political once more. No longer can Mr. Davis be advanced by a well-pleased leader. To win this Fall, he must please a crowd of, say, 15,000,000 people not all of whom can belong to the socially élite. So politicians are beginning to question: "Is the nominee's wife a political asset?"

She indulges in politics as a member of the Women's Democratic Union. Some of her co-members include Mrs. John Blair, Mrs. Charles Dana Gibson, Mrs. James W. Gerard, Mrs. Norman H. Davis, Mrs. Abram I. Elkus, Mrs. Montgomery Hare, Mrs. David F. Houston, Mrs. Pierre Jay, Miss Amey Aldrich, and Mrs. Frank L. Polk. These are the very aristocracy of politics. Most of them have slid into the game because of wealth or husbands. These are quite a different set from the gang of women who go out and get votes and bring them home to the Party.

The woman who was Vice Chairman of the Democratic Convention, Miss May Kennedy, was not one of Mrs. Davis's intimates; she was a little worker who had gone into the Bronx and brought out votes for Tammany. During the same period, Mrs. Davis was on a committee which showed up the iniquities of the Republican tariff by an "exhibit." In the exhibit, mannequins ambled about dressed in imported gowns (or their equivalent) with jewels, silk stockings, slippers-a complete costume and everything price-marked. By contrast, another part of the exhibit showed what the same articles would cost under a Democratic tariff. Mrs. Davis was not one of the mannequins.

A woman politician was reported as remarking: "Mr. Davis is a diplomat. Nothing in the whole political problem facing him will need more skill than the handling of his sensitive women constituents, his friends and his wife's friends on the one hand, Tammany Hall and its numerous voters on the other. When the women's campaign committees for New York City are appointed the world will see how good a politician Mr. Davis is."

PROHIBITION

Ritzy

Some time ago a scintillating adjective joined the American language. It expressed the superlative of all that is elegant, fashionable, fastidious and rich. From which famous hostelry, the Ritz-Carlton of Manhattan, or the Ritz of London, or the Ritz of Paris this word sprang is a question which philologists must decide. Thus, at least-somehow or other-was born "Ritzy." (See THE PRESS.)

The name may now fittingly be applied to Roy Asa Haynes, National Frohibition Commissioner, and to his agents and his policies. The prac

tice of padlocking, for a twelvemonth, the doors of any restaurant or dive caught selling forbidden liquors is not new. Not until last week, however, did it become "Ritzy."

A doctor, enraged because he could buy liquor publicly for his

A CANDIDATE'S WIFE Is she an asset?

pleasure more easily than he could prescribe it for his patients' health, visited enforcement headquarters in Manhattan.

That night the doctor gave a dinner to the prohibition agents. He gave it in the Japanese Roof Garden of the Ritz-Carlton. It was alleged that the agents bought champagne at $20 a bottle. In this way they acquired an idea of Ritziness.

Straightway they prepared an injunction and many padlocks for use, not against the Ritz Roof Garden, but against the entire hotel, rendezvous des élites, cercle du beau monde. This was not only unprecedented, it was superlative, it was Ritzy.

At about the date of this proceeding, the American Hotel Association convened at Cleveland, heard the Chairman of its "Educational Committee," John McFerlane Howie, declare: "The prohibition law raised the hotel-keeper from the level of saloon-keeper and placed him on a level with any other legitimate business man. His business today is better than ever before."

Heavenward Ho!

The international aspect of U. S. prohibition was the theme of a Conference

of Drys, The World League Against Alcoholism, which met last week a Winona Lake, Ind. In colorful lan guage, several speakers depicted what U. S. prohibition means to the rest of the world and how the rest of the world affects U. S. prohibition.

Bishop Thomas Nicholason, of Detroit, President of the Anti-Saloon League of America: "Without offensive interference with the affairs of other nations, we are, in a real sense, trustees of the world. If we have any good things, we must share them. To tha: end, we shall carry on this great worldwide campaign."

Wayne B. Wheeler, General Counsel and Legislative Superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League: "If we confess that we cannot enforce our laws we cease to be a Nation. . . . Human progress will be turned back and the current now steadily setting toward a Golden Age will lose its force in a backwater... "

Dr. F. Scott McBride, General Superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League: "I find no fault with the foreign countries using their money to pay their honest war debts obligated to this country to them during the war, but I emphatically protest against the use of foreign money within the bounds of the United States of America to break down our Constitution and to trample our flag in the 'dust."

In Kansas city doing whirlwind elec tioneering, H. P. Faris, Prohibition nominee for President, declared:

"If we had one dollar to the hundreds the big parties have, we'd win this elec tion. . . ."

ARMY AND NAVY V-1

At Portsmouth, N. H., was lunched the largest submarine owned by the U. S. She was christened "V-1" and is the first of a new series of nine submarines capable of fleet work-that is, capable of maintaining the speed sufficient to cruise with the battle fleet, and having an equal radius of action.

The V-1 is 341 ft. 6 in. over all, 27 ft. 65% in. in breadth, and has a surface displacement of 2,164 ters. Her speed on the surface is to be 21 knots, and submerged, 9 knots. Her complement will consist of 7 officers and 80 men.

In her comparatively spacious inside, she will carry a whale-boat and a motor launch, each 24 ft. in length.

Fresh water supplies will be ob

tained by distillation with the heat of exhaust gases from her Diesel engines and with special electric heaters.

War Frauds?

In the Criminal Court of the District of Columbia, the Government lost a case brought against a large number of men for alleged frauds in the sale of surplus lumber belonging to the Air Service. This was called the "Phillips Lumber Case," after one of the leading defendants. They were accused of conspiracy to defraud the Government of $1,500,000 by taking double commissions from the Government and from purchasers in the sale of surplus lumber. Since the criminal case has fallen through, it is expected that civil suits for the recovery of damages will be dropped.

One after another these so-called War fraud cases have been lost by the Government. The important ones include the "Morse War Shipping," "Crowell Cantonment" and "Harness Frauds" cases. In the Phillips case, it happened that John L. Phillips, the leading defendant, was a former Republican National Committeeman from Georgia. In most of the cases, however, victory for the Government would have demonstrated a blot on the record of the former Democratic Administration. The fact that not one Democratic official of any prominence has been successfully prosecuted — although Democrats were in office at a time when the large and hasty expenditures of the War made graft an easy opportunity-is one of the best of the campaign arguments of the Democrats.

KU KLUX KLAN Catholic General

The Klan fight by no means ended at the Democratic Convention in Manhattan. Frank X. Schwab, who is not a steel man but Mayor of Buffalo and Supreme General of the Knights of St. John (Catholic), addressed his order at a business session. Partly he denounced, partly he seemed to threaten. Said he:

"I want to ask you with all sincerity to advance with all your power the military department of our order. This department, I believe, is more essential now than ever.

"God only knows if the time is not coming when our country, as well as our Church, will have to be protected against the un-American organization which is now becoming so strong in this country.

"We have seen within the last ten

days the power that they have already developed. They are working underhanded whenever an opportunity presents itself. They are not true Americans or they would not have to cover their faces, and they would let the people of this country know who they are and what their ideals are."

He also denounced "the six greatest evils" of the day. These, according to his enumeration, are: "Divorce, race suicide, the public dance halls ('some dances,' said he, are 'soulkilling in the extreme'), the narcoticdrug habit, the hip-pocket flask, and the automobile-brothel."

The Klan would agree with him in denouncing all these objects, possibly qualifying the objurgation of divorce. The Klan probably would also be at one with Mayor Schwab on the question of "a strong military department."

Republican majority to Massachusetts (TIME, June 30, July 7), went still a step further.

The Republican Senators, who had settled down to spend the Summer at Rutland, Mass., waited to see what their angered Democratic colleagues would do.

The Democratic Senators assisted by a Democratic Governor and Lieutenant Governor did what they could. They got two witnesses who testified that the Chairman of the Republican State Committee had instigated the placing of the ludicrous bomb. The witnesses also declared that one "Toots" Murray had actually placed the bomb. An automobile was procured and seven men jumped into it. One was the chauffeur. Two were Assistant Attorneys General of Rhode Island. Two were Police Inspectors of Providence. The remaining two were the witnesses. The automobile rolled over the State line into Massachusetts. It went to Rutland where it was hoped to arrest "Toots" Murray, who was reported to

NOTES be acting as a guard to protect the Re

POLITICAL NOTES Grape-Shot and Greek Fire

Senator Burton K. Wheeler, smart, young Montana radical, who deserted the nominee of his Party (Democratic) and turned not only to support La Follette, but to join with him on a third ticket adventure, leaves the Democrats in a peculiar position. They cannot directly attack Wheeler now, because at the same time they are pointing to him with pride as the man who slew the dragon Daugherty. But with the Republicans it is different.

The New York Evening Post (independent Republican) opened, with grape-shot and Greek fire:

"The eye of Butte sees in Davis a creature of the red octopus, with the scarlet tentacles, that lives in Wall Street. . . . The 'great open spaces' know him (Wheeler) as a political two-gun man with a cold, slate-colored eye.

"This spare-built lawyer from Butte is looking to the future. If things go well with the 'third ticket' there will be a permanent 'third party.' Will it need leaders? It will. Senator La Follette is sick and aging. So Senator Wheeler shoots in the back the party that sent him to the Senate and fares forth in search of new political grass and water-courses."

Seven Against Rutland

The comedy of the Rhode Island Senate, begun with the bursting of a gas-bomb behind the Lieutenant Governor's chair in the Senate Chamber, continued with the emigration of the

publican Senators from being kidnapped. Mr. Murray was not found, but suddenly in the dark watches of the night the Officers of the Massachusetts law descended upon the Officers of the Rhode Island law.

The Rhode Island men were carried off to the police station-arrested as suspicious characters. They telephoned back to the Governor of Rhode Island. He remonstrated with the Massachusetts law to release his Officers. Massachusetts declined. At 1 a. m. the seven hapless Rhode Islanders were locked in separate cells. Nor did they get out till some time later, when a local Attorney furnished bail.

Resigned

John W. Davis resigned not once, but four times. He was preparing himself for the campaign. He resigned from his law firm of Stetson, Jennings, Russell and Davis-the firm which has won him the displeasure, real or figured, of radicals, be.cause it handles some legal business for J. P. Morgan and Co.

He also resigned from his posts, three in number, as Director of the U. S. Rubber Co., of the Santa Fe Railroad, of the National Bank of Commerce (Manhattan).

Prophet

There was a great deluge in 1920. It drowned the Democratic ticket by seven million. But, if the prophet is not false, 1924 will see a freshet that will outdrown the deluge of 1920.

Clarence W. Barron, purveyor of

financial information, head of The Wall Street Journal and other financial papers, published an article in The Boston Herald predicting that Coolidge would sweep the country by ten million votes. His reasons were twain:

1) The radicals would consider Davis and forget Bryan as they made their little crosses for LaFollette.

2) The conservatives would consider Bryan and forget Davis as they marked their ballots for Coolidge.

Tammany Picks

If one were to pick an ideal name for a Democratic Boss* in New York City, how would one go about it? First, one would want something patriotic. George Washington? Excellent! Then something Irish. Olvany? Nothing better.

The new boss of Tammany, therefore, is Judge George Washington Olvany. He succeeds the late "Commissioner" Charles F. Murphy (TIME, May 5).

After a committee of seven Tammany leaders had considered in private for an hour, the Executive Committee of the entire organization ratified the subcommittee's choice of Judge Olvany. The vote was 223 to 3. The one-third vote was cast by two leaders of a single district.

Techni

The election was peculiar. cally, there was no office vacant. There is no official post of boss, or "leader," to use the political euphemism. The supreme and autocratic ruler of the organization exists through usage and necessity. He dispenses patronage, makes up tickets, handles the funds, gives the orders, but he holds no office. Consequently the election took the form of passing this resolution: "That Hon. George W. Olvany be and hereby is, elected to succeed Hon. Charles F. Murphy, deceased, and to perform all the duties formerly discharged by him."

Judge Olvany was born on Pike St., lower Manhattan, the son of a bricklayer. Thus he began in the Tammany tradition. He graduated from New York University Law School (not quite traditional) and became a lawyer. For 26 years he has belonged to Tammany. Six months ago Governor Smith made him a Judge.

Now he is six feet tall, hearty, only 48 years old. He is a master of silence like his predecessor, Murphy. Unlike Murphy, he is also a persuasive speaker. This is not entirely an advantage. James Bryce in his standard work** declares: "It is, of course, a gain to a

*"Boss," from Dutch "baas," a master workman or superintendent.

**The American Commonwealth, by James Bryce, onetime British Ambassador to the U. S.

Ring to have among them a man of popular gifts, because he helps to conceal the odious features of their rule, gilding it by his rhetoric, and winning the applause of the masses who stand outside the circle of workers. However, the position of the rhetorical boss

GEORGE WASHINGTON OLVANY "Boss" from the Dutch "Baas"

is less firmly rooted than that of the intriguing boss, and there have been instances of his suddenly falling, to rise no more."

Judge Olvany looked upon the future in no such sinister light. Said he: "The call of the New York County Democratic organization, as voiced by its Executive Committee, though unexpected, is too strong to resist. Within the next few days I shall resign as Judge of the Court of General Sessions and undertake to carry on the work so ably, unselfishly and successfully* formed by Charles F. Murphy for more than twenty-two years."

per

A colloquy followed with a reporter. "Will you follow the policies of your predecessor, Mr. Murphy?"

"I could not follow a better man." "Well, we hope you will be a little easier to interview than Mr. Murphy." "I expect to have a good secretary."

Before Olvany there were five bosses of Tammany. Previously Tammany had been what it still calls itself, a "Society." The first of the bosses made himself Dictator. After him the others were Emperors pure

Mr. Murphy, who began life as a streetcar conductor, left a fortune when he died.

and simple. Their careers and characteristics were well summarized by Samuel McCoy:

No. 1, Fernando Wood, "handsome cigarmaker, defrauded his business partner of $8,000 and became Mayor of New York in 1855; Fernando Wood, whose supporters were gamblers, brothel-keepers, the gangsters who called themselves 'The Dead Rabbits' or 'The Blackbirds'; who went into office when the Board of Aldermen was familiarly known as 'The Forty Thieves'; who was elected upon his promise of reform and who in two years had surpassed the record of all his predecessors in civic corruption."

No. 2, William M. Tweed, "heavyjowled, bulbous-nosed, cold-eyed... Tweed, the first absolute tsar of the city's fortunes. Tweed, who robbed New York of $2,000,000 for his own, pockets, robbed it of $100,000,000 for his accomplices, and who died, praying for forgiveness, in Ludlow Street Jail; Tweed, who had asked in his days of arrogance: 'Well, what are you going to do about it?' Tweed, who chose the tiger as an emblem, and, like the tiger, stalked in cruel triumph over the plundered city."

No. 3, "Honest Jawn" Kelly, "whose Aldermen caught at last accepting bribes, were scattered to the winds -three sentenced to prison; three turning State's evidence, and six escaping to Canada. 'Honest Jawn,' who died broken-hearted, crying for opiates."

No. 4, Richard Croker, "under whose leadership police captaincies were sold for cash, brothel-keepers and prostitutes paid fortunes for protection, gambling-houses flourished openly, while millions were collected by blackmail and extortion. Croker himself became a millionaire. Hail, dead lover of fleet horses, exiled emperor!"

No. 5, Charles F. Murphy, "whose sway gripped five cities into one, tripling the richness of the captive domain. Murphy the silent, the gray-faced mountain, whose sway extended beyond the metropolis, and who contemptuously flattened a Governor who screamed impotently that $50,000,000 of the people's money had been wasted or stolen in three years; Murphy, around whose head had grown up, even while he lived. legends of power beyond all the dreams of the emperors who went before, and of benevolence and civic righteousness such as they never planned."

Murphy was undoubtedly the greatest. Nobody ever got anything on Murphy.

NEW BOOK

"he Behinder

BEHIND THE SCENES IN POLITICSnonymous-Dutton ($2.50). It is alrays pleasing to meet a man who is a ivid personality. When that peronality has something to say not nly interesting, but frequently penerating in judgment, he is a real reat. Such a man is Anonymous.

Anonymous is too often cheated of is laurels. He writes a good book n politics and in a short time Edward Lowry or Clinton W. Gilbert omes forward to claim it. Anonymous is not an "Insider." He is a "Behinder."

Of the "Insiders" he says: "I deest those who advertise themselves s insiders. The crop of them on the Loosevelt and Wilson soil was treendous. The sense of importance tempting. The best of men sucumb to it. I remember Colonel House sending for me one day and ow I speeded my taxi to hear the ate of the world. He said to me: Here is something between you and ne and the angels.

I have given

ou confidences, but never one like his.'

"I said: 'I know. I have just been n Wall Street lunching at the Miday Club. They told me there. I ave stopped at the Union Club on ny way uptown. They told me there. There is a good chance of an armisice being signed soon and you are ailing tomorrow very secretly for Europe."

To

Of President Makers: "I have always found it more difficult to find >ne hundred per cent partisans of a candidate before he is selected than t is after the nomination. Harding <new this as well as any man. stranger who had explained to him hat he had been against his nomination Harding exclaimed: 'I am glad to see you! I always knew that some day I would find the man who had nothing to do with making me President.""

Of Independents: "One of the greatest exhibitions of an instinct to be good divorced completely from the obligation to be intelligent lies n the tendency of those unripe in American politics to worship mere ndependence. I confess that I have ound that independence is a bad way to get joint action of any kind n real motion. Usually when two ndependents rally around the banner of independence it results in two panners of independence and then tour and then eight. No man or

woman in the world is so independent as an independent. As political workers they are usually fanatically unselfish for six months and then as temperamental as prima donnas forever after."

any

Wil

Of Mud Slinging: "Cleveland was the object of much underground accusation. Roosevelt, without cause, was called a drunkard. son, as much as any man, suffered from stories grotesquely fabricated and of peculiarly unrestrained venom. Harding went through these filthy attacks before election. To the best

of my knowledge, for every vote lost because of a whispering campaign directed against him, the candidate gained a little more than one vote.

"It is an extraordinary fact that the silk-stocking element is often the greatest offender in whispering campaigns. It is the woman with the low-necked dress and with orchids, and it is the young broker seeking to justify his political prejudices, who lend themselves to being carriers of these scandal stories.

"I remember a famous occasion when the proof of a so-called divorce scandal, which afterward became the subject of a whole nation's political whispering, was first brought into my office. We had an advisory committee during that campaign and I called them together and presented the alleged copies of certain love letters. I said I believed it was unreal, untrue and unsavory, and that I would not use it.

"A discussion ensued lasting through lunch, coffee and cigars. On the committee was one man who tipped back his chair against the wall of the private dining room, chewed his cigar, but otherwise appeared to be in a trance. He was an Irishman, old, affluent, and warm and ripe with experience.

'General,' I finally said, 'we haven't had a word from you.'

"Down came his chair, out came the butt of his cigar.

"Well, I'd keep the matter very dark,' he said. 'I'd burn the evidence. It's the most human thing I ever heard av the man!"

Of Heckling: "The heckler usually furnishes a bright man with a glorious opportunity and inspires a stupid speaker to become hot and brilliant. The heckler, though the opposition may not know it, is usually the opposition's involuntary votive offering to the success of the meeting.

"I remember once that a certain candidate for President . . had tried to make thirty thousand hear two of his opening paragraphs. A

hundred feet away a man with a ministerial beard, an Adam's apple of prominence, a dyspeptic face, dressed in black, six feet four tall, with a voice which indicated a smug and irreproachable life and which in its elocutionary power could not be equaled, spoke accusingly.

"What about the Panama Canal scandal?'

"The candidate probably never saw the man. He never directed a glance toward him.

"Without an instant of hesitation he thrust a finger at this sanctified giant and answered, 'You go home to your poor wife, you drunken beast!'"

"When the Progressive Convention assembled in Chicago in 1912, there was only one jarring note. It came from a Prohibitionist...

"What about the liqu-or ques-ss-tion?'

"All the speakers had pretended to pay no attention to this heckler, until Henry Allen, since then Governor of Kansas, came down from his hotel, and appeared, as I remember it, to second the nomination of Roosevelt. He, therefore, had no forewarning when this melancholy heckler with the peevish mortuary voice whined out:

"What abaout the liqu-or ques-ss-tion?'

"Allen answered him without a moment's hesitation and silenced his battery for good. He replied: 'If you're dry, don't complain here. Meet me in the Congress bar.'"

"If I am not mistaken it was an Attorney General of the United States who was speaking in Boston,. when a heckler came down the aisle and bawled out: 'Why haven't you prosecuted the trust octopuses?'

"The answer sent the heckler staggering back up the aisle.

"Be careful of your plurals when you're in Boston. It's octopi, my friend. Remember you're in the pie belt.'

Of Presidents: "Among the last five Presidents of the United States (Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge), seen at close range, there was one who lacked education and was extremely intelligent; one who was both highly intelligent and educated; one who was highly educated and cracked by lack of intelligence; one who so combined such intelligence as he had with such education as he had as to make a memorable performance; and one who had no distinguished education or keen intelligence when he took office. See if you can name each of them."

INTERNATIONAL Conference Diplomacy

When indurate Premier Poincaré came into office, international conferences went out of fashion. He, like Demosthenes, believed that the first, second and third parts of oratory were all "action." He consented to send a representative to the Genoa Conference, but upon the conspicuous failure of that meet, M. Poincaré sent his soldiers to the Ruhr and stuffed wool into his ears.

The fashion has been revived and the world is anxiously waiting for its political leaders to cut their coats according to their cloth and not indulges luxuries. themselves in Fred I. Kent, Vice President of the Bankers' Trust Co., one of the greatest financial authorities of the U. S., declared that the Experts' Plan, details of which the representatives of ten Nations were discussing in London, "carries within it so much common sense that it is hardly conceivable that sufficient force can be arrayed against it to prevent its being put into operation." But, warned he, if the plan were refused, the reaction on business in the U. S. would be "more severe than anything which has happened since the War... All European exchanges would be subject to further severe shocks. Trade and commerce would be dealt a terrible blow."

Such thoughts as these were doubtless uppermost in the minds of the 21 statesmen who trooped into the British Foreign Office and grouped themselves around a horseshoe table on a memorable July morning. Premier MacDonald took his seat in the centre, around him were grouped three other British delegates; to the right of Mr. MacDonald sat Premier Herriot of France and his men; to the left of the British Premier were U. S. Ambassador Frank B. Kellogg and Colonel James A. Logan Jr., U. S. Observer with the Reparations Commission. At the ends of the table were seated the representatives of Belgium, Greece, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Rumania, Yugo-Slavia. Proceedings of the were opened by the British Premier with an address of welcome to the "representatives of the Nations that fought by our side while the War was raging, and that now share with us the responsibility of bringing peace and security to Europe." He then went on to stress the series of failures to solve the reparations problem, to discuss the Experts' Report,

Conference

to remark that "the Report demands not only obligations from Germany but from us," to emphasize the need of unity among the assembled representatives. Said he: "Without unity there can be no security; without security there can be no peace."

Return speeches were heard from all the representatives. Ambassador Kellogg took an opportunity to make his position clear by stating: "We do not come in the same capacity or with the same powers as the other delegates, because we are not parties to the Versailles Treaty, or sanctions now in force, but we come in the same spirit and desire to be helpful."

Premier Herriot then proposed Premier MacDonald as President of the Conference. The motion was seconded by Premier Theunis of Belgium and carried unanimously. After this protracted exchange of banalities, the Conference settled down to work. The result of the first morning's session was the establishment of three committees:

1) To decide upon the method by which possible German default under the Experts' Plan could be adjudicated and to settle the measures which were to be taken if this should happen.

2) To consider the best way of restoring economic and financial unity in Germany-a prerequisite condition to the operation of the Experts' Plan.

3) To determine the method of transferring German payments from the receiving office in Berlin to the Governments of the creditor countries.

None of the committees reported to the Conference, which did not hold a plenary session during the first week of its existence. The three committees, however, worked hard, even on Sunday, and in spite of or because of innumerable rumors it was generally believed that real progress was being made.

Much interest was attached to the arrival of U. S. Secretary of State Charles E. Hughes in his capacity of President of the American Bar Association. Reporters swooped upon him and he was frequently forced to reiterate: "My visit is entirely unofficial and personal." Or, "I am not the Secretary of State, I am the President of the Bar Association."

But it was noticed that the President of the Bar Association was not exclusively the guest of the Lord High Chancellor and the Benchers of the Inns of Court. He was to be "wined and dined" by the King and Queen, the Lord Mayor and Alderman of the City of London, the U. S. Ambassador and by many other notables. At all these

functions he was to meet the statesmen of the world and to have unrivalled op portunities for exchanging viewpoints Said The Sunday Times of London. "He could not find himself in England | at a more opportune moment." . Certainly it seems hard to believe that, unofficial though his visit is, his presence on the spot will fail to influence the course of the mighty waters of confer ence diplomacy.

COMMONWEALTH

(British Commonwealth of Nations) Parliament's Week

The

House of Commons. "Dave" Kirkwood, Labor M. P. for the Clyde, introduced his bill for removing the Stone of Scone*, or Lia Fail, to Scotland from Westminster Abbey. bill passed its first reading by 201 to 171 votes. "Dave" caused laughter by telling the House that "this was the stone that Jacob had for a pillow at Bethel when the angels went up and down the ladder."

Lord Apsley, Conservative, said that "Odin threw it at another god who was making love to Odin's wife. The stone missed the culprit and fell among the Scots."

Arthur Ponsonby, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, informed the House that the Treaty of Lausanne had been ratified by Britain.

Lady Astor caused one of her House of Commons-scenes by persisting in ignoring the Chair during debate. Her violation of the Speaker's ruling that she was "out of order" became so flagrant that the inimitable "Dave" Kirkwood at length called to the Speaker to ask her to leave the House. At this her ladyship sat down, but continued her protests from her sitting posture.

The Government suffered another defeat in the House, on the Unemployment Insurance Bill, Liberals and Conservatives combining to carry an amendment by 171 to 149 votes. There was no question of the Government's resigning.

Webbs' White Gold

Not long ago, Secretary of State for the Colonies, J. H. Thomas, announced himself as an Imperialist when he said that the Government intended to do

*Stone of Scone, upon which the Scotch Kings were crowned for 500 years, was brought from Scone to England by Edward I in 1296, and placed under the throne in Westminster Abbey. Since that date all the Sovereigns have been crowned upon it. Edward III of fered to return it some fifty years later under stated conditions, but the Scotch noblemen refused his offer.