as the clearing house for every or
ganized form of American life. Wash
ington Office buildings are c-ammed
to the roofs with these multifar1ous
agencies, many of which maintain
large STATS vigilantly holding watch
and ward over everything OF i'm
portance to the people who foot their
bills.
Chesley w. Jurney, Beau Brummell
sergeant at arms of the Senate, will
spend a late Summer vacation in
Europe, visiting France, Italy and
Switzerland. He plans to give the
League of Nations the once-over at
Geneva. Mr.. Jurney acknowledges
that he is a pro-Leaguer and expects
to come home with corroborative evi-
dence of the usefulness of the worlds
greatest debating society.
Representative Virginia e. Jenckes.
Democrat, of Indiana, acknowledged
to be one of the hardeSt-w working
members of Congress, specializes in
getting things done at Washington
for the Hoosier folks back home. Her
latest achievement consists of induc-
ing the Post Once Department to
reverse decision to discontinue the
fourth-class post Office OF Rileysburg,
Vermilion County, Ind. Rileysburg
Is named after the Indiana poet-idol,
James Whitcomb Riley, and, on that
account, as well as the intrinsic
merits of its case, Mrs. Jenckes per-
suaded Jim Farley that the town
rates a post ofice. 1t was to have
been blotted off the postal map on
June IS. Rileysburs had q population
Of exactly 100 In the 1920 census.