Evening star., 1927-10-17
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE,

Senator Borah said not long ago that
he has about as much. chance to be
nominated for the presidency by the
Republican party as he has to become
King of England. The distinguished
Idaho Progressive apparently meant
to indicate his conviction that his
school of thought doesn't boss the G..
o. p. show. In Borah's direction flows
a continuous stream of letters from
the plain people, expressive Of wide
spread and non-partisan desire to
make him President. But the Demos
themes of the Senate, who believes in
facing realities, thoroughly under
stands that his political record-and
probably his geography, as well-dis-
qualities him in the estimation OF the
higher Republican powers. When
Fighting Bob" La Toilette left the
scene two years ago, there was some
possibility that Borah would take up
the fallen mantle and carry on as the
anointed leader of third party move
ment, The notion made no appeal to
the Idahoan, who rather sees 1t as his
job to work for progressive ideas
within the regular Republican organi-
| zation.
n X n \
Latin temperament sank Anglo
| Saxon reserve without trace in the
International High School Oratorical
Contest in Washington on October IA.
The Mexican youth, who captured first
prize, and the French lad, who was
given second place, flashed more gen
| uine oratorical talent from their elo-
quent finger tips than the three re-
spective representatives of the United
| States, Canada and England revealed
in their whole corporeal beings. AS
| matters developed, the contest was a
| clean-cut showdown between Latin
| and Anglo-Saxon. Our trio of spokes-
| men presented their subjects logically
and in splendid English, but they were
| too dispassionate to be a match for the
| fire and dramatic fervor with which
the Mexican and the Frenchman threw
| themselves into the fray. Though
| probably less than 10 per cent of the
vast audience understood either Span.
| ish or French, it's enthusiasm for the
| two Latins was boundless. Had the
| judges verdict declared any one but
Arturo Fermenti the international
champion, or failed to give Georges
| Guiot-Guillain secondary honors, 1000
thrilled auditors would have looked
upon 1t as miscarriage Of justice.
Curtis D. Wilbur, Secretary Of the
Navy, who led the distinguished naval
contingent which saw Notre Dame
torpedo the fleet in Baltimore Stadium
on october Is, once was an Annapolis
foot ball star himself. He played
tackle and was one of the rangiest
ilnesmen the academy ever had, with
his feet inches of stature and
corresponding bulk. Those were the
days, Wilbur recalls-40 years ago
when Drawn rather than brain count
ed on the gridiron, and when the
average teams ambition was to "lay
out" the other fellows as quickly and
as effectually as possible. Secretary
Wilbur finds life a little less compli-
Gated In Washington since former
Representative John d. Fredericks of
California left Congress. They are
almost as alike in looks as two peas,
both perpendicularly and otherwise.
even to the point Of the kind of
spectacles they wear Wilbur used to
be taken for Fredericks, and vice
versa, time and again in the Capital.
Once upon time they were law part
ners In Los Angeles.
| X X X X
Edwin T. Meredith of Iowa. Demo
cratic Progressive dry white hope, is
spending ten days in Washington, but
insists that fraternal not political,
matters are responsible for his being
here. He is delegate to the Supreme
Council Of the Scottish Rite for the
Southern Jurisdiction. The Des
Moines farm publisher declines to
talk about his own presidential posi-
bilities, on the modest ground that a
man who hasn't been offered anything
has no business saying whether he'd
take 1t or not. Iowa's almost certain
to present the former Secretary of