Prospect

Last week President Hoover was aware of another quiver of economic hysteria running through the nation. The Michigan bank moratorium had jolted the country badly, stripped the R. F. C. of most of its psychological assets. Manhattan bankers had rarely looked more worried. Financiers put unofficial observers at the doors of the Federal Reserve Bank to watch the outflow of gold. There was widespread agreement with Bernard Mannes Baruch's dictum before a Senate committee that the U. S. was confronted with a condition "worse than war".

Yet one fact steadied the country--the Washington administration was on the eve of a change, a New Deal. When that prospect was threatened last week by crazy bullets fired at the President-elect in Miami, people seemed to feel that their faith in the future was also the assassin's target. At a tense psychological moment, Mr. Roosevelt's escape and cheerful reaction had a buoyant effect far beyond anything President Hoover could have said or done.

P: Despite the fact that he would be out of office in less than a fortnight, President Hoover last week again begged a balky Congress to execute his legislative ideas. In a special message he urged last-minute action on the following measures "looking to the promotion of economic recovery": 1) the bankruptcy bill to cut private debts; 2) the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence seaway treaty; 3) the Glass banking bill; 4) the Wagner bill to increase R. F. C. relief loans; 5) farm relief, minus the "unworkable" Domestic Allotment plan; 6) the Robinson bill to repeal R. F. C. loan publicity; 7) expansion of Home Loan banks into a general mortgage discount system; 8) an arms embargo.

P: Col. Raymond Robins finally reached the White House last week. Last September the Chicago reformer set out from Manhattan to keep a luncheon appointment with President Hoover, only to disappear on the way. In November he was found living the unshaven life of a mountaineer in a North Carolina hamlet (TIME, Nov. 28). Physicians talked of amnesia. Last week Reformer Robins & wife not only lunched with the President but dined, spent the night.

P: President Hoover last week appointed Walter Hughes Newton, his political secretary, to be a U. S. District judge in Minnesota. It was a hollow honor; the Senate refuses to confirm any Hoover nominations.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.