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Show Washington Comment Certain signs around town during dur-ing the past week would' indicate that the European was was pretty nearly on our doorstep. For one thing, the White House grounds are now closed to visitors closed to all except persons having business busi-ness at the executive mansion. And on Sunday, for the first time since the years following the World war, the Capitol was barred to sight-seers. Officials frankly admit that the capitol building's closing is a precautionary measure against sabotage, but at the other end of Pennsylvania avenue the White House there are more suave and evasive reasons. While the secret service admits that the desire to afford added protection to the president is partly responsible respon-sible for the visitors' restriction there, other factors are understood to contribute: casual tourists and sicrht-seers, who used to stroll at will through the ground's, have been evincing such avid curosity about the comings and goings of officials and have gathered in such crowds whenever they saw a group of newspaper men or photogra-nhers photogra-nhers surrounding persons prominent promi-nent In national affairs, that they presented rather a problem to the p-entlemen who ha,ve the order and safety of the White House to maintain. Moreover though officials offi-cials just laugh when you mention it it seems that neckers in parked park-ed cars were seeking the privacy of the White House grounds of an evening and, it is rumored, after a couple of empty whiskey flasks were picked up on the lawn, the ban came out and the lid went down. As an excuse for closing the White House proper to tourists, the usual fall housecleaning is given as the reason. Not so much finesse and a good deal more bluntness was employer by the gitirds at the capitol last Thursday when the congress met in special session and the president and all the high dignitaries of government were there. Rarely has there been such a definite and iron-clad barricade against gatecrashers. gate-crashers. It was the greatest display dis-play of precautionary measures in peace-time history. The place bristled with policemen, four to each door and areaway. Only special passes were honored and even the most well-known dignitaries digni-taries were made to identify themselves. them-selves. For once, Attorney General Gen-eral Murphy's famous red head went unrecognized, and a policeman police-man half flying-tackled him when he attempted to slip through u harrier. Most amusing incident of all was at one of the house entrances en-trances where so-called "family" passes were honored for the gallery: gal-lery: one .gentleman passed through, explaining that the lady wjth him was his wife in fact, he (Continued on last page) Washington Comment (Continued from first pagei passed through four times, each time with a different lady, until he made the mistake of returning to a door through which he had al-reac.y al-reac.y taken one "wife"! The short and snappy special session which Mr. Roosevelt would like to have, bids fair to drag along indefinitely. Bets are two to one that congress will be stuck here till Christmas and then will merge right into -the regular session ses-sion which starts in January. We can't .tell you a thing about the possible fate of the neutrality legislation; nobody can, at this writing. It's the senate's problem, prob-lem, and the house can only mark time with nothing to do, hut knit, so the members contend. In fact, they are seriously considering the taking up of this pastime or so they say. Old-timers cannot recall re-call another instance in which the congress met with nothing on the house schedule. The minute the house had listened to the president's presi-dent's message, it adjourned, agreeing to meet only twice a week till October 9. Members went fishing, or golfing, -or back home again. The poor gentlemen are in a quandary, because few of them have homes in Washington, and meantime, they don't know whether to lease apartments and 'bring on their families, or just park in a hotel room, hoping the senate will end its brawl and let them go home until January. At the beginning be-ginning of regular sessions, committees com-mittees are busy organizing, and members are drawing up bills and resolutions by the hundreds; clerks are snowed under with a deluge of bills cumped into the house hopper. But this session, the only snowing-under is at the senate end of the capitol, where senators are attempting frantically to copu with the deluge Of letters for and against the battle-scarred arms embargo. |