The Washington times., 1935-04-27
NOW
Signs and Woes
OF Spring
LABOR'S VIEWS
BY HELEN ESSARY

BY HELEN ESSARY
Spring is undoubtedly here.
Neighborhood dogs bark at
4 a. m.
Winter curtains flop an un-
even gray of dingy panes.
Meal-time conversation is:
what shall we do this sum-
mer?"
The porch needs painting.
Where the grass should be,
garlic, six inches high, waves
in the April breezes, and dan
delions blossom. brightly.
Six moths fly about the
house-unSquashed.
Spring-at Miss Madeira's
School, also. The girls put
away sombre wool uniforms
for outdoor bloomer suits of
green chambray.
Green chambray Smocks wait
at the class room door to be
put on over the athletic gar.
ments when hockey and ten.
mis- must resign for indoor les
sons.
The dogwood at Miss Ma
deira's will be at its loveliest
on May 4. Then parents and
friends of the students will
drive out for a party in the
gardens overlooking the wind
ing vistas of the Potomac.
Pleasant news everywhere to-
day.
Labor conditions are show
ing real improvement.
Mr.. Edward w. Tracy, presi-
dent of the International Broth
erhood of Electrical Workers,
said so at dinner given by Sec
rotary Perkins. The feeling
among working people, said Mr..
Tracy, is better than it has been
for several years. The efforts
of the Administration to pull
the country out of the business
slump are beginning to show
results.
Mr.. and Mrs. Tracy are 60
ing to Geneva in June to attend
the conference of international
labor.
It was a labor evening at Miss
Perkins. Labor (slightly fla
vored with journalism was in.
terspersed with agriculture (the
Secretary and Mrs. Wallace),
with Congress Representative
Caroline O'Day, of New York, in
q new black taffeta gown; with
the Justice Department (Solici-
tor General and Mrs. Stanley
Reed, with dictatorship in So
ciety (Miss Ann Squirrel, and
with youth miss O'Day and the
grandson of former President
Eliot of Harvard University,
Thomas H. Elliott.
The guests of honor were MIR.
and Mrs. o. K. Gushing, of Los
Angeles. Mr.. Cushing, as chair
man of the Longshoremen's
Board, settled that difficult Cali
fornia strike of 10000 men last
summer. Mr.. Cushing has the
tactful manner of a good media
tor and the keen eyes Of a good
lawyer.
Mr.. Edward F. McGrady, AS
sistant Secretary of Labor, was
in particularly cheerful humor.
But he thought nothing of some
body's suggestion that Washing.
ton public characters should
wear labels like those of chain
store clerks.
! How, Mr.. McGrady said, could
= anybody afford to tell his right
name? Even if he (Mr. Nc"
Grady tagged himself as a radi-
cal laborite, there'd still be lots
he hadn't told.
I One Of the agreeable after
dinner topics was a discussion of
city and country noises. Miss
Perkins likes city noises. She
cant sleep on a bustling farm
with the rooSterS and COWS and
horses going conversational be-
fore day daWns.
Sidney Hillman, chairman Of
the Inter ational Garment
Workers, and one of the MIRA
board, confessed he gathered up
enough sleep on a night rail-
road berth to tide him over a
week of the appalling stiffness
of Washington nights.
! Zoos also were a part Of the
conversation. Miss Perkins men
toned, as pleasant memories OF
the New York she adores, her
excursions with New York chill
dren to the crowded ZOO. She
remembered the children peep
ing eagerly through the throngs
around the sheep - the New
York Zoos most popular exhibit
the COWS, and the horses-ani-
mails as strange to many New
York children as giraffes are to
country boys and girls.
The Raymond Lees. who own
the Georgetown house where
the Secretary of Labor Perkins
and Representative O'Day live,
are about to go to England.
Major Lee will be military at
tache at the American Embassy
there.
Major and Mrs. Lee are in
Washington now, grieving over
the 1875 perfect cooks they left
behind them in the Vermont
Hills.