Hoover Men

"Any truthful declaration on the Cabinet members will be announced by me, and all other statements will be based on theory and conjecture." So said the President-elect, without in the least deterring theory and conjecture.

Borah or Morrow for State; Mellon for Treasury; D. F. Davis for War; the present Wilbur's brother for the Navy; Donovan for Attorney-General; New or Good for Postmaster-General; Work again for Interior; J. J. Davis for Labor; one of three Juliuses--Klein, Barnes, Rosenwald --for Commerce; some midwesterner for Agriculture, perhaps Publisher Dante Melville Pierce of Des Moines--so ran theory and conjecture. A "truthful declaration" was not expected for some time, perhaps not until the President-elect's return from South America (see page 8).

The theorists and conjecturers wondered how the Republican South would be recognized, what new Californians might be taken to Washington, whether Mrs. Willebrandt would get her long-sought judgeship, etc., etc. Upon two basic matters, however, observers were satisfied--that the major appointments would contain a minimum of politics, a maximum of fitness; and that many an oldtime Hoover man would be recalled.

Decentralization is a prime tenet of the Hoover theory of administration--dividing the work into parts and making one person responsible for each part. He would rather appoint a director of this and a director of that and let them choose assistants than entrust this-and-that in one lump to a commission. Radio is an example. Last week radiowners throughout the U. S. made out new dialing charts as a result of the Federal Radio Commission's reassignment of station wavelengths. Perhaps the new charts will serve for some time, perhaps they will need changing again before Christmas. In the Hoover view, radio's difficulties would be better handled in the Department of Commerce, where radio regulation rested before Congress declined Mr. Hoover's advice. It would not be surprising to hear him as President recommend to Congress what it refused him as Secretary. If Congress complied, radio might then be put under some oldtime Hoover man, one of the scores of specialists whom Mr. Hoover has had working under him in his various large undertakings of the past 20 years.

A Hoover man is not a single type. What makes him a Hoover man is that so many of him have been chosen with such uniform success, that so many of him have credited their success to the confidence and co-operation of "the Chief." A Hoover man is usually a recognized expert in his line before he qualifies for work in that line under Hoover. He is usually an expert with creative theories of his own, or enthusiasm for Hoover theories, besides technical knowledge. He is likely to be an idealist with a social aim, rather than a practitioner of skilled self-interest. Typical Hoover men are George Barr Baker, publicist; Archibald Wilkinson Shaw, commercial economist; Dr. Vernon Lyman Kellogg, zooelogist. The latter, permanent Secretary of the National Research Council, may be taken as the ideal Hoover man.

Vernon Kellogg was a young professor of entomology and bionomics at Stanford University when Herbert Hoover was an undergraduate. Kansas-raised (Emporia), he had studied at Cornell, Leipzig, Paris. He had the scientific method that Hoover valued and was developing. While Hoover engineered in far parts, Scientist Kellogg stayed at Stanford, collaborating with Dr. David Starr Jordan, teaching classes, gaining a quiet renown. There were Hoover-Kellogg reunions whenever the wandering engineer returned to Palo Alto. In 1915 the engineer sent a call to Palo Alto and the quiet scientist went to Belgium to be a willing Hoover man for six years. Dr. Kellogg is not likely to be called over to the Hoover administration from his Potomac-viewing office in the Academy of Science--unless an emergency arises. In cases of crisis he is typical of a widely-scattered corps to whom the White House could beckon without political hesitation, or official formality.