Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-03
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE

IF his fellow countrymen and women
will think of Herbert Hoover as
Chief Engineer of the Republic
i they will come close to compre-
hendng his idea of the job he's
about to tackle. Hoover likes the word
lob Everything h puts his hand to
big or little. is Job He has spoken
OF the presidency of the United States
times without number as a Job" He
considers it -eminently an engineer
ing job. Once upon Il time when some
body chided him with dislike Of politics.
Hoover grabbed a dictionary. and read
out Webster'S definition of politics: The
science of government" AS the chider
was aware of Hoover'S devotion to
science in all its forms. he was COM
PEELED to recognize that politics is a
natural field of cultivation for the
Californian.
II can nevertheless be stated author
itatively that it will be the ambition of
Herbert Hoover to take the Government
AS far as possible out of politics as
politics is commonly understood The
Presidential believes In re are two
things which do not belong in govern
ment. One is business, and the other
IS politics. The statement requires
Qualification. Hoover thoroughly be-
lieves in conducting government on
business lines, but he does not believe
IN the governments going into business
except in highly exceptional emergency
cases. He does not. for instance. want
government operation of merchant
ships, railroads or power plants, but
holds II to be necessary for the govern
ment to control and construct great
waterways and works like the St. Law
renee Cana! and Boulder Dam.
Not Blind to Party Rights.
The assertion that Hoover wants to
Danish politics from government does
not mean that he is blind to the rights
in the present case-of the Repub-
iican party. There may have been
time. 8 or 10 years ago when the Pres
ident -elect held politicians and party
organizations in semi-contempt, but
oceans of water have rolled over the
Hoover dam since then. The Californian
had not been a member of the Hard
ing administration many moons before
he came to realize that the United
States Government rests irrevocably on
the party system
Hoover adapted himself to it. He
proved so successful a politician and
political leader than Kansas City was
walkaway and November 6, 1923,
landslide. The presence III the Hoover
cabinet of two dyed-in-the-w Repub-
lican politicians-"Jim" Good Of Iowa
as Secretary of War and Walter F.
Brown of Ohio at Postmaster General
is an unmistakable sign of the new
Hoover philosophy. BY allocating ex-
actly 20 per cent of his cabinet plums
to professional party men, Hoover
means to show that the incoming ad-
ministration is by no means to be a
Boy Scout" or Little Lord Fauntle-
roy" affair.
Even Andrew w Mellon and James
J. Davis, who are to succeed themselves
in the portfolios they've held since
1921, can be ranked as strict party
men and G. o. P. politicians. Mellon
and Davis were the successive choices
of two rigidly regular Republican
Presidents. So it can be said that two
f1fths-4 out Of 10-of Hoover cabinet
members are politically stalwart The
Chief Engineer signals that helpmates
of that breed can be useful In the Job
he now is about to boss.