Evening star., 1925-08-16
BY MARGARET B. DOWNING.

That President Coolidge has practi.
Cally decided to make Swampscott the
Summer White House during the re-
mainder of his term or terms. as pre-
dicttons from that section now run
high, is received with much caution
by people of the Capital. They are in
clined to ascribe such rumors to the
enthusiasm of local writer's, and to the
obvious enjoyment which the Presi-
dent and Mrs. Coolidge are deriving
from their sojourn in this delightful
spot. A permanent Summer White
House is not regarded as logical, for
the rea son that when Congress sits no
President feels that he could possibly
he outside the boundaries Of the city,
and the legislative bodies prolong the
sessions all through the Summer
every other year with a certainty and
often through every year. When the
present Executive was the second Of
ticial of the Nation he found small op-
portunity to visit his father for two
Summers in succession, and, in fact.
the present sea son and the fateful one
of 1923, when with Congress adjourn
ed, President Harding took the journey
TO Alaska, make up all the real vaca-
ton he has known since 1921. With
such rigid ideas of economy as the
President has expressed. 1t is quite i'm.
try to purchase or lease a Summer
home when the use of it remains so
problemattc. But New England, and
especially the North Shore of Massa-
chuSetts Bay where they are now re
siding, have always lbeen the favorite
playground OF the Coolidge family
and there is no doubt that when the
leisure OF private life Is attained a
Summer residence viii be purchased
near their old friends. the Frank A
StearneS.
What friends of Mrs. Coolidge de-
scribe as the chief attraction of the
summer at White Court is the fact
that she can use the bathing beach
near the villa, and spend as much time
as she wishes in the warm, sunny
sand chatting with the youngsters that
cluster about without attracting any
attention. The Summer home of the
President boasts of private salt
water peol fed from an inlet behind
the house, but, after a few plunges
in this, Mrs. Coolidge, who loves to
swim, found this too tame and bega n
to patronize the surf with the others
of the Swampscott colony. AS a rule,
the water of the North Shore is rather
icy for surf bathing. but there have
been many warm. sunny days, when
its ocean dip. The children are faith
ful in watching for the coming OF the
first lady, otherwise her movements
are as free from public intrusion as
though she were sheltered behind a
high wall.
Mr.. Andrew w. Mellon, Secretary
OF the Treasury. and his right-hand
man, Senator Smoot of Utah, in this
onerous task Of becoming collectors of
the war debt, have discovered that
there is a difference in the interpreta-
ton of the value OF figures, and that
the Latin view of the round sum
owing this Nation, because of the bor-
rowtngs during the recent hostilities: is
made up through a system of book
keeping to which neither eminent
hnancier is accustomed. The Secre-
tary of the Treasury, according To his
close friends and admirers, Is one of
the most astute and successful bank
ers OF present days, and he holds by
the rules of arithmetic as something
Interchangeable and forever to be relied
upon, and his colleague In the Senate
Is Of the same mind. But, among the
Latins, say these same friends of
Secretary Mellon and Senator Smoot.
arithmetic may be charged with emo
ton and under these conditions addi-
ton, subtraction and all of the series
perform strange tricks. The brief
brush which the United States Treas
ury had with the italian Debt.Fund-
ing Commission recently In Washing
ton convinced all the officials whose
duty 1t was to attend the confer
ences that the forthcoming settlement
with the French, Italian, Roumanian
and other nations possessing the
Latin temperament. will not prove
the prosaic rather dull affair which
the British turned out to be. This
debt-fundlng commission handled by
far the greatest after-war settlement
of any of the nations allied with this
country, but 1t was all one set of
bookkeepers going up against another
set in the thorough-going way of the
English-speaking race. Mr.. Mellon,
in anticipation of the turmoil and be-
wilderment which is to be his lot
through the Summer, is taking all the
rest he can snatch in his home in
Southampton, and Senator Smoot has
been out camping with his sons in
the Rockies to renew his strength.
The Ambassador to Rome Henry