Evening star., 1926-05-24
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Japan, it appears. has now come
within the purview of the Carmi
Thompson mission to the Far East.
At any rate, it has become known that
President Coolidges Philippine scout
is to visit Nippon before returning to
America next Autumn. Whether Mr..
Thompson's sojourn in the Land Of
the Rising Sun is to be purely by way
of relaxation after his tour Of the
Philippines, or whether he will go to
Toxic on some quasi.official errand,
has not vet been disclosed. The
Ohioan will sail for Yokohama on
June IS from Seattle on the United
States Shipping Board liner President
Grant. He does not plan to stop at
Yokohama, but will proceed directly
to Manila. According to present ar
rangements, Mr.. Thompson will ar
rive in Japan about the end Of Sep
tember. stay there two or three weeks
and return to the United States early
in November.
The Rev. Edmund J. Walsh, S. j.,
Georgetown University's brilliant
young authority on foreign affairs.
visited Constantinople recently before
returning to America from his trip
through the Near East. He says that
the paramount issue in Turkey today
is the fez. When the Mustafa Kemal
government banished the fez, the
wearing Of it became a felony punish
able by death. The ancient headge1r
Of the Ottoman was abolished because
it was considered an ignoble relic of
the old Turkey, which had too long
bent the knee to the foreign oppres-
sor. Father Walsh says that about
the time he was at the Golden Horn
the fourteenth Turk had been exc
cuted for daring to appear in public
fez- -bedecked. The only Mohammedan
still seen in Constantinople so adorn-
ed is the Egyptian consul, and he has
been warned that he wears the fez
at his deadly peril. Old Turks. who
look upon modern headgear as sac
rilegious, prefer to remain perpetu-
ally indoors, with a fez on their
heads, rather than submit to the new
order. Disappearance of the fez re-
suited in the dumping onto the Turk
ish hat market of 100000 European
hats of every age, shape, color, ma
terial and form in modern or ancient
existence.
Who knows that the United States
Government maintains a. hassock, or
kneeling bench, and that it does duty
regularly in the Library of Congress?
1t is part Of the marble shrine erected
three or four years ago, in which the
Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution of the United States are
incased. The hassock is made OF the
same gray marble Of which the glass
and gold-bound shrine itself is COM
posed. Library guards on duty there
are authority for the statement that
every once in q while some liberty
loving, Constitution-reverenc pa
triot comes along and uses the hassock
for the purpose for which 1t was de-
signed.
William G. McAdoo, whom the
Democrats Of California are talking of
nominating for the United States
Senate, gave his opinion of politicians
during his recent visit to Washington.
i've got an avocado ALLIGATOR pearl
tree growing on my place at Santa
Barbara" he said, (which has reso-
lutely refused to bear fruit. So I've
named it misunderstanding long
on promise and short on productions!
X X X X
Benito Mussolini is combating a
chronic Hldiaoy Uy duHeTinS " SyS'
tenn of diet and living prescribed by a
celebrated American doctor-William
]. Mayo of Rochester, Mimi. When
DIR. Mayo went to Italy four or five
months, ago. 1t was stated that he was
bound for a private pleasure trip. The
facts are. this observer is reliably in
formed, that he was summoned to a
consultation with Mussolini's own
physicians. The result of q rigid ex-
animation of the Fascist dictator was
Mayo's decision that If Mussolini fol-
lowed a certain diet regimen, which
the American then and there pre-
scribed, he would become completely
WELL His HiaailmentasNasDronQ.lncedsn not