Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-04-15
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC EILLIAM VILE.

Will King Alfonso or the merry mon.
arch who wore that title till the cold
gray dawn of yesterday, wind up at Hol-
lywood? Once upon time ne thought
OF a career in the pictures. Alec"
Moore, Americas picturesque Ambassa-
dor TO Spain and ,Alfonsos favorite dip
Ion1at, said to his najesty: I'll bet you
could get $4,000 a game for playing
| three games of polo at Meadowbrook,
Long Island" The King, grinning
qutzzically, retorted: why, my dear
Ambassador, I've been offered 81 900 900
to go into the movies IN California !"
| Alfonso probably would have been seen
| on this side of the water If conditions in
Spain had been less turbulent during
the past two or~three years. A trip to
South America was definitely on his
program. frequently he told friends
! from the United States that he longed
TO look us over. Some of them believe
that. having became a gentleman of
leisure. Alfonso will now proceed to
carry out his cherished intention.
Former Gov. Thomas E. Campbell of
Arizona. president of the United States
Civil Service Commission, enjoyed two
or three years of more or less regular
contact with King Alfonso between 1927
and 1880, while Campbell was American
commissioner general TO the hero
American exposition at Seville. The
sudden collapse of the monarchy took
Gov. Campbell a little by surprise
though after last Sundays municipal
elections in Spain the jig was unmF
takably up. mo such personality ever
occupied a throne in our time;" is Gov.
Campbell's tribute to Alfonso, whom he
describes as "a combination of Al Smith
and Jimmie Walker, rolled into one"
One of the Civil Service presidents
priced souvenirs is the photograph of
himself snapped at the dedication of the
United States building at Seville.
II
Our accomplished Ambassador to
Spain, Irwin Boyle Laughlin of Pennsyl-
vania, will begin to think he's a mon
archial ink. He was Minister to Greece
| when the throne was overthrown at
Athens in 1925. Now Laughlin for the
second time sees the disappearance of
royal court to which he was diplo-
maticslly accredited. The Pittsburgher
can look back on quite a string of
crowned heads who lost their jobs and
whom Laughlin knew officially in their
ermine and purple days. Among them
are the late Empress of China. the late
Gar of Russia and the late Sultan of
Turkey.
X
Broadways latest Coolidge witticism:
II would rather write than be Presi-
dent"
| Il H. *
| Representative Homer Hoch of Kan
| sss, who's in the Republican running
| for the Speakership of the next House,
at one time was under consideration for
| the political secretaryship at the White
| IN inh l1u eyit 10 Nal
ter H. Newton, then a Representative
| from Minnesota. Hoch was recon-
mended 10 President Hoover by O. o. P.
leaders on the Hill as an ideal liaison
| officer with the politicians at that end
! OF Pennsylvania avenue. If the Navy
can have its way, it will torpedo the
ambition of Representative Burton l..
French, Republican, of Idaho. to inherit
the Speakers gavel. AS chairman of the
Naval Subcommittee of the House Ap-
| preparations Committee French SYSTEM
stically reveals little Navy symptoms.
When the cruiser fight of couple of
years ago was at its height Mick"
| Iongworth left the chair to take the
floor in vigorous opposition to the
French policy program of saving money
on naval defense.
| George E. Durno, one of Washing
tons up-and-coming newspaper men,
and who covers" White House doings,
has achieved the miracle of digging up
a story which reveals Herbert Hoover
| in wisecracking vein. Says George
THE President was talking to q friend
in his ONCE, when he remarked that
Congress ought to pass a law giving the
Chief Executive the arbitrary right to
| sentence two men to hang each year
Only two2' queried the friend Would
| that be enough?' Well, no. Mr. Hoover
admitted, but could tell about 20 or 80
had them under serious considera-
tion.'
Miss Peggy Warner, one of Ameri-
| oa's quartet CT woman vice consuls, has
Just been designated as Uncle Sans
first skirted unofficial observer at the
League Of Nations. She is attached to