Dredging Slush

Fervent, florid Senator James A. Reed of Missouri and his more or less silent colleagues continued their investigation of campaign expenses. At one point, Senator Reed was at pains to remind people that this dredging, though begun among slushy millions in Pennsylvania, would be extended to "every State in the union." The next state will be Illinois. The committee will repair to Chicago this month to plumb charges made last week by busy-buzzing Senator Thaddeus Caraway that three or more millions were spent on candidates.

Among the witnesses subjected last week to Senator Reed's piercing glance and searching questions were:

Mrs. President Ella George of the Pennsylvania W. C. T. U. (See PROHIBITION).

Superintendent Peter P. Walsh of the Pittsburgh police, a corpulent, red-faced person who professed ignorance of any seamy side that Pittsburgh may have and was very much flustered by Senator Reed's sharp questions about lining up the police for Candidate Pepper.

Wayne B. Wheeler, counsel for the Anti-Saloon League, who twice gave Senator Reed tit for tat, mocking the Senator's gestures of eyebrow and cigar with his own eyebrows and a busy pencil (See PROHIBITION).

William Bauchop Wilson, one-time Secretary of Labor (1913-21), the Democratic nominee for governor of Pennsylvania, who reported personal campaign expenditures of $88 and roused Democrats to fury at President Coolidge by revealing, reluctantly, that after the nomination the President had offered him a post on the new Railway Mediation Board. Rabid Democrats interpreted this as showing that the President held Mr. Wilson's chance for election in Pennsylvania, and even the honor of running, to be of no account.

As the week ended, subpoenas were being issued or prepared by Senator Reed to call as witnesses officials of the Wet forces, Ku Klux Klan and churches in Pennsylvania. While Senator Reed thus added to his laurels as an investigator, one of his committeemen, Senator LaFollette, drafted and proposed a resolution to bar from the Senate any man sent there at a cost of $25,000 or more. Senator Neely, also on the committee, worked over a similar resolution setting the figure at $10,000.