The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1939-11-24
WARS MAKE STRANGE BED
FELLOWS
j. E. Jones
J. E. Jones

Washington, d. ca special ses-
sion of Congress produced the
strangest alliances for and against
the Administration neutrality Dill
that could possibly be imagined. Ed
itorial and news writers have, as
rule, refrained from questioning the
motives of Senators and Congress
men who have been making strange
line-ups.
In Washington we have been boast
ing about the victories of Glove OF
country over politics" But those who
took comfort in this form of praise
for Congress had to pull in their
horns when the vote of the House
was recorded showing the Presi-
dents program approved by all but
36 Democrats, while Republicans
lined up with 143 votes AGAINST re-
peal and one single vote from that
party in favor of repeal. So there
you are with clear responsibility
for passage of the Neutrality Act
assumed by the Democrats in both
branches of Congress.
Senator Pittman brushed aside
Colonel Lindbergh's speeches by ex-
pressing doubt about Lindbergh's
competence to discuss the issues be-
fore Congress, and the country, and
one of the nations principal news
commentators felt sure that Lind
bergh sympathized with the Nazis.
She made very weak case of her
charges and suspicious.
There is no man in the country
whose opinions carry more weight
among Republican leaders in the two
houses of Congress than those OF
former President Hoover. And yet
he is quoted very little. While he
was in Office Hoover was "smeared,"
and he is still being smeared. Never
uheless he proclaimed his position,
and Lindbergh simply second-his-
motions.
Senator Carter Glass has opposed
practically every suggestion coming
from the White House for six years,
but in the neutrality matter he slop-
ped over pretty badly when he said
it was "the sheerest drivel," to say
that the President could involve us
into foreign conflict.
The majority of persons in official
and private life are SO mixed up
that there seems good reason to re-
wise the old saying to read wars
make strange bed fellows" The mix
lures supply alibis for politicians.
Hunting Out The Bad Eggs
The work of the Dies Committee
| is not specially meant to identify
Communists and prove that the
American brand is as bad as the
Russian. But so many bad eggs have
been found among the Communists
that there is general feeling in
Government circles that all Commun-
lists in the United States should be
made to declare just where they
stand in regard to fundamental prin-
ciples of American government. If
Communists is merely an idealist
and a theorist, he is not dangerous
and there is no reason to distrub or
deny him the privilege of continuing
to believe in those doctrines.
On the other hand If he has an
idea that he is going to remodel the
American system along Russian lines
the chances are that he will be hunt
ed out and catalogued among the
bad eggs, and treated accordingly.
The investigation of un-American
activities by the Committee is prais-
led about half of the time, when it
lis exposing some of the country's-
leading reds. Then the Congressman
spoil it all by smearing lot of good
citizens dragged in under sus-
picion." On the whole it is pretty
poor job even though it has some
good points to its credit.
The latest news is that Dies will.
take his Committee on voyage that.
resembles vacation, in an effort to
find out whether it is a fact that
reds, radicals and communists are
trying to take over the State Of.
California,