Telephone

THE PRESIDENCY

Telephone

P: That President Hoover would bring Efficiency and Organization to the White House no one ever doubted. First he cleaned up the presidential desk, had removed the old green student's lamp, the ornate paper weights, the jar of smelling salts.

Last week he fractured presidential tradition by having a telephone placed at his elbow. All other Presidents had gone to an adjoining room to telephone, which they rarely did. Now President Hoover calls up his Cabinet members who respond with a brisk "Yes, Mr. President." By this method they are saved time-wasting journeys to the White House.

Likewise the President has put in a new system of buzzers: one short sharp ring brings Secretary George Akerson. Other signals summon lesser secretaries, stenographers, doormen et al.

P: Last week Ahmed Fuad Pasha, G. C. B., King Fuad I of Egypt, celebrated his 61st birthday. President Hoover cabled him: "Please accept my congratulations . . . and the assurances of my high regard and best wishes."

P: President Hoover performed a herculean labor by cleaning out of the White Stables. Seven mounts were returned to the cavalry post at Fort Myer, Va. Three Army hostlers went back to regular service. The sum of $15,000 was saved. These White House horses which nobody rode were quartered in the Army quartermaster stables at 19th Street and Virginia Avenue, N. W. In 1924 Calvin Coolidge, in a plain business suit and panama hat, once mounted a black charger named General, cantered through Potomac Park, was duly photographed for the campaign. Never again did he use a live horse.

P: To the White House last week went Dr. Wu Chao-chu to present to President Hoover his letter of credence as Chinese Minister (Nationalist Government). Dr. Wu expressed his pleasure at finding as President "a statesman who has intimate personal knowledge of China through long residence in the country and close contact with the people." The new Minister's father, Dr. Wu Ting-fang, represented China in Washington before the 1912 revolution.

P: President Hoover issued two proclamations last week: 1) he designated May 1 as Child Health day; 2) he created a special board of inquiry under the Railway Labor Act, which averted a strike of 4,000 shop and train employes on the Texas and Pacific R. R.

P: Aboard the U. S. S. Utah returning from South America, President Hoover was in- troduced to Bull-in-the-Ring as a form of exercise. Five or six members of his party formed a circle, with one man in the centre as "It." A heavy medicine ball was thrown around the circle until "It" could touch it. President Hoover has now imported this game into the rear grounds of the White House where at 7 a. m. in a large black sweater and grey flannel trousers he plays it with his friends for half an hour. Bulls-in-the-ring have been : Justice Stone of the Supreme Court, Secretary of Agriculture Hyde, Newswriter Mark Sullivan, Presidential Physician Boone, Detective Secretary Richey. The playground is sheltered from public gaze by thick shrubbery. President Hoover works up a good perspiration, takes a shower, a massage, is ready for work.