US Presidents, Day 31: Hoover

[Joe Republic]

Herbert Hoover
Republican
1929-1933


Discuss his presidency.

(Now is your chance to really shine, PB. )

[PBrunsel]

Herbert Hoover, Part I: “The Slippery Path to Public Life” 1874-1914

Herbert Clark Hoover is the most forgotten American Progressive. From his work in Belgium to his shining career as Secretary of Commerce, Hoover changed the American and World landscape. The thing which did in his record as an efficient and big hearted leader was his tenure into politics from 1929-1933. Like Madison, Van Buren, and Andrew Johnson, Hoover’s greatest achievements came before and after his presidency. However, as President he effectively led the nation through the early days of the Great Depression.

Born August 10th, 1874, in a small cabin in West Branch, Iowa, and Hoover became an orphan at age eight. When he was sent to live with his uncle in Oregon a neighbor gave him two silver dollars to use in case of an emergency. Hoover would hold onto these silver dollars for the rest of his life. After graduating from Stanford University (where he was elected Student Body Treasurer, the last office he would be elected to until 1928) with a degree in engineering, Hoover married Lou Henry, the only girl enrolled in the Stanford engineering department, and began to work as a miner. In 1893 Hoover bought a tweed suit, grew a beard, and was hired by Bewick, Moering to supervise a mining expedition in Australia. Hoover “The World Traveler” was born.

After spending much time in “The land of black flies, red dust, and white heat”, Hoover and Lou went to China to help the Emperor find gold. The Hoovers fought in the Boxer Rebellion of 1898 and went to Britain to help run Bewick, Moering. From 1898-1914 Bert and Lou traveled the World, translated the ancient mining text “De Re Metalica”, and had a wonderful life making money in Great Britain, However, a world was about to go to war, and Herbert Hoover was needed to become a great man.

Panic gripped London on August 3rd, 1914. War had been declared on Germany, and the U-Boats were sinking American and British vessels. 120,000 Americans were stranded in Britain, and they turned to Herbert Hoover to get them home. Hoover made cash payments and deals with British port authorities to authorize six ships to take the Americans home. Hoover had to so some silly things to make the Americans get on the ships once the British allowed them to depart from the mainland. Hoover had to sign a piece of paper “promising” a wealthy old woman that the Germans would not attack her ship. He also had to talk a man into leaving his alcohol on the shore as not to offend the nuns also on board. By making some compromises, Hoover was able to safely return all 120,000 Americans abroad back to the good old USA. “I didn’t realize it then,” Hoover said later in life, “But my mining career was over. I was on the slippery path to public life.”

As a Quaker Hoover believed in the importance of serving humankind, so when President Wilson asked him to help out a besieged nation, Hoover declared, “Let the fortune go to hell.” Belgium, a tiny kingdom of less than three million, was sandwiched in between to warring superpowers. Great Britain’s naval blockade and Germany’s superior land forces had caused Belgium to be cut off from trade, and all starved. The King of Belgium was forced to have to eat his prized horses, and the regular subjects were even worse off. When Hoover became the head of the Committee to Relieve Belgium (CRB) he had a massive task ahead of him. Hoover eliminated the middle man while serving as Chairman, and that saved a great deal of time. He personally traveled to London and Berlin to speak with the King and Kaiser. He made deals, concessions, and compromises with the warring powers, but in the end they agreed to not fire on ships bearing the CRB flag. Hoover imported over 30 tons of food for the starving Belgians. Children, who just a few months before were on the brink of starvation, began to eat a “Hoover lunch” of white bread and broth. Hoover saved the tiny nation from death, and was honored by the Belgian people. In the Belgian language the word “Hoover” means “help.”

By the time the United States entered World War I in 1918 Hoover was a national hero. “The Great Humanitarian” was the savior of Belgium, and Wilson knew that only Hoover could keep the nation fed during the global conflict. In 1918 Hoover became the Chairman of the American Food Administration. Under Hoover people were encouraged to have “Meatless Mondays”, “Weatless Wednesdays”, and “Fueless Fridays”. Rationing was never used by the government, because people were more than willing to follow Hoover and the American Food Administration.

Because of his great ability to organize and administrate, Hoover’s own name became a word. To “Hooverize” meant to complete a task in an efficient way. People began to “Hooverize” everything from mowing the grass to writing a novel. A popular Valentine from 1920 read:

                      “I’ll Hooverize on dinner,
                        On fuel and tires too,
                  But I’ll never learn to Hooverize
                    When it comes to loving you”

Herbert Hoover was now a household name, and was on his way to national prominence. The future looked bright for “The Wonder Boy from Iowa.”

[CPT MikeyMike]

Hoover was the most qualified man (along with G.H.W. Bush) that EVER became President however he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Even FDR's Vice President, John Garner, admitted that if Hoover was elected in either 1920 or in 1936, he would have been ranked with the great Presidents of Lincoln and Washington.

[PBrunsel]

Herbert Hoover, Part II: “Who but Hoover?” 1921-1933

In 1920 both major parties wanted Herbert Hoover to run as their nominee for President. The Democrats though that a ticket of Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, was the best ticket they could nominate. Roosevelt even said of Hoover, “He certainly is a wonder, and I hope we can make a President of the United States of him since there could be no better.” Hoover was the biggest hero since General Perishing, but Hoover chose not to run for President. “I hate politics,” is something Hoover loved to say, but he knew he would have to enter public life since his Quaker roots were calling for him to serve.

Hoover found his chance to serve when he was appointed by President Harding to be Secretary of Commerce. The outgoing Secretary of Commerce, Joshua Alexander, told Hoover his job was going to be easy. “You simply just turn off the light house at night,” Alexander told Hoover, “And put the fish to bed.” Hoover transformed the Commerce Department into a dynamic force during his tenure from 1921-1928. As Secretary of Commerce he standardized all parts, radio frequencies, and even fishing hooks. He began to call for a dam on the Colorado River to help harness its power and stop flooding. Hoover became so involved in all aspects of the government he was called, “Secretary of Commerce and Under-Secretary of Everything Else.” Above all, Hoover was frightened by Coolidge’s hands off approach to Stock Market speculation. Hoover told Coolidge to call on Congress to end insider trading, artificial enhancement of stocks, and the practice of banks investing their client’s money in the market. Coolidge called this “bad advice” and laughed off Hoover’s suggestions. Calvin was short sighted, but Herbert was a visionary.

In 1928 the nation asked who would replace Coolidge as President. They responded, “Who but Hoover?” Hoover crushed his Democratic opponent Governor Alfred E. Smith (the first Catholic to run as a major party candidate) in a landslide. During the campaign Hoover stressed his support for Prohibition and farmers. Smith opposed Prohibition and was seen as the candidate of big city factory workers. In the contest of “West Side vs. West Branch” the small town Hoover defeated the big city Smith. Smith won the six biggest cities in the country while Hoover swept rural America. The stage had been set for the support base for the major parties for the next several decades.

The first Inauguration to be filmed was Herbert Hoover’s in 1929. This was seen as a sing of the progress to the future Hoover told the nation about in the 1928 Campaign. “We in America are closer now to the final triumph over poverty than any nation in history,” Hoover triumphantly told the Republican National Convention in 1928, but this was not to be. Coolidge’s “hands off” approach to the economy set up the nation for the Crash of 1929. “Black Tuesday” on October 29th, 1929, left the nation and Hoover holding an empty bag, which was Coolidge made.

The Great Depression was seen by Herbert Hoover as a crisis and an opportunity. Hoover felt that through his leadership he could show the world that Americans can overcome anything. Hoover “Depression Aide Program” was as progressive as the nation has ever seen. He signed the Emergency Relief and Construction Act in 1932 which gave government relief aide and jobs to the unemployed. This was the first time in American history the government gave aide to those who were destitute. With unemployment rising as high as 30%, Hoover knew that the government needed to help those who could not help themselves. This was Hoover’s Quaker side, not Conservative side, decision making.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s much heralded “New Deal” was nothing more than a bloated version of Hoover’s “Depression Aide Program.” Such policies as the Works Progress Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and Social Security can be rooted to the Hoover Administration. President Hoover issues old age pensions, farm relief, public works employment, and banking reform. Roosevelt would take these ideas and run with them. Hoover’s progressive policies were attacked by Conservatives from both parties, but applauded by those more liberal minded Congressmen. Such polices as the Norris-LaGuardia Act helped protect Unions, and Hoover even made deals with Ford Automotives to not fire workers or slash wages. He worked 18-hour days, ate his meals at his desk, and became the first President to keep a telephone at his desk, thus proving Hoover to be our hardest working president.

The policies of the Great Engineer outside of fighting the Depression were far reaching and impacted future presidencies. His greatest blunder was singing the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, which rose tariff rates to their highest levels ever. As an old school Republican, Hoover believed that high tariffs protected American laborers. This tariff, however, just cut off foreign trade and harmed the economy. The recession steepened, and people began to view Hoover as a “do-nothing” who only hurt the economy and the American people. This was, of course, a bald face lie. As President Hoover did such important things as expand civil service coverage to Federal Judges, issue the IURS to go after gang leader Al Capone and book him for income tax evasion, set aside more federal lands for parks, continue the building of the Colorado River Dam (later to be named Hoover Dam), headed a White House investigation into exploitation of children, and (since Vice-President Charles Curtis was a Native American) founded the American Indian Affairs Department. As a Quaker and a self-made man, Hoover saw in every human being an ability to rise as far as he did: from a small, poor family to the White House.

In the world of foreign affairs, Hoover was still loved as the Great Humanitarian. Communist Russia (who Hoover had saved from starvation in 1920) tried to gain recognition from Hoover, but Hoover didn’t trust Communists. The much applauded “Good Neighbor Policy” of FDR was a direct rip-off of Hoover’s own Central America policy. Hoover ended the belligerent polices of Teddy Roosevelt, and embraced “The Hover Plan” of withdrawing American troops from Ecuador, Haiti, and Nicaragua, and embracing a policy of truly being a “good neighbor.” In Europe, Hoover called for a moratorium on paying war debts. Debt ravaged Germany needed this, and it stopped the economy of that nation from tanking completely. Hoover also condemned the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, but the League of Nations did not answer his condemnation with military action against the aggressive Imperial Japanese.

In 1932 Hoover was forced to run for reelection against impossible odds. No one understood all the good Hoover had done for the country; they only saw a cold rich man with no feeling for the poor. As a Quaker, Hoover had been taught to never show his emotions in public, and that made him seem cold and aloof from the suffering of the nation. Such places as “Hoovervilles” were established nationwide. These shanty towns filled with homeless men and women were signs of the Depression. The name “Hoover” was ran through the mud over and over again. “Hoover Wagons” were run down cars that were pulled by horses. “Hoover Flags” were pockets pulled out of one’s pants revealing they had no money. Hoover needed to regain popularity, but he was never going to in 1932. What would happen next would turn away what little support he had.

The Bonus Army disaster of 1932 only made the nation turn even more on Hoover. When 130,000 veterans of World War I marched and camped on Washington, D.C. demanding early payment of a bonus promised to them in 1945, Hoover was not happy. He told the veterans that they would get their bonus in 1945, the promised date. That was not good enough for them since they were hungry, unemployed, and desperate. Hoover sent medical aide, food, and clothing to the shanty towns established on Anacosta Flats. Hoover asked them to leave, and after giving them a small payment of $500, most of the veterans left Washington, D.C., to go home. However, some stubborn veterans stayed, demanding an early payment for a special bonus that not all American would receive. General Douglas MacArthur was told by Hoover to use peaceful coercion to remove the remaining veterans, but MacArthur practiced his first episode in ignoring presidential authority. “The American Caesar” used tanks, bayonets, and tear gas to chase the veterans out of town. The media (which by 1932 was purely anti-Hoover) spun the episode into a major lie. The Washington Times claimed Hoover had issued the tanks to attack all the veterans, but this was a lie. The people, already fed up with Hoover, believed the media’s lies. The Democratic nominee for President, Governor Franklin Roosevelt of New York, told Harold Ickes when he heard about the Bonus Army disaster, “This elects me.” 

On Election Day 1932 Hoover was thrown out of office by, “The wild screams of democracy.” Hoover was let down, depressed, and disappointed. The election was run solely on personality, Hoover was sure of this. While Hoover was a flat speaker who hated shaking hands, FDR was a bright, smiling, and personable fellow. Hoover felt that he had lost to a charlatan, but in reality he had been defeated by a man who would take his ideas, and make them his own. FDR was cordial to Hoover in defeat, but when Hoover left office in March 1933, he was sure he was destined for, “That political oblivion known as ‘elder statesman’.”

Hoover, so often right, would be wrong in this regard.

[PBrunsel]

Herbert Hoover, Part III: “He Has Endured” 1933-1964

Hoover’s post-presidency was the longest of any president. The elder statesman would not retire, but instead travel the world and make the nation better in his final decades on Earth. In 1937, Hoover met German Furher Adolph Hitler, and told him to “Sit down and shut up.” Hoover was a real stand up guy, no doubt. Before World War I broke out he would help feed the Finish people during their war with the Soviet Union and travel to Asia to help organize India’s disaster relief program.

FDR closed Hoover out from any government work. “I am not Christ,” Roosevelt joked, “I can not resurrect the dead.” Harry Truman, however, did work this miracle. In 1946 he invited Hoover to the White House and told him that he wanted Hoover to travel to Europe and South America to help feed their starving masses. Hoover was a mastermind for the Marshall Plan. He made sure food was shipped to the right people and places and in the most efficient way. Hoover viewed relief as the best way to help combat Marxism and the spread of Soviet Communism. This faith in America’s ability to be a world humanitarian led Hoover to be named “One of the Ten Most Important People in the World” several times by Time Magazine.
 
The Great Humanitarian helped reorganize the Executive Branch though the Hoover Commission, and began to “Hooverize” the young people of America by teaching them the importance of saving and public service through the Boy’s and Girl’s Club of America. When Hoover finally entered into eternity in October 1964, he was known as a great man who did many great things to help the people of America.

“He has worked very hard, he has kept the faith, he has endured,” said Hoover’s pastor at his funeral and he spoke the truth. Hoover rose from West branch orphan to world renowned humanitarian and President of the United States. It is the Greta American story.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Indeed, Hoover's greatest mistake was Smoot-Hawley.  While it was good old-fashioned American System economics a la Henry Clay and the Whigs, times had changed.  Such policies only work if your trading partners remain dedicated to free trade despite your affronts and Gladstonian Liberals were no longer in charge of our major trading partners.  We also were no longer a economically insignificant country that others could afford to tolerate ill behavior from.

Hoover had ample warning from his economic advisers, and had even campaigned on lowering tariffs, but for political reasons he chose to pay them no heed and the world paid the price for his folly.  To be fair, Hoover had thought he could ameliorate the excesses of the Act through the Tariff Rate Commission, but that proved a optimistic assumption on his part.

[Dr. Cynic]

I was honestly hoping we could just leave this thread to PBrunsel... But hey, everybody's gotta add their two cents...

I agree that Hoover was just unfortunate in his timing... It was a global scale depression caused basically by the end of WWI... Nobody had the foresight to fix the problem, and so poor Hoover got ambushed with it...

[Joe Republic]

And now it's my turn.  Hoover was probably one of the best presidents we ever had, but only before and after the time he actually spent in the White House.

[Michael Z]

As Bryson said, the only man for whom becoming President was a bad career move.

[Verily]

But for the mistakes of the Coolidge Presidency, Hoover could have been a good President. He didn't do a good job as President, but he can hardly be blamed.

[Reaganfan]

A great man who was wanted greatly but then was unwanted after four years.

[Joe Republic]

I don't wish to rub it in or anything, but I really do think that his "chicken in every pot and a car in every garage" promise in 1928 is probably the epitome of a failed election pledge.

[PBrunsel]

I don't wish to rub it in or anything, but I really do think that his "chicken in every pot and a car in every garage" promise in 1928 is probably the epitome of a failed election pledge.

Hoover never said that, he never promised that. The Republican Businessmen, Inc., used that slogan. The idea that Hoover promised that is an historic myth and a lie of FDR New Dealers.

[opebo]

Had absolutely no understanding of economics, but to be fair that was true of not only every president but practically every person who predated him, and damned few after.

[MaC]

I don't wish to rub it in or anything, but I really do think that his "chicken in every pot and a car in every garage" promise in 1928 is probably the epitome of a failed election pledge.

True, "A car in every pot and a chicken in every garage" would've made a much better campaign.

As for Presidency-I have negative veiws, since he indeed did start the New Deal-raising tax rates from 25% to 62%, starting social programs, ect..

I guess to some extent this is defensible-though not desirable or right-since these measures were only used for the first time in the country[unlike presidents after him who made the same mistakes and ruined things further]

[gorkay]

Hoover was similar to Jimmy Carter in that he was a very capable man who wasn't really suited for the office of the presidency, and contributed much more to the country after he left office than he ever did while he was in it. I don't blame him for the Depression, but I do think he was slow to act on the problems it caused, and let his conservative ideology keep him from doing things that would have helped people endure its effects.

[Robespierre's Jaw]

As many of you guys have stated Herbert Clark Hoover could have been a great President. However, Hoover was simpliy at the wrong place, at the wrong time. Shame the Republicans didn't nominate Hoover in 1920, because he probably would have prevented the Great Depression, which was caused by policies carried out by Warren G. Harding and John Calvin Coolidge. That reminds me I must update my Herbert Hoover elected in 1920 (and afterwards) timeline.