Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1938-11-06

pedient to compass, If possible, the
defeat of conspicuous Democrats in
the coming election. He based this
statement on the circumstance that
the session of the congressional COM
mittee were devoted to the "testi-
mony' of some individuals who
voiced the opinion that these Demo-
cratic candidates subscribed to the
doctrines OF the Russian Soviets.
One OF the witnesses who brought
the charge against Gov. Murphy of
Michigan was Republican judge
who found fault with the Governors
delaying an order to the militia to
shoot up some automobile strikers,
until he could get the strike settled
by egotiatlon-Which he did in a
few days. Another was a reporter on
one OF the Vandenberg newspapers.
Chairman Dies responded to the
Presidents arraignment of the in
vestigation as political device by
reciting that he had asked various
Governmental departments TO sup
ply him investigators, etc.
"lOuhu"OIh lOI f1HOlHcT ell.
Now just suppose that the Omen
had been turned over to Mr.. Dies
And that Government lawyers had
sat at his elbow. What a yell would
have gone up at the Presidents in
trusion into legislative functions
We would have had to listen again
to the oft-told absurdity of the
Presidents dictatorship, with trim
mings referring TO Stains o. G.
P. U. and Hitlers Gestapo
The assault on the candidates for
CALIFORNIA; governorship and for
the Senate was voiced by man who
professed TO represent the veterans
organization of California, and who
was promptly repudiated by that
body, but meanwhile the headlines
in the newspapers all over the coun-
try had presented that Culbert o.
son and Sheridan Downey were
Communists. The basis for this is
that they have indicated that they
favor a form OF old-age pension OH
the same order as the Townsend
plan, which is advocated. for ex-
ample by Republican Congressman
recently elected in Maine, and to-
ward which Senator Henry Cabot
Lodge has extended a friendly ges-
ture.
Things become hectic and distorted
toward the end of political cam
paign Consequently We should not
be surprised because Representative
Dies sees An administration advance
to domination of the air in the cir
cumstances that newspaper re-
porter was invited and permitted to
give an observers view Of the antics
of the alleged investigation.
Part Of Routine.
What happened was that I. as
the Democratic National Commit
tees publicity man. arranged that
broadcast. 1t was just part of the
routine of my job. When Demo-
cratic candidates are assailed it is
up to me to see that the attack is
met, regardless of the source of the
assault.
Likewise, We find that because
some stations declined to substitute
Mr.. Dies broadcast for their sched-
uled programs, an administration
plot was scented. These same sta
tons cut out Reporter Anderson's
speech also. II there is any process,
administrative or otherwise, by
which radio stations can be COM
PEELED to take or omit broadcasts. I
never heard Of it. In fact, have
known stations to cut off the Presi-
dent of the United States with no
more serious result than the protests
of their radio listeners who had
wanted to hear him.
The Plot Revealed.
I assured the Congressman that I
was the villain and the sole villain in
getting Paul Anderson on the air
Likewise, apologize to my readers
for making myself the subject of a
discourse which should have been
devoted to the issues of the cam
paign. The only reason that do so
is because of the prominence that
has been given to the tempest in the
teapot on the air and in the news
papers.
The incident is not of grave i'm
portance. In all probability, Gov.
Murphy will be reelected by at least
as large a majority as he would have
had had not the charge of Commu-
nism been dragged in. Michigan
knows the Governor for an able, in
tensely patriotic American of blame
less life. religious habits, steady as
clock and no more sympathetic with
Communism than Chief Justice
Charles Evans Hughes. for example.
He had the idea, which worked out
perfectly, that a talk was a better
process in an industrial quarrel than
a battle, in which view SO per cent of
our people will agree.
BY the time this appears in the
newspapers, the story of the 1888
election practically will have ended.
The era of absurdities will have al
most passed. There will, of course,
be last-minute appeals, and it is not
improbable we will be told excitedly
that President Roosevelt has agreed
to deed Vermont and Maine to Ger
many, or something equally prepos-
ferrous, and that therefore it is indis-
pensable that Republican Congress
men should be elected.
Fortunately our people have been
educated beyond the point when
midnight revelations of the inioui-
ties OF the party in power get more
than a yawn.
Next Wednesday morning we will
arise. look at the newspapers, and
learn that the Senate and House Of
Representatives are still more than
tWo-thirds Democratic; that II there
are any changes at all, they will not
affect the course of legislation. The
Dies Committee will get down to
serious business and Chairman John
Hamilton of the Republican National
Committee will be. telling that the
election Of a Republican Congress-
man somewhere means the eclipse