Herbert Hoover

Herbert Hoover (Conclusion) By Mary C. Kimball In 1914 Hoover and those asso- ciated with him had 175,000 em- ployees. He had made successful out of unsuccessful mines, good mines out of bad ones; he had raised bankrupt mining companies to solvency, not by manipulation of the stock exchange, but by getting out the ore and making the mills efficient. Kellog says, "A successful mine is infinitely more than a hole in the ground with mineral at its bottom. It is railroads and steam- ers, mills, housing for the men, men themselves, organization, system, skill, brains, all-around human capacity. Herbert Hoover is a great miner be- cause he is a great man." Hoover's Principles of Mining has been a text for students since it came from the press in 1909. The book is a condensation of lectures de- livered at Columbia and Stanford. The first part is devoted to technical meth- ods, the latter part to "the character training and obligations of the mining engineering profession." The author "sets up a standard of professional ethics for the engineer of the very highest degree and reveals his own genuinely philanthropic attitude to- ward his fellow-men." Hoover collaborated with others in the production of Economic Min- ing. In 1912 he published a very beautiful edition of an English trans- lation of Agricola's De Re Metallica. This work, first published in Latin in 1556, was the first treatise on mining and metallurgy and was the standard manual for one hundred and eight years. Mrs. Hoover worked with her husband on the translation which oc- cupied their Sundays and evenings for nearly five years. Hoover's work during the war made him a great world figure. His first service was to help aid seventy thou- sand stranded American travelers to get home. Rich as well as poor were helpless because letters of credit, travelers' checks and drafts were only printed paper. They needed money. He gathered together his own money and that of his friends and opened a bank, unique in that it had no de- positors but gave out money against personal checks signed by unknown Americans on unknown banks. Of several hundred thousand dollars he thus risked on American integrity all but $250 came back. He found room, passage on steamers. He raised a char- ity fund for the needy. All who could prove their American citizenship were given whatever was necessary from this fund. Hoover received no salary from the government or from relief organizations for his services all dur- ing the war. He gave up a large in- come and paid out large sums of his own to carry on the work. Belgium depends upon constant im- portation of foodstuffs. (50% of her general food needs and 75% of her food grains have to be imported.) When "a ring of steel" was thrown around her it meant starvation unless outside succor was provided. The Germans finally gave permission for the importation of foodstuffs by way of the Dutch frontier and gave a guarantee that they would not be re- quisitioned by the German army. They would not permit, however, that money be sent from Belgium to pay for the food except a first small amount. So much difficulty was encountered that Ambassador Page and the Belgian authorities asked Hoover to organize the relief work. Mr. Page said. "If

Feb.. 1929 HERBERT HOOVER 121 anybody can save Belgium Hoover can. There never was such a genius for or- ganization. He can grasp the most complex problems, wheels within wheels, and get all the cogs running in perfect harmony. Besides, he will have the courage to act promptly as well as effectively when once he has deter- mined on the right course to pursue. He is not afraid of precedent or red tape. A man who has developed and directed large mining interests all over the world and who has been consulting engineer for over fifty mining com- panies cares more about doing a good job than making money; he's giving himself, now, heart and soul to this relief work, and we may be sure, if the thing is humanly possible, that he will find a way." Mr. Hoover had to purchase food for ten million people in Belgium and northern France and ship it across seas that were strewn with mines and submarines and with- out the normal means of transporta- tion. He got for helpers young Amer- icans who were anxious to work — many of them were Rhodes scholars. He arranged to transport the supplies that were needed, the cargo was stowed away, and the hatches battened be- fore he went to get clearance papers. He said, "We must be permitted to leave at once. If I do not get four cargoes of food to Belgium by the end of the week, thousands are going to die of starvation and many more may be shot in food riots." The cabinet minister told him that what he asked was out of the question. "In the first place," he said, "there is no time, and if there were, there are no good wagons to be spared by the railways, no dock hands, and no steamers. Besides, the channel is closed to merchant ships for a week to allow the passage of army transports." "I have managed to get all these things," replied Hoover, "and am now through with them all except the steamers. This wire tells me that these are loaded and ready to sail, and I have come to you to ar- range for their clearance." The amazed official replied, "There have been men sent to the tower for less than you have done, young man. If it were for anything but Belgium Relief, — if it were anybody but you, I should hate to think what might happen. As it is, I suppose I must congratulate you on a jolly clever coup. I'll see about the clearance papers at once." In April, 1915, one of the ships carrying food was torpedoed by a Ger- man submarine and later an aeroplane tried to drop bombs on another. Mr. Hoover went to Berlin at once. He was told that Germany regretted this and that it would not happen again. "Thanks," said Mr. Hoover. "Perhaps your excellency has heard about the man who was bitten by a bad-tempered dog? He went to the owner to have the dog muzzled. But the dog won't bite you,' "insisted the owner. 'You know he won't bite me and I know he won't bite me,' said the injured man, doubtfully, 'but the question is, does the dog know?' ' "Herr Hoover," said the high official, "pardon me if I leave you for a moment. I am going at once to 'let the dog know.' " Despite opposition of many kinds and from many quarters, there was never a day from the beginning of the work till the last day of need that a single commune of all the 5.000 in Belgium and France did not re- ceive its daily bread. Nearly a billion dollars were spent by the C. R. B. for supplies and their transportation at an overhead of a little more than one- half of one per cent. During the fifty months of the relief work there came regularly, and generally safely, across the ocean and through "mine-strewn channels, rice from Rangoon, corn from Argentine, beans from Man- churia, wheat, meat, and fats from America at the rate of 100,000 tons a month." Hoover's was the responsibility of planning and thinking out ways and means and of seeing to details. He

322 IMPROVEMENT ERA Peb., 19Z9 had constant conferences with allied foreign officers. He checked on treas- uries and inspected all men sent over to help. He flitted from England to France, Belgium, Germany and Amer- ica. He went to Rotterdam to examine the food ships, floating elevators, and canal boats. He was given a freedom in passing from country to country en- joyed by no one else. He preached honesty. He was an example of honesty. He had the confidence of all the powers. "He was 'the one man,' not by virtue of any official or artificial rank, but by sheer personal superiority in both constructive and administrative capacity and in effective, practical ac- tion." He does not like to be thanked. He refused to be decorated, but the Belgians were determined to show their appreciation. One day, after fighting had ceased, when he was visiting the king and queen, the cabinet members appeared. "The king created a new order without ribbon, or button or medal and made Hoover its only member. He was simply and solemn- ly ordained 'Citizen of the Belgian Nation and Friend of the Belgian People.' " After the United States entered the war, Hoover received a call to act as food administrator. President Wilson expected him to tackle the ticklish job of dealing with the stomachs and pocket-books of the American people who were not used to Government in- terference in their personal affairs. The average duration of a food dictator in Europe had been six months. Hoover said, "I don't want to be a food dictator for the American people. The man who accepts such a job will lie on the barbed wire of the first line of entrenchments." Hoover knew from previous experience that he could rely on the heart of America. He felt he could rely on its brains, too. He put the matter of food control before the people, pointed out the need and the way and asked them to decide. Because of his fairness he won con- fidence. The people admired him for his resourcefulness and honored him because of his devotion to the nation. He worked for weeks before he was officially made United States Food Administrator. When he ac- cepted, he stipulated that he should receive no salary and that he should have a staff that would serve without compensation. Over seven and a quar- ter billion dollars were expended in the purchase of supplies by the dif- ferent agencies set up by the food ad- ministration. After the Armistice, Eastern Europe was in a terrible situation. The liber- ated peoples of the Baltic States — Poland, Czecho-Slovakia, Jugo Slavia, and the Near East, — were in a state of starvation. It was the duty of Amer- ica, Great Britain, France, and Italy to relieve them. The major relief had to come from America. All eyes turned to Hoover as the man to undertake the work. Millions were placed at his disposal. He extended help also to sufferers in Hungary, Austria, and Germany. In 1921, through drought and famine in the Volga, fifteen to twenty million faced starvation. Sixty-five million were placed at Hoover's dis- posal to aid these people. He found conditions unusually hard owing to the primitiveness, illiteracy, and fatal- ism of the Russian peasants. Nearly a million tons of food were distributed to more than twelve million people. Millions were "deloused," vaccinated, and inoculated. When the Mississippi flood im- periled a million and a half people, made homeless 700,000, when over half a million depended on public sup- port, when homes were inundated, crops destroyed, and famine and pesti- lence hovered near, Hoover, the "man for difficult jobs," was called to take the helm. For more than three months he slept on boats or on trains. Again

Feb.. 1929 HERBERT HOOVER 323 he supervised the expenditure of mil- lions in aiding sufferers. Herbert Hoover has been aptly styled "the man for difficult jobs." He is a man not to be baffled. He thinks clearly and is resourceful. He grasps all sides of a problem and gets at the essence of a thing. He decides quickly and works efficiently. He is courageous, self-reliant and determined. He has an uncanny power to find and use what he needs. He is tireless in seeing to details. He believes in council, he goes to the highest authority for in- formation and while "his decisions are his own they are always based upon a conference with the largest number of the best informed people he can gather for a free discussion before he decides." He is honest and straightforward. He cares more for principle than for party or politics. He has merited and won world-wide confidence in his ability and integrity. When the allies permitted Germany to be provisioned under the armistice, she had such con- fidence in the integrity of Hoover, that she unhesitatingly placed in his hands 220,000,000 German gold marks. He has creative imagination. A friend says of him, "He never touches an enterprise that does not appeal to his imagination as a great constructive job. He likes to do new things in new ways." Although his has been such a busy life, while he does the work of several each day, he has read widely. Books are in all the rooms of his home. He always reads some before he goes to sleep — on mining geology, metallurgy, economic and political science. He has been deeply interested in uni- versities and has done much for his alma mater. When it looked as though Belgium would have to close her in- stitutions of higher learning, he made it possible for them to remain open. A dozen American colleges and uni- versities have conferred honorary de- grees upon him. He has served with marked ability as Secretary of Commerce. He is de- voted to America and is rated as the most constructive man in American life. He has few recreations, he neither plays golf nor tennis, and walks but little. He has won the confidence and ad- miration and love of the peoples of the world. He is a great man for he has been servant to millions. Problems 1. Tell of Hoover's birth, parent- age, and early life. 2. What was a great factor in lead- ing Hoover to become an engineer? 3. Tell of his Stanford life. 4. Point out characteristics of Hoo- ver as illustrated in his mining life. 5. What has Hoover contributed to the literature of mining? 6. Tell some of the most interest- ing things connected with Hoover's war service. 7. Show that the appellation "the man for difficult jobs" is an apt one for Hoover. 8. What has made Hoover so suc- cessful and so greatly loved? Our government has been tried in peace and it has been tried in war, and has proved itself fit for both. It has been assailed from without, and has success- fully resisted the shock; it has been disturbed within, and it has effectually quieted the disturbance. It can stand trial, it can stand assail, it can stand adversity, it can stand everything but the marring of its own beauty and the weakening of its own strength. It can stand everything but the effects of our own rashness and our own folly. It can stand everything but disorganiza- tion, disunion and nullification. — Daniel Webster.