The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-08-07
The Myth of Hoover the Engineer

Most Americans of pasSabe literacy are aware OF
the great Coolidge myth of the strong, silent man.
but few are as fully informed in regard to the myth
Of Hoover, the great engineer-"the engineer In
politics"
try that Herbert Hoover is of the genus OF GoetnaS
or seinmetz-that he speaks the esoteric Jargon OF
the rsrhed technician as freely and fiuenty as ne
orders breakfast food When something like the
,,ovsr rrobem waterways, coal mining or oil re-
serves comes up here is who grasps every iaSt
technical detail with the utmost precision ana
exactness.
That Hoover is a ,veritabe colossus OF mentality
and erldition compared TO the Sage OF Northampton
the writer would concede. But it must be maintained
that the notion of Hoover a great engineer Is do
far from the obvious facts as the legend that Cal
put up his horny hand and stopped with scoWi 'ne
ordes If bloody-eyed striking policemen in Boston
Hoover was graduated as an engineer from stan
ford university. but there thousands OF men In
the limited States today teaching school or selling
life insurance who had just GOOD an engineering
training as Hoover and later did just as much WORK
a. the engineering profession Yet they do not claim
10 be great engineers at all.
tn hold the Hoover administration up TO the
critical mirror as test Of what an engineer can 40
in oIitcs is unfair to the engineering profession ana
entirely misleading a political experiment hoover
Ar, The White house is real experiment III AMERICAN
olitics but it is the experiment of the super-ousnesS
man in politics not the trained and tried engineer
If Hoover succeeds brilliantly as President II VIII
he a yindication of the vision and methods OF the
American business man; and his failure likewise VIII
discredit the same type.
pretty true appraisal of Hoover's career ana
achievements is given in paragraph from George
p Vests article on The Success Boys at Stanford
in the American Mercury. Hoover met his old prexy
David starr Jordan in 1907. He then was at the
height of his pre-poltcal career
He was employed by the London hrm OF 6e"lck'
Moerine & Co. He received - as mining engl-
neer. 5000 as mining expert described by MARX
Twain as hole in the ground and damned liar on
top) and se5OO0 as financial expert.
This pay scale is a perfect appraisal OF Mr.. Hoo
vers relative relation to engineering and business
The only strictly engineering enterprise he ever IN
dertook was the translation with Mrs. Hoover) OF
Aericolas old Latin treatise de Re Metahca, which
could have been done by scholarly classicist VINO
never had studied calculus strength OF materials
In debunking the legend of Hoover, the great en-
sineer in the White House, are not trying TO de-
crease the prestige of the man. 1t may be more
honorable to be a superbuslness man in the White
House What we are interested in is to let the
people know the real facts so they judge accord
ingy.
It is interesting to see what great business man
can do in Lincolns shoes Some day may also want
TO see what future Goetrals might do when sitting
in Jeferson's chair. We should not want the latter
experiment blurred by thinking that it had been tried
before.