The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1937-09-23
Leuis'
Outburst

Louis the shape OF a
Outbursf threat G a in t
those officially re-
sponsible for administration of fed
eral affairs. In fact, few persons
could have heard the Lewis Labor
day radio speech without realizing
that the shaggy haired c. I. o. lead
er was telling Mr.. Roosevelt to re-
frain from placing any obstacle in
the c. I. o. pathway. Some COM
mentators went so far as to say
that Mr.. Lewis had slapped the
Presidents face in that speech.
It will be recalled how some time
ago the President told the newspa-
per correspondent in press con-
ference that he was taking no sides
between the A. F. Of L. and the G.
I. o. The expression he used was
a line from Shakespeare: "a plague
on both your houses" ! quote
Mr.. Lewis reply to that remark:
SIT i'll behooves one who has
supped at labor's table and who has
been sheltered in labor's house to
curse with equal fervor and fine i'm
partiality both labor and its adver-
saries when they become locked in
deadly embrace"
Thus it becomes plain, I believe,
that Mr.. Lewis is determined to 60
forward with his labor problems in
to the depths of politics. From his
sos, 900 home in Alexandria, Va,
Labor Leader Lewis directs the
hundreds of subordinates, the reds
and pinks, the whites and blacks,
from which he apparently expects
to develop a political organization
strong enough to control this nation.
President Roosevelt is on another
inspection trip" of the nation. Be
>, fore he left, he
president told the press that
on Tour he wanted to see
for himself what
the New Deal had accomplished, ex-
planning that there would be a few
speeches, but that there would be
more "intake than outgo" on the
trip.
Washington political observers al
most unanimously agreed, however,
that the inspection trip had a much
deeper purpose. They noted that
the President was visiting various
states from which there were men,
bers of the United States senate who
had opposed the Presidents plan to
increase the Supreme court by six
appointees of his own choosing.
Among these senators were Wheeler
of Montana, Burke of Nebraska,
Clark of Missouri, and O'Mahoney
of Wyoming. They noted further
that some representative who had
been outspoken in opposition to the
court bill were privileged to have
the President visit their home dis
trictS.
These political students arrived at
the conclusion I have mentioned de-
spite the declaration of Postmaster
General Farley who, as chairman
of the Democratic National commit
tee, said that there would be no re-
prisals against senators and repre-
sentatives who had opposed the
court bill. Mr.. Farley's promise of
no reprisalS came, however, after
the now famous radio speech by
Senator Guffey of Pennsylvania.
Mr.. Guffey is chairman of the Dem
ocratic senatorial committee which
has the job of promoting election of
Democratic candidates for the sem
ate. When he said, therefore, that
opponents of the court bill ought
to be defeated and listed the names
of number of senators who should
not be reelected, it does seem that
there may be connection between
the Guffey speech and Mr.. Roose-
velt's inspection trip. Some COM
mentators have been uncouth
enough to assert that the inspection
trip by the President was for the
purpose of determining whether it
would be possible for the New Deal
to obtain destruction of those Demo-
Gratis who had disagreed with the
White House. In other words, those
superstitiouS writer's feel that Mr..
Roosevelt wants to see on this trip
whether he can pillow under some
of the opposition in the senate as
Secretary Wallace plowed under the
pigs.
Aside from the court bill, it seems
entirely reasonable to suppose that
Mr. Roosevelt desires to gain knowl-
edge of the country's general tenn
nor He hoe rafr,;noI fcox. -
nouncing whether he will call a spe-
cial session of congress this fall to
take up agricultural legislation, say
ing only that he will decide later.
Secretary Wallace is very anxious
that this shall happen. Officials of
his department have been travelling
by plane, train and motor through
the country during the last two
months in an effort to build up sem
timent for the secretary's kind of
farm legislation. They have been
making these trips at taxpayers ex-
pense, too.
And the kind of farm legislation
that Mr.. Wallace wants appears
very definitely to include re-enact-
ment of the outlawed processing
tax. Whether he will win remains
a question but many members of
the house and senate have told me
that their constituents are against
the processing tax They know that
the farmers themselves had to alb
serb the processing tax under the
old AAA and they want no more of