Evening star., 1932-06-19


the firing line. The complete record
shows just one pleasure excursion in
more than three years, and that one is
so fixed by tradition that not to make
it would amount to a declaration of
panic; to be specific, he attended the
opening world series base ball game in
Philadelphia last year, matter of one
afternoon. During his first year in Office
he made only two trips-one in April
to New York and in October to Detroit,
Cincinnati and Louisville Speeches.
During 1880 he went to Florida in Feb
ruary, Old Point Comfort in May, Phila-
delphia and Cleveland in October More
speeches.
During 1881 he visited Puerto Rico and
the Virgin Islands on tour of inspection
because of the serious economic Situa-
tionS existing there; that was in March.
He made short trip to Asheville, N. c..
in the same month, and in April at
tended the funeral of Nicholas Long,
worth in Cincinnati; in June he made
speeches in Indianapolis, Marion, Colum-
bus and Springfield. In August he ad-
dressed the American Legion in Detroit
question: in October he attended the
opening game of the world series in
Philadelphia and during the same month
made speech in Yorktown, Va
So far this year he has made one trip;
he spoke before the conference of Gov
ernors in Richmond, Va, in April. Not
long trip. but very important occa-
sion, with State budgets needing atten-
tion no less than national budgets. His
travels total 1882 miles. President Taft,
who was a famous traveller, piled up a
total of 114,559 miles. Mr. Wilson, with
two trips to Europe, Travelled 87,400 miles.
Mr.. Harding Travelled 32,228 miles, in
cluding trips to Panama and Alaska. Mr..
Hoover had hoped to make trip to the
West Coast in 1880, but the drought came
and there was lot of Sweaty work to
be done about it, so he remained in
Washington.
Few Presidents, either in peace or war,
have had to send so many messages to
Congress. War at least finds front with
generals and admiralS to shoulder the
immediate responsibility. Depression
stands like wolf at the presidential
door. Space prohibits giving the subject
matter of all Mr.. Hoover's messages, but
it is worth noting the dates and how
little time elapsed between them. Let's
begin with December, 1881, and come
down to the middle of May. Here are
the dates:
In 1931-December 8, December 10 and
December IL.
In 1932-January 4, February II, Feb
ruary %, February 20, April 4, April Is,
April q, May 5, May and May II.
A ND Mr.. Hoover is not facile writer
of messages; he goes over them
again and again. They are not among
the joys of high Office for him. AS a
matter of fact, it would be difficult to
point to the joys of high office He be-
came President on March 4, 1929, and
the Wall Street crash touched off con-
tinuous round of trouble on October %,
1929. Since then the White House has
been the listening post for the woes of
sorely beset world. Scarcely an item of
the bad news fails to reach there,
whether anything could be done about
it by the President or not. sweet job
he has! But he smiles, plans, initiates,
ever working conStructively. The job is
hard, but not too hard. In fact, he has
rarely had any jobs that were not hard.
He is used to it, so his temper remains
calm, his nerves steady, his health ex-
cellent; he goes right on planning, not
only what should be done to save the
world, but the many thrilling things that
will make better world-things that
can't quite be reached until the world
is convaleScent.
A very steady captain for stormy seas.
A captain who not only stays on the
bridge but lives there And almost