Evening star., 1940-04-21

platiue repoSe.
THE original story for the motion pic
l. ture "Mr. Smith Goes to Washing
ton" was called ''The Man From Mon
tana" and was based in part on the tenn
pestuous career of Senator Wheeler.
Will Hays vetoed the title and many
drastic changes were made in the story
before it reached the screen. But the
original idea was sound, for Burt
Wheeler's career is studded with epi-
sodes more lurid than any In Frank
Capra's film.
Furthermore, Wheeler at So looks like
a screen Senator-or President He
stands well over feet His head is
large and we'll shaped. His small, ex-
pressive nds-"gambler's hands," they
have been called-constantly move from
the wrist as he talks. He has pres
ence."
The salty New Englander who settled
in Butte because card sharps got his
money there and he couldn't travel any
farther has been fighting ever since.
He has taken licking again and again.
He has been viciously framed at home
and in Washington. He has been Will
fled outrageously. But waste no SYM
pathy on him, for he can dish it out as
well as take it. When he fights, he fights
to win, rough and tumble, and he isn't
dainty about his weapons. Just now he
Is riding high; he can unquestionably
stay in the Senate; he is an avowed can
didate for the presidency.
Anaconda Ancient Enemy.
His first fight was with "the company"
When Wheeler says 'the company" he
still means the Anaconda Copper Co.
When he was fledgling legislator in
Helena, 80 years ago, Anaconda regarded
Montana as its private domain and the
Legislature was expected to pay homage.
Wheeler joined the forces trying to send
Thomas j. Walsh to the United States
Senate. Walsh was barely defeated
then, but won his seat two years later,
in 1912, and got President Wilson to ap-
point Wheeler United States Attorney
for Montana.
That district-attorneyship, during the
World War, continued Wheeler's political
education. Super-patriots clamored for
prosecution of enemy Irish and Ger
man workers, syndicalists and labor
leaders. Behind the agitation Wheeler
sensed the hand of the mining interests
maneuvering to crush unionism. Refus-
ing to yield to the clamor, he was de-
nounced and the spy hunters shrieked
that Montana was hot-bed of sedition
because of his attitude Wheeler's
answer was to go after war profiteers and
grain speculators. But in 1918 he re-
signed because he was told that other
wise Senator Walsh would be defeated
for reelection.
Thereafter Wheeler was offered ap-
pointment as Federal judge in Panama,
but refused because he was convinced
that it was trick of the interests to get
him out of the State. In 1920 he ran for
Governor. Mobs broke up his meetings,
once chased him out Of town. He was
the worst beaten Democratic candidate
who had ever sought Office in Montana.
Two years later he won the senatorship
by the largest majority ever given SEN
atorial candidate. Popular approval had
caught up with Wheeler's views.
Went After Daugherty.
He had not been long in Washington
when the Teapot Dome scandals broke.
IT came to the conclusion that If Daugh-
erty was the Attorney General he should
be, he must have known about the whole
affair" Wheeler recalled the other day.
II prepared a resolution demanding his
dismissal from the cabinet. Imagine my
surprise when Joe Robinson of Arkansas
| got ahead of me by calling for the custer
of DENLY, Secretary of the Navy. Joe
| persuaded me to change my resolution to
q demand for investigation instead of
| dismissal It passed, 66 to /. During
| the debate Senator Willis of Ohio coined
q political classic. Harry Daugherty, he
said. was clean as q hounds TOOTH"
Wheeler had only hearsay to 60 on.
But just q few days before the hear
ings started he found in Ohio the bizarre
Roxy Stinson, divorced wife of Daugh-
erty's most intimate friend, Jesse Smith,
| who had killed himself the year before
| In Daugherty's apartment. Roxy broke
the case wide open. Wheeler was severely
criticized for using her as his principal
witness, but this was rough and tumble
fighting of the Montana kind. He was
out to win.
In revenge he was shamefully framed.
Federal courts in Montana indicted him
on the trumped-ur charge of "unlawfully
accepting money to influence issuance Of
oil and gas prospecting permits" There
was a blast from the opposition press:
Wheeler was demagogue, a subversive
influence, the most dangerous radical in
America" Q friend Of Moscow.
In the midst. Of Ill this, Ray Baker, q