Evening star., 1925-06-05
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

When history records the annals of
| these times, 1t will want a name for
Hiram Johnson Not improperly it
could christen him the Great Vindic-
tive. Nor would 1t miss the mark IL It
depicted him as the sad-eyed god of
unrequited revenge. The California
lmplacable is on the warpath again
The target of his latest wrath is Wal
lace McCamant, recently named by
| President Coolidge to be a Federal
judge in Oregon. Senator johnson will
oppose the nomination in the Senate
on the ground that McCamant ''yio.
lated the law of Oregon" in 1920. The
felony was committed at the Repub-
hcan national convention in Chicago,
when McCamant, who was a delegate,
failed to vote for Hiram for President
in accordance with the instructions"
OF the Oregon State primaries. Later
in the same convention it was Nc
nation for Vice President. johnson
asserts that "a man who will not re.
spect the law, breaks his faith and
violates the statutes of his State is
unfit to be a Federal judge" So all
the Hiramian thunderbolts are to be
hurled against McCamant when Win
ter comes. Johnson, for Identical rea-
sons, unsuccessfully opposed Presi-
dent Harding's nomination of David
H. Blair of North Carolina to be
commissioner of internal revenue.
Unterrified by current events at
Shanghai. John v. A. MacMurray, the
new American Minister to China, is
sailing straight for the turbulent inter.
national port on June 13. He will
| leave San Francisco on that day
aboard the United States liner Presi-
dent Pierce, All being well, MacMur-
ray will take up his duties at Peking
on or about July 4, which he considers
a chronological omen of happy import.
During the past fortnight he has had
the opportunity Of bringing himself up
to date on chaotic China through con-
ference with Dr.. Jacob G. Schurman,
until recently our envoy at Peking and
now about to sail for his new post as
Ambassador to Germany. MacMur-
ray is one of the worlds acknowl.
edged authorities on China, although
as diplomatiStS go, he's only a young.
ster. The Chinese account his age (43)
a great asset from their standpoint.
They are accustomed to Ministers from
foreign nations who remain on duty
among them for a long time. Mac
Murray's youth, they hope, means
that he will be with them for years.
X X X y
Frank B. Kellogg, Secretary of State,
ought to return to his home State of
Minnesota with President Coolidge
next week in something of a spirit of
high vindication. Three years ago,
when Mr.. Kellogg aspired to re-elec.
ton to the United States Senate, Min
nesota rejected him and elected Hen
rik Shipstead by a plurality of $500.
Since then honor after honor has come
Kelloggs way. President Harding ap-
pointed him a delegate to the fifth
pan-American conference in Chile, and
President Coolidge named him success
sively to be Ambassador to Great
Britain and Secretary of State. 1t
should be an hour of personal tri-
umph for the lawyer-statesman when
the presidential flag is flown from the
kellogg mansion on Fairmount ave
nue., st. Paul. overlooking the murky
Mississippi, for a day or two.
X
First hand information of condi-
tions in Mexico will be brought to
/ the White House in the course of
the next week by James r. Shelf
| field, American Ambassador at Mex.
| leo City, who has arrived in the
United States on three-week leave.
American Mexican relations are of-
| ficially cordial, but in reality no bet
ter than they ought to be. American
landowners have been subjected to
some exasperating treatment under
the new Mexican agrarian laws 1t is
not beyond the range of possibility