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HERBERT HOOVER

July 8, 1933

My dear Stoddard :

It seems like purely historical

reminiscences apparently have no purpose in

the world, but at least is an interesting

exercise .

Had Mr. Roosevelt acceded to my

strong recommendations, the Economic Confer¬

ence would have been held much earlier, and

had he adhered to his own promises and to

my urging we never would have gone off the

gold standard. The Conference would have

been entered upon then with the United State

as a member of the Gold Bloc and able to

force the other countries on the gold stan¬

dard, with the corresponding rise in prices

from a sound and enduring foundation.

I am filled with constant wonder

as to how long the American people will con¬

tinue to be fooled by the constant misrep¬

resentations and illusions held out from

Washington: the illusion that the curren¬

cies of the world were to be stabilized;

the illusion of the tariff truce; the illu¬

sion of the reduction of the tariff; the

illusion of the balancing of the budget;

the illusion of Government economies; the

illusion of the "emergency" character of

this regimentation of men; the illusion

that more cloth can be found in the bo^t by

changing the measuring stick; the illu¬

sion that the recovery which has taken

place is due to promises and not to funda¬

mental forces which have been held back by

Democratic political action in the spring

of 1932 and again in the early winter of

1933; the illusion that the moral fibre of

America can be maintained by repudiation of