Political Notes

"The World Court cannot be divided from the League of Nations-- unless we want to make it a joke!"--Senator Oscar W. Underwood in An interview at Chattanooga. "The League of Nations and the World Court are about as related as Booker T. Washington and George!" --Ex-Senator Frank B. Kellogg of Minnesota. (Mr. Kellogg favors U. S. entry into the Court, would avoid the League.) Professor Irving Fisher, Yale economist, said in a speech at East Liverpool, Ohio, that during the front porch campaign of 1920, the then Senator Harding told him: "I want the U. S. to get into the League [of Nations] just as much as you do . . . I am opposed to the Wilson League . . . but the League can be changed . . ." "But in your own Party what will Senator Blank say?"asked Professor Fisher "Oh! Senator Blank doesn't care. I know him better than you do. When he takes his extreme stand he is doing so for political effect" Warren T. McCray is known as a brother-in-law of George Ade (humorist) and a raiser of prize Hereford cattle.* Since 1921 he has been Governor of Indiana. The fact that his personal finances became shaky therefore aroused some comment. He called a meeting of his creditors and promised them dollar for dollar liquidation. The amount of his liabilities is not known, but his assets include 15,000 acres of farm land and $500,000 due him but unpaid by those to whom he sold Herefords.

Governor McCray first came to the fore during the coal strike of 1922 when he summoned a conference of Governors to deal with the situation. At the outbreak of the strike he established martial law at the mines and maintained it until the strike was concluded. He thereby gained the enmity of the miners, who demanded his impeachment. On several occasions he has denounced Eugene V. Debs as a traitor.

Of his present financial discomfiture Governor McCray said: " Boiled down to one fact, you find a farmer, a landowner, who is caught after three disastrous years in the farming business. I could not collect my bills and found myself unable to meet some of my obligations. ... I happen to be Governor of Indiana, but this is a private matter that has happened to other farmers. The state has not suffered. I do not see that the public should be greatly interested." William Jennings Bryan went to California to visit his son-in-law. There he took opportunity to say that President Coolidge would probably receive the Republican Presidential nomination in 1924, but as for the Democratic choice, "We have a great many available men. There's scarcely a state--North, South, East or West--that could not furnish a capable man. But the trouble is that so many of them are not known throughout the nation." " Will you be a candidate for President in 1924, Mr. Hoover?" asked a curious reporter.

The Secretary of Commerce smiled.

" I like the job I've got."

On Saturday, Sept. 1, President Coolidge sailed down the Potomac on the Mayflower. Mrs. Coolidge and four guests sat on deck enjoying the prospect; the President sat below working at his desk.

Town Topics, well pleased over Mr. Coolidge's appointment of C. Bascom Slemp as his secretary, bombinated as follows:

" That position [of secretary] will be lifted into more social prominence than it has held since the Taft Administration. Mr. Slemp is a bachelor, is well known, is well born and has a sufficient financial entrenchment to cut a swathe in the higher sense. He has lived lately at Wardman Park, where he is often to be found hobnobbing with the large executive coterie in that caravansary. Mr. Slemp is the first of the genuine upper strata since John Addison Porter and the indefatigable George Bruce Cortelyou to be secretary to a President."'

Gascons and Minnesotans have forceful habits of speech. Senator Magnus Johnson (Farmer Labor, Minn.) exclaimed on a visit to Michigan : "I told Shipstead [the other Farmer labor Senator, also from Minnesota] the other day that they would have to make a pretty big place for us, because, while there are only two of us at the present time, there will be a great many more in the near future."

* Hereford cattle (originating in Herefordshire, England) are red, with white on face, feet, legs, tail. They are characterized by very short necks.