Evening star., 1937-10-04
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

you the kind of steps he is likely to
make in the same sand five years hence
Show me the course he was pursuing
then, and, unless there has been a
cataclysm, which has absolutely changed
his character, I will show you the course
he is going to follow in the future. 1t
is merely according to the law of
nature. 1t is written on the human
heart. 1t is inscribed on the tablets
of the external government-the govern
ment of nature"
1t was intimated, though not stated.
in mis- historic fireside chat that Black
supportes Al Smith for President in
1928 Evidence to the contrary is at
tributed to Grover c.. Hall. editor of
the Montgomery Advertiser. who hurled
himself into the breach wholeheartedly
for the Democratic ticket in that year
of party heartbreaks in Dixie. Re-
ferring recently to the Klux charges
against Black, Editor Hall said: Some
of us throwbacks of civilization were
much annoyed at him in 1923
when he refused to support Al Smith,
while avoiding the alternative of de-
claring against him." incidentally,
apropos Secretary Ickes' reference to
Klan support of Hoover. the former
President in public statements on Sep
tember % and 30, 1923, resented and
repudiated" the backing of the forces
of intolerance and intimated he wanted
none of it. Votes for Hoover on the
religious issue would, of course, without
solicitation have gone to any Republican
opponent of Smith, not only in the four
Southern States which the Californian
carried. but all over the country
wherever men and women let bigotry
be their guide. Hoover remarked to a
Washington friend shortly after cleo
ton, that the intolerance factor, which
had advantaged him in Virginia. North
Carolina, Florida and Texas, had ap-
parently worked in Smiths favor in
Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
X
Whatever betides, chalk up three posi-
tive results of the Black episode-Q)
that Roosevelt will be circumspection
itself in other court appointments; (2)
that the knell of senatorial courtesy"
whereby members of the worlds most
exclusive club are automatically con-
firmed for appointive offices, has rung;
t3) that future nominees will have to
be like Caesars wife, plus, to get by,
and the only after investigation and
hearings conspicuous by their absence
in Blacks case.
President Roosevelt is due to hand
Chancellor Hitler jolt in Der Fuehrer's
solar plexus tomorrow, when F. D. r.
has luncheon under four eyes," as
the Germans say, while the private
guest of Cardinal Mundelein in Chicago.
1t is his grace whose description of
the Berlin dictator as "a paper hanger
and not very good one" burned up the
Nazis last Spring. The presidential
presence at the cardinals table at this
time is, OF course, not disconnected with
the ugly issue raised by an ex-Klans-
mans accession to the Supreme Court.
Having concentrated for four years
on redistribution of wealth, President
Roosevelt is now credited with far
flung plan to redistribute Americas
radio wattage. He has let it be known
that he will ask the next session of
Congress-special or regular-as major
program, for authority to reallocate
the existing set-up on the wave lengths,
whereby the power of certain larger
stations would be cut down in favor of
some Of the smaller ones The over
whelmingly most powerful broadcasting
station in the United States Of America