The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1915-06-17
HOOVER H MAN WHO
SAVED THE BELGiANS
DR.. David Starr Jordan. IN the Sunset
MaRazine.

Or. David Starr Jordan, In the Sunset
Magazine.
Herbert @. Hoover, being 10 years OF
ISe, depending on his resources, quiet
elf-conident and sparing OF speech,
presented himself in 1891 in the new
stanford university az 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 h 465
students was a freshman likewise, lack
OF experience was no bar to anything.
So, as a freshman, he organized the
finances OF the student body on a
sound system which remains to this
day when the student group spends
many thousand dollars a year In its
varied activities.
Duly graduated Il 1896 as a mining
engineer, Hoover accepted the first po-
sition offered, q place on the staff OF
a mining corporation In Nevada coun-
ty, 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 desolato spot in the civil
lized world, Broken Hill. in the desert
Of New South Wales.
In this d~esolate, foSsaken waIlow Of
sand, zinc and gold, Hoover and his
teammate. d. p. Mitchell, OF SO, spent
q red hot summer 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
and go back to some honest trade In
California? This il the tradition. The
fact Is, they stayed by, and then came
a series OF events which led Hoover to
China, and 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 II as a pro-
fession except to pile up more money.
He had all the money he needed and he
wanted to do something else. There
was Agricola, whom he would like to
translate. There was a lot Of ancient
record stones from his mine on Mount
Sinai. There were rents that needed
mending In American politics. There
were lines Of administration into which
he might At. And knowing all the rest
OF h world as one might know his
wi backyard, he would like TO find
himself anchored In a land OF freedom,
a a n where q man is valued for his
manhood. VI.
When the wal began there were
more than 200, 900 Americans scattered
over Europe. These met with all sorts
OF troubles and grievances, great and
small. Some were rich and temporarily
stranded, some permanently poor, some
eking out petty incomes or alimonies in
the cheapest villages Of Bavaria, Sax
ony or France. The Hoovers took
charge OF the commission for their re-
lief. The operations OF the committee
at the Saxony hotel, wholly American
and wholly unpaid, showed the mar
WynlA.Nn N0ak A~I -lrNlI -wgAR.
lean folks can handle a new situa-
ton. About 5000 Americans were sent
home, and several times that number
gained temporary relief. The relief of
5000, 900 of Belg1ans against demo
cratic famine working day and night
was a problem OF infinite dimensions,
but Hoover tackled 1t as part of the
days work. II Belgium saved Europe"
as my good friend Sarolea says II 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 II. williams, OF Column
bia, writes most enthusiastically OF
the enormous versatility OF the Amer
lean young man." from Herbert Hoo
NeT IN LSOluOu WHO can OEBdnlZS my
thing, to the youngest Rhodes scholar
from Oxford, every American seemed
to be willing to do anything to aid
the work, and what Is more to the
point, he was able to do II 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 inkling to any one outside their
circle as to where their sympathies lay
during the var" ..
VIII Irwin. Stanford 'sS, after a visit
to Belgium, sends this word from Lon
don: IF you could only know what
Bert Hoover q been doing here, you'd
raise a monument to him It's often
been said that u American commits
sion Is the hope OF Belgium. Revise
that-it's Hoover that's the hope Of
Belgium. We can't tell the whole story
until after the war. We've three Stan
ford men on 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