The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-04-04
HOOVER IS PLAYING PRESIDENTIAL CAME
 WITH MASTER HAND
After Flirting With Demo crats, He Causes No Sur prise By His Dec
 laratiOn
By HUGH W. ROBERTS Washington Bureau The Age Herald
 59g Davidson Building

590 Davidson Building
 Washington, April Special )-No. \ man who has ever aspired to the presi-l dency of the United States more de- liberateiy calculated his chances than Herbert Hoover.
 This is the Washington opinion fol- lowing the announcement of President Wilson's former food administrator. that he is a full fledged candidate III the republican field. MT Hoover still contends that he is not seeking the nomination despite his candidacy. lie prefers to plead his cause as one on whom the nomination is about to be showed.
 Until the announcement of Hoover that he is a republican, great many democrats swore he was as great as Mahomet and such greatness should De utilized by the democratic party " perpetuating itself in office The New York World the biggest democratics paper, editorially indorsed his candi ' dacy and President Wilson, prior to, the Jackson Day dinner. January s. waA1 understood to have sponsored his causs In Georgia where Hoover declined 9} nomination by democrats. a certain element of the party Insisted that heI be drafted even against his wishes.
 And yet the formal announcement or
 
 caused no great surprise MT. Hoover was a republican when MT. Wilson in vited him into the democratic fold. He was a member of the Republican Cluol of New York During the war he was a good democrat. He resigned his l mem bership in the republican club, and later made an appeal to the people of the United States to elect congress l which would uphold the hands of the President of the United States.
 But quite recently, when, in other words the people gave attention to the necessity of electing successor, to Woodrow Wilson, it became bruited around that Hoover was inclined to re-enter the republican party in belief that this year it would prove the stronger organization, and abler to put | its nominee into the White House. At | the Jackson Day dinner it was an nounced that MT. Hoover's views diff l fered with those of the President re garding the League of Nations. And l later MT. Hoover told democratsN in several states to refrain from putting his name on their tickets for primary | election purposes. And then, as a fina l straw, MT. Hoover, having forced demo 4 crats to elin mate him as a democratic | candidate in California, permitted re l l publicans in that state to reckon with l his name.
 | " Mir Hoover speak. He spoke.
 The food administrator, as previously l pointed out in this correspondence, will make his big fight in California. the state he declares to be his native state As the democrats have no primary of l their own. and as the law of California | permits any registered voter to partici- pate in not more than one primary, it is understood that many democrats will l vote for Hoover in the republican pri- mary He will draw that heavy Cali l fornia vote which wants League of | Nations with suitable reservations, and l which is opposed to Senator Johnson i running on a platform insisting that 1 there be no league at all. And Hoovef will appeal to the ntf-prohibition strength of California which has al- ways been the majority strength and | which is now more vfri1e than ever be- fore. The food administrator as is re-, called, announced his political status on liberal as contrasted against re ! stricted platform The great libera element of the United States, up to the result of Hoover's position, an oasis in the apparently endless desert.
 It is understood that Flowers nation : wide organization will form with thd food conservation bureaus of the sev eral states of the Union as nucleus. The candidate will capitalize his inti- macy with the women of the country 1 with whom he labored during the war. I and it is reported that he win have A greater female strength than any othe | individual now before the limelightS In addition to many other qualitiea which appeal to the women voters, in point of pulchritude second only to A. Mitchell Palmer among all the candi- dates for the presidency.
 Of course, Mir Hoover, despite his long and careful calculation, will have a fight on his hands. The republican organization and Boss" Penrose, per sonally, looks not kindly upon Hoover. For he joined Wilson in 1918, in call ing on the patriotic" people of the United States to elect a democratic congress. Penrose construed this to mean that in the opinion of MT. Hoovsr and the President, the republican party, in congress and private life. was not a patriotic party. And William !. Bryan is opposed to Hoover not only because he is a republican. but because he does not embrace all the nostrums of the anti-saloon league And a cer- tain element. the anti-British element. opposes MT, Hoover because he Is Brit ish in appearance and in manner, this traceable perhaps to his long residenee in England. His English connection conjures up automatically Wall streel connection. and revives the old story that no man can be elected President of the United States who runs without the approval of King George.
 MT. Hoover pays his respects to all his enemies. He has authorized the following:
 Senator Penrose says I am not his kind of a republican. MT. Bryan sayl am not his kind of democrat M-. Hearst says l am not his kind of.an American. -
 ..Each is correct in his rtat...