The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-11-17
ELECTION ROUT
MAKES HOOVER
MORE HUMAN
Shock of Defeat Is Over
and President Takes
Loss Calmly.
CURTIS ALSO CHEEKY
Politicians Kept Bad News
From Executive as He
Started West.
BY RAY TUCKER,
Times staff Writer

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17.-Adver-
sity has softened Herbert Hoover
and his fellow-victim of Nov. 8,
ce-President Charles c. Curtis.
A more human and philosophic
President has returned to the
White House than the desperate,
dispirited candidate who left here
ten days ago for a transcontinental
dash designed to stave off defeat.
Despite a certain almost boylike
usefulness, Hoover shows a great
relief that the te-ihc responsibility
of the presidency Will tumble off his
shoulders in four months.
II feel thousand times better"
he said at Palo Alto a few minutes
after the fatal blackboard in his
living room recorded his defeat.
Crowds Are FriendIier
Larger and friendlier crowds
greeted him to the day of his re-
turn to the capital, and these trib-
utes to Hoover the man gave him
great satisfaction. With the press,
with the politicians and with mem
bers of his encourage, he was a
completely changed individual in
appearance and conversation and in
his ordinary contacts.
Just as Charles Evans Hughes
mellowed after his 1916 defeat, so
Hoover seems to have accepted
political disaster with the same sort
of philosophy.
Curtis actually was jovial after
emerging from his first conference
with the President. The sympathy
expressed for them in the White
House anteroom apparently was
wasted, as were references to their
meeting as a restaging of that fine
old-fashioned melodrama Orphans
in the Storm"
"Debt?" said the Vice-President
as his Swarthy face crinkled in
laughter, we're not in debt. The
only ones I know are in debt are
the Republican national commit
teemen."
Curtis Is CHEEKY
Then, instead of dashing out the
front door to his car, the Vice-Pres-
ident shook hands with members of
the press, secret service, and the
White House clerical staff.
For Hoover, however, the last few
days of the campaign were a strain
which showed in his Swallowed face,
and his general demeanor. His
friends believe he knew he had lost
even before he left the capital, but
1t is their belief he did not dream of
the extent of the rout.
His principal purpose in crossing
the country, they insist, was to save
the party from complete wreckage,
and to strengthen the chances of
Senators Tasker H. Oddie of Nevada,
Otis F. Glenn of Illinois, and Reed
Smoot Of Utah. All three were
beaten.
Local politicians climbing aboard
the train gave the President no ink
ling of conditions.
1T was bad for a while" most of
them told him. But the trend is all
in your direction since you took to
the stump. Well deliver 100 per
cent"
Predictions All Wrong
Their predictions were 100 per
cent wrong, and they knew it,. After
leaving the President, some of them
informed other members of the
presidential party that there wasn't
chance to win. Almost the only
man who pictured the seriousness
of the popular revolt was said to be
Representative Robert G.. Simmons
of Nebraska.
At Carson City, New, where Hoo
yer made his last public appear
ance in the campaign, he showed the
extent of the strain he was under.
1t was there he invited the person
WIZ SAAOAbCO / QoPhCAAACo dV 4A4AAA
to step up to the train platform and
repeat the remark.
Subsequent investigation revealed
that the Presidents enthusiastic
critic was an 13-year-old boy. He
seemed in a daze when the bad news
hit him full force.
He shook hands abSent-mindedly
with friends who had come to hear
the returns, and grasped the hand
Of one three times.
But before he went to bed, he had
recovered apparently, and the next
day acted as if he had not been
the central figure in the nations
most one-sided presidential election.
n Ill -