Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-04

About the shrewdest comment on the
Hoover cabinet current In Washington
is that while 1t does not CLEAN with big
names, it is full of good men. Efficiency,
rather than notability. is Its hallmark.
On the whole, its makeup surprises po-
litical observers. Widely heralded as a
superman, most people expected Presi-
dent Hoover to surround himself with
other supermen. No one thinks he has
done so. On Capitol Hill the commonest
remark Is that it Is an average" cabi-
net. Many authorities contend that 1t
does not compare in caliber, by and
large. with the official household Presi-
dent Harding brought into office eight
years ago. It Is argued, for example,
that Hoover has no big three" to match
against the Hoover Hughes-Mellon tri-
umvirates. Politicians who thus X-ray
the new administration feel there may
have been deep-dyed method In Mr.
Hoover's cabinet-making scheme. What
they mean Is that the President may
not want to be surrounded by an aggre-
CATION of towering talent-that the
Chief Engineer plans very thoroughly
and comprehensively to boss the whole
administration job himself.
X X
Everybody finds 1t curious that Hoover
retains in the cabinet two men-Mellon
and Davis-who were not particularly
close to him, while he failed to keep the
pair which he himself, according to the
general understanding, induced Coolidge
to appoint. These are Curtis .. Wilbur.
retiring Secretary Of the Navy, and
william M. Jardine, who was Secretary
of Agriculture. It Is a fairly open Sc
cret that both Wilbur and Jardinc
would have remained In the cabinet If
they'd been sufficiently urged. Wilbur's
disappearance is due to the Presidents
desire to name DR.. Ray Lyman Wilbur,
Curtis DIS brother, as Secretary of the
Interior. Mellon had no claim on
Hoover's favor, from strictly political
standpoint. Up to the eleventh hour
at Kansas City last June the Pennsyl-
vanian ranked as draft-Coolidge man.
His inclusion in the Hoover administra-
ton Is a concession to the business
world, which has abiding confidence in
1.-The greatest Secretary Of the Treasury
since Alexander Hamilton" Davis owes
his retention in the Labor portfolio to
the universal repute he enjoys through
out the labor world and among its
leaders.
President Hoover likes college men, and
that intellectual ilk Is represented to the
extent Of 80 per cent in his cabinet
Harvard and Michigan predominant
Secretary Stimson holds Yale and Har-
ward degrees. Secretary Adams Is dis
tinguished Harvard alumnus and treas
urer of the university. Attorney General
Mitchell halls from Sheffield Scientific
School and the University Of Minnesota.
Secretary Wilbur was fellow-student
of Hoover's at Stanford. Secretaries
Good, Hyde and Lamont are all Mich
igan men. Postmaster General Brown
has an A. B. and an LII b. from Harvard.
Secretary Mellon was member OF the
class of '73 at the Western University of
Pennsylvania, now the University of
Pittsburgh Jim" Davis says he got his
Phi. D. early in life from the college of
human experience.
The most non-political President ever
to enter the White House has dealt lib
orally with the party gentry irreverently
known as "the boys" Certainly at least
five out of his 10 cabinet appointees do
not resent being known as G. 0. P. stall
warts. Jim" Good of Iowa and Walter
Brown of Ohio probably do not even
mind being identified as professional
politicians. They have at any rate
adorned and played the game for good
many years, and were super-active in
the pre-convention and prediction
tactics and strategy which landed Hoo
yer in the White House. Gov. Hyde of
Missouri Is another practiced political
hand. He should prove useful in fencing
with farm politicians on the administra-
tons behalf "Uncle ANDY" Mellon
modest and unobtrusive though he be,
fairs. Secretary Davis is not q militant
partisan, but Americas greatest frater-
nalist." has been potent Republican
for rs years In Indiana, Illinois, Penn