Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1938-03-09
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

laws delays note with satisfaction what
Associate Justice F. Dickinson Let's of
the District Court of the United States
for the District of Columbia has done
about them. He has recently given a
practical demonstration of how to re-
neve court congestion at q minimum of
cost. Last fall Judge Let's was assigned
responsibility for hearing all war risk
insurance suits, Of which some 400 were
on the docket, many Of years standing.
About the same time, the Department
Of Justice created q new Office under
Col. Allen Crenshaw, an attorney of
wide experience in such litigation. Un-
der the joint spur Of Judge Let's court
and Col. Crenshaw's cooperation, 1853
cases were disposed Of in four months.
They included Is actual trials and 48
suits recommended for compromise. The
actions thus closed involved total Gov
eminent liability of over $1,5O0,0O0 and
cost the Treasury only about $l45 per
case.
Mills Kitchin, son Of the late Repre-
sentative Claude Kitchen of North Caro-
lima, Democratic majority leader in the
House during the Sixty-fourth and
Stxty-fdfth Congresses, has just brought
new laurels to the family name as win
ner Of the Governments income tax
case against Bobby Jones. Mr.. Kitchen
Is . special assistant to Attorney Cen
eral Cummings In the tax division. He
was assigned the duty Of contesting the
great golfers appeal for $3.50 income
tax refund. The case was decided in the
Treasury's favor at Macon, Ca, on Feb
ruary q. It grew out of Bobby's 500, 900
contract with Warner Brothers for one
reel pictures Of how to play golf, signed
after Jones won the British amateur
and open championships in 1880. On
the advice of tax experts Bobby assigned
his movie contracts to his father, who
later put them in three separate trusts
for the benefit of the champions minor
children. The net effect of that trans
action was to split the income tax three
different ways and reduce it. to about
one-tenth Of what would have been due
on the 100000 as single income In the
higher brackets. Mr.. Kitchen Is &C.
claimed on all hands, including those of
the Attorney General, for having con-
Quoted one Of the cleanest-cut tax bat
ties ever victortously waged by Uncle
Sam.
i 4
K. K. Kawakami. well-known japanese
newspaper correspondent In Washington,
has just published in London the latest
authoritative work dealing with the Far
Eastern crisis. His book Is called Japan
and China-Her Motives and Aims" It
has . foreword by Viscount Ishii and
an introduction by Sir John Tlley, for
mer British Ambassador to Japan. The
volume does not claim to be impartial,
but author and publisher contend that
1t means to be fair and honest pleading
on behalf of Nippon. The leitmotif of
Mr.. Kawakamis work is that the past
in China has made the present inevitable
In all its horrors.
From q constituent Of this department
comes . query a. to whether it's possible
that photographs Of the recent Balti-
more whipping post soiree will be ex-
plotted to American disadvantage In
certain countries which assert democracy
isn't all it's cracked up to be. This OBJ
servers opinion Il that it isn't only pos
sible, but highly probable, that exactly
this will be done.
From . lawyer comes the dissenting
comment that T. v. A. Chairman Nor
gan's colleagues did not-as hereinbefore
stakeholder Q "rebuttal" Of his charges,
but . mere counter attack. Objecton
sustained
(oopyright, 1880.