PRECEDENCE CONTROVERSY

Hokitika Guardian, 4 February 1931, Page 2

PRECEDENCE CONTROVERSY

EFFECTIVE SETTLEAIENT. AIRS HOOVER’S DIPLOMACY. NEW YORK, December 20. The “season” at the White House opened this month, when the President: and Airs Hoover entertained their official family, the members of the Cabinet and tneir wives. On December 4 was tint reception to the Diplomatic Gups. Tlit'ii, cn succeeding 'Thursdays, the .Judiciary is received, the Vice-President comes to dinner, the diplomats return to dine, the Senate is received, the Chief Justice and his associates of the Supreme Court come to dinner, the House of Representatives is received, the Speaker is “dined,” the Army and Navy are received. The “season” ends with n dinner t.o the officials of the Treasury, post Office, and Department of the Interior. Agriculture, Commerce and Labour.

Perhaps the most notable act of Mrs Hoove, since her entry to t,he White House has been the settlement of the precedence controversy that rocked American society for a year. The VicePresident had no wife, but he had n sister, Wore she accepted ais his hostess, she would go to the head of the table, But she had a husband, If she attended as his wife, she would he at the foot of the table, if her modest spouse's social status earned an invitation. Air Roosevelt’s daughter, wife of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, refused to attend any function where the Vice-President's sister sati above her. Of all the suggested statements. AEs Hoover’s was the most diplomatic and the most eiFective. .She broke precedent in creating a snecial dinner for the Vice-Presi-dent,. at which the guests were to have no official status or precedence. The dinner to the Speaker was arranged on the same non-partisan basis.