Evening star., 1925-01-26
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE

Senator William Z. Borah Of Idaho,
who specializes in the unusual. has
Onoe again done the exceptional and
the unexpected. He has just repaid,
to the last nickel, the funds spent
in his State last year by the Re-
publican senatorial campaign COM
mittee to help re-elect the chairman
Of the foreign relations committee to
the Senate. Everybody knows that
action of that kind, in Borah's case,
constitutes a real sacrifice. He has
no fortune and no income outside OF
his congressional salary. He travels
in Washington street cars, when he
doesn't walk, because he can't afford
an automobile. A riding horse Is his
only known luxury. Borah period
ically turns down seductive offers
from metropolitan law firms to ao-
cept a partnership that would guar
antee him 10 times his senatorial
salary He prefers to serve the State
that has honored him SO long.
): < X 4,
Representative Hamilton Fish, jr.,
publican, of New York has put his
finger on the pulse OF a situation
| clamoring for relief. He wants Con-
gress to raise the, pay of cabinet
officers from $4,000 to s17,50o. which
would at least put them on salary
level with Ambassadors. But even
S17, 500 Is a hopelessly small income
for an executive chief who must
shoulder the obligatio ons that go with
portfolio under modern Washing
ton conditions. 1t would be interest
ing to know how much Mr.. and Mrs.
Hughes. have run behind during the
past four years in trying to keep UP
the social front that the foreign
ecretaryship Of the richest power on
earth calls for. Uncle Sam, Of course,
allows no cabinet officer a penny for
representation" purposes. Repre-
sentative Fish's bill, introduced in the
| House last week, aims at making at
least some amends for a scandalous
piece of national niggardliness.
! X = X X
Mrs. Medill Mccormick, wife of the
retiring senior Senator from Illinois,
will go to Chicago in a day or two to
! be with her ''buddie," Mrs. Nicholas
Longworth, when the stork calls upon
! princess Alice.,' Ruth Hanna Nc
| Cormick and Alice Roosevelt Long
worth have been comrades for nearly
| 80 years. Their friendship is rooted
| in the intimacy that existed between
their distinguished daddies, Mark
| Hanna and Theodore Roosevelt. The
| legend has grown, up that between
Hanna and "T. R." a fierce enmity
| existed Iney were IN TACT, WHlle OC-
casionally at political loggerheads.
| immensely fond of each other. Hanna
was directly responsible for Mckin-
ley's appointment of Roosevelt as As
sistant Secretary of the Navy.
| X X * X Ns~'@
| Everybody associates "swank" with
a British nobleman, and, if the noble
man happens to be diplomat be-
sides, then the popular theory is that
| he's the limit in self-esteem and un-
iapproachability. This observer called
| at the British embassy the other day
| to see Sir Esme Howard, John Bulls
Ambassador in Washington. It was
| the shank of the afternoon. The
| visit was by appointment. 1t was ex-
| pected, on the writer's part, to be
formal. Sir Esme bounded into his
Office at the appointed minute, garbed
| about as informally as can be i'm
4 agined. He wore gray flannel trou-
sers, a coat of the same material, with
the collar turned up and assport shirt
| wide open at the neck. The hair Of
his Britannia majesty's Envoy Extra
ordinary was rumpled. He promptly
| explained matters. Been at work on
| the hand-ball alley" he said. Then
he told how he keeps "fit" by almost
daily turns at one of the best training
! exercises extant. When Sir Esme
Howard was secretary at the Brit