Evening star., 1932-08-14
HOOVER BLUNTLY CHARTS
HIS COURSE In CAMPAIGN
"Here [ Stand; if You Believe i'm This,
Vote For Me-" He Challenges
In Acceptance.

invasion from wet, the other 70 insure
that there shall be no return Of the
saloon system anywhere.
This position of Mr.. Hoover on pro-
hibition will excite disagreements. 1t
will excite much opposition from emo
tional wet leaders and some from per-
sons having a concern for the Con-
stitution. But no critic can say Mr.
Hoover's program is other than abso-
lutely clear and definite. Again and
again, in one form of words after an
other. as If he sought by every way
possible, and by repetition, to make
his position simple and understand
able, he makes clear the program he
has. Here again he has the air Of
bowling gently but firmly to those who
do not agree of saying to the vets: IF
you insist upon 100 per cent repeal
am not your man." and to the drys:
"If you insist upon 100 per cent reten-
ton am not your man."
Situations Are Complex.
In his acceptance speech Mr.. Hoover
overcomes the complaint frequently
made about portions Of some Of his
addresses that they are complex Well,
some passages in many of his speeches
though none I think in the present
one-are complex The reason is that
the situations he deals with are COM
plex.
There are few things in this world,
about which one can say ''this is black
or this is white" But such cases are
very, very rare. 1t Is the mark of Mr..
Hoovers intellectual integrity that he
will not say 'it Is black" when it Is
actually dark gray. And 1t is the mark
Of his engineering accuracy that he
struggles and sweats to find the words
which will say just what 1t Is. The
so-called confusion in some of Mr..
Hoover's speeches is precisely the evi-
dence Of the eXactnesS of Mr.. Hoover'S
mind. CAS- If man could come as far
as Mr.. Hoover has come in the pro-
fession Of engineering unless he had an
exact mind.)
The writer of this article has read
every one of Mr.. Hoover's speeches,
and frequently heard him talk infor-
mally. I have heard and read the
STYLE" and have re-read his speeches
in the light of those criticisms. The
answer is that the involved character
of some passages from Mr.. Hoover Is
precisely the mark of his inSistence
upon the facts, Of his struggle to at
tain and express the truth.
It Is a struggle that causes him as
much turmoil, as much brain-sweat,
as any of the burdensome duties of his
Office. He can arrive at a Judgment
not exactly swiftly. but with a steady
march of his mind that gives him no
trouble, but only ease. To put that
situation in words, however, and all
the elements in it, and each in its
proportion-that job, which to a pro-
feSsional writing man might be easy, is
to Mr.. Hoover a turmoil of intellectual
conscience, dealing with unfamiliar
tools.
Some Smile at Difficulty.
Some of his friends smile to see him
sweat over his speeches, the spectacle
Of one of the clearest minds in the
modern world struggling to be clear in
words. If he were only permitted the
device of expressing it on blue -printl
The very exactneSs Of his mind is, to
him, unaccustomed to words as tools,
q handicap in that art, glibness, in
which is the very stock-in-trade Of
politicians.
II you know what a situation is, the
intricacy of it, the many angles of it,
the overlapping quality of its parts
If you know all that, ard then If you
read a speech in which Mr.. Hoover
deals with 1t, you can recognize, with
glow Of pleasure, the painStaking
effort to tell the whole of the story,
to avoid giving an incorrect impression,
to make sure the speech expresses the
situation as it is.
To be sure, Mr. Hoover Is not a pro-
fessional writer, not an expert in words.
Were he as skilled with words as he is
with transit and slide-rule, he would,
of course, do better. His speeches re-
fleet the effort of an extremely exact
mind to find the exact words in the
exact relations that express exactly
what is in his mind Since he does
not know words very well, the result
is not always happy from the point
OF view of an artisan in words. But
the one thing that is always there is
the facts. the whole of the facts, AMI
the whole of the facts in the light tf
their relation to each other.
have heard politicians and others
advise Mr.. Hoover in words themselves
turgid but meaning put your speeches
in the form Of wise-cracks," cay 4
snappy," SAY 1t so people can Spcs4
it." SAY it short enough to Rey EtS
the HEADINGS"
Fcuows His Own Bssla
Since wise-cracks are a rAhpar
means Of communication nowadays, ls..
HooVerS failure TO use them Is sun
posed, by the sophisticated, to be a
disadvantage to him. For many rea-
sons, including newspaper headlines,
movie captions and radio breWties, We
have become accustomed to wise-cracks.
They are definite innovation in the
language. Any man who deals with
the public through words can hardly
more afford TO ignore this innovation
in language than he could afford to
ignore the radio itself. Expertness in
wise-cracks has made some politicians.
The outstanding example is Mayor
Walker Of New York-if he Is still
mayor when this article appears.
Mr.. Hoover's inability-not his in
ability, his refusal-to use wise
cracks" phrases with a punch. puts
him under a handicap compared with
those whose conscience, or lack of un-
derstanding, permits them to say 'its
black" when in fact 1t is combina-
ton Of several colors. II the thing is
actually gray Mr.. Hoover can no more
avoid saying it is gray than a bird dog
can avoid pointing a quail. In short,
the intellectual habit of exactness, ac-
quired in a lifetime of dealing with
facts. puts Mr.. Hoover under a disad-
vantage in politics. But not for al
ways. A trait of insight in the public,
of sensing" things, has taught them
to understand the quality Of Mr.. Hoo
ver's mind.