THE PRESIDENCY: Call for Sacrifice

I am confident that the undertaking of the representatives of both political parties to balance the Budget will be fulfilled. It is the very keystone of recovery. It must be done. Without it the Depression will be prolonged indefinitely.

So declared President Hoover in his first press conference in three weeks. Congress had just killed the Sales Tax (see p. 12). The President was described as "keenly disappointed." A confused and troubled citizenry began to turn to the White House for information and leadership. Perhaps the President would take a hand in straightening out the House muddle and thus quiet the country's fears. Instead, Mr. Hoover read to the Press a long statement explaining these fiscal facts:

To run the Government requires four billion dollars a year. Of this approximately one-half goes to pay the interest on the public debt and the care of war veterans and their families, and is therefore irreducible. Another $700,000,000 is earmarked for the Army & Navy and "we should not further reduce the strength of our national defense." That leaves only a $1,300,000,000 field for economy, roughly the size of the Deficit. As savings can be only a fractional part of this amount without disorganizing the Federal machine, higher taxes are inevitable. Said President Hoover:

"Economies and taxes alike call for sacrifices—sacrifices which are a part of the country's war on Depression. The Government no more than individual families can continue to spend more than it receives without inviting serious consequences. . . . The American people are no less courageous and no less wise than the people of other nations. . . . We can overcome this national difficulty by willingness to sacrifice and by the resolute unity of national action."

¶ Two years ago when Hubert Prior Vallée was in Washington a White House secretary suggested to President Hoover that it would be good publicity and politics for him to receive the crooner. The President, before consenting, was reported to have replied rather irritably: "Who is Rudy Vallée?" Last week Crooner Vallee was back at the White House, this time with his wife, daughter of Chief of Police Webb of Santa Monica, Calif.* In the President's office the following talk occurred (according to Vallée):

Crooner: Mr. President, you may remember I met you two years ago.

President: Yes. I'm glad to see you married a California girl.

Crooner: Well, we Californians must stick together.*

President: Are you still pleasing people with your songs?

Crooner: I hope so.

President: Well, if you can sing a song that would make people forget their troubles and the Depression, I'll give you a medal.*

Two months ago President Hoover asked Will Rogers to crack a joke which would stop hoarding.

¶ On the advice of his Attorney General, President Hoover signed the Norris-La Guardia bill outlawing "yellow-dog" contracts between employer and employe and curbing the injunctive power of U. S. courts in labor disputes.