Evening star., 1936-04-09


party; in the midst of Secretary Wal
laces unwilling revelations that
amongst the destitute dirt farmers
whom the American taxpayer has
been saving from starvation are Flor
ida, Puerto Rico and Hawaii sugar
companies, the President has been
fishing.
Fishermen Sane by Tradition.
Now, 1t is one Of the most impreg-
nable traditions Of the great republic
that all fishermen are safe, sane tel-
lows. Not only are they incapable Of
harm to anything except fly or fish,
but they are sounder. mellower and
more profoundly learned than any
other breed of humans From Izaak
Walton to Henry Van Dyke, litera-
ture has been built up, which has be-
come part of the unconscious public
mind, that a man who fishes is con-
server Of all the pious virtues. 1t
would be safer to attack the Y NJ. c.
A., the sanctity Of motherhood, the
histrionic genius Of Shirley Temple,
the superiority of pipe-Smokers to Gig
arctic puffers, or even the nobility Of
dogs, than to attack the honesty, in
corruptibility and gentle, humorous
wisdom of fisherman.
AS long as the President Is fishing
dark omens of impending dictatorship
will fade. Who ever heard of dicta-
tor who was a fisherman? Mussolini
plays the violin and rides horseback,
but so did Nero. Hitler loves dogs, but
90 did Napoleon, These hobbies are
not incompatible with tyrrany. Stain
has a good press in an anti Communist
world. Why? Because he smokes
pipe. He smokes a pipe all the time,
runinatively, and even that intrepid
pursuer Of the neuroses Of dictators,
Mr.. John Gunther, is mollif1ed. Stain,
he thinks, must be good, common
sense fellow after all. But none Of
these gentlemen would think of posing
as fishermen.
Chamois Hunting Held Empire.
The Austrian Emperor Franz Josef,
held together a decaying empire for
so years merely by hunting chamo1s.
Whenever there was a crisis with the
Croats, or the Bosnians, or the C1echs,
or the Serbs, he went out in green
hat with a brush in it, in leather
pants and embroidered suspenders and
hunted the chamois, and to this day,
and for this reason, the Austrians
have an international reputation for
being kind and good, gay and IRE
sponsible, fond Of children, women
and song, even when they establish
concentration camps and summarily
hang their political enemies. Hunting
the chamois is the Austrian equivalent
Of hunting the fish. Ours is the Anglo
Saxon tradition. Has no one observed
that whenever a cabinet crisis occurs
In Great Britain the prime minister
rushes to Scotland and catches a sal
mon? Then the fears of the public are
sllayed All is quiet; the outlook is
serene; conditions may be serious, but
not hopeless.
All things being equal a fishing
candidate has an immense break over
q fisherman. Coolidge fshed.
Hoover fished in half-hearted way.
Grover Cleveland was the very type
of the fisherman-st statesman. But none
of them, as far as records available
to me show, ever landed a Middle
Blight or any other sort Of bonefish.
This is fishing in the grand manner.
This is a thousand dollar fish, So
called, I take it, because it costs that
much to catch one. Why should any
one, then, worry about the unbalanced
budget?
Subtle Blow at Opponents.
It is a most subtle blow against other
possible presidential candidates. Has
any one ever heard of Borah catching
fish? I have been in Senator Vanden-
berg's Washington home and never
seen so much as a stuffed, glazed and
mounted 2-pourd black bass. If Dick |
inson or Knox have trophies they
should prepare to show them now. AS
for Landon, what are his opportunities,
in Topeka? He might snare baby perch |
in one of the drainage canals. Possibly
all these men are fishermen. II they
are, the time has come for their man
ayers to exploit the fact.
For not only are fishermen invari-
ably believed to be patient philoso-
pliers, loftily elevated to Buddha like
wisdom above the strife of classes and