National Affairs: Personages

Nominee. The G. O. Politicians of Philadelphia who admire and obey Senator-elect William Scott Vare, met last week and nominated James Montgomery Beck for the U. S. House of Representatives. Mr. Beck used to be (1900-1903) Assistant U. S. Attorney General. He used to be (1921-1925) U. S. Solicitor General. He is an officer of the Legion d’ Honneur, a Commander of the Order of the Crown (Belgian). Since a Vare-machine nomination is tantamount to election, President Charles B. Hall of the Philadelphia City Council announced: “With Senator Vare in the Upper House and Mr. Beck in the Lower House, added prestige will be given not only to our district but to the City of Philadelphia.”

Discussing the likelihood of Mr. Vare’s ever sitting down on his “costly”* seat in the Senate despite the “irregularities, illegalities and improprieties by which it was secured,” Washington Correspondent Frank R. Kent of the Baltimore Sun, arch and acrimonious Democrat, last week wrote: “Mr. Vare is the smelly but powerful boss of the Philadelphia machine. … As things stand, however, he has an excellent chance of being thrown out on his large red ear. . . .”

Larynx. It is a long time since the voice of Senator T. Coleman du Pont of Delaware was heard on the Senate floor. Illness kept him absent most of last term. Now Senator du Pont’s own voice will never be heard again. He was reported convalescent in Manhattan last week after an operation for ulcer of the throat which necessitated removal or derangement of his vocal chords and adjacent portions of his tongue and windpipe. An artificial larynx was installed.

Stallion, Slave. From Ibn Saud Husein, King of the Hejaz, to “Salubria,” horse farm of Rear

Admiral Gary Travers Grayson in Culpeper County, Va., came two gifts—an Arabian stallion and a male Arabian slave. Besides admiring that friend of small nations, Woodrow Wilson, to whom Admiral Grayson was personal physician,* King Husein is well aware that Admiral Grayson is as eminent a turfman as he is a sailor. Grateful, Admiral Grayson stabled the stallion. The slave he returned with his respects.

Fifty Cents. Up to Governor Alfred Emanuel Smith of New York marched a process server with a subpoena for the Governor to appear as a witness in behalf of one Lyman H. Bevans, Albany attorney facing disbarment. Governor Smith accepted the service, either to show he held himself no different from common citizens in the law’s eyes, or because he was ignorant of the fact that the Governor of New York cannot be subpoenaed. With the subpoena, Governor Smith accepted the customary witness fee— 50 cents—which he soon dropped into a Roman Catholic poorbox. When notified that the Governor of New York cannot be subpoenaed, Governor Smith had to return the witness fee—50 cents of his own.

Estate, Will. Mrs. Mary Baird Bryan last week asked a Miami, Fla., court to explain ambiguities in the will & testament of her husband, the late Lawyer William Jennings Bryan. His estate added up to $1,111,948.50.

*Mr. Vare reported campaign expenses of §670,000. (TIME, June 28, 1926). The Senate investigating committee disclosed actual Vare expenses of $800,114.

*During the Roosevelt and Taft administrations, Dr. Grayson functioned on the Mayflower, White House yacht.