Evening star., 1935-02-25

President Roosevelt is certainly
| having no luck with that vaunted
two-thirds New Deal majority in the
United States Senate. On the two
vital occasions on which 1t has been
called upon to function it has Ia
mentally failed him. Twenty DEM
ocrats forsook the administration on
the World Court in January and 81
deserted on the prevailing wages
amendment to the work relief bill
last week. Independently of the
Senate Democrats is q painful reve-
lation to F. D. r. and the party lead
ership. It is all the more unpalatable
tbecause it strikes the high command
as a species of base political in
gratitude, at least in the case of the
insurgents who owed their election
in 1882 or 1884 mainly to the fact
that they carried the Roosevelt hall
| mark Mr. Roosevelt now faces In
| the Upper House brand Of revolt
within his own party ranks such as
both Presidents Coolidge and Hoover
had to contend with at the hands
, of the Republican progressives. The
| llldobCk Vi Vic 4NCW ACdl - 44o COA 0AA6C4
to legislative obstruction. He con-
fronted it periodically at Albany and
frequently came out on top.
y X X X
Congress is tremendously interested
| In reports that the President may
appeal to the country-presumably
| through a fireside broadcast-in order
to rally public sentiment in favor of
his work relief bill before it is
wrecked by Senate opposition. It has
often been suggested that he would
resort to the microphone as the most
effective big stick at his command.
He knows from recent sad expert
enceS how useful his foes have found
1t. As Governor of New York he
regularly reSorted to the radio for
the purpose of winning support for
his programs when they were blocked
by stubborn Legislature. So one Of
these salubrious wintry evenings We
may hear the dulcet Roosevelt tones
in an appeal to wire your Senators
to get behind the $4,880, ,000, 900 work
relief bill, now so perilously near the
rocks. All this, of course, provided
that the administration in the mean
time has not struck its colors and
scuttled the ship.
| *k -
Federal Judge William Irwin Grubh
of Alabama, who has just declared
illegal the sale Of electric energy by
T. ". A. and permanently enjoined
the loan of P. w. A. funds to Ala
bama municipalities for construction
Of their own power distribution plants,
is undoubtedly the New Deals chief
judicial Nemesis His latest decisions
are on all fours with the one he
rendered last October declaring the
N. r. A. unconstitutional and his
temporary restraining order In Janu-
ary against the Alabama towns.
Judge Grubb took Office in 1909, early
| in the Taft administration. Like the
President who appointed him, Judge
Grubb Is q native Cincinnatian and
Yale man. He was a member of
President Hoover's Law-enforcement
Commission.
Arrangements are about complete
for the early departure Of q repre-
sentative, though unoficial, American
| trade mission to the Far East. It has
been organized by the National For
eign Trade Council and will be headed
by w. Cameron Forbes. former Cover
nor General of the Philippines anc
one-time Ambassador to Japan. While
the mission will carry no credentials
| of the limited States Government. the
State and Commerce Departments are
understood to have no objections to
them. The mission will inquire into
opportunities for business in both
China and Japan. The Japanese hope
the Americans will explore Manchou-
kuo, as trade missions from Great
, Britain, Flnce and Germany have