Evening star., 1934-02-12

| Gen. Macarthur and the rest Of
| the War Department high command
are tackling eagerly the airnail job
the President has just assigned them
| because 1t provides another chance TO
show the country that the military es-
tablisment has its peace-time uses, too
The Army is one of the most versatile
branches of the Government, wholly
apart from its primary job of remain
| ing in an instant state Of readiness for
war. The soldiers are especially proud
of their contribution to the new deal
the mobilization, and later the su-
pervision, of the 100000 young men
who went into the Civilian Conserva
ton Corps. BY general consent, the
G. G. G. camps are the outstanding
success Of the emergency program.
The Army's responsibilities, aside
from strictly military duties, are
largely of engineering nature. It is
the chief custodian of rivers and har-
bors work. flood control and CO.
related matters. It built the Panama
Canal It surveyed the proposed ST.
Lawrence-G Great Lakes waterway and
it has mapped out route for another
interoceanic American canal through
Nicaragua. The Insular Bureau of
the War Department supervises the
government of the Philippines and
Peurto Rico and has charge Of the
Dominican customs receivership.
x X
No European cabinet ever contained
so many men with flrst-hand knowl-
edge of the United States as Premier
Doumergue's national salvation" cab
met in France. -Four of its members,
including the premier's two right
hand men, ex-Premiers Herriot and
Tardieu, know Washington and this
country from personal contact. M.
Tardieu was French high commits
sioner here during the war and M.
Herriot visited President Roosevelt
last year. Ex-Premier Laval, M,
Doumergueis minister of colonies,
conferred with. President Hoover in
1881, and later in the same year
Marshal Petain, new minister Of war
in Paris, came to this country to rep
resent France at the 150th anniver-
sary of the Battle of Yorktown.
X \ X
IIOOoCfC1Jo 0CfObiOh W
Harvard is 100 per cent, but he has
a next best love in the academic line
in Vassar College, of which he has for
many years been trustee, as well as
a close neighbor at Hyde Park. The
Vassar student body has just held a
new deal conference, with IN. r. AS
Effect on Labor" as the subject OF
discussion. Among participants in the
conference was DR.. William Leiser-
son, chairman of the Petroleum Ad-
visory Council. WaShington's distin-
guished group Of Vasar alumnae in
cludes Mrs. Henry Morgenthau, jr.
X y X X
A. witness testifying about aircraft
financing had just told the Senate
Investigating Committee how an orig
inal investment of $40 fattened into
a fortune of S6,0OO,0OO or so. There
upon a member of the committee put
his hand in his pocket, found he had
is cents, showed it to colleague and
asked the latter if he thought there
was any chance the witness might be
willing to invest bit of loose change
for the Senator.
X r X 4
So far, among the shoals Of new
deal literature, little or no stress has
been laid upon a political fact known.
to most Roosevelt insiders-namely,
that there now sit in the cabinet
three men probably more responsible
for F. D. RS arrival in the presidency
than any other group in the country.
They are F. r. B. G. aboriginals-
Secretary of State Hull, Attorney
General Cummings and Secretary Of
Commerce Roper. It-was their effec-
tive pre-conyention activities in all
parts of the country and their Ma
tion-wide Democratic contacts that
paved the way for delegate-garnering
hy Jim Farley as the time approached.