The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1923-03-29
HOOVER TOSPEAK
AT LEAGUE MEET
Secretary of Commerce to
Address Mass Meeting
in Des Moines.
CAREER RIVALS FICTION

In inviting the secretary of commerce
to address a great mass meeting on
April 18th at the fourth annual con-
vention in Des Moines, the National
League of Women Voters selected a
man whose career would be criticised
in a hero of fiction as entirely too I'M
probable Such adventures as have be-
fallen Secretary Hoover do not happen
EXCEPT in real life. Only in real life
does the son Of an Iowa Quaker black
smith sit in the presidents cabinet at
AZ and seldom in all the history of the
country has any man managed to crowd
the years between with so many things
worth telling.
Secretary Hoover was left an orphan
at 10, and at IA began life for himself
in a real estate Office in Portland, Ore.
Three years later, thanks to night
schools and hard study, he entered
brand new Stanford University in Cali
fornia and earned his own living while
he attended lectures, putting in the va
cations on government surveys and
learning the rudiments Of his profess
sion of mining engineer.
In West Australia.
His first experience in making mine
success was in West Australia. In
1899, coming back to California, he
married, as so many co-educational col
lege men do, college-mate, Miss Lou
Harvey. Mr.. and Mrs. Hoover worked
together on the translation of Ode Re
Metallica," a Latin treatise on mining
written in 1856 by George Bauer, who
signed his name in Latin fashion "Agri-
cola" They brought it out in 1912, but
before that they had roamed the world
over and done many thrilling things
including helping defend the besieged.
legations during the Boxer rebellion In
China where Mr.. Hoover had gone as
chief engineer of the Chinese Imperial
bureau of mines. They had also added
two splendid boys to the Hoover line.
Between 1902 and 1907 Mr.. Hoover
went around the world five times super
vising the management of mines in In
dia, China, South Africa, Russia, Aus
tralia and less remote places. Califor-
MIA was always his home, however, and
in 1913 the managers of the California
Exposition asked him to help interest
Europeans in their project. He was in
London, ready to sail for home, when
war came in August, 1914. Americans
stranded in Europe naturally gravitat-
ed to his Office and the informal relief
he organized grew into huge per-
fectly functioning arrangement to
bring 100000 Americans home.
Heads Belgian Relief.
When somebody was needed to head
the Belgian relief work, the American
ambassador asked Mr.. Hoover to under
take it and if choices Of the right per-
son were always so easy the life of an
ambassador would be the simplest
thing in the world. Americans at home
know Mr.. Hoover best as food admin
istrator in war time, when without
bothering congress or legislatures
about it, he established meatless days
and fatless meals and made white flour
disappear from patriotic tables, accom-
plishing the virtual rationing of a ma
tion by sheer force of personality,
thing which England found it, hard to
do with the most stringent laws.
After the war he was director gen
eral of relief for the allied and asso-
ciated powers and a seat in the presi-
dents cabinet perhaps seems to- him,
after the strenuous life of his earlier
wears, almost a good chance to rest, for
no amount Of cabinet work can be as
nerve racking as his days of still
untold dangers before and during the
war. 1t is likely the story of those
days will always remain untold for Mr..
Hoover is still the quiet Quaker who
does not talk Of himself. What he
means to talk about at the convention
mass meeting is not yet known. The
tonic for the evening is Americas Re-
sponsibility for World Peace; How
Shall 1t Be Metz" but Mr.. Hoover has
not announced how he will speak to
that point. All the league knows is
that unless official duties at the last
minute keep him away, he will speak
and whatever he says will be exceed
ingly we'll worth hearing.