Evening star., 1927-10-21
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Not since Theodore Roosevelt un-
limbered his big stick and spanked
all and sundry who offended, crossed
or maligned him has there been such
a cycle Of White House drubbings as
eliminates with President Coolidge's
rebuke of Senator Fess. Earlier in the
month it was Rear Admiral Magruder,
commandant of Philadelphia Navy
Yard, who incurred executive chas-
tisement. Last week Maj. Gen. sum-
neral, chief Of staff of the Army,
was on the carpet. Now comes
politician who. in the Presidents judg-
ment, has talked not wisely but TOO
much. Eye witnesses who saw Sena-
tor F'ess when he came up Tor air
declare the Ohioan bore every evi'
dence of having gone through an
lhonest.to-goodness ordeal. He found
Mr.. Coolidge neither calm nor cool,
but vigorous and hot. Some time
when it can be told there'l be a mass
of chapter-and-verse proof that the
President habitually speaks his mind
when he feels like it and that on such
occasions his reputed silence and re-
straint evaporate like the snow under
melting sun.
The Fess episode heightens specula-
ton as to whether 1t will at length
spike the guns Of the draft-Coolidge
party. The number of those who ven.
tured to doubt whether II do not
choose to run" actually means Il will
not run" has notoriously grown since
August 2. The number mounted per-
ceptibly after the recent Washington
gathering Of G. o. P. national COM
mitteemen. Something resembling
panic over the prospect of an AL Smith
Democratic candidacy in 1928 has
seized many Of the Republican Old
Guard. Their theory Is that Hoover,
Dawes or Hughes could probably de.
feat Smith. But their conviction is
| that Coolidge is the only Republican
| who can be absolutely depended upon
to do the trick. While the President
at the seance with Senator Fess con-
| spicuously refrained from amplifying
| the immortal choose" sentence, many
Republicans are bound to conclude
| that the Ohioan was reprimanded as
| a solemn warning to all concerned
in the draft Coolidge propaganda. The
| incident will be widely interpreted as
| eliminating the President unqualifiedly
| from next years contest-draft, STAN.
pede, Smith panic, or anything else, to
the contrary notwithstanding.
| X X X X
| Orville Wright, pioneer Of the air,
has just left Washington after attend.
| ing the annual meeting of the ma.
tional advisory committee for aero.
nautics, OF which he is star member.
| This is the body founded to counsel
with the President from time to time
on aviation affairs. The chairman is
DIR. Joseph S. Ames, Johns Hopkins
University physicist. Other members
represent ex.officio the Bureau OF
Standards, the Weather Bureau. the
Army and the Navy. Wright tells
this observer that he hasn't flown for
10 years. He still is oppressed by the
physical effects of his crash with
Lieut.. Selfridge ut Fort Myer 20 years
ago--the disaster in which that gal
liant airman lost his life. Wright is
now busily devoting. himself to the
preparation of the flying memoirs of
his late brother Wilbur and himself.
Eventually they are to be put into a
ard work dealing with the romantic
history of the aerial art. Wright is
! sternly opposed to legislative restric
ton Of flying designed to promote its
development. He calls recent TRACE.
dies in the air 1.-The inevitable price
Of progress" and says that men or
women ready to sacrifice themselves
in the cause should not be hampered
by law.
| \ n
| Just before coming to Washington
this week for the international radio
telegraph conference. Senator William
Marconi. wizard of wireless, dedicated
at New York the first American broad.
casting station which will almost ex
clusively sputter In a foreign tongue
Italian. 1t is station WCDA, which
will take the air within q day or two
on a 211.1-meter wave length. The
station Is owned by Signor Luigi