Evening star., 1923-01-03
Washington Observations
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

American Individualism," Herbert
Hoover's much-discussed new book, is
not the Secretary OF Commences
maiden effort in literature. Twenty
years ago. when he was a young min
ing engineer. he collaborated with
Mrs. Hoover in a translation of
Agricola's DE Re Metallica," long
since become a standard work among
disciples of metallurgy. Not many
people know that Mr.. and Mrs
Hoover, while both were single, were
fellow students of mining at Leland
Stanford University. The Commerce
Secretary's first venture in book writ
ing was in 1908, when he produced a
treatise on principles of Mining"
tinction, Mr.. Hoover is probably
Americas champion holder of uni
versity degrees. He is entitled to call
himself doctor of Brown, Pennsyl-
vania. Harvard, Yale, Columbia,
Princeton. Johns Hopkins, George
Washington, Dartmouth. Boston,
Rutgers, Alabama, Oberlin, Liege,
Brussels, Warsaw. Cracow. oxford.
Rensselaer,. Tufts. Swarthmore, will
liams. Manchester and California. The
sheepskin Hoover is said to prize
most of all is his certificate of
honorary citizenship OF Belgium.
Maj. Gen. Hatsutaro Haraguchi,
imperial Japanese military attache in
Washington survived q New Year day
experience which convinced him that
American women are past masters in
the gentle art of repartee. The gall
liant soldierman of Nippon had par
taken OF his ration OF egg-nogg at an
afternoon party-somewhere in the
northwest. 1t was his first introduc-
ton to the traditional. tf prescribed,
American holiday concoction. He was
much intrigued by It, and. as he bade
goodbye to the charming lady who
had done duty at the bowl, he said !:
"Adieu, Miss Egg-Nogg." To which
she sweetly rejoined: "Au revoir, Gen.
Saki."
Besides making the acquaintance
OF a shrewd f1nancier, Washington
will greet a skillful politician in
chancellor OF the exchequer. who will
be here in a day or two to talk debt
AFFAIRS with our government Mr.
Baldwin was one Of the engineers
in chief OF the coalition revolt which
overthrew David Lloyd George. He
was Bonar Laws right-hand man in
the celebrated Carlton Club meeting
in London on October 19, at which
the conservative members OF parlia-
ment wrote IL. G.'s" death warrant
The chancellor OF the exchequer in
carnates the scholar in politics OF the
type which always has distinguished
British public life. A Harrow boy
and Cambridge man." Mr.. Baldwin
Is in his f1fty-sixth year. He is Of
the strong and silent. mold and
wastes little verbal motion. Brit
ishers in Washington who are Gus
tomarfly in the know aver Baldwin
is not coming TO sign on any dotted
line, but at a psychological moment
will produce a plan of his own. A
Sherlock Holmes sort of Briton in
looks. he is a family man who would
have gladdened the heart of a Roose-
Welt, being the father OF two sons
and four daughters.
II is an open secret that Woodrow
Wilson is considerably distressed
over some OF the revelations in re-
Gently published posthumous me-
moirs. Robert Lansing's The Peace
Negotiations caused the former Pres
ident little perturbation, because Mr..
Wilson already had excoriated his
erstwhile Secretary OF State for dis
loyalty" and the Sage OF street
was prepared for the sings and ar
rows which the Lansing book hurled
in his direction. But the Walter
Hines Page and Franklin X. Lane
letters have caused Mr.. Wilson no
little anguish. Upon both the late
ambassador and the deceased Secre-
tary of the Interior Mr.. Wilson looked