"THE GREAT ENGINEER"

The recent action taken by the Republican State leaders of Ohio in condeming Mr. Hoover's aspirations to the presidential nomination for 1936, is extremely interesting. It is equally important when one considers that Ohio is not only one of the key states of the middle west, but that it is, as well, one of the leading factors in any national Republican movement. Its unanimous and determined stand against Mr. Hoover rather indicates that the dam is beginning to break in the inner circles of the G. O. P. Long before a candidate can be elected, the party which is supporting him must be purged of all divergent tendencies. This is precisely what is happening.

The leaders of the Republican party have long wondered just what to do with the great engineer. Were not the presidency of Stanford University ably filled by Dr. Wilbur, it might have been a distinguished and honorable office for a political figure of Mr. Hoover's proportions. With no important mining schemes afoot, and with the old flair for executive positions definitely taking second place in favor of politics, it has been rather hard to crowd Mr. Hoover out of the picture. In fact, so far no one has had the temerity or ability to do so. Thick skins cannot be pierced with toothpicks and up to the present only the very tiniest and bluntest splinters have been used. Now that Ohio Republicans have substituted a battering ram we can hope that Mr. Hoover will gracefully accept the increasingly obvious fact that many Republicans would not choose him as their leader.

His own tactics will do as much to hurt his course as will the machinations of his enemies. Constant and unremitting statements to the press, day in and day out, begin to pall on any public. His words are being read less and less, his opinions create little excitement as compared to those of last year. In fact Mr. Hoover is slipping from the strong position he has held in Republican ranks throughout the country.