WASHINGTON, Wednesday—Yesterday afternoon I received the wives of the Supreme Council of Scottish Rite Masons, who were in session in Washington. They came from every part in the United States, and I was particularly pleased to have one of them tell me she had visited my daughter just before she came East.

Afterwards, I had the pleasure of receiving the ladies accompanying the Argentine Commission, which is now here. It was a great pleasure to see them and we were happy to have Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., staying in the house, for they were delighted to meet again friends made on their trip around South America.

In the evening, a few of us were the guests of Mr. Max Gordon at his new play, "The Land Is Bright", which opened here this week. Miss Edna Ferber and Mr. George Kaufman are the authors. It is certainly a very interesting production, building up to the climax in a way which leaves you no moment when you are not tensely held by the action on the stage.

There were times when I thought that, perhaps, the story was slightly overdrawn, and yet, as I thought it over, I had to acknowledge that I could pick similar people and similar circumstances from my youthful memories.

The play is well acted, and I came away with one great sense of satisfaction, for the youth of today are more serious and more purposeful than the youth portrayed in the first two acts of the play. The honesty of the younger generation, as it looks back on its ancestors, is like a breath of fresh air. It points the moral that the whole level of public responsibility and integrity has gone up over the period of the last fifty years.

We are again in the midst of the Community Mobilization for Human Needs. I hope that, under the stress of the many demands which are made on people's pocketbooks, there will be no letting down on the giving to the regular organizations which carry on the work in our communities.

I am also told that, since Sunday October 19th, we are observing National Hearing Week. There is so much for us to learn, not only in the prevention of deafness, but in what we can do to make deaf people more self-reliant and better able to cope with life, that this week should be of interest to us all. We should be inspired to help all those who are handicapped by impaired hearing.