Red Scare

While President Hoover was sitting with his Cabinet one morning last week, an alarming report reached his bodyguard. Police reserves tramped into the White House grounds, deployed, guarded the gates. Pennsylvania Avenue shrieked with motorcycle sirens. Secret Service men issued curt, severe commands. Excited newshawks flocked about. Cameramen looked to their plates. Trucks bearing sound newsreel equipment lumbered up into position. Idlers paused, gaped, made throngs. When Vice President Curtis left the Cabinet Meeting, a bodyguard hopped into his car beside him.* All was in martial readiness about the White House to meet a reported Red demonstration for Unemployment relief. Police, newshawks, cameramen, bodyguardsmen, idlers, the President himself waited tensely for the picketers to arrive and be repulsed. One hour passed, then another. But not a Red showed up. The police began drifting away. The White House quieted its jumpy nerves. It was a false alarm.

Three days later, however, 14 persons appeared outside the White House as "hunger marchers." In a cold drizzle they unfurled their banners ("Mr. Hoover, We Demand Food & Lodging," "Mr. Hoover You Have Money for the Entertainment of the Fascist Assassin Grandi."). Promptly the police pounced on them, arrested all 14 for parading without a permit. Their leader, one Herbert Benjamin, loudly explained that when Congress sits (Dec. 7), 1,300 "hunger marchers" would be in Washington demonstrating for relief.

Next day the U. S. Secret Service paid Leader Benjamin the compliment of taking his "hunger march" seriously and thus helping to publicize it throughout the land. Chief Moran declared that his sleuths had learned the march was really a Communist demonstration on a large scale. "Marchers" from all parts of the country would be brought to Washington in 1,144 trucks, 92 automobiles. They would be lodged and fed along the way. They would have medical attention. They would defend themselves with stones. They would be organized in military fashion. They would petition the President and Congress for relief for the jobless. They would make trouble. Only one thing in their plans did Chief Moran fail to ascertain and that was where the money was coming from to finance such a large undertaking. As usual, Moscow was publicly suspected.

While Washington waited to see what would come of this fantastic scheme, "hunger marchers" in motor trucks got under way about the country. The Chicago contingent produced a riot in Hammond, Ind. Mayor Mackey of Philadelphia advised them to "pass by" his city. Hartford closed its streets to "hunger riders." Leader Benjamin denounced the Secret Service, declared: "A vast Red hysteria is being fomented."

P: Secretary of State Stimson, looking worried, rushed in upon President Hoover one morning to report that he (Mr. Stimson; was the centre of a hot diplomatic incident with Japan. He had, he said, been misquoted on the Manchurian situation in press despatches to Tokyo (see p. 19).

P: "At the White House at 7 a.m." was the title of a magazine article in the New York Times last week in which "Hoover-ball" and its players were described. The information was supplied by Secretary of the Interior Wilbur, a regular "Hoover-baller." For the first time it was revealed that Hoover-ball is a game, specially invented, played with a special lightweight medicine ball (6 lb.) over a high net on tennis courts. Four such courts are marked out on the White House lawn, moved frequently to keep from wearing out the grass. Excerpts: "When the setup is just what it should be the game is rapid. Every player is constantly tense. ... A star member is Dr. Wilbur. He has a peculiar advantage because of altitude (6 ft. 4 in.). . . . Justice Stone is the strong man. When he hurls them, they stay hurled. . . . Attorney General Mitchell plays a fast game. . . . Secretary of Agriculture Hyde disports himself creditably. . . . The President is a lusty player. His specialty is catching high ones and throwing them in hard-to-get returns. . . . Dr. Boone, the President's physician, is small, dark, quick as a flash. . . . Mark Sullivan, journalist, plays a hard game." Author of the article: William Atherton Du Puy, press agent of Dr. Wilbur's Interior Department.

P: Last week gifts of holiday food reached the White House in abundance. President Hoover went outside to greet the driver of a creaky old cart which a pair of oxen had drawn from Maine. In the cart were 40 bu. of Maine potatoes, a present from Governor Gardiner. Three days later Maine potatoes were sent out to Washington's relief agencies for distribution among the poor.

P: President Hoover last week appointed Robert Lincoln O'Brien of Dedham, Mass, to be chairman of the Tariff Commission, vice Henry Prather Fletcher, resigned. New England's insistent demand for commission representation by a thoroughgoing protectionist brought about the appointment. A Republican now, Mr. O'Brien began life as a low-tariff Democrat. Grover Cleveland plucked him from the Boston Transcript office for a private secretary upon his second presidential nomination in 1892, kept him on at the White House until 1895. The Bryan nomination of 1896 turned Mr. O'Brien Republican. A journalist for 34 years, he was Washington correspondent for the Boston Transcript, then its editor and later, until his retirement in 1928, editor & publisher of the Boston Herald. With the enthusiasm of a convert, he can be counted on by the G.0.P. to keep all tariff rates as high as possible.

P: President Hoover and 46 other White House workers pledged three days' pay to Washington's Unemployment relief fund. The President's contribution: $616.44. Meanwhile protests began to appear against the method of relief fund collection among the Government's 75,000 departmental workers. Collectors had the payrolls and each employe was supposed to subscribe three days' wages. If he did not, he feared he would incur official dis favor, perhaps lose his job. Senator Couzens of Michigan threatened an investigation to see if Federal workers were being "dragooned and intimidated."

* Last week Mr. Curtis, as everyone expected, announced his decision to seek Republican renomination on the Hoover ticket next year rather than run for the Senate in Kansas. Said he: "I'm an optimist. . . ."

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