Evening star., 1933-01-12
PRESIDENT PLANS
BOOK AFTER REST
Retirement viii Be Followed
by Preparation of Data
for History.
BY THEODORE C. WALLEN
dn the New York Hefald-Tribune)


President Hoover's preparations fol
retiring TO private life on March
have satisfied his friends that he con-
templates accepting no immediate new
responsibility except a task which ms
has set I'D for himself of putting the
documents of his administration In
order for the benefit Of history.
The Presidents tentative plans sug-
gest that he will remain uncomm1tteo
for most of his first year after leaving
Office. It is understood that he is 10
return without delay to his home or
the West Coast and engage in some
Srring stream fishing in California and
some deep-sea fishing in the Pacif1c
before undertaking the work OF assem-
bling and annotating the papers which
tell the story of his presidency.
This task is expected to follow the
linz of that which resulted in his
accommodating what is said to be the
largest collection Of war documents in
existence, a collection which Is now
on file at Leland Stanford. Junior. UNI
versity. The facilities OF the university
will be at his disposal in preparing the
comprehensive record of his admins
tration. Nearly 20 tons OF material,
it is estimated, are being prepared
for shipment across the continent in
81 filing cases recently ordered for the
Presidents personal account.
Documents of Wilson.
A similar store of documents which
Woodrow Wilson tGok with him out OF
the White House became the basis OF
ray Stanpard Bakers biographical
series on the World War President.
Friends of Mr.. Hoover are satisfied that
he has no thought of writing an auto
biography or of doing much writing Of
any kind In the immediate future.
Rather they understand that. with the
benefit Of a fresh viewpoint after a
much-needed rest, he will prepare q
collection of papers which in them
selves will trace the course Of events
with which he has been identified.
This record Is likely to go back be-
yond the beginning Of the Hoover ad-
ministration, perhaps to the time when
he turned from his career as mining
engineer to become food administrator
In Belgium. Friends resist the thought
OF political implications in the work
and insist that. while Mr.. Hoover is
burning 70 bridges behind him, he Is
content to let the future take care of
itself.
The effect of the Presidents tenta-
tive plan would be to remove him from
the national political center of gravity
during the carly part of the Roose-
welt administration at least. He will
remain the titular Republican leader.
and as such is even now interesting
himself in steps to reorganize the pub
licity bureau Of the Republican Ma
tional Committee. This, it is explained
by party leaders with whom he has
discussed the question, is to the end
Of maintaining strong two-party sys-
TEN and not with an eye to a cam
paign to discredit the incoming Presi-
dent.
Republican Activity Limited.
In the wake of the November politi-
cal cyclone, which swept Republicans
from control of the executive end leg
islative branches and turned nearly the
whole political landscape Democratic,
there will be little Republican national
political activity outside the walls Of
Congress for some time. A group of
the Presidents friends is out to clean
up the, party deficit of more than
100000, and there Is no present plan
to call the National Committee to-
gether.
Only one Of the Presidents secre-
tariat Of four is certain to remain with
him after March 4. Lawrence Richey
his confidential secretary, who came UP
from the Department cf Commerce
with him, win continue in his service,
representing him here in Washington,
particularly in the Recommendation work
and attending to some Of the Presi-
dents personal business affeirs.
The future of Walter H. Newton, the
Presidents political secretary. will de-
pend on the Senate's final attitude to-
ward his nomination by the President
for a judgeship. Theodore @. Joslin,
the Presidents press secretary and the
latest addition to the White House sec
retariat, will not return to his former
post as Washington correspondent of
the Boston Transcript, but has other
plans in mind which remain unan-
nounced.
French Strother, the Presidents ad-
ministrative assistant, will return to his
home in Garden City and resume his
work as an author.
The documents which the President
takes with him from the White House
will in most instances be the originals
of his correspondence. The long-stand-
ing tradition has been that a retiring
President Is entitled to his own papers,
that he Is elected by all the people TO
carry on the responsibilities of the office
and that the correspondence relating
TO the exercise Of those responsibilities
belongs to him.
/. Macdonald Talk Included.
In the case of Mr.. Hoover this cor
respondence will include documents
bpuching his conversations by cable and
by letter with J. Ramsay Macdonald,
which led to the preliminary Anglo
Saxon naval agreement on leg along
side the Rapidan and ultimately the
London treaty of 1880. The CORE
spondence also will touch the intimate
and vital affairs which were part OF
what the President himself has de-
scribed as his battle on a hundred
fronts" against the forces of depression
They are presumed to hold secret
which may not be made public until
the economic crisis is entirely past In
this and other countries, including some
Of the exchanges between the President
and Paul Won Hindenburg, the President
of Germany
The communications touching the
British financial crises last year and
before that, the emergency in Austria
and elsewhere in Central Europe are
? part of the Presidents correspond
enCe. In cases where documents. such
as the cables that passed between the
President and Prime Minister MacDon-
ald IN the Fall Of 1929 automatically
found their way into department ar
chives, the President has duplicates.
With the same regard for historics,
interest th1t he showed as food ad-
ministrator in Belgium. the President
Is said to have seen to it early that the
documents bearing on 'his Presidency
were accumulated. Being historically
minded. his foresight is credited WITH
the preservation fer posterity Of in
valuable documents relating TO his Of
fee as a relief director during the war
This was at time when. he had agree
ments with belligerents on both side