The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1928-11-07

. ly lalike-and STRANGELY dissimilar.
Each was an orphan boy, bereft
der age; each fought his own way
to fame with little aid; each mas
tered his opportunities, rose to
every occasion, climbed the ladder
of success by his own efforts.
The orphaned Hoover came up by
q route that brought him a college
education, a worldwide reputation
as mining engineer and wealth al
most beyond the dreams of avarice.
The orphaned Curtis struggled his
way from an Indian reservation
through a career as a jockey. a
ck-driver, a self-educated lawyer,
a county prosecutor, congressman
and senator of slender means.
Curtis has spent almost a life
time in politics; the first and only
office that Hoover ever ran for was
that of president.
The curtain rose on the life of
Herbert Clark Hoover in clapboard
cabin on a scrawny farm in rural
Iowa on Aug. 10, 1874. His father
q <powerful bear of a man-was
jesse Hoover, farmer, who also ran
a blacksmith shop at the village of
West Branch. Both of his parents
were devout Quakers, sober Of mein
and stern of speech.
Before young Hoover was 10 years
old both his father and his mother
had died. For a time he lived with
relatives on nearby farm and then,
when he was 10, an uncle took him
to Oregon. There young Hoover
worked in his uncle's real estate Of
flee, for the Oregon land boom was
on.
Lured by the tales of a rowing
mining prospector who CHANGED that
way when he was entering young
maxhood, Hoover decided to become
a mining engineer. His savings
were small, but Leland Stanford
University was just opening down in
California so he went there and
worked his way through. He waited
on tables, collected laundry for fell
low students, managed a college ly-
ceum bureau and did almost any,
thing else that would earn an honest
penny.
After graduation Hoover worked
as a day iaborer in California mines
to gain experience and then went to
work in the office of Louis Janin, .
famous mining engineer. Janin rec
commended him to London firm of
mining engineers and, in 1897, the
latter sent him to Australia to take
charge Of its gold mines there.
A couple of years later, on one of
his brief trips to the United States
he married Miss Lou Henry, who
had been classmate at Leland
Stanford. They were the first and
only sweethearts each ever had.
Entering business for himself,
Hoover began developing mining
properties in China, India, Burma
and other far-away lands. Fortune
smiled on his enterprises and he
became man Of tremendous wealth.
The outbreak Of the World War
found Hoover at his office in London.
The story Of his career from that
day on is too well known to need
repetition in detail here.
Briefly, it is. the story of genius
who organized the Belgian Relief
Commission that fed eight million
homeless souls through weary years
of war, that spent $17,O0O,O00
month, employed $4,000 workers, OPP
Grated its own ships, flew it's own
flag and issued its own passports.
Briefly, it is the story of the man
whom President Wilson called home
in 1917 to become food admins
traitor of the United States-who
imposed "Meatless Tuesdays"
"Wheatless Wednesdays" on a free
people and, what is more, made them
like it.
It is the story of man who, in
the trying days just after the war,
conquered famine in devastated Eu-
ropeN by feeding whole nations and
spent more than 5000, OOO,O 900 for
supplies at an overhead cost Of less
than one-haf Of one per cent.
81 is the story OF q man whom
President Coolidge called to take
charge Of relief operations in the
Mississippi valley in the spring Of
1927, when 100000 were made home-
less by floods.
It is the story of . man, who, as
secretary Of commerce, has saved
American industry many millions by
Standardization Of manufacture and
other economies.
His constructive achievements
stand out as among the greatest ever
accomplished by one man in all his
tory.
OF less magnitude, but even more
colorful, has been the career Of Sem
aeor, Curtis, the next vice president.
OF Indian ancestry on his mothers.
side, he was born on an Indian res
ervation in Kansas in 1860. Before
he was three his mother died, and his
father Capt. 0rren A. Curtis, q
trader who had come west from In
diAna-died soon after.
For time young Curtis lived with
his fathers parents in Topeka, but
ct the age Of five he went hack to
the Kaw reservation, go miles away.
There he lived with his Indian grand
mother in her tepee, played with the
Indian boys and attended an Indian
mission school.
He might have been an Indian