Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-17

Mr.. Hoover is refraining from any
public comment on the London naval
parley until such time as the conference
finally agrees, or finally agrees to dis
agree and disbands. Secretary Stimson
and his American cohorts in London
are for the time being the sole admin
iStration mouthpiece, albeit a pretty ST.
lent one. The administration is proceed
ing upon the theory that at this critical
time public statements might only bring
confusion worse COMPOUNDED. But last
week, when London dispatches were
more heavily surcharged with pessimism
than ever before, the President permitted
himself the guarded assertion that his
own reports from the conference "lndi-
Gated progress is being made" This
simple message was intended to encour-
age America not to abandon all hope,
and to remember that "All's we'll that
the conference still lives, and while
there is life there is always hope.
Charles Francis Adams, the Secretary
of the Navy, did not write the spicy
1902 tariff letter resurrected last week
by the Democrats. The letter enunciated
a free-trade doctrine and branded all
tariff advocates as "hogs" and all tariff
beneficiaries as thieves" The Charles
Francis Adams who signed this epistle
was the Secretary's uncle. It is easy
to confuse the various members of this
distinguished family. John Adams, our
second President and founder OF the
line, was the father Of John Quincy
Adams, our sixth President. The latter
had two sons--John Quincy Adams, I'd,
and Charles Francis Adams, LIST. The
latter had four sons-Charles Francis
Adams, I'd; John Quincy Adams, Sd;
Brooks Adams and Henry Adams. The
present Charles Francis Adams, the
third of the name, was the son of John
Quincy Adams, the Sd: the grandson of
Charles Francis Adams, the LIST, and the
t-grandson of John Quincy Adams,
the lst.
X r X
Col. Leonard p. Ayers, the statistician,
points out that former President Taft,
dying at the age of 70, lived longer than
any former President since the days of
Willard Fillmore, who died at "a. Our
earlier Presidents had a greater span of
life than those since Fillmore. John
Adams died at 90, Jefferson at 80, Madi-
son at IS, jackson at 70, John Quincy
Adams at 30, Martin Van Buren, at 70
and James Buchanan at II. Certainly
the span of life among former Presi-
dents has been shrinking since the early
days OF the Republic.
X X X
Congress is asked TO appropriate 81 :
500, 900 to permit the Library of Con-
greSs to purchase the famous collection
, of fifteenth century books assembled by
DR.. Otto H. F. Vollbehr of Berlin, in the
course of 30 years Of book collecting in
this field. Included in the collection is
a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, earliest
and finest example of the printing art
and of we'll nigh priceless value. Promi-
nent bibliophiles from all parts of the
country appeared before the House Lii
brary committee last week in support of
the proposal. The burden of their tes-
timony was that the Library of Con-
gress now has an unusually poor repre-
sentation of "incunabula," the collec-
tors term for books which appeared
during the first century Of printing, and
that the Vollbehr collection is excep'
tionally fine, and that 1t is an Oppor-
tunity which may never come again for
the Nation to acquire such wealth OF
book rarities. The bill is sponsored by
representative Ross Collins of Missis-
sippi.
x 4
The accomplishments of the White
House Conference on Child Health anu
! Protection will be reviewed in a weekly
news bulletin, the issuance OF wnlcn u
to start at once, according to an an
pouncefnent by DR.. H. E. Barnard, the
| director of the conference committee
The conference itself will not transpire
until next Winter, but meantime corps
or experts are conducting naLional
| surveys of the various aspects OF the
problem. Presumably the weekly pulle-
tin VIII chronicle their activities arc
their suggestions. A similar PUBLICITY
medium for the Hoover Law Enforce