Pertinax Flays

"The speech which Mr. Coolidge delivered at the opening of the Pan-American Conference in Havana was more worthy of a Baptist chapel than a diplomatic reunion. One looks in vain for the least indication of the policy of the United States toward Latin America."

Thus in two sentences the President of the United States was devastated, last week, by "Pertinax," unquestionably the leading political critic-journal list of France. "Pertinax," of course, is vivacious, supremely intelligent M. Andre Geraud, Foreign Editor of L'Echo de Paris, a newspaper widely esteemed in French military, financial and high clerical circles.

No mere extemporizer, "Pertinax" did not flay President Coolidge out of hand or sight unseen. Twice he has visited Washington and there beheld and studied first, Vice President and then President Coolidge.

"What is this 'Pertinax' like?" wondered, last week, admirers of the President. Friends of Editor Andre ("Perttinax") Geraud were quick to recall him as an active, married man, possessing no children and but one flourishing, likeable dog. Scarcely a statesman in Europe is too potent to be conscious whether he has just been praised or blamed by "Pertinax's" trenchant, independent pen, and most Great Men are careful to recognize him with a nod or smile, when he inevitably appears to cover any European event of first political importance.