Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-22
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE

President Hoover must have employed
his engineering yardstick, or whatever
II Is that engineers use for measurement
purposes, when he picked his National
Law Enforcement Commission. 1t is
about as nicely balanced, from a geo
graphical standpoint. as anything could
be. With three representatives each
from the East, Middle West and South
and two from the Pacific Coast, the
commission is sectionally partisan.
Some Democrats think their party
might have been more conspicuously
represented. AS far rs can be ascer-
tanned in Washington, the commission
contains eight Republicans and three
Democrats. The latter are Newton d.
Baker OF Ohio, Federal Judge Will
liam I. Grubb Of Alabama and Monte
M. Lemann, president of the Louisiana
Bar Association. The Republican Pro-
on the commission in Federal Judge
William S. Kenyon CT Iowa. Pro-
gressive leader in the Senate until he
went to the United States Circuit Court
OF Appeals. Chief Justice Kenneth r.
Macintosh of the Washington State
Supreme Court, one Of Vie Far West
representatives on the commission, was
at Stanford with President Hoover.
There is earnest hope on Mr. Hoo
ver's part that the country will not look
upon the National Law Enforcement
Commission as prohibition probing
proposition. The inclination to look upon
the personnel OF the commission. there
fore, as either dry or wet in Its pro-
clivities is deprecated at the White
House. The President was emphatic on
this score in his Associated Press speech
at New York on April %. He "purpOsely
cited the extent of murder, burglary
robbery. forgery and embezzlement." be-
cause, he explained, only small per-
centage Of these can be attributed to
the eighteenth amendment" Then Mr.
Hoover made his much-discussed and
widely challenged statement that "of
the total number Of convictions for fell
ony last year less than 3 per cent came
from prohibirion violations" These were
dubbed "a mere sector Of the invasion
Of laTleSsness."
Certain wet Spokesman deplore the
packing" Of the Law Enforcement
Commission with Federal judges Thev
argue that these men, being under oath
to defend, administer and enforce the
prohibition law ns they f1nI 1t, can
hardly be expected to lend themselves
to any very vigorous criticism of it.
James Francis Burke OF Pittsburgh,
general counsel of the Republican ma
tional committee. who Is IN unoffic'al
attache of the White House, disputes
this view. He says that Federal Judges
have frequently and frankly scnsSed
the eighteenth amendment ana the Vol
stead act from the bench and now
and then have written their vi,Vs into
opinions. Burke is confident that the
members Of the national judiciary. who
are on the Law Enforcement Commits
sion. are in no wise hamstrung by their
official positions. He predicts they will
be in the forefront OF constructive ac-
tivity. with regard to prohibition ana
all the other problems they are called
upon to face.
Bill" p. MacCracken. jr.. Assistant
Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics,
YVES "rem!niscing" about Lindbergh the
other day. apropos the second anniver-
sary OF Sims flight to France. Mac
Cracker had to OK. anybody who
wanted to fly with the colonel when
Lindbergh was at Boiling Field a year
sgo taking up compassionate and other
notables for joy-rides. More people tried
to crash the gate on that occasion than
at any time within the memory of
man. One forenoon MacCracken
na"retss, "a well spoken woman turned
M nv 01lilnS rIsil anu saiu Sh7 was
Mrs. william r. Borah. That sounded
good to me. and I helped her into
Lindy's' boat. She'd no sooner been
seated when Senator Borah's secretary,
who happened to be on the field, step
ped up to explain how sorry both MT.
end MRS. Borah were that thsy weren't
going to be able to 90 up. The pseudo
first lady of Idaho had the shock of
her life when I asked her. to vamocse,
md she did not do 50 without expos
tula ton" MecCracken has never re-
vealed the identity Of the impostor. but
says 1t was his turn to be shocked when
he found himself sitting next to her at
c dinner rsrty lest Winter.