The Washington times., 1928-08-22
MIDWEST SPIRIT.
ILLS HOOVER
BROADCAST

Electric disturbances that upset
the atmosphere from early m the
evening until late, growing more
intense as the evening progressed,
made radio reception impOssiDie
for distant stations and kept mp q
noisy din through local brOadcasts.
Programs were available the
crash and bang Of the storm made
listening fO them . most uncOEllO-
Portable proceeding.
The homecoming Of Secretary
II ethe,.t Hoover to West Branch.
lows. made radio history, as we'll as
,mar<ius an epoch in the life of the
Republican, presidential candidate.
In that it created q real Iowa ana
genuine Midwest atmosphere in
millions OF living rooms to which
such a thing Is . stranger.
The people Of the Midwest--aTld
iowa is typically Midwest-have .
way of doing things all their own.
Every little town has its thoroughly
efficient and self reliant Sandy" as
song leader who can make the en-
tire populace sing about Where the
Tall Corn Grows, or the heaut1rul
.'Illinois' or the more sentimental
..On the Banks Of the Wabash.
Every town has its enthusiastic
ba nd. made up of clerks and farmers
and storekeepers and town officials.
And dozens of Midwest towns can.
produce thoroughly competent mu
sicians of the type of the Miss Mel
meyer who played the violin during
the Hoover exercises. We might
mention, in passing. that the Miss
Neimeyers of the Midwest are the
great concert. artists of the East,
but Miss Niemeyer, of West Branch,
proved rather conclusiVely last night
that she Is great yioIinist and
would be considered such anywhere
she might happen to play.
SPIRIT OF MIDWEST
GIVEN 10 WORLD
It isn't often that the radio audi
ence has opportunity to sit In as
part OF q regular Iowa celebration
perhaps they never will again. But
at least the entire nation had that
opportunity last evening. Those to
whom the Midwest is merely the
designation Of section of vast
continent, had chance to learn
something of its fine spirit of bouy
ant enthusiasm, its abandonment
to good time for the whole com.
munity when the occasion presents
itself, its ability to entertain not
only itself but the whole world and
its utter lack OF self consciousness
in doing Ii. That Is what we like
the product Of the American
Secretary Hoover extolled In his
. tsMf - ttM kMS -
weil.knit group of "a, 900 900 homes
rather than having poulation OF
100. 900. 900 people.
Curiously enough 1t Is probable
Washington received their big.
kick from the proceedings when
they heard the voice OF Paul Gas.
coigne, who used to manage WCAP,
describe the events of the day. Gas
coigne Is managing the broadcast
ings Of the Republican campaign.
The H0Oyer speech is, Of course.
given All sorts of play in the news
columns and on the editorial pages.
Otherwise the programs OF the
evening seemed to this listener to
drag bit. There was 3 flash Of
hrillance in the performance of
Mathilde Harding, pianiste In the
Great Composers hour OF WRC-
but Miss Harding was the only one
OF the group who seemed to have
enough life to really interpret the
works Of RimsISy-karsakow, the
great and dynamic Russian whose
com positions formed the program.
In the WMAL broadcast the chief
star was Lee Cronican--this time
AZ an announcer of the Movie Club
program in the absence OF Sam
Rubin. Cronican showed himself to
be AZ pleasing AZ an announcer as
he is q pianiste--aEad he IL one Of
the very best pianists that play be-
fore a rnicr0nhoYei