Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-28
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Brass tacks are the order of the
day at the eighteenth annual meeting
OF the Chamber Of Commerce Of the
United States now in session at Wash
ington. whats ahead for business?"
Is the theme song of the meeting. Com
mercial, industrial and financial lead
ers here from the four quarters of
the country indicate a determination
to have the question answered frankly
chairman of the National Business Sur
vey ordered by President Hoover "a D."
(after the drop, submits today a
formal report on conditions as he and
his confreres find them. But business
men who've come to Washington say
they're going to derive real" informa-
ton as q result of comparing notes
with other merchants and manufac-
turers. The Pollyanna stuff is generally
cut out at such get-togetherS. Fact
facing takes its place. Many business
authorities are inclined to charge the
Federal spokesman at Washington with
superoptimism. The Chamber of Com
merce meeting, as the result of the
shoulder brushing between practical
men from every section, should prove
or disprove the Governments tnsistent
claim that conditions are as "basically
sound" as they were "B. c." (before
the crash).
~ \ 4
Senator Wheeler, Democrat, of Mon
tana pitched Gov. Franklin D. RooSe-
velt's hat into the 1882 presidential ring
at the New York Jefferson day dinner
declaring that the governor could stand
on the hydroelectric power issue and
win. What's a good deal more impor-
/ tant, many Democrats think is whether
Mr.. Roosevelt will be able to stand on
his own legs. He continues to be Sorely
afflicted by the infantile paralysis which
overlook him several years ago. He can
! navigate without assistance, but his
power of locomotion Is far from perfect
The governors friends say that it Is a
miraculous thing that his disabilities
have utterly failed to affect either his
mentality or his physical energy. Mr.
Roosevelt is working prodigiously al
Albany ana Is as pugnacious as heavy
weight in action.
Although the retirement from the
senatorial ring Of Guy D. Goff, Repub-
lican, of West Virginia Is generally
supposed to pave the way for the re-
| turn of former Senator Matthew M
Nicely, Democrat, the West Virginia Re-
| publicans have by no means thrown u[
the sponge. One of the candidates fol
the Golf seat, likely soon to be heard
| from, Is former Representative Benja-
min L. Rosenbloom, Republican, Of
Wheeling. He was an unsuccessful
bidder for the nomination in 1924, sue
cumbing to Golf after having served II
the House during the Sixty-seventh anc
Sixty-eighth Congresses. Mr.. Rosen'
bloom is a lawyer, a native of Pennsyl-
Vania and widely known Throughout
| West Virginia. Besides being splen-
did campaigner, former Senator Nicely
has the strong backing of labor, anC
will be dangerous foe for any Re-
publican who opposes him this year
He ran away ahead of the Smith ticke
in 1928, when he was defeated for re.
election.
One of the bright young attaches
| of the Italian embassy in Washington
has been in the United States long
enough to learn how to wisecrack in
the American language. The other day
Capital debutante said to him, II:
1t true that Mussolini sleeps in a bee
IL feet long and 10 feet wide?" Am
bassaror De Martino's adjutant re-
piled, quick as a flash, well, that's
a lot of bunk"
Probably for the first time in history
the respective official emblems of the
Republican and Democratic parties
have been immortalized in architec-
ture. The scene of that innovation j:
the campus of Lafayette College, al
Easton, Pa, of which DR.. William
Mather Lewis, former president OF
George Washington University, is now
the head. The new Hall of Civil Rights
which is approaching completion-tht
creation Of Whitney Warren, designer