Evening star., 1934-07-08
BY SALLIE V. H. PICKETT.

Ii SALAAE " H ASAAA
What a grand chance of knowing
our Americas in this exchange of
visits between the Presidents and
President-elect and their wives, which
has been in progress for several
weeks. First Mrs. Roosevelt broke the
trail for her husband by her trip to
the Virgin Isles. Colombia, Panama
and elsewhere, then the wife of the
President of Nicaragua came North
to visit US and create a food of good
feeling, and then along came the
President-elect of Colombia with his
wife and daughter, and now President
Roosevelt sallies down through the
tropics, with one of his longest stays
in Hawaii. One wonders which it is.
the women or men visitors, who create
the greater good will. With the women,
1t is the human interest, with the
men, the national and political in
tereSt.
And what difference in entertain
ment. We wear our guests to fraZzle
with a too strenuous program, giving
them not a moment for rest, while the
visit of President Roosevelt, like that
of his lady, will be much more
leisurely. Indeed Mrs. Roosevelt gave
the far greater part of her time to
studying conditions rather than to the
social side of life. The wives of the
President and President-elect, respec-
lively, of Nicaragua and Colombia
were given no moments in which to
study our domestic or economic con-
ditions.
One thing the President and Mrs.
Roosevelt found is plenty of good
English spoken by many of the natives
of the countries they visited. Visitors
from the other Americas find even
scarcely a word of Spanish spoken
among our people outside the diplo-
matte or official set, and not much OF
It there. In Mexico, in particular,
one finds in the most primitive way
side schools in remote districts Eng
lish taught and spoken by the children
They will call us Gringoes, and they
will often try to do us, but somewhere
there is an understanding that the
Americas should be able to freely con-
verse. even though it might be by back
fence Spanish and back-door English.
One can better appreciate travel and
especially the untold wealth of treas
ures in those countries to the South
of us by the fluent use of Spanish
and even the patois of the countries.
There is no outcry from the public
and no sentiment expressed over the
enlargement of the Presidents Offices
as back in the Theodore Roosevelt ad-
ministration, when there was gen.
eral outcry against the restoration of
the White House proper 1t was called
gross desecration to take away the
conservatory and restore the terraces
which had once adorned the mansion,
but with the .whim of so-called
progress were torn away. The work
on the Office building, like the building
of the. swimming pool, is not in the
light of restoration, but simply meet
ing the demands of progress. And
the owners of the White House and its
environs-the Government-goes on
unmolested.
A curious line of tourists constantly
wended its way through the grounds
when the real restoration took place
years ago, and bits of gold cornice
sometimes a prism from a chandelier
or an old door knob or hinge was
reverently picked up and carried away
During the Coolidge administration a
new roof on the mansion became es-
sential. and the old rafters were treas
ured with jealous care, Mrs. Roose-
velt herself preserving some of the
wood from which little gadgets were
made, while hundreds of others treas
ure their little tokens of White House
timber.
No such sentiment attaches to tn,