Great Falls daily tribune., 1919-05-05
MR.. HOOVER'S BIG JOB

Mr.. Hoover is a mining engineer by profession
and good one at that if tested by the salary he
was earning before the war began. We are told
that his services were deemed worth 100000
year by the corporation that paid him his salary.
They probably were. for it has been demon
strated that Mr.. Hoover is a good deal more
than flrst-cass engineer. He is an executive
Of rare ability and diplomat besides. He gave
his services to the United States and the world
for 81 a year, and he worked at the job as he
probably never worked before, and encountered
and surmounted difficulties lying in the way of
his success that would have dsmayed most men.
A good many people in the United States have
been cussing Mr.. Hoover from time to time be-
cause he asked them to do things they never
did before and made them do it in cases where
they did not want to do it. But ne saved millions
from starvation in the world. Long after his
detractors are dead and forgotten the people in
distant parts of the world will be building monu-
ments to Mr.. Hoover if they have any apprec-
alton and gratitude in their makeup and we will
be proud that he was an American citizen. Mr.
Hoover's job is nearly done. Soon he will be
able to resign his dollar year job and return
to mining engineering or something else more
highly paid. We do not know anything about his
private financial circumstances, but unless he is
a rich man he must be getting about broke on
his dollar salary by this time. The New York
Evening Post whose editor, Mr. Willard has just
returned from Germany and central Europe, tells
Us that his task over there is about completed
In a recent issue of the Post he says
Striking evidence of Mr. Hoovers progress in
comes in the news that he has called on Poland,
Jugo-SlaVia, Czecho-S o-Sloyakia, and Rumania to
begin re-establishing normal commerce in food.
These are the four friendly countries where the
relief administration has had its most urgent
task. When Mr.. Hoover went abroad some COM
munities were starving, and in some starvation
was a month away The present moment is that
IN which the exhaustion of home stocks is great
est in Europe; but Mr.. Hoover reports plenty Of
food avallable-35, 900 900 tons for the year end
ing August, as against less than 100000 tons
needed-and this food is pouring into western
Europe. lie wishes the four governments to set
up thelr own food commissions to purchase in
lhese western European markets, thus gradually
feleVng the relief commission of the work of
purchasing and forwarding foodstuffs. Accord
ing TO TODD administration officers here, Mr..
mowers retirement in six or eight months in
faVor OF normal commerce would mark the final
stage OF economic recovery Final but one On
the Whole these countries should be food-export-
ing, not food-importing. Agriculture must be
stimulated to revive along with commerce"
Mr.. Hoover will have no trouble in getting
other employment when he is free from his pres
ent task. Plenty Of private firms and CORPORA
tions will be ready to bid high for the brains and
ability he has shown. Uncle Sam can hardly
afford to lose him from his service. but unfor
tunatey Uncle Sam cannot compete in dollars
with private firms when it comes to buyinq
brains, though it can compete in buying almost
ANYTHING else it needs in government