Henderson daily dispatch., 1938-05-10
AS FLORIDA GOES
so GOES CONGRESS

OO UOE<sO OO4NU1GeFS0
Washington, May 1O.-Only a. few
short weeks before the Florida deluga
we were in an era of government by
telegraph, during whti,h higIh-pres-
sure orators caused our lawmakers to
be flooded with kilograms. This form
of sabotage ;y innuendo and just plain
Lluff soon gave oyer to another era,
that of government, by chain letters.
Since Florida, however, we have the
latest wrinkle in political remote con
trol--the era of government by pri-
:naries.
Swiftly on the heels of the Florida
primaries, and sounding a strident
note in the poor anxious lives of seek
ers after reelection, the Administra-
tion's wage-hour bill-twice sentenced
to execution, and still being held a
prisoner by the unfriendly Rules Com
mittee-was given Z, probationary pa
role Friday through a Congressional
writ of habeas-corpus. This order
known as a discharge petition signed
by 218 careworn and jittery House
members, some of whom had been dis.
. playing symptoms of political i de.
lirium tremens since the latest Flor
ida hurricane, goesf over the heads of
'~'>itrarv committeeman and acts to
bring the wage-hour issue bodily %
the floor of the House for action by
Nav 49,
Tt is SUI bornly held in some reliable
quarters that the House will pass the
hill, but that the Senate will order
it shot at sunrise. Certainly, much
pressure which may be brought by
those who, on select occasions, press
our senatOrs-but a whale of a diff
ference is wrapped up in the fact that
only one third of the senators must
face their respective voters this year
While lobbyists may lobby and voters
may vote as they please senators also
may do pretty much as they please
provided there remains two or four
years between them and another cam
.}aign.
Poor candidates! Clinging to their
precarious political perches with 4
soul-tortur.ng desperation oftentimes
unwarranted by actual conditions,
some of them cannot risk the luxury
of sober analysis. Even the absolute
ly normal occurrence, such as the one
in Florida, puts some of them to un-
reasoning and panicky flight lie
covey of frig'toned partridges. Among
the several congressman who, as is
claimed. Were won over to or scared
into supporting the wage-hour bill,
J. ar1 wondering just how many ac
tually took time to calmly consider
,r evaluate conditions from the. stand
point of cool logic.
This is not a disse~t lion, pro or
con, on the wage-hour ill. 1t is sim
.,ly a pursuance the question whether
W not the sizzling controversy over
the issue really influenced the voters
in Florida to SUCH marked degree.
Do they vote there On isSues-or do
they still vote on men?
NOT LAW BUT CUSTOM
In most sections, and especially in
the South, it. remains the unwritten
law of politics that once man gets
elected to the United States Senate
he is practically appointed for life,
unless something unseeraly develops
and nothing unseenly developed in
the Florida ccntest. The situation,
boiled down, presents one good man
whom the people had already learned
to regard as their senator, wanting
return to office Az r ii SO often
occurs in politics, another good man
~ose up and ran against him. But the
second man, Representative Mark
Wilcox, was known to most of the
voters only as a perfectly able con-
gressman from another district, but
not as their senator. Also, in bidding
for their sponsorship of a public try
ut OF his senatorial wings, and for
measuring his senatorial stature, the