Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-04
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Herbert Hoover has been President Of
the United States six months today, and
review Of his first half-year in the
White House Is the order of the hour.
Even hard-boiled Democratic partiSans
are willing to admit that Hoover Is on
to q flying start. His course since
March 4 has not been exclusively q
path of roses, but 1t has not been
Strewn with more snags than befan the
average President. The Californian
record with Congress. too. is . normal
with Capitol Hill-over farm relief
and lost only q single and relatively
unimportant contest. viz, the national
origins amendment to the immigration
law. The Presidents experiences with
appointments requiring senatorial con-
firmation have been notably successful.
The rejection Of q minor postmaster
ship is the only blackball the Upper
House handed him. Barring the nght
on Irvine L. Lenroot's nomination as q
Federal Judge, Hoover appointments had
salubrious shedding.
With the country at large there
isn't the shadow Of doubt that the
Presidents prestige is at high-water
mark. He has lived up to the public's
expectation that he would prove Q
constructive Chief Executive. Roosevelt
in his most strenuous. stride never set
such q pace Of incessant accomplish
ment, or pioneering toward accomplish
ment, as Hoover is hitting up, It's an
open secret In the presidential circle
that ever and anon he Is adjured TO
slow down-to remember that he has at
least three and one-half years Of rul-
ership ahead Of him. But Mr.. Hoover
remains so well, enjoys his job so much,
and considers that there Is still such q
mountain Of duty In front OF him
that the attempt to curb his working
tempo has been pretty well abandoned.
The President says his "stagger syS-
tenn" of taking q vacation-four and
one-half days In the White House and
two and one-half days at his Virginia
camp, week in and week outs proving
an unqualified success. He'll continue
1t till the cold weather makes life on
the. Rapidan uncomfortable. or snow
turns the roads into impassability.
## X \
Physically, Mr.. Hoover looks At as a
fiddle. If he took up medicine ball as
a reducer Of girth, the effect Is not
noticeable, but the President tells his
friends that for many years he hasn't
varied 2 pounds In weight per an
mum. BY degrees Hoover is turning
ofncial washington into q glorified
House lot has been the scene, early In
the morning, Of the Presidents pet out
door game. some 800 men recruited from
both public and private life have been
| invited to join him In it. Many Of them
are still addicts. Others played a
couple Of times and decided that golf
was more In their line.
X NA
william Knowles Cooper, former chief
Of the z. M. G. A. forces in Washing
ton, says he noticed while motoring
through Northampton, Mass, the other
day that the towns fine new motion
picture theater Is named "The Calvin.
Alongside the name at night there gilt
tiers an electric sign reading, always
Cool"
Paul Knabenshue of Toledo, Ohio,
the American consul general at Jeru-
salem and chief representative Of the
United States In Palestine, ranks rs one
Of the foreign services experts in Near
quarter of q century In the consular
branch, having begun IS clerk In the
consulate at Belfast. Ireland. For six
or eight years, preceding and during the
World war, Knabenshue was vice con-
sui at Cairo, Egypt, where he familiar
lied himself with conditions throughout
the MosIem world, and especially with
Great Britain's relations to it. In 1925
the State Department transferred Kna-
benshue to Beirut, Syria. During three
years of service there he went through
the Franco-Syrian controversy which
had certain aspects not unlike present
co,1ditionx IN Palestine Knabensl1iie
vas made consul general at Jerusalem
in June, 1928.
= y A&
One OF Washington's veteran news
paper, men, Robert D. Armstrong, Il
abcit 10 indulge in the flrst real yaca.