"Advance Agent"

"If there was ever a man," said Robert Latham Owen, outstanding Democratic "bolter" of last week (see p. 11), "fitted to be an advance agent of prosperity, it is Herbert Hoover." The "advance agent" made the first formal public speech of his Nomineehood last week, at San Francisco's Civic Centre (city hall). He found words "difficult vehicles" for thanking Californians for presenting his name to the G. O. P. He reminisced about early California, before Mayor James Rolph Jr. became a "public institution in San Francisco" and when (33 years ago) young Herbert Hoover hunted a job there. It was a non-political speech, unless the following was politically construed: "The outlook of the world today is for the greatest era of commercial expansion in history. The rest of the world will become better customers. . . . This incoming flood of prosperity, if it be guided aright, will enable you to add further to the beauty of this city and the comfort of its people." P: The welcoming ceremony, delayed a week because of Mrs. Hoover's father's death (TIME, July 30), was by no means the most exacting part of the Beaver Man's week. Rising early on San Juan Hill and staying up late, he worked and reworked, in longhand, his speech accepting the nomination. He conferred constantly with visiting politicos and friends --Senator Johnson of California and his manager, Charles L. Neumiller; Attorney-General Ottinger of New York, who aspires to succeed Governor Smith; Mrs. Worthington Scranton, dashing National Committeewoman from Pennsylvania; Louis B. Mayer, politically ambitious cine-man; Henry S. Pritchett, president of the Carnegie Foundation; Howard Heinz, Pittsburgh pickle man; and many another. P: The night of the Tunney-Heeney fight, the newest of six new radio sets (sent on approval) was in operation at the Hoover abode. The end of the week saw the Nominee headed north, for "complete relaxation," on a 1,000-mile motor trip to the headwaters of the Klamath River. With him, in eleven cars, went newsgatherers, cameramen, President Ray Lyman Wilbur of Stanford University and several professors; Allan Hoover (youngest son); Assistant U. S. Attorney-General William J.("Wild Bill") Donovan; Representative John John Quillin Tilson of Connecticut; George Akerson (secretary) ; also fishing rods, flies, the acceptance speech (for further reworking) and a batch of "crank" letters. The latter amuse the Nominee. One man begged a new set of false teeth, which reminded the Nominee of a cheerer at the Hoover reception last month in Evanston, Ill., who lost his "plate" at the height of the excitement and had to scramble for it in full view of all. To avoid ostentation and accidents, the vacation motorcade was strung out in pairs of cars or singly. The five-day itinerary was Palo Alto to Bull Flat in the Eel River Valley; to Medford, Ore.; to Hornbrook, Calif., on the Klamath River; then back to San Francisco by rail, and by motor to Palo Alto again. In the spectacular Redwood country the Nominee sat by a camp fire, told stories, smoked a pipe. Cameramen begged for a "shot" of the pipe. "I am sorry," said the Nominee, "but a pipe is personal to the smoker and I would rather not." At a stop en route, the Nominee was asked how the roads were. "They're afflicted with that French disease known as detour" he said. Near Medford, wading the chilly "Rogue River at dawn, the Nominee obtained no reaction to his trout flies. "No luck" he said. "Let's go where there are some fish." P: In Burlingame, Calif., thejustice-of-the-peace waived a warrant, issued in 1925, for the arrest of Herbert Clark Hoover. Charge: motoring with glaring headlights. P:In West Branch, Iowa, a Mrs. Addie Clark showed a newsgatherer a scrawled schoolday note in her album: "To Addie: "Let your days be days of peas, "Slip along as slick as greese."

"Bert Hoover."