Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1935-04-12

WASnBWSbVE
With the President off on a fish
ing trip, it's a good time to gossip
shout some of the other folk who
figure more or less in the political
picture; remembering, if you please,
thar nothing that goes On in Wash
ington is not political. There are
some very skillful politicians in the
Administration and in Congress.
There are also some very inept poll
ticians.
Secretary Harold L. Ickes of the
Interior Department, PWA adj
Illustrator, for example. Mr.. Ickes
Doesn't know how to play politics.
He is disliked by Congress and re-
garded as slightly dumb by some
leaders for taking too seriously the
avowed intent to spend public
money without political favortism.
Gossip has it that Ickes is being
edged out"
Madame Secretary Perkins of the
Department of Labor went out to
the University of California the
other day, made a speech and got
an honorary degree, and a fgura-
tive slap in the face from a Cali
fornia woman who referred to her
as "a mere politician" She came
back East and got into an argu-
ment with Mrs. Elinor Herrick,
regional director of the National
Labor Relations Board, who said
publicly hat women couldn't get
important public offices except by
political pull. Madame Secretary
denied that hotly. Gossips say that
Edward F. McGrady, assistant sec
rotary, is the real power in the
Labor Department.
Herbert Hoover, once President,
stood in line with Madame Secre-
tary at the University of California.
Mr.. Hoover gave some advice to the
Young Republicans of California
the other day, which got into print.
Immediately Washington, which
can see hidden political motives in
everything, jumped to the conclu-
sion that Mr.. Hoover was staging a
comeback in 1886. 1t took a.
strongly worded denial of any such
ambition, issued in his behalf by an
unnamed friend, to quiet the talk.
= Harry l.. Hopkins, Federal En-
Urgency Relief Administrator, who
will be Number One man in spend
ing the works-relief money, is said
by his friends to be at heart a con-
servative who hates the whole re-
lief system, but does his job we'll,
without too much interference with
local politicians who want a finger
in the pie. His scheme for the new
spending is a sort of glorihed eva.
Rexford Guy TugweH, Undersec-
rotary Of Agriculture, has the Presi-
dents left ear raymond Moley
still having access to the right one),
the gossips say. Tugwell will be in
charge of Federal purchases of land,
for anchoring down the topsoil in
the short-grass country, subsistence
homesteads, relief for tenant-farm-
ers and the like. Those activities
will take him out of active work in
the Department of Agriculture.
Henry Wallace, Secretary of Ag-
riculture, is becoming less of a lee
turer and pamphleteer and more of
an administrator. He's running his
department and making a good job
of it, his friends claim.
Rear Admiral Christian J. Peoples,
chief of the procurement division
of the Treasury, built a reputation
in the Navy as good administrator.
Secretary Morgenthau drafted him
for the Treasury, and he is expected
to control the bookkeeping of the
works relief expenditures.
Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, the Presi-
dents wife, has politicians and ad-
ministrative officials guessing much
of the time. Nobody knows when
she will say something calculated to
upset carefully-laid plans. While
official Washington is not exactly
afraid of her, she makes every
body nervous.
Daniel C. Roper, Secretary Of
Commerce, is losing ground with
business men and institutions whom