Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-01

No question Is being more aSsiduously
asked at the dawn Of the New Year
than this one-what is Borah up to-?
Why has he all of a sudden stirred up
hornets nest about prohibition en-
forcement? What's the big idea? The
answers are as many and varied as the
queries. Senator Smoot at whom
Borah frequently Tits. and vice versa,
thinks the Idahoan is suffering from
sleeplessness and needs a sedative.
Others, less outspoken, accuse Borah of
chronic publicity-Seeking. Still another
group Of critics says he is aflicted with
his quadrennial attack Of "presidentitis"
and Is grooming himself as the G. o.
P.'s 1882 Standard-bearer on q bone
dry platform. This observer risks the
opinion that none of these explanations
hits the nail on the head. To begin
with, Borah is an out-and-out prohibi-
zionist, politically and personally. who
has always held that the liquor laws are
feebly and inSincerely enforced. In the
second place, no man in Washington
has less occasion to hunt headlines than
Borah, for none is so gratuitously given
them by newspaper men. They like the
Great Incalculable. They see the Pres
ident Of the United States in a press
conference twice a week. They go to
Borah's office every week day at pm.
The foreign relations chairman is an
extraordinarily human person. and
doesn't mind being talked about for
President. But in his moments of can
dor, which is Borah'S natural state,
he'll tell you he has about as much
chance Of entering the White House as
he has "of becoming King Of England"
an idiom Of his own. The 1dahoan
knows he could never obtain the regu-
lar Republican nomination, and he has
bushel baSketfulS of letters from ad-
mirers suggesting an independent can
didacy which has never appealed to
him. It will be interesting to observe
how far Borah Is prepared to carry his
drive to get enforcement worthy Of the
name. All of his detractors, and many
Of his friends, are ready to bet him he'll
not 60 very far. They recall q ia
| nous saying about him-that big Bill"
has knocked more home runs, and only
got to first base on them, than any
man in American politics.
President Hoover's temporary ONCE
In the State, War and Navy Building
has been promptly and thoroughly
stripped Of the martial trappingS it had
while the room was Gen. Pershing's
headquarters. Vanished are the por-
Sherman and Sheridan, the marble
bust Of Admiral Dewey. the World War
photographs of Pershing, Joffre and
Foch. Departed, too, Is the antique
gold-framed mirror Of wall-high de
mansions, which adorned the office from
the earliest days OF the State, War and
Navy mansard monStroSity. Hooverian
simplicity now marks the chief engt-
neers makeshift habitat.
A couple of weeks ago there crept
| into this column an ineXactitude about
the mamoth facsimile of the Presi-
| dents seal of office, imbedded In the
floor of the White House foyer. It was
stated that it is an imperfect copy of
the great seal Of the United States, be-
cause it shows the eagle screaming to
the left, whereas the national bird
should have his beak turned to the
right. The facts are "a that it is the
| presidential seal and not the Republics
seal which Roosevelt put into the floor,
and (2) that on that emblem the eagle
4 screams toward the left. whereas on the
| seal of the United States it faces to the
| opposite side. Several readers Of these
| observations have informed the writer
! that his bump of pathological direc-
ton is poorly developed.
| y X ~
Arthur M. Hyde, Secretary of Agri-
culture, takes a hand In the pending
ruction over the Federal Farm Board
| through the medium of an article con-
| tributed to the January number Of the
| Farm Journal of Philadelphia. 1.-THE
| farmers of the United States" he says,
"are now eYnbarking upon q new ven.
ture. In 1t, they. have the guidance Of