Evening star., 1927-11-30
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Now that President Coolidge pur-
poses addressing "a few remarks" to
the Republican national committee at
the White House next week, specula-
ton will run riot in the meantime as
to what he'll tell them. The betting
odds in political Washington strongly
favor a pronouncement to the effect
that Mr.. Coolidge is definitely out
of the 1928 race. No intimation IS
forthcoming from the White House as
to the character of the Presidents s
intentions, but everybody expects him
to remove all doubt about his poiitlcal
plans, It will be the natural forum
Tor such a Qualification. The national
committee is the board of directors
of the Republican party. 1t is en-
titled to know what the titular chief
of the organization means to do, or
not to do, with reference to the
quadrennial contest just over the
horizon. BY all the signs of the
political zodiac. December will
mark the date, and the east room of
the White House the place of the
opening of the 1928 presidential cam
paign. The G. o. p. and it's aspiring
favorite sons, East and West, should
know exactly where they are at
thenceforward. 1t is an open secret
that impatience with the present un-
certainty is on the increase.
There are bound to be those who
will keep on saying that CALVIN Cool
idee can be drafted" for renomina-
ton, no matter how much he clari-
fies and amplifies the choose" cryptic
gram when he communes with the
national committee. 1t is already pre-
dicted that unless he couches with
draWal in cast-iron, copper-bottomed
and alright form, the movement to
make Mr.. Coolidge run will go on.
On one point opinion is fairly unani-
mous--that the national committee
men and committeewomen will be
sent home leaving little question as to
the Presidents earnest preference to
retire from Office on March a. 1929.
Whether, on the impending occasion,
Mr.. Coolidge will divest himself Of an
other 10 words as terse as William
Tecumseh Sherman's celebrated ukase
remains to be seen. What the hero
of Atlanta said, under somewhat sim
liar circumstances, was: II will not
accept IL nominated, or serve If
elected"
When he reports to the Seventieth
Congress on the state of the Union
next week, President Coolidge informs
White House visitors, he will refrain
from discussing a considerable num-
ber of subjects of national Importance.
They are being left out because their
inclusion would make the Presidents
message longer than he cares to have
o. jrv, hny hn
time being, rather than dismiss them
with passing and inadequate mention
1t is, of course, within the Chief
Executives prerogative to address
Congress whenever he pleases. SO
many momentous issues confront the
country, both at home and abroad,
that the new Congress will probably
hear from the White House in the
form of special messages before the
long session Is ended next year.
X X y y
At one of the Washington clubs.
famed for it's brains, q group of local
university professors, assemblies for
abandons academic dignity, and pro.
ceeds to enjoy itself. The members
foregather, as one of them puts 1t, in
a state Of non campus mentis.
X X X
There's nothing new under the sun.
To this observer comes copy of the
National Intelligencer of Washington,
dated August 21, 1917, indicating that
the question of whether the United
States should have a big Navy or not
was as acute 110 years ago as it is
today. The Intelligencer reprints an
editorial from the Boston Yankee,
dealing with current agitation over
naval appropriations and the fear that
some zealot, at the head of the Ameri-
can feet, might turn 1t into an engine