Evening star., 1948-12-19
Official
Hits Rejection Of
Inaugural Float
Depletion of Districts
VoteIess Status Not
'PoIiticoI,' Finch Says


POLITICAL Finch Says
Action of the District Commits
sioners in junking the idea of q
suffrage float in the inaugural
parade drew a hot blast last night
from the head of the Central
Suffrage Committee
Wilbur S. Finch, head of the
group which has long been fighting
for the vote for Washington resi-
dents, said he is writing the Com
missioners an official protest. He
commented:
The District Commissioners are
not in favor of local suffrage or ma
tional suffrage. They have opposed
any participation by the people in
their local government. That's the
reason they've thrown out the idea
OF suffrage float. They want to be
the bosses. the dictators."
Denies Ideals Political"
The idea of entering float de-
picting the voteless status of WASH
ington residents came from the Dis.
trict Democratic Central Commit.
tee. But Carter T. Barron, head Of
the inaugural parade committee,
said he considered such an idea too
political" On this Mr.. Finch
commented:
"It's not political It's Ameri-
can. 1t goes to the very basis Of
our Government. Any one who op-
poses the democratic system Of
government Is not a good Ameri-
can"
Commissioner John Russell Young
and Commissioner Guy Mason last
week tentatively decided that the
Districts official float will depict
the Washington Monument and the
Capitol. According to Charles Stof-
berg, assistant to Mr.. Young, the
Commissioners are still open to sug-
gestions but they worked out the
idea of the two Washington land
marks. Engineer Commissioner
Young was not present at the meet
ing.
Says There's No Controversy.
There's no controversy - every
thing is fine" Mr.. Stofberg said.
He added that Mr.. Barron had
promised to see several Washing
ton concerns which make floats and
have them submit designs. Mr.. Stof-
berg said Commissioner Mason sug-
gested that the Districts seal be
added to the float.
There was just no discussion Of
the suffrage idea," Mr.. Stofberg
said.
The chairman of the Districts
Democratic Central Committee, A.
L. Wheeler, said he still hopes I'VE
can persuade the Commissioners to
change their position" and adopt a
"voteless Washington motif"
! Such a design had been prepared
by group in the committee headed
by Gerhard Van. Arkel when it be-
came known the Commissioners had
been invited to enter a float for the
District and were not inclined to
the suffrage plea.
Might Seek Second Float.
Mr.. Wheeler said his committee
might try to get it into the parade
as second District float If it were
not substituted for the Commits
sloners' design as the Official one.
He emphasized that the attitude
of Chairman Melvin D. Hildreth
of the Inaugural Committee would
be decisive.
1--WE are working closely with Mr..
Hildreth," Mr.. Wheeler said, and
we'll do only what he wants done"
Mr.. Hildreth said last night he
would not overrule Mr. Barron on
anything having to do with the
parade because of the magnificent
job" he is doing.
In other quarters, however, it was
learned the cold water thrown on
the suffrage float proposal at the
District Building had prompted a
bitter reaction among some of its
sponsors.
Trade Board "Cue" Charged.
One prominent Democrat COM
mented:
THE Commissioners are taking
their cue from the Board of Trade.
which is opposed to suffrage when
the chips are down. There's going
to be a knock-down fight on this
Board of Trade domination of the
District government one of these
days. You can bet it'll be considered
when we get around to selecting new
Commissioners" -
Meanwhile, officials of the Ameri-
can Heritage Foundation, sponsor
of the Freedom Train, announced
plans are being made to give $4,000
persons an opportunity to see its
collection of historic documents in
the seven-day period starting jan
uary Is.
Exhibition of the train here as
part of the inaugural program will
end its tour. Thereafter, it will be
broken up, and the papers will be
restored to their usual Government
and private repositories.
Train Was Here in 1947.
Officials of the foundation eSti-
mated more than 3,500,000 persons
will have passed through the train
by the time the exhibit closes jan
uary 20.
The train already has made one
two-day visit to Washington. This
began Thanksgiving Day, 1947.
The plans for the second appear
ance include arrangements for
visits by school children. Several
hours of each day will be reserved
for accommodation of public, pri-
vate and parochial school pupils.
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