Evening star., 1924-06-05
HOOVER FIGHTS DRAFT
FOR VICE PRESIDENCY
Commerce Secretary Held Not to
Want Second Place ON Ticket
at Any Price.
BEGS HIS FRIENDS TO DESIsT
Would Rather Be High Private"
Than "Shelved" in Senate Chamber
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Herbert Hoover is making a gallant
fight not to be nominated as the Re-
publican candidate for Vice President
In accents that admit of no miscon-
Struction, the Secretary of Commerce
insists that he will not accept second
place. on the Coolidge ticket at any
, price. Hoover isn't a man OF many
words, and he is soft-Spoken with
those that he now and then parts
with. But he has seldom been so
voluable. or so conversationally force
full, as he is these days when ward
ing off the suggestion that the Cleve-
and ticket ought to read Coolidge and
Hoover" If the emphasis that an un-
commonly straightforward personality
puts on his statements means any
hing, the Republicans on Lake Erie
next week, if they want Hoover for
jhan draft him onto the ticket. They'll
have TO drag him onto ii. And he
may not stay put. even then.
California was preparing to send
an old-fashioned Hoover boosting
contingent to the national conVen-
1lon. 1t was to cross the country in
a special train with streamers all the
way from the locomotive to the OBJ
<ervation car. glorifying the war
time food administrator and savior of
Belgium as the ideal running mate
tor Calvin Coolidge. L. N Dickson,
editor of the Los Angeles Evening
r.Xpress. long ago coined the slogan
Coolidge and MISUNDERSTANDING
SettS and California-Hands Across
he Continent" Hoovers stronghold
= southern California, in the thickly
populated country around Los An
Seles. That section of the state, and
hn Coz INrov
prepared to back Hoover's candidacy
for the presidency, when there were
reports, early in 1928, that Warren
g. Harding might not desire a re-
homlnalon. When Calvin Coolidge
;icceded to the presidency he won
instant favor among California Re
puhlicauS, but these continued to
suggest that, if any emergency made
coolidge unavailable as a candidate
TO succeed himself, Hoover was their
next first choice"
Frowns on. Movement.
Secretary Hoover has been aware
or the California movement to put
him on the Coolidge ticket at Cleve-
ana, but was consistently frowned
upon II. He begged his friends to de-
'lst. He told them that in the event
OF the Presidents election to a full
term of office, he would be quite con-
tent, II asked, to remain a member of
MS cabinet. He would immensely
prefer cabinet rank, Hoover ey
Plained' to vice presidential anony-
NIFTY. He has a horror of being
.Shelved' as presiding officer of the
senate. He has never worn a gag
ana never is comfortable in q role
that requires uncompromising neu-
trallty. Hoover would be as unhappy
and diScontented in the post OF Presi-
dent of the Senate as tho proverbial
lsh out of water. He doesn't think
he cou,d stand it" He would vastly
prefer private life, with the endless
opportunities it offers for man OF
MS vision. influence and experience.
70 the drowsiness which goes with
the vice Presidents coIorless func-
lions.
His friends think that il there is
I" he A regulation Coolidge admins
fration after March 4. 1925. Hoover
would not long be kept at the De.
partment of Commerce. His work
there is pretty we'll done. He has
made the department a factor, instead
or a cipher. in the business life. of
the country. Merchant, manufac-
turer and shipper. banker, exporter
and importer, even labor. have come
I" look upon the Commerce Depart
ment as Il real ally since Hoover put
his shoulder to the wheel there in
1921. His achievements haven't
heen of the spectacular nature. But
they are recorded and acclaimed in
every important business Office of
the country.
Might Prefer Change.
Probably if Hoover were asked to
remain i'll the cabinet, and such va
cancieS existed, his preferences would
hc in the direction of the State De-
psrtrnent and the Interior Depart
rUcnt TO both portfolios he would
bring ripe experience and first-hand
knowledge.
No country in the world ever had
a foreign minister who could look
hack upon his years of practical eX-
perience with men and affairs in Asia,
australia, Europe and the two Amer
icas Nor has the Interior Depart
ment ever been conducted by an en-
gineer of Hoover's training and tai
entS.
One reason that nobody can get
Herbert Hoover to discuss, but which
must inevitably be in his mind when
the vice presidential mountain top is
shown to him. is that, after all, 1924
Is A political year in which no partyS
chances are 100 per cent certain. The
Coolidge ticket may not win in No
Ncmber And who's so dead 50
quite dead" as the English say-in
American politics as q defeated can
didate for the vice presidency? Hoov-
er's admirer never cease to think of
him as presidential timber. He has
at least ten virile years ahead of
him They are loathe, among other
reasons, to see him run even a re-
mote risk of premature oblivion.
Copyright. 1924