The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1917-06-06
WHY ARE POLITICIANS
BLOCKING HOOVER

cepted the work of Herbert Hoover
in Belgium as evidence of his ability
to cope with the less acute but no
ness important situation here, has
not quite grasped the nature OF the
opposition to him, which is evident
from the reports going out from
Washington. The criticism that he is
a man newly risen into prominence
has had no weight with the man in
the street, who knows much less OF
many people who have been longer
in the public eye. And in the absence
of any person more conspicuousiy
qualified, criticism of Mr.. Hoover's
experience falls flat. Three years OF
feeding a nation during war time is
at least three years more than any
body else in America has had. Rea-
soning thus the general public has
been disposed to credit the opposi-
ton which occasionally shows itself
to political uneasiness, or to that
kind of inaptitude which deliberate
bodies can be counted on to provide
in any crisis. Just about SO much
fumbling is to be expected anyway,
argues the man in the street, and
goes on accepting Hoover as the sole
authority on food conditions.
Opposition to a food controllership
on democratic grounds would be bet
ter understood, byt the truth is that
Mr.. Hoover's opposers dare not make
very much Of that, because his whole
conception Of Food Administration
is a much more democratic thing
that the regime which his detractors
! advocate.
At first the idea Of a new depart.
ment Of Food Administration found
favor. It meant, among other things
the creation of some eight or ter
thousand salaried departmental jobs
which meant a handsome increase o.
political patronage. It meant alst
that people holding such positions
would probably be willing to surren
der them at the close of the war, ant
might involve the establishment of ,
permanent department with possibl!
a Cabinet portfolio for its head.
| But presently it developed tina
Herbert Clark was not at all the sor
of man under whom such q bureau
cratic arrangement could prosper
| Mr.. Hoover's method is much simr
;. Ter, much more the method of every
day affairs. His experience in Eu
rope has made him distrustful of dc
partmental clerks in position %
great public responsibility. Therefor
he cut the ground under alt hopes Q
a Bureau of Food Administration b
stipulating that neither he nor hi
| associates should receive any salal
les.
It is not widely known, if know
: at all that Mr.. Hoover has conducte
, the whole Belgium Relief on ths
= basis. Neither he nor his staff ha
E received any remuneration. NJ
: Hoover even paid the rent of Il
J, house occupied by the c. B. r.
1 Brussels out Of his own pock
i rather than divert any of the reli'
e funds to that use. This, of cours
r applied only to administrative wor
r Stenographers and clerks receive
their customary wages, but ev'
these were often paid for out of t
!private means of the people who el
ployed them.
al Naturally an administrative sta
4 made up in this way would not ha
any room for politicians and tn
4 henchmen. And this, consciously
not, is the source Of much OF t
criticism Of Hoover's plan which
heard at Washington.
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