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Had the Administration declared itself wholeheartedly on the side of Hooverism, there would have been an end not only of Candidate Lowden but of his program. But the Administration, in the person of Secretary Mellon, declared itself last fortnight not so much in favor of Hooverism as receptive to it for want of anything more perfect. There seemed to remain a cranny of doubt about Candidate Hoover's ability to bring off a Republican victory. Into this cranny Candidate Lowden hastened to drive his wedge of Midwestern warning.
To suppose that Andrew William Mellon entertains a doubt of the Republican party's ability to elect its carefully considered candidate, whoever he may be, is to suppose that a methodical mathematician would introduce an unnecessary variable into an important equation. To Mr. Mellon, politics is not a game, where chances are cheerfully taken, but a calculation, where chances are eliminated by careful thought. A final formula having been adopted, the factors necessary to make it work out are, so far as possible, obtained and introduced. Doubt is not a helpful factor where a positive result is desired. So doubt is discarded and Mr. Mellon says that, when the Republicans meet at Kansas City, "we will not be merely selecting a candidate but in reality selecting a President." From Andrew William Mellon, that remark sounds more like conviction than bluff or optimism.
Politics is not a game for Mr. Mellon for the reason that, unlike most public men but like many a great public man, he entered politics involuntarily and after experiencing extraordinary responsibilities in private life. A game is a thing you play. A duty is a thing you execute. Mr. Mellon has been an executive for nearly half a century. His father made him responsible for loans in the Mellon bank while he was still in his 'teens. Before he was 30, he was charged with administering his father's whole considerable estate. Thereafter he ruled and expanded an industrial empire constructed of steel, railways, oil, coal, electricity, insurance, ships, bridges, plate glass, aluminum. In 1920, this empire of Mellonia was dominant in a sphere of industries with some $2,000,000,000.
Mr. Mellon's first experience of politics was in 1920 when he read in the newspaper that he had been named as a delegate-at-large to the National Republican convention of that year at Chicago. His first act was to ask Judge James H. Reed, his lawyer, father of Pennsylvania's present Senator, if the thing might not be avoided. Judge Reed said yes, of course it could be avoided, but he advised Mr. Mellon to accept as a matter of public duty. Mr. Mellon said he expected to be very occupied that coming June. Judge Reed said very well, that he would arrange to accompany Mr. Mellon to the convention as his alternate, so that Mr. Mellon could leave if necessary. Mr. Mellon acquiesced, and when the time came, attended the convention.
The so-called Mellon Machine did not take form in western Pennsylvania until after the death of Boies Penrose in 1921, and when it did, Andrew William Mellon was its motive power, not its engineer. Outside of Pennsylvania, Mr. Mellon was politically unheard-of in 1920, when President Harding, at the suggestion of the late Philander Chase Knox, asked him to take over the national treasury, then 24 billions in debt.