Evening star., 1937-12-20
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

placement Of 756, 1893 tons. Reported new
construction, started or planned. would
bring the total up to 289 vessels. dis
placing 1,l09,l30 tons In le41, which Is
about the time the United States hopes
to complete its full treaty fleet"
y
Don't be surprised If q certain familiar
and popular radio voice soon returns to
the air with the well-known salutation
OF MY friends" Not since Chicago on
October 5 has President Roosevelt ad-
dressed the country on q major theme
Before the turn of the year-certainlv
II the international situation worsens-
it's believed that F. D r. will not hesitate
to relnvade the wave lengths. A broad
cast on the business recession would be
equally in order. The holiday recess
OF congress. unless emergencies advance
the date. might strike the White House
as the ideal moment for another flreside
chat.
White House press conferences have
Seioom rocked with such merriment as
was provoked by the recent passage-at-
arms between the President and Elisa
beth May Craig, ive-wire Washington
correspondent OF . group Of five Maine
newspapers. One Of the most persistent
ana astute OF Mr.. Roosevelt's inquisitors,
Mars. Craig piped up: "Mr. President, do
you consider war referendum consistent
with representative sovernment?" A bit
staggered Dy 50 direct an interrogatory,
nung at him like bolt from the blue,
the President pulled his cigarette con-
templatiyely, then snapped: II think the
oest answer to that is simply No" A
second later, he turned to his fair
cross examiner and said: THAT was a
mighty good question" To which Mrs.
Craig re1oined: well, thought about
1t all last night" The Down East news
paper woman is the widow of a we'll
known Washington correspondent and
mother OF rising chip of both parental
OLD docks. A veteran columnist of
fourteen years experience, she describes
herself as "a feminist, who doesn't look
II! hope" Mrs. Craig is member of
the Executive Council of the Washington
Newspaper Guild. Her brother and
sister newshawks call her-"Passama-
quoddy May" because, a couple of years
ago, she seldom let White House press
conference 60 by without putting F. b. r.
on the spot about "Quoddy."
- -
Robert Lincoln OBrien, lately chair
man of the United States Tariff Com
mission and one-time personal secretary
to Grover Cleveland, will discuss CAS-
It Was IN the Days of Grover Cleve-
land" in an address at the Cosmos
Club tonight. Though a lifelong Re-
publican, the former Boston editor holds
in fervent esteem the great Democrat
at whose elbow he served from the time
OF Cleveland's third nomination In 1892
until November, 1885,
~
Figures show that 1887, with q per
capita consumption OF about seven and
one-half pounds, will reveal the largest
use OF tobacco In all forms since the
previous 1917 World War peak of seven
and three-fourths pounds. Due to
cigarette smoking by women, this years
total output of that form of the weed
is expected to reach about 165 ,000, ,OOO,-
600, as compared with 104 900, ,000, 900 in
1882. Fewer cigars are being smoked
than during the first quarter of the
century-about 5,400, 900 900 q year now.
adays, against the all-time peak of g.
500, 100000 in 1920. Vice President Tom
Marshall's discovery of q good Ave
cent cigar" as the Nations most urgent
need finds expression in the marked
shift to nickel stogies.
(Copyright, 1879