Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-09-05

Europe is now being toured by a
commission of brilliant young Amer
lean engineers engaged in inspecting
river hydraulics and means for con-
trolling foods. The commission was
organized by John r. Freeman of
Providence, r. l., veteran civil and
mechanical engineer. Soon after the
Mississippi overf1owed its banks this
year, Freeman invited national en-
cheering societies to award, at his
expense, total Of six European
travel scholarships to men capable of
investigating flood control. A former
Government scientist at Washington,
Herbert N. Eaton, until a year ago
chief of the aeronautical instrument
section at the Bureau of Standards,
received one of the scholarships be-
slowed by the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers. Eaton is now
with the Freeman party in Germany.
The commission has already looked at
continental river-control systems, and
will see others, in addition to water
ways in the British Isles, before re-
turning to the United States at the
end of the Autumn.
y x 4
When President Coolidge was once
cruising down the Potomac aboard
the Mayfower, flock Of ducks flew
low across the river. In an attempt
to engage Silent Cal' in converse
ton, a companion was inspired to ask
the President if he had ever done any
hunting. "Once shot woodchucks.
| was the snappy rejoinder. The Hamp-
shire Gazette of Northampton. Mass,
recalled last week that september l
was the twenty.fifth anniversary or an
event recorded in it's columns on that
date in the year 1902 as follows:
Calvin Coolidge has returned from
his annual woodchuck hunt in his
native State. He broke the record,
capturing IL fine-looking and healthy
chucks." So the promising young
lawyer, who had not yet wooed ana
won Grace Goodhue, local school,
teacher, seems to have fired as mean
a rife as any nimrod Of his time.
Woodchucks have long been pests on
New England farms, being capable or
doing serious damage to red clover
and garden crops. The probability Is
that Coolidge did his woodchuck hunt
ing on the ancestral estate at Plym-
outh, VT, thus combining sport with
business.
| X X \ y
Herbert Janvrin Browne of Wash
ington. the long-range weather Tore
caster. who predicted this more or
less Summarizes Summer, was asked
by this observer to do a little ISIo
political weather forecastlng. rms
| il his comeback: For the past SIX
years I have been keeping company
| lo, v11n
speaking terms with distant stars. L
can diagnose sun spots and trace their
malign influence into the hearts OF
EARTHQUAKES and West India hurri'
| canes. But to pick out Candidates
| for the Presidency or to indicate
which party will win in 1928 wouldn't
be a horoscope; it would be horror
scope. The method of BERTHE, the
Lamb in The Henrietta in playing
the market in Wall Street by Tipping
| a coin is Machiavellian persplcaclty
beside any venture which could un-
dertake in picking a political winner
Let me fade from the picture.
II y X y
The two men who face possible con.
viction for contempt of the United
States Senate-Samuel insult, public
utility magnate Of Chicago, and big
Tom" Cunningham, clerk or the court
of Quarter Sessions at Philadelphla-
are not stunning the limelight. In
sull's press agents are flooding the
country with an address delivered by
him in st. Louis last Winter, entitled
Civic Leadership Development and
Responsibility" The gentleman who
unblushingly admitted that he sees
nothing culpable in spending hun
dreds Of thousands Of dollars to elect
the fright" kind Of men stresses the
Continuous obligation" Of good cit
liens to take their share of civic
responsibility and community serv-
ice." Cunningham, who, like insult,
declined to divulge the beneficiary OF
his slush, is now the Ware candidate
for the Republican nomination for
ahsE!9 II Phtlsdslphia CeHntx Bis