Mr. Hoover

Maine, famed national political bellwether, last week chose, without instructing, its 15 delegates to the Republican convention. The 15 met straightway and telegraphed their support, "loyal," "unswerving," to Candidate Hoover.

Michigan followed with a primary giving Mr. Hoover the preference votes of its 33 Republican delegates. It was remembered that Mr. Hoover led in the Democratic primary in Michigan in 1920. But last week Alfred Emanuel Smith was the choice of the Michigan Democrats.

In Washington, Hooverites started forming a Committee of One Thousand. Of the 237 Republicans in the House of Representatives, 110 signed up. At least 20 of the 48 Senate Republicans were expected to sign. The Hooverizing petition said: "We have been fortunate in President Coolidge. We must have in his successor, through the Republican Party, an assurance of continuity, stability and national progression."

In Manhattan, the New York Herald Tribune, outstanding G. O. P. organ of the East, said in an editorial: "The unique and impressive fact of the Hoover campaign is the fashion in which it has stirred spontaneous support in every section of the country. . . .

"The farmer opposition to Mr. Hoover is ... a myth. . . .

"To an extraordinary degree Mr. Hoover is a national figure and a national candidate, drawing support from every section and every state. . . .

"It is plain that the entrance of Mr. Hoover into Ohio was as wise politics as it was good Americanism. . . ."

Observers marked these sentiments as the Herald Tribune's first bit of gratuitous Hooverism, perhaps a minor portent.