Revels & Receptions

THE PRESIDENCY

Revels & Receptions

Grumbling diplomats buttoned their shoes, buckled on their swords, adjusted their trappings and went as usual to the White House on New Year's morning to mumble polite greetings and shake the hand of President Hoover. Present also at the diplomatic reception, which began at ii a. m., were a few Congressmen (notably absent: gruff old Speaker John Nance Garner), Army & Navy officers and two Negro cavalrymen who had won the Congressional Medal of Honor.

First in line for the public reception which followed was, as in the past four years, John W. Hunefeld, Washington house painter (TIME, Jan. 12, 1931). Painter Hunefeld almost lost first-place distinction this year. He was disappointed to find three Government clerks and a 14-year-old boy waiting at the west gate of the White House grounds when he arrived at 7 a. m. They lost their places, however, when President Hoover had them invited in for bacon-&-eggs, gave them a quick handshake on his return from a game of medicine ball.

P: At his holiday dance last year Allan Hoover danced first with Fannie Homans, niece of Secretary of the Navy Adams. His first partner this year was Grace Roosevelt, daughter of Governor Theodore Roosevelt Jr. of Porto Rico. Washington gossips again overemphasized the significance of that first dance. More than 200 of Washington's nicest boys and girls began rigadooning in the East Room promptly at 10 p. m. Piece de resistance of Orchestra Conductor Meyer Davis' repertoire was "Moonlight on the Santa Clara," which he composed himself and dedicated to Allan Hoover to signalize the occasion. Revelry ceased at 1 a. m. P: Another Hoover appointee to the Geneva disarmament conference was Norman H. Davis, onetime Undersecretary of State. His appointment fills the delegation. P: To the Congress which returned last week from its vacation. President Hoover addressed a special message, reiterating his Relief program, urging its speedy enactment. Said he: "I would be derelict in my duty if I did not inform the Congress of the need for action at its earliest possible moment. ..."

P: The President called-in correspondents, spoke volubly about his proposal to reorganize and consolidate certain Govern-ment departments and bureaus as a means of reducing Federal expenditure. Only in hard times, the President was aware, could such a patronage-destroying plan get Congressional consideration. Under the Hoover plan, outstanding mergers would be: 1) consolidation of all governmental construction under one director; 2) transfer of all merchant marine functions to the Department of Commerce; 3) grouping of all health and education services together. P: To the funeral of Richard Oulahan, New York Times correspondent and dean of Washington correspondents (see p. 61) went President & Mrs. Hoover. On the casket of the deceased, who had been kinder to the President than any other Washington correspondent save Mark Sullivan, lay a spray of rosebuds and a palm from the White House greenhouses.

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