Chapter 34

Hoover's opinion on (the presidency of Stanford ) was emphatic. Stanford, he declared, was "essentially a Western institution, with ideals entirely different from those which obtain on the Atlantic seaboard." Its development policies of the previous two years (policies largely conceived by himself, he might have added) were "practically unique." Indeed, the university's "whole internal academic structure" was "essentially different from that of any other institution." To Hoover it was therefore evident that Stanford's next president should be "a Western man," and "a man from the present university body." He would also be pre-eminently an administrator. "The old-line President who was able to preside at Sunday School Conventions and make choicely classical orations on public occasions is not the type of man that Stanford needs," he argued. "Nothing would be more disastrous than to choose some classical Professor from the East." For Hoover only one man fit his criteria: the current dean of Stanford's medical school, Ray Lyman Wilbur.

Hoover's reasoning was extremely revealing of his educational philosophy and self-image. He wanted Stanford to be led by a Westerner, not an Easterner; an executive, not an orator, a man of practical education, not a classically trained academic. A man, in short, like himself. If Wilbur was "deficient on the side of flowered and classical oratory," he remarked crisply, that deficiency could be supplied by Chancellor David Starr Jordan. Hoover also admired Wilbur's aggressiveness on behalf of his department. If Stanford had "another ten Wilburs" in its other departments, he argued, "they would have been much further forward than they are today." Hoover's choice was significant for another reason. Ray Lyman Wilbur was one of his oldest and closest friends.

Having circulated his views to key trustees, Hoover now awaited developments. At the beginning of 1915 President Branner duly announced his intention to retire on August 1, and the search for his successor began in earnest. It quickly developed that opposition to Hoover's candidate was strong. During 1914 Wilbur had been embroiled in the bitter battle over the future status of his San Francisco-based department, a battle that he had won and Branner had lost. Apparently embittered by his defeat, Branner seemed determined not to let Wilbur succeed him. He was not alone in his opposition. Many members of the Stanford faculty feared that Wilbur, as president, would place the interests of the medical school ahead of those of other departments.

Well aware of these sentiments, Hoover tried to neutralize them by proposing to his fellow trustees that his friend be appointed acting president for a trial period of one year. Hoover was certain that Wilbur would introduce so much administrative "steam and push" to the campus that he would "galvanize the whole place within twelve months." But if he should not meet expectations, he could then return "with dignity" to the medical school and another person could be chosen president. It would be far better to handle matters in this way, Hoover thought, than to embark on what he called the "experiment " of hiring an educator from the East.

Hoover's suggestion went nowhere. It soon transpired that the faculty's apprehensions about Wilbur were shared by certain trustees, some of whom, including W. Mayo Newhall and J. Leroy Nickel, wished to look outside the faculty - to the East, in fact - for a successor. Hoover, in London, was angry at this turn of events. "I am . . .appalled at the idea of Nickel and Newhall dominating the appointment of a President for Stanford University," he told a friend. "Neither of these men has the university instinct, nor have they the remotest idea as to what constitutes such an institution."

Meanwhile Stanford's newest trustee, Ralph Arnold, was pursuing an idea of his own. A petroleum geologist and businessman (as well as Ray Lyman Wilbur's second cousin), Arnold had known the Hoover brothers for years. In January 1915 he asked Hoover whether he would accept an offer of the Stanford presidency. Arnold was convinced that the university would be "making no mistake" if it installed Hoover as president for a long enough term to "thoroughly organize the faculty" and establish "a definite policy of administration."

Hoover's reply was swift and clear: Ray Lyman Wilbur, he said, should be chosen. But then he added:

"If it was not for the intervention of all these international troubles, I would have been quite prepared to take on the job for a couple of years, simply as acting president or acting trustee in charge of the University, in order to hold the position open for Ray. I have no intention to become a University President as a permanent occupation."

Hoover pointed out he could not "desert the Belgians until peace has been signed" and that he would then need three or four months to arrange his "private affairs" before he could "take on the job." How soon he might even be available was therefore impossible to determine. Nevertheless, he seemed willing, at least in principle, to accept the position if offered it.

Arnold was extremely pleased. He immediately replied that if certain circumstances materialized, he would nominate Hoover as a compromise candidate for acting president or acting trustee in charge of the university. Hoover, significantly, did not object.

Then, in the winter of 1915, an unexpected event threw the selection process into turmoil. David Starr Jordan, who as chancellor had been attending trustees' meetings, announced publicly that Wilbur would probably be selected as president. Not long afterward Jordan, a strong advocate of Wilbur, compounded his indiscretion by practically demanding that the board come to a decision in April (1915) - a move interpreted by some as an attempt to stampede the board toward Wilbur. Jordan's behavior incensed the trustees, fortified the anti-Wilbur faction among them, and obliged the rest to defer a choice for some time. As a result, the spring of 1915 passed without result, and Branner was induced to remain as president for as much as another year.

Reporting all this to London, Ralph Arnold again expressed his wish that Hoover could step in for two or three years as president and reorganize the entire university. Not only would the institution benefit, he argued; the interim period would enable Wilbur to solidify his credentials as Hoover's successor. Arnold yearned for Hoover's presence at the showdown meeting of the trustees; at such a meeting, he knew, Hoover's influence would be "dominant."

Far from the environs of Stanford, Hoover was disgusted at the course events were taking. He told Arnold that it was a source of "humour" to think that "a narrow-minded farmer like Newell (Newhall) or an extremely avricious (sic), egotistical banker like (trustee Frank B.) Anderson are either one or the other at all capable in choosing a President for Stanford." As for Branner, who was about to head east on a search for candidates:

"You and I have known for years that Branner is capable of the most violent and consistent prejudices and that with all his admirable qualities these prejudices absolutely blind him to the merits or demerits of individuals. I should consider that he above all men associated with Stanford University is the least qualified to nominate a new President, but when I think of Jordan's judgment I am equally appalled. As to myself, if it does not work out in the next six month that Ray is possible, until the above gentlemen have been completely removed from the scenery and their influence entirely excised, I might manage to take the job and hold it for two or three years, provided I had a clear six months to get prepared. Much depends upon how long this War lasts and a hundred other contingencies, but rather than see some loudmouthed Princetown (sic) professor put in the position, I would be willing to take three years out of my life and throw them away."

Hoover's worries about a "loudmouthed Princetown professor" proved apposite. After a trip east late in the spring to investigate presidential possibilities, Branner and Newhall returned with an enthusiastic endorsement of Edwin Capps, professor of classics at Princeton - the very epitome of all that Hoover found objectionable. Thoroughly alarmed, Arnold cabled London that Wilbur's "only chance" depended on Hoover's attending the next trustees' meeting. Only Hoover, he said, could win over Trustee Anderson and sufficiently isolate the opposition to prevail. Once again Arnold held out the prospect of Hoover's becoming president if Wilbur's bid should fail, and he disclosed that two other trustees seemed amenable to this possibility.

Hoover's reaction to the Capps candidacy was scorching, The Princeton professor, he cabled, was a "social fop" and "sycophant to (the) Wall street bunch." He was the "absolute negation of (the) type required for president." but for all his vehemence, Hoover had to record that he had "no Hope" of visiting California until the war was over. Millions of people were dependent on his venture in humanitarian relief. The CRB, he said, would collapse into "absolute Chaos" without him.

By now (mid-1915) the Stanford Board of trustees was deeply divided between the Pro- and anti-Wilbur factions. Chancellor Jordan agreed with Arnold that only Hoover, appearing in person, could persuade the board to select his nominee. To Jordan, (Hoover wrote that) Leland Stanford would "turn over in his grave" if he knew that "a Professor of classics from the most reactionary university in America" were to become president. Alas, the one man who seemed capable of resolving the impasse in Wilbur's favor was thousands of miles away.

At its meeting (in August 1915) the Board of Trustees decided to interview several candidates; clearly a decision was some time away. Arnold immediately informed Hoover that he might yet be "the victim of circumstances" if Wilbur were blocked and the "(trustees) Hopkins and Eells are strong for you in case Wilbur cannot get it." Lou Henry Hoover, cabling to her husband from California, was more succinct. "Presidential campaign at deadlock, " she said. "May insist on you."

Immersed in Belgian relief problems six thousand miles away, Hoover could do little to influence the outcome. As it turned out, his personal presence was not required. During the autumn, a majority of the trustees voted for Wilbur, the minority acquiesced, and the board tendered its offer. Wilbur accepted - in order that (he later wrote) "medicine would not be destroyed as a part of the University." To Wilbur the time had arrived for Stanford to fulfill its early promise and become in full measure a university, not simply a small college with a large endowment. The acquisition of the medical school, in his view, was the first great step in this transition. In all these aspirations his friend Herbert Hoover agreed with him. Now thanks in considerable part to Hoover's own "steam and push," Wilbur was to have his opportunity.

Shortly after the board made its decision, Hoover sent the president-elect a seven-page letter of advice and felicitation. For "the first time in its history," he predicted, Stanford University under Wilbur would "take absolutely first rank." Hoover urged Wilbur to reorganize Stanford's system of "faculty control" in order that the "leaders of the University" might emerge instead of "secondary men." Specifically, Hoover suggested that Wilbur bring related faculty departments together into "groups," administered by committees of department heads, who in turn would elect representatives to a small "legislative body" to be known as the University Executive Committee or University Senate. In this way, he argued, the "best brains" could prevail in university governance, and the influence of assistant professors and instructors could be reduced. With such a body drawn from the "pre-eminent professors," Wilbur might even be able to abolish "the well-known Debating Society called the "Academic Council' " Returning to a theme he had expounded often before the war, Hoover also advocated that Stanford hire more "illustrious men." These select few were the key, he asserted, to the university's success and to its standing in the academic world.

Hoover offered his friend one other self-revealing suggestion:

"There is one bit of advice that I will hazard you on the whole question of administration of any institution and that is never to be afraid of the ability of one's lieutenants but to bear in mind that the more able the men with whom one surrounds oneself the more certainty one has of ultimate success."