POLITICAL NOTES: Roosevelt, Farley & Co.

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In its propaganda department the Democratic staff wholly outranks its opponents. Until two elections ago political publicity agents were usually picked from a stale selection of hacks for whom the Press had no jobs. In 1929 Jouett Shouse hired Charles Michelson, Washington correspondent of the late New York World. Michelson raised his job to a new importance. He wrote good speeches for party bigwigs, spread masterful anti-Republican innuendoes, taught the country to hate Herbert Hoover.

Already Pressagent Michelson has begun his 1936 work. Against such an able adversary, small, pompous Theodore A. ("Ted") Huntley. secretary to Pennsylvania's onetime Senator David A. Reed, whom the Republican National Committee hired last month to run its publicity, will have to hump himself as never before to make any sort of showing at all.

Outclassed finally is the Republican high command by the Democratic intelligence service, which is 218-lb. Emil Hurja.

Technician. Behind a large desk in Washington's National Press Building sits Emil Hurja, calm, amiable, and utterly unmoved by the tides of politics. He never argues, never raises his voice. His only eloquence is a flat, staccato statement of what he considers to be fact. On the walls of his office hang twelve portraits of Andrew Jackson. The portraits are appropriate, for Emil Hurja went to Washington to apply modern business methods to political patronage. To distribute several hundred thousand jobs where they would do the most good for the Party, he established a model system of "political clearance." Instead of simply allotting jobs at the request of Congressmen, all applicants were made to bring endorsements from local Democratic leaders. These were filed in triplicate according to the name of the applicant, the type of job he wanted, the name of his sponsor. In recommending Democrats to the various bureau and department heads, Mr. Hurja used different-colored stationery which amplified the phrases of his letters. If the applicant carried a white letter, he was to be given a job if one were available. A buff letter meant that Emil Hurja was recommending him for a position. A blue letter opened every door, practically guaranteed the applicant a job.

Just as many a corporation executive has on his desk a looseleaf book in which are the latest statistics and charts of sales by product and region, of profits, of raw materials, etc., etc., so Mr. Hurja has at his elbow a compendious black volume. He can quickly turn through it to any state or subdivision. If he opens it on the 16th Congressional District of Illinois, he finds a salmon-pink chart indicating that the Congressman there is a Republican. If he were a Democrat the sheet would be white. Under the Congressman's name are the returns at the last election, the results of all polls and straw votes, public or private, taken in that district. There is the date of the primary, a line marked Chief Basis of Campaign with notations such as "Age of Opponent," "Roosevelt Policies," "Townsend Plan." Space is left for answers to such questions as: "What is the reaction to WPA?" "What is the least satisfactory Government bureau?" Finally the political background and record of the Congressman are summarized.