Political Notes

William G. McAdoo is a candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1924, but he is not the man in the moon. In the East especially he has been faced by a strenuous dislike of his management of the nation's railroads during the War. In a letter to Senator Couzens, of Michigan, he set forth his defense as Director General of the railroads:

"Although I was Director General for only one year, 1918, and was succeeded by Walker D. Hines, who ran the roads for 14 months after I retired, you always hear McAdoo alone charged with everything that happened under Federal control.

"Why should I be held responsible for the acts of Mr. Hines, who succeeded me, any more than I should be charged with the results of the Esch-Cummins bill? I had no more to do with either than the man in the moon."

The Rev. O. J. Kvale, Representative to the 68th Congress, closed his 29th year of service in the ministry by preaching a farewell sermon in the Norwegian Lutheran Church of Benson, Minn. Mr. Kvale bade farewell to the ministry so that he might take up his duties as a Congressman, succeeding Andrew J. Volstead, whom he defeated in election last Fall.

John Knight Shields, for ten years a United States Senator and for 65 years a Democrat, exclaimed in an interview apropos of the settling of the anthracite coal strike: "If this is a fair sample of President Coolidge's adjustment of strikes and labor troubles in the interests of the people of the United States, I hope he will not make any further efforts in that direction! "

At Columbus, Ohio, Senator Frank B. Willis of that state told of a visit he had made to Bowling Green, Mo. There, said he, was the grave of former Speaker Champ Clark, neglected; with his own penknife he cut away the weeds and in a speech " censured the people for neglecting the grave of one of the ablest men who ever sat in Congress."

Frederick W. Upham, Treasurer of the Republican National Committee, knows where his Party's money goes. Therefore the following remarks attributed to Mr. Upham on the subject of President Coolidge are doubtless authoritative:

"I never knew a man who'd go out and make a couple of campaign speeches and send in as small an expense account as 'Cal.' He didn't know what is was to pad an account.

"Even as Vice President he refused to travel in a Pullman drawing room. ' A berth, upper or lower, is good enough for me,' he would say. ' The funds of the party are sacred.'"

The Christiania (Sweden) Evening Post published a list of names that have been proposed for the next award of the Nobel peace prize. They include Jane Addams, Secretary Hughes, Lord Robert Cecil, Professor John Maynard Keynes (author of The Economic Consequences of the Peace), Francisco Nitti (former Premier of Italy), Carl Lindhagen (Mayor of Stockholm), Warren G. Harding.

There is no rule against post-mortem award of the prize.

Governor Warren T. McCray of Indiana, whose private financial difficulties caused him to call a meeting of his creditors (TIME, Sept. 10) was relieved of his burden. His creditors accepted his suggestion for a trust agreement to operate his holdings until his debts can be paid.

"If, as it is said, death softens the asperities of politics, is it not possible for us in the atmosphere of forgiveness and magnanimity which now prevails by reason of the death of a beloved President to rechart our course in international affairs so as to steer away from the shoals which block our way to world peace, and to find a road to that Christlike ideal which I believe lies in the heart of the average man of the world? . . . "

President Coolidge has a great opportunity to play the role of a second emancipator--to free us from the horrors of war. Will he grasp the opportunity?" -- Joseph P. Tumulty, Secretary to President Wilson, at a conference of Democratic women at Asbury Park, N.J.

"I have not seen the papers today and, therefore, I do not know when I am scheduled to resign, but I will say that I'm going back to London with the expectation of staying until I come home."--Ambassador George Harvey, with a solemn face.

Mr. Harvey sailed on the Leviathan to resume his post at the Court of St. James.