The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1938-06-09
Illuminating CandOr

Illuminating CandOr
Washington, June 4.
On Thursday, while the Senate was
considering the amendment provid-
ing for the instant dismissal of any
official connected with the admins
tration of relief funds who used either
his position or money to influence or
interfere with election results, Sena-
tor Chavez, of New Mexico, in a burst
of frankness, declared, "Adopt this
amendment and you will defeat such
Senators as Senator BarSley."
At once Senator Guffey, of Penn
sylvania, where relief is fairly rotten
with politics, rushed over and shook
his hand. The amendment was lated
defeated. A more open avowal could
hardly be made. Here is an Admins
tration, the head of which solemnly
pledged himself when Government
first entered the relief business to
keep politics out, using it's full weight
to prevent adoption of an amendment
to punish political activity upon the
part of relief officials-an activity
which has not only been charged but
proven.
On top of this comes the statement
from one Administration Senator, APP
plauded by another Administration
Senator, that should such prohibition
be voted, the Administration Senate
leader, Endorsed by the President, and
a candidate for denomination in Ken
lucky, cannot be successful. Senator
Chavez went further. In effect, he
told his colleagues they might as well
be honest about it and admit that sup
port of the voters on relief is essen
tial to Administration candidates and
that "many of US" would not be in the
Senate at all but for that support. 1t
is doubtful whether in the whole his
tory of the Senate more candid and
degrading revelation has been made.
In so many words, it was asserted
that the election of Administration
Senators depends upon the funds in
tended to relieve human misery-that
without the influence of these funds,
they will be defeated. If it does not
10
thing.
If the people as a whole could be
gotten to grasp the full implication of
Senator Chavez's statement, of the
congratulations of Senator Guffey
and of the amazing speech of Sena-
tor Barley himself, it is inconceiv-
able that the reaction would not be
very great. If they lack the capacity
to be indignant and resentful over
this situation, they are in sad state,
indeed, and nothing can be done. The
difficulty, Of course, is to get home
the facts, not to the people who have
already seen through the sham
righteousness of the Administration,
but to those who still remain under
the New Deal decisions and accept at
face value it's promises and profess
sions, despite the tragic failure of its
experiments and the awful examples
of waste, confusion and governmental
Generalization which confront them.
#%*
With such people it isn't easy to
deal. They are so saturated with the
New Deal propaganda, so stepped in
the belief that all criticism comes
from the Tories" or "Wall Street."
or "the economic royalists"; so con-
WINGED that the President is the pure
minded champion of the doWntrodden
and oppressed, that they reject the
evidence of their own senses and des-
perately cling to their beliefs long
after their hollowness has been re-
vealed. The truth is that in the COM
ing DIlIIldIlGS CIlS 10
exerting itself to the limit to drive out
of public life the nine Democratic
Senators who voted against Mr..
Roosevelt's court-packing bill and are
now up for denomination. In this eff
fort the relief machine is the main
reliance. Against one of these Sena-
tors-Gillette, in Iowa-the head of
the WPA, Mr.. Hopkins, has openly
arrayed himself, which is equivalent
to arraying the organization which he
controls. Until Mr.. Hopkins declara-
ton, Senator Gillette's denomination
was not really threatened and the
young rubber-stamp Congressman for
whom Mr.. Hopkins declared was not
considered a formidable aspirant
In all the other States these anti
court-packing Senators will be oppos-
ed by hundred per cent Roosevelt
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