Irish Jesuit Province

The Hoover Memoirs: The Cabinet and the Presidency by Herbert HooverReview by: Maxwell SweeneyThe Irish Monthly, Vol. 81, No. 958 (Jun., 1953), pp. 248-249Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20516570 .

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IRISH MONTHLY

His Holiness Pope Pius XII. On November 22nd, 1951, in a brilliant and eloquent address to the Papal Academy of Sciences he showed that the conclusions of modern science point irresistibly to the fact of creation and thus to the existence of a Creator.

This address of the Holy Father has achieved a world-wide fame. Some American universities, among them, I believe, Harvard and St. Louis, have republished it and made it available to all students of science.

In Modern Science and God, Dr. McLaughlin has provided an im proved English translation of this address and added an excellent commentary. This contains glosses on the scientific references and on

the philosophical reasoning of the five traditional ways by which the mind can ascend from the consideration of the material world to the existence and nature of the Creator.

The scientific synthesis of the Holy Father is masterly and shows his

deep interest and profound understanding of modern scientific concep tions. The present address, we hope, should dispel the last shades of that prejudice which regarded Rome as a bulwark of touchy and timid obscurantism.

We would recommend this book especially to all students of science at our universities. Living close to science, it is often difficult to survey its overall trends, and especially to see whither they lead when prolonged into the domain of philosophy. This the Holy Father has done in a

masterly way, proving anew the old argument that science and religion are not irreconcilable, but aspects of the one truth.

P. H.

IN PRE-DEPRESSION AMERICA

The Hoover Memoirs: The Cabinet and the Presidency. By Herbert Hoover. London: Hollis and Carter. 30/-.

The autocrat of early American Governments give place to the techno

crat of the 'twenties, who has since given place to the democrat?

although the democrat by nature is once again Republican by Party. Herbert Hoover was undoubtedly the great technocrat of the 1920's; he was trained as an engineer and his mind applied itself to problems of Government administration as to problems of engineering.

In this, the second volume of his memoirs, Hoover records his active Government life. He had distinguished himself as a relief administrator

in Europe before returning to the U.S. and Cabinet rank. Benevolent

paternalism in his approach to war-distressed Europe seemed to remain

with him in his Cabinet career. As Secretary of Commerce in the Administration of Harding and Coolidge, he engaged on the control of such new development as water-power projects, civil aviation and radio,

and brought federal intervention to the housing problem. Each was an obvious interest to his engineer's mind, and on each he beamed paternally so that he now writes (more than once) :

" I do not claim the credit . . .

but . . ." and "

For my more important statements on . . . see . . ."

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BOOKS

Although admiring Warren Harding as his chief, Hoover claims his own prevision of the scandals to come: the scandals of Teapot Dome, Californian Naval Reserve Oil, and others. These shook faith in American public administration : that faith has never been fully restored and its weakness periodically reveals itself in the necessity for Congres sional Investigation Committees?an apparently inevitable concomitant

to what is euphemistically described as the "

American Way of Life ". The capital letters are essential to the phrase.

Coolidge, the second President under whom Hoover served, was a

puritanical New Englander with a slightly chastening influence on the Administration. He smiled upon the resurgence of prosperity?the "

Coolidge Prosperity "?which resolved itself in the wild speculations of 1927 and ultimate moral and financial ruin of thousands of Americans two years later. Coolidge might have averted the disaster, but Hoover

reports him as waiting for trouble to mature?and it is improbable that the public, then unused to controls, would have welcomed a brake on

their economic joy-ride. Religious bigotry aired during the Presidential campaign of 1928, when

Governor Al Smith was the first Catholic contender for the Presidency, is briefly dismissed?Mr. Hoover is a Quaker and, while condemning bigotry, considers it had less to do with the voting than Smith's member

ship of the Tammany organisation. Since many Americans, Catholics among them, were tiring of Tammany tactics, Hoover could be right

He gives the student of American history value for money in these

efficiently-indexed memoirs, but they do not constitute the full story of the period; Mr. Hoover has kept for another volume his story of

" The

Great Depression", the dominant feature of his Presidency. In this

presentation he talks of the more pleasant aspects of his Presidential years, and his note seems that of all politicians, everywhere:

"... had we continued in office we would have quickly overcome

the depression and approached economic and social problems from the point of view of correcting marginal abuse and not of inflicting a collectivist economy on the country. We would have better pre served the personal liberty to which the nation was dedicated."

Any politician might have had the thought; only an American would have expressed it in just that way.

Maxwell Sweeney

FICTION The Cards of the Gambler. By Benedict Kiely. London: Methuen. 14/-.

Not only is The Cards of the Gambler Benedict Kiely's best novel but it is one of the finest novels that has been written in this country in

years. It will certainly sweep away such niggardly epithets as "pro mising

" and

" regional

" and raise the author to the position he deserves.

This is the story of a soul, a gambler's soul, and it is Mr. Kiely's achievement that this hero becomes universal, a representative man, Every

man, a new Adam. I shall not attempt a precis of the book because the

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