Place for a Friend

The Drought, washed slowly out of the news by widespread rains, gave President Hoover last week a chance to bring from California to Washington his good friend Henry Mauris Robinson, put him to work for the Government. Mr. Robinson, board chairman of First National Bank of Los Angeles, has been "mentioned" for more different jobs under the Hoover Administration than any other friend of the President. He was violently speculated upon for almost every post in the Cabinet before inauguration. Each time President Hoover named a new commission, Mr. Robinson's name bobbed up in White House gossip as a leading candidate for membership. But, somehow, Mr. Robinson never seemed able to swing into a niche. Last week, however, the President did fit him neatly into the National Drought Commission.

President Hoover and Mr. Robinson were pre-War California cronies. The President greatly admired Mr. Robinson's bookishness, his contacts with publishing houses throughout the world. They agreed that physical exercise is not much fun, disagreed on motoring which President Hoover greatly enjoys, Mr. Robinson does not. In appearance Mr. Robinson bears a certain Hooverish resemblance about the eyes, mouth, jowls. As Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Hoover had a lot to do with the selection of Mr. Robinson as a member of the first (1924) Dawes Plan Commission.

Last week Mr. Robinson hurried across the continent to join the other appointees of the new commission: Secretary of Agriculture Hyde, chairman, Chairman Legge of the Federal Farm Board, Chairman Bestor of the Farm Loan Board. Chairman Payne of the Red Cross, Chairman Young of the Federal Reserve Board, Chairman Aishton of the American Railway Association, Undersecretary of the Treasury Mills. President Hoover explained his friend's job: "Mr. Robinson has consented to serve for purposes of coordinating Federal with State and private credit activities." Secretary Hyde estimated that about $20.000,000 would have to be loaned drought-ridden farmers. Where the money was to come from nobody yet knew. Declared President Hoover:

"Rains have stemmed the spread of the drought and greatly improved the situation outside the acutely affected area [640 counties]. In those areas destruction of crops has proceeded to a point that is beyond any great degree of recovery. . . . From a relief point of view the burden of the problem in the acute area will show very much more vividly over the winter than at the present moment." P: Because pious Virginians protested that Marines guarding the President's Rapidan camp did not go to church. President Hoover ordered a Navy chaplain out from Washington, Sunday services held in the Marine mess hall. The President attended, heard Marines sing hymns to the tune of a small organ lent by the Y. M. C. A. P:. The Hoover secretariat has long been troubled because it has not been able to build its "Chief" up with the sort of human-interest publicity which proved so helpful to Calvin Coolidge. Chief obstacle has been President Hoover's refusal to allow any personal chit-chat about himself or family to be divulged. Last week, however, the secretariat was able to put out this story:

Gertrude Anne Windsor, 11, of Tyler, Tex., with her brother Billy, 8, called to see President Hoover. Because she had no letter of introduction from her Senator or Congressman, she was turned away. She wrote the President directly, asked: "Isn't there some way we could see you before we leave?" Next day President Hoover summoned Gertrude and Billy to the White House, told them a story of Yukon, his Alaskan husky, who got so hot in Washington that he would sit and sit on a cake of ice every time the iceman came.

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