HOOVER, THE FOOD KING

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 40, 16 August 1917, Page 3

HOOVER, THE FOOD KING

CONTROLS WORLD'S FOODSTUFFS.

A couple of years or so ago,,, if, you had enquired about Mr. Herbert Hoover in London or New York, not one person in ten thousand would have recognised the name. If you had been fortunate enough (says an exchange) to strike one who knew him, you; would probably have been told, "Oh, Hoover, he's a real good sort—a capital man of business, with a big heart and a clever head,"'but too retiring ever to make a splash. Those who knew him well think a lot of him, but they are few." • And yet to-day this obscure American is the food king, not only of America, but of the world—the man on whom, almost more than any other, the world's destiny hangs.

When, thirty-three months ago, the German hosts had swept through Belgium and part of France, leaving a wake of ruin behind them, and when ten millions of French and Belgians were face to face with starvation, it was this unknown American who sprang to their rescue.

Without any official support, merely as a private citizen, he negotiated directly in the name of suffering humanity with the belligerent Governments, and built up with amazing skill and speed the greatest philanthropic organisation the world has ever known. He marshalled an army of a hundred thousand helpers, engaged fleets of ships and barges, and as chairman of the Belgian Relief Committee, poured foodstuffs into the empty larders of Belgium and France in tens of thousands of tons.

He had to encounter a thousand obstacles, many of them . seemingly insuperable, but one by one they all vanished before his tact and his indomitable will, and thus for more than two years he has kept life and hope in millions of the pitiful victims of wax.

Through it all—such is the man's modesty—he kept himself so effectually in the background that his 'very name was unknown to ninety-nine out of a hundred of the people to whom he was such a benevolent Providence.

Such is the man who at 43 has been chosen to play the most difficult role in the war—that of providing, conserving, and distributing the food on which victory and the world's peace depend. That he will be equal to this almost superhuman task no one who knows what he has already: done doubts. But it will tax even his wonderful skill and organising power to the utmost.

He is the last man to underrate the difficulties in his path, but he faces them with his unconquerable optimism, although he has humorously professed that he "doesn't quite see how it is to be done."

When he was asked his opinion of the problem the other day, he answered,, with a smile and a twinkle in his eyes, "After trying most experiments and studying all others, I have come to the conclusion that the only real solution is to be found in St. Matthew, chapter 15, which tells the story of the miraculous feeding of the multitude on seven loaves and a few small fishes."

The story is typical alike of Mr. Hoover'e sense of humour and of his incorrigible modesty, for although he can talk brilliantly on most subjects, he is a veritable sphinx on himself and his work. „-For the rest, he has a strong personal magnetism, which infects his legion of helpei-s with his own enthusiasm, and such a boundless energy that, however hard he works, he has never been known to flag or to confess that he is tired.