The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-10-18
| BEHIND |
 1.-THE SCENES | 'wvASHiNCTON IN
Senotor Chovez Isn't
 Sitting So Pretty with : Interior Department i,,.. z FoiIs in His Effort to Ditch Cuttings
 Former Aide Feud
 likeIy 10 Flare Up sAgoin.
BY RODNEY BUTCHER
 Democrat Washington r0SrasnNndent

Democrat WaSnlngtOn
 - Correspondent
 ssss Washington, Oct. 18-H the late Senator Huey LOng-whO ssSwas strong admirer of the late l Bronson Cutting - were still
 sssalive, the next session of con- jE gress might be an uncomfort- V able one for Senator Dennis ea Chavez of New Mexico.
 As a matter of fact, the posi- tiOn of Senator Chavez isn't sssany too comfortable even right 1T now. For a senator from New mMexico must have many and ~ frequent contacts with the de- = partment of interior and it is ', gfo his advantage that the rela- sa lions be amiable. The inside '.s.story is this:
 " Chavez was the democratic ex- yongressman who contested the Election of Cutting and was ap- Bodnted to the seat after Cutting had been killed in an airplane crash. Secretary Ickes subsequently, hired Edward F. Puryear, Cuttings Secretary, as his director of person. .snet. Much to the disguest of Chavez. < Very soon Chavez was appearing at the White House and the demo- Eratic national committee with aCharges that Puryear was secretly .active in republican politics. He zlikes Puryear and his ability, more Khan ever on the spot. Not long sago the interior secretary fought rpf White House and other influ- 1demanded Puryear's dismissal. = That put the valiant Ickes, who sence which had demanded the '@scalp of his valued aide, Ebert K. sBurlew, and his battles with Jim
 Harley have been notorious. z If he were found to be harboring "a G. o. P. spy in a key position, it would be just too bad. ' Called Fake and 'Frame" z Chevaz submitted as evidence a spurported contract in which the national committee was represented as offering one William sWightman Phillips $100 a week for s.poNtical publicity work in New sMexico and other southwestern ..Btates. Accompanying this was a stypewritten memorandum in which .ssthe writer said if the terms weren't satisfactory to Phillips, Mrs. c. sfwhich Chavez insisted meant Cut .ting's mother) probably would be klad to contribute something extra. ~ The memo was signed by type .7priter with the letter 'P." (which Chavez insisted was the signature bf Puryear).
 lckes assigned Louis Glavis, the New Deals most celebrated investi- gator, to the case. Glavis assumed he had 8 frameup on his hands. Neither contract" nor memo, he found, could. have come from any typewriter in or near Puryear's of-
 flee.
 Government paper had been used, but Bureau of Standards experts said it wasn't any of the types used in interior. Republican National
 committee officials snorted at the
 documents as flake"
 
 EEvidence" Falls Flat
 Then the Glavis sleuths located
 Phillips. By a remarkable coinci-
 dence is turned out that Phillips
 was living in the apartment occu-
 pied by Joseuh Martinez, secretary
 to Senator Chavez, and at times by
 Dennis Chavez, Jr. The home of
 MT. Phillips was, in fact, a sort of
 hangout for the Chavez clan. - Phillips was taken aside. He said 'a1e didn't know Puryear and had Mever seen him. He had had a ] couple of telephone calls from a { man who said he was Puryear. He 2 had found the contract" in his ! mailbox and had shown it to Mar . tinez, who urged him to show 1t to Senator Chavez, which he did. : ' Another man who had been men, Eioned in the document as a possi- 7 tle candidate for a Republican Ma ] tional committee job turned out tc be a taxi driver.
 : < And on the basis of report from {. ATldVlb, 1ChCo COlilpACtCiJ SAoAASA~ ~eSN : his director of personnel. . Feud Likely to Go On ,, Z High officials in the Ickes organ : ization and other friends of Pur- year are feeling pretty hot about the incident. Relations with the , office of Senator Chavez are dis , tinctly strained.
 It may or may not be significant , that young MT. Teabot Chavez, a . cousin of the senator, very recently resigned his minor job in the In- . terior Department.
 q, Probably you will hear more oi { the Chavez-Puryear feud. If one 7 accepts the official theory that Pur- year was the object of an attempt ' ed frameup, the incident may bt counted as the boldest effort tc . ~get" an official here that hal . Eome to light in long time.