Political Feud

It pains any Senator to be denied patronage, to have the Internal Revenue Bureau prosecute his aids for income tax evasion, to be treated as an outcast by his own party. Last week Huey Long could stand it no longer. Being pugnacious, at least in words, he started a campaign of reprisal against the Administration. He would show Franklin Roosevelt Huey Long's intrinsic worth--his nuisance value.

Being expert at such work he picked the Administration's most vulnerable spot and began to hammer. The greater part of the Senate despises Huey Long. But Senator Norris also despises Postmaster General Farley with the fervor of a man who hates patronage; Senators Cutting, La Follette and other liberals despise Mr. Farley because in the last election he put the Democratic Party ahead of liberalism; most Republican regulars despise Mr. Farley as a matter of policy. Mr. Long was shrewd enough to pick Mr. Farley as his target, thereby gaining a maximum number of allies.

To the Senate he brought a resolution demanding an investigation of the Postmaster General on charges of a dozen kinds of misconduct and dishonesty--from printing stamps for his friends to profiting on the sale of building materials to the Government. When this resolution was introduced, again when it was referred to committee--he denounced Mr. Farley with good quotable denunciation. Said he:

"Senate! Senate! Where is the Senate? ... The Senate sits here and is being emasculated. You sit here with this political tyrant and generalissimo dyed with the stains of corruption. . . . You sit here and let this character pull off of us everything that means that we are a United States Senate. I do not mind being made ignominious, but I hate to be made ignominious by a man of that type."

To rebuttals the Press gave few headlines, neither to Senator O'Mahoney who declared: "There is not now and never has been ... a man of greater national ability and conscientious devotion to duty than the Hon. James A. Farley," nor to Senator Lewis who cried: "The man who has the highest estimation of Congress and the respect of its members is James A. Farley."

The Administration's friends were uneasy. They could vote down Mr. Long's proposal but they could not silence him. He seemed determined to make Mr. Farley a daily topic of denunciation. Before the Post Offices and Post Roads Committee could act on his request for a Farley investigation he offered another resolution ordering Secretary Ickes to send to the Senate any reports by his investigators about attempts by Mr. Farley or companies in which he is interested to profit from PWA contracts. It was a shrewd move, for Mr. Ickes and Mr. Farley have clashed on many points; Mr. Ickes' investigators have been tireless in investigating PWA bids. It was calculated not only to find scandal ready-made but to cause a split in the Cabinet. Regular Democrats looked down a long vista of trouble with Huey Long hammering at their Party manager. Yet that day, Huey's daily denunciation went astray. When he rose to begin, Democratic Leader Robinson agreed to the demand for any data Mr. Ickes might have about Mr. Farley. Promptly Long's resolution was passed.

Somebody, opined political wiseacres, had fallen into a trap. If Mr. Ickes' files revealed any scandal, the Administration would be in hot water indeed. If they revealed none, Huey Long's scandal quest was made ridiculous at the outset.

James A. Farley, sunning himself on Florida's beaches, promptly gave up heliotherapy and headed for Washington. Harold Ickes, looking most uncomfortable, paid a prolonged call at the White House. Afterward he announced to the Press: "There has been no investigation made of Farley as a person. . . . PWA reserves a right to investigate any project financed with its funds. Transactions involving [Farley's] firms may have been investigated. ... If they have, the findings will be turned over to the Senate."

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