Mayors in France

At Havre last week arrived the junketing Mayors and representatives of 24 U. S. cities with their wives and children, all guests of France for the International Colonial & Overseas Exposition (TIME, May 25). Their behavior on foreign soil immediately began to make front-page news in their respective homes. Havre's Mayor Leon Meyer greeted them with a long flowery speech. Baltimore's Ex-Mayor Broening* proposed a mock marriage to symbolize the union of "Uncle Sam and Miss France." The groom was beetle-browed George L. Baker of Portland, Ore. The bride was Mrs. Claire Skeel Baker who said: "We were originally married at Medford, Ore. in 1911 but we're glad to have it ratified in France."/- After Mayor Meyer had performed the service in the Hotel de Ville, the bridal bouquet was placed on the tomb of the local Unknown Soldier.

Next the Mayors were ushered into a great banquet which lasted four hours. Raising his champagne glass Mayor Meyer proposed a toast to the Presidents of France and the U. S. News photographers waited to catch the scene. Suddenly a chair scraped back. Mayor John Clinton Porter of Los Angeles had put his bubbly glass down and was standing up. He took his wife by the arm and stalked out of the room, saying something about refusing to be photographed amid such "law-breaking." After an embarrassing pause, Mayor Meyer repeated his toast. All the others drank it down.

Outside the banquet hall Mayor Porter explained that he joined the church at 13 and has always regarded alcohol as evil. He had scolded his colleagues on the trip across for their drinking. Loudly he announced: "We won't violate the American Constitution no matter where we go and no matter what the rest do.* Yes, we're Dry! We haven't taken one drink since we left the U. S. and we don't intend to touch alcoholic stimulants while in France."

The Porter exhibition moved Omaha's Mayor Metcalfe to issue this statement: "I detest champagne myself but Mrs. Metcalfe and I drank this toast because we felt it with all our hearts."

Mayor Porter was privately rebuked by his colleagues for his crass behavior, was told that repetitions of such a scene would spoil the "goodwill'' of the whole junket. When the party reached Rouen where another banquet was served them, Mayor Porter had been coached in the art of responding to French toasts. Instead of stalking out, he lifted his champagne glass to his lips, did not sip, did not swallow.

Ill health dogged the Mayors and their families. Trenton's Donnelly, sick at sea, went straight to Paris to rest. Atlanta's Key was taken to the American Hospital in Paris with stomach trouble. Mrs. Gray, wife of the 78-year-old Mayor of Pasco, Wash, had to be carried to her Rouen hotel room.

*Last week he was succeeded by Mayor-Elect Howard Wilkinson Jackson. /-According to Who's Who the Bakers were married Aug. 7, 1910. *Mayor Porter exhibited ignorance. The 18th Amendment does not forbid drinking of liquor legally acquired.

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