The Wilmington morning star., 1940-05-20
WASHINGTON
DAYBOOK
By JACK STINNETT

WASHINGTON, May 10 There's a SO . SO
chance that the next congress will have among
it's representatives the only man who for ~
years successfully competed with the Washing,
ton Monument as a capital drawing card.
Walter Perry Johnson, the Big Train OF
baseball and the greatest pitcher the big leagues
ever turned out, is the Republican nominee in
the sixth Maryland district. Political wiseacres
saw he has an even chance of tossing a third
strike on the Democratic incumbent, William d.
Byron.
Over and over, I've heard the story since his
nomination from men who came here as young
sters during the two decades that followed 1907:
when Walter Johnson vas pitching, you
couldn't get a kid to go near the Washington
Monument or the White House.
There wasn't a boy who came to town in
those days who wouldn't rather have had one
brief Hi SON from Walter than to have shaken
hands with President Teddy Roosevelt, Taft,
Wilson, Harding and Coolidge all at once"
Rockies Are Benched
If the big, slow-talking Maryland farmers does
come to congress next January he'll still be a
drawing card, but it'll be on past performance.
Rockies in the congressional league scarcely
ever get a chance to pitch.
Take a dynamic fellow like Bruce Barton,
for example. Before he ran for representative
from New York, he already had had his finger
in national affairs and big business. He had writ
ten books, made speeches. He told folks he
was coming down to Washington and repeal a
bill a day,
Now I haven't checked up lately, but 1 don't
think Mr.. Barton has repealed a bill at all.
Rockies In the House just don't Dc that sort of
thing. If they are smart, they spend a couple
of years bench.warming. If they go trying to
lambast a homerun every time somebody lets
them hold a bat, they're likely to find themselves
back in the bush leagues.
So If Walter Johnson does come down here in
January and you want to drop in and see the
man who for 20 years outdrew the Washington
Monument at the tourist t%urnstile, come ahead
But don't expect him to be throwing any legisla
tive speedballs. Not even the killer diller polite
ians do that in their first two years and Walter
is no killer-diller.
A 50.Cent Campaign
He did get himself elected commissioner OF
Montgomery County, where his 550-acre farm
is located, and he did get the nomination to con.
gress, but he didn't use much politics.
His first campaign cost him SO cents for cam
paign cards, and his second couldn't have cos
| him much more. He doesn't like to make speech
es. He's so modest that it's impossible for hin
to tell the crowd what a swell representative HI
would make. He couldn't even remind you tina
he used to be a pretty good pitcher withou
b%lushing.
He is Republican and anti-New Deal, all right
but he can't get very mad about it. His polltica
philosophy consists of something about "a re
turn to the American way of life which appar
antly means to Walter the right of every ma
to plant his own potatoes, hoe his own crop, an
sell them for the best price he can get, w1thou
anybody butting in. He doesn't like government
spending on a big scale either. That's about al
except he's So honest, he would argue with al
umpire who miscalIed a decision in his favor.
In some respects, Walter might be almost a
unique in congress as he was on the mound
If he does get in, he'll be interesting to watch
once his rookie days are over.