Mr. Penrose got up from a sick bed and thundered: under
no circumstances would he permit the nomination of Mr. Hoover.
The plot succeeded. In a few days, Mr. Hoover declared that he
would not take the Democratic nomination. The Democrats dropped
him. The public was bewildered by his finding out that he was a
Republican after saying that he could not tell whether he was one
or not until he had seen the Republican candidate and the platform.
At the Chicago Convention he received the support of Mr. Crane,
Governor Miller, of New York, and, on the last ballot, of William
Allen White, who having voted for Harding on the just previous
ballot, said he wanted to "leave the bandwagon and ride with the
undertaker."
This guilelessness of Mr. Hoover in politics will prevent him from
realizing his larger ambitions; but is a source of strength to him
in his present position, with American business men who have
learned to distrust politicians. At any rate, he is no politician;
he thinks as business men think; his interests are their interests;
and when he comes to them bearing gifts,--the aid and cooperation
of the United States Government in their efforts to win foreign
trade,--they do not take him for a Greek.
He possesses great special knowledge which they desire: he knows
much about economics and enjoys the advantage of believing that he
knows all; he has immense prestige, as a result of all the
advertising he received during the War; they come to Washington and
sit at his feet like children; he gives them fatherly lectures,
even upon the morals of their business, which must be clean, to
enter this foreign trade of his, with the Government behind it.
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