Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 178, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 August 1917 — The Man Who Saved Belgium [ARTICLE]

The Man Who Saved Belgium

Herbert C. Hoover, being nineteen years of age, depending on his resources, quiet, self-confident and sparing of speech, presented himself tn 1891 in the new Stanford university as the first student to be registered, the first occupant of Encina hall, and as the nucleus of the department of ■geology and mining. As nearly every|body else among the 465 students was a freshman likewise, lack of experience was no bar to anything. So, as a freshman, he organized the finances of the student body on a sound system which remains to this day when the jstudent. group spends many thousand dollars a year in its varied activities. Duly graduated in 1895 as a mining engineer, Hoover accepted the first position offered, a place on the staff of a mining corporation in Nevada counity, California. The pay was $2 per !day, the assignment to push i cars from the mouth of the mine to the reducing works. The cars all reached their destination, and a more specialized job followed. Next he appeared In the most desolate spot In the (Civilized world, Broken HUI, In the desert of New South Wales. In this desolate, forsaken wallpw of sand, zinc and gold, Hoover and his tewm-nT«fft r 'D. ~P. Mitchell, of *96, spent a red-hot summer night discussing the chances of a return to the world. 'Should they go on as wage-working I mining experts in the countries God forgot, or should they throw it all up and go bdck to some honest trade in California? This is the tradition. The fact is, Urey stayed by, and then

came a series of events which led Hoover to China and Mitchell as a general manager to Melbourne. He was thirty-four years old by this time, we are told by David Starr Jordan in Sunset Magazine. He had gone to the limit as a mining engineer. He could do nothing more with it as a profession except to pile up more money. He had all the money he needed and he wanted to do something else. There •‘was Agricola, whom he would like to translate. There was a lot of ancient record stones from his mine on Mount Sinai. Hoover considered entering American politics. When the war began there were more than 200,000 Americans scattered’ over Europe. These met with all sorts of troubles and grievances, great and small. Some were rich and temporarily stranded, some permanently poor, some eking out petty Incomes or alimonies in the cheapest villages of Bavaria, Saxony or France. The Hoovers took charge of the commission for their relief. The operations of the committee at the Savoy hotel, wholly American and wholly unpaid, showed the marvelous tact and skill with which American folks can handle a new situation. About 6,000 Americans were ’sent home, and several times that number gained femporary relief. The relief of 6,000,000 of Belgians against democratic famine “working day and night” was a problem of infinite dimensions, but Hoover tackled it as part of the day’s work. If “Belgium saved Europe,” as my good friend Sarolea says it did, then America saved Belgium, and Hoover was her agent. I