National Affairs: Fifteenth Crossing

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. Goodwill between nations is not a policy or a task; it is a deduction arising from a series of actions. It is not a diplomatic formula; it is an inspiration which flows from the ideals of a people—Herbert Hoover in Costa Rica.

Exuding goodwill—and perspiration, for it grew hotter & hotter—President-Elect Hoover & party proceeded down the west coast of Central America, making four calls, to South America.

Salvador. After Amapala, Honduras, the first stop (TIME, Dec. 3) came La Union, Salvador. The Gulf of Fonseca was ruffled by a smart blow and the U. S. S. Maryland's launches, in which the travellers crossed it, jounced and plunged. Like President Barahona of Honduras, President Pio Romero Bosque of Salvador found himself unable to receive the visitors, but sent his ministers of exchequer and foreign affairs. These dined the Hoovers at the home of James Gaylor, railroad man. The Maryland sailed that evening for Corinto, Nicaragua.

Nicaragua. President-Elect Hoover had not yet seen a Latin American President, though at Amapala, President-Elect Colindres of Honduras had appeared. At Corinto, not only President Adolfo Diaz was present but also onetime-President Frutos Chamorro, "Conservative" leader of 17 revolutions in the past four years, and President-Elect Jose Maria Moncada, "Liberal" leader whose election was overseen by U. S. Marines. All three boarded the Maryland to break bread and discuss common desires. At a shore reception, Mr. Hoover had been handed a glass of champagne which he politely touched to his lips but did not sip. He now toasted Nicaragua in water and observed: "This occasion . . . represents a growing and united Nicaraguan people; a consolidation of forces for domestic peace. ... I know it is the will of the American people that we should cooperate. . . ."

Common desires expressed by MM. Diaz, Moncada & Chamorre were, a) To retain some U. S. Marines to continue training the Nicaraguan national guard; b) to persuade the U. S. soon to build the long-planned interoceanic canal across Nicaragua, for which a treaty and $3,000,000 have already been furnished. One of the canal's original promoters, Judge Henry Douglas Pierce of Indianapolis, who first traversed the proposed route from west to east half a century ago, was in Nicaragua on one of many missions which have brought Nicaraguan leaders to favor the project. Judge Pierce, stricken with pneumonia at Managua, missed the Hoover party but was cheered by reports that the President-Elect seemed impressed with the necessity for another canal in view of the Panama Canal's increasing crowdedness.

The Hoover party left Nicaragua amid conventional comments.