Evening star., 1929-12-20

This is the Observation-Disclosures
era in North America, all right. When
Herbert Hoover greets Pascual Ortiz
Rubio, president-elect of Mexico, at
dinner in the White House on Decem-
Der 81, it will be as fellow engineer.
Mexican-American relations are now
happily in a state which will permit
Messrs. Hoover and Rubio to discuss
them in terms of dams, rather than
damns. Senor Rubio is steadily conva-
lescing at Johns Hopkins Hospital in
Baltimore, to which he repaired after
his recent arrival in this country for
some special medical treatment. One
of the little courtesies extended to the
Mexican ruler -to-be by President Hoo
yer was the dispatch of the latter's
private automobile to take Senior Rubio
from the station to the hospital in
Baltimore. The Mexican authorities ex-
pressed a desire that the President
elect should be considered as being in
the vicinity of Washington more or
less incognito, otherwise more formal
and distinguished honors would have
been accorded him throughout his So
journ on our soil.
x X 4
Joseph B. Eastman of Massachusetts,
who has just been renominated as a
member of the Interstate Commerce
Commission, is regarded by many Of the
country's authorities as the best brain"
in the I. G. G. One of Mr.. Eastman's
claims to distinction is that he is
equally popular with railroad capital
and railroad labor. He ranks as a
liberal in the field of transportation,
having been addicted at one time, if
not now, to the idea of State owner
ship of railroads. President Wilson ap.
pointed Eastman to the Interstate
Commerce Commission in 1919 He is
still a youngster being only At years old.
An Amherst man, like Calvin Coolidge,
Mr.. Eastman began life as social
worker in Boston. Later he became
counsel for the employees of street rail-
way companies in wage arbitration
cases. Two Bay State governors
Walsh and McCall-drafted Eastman
for the Massachusetts, Public Service
Commission, on which he was acting
years ago. One of his weaknesses is to
stay up half the nighG at work on a
railroad problem.
X X **
Here's a belated tale from the late
unpleasantneSs which will pass into
history as the Virginia 1928 guberna-
torial contest. A gentleman of color
applied for inclusion In the registration
lists. The official in charge, who was
of another color, asked the Negro to
state his occupation. Chef" was the
reply. "What?" exclaimed the man at
the desk. "Chef, chef" the darkroom
plexioned voter repeated. The official left
his lists and went into a huddle with a
colleague. It was decided to consult a
dictionary. 80 you're a cook" the
Negro was told. "Thatll. be all right.
You can register"
x *k X
Thad H. Brown, original Hoover man
and manager in Ohio in 1923, has just
become chief counsel of the Federal Radio
Commission. Report has it that one of
| these days he may be graduated into a
member of the commission, though the
salary (tIO,000) of the chief counsel is
as big as q commissioners pay. 1t was
Mr.. Brown who was first authorized to
announce that Hoover's hat was in the
hotly contested Buckeye primary ring,
when that circle was supposed to be
marked off for the more or less exclusive
use of Senator Frank B. Willis. Mr..
Brown comes to the Radio Commission
from the Federal Power Commission, of
which he was general counsel. Once
upon a time Brown was Secretary of
State in Ohio, and In 1926 he aspired to
the gubernatorial nomination on the
Republican ticket.
| y X X
Posthumous honors have Just been
bestowed upon the late Emile Berliner.
maker of the microphone, by the United
States Patent once. 1t granted an ap-
plication filed by Mr.. Berliner a few
! months before his death last Summer,
covering the venerable Washington SCI
entiSt's invention Of acoustic walls. {"