Helping Hand

History, often a slatternly housekeeper, seldom tidies up until long after the party is over. Usually she is more hindered than helped by her guests. But last week one distinguished guest lent history a helping hand.

Chatting in her column about one thing & another, Eleanor Roosevelt reminisced about the "Hoover depression," a phrase minted by the Democrats, widely circulated by her husband, and used as legal tender by a whole generation. Wrote she: "If only we can avoid a repetition of the depression that culminated in Mr. Hoover's administration, we will be very fortunate. This depression, of course, had nothing to do with President Hoover's policies, but was the result of after-war activities by certain groups."

Could any President have done more than Hoover did to turn back the economic tide? Those who remembered Hoover's ineffectual insistence that prosperity was just around the corner might still wonder. Whatever the causes of the depression, to them Hoover remained its perfect symbol. But the concession was enough to send New York Times Pundit Arthur Krock into fits of dignified glee. Crowed Krock: "A sweeping verdict of 'not guilty,' by this particular juror . . . must have astonished Herbert Hoover more than anything in years."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.