Wilson 160; Hoover 21

Against a black background of public disaster Herbert Clark Hoover made his reputation. War relief in Belgium, food relief in Eastern Europe, flood relief along the Mississippi popularized him for the Presidency. Improved Social Conditions was his campaign theme-song. Once in the White House, he continued to work for human betterment, appointed a commission on Child Welfare, commission on Illiteracy, commission on Social Trends. He and his friends have made two million private dollars available to finance these unofficial surveys.

Against the bright background of peace such welfare work does not easily dramatize into news. Interested chiefly in shining, tangible results, the public is no more conscious of some of the things closest to President Hoover's heart than it was conscious, for example, of Secretary of Commerce Hoover's standardization of the sizes of U. S. nuts & bolts.

Popular incomprehension did not, however, deter President Hoover last week from announcing another volunteer survey commission. The White House conference on home building & home ownership, composed of representatives of 19 national organizations under Secretary of Commerce Lament, will, at the President's request, make "a study of the problems presented . . .; with the hope of inspiring better organization and removal of influences which seriously limit the spread of home ownership." Subjects: finance, design, equipment, city planning, transportation. President Hoover wanted to know why second mortgages on homes now often cost 25% per year.

P: Last week President Hoover named three other commissions to make special investigations: 1) To advise the Government Departments on methods for revision of the statistical services for the determination of unemployment and to establish the method of co-operation between government departments and business. 2) To investigate the whole question of bankruptcy law and practice, to propose to Congress some essential reforms. 3) To study the practicability of a road from the U. S. to Alaska through and with the aid of Canada. Declared President Hoover: "To some who are anxious over the appointment of temporary committees and commissions . . . we may suggest they are not a new necessity in government. President Roosevelt created 107 of them, President Taft 63, President Wilson 160, President Harding 44, President Coolidge 118. . . . I shall appoint others." Hoover commissions to date: 21.

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