The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1940-03-28
(By Staff Correspondent

WASHINGTON, March 70. =
Moviegoers who's saw the film
''Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
may have got the impression thai
sessions of Congress are apt K
be dramatic and exciting affairs
AS matter of fact both the Sen.
ate and the House of Representa-
tives usually put on pretty dull
show. Only once in blue moor
is there anything of emotiona
or dramatic interest in the de-
bates in either House.
Senators and Members as e
rule keep their tempers un,
der pretty close control when
they are out on the floor where
the visitors in the galleries can
see and hear them. After they
adjourn, what they say to each
other is something else again.
There came near to being an
exhibition of fireworks when the
Senate began to discuss the
amendments offered by Senator
Carl Hatch of New Mexico to his
bill to keep Federal office hold
ers out of politics, which became
law last year. Mr.. Hatch pro-
posed to extend the law to keep
all State employees whose sal
aries are paid in whole Or in part
out of Federal funds, from TAX
ing part in any way or contri-
buting to Federal election cam
paigns.
. This proposal was aimed pri-
.marily at State Highway De-
partments, which administer
highway funds provided in part
by the Federal Government. In
many states, perhaps in most,
the Highway Department has be-
come a powerful arm of domi-
nant political machine.
Naturally, many Senators of
both parties didn't like Mr..
Hatch's new proposal. There was
more sputtering and violent Ian
guage heard on the Senate floor
than at any previous time this
session. And when Senators ga
thered in the cloak room after
wards the things that some of
them said to some of the others
were almost unprintable.
The Democratic floor leader,
Senator Barley of Kentucky,
who had backed up Senator
Hatch, became so angry, when
his party followers abused him,
that he threatened to resign his
position as the party's leader,
but nobody called that bluff.
The senate finally passed the
new amendments intended to
make politics pure, and tackled
on another provision that nobody
may legally contribute more than
$4,000 to any party campaign
funds. If such law could be en-
forced it would hit the resources
of both parties about equally.
Dramatic Occurrence
The most dramatic occurrence
in Washington lately occurred in
the committee room of the Sc
nate Military Affairs Committee.
Lester P. Barlow, a Well-knoWn
inventor, many of whose devices
the used by the Army and NAVY,
explained to the Committee sit
ting behind closed doors the
workings of a new bomb filled
with a combination of liquid oxy-
gen and carbon.
Everybody in the room was
sworn to secrecy but according tc
Senator Nye, who said he had
never seen a Senate Committee
so thoroughly impressed, Inven.
tor Barlow convinced the Sena
tors that his new military wea
pom is the most devastating ex
plosive ever devised.
The defamation of a single
bomb dropped from an airplane
would destroy all life and al
buildings over a radius of many
miles. The committee was so i'm
pressed that before it adjourned
an oath of absolute secrecy wa
administered not only to tn,
committee clerks in attendance
and the stenographers' notes o
the inventors statements were di
rected to be burned, to proven
a possible leak.
In another Senate COMMITTEE
room dramatic episode oc
Cured when a Negro Communist
Benjamin J. Davis, Jr., who is
graduate of Harvard Law Schoo
and an assistant editor of tn
Communist newspaper, The Dali,
Worker, delivered fifteen min
ute TRADE against the opponent
of the anti-lynching bill. H
abused Vice-President Garne
and members of the COMMITTEE
by name and narrowly escape'
being thrown out of the Com
mittee room physically. He wa