-to You

RECENTLY, We received a letter
from a subscriber in which he gave it
as his opinion that we were for Alfred
E. Smith, for President. He based this
opinion on the fact that we ran a cover
article week before last on John J.
Raskob, whom he characterized “as a
wringing wet." We wonder if this
week's cover piece on Dr. Hubert
Work will constitute, for him, evidence
that we have changed our mind and are
now for Mr. Hoover? Naturally, both
articles were sought at the same time,
and simply constitute evidence of our
non-partisan editorial policy of giving
our readers the facts about timely per-
sonalities and events.

746

The World This Week

748

By THOMAS H. GAMMACK

THE OUTLOOK, September 5, 1928. Volume 149, Number 19, Published
weekly by The Outlook Company at 120 East 16th Street, New York, N. Y.
Subscription price $5.00 a year. Single copies 15 cents each. Foreign sub-
scription to countries in the Postal Union, $6.56. Entered as second-class
matter, July 21, 1893, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., and July 20,
1928, at the Post Office at Springfield, Mass., under the Act of March 3,
1879. Copyright, 1928, by The Outlook Company.

MEANWHILE-partisanship aside-
we are decidedly of the opinion that
so far as the political golf game is con-
cerned, Mr. Smith is two up and seven
to play. His speech of acceptance is
the most noteworthy document so far
in the campaign. In its straight-for-
wardness, its clear expression, and its
honesty there is the Rooseveltian ring.
Whether or
not you like Governor
Smith's proposals, his words are the
words of a forthright man, who is all
the more remarkable because of his
origin.

ABOUT two things, at least, he has
spoken categorically: Water power and
Prohibition. At the moment, we do not
care whether or not his specific pro-
posals are the best remedies in all de-
tails which can finally be devised.
Further discussion in the campaign and,
later, in Congress will probably deter-
mine that. The point is that as a pub-
lic man with a record of achievement,
he has had the courage to point out evils
and to offer solutions in which he be-
lieves.

FOR thus bringing these questions
out in the open, into the field of prac-
tical politics, we think he deserves the
thanks of the Nation. His action goes
far to overcome the drawbacks under
which his candidacy admittedly labors.

Francis Profus Bellamy

T

September 5, 1928

HE Washington Credo, no less rigid and in

many cases as inaccurate as the notorious American Credo, includes at the present time two tenets of particular importance. The first of these is that Dr. Hubert Work, the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, is a rather dull gentleman devoid of sense of humor, lacking in political subtlety and inclined to make unfortunate remarks when talking for publication. The second confirmed belief is that United States Senator George Higgins Moses, who greatly wanted to be the G.O.P. boss, is enormously witty, nationally popular and well versed in the diableries of practical politics. There is an element of truth in both these theories and in this element lies a partial explanation of the fact that all is not harmonious in the Republican campaign camps.

By HENRY F. PRINGLE

collapse. Consequently, he has actually encouraged the jokesmiths by laboring longer than any of his associates. He appears at his office before the most ambitious clerk has arrived. He has no hobbies, takes no exercise and during the convivial Harding administration he was in bed before the parties at the Little Green House on K Street had convened. He has even been heard making the very pun before which a less rugged person would quake and lose his reason.

"There's nothing colorful about me," he slyly told one reporter seeking an interview. "All I do is work."

It is true, of course, that Dr. Work is a little drab when compared to the But effervescent Moses. Who is not? Even the friendliest he is no mere automaton without innewspapers concede that the extraterest in the faults and virtues of his ordinary organizing talents of Herbert Hoover must first be devoted to confellow men, who believes that devotion ciliating the factions seeking, in their to duty is the only purpose in life and who never smiles. varied and individual ways, to send him Among his asto the White House. sociates, in fact, he is said to have "an excellent Scotch sense of humor," whatSeveral ever this variety may be. subordinates describe it as a fondness for practical jokes and one former private secretary offers an anecdote to prove it. It seems that Dr. Work, then Secretary of the Interior under President Coolidge, was on an inspection trip in the West. The secretary had accompanied him and was kept so busy that he did not have time to get his hair cut.

It is pleasant, in attempting to analyze this lamentable situation, to offer the opinion that the Capitol's critical attitude toward Dr. Work is far more erroneous than its admiration for the Honorable George Moses. And in Dondering Work, himself, one recalls a play which ran on Broadway for some months last year. The setting of the

drama was cases, and one of the patients was a gentleman brought to insanity by the puns which, throughout his life, had been made regarding his name. Like this figure of the drama, Dr. Work has gone through the years carrying the burden of a name at which punsters whoop with glee. Being by profession a neurologist, he may have known that to battle against the overwhelming odds would have resulted in a mental

a sanatorium for mental

Each morning, at break

fast, Work would demand to know when he was going to visit the barber. Finally, arriving in some Western city, both men made their way to a hotel and the Secretary of the Interior promptly led his assistant to the barber shop.

"Give the young man a hair-cut," he ordered. "It's paid for."

Then, thoroughly amused by his little

joke, he sat down to wait while the operation went on.

Official Washington-that is to say, the politicians and the newspaper correspondents-rarely sees this lighter side to Dr. Work's nature, however. As a matter of fact he is less wellknown than any other cabinet member in Washington; even including the aloof Mr. Mellon. This is because the Interior Department attracts little attention except when some scoundrel is discovered giving away the nation's wealth. Nor has the general conception that Work is uninteresting added to his list of visitors. As a result there were many people who were willing, even eager, to find fault when he became National Chairman last June. Among them, perhaps, were the friends of George Moses, who would have been willing, himself, to accept the appointment. Others might have been found among the intimates of James W. Good, once an Iowa Congressman, who also felt eminently qualified.

Within a few days after his selection by Mr. Hoover, Dr. Work had made the grievous mistake of talking too much and so furnished further ammunition for his critics. His first remark, that the campaign would be "quiet, dignified, instructive and educational," was harmless enough. Not long afterwards, however, the Hoover Board of Strategy read, with startled amazement, his declaration that there was really no serious farm problem, that prohibition was unimportant as a subject for discussion, and that "the issue is the great American payroll." What the people were really interested in, he revealed, was the tariff. After a day or two Dr. Work admitted that he had not actually meant what he had said about the farmer-but it was too late. Scores of editorials abusing him or laughing at him had poured into the G.O.P. press bureaus and word reached Washington, ostensibly from Hoover,

that no further statements regarding policies were to be made. None have been. The press agents who swarm through the corridors of the Republican headquarters continue to send out a copious amount of material, all of it optimistic. But Dr. Work, although he is willing enough to see the political writers, finds virtue in silence. He has not, of course, been entirely quiet, and on his trip to the Pacific Coast for the notification ceremonies he found opportunity to predict a sweeping victory, to remark that Hoover had an excellent chance in the border states, and that the "issues in the South this year are moral issues, and the South is a moral land."

The visitor in Washington who listens to the anti-Work element in the Republican Party is encouraged to believe that the National Chairman is alone is his tendency to make somewhat absurd statements. Actually, this is true of all politicians, Democratic and Republican alike, during every campaign. One hears Senator Moses lamenting that the Republican Party, "while not exactly poor, cannot expect to have a campaign fund anything like the Democrats are piling up." He adds that "this is the silly season for the Democrats" and demolishes their hopes of carrying New York or Massachusetts. But Moses utters this sort of thing lightly, like a circus press-agent

describing "the greatest show on earth." He does it with his tongue in his cheek, with an invisible twinkle in his eye, and loes not expect any one will believe him. Dr. Work, on the contrary, makes his pronouncements heavily. His manner is that of a physician reporting that some patient will live or die. And so, while Moses escapes unscathed, a storm of denunciation breaks over the chairman.

U

NDOUBTEDLY a degree of friction exists among the leaders of the G.O.P., but Dr. Work is by no means wholly at fault. Former national chairmen have enjoyed more or less undisputed authority; neither Will Hayes nor William M. Butler were much bothered by Warren Harding or Calvin Coolidge. Mr.

Hoover, however, insists on knowing the minute details of everything that is going on even those unfortunately necessary details regarding which a Presidential candidate is supposed to be blissfully ignorant. This is an integral part of Mr. Hoover's temperament, as he demonstrated during the years in the Cabinet when he was referred to as "Secretary of the Department of Commerce and UnderSecretary of all other departments." As a result of this inclination to interfere, Dr. Work constantly faces the possibility that his ideas will be vetoed.

The disharmony is also due to the multiplicity of Republican headquarters. The Democratic National Committee has everything under one roof in the General Motors Building in New York. The G.O.P. has a floor or two in the Barr Building at the Capitol, two floors for its Eastern headquarters in the Salmon Tower Building in New York, a third center for the New York State campaign and a separate establishment at the Waldorf-Astoria where George Moses holds forth. No one is able to explain very clearly the reason for the palatial Moses headquarters. although the Senator from New Hampshire is a Vice Chairman of the National Committee and is said to be in charge of the campaign in the East. His authority is a matter for heated debate and he is sometimes called "Director of Plan and Scope." Finally, to complete the disruption, Mr. Good presides over the Western battlefront with offices in Chicago.

A

One

These details are mere matters of organization, of course, and the snarls can be easily straightened out by Mr. Hoover. It will be less simple, however, to put a halt to the constant rumors that Senator Moses gets on the nerves of Dr. Work and vice versa; particularly vice versa. It will take a long time to break down these theories. for they are, as I have suggested. involved in the Washington Credo. hard-working, thorough, serious-minded chairman, it is set forth, cannot avoid irritation when he contemplates a charming, popular, too witty vicechairman. Moses, Washington whispers, will hurt the feelings of any one for the sake of a bright remark. of the first Senators to come out for Mr. Hoover, he is said to have been the first to refer to the Republican candidate as "Sir 'erbert 'oover." He is known to be annoyed by Work's determination to hold conferences with the doors of his office open and he insists that practical politics cannot be carried He feels that it is a on in that way. waste of time to campaign in the South and is further aggravated by Dr. Work's frequent statements that the G.O.P. has excellent prospects in several states below the Mason-Dixon line. Nor is the Senator, of course, entirely discreet in making his irritation known; gradually every sally made by any one regarding the National Chairman is attributed to the Honorable George.

Not long ago, for instance, some correspondents lunching at the National Press Club were discussing a confer