Evening star., 1937-09-03
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

President Roosevelt's signature of the
unemployment census bill is designed to
end the biggest guessing contest of the
era. Whether it will do so is q horse
OF another color. Ever since the depres-
sion. and particularly since 1888, esti-
mates OF the jobless population have
been about as variable, constant and un-
reliable as the weather. American Fed
Grafton of Labor tabulations, statements
by different industrial organizations and
statistics periodically produced by Gov
ernment agencies were generally millions
apart. Since the business uptrend the
figures have usually ranged anywhere
from 100000 to 10000, 900, more or less.
Demands for an authentic census were
repeatedly made and action was fire.
Quently promised. 1t was not under
taken, supposedly because F. D. r. never
registered enthusiasm for it. His IA
vorte alibi was that it is difficult, If not
impossible, to determine exactly what
constitutes an unemployed person
whether, for example, man or woman
temporarily out Of work can be so classi-
fed. The census now to be made arouses
criticism mainly because of its volun-
tary registration character Despite the
fear finds wide expression that the
count will leave the Government and
country still pretty much in the dark as
to the actual volume of unemployment.
Admiral Harry Erwin Yarnell, COM
mander Of American naval forces in the
Far East, is no stranger to those tenn
pestuous waters or to international COM
plications. A native Iowan, he has seen
his full share of combat service since
leaving Annapolis just in time to enter
the Spanish-American war. Yarnell
served aboard the famous battleship
Oregon in 1898 and later in the Philip
pine insurrection and in the Boxer CAM
paign in China. After taking part in
the occupation of Vera Cruz in 1914 and
in World War patrol duty at Gibraltar
Yarnell joined Admiral Sims headquar-
ters at London. His postwar duty, pre-
ceding the hoisting of his flag over the
Asiatic fleet in 1896, included the cap
taincy of the aircraft carrier Saratoga,
the chiefship of the Engineering Bureau
at the Navy Department and command
Of the Pearl Harbor Naval Station. Ad-
miral Yarnell has the full confidence not
only OF his departmental chiefs in Wash
ington, but especially of President Roose-
velt and Secretary Hull, who consider
him flrst-class sailorman equipped in
high degree with that diplomatic skill
for which events at Shanghai hourly
call.
1t happens that one OF Uncle Sans
foremost authorities on China is now in
the Far East on duty wholly discon-
nected with the japanese strife.
He is John v. A. MacMurray, Ambassa-
dor to Turkey, who is in the Philippines
as head of the special commission deal
ing with the Commonwealth political
and economic relations. Early in his
diplomatic career MacMurray served
successfully in Siam, Russia, Japan and
China. His two-volume work on Urea
ties and Agreements With and Concern
ing China" published in 1921, ranks as
standard treatise. A former Assistant
Secretary Of State and Minister to China,
MacMurray rates as one OF the worlds
outstanding specialists in the tangled
affairs of the Orient.
i ~ =
James c. Davis, who has Just passed
away at Des Moines, liked to recall his
experience with President Coolidge when
the Iowan quit the director generalship
OF the United States Railroad Admins
tration in 1925. Davis had gone to the
White House personally to submit his
resignation and elucidate the high spots
of his stewardship, which involved sev-
eral billion dollars and saved the Gov
eminent hundreds Of millions IN adjusted