The Hoover Week

President Hoover, who rarely quotes his elders, last week went back a century to borrow an oratorical sword with which to stand off the American Legion on the Soldier Bonus. The weapon had been fashioned by Daniel Webster, mighty verbal swordsman, at a Whig reception at Niblo's Garden, Manhattan, in 1837. Unearthed by French Strother, White House research secretary, it was still so pat and pointed that President Hoover grasped its hilt and made it flash and glitter in a statement explaining why the U. S. could neither tax nor borrow two billions out of its people to pay off the Bonus (see p. 8). Declared the President:

"It is unthinkable that the Government should resort to the printing press and the issuance of fiat currency. Such an act of moral bankruptcy would depreciate and might ultimately destroy the value of every dollar in the United States. It would cause the collapse of all confidence and bring widespread ruin. Daniel Webster, 100 years ago, stated:

" 'He who tampers with the currency robs labor of its bread. He panders, indeed, to greedy capital which is keen-sighted and may shift for itself; but he beggars labor which is honest, unsuspecting and too busy with the present to calculate for the future. The prosperity of the working classes lives, moves and has its being in established credit and a steady medium of payment.'

"And the experience of every govern-ment in the world since that day has confirmed Webster's statement."

P: President Hoover held another relief conference at the White House last week to mobilize private charity to carry the jobless through another winter. In 1930 he set up for this purpose an organization headed by Col. Arthur Woods. Last year Walter Sherman Gifford (American Telephone & Telegraph) was drafted by the White House for relief duty. This year Newton Diehl Baker is chairman of the Welfare & Relief Mobilization Conference composed of 29 organizations like the Y M. C. A., the Salvation Army, the Boy Scouts, the Camp Fire Girls, the Association of Community Chests & Councils, the Jewish Welfare Board. Mr. Baker and his colleagues planned to raise no funds directly but rather, with advice and suggestions, to spur local communities on toward local relief.

President Hoover addressed the 200 members of the conference on the White House South Grounds. Said he: "Our tasks are definite. The first is to see that no man, woman or child shall go hungry or unsheltered through the approaching winter. . . . This is, I trust, the last winter of this great calamity. Yet despite a dawning hope individual need in the meantime may be greater than before."

P: President Hoover held many a political conference with his G. O. P. advisers after the Maine election.

P: On Sept. 15, 1821 Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala all declared their independence from Spain. Last week a punctilious State Department sent the President of each little republic an anniversary message signed Herbert Hoover. Costa Rica got "hearty congratulations." Nicaragua "cordial felicitations," Honduras "best wishes," Guatemala "cordial greetings."

P:While a delegation of the Nut Growers of America waited patiently on the other side of the White House lawn. President Hoover received from John Taylor Arms, president of the Society of American Etchers, a portfolio containing 20 etchings by 20 famed U. S. etchers illustrating "important steps in the mental and executive growth of George Washington."

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