The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1928-08-30

how to get the best out Of both, when
he was acquiring the art of portion
ing out responsibility, of creating or
CARNATIONS and was forging himself
into ali executive of high order, who
can suppose he suspected that the
clouds of the World War were thick
ering and that he was molding him
self into the sort of man who could
at moments notice jump into the job
of sending across the Atlantic thous-
ands of fellow countrymen stranded
in belligerent countries, and do it as if
he had never done anything else?
Or who would believe that in early
life he dreamed that his activities
would so school him that he could
head the vast operations of the Am
erican Relief Work. with signal sue
cess, feed starving European nations,
achieve by diplomacy what could not
be wrought by force, and at length be-
come cabinet minister with a genius
for sfurthering commerce and indus
try?
The main pattern of such mems
lives is hard to discern; but after a
time it becomes plain, as the present
lights up the past and reveals the
linkage between training and per-
Torrance. AS time goes on, the stages
of development which at first seemed
mere matters of chance take on an
air of plausible sequence and at length
seem logical or even inevitable. Mr..
Hoover's experiences as a mining man
were strange schooling for a future
food administrator, but his work for
starving Belgium brought him made
to-order equipment for his achieve
ment in directing Red Cross activities
in behalf of the homeless flood suffer-
ers of the Mississippi Basin.
In view of the expansion of our for
eign trade, our uneXampled loans to
other nations and our commercial in
vasion of lands across the sea, we
need, as we never needed before, high
executives who know the markets and
bourses and chancelleries of the whole
world, men who are so familiar with
oversee conditions that they can fos-
ter and protect sound American bust
ness, investment and development in
whatever part of the globe they may
have gained a foothold. We can al
most count on our thumbs the men
who have these qualifications to the
extent that Mr.. Hoover possesses
them. American business and indus
try are rich in great administrators,
but all too few are in the service of
the government; and of these, how
many have had intensive oversee
training?
Circumstances have favored Mr..
Hoover in that they have given him
outstanding abilities. They have not
yet exhausted his repertoire of capaci-
tise. Had he been put at the head of
the State Department his encyclo-
pedic knowledge of foreign peoples,
their resources, reactions, prejudices
and psychologists, would have seen
him through with distinguished cred
it. Had he been made Secretary of
Agriculture he would have done for
the farmers even more than he has
done for manufacturers and business
men. Friends of the farmer openly
lament that they could not draft his
constructive leadership for the cause
of agriculture. No other man in AM
erica could have done so much
to put American farming on sound
basis of deserved and permanent pros
perity.
With men of the Hoover stamp, the
incredible is forever happening. When
Fate finds youngster who never falls
down on any job intrusted to him, no
matter how hard or strange, no mat
ter what obstacles beset him, she can
not let him alone. AS long as he lives
and has his health she thrusts chal-
lenge after challenge, job after job,
upon him; first in the hope of seeing
him trip, latterly that she may admire
the skill and effectiveness of his at
tack.
Mr.. Hoover is such man. His per-
sonality and his record appeal to those
who are used to doing great things
and hard things and know their own
kind. 1t is no wonder that the big,
broad-gauged men of the country,
those who are it's real producers and
who are contributing most to its de-
velopment, are his staunchest supper
tiers. Nor is it without significance
that those who have worked for and
with Mr.. Hoover are his most loyal adj
herents.
They know his metal and they know
what has gone into the forging of it.
They appraise at their true value his
knowledge of conditions over the
greater part of the civilized world; his
unusual gift of working with other
men and commanding their loyalty,
his intimacy with his own land from
coast to coast, his intensive schooling
in official life and his sound views on