People: Sep. 8, 1930

“Names make news.” Last week the following names made the following news:

A truck careened through the streets of Langhorne, Pa., was halted by a speed officer; The driver paid $10 for breaking the speed law. His cargo: the law library of Charles Evans Hughes, Chief Justice of the U. .S.

“The false whiskers so becomingly worn by our Cleveland friend will be removed,” radiographed Cyrus Stephen Eaton last March to John T. Harrington, president of Trumbull Steel. Last week the message was read in court. Newton D. Baker, attorney for the merger of Bethlehem Steel and Youngstown Sheet & Tube, asked Mr. Eaton whom he meant. Mr. Eaton said “our Cleveland friend” was Henry G. Dalton, vice president of Youngstown and a director in Bethlehem.

“Have you ever seen him wear whiskers?” asked Attorney Baker.

“They refer,” replied Mr. Eaton, “not to physical whiskers so much as to another kind of mask.”

Every two years for the last three decades, persons have been transformed into Personages or continued as the latter by the meticulous editorial staff of Albert Nelson Marquis of Chicago, publisher of Who’s Who in America. Last week the 16th edition of Who’s Who issued from the bindery into the clutches of newshawks and actuaries who quickly examined it for alterations and statistics. Simplest news facts: Since 1928, 3,498 names have been added, 2,559 dropped for death and other reasons, leaving a total of 29,704 compared to 28,805 in the 15th edition. Notable are inclusions and exclusions of the 16th edition. Included, for example, are Jackie Coogan, Robert Tyre (“Bobby”) Jones Jr., many a newly famed industrialist. Not included are Greta Garbo, James Joseph (“Gene”) Tunney, Tobacconist George Washington Hill. The preface explains that in 1900 Who’s Who listed one in about 8,000 of the general populace. Now it lists one in about 4,000. Statistics would therefore argue that some day (specifically, in the year 2290) the Personages of the U. S. will overtake the U. S. population. Everyone will be Some One.

For years an author, a barrister and an educator have run a close race for Longest Paragraph in Who’s Who. In 1928 Barrister Samuel Untermyer with his train of legal cases (viz., “successfully carried through the merger of the Utah Copper Co., with the Boston Consolidated and the Nev. Con. Cos., representing a market value of $100,000,000, for which was paid a lawyer’s fee of $750,000;”) held a narrow lead with 99 lines. Two thin lines behind, bolstered by 29 academic degrees and memberships in 86 associations, boards, clubs, colleges, congresses, leagues, societies, orders, ran Educator Nicholas Murray Butler. The 95 lines of Preacher & Author William Eleazer Barton, famed father of a famed son (Advertising Man Bruce Barton), eight times an editor, 59 times an author (The Soul of Abraham Lincoln, The Women Lincoln Loved, Acorns from an Oak Park Pulpit), put him third by another two thin lines.

For the present issue, however, Barrister Untermyer had only one new case worthy of reporting: “Counsel for Transit Commission and City of New York in suits by and against the Interboro Rapid Transit Co. for maintenance of five cent fare.” Had there been time, he might have added also his work last spring for Cineman William Fox (TIME, March 3). Meanwhile Educator Butler had received another “LL.D. from the Univ. of the State of New York,” presidencies of St. Stephen’s Col. and the Am. Acad. of Arts and Letters, elections to two more societies, six more clubs. His biography swelled to 105 lines, surpassing Barrister Untermyer by 3 lines.

But even greater had been the activity of Preacher Barton. His Who’s Who report blank returned with a list of six newly edited books on Lincoln, a new ministry, and a line added to his address. All this sent him past Barrister Untermyer, past Educator Butler, into first place with a record grand total of 108 lines.

Month ago Rex Lease, film actor, blacked the eye of Vivian Duncan, dancer (TIME, Aug. 4). Last week in a Hollywood cafe, Harold Duncan, brother of Vivian, blacked the eye of Rex Lease. Said Rex Lease to newshawks: “I wish nothing more to do with the Duncan family.”

Wing Commander Charles E. Kings-ford-Smith, who last month underwent an appendectomy at Middleburg, Holland (TIME, Aug. n), last week underwent a tonsillectomy at Veere, Holland.

Edward George Villiers Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby, famed owner of famed racing stables, who in the past five years has sold six of his estates in Lancashire, York and Cumberland, decided last week that he would keep Bosworth, his filly which took the gold cup at Ascot in June, but that he would sell most of his yearling racehorses, dispense with the services of his trainer Frank Butters. Six weeks ago his daughter-in-law, Lady Maureen Stanley, arrived in the U. S. to make money by going to work for Cineman Samuel Goldwyn.

A great wave gathered midocean, towered over the westbound liner Paris, bashed across her starboard promenade into the main saloon. Lillian Gish (met next day at the pier by her great & good friend George Jean Nathan) and Mrs, Frederic (Irene Castle) McLaughlin sickened at the impact. Bandmaster and Mrs. Ted Lewis were jolted out of their bunks, swept across their cabin floor. Edwin Goodman of Bergdorf-Goodman (fine women’s wear, returning with his head stylist the Grand Duchess Marie of Russia), saw two women stagger, clutched them to prevent their falling, was swept with them, smoothly and unharmed, down a staircase to the deck below.

Day after landing, Miss Gish took her new Sicilian dog for a walk in South Norwalk, Conn., had her left hand bitten defending her pet from a cur.

Aidan Roark of the British Polo squad now in the U. S., who on July 25 suffered concussion of the brain and who on Aug. 22 was treated for a peritonsillar infection, underwent a mastoid operation at the Manhattan Eye & Ear Infirmary, thus lost his chance to play in this week’s International Polo at Meadow Brook, L.I.

Mrs. Louise Ettstis Hitchcock, mother of Poloist Thomas Hitchcock Jr., was persuaded to contribute a series of old Creole recipes to the New York Evening Post, edited by Socialite & Yaleman Julian Starkweather Mason.

Dr. Joseph Ross Stevenson, president of Princeton Theological Seminary, and Mrs. Stevenson, were jolted from their car, severely shaken and bruised, when a tire blew out on a road near Princeton.

Senator Thaddeus H. Caraway of

Arkansas flew from Washington to Sedalia, Mo,, and back, was airsick, announced: “I’m through with flying till I get to be an angel.”

Gutzon Borglum, famed sculptor of the Confederate memorial on Stone Mountain, was listed as subject to arrest whenever he should re-enter the state of Georgia whence five years ago he departed with models for the unfinished memorial. Last week, 400 citizens of Georgia’s De Kalb County had petitioned that charges be waived. Borglum returned warily to Atlanta to discuss resumption of work at Stone Mountain.

Edward Thaw, 25-year-old nephew of Harry K. Thaw who murdered Stanford “White in 1906, was painfully burned when his motor launch exploded at a Boston wharf.