POLITICAL NOTES: Wisconsin Houndings

Because he was a Republican stalwart, because he was a millionaire friendly with other millionaires, Wisconsin Progressives have been hounding Governor Walter Jodok Kohler, plumbing fixture tycoon ("Kohler of Kohler"), ever since he took office last year. It is charged that his 1928 election cost him and his friends $100,000 and was thereby a violation of the State's Corrupt Practices Act (legal campaign expenditure limit: $4,000). Chief hounder: able Philip La Follette, brother of able Senator Robert Marion La Follette, who, with others, instituted court action for the Governor's removal. The Kohler defense: a Governor can be removed only by impeachment.

Last week Wisconsin Progressives won a victory when the State Supreme Court threw out the Kohler defense. The Court ruled that he could be tried under the Corrupt Practices Act. If his expenditures were illegally large, his election was void and therefore, never having been Governor, he was not impeachable.