achievements in connection with Belgian relief with a wonder that is not unmixed with awe. His contempt of precedent-his readiness to hew a direct new road instead of wasting time following the sinuosities of an old one is the main element in Hoover's success. He himself will tell you that. "What brought you through those first terrible months when primal chaos reigned in Belgium, and before your present system was in working order?" he was asked recently. "The fait accompli," was the prompt reply. If a thing was really necessary, we did it first and asked permission afterwards."

Here is an example of what Hoover means by the fait accompli. Before his organization was fairly on its feet there came a moment when a huge quantity of food was needed immediately to prevent the actual starvation of many thousands of Belgians. The Commission had the food on hand in England, and the " proper" procedure would have been the orthodox one of requesting the Government, via the usual red-taped channels, for permission to move it, a course, however, which Hoover knew only too well would result in a series of delays that would prove absolutely fatal to the success of his plans. The necessary cars-in spite of the fact that all rolling stock was supposed to be held subject to the Government's call for military exigencies were secured by direct application to the railway people, and in record time the supplies were transported to the seaboard and put aboard steamers which had been provided in an equally "high-handed" manner. When the last bag had been stowed and the hatches battened down, Hoover went in person to the one Cabinet Minister able to arrange for the only things he could not provide himself-clearance papers. "If I do not get four cargoes of food to Belgium by the end of the week," he said, bluntly, "thousands are going to die from starvation, and many more may be shot in food riots."

"Out of the question," said the distinguished Minister. "There is no time, in the first place, and if there was there are no good wagons to be spared by the railways, no dock hands, and no steamers; moreover, the Channel is closed for a week to merchant vessels while troops are being transported to the Continent."

"I have managed to get all of these things," Hoover replied, quietly; "and am now through with them all except the steamThis wire tells me that these are now

ers.

loaded and ready to sail, and I have come to have you arrange for their clearance."

The great man gasped. "There have been-there are even now-men in the Tower for less than you have done," he ejaculated. If it was for anything but Belgian Reliefif it was anybody but you, young man-I should hate to think of what might happen. As it is-er-I suppose there is nothing to do but congratulate you on a jolly clever coup. I'll see about the clearance at once."

"You must love Hoover as much for his humanness as you admire him for his quickness of mind," one of his fellow-workers on the Commission said to me a few days ago. "He is a chap of many sides, and his adeptness in dealing with men has been scarcely less a factor in the success of our work than has his genius for organization. You have heard, doubtless, that Lloyd George has the reputation of being the most persuasive man in England. Well, a few months ago, when we were trying to simplify our work by arranging for an extension of exchange facilities on Brussels, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer sent for Hoover. I will tell the story as Lloyd George himself told it to some friends at the Liberal Club a few days later :

66 6

"Mr. Hoover," I said, "I find I am quite unable to grant your request in the matter of Belgian exchange, and I have asked you to come here that I might explain why." Without waiting for me to go on, my boyishlooking caller began speaking, gesturing with one hand and clinking coins in his pocket with the other. For fifteen minutes he spoke without a break-just about the clearest expository utterance I have ever heard on any subject. He used not a word too much, nor yet a word too few. By the time he had finished I had come to realize, not only the importance of his contentions, but, what was more to the point, the practicability of granting his request. So I did the only thing possible under the circumstances-told him I had never understood the question before, thanked him for helping me to understand it, and saw to it that things were arranged as he wanted them.'"

Hoover's directness of thought and speech make him quite the most satisfactory man to interview I have ever encountered. He has nothing of the cryptic or euphemistic type of "interviewee;" neither does he wax reminiscent or anecdotal; nor yet does he answer (Continued on page following illustrations)