Evening star., 1928-12-30
WILL HOOVER'S FRIENDS
GAIN GREATEST FAVORS?
Speculation Rife as to Just How Presi-
dent-Elect Will Care for Those.
Longest Near Him.

supreme economic council which funcs
toned during the Paris peace confer.
ence. In 1920 Baker blossomed out as
Hoovet's chief publicity man during the
Californian's ill-starred campaign for
the Republican presidential nomina-
ton. Baker had charge of the foreign-
language vote during the 1928 campaign
on Hoovers behalf and was invited to.
accompany the President-elect to South
America.
Unless all previous indications are de-
ceptive, Mr.. Hoover's California back
ground is going to be the one on which
he will draw heavily for support during
the next four years. He has no single
loyalty to which he is more devoted
than his Stanford University affiliation
and his friends of young manhood in
California. Probably Mark l.. Requa
mining engineer, Of San Francisco,
ranks near the top of Hoover's coast
comrades. He was an assistant in the
Food Administration at Washington and
has been active for eight years in the
promotion of Hoovers political ambi-
tions. Ralph P. Merritt of San Fran
cisco, now president of California fruit
growers cooperative association, was
State food administrator under Hoover
during the war. In 1920 Merritt con-
Quoted Hoover'S unsuccessful pre-con-
vention campaign in California against
Senator Hiram johnson. Ralph Arnold
of San Marino, Is another Californian
belonging to the inner Hoover circle.
He is geological engineer, Stanford
alumnuS. an oil magnate and Stanch
Hoover Republican leader in California.
Other Golden State men prominent in
Hoover's personal organization include
John G. Mott, Los Angeles lawyer, for
mer law partner OF Secretary Wilbur,
and member of the President-elect's
South American encourage. These
names do not begin to exhaust the ros-
ter of Hoover's comrades in California
who are numerous throughout the whole
Commonwealth.
Department Ties Considered.
The President-elect's Department Of
Commerce ties are bound to become
apparent in the makeup of his adj
ministration. Assistant secretaryships
Of the department have largely been
filled with political appointees, some Of
whom later became Hoover's close
friends and supporters. This list en-
braces persons like G. H. Huston of
Tennessee. j. Walter Drake of Michigan,
Walter F. Brown of Ohio, now Assistant
Secretary of Commerce, and William
P. MacCracken, Assistant Secretary for
AeronauticS. Commerce men, who
have been particularly close to Herbert
Hoover are three of his former private
secretaries, Christian A. Herterl Clar-
ence G. Stetson and Harold Phelps.
Stokes. The chiefs two present per-
sonal Secretarial lieutenants-George
Akerson, his principal assistant, and
| Lawrence Richey-will, of course, be
with the new President at the White
House. A California departmental
l hnIv1or
MacLafferty, went from Congress to
Hoover.
With no other official in the Depart
ment of Commerce was Hoover more
constantly and intimately identified
than with DR.. Julius Klein, the chief
of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic
Commerce. If Hoover had any particu-
| lar hobby In Washington during his
cabinet days, 1t was the success with
which he met in organizing American
business for purposes of trade abroad.
As a presidential candidate Hoover
harped on this phase Of his administra-
tive career often and eloquently. No
| body, next to the Secretary Of Com
merce himself, had so much to do with
| that activity as DR.. Klein.
These and innumerable others Of the
same ilk-inen and women by the hun
dredS in all parts of the country who
talk Herbert Hoover's language"-com-
prise the Hoover old guard" which
the G. o. p. old guard thinks it will
sooner or later have to face and foil.
The Republican regulars are not
downhearted. They retain faith in
Hoover. They believe he has vastly
more political sense" than is COM
monty attributed to him. They are con-
f1dent that the last thing in the world
he thinks of doing is to leave th0
"boys" out in the patronage cold. They
expect to find their full place in the
Hoover sun, no matter how many hoy
scouts" contrive to crowd into that ia
vored reservation.
(CoDyright 1881