Evening star., 1937-11-24

Only on the issue of business relief
tax revision or other measures designed
to arrest the Roosevelt recession
could White House leadership count with
certainty on smooth sailing. Pressure on
that score is rising to degree that may
hnd Congress taking the bit in its own
teeth If the administration insists upon
policy OF do-nothing until after the
new year. Members of both houses are
having 1t dlnned continually and vocifer-
ously into their joint and several ears
that nothing now before them begins to
measure up in urgency to the necessity
of halting the business slump before it
tallsplns into a real depression. Few
authorities think any action at WASH
ington could of itself apply the brakes.
All are agreed that the PSYCHOLOGICAL
confidence-restoring effect of Federal
action would be immense. But it is also
the consensus that actual deeds, not fair
words, are needed, and that no time is
to be lost in performing them.
++ +*
John L. Lewis is pestered almost as
much by autograph hunters as if he were
movie star. When he's besieged at ban
quets and other public gatherings to
write his name on menus or programs,
the c. I. o. chieftain usually scribbles:
John L. Lewis-X, his mark"
Senator Carter Glass will enter the
octogenarian class on January 4, hale
hearty and militant. The House early
next year will also boast an 80-year-older
in the person of Representative Edward
T. Taylor, Democrat. of Colorado, who
is serving his fifteenth consecutive term.
Only a handful of Glass Senate COL
leagues look back upon lives approxi-
mately as long as the Virginia veterans.
Norris of Nebraska is rs. James Hamilton
Lewis of Illinois. IA; Cotton Ed Smith
of South Carolina, 70, and Borah of
Idaho, u. Ways and Means Chairman
Representative Bob Doughton of North
Carolina was "a this month. Several
congressional veterans. including Glass,
Lewis, Smith and Doughton, omit their
birth years in Congressional Directory
autobiographies.
M. Hampton Magruder of the Wash
lngton bar and collector of internal rev.
enue for the District of Columbia and
Maryland spins diverting yarn about
young lawyer in Secretary Morgen-
thau's legal division. Gifted as an AFTER
dinner speaker, the Treasury attorney re-
Gently Spellbound a. notable national
business group. One of the banqueters
sought him out afterward and invited
him to talk at the national convention of
certain patriotic organization" con-
siderable distance from WASHINGTON as
suring him de luxe airplane travel and
an enthusiastic audience. Whats the
name Of the organization" the young
barrister inquired. THE vKu Klux Klan,"
was the unabaShed reply. WELL" the
Treasuryite said, I'm afraid I wouldn't
quite fit into your program. I'm an
Irish Catholic" Whereupon the Klans-
man rejoined: my dear fellow, don't
worry about that. You see, it's the
Roman Catholics we don't like"
Ambassador Saito was guest of honor
at big club luncheon in Washington
the other day. When the meat course
appeared and proved to be Virginia ham,
some one suggested that, the Thanksgiv-
ing season being at hand, turkey ought
to have been served. Which caused the
presiding officer, seated alongside the
Toxic envoy, smilingly to point out that
Japan nowadays Is more interested In
China than turkey.
toopyrtsht 1877