Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) was born into a Quaker family in Iowa.
His father died in 1880, and his mother became a preacher until her death in 1884.
Herbert lived on his Uncle Allen’s farm and during the summer
on an Indian Reservation with the superintendent Laban Miles.
In November 1885 he moved to Oregon to live with his other Uncle
John Minthorn who was an Indian Agent and ran the
Friends Pacific Academy where Herbert studied until 1887.
In 1888 he began working for Minthorn’s Oregon Land Company
in Salem and learned office skills.
In 1889 he took classes at a Business College,
and he read literature by great authors.
He joined a Quaker debate club.
He was tutored to prepare for the entrance exam to the new Stanford University,
and he enrolled there in October 1891 at its opening.
He worked to pay for tuition and studied mostly mathematics, geology, and mining.
Dr. Branner taught mining and paid Hoover as his lab assistant,
and they studied rocks in the Ozarks in the summer of 1892.
Students elected Hoover their treasurer.
In the next two summers he worked for geologist Dr. Lindgren in the High Sierras.
Hoover was elected president of the Geological Club,
and he graduated in May 1895.
He began working as a mining scout in the Southwest, and he studied
economics by reading Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, and Walter Bagehot.
A mining engineer hired Hoover and sent him
to work in Arizona, Nevada, and Wyoming.
Bewick, Moreing & Company hired Hoover to scout gold mines
in western Australia, and he went there by way of New York and London.
He worked as a manager and increased the work week to 47 hours.
Hoover’s report and advice on the Sons of Gwalia mine
helped the company make $2 million.
Hoover got none of that and quit in London.
In November 1898 he accepted a job managing
coal mining in China for $20,000 and expenses.
He had met Lou Henry at Stanford, and they both liked rocks.
She was the first woman to earn a degree in geology at Stanford,
and they were married in February 1899.
She began learning Chinese as they moved to Tianjin.
Their estate came with 15 Chinese servants.
Hoover traveled in China collecting information
on the largest coal reserves in the world.
During the Boxer Rebellion involving western interests in China
the Hoovers survived a battle in July 1900.
In August he became a trustee for a British corporation
and was given stock worth $200,000.
The Hoovers opened offices in San Francisco, New York, Paris,
St. Petersburg, Melbourne, Johannesburg, and Rangoon.
He also managed mines in Australia and made profit
from gold, copper, zinc, lead, and coal.
He claimed he controlled $70 million in Australian mines.
He testified in a Chinese court for two days.
In 1903 Hoover signed a ten-year contract with Moreing.
In 1908 he sold his interest in the company for $225,000.
He invested in the stock market and could use inside information,
and he was making about $30 million.
Hoover lectured at Stanford and Columbia University in New York,
and in 1909 he published his Principles of Mining that
explained drilling, valuation, bookkeeping, and risk management.
As he became more liberal, he accepted the
8-hour work-day and worked on mine safety.
He advised nonviolent labor unions.
He managed teams of engineers who made
failed mines into profitable enterprises.
He hired scholars for $20,000 and with his wife Lou’s knowledge
of Latin and German they translated De Re Metallica
by the humanist Georgius Agricola.
In 1912 Hoover contributed $1,000 to
Theodore Roosevelt’s presidential campaign.
Hoover spoke to Stanford graduates in September, and in December
he became a Stanford University trustee for fifty years.
He began by donating $100,000.
In 1914 Hoover had 125,000 men on his payroll.
In August as the European war was starting, he retired from mining.
His investments would provide him with
$100,000 a year until his death in 1964.
Hoover was in London, and on August 5 he volunteered to help
Americans in Europe who wanted to go home.
By August 8 some 10,000 Americans were registered at the
Savoy Hotel ballroom,
and his wife Lou helped single women with the Women’s Committee.
They loaned $10,000 a day.
The US Congress approved $2.5 million, and
by October 120,000 Americans left London for America.
Hoover’s Residents Committee with a hundred accountants and auditors
helped at least 42,000 to leave and gave loans to 9,600.
The German Army invaded and occupied Belgium,
and the Belgian King Albert spent the war at Antwerp.
Hundreds of Belgian civilians were killed, and 42,000 were forced to move.
Belgium had the densest population and a large
economy that imported 70% of their food.
The US Ambassador Walter Hines Page asked Hoover
to organize money and food to feed 7.5 million Belgians.
Hoover in October arranged for Chicago
to sell 10,000 bushels of wheat for Belgium.
He ran the Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB) as chairman in London.
He had to persuade the British to let the ships carrying the food pass
through their blockade, and he got the Germans
to allow the feeding of the Belgians by volunteers.
The Commission arranged for the transporting of $5 million
worth of food per month for four years during the war.
Early in 1915 Hoover met with the British Chancellor
of the Exchequer David Lloyd George, Germany’s Chancellor
Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, and France’s Prime Minister Aristide Briand.
The CRB had 75 ships transporting food to Rotterdam,
and canteens in Belgium served food to those most in need.
In March 1915 Hoover’s CRB began providing food for 2.5 million civilians
in northern France who were also occupied by German forces.
Hoover had to help resolve a conflict between the CRB
and the Belgians’ Comité National.
Hoover consulted with President Woodrow Wilson in early March
on resources needed by the British and the French in the war.
By then the governments of the United States, France,
and Britain were providing over $700 million for relief.
Hoover noted that the CRB’s costs were under 0.5%
of the Commission’s budget in the first four years.
After the United States declared war in April 1917,
the CRB became part of the US Government, and
in 9 days the CRB lost four relief ships in spite of German guarantees of safety.
Wilson made Hoover the US Food Administrator, and on April 20
he asked the American people to reduce their consumption of food
so that they would not lose the war.
Wilson included Hoover in his war cabinet, and he asked him
to mobilize the nation to conserve and save food.
On June 15 the Espionage Act was approved to control national imports.
Hoover worked to stabilize prices and eliminate speculation, extortion,
and waste, and to provide sufficient supplies for Americans
with food conservation to support exports to the Allies.
In January 1918 Hoover warned that British
and French food supplies were critical.
He used democracy to do these things by cooperation.
“Hooverize” became a word defined as
“economizing for the national interest by conserving food.”
Hoover was one of the American commissioners who supported
President Wilson at the Peace Conference in Paris for the first six months in 1919.
Wilson sent Hoover to do research on various nations.
He also noted that 400 million people were in danger of starvation.
He sent a hundred ships with food to neutral and liberated nations in Europe.
In January 1919 Wilson’s executive order established the
American Relief Administration (ARA) with Hoover as Executive Director.
The first mission began on January 5 in Warsaw, Poland.
Eventually sixty commissions and agencies were set up to relieve Europe,
and Hoover was involved in twenty of them.
On February 24 the US Congress provided $100 million for ARA.
Wilson and Hoover over Senate objections made sure
that aid helped German women and children.
ARA delivered 1.7 million tons of food, and 42% fed
the former empires of Germany and Austro-Hungary.
Hoover was also director-general of the Supreme Economic Council
and chairman of the Inter-Allied Food Council and the European Coal Council.
They kept four million people from starving.
In Finland the word “hoover” came to mean “help” in Finnish.
He helped humanitarian leaders gain power.
On March 28 Hoover wrote to Wilson asking him to avoid war
with Russia and help feed the Russians.
They also fed white Russian civilians.
On May 7 Hoover read the preliminary Versailles Treaty
and objected to the revenge by the French.
South Africa’s General J. C. Smuts and the
economist John Maynard Keynes agreed with him.
Keynes suggested that only Hoover improved his reputation at the Paris Conference.
Hoover collected material on the war and signed the peace treaty on June 28.
He returned to America in September, and in the next year
he helped provide 28 million tons of food and supplies worth $5.5 billion.
The United States paid for about 95% of the funding.
On October 2 Hoover spoke to the League of Nations
about the opposition in the US Senate.
He told Stanford students how the war could have been prevented.
On November 13 the League to Enforce Peace supported
the Lodge reservations, and Hoover advised Wilson to accept them.
The President was recovering from a stroke and did not speak to Hoover anymore.
Hoover worked with the Quaker’s American Friends Service Committee
(AFSC) to provide relief in Germany.
He also was chosen to lead a mining organization and an engineering society.
In December he suggested reforms at the Second Industrial Conference,
and in March 1920 he sent their report on
progressive improvements to President Wilson.
Hoover said he could be a Republican if they supported various reforms.
Without entering it Hoover won the Democratic primary in Michigan,
but with his name on the ballot he lost California’s Republican primary
to Senator Hiram Johnson in May.
The Guggenheims offered to pay Hoover $500,000 or more per year,
and he chose public service instead.
In the election he supported the Republicans Harding and Coolidge
over the Democrats Cox and Franklin Roosevelt.
Hoover went to work for President Harding as
Secretary of Commerce for $15,000 a year.
He helped Harding with his speeches, executive orders, and patronage,
and in March he asked 25 leaders in business, labor, and agriculture
to be an advisory committee for the Commerce Department.
He wanted to expand electrical power.
Along with Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes and
Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon he supported
disarmament at the Washington Naval Conference in 1921-22.
He agreed to lower income taxes to stimulate
the economy during the post-war recession.
Yet he was for higher estate taxes to reduce unearned fortunes.
Hoover criticized the McNary-Haugen Farm Relief Bill
and
opposed Agriculture Secretary Wallace to avoid chronic over-production.
He advised planting cover crops to prevent soil erosion
that later caused the Dust Bowl.
When unemployment surpassed four million in August 1921
Hoover got Harding to announce a Conference on Unemployment.
Leaders from industry, labor, business, and government discussed
how public works on infrastructure could employ more people.
Hoover’s Commerce Department compiled statistics on unemployment,
inflation, production, and surpluses in agriculture and industry.
In October they estimated that about 4.5 million were unemployed.
Hoover suggested that they limit armaments in all nations.
Franklin Roosevelt was chairman of the American Construction Council,
and Hoover supported that.
He sent out letters to hundreds of mayor’s committees and governors.
Congress rejected funding for the United States Employment Service.
In July 1921 the author Maxim Gorky sent an open letter asking
western nations to help starving Russians, and some had turned to cannibalism.
About ten million Ukrainians were also hungry.
Hoover persuaded his government to help the 20 million starving people.
The American Relief Administration (ARA) negotiated with Maxim Litvinov
at Riga, Latvia, and they agreed in August to release
all the American political prisoners in Russian dungeons.
ARA volunteers brought food and supplies,
and Hoover had the children fed first.
By October they were helping to feed
150 million Russians in 68,598 feeding stations.
Hoover noted that only 200,000 were Communists.
His leadership helped volunteers save the lives of about
20 million people including 9 million children.
Adding this to the 9 million Belgians and French
he helped save in the World War
it is likely that no other person in the history of the world
has done as much to save the lives of so many people.
Hoover urged reducing the 12-hour day and
the 7-day week to 8 hours five days a week.
In 1922 he published his philosophy in American Individualism:
A Timely Message to the American People.
He urged service to develop understanding and responsibility.
He paid two secretaries and three assistants to help organize
the Commerce Department to promote industry,
trade, transportation, and communication.
They organized the bureaus Foreign and Domestic Commerce,
Standards, Simplified Practice, and a Federal Specifications Board.
He urged disarmament especially in Germany and South America.
Hoover traveled with President Harding on his tour in July 1923
and contributed to his speech at Tacoma, Washington.
Harding felt betrayed and said his friend
Jesse Smith was going to be arrested.
Smith committed suicide.
Harding died at San Francisco on August 2.
His mysterious death could have been caused by heart failure, a stroke,
food poisoning, suicide, or even murder by his wife
who burned his papers in the White House.
Hoover called Hughes who notified Vice President
Calvin Coolidge that he was President.
Hoover got the Guggenheim Foundation
to donate $2.5 million for air travel.
He organized studies on many aspects of transportation
and improved highways and streets.
He supported natural resources and was elected
president of the National Parks Association.
A Coal Commission helped end a strike in Pennsylvania.
Hoover praised Harding’s presidency.
In April 1924 President Coolidge supported a memo by Hoover
and his idea for the Federal Oil Conservation Board.
Hoover campaigned for Coolidge in California, and he was re-elected President.
Coolidge put Hoover in charge of the St. Lawrence
Commission to construct the Seaway.
In 1925 the Bureau of Mines and the Patent Office were
moved from Interior to the Commerce Department.
The press realized how much Hoover was doing.
Coolidge accepted that even though he considered Hoover too ambitious.
In 1926 they implemented the Labor Act
with a United States Board of Mediation.
Congress put the Aeronautics Division in the Commerce Department
and the Radio Division there in 1927.
In the spring of 1927 flooding turned the Mississippi River
into an inland sea as 700,000 people evacuated.
About 500 died, and damage was extensive.
On April 22 Coolidge appointed Hoover to organize relief,
and he worked out of Memphis directing tens of thousands
of volunteers and 91 communities.
Tent cities required fresh water, sewers, electricity, and dining halls.
Hoover called for donations to the Red Cross and spoke on radio.
The Coolidge family was on vacation in the Black Hills.
On May 15 Coolidge signed the Flood Control Act.
On August 2 Coolidge in Rapid City announced
he would not run for President in 1928.
Coolidge and Hoover warned about excessive speculating on the stock market.
He organized progressive government with scientific management
to promote cooperation and private initiatives.
A Standards Bureau helped regulate the economy and make it more efficient.
The Census Bureau collected statistics and published
the monthly Survey of Current Business.
The Foreign and Domestic Commerce Bureau assisted businesses
and published trade data in Commerce Reports.
From August 1928 to February 1929
Recent Economic Changes in the United States was published.
Hoover was made chairman of the National Research Fund.
Hoover ran for the Republican nomination,
and he won in six of the eleven primaries.
At the Republican National Convention in June he got 837 votes
out of 1,089 and was nominated unanimously.
The Senate Majority Leader Charles Curtis of Kansas
was nominated for Vice President.
Hoover sent a message to the Convention but did not make
an acceptance speech until August 11 to 70,000 at Stanford Stadium.
The Democrats nominated Gov. Al Smith of New York with the
Senate Minority Leader Joseph Robinson of Arkansas as his running mate.
Hoover campaigned on prosperity and raising the standard of living
which the Republicans had been doing.
He reported that more children were being educated.
He made speeches on radio, and in October he began traveling
and made many speeches up to election day on November 6.
Hoover defeated Al Smith by more than six million votes
winning 40 states and 444 electoral college votes.
Republicans gained 7 seats in the US Senate
and 32 in the House of Representatives.
Hoover and his wife Lou went on a vacation
to Latin America visiting ten nations.
He promised to withdraw the US Marines from Nicaragua.
In his speeches he initiated the policy of being a “good neighbor.”
Hoover’s inaugural address on 4 March 1929
was attended by 50,000 people in the rain.
His voice was amplified and carried on radio,
and the first talking newsreels were made.
He planned to improve public health and maintain peace with “ordered liberty.”
He promised that he would improve Federal laws and law enforcement.
He would maintain peace and work to advance justice.
He supported self-government and local government.
About 200,000 people celebrated in Washington.
On March 5 President Hoover announced his Cabinet with
Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon and Undersecretary Ogden Mills,
Labor Secretary James Davis, James Good as War Secretary,
Ray Lyman Wilbur as Interior Secretary, William D. Mitchell as Attorney General,
Arthur Hyde of Missouri as Agriculture Secretary,
the engineer Robert P. Lamont as Commerce Secretary,
and Navy Secretary Charles Francis Adams III.
Henry Stimson was governing the Philippines,
and he returned to become Secretary of State on March 28.
Hoover began holding press conferences right away.
In the Senate 14 progressive Republicans decided to caucus
with 39 Democrats as a coalition with a 53-42 majority.
Senator Borah of Idaho wanted a special session on agriculture,
and Hoover called for one on April 15.
Prices were low, and 20% of farms were bankrupt.
More planting drove prices even lower.
Hoover was a very hard-working President who got up at 6 a.m.
He exercised with friends before breakfast at 8.
He worked most of the day.
He discussed issues with guests at dinner and
often worked after midnight in the Lincoln study.
He worked every day including Sundays and holidays.
He did like to go fishing occasionally.
On March 8 he announced that he would not be adding
any federal employees to the 820,000 on the payroll.
He would not lease or sell oil lands.
He got Mellon to urge people to buy bonds instead of stocks.
On March 16 the Federal Reserve Board Governor Roy A. Young
asked
banks to cooperate with the Board by restricting credit used for speculation.
Hoover reduced immigration quotas to prevent more unemployment.
He decommissioned the Presidential yacht the Mayflower which
was costing $300,000 a year, and he had the horses removed.
He did collect 20 automobiles most of which were donated.
He loved children and promoted children’s health in various ways.
Hoover encouraged young people to graduate
from college because their country needed them.
An industrialist broke tradition by donating $1 million
to the Democratic Party after the election.
They made the publisher Jouett Shouse chairman and
the journalist Charley Michelson director of publicity.
They promoted criticism of Hoover who rarely
responded to their misunderstandings and lies.
On April 16 Hoover presented his message to Congress on the
Special Session for Farm Relief and Limited Changes in the Tariff.
The Federal Farm Board was established on June 15,
and the next day Hoover approved the Agricultural Marketing Act.
Congress adjourned for the summer.
Hoover wanted tariffs that he could adjust as much as 50%,
and on October 2 the Senate removed the presidential flexible tariff provision.
Hoover transferred the law enforcement of Prohibition to the Justice Department,
and he made the former Attorney General George Wickersham
chairman of the National Committee on Law Observance and Enforcement.
Hoover wanted to test if enforcement of the unpopular law would work.
He looked for ways to improve waterways and provide irrigation for farmers.
Seven states had approved the dam at Boulder Canyon, Colorado.
He had praised the Boulder Canyon Project Act that had passed
in December 1928,
and he held a press conference on June 25 to promote the project.
Walter Newton had been in Congress for ten years,
and Hoover made him his secretary on July 1 for the rest of his term.
On that day Mellon announced that the previous
fiscal year had a surplus of $252,540,283.
Before adjourning on July 3 the Congress approved public works projects
with $915 million dollars in funding for rivers,
harbors, roads, and the Colorado River Dam.
Hoover appointed a commission to reduce military spending,
and he shut down Navy projects.
On July 24 he gave an address proclaiming the General Pact
for the Renunciation of War, which had 15 signatory nations;
now it had 31 more countries.
Hoover, Joseph P. Kennedy, and Bernard Baruch began selling stocks in July.
Hoover persuaded the Federal Reserve and
New York banks to stop financing brokers’ loans.
On August 6 Hoover appointed prison reformer Sanford Bates
as Superintendent of the Bureau of Prisons,
and he wanted $5 million to reduce overcrowding.
Bates also made reforms on training guards, health and education of inmates,
and the number getting parole and probation.
Hoover expanded the national parks and monuments by
3 million acres and the national forests by two million acres.
He increased the number of African Americans in his administration to 54,684.
Hoover appointed the Quaker Charles J. Rhoads the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
Hoover had played with Indians as a child and wanted to preserve their culture.
He abolished segregated Indian boarding schools,
improved medical care, and increased spending on Indian Affairs.
He made sure that Utes were reimbursed for forest lands stolen from them.
Hoover made conservationist Horace Albright Director
of the National Park Service,
and he served from January 1929 to August 1933.
From August 1929 to October business
output in the United States fell by about 2%.
On September 3 the Dow Jones Industrial Average peaked at 386.
Hoover on September 18 gave a radio address on peace.
On the 28th he met with life insurance executives in the
White House to discuss pensions for retired Americans.
They considered providing $500 a year from birth except for the wealthy.
At the age of 65 they would begin getting $50 a month.
On October 10 Hoover and British Prime Minister MacDonald
in Washington issued a joint statement on peace.
On 22 October 1929 President Hoover criticized
the stock market and greedy capitalists.
On the 24th stocks lost $4 billion in value.
The next day he tried to assure people that business was sound.
On the 26th he attempted to help farmers as the
Farm Board used $100 million to stabilize prices.
On October 29 “Black Tuesday” a record 23.5 million shares were sold,
and the value lost since September 1 was $18 billion.
Prior to this fall the stock prices had doubled since 1928.
Hoover pointed out that the presidents Van Buren, Grant, Cleveland,
and Theodore Roosevelt had stable government during financial panics.
In a speech on Armistice Day (November 11)
Hoover talked about peace and the rules of international law.
On November 15 he announced conferences on business
and governmental agencies to maintain progress.
The Federal Reserve System had lowered interest rates.
He denounced the over-optimism of market booms and
the reverse over-pessimism as both being unjustified.
The national capacity for work would guarantee the future.
Many financial experts and the New York Times praised his plan.
Hoover met with business leaders on November 19, and he
assured them that government would not interfere with business.
In his first Annual Message to Congress on December 4 Hoover presented
his budget for the next fiscal year, and he increased the budget for the Indians.
The next day he spoke to business leaders
at the Chamber of Commerce Conference.
He reported that railroads increased spending on construction by $345 million,
and gas companies increased theirs by $428 million.
These would help prevent unemployment.
Spending for public works increased in 1930, and by April
the
stock market had regained 20% of what it had lost in the crash.
U.S. Steel planned to spend $250 million on a three-year expansion,
and electric utilities were going to spend $1.4 billion on new construction.
President Hoover shook hands with 6,000 citizens on New Year’s Day in 1930.
He approved $60 million for the Boulder Dam project,
and he asked Congress for $500 million for public buildings.
In February the United States, Britain, France, Japan,
and Italy agreed to limit their navies’ arms.
In the next 21 months the National Association of Community Chests
and Councils raised $45,694,387 in 131 cities.
Hoover signed a bill reducing taxes by $160 million.
Tax on small incomes were reduced by 66%, and tax on large incomes fell by 4%.
Corporate income tax decreased by 8.33%.
Ill Chief Justice Taft resigned, and Hoover
appointed Charles Evans Hughes to replace him.
Communists paraded in San Francisco on March 6, and on that day
Hoover allowed similar demonstrations outside the gate of the White House.
He had the Commerce Department administer a census to count
the unemployed, and they found there were 3,184,000.
Hoover noted that most of the unemployed were in 12 states.
In a speech on May 1 he said that they were in “a great economic experiment”
to see if cooperation could stabilize the economy.
Congress approved a bill that Hoover made more equitable and generous
to consolidate three different bureaus into the Veterans Administration.
Like Harding and Coolidge, Hoover vetoed a bill on May 28
to give $11 million to disabled veterans and another for $102 million;
Congress over-rode both vetoes.
Hoover designed a bill for $70 million and signed it on June 26.
After the Congress conference put back the president’s flexibility to adjust tariffs,
on June 17 Hoover signed the bill that raised rates on 887 items.
Criticism of Hoover increased in 1930 as 26,355 businesses failed,
and the Gross National Product (GNP) declined by 12.6%.
Unemployment went from 2.7 million in 1929 to 4 million.
Eleven nations had fallen into a depression before the United States did.
In Hoover’s four years Federal construction would cost $2.4 billion.
Doubling the federal highway budget for 1931 almost tripled employment.
Workers were also hired for national parks and forests.
Hoover got the Interstate Commerce Commission
to reduce rail rates for water and food to help farmers.
No other president hired more workers for waterways.
Congress refused to pass his bill for a Department of Public Works,
though the Democratic Senator Robert Wagner of New York
persuaded them to approve $150 million for public works.
In the first half of 1930 the Federal Reserve reduced the
discount rate to 3%, and the stock market went up 16%.
On July 7 Hoover asked Congress to pass the London Naval Treaty
that he had signed on April 22.
They did so, and it went into effect on October 27.
In the hot summer the Federal Farm Board loaned suffering farmers
$47 million, saving livestock and cooperatives from bankruptcy.
Hoover took measures to help farmers during the drought.
On September 9 Hoover asked for legislation
to reduce immigration and unemployment.
The Commerce Department reported that
US foreign trade had recovered to 80% of normal.
Hoover on October 2 spoke at the American Bankers’ Association Convention
to 24,000 people and on radio on the theme of
“Causes of the Present Depression and Possible Contribution
of the Bankers toward a Solution of the Problem.”
He opposed lowering the American standards of living.
He called on “mighty spiritual and intellectual forces of liberty,
self-government, initiative, invention, and courage” which motivate progress.
On October 17 he formed the President’s Emergency Committee
for Employment (PECE) with six Cabinet members and
Governor Meyer of the Federal Reserve Board to
organize government activities to promote employment.
Unemployment rose to 5 million in the fall.
Hoover on one day telephoned governors in 45 states.
In the elections on November 4 the Republicans lost 4 seats in the Senate,
and they still had 48 or half the seats.
Democrats gained 52 seats in the House of Representatives
while the Republicans held on to a 218-216 majority.
Republicans lost 9 governors but still had 25 to 21 Democratic states.
In his Second Annual Message to Congress on December 2
President Hoover focused on the economic situation in various ways.
He noted that the major forces of the depression were outside the United States.
He urged Americans to maintain self-reliance,
and he asked them not to hoard out of fear.
He reported on problems in other countries.
The US Congress met from early December 1930 to 4 March 1931,
and former presidential candidates helped approve an extra $100 million
that Hoover requested for public works and $30 million to relieve the drought.
He noted that regimes in Asia, Europe, and Latin America
were being destabilized by the depression.
Other large countries were worse off than the United States.
In January 1931 a report on enforcing Prohibition divided the Republican Party.
Hoover’s experiment to test that was trying to control moral choices.
In January 1931 about 300 desperate people
in an Arkansas town rioted and took food.
The Democratic Senator Caraway from Arkansas proposed a bill
to provide $15 million for food aid.
Red Cross Chairman Payne testified to a Senate committee
that they still had most of the $5 million in the drought reserve.
Payne made Hoover honorary president of the Red Cross,
and he made the Red Cross the nation’s main agency for emergency relief.
He promised to raise $10 million for the Red Cross.
He opposed a government dole as President Grover Cleveland also had in 1893.
On February 3 Hoover made a speech on this, and
on the 10th he approved the Employment Stabilization Act.
He explained his approach to the situation by radio on February 12,
and he urged people “to solve their own problems.”
On February 13 Secretary of State Stimson announced that
they would begin withdrawing 1,000 of the 1,500 Marines from
Nicaragua
on June 3, and the remainder would leave by November 1932.
Hoover hoped that the public mood would begin changing
in the spring of 1931, and Congress adjourned in March for nine months.
Hoover toured the West Indies and requested federal aid
to help children in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Unemployment in the US had doubled to 8 million in March 1931,
and the US Employment Service was funded with $500,000.
Hoover got prominent Americans to raise money for the Red Cross,
and by mid-March they had $10 million.
By summer $47 million was loaned to 395,192 farmers in 31 states.
New York stocks went down in April.
In a speech to the Gridiron Club on April 27 Hoover reviewed the history
of past depressions, and he worked to mobilize
volunteers to preserve the social system.
He noted that there was no starvation as things improved in the first half of 1931.
On May 4 he spoke to the International Chamber of Commerce in Washington.
He expressed concern that world spending on arms was increasing.
He concluded that secure peace could not be
achieved by “competitive arms or intimidation.”
He noted that military spending had increased
to over 70% more than before the war.
On May 11 Austria’s major bank failed, and that caused an economic collapse.
Hoover ordered a stop to the leasing of forests.
In a speech at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania on May 30
he noted that deficit spending would be needed.
By June about 28% of the factory labor force would be unemployed.
On June 15 at Indianapolis he gave one of his best speeches to Republican editors.
He began by taking on “fear and apprehension.”
He proposed an American plan to take care of the increasing population,
and he described how science and invention were improving peoples’ lives.
He believed that Americans were doing better than any other nation.
On June 20 President Hoover proposed a one-year moratorium
on intergovernmental debts from war loans or reparation duties
in order to negotiate a solution to problems.
He explained that “the world-wide depression”
had affected Europe more than America.
After the speech the stock market went up over 11% in two days.
Italy and Britain accepted his proposal and thanked him.
Sixteen nations were paying over 20% of their
Gross National Product (GNP) for war debts.
In the fiscal year ending in June 1930 the national debt was reduced
by $750 million, and in the next year the debt went up by $720 million.
On July 6 Hoover announced that the moratorium was approved
“by all the important creditor governments.”
On July 23 he reported on what the London Conference
on Recovery from Depression was doing by cooperation.
On August 19 PECE was replaced by the
President’s Organization on Unemployment Relief (POUR)
led by AT&T president Walter Gifford who used
an advertising campaign to increase private charity.
The Dow Jones stocks fell 50% during the summer.
Hoover asked the Surgeon General to study public health,
and he found that mortality and diseases were decreasing.
The Association of Community Chests and Councils in 227 cities was
employing
760,000 Americans in 1931 compared to the usual average of 180,000.
The New York Times reported that 24 mayors of big cities
said they would not need federal aid for the winter.
That summer failing banks in Central Europe affected the British economy,
and on September 21 the British Government went off the gold standard,
defaulting on gold payments to foreigners.
American banks began failing.
On September 18 Japan’s Kwantung Army
invaded Manchuria and occupied the country.
US Secretary of State Stimson threatened sanctions.
Hoover cancelled them because he believed they could lead to war.
He did not want a war in the Far East.
On October 4 Hoover met with bankers at
Treasury Secretary Mellon’s home, and they formed the
National Credit Corporation which was conservative.
Two days later Hoover invited 32 Senators to the White House
for a meeting on banks and the economy.
He suggested using private funds to support stressed banks
and to provide money for Federal Farm Loans.
Their plans boosted the stock market.
On October 8 Hoover spoke to the Pan-American
Commercial Conference in Washington.
He advised loaning money only for productive enterprises,
and they should avoid spending money on the military.
On the 10th he wrote to the Women’s International League
for Peace and Freedom thanking them for their petitions.
On October 23 Hoover told French Premier Pierre Laval
that “alliances make wars worse.”
France withdrew $790 million in gold from the US Treasury in 1931,
and that year 2,294 American banks failed, doubling what occurred in 1930.
In November the Federal Reserve Bank offered
discounted loans to those with home mortgages.
At a Cabinet meeting on November 9 Hoover decided not to recognize
any treaty Japan might force on China in Manchuria.
Hoover and Italy’s Foreign Minister Dino Grandi agreed to work together
on disarmament at the Geneva Conference that would begin on 1 February 1932.
In November only 175 US banks failed.
When the new Congress met on December 7 President Hoover revived
what was called the War Finance Corporation in 1918
as the Emergency Reconstruction Corporation with $2 billion.
In his Third Annual Message to Congress on December 8 Hoover said
they were cooperating with other nations to preserve peace,
and he discussed foreign affairs, noting that excessive arms
had caused revolutions and financial panics.
In the last two years 19 countries had “social disorders.”
He was withdrawing marines from Haiti and Nicaragua.
Federal construction programs were providing employment,
and most industries had maintained high levels of wages.
Decreasing immigration by 300,000 had kept
those from adding to unemployment.
The Red Cross brought relief to 2.5 million people suffering in the winter.
The National Credit Association used its $500 million
to support banks, and hoarding decreased.
The Federal Government was careful not to encroach on local communities.
In stressful times people had shown courage.
On December 11 Hoover explained his Economic Recovery Program
that included providing for the distressed, employers organizing part-time work,
the Federal land bank helping farmers, assisting homeowners, aiding small
depositors and businesses, safeguarding Federal Reserve banks,
financing emergency reconstruction, assisting railroads, revising bank laws
to protect depositors, the National Credit Association supporting bankers,
maintaining public finance, and sustaining the American way of individual initiative.
On December 22 the US Congress ratified the international debt moratorium.
Hoover also worked on a program to help private investors.
In the first two years of the depression the Federal Government
provided 655,000 new jobs in construction and road work.
The Federal Government’s deficit was over $900 million in 1931
and was projected to be $2 billion in 1932.
On 4 January 1932 President Hoover sent a message to Congress
asking them to support his economic recovery
which he described as having eight parts.
The Federal Land Bank System was to aid farmers.
The Emergency Reconstruction Corporation was renamed
the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC).
The other six were the Home Loan Discount Banks, the Federal Reserve Banks,
distributing money from closed banks to small depositors and businesses,
revising transportation laws advised by the Interstate Commerce Commission,
reforming bank laws to protect depositors, and
increasing taxes to restrict the issuing of Federal securities.
He invited fifty businessmen and labor leaders to the White House,
and they formed the Citizens Reconstruction Organization.
He explained that credit is what gives life to the economy.
Money that had been hoarded could be circulated by putting men to work.
On January 7 Secretary of State Stimson informed Japan
that territory taken by force would not have diplomatic recognition.
The Japanese invasion of Shanghai became known on February 1.
Hoover refused to send troops to defend China as some nations were doing.
When the US Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
retired on January 12, Hoover nominated the
appellate judge Benjamin Nathan Cardozo.
Germany had announced on January 9 that
they could not make reparations payments.
On January 19 France withdrew $125 million in gold from the United States.
More than 700 banks in the US had closed in December and January.
Hoover met with federal officials, bankers, loan associations,
and insurance companies to discuss hoarding.
Many leaders attended the meeting at the White House on February 6.
They estimated that more than $1.25 million was being hoarded.
To get these reforms Hoover met with over 150 Congressmen.
They funded federal land banks with $125 million,
and Hoover signed it on January 23.
The RFC had been given $500 million with authority
to borrow $2 billion in a bill on January 22.
The RFC bailed out the Bank of America with a $15 million loan on February 3.
The Democratic Senator Carter Glass of Virginia had become
chairman of the Senate Banking and Currency Committee
in January 1932, and he suggested reforms.
Henry Steagall was chairman of the Banking and
Currency Committee in the House of Representatives.
They put together the Bank Relief Bill to stabilize the currency
that Hoover signed on February 27, and it allowed
the Federal Reserve to make more loans.
The Stock Exchange adopted a rule to stop bear raids,
and on February 26 Hoover asked the Senate Banking and
Currency Committee to investigate practices that harm the public interest.
In February the RFC gave $45 million in emergency loans to banks
and $25 million to railroad companies.
The RFC also provided $40 million to help 200,000 farmers with spring planting.
Hoover followed the law that made the Treasury pay gold for currency.
A law allowed the Federal Reserve to issue notes
that increased the supply of gold.
Hoover approved public works projects in areas where
many were unemployed, submitting 63 bills to Congress.
They authorized $2 billion for the RFC.
In January 346 banks had failed; in April only 46 did.
Only 140 banks that got RFC loans closed in 1932.
On March 7 Hoover approved a bill that let the Farm Board
give the Red Cross 40,000 bushels of wheat to provide relief.
The next day he told the press that his budget
would reduce expenditures by $365 million.
The wealthy Treasury Secretary Mellon was accused of running a family business,
and Hoover appointed him ambassador to Britain.
Hoover promoted Ogden Miles to Secretary of the Treasury
because he preferred his advice.
The capable Charles Dawes returned from London and headed the RFC.
Ike Hoover, who was not related to the President,
was the White House usher since 1909, and he said that
Herbert Hoover worked harder than any other president.
His days began at 6 a.m. and often ended after midnight,
and he usually worked every day including Sundays and holidays
except when he went fishing.
In the first five weeks of 1932 Hoover saw 20,000 persons.
On April 7 New York’s Governor Franklin Roosevelt
on radio criticized Hoover for ignoring the “forgotten man.”
On April 27 Hoover spoke to the Conference of Governors
in Richmond, Virginia, and he talked mostly about taxes
in his effort to balance the budget.
He invited the governors to have dinner at the White House the next day.
On May 5 Hoover sent a message to Congress explaining why
they needed to balance the budget and how to do so.
He vetoed the tariff bill on May 11 because they had removed his flexibility.
He did not make reciprocal trade deals with other nations.
He vetoed a bill that included $2 billion for infrastructure as too expensive.
Usually the press was criticizing him, but on this most of them agreed with him.
In June there were many bank failures in Chicago
as the wealthy Samuel Insull’s bankruptcy affected stockholders.
Even Dawes could not stop the Central Republic National Bank
from losing $2 million a day.
Dawes resigned as RFC president on June 6.
He also declined to be Hoover’s running mate for his re-election campaign.
On May 12 Hoover approved a bill that enabled the RFC to borrow
up to $3 billion because he believed the funds
would be going into productive enterprises.
On May 31 he spoke to the Senate and made an appeal for unity
to show that democracy could save itself.
The only time President Hoover acted as Commander-in-Chief was
in 1932
when veterans and the unemployed protested
in Washington to get their bonus bill passed.
They began in January as the Catholic priest James Cox
led about 20,000 from Pennsylvania.
At first Hoover let the DC Police Chief Glassford treat them well.
Hoover met with Cox and twelve others.
Cox asked for $1 billion for jobs, health care, and
public utilities paid for by taxes on the wealthy.
Hoover was trying to balance the budget and would not do that.
A second group came from Portland, Oregon and grew
along the way to the capital where they arrived on May 29.
Glassford also welcomed them with temporary places to stay and food.
The thousands of veterans and protestors occupied many vacant buildings
that were going to be replaced.
The US Senate defeated the Bonus Bill on June 17.
On July 6 Congress provided $100,000 for railroad fares, and thousands left.
Yet more stayed, and some became divided.
On July 14 a conflict over camping by the Capitol was ended
by Vice President Curtis calling out sixty Marines.
When Congress adjourned on July 16, the Federal Commissioners
wanted to work on the building projects.
The Bonus Expeditionary Force (BEF) was warned
that violence would cause troops to intervene.
On July 27 President Hoover told the US Attorney General William Mitchell
to remove Camp Glassford as police kept order.
At the Armory a riot broke out.
Three protesters were killed, and three police were seriously injured.
Glassford and the Commissioners wanted federal troops to be called.
Hoover consulted War Secretary Hurley who
persuaded the President to let them have fire-arms.
On July 28 Hoover gave specific orders to General MacArthur
that he exceeded in driving away the protesters as their camp tents were burned.
MacArthur said he would resign, and
Hoover told him he would take responsibility himself.
Democrats would use this in the campaign by accusing Hoover
of being the only President to use the army against American citizens.
On 6 June 1932 Hoover signed the Revenue Act with a progressive
income tax of 4% on income below $4,000 and 8% on income above that
with a surtax of one more percent for every additional $2,000 of income
up to a total tax of 56% over $100,000.
Congress passed the Federal Home Loan Bank bill on November 13.
The Republican National Convention held in a sports stadium in Chicago
on June 14-16 nominated President Hoover for a second term.
Their platform still supported controversial Prohibition
that many “wets” wanted repealed.
Hoover remained a “dry” because his mother had preached temperance.
He was not at the convention, though seven members of his Cabinet were.
Hoover was easily nominated on the first ballot,
and the native American Vice President Charles Curtis
was also retained on the ticket.
Hoover thanked them with a telegram, and on the 17th
he discussed reforms at a press conference.
On June 22 Hoover announced his proposal on reducing arms
by one-third for the World Disarmament Conference in Geneva.
This was supported by Italy, Germany, and Russia but not France.
He agreed with the proposal to abolish all tanks,
chemical warfare, and large mobile guns.
He also suggested abolishing all bombing planes
and reducing armies and naval ships by a third.
On June 27 the Democratic National Convention
also met in the Chicago stadium, and they nominated
New York’s Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt for President
with Speaker John Garner of Texas for Vice President.
In his acceptance speech Roosevelt promised
to repeal the 18th Amendment prohibiting alcohol.
On July 5 Hoover asked the Congress for funding
for the President’s Organization on Unemployment Relief.
After the pork-barrel items were eliminated, he signed the
Emergency Relief and Construction Act on July 10.
The next day he vetoed the Garner-Wagner Relief Bill
because it damaged public credit.
On July 18 Hoover urged ratification of the
Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Waterway Treaty.
On July 21 he signed the Emergency Relief and Construction Act that
increased RFC’s assets to $3.5 billion, allowing large loans for works projects
and unemployment, establishing Agricultural Credit Banks,
and letting the RFC give loans to states and cities.
On the 22nd he signed the Home Loan Bank Bill which
established banks around the country with $125 million in capital.
Hoover formally accepted the nomination at Washington’s
Constitutional Hall
to an audience of 5,000 on his birthday (August 11) with a very long speech.
He reviewed the “economic calamity” of the previous three years and
explained
how foreign countries withdrew over $2.4 billion from the United States.
Distressed citizens also took out $1.6 billion from banks.
He described his program of economic defense that
he put into action and how cooperation restored the situation.
The Government used credit to help public and
private institutions and to create more employment.
He also worked to reduce arms in the world,
and he restricted immigration to reduce unemployment.
He promised to continue reconstruction in the next four years
to make the world more prosperous and peaceful.
He concluded with his pledge to the nation and to God.
He invited the press to his retreat for a lunch.
In October new projects in California were approved to build a bridge
from Oakland to San Francisco, waterworks in Pasadena, and an aqueduct
to bring water from the Colorado River to Los Angeles.
The Nation magazine accused him of buying votes in California.
Most RFC loans went to banks and railroads,
and critics said he was helping the rich.
Hoover replied he was saving 25 million American families.
Hoover began campaigning in October and gave 28 speeches that month
traveling to Iowa, Indiana, Maryland, Ohio,
West Virginia, Detroit, and New York City.
In early November he spoke in St. Louis, St. Paul, Nevada, and finally
at Sacramento, Oakland, San Francisco, and Stanford University on election day.
That night he sent a telegram conceding to Franklin Roosevelt.
The election was an overwhelming victory for the Democrats.
Hoover had nearly four months as a “lame-duck” President until the inauguration.
He met with President-elect Roosevelt a few times and offered his ideas and help.
In those meetings Roosevelt did not want to make any commitments.
Hoover found Roosevelt friendly, pleasant, and ready to serve.
Yet he thought the Governor was not well informed and had little vision.
Hoover continued to work on various things such as balancing the budget,
and he made speeches.
In his Fourth Annual Message to Congress on December 6
he reviewed his programs, and he proposed a budget
that would spend $830 million less than Congress had approved.
On the 9th he gave Congress a plan for coordinating government agencies.
He spoke philosophically to the Gridiron Club on December 10.
He said they needed the two-party system,
and he advised cooperating with the new administration.
His speech described and commented on his administration
and the continuing economic crisis.
On December 19 he sent Congress a message on international finance
and war debts, and he emphasized peace and world disarmament.
On the 22nd Hoover told the press that the President-elect Roosevelt
was not cooperating on the current war-debts problem.
Former President Calvin Coolidge died on 5 January 1933,
and Hoover praised his political career.
On January 10 he sent a message to Congress urging ratification
of the Convention for the Suppression of International Trade in Arms
and Ammunition, and Implements of War.
Congress overrode Hoover’s veto of Philippine independence on January 17.
The Philippine Senate apparently agreed with Hoover because they rejected the bill.
Hoover explained that the Philippine people had “ordered liberty”
and were not ready to deal with the “economic and social chaos.”
On February 5 Hoover and the RFC bailed out the Hibernia Bank
in New Orleans with a $20-million loan.
Bank failures were accelerating since December, and a gold panic
led to 195 bank failures in Michigan in January.
On February 13 Hoover spoke to the National Republican Club
in New York City, and he concluded emphasizing
the goals of world recovery and world peace.
On February 15 an attempt to assassinate Franklin Roosevelt
missed him and killed Chicago’s Mayor Cermak.
Hoover telegraphed Roosevelt and ordered
the secret service to increase his protection.
In a letter on the 18th Hoover asked Roosevelt to make
a public statement to prevent an economic collapse.
Roosevelt, who had accused Hoover of doing nothing while President,
refused to do anything until he became President.
On February 20 Hoover sent a message to Congress
urging eight measures to promote economic recovery.
Seven states had closed their banks by March 2,
and the next day millions of dollars in gold were withdrawn.
Roosevelt had tea with Hoover at the White House
while thousands of banks were closing;
gold was being withdrawn in New York and Chicago.
Roosevelt declined to make any agreements with President Hoover
even to close the banks that were being threatened
because Roosevelt’s monetary policy was suspected.
The Federal Reserve met, and at 3 a.m. on March 4
they approved shutting down banks nationally.
After the inauguration on March 4 Hoover went to his suite
at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City to rest.
His family gathered at Palo Alto, California.
Hoover was collecting papers on World War II,
and he read thirty daily newspapers.
He paid a team of secretaries to answer thousands of letters,
and he supported various charities mostly for children and education.
He criticized President Roosevelt’s New Deal as collectivism
and bureaucratic tyranny, and Hoover’s book,
The Challenge of Liberty, was published in 1934.
In March 1935 he spoke on national radio for the Republican Party
and people’s rights, and he exposed Roosevelt’s financial mismanagement.
In May he opposed the National Recovery Administration (NRA) and its codes.
The US Supreme Court ended the NRA by declaring the
National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of 1933 unconstitutional.
Hoover gave several major speeches in 1935.
In 1936 Hoover criticized Roosevelt’s agriculture policies and his spoils system.
Hoover’s speech at the Republican Convention in June
challenged Roosevelt’s policies, and he urged Republicans to correct them.
His speech was enthusiastically received.
Yet he decided not to run for President in 1936,
and Gov. Alf Landon of Kansas was easily defeated.
Hoover in September spoke to the Women’s Conference
on Current Problems in New York City, and he urged
replacing centralized bureaucracy with local administration.
Then in Denver he called for the reform of federal taxes.
In October 1937 Hoover spoke about American ideals
to Young Republicans in Boston, and at Colby College in Waterville, Maine
in November he discussed the relationship between freedom and government.
In 1937 he donated $100,000 to the Republican Party.
In January 1938 Hoover spoke on radio to
women’s clubs about peace and moral force.
In February and March he spent seven weeks traveling in Europe.
He visited 12 nations, and he met with many leaders
including 22 presidents and prime ministers.
He found that 10 countries had formed Fascist governments since 1919,
and their people outnumbered 13 democracies.
The League of Nations at Geneva was not faring well.
Hitler in Berlin invited Hoover and the American Ambassador Hugh Wilson for a talk.
By speaking to many leaders Hoover learned much about
what was going on in autocracies as well as in democracies.
He informed the British that Germany would be ready for a war in 18 months.
When he returned, Hoover spoke in New York City about his tour.
He reported that European nations are in an arms race with deficit spending.
At Fresno, California in April he gave a talk on eight moral principles in politics,
and at Oklahoma City in May he talked about the rise of Communism and Fascism.
At Kansas City in September he explained how the Civil Service System
in his administration had been replaced by the
corruption of patronage and the spoils system.
In 1938 Hoover published his speeches and public writings since 1933
in multiple volumes as Addresses Upon the American Road.
Republicans made some gains in Congress in 1938.
He opposed wars because governments then adopted fascism.
After the German invasion of Poland in September 1939
and the Russian aggression against Finland,
Hoover began the National Committee on Food for the Small Democracies.
He diplomatically organized a way to provide food for children in Poland.
In August 1940 the democracies of Belgium, central Poland, Finland,
Holland, and Norway appealed to Hoover for food and supplies.
As in the First World War he met the challenge of
organizing and providing food to relieve hungry people.
Though praised for his speaking and his charitable work,
with the Democrats blaming Hoover for the Depression
the Republicans would not nominate him.
Roosevelt was elected to a third term.
Hoover opposed the Lend-Lease Bill in March 1941
because it enabled the President to wage war.
He gave a speech at New Haven, Connecticut on peace
and the problems of the world wars.
The US Government froze Soviet credits on June 14,
and eight days later the German army invaded Russia.
On June 24 Roosevelt said that the United States would give
all possible aid to Soviet Russia with a $40 million loan.
He did not enact the Neutrality Act so that American ships
could take military supplies to Russia.
On June 29 Hoover spoke on national radio explaining that
the Constitution only allowed the Congress to declare war.
He also advised that Communists were violating US laws.
He warned that the Russians would take over four small democracies.
Hoover also noted that Roosevelt was imposing economic pressure
on the Japanese, and in July the President announced sanctions on Japan,
freezing their assets in the US.
Also in 1941 Hoover’s relief effort was supported by 37 US Senators,
but it was blocked by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Hoover wrote The Problems of Lasting Peace in 1942.
In March 1943 he spoke at the Midwest Governors’ Conference
at Des Moines about the importance of food during a war.
His wife died in January 1944.
At the Republican Convention in June he spoke about
war and peace and the freedom of nations.
When the Dumbarton Oaks proposal was announced,
Hoover suggested additional provisions to improve the plan.
After Roosevelt was elected again in November,
Hoover moved out of Washington.
In 1945 he wrote The Basis of Lasting Peace.
In May he advised President Truman not to destroy civilization by going to war
against Russia, and in August he criticized use of atomic bombs.
The United Nations Charter was signed in June,
and Hoover wrote about its good and bad points.
In August he warned humanity that atomic weapons could destroy civilization.
In October he noted that US Admiral Nimitz admitted that
the atomic bomb was not needed because Japan was ready to make peace.
In 1946 President Truman appointed Hoover a
commissioner to study war damage in Germany and Austria,
and then in March 1947 he was named to organize food relief.
By May he had traveled to 39 nations, and he got donations from governments.
Also in 1947 Truman established the Hoover Commission
to reform the federal bureaucracy.
He worked on this without compensation and estimated that
if their 273 recommendations were implemented,
the Federal Government would save $4 billion per year.
Hoover also helped form the United Nations International
Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) that was organized in December.
In June 1948 at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia
he made a long speech and warned that liberty was being defeated.
In December he gave an address to the Washington Conference of the
Citizens
Committee on “Removing Obstacles to Economy and to Competence in Government.”
In 1950 Hoover opposed going to war in Korea,
and he refused to investigate the “Communists in the government.”
In 1953 President Eisenhower asked Hoover to continue his work
on improving the government bureaucracy.
Hoover admired President Wilson, and in 1958 he published
The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson.
He had worked closely with Wilson as the Food Administrator
during World War I and after.
Wilson was his mentor, and Hoover analyzed the difficulties he faced
in the peace process for the Versailles Treaty and
for the League of Nations to prevent future wars.
Hoover gathered his papers for the Hoover Institution
of War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford.
He wrote his Memoirs in three volumes, and other writings include
An American Epic and Addresses Upon The American Road in 4 volumes
covering from 1933 to 1948, and Freedom Betrayed:
Herbert Hoover's Secret History of the Second World War and Its Aftermath.
I believe Herbert Hoover deserves credit for his humanitarian work
during
and after the first World War that helped save many millions of people from starving.
His eight years as Secretary of Commerce supported the presidencies of Warren Harding
and Calvin Coolidge assisting them in reducing the national debt by about 4.5% per year,
and no other US President did more than that
except John Quincy Adams and Franklin Pierce.
Hoover helped end the postwar recession and bring about prosperity in the 1920s.
He tried to warn against excessive speculation in the stock market
that led to the crash in October 1929 during his presidency.
I have presented many of the facts of Hoover’s presidency to show
how much he did to prevent more misery that could have occurred
without his many programs that were fairly successful.
In my opinion Hoover used his business and management skills and charity experience
to establish many efforts that would be extended by Roosevelt’s New Deal.
I doubt if any other President could have done better in those circumstances.
Hoover noted that the Depression was not ended by the
Roosevelt Administration’s policies until the United States entered World War II.
Hoover often spoke on peace and the use of moral force.
He never had been involved in or supported any war
while he had the courage to relieve human suffering amidst the dangers of war.
He opposed excessive military spending and wars,
and he continued his humanitarian work.
Hoover’s most important value was individual freedom.
Hoover removed the US Marines from Haiti and Nicaragua,
and his policy of being a good neighbor to Latin America
would be popularized by Franklin Roosevelt.
When Calvin Coolidge was President 1923-29 and Hoover was
Commerce Secretary, the national debt decreased by $5,418,618,881.
During Hoover’s four years as President the national debt increased by $5,607,584,076.
When Franklin Roosevelt was President, the national debt increased by $258,682,187,410.
No US President has decreased the national debt since Coolidge.
I rank Herbert Hoover #1.
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