Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1936-08-27
SEEN
HEARD
around the
NATIONAL
CAPITAL
By CarterField ~
By Carter Field

Observation-Disclosures are not
boasting about one of their really
important accomplishments re-
peal of prohibition.
Republicans are not attacking the
administration for perhaps its most
stupid and observation-disclosures
expensive fops-the silver buying
policy which was to correct so
many things, including the power
of China to buy more American ex-
ports.
These are two of the phases of
this presidential campaign which
must be very amusing to any for
eigner.
Prohibition is almost self-exp1an-
atory. One angle, however, which
neither the vets surprised be-
cause there was no boasting about
the keeping Of this platform pledge
nor the drys-indignant that it
was kept - have appreciated is
purely financial. It affects another
issue in the campaign, and one
which the Democrats do not wish
to discuss. For repeal of prohibit
ton has resulted in pouring half a
billion-five hundred million dollars
a year more into the federal
treasury as tax revenue.
New Dealers do not want to talk
about this, for it naturally raises
the point what would the deficit be,
and how much would the increase
in our national debt be, if there
had been no repeal?
That, however, is very minor
point in comparison with the real
reason that not one of the hundred
odd speeches at Philadelphia men,
toned the carrying out of this par
ticular campaign pledge. The real
reason is that the drys are militant
ly angry, and to boast about the
accomplishment would irritate
them further. Evidences of this
have been growing for some time.
Strictly speaking, it. is not proper
issue in this campaign. The truth
is that the Republicans at their con-
vention in Chicago four years ago
were just as eager to 60 all the
way wet as were the Democrats.
1t took all the pressure of Hoover
through his patronage controlled
delegates to prevent it. The high
spot in the hunor of that situation
was the Maryland "free state" del
egation, and the supposedly du
Pont Delaware delegation voting
solidly for the merely moist as
against the, wet plank.
They Don't Boast
But there have been indications
for some time that the drys, who
have recovered from the almost
hypnotic state into which they
lapsed after the wet SNOWFALL be-
gan to roll in 1880, have conferred
their bitterness on the Democrats
for forcing repeal, and that some
of them may vote Republican this
fall for no other reason than to
punish Roosevelt and Farley for
their drive to obtain ratification of
the repeal amendment.
This is the real reason the Dem
ocrats are not boasting much about
the amazing achievement of forcing
repeal three short years after the
dry-controlled-at the tine-senate
lobby committee took such glee in
demonstrating to its own satisfac-
ton that every time the vets made
a fight they lost more ground.
Republican speakers are just as
afraid of the silver issue as the
Democrats are of repeal. Without
exception the Republican leaders
think the whole silver buying policy
was weird. In fact many Demo-
cratic leaders agree with them. But
to make a political issue of it might
excite two groups. First, the en-
thusiastic silver men, and, second,
the infationists who, while caring
nothing about silver per Sc, looked
on the silver policy as a move in
their direction.
All of this is highly important in
several small, but important states,
which just might become vital if
the election is close.
Causes Surprise
Critics of the Passamaquoddy IT,
dial project were surprised at the
recent declaration of President
Roosevelt to citizens of PASSPORT,
Maine, that Quoddy twill be COM
pleted." The surprise is occasioned
because President Roosevelt has
admitted several times in the last
few months that he cannot allot
money to the project until congress
has authorized it.
The point is that no one familiar
with the situation on capitol hill be-
lieves that the President, even if
he should be reelected by an over
whelming majority, will be able to
obtain a favorable appropriation
for Quoddy., Or for the Florida ship
canal.
1t is as near a certainty as any
thing can be in politics that the
Democratic majority in the next
house will be sharply whitfield
down, even if there should be some
thing approaching the landslide for
Roosevelt which James A. Farley
predicts, though which no one else
expects.