Political Notes

In a letter President Wilson recently referred to Senator Shields of Tennessee as " one of the least trustworthy of my professed supporters " (TIME, Oct. 1).

Senator Shields testily replied that the letter was " not called for and published in the interest of the Democratic Party but for the sole purpose of injuring me with the people of Tennessee." He added, however, that he had deep sympathy with Mr. Wilson in his ill health. "We cannot cherish resentment for anything he may now say. He is immune from criticism."

"Lots of people ridicule me," said A. Mitchell Palmer, former Attorney General, in London, " for the drastic steps I took against Communists, but today the peril is not lessening. . . . The Government should have laws preventing speeches which incite violence."

"A great leader, a loyal friend, an ardent supporter, and one whose wise counsel was of inestimable value," said the National Convention of the Red Cross in a resolution in honor of its late head, Warren G. Harding.

A road in Allen County, O/. will be planted with trees by school children --6,000 trees in a distance of 26 miles. It will be known as the Harding Highway.

On Nov. 2, President Harding's birthday, memorial services will be held at Marion, 0. David Lloyd George has made arrangements to pay his respects to Mrs. Harding about that time. Early in November, Mrs. Harding expects to leave Marion for Washington.

Mrs. Warren G. Harding, Dr. George T. Harding, President Coolidge, George V, Charles E. Hughes, William H. Taft, the Library of Congress, the Vatican Museum will receive copies of a memorial volume containing resolutions adopted by the printing division of the Government Printing Office in memory of the late President Harding.

The Controller of the City of Detroit planned to go to New York to ask for a loan of $5,000,000, although Detroit's bonding limit does not allow such an addition to its debt. "No bonds; a loan on faith and credit" suggests a new era in American politics.

Senator Magnus Johnson, the great-voiced, visited the East wearing coat, collar, tie. He spent two days in Manhattan, which he had visited only once before, as a 20-year-old Swedish immigrant 32 years ago. His visit was heralded chiefly by the radical press, and he found only a moderate sized audience (which applauded heartily at a casual mention of Eugene V. Debs) when he spoke in public.

It was reported that " Magnavox " was disappointed. He had not gone to gather radicals in his train. In his speech he roared: "Don't think that I want to turn things topsy- turvy overnight. I wouldn't stand for anything of that kind. . . . I let them call me a radical man. I don't care at all. . . . But the big fellows don't need to be afraid of me. No question about that--at all."

"The trouble with the farm bloc " said Senator Ralph Henry Cameron, Republican, of Arizona, " is that it contains too many captains and too few privates. ..."

In the current issue of The Forum, Senator George Wharton Pepper of Pennsylvania is styled "a Roman senator among the Babbitts of Washington "because he can quote Pericles from memory.

Said the Springfield Daily Republican of the G.0.P.: " It will be admitted that a Party which can hold at the same time former Attorney General Wickersham, courteous and clear-thinking, and Senator Brandegee of Connecticut is a Party with several sorts of elasticity." (Political opponents of Mr. Brandegee seem to delight in phrases similar to the above; during the League of Nations fight in 1920, favorite epithets were " stern and rock-bound Brandegee " and " Brandegee, who views most things with alarm."