Evening star., 1932-09-27
The President and the People.

Yesterday afternoon the President OF
the United States appeared in public.
There was nothing new or extraordinary
about that. He has shown himself to
the masses on numerous other occa-
sions. But those who beheld him yes
terday as he sat on the platform walt
ing to lay the corner stone Of the new
Post Office Department Building might
have been excused if they had failed to
realize that the man they saw was, in
deed, the same man who, with his heart
filled with hopes and his mind filled
with enthusiasms, rode up Pennsylvania
avenue on March 4, 1929, to take the
inaugural oath on the steps Of the
Capitol. He has changed.
The face the crowd scanned yeSter-
day was a face saddened with suffering,
the face of human creature desper-
ately hurt and panied, the face Of
brother tortured intolerably and inter-
minably. Men reflect in their eyes the
unhappy experiences they have had,
and the eyes of the President were
deeply sad Three years in the White
House have aged him, killed in his ma
ture the childlike eagerness and sensi-
tiveness which were his distinguishing
characteristics at the time when his
name first became household word.
Now he is philosophic and resigned as
= racked prisoner might be. He has
endured so much that he no longer
fears the future. Unremitting toll and
unfaltering devotion to his duty as he
visions it make it possible for him to
go on to the end, bitter or bright as it
may be.
Herbert Hoover came to his high
Office at a moment when a miracle
worker was wanted. OF course, it was
ridiculous for the people to demand
of him achievements beyond the power
of any single individual. however gifted.
They forgot that the United States is
. democracy and that the Presidents
ONCE is hedged about with imposed re-
strictions. They forgot that common
responsibility is the keystone upon
which the Republic has been built
They forgot that universal economic
laws control and govern public policy
and administrative procedure. They
forgot that the President is powerleSs
TO dictate prosperity and progress, that
all that he can do is manage as best
he is able the affairs committed into
his hands by the Constitution and by
Congress. The cardboard paradise in
which they had lived during the period
Of expansion collapsed about their
ears. They found the thing in ruins
In their search for the cause of their
trouble too many of them blindly ig
nored the obvious reason, the obvious
fault In their -jerry-built palace of
dreams. They would not blame them
selves.
A man Of less conspicuous honor, OF
less authentic sincerity might have faced
the storm with more aplomb. Armed
with contempt or even with distrust of
the people, he might have scorned their
violence. But Mr. Hoover had the ham
dicap of his faith. He believed in the
masses, loved them and desired to serve
them. So it was that they could hurt
him.
Nowhere else in the world Is there
such a spectacle as the tortured coun-
tenance of the President of the United
States. The German Kaiser, the King
Of England, the President Of France,
all the sovereigns crowned and un-
crowned Of the earth are living wit
nesses to the good manners and toler-
ance Of mankind. Only In America are
leaders of the people martyred to their
virtues.