Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-22
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Herbert Hoover this week is engaged
in his favorite indoor Sport-holding
conferences. Conferences with business
men are his Superfavorites, SO the Presi-
dent ought to be able to say, when
they're all over, what ''T. r." calculated
when he left the White House, I've
had the time of my life!" Conferences
are so much of the Hooverian bone and
sinew that wag once remarked, re-
ferring to the &C. in the middle OF It,
that the Presidents real name is prob
ably Herbert Conference Hoover. The
&C" might stand for commissions just
as we'll, for the Californian believes in
them as devoutly as he does in confer
ences. Usually the former, under the
Hoover method, emerge from the
latter.
Now that it can be told the underly-
ing purpose of the White House confer
ences was to nip in the bud the slight
est possibility of stampede in the
direction of business panic. The Pres
ident realized there was an incipient
fire. He determined to put it out before
q flicker of it had terrified the audience
into a mad rush for the doors and WIN
dows, with resultant and calamitouS,
though wholly unjustified, casualties.
Hoover pictured just exactly that sort
of holocaust in case the American peo-
pie were not graphically made to see
that, though their house was afire in
one of its remote corners, there was no
danger whatever of its burning down, or
even of anybody getting scorched. So
the President sent for the Nations eco
nomic fire department. Its members
have come to Washington and declared
themselves ready for all emergencies.
Hoover is not going to be satisfied with
having had the mere pleasure of their
company. The President expects them
to come across"--to beat into deeds
their expressed willingness to set dol
lars to rolling In constructive projects.
He expects the railroads to buy freight
cars, the shipping companies to order
new tonnage, the building trades to be
put to work on some of the many en-
terprises planned, but held up; the util-
tiles to carry out expansion schemes ar
rested in fear of capital shortage and
Federal, State and municipal authorities
to go ahead on public works.
There's something else that can now
be told. It is the fact-little stressed
here this week, but fundamentally asso-
ciated with the things the President is
now trying to do-namely, that for
seven and one-half years Herbert Hoo
yer was methodically laying the founda-
lions for them. Those foundations con-
sisted of a systematic linking together
of various trade association, trade
journal and other diversified CONNER
cial groups. Secretary Hoover met reg
ularly with their respective representa-
tives at the Department of Commerce.
AS a result, Uncle Sam was kept SIN
gularly abreast of trends" and cycle"
in business-favorite Hoover tdloms
The steady expansion OF the depart
ment as the spearhead of American
commerce at home and abroad sprang
directly from these intimate contacts
between it and trade leaders in every
major line Today Hoover, as PreSi-
dent, is utilizing for emergency pur-
poses the organization he built up
largely with just such contingencies In
view.
Here and there in Democratic quar-
ters on Capitol Hill you can encounter
the comment that President Hoover's
London naval conference delegation is
p-heavy with Republicans. Senator
Joe" Robinson of Arkansas is his par
TVS lone representative, compared to
his six Republican colleagues, or men
who at least rank as Republicans.
Messrs. Stimson, Reed, Dawes and Nor
row are of unmistakable G. o. P. hue.
Ambassador Hugh Gibson probably
hasn't any politics. He broke into the
foreign service under the Roosevelt ad-
ministration. but received fine promo
| tons. including his first ministerial job,
| from President Wilson. It's just pos
| sible that Charles Francis Adams, Sec
rotary OF the Navy, Is considered to
have enough Democratic background
though it's long way back-to rate as
political brother, should the fog I'm
| London become so thick that Senator
Robinson longs for somebody to whom
he can talk his own language.
| y \
While the Senate was milling over
the textile tariff schedules this week