Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-11-11
HOOver's Administration Forecast
In Light of Past Performances

Independence as fervently as Jeffer-
son. He believes the Constitution of
1877 as fervently as Madison. He thinks
| that those two documents constitute
the eternal epitome of the political ma
ture of man and of the science of gov
eminent. He has spoken of them as
having been conceived under divine in
spiration.' He seems literally to mean
it, All his acts as President will be-
will have to be--within the limits which
the Declaration and the Constitution
"divinely" fix.
1t follows clearly that on funda-
mentals he will be an extremely CON
sentative" President. This would seem
to give to the Democratic party a pro-
spective Whit of reviving smelling salts.
Hoover will recoil from almost every
| proposed expansion of Federal functions,
| especially if they go in the direction of
increased Federal control of business.
The Democratic party to answer him,
| might assume the role of 1.-The party of
progress" 1t might become the Amer
lean equivalent of the British Labor
party, which, despite its name, seeks and
| gets support from people of all classes
who regard negative" government as
a surrender to the business interests. "
| That is the development which in
some quarters is being freely predicted.
y X X " ,..-....
Then, however arises Hoover's second
basic quality. The first is his consti-
tutionalism and traditionaliSm. The Sec
ond is a corrective to the first. It is
the mans appalling ingenuity in de-
vising new creative departures absolute
~ within the limits of the old consti-
tutional and traditional legal reStric-
tons.
To illustrate: AS Secretary of Com
merce, he has frequently acted as an
arbiter between contending commercial
forces, not under any law, but solely
through the choice of the parties con-
cerned and through the prestige which
his character gave to his Office. He will
retain-and will expand-that habit as
President. Confronted by great strike
for instance, in coal or in steel or on
railroads, he will neither remain quies-
cent nor call upon Congress for more
legal power. He will inevitably at once
bring to bear upon that strike the whole
of his presidential prestige and he will
struggle to settle it through negotiations
in the privacy of his office in the
Executive wing of the White House
without leaving behind single trace Of
any instant need for any new legisla-
ton.
The writer has seen Hoover employ
this method as Secretary of Commerce
in his dealings with the producing and
marketing public problems of score
of great industries. He has seen him
thus forestall and prevent more legis-
lation than any other man of our
times. Rendering legislation unneces-
sary might indeed be said to be his
highest aim and his supreme speciality.
| X X u
The real race of the next four or
eight years WILL therefore, be between
the reformers, on the one hand, hasten
ing forward with bills for acts to cure
evils, and Hoover, on the other hand,
summoning those evils into the White
House to get cured by presidential
X-ray treatments before the legislative
surgeons can catch them.
Hoover will show this tendency in the
matter of prohibition He may pos-
sibly ask Congress to give him authority
to transfer prohibition enforcement
from the Treasury Department to the
Department of Justice. That would
be change merely, however, of adj
miniStrative detail. He is extremely
unlikely to ask Congress to give him
any new drastic powers in the detec-
1
bition offenders. His policy in relation
to prohibition will in all probability fol-
low two lines, neither of which will
require any expansion of bureaucracy.
The first may be to strike with con-
centrated force at the WayWard Off
cials, Federal, or State or local, whose
corrupt connivance sustains the whole
bootlegging industry. The second un-
doubtedly will be to use the presi-
Dental Office as lever and a pulpit
Tor making compliance with the eight
eenth amendment seem more the per-
sonal moral duty of each private cit
lien IMAM 1t seems at present.
| X X X
Hoover's influence In this respect is
already gathering force. His followers
on his campaigning trains found them
selves increasingly getting along without
TASKS. Several Washingtonian houses
much given to hospitality but also much
devoted to Hoover have within the last
few weeks transferred themselves in
personal practice from the wet to the
dry column. There will be no drinks
any more In those houses, even for
guests from embassies or legations. The
political aspirantS who will find favor
In Hoover's eyes will be those who are
dry or who will go dry. Hoover will
speak louder than words. Within two
years--this writer verify believes-total
abstinence Is going to be actually off,
cially fashionable in Washington.
II Hoover can solve the LIQUOR problem
with reasonable appropriations and with
reasonable enforcement powers and by
example and education and presidential
prestige, he will solve 1t. If It cannot be
solved except by emptying the Federal
treasury and by GROWING every hill in
the United States with jail, he will
not solve it.
Everything depends, then, in all the
problems Of Hoover's whole administra-
ton, upon the success or failure of his
peculiar non-legislative anti-bureaucratic
method of leadership, to which he has
given the distinctive descriptive title
conference and cooperation"