Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1938-08-08

the President OF $$
the United States "a
and the Federal .,
machine. with its
record nowadays of favors distributed
and still to be distributed by a
national administration of Democratic
auspices.
The story of the election was written
many days in advance. in the terSe
words of Senate Investigating Com
mittee which had sent investigators
to the campaign ground. Said the
committee. in formal statement:
THE evidence thus far presented to
deplorable situation exists in Ken
lucky. 1t is certain that organized
efforts have been and are being made
to control the vote of those on relief
work, and that contributions have
been sought and obtained from Fed
eral employees in behalf of one Of the
senatorial candidates.
"It is equally certain that State
officials charged in part with the dis
tribution of Federal funds for old-age
assistance and for unemployment COM
pensation have been required to
contribute from their salaries and of
their services in the interest of another
candidate for the United States Senate
Those facts should arouse the con-
science Of the country. They imperil
the right of the people to free and
unpolluted ballot"
Battle Turns Elsewhere.
Now that Senator Barley, the ma
tority leader of the Senate, has won
his nomination by means described
officially by his colleagues in the Sen
ate, the battle will turn to other States
where other Democratic candidates
will copy the same methods.
The so-called reform" administra-
ton. which processes high ideals and
civic virtue, has not word to say
about these derelictions. There Is
plenty of language and plenty of in
vective available to the 1ckeses and the
Jacksons and. indeed. to the President
himself to denounce the economic
royalists" and the business men,
bankers, lawyers and doctors, but there
doesn't seem to be a syllable in the adj
ministration's vocabulary even so much
as to reprimand these Democrats who
are brazenly using public funds and
Federal employees to get political office.
Under the theory of leadership ex-
pressed by Mr. Roosevelt in q recent
radio address, the chief of a party has
the right to order purge" Of ele-
ments which are conservative. inclld-
ing those who believe In the integrity
OF the courts, apparently, leadership
doesn't cover political crimes. Nor Is
word being uttered by any prominent
person of the so-called liberal school
of thought in denunciation Of the sins
of the Democrats. This is new tory
ism with a vengeance and is reminis-
cent of the days when the Republicans
used to bride legislatures and win SEN
atorships to such an extent that a
Constitutional amendment had to be
adopted to give the people the right
to do the choosing.
IUutICdI V1dCUlneS SnOOSc.
But the people no longer choose.
The political machines dragon the
vote or else develop kind of organ
ICED effort through the Federal and
State employees themselves. Thus, the
taxpayers money and concretely the
pay rolls furnished by the taxpayers,
are used to exploit individuals for po-
litical office. And the whole thing is
condoned, not condemned, by the
President himself. When the head of
the w. P. A. interviewed in politics,
the President actually defended him.
1t is hardly to be expected, however,
that an administration which obtained
campaign money itself in 1886 by
violating the Federal corrupt prac-
tees act would be interested in purg-
ing the party in 1888 of improper
election influences.
The Kentucky primary was not an
election, but a scandal. The fact
that the majority leader himself was
up for reelection means there will
be no election contest for the seat
when the Senate reconvenes. Indeed,
there could hardly be. for the opposing
candidate used the State machine for
his purposes, too.
Finger Pointed at Ohio,
What is somewhat surprising is that
the heads of Federal agencies, and
particularly the Social Security Board,
did not openly denounce the State
House crowd in Kentucky for tamper-
ing with the old age assistance ma
chinery, though, to be sure, one the
eve of the Ohio primary, the board
has pointed warning finger on this
same thing to the Democratic Gov
ernor of Ohio.
Scandals now have been uncovered
In the Democratic party in Kentucky,
IN Tennessee, in Pennsylvania, in
Ohio, in New York. in New Jersey,
IN Oklahoma and in Missouri. All
have some characteristics in common
"A wrong use of public funds or
public authority for selfish ends.
There was no New Deal or anti New
Deal issue in Kentucky. The Gov
ernor promised. if he were elected,
to get more funds and more projects
for the people OF Kentucky. The
incumbent Senator proudly pointed
to what he had extracted from the
Federal Treasury for Kentucky and
promised even more
The word purge" has unquestion-
ably been enormously applied to
the 1898 primaries. 1t may we'll be
that the people whose consciences are
shocked by the continuous stream of
disclosures showing a lack of integ-
rity In high offices will express their
protest in the autumn final elections,
and that hence the full force of the
real purge is yet to be felt. Ger
tainly. there seems to be an oppor-