Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-13
News Behind
the News
IckeS' Reputation E.
Takes Beating
BY RODNEY BUTCHER


WASHINGTON - Amateur ref
ereeS who take it upon them
selves to decide such matters are
handing down a cul loStone opinion
that the reputation of Secretary
Harold l.. Ickes as a name-caller
has suffered severely in competi-
ton with Senator Carter Glass Of
Virginia.
For brief period they awarded
Honest Harold a Kew points for
sheer nerve in challenging that
old matter of vituperation and in
vective, and the more enthusiastic
hackers of the PWA-Interior De-
partment emperor were even will
ing to bet that their hero would
crash through with epithets to
make the Birginia tongue -slasher
scream.
But now IckeS loses even those
credits-for- bravery because he de-
nies he ever did call the senator
a political hypocrite." A report
that those two words were the
ones he had applied to Glass was
what started it all.
So the scoreboard finally credits
Glass with one confirmed black
guard" one "wanton falsehood"
and one mean and impertinent, 4"
all plaStered on Harold.
And Ickes, following the press
conference at which so much was
expected Of him, is on record only
with such mild comment as as
sertionS that the senator's bad
temper outpaced his wit" and that
Glass had "one of his unseemly
fits Of rage Anyone who knows
1ckes is inclined to suspect his
manager and occasional coach, one
F. Roosevelt, told him to take it
easy.
mo senator" IckeS was report
ed to have said IN the version seen
by Glass, comes oftener and with
more insistence for PWA grants
than this same Senator Glass"
No official version seems to ex-
exist. Ickes admits he referred to
men in Congress who voted
against relief bills and then tried
to get all the money they could
out of relief administrators. But
he gives no clear indication of
what he said about Glass. And so
although the secretarys rooters
declare no dice on the ground that
Glass picked up an imaginary ball
and ran down to the goalposts
when there had been no kickoff,
few are disposed to pull at the
senator's laurels.
Under the looseg-GSawn rules
of the game as interpreted in
gossip circles around Washington.
it would be necessary to penalize
Senator Glass several yards if
Ickes were to prove Glass really
had persistently pestered him for
PWA grants. Even in Washing
ton you can't run up a very high
score by calling a man a liar if
he proves he isn't But Ickes. de
nying he ever said any such thing,
naturally isn't trying to prove
that Glass has been bawling for
PWA funds all these years. The
inference is that there isn't any
such proof
Somebody has been getting a lot
OF PWA money for Virginia. If il
isn't Glass and he denies any
repeated insistent demands = il
Ickes be someone else. Possibly
Senator Harry Byrd, who hates
the New Deal at least as much az
Glass does.
Virginia had received 11000,-
600 of PWA allotments-loans anc
grants-up TO August /. Compare
that with the two states of mos
comparable population. Oklahoma
received s61, ,135,48O in allotment!
and Kennedy only $48,013, ,43.
Those are official PWA figures.
When you recall that Kentucky
and Oklahoma were two states
where the New Deal was trying
hard TO renominate New Dea
Barkley and Thomas
and that the New Deal is as SOU
on Glass and Byrd as they on it
YOU can't help feel that there
something here which doesn'
quite meet the eye Possibly Glas
and Ickes will shed some light II
their next psssage-at- tongues.