THERE ARE TIMES

When the astute Washington commentator who is correspondent for the Independent criticizes Mr. Coolidge for his taciturnity and matutinal solemnity at political breakfasts he only evidences his own ignorance of human nature and breakfast, well versed though he may be in politics. Not even the most inimical of the Coolidge crities would be grudge him a before-breakfast complex. It is one thing to chat merrily along at luncheons and dinners-and it is another to be pollyannic at the first meal of the day.

Granted that Mr. Coolidge does not please in many quarters and that his capabilities are subject for common discourse, still even the editorial boards of the Nation and the New Republic, if not the Independent, would admit that to him as to all men there come darkmoments, and that the rising hour abounds with them. To give weighty decisions on China, Nicaragua, et at early hours in the morning is no pleasure; especially when buckwheat cakes and the Coolidge presidential Vermont syrup stands complacently before the speaker. Who does not sympathize with the President in his unwillingness to devote precious minutes to political topics and thus deprive the White House cheif of justice? It is a hazardous guess but there is a possibility that the Garbo is comparatively wan at the breakfast table that Milt Gross dispenses with his smott crecks, that Galli Curei temporarily quits singing and that Hoppe regretfully lays aside the cue.