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Show Washington Comment Mr. Roosevelt's avowed intention inten-tion to remain in Washington this summer, taking only occasional week-end cruises and brief jaunts to Hyde Park, makes it nil the more imperative to increase the guard around the (White House. In addition to an extra detail, the White House police came on duty-last duty-last week, wearing brand new holsters for f'.ieir .38-caliber revolvers. re-volvers. The holsters hang lower than the old ones, making it easier to reach the gun in a hurry. The new equipment is just one of several steps recently taken to augment the protection of the president and the White House. By next fall, it is expected that the guards will have new uniforms uni-forms with Sam Browne belts and blouses of a close-fitting cut, giving the Wfiite House police a decidedly military appearance. Another "sign of the times", us the officers term these White House changes, i,s the possibility that the secret service may lift the "no-flying" ban on presidents of the United States. Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt has never "flown" since he entered the White House. From various off-the-record remarks, it is indicated that the secret service- would not make any objer-tion, objer-tion, even though no president has ever flown. They had considerable consider-able difficulty keeping President Harding "on the ground", but no trouble at all with Presidents Cool-idge Cool-idge and Hoover. Mr. Roosevelt reluctantly abandoned the air when he became president, but Mrs. Roosevelt did enough flying for both. Now along comes Wen-(Gr-ntinued on last page) M Washington Comment (Continued from first page) dell "Willkie, Republican nominee for president, and one of the country's foremost air travellers So, the old tradition goes over-Iboard, over-Iboard, possibly; and, at any rate the secret service admits that th record of safety in sky travel has has gone a long way since Harding's Hard-ing's time. Washington has got all hot anc bothered over the possibility thai some units of the national guarc will toe ordered out for extendec service as soon as congress get; back to its knitting. Not that the guardsmen don't want to go int training far from it! But they're worried about the security of theii jobs and the support of their de pendents should mobilization be prolonged. About 2000 men here abouts are ready for the presi dent's call; 500 are married an half the number are governmen' employes, who probably won' have to worry; but the rest (ii the mobilization should last a year, as it is reported) would be in quite a spot. There is no legal provision to assure the men th' they will be given back their jo! at the end of the service period. Tl irteen states, in all, are listed ; tli. president's pla i, invciving ahout 50,000 militinvntn. Durii.r the last prolonged period of the guard service in 1916, when about 000 district militiamen were stationed sta-tioned on the Mexican border, allowances al-lowances of $50 a month were made to married guardsmen in addition ad-dition to the basjc dollar-a-elay wage. The regular army, which has reported pretty slow enlistment since the European war is moving closer to these shores, announces : with satisfaction a peacetime record re-cord of 22,947 enJistments for ; June; and noted that six out of 10 rookies have better than a gram- ' mar school education. The June total represented 14,714 new en- ' listlments and 8,233 re-enHst-,ments, the men signing up for three years with $21 a' month the 1 basic pay. The air corps has particular par-ticular interest ' in the newly enlisted en-listed men in the educational bracket between high school ' graduates and college graduates, ' a group which represents 27.7 of the total. 1 The dynamic and personable W)eideU Willkie descended upc,n ! Washington and saw and conquer-1 conquer-1 ed, in one grand swoop. We fell for him like fans for a movie star. There was a mammoth ' crowd at his heels every step of the way and many strange ladies attempted to kiss him. Miraculously Miracu-lously still in one piece, he eventually even-tually escaped by plane. His demure, de-mure, pretty wif,e smiled at us, and refused to talk. We did learn, , I howeer, that her handsome hus-; hus-; hand's favorite food is HoosSer-! HoosSer-! fried chicken and cherry pie. I |