Evening star., 1933-04-11

great pleasure" my presence In the
capacity Of his hostess.
But an effort was made to create
| the lmpreSsion--at any rate. the i'm
preston vas spread-that, despite the
| diplomats action, secret CONTROVERSY
still ragged over where I should sit at
the table. lot of fun was had The
more distant the scene from WASH
ington the more muddled the informa-
ton.
do not need many words to ex-
plain it. The situation is simple. Ex-
perience has established in Washing
ton. as in other national capitals, that
there must be an exact code govern
ing gatherings attended by official per-
sons.
Ii rules were lacking or slovenly en-
forced, there would be confusion; no.
body would know where he or she
belonged, and many would strive to
appear entitled to places not theirs by
right.
Order Of Precedence.
The order of precedence in Wash
ington follows:
The President.
The Vice President.
Ambassadors, the Chief Justice,
JaotAAC@s 1AAIIStCiS, D
The Speaker of the House.
Cabinet members.
Chief of staff of the Army.
Cnief OF operaions of the Navy.
Representatives.
Charges d'affaires
Major generals and rear admirals.
Counselors. military and naval at
taches.
Ths solicitor general.
FIRST foreign secretaries.
Undersecretaries and First Assistant
Secretaries.
Federal Reserve members.
interstate commerce commissioners,
secretary OF the Smithsonian Insti-
tuition
Director of the Pan American Union.
Second and third foreign secretaries.
Second and third American Assistant
Secretaries.
There seems q general impression
the rules of precedence are snobbish.
Ihe opposite Is true. Rank" in WASH
lnEton entertaining Is the rank of a
democracy. Placing one person ahead
OF another means that the preferred
person has higher post through elec-
tion or appointment, never because of
inherited prerogatives or wealth. What
ever place might hold was due to my
representing socially the Vice Presi-
dent.
A few days after the diplomats made
their graceful gesture in response to
Secretary StimSon's suggestion, much
ado was made when their dictum was
observed at q dinner given by Senior
Davfla, Chilean Ambassador. pro-
ceeded to my place on the Ambassadors
arm. Tremendous event! Newspapers
recorded the climax of the Battle of
Washington" when, in fact, the pro-
cedure was only what would have been
adopted If the question had not been
raised at all.
At no time before or after the dip
lomats' decision was the question raised
at the White House, where always had
full recognition as my brothers hostess
But gossip would not down. Just
how Alice Roosevelt Longworth's name
first appeared I don't know. If she
ever said anything about it I never
heard Of it. We had known each other
for years. We know and like each
other still-at least, like her, and ]
hope she likes me.
This new phase was brought to view
by Alice's husband. Nicholas Long
worth, though I never heard of his
making any oficial complaint. His
contention. it appeared, was that the
Speaker Of the House outranked the
Vice President, and therefore that the
Speakers wife should precede the Vice
Presidents hostess at social gatherings.
Evidently Speaker Longworth had over
looked that the Vice President, elected
by the people, is, under the ConStitu-
tion, successor Of the President upon
the Presidents death or disability. We
paid no attention to the protest, il in
deed one was ever formally made.
The gossips discoursed upon the new
development Correspondents put the
story on the wires. The alleged con-