"Keep Smiling"

At 4 p. m. one hot day last week President Hoover kept his regular appointment with the Press. As correspondents encircled his desk, there was talk but no quotable news. Next morning, however, most metropolitan newspapers in the land ran almost identical front-page stories from Washington. It was the kind of dispatch President Hoover was glad to see in print, though nowhere was he personally mentioned. Knowing readers suspected White House inspiration, under the Hoover system of supplying correspondents with "background" which they are not privileged to attribute directly to the President. The gist of the story was as follows:

The U. S. public is being unduly alarmed about the degree of hardship in prospect for this winter. Unemployment difficulties are vastly exaggerated. If 6,000,000 persons become jobless, that does not mean 30,000,000 (five to a family) will depend on charity, but rather only about 4,000,000. At least one man in three has savings to fall back on. The country must stop expecting the worst. Conditions are not good but nobody will starve. There is too much "tightening of the belt" in anticipation of need and hardship, which reduces buying, makes matters worse. If the word "Unemployment" could be omitted from all newspapers for a month or so, the public mind would be stimulated and business improved. The psychology of fear should be exiled and a national sign hung out labelled: KEEP SMILING.

P: Divergent were the views on relief expressed by President Hoover (by radio) and New York's Governor Roosevelt (in person) last week when they both participated in a memorial service to Red Cross Founder Clara Barton at Dansville, N. Y. The President called the Red Cross ''a monument to individual and local initiative." The Governor said: "We understand today that disaster and catastrophe are not limited to suffering caused by fire and flood. If the teachings of Clara Barton were right, these same teachings must apply to the distress and suffering stalking in our midst today. . . . To this high aim we dedicate our functions of government, our towns, our counties, our State and country."

P: Quick to respond to word of great distress in hurricane-devastated Belize (see p. 19), President Hoover ordered the Navy to rush assistance by plane from the Canal Zone, mobilized the help of the Red Cross.

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