I set this
charge down, at the time, to jealousy and prejudice, Mr. Hoover
being always an outsider in the Wilson administration; but the long
delay and immense difficulty he made over deciding, although all
his life a Republican, whether he was or was not a Republican in
the campaign of 1920, seemed all the proof of indecision that was
needed.
It sounds like heresy about one who has been advertised as he has;
but remember that we know little about him except what the best
press agents in history have said of him. He achieved his
professional success in the Orient, far from observation, and his
financial success far from American eyes. His public career in the
relief of Belgium and in the administration of food was the object
of world-wide good will. And, moreover, indecision in politics is
common enough among men who are strong and able in other
activities. Mr. Taft was a great judge but wrecked his
administration as President by inability to make up his mind.
Senator Kellogg was a brilliantly successful lawyer; but in public
life he is so hesitant that Minnesota politicians speak of him as
"Nervous Nelly," and even Mr. Taft, during the Treaty fight,
rebuked him to his face for lack of courage.
Mr. Hoover's face is not that of a decisive character. The brow is
ample and dominant; there is vision and keen intelligence; but the
rest of the face is not strong, and it wears habitually a wavering
self-conscious smile.
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