Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-03-30
LOUD CALL FOR HOOVER
STIRS PARTY LEADERS
They View With Deep Concern
the Presidential Boom of For
mer Food Chief.

Washington. d. c., March 3O-Her-
bert Hoover is getting the goat" of the
politicians. He is the one man in the
United States for whom there seems
to be a downright demand in connec-
tion with presidential discussions. To
the politicians lit cannot be done, the
cry has come from the country, I'VE
want Hoover
This is one of the things that is worry
ing Washingtln lr the partisan part If IT.
BY old line politicians and new school
politicians it Is being viewed with
alarm" IL is frankly admitted to have
all the earmarks of a ground swell.
Even though Hoover has journalistic
friends who are willing to help him
along. his name unQuestionably has
taken hold more readily out side the mar
row limits of partisanship than any
other that has been flung to the breezes
of campaign gossip.
When the President makers look over
the field and see 20,000,00 women ap-
preaching the polls they throw up their
hands and concede that if Hoover is
nominated by either party on a pro-
sressive platform, his opponent will start
under a handicap few, if any. could over
come. 1t would be, they say. a case of
''Hcoverizing" American politics Just as
American households were "Hooverized'
during the war.
Some of the things that are being
pointed out as points OF strength Hoover
wise are the following:
He has constructive ability.
He is known quantity in big jobs.
He has had business experience
He knows Europe like a book.
He knows Asiatic aims
He is for the League of Nations with
reservations. He is a conservative dry,
not radical, like Bryan.
He is an experienced economist. He
is a self-made, hard-hitting practical
American insofar as politics cons lists OF
diplomacy. statecraft and knowledge OF
the physiology of human affairs.
He is a Westerner with Eastern con-
nections, and ms name Is known from
one end of the country to the other. He
is pubfic-spirited and honest.
All these are not qualities on which
he has a monopoly among Presidential
aspirants and possibilities but those who
yet away from party lines in their estl-
mates declare he combines more of the
qualities needed In q President AT the
present time than any other man. Even
Roosevelt was not a business man IN the
accepted sense of that term. President
Wilson never had business experience.
President Taft was q Judge. Most
Presidents have been soldiers or lawyers
or both.
Against this formidable array of as
sets rs seen by Hoovers friends may
be listed as liabilities the fact that he
has spent most of the last four OF five
years outside of the United States, was
absent entirely for three of those wears,
maintained an elaborate establishment
II a. u@ L.
headquarters IN London, is said by his
enemies to be very much pro-British in
his views and was so popular in Egypt
that. according TO one story. he was IN
vited 10 become a British subject
Whct her or not be seriously considered
II Is another question, and undoubtedly
would he promptly denied
But although this record for lab
senteeism' would seem to be almost
fatal for any ordinary individual seeking
Office in the United States, it hardly
seems 10 be taken into consideration over
the country generally. Lecturers, busi-
ness men and politicians who get about
to many districts in all sections of the
United States declare they hear Hoover
talk" everywhere-in the South, among
Kansas farmers, in great industrial
centres, along the Pacific coast and al
uavs among women wherever situated
Housewives seem to feel that the man
at whose request they ate dark bread
and skimped on sugar during the war
will not see them overcharged and rob
bed by profteers now the war Is over.
And the high cost of living more than
anything else is admittedly the principal
concern of the women who run the aver
age household How far Hoover senti-
ment has penetrated the political sys-
TEN OF the country vet is too early 10 be
estimated 1t is impossible TO forecast
his strength in either the Republican or
Democratic conventions in early ballots,
although he will unquestionably have
few votes in each to begin with, pro-
viding the Republicans don't nominate
him in Chicago before the Democrats get
around TO considering his availability at
San Francisco. But the fact remains
that he Is seen by leaders Of both parties
a. a figure OF vast potentialities and one
who IN deadlock might break their
hold on the delegates and sweep a con-
vention off its feet