The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1928-04-19
| HERBERT HOOVER.
STATESMAN AND
AMERICAN Idol.
By CHARLES c. GEER)

2
welfare OF cur times" whose name IS
even new almost hepseho.d word t.
world over, % reirsel oar memories
of his unique record?
The tombstone of his career prob
ably lies in his Quaker ancestry of
which our latest contemporary phllos-
opher Trader Horn" has this to say:
THE Quaker, Maam, I've always held
to be above par whether in trade or
in religion or in ordinary life.
Born in the Quaker village of West
Branch. Iowa, his father, country
blacksmith, died when he was six; his
mother, a woman of unusual men,
tality, died when he was eight. De-
voted Quaker relatives carefully
brought him up, among them farm
er-doetor who made possible his at
tendance at a small Quaker academy
near Portland, Oregon.
At IA he was earning his own liv-
/ ing, and, meeting a mining engineer
while an office boy, learned from him
something of the outside world and
the opportunities afforded for the
study of science and engineering. Le-
land Stanford was just then being
established in California and David
Starr Jordan became its president.
Entering as a member of its first
freshman class, majoring in geology,
which department then included min
ing engineering, he graduated in 1895.
In the lecture room he not ONLY be-
came acquainted with the study of
geology and engineering, but also
with California girl, who later be-
came his wife and the mother of his
two boys.
His sheepskin not proving a prac-
teal tool, he laid it aside for min
er's pick The foreman of the May
flower mine in California delights to
tell of the days when young Hoover
was "just common laborer in his
gang Then followed an engineer
ing job in West Australia-one of the
worlds greatest deserts-which
meant dealing also with water sup
plies and transportation Unconscious
preparation for his future work. let
US hope, in solving the problem of
control of the Mississippi. Then
China beekoned; thither he went with
his bride to develop its mining inter
ests, Just in time to be bottled up for
four weeks in the siege of Tien Tsin
in the Boxer rebellion of 1900.
This was his baptism in war but
also his Introduction to foreign af
fairs and diplomacy.
1t may be fairly assumed that the
attitude of our government through
its great secretary Of state, John Hay,
in insisting on the administrative
entity of China and in influencing
the powers to declare publicly for the
open door," was not lost on the
young engineer and was wildly reg
istered on his memory as an example
of diplomatic square dealing.
Leaving China he went again to
California, the agent of governments
in engineering matters in Australia,
in Russia, India and the United
States. These undertakings included
not only mining but questions OF
transportation on land and water, OF
housing and feeding industrial com
munities, of economic and social plans
for improvement in the living condl
tions of worlmen and their families
In Russia his work included "every
thing from the extraction of rare ore
and numbering to the manufacture
and sale of the finished product, thu
conduct of landed estates, various
dealings with the Russian government
with schooling for the communit,
coming somewhere in between"
These and similar experiences be
gan training for public servic
which lowered in his unparallele
performances for all the embattle
peoples during the World war.
Were slogan to be suggested
none more fitting could be found tina
Hoover, the humanitarian" VIII
holds that mans duty is limited t
right doing toward others and an If
terest in public welfare. In the lar
guage of one of his intimates "a ne1
kind Of engineering and administra
ton not paid for in money but in tn
fearful gratitude of human million
was to occupy completely the TIM
energy, brain and heart of Herbel
Hoover for five years."
Happening to be in London whe
in 1914 the war broke, he found thol
sands of Americans held up, as froi
tiers one after another closed; pei
niless abroad although with unlimite
credit at home
Organizing a committee Of Anne
leans, together they sent home ovt
10000 stranded fellow citizens
two months Ambassador Page WI
ever shine in the annals of America
diplomacy but no wiser action VIZ
ever taken by him than in maxim
Hoover head of the commission f
Belgian relief.
Could practical craftsmanship ar
diplomacy be better exemplified thu
in the treaties" made with both Il
Allies and Germany whereby 100000
tons of food stuffs, worth S900,000,0C
were made available through Rotte