Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-28
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Sooner or later 1t will come out on
indisputable authority that there was
no time limit fixed for maintenance of
wages when President Hoover brought
capital and labor together in the Win
ter of 1929-30 About what happened
was an agreement to defer pay roll
cuts until further notice" Few OF
those commemorative President, en-
ployers or workers-fancied that de-
preston would last two years. No
body-this can be stated unqualifiedly-
gave a blank check for the indefinite
future. In return for the pledge that
the wage scale would be retained labor
promised to stir up nothing In the
] form of strikes. No time strings OF any
kind were tied to the arrangement. In
dustry has, broadly speaking, lived up
TO the wage scale end OF 1t, but actu-
ally reduced the pay eroH by drastic
curtailment Of the working week. Even
in the face of such provocation labor
didn't start anything. The abb oil
United States Steel and other wage
cutters is that they kept the 1altn Just
as long as they could and live. When
competitors began cutting prices the
iie was up. The White House considers
| il has a good conscience in the whole
business-says the cut would have come
long ago except for administration
pressure It thinks lowered wages are
better than more unemployment
- + II
It would make jolly reading If all
the beans leading up to Premier
/ LavaPs visit could be spilled. Even
though oficial washington is glad the
French statesman is coming, his ar
rival will not exactly be the result
Of overwhelmingly spontaneous inltia.
tive upon the part OF the united
States Government. French pontlcal
journalists, aided ana aoetteo py
American colleagues in Paris, played a
Considerable role in the affair, which
IN to q fortnight ago was not dreamed
| Of here. what seems to have occurred
is that through the medium OF that
celebrated European device known as
a "triaI balloon" or "semi-ofncial COM
nnunioue"-a newspaper article I'm
spired," but not actually authorized,
| In oficial Quarters-it was intimated
| that M. Laval, under certain condi-
| tions. would not be averse to an Amer
lean trim Reporters rushed to AM
! bassador Edge about it. Atlantic City's
most famous statesman was sure that
washington would be tickled pink to
| see "the man with a white necktie. !"
The Franco American telephone lines
| and cables buzzed A formal invitation
| was incubated. The French cabinet
considered that the premier had been
sufaciently urged. His acceptance was
announced.
IF Journalism and journalistic enter
| prise did actually bring about the Laval
J i,Inket SO much more credit to them
! Newspaperdonn, in international politics
/ as in other realms, frequently moves
faster than oficialdom. 1t was an As
sociated Press man in Paris who first
| fred Aristide BRAND with the idea that
eventuated IN the Kellogg BRAND pact
for remuneration OF war. A Chicago
| newspaper man claims to have paved
| the way for Ramsay MacDonald's trip
| to the United States in October, 1929
! and the resultant London Naval Con-
| ference. Last week Washington was the
! arena of q journalistic effort to bring
Benito Mussolini to this country.
y ~
Gen. Joffre used taxicabs for the
eleventh-hour defense of Paris when
/ the Germans threatened the city In
| September. 1914. Taxis last Friday
saved the lives-so to speak--of ID mid
shipmen, who missed the last inter-
| urban train from Washington to An
napolis which would have brought them
back before the 10 am. dead line
| Youngsterlike, they disported them
selves in Washington to the bitter end
hoping to catch the o'clock trolley To
! the Academy. Missing II by four min.
: utes, the group of dozen and hall
middies. who were winding up the an
nual months leave, met the emergency
by deciding to pile into tax.s, damnine
the cost, just as Farragut and Dewey
damned the mines. Climbing into .
fleet Of four machines, with q fiftf
TANNED with baggage, the future ad.
rniralS showed of and raced into theiI
quarters 90 minutes to the good.
X y
Constitution avenue, the broad and
beautiful successor OF old 3 street