Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-15
Men and Affairs
BY WILLIAM HARD.

The two members of the new Federal
Farm Board, Mr.. Alexander Legge and
Mr.. Carl williams, who we're to have
gone out with President Hoover at the
fishing camp on the Rapidan River in
Virginia on Sunday but did not, would
perhaps have gotten good introduction
into the tolls of public office. The
President has a passion for piling up
boulders in streams to make dams, the
dams produce pools. The pools look
pretty and also provide the comforts
of home for fishers. Some people
think that the Presidents thought in
this matter is a far-sighted one and
is directed toward the fishes and to-
ward ultimately catching them with
hooks. Other people think that his
purpose is primarily the engineering
purpose OF simply shifting the boulders
around SO that instead OF being scat
tered around and looking useless they
will be brought together and will jointly
hold the water back and will look as
If they were earning their living.
It is known that the President likes
everything to look as If it was earning
its living and it Is known that he has
always maintained that streams can
usually be improved In their appearance
by the arts of the engineer. It Is
known further that he has already
begun to apply this process to the
Rapidan River, which flows with loud
humming song through his fishing
camp in the Virginian Blue Ridge.
When Mr.. Legge and Mr.. Williams
do go out with Mr.. Hoover and
have waded into the Rapidan River in
high boots. and have pried boulders out
of the primeval resting spots with crow
bars and have heaped them up into
new collective structures with ropes and
L.. ,x.tilI no nf
the Presidents and will realize that
in Joining his administration they have
gone to work.
The Rapidan River has a lot Of
pools in it anyway. 1t Is marvellous
stream for its willingness to be as
broad as it is and as deep as 1t Is and
to have as much volume as it has at so
great an altitude above sea level. AT
800 feet of altitude In the Blue Ridge
It Is often possible for streams to be
mere trickles The Rapidan, however
even on its way through the high
ground of the Presidents mountainous
week end refuge, Is already worthy to
be- called at least a stream. It's supreme
merit, nevertheless, Is in its misplaced
boulders.
intimate friends OF the President say
that even when he was Secretary OF
Commerce and had no official refuge
and, official stream in the Blue Ridge
or anywhere else. he would go out
motoring through the countryside about
Washington and If he saw neglected
stream with nobody guarding 1t from
improvement he would alight and i'm
mediately make boulder dam in 1t.
His approval Of the Boulder Dam in
the Colorado River. according to these
friends, was absolutely automatic.
The present happiness Of the Presi-
dent may therefore be surmised when
it is reflected that in the Rapidan River.
which flows through the whole length
of his country White House retreat,
he has mile after mile of boulders to
move about into better positions. The
directing of the moving he can himself
professionally supply and he can also
himself supply-Since he is extremely
sturdy-a part of the labor. The rest
of the labor he can find in the easiest
thing for any President to acquire.
That Is guests.
Mr.. Legge and Mr.. williams may
imagine that they would like to spend
their time walking the trail that leads
up enticingly to the top of Fork Noun
used to be used by the Confederates as
lookout from which to detect and to
circumvent the repeated efforts of the
Federals to march triumphantly SOUTH
ward through the Shenandoah Valley.
Mr. Legge and Mr.. Williams may
imagine that they would like to mount
the Marine Corps horses which the
Presidents Marine guards persistently
tame with brutal leatherneck Jumps Of
sugar; and they may imagine that they
would like to ride those happy and
gentled beasts into the lofty pastures
that spread themselves out on almost
all the neighboring hills. They may
imagine themselves engaged in those
useless methods of spending the time
that God has given them on earth:
but also, on the other hand, they may
find themselves putting Gods boulders
where God himself would have put
them II His agents, instead of being
glaciers and earthquakes, had been
engineers from Stanford University.
(Copyright, 1927