WPA Warned

Two hours before Congress adjourned, Vice President John Nance Garner-- around whom eddy little swirls of rumor that he may be conservative Democratic anchor-man in 1940--last week took a train home to Texas. But before he left the Capitol he innocently dropped at least two large flies in the New Deal amber. The Administration bloc had succeeded in whittling Senator Hatch's proposed curb of WPA-in-politics down to an inquiry by the Campaign Expenditures Committee, under a vague resolution which did not mention WPA or Relief. Chairman of that committee is Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas, a quiet, conscientious but plodding gentleman whose chief national fame rests on his sponsorship of the 18th Amendment in 1917. In Congress since 1902 (the year before John Garner arrived), Morris Sheppard long ago learned to stand hitched to the Democratic band wagon no matter who was driving. WPA and Harry Hopkins had little fear of an inquisition conducted chiefly by him, even when his committee's appropriation was upped from $30,000 to $40,000, then to $80,000.

But on Senator Sheppard's committee were two vacancies, which it was the Vice President's duty to fill by appointment. Loud among WPA's critics and no close friend of the Administration has been heavy-footed Senator David Ignatius Walsh of Massachusetts. Mr. Garner named Mr. Walsh to fill one vacancy. To the other he named Mississippi's adroit Pat Harrison. Either of these gentlemen is capable of making the investigation interesting. The other two committeemen are also non-New Dealers: Wyoming's O'Mahoney (Democrat), Maine's White (Republican).

Chairman Sheppard backed by his new committee soon startled Washington by announcing:

"The committee gives warning now to all candidates for Senatorial office, their friends and aids, that any violation or attempted violation of the laws pertaining to the conduct of the campaign and the conduct of the election . . . will be fully exposed and publicized with a view to criminal prosecution. . . .

"The committee likewise gives warning that all governmental agencies must keep clear of all primary and election campaigns --must keep their hands off. Any other course, in the judgment of the committee, would amount in reality to the use of Federal funds to influence votes . . . and is to be exposed, condemned and prevented in so far as it is within the power of this committee to do so."

First stopping place of Senator Sheppard and colleagues was to be Kentucky, which promises to be of special interest. From that bloody ground have issued the most horrid complaints of WPA pressure-politics in behalf of Senator Alben Barkley in his primary fight against the State machine of Governor A. B. ("Happy") Chandler. One of Harry Hopkins' underlings announced last fortnight that he could find no evidence of WPA skulduggery in Kentucky. Mr. Barkley is the Senator who, with Franklin Roosevelt's support, beat Pat Harrison by one vote for the Majority Leadership. And Pat Harrison is the Senator whose tax revision bill Franklin Roosevelt condemned, misquoted, refused to sign (TIME, June 6). With his long suffering loyalty to the Administration worn somewhat thin, Congressmen suspected that Pat Harrison and friends might make a more thorough investigation than Mr. Hopkins had.

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