TIME

June 4, 1923 12:00 AM GMT-4

Ben W. Hooper was reflected Chairman of the United States Railroad Labor Board. G. W. W. Hangar was reflected Vice Chairman, but it was known that he refused to stand for the chairmanship, although a majority of the board would have voted for him in preference to Mr. Hooper. Ben Hooper has had a picturesque history. He first appeared, as far as is known, in a Baptist Orphan Asylum, where his sole tag was the name ” Ben” Dr. D. L. Hooper of Newport, Tenn., took a liking to him and adopted him. The doctor sent him to Carson and Newman College and finally financed an expedition to Texas in which young ” Ben ” made $150,000 in oil within six months. That done, he returned to Tennessee, became a lawyer, was elected to the legislature, served in the Spanish-American War, edited a country newspaper. In 1911 he was elected Governor of Tennessee, the first Republican Governor in 30 years. He appeared almost unknown at the party convention and within 24 hours received the Republican nomination for Governor—with the aid of a good press agent who devised the slogan, ” Whoop ‘er up for Hooper.” In 1921 President Harding appointed him to the Railroad Labor Board. His attitude towards labor is well indicated by the following remarks : ” The biggest question in the world today is not how to crush and destroy organized labor, but how to curb and restrain its excesses.”

” There is no place in this country for the maudlin ideas of the parlor socialist that any demand of labor must necessarily be a just demand.” ” The Court of Force is an unjust court. The strike is not a safe method of arbitration. A justifiable strike may be lost, and an unjustifiable strike may be won.”

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