Sad Duty

Late one afternoon last week President Hoover went for a short motor ride through Washington's suburbs. While he was gone, the White House released another of the many bulletins signed by physicians attending William Howard Taft which it had given out to the Press. It read:

The former Chief Justice died at 5:15 p. m. A sudden change in his condition occurred at 4:45 p. m. from which he failed to rally.

It was dusk before President Hoover returned to the White House. As he stepped out of his car, Major Domo Irwin ("Ike") Hoover hurried up to him, said: "Mr. President, Mr. Taft has just died." (See p. 17.) The President stepped quickly back into his automobile, was driven to No. 2215 Wyoming Ave.

Before a quiet house with drawn shades he beheld a silent congregation. He went inside. The air was sweet with the smell of many flowers banked around the lower rooms. To a little grey-haired lady who was trying very hard to be composed, the President spoke in gentle consolation. He offered her the use of the White House or any other facility of the U. S. she wanted. As he emerged a few minutes later he lifted his bowed head to nod a greeting to Chief Justice Hughes going in;

Back at the White House President Hoover found much to do. His secretary, George Akerson, was called in from the golf links, instructed to keep the executive offices open as an information bureau. He despatched his military aide, Col. Campbell Benjamin Hodges to the Wyoming Avenue house to render any service possible. He canceled a dinner engagement he had for that evening with the White House Correspondents Association. Acting Secretary of State Wilbur J. Carr prepared a public proclamation which the President signed:

"It becomes my sad duty to announce officially the death of William Howard Taft. ... A service of rare distinction, a purity of patriotism. . . .

"As an expression of the public's sorrow, it is ordered that the flags of the White House and of the several departmental buildings be displayed at half-staff for a period of 30 days and that suitable military and naval honors may be rendered on the day of the funeral."

Next day, Robert and Charles Taft, sons of the 27th President of the U. S., called upon President Hoover, spent an hour talking funeral plans. Their father had wanted no public display. They agreed that his body might lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda for three hours where the public could view it. Later a simple service would be held at All Souls' Unitarian Church on 16th Street where Mr. Taft regularly worshipped. The sons left the White House to motor across the Potomac with Col. Hodges to Arlington National Cemetery. There they selected an interment plot on a wooded slope over-looking Washington, a few hundred feet from the grave of Abraham Lincoln's son Robert Todd.*

President Hoover ordered guns at all U. S. Army posts throughout the world to boom out every half-hour for a full day, to fire a 48-pound salute at sundown. Members of the Supreme Court prepared to follow the casket as the honorary pallbearers. Congress adjourned. Washington was enveloped in mourning. P:. It took President Hoover's Haiti Commission less than a week of investigating at Port-au-Prince to forward its first and most important recommendation to the White House. The recommendation: Selection of a temporary neutral President to succeed Louis Borno, to be followed by a general election, the restoration of representative government, the withdrawal of the U.S. high commissioner and the marine occupation force. President Hoover approved this plan.

P: President Hoover sent to Congress Secretary of the Treasury Mellon's plan for revising German payments to the U.S. for War claims and army occupation costs under the Young Plan, asked that it be approved. Another Hoover request to Congress: An additional $100,000,000 for the Federal Farm Board (see p. 14). P: From a window in his office in the State, War & Navy Building President Hoover briefly watched Communists demonstrating before the White House in the name of Unemployment (saw them dragged away by the police). Next day he issued a statement, said that unemployment was decreasing, business increasing (see p. 15).

P: To the White House went Tytus Fili-powicz to relinquish his post as Polish Minister to the U. S., to present to President Hoover his credentials as first Polish Ambassador to the U. S.

* Burial in Arlington is restricted to Army and Navy veterans and their immediate family. Mr. Taft qualified because he had been Secretary of War under President Roosevelt, Commander-in-Chief of the Army & Navy as President. No other President lies in Arlington.

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