The Washington times., 1935-05-02

NOW
DR.. Townsend
Gets O. Hand
ACE" FALTERS
By HELEN ESSARY

They came to scoff-to the
luncheon of the Woman's Ma
tional Press Club.
] All of them remained to
heckle. Many of them remained
to admire. Admire whom?
I To admire the last person in
the world unbelieving news
paper women would be expected
to take a fancy tor. Town
send, the man who would give
the aged a fling on 5000 month
Government pension.
! He stood at the luncheon
table, a gentle, unassuming old
man. An old man with finely
shaped head, high cheek bones,
q strong jaw, and the eyes Of a
demonstrating an incredulouS
audience. He talked simply OF
his wild" plan. His voice was
low, clear and sure.
; Here, said all of the news
paper women, is sincerity. Dis
interestedness. Madness, per-
haps, but there's a half truth
In the plan and great kindness
In the man.
We thought of nasty ques-
tons to ask DR.. Townsend. He
didn't mind. With benign COM
posture he continued to eX-
plode revolutionary bombshells.
He said with quiet conviction:
"The President will not be
reelected. We will have new
Congress of men who are not
governing the country merely
because they can't get any
other jobs. We will have Sc
curity and justice. A 2 per
cent transaction tax will bring
more than enough revenue to
take care of 100000 old peO-
pie"
"What the country needs is
more spending. And we shall
have it. How do I know? Be-
cause the present civilization is
ridiculous. Twenty million have
signed their belief in my plan.
Three thousand clubs have
grown voluntarily to fight the
cause Of the aged and the pow
erty stricken. Today, a few
weeks after we started our pa
per, we have a circulation of
10000 and are growing at TO-.
900 a week. Now we are out to
win our cause.
"Who will rise to be the next
President? j don't know. But
he'll be a leader who realizes
the old age pension plan and
its workable system of taxation
Y can lift 40 million out of abject
poverty"
Some Of the newspaper women
said:
Sounds like a system Of
jumping from the frying pan
into the fire"
DR.. Townsend replied:
maybe so. But it might be
entertaining to try the fire."
To less complicated themes.
Eddie Rickenbacker, the lace
of aces" one of the greatest
of war and peace-time filters,
got so jittery when he had to
talk over the radio the other
day that his friends thought
he couldn't finish the broad"
cast.
Mrs. Joshua Evans, jr., who
arranged the delightful dinner
for the Columbian Women at
the Chevy Chase Club last
night, was driving near Miss
Madeira's School in Virginia
in the midst of a thunder
storm. She offered a half
drowned traffic policeman a
r lift. After she had asked the
policeman to please sit in the
back so she wouldn't seem to
be under arrest, the policeman
said:
"Aren't you the lady who
whizzeS along Thirty-fOurth
Street, past every stop sign?"
Undoubtedly a judge of char
acter, this policeman.
Mrs. Evans is a leader in
the washington educational and
welfare field. The first woman
trustee of George Washington
University. And-this is really
her greatest accomplishment
the only person ever able to
persuade the governors of the
Chevy Chase Club that it would
be a nice idea to have an Or
ganization dinner at the club.
The sights and sounds of a
railway day coach sometimes
make drama-c I'm e dy more
often than tragedy.
Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote
of the time the beautiful girl in
a railway train smiled happily
in his direction. Suspicion over
= came vanity, Mr.. Holmes turned.
And found a big, handsome
young fellow in the seat behind
him.
Major William Freehoff says
he was riding in a train ahead
of a young man and a young
woman. Half asleep and half
awake, he was startled by the