Evening star., 1937-05-12
Washington is due to snap out OF its
Rip Van Winkle trance with President

Washington is due to snap out OF its
Rip Van Wrinkle trance with President
Roosevelt's return. Ever since he left
town, especially as far as Congress is
concerned, things have been more or less
in state of coma. Little or no progress
has been recorded in either of the two
matters on which interest is centered-
economy-relief and the Supreme Court
plan. F. D. r. holds the key to both
situations. House and Senate leaders
profess eagerness to come to grips with
the tangled legislative mass that has
piled up, but their hands are tied until
the Presidents intentions are revealed.
A conference designed to break the log
Jam will take place Immediately Mr..
Roosevelt is back. If his lieutenants talk
candidly, he'll learn that Capitol Hill
seethes with revolt over budgetary and
judiciary affairs and that stubborn op-
position is certain In the absence OF
compromise. The demand for $780,
100000 cut in the Roosevelt-H Hopkins
81 500 ,000, 900 relief proposal has grown
while the Presidents been away. No
body but New Deal superoptimist any
longer pretends that the scheme to
create six new Supreme Court justices
has Chlnaman'S chance.
X %*
It Is not only tale of bitter congress
sional strife that will be dinned into
the Presidents ears. He will hear plenty
about the peril to Democratic party
unity now rising on all sides. Politicians
are impressed by some plain speaking in
the current Golfers Weekly by George
Creel. The wartime chairman of the
Committee on Public Information, who
occasionally writes with what smacks
of White House authority, has this to
say about conditions on the perturbed
Potomac: "As far as Democratic party
leadership is concerned, already chasm
yawns that makes the Grand Canyon
look like crack in the floor. The mo-
ment the President put forward his
Federal judiciary reorganization plan,
harmony gave one Mortified squawk and
went sailing out of the window of the
council chamber. Today 80 or more
Democratic Senators are off the reserva-
ton, stopping on war paint with both
hands and searching their souls for
louder battle cries. Optimists regard it
as the usual party squabble that can be
left safely to the healing processes of
time, but political wheelhorses make no
such mistake. AS they view it, the
quarrel is as deep and lasting as that
which tore the Democratic party wide
open in 1896. Bitter things have been
said that can never be swallowed even
by candidates with the gullets of
ostriches, and nothing is more certain
than that the 1888 campaign will wit
ness battle to the death between what,
purely for the purpose OF distinction, may
be termed the right and left wings of the
Democratic party"
X
Despite its feud with John L. Lewis
and the G. I. O., the American Fedora
ton of Labor has just issued figures
showing substantial growth in its men,
bership. The total enrolment in April,
1887, was 3,867,577, an increase of 1,740,-
781 since August 81, 1888. The affiliated
unions, including local trade and Fed
eral labor unions, and not including the
10 national and international unions that
stand automatically suspended since
September S, 1886, show an increase since
then of 445,179 paid and reported men,
bers over the average enrolment for the
fiscal year ended August 81, 1896.
Former Postmaster General Harry 8.
New, who has just passed away, had two
hobbies in addition to politics. One was
his interest in military affairs, in
herited from early association with the
Indiana National Guard. The other was
his fondness for talking shop with news
paper man. New WAS member OF the