Evening star., 1934-12-09
HOOVER OFF THE RECORD. BY
Theodore G. Joslin. Garden City:
DO,Ihleday DOran & Co

HOOVER OFF THE RECORD. BY
Theodore G. Joslin. Garden City:
Doubleday, .Doran & Co.
~ OST of the bare facts related
M in this book by the man who
v was Mr.. Hoovers secretary
1 L from 1881 to 1888 are al
ready known to the public,
through the newspapers, but the de-
tailed circumstances behind the facts
and the hard thinking and ceaseless
effort of the President who bore the
responsibility for the Nation during
four increasingly difficult years are
here described with the knowledge
and understanding sometimes lack
ing in the public estimates of MIR.
Hoover. Mr.. Joslin is not afraid OF
the permanent evaluation which will
be accorded Mr.. Hoover by history,
and when that history comes to be
written this book will be one of its
important sources. Even now, so
close to the events recorded, the vast
majority Of Americans would prob
ably accept the estimate of Mr. JOS
Inns final paragraph: ITO some Of
those who watched the train pull out
Of the station March 4, 1889, he was
a most tragic figure. But to those of
us who truly knew him through close
association behind the wall of silence
he had erected for the public good he
was the man who had served his
country devotedly through unparal-
leled disaster and under unexampled
handicaps. and who could await, un-
afraid and with a clear conscience,
the evaluation of his acts by history"
Part of the tragedy of the Hoover
administration was that it fell in
time just at the end of Coolidge
prosperity" when the boom was sue
ceeded by the depression. The other
part was that Mr. Hoover. under
standing the disaster which was
threatening and working tirelessly,
avoiding all possible publicity, to avert
it, was almost continuously thwarted
by bitter partisan opposition. Ex-
amples of this partisanship stressed
by Mr. Joslin are the smear Hoover"
campaign; the playing of politics by
the Democratic House, with resultant
bad effects on business confidence,
and the violent attacks on Mr.. Hoo
yer first because he permitted the
bonus army to encamp in Washing
ton, when under the law he could not
prevent it, and then because he di-
rected that Federal troops be sent to
the disturbed area. at the request of
the District Commissioners, "the same
as a request that would be made in
similar circumstances of the Governor
OF the State by the mayor of a city in
the State" Mr.. Joslin gives state
ments made under oath by Washing
ton police officers to the effect that
Maj. Glassford joined with the Com
missioners in the request for Federal
troops, and quotes from the report of
Gen. Macarthur, in charge Of the
troops, to show that the fires of the
evacuated area, where the shacks
were of highly inf1ammable material,
were not initiated by the troops.
Minor incidents woven into the
dark background of the Hoover four
years show the kindness, generosity
and occasional dry humor of the man
who was always too busy to spare
himself and would not condescend to
dramatic himself When urged to
yield to some personal publicity he
would often reply: This is not
showman's job I will not step out of
character" The wife of an indispen-
sable high official who appealed to
the President to allow her husband
to resign because his health was
breaking found sympathy and holi-
day and lessened responsibilities for
her husband. Attention is called to
Mr.. Hoover's sentiment for the Lin
coin room in the White House, which
seemed to him to be filled with the
presence of the man who toiled there
for the preservation of the Union.
The Hoover humor was sudden and
never forced. On one occasion French
Strother told story of man who
forced himself to love dandelions be-
cause they would grow on his lawn,
and Mr.. Hoover, with twinkling eye,
said That's a good story, French.
But I want to tell you there are some
dandeions growing on Capitol Hill
that 1 never can learn to love" There
is also the story of the Quaker lady
of Pennsylvania who wrote the Presi-
dent that she had seen in the papers
that he smoked and asked him for
letter in his own writing denying the