Violence strode the world last week. Great storms lashed the Great Lakes (see p. 15), the stock market crashed historically (see p. 45), assassin's guns were pointed in Belgium and Chile (see pp. 27, 32). President Hoover, rumbling through Indiana, felt his special train grind to a stop. A sedan had been placed on the tracks at a grade crossing. Secret Service operatives investigated on the spot. Two Negroes were arrested. They succeeded in convincing their captors that, ignorant of the President's proximity, they had plotted merely to collect damages from the railroad.
Innocent though the Negroes may have been, the midwest's weather was wicked. It rained and blew as the President, after dedicating a monument at Cincinnati, proceeded down the newly-canalized Ohio River. The river steamer Mississippi, especially equipped for the President's ride to Louisville, went aground, forcing him to embark on the less comfortable lighthouse tender Greenbrier. Whipped by enormous winds, the yellow waters rose up into unwonted waves which battered and buffeted the President's craft most disrespectfully.
At Madison the Greenbrier paused for the President to receive Indiana's salute. Only four guns of the 21-gun salute were fired. Damp powder exploded one cannon, killing National Guardsman Robert Earle, injuring three others.
Louisville was soggy with rain when the Greenbrier docked there at dusk. Soggy too were the President's silk hat, his dress coat. Sportingly he remarked: "If I'm going to leave a trail of pneumonia behind me in the middle west, I at least ought to go along the trail myself."
More policemen than citizens witnessed the Louisville parade. The hall where the President spoke was only half-filled with curious spectators who did not grasp the significance of his speech on inland waterway development (see p. 13).
¶ The President cabled President Carlos Ibañez of Chile: "I am most gratified to learn of your fortunate escape from the attempt on your life" (see p. 32).
¶ To the White House looked stock traders for some word of hope as the market slumped. The President's word: "The fundamental business of the country ... is on a sound and prosperous basis. ... A temporary drop in grain prices in sympathy with stock exchange prices usually happens. ..."
¶ Deeply grieved was President Hoover last week to hear physicians despair of saving the life of Senator Theodore Elijah Burton of Ohio, the President's good friend and campaign supporter, ill for weeks following an attack of influenza (TIME, Oct. 14). Back from Ohio, President Hoover again visited the dying scholar, statesman, peace-lover, whose interest in waterways was recognized by Rooseveltian appointment to chairmanship of the Inland Waterways Commission 22 years ago. Mr. Burton died full of years (77) and honor (see p. 65).
¶ Last week President Hoover appointed: Lawyer Walter Ewing Hope of Manhattan,