Evening star., 1925-10-02
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

It's been a long time since Wash.
ington was the simultaneous scene OF
so many major news situations as
those which are now gripping public
attention. Correspondents and report.
ers are in the plight Of people to take
in Touring circus with a single pair
OF eyes. First came the Mitchell air.
craft hulabaloo. Then the French
debt negotiations reached the boiling
point. While they were sizzling. the
Interparliamentary Union came to
town. Then the Shipping Board and
over the question Of whether Admiral
Palmer should walk the plank. The
Capitals news sleuths bitterly be-
moaned the famine they had to en-.
dure all Summer. But events of the
Autumn are more than making up for
it. The coming Winter. with Congress
in the lfmeliGht again, threatens to
be more thrilling still.
\ X
Woodrow Wilson used q steamship,
the George Washington. for diplomatic
purposes at a critical period Of the
Paris peace conference. When the
history of the French debt parley here
is written. 1t will be revealed that
Joseph Caillaux used the French liner,
La France, as a diplomatic lever, too.
President Wilson threatened to board
his ship at Brest and go home if the
allied peace commissioners did not i'm
mediately get down to brass tacks on
certain propositions he was pressing.
Finance Minister Caillaux was not
quite so imperious in Washington.
But he kept on reminding Messrs.
Mellon, Hoover, Kellogg, Smoot, ct
al, that La France was tugging at
her anchor In New York Harbor, with
steam up and waiting for him to sail
for home on October 2. There's little
Caillaux to leave America on that
date, agreement or no agreement,
spurred the American commissioners
into final action.
X X r
The 1nterparliamentary Union, which
is now turning Washington into a
modern Babel, has no official status
In any country, and can do little but
talk and recommend. But 1t has a rec
ord Of great constructive achievement
for all that. The second Hague peace
conference called by the late Car of
Russia In 1907 was the direct result of
IIl0 lIllldtlSc ldhcu ny LI10 lHt0Tpdrlld-
mentary Union at its conference in the
United States three years previous.
The union met on American soil at the
invitation of the Louisiana purchase
expedition in st. Louis. The distin-
guished parliamentarians now assem-
bled beneath the dome of the United
States Capitol fervently hope that his.
tory may repeat itself. That is to say,
they trust America again may be in
spired to summon the nations to a
round-table where new world code of
law will be formulated and adopted.
kyk X
Charles Macveagh. the newly ap-
pointed Ambassador to Japan, is ex-
pected in Washington next week to
take tho usual course Of sprouts
through which all new diplomatic ON.
GERS are put at the State Department
The Ambassador and his wife expect
to proceed to Japan late in October or
early next month. Mrs. MacVeagh is
an authoress Of some distinction. Sew
eral years ago she wrote Fountains
Of Papal Rome" a historical review of
Roman Catholicism. She has also
written poetry. Once upon a time
the MacVeaghs had a family Of six
strappinG sons. One Of them lost his
life in a snowstorm in New Hamp-
shire. OF the surviving sons. one is q
lawyer In Washington: one q lawyer
ia Portland. Oregs one . teacher at