Evening star., 1937-12-13
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WIFE

Will President Roosevelt one of these
days attempt to streamline the Inter-
state Commerce Commission on the
pattern of his ill-starred effort to mod
ernie the Supreme Court2 The thought
is suggested by last Fridays amazing
coincidence of events. Practically within
three hours of the moment F. D. r.
was telling his press conference that the
I. c. c. should proceed quickly to pre-
serve the solvency of the railroads, with
view to maintaining private ownership
and averting State socialism, the rate
making tribunal turned down that
proposition and postponed relief for the
carriers to the sweet by and by. Though
electric rapid transit is the fashion.
the I. c. c., as far as speedy decisions
are concerned, seems as indisSolubly
welded to the iron-horse and caboose
era as the Supreme Court, in the Presi-
dents opinion, was to horse and buggy
days. AS a result, New Dealers roofing
for the Roosevelt Government reorgani-
zation plan, which includes hitching
the Interstate Commerce Commission
to the White House train, find uneX-
pected allies among the economic royal
lists. Were such a system already in
force, the railroads would probably now
have their fifteen per cent increase in
freight rates, though shippers and con-
sumers who don't own carrier stocks
and bonds might not feel like throwing
up their hats.
ALT Landon's self-renunciatory mani
festo anent remote possibilities in 1910
is the nearest approach to "Old
Tecumseh" Sherman's II will not ac-
cept If nominated or serve If elected"
ultimatum to the Republican convention
of 1880 that American politics has known
for sixty years. It's perhaps what Cal
Coolidge meant to say in 1927, but
didn't. Frank o. Lowden took a leaf out
of Shermans book III 1924, when, after
having been nominated for Vice Presi-
dent by the Republicans at Cleveland,
he fatty refused to run. but that was
for second place. Most comment on
Landon's statement interprets it as q
hint to Herbert Hoover to 60 and do
likewise. How about its being a third
term hunch to certain Democrat
named Franklin Delano Roosevelt?
X
Ambassador Robert w. Bingham Is in
Indifferent health and his friends are
confident his retirement from the mis-
sion to the Court Of st. James Is en-
tirely voluntary. Nevertheless and not
withstanding, the Kentuckians stock at
the State Department and the White
House Is understood to have slumped
considerably following speech in Eng
land last summer when he went out
on limb in foreshadowing the United
States readiness to play q cooperative
role in European security plans. On the
other hand, the publisher-diplomat did
good job in winning over q reluctant
Tory government to the idea of a re-
ciprocal trade agreement. Incredible as
1t may seem, the owner of the Louisville
Courier-Journal did not contrive to win
the affections of the American news
paper men in London. They dubbed him
"Sir Robert"
During last weeks debate on that
dizzy problem in higher mathematics
known as the crop control bill, Senator
Josh Lee, Democrat, of Oklahoma told
of a farmer in his home State who
pulled up his car one day alongside the
woven wire fence enveloping the State
insane asylum. An inmate walked I'D
and said: "You 1--we herea" The farmer