Arizona State Miner

POLITICIANS GET BUSY

Two months ago, when the Congress convened, members who face campaigns next fall were congratulating themselves that no troublesome issues confronted them which might be embarrassing to explain to the home folks.

As the session went on, however, new issues arose almost daily, chief of which was the World Court.

Even the employment of the cloture rule for its passage in the Senate did not down the ghost. The "irreconcilables" do not intend to let the people forget that issue, as those facing campaigns had believed and hoped the people would when the cloture rule was invoked to cloud in secrecy the momentous agreement to which the American people were being committed.

The cloture rule was a political strategy. Common sense and honest dealing are never afraid of the light of day and of being discussed in the open.

Then the Mitchell courtmartial case assumed proportions which the politicians had hoped it would not.

Colonel Mitchell himself is fearless. He is a natural born fighter. He is all that Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., had hoped young Theodore might develop into. Colonel Mitchell is spectacular in his methods. He knows what he is talking about—and he isn't afraid to say what he thinks. So, when he was court-martialed, frankly punished and suspended from the army because he told the people truths about the people's business which the military bureaucrats earnestly desired the people should not be allowed to know, he became an issue.

Mitchell had one of the brainiest men in Congress as his legal adviser in the person of Frank R. Reid of Illinois. Reid knows the truth about military and naval aeronautical affairs—and, like Mitchell, he is unafraid.

The result was, not the gagging of Mitchell, as the General Staff first hoped to accomplish, nor the discrediting of Mitchell's efforts for reform in our air service, as they hoped to accomplish, but the raising of Mitchell and the whole army-navy system of concealment of vital facts from the people, as a great national issue.

Friends of Colonel Mitchell—and he has many of them in Congress—have presented measures for his reinstatement as a major general in vindication of his efforts to clean out a dangerous condition in our national defense system. Those friends are numerous enough to force a record vote on that issue and they will undoubtedly do so. That will be extremely embarrassing for the administration.

Senator Copeland, by his insistent forcing of a resolution through the Senate asking the President to intervene and try to secure the settlement of the great coal strike, which was ruining business and causing incalculable hardship and suffering to thousands, raised an issue which will not down. The old campaign slogan of "Keep Cool with Coolidge" had a far different meaning during the severe winter, while people shivered and suffered and paid exorbitant prices for coal, from that during the balmy days when Mr. Coolidge was a candidate for election.

And it hurt. There is no question about that.

Taxes, the gag rule imposed on practically every department in Washington, the aluminum scandal, the Teapot Dome mess and the trusts are among issues which have arisen to plague those members of the Congress who must go before the people for reelection next fall.

Senator Lenroot of Wisconsin faces a bitter fight. The LaFollette forces are after him for leading the fight for the World Court. And it is now apparent that the LaFollette strength did not die with Senator "Bob" Sr., as the machine politicians of Washington had hoped and expected it would. Even those who do not agree with young "Bob" realize that he has much of his father's strength and that he knows the game. They realize, also, that young Senator La Follette has wise advisers and is sticking close by them.

The prosecution of Senator Wheeler of Montana turned out to be such an unsavory mess on the part of Mr. Coolidge's Department of Justice that the politicians now realize the people will not forget that by the time of the fall elections.

Senator Butler, who fought for the entry of the United States into the World Court, who "bossed" the convention at Cleveland, who tried to introduce New England mill master methods into the government at Washington, faces a hard fight against former Senator David I. Walsh in Massachusetts.

The efforts of President Coolidge to make secret agreements and to wring blank resignations from commissioners of the U. S. Shipping Board, and the Tariff Commission—both of which are independent offices of the government, has left a bad taste.

In the case of Shipping Board Commissioner Bert E. Haney of Oregon, President Coolidge himself came out publicly and stated that he had a secret agreement that Mr. Haney would follow the lead of Admiral Leigh Palmer, president of the Emergency Fleet Corporation, although Mr. Haney had to be confirmed by the Senate and Palmer did not. And when Haney did not do this, and denied that he had any such agreement with the President to violate the oath of office of a Shipping Board Commissioner, the President requested his resignation, which Haney refused to give. Mr. Coolidge did not strengthen his position when he had to let Haney remain under recess appointment until the Senate convened. It was a confession of weakness.

In the case of the Tariff Commission, the administration leaders find themselves unable to deny that Mr. Coolidge tried to arrange before he appointed David J. Lewis to that commission under a recess appointment for a blank resignation. They find themselves unable to deny that Mr. Coolidge tried to and did suppress the findings of that commission until after the election—and the politicians know that these things do not set well with the people.

They wanted the people to forget these events, but the people will not forget.

Then the farm relief has bothered the administration. While good advice was being dealt out from Washington the farmers were being ruined. While "experts" were being sent out from Washington to tell the farmer how to make his farm pay, the farmer was getting nearer and nearer to the poorhouse and to ruin. While the bitter fight over the McNary-Haugen bill was being waged, propagandists were out among the farmers preaching "diversification," "fewer automobiles," "harder work," "better marketing methods," etc.

These things did not go down with the farmer. He knew he was working hard. He knew he couldn't economize, because he hadn't anything to economize on. He had already economized to the point of starvation and ruin. He felt that he was as much entitled to ride in an automobile as the wheat pit and cotton speculators who neither produced nor consumed his crop, but sat in the middle and took the farmer's profit on the one hand and overcharged the consumer on the other—then contributed heavily to national campaign funds to be left alone.

So the politicians realize that they have got to show the farmer some practical, tangible relief, or they are gone, so far as the farm vote is concerned.

Mr. Work in the Department of Interior has embarrassed the administration. His attitude toward reclamation has been unsympathetic. Mr. New in the Post Office Department has raised rates—and the mail service is no better than before.

The refunding of the foreign indebtedness to this country has not contributed to the good humor of the taxpayers toward the administration—and the politicians know that. People in Arizona cannot understand how it is that they must pay eight and ten and twelve per cent for money when foreign countries can get the use of Arizona money put into Liberty Bonds for such low rates as were agreed upon.

The political horizon continues to cloud up with new issues and the politicians are busy trying to find some way to stem the rising tide of issues, the answers to which promise to overwhelm them.