Herbert Hoover
| Herbert Hoover | |
 | |
| In office March 4, 1929 – March 4, 1933 | |
| Vice President | Charles Curtis |
|---|---|
| Preceded by | Calvin Coolidge |
| Succeeded by | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
3rd United States Secretary of Commerce
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| In office March 5, 1921 – August 21, 1928 | |
| President |
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| Preceded by | Joshua W. Alexander |
| Succeeded by | William F. Whiting |
Director of the United States Food Administration
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| In office August 21, 1917 – November 16, 1918 | |
| President | Woodrow Wilson |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
Chairman of the Commission for Relief in Belgium
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| In office October 22, 1914 – April 14, 1917 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Born | 10 August 1874 West Branch, Iowa, U.S. |
| Died | 20 October 1964 (aged 90) New York City, U.S. |
| Resting place | Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum |
| Political party | Independent (before 1920) Republican (1920–1964) |
| Spouse(s) | ∞ 1899 Lou Henry (d. 1944) |
| Children |
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Herbert Clark Hoover (10 August 1874 – 20 October 1964) was an American politician the thirty-first President of the United States (1929–1933) during the Great Depression. Besides his political career, Hoover was a professional mining engineer and author.
Life
Herbert Clark Hoover was born in 1874 in West Branch, Iowa. His father, Jesse Hoover, was a blacksmith and farm implement store owner of German, Swiss, and English ancestry. Hoover's mother, Hulda Randall Minthorn, was raised in Norwich, Ontario, Canada, before moving to Iowa in 1859. Like most other citizens of West Branch, Jesse and Hulda were Quakers. Around age two "Bertie", as he was called during that time, contracted a serious bout of croup, and was momentarily thought to have died until resuscitated by his uncle, John Minthorn. As a young child he was often referred to by his father as "my little stick in the mud" when he repeatedly got trapped in the mud crossing the unpaved street. Herbert's family figured prominently in the town's public prayer life, due almost entirely to mother Hulda's role in the church.
As a child, Hoover consistently attended schools, but he did little reading on his own aside from the Bible. Hoover's father, noted by the local paper for his "pleasant, sunshiny disposition", died in 1880 at the age of 34 of a sudden heart attack. Hoover's mother died in 1884 of typhoid, leaving Hoover, his older brother, Theodore, and his younger sister, May, as orphans. Hoover lived the next 18 months with his uncle Allen Hoover at a nearby farm. In November 1885, Hoover was sent to Newberg, Oregon, to live with his uncle John Minthorn, a Quaker physician and businessman whose own son had died the year before.
Hoover was a member of the inaugural "Pioneer Class" of Stanford University, entering in 1891 despite failing all the entrance exams except mathematics. During his freshman year, he switched his major from mechanical engineering to geology after working for John Casper Branner, the chairman of Stanford's geology department. During his sophomore year, to reduce his costs, Hoover co-founded the first student housing cooperative at Stanford, "Romero Hall". Hoover was a mediocre student, and he spent much of his time working in various part-time jobs or participating in campus activities. Though he was initially shy among fellow students, Hoover won election as student treasurer and became known for his distaste for fraternities and sororities. He served as student manager of both the baseball and football teams, and helped organize the inaugural Big Game versus the University of California. During the summers before and after his senior year, Hoover interned under economic geologist Waldemar Lindgren of the United States Geological Survey; these experiences convinced Hoover to pursue a career as a mining geologist.
Politics
As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted government intervention under the rubric "economic modernization". In the presidential election of 1928 Hoover easily won the Republican nomination. The nation was prosperous and optimistic, leading to a landslide for Hoover over the Democrat Al Smith. Hoover deeply believed in the Efficiency Movement (a major component of the Progressive Era), arguing that a technical solution existed for every social and economic problem.
That position was challenged by the Great Depression, which began in 1929, the first year of his presidency. Hoover tried to combat the Depression with volunteer efforts and government action, none of which produced economic recovery during his term. The consensus among historians is that Hoover's defeat in the 1932 election was caused primarily by failure to end the downward spiral into deep Depression, compounded by popular opposition to prohibition. Other electoral liabilities were Hoover's lack of charisma in relating to voters, and his poor skills in working with politicians.
Hoover had gained a reputation as a humanitarian during and after World War I, as he rescued millions of Europeans from starvation. He was also involved in saving millions after WWII.
- "More than 9 million Germans died as a result of deliberate Allied starvation and expulsion policies after World War II--one quarter of the country was annexed, and about 15 million people expelled in the largest act of ethnic cleansing the world has ever known. Over 2 million of these alone, including countless children, died on the road or in concentration camps in Poland and elsewhere. That these deaths occurred at all is still being denied by Western governments. At the same time, Herbert Hoover and Canadian Prime Minister MacKenzie King created the largest charity in history, a food-aid program that saved an estimated 800 million lives during three years of global struggle against post--World War II famine--a program they had to struggle for years to make accessible to the German people, who had been excluded from it as a matter of official Allied policy. Never before had such revenge been known. Never before had such compassion been shown." – James Bacque, in: Crimes and Mercies – The Fate of German Civilians Under Allied Occupation, 1944–1950
Quotes
- At the end of the last war we had an Armistice which lasted for nine long months. During that time a thousand diplomats of 40 nations, in daily sessions wrangled and struggled to settle the gigantic problems which had been loosened upon the world. And after that there was a long period of uncertainty in the ratification of the treaty. My immediate job during that Conference was with the gaunt realities of hunger and pestilence, which threatened to destroy the very foundations upon which peace must be built. But that job brought me hourly into contact with the long struggle to rebuild peace and order—and its defeat. Daily I witnessed the age-old forces of nationalism, imperialism and militarism acting under the direction of subtle diplomacy. I saw the rise of selfish interests, the clash of ideals, of personalities and of ambitions of men. Hate, fear and revenge also sat at those tables. The very bringing together of all these interests intensified the conflicts and generated new ones. It created a hundred nests of intrigue. The attempt to solve a hundred problems all at once made infinite opportunity for dark corner operations in trades and combinations. The whole world was pressing for haste lest the foundations of order should crumble altogether. I saw the Conference degenerate into a gigantic struggle for power. Gradually the spiritual forces of idealism and of justice were driven back by the forces of destruction. The peace making was, in the end, swept down the terrible stream of intrigue, power politics and conflict. It was wrecked in the whirlpool of destructive compromise and upon the rocks of selfish interest and emotional action. It was to be a peacemaking open to the world and subject to the check of public opinion. It was to be a "negotiated" peace. That entire pretense was soon forgotten. It became an "imposed peace" by the powerful. – Herbert Hoover, in: Addresses upon the American Road – World War II 1941–1945
- I had seen a good deal of the Czechoslovakian leader, Dr. Masaryk, in Washington prior to the Armistice. I believe I secured him, through Secretary Houston, his original introduction to President Wilson. [...] The original setup of Czechoslovakia agreed upon by both Masaryk and Benes in writing was to be a cantonal, non-military state like Switzerland. In Paris, Masaryk came to see me over his doubt about the inclusion of a part of western Bohemia in the new state. It was the center of the Sudeten German strength. He asked me to suggest to President Wilson that the President oppose the inclusion of this area, as it would place him in a difficult position with his colleagues to do so himself. Mr. Wilson soon found that the French were insistent on including as many Germans as possible in Czechoslovakia in order to weaken Germany and to provide a stronger military frontier against them. He was able to do very little. [...] Masaryk had the tolerance and vision required to overcome a hate centuries deep, to weld and to lead the Sudeten Germans to accept the new republic and co-operation with the Czechs. After Masaryk died, Benes did not have it. Masaryk had the confidence and co-operation of the Slovaks. Benes lost it. After the Peace, and under the encouragement and finance of the French, the color of Czechoslovakia as a non-military state quickly disappeared. They constructed the nation into a dagger pointed at the German flank. Under Benes the cantonal equality of races disappeared. Even the names of the streets and roads through the German areas, which had been there 400 years, were changed. When the opportunity came for Germany to remove the dagger, the Sudeten Germans were ripe for revolt. The Slovaks were glad of a chance for delivery from the Czech domination. – Herbert Hoover, in: The Memoirs – Years of Adventure 1874–1920
