Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-15
Difficult Questions on Hand.

- So 49,
the exigencies of American needs will
permit.
So much for the quality of Mr.. Gar
rett's diplomacy Now for further
listing of his diplomatic appointments
and activities.
While he was yet secretary Of lega-
ton and before he was a chief of mis-
sion, he was secretary OF the arbitra-
ton between the United States and
Russia in the matter of the interna-
tional complications caused by the
habits and habitatS of fur-bearing seals.
He was secretary also of the arbitration
between various countries and the
United States in the matter of the
preference to be given or not given to
certain creditors of the government Of
Venezuela He was also a delegate of
the United States to the hospital ship
international conference Of 1904 and a
signatory to the treaty there achieved.
He was also, in the absence of his chief
of mission. charge d'affaires ad in
terim"-a dignity certainly amply word
ed!-ll times at The Hague, times at
Berlin and times at Rome.
Minister to Argentina.
After being, then, by promotion, Min
lister to Venezuela, be became Minister
to Argentina. That post he resigned
because of the illness of his wife, which
happily turned out to be transitory.
Ali One characteristic of a good
diplomat hitherto has remained I'M
noted in this article. A good diplomat
should have a wife who is well-to-do,
extremely beautiful. much given to de-
lighting in hospitality, and able to in
- f,,k
her portrait. SO Mr.. Garrett has such
wife.
There was in Washington retired
manufacturer of harvesting machinery
of the name of Warder. His three
daughters were all of them ladies of
highly distinctive personality, and con-
tinue to be so. They acquired this trait
as much from their mother as from
their father. Old Mrs. Warder at her
Oldest could command the fixed atten-
tiveness of any spirited young man at
his youngest. The three Misses Warder
extended and expanded their mothers
career of touching life with vitalizing
vigor and charm. One of them is now
them is Mrs. Henry Leonard of Wash
ington; the third (Alice) is Mrs John
W. Garrett.
Alice Garrett is of a loneliness much
more Latin than Nordic in cast and
color. The eminent Spanish painter
Zuloaga has painted her twice in terms
which would lead the stranger to call
her Sonora" much more readily than
Mrs" There are well known paintings
of her also by Bakst. by Carl Melchers,
by Jacques Emile Blanche.
In the language of the historians Of
social events, Alice Garrett, as the wife
of 20 &c ~ oh fn
laine of Evergreen!" Evergreen is John
CARROTS prodigious Baltimore house. 1t
is within the city limits but insists upon
having $50 acres Of grounds about it.
1t contains now room in which Mr..
Garrett has installed some 10000 of
his books. 1t contains, also, some
where, Mr.. CARROTS extraordinary col
lection of coins and his pertinacious
collections of all the personal sigma
lures of all the signers of the Declara-
ton of Independence. It contains also
a theater in which there are perform
ances of much excellent chamber
music. not too often heard otherwise by
Washington's political society, and in
which Mrs. Garrett occasionally re-
sumes the singing in pursuit of which,
as a student, she went to Berlin and
there in her early youth first met the
American secretary of the legation who
now Is her husband. 1t contains also,
at week ends, vast parties of people
from up and down the Atlantic coast.
Recall to Service Unexpected.
When Mr.. Garrett resigned from his
post at Buenos Aires he hardly expected
to be recalled to the diplomatic service,
and especially not by President Wood
row Wilson, regular Democrat. Mr..
Wilson, however, as president of Prince
ton, had been much supported in his
struggles there by the Garrett influence.
He dispatched Mr.. Garrett Immediately
upon the outbreak Of the World War to
be a special assistant to the American
Ambassador In Paris. He later appoint
ed Mr.. Garrett to be Minister at The
Hague. There Mr.. Garrett remained
till 1919. when once more he resigned.
The Republican President Warren
Gamaliel Harding summoned him back
from his earned retirement to be secre-
tary general Of the Washington arms
conference in 1921. The Republican
President Herbert Hoover now brings
him to the final technical rung of the
diplomatic ladder by making him an
ambassador.
Mr.. Garrett has given to his country
precisely what man of his particular
resources and talents best could give it.
His career has been a service to the re-
public and at the same time simple
and natural expression of himself. It
has expressed his wealth, his cultiva-
ton, his charm, his righteousness, his
conscientiousness his goodness. In him
there has been no waste. All of him
has been used. This Is happiness, and
John Garrett has 1t, and has the right
to it.