HOOVER OF AMERICA

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 66, 11 December 1917, Page 9

HOOVER OF AMERICA

THE MAN WHO CONTROLS THE FOOD . SUPPLIES

SKETCH OF HIS CAREER

It is an interesting faot that Herbert Clarke Hoover began his progressive career in Australia, and tbore developed his capacity for high finance and big business. Ho was born in tlio Tlnitod States, of Dutch descent, graduated at the Leland-Stanford University, California, as a mining engineer ' in 1893, and joined the Geological survey of Arkansas, 1894, and the U.S. Geological Department, 1896. His ability was noted by Mr. Charles Algernon Moreing, of the firm of Bewick, Moreing and Company, who engaged him for work, with that firm in Australia, 1898, and ho was given the management of Hannan's Brown Hill at Kalgoorlie, W.A. Here lie did excellent work, and secured the. rich Sons of Gwalia mine for his firm. He was then a very young man, and looked so youthful that he 'grew a beard to add iinpressiveness to liis maturity.

In 1901 the firm sent him to China, where he organised a Bureau of Mines (a most successful venture embracing valuable mineral concessions) and acted as chief engineer of the concern. In' 1908 Bewick, Moreing and Company called him. into .partnership, and placed him on the directorate of important mines in various uarts of tho world. _ Ho then lived in London, and paid visits to various countries in the firm's interests. While on a visit to Australia he became aware of the possibilities of the flotation process for making valuable the umtsed nssnt of zinc tailings dumps at Broken Hill. Havinc assured himself that a process could be found for zinc separation lie secured options over tho great- accumulations of sinoiferous ore and tailings available, and his firm, in conjunction with others, formed the Zinc Corporation,/ Ltd.. which to-day has an ore reserve of 1,700,000 tons. At the outbreak of war, after the ruthless Hun invasion of BelciuiH, Mr. Hoover threw himself into the task of assisting the cruelly-used Belgians, and helped to organise tho Relief Fund on "ohalf of Great Britain, Franco, and tho United States. __ His work in this direction letl to liis appointment in the United States to tho great position no now holds, and which he is carrying on with such signal credit to himself and his country.

Mr. Hoover is a man about 45 years or ago, sft, lOin. in height, spare, sinewy, and alert, strong of face and direct of speech—a_ typical American of University production. He has a, peculiarity of walking oil board a boat with nothing but a suit-case in his hand to undertake the longest journeys, buying his necessities of clothing as" ho goes along, and giving .them .away as lie sheds .them. Thus he gets to his objective with the maximum of speed and the minimum of trouble. Among other things he, with his wife, translated the "Agricola, De Re 'Metallica" from the Latin—tho first work on mining ever written—and he is the author of "Principles of Mining." . first mot Mr, Hoover," said Mr. B.iillicu, M.L.C.. "about twelve years ago, and, regarding him from a business standpoint, he was one of the most capable men I liavo evor encountered. His business and economical sense was of the highest order, and ho always got right to the heart of tho matter under consideration by tho shortest_ routo. Having heard his views, which were almost always convincing, one felt that tho ground had been covered completely, and that there was.Utile elso to be said concerning it. • business under' consideration IfaVing been concluded, it was Mr. Hoover's habit to call in his typist and dictate while walking restlessly up and down the room in a. way that denoted liis characteristic nervous energy. Then he would have the typed script read over, and, turning to his business associates, would ask if there was anything to add to' it. , From that moment tho business in hand, however important, was fixed, and put behind him, and his mind became centr«4 cn the next problem-Jo Tie dealt with. "I often felt in talking with Mr. Hoover that it would Have been a good thing for tho business world if a gramophone with a receptive record could have been on hand to register some of the many excellent and original axioms ho so frequently voiced. He. was ominently logical, and his ability for lucid expression was complete."