Plans for a Party

Last week the White House was all abustle with excited preparations for President Hoover's "I-accept-the-nomination" speech. The President got back from the printer the first proofs of his address keynoting his campaign, took them to the Rapidan camp for weekend revision. Right up to the last minute only his closest political friends knew what position, if any, he would take on the tortuous Republican Prohibition plank.

Gardeners trimmed up the South Grounds for a great lawn party on the afternoon of the notification. Chefs worked over the menu for a buffet luncheon for 300 G. 0. Partisans. Cleaners furbished up the D. A. R.'s Constitution Memorial Hall where the evening ceremonials would occur. Calvin Coolidge declined an invitation to attend on the curious ground that it was "the nominee's party."

Hoover managers had only one worry: Governor Roosevelt had shrewdly called New York's Mayor Walker to Albany to answer ouster charges on the day of the President's speech, thus creating front-page news competition for the Republicans' party.

P: Last year President Hoover was embarrassed when Cornelius Van Ness Leavitt, his brother-in-law, was arrested in Santa Monica for liquor possession. Mr. Leavitt was later acquitted in court (TIME. Nov. 23, Dec. 14). What the President's feelings were could only be guessed last week when he read an article in the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine by his sister, Mary Hoover Leavitt. Excerpts from "My Brother, the President": "The last time I saw him was more than three years ago at the inauguration. . . . My brother and I spent a last half-hour together. We had to talk hurriedly as the time drew near for him to plunge into his duties. He was interested in my new home here in Santa Monica. He admonished me to make it as up to date as possible.

" 'You are entitled to a good home. May,' he said. (Although my name is Mary, my brothers have always called me May.)

"The time to say good-by came. I said 'Well, goodby, Bert. I'll see you again sometime.' He said 'Goodby, May.' I wanted to shake his hand in farewell but he had already shaken hands with thousands and his hand was swollen and paining him. We parted without a handshake. . . .

"The President reflects many of the character traits of our mother. . . . Herbert was always quiet and serious-minded. ... He rarely was out of the house evenings. . . . He dressed neatly but never squandered money on 'fancy' clothes. He was so preoccupied!

"Never once did I hear him say as a boy that he hoped some day to be President. ... At Stanford University every week he wrote me a letter and in each let ter were ten colored pictures. . . . The pictures were from perfumers' advertising. . . . Herbert was easy to keep house for.

"I have a fear that I may say something that will displease Mr. Hoover. I could say so much about his humanitarianism. . . . Since he went to Australia, our contacts have been few. Now, as President, he seems like another person to me."

P: Last week President Hoover appointed the new Federal Home Loan Bank Board. Chairman is Franklin William Fort, New Jersey banker, onetime (1925-29) Representative, onetime (1928-30) secretary of the Republican National Committee. Republican members: William Edward Best, Pittsburgh lawyer, president of the U. S. Building & Loan League; Dr. John Matthews Gries. Ohio economist, onetime (1921-28) chief of the Commerce Department's building & housing division. Democratic members: Nathan Adams, president of First National Bank of Dallas; Henry Morton Bodfish of Chicago, executive director of U. S. Building & Loan League. In the House, before he was retired by the late Dwight Whitney Morrow in the 1930 Senate contest, Mr. Fort specialized in agricultural legislation, fancied himself as an urban expert on farm problems. Patterned after the Government's land bank system, the Home Loan Board will shortly organize for the task of discounting prime mortgages on small houses.

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