The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-09-10
Washington Merry-Go-Round
M Sept Fona Laeuard received
  the cha1mnshp of committee of leading pess


 Others prominent in the com- mittee will be Senator George Norris, veteran Nebraska liberal; William T. Evjue, militant editor of The Capital Times, Madison, Wis, which is the official daily of the LaFollette Progressive or ganization; and David Dubinsky, head of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union, which last spring holted the CIO to re- turn to the AFL.
 Headquarters of the progressive committee will be in New York. It will have no connection with the Democratic National Commit tee and will operate independent ly. David Niles, astute former aide of Harry Hopkins, will be executive director. In 1924, Niles was one of the managers of the LaFollette-Wheeler independent presidential campaign.
 Both LaGuardia and Norris plan active speaking tours, the former making a transcontinenta trip, and Norris making several speeches in the Middle West, where he has a large following.
 Senator Bob LaFollette, up for reelection this year, is telling friends that personally he is for Roosevelt, but is awaiting the action of the Wisconsin Pro- gressive convention this month before declaring for him publicly. The LaFollettes supported Roose- welt in 1892 and 1886.
 HULL'S VIGOR
 Cordell Hull put on a great show for neWsmen the day the de- Stroyer deal was announced. Hull hasn't been so eloquent for years.
 Usually his press conferences are flat and unprof1table. The Secretary of State is a master of evasion and understatement. He stands at the end of the long pol ished table, with his long hands folded over the back of a chair, looking down his nose at nothing.
 But when the boys asked Hull about the legality of sending de- strOyers to England in exchange for British bases, his eyes flashed, his halting delivery dis appeared, and he defended the deal with a force and fiuency that made the room electric.
 There was only one thing wrong. As newsmen were about to burst from the room with the Hull statement, they were cautioned to use it only for background. This meant no quotes and no at tribution.
 But the press corps will long remember the spectacle of the white-haired gentle old man deep- ly stirred by a sense of the transcendental character of these stirring times.
 AIR BASES
 Cabled reaction from Tokyo in- dicated that the Japanese were suspicious that something more than appeared on the surface was behind Cordell Hull's warning against the invasion of French Indo-C China.
 In this, they were right.
 Nobody in the Navy Department is shouting it from the housetopS, but the U. s. fleet-or at least most of twill now remain in the Pacific.
 Previously it was considered necessary to bring the fleet from Hawaii and California in order to station most of l. around Panama and the Caribbean. This would have made 1t impossible to keep 6 watchfuI eye on Japa- nese operations in the direction of the Malays and the Dutch East Indies all-impOrtant sources of American tin and rubber.
 Probably 1t will still be neces- sary to bring 6 few ships to the Atlantic side of the Canal. But the island base deal with Great Britain has now made 1t possible to police most Of the Caribbean and the Atlantic seRboard by air instead Of by sea.
 NAVAL NOTES
 At first the chief improvement 70 the new U. 6, bases on British islands will be alrports. Not only are they needed Immediately, but also gre cheapest and quickest to construct, Naval bases, which mean oil tanks and repair lnclli- lIas, take time 70 build and may never bo cenatfueted io any erest sxleplI 1'he 2 Nay Nl|| 'ake