Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-01-10


| pointed by the Secretary of War to
| be Quartermaster General of the
| Army. with the rank of major general,
| last week. He succeeds Maj. Gen.
| William II. Hart. who died recently.
| A naval court Of inquiry into the
| breaking away of II naval planes re-
Gently from their moorings near Bal
| timore during a gale decided that the
! accident was due to no fault OF naval
| personnel. The weather was solely
responsible. the court said, and no
| further action in the case should be
! taken.
| Five sailors aboard the [. :. s.
Oklahoma We're injured last week
when a defective shell. which failed
| to explode in the gun, Went off as the
| breech was opened. The accident took
place during target practice.
| Italy's queen mother Margherita.
| died last week in the royal castle at
| Bordigheria from pneumonia. The
| King, Victor Emmanuel, was at his
| mothers bedside as We're other mem
| bers of the royal family. The queen
mother widow of King Humbert, who
was assassinated, was loved through
out Italy because of her charity.
her inability TO reach an understand
ing with and between the leaders of
political parties, and Premier Pan
galos takes over the reins of govern
ment. In explaining his dictatorship.
| the premier said that Greece has
! tried Intellectually to progress under
| parliamentary government since the
| revolution of 1909. and that d change
was necessary.
| The President informed Congress
| last week of his acceptance of the
! League Of Nations invita- ton to the
| United States to take part in the pre-
| liminarv conference on the limitation
| of armament. to be held under the
| auspices of the League of Nations
| at Geneva next month. He asked for
! 900 to defray the expenses of
| American representatives, and the
! House committee on foreign affairs
/ two days later reported favorably on
a resolution authorizing appropriation
| Of the amount.
| In his message TO Congress on the
| subject the President said that in his
| judgment the United States should
participate in the conference because
| of the principle involved but as to
| further participation In other confer
| enceS there was no necessity for a de-
| cision at this time.
| The selection of the American dele
| gate or delegates to the conference is
yet to be made, but the Washington
| Government is understood to be urg-
| ing Owen d. Young, chairman of the
board of the General Electric Co, to
accept appointment. Mr.. Young was
| a member of the committee which in
yesttgated German budget matters in
1924. and is considered thoroughly ia
miliar with European matters
Gen. Pershing's illness has been
given as the real reason for his re-
turn to the United States from Chile,
| where he has been acting as head of
the plebscitary commission in the
Tacna- africa dispute. But there have
developed doubts in Washington as to
| whether he will again take up the
| work. These doubts have gone so far
that a successor. Maj. Gen. William
| Lassiter, now in command of the Pan
anna Canal Zone. is being mentioned.
Controller General McCarl, whose
powers conferred on him by Congress
have given him autocratic authority
where the expenditure of Government
money is concerned, decided last week
the contracts for construction and
engineering services on the Arlington
Memorial Bridge are mot authorized
by law Bids for the construction of
parts of the bridge were opened the
following day, and work is expected
to begin on the great structure soon
The controller generals rulings, made
because of certain technical phases of
the contracts, may hold up things for
a while, but every effort will be made
to straighten out the legal twists SC
az to begin the bridge a soon as pos
sible.
Washington is having it's troubles
with the new and intense effort to
regulate a greatly increasing automo-
bile traffic. The troubles are shared
by other cities, however, and in time
are expected to be solved as men
learn to cope with the new problem
An instance of the difficulties here
was shown last week when a Police
Court judge ruled as illegal a regula
ton laid down by the director of traf
fic for control of pedestrians at street
intersections. The regulation had
been in force for a short time only
and pedestrians We're just beginning
to learn what it meant. The rule
was thrown out on the judges inter
probation of the act of Congress Gre
ating the office of director of traffic
and defining the duties thereof. The
law gave the director no power TO en-
act such a regulation. the Judge ruled
One of the historic mansions of the
country, the governors residence in
Richmond, narrowly escaped destruc-
ton last week and the wife Of the
governor suffered severely from
burns when chi1d's toy ignited a
Christmas tree in a room. the flames
spree ing rapidly and sweeping the
lower floors. Many antiques and
priceless relics of Virginian history
were irreparably damaged.
George Johnson died here last week