John J. Raskob, Chairman of the Finance Committee of General Motors Corp., sailed into Manhattan harbor on the Roma, last week; and out to greet him sailed his good friend Governor Alfred Emanuel Smith of New York on the yacht Saelmo, owned by Shipbuilder William Henry Todd. Because of an extremely active southwest wind and choppy sea the Roma and Saelmo could not draw nigh to one another without danger. Therefore Friends Raskob and Smith were not reunited until some hours later in Manhattan.

Mr. & Mrs. Henry Ford beamed with health & optimism, last week, as they landed at Manhattan, returning from England, where they recently took tea with Britain's King & Queen (TIME, April 23). Though Motor Man Ford wore a quiet blue suit when he landed, his exuberance was betrayed by a cravat of lavender and mottled green. Cried he: "I'm cocksure about the future of American business. . . . The Presidential election has nothing to do with it! ... Business will keep on being good through the summer and fall. . . . Yes, sir, I am cocksure about it!"

Mr. & Mrs. Harvey Firestone Jr. were frequently in company with Mr. & Mrs. Henry Ford, last week, and landed with them from the Majestic (see above). They were met on the dock in Manhattan by famed Akron (Ohio) Tire Man Harvey Firestone Sr., who told interviewers that Harvey Jr. has just returned from the Afric Republic of Liberia where the Firestones have established rubber plantations which have been partially instrumental in breaking down the British rubber monopoly (TIME, Dec. 20, 1926).

Bruno Paul, famed German modernist architect, onetime Director of the Imperial Academy of Arts, reached the U. S. on the German liner Columbus, last week, and told that he has just been commissioned to erect "Berlin's first skyscraper" (12 stories).

Metropolitan Operatic Males sailing from Manhattan for European vacations, last week, included: Antonio Scotti on the Majestic; Giovanni Martinelli aboard the Aquitania with Prompter Mario Marchesi; and, heading direct for Italy on the Conte Biancamano, Beniamino Gigli & Chorus Master Giulio Setti.

Mischa Elman, tycoon among violinists, landed from the Paris, last week, and flung to U. S. newshawks a tidbit: "The Philharmonic of New York, the Philadelphia Symphony and the Boston Symphony are far superior to any European symphonies except the Amsterdam Symphony, which is conducted by Herr Josef Mengelberg."

G. Harlan Miller, pet-loving Second Secretary of the U. S. Embassy at Paris, brought into Manhattan last week from the liner Paris his wife & pets: 40 fantail pigeons, 18 Belgian hares, two Mandingo parrots, a Belgian police dog, and a Black Forest (German)) cuckoo.