The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1917-08-21
Who's Hoover.

christian Science Monitor)
Strange to say, Herbert Clark Hoo
yer is little known. That is, while the
whole world has heard of him, and
while a very large part OF the world
admires, respects, and honors him be-
cause of his mastery administration
of Belgian relief, comparatively few
know anything Of the past OF the
man. or OF his struggles and successes
in private life.
He is a native OF West Branch, Ia.
in which place his boyhood was spent.
He had none of the advantages which
the sons of people in easy circum-
stances may enjoy. His parents We're
poor Quakers, and the first great fact
to present itself to the consci ousn ess
of Herbert Hoover was that he must
I get out and make his awn way
/ Bat he had one possession of which
he could not he deprived by poverty
or by any other circumstance within
the domain of his own effort and con-
troll This was an inspiration to sue
coed in the world. His bent was to-
ward engineering. an inclination de-
veloped by reading OF the achieve
ments of John Hays Hammond and
| others who had won eminence and
| position In the field of mining en-
cheering He longed. like these, to
! do big things in many lands. and ne
realized that the first thing. he must
| do was to get an education, at any
| cost OF personal exertion and indi-
! vidual sacrifice.
| To get an education involved get
! ting money. and the getting of money
[ involved earning it in any honorable
| way that might present itself. 1t Is
related to his credit that. while study
/ ing engineering in Leland Stanfo
Junior university, he worked as a
! laundry agent and took on other Jobs
equally mental All this however. he
had fully discounted 1t mattered
! nothing to him where he worked. or
what he had to do, so long as it " as
toward the attainment of his legiti-
! mate principal object. As usual IN
such cases. he made his way througft
college creditably. and from this point
onward his progress was not only re-
markable but exceptional
The sketch OF his career which is
oftenest consulted is necessarily so
| compressed and condensed as to be
little more than the recital OF a string
OF bone-dry facts punctuated with
dates. He is appointed to geological
surveys in Arkansas. and in the Sierra
Nevadas. he is made assistant man
ager of the Carlisle mines of New
Mexico; he becomes engineer of the
Morning Star mine in California: no
goes on, holding higher and higher
positions, gaining steadily in reD,,ta-
ton until we find him filing the post
OF engineer OF the Imperial Bureau of
Mines in China, Then the details
merge almost into the romantic for
the little barefoot Iowa hoy becomes
In succession the trusted consulting
engineer of mining corporations In
different parts of the world, the a,t-
thoriZed representative OF a hundred
I vvY{ ir.re Of
ties almost beyond price, and the en
ployer of $4,000 men. He lis brought
to London for consultation bv the
heads of international enterprises
He is recognized. in reality. as a sec
ond John Hays Hammond He is
looked up to as a potential Cecil
Rhodes. He is accorded distinction
as one Of the big men of the world
he is consulted by cabinets He is
put at the head or the greatest philan-
thropic undertaking of modern times
II not of all times
One of the circumstances that bave
escaped the scrutiny Of his bjopra
piers. or that have been ignored Nv
them as unessential or uninterestine
Is the fact that. while engaged in
analyzlng, assaying, and estimating
mineral products OF priceless value.
while negotiating with world canital,
lists, while managing huge properties
while submerged, as 1t were. In the
material and the practical, In the
technical and the scientific, this hip
brawny. bustling business man clos
eted with his wife, Lou Henry Hoover
like himself an A. r. of Stanford is
engaged upon translation. compita
ton, and elucidation of "Georgiua
Agricola De Re Metallica," founded
upon the first Latin edition of 1895
a monumental technical work puh.
lished BY the Mining Magazine, salia.
bury House. London, 1912.