Evening star., 1925-08-26

that coulG write the most was con
sidered the best reporter.
Chicago is in mourning for one Of
her greatest sons-Victor Fremont
Lawson, editor and publisher of the
Chicago Daily News. Lawson was z
man of y before the Chicago fire laid
the Western metropolis waste. so his
life history was very intimately wrap-
ped up with the development of the
imperial city by Lake Michigan's shore.
He had the true Chicagoan's aE-
gressive confidence in the community's
possibilities. and became one of its
master builders. Yet not one person
in ten thousand in Chicago ever knew
him by sight, or even recognized his
photograph when the papers publiS''
ed it the day following his passing.
That is because Lawson had a passion
for elf-effacement. A pioneer in the
development of foreign news, America
at large. and not only Chicago, will
revere his name as practical
fomenter of international understand.
ing. This reporters first newspaper
job was that of a reporter on Law
sons old Chicago Record, which sent
me TO Europe to cover" the Boer
War from London. / received the
assignment at Lawson's own hands
an immortal occasion in my check
cred career. His high-minded CON
ception of the ethics of journalism are
indelible. From the dizzy heights ~
the Tribune tower. Chicago's newest
and most magnificent architectural
glory, the flag flew at half.staff in
Victor Fremont Lawson's honor
mute tribute TO the esteem in which
even his fiercest competitors held
publisher who always played the
game.
San Francisco's most interesting
Chinatown exhibit is the Chinese tele-
phone exchange maintained by the
Bell Co. Situated in the heart Of
the Celestial district. it is constructed
in Oriental pagoda style, inside and
outside. and is served exclusively by
American born Chinese hello girls.
| They dress in native Chinese costume.
and, while bi-lingual, give wrong num-
berS and cut off conversation mostly
in Chinese. There are about 5000
/. Chinese connections in San Francisco.
listed in a special telephone directory
printed in Chinese. The exchange in
Grant avenue is the only one of its
kind outside of China.
x y < x
Nearly every city in the West is
graphing with the automobile traffic
problem in its own way, and trying
to work out something better than
any other place has evolved. The
most picturesque, if not the most ef-
fective, stop-and-go scheme ] encoun-
tered is in Louisville There traffic
policemen stand in the middle Of in
tersecting streets and switch on the
signals with the aid of bamboo
fishing pole, which turns stop and
go signs hanging from the trolley
wircs overhead.
There's money to be made in new
hotels in the West Several big cities
Of the Denver type are still without
up-to-date establishments of the first
grade. Many such communities have
so-called high-class hotels with moth
ing modern about them except their
prices, and these are extorted with
gay abandon. Younger places like
Spokane and Seattle are blessed with
hotels that would do credit to New
York. Chicago is filing up with won
derful caravansaries. Soon it will
have couple of deluxe houses with
more than 5000 rooms each. In the
West there's tale of a great Dol
shevist hotel" in New York. 900
rooms and one bath.
One OF the most modest hooks in
the West is the northern sector of
Bill Borah's Idaho. A Occur d'Alene
newspaper. asking in the language Of
William Allen White, what's the mat
ter with its home county of kootenaL
answers its own question, and says:
"All that kootenai County needs is
900 more dairy cows, 10000 hogs,
10000 chickens. support for the can
merry. more prospectors in the hills,
furniture and toy factories, the manu-
facture Of it's clays into salable
articles, and more Summer cottages
surrounding Lake Coeur d'Alens,"
tcopyrfght, i92s.s