Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-02-03

Few United States Senators could
bring TO the job of plotting the new
revenue measure through the Senate
the expert business knowledge Reed
Smoot possesses. The senior Senator
from Utah has been a factor in the
big business of his State and church
for years. He has been president of a
savings bank an investment company
and an electric corporation at Provo,
and director in all of the Mormons'
vast commercial undertakings, In
Guiding banks. newspapers and coop
erative department stores at Salt Lake
City Once he was interested in the
Utah Idaho Sugar Co. another Nor
mon enterprise. Probably of greater
value to the Senate than Smoot s
commercial experience is his mex
haustible zeal. Despite his "a years,
he is the hardest working member OF
that body, not only in the study and
execution of legislative problems. but
in driving force when the time comes
to get action on them. Shoots critics
contend that he is the most ''sinister"
influence in Washington because of
his power. industry, seniority and
natural shrewdnesS as legislator and
politician. He Is up for reelection
this year. Democrats and 1924 La
Toilette radicals talk of beating him.
but the betting odds are against them.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Of New York
who pow-wowed with national Demo
cratic leaders In Washington this
week while he was en- route to Flori-
da, is bound to be an outstanding fig
ure in their future councils. Ii ROose-
welt were entirely recovered from the
physical woes which Frustrated him
| three years ago, he would be in the
very forefront of Democratic calcu-
| lations. Should 1928 find him in per
| feet trim, which Is possibility
| stranger things have happened than
that he should loom formidably as
| the party's great white hope two
| years hence. In any event, he is a
potential national chairman. A non.
Catholic, he is high in the graces of
Gov. AL Smith, and would inspire
confidence as a national leader among
those Democrats who are hostile, on re-
ligious grounds, to the idea of Smith
standard bearership. Mrs. Roosevelt
was cousin, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt,
| when F. d. married her in 1905-is a
masterful personality and skillful poll
tician herself.
Automobile builders who want to
sell cars in Washington ought to have
an eye to the height they give to the
inside Of closed vehicles. The Capital
is the city par excellence of top hats
! in the United States. More silk lids
are worn, to the square inch. in
Washington than in any other place
in the country. That's because Of the
high and mighty functions constantly
occurring here. Judge John Barton
Payne, chairman of the American
Red Cross and former Secretary of
the Interior, once visited a Washing
ton motor show. He looked all over
the exhibition till he located a car
with room enough inside to permit
the wearing, with ease, Of a shiny
topper. When he found that kind of
buggy, he bought it without further
ado.
Mussolini has two fair spokeswomen
in Washington-one, Miss Vera
Bloom, talented daughter of Repre-
sentative Sol Bloom, Democrat, of
New York; the other, Miss Janet
Richards, well known lecturer on cur
rent events at home and abroad. 1t
| was' Miss Bloom who bore to the Sons
Of Italy banquet in Washington this
week a personal message from the
Italian dictator. avowing that he has