Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-08-10
Wr. Hoover at 80

Herbert Clark Hoover today cele-
5rates his seth birthday. We wish him
well and we wish to express our graft
tude for his many substantial contribu-
tons to his country.
On the calendar one of these con-
ortbutionS consists of over half of a
long life given to public service, almost
entirely in the highest levels of our
national Government. But this record of
service, almost unparalleled in modern
American history, is much more signifi-
can't than the simple weight of years.
AS the passing Of time clarifies our view
of the past, Herbert Hoover energies
more and more as key figure of our
era. In several important ways, he was
the first American in position of power
to be aware of and to address himself
to basic problems that we think of as
typical of the immediate present and
the future.
First and foremost, he was an en-
gineer. In his youth he practiced his
profession in China, meeting at first
hand, in the early years of this century,
the problem of industrial revolution
that will surely dominate the century's
end. Long before World War I, he was
confirmed internationalist, with bases
in San Francisco, New York and London
and operations in Russia, Australia,
Asia, the Americas and Europe. With the
outbreak Of the great war, Herbert
Hoover, in conquered Belgium, became
the first Of new American breed, the
relief administrator. When America
entered the war, he returned home as
President Wilson'S food administrator
At the wars end he was back in Europe
providing the daily bread of people in
80 countries, and managing the rail-
ways, waterways, ports and mines Of
Eastern Europe.
His career in that time marked
the emergence Of America as the sup
port and guide of the free world. That
his country repudiated that role be-
tween the world wars in no way lessons
the Importance of his pioneering work.
When, after World War II, we accepted
that responsibility again, we built on
foundations laid by Herbert Hoover.
To some extent 1t was as an engi-
neer, the modern man, that Herbert
Hoover was elected our thirty-first
President in 1928 Four years later he
was bitterly rejected as the engineer
who had failed BY 1882 this shaken
Nation needed scapegoat and Hoover
was the logical candidate.
For President Truman, Herbert
Hoover resumed his old task Of feeding
the hungry in Europe and assisting in
the creation of new governments there.
But there was another engineers in
terest for which we are his debtors.
Since his earliest days in govern
ment, he had been fascinated and
appalled, by the self-generative powers of
the bureaucracy and by the increasing
difficulty Of getting anything done in
government. These problems have only
in the last two years commended them
selves to the serious attention Of liberal
thought; Hoover was onto them decades
ago. For Truman and again for Eisen-
hover, the ex-President conducted ex-
haustive investigations of governmental
inertia and duplication. His hundreds
of specific recommendations were sec
onded by both Presidents and most were
put into practice.
The shadow Of Herbert Hoover upon
this Nations history has proved to be
much longer than anyone imagined sc
years ago. Scholar, patriot, humani-