The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-02-26
WILL Mr.. HOOVER
FIT HIS NEW lob?
That Is a Question Some of
His Opponents Are
Asking
PRESIDENT-EEECT
fl CERTAIN He WILL
Senator Harding Confident That Former
Food Administrator Not Only win
Make Good Cabinet Member but
Build up Department.
By DAVID LAWRENCE.


(Special Despatch to The Reformer)
Copyright 1921.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26.-Herbert
Hoover's acceptance Of the portfolio of
secretary of commerce has been on the
whole well received in the national CAPT
tai though the men in congress who have
opposed him from the start still maintain
certain misgivings concerning the selec-
ton. They do not doubt Mr.. Hoover's
ability. but they question the compatible
ity of his temperament in any institution
like a presidential cabinet where the ele-
ment of politics plays so important part.
There is a story being told at the capt.
toll of conversation that took place at
St Augustine recently between Mr..
Harding and certain United States sena-
tor who went there to oppose the appoint
ment of Mr.. Hoover. The president-elect
swered the objection concerning Mr..
Hoover's inflexibility by showing his Wis
itOr COPY of letter received from the
former food administrator.
In that communication Mr.. Hoover said
he had noted the criticisms which We're
being made of the possible selection of
Henry c. Wallace for secretary of agri-
culture and he hoped Mr.. Harding would
not be dissuaded from appointing Mr..
Wallace because of that criticism. Mr..
Hoover went on TO say that during the
war he himself had been severely criti-
cized by Mr.. Wallace, who as the editor
of farm journal. had a good many things
| to say about the food administration
| Then Mr.. Hoover. in his letter, wrote
| substantially as follows: Looking back
now over what happened during the war,
/ | have come to the conclusion that Mr.
Wallace was right and / was wrong"
| The preSident-elect pointed to that SEN
tence as evidence that Mr.. Hoover is a
| brOad-minded man and that when he was
wrong he did not hesitate to acknowledge
| 1T. That letter is said to have had more
| to do with the determination of Mr.. Hard
/ ing to appoint Hoover than anything else.
/ Broadly speaking, the opposition to Mr..
| Hoover cannot be said TO have been molli-
1 fed by Mr.. Harding'S display of conf
! dence- in the former food administrator.
1 The truth is the skeptics insist that their
| judgment has been confirmed by the atti-
| tude which Mr. Hoover assumed when
the portfolio was rendered him. The crit
/ les say il was unwise for Mr.. Hoover to
| ask questions about the cabinet portfolio
i before agreeing to accept and that 1t puts
| Mr.. Harding in the awkward position of
i having submitted to. conditions imposed
by Mr.. Hoover
i AT bottom, however the opposition 70
/ Mr.. Hoover is really political and has its
| origin in the fact that the former food
| administration issued q statement sup
| porting President Wilson's appeal for the
reelection of a Democratic congress. Pol
lticians rarely forget such things and
wherever the Hoover statement was used
to the disadvantage of members of con-
gress in that campaign there is still a
ranking. Naturally, there was another
angle to be taken into consideration
that Mr. Hoover outside the cabinet might
grow into a potent political factor in
readiness for 1924, that he could play the
role of critic without sharing the burdens
lof responsibility. On the other hand, the
Epresence of Mr.. Hoover in the cabinet
will make him part and parcel of the
Harding administration. He will stand or
fall by the Harding record so long as he
| is member of the cabinet. And if he
stays until 1924, then the old political
adage would be invoked: If Harding has
made good, he himself is entitled to re-
nomination, If Ire hasn't made good. nc
member of his cabinet deserves the noini.
nation any more than the chief executive
ION such a line of political reasoning. even
the opponents of Mr.. Hoover in congress
are inclined to accept Mr.. Harding's de
cision as perhaps best under the circum.
stances Now the question is: What will
Mr.. Hoover do with the secretary ot
commerce-and will he make good? Be
cause of the very controversy which has
been going on it is safe prediction that
Herbert Hoover viii from the beginning
be more under the scrutiny of congress
sional eyes than any other member in the
cabinet.