The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-05-16

thing is certaln-Governor as a 1940 presidential white
 Even if he wins the senatorial nomination he now seeks, he is finished as a White House as- pirant forever.
 His role in the odoriferous horse trading behind the scenes that led to the present Democra- tic battle, capped by the disclosure that he had borrowed $30, ,000 from Matt McCloskey, dapper multi millionaire Philadelphia contrac- tor, cast blight on Earle's pros poets from which he can never recover.
 Potent Joe Guffey and high placed administrationites are sore at Earle. Tho c. I. o. has vowed to get him. Even Me- Closkey and the state politicOs who ostensibly support him, ridi- cule him behind his back.
 With this set-up, Earle has no more chance of winning outside backing than Halle Selassie has of getting help from the British Empire.
 Only few months ago Earle was a national figure. He had strong pull at the White House, was the darling of labor leaders. Coming from Pennsylvania, sec- ond most populous State in the Union, he was a very real pos sibility for 1940.
 But all that is finished. Today, as potential national candidate, Earle is deader than a kippered herring.
 WPA and Politics
 The question of whether the WPA should engage in politics developed considerable inner fric- tion before the Mississippi State Guide went to press. Cause of the friction was Mrs. Ellen Wood wards insistence that the Guide be used to give puff to Demo- cratic politicos in the state, in- cluding herself.
 AS Assistant Administrator of WPA, and boss of the Federal Writers Project, Mrs. Woodward, an appointee of Senator Pat Har- rison, was in a position to lay down the law.
 In other Guides, WPA editors have taken pains to be non-parti- san. In writing about Duchess County, New York, they made only a passing historical reference to the Roosevelt homestead But when copy was being prepared for the Mississippi Guide, Mrs. Woodward let it be known that she wanted the book to boost all Democrats, including WPA staff workers.
 Her insistence resulted in this reference to herself in the chap ter on Oxford, Mississippi: "Of Senator Sullivan's five children, only his daughter, Ellen Sulli- van Woodward, has followed in his footsteps" Then it tells of her election to the State Legislature, "the beginning of a career of outstanding service to her state in key positions"
 This and other puffs were in- cluded over the protest of editors who wanted to keep contemporary political figures out of the book.
 NOTE-Aside from the above political bias the Guide is high ly creditable piece of work. U. S. Company Town"
 The U. s. Housing Authority is not the only federal agency pro- viding government funds for low cost housing for cheap-labor en- ployers.
 Recently this column revealed that the Housing Authority had earmarked $900,000 for workers dwellings in Gadsden, Ala, which would help the GOOD YEAR TIRE & RUBBER COM PANY to move factories out of Akron, O., where labor is uniOnized. But it now develops that the Authority was piker compared to the Federal Hous- ing Administration.
 For FILA has underwritetn the construction of an entire company town in Crossett, Ark, a little community which to all intents and purposes is owned by the Crossett Lumber Go.
 The Cr0ssett project consists of 199 one-story frame houses and two stores. The houses, con- taining 710 rooms, rent for an average of $8.29 a month to Ne grom families and $17.88 to white tenants. The project was fi- nanced by the company through three banks, with the FILA guaranteeing 80 per cent of the mortgage.
 Miles L. Colean, deputy admin istrator of the FILA, frankly ad- mits that the Crossett houses are company houses" and that the corporation could evict a tenant because of union activity. Colean