"I Am Happy"

When 50 newsmen shuffled into his oval office and ringed themselves around his shiny desk late one afternoon last week, they found President Hoover smiling broadly. Not for months had they observed such an expression of satisfaction and good cheer on that round face. Confident of real news, they poised their pencils to take down his words. "I am happy ..." The President began. All in the room could see that he really was.

President Hoover proceeded to list the economic developments and improvements which made him happy: 1) "a very great change which is evident in the credit situation"; 2) an end to gold hoarding and a return, within the week, of $24,000,000 in currency to the banks; 3) a reduction in small bank failures from an average of 25 per day to seven; 4) increased prices of wheat and cotton.

What the U. S. had been through in October the President described: "Following the abandonment of the gold standard in England a wave of great apprehension spread over the country. Hoarding of currency rose to $200,000,000 a week. . . . Country bank failures had risen. . . . The drain of gold abroad was over $200,000,000 a week."

President Hoover has seen and suffered too many false starts toward recovery. Therefore last week he eschewed all predictions, all speculations as to whether the things that now made him happy marked a definite turn in the economic tide or not. It was, at least, a breathing spell. What helped to add to the President's sense of happy relief was the good progress being made by his National Credit Corp. and public response to his nation-wide campaign for Unemployment Relief funds, locally collected and expended. To the San Francisco community chest drive the President sent his check for $5,000. To the District of Columbia fund he added $2,500.

P: The Hoover head nodded approvingly last week as the President read a significant article on War debts and reparations by Thomas William Lamont, Morgan partner and co-author of the Young Plan, in The Saturday Review of Literature. Mr. Lament's thesis: Europe must now readjust its intergovernment obligations within the Young Plan and on its own initiative. Said he: "Neither Germany, France nor any other country should gain the idea that President Hoover, having undertaken with his one-year debt holiday to meet an emergency, is necessarily called upon to make the next move. This whole problem is not now 'up to' the American Government." The Lamont statement was widely accepted as a Wall Street accolade for President Hoover and the "hands off" policy he agreed upon with Premier Laval. What the President could not endorse in the Lamont article was a sound flaying of protective tariffs which prevent debtor nations from earning enough to repay their loans.

P: White House callers last week: Author Herbert George Wells (chaperoned by Sir Ronald Lindsay, British Ambassador); Dr. Wilhelm Cuno, onetime German Chancellor (chaperoned by Ambassador von Prittwitz und Gaffron).

P: Fortnight ago, at the polite insistence of Premier Pierre Laval of France, a photographer was ushered into the private rooms of the White House proper. He was Dr. Erich ("Candid Camera") Salomon, imported from Germany by TIME, Inc. to make pictures for FORTUNE. Ceremoniously escorted up to the second floor, Photographer Salomon was led down a corridor, bowed into the Lincoln Study. There he found Premier Laval and President Hoover, deep in debt talk. Without disturbing their easy poses, he set up his tripod, took pictures while Premier Laval waggled an excited finger at the President, spoke rapidly in French. Because President Hoover does not thoroughly understand French, Secretary Stimson was present serving as interpreter. Discreet Dr. Salomon, busy with his camera, took pains not to listen to the confidential conversation going on.

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