Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1946-09-01

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 3l.-Cal-
ifornia is not only a State but q
country, according to the late LORD
Bryce, British Ambassador to the
United States and author of that
great classic, The American Com
monwealth."
Particularly does one get this
feeling in cosmopolitan, hill-tilted
San Francisco. city of many races
and tongues. Born of the meeting
of sea captains and gold seekers, it
has been a banking center since its
beginning because of its direct and
continuing contacts with the mari
time world.
It's enthusiastic boosters, who are
now urging it as site for the United
Nations because of its year around
climate, free from frost; its Smile
stretch of beach. which lies within
its municipal limits, and its mer-
camille, cultural and reference ad-
vantageS, declare, 1T is a city loved
around the world"
Today it's great Embarcoders, sc
long closed to any shipping service
but that of war, is again aromatic
with the pungent odors of seagoing
i life and pulsating with commercial
hum as freighters and steamships
once against discharge and take on
their cargoes.
Golden Gate Symbolic.
Symbolic, too, are It's famous nat
Iural harbor, the Golden Gate, and
its outstanding modern engineering
project, the Golden Gate Bridge
longest single span in the world
/ They have the same meaning for
! thousands of servicemen returned
from the Pacific area that the God
dess of Liberty has for those from
the European theater.
/ The vast network of shipyardS
and cranes in nearby Richmond and
Alameda is another grim reminder
of the war activity of little over
year ago. So are the vast acres
of emergency housing units for wal
workers, painted one color for day
shifts and another for night work.
/ erS.
The mailed fists of San Fran
ciscos far flung and formidable
coast defenses are not distinguish
able, because they are concealed in
parks bedecked with flowers and
| foliage.
San Francisco prides herself on
the subsidized, underground parking
facilities beneath the downtown
| squares and parks. In the Union
Square garage, near the St. Francis
Hotel. it is possible to park 1900
automobiles at one time Work on
similar large-scale parking opera
tons is under way.
Sweeping Views of Harbor.
The steep hill arrangement of
many of San Francisco's city streets
has been used to advantage by her
builders and necesSitates the use of
the picturesque cable cars. AS If
they were modern stills, massive re-
tanning walls hold up houses, ter
races and gardens gay with flowers,
so that their owners may have
breath-taking views of the harbor.
1t is possible Ito eat ones way
around the world" in the foreign
restaurants, which continue to be
Ia gourmet's delight. Of fascinat-
ing Chinatown, Rudyard Kipling
wrote, 1T is a ward of Canton set
down in the most eligible business
quarters of the city" Today its
pagodas are but a stones throw
from the fashionable shopping CEN
ter and florists shops whose wares
are incredibly lovely and amazingly
reasonable.
Fascinating, too, is the Fisher
mans Wharf, now in peacetme glory.
Here, in an Americanized Neo-
politan atmosphere, brightly colored
fishing boats go out and return with
their enormous catches of seafood.
Foreign Students Haven.
International House at the Uni
versity of California, across the bay,
gift of the Rockefeller Foundation,
houses many foreign students from
among the more than $4,000 en-
rolled.
In the Wells Fargo Bank his
torical collection is real Wells
Fargo overland stagecoach, one
which made 1.-The gold run" from
Placerville to Carson City, New,
carrying 16 passengers. baggage,
mailbags and the Wells Fargo treas
ure boxes, guarded by the shotgun
messenger who sat by the driver
who shuttled the six-horse team
across the danger beset miles.
In the course of my visit in the
Berkeley home of DR.. and Mrs. A.
Kent Balls, former Lowell street
neighbors in Washington, I am
meeting many Washington friends
Among them are Mrs. Henry F.
Grady, whose State Department hus-
band Is helping conduct American
negotiations in Palestine.
Others Known in Capital.
Mr.. and Mrs. Charles Wilson are
here, too, visiting their son, Charles
jr., who is out of the Navy and in
business in San Francisco. Mrs.
Vernon M. Smith, vice president of
the Berkeley American Association
of University Women, was Irene
Ford, an Eastern High School grad
uate and an alumna of G. w. u.
class of 1882. Her mother, Mrs. Ella
l. Ford, lives at 1918 H street NV.
Among the many other Washing
tonians I have met here are Elsi
Hill, the ardent feminist and advo-
cate of the Equal Rights Amend
ment, and Mr.. and Mrs. High Will
son Hiatt (She WAS Louise AleYan