Sorties

President Hoover began his journeys last week by going to Philadelphia to watch the Athletics beat the St. Louis Cardinals in their initial world series game (see p. 42). As he entered Shibe Park, "Hail to the Chief" was played for him, on a phonograph. Because not enough seats had been reserved, 17 out of the 56 in his party had to sit in the stone aisles. The President took seat No. 4 in his box. Five members of the Cabinet clustered close.

Philadelphia's Mayor Mackey handed him a ball with which to start the game. Before an array of news cameramen he twice wound up to make the toss, twice held the pose. But he never threw out the ball. The game had already been started.

Dropping four members of his Cabinet, the President boarded his special train, started West. G. O. P. Chairman Simeon Davison Fess was ordered back to Washington lest his presence give the President's trip the appearance of a political junket. Postmaster General Brown, however, was permitted to go along. Outside Altoona the train was run off on a siding at Mule Shoe Bend, high among the mountains. Ties were lashed to the tracks to keep it from rolling; switches were spiked; the President slept seven quiet hours.

Up at 6 o'clock next morning he demanded newspapers, found he could not get them there. He was in black bear country. When the train reached Alliance, Ohio, Republican Senator Roscoe Conkling McCulloch, up for election, boarded it, rode along with the President where everybody could see him. At Bedford the train stopped again to take on Mrs. Hoover, fresh from a Girl Scout convention at Indianapolis (see col. 3). President Hoover took her in his arms, greeted her with a kiss on the rear platform.

At Cleveland the President and party were whisked down Euclid avenue through respectfully clapping crowds. There was no frenzied demonstration of welcome. As he entered his hotel, the President's eye fell on a small Communist demonstration bearing placards ("Hoover blesses scabs"). "That, night the President addressed the American Bankers Association meeting in the Cleveland public auditorium (see p. 14) while 2,000 Reds made a great racket, fought the police outside the hall. His speech over, President Hoover started immediately back to Washington.

After a two-day breathing spell in the White House, President Hoover set forth again, this time for Boston. Arriving in the morning he went to the arena where the American Legion was convening. As he entered, the Iowa delegation burst forth:

He's from Iowa, Iowa

We'll have you understand

He's from Iowa, Iowa

That's where the President's from.

President Hoover made the Legionaires a speech (see p. 14). Calvin Coolidge appeared on the platform and got a thunderous two-minute ovation. Insistent cries of "Speech! Speech!" brought him forward to say: "To save the time of the Convention I will address you in one sentence--You have paid your debt to La Fayette but you still owe a debt to yourselves and to the nation." President Hoover smiled. There was no Hoover-Coolidge hobnobbing. After the Legion speech he proceeded with traffic difficulty to the Hotel Statler where an adulant crowd hustled the President and Mrs. Hoover through the narrow lobby. In the turmoil four policemen gave the "bum's rush" to an officious fellow. He was O. L. Bodenheimer, National Commander of the Legion.

In the afternoon the President addressed the American Federation of Labor (see p. 14), left immediately thereafter on a 20-hour through journey to Kings Mountain, N. C. whence he motored over into South Carolina to deliver his fourth speech at the 150th anniversary of the battle of Kings Mountain (see p. 14).* After that he was through with speech-making for some time.

President Hoover last week appointed Joshua Reuben Clark of Salt Lake City to be U. S. Ambassador to Mexico, vice Dwight Whitney Morrow, resigned. Ambassador Clark, a onetime (1928-29) Undersecretary of State, was serving as legal adviser to the U. S. Embassy in Mexico City when promoted.

* On Oct. 7, 1780 Col. William Campbell led 900 Colonial backwoodsmen up Kings Mountain to rout the entrenched "Loyalist" forces of Col. Patrick Ferguson. Significance: this victory turned the tide of the Revolution in the South toward Yorktown and ultimate success.

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