The Hoover Week

When a seventh consecutive Press conference was cancelled at the White House, correspondents predicted in print that this contact system had been abolished. The next conference was not cancelled. Explained the President: "You know I've been fairly busy recently." Then he read a mimeographed statement about signing the Home Loan Bank bill. P: Without fuss or feathers, President Hoover signed the Unemployment Relief Bill.

P:Particulars of the rise & fall of Herbert Hoover's personal fortune were set forth last week in the August FORTUNE. "Mr. Hoover has been attacked without justice and defended without reason," said FORTUNE and presented "without comment, the ascertainable facts": Before 1900 Engineer Herbert Hoover had saved not more than $10,000. That year's transfer of Chinese coal mines to a London syndicate of which he was the agent profited him $150,000, started him out as a capitalist. A junior partnership in the London firm of Bewick, Moreing & Co., mine managers and promoters, gave him about $50,000 per year. In 1902 the dishonesty of another junior partner cost him about $165,000, wiped out his reserves, set him back two years. As a senior Bewick, Moreing partner he made $125,000 per year, not counting directors' fees and bonuses. By 1908 when he left Bewick, Moreing to work for himself, he was worth $500,000 or more. His biggest venture and largest success was the Burma mines, producing lead, silver, copper and zinc. In 1914 his Burma shares were worth $1,141,465. Friction developed with his partner and in 1915 he started to liquidate his Burma mines holdings. From them he got between $2,654,000 and $3,142,000. As consultant and director from 1908 to 1914 he made some $500,000 in "routine" salaries, fees and stock bonuses which FORTUNE assigns to "living expenses." Promotion of other oil and mining companies brought his capital up to $4,000,000 in 1914. From this high point when he stopped private work, his fortune began to decline. He lived expensively, generously during the War and as Secretary of Commerce. He built fine homes in Palo Alto and Washington. In 1920 he dropped $300,000 on the Washington Herald, when he was thinking about the Democratic Presidential nomination. To Leland Stanford he contributed $150,000 for a War library. Other investments went bad. Concludes FORTUNE: "Mr. Hoover's present holdings would not realize on the market $700,000.

. . . [His] present wealth is now solidly invested in the best available bonds . . . in a strong box in New York." Lazy Washington newsmen and skeptics called the FORTUNE article "inspired" for campaign purposes. Such was not the case. It represented diligent independent research from original sources, checked against data supplied by those who know the Hoover finances best.

P: Pink roses, crape myrtle and maidenhair fern decorated the State dining room table when President Hoover had Dr. Harmodio Arias, President-elect of Panama, in to luncheon. P: Aug. 11, one day after his 58th birthday, was set for President Hoover's speech accepting renomination. P: President Hoover transferred the Department of Commerce's Radio Division (established in 1911) to the Federal Radio Commission. Affected were 190 employes, an annual expenditure of $490,000.

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