,
what was more to the point, the practicability of granting his request.
So I did the only thing possible under the circumstance, told him I had
never understood the question before, thanked him for helping me to
understand, and saw to it that things were arranged as he wanted them."

On April 10, 1915, a submarine torpedoed one of the food ships chartered
by the commission. A week later a German hydro-airplane tried to drop
bombs on the deck of another commission ship. So Hoover paid a flying
visit to Berlin. He was at once assured that no more incidents of the
sort would occur.

"Thanks," said Hoover. "Your Excellency, have you heard the story of the
man who was nipped by a bad-tempered dog? He went to the owner to have
the dog muzzled. 'But the dog won't bite you,' insisted the owner. 'You
know he won't bite me, and I know he won't bite me,' said the injured
party doubtfully, 'but the question is, does the dog know?'"

"Herr Hoover," said the high official, "pardon me if I leave you for a
moment. I am going at once to 'let the dog know.'"

This story, which is told by Mr. Edward Eyre Hunt in his delightful book
about Belgium, "War Bread," may be apocryphal, but it illustrates well
Hoover's habit of getting exactly what he wants.

When Mr. Hoover accepted the chairmanship of the Commission for Relief
in Belgium he established his headquarters at 3 London Wall Buildings,
London, England, and marshaled a small legion of fellow Americans,
business men, sanitary experts, doctors and social workers, who, as
unpaid volunteers, set about the great task of feeding the people of
Belgium and Northern France. The commission soon became a great
institution, recognized by all governments, receiving contributions from
all parts of the earth, with its own ships in every big port, and in the
eyes of the Belgians and French, who received their daily bread through
its agency, a monument of what Americans could do in social organization
and business efficiency, for Americans furnished the entire personnel of
the commission from the beginning.

The commission was a distinct organization from the Belgian National
Committee, through and with which it worked in Belgium itself. Its
functions were those of direction, and supervision of all matters that
had to be dealt with outside Belgium. In the occupied territories it had
the help of thousands of Belgian and French workers, many of them women.

The commission did not depend, accor