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Show THE CITIZEN What We Can Expect From The New President THE source of human greatness is never It is to be found not in one, but in many qualities, and in the manner of their blending. It is to be found not in mere mentality, but in the combination of intellect with character. Experience plays no small part in its development with those who are capable of wisely assimilating experience. The school is only one step in education; the man headed for greatness finds life a university in which courses are continuous. No man has ever come to the Presidency of the United States, since the first President, better known at the time of his assumption of the chief magistracy, than Herbert Hoover. Better known, that is, throughout the world for his record of achievement; for what he has said and done. But the personal qualities of many Presidents have been better known; partly because they had been longer in public life; partly because they were more obvious. No man ever went into the Presidency through more striking manifestations of public confidence; but that confidence was based not upon what people jjjknow about Mr. Hoover personally, but because of the ideas and deeds which constitute his known record. That is a far sounder basis of confidence than partiality for a personality. To most people, including some who know him fairly well, Mr. Hoover is something of a mystery; but what he has been able to accomplish is no mystery; it stands out as one of the most striking records of achievement ever set to the credit of an .American; a record impressive not in one field, but in many; beginning with small world-wid- e things and broadening to matters of moment; and every job well done. Some explanations of Mr. Hoover s achicvc-lhcnt- s, however, are apparent. First must be placed the factor of motive. The element of first importance in any life is the purpose that guides it.' That may be inherited; it may be acquired through contacts; it may be willed. As one reads of the earlier life of Herbert Hoover, A it is evident that from the beginning of his adventurous life he saw something in his work beside a means of gaining fame or fortune. His ' warm imagination saw the broader relationships of all tasks. So in Australia, as a youth called to the superintendency of a mine, he saw something others had stumbled over, namely, that industry was a human and not a mere mechanical thing, and that the hearts as well as the hands of men must be put into it if it was to succeed even from a dollar and cents standpoint. So one of the first tasks to which he set himself was that of making the conditions of labor endurable. He made the success of the enterprise worth while to his associates who worked with pick and shovel, as well as to those who drew dividends from the enterprise in London. He did not wait until he became a candidate for the Presidency of the United States to preach the doctrine that all worth while progress is based on comfort and opportunity for the every day man. He put that theory into practise in the first great enterprise he managed. And it worked; worked so well that he soon rose to the management of a large group of mines, and was called thence to even larger responsibilities. be said that Mr. Hoover was in pubSOlicit may service from the beginning, for he saw in industry an instrumentality of public service. The illustration of that ideal may be seen in all his career as a manager of mining enterprises on four continents, and the altruism which lay at the bottom of it found in the relief work of the World War, the most prodigious field of action ever opened to humanitarian leadership. He severed all business connections to throw himself into that work; indeed, he closed the door on commercial endeavor forever. A friend of Mr; Hoover, returning from Russia by way of London after Mr. Hoover had become Secretary of Commerce, carried to him at the request of a group of business leaders the . traveller had met in the British capital, an offer of a salary of a half million dollars a year and an interest in profits that would probably have netted as much more, to undertake the direction of one of the largest mining operations in the world. This was an annual return greater than Mr. Hoovers entire fortune. Secretary Hoovers reply to the tender was: When I was a younger man I had some ambition to acquire wealth. After passing through the World War, witnessing the agonies of humanity and feeling its desparate needs, I have lost interest in that. I made up my mind some time ago that the rest of my life would be given to public service, either in office or out of it. obviously, is Mr. Hoovers motive? in government, as he saw in business, a means of making political machinery count for a world of greater happiness and wider opportunity for humankind. That motive has animated men who have done more harm than good in the world. It is usually linked with lack of practical sense. It often inspires men with patent processes for making the world over in a night through some device of economic or political legerdermain. Men with their eyes on the stars usually walk WHAT, 3 into some bog and (frown and draw others after them. It is often affected by demagogues who publicly profess love for the people in order that they may exploit the people for personal advantage. It is often proclaimed by fanatics .whose real inspiration is not love for humanity, but class hatred. The world has a right to be suspicious of men who loudly proclaim their love of the people. They are mostly visionaries or counterfeits. Herbert Hoover does not wear his heart on his sleeve either in politics or private life. He does not megaphone his ideal of service. But he lives it. That is better. Now what are Mr. Hoovers qualifications for making his ideal a reality? No more practical minded man has ever come to the Presidency. His profession is that of engineer. That was a side line with two other Presidents: Washington and Lincoln. Washington was a land surveyor who took an active interest in engineering. projects such as the building of canals and highways. Lincoln was a surveyor and an inventor; he studied Euclid to make his thinking exact. An engineer is a who must know, not guess, what materials will do when they are put together. Political and economic doctrinaires do a flourishing business in showing fancy blue prints of structures that may cave in before half finished, if ever started at all. President Hoover will be no revolutionary. He will build carefully, but surely. pre-plann- er all men trained to the exact, rather than inexact, science, Mr. Hoover has a rehe acspect for facts. The extent to which quires and assimilates them, impresses everyone LIKE Men who consider themselves, and are, experts in given (Continued on Page 8) who discusses a problem with him. . |