Evening star., 1925-02-22
by MARGARET b. DOWNING.

IN MAhGAHET b. DO Z" NlNUs
President and Mrs. Coolidge have
Conclusively shown that official pre-
cedence may be an irritating prob
lem or 1t may be an entirely quies-
cent one, for II will bob up at unex-
pected times and threaten showers, If
not storms. But the judicial calm
ness of the Chief Magistrate and the
sunny smiles of his lady have during
this administration proved sufficient
to lul the most turbulent waters.
Then Col. Sheriff., major domo OF
the White House, is both diplomatist
and strategist, and he can shift posi-
tions among the exalted without the
person affected dreaming that the
opera ton is in progress. 1t may be
that greater personal dignity pre-
walls among the mighty of official
dom, and that so few instances of
offended dignity are now recorded at
the amenities. where the Speaker
should sit' proved such a thorny
problem at formal banquets that
President Roosevelt introduced din
ner iE his honor as part of the off,
Cial amenities. Representative Gill
lette, like his predecessor, the late
Champ Clark, has never ihdulged in
theatrical gestures over official pre-
cedence, being apparently convinced
that the dignity and power of the
Gregor, where the Speaker sits is the
head of the table" The late Chief
Justice White passed q long life in
Washington as Senator and Associate
Justice, and as head of the supreme
tribunal of the land without one
struggle to maintain his status,
though some of the chief justices had
been regular storm petrels. There
are still some delicate points never
- 4 ,nlo he
rank to be accorded for ambassador,
the Chief Justice and the Speaker
all appearing on the same occasion,
hut the careful hostess avoids this
by not gathering such brilliant ga
laxy of official stars at the same
function.
That letter-writing, the gentle art,
IS lost and forgotten one is dis
proved several times a week by no
less a parsonage than the First Lady
OF the Land. Everybody knows that
Mrs. Coolidge is invited to everything
and that she could neither eat nor
sleep If she accepts one-twentieth of
the invitations received. But except
for those fortunate enough to receive
one of her cordial letters regretting g
her failure to appear or expressing g
the pleasure enjoyed in connection
with an entertainment know how
many personal letters she writes
and how gracefully she handles her
theme. Few first ladies in thesf
strenuous times have had the energy
for this, and, indeed, with the rarest
exceptions, all letters received from
the White House have been in recent
regimes written and signed by the
secretary, and are as a rule type
written. No one expected anything
else, since the typed missive is ac-
cepted as permissible and everybody
imbued with the idea that no one
writes letters any more. But Mrs.
Coolidge has disproyed this, and how
she finds the time for so many, SO
happily worded and so beautiful in
the Iithographic sense is one of the
unsolved mysteries connected with
this charming mistress of the Execu-
tive Mansion.
DIR. William NJ. Jardine of Kansas,
who is to be the next Secretary of
Agriculture, is a scientific farmer
and writes himself as an "agronom-
ist," and quite naturally he was long
ago invited into the Cosmos Club of
this city, and is better known among
its members than he Is among the
politicians of the Sunflower State.
The new Secretary is an author of
distinction, being the foremost au-
thority on his speciality, agronomy,
which is the scientific development
of the general farm products a
branch of study which is intenstvely
pursued in the Kansas State College
of Agriculture, from the presidency
of which President Coolidge has in
vited the successor of Mr. Gore. DR..
.Jardine is in his early forties, and
brings a charming wife and young
family into the Cabinet coterie. Mrs.
Jardine was before her marriage Miss
Eff1e Nebeker, daughter of a pros
porous farmer of northern Utah,
where she was born. A classmate of
her husband in the Utah Agricultural
College, the romance progressed
through their scholastic life and
ended the usual way in September,
1906, q few months after Mr.. Jardine e
had graduated and had obtained an
opening on the teaching staff of
the University Of illinois, There are
three children-William, jr., who has
been in the junior class of his
fathers institution: Miss Marian, who
is II, and Ruth. who is 10.
DR.. Jardine is another of a distin-
guished line Of Secretaries of Agri-
culture chosen from the professional
ranks of eminent seats of learning.
The late Henry NJ. Wallace had been
for some time an aide of the vener-
able James Wilson, Is years the Sec
retary, when that venerable scholar
was president of Ames College, in
Iowa. DIR. David Franklin Houston.
President Wilson's first head of the
Agricultural Department, was presi-
dent of the Washington University,
st. Louis.
Senator and Mrs. Jesse Metcalf of
Rhode Island, who have been in
Washington since December, the for
mer filling the unexpired term of the
late Senator lie Baron D. Colt, will