Evening star., 1937-11-17
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE,

at Washington is speaking before the
Municipal Bond Club of New York to-
day. former investment banker,
Chairman Eccles' colleague, who is proud
OF his Polish ancestry. is we'll known to
the metropolitan bond fraternity. AS
controller of Chicago in 1881, Mr.. Sym
czak was largely responsible for obtain
ing financial relief for the Windy City
curing the dark days of the depression.
On his initial visits to New York he
smlllngly rendered business cards which
explained that his name is pronounced
Slm-chak.' When inviting him to ad-
dress the Bond Club, its officers assured
the governor that every member now
cannot only pronounce his name, but
even spell it.
Recent visitors to the Federal Com
munlcations Commission included Mayor
Al Smith OF La Porte. Ind, in quest of
Wave-length ALLEGATION for this OBJ
servers original home town in the north
ern end OF the Hoosier pie belt. Being
here en- route to the Notre Dame Army
football game, Mayor Al was reminded
OF an experience in driving home from
that annual classic in Yankee Stadium
three years ago. He had just crossed Bear
Mountain Bridge, bound west in blind
ing snowstorm, when he discovered an
automobile badly ditched on the road
side. After he had rendered first aid
and got the distressed car back onto the
slippery highway, the rescued party
asked for the name of its benefactor.
"Al Smith, replied his honor of La
Porte. Great God!' calculated the
other. 'Ten minutes ago 1 was pushed
on the road by Herbert Hoover and now
al Smith comes along to help me out!"
In the course of the Democrats trium-
phant smear Hoover campaign of
1888, 1t was the mighty Nicholson, if
memory does not fail, who first called
it the Hoover Depression" New Deal
Ghost Writer No. seems to have met
his match at last. G. o. P. National
Chairman Hamilton has just dubbed the
business slump the Roosevelt Recess
sion"
Colonel Ed HalSey's Senate secretarys
office, just off the chamber floor. is the
favorite rendezvous of not only Senators
OF all party compilations, but of cabinet
officers, foreign ambassadors, actors and
other dignitaries who periodically visit
the Capitol. For the past year the
colonel has adorned his big mahogany
desk with 10-gallon hat given to him
by the Texas Centennial. Sized 7ss,
the lid, Ed says, is almost invariably
grabbed by nearly every one of his
callers, who promptly poses in it before
the adjacent mirror to see how he looks
in a sombrero. Occasionally even Hal
sey's fairer guests don the broad
brimmed chapeau, which becomes them
at least as well as some of the upside
down coal buckets now in vogue.
Princeton UniverSity's School of Pub
lie and International Affairs, whose di-
rector is De Witt Clinton Poole, formerly
OF the United States Foreign Service,
has embarked upon a long range ex-
ploration of the part which radio plays
in the lives of listeners. The Rookie
feller Foundation has granted the school
an annual subsidy of $32,500 for two,
and possibly four, years to support the
survey. Professor Hadley Cantril of the
department Of psychology formulated
the project and will supervise its execu-
ton. The active director is DR.. Paul
Felix Lazarsfeld, formerly of the Uni
versity of Vienna. DR.. Frank Stanton.
manager Of the research department of