Evening star., 1927-11-21

President Cooldge's speech before
the Union League in Philadelphia was
one of the shortest, but one of the
best, he has delivered in long time.
Some authorities rank it with the
Lindbergh welcome on June II as
Cooldgeian oratory at the peak. It's
the kind of state paper that will bear
4 second reading. Admirers of good
English will find plenty in it to praise.
Students of literary finish will profit
from study of it's terseness and stac-
oristles with epigrams. Politicians
who scrutinize presidential statements
mainly for information find the Phil
adelphia address notable principally
for what they consider it's accurate
forecast of Mr.. CoolidGe'S first mes
sage to the Seventeen Congress. The
Union League was supplied. in effect,
with a table of contents of the report
IN the state of the Union, which the
President will submit to a joint ses-
sion of both houses. prospectiveiy on
Monday, December 5. George Harvey
says Coolidge's writing s.yle is Mad
isOnian.'
The Right Hon. William Lyon Mack
enzie King, prime minister OF Canada
who is Washincton's hOnored guest
his week. is descended on his mater
nal side from, and named after, the
late William Lyon Mackenzie, Canadian
VI. P, famed in Dominion history as
rebel" In 1898 the imperial
government at London put price of
1000 pounds on his head. Mackenzie
led the Upper Canadian rebels, and
Papineau commanded the insurgents
in South Canada. The rebellion
smashed the notorious "Tory compact
of that era and prevented the es-
tablishment of the Church of Eng
land as the state church of Canada.
The Canadian premier's ancestor fled
to Buffalo during the rebellion and re-
mained in New York State five years
Later he returned to what is now the
city of Toronto and was elected its
first mayor. Canadians think it not
an inappropriate circumstance that it
was the grandson of the rebel
Prime Minister Mackenzie -king-Who
represented the Dominion at the inn
perial conference in London last year,
when the right to absolute self-gov-
arnment for the overseas Dominion
was recognized by the mother country.
X x X X
Everybody at the War Department
and in the Army is gratified by the
prospect that Senator David A. Reed
Republican, Of Pennsylvania. will
mount by seniority to the chairman
ship of the Senate military affairs
committee next month. Two lame
ducks having been created by the
1926 senatorial elections--Wa adswOrth
of New York and Cameron of Arizona
Reed moves up just behind Senator
Warren of Wyoming. But as Warren
has his hands full running the appro
priations committee, his. younger col
league from Pittsburgh will inherit
the craftsmanship vacated by Senator
Wadsworth. Like the latter. Dave
Reed is soldier. He served in France
from 1917 to 1919 as a major in the
3l1th Field Artillery, and achieved a
distinguished fighting record. The sol
diers will have in Reed as vigorous
a friend on the military affairs com
mittee as they always had in Jim
WadSWOrtn.
X X
To this writer comes a blatant let
ter from Chicago. in which the follow
ing comments occur: Our American
politics are pretty rotten. / was once
told that the average Congressman is
about on an equality with street cal
conductor, so far as his intelligence
and good intentions are concerned.
am sorry to say feel that the Senate
has degenerated to about the same
status. What we need in this country
is a first-class upheaval, because con
ditions in our politics, from municipa
to Federal. are a mess" The author
of these lamentations about the i'm
purity Of national politics is an asso
ciate of Samuel insult in the Illinois
public utilities combine-the plutocrai
who unblushingly confessed to the
Senate slush fund committee that he