In 1914 came the war, and Hoover's emergence as an international figure. For the war found Hoover on the spot in Europe, as it should have found him--being the timely man that he is. He organized the Commission for the Relief to Belgium which was to distribute five million tons of food to the victims of the war.

In 1917 came the entrance of the United States into the war, and Hoover's appointment first as Food Administrator in this country, then as director of food supplies for the Allied Powers. In 1921 came the Harding Administration and Hoover's appointment as Secretary of Commerce, a post which he has now held seven years.

Five Different Hoovers

Here, on a thumbnail, is the story of a busy man. The interpretations placed upon this story have given us at least five different Hoovers, and all of them are different men.

There is the British Hoover, introduced to the United States by Senator Jim Reed. This Hoover is supposed to be more loyal to King George than to the spirit of America. There is Hoover, the radical--the determined engineer, if you would remember, who would turn industry upside down. It has now been noted that Hoover has placed no radical plans for the reorganization of industry before Congress; that he is about as resolute and as enthusiastic a defender of the American capitalist scene; and that he aims to coax rather than to compel the business men with whom he deals.

Again, there is Hoover, the amateur in politics,--the ingenue among the curly wolves. It may be true that in 1920 Hoover was content to trust his preconvention campaign to as fine a group of mechanical engineers, prize orators, and textbook authors as were ever lost in a wilderness of politics. But that was 1920.

Farmer's Foe?

Finally, there is Hoover, the implacable enemy of the farmer. And of this Hoover we continue to hear--and shall hear more as the time for the convention nears. The debate turns partly upon Hoover's opposition to the McNary-Haugen bill and partly upon the famous dollar-wheat decision of the Food Administration in war days. Hoover makes no bones of his opposition to the McNary-Haugen bill but his friends insist that he had nothing to do with the dollar-wheat decision, and cite evidence to prove their case. That evidence is now being carried to the tribunal of the nation--the people.

Hoover, the archenemy of the farmer, we shall have debated from now until the date of the convention. Hoover, the amateur in politics, is pretty generally forgotten. Hoover, the radical, no longer troubles the bond salesman's slumber. Hoover, the British patriot, we shall have with us whenever Senator Reed is on the scene. Discount these four Hoovers. What sort of a Hoover have we left?

A Hoover, certainly, who is a remarkable administrator, with a talent for quick decisions and an unflagging interest in detail.

A boyish-looking Hoover, almost cherubic in his smile, whose geniality looks contagious but is somehow so baffling that it is impossible to imagine his public ever calling him by his first name.

An exceedingly practical Hoover, with an infinite capacity for work, a great favoritism for the word "leadership," and no very large interest in the speculations of philosophers and the day-dreams of an academic world.

A personally shy Hoover, who frequently struggles ineffffectively for the right word, draws little doo dads on a sheet of paper when he talks, and sometimes seems to derive embarrassment even from the act of shaking hands.

An amazing Hoover, when it comes to arriving at an analytical conclusion from an array of given facts, with an uncanny intuition in his rapid calculations and a capacity for getting other men to work for him which amounts to genius.

A resourceful Hoover, whose conclusions are essentially a one-man job, and whose apparent concentration on the task immediately in hand gives no clue to the fact that he is at last equally interested in six other matters at the same moment--a man whose career is a successful rebuttal of the adage that it is a mistake to have too many irons in the fire.

Of this man it was said by a shrewd observer--Franklin K. Lane nearly fifteen years ago: "Here is a man for us to get next to. He is a Harriman, a Morgan, a Huntington, a Hill, a Bismarck, a Kuhn Loeb, and a damned Yankee all rolled into one! Can you beat it?"

Can you