Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1915-06-17
HOOVER THE MAN WHO
SAVED THE BELGlANS
DR.. David Starr Jordan, in the Sunset
Magazine.

DR.. David Starr Jordan. in the Sunset
Magazine.
Herbert c. Hoover, being 10 years OF
age, depending on his resources, quiet,
self-contident and sparing of speech,
presented himself in 1891 in the new
Stanford university as the first student
to be registered, the first occupant OF
Encina hall. and as the nucleus OF the
department of geology and mining. AS
nearly everybody else among the 400
students was a freshman likewise. lack
of experience was no bar to anything
SO, as a freshman, he organized the
%nan of the student body on a
sound system which remains to this
day when the student group spends
many thousand dollars q year in its
varied activities.
Duly graduated in 1895 as a mining
engineer, Hoover accepted the first po-
sition offered, a place on the staff of
a mining corporation in Nevada coun-
~, California. The pay was 81 per day,
the assignment to push ore laden cars
from the mouth of the mine to the re
ducing works. The cars all reached
their destination. and a more special
lied Job followed. Next he appeared
In the most desolate spot in the civil
LIKED world, Broken Hill, in the desert
of New South Wales,
In this d%esolate, forsaken wallow of
sand, zinc and gold, Hoover and his
teammate. u. p. Mitchell, of SO, spent
a red hot summe night discussing the
chances of a return to the world.
Should they go on as wage working
mining experts in the countries God
forgot. or should they throw 1t all up
II go back to some honest trade in
California? This is the tradition. h
fact is, they stayed by, and then came
a series of events which led Hoover to
CHINA, n Mitchell as a general man
ager to Melbourne.
He was "a years old. He had gone
to the limit as a mining engineer. He
could do nothing more with it as a pro-
Iesslon except to pile up more money
He had all the money he needed and he
wanted to do something else. There
was Agr1cola, whom he would like to
translate. There was a lot Of ancient
record stones from his mine on Mount
Sinai. There We're rents that needed
mendlng in American politics. There
were lines of administration into which
he might fit. And knowing all the rest
OF the world as one might kno his
own backyard, he would like to find
himself anchored In asland of freedom,
a land where a man is valued for his
manhood.
When the war began there were
more than 100000 Americans scattered
over Europe. These met with all sorts
daAu dllStSS, Siedl II
small. Some were rich and temporarily
stranded, some permanently poor, some
eklng out petty Incomes or alimonies in
lhe cheapest villages of Bavaria, Sax
ony or France. The Hoovers took
charge of the commission for their re-
lief. The operations Of the ornmitt
at the Saxony hotel, wholly American
and wholly unpaid, showed the mar
Vicious tact and skill with which Amer
ican folks can handle a new situa-
| ftnn Ah0J1f & n0n -.
home. and several times thai number
gained temporary relief. The relief of
5000 900 of Belgians against demo
cratic famine working day and night"
was a problem Of infinite dimensions,
but Hoover tackled it as part of the
days work. If Belgium saved Europe"
as my good friend Sarolea says it did,
then America saved Belgium and
Hoover was her agent.
When Hoover began the work he
pressed the American Rhodes scholars
at Oxford into his unpaid service in
Belgium and all at once, being Amer
lean boys, they became of the same
type like unto himself.
DR.. Percy III. Williams, of Colum-
bia, writes most enthusiastically of
the enormo versatility of the Amer
lean young man." from Herbert Hoo
yer in London who can organize any
thing, to the youngest Rhodes scholar
from Oxford, every American seemed
" NC Nliiiil6 " w any lIllIlS TO all
the work, and what is more to the
point, he was able to do it when he
tried. These Rhodes boys as we
called them, had no fear of anything"
They could do anything, associate with
anybody, and never lost temper, never
gave an inllling to any one outside their
circle as to where their %sympathies lay
during the war
Will Irwin, Stanford '9S, after a visit
to Belgium, sends this word from Lon
don: IF you could only know what
Berl Hoover has been doing here. you'd
raise u monument to him. It's often
been said that our American commits
sion is the hope of Belgium. Revise
that-its Hoover that's the hope of
Belgium. We'can't tell the whole story
until after the war. We've three Stan
ford men IN the commission now
Hoover, Allen and me. I've virtually
had to drop the work and get back to
my job of war corresponding, but
Hoover and Allen are working their
heads Off"