The Secretary of Commerce and Future U.S. President Writes High Praise for a Saturday Evening Post Editorial: “We are having them reproduced in thousands…”

Signed by Herbert Hoover

$300

Item: 1090

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HOOVER, HERBERT. (1874-1964). Thirty-first president of the United States. TLS. (“Herbert Hoover”). As secretary of commerce. 1/2p. 4to. Washington, D.C., April 20, 1928. On a sheet of his imprinted stationery to GEORGE H. LORIMER (1867-1937), editor-in-chief of The Saturday Evening Post.

The editorial and statement in this week’s issue of the Saturday Evening Post are of most powerful importance. We are having them reproduced in thousands and distributing them to those few people who do not subscribe to the Post. Some are taking the editorial as an advertisement and I think one chain of newspapers is about to republish it entirely. I am indeed grateful.

The Secretary of Commerce and Future U.S. President Writes High Praise for a Saturday Evening Post Editorial: “We are having them reproduced in thousands…”

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Herbert Hoover

When Lorimer became editor-in-chief of the Saturday Evening Post in 1899, it “was an elderly and indisposed magazine” (DAB). Under Lorimer’s direction, it became an immensely successful and influential publication, known for featuring the work of leading contemporary writers and thinkers. Lorimer wrote many of the editorials himself, as our letter suggests. “On political matters he believed… that ‘business is or should be the specialty of government'” (ibid). Initially progressive, with Lorimer’s drift to the right, the Post later “became an active — if unofficial — organ of the Republican party. Lorimer knew many presidents personally, and nearly every president during his editorship contributed to the Post, but he was most active in promoting the fortunes of Herbert Hoover” (ibid). Boldly signed and fine.