Excerpts of the President's News Conference in Superior, Wisconsin

Mr. Sanders has suggested to me that while I have been a candidate for office in a great many previous campaigns for a good many years, with the exception of the fall of 1908, and have been constantly elected to something, that this time the only thing I was a candidate for was retirement and apparently I am going to be successful in that.

I have had a very pleasant visit with Secretary and Mrs. Hoover. The press was out there yesterday morning and after they came away we had lunch and the Secretary and I went fishing for a short time in the afternoon. He is a more expert fisherman than I am. I can't tell just when I shall accept Mr. Hoover's resignation. I expect to do so very shortly. There are some things in relation to his Department that have to do with the Pacific Coast that I want him to look into a little, so it will be some time after he gets out there before I shall accept his resignation.

PRESS: Have we authority to quote your remark about Mr. Hoover's being a more expert fisherman?

PRESIDENT: No, —no.

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The members of the press have been out to the Lodge a couple of times and I think now probably from their own observation they will be able to report that the mosquitoes are not very deadly. Did any of you get bitten by mosquitoes yesterday? [Stenographer's note: no answer.] Then there must have been some error in the reports that have been sent all over the United States that mosquitoes eat every one up, and it might be a graceful thing if the press would report that as a result of personal investigation the mosquitoes have entirely disappeared. That is an old story that always goes the rounds when I go into the country. The newspapermen have nothing to write about for the first two or three days, so they elaborate on the mosquito stories. I don't care anything about it particularly, but when people have been kind enough to put at my disposal a very beautiful and enjoyable place, as I have had the advantage of having for the past two or three years, to have reports sent all over the country that it is a very bad place and uncomfortable for anyone to live in, it can hardly be very pleasing to the people that own the place, and if the press could report that which is the fact, that the mosquitoes have entirely disappeared and that the place is very beautiful and very enjoyable, I think it would be a courtesy that perhaps is due to the owners of the property.