In the Forest

Brighter would be the life of any President who did not have to thread a cautious way through the dark, dank forest of political patronage. Guiding him through the labyrinth of petty factions to worthy appointments is the high duty of the Chairman of the Republican National Committee.

In Florida. But Chairman Huston of Chattanooga, Tenn., theoretically representative of the Southern wing of the G. O. P., primarily selected to steer the President successfully through the morass of the G. O. P., South, was unable to save President Hoover from stumbling into a swampy situation in Florida. Last week these facts emerged:

For seven months President Hoover had sought an able U. S. District Attorney for Southern Florida. In that State are two Republican factions: one, now dominant, led by National Committeeman Glenn B. Skipper; the other, by George Bean. One after another six candidates recommended by the Skipper group were offered the President for this appointment, only to be weighed by the Department of Justice and found wanting.

Finally impatient, the President picked his own man, Wilbur N. Hughes, once identified with the Bean group. Awful to hear were the wails of protest from Committeeman Skipper et al. Last month Dr. Fred E. Britten, secretary of the State Republican organization, wrote President Hoover a rebellious letter in which he said: "In the name of God and for the sake of righteousness as well as the economic prosperity of Florida I plead with you to withdraw this nomination." He threatened dire reprisals unless the President appointed men chosen by Mr. Skipper.

Riled by such insubordination President Hoover retorted: ". . . The appointive responsibility rests in the President, not in any organization. ... No longer shall public offices be regarded as mere political patronage. . . . The success of the Republican party rests upon good government, not upon patronage, and Florida will have good government so far as it is within my power to give it. ... I note your demand that the organization shall dictate appointments in Florida, irrespective of merit or my responsibility. I enclose herewith copy of a statement I issued last March [expressing a willingness to cooperate only with reputable Republicans in South]. That statement was no idle gesture."

Angry Senators. Chairman Huston postponed to another day a cutting out of political underbrush in Florida. Instead last week he accepted an invitation of Senator Walcott of Connecticut to lunch at the Capitol where he met many a Republican Senator. Each brought the same grievance.

Senator Patterson of Missouri complained that he was not even notified by the President at the appointments of two important Missourians--Dwight Filley Davis as Governor-General of the Philippines ; C. B. Denman as a member of the Federal Farm Board. Senator Patterson's first inkling of this "patronage" came from newsmen.

Senator Glenn of Illinois was deeply vexed that the President had not at least whispered to him his intention of appointing Illinois Congressman Thomas Sutler Williams to the Court of Claims.

Senator Johnson of California complained bitterly of the manner in which President Hoover had, without consulting him, appointed Alf Oftedal, onetime assistant chief of Prohibition enforcement (highly praised by Mabel Walker Wille-brandt), as collector of internal revenue at San Francisco.

Chairman Huston, good forest ranger, straightened out the broken boughs and twigs, set them to growing right again with assurances that it was "all accidental" on the President's part and that thereafter Senators would be more generously consulted and conferred with at the White House.

No complaints to make had Senators Allen and Capper of Kansas and Reed of Pennsylvania. The President had bowed to political demand and appointed--over objections by the Department of Justice --Richard Joseph Hopkins as U. S. District Judge in Kansas and Albert T. Watson as U. S. District Judge in Pennsylvania.

Manhattan Dinner. Chairman Huston journeyed to Manhattan. There, as guest of honor, he attended a private dinner given by Banker Jeremiah Milbank. Also present were Vice President Curtis, Secretary of War Good, Secretary of Agriculture Hyde, Postmaster-General Brown, Secretary of Commerce Lament, Senators Moses and Watson, three sub-Cabinet members, many another famed Republican.

Besides general handshaking and geniality, the purpose of this dinner was to lay the foundation for Republican success at the polls in 1930. Oddly enough, the one Republican who might have benefited immediately from the dinner was absent--Major Fiorello Henry La Guardia, candidate for Mayor of New York City. He had been invited; a careless clerk had declined the invitation without his knowledge.

"Pigmies." Behind closed doors, speakers flayed the Insurgent Republican Senators (Borah, Norris, Brookhart, Nye, et al). One orator, suspected of being James Francis Burke, counsel of the Republican National Committee, characterized the Insurgents as "pigmies and obstructionists who ought not to be re-elected."

Banker Kahn. Plans were laid at the dinner for senatorial elections next year. Senator Moses, chairman of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, arose to announce that his good friend Otto Hermann Kahn had consented to lay aside his international banking (Kuhn, Loeb & Co.) and operatic (Metropolitan) interests long enough to serve the committee as treasurer. Gleefully declared Senator Moses: "Gentlemen, the line forms on the right!"

Familiar enough are Mr. Kahn's friends with descriptions of him such as appeared in November Theatre Magazine: ". . . Otto, the Angel of Artists ... As he has squeezed gold from the ogre of commerce, so he will wring life dry of its last pleasure. . . . The perfect Wall Street type, the cultured boulevardier, the artistic dilettante, the social lion, the benign benefactor and--yes--the sugar daddy."

But Mr. Kahn's friends have never dreamed or heard of him in the role of political "fat cat." Unlike Samuel Insull, the country's other grand opera tycoon (see p. 54), Mr. Kahn's patronage has never before embraced practical politicians. As he said last week to 300 members of the Suffolk (L. I.) County Republican Club, whom he received (as their leader) at his Cold Spring Harbor estate: "I can talk fairly well of finances, economics, international affairs and art, but this is my first venture as a political speaker. . . . You are in the front-line trenches in direct touch with the enemy. . . . Not enough credit is given you workers. ... No advice by me is needed. . . "

Brambles. The Kahn appointment split Republican opinion in Washington, threatened to draw President Hoover into another brambly branch of ill feeling. Mr. Kahn was reluctant to take the post in the face of such opposition. Said Treasurer Nutt, calling at the White House: "Obviously a mistake. They [the Senators] do not need a separate treasurer." Others more guarded, spoke of the "political folly" of naming an international banker to so important a campaign post. Insurgent Senators scowled, pretended to be uninterested in the Kahn appointment, while Senator Moses grew loudly, defiantly insistent that all was for the best. He assured Insurgents that his committee's purpose was "election, not selection."

Displeasure over the Kahn appointment seemed to centre in the little group of presidential advisers at the White House (Counsel Burke, Secretary Newton, Postmaster General Brown) whom Senator Moses, imitating President Hoover on patronage, had not consulted in advance. Were Republican Senators trying to get even with President Hoover by employing his type of independence in making their political appointments? The answer seemed to be yes.