Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-06-20
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE

Now that President Coolidge's fish.
ing exploits have consigned Lind
bergh to the back pages of the newspa.
pers, it's timely to clear up a certain
misrepresentation regarding the Execu
| tive anglers piscatorial record. About a
year and half ago Mr.. Coolidge stag.
gered humanity with the statement
attributed to him by White House cor
respondents-that fishing is a pastime
only for boys and children. The an.
| nouncement nearly caused a cabinet
crisis, for Secretary Hoover, Attorney
| General Sargent and Postmaster Gen
eral New are ardent disciples of Izaak
| Walton. A few months later, when
|, the President began landing trout in
the Adirondacks, it was thought he
was simply trying to live down his
thrust at the noble art of fishing.
| Mr.. Coolidge, who habitually ignores
| misprints about himself, did take oc-
| casion privately to explain the re,
port that agitated the hook, line and
sinker universe. What the President
meant to say was that he merely con.
sidered the project to stock the Tidal
Basin with fish a scheme that
| wouldn't appeal to grown-up anglers.
AS for himself, Mr.. Coolidge avowed
| and averred that he's fished all his
| life.
! Current events in the air are caus.
ing people to read up on heroes and
hero worship. In the year 1910
Thomas Carlyle delivered a series OF
lectures on that very subject in Lon.
don, and they comprise a volume in
the assembled works of that master
essayist. Universal history" said
| Carlyle, sis at bottom the history of
the great men who have worked here
Great men. taken up in any way, are
profitable company. We cannot look
however imperfectly, upon great
man, without gaining something by
him. He is the living light-fountain
which it is good and pleasant TO be
near The light which enlightens
which has enlightened the darkness OF
the world; and this not as a kindIed
lamp only, but rather as a natural
luminary shining by the gift OF
Heaven: flowing light-fountain. as ]
say, Of native original insight, of man.
hood and heroic nobleness-in whose
radiance all souls feel that it is well
with them. On any terms whatso
ever, you will not grudge to wander
in such neighborhoOd for a while"
| u
| William Allen White reports that
"a good Republican rain" has been
| falling in Kansas. He admits that the
Sunfiower State always welcomes "a
good, corn growing, gully washing
downpour," but points out that the
deluge is "a political waste at this
time. "For," the editor of the Emporia
Gazette explains, "a rain like this
coming at this time of the year, is
good for hundreds of thousands of Re
publican votes. and, as luck would
have 1t, the rain comes in 1927, when
no Republicans are running for Con
gress, and even before the presidential
racket starts. Speaking from a pure
ly Republican standpoint, this rain
has dressed Kansas all up and there S
no place to CO."
Another veteran of the American
foreign service has just retired. after
| 30 successive years as consul gen.
eral in Canada. He is John Gilman
Foster, whom President Mckinley
sent to Halifax in 1897, and who was
| transferred to Ottawa in 1903 by
President Roosevelt. With the estab
lishment of United States legation in
| tn6 cdplIdl Ol 1dIldut, oul toliouieAt &c
general there becomes of secondary
importance. Mr.. Foster is a Yer
monter, like President Coolidge. and a
Tufts College graduate, like his other
fellow Green Mountain boy, Attorney
General Sargent. Official Canada gave
Foster a great sendoff when he left
Ottawa early in June. The prime min
lister the governor general, cabinet
ministers, members of Parliament anG
prominent men in private life Joined
in a farewell meeting of testimonial
to the consul generals long service
in the cause of Canadian-Americar
friendship. Under the new foreign
service law, Foster will be pensioned
" \
Simon Michelet of Washington, the
country's outstanding expert on cleo
ton laws and statistics, is out with al
informative summary Of 1928 primary