Evening star., 1931-12-25
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Washington politicians are at loss
| to understand why so little excitement
has been generated by the throwing OF
Newton D. Bakers hat into the Demo-
cratic presidential ring. Not that the
| Ohioan has not all along been con-
sidered a receptive contender, but be-
cause to date Baker has maintained
the coy attitude, preferring the role OF
| shrinking violet to that OF an avoTed
aspirant. This week, apparently un-
noticed by the country at large. he
| went the length OF announcing that he
| wants to fight" no matter whether
i it is a case Of carrying banner or
marching in the ranks" In other
words, the Wilsonian Secretary of War
is ready to become his party's stand
rd-bearer in 1882, if sufficiently urged.
Bakers manifesto was addressed to
Sanford Martin, editor Of the Winston
Salem Journal 1t was written in re-
sponse to an editorial calling upon
Baker not to discourage those who are
working for his nomination. Current
events revive interest in the attitude
of the little Cleveland Napoleon toward
debt cancellation. PartiSans OF Frank
lin D. Roosevelt are suggesting that
Baker has a cancellation record. though
he is not today as 100 per cent League
Of Nations as he used to be. Who is,
with Manchuria as horrible example
of League impotence?
*& ~
1t remains to be seen whether Re-
publican woman politicians will look
upon Mary Emma Woolleys appoint
ment as delegate to the Geneva Dis
armament Conference as commensurate
recognition Of that branch Of the sex
which has always claimed to be Herbert
Hoover's principal prop. The G. o. P.
sisters have never said much about it
during the past 212 years, but now
and then it oozes out that they're
little disgruntled over not having been
handed more cream puffs at the Hoover
pie counter Miss Woolley is a regis
tered Republican, was active in the 1928
campaign on the Presidents behalf, and
the honor that has just come to her
Is universally approved. The fair sup
porters of the Hoover cause got their
first Jolt when Mabel Walker Willie
brandt was allowed to revert to private
life two years ago. Mrs. Ellis A. Yost,
shrewd director of the Republican Ma
tional Committees Woman's Division,
says that IS women have been ap
pointed to 26 Hoover commissions. Two
women are on the Presidents Unem-
ployment Commission. He asked sew
eral women whom he found in otflce to
continue to adorn their jobs. Mr.. Hoo
yer named Annabel Matthews as a
member of the Board of Income Tax
Appeals and appointed women for the
frcf @n aIy }nic cf In,
the Offices Of education and Indian af-
fairs.
4 X X
To their keen disappointment-th
really putting it mildly-the members
of the American delegation to the
Geneva Conference are crossing the
Atlantic in 14000-ton cabin ship, the
steamship President Harding, instead
of the 49,000-ton de luxe Leviathan.
The State Department moved heaven
and earth to get the owners of the
Leviathan not to decommission her
until after one more eastbound crossing
in January, but it couldn't be done. So
the delegation is condemned to spend
eight days ON the Midwinter Atlantic.
There are British, French and German
ships of greyhound type that could
have landed the party in Europe in
just tne rlgnt time lor Cne confer
ence, but there's that law against
Yankee officials joy-riding on the high
seas except under the Stars and Stripes.
Persistently in Washington, the rest
Of the country and abroad the story
goes the rounds that the United States
Is preparing to abapdon the gold stand
ard. One of the b It informed insiders,
who knows adnsnistration thoughts
sometimes beford they're formulated,
says that Theoretically, vaguely and
distantly aband0 ment of the gold
standard is possible, but practically it
is highly improbable" Chances, he
adds, are. perhaps l to 20 or to 30
that THU might happen. It could not
happen Suddenly or unexpectedly. It
would take many months, or q year, or
two years Of steady hoarding Of cur
zeacy and drain M gold, NeanwhiIe.