Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-07-24

| HTNFFICIENCY receives his devoted serV-
II ice, but always with that discrimina.
tion that never loses sight Of the human
element Of the people he is working Tor
and those that are working with him.
That is the way Herbert c. Hoover is
described by Hugh Gibson in the course Of
n thoroughly Informative and intensely
readable monograph In the current Century
Magazine. mfr Gibson should Know what
he is talking about. During the first two
years of the European war he was the first
secretary of the United States Legation In
Brussels, Belgium. So his data on Mr..
Hoover are frst-hand vested with authority
of fact, finely appreciative personally, with
out bias and without hyperbole.
The question. who is Hoover?" Is not
asked often nowadays. II was asked OFTEN
enough at the commencement OF our part
in the struggle of the world. But now Mr..
Hoover is as widely known as President
Wilson. Just why he Is so prominent II Is
the purpose Of Mr.. Gibson's story to tell.
Food conservation Is but a part of the
narrative for Herbert c. Hoover has played
many, varied and vigorous roles In his
life-drama and that of our own ana other
peoples Some of the incidents recounted
have the warlike tlnge and illustrate ad-
mirably the fxity OF spirit and the adher-
ence to purpose of the man,
Caught in Boxer Uprising
Here is one, not perhaps, one Of the most
important, but surely one of the most pic
torial ever penned:
AFTER a few years In Australia. Hoover
was offered the position of director OF mines
of the Chinese Empire. His firm released
him from his contract. and he started for
China by way of America In the spring
of 1899.
The new position was about as inter-
esting as any that could fall to the lot OF
Il; had mir
for thousands of years. but always In
small and most primitive way. The sur
face had been scraped off and sifted over
but no one knew what was underneath
and little mining had been done by modern
methods. Neither had there been any
mining law in the country, miners holding
their temporary titles by favor Of the crown
or under the varying regulations of the
local authorities. So Hoover was called
upon to explore the country advise as TO
the development Of its mines and draw up
n mining code to meet the needs of the
empire This last was a task to stir the
blood of any engineer familiar with the
hopeless and uncouth growth which con-
stitutes the mining law Of all civilized
countries"
Mr.. Gibson goes on TO explain the fas-
cinating difficulties that beset the. Ameri-
can. "But just then his whole attention
was demanded for other troubles: the
Boxer uprising caught Hoover at Tientsin
He was recovering from an acute attack
of influenza and about to start on trip
into Mongolia. So he was in the thick OF
IL, for in Tientsin there was hot fighting
for a month. 1t was an active siege that
would All book in the teling-of shells
bursting in the houses by day and night.
bullets kicking up the earth in the garden
paths and not a word from the outside
world for weeks on end. And with 1t all
was the knowledge that when strength or
ammunition failed 1t was n question Of
bullet apiece as the easiest way out.
Hoover was there through It all only
because he chose to be. He had warning
from devoted Cinnamon concerned for his
safety. But he could not bring himself to
run away from his Chinese employees, who
had been faithful to him; he could not
leave them to be dealt with by the soldiers
Of many nations who might not know how
to distinguish between the different sorts
of Cinnamon. AS Mrs. Hoover refused to
go alone, the two stayed on. to care for a
few hundred yellow men,"
Kept Calm Under Strain
Follows a grimly suggestive sketch Of
the mortalities of those wild times:
1T Is well known that in those hectic
days there was not always fine discrim-
hoe