Evening star., 1933-10-11
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

his honor at the home Of a prominent
business man. Cocktails were served.
While 'the Chief" as usual, didn't in
dulge he smilingly observed, while
others glasses were being emptied:
Who knows but what I'll be taking
drink myself after December ~" Mr..
Hoover, before prohibition, especially
while resident abroad, was never total
abstainer. He became one with the ad-
vent of the eighteenth amendment and
announced he would remain on the
water wagon as long as prohibition was
the law Of the land.
Guessing if and when Gen. johnson
will leave N. r. A. Is a popular pastime
of the moment The consensus is he'll
be away by the end of the year, pos
Sibly by December /. johnson himself
is responsible for speculation on the
subject, because he announced his in
tention of returning to private business
sooner or later. Names in the successor
ship gossip include those of AL Smith,
Barney Baruch, Donald Richberg and
Controller OConnor. Whoever takes
the place of the gruff, bluff cavalryman
will find the four horsemen of the N. r.
A. in charge Of the permanent" organ
Zation now being licked into shape un-
der Johnson's direction-Deputy Ad-
ministrators Arthur D. Whiteside. NAL
colin Muir, Gen. Clarence c. williams
and Kenneth M. Simpson. They are
expected to carry on in the Johnsonian
tradition, no matter who inherits the
administrators position.
Down from New York drifts a tale
that Tammany has some highly explo-
sive anti-McKee bombshells in re-
serve which will be sprung, to the in
dependent Democratic candidates an
ticipated undoing, between now and
election time. One of them. which the
Tiger hopes will prove particularly de-
vastating, is said to be a disquisition
the Fordham Greek professor wrote
some 20 years ago, revealing hostility
to certain Manhattan Island racial
group Of vast voting strength.
X X
Roy st. Lewis of Oklahoma, one of
the last Republican Assistant Attorneys
General to leave the Department of
Justice, has just returned to Washing
ton from picturesque trip to Northern
Africa. He represented the American
Legion at the convention of "Fidac,"
international veterans organization,
which was held in Casablanca. Later,
with Mrs. st. Lewis, the Oklahoman
visited Fee, Rabat, Tangier and other
Moroccan towns. Sultan Sidi Mo-
manned received the Fidac representa-
tives with oriental pomp and circum-
stance. The former Assistant Attorney
General plans to spend a good deal of
his time in Washington, probably in
law practice.
John v. A. MacMu1ray, recently ap-
pointed minister to Latvia, Estonia and
Ltthuania, Is passing some time in
Washington prior to taking up his
duties at Riga later in the year. Ordi-.
narily men (and women) designated for
diplomatic posts are requested to spend
probationary period at the State De-
partment, learning the foreign service
ropes. That isn't necessary in the case
of MacMurray, career" man of long
experience. But as reports persist that
he is slated to become Americas first
Ambassador to Soviet Russia, It may be
that the former minister to China Is
boning up on the Roosevelt Russian
policy" and the pre-recognition situa-
ton. The place to which MacMurray
is assigned Riga-is our prin-
cipal lookout post. as far as Russia is
and ever since Latvia achieved inde-
pendence has been the worlds principal
clearing house for information about
the Soviet land.
(Copyright, 1933)