Vol. IV. No. 21

The Weekly News-Magazine

November 24, 1924

THE PRESIDENCY

Mr. Coolidge's Week

It was announced that Mr. Coolidge had not approved plans for a ball as part of his inauguration ceremonies next March.

A bold reporter at a press conference asked whether the President would change his attitude, especially toward Congress, now that he has been elected. The President replied that he would not change-he had done what he thought was right and would continue to do so. At the same conference, he denied that there would be many changes in the Cabinet, said that the only one he knew of definitely was to be caused by the resignation of Secretary of Labor James J. Davis, although he hoped that Mr. Davis would reconsider.

On Armistice Day, the President and Mrs. Coolidge bowed their heads in tribute before the tomb of the unknown soldier in Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac. Mrs. Coolidge laid a white rose upon the marble on behalf of the "motherhood of the Nation."

As a result of a cumulation of business, and of the fact that Mr. Coolidge himself has replied personally to "more than half of nearly 2,000 congratulatory messages" received at the time of the recent election, the President curtailed his conferences, increased his office force, which is now twice as large as it was under the Harding régime.

Dr. Jacob Gould Schurman called at the White House to say good-by before sailing again for the American Embassy at Peking.

Mr. Coolidge sent a telegram to Amherst College, said of Dr. George D. Olds, new President: "I know he was a good teacher because I was able to pass the examinations that he gave us in Mathematics."

The President issued a proclamation endorsing Education Week (see EDUCATION).

President Coolidge named William M. Jardine, President of Kansas State Agricultural College, as ninth member of the Agricultural Commission (TIME, Nov. 17) which is to draw up "a Dawes plan for Agriculture."

To the 38th annual Convention of the Association of Land Grant Colleges, the President in person addressed words of comfort and caution.

The President let it be known def. initely that he would not propose new tax cuts to Congress at least until the close of the present fiscal year (June 30) when the Government's books can be balanced to show the net result of the present tax law. Consequently, no extra session of Congress is in prospect.

In company with Chief Justice Taft and other officials, Mr. Coolidge attended the funeral of Gus J. Karger, Capital correspondent for The Cincinnatti Times-Star.

Will Hays called on Mr. Coolidge with Al Christie, cinema magnate.

THE CABINET

Fee Simple

It was announced that the Palace of Schönborn in Prague, Czecho-Slovakia, had been acquired by the U. S. Government. Henceforward, the U. S. Minister at that city will abide on ground that belongs to his Government in fee simple. One more servant of the State Department will be properly accommodated.

Another is likely to be added to the list when Congress assembles; for it is understood that the Administration will recommend that an expenditure of $1,150,000 be made to acquire land and build a new Embassy and Consulate in Tokio, where the old (and inadequate) Embassy was destroyed by the earthquake.

Heretofore, Uncle Sam, as represented by his Ambassadors and Ministers in foreign countries, has as a rule been merely a tenant. The disadvantages of this have been double: 1) Rent has been almost always exorbitantly high; 2) quarters have been, as a rule, inadequate. A third disadvantage, in countries that set more store by outward show than simple-living Uncle Sam, has been the loss of prestige and dignity due to the poor housing of our emissaries, even as compared to that of such countries as Siam, Poland, Cuba, Persia.

In seven Capitals we own our Embassies: London, Paris, Constantinople, Havana, Mexico City, Santiago, Rio de Janeiro. In eight capitals, we now own our Legations* - Prague, Christiania, Tangier, Bangkok (Siam), Peking, Panama, San José (Costa Rica), San Salvador. We own our Consulates at

*Legations differ from Embassies in that their inmates are Ministers instead of Ambassadors and have a lesser salary. When the title of the inmate is changed, the building also changes in rank.

Shanghai, Amoy (Southern China), Seoul (Korea), Tahiti.

Elsewhere we rent-in Berlin, Rome, Vienna, Budapest, Brussels. The Hague, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berne, Madrid, Lisbon. Only in the last decade has much progress been made in putting our representatives into American-owned homes. Several of the few we own-vide London, Mexico Cityare the gifts of wealthy Americans. Crowded offices, dirty buildings, bad plumbing have been the earmarks of our official residences abroad. Gradually we are improving.

Will Pay

Last week, Secretary of State Hughes announced that Poland had made arrangements for the funding of her debt to the U. S. Poland's action makes her the fifth nation to fund her debt to us: first, England did so, then Hungary, Lithuania, Finland. Except for England, however, all our major debtors have failed to arrange to pay-France, Italy, Belgium, for example.

The Polish debt is comparatively small-only $178,000,000. It was funded on terms very similar to the British settlement, payments over 60

years.

Polite

A note, a diplomatic note, was sent to the Persian Government by Secretary of State Hughes. Diplomatic conversations are, of course, polite to excess; they have also been defined as "veiled menaces." Hear, then, the substance of a truly diplomatic note, sent when Persia, after hemming and hawing, had finally executed the murderers of a U. S. Consul:

"The United States Government is gratified. It is gratified because Persia passed sentences on those who murdered our Consul Imbrie. It acknowledges the payment by the Persian Government of $60,000 to Mr. Imbrie's widow. It calls attention to the fact that there is one question outstanding between the two Governments, namely, that Persia will reimburse our Government for the expense of sending a warship to bring home Mr. Imbrie's body. The Persian Government has already agreed to this. It is anticipated that this cost will approximate $110,000.

"Therefore, the U. S. Government proposes that 'the Persian Government's undertaking in this matter be carried out by the establishment of a trust fund to be utilized for the education of Persian students at institutions of higher learning in the United States.'"

Again the generous gesture, the truly diplomatic move, the spirit of friendliness with which John Hay, at the time

of the Boxer Rebellion, finding the sum of the indemnity awarded in excess of legitimate claims, returned the balance in the form of a similar fund for Chinese students.

Vicissitudes

The following kernels of fact are winnowed from the chaff of rumor about Cabinet changes:

Secretary of Labor James J. Davis expects to retire early in 1925. This news was promulgated by the President himself, who added that he hoped Mr. Davis would change his mind.

Rumors that Secretary of State Hughes would resign were set at rest by an apparently authentic report that he would forego his desire to return to his private law practice until sometime in 1926.

The President continued to take his time in selecting a successor to the late Secretary of Agriculture Wallace. The delay prompted many suggestions that Assistant Secretary Howard M. Gore be given the Secretariat until Mar. 4, when he becomes Governor of West Virginia, a post to which he was elected in the last great balloting.

To the post of Assistant Secretary of the Navy, vacated by the resignation of Theodore Roosevelt Jr., when he attempted unsuccessfully to obtain the Governorship of New York, President Coolidge appointed Theodore Douglas Robinson, son of the first T. R.'s sister and cousin of T. R. Jr. T. (D.) R. was State Senator in New York in 1916-18, 1920-24. He is the fourth member of the Roosevelt family to be Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

THE CONGRESS

Opening Date

Dec. 1 will see the reopening of a lame duck Congress-but not so very lame. Eleven Senators will be paying their last visit before retirement and 73 members of the House. Of the 73 members of the House, 13 will be succeeded after Mar. 4, by former members of the House, reëlected, and 60 will give way to raw material.

Pre-Season Practice

Only a few weeks ago, before colleges opened, football players went back for pre-season practice, to get a "flying start." With much similitude, the Appropriations Committee of the House assembled in the Capitol, last week, in advance of the reopening of Congress. With Martin

B. Madden of Illinois in the Chair, the Committee settled down to work on a number of appropriation bills The supply bills for the Post Office and the Interior Departments were taken up. With appropriate for sight, the Committee hopes to har several appropriation measures ready for the House as soon as it assembles.

In Hanna Manner

Governor Channing Cox of Massachusetts rolled the syllables upon his tongue as he named William M. Butle for the seat in the U. S. Senate left vacant by the demise of Henry Cabut Lodge.

Thus were answered a number of questions:

1) Q.-How will Mr. Coolidge "take care of" the campaign manager who added four years to his tenure of office?

A.-Mr. Butler will not be cared for in the Cabinet. He is given a seat in the Senate.

2) Q.-What sort of successor to Mr. Lodge will go to the Senate?

A.-A regular of regulars, a staunch friend and supporter of the President: a man who, with the other new Massachusetts Senator, Frederick H. Gillett, will share the courtesy title of Presidential spokesman.

At once all good journalists recalled and "hashed up" the obvious parallel, the career of Marcus Alonzo Hanna.

Now Mark Hanna, after being edu cated in the public schools of Cleveland and at Western Reserve University, went into the wholesale grocery busi ness with his father, who soon died. From the grocery business, he went into coal and iron; from coal and iron to Great Lakes shipping and coal and iron mines, to street railways, to banking. Then he branched into politics. He worked with William McKinley; and finally, in 1896, got McKinley the Republican presidential nomination, became Chairman of the Republican National Committee and won the great campaign which ensued against Bryan and "free silver." Within a short time, there was an opportune vacancy in the Senate and the Governor of Ohio appointed Hanna to succeed Senator John Sherman.

The career of William M. Butler began in the public schools of New Bedford. At 16 he went into a shoe factory, at 21 to the Law School of Boston University. He began to practice in New Bedford, later in Boston. In 1902, he went into the textile business, constructing the Butler Mill in New Bedford. His connections increased. The Butler Mill was followed by the New Bedford Cotton Mills Corporation, the Quissett Mill, the Hoosac Cotton

Mills, the Newmarket Mill, the Consolidated Textile Company. By 1912, he abandoned the law completely for business. From textiles he went into street railways, insurance, banking. He became associated in politics with Calvin Coolidge, helped win that gentleman the 1924 Republican presidential nomination, became Chairman of the Republican National Commitee, and won the succeeding campaign against Davis and LaFollette. A few days later, there was an opportune vacancy in the Senate and the Governor of Massachusetts appointed him to succeed the late Senator Henry Cabot Lodge.

History may not have repeated herself, but she has written a paraphrase. Will History complete the parallel?

Hanna, after his appointment to the Senate, served not quite a year, was elected to fill out the short term, elected for the full term. He retained his post as Republican National Chairman, in Roosevelt's time was the leader of the conservative wing of the party, and all in all came as near to being a national political boss as the country has ever

seen.

Butler has been appointed to serve for two years, until the next national election.* He presumably will retain his post as Republican National Chairman, and as such will be a power in the Senate, even though a newcomer. Whether he will remain a satellite of the Administration or become a power behind the throne of Republican politics is yet to be seen. He goes to the Senate handicapped by the antagonism of a large part of the old guard. Will he win them over? He is as good a business man as Hanna. Will he be as clever a politician?

PROHIBITION

"Not Guilty"

John Philip Hill of Baltimore, Republican Congressman from the third District of Maryland, indicted for violating the Volstead Act (TIME, Oct. 6), was tried last week. And John Philip Hill was acquitted.

John Philip is a character. Hear about him in the sparkling words of Correspondent Clinton W. Gilbert:

"He lives by headlines. If newspapers were abolished, he would curl up and die. I know he will read this with delight and paste it away in his scrapbook. That's why I am writing it.

"A man who devotes all his energies to being a good story should

*There has been some talk of Democrats making a fight to prevent Mr. Butler from holding office for two years without a special election. The law seems to be clear that the Governor of Massachusetts can make an appointment until the next general election19-6 in this case,

Yes. He set up a cider press and allowed his cider to ferment a bit, just as he had done previously with some grapes, and he gave his neighbors to drink.

He was indicted on six counts for illegal manufacture and possession of the forbidden, and for constituting a public nuisance. But it is notorious that six counts does not constitute a knockout. John Philip took his six counts, then he took a reëlection, and then he took his trial.

The decision does not greatly alter the force of the Volstead Act. That Act forbids the manufacture, etc., for sale, of intoxicating beverages and defines such beverages as those containing more than 2% of alcohol. But tucked away in the Act is a sentence which says:

"The penalties provided in this act against the manufacture of liquor without permit shall not apply to a person for manufacturing non-intoxicating cider and fruit juices exclusively for use in his home. . ."

Federal Judge Morris A. Soper interpreted this to mean that the home juice-maker was exempt from the arbitrary definition that % alcoholic content makes a beverage "intoxicating." For beverages on sale, he held that the % criterion was legal and unassailable, but within the walls of a man's home what he made exclusively for his own use was not to be so strictly governed.

Judge Soper therefore charged the jury that, for the purposes of this case, "the question for you to determine is whether these articles were intoxicating in fact. . . . Intoxicating liquor is liquor which contains such a proportion of alcohol that it will produce intoxication when imbibed in such quantities as it is practically possible for a man to drink. . . . Perhaps I might interpolate here that the intoxication in this law means what you and I ordinarily understand as average human beings by the word 'drunkenness' . . ."

As far as regards the two counts charging John Philip with maintaining a public nuisance, the Judge instructed the jury to return a verdict of not guilty, since none of the questionable beverages was sold.

Then the jury went out to determine whether wine containing from 3.34% to 11.64% of alcohol and cider containing 2.7% alcohol was intoxicating in the ordinary meaning of the word. For 17 hours the jurymen were closeted. Two of them held out for a verdict of guilty. At last they gave in. "Not guilty."

John Philip, shaking hands vigorously, exclaimed: "Well, boys, you can make all the cider and wine you want now."

Then he added more formally:

"Independent of the verdict, the opinion of Judge Soper to the effect that fruit juices and cider made in the home for use there must be intoxicating in fact and are not limited to 2% alcoholic content, fixed by other sections of the act to regulate other beverages, is of the utmost importance.

"It strengthens us tremendously in our position in asking Congress to give us light wines and beer. It proves what I have always maintained-that the Volstead act is hypocritical, crooked and marked by two standards. . "