Patrons & Patronage

The day may not be marked with as many political barbecues and as much oratory as in years gone by, but July 4 will bring gladness to the hearts of at least 1,000 deserving Democrats. Last week, working in a swelter of job-hungry politicians, Postmaster James Aloysius Farley, patronage dispenser to the democracy, had prepared a list of i.ooo recipients of key positions in the Public Works and Home-owners Loan Administrations. The President, expected back at the White House this week, where he would begin to pay for the loyalty of a Congress which had denied him nothing, was to assign the jobs formally on Independence Day.

Chafing at delay, the Democratic National Congressional Committee made Oklahoma's McClintic chairman of a patronage board to prod the Administration for more jobs. Representative McClintic discovered that of the 800 places in the Library of Congress, only 50 were held by party followers. He wanted something done about that right away. He also found that Presidents Harding, Coolidge & Hoover had by executive order "blanketed" into the Civil Service 4,500 jobs. Representative McClintic wanted President Roosevelt to issue another executive order blanketing them out.

Only new Government agency in which the policy of pure patronage was apparently not to be recognized was the Tennessee Valley Authority, where it was announced: "Political affiliations mean nothing. The best qualified gets the job." This same high sense of public trust was reflected by a letter from T. V. A.'s Board Chairman Arthur Ernest Morgan, to Secretary of State Cordell Hull: "As a matter of public policy I am sending you herewith for your record a statement of all real and personal property and other assets owned by me, and by my wife and children, as of June 1. I suggest that this be filed with my oath of office. . . . It is my intention to file a comparable statement when I relinquish the . . . office."

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