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

tt mas been said that the ideal
rlier-or leader-of a nation is a
nan who embodies its ideals and
i Understands also the practical
side of the peoples life. That
Is a large order, as most persons
will admit. Nevertheless, the man who
becomes President of the United States
today does both of these things In large
measure, according to the opinion of
those who know him most intimately
and of millions who voted for him last
November.
Herbert Clark Hoover is new kind
OF President Of this republic. We have
never had one just like him, nor one
very near like him. ~.
We have had lawyers galaxy of
them-soldiers. judges, farmers, profess
Sional politicians and one famous Presi
dent whose principal career had been
that Of college professor But we have
never had for President man who has
been chiefly a business man, who at
the same time is many things that
mere business man Is not.
The new President is man whose
life has been spent, not only in the
professional career Of engineering
closely allied with modern business and
typifying present-day development of
the natural resources of this earth--but
as a leader in financial, organization
He has been withal an erninently prac-
tical sort OF man, putting on hip boots
wading into the mud and water, IL need
be, and judging from the evidence fur
niShed by his own eyes of the truth
of q thing, be 1t q mining property, the
relief Of thousands of human sufferers
from q disastrous Mississippi flood, or
saving millions from starvation in war
torn Europe. -.
It is this dual quality of President
Hoover that distinguishes him. He is
practical, versed in the actual things
of life through seeing them and touch
ing them for himself. and at the same
time he is blessed with an idealism that
has made him known and loved by
the masses of the people the world
over and won for him the name of the
worlds greatest helper Of his genera
ton
There is no intention here of recount
Ing the events of the remarkable cam
paign Of 1928 which resulted in the
election Of Hoover. In many respects it
has been called the most remarkable in
American history Certain things hap
pened on election day in November that
have not happened for some 100 years
The spectacle Of 100000, 900 people every
four years electing their President
man who is to hold for four-year term
the highest elective office-and now
doubtless the most responsible public
office Of any kind-in our modern world
always staggers the imagination of
men and women everywhere. It, has
become regularly recurring world
event Of the first magnitude.
Victory Unprecedented.
Not since party strife began In the
United States during the term of our
second President, John Adams. has a
man come out Of bitterly fought pres
idential battle against, a strong single
opponent with a victory more remark
was organized, few years prior to the
Civil War, has candidate of that party
for President won the electoral votes Of
any State of the so-called solid" South.
Hoover did that. not in one instance,
nor in a single locality, but in four
States, scattered from Virginia to
Texas, and at the same time he carried
every Northern and Western State but
two.
Explanations of this electoral sweep
have been given and will be given, but
it is not the purpose Of this article to
discuss them. They have already been
discussed specifically and more or less
profoundly and doubtless will continue
to be discussed so long as any of us
live, and longer. It is the fact and its
immediate consequences that confront
and interest us.
Nor will an attempt be made here to
recount in detail the life history OF
Hoover. That has been done so many
times and SO recently that 1t may be
regarded as scarcely necessary, except
In so far as certain events of his life
form a background for the point in his
and his Nations history to which time
has now brought us. II no unexpected
event occurs, the life of Hoover" is
Just beginning to be written on the
pages of time and will be later trans
ferred by scribblers to the pages OF
written history What has happened
I'D to this moment will probably be
hereafter compressed into a compare
lively few lines.
What Hoover has done is not the
thing that the people Of this and other
nations are interested in knowing now
They want to know, or II they cannot
know, to have in some way, however
dimly, foreshadowed for them what ne
will do
Only time can discover what Hoover
IS to write on the pages OF american
or World--hiStory. YET, perhaps, Sonlt
things may be foreseen in their broader
outlines AS coming events cast tneil
shadows before, SO the substance OF
things to come may often be read. If the
reader be astute enough, in what has
happened in the past ~
Phophesying is fascinating art, but
a dangerous one 1t is best and safest
to prophesy after the event has occur
red Yet what is more amusing to tht
mind than speculation with regard t.
future events? Everybody INDUCES II
it, and already, with regard to the Hoo
Yer administrator, the optimists ant
the peeSimists are busy with their pre-
dieting The -rressnt writer Yill en-