WISCONSIN: Colonel Business

The sport of Governors—appointing honorary colonels to their staffs for kudos (but no pay)—was carried to a peak of absurdity by Kentucky's Ruby Laffoon (1931-35), who appointed 11,352 colonels. Currently Wisconsin's new Julius ("The Just") Heil leads all contenders with 57 new colonels, most of them affluent, full-blooded men like himself, many of them his cronies at the board and bar of the Milwaukee Athletic Club. Last week State Senator Phil Nelson, a puckish Progressive, gave public cognizance to the Heil colonels by offering a resolution (promptly pigeonholed) which would empower...

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