Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-07-31
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
/. G.. M.

| During the three months, beginning
| tomorrow, there will exist a tremendous
activity among the tribes OF John and
| Mary Doe, Of Tom and Jane Hearsay,
OF Bill and Susan Run1or. These will
crowd the entire American stage In
rival activities pointed upon one or the
other of the two now standing at the
! center of the quadrennial struggle for
party power The air above and around
j these political zealots will be charged
! To the point Of explosion with passion
ate partisanship, with personal eXcesses
OF suspicion and untrue accusation. with
| bitter animosities. public and private.
| turned loose upon the campaign period.
| The exhibition, nationwide and unin-
spring, has nothing 10 do with the can
| didates. or very littlc-nothing to do
with any intelligent tallyine between
the needs of the country and the fitness
| OF the candidates to meet such needs in
/ wisdom and power. Rather does 1t APP
| pear to be an open season when politl-
| cal human nature lets itself go over
| worn-out slogans In lieu Of actual party
division itself 90 over innumerable
| individual aims that gather. soundingly,
| as the hope OF the Nation, the safe
guarding OF the rights Of the people,
Not good time, certainly, for any
! dispassionate study OF the two men.
one of whom iS to stand at the head I'll
the Federal commonwealth for the next
four years. Yet that is the study which
should. at the moment engross the
commonalty. since II is with the people
that the issue rests. And blind voter
Is a dangerous instrument Of general
we'll being. II Is even menace to the
spirit and pattern of our Government.
Here at hand is book OF inforn1a-
ton about one Of these two men. Her.
bert Hoover. Coming out from its reao.
ing. your first strong impression VIII
be OF It's genuineness as q serious
Geographic consideration. Nowhere about
1t is there any color of campaign pur-
pose or Of political design. This Is Just
now the first recommendation that
Who's Hoover" carries with 1t. The
definite intent OF the study appears to
| be to deliver over the whole man. where
heretofore but bits of Mr. Hoover from
! different parts of the world have come
across to the general reader.
Many books should be read backward.
| biographies of living men certainty.
| Such order of approach sets the reader
| and the subject face to face on ground
| familiar to both. Reading backward
| results In no loss OF the facts and gives
| distinct gain In sympathy ana I'M
derstanding. Let us read Mr.. Hard
hook in this order. Here at its close
we come upon Herbert Hoover. bust
ness mar, Of vision. capacity and power.
/ facing a situation that Is clearly OF
business prepossession and quality. the
United States is today a tremendous
business concern. It's great natural
wealth. acted upon by science and the
enormous growth of inventive aoiilty'
makes of the country an industrial con-
Germ of unimaginable promise. NO
longer does the old purely political con"
cept suffice. Old divergences OF party
| principle have been forced into agree
ment. Protective tariff camps IN botn
fields. Entertainments OF the Federal
Government upon individual enterprise
is equally hateful to both. Industry.
, work production and business have
been forced to the fore by the world S
Iarress and the magic OF science. a
business world calls for business nead.
And here is Herbert Hoover, seemingly
ready to take over and carry on.
Let us read Mr. Hard in respect 10
the advance of this man from the
Quaker home of his rather lonesome
hovhood on I'D toward the present.
Most interesting TO be reminded OF now
much Herbert Hoover owes TO the TACT
of his Quaker origin. Equahtarlahs.
these Quakers: therefore no slavery
could be accepted by them Naturany'
Mr.. Hoover would be. politically. OF the
Republican persuasion. Equailtarlans'
these Ouakers. so when in their meet
;nos a woman was moved to speak
her words were Of equal weight ana
moment with the words OF the men
In the congregation. No more than
an eypected sequence that MIR. Hoover
should see no inconsistency In the fact
of women casting their votes along
with the men Thrifty, proWdent Ioiks,
these Quakers, expecting every one 10
do his mart. stern only with the Stacker
/ and the idler These points are
brought out here for the reason ina.
thew demonstrate the consistency o.
Herbert Hoover's career with the iacsS
Of his early life. II takes book Oh
this sort to show how much oil piece
The man Is. Nothing seems 10 nave
nasr natched on casually out of passing
circumstance The man is CROWN,
unit of development as much as tIee
or anv other natural product Is WITH
mt a single political prospect or any
other nublic prospect. he Is worth wniie
as a subject of study by virtue oil Sucn
consistent expansion. Ar,
Now as TO what he has done. Mar
Hard reviews 1t for you without snaoe
nj personal leaning. Indeed. once III
while he suggests that under the cir
curSfances Mr.. Hoover might nave
done otherwise than he did, and better.
The story, all told. IL one that may ue
gathered up IN single wofd--wofh;
Work all the way from llttle ooyhooo
M uu 10 the present. Having CHOSEN
tn be an engineer, Herbert hoover
must, naturally. take an engineers poI-
tion--~tfat OF going wherever ms SerN-
ices we're most needed: 30 we ioiaow
| him Ia Australia and China and Africa
and otherwhere. Taken all In all, the
genius of the man appears to nave
heen that of taking over dead-and-
zone enterprises. abandoned mines,
broker. down beginnings, weakened hopes
and ambitions as to the secrets OF the
inner earth. The oxygen for expiring
entities he seemed TO be. And 1t was
in exactly that spirit that he put nim-
self behind the thousands OF distracted
Americans marooned In Europe at the
outbreak of the World War He sent
them home. How? just any way to
get them home? Not at all. He or
paniyed the enterprise as he would nave
organized any other business project,
lust AS he did with the Belgian Relief
and the Far EAST Hellei latSl oh AhCHe
are all chapters In single story. These
are all interpretations OF man OF
business, fronting business activities
with confidence, and energy. and sue
cess. One of the later chapters In this
story In of the Mississippi flood. An
other one Is of the recasting OF the De-
nartment of Commerce wherein world
exchanges hohnob with what would be
called trifiing economies of humdrum
daily life. were II not for the fact that
the "trlflcS" add themselves together 10
make gigantic savings to the public by
way of such unexciting measures as
Standardization doing away with innu-
merahle applications" In distributing
processes, and other such dull and UNI
romantic plans for making the daily
life easier and more prosperous in A
modest way for nil the workaday folks
in the land, And So the story goes on,