Evening Star
- FORD "AGENT" PUT OFF MARIE'S TRAIN FOR EXPENSE TALK
- PRESIDENT STARTS CONGRESS FIGHT BY TAX REBATING PLAN
- 'DOT' WINS SECOND GIRAFFE CONTEST
The Evening Star's Sunday front page of November 7, 1926, followed Queen Marie of Romania's American rail tour as it ended a stretch of internal quarrels: her host Samuel Hill left the party, and the official host, Col. John H. Carroll, expelled J. A. Ayres, said to represent Ford, after Ayres was quoted claiming that Ford was spending nearly half a million dollars on the royal party's transport and that he was lending the entourage money. The page also reported that President Coolidge's sudden proposal to refund 10 or 12 per cent of this year's income taxes puzzled the Treasury, which preferred a credit on next year's taxes, and surprised Democrats, who called it a ploy to put off general tax cuts until 1928. A lighter item announced that young Herbert Martyn had named the girl giraffe coming to Washington's zoo with "Hi-Boy": she would be "Dot," and he would get $20 in gold.
Translation
FORD "AGENT" PUT OFF MARIE'S TRAIN FOR EXPENSE TALK
The storm cloud that has hovered over Queen Marie's train for several days passed away tonight with the departure of Samuel Hill, eccentric millionaire, who has been Marie's host on the western part of her trip, and the expulsion from the train of a reputed representative of the Ford Motor Co. The Ford representative who was expelled from the train on order of Col. John H. Carroll, official host to her majesty, is J. A. Ayres of New York. The colonel's action followed published stories quoting Ayres as saying that Ford was spending nearly half a million dollars to provide transportation for the royal party, and that Ayres himself was lending money to members of the entourage with which to pay incidental expenses.
PRESIDENT STARTS CONGRESS FIGHT BY TAX REBATING PLAN
The sudden declaration of President Coolidge for a refund of 10 or 12 per cent of this year's income taxes caused a scratching of heads yesterday both at the Treasury and at the Capitol. Surprised Treasury officials discreetly suggested that the President's proposal be accomplished through a credit on income taxes to be paid next year, rather than through a straight-out refund at this time. Equally surprised Democrats, suspecting that Mr. Coolidge was trying to take the political play away from them, called the President's action a subterfuge to avoid a general tax reduction until 1928, to give the Republican party an issue.
'DOT' WINS SECOND GIRAFFE CONTEST
Late yesterday afternoon Herbert and his collie dog, Rover, were summoned from their play to hear the news that the boy was the winner of The Star's second contest to find a suitable name for the little girl giraffe who will accompany "Hi-Boy" to Washington next Tuesday. The name is "Dot." For this suggestion young Martyn will receive from The Star $20 in gold at a special christening party to be held at the Zoo soon after the two giraffes are installed in their cages.
Context
Who paid for the Queen's special train
The Associated Press story rests on Ayres's own reported boast that Ford was spending nearly half a million dollars to carry the royal party, a boast that cost him his place aboard. Henry L. Clay, writing about the journey in Frontier Times in 1968, credits a different sponsor. In his account the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, sold on the advertising value of the Queen's travel, supplied a free ten-car train, dubbed the "Royal Rumanian," with locomotives and crews over its own lines; other roads along the route furnished motive power free, but Southern Pacific and Santa Fe wanted payment, so the train never went to California. Clay also explains where Col. John H. Carroll's authority to put Ayres off came from: the B&O made it a condition of providing the train that Carroll, a member of its legal staff holding an honorary colonelcy, travel with the Queen as official host and run the trip. Clay credits the B&O, not Ford, with providing the train, so the Ford figure in this story rests on what Ayres was quoted as saying.
Samuel Hill, Maryhill and the quarrels aboard
Samuel Hill, the "eccentric millionaire" whose departure the Star treats as the lifting of a storm cloud, was the reason the Queen went west at all. According to the Oregon Encyclopedia, Marie came to the United States in 1926 to dedicate Hill's mansion above the Columbia River as the Maryhill Museum of Art, and after a New York ticker-tape parade and a White House dinner she and Hill reached Maryhill by private train on November 3; HistoryLink likewise describes the royal family as being in the country at Hill's invitation. Clay writes that Hill had planned the trip and expected to go along and run things, so the B&O's insistence on Carroll as boss did not suit him, and Clay assumes Hill also agreed to finance the journey, though he offers that only as a guess. The friction became public in Portland, where, the Oregon Encyclopedia says, the big story of the night was Hill's argument with the Queen's liaison and security officer, Army Major Stanley Washburn, and HistoryLink notes widely reported arguments between Hill and others in the party over scheduling and access. The "storm cloud" of several days in the Star's lead refers to these disputes, which came to a head in the days just before this November 7 report.
How Coolidge framed the rebate when Congress met in December
A month after this report, Coolidge's Annual Message of December 7, 1926, set out the plan in the form the Treasury officials had favored. He told Congress the fiscal year would end with a surplus estimated at $383,000,000 and argued that a balanced portion of surplus revenue could go to tax relief. He said he would welcome permanent reduction if feasible, but that the estimated surplus for June 30, 1928, was not much larger than a business of nearly $4 billion required, and that no justified conclusion was possible until the returns under the new revenue act and the economic prospects for the latter part of 1927 were known. Instead he proposed real relief through a simple measure reducing the tax payments due on March 15 and June 15, 1927, in effect the credit against next year's payments rather than a cash refund. Answering the partisan suspicion the Star describes, he insisted the matter was purely business that ought not to be handled in a partisan spirit and urged both parties on the House Ways and Means Committee to agree on a bill, while conceding that Congress might instead apply the surplus to the war debt, which he called eventually tax reduction too. His refusal to commit to permanent cuts before the 1927 picture was clear matches the Democrats' charge, reported here, that general reduction was being put off.
Why talk of expenses was sensitive for the royal tour
Marie's 1926 journey was a diplomatic tour of the United States with her children Nicholas and Ileana, and money questions surrounded it from the start. Clay reports that Romania's government was at first reluctant to sanction the trip because of the expense, that the Queen contracted with the North American Newspaper Alliance to write a series of articles about America, and that she refused the many gifts and paid endorsements offered to her along the way. Critics were less charitable: Clay reports a labor group's claim that the real purpose of the visit was to obtain American financial aid. Against that background, a published claim that a Ford man was paying for the transport and lending pocket money to the entourage touched exactly the question of who was paying for the Queen and her party, which helps explain why Carroll moved to remove Ayres as soon as the stories appeared.
Original
FORD "AGENT" PUT OFF MARIE'S TRAIN FOR EXPENSE TALK
The storm cloud that has hovered over Queen Marie's train for several days passed away tonight with the departure of Samuel Hill, eccentric millionaire, who has beer Marie's host on the western part of her trip, and the expulsion from the train of a reputed representative of the Ford Motor Co. The Ford representative who was expelled from the train on order of Col. John H. Carroll, official host to her majesty, is J. A. Ayres of New York. The colonel's action followed published stories quoting Ayres as saying that Ford was spending nearly half a million dollars to provide transportation for the royal party, and that Ayres himself was lending money to members of the entourage with which to pay incidental expenses.
PRESIDENT STARTS CONGRESS FIGHT BY TAX REBATING PLAN
The sudden declaration of President Coolidge for a refund of 10 or 12 per cent of this year's income taxes caused a scratching of heads yesterday both at the Treasury and at the Capitol. Surorised Treasury officials discreetly suggested that the President's proposal be accomplished through a credit on income taxes to be paid next year, rather than through a straight-out refund at this time. Eoually surprised Democrats, suspecting that Mr. Coolidge was trying to take the political play away from them, called the President's action a subterfuge to avoid a general tax reduction until 1928, to give the Republican party an issue.
'DOT' WINS SECOND GIRAFFE CONTEST
Late yesterday afternoon Herbert and his collie dog. Rover, were summoned from their play to hear the news that the boy was the winner of The Star's second contest to find a suitable name for the little girl giraffe who will accompany " Hi-Boy " to Washington next Tuesday. The name is " Dot. " For this suggestion young Martyn will receive from The Star $ 20 in gold at a special christening party to be held at the Zoo soon after the two giraffes are installed in their cages.
Source: Holding institution