Evening star., 1936-11-04
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Now comes the charge of the alibi
brigade-the open season for post
mortems and what-might-have- -beens.
Party chairmen and straw-vote directors
depending on whose oxen were gored.
find themselves in the toughest spots.
Pros and cons as to the true inwardness
of the outcome will rage for many a
day, partiSans deriving such comfort as
they prefer from the peoples verdict at
the polls. Except for the I-told-you-so
contingent, ever numerous the morning
after, opinion is general that the 1886
election, after all, was actually one OF
the most unpredictable on contemporary
record, despite the preponderant expec-
tation of President RooSevelt'S re-elec-
ton. In accordance with good old
American custom, it won't be long now
before all hands will be turning their
attention earnestly to the next political
turmoil-the congressional elections OF
1888, as the forerunner of another presi-
Dental campaign in 1910. Recovery OF
Senate control unobtainable for four
years, is the cleaning goal on which
the G. o. P. will Immediately fix its gaze.
Authorities in both finance and in
dustry long since discounted the results
of the election, no matter what they
might prove to be. Marked progress in
all major lines has been so steady during
the first three-quarters of the year that
confidence in indefinite continuance of
improvement became deep-rooted. Com
mercial leaders now settle back into
post-election calm amid contemplation
of record trade volume in 1887, begin
ming with bumper holiday business For
the first time since start of the depres-
sion there have been nine months of
unbroken rising activity, with stock
market and commodity prices keeping
pace. Since January l, 245 corporations
report net profits of $792, 100000, against
S485, 100000 in the corresponding period
of 1885, gain of 63.3 per cent. Having
survived the shocks, alarms and un-
certainties of bitterly waged cam
paign. in which business itself came
directly under fire, financiers and in
dustrialists are serenely assured that
the worst is over, and that the signals
are now set for fresh cycle of recovery.
Apparently, chronic unemployment re-
mains the battling fly in the ointment.
y y y
Although the Norris lame duck amend
ment to the Constitution provides for
the meeting of new Congress on jan
uary following its election, the
Seventy-fifth Congress, including the
House and members of the Senate
chosen yesterday, will not convene until
Tuesday, January S, 1887, as January 3
falls on Sunday. A joint resolution
making the necessary change was ap-
proved by the expiring Congress on June
% last The President and Vice Presi-
dent-elect will be inaugurated on We'd
nesday, January 20, just little more
than two weeks after the new Congress
takes ONCE.
Father Coughlin came forward on the
eve OF election with an advance alibi
for the failure of Union Party Presi-
Dental Candidate Lemke to roll up "at
least 9,000, 900 votes" which the Detroit
priest forecast last August Coughlin
explained to newspaper interviewers that
his Midsummer nights dream was based
on the assumption that Lemke's name
would be on the ballot in most of the
48 States. It was when he was indulging
in that rosy illusion that Father
Coughlin said he would retire from the
realm of air politics If he failed to
deliver the goods to his national can
didate.
X
It is from the pulpits of the land that
Americans hear the most persistent de-
mands to keep Uncle Sam out of war
and out of any complications which
could lead to war. But DR.. Algernon d.
Black, in sermon just preached be-
fore the New York Society for Ethical