Herbert Hoover

Herbert Hoover was inaugurated as the thirty-first president of the United States in March 1929. Despite the economic prosperity that existed then, the country would be mired in the worst financial crisis of its history soon after Hoover took office. Though Hoover involved the federal government in fixing the country's economic problems more than preceding presidents had done, his efforts were deemed “too little, too late” by many Americans.

Early life

Herbert Clark Hoover was born August 10, 1874, in West Branch, Iowa , a small Quaker settlement near Iowa City. His father, Jesse Hoover, was a village blacksmith and merchant. Hulda Randall Minthorn Hoover, his mother, was an active lay minister in the Society of Friends, which the Quakers had come to be called. Both died when Hoover was quite young, his father in 1880, then his mother in 1884.

Hoover and his two siblings were separated and sent to live with other family members. Hoover was sent to live with his uncle, Henry John Minthorn, in Newberg, Oregon . Though he attended school at first, Hoover soon dropped out to oversee the daily operations of his uncle's real estate business.

Hoover attended night school to develop his business and office skills. Living with his oppressive uncle left Hoover with an independent spirit and a determination to earn his own financial freedom. So Hoover left Oregon to attend Stanford University in California in 1891.

Herbert Hoover took advantage of the innovative curriculum at Stanford. He received an excellent education in geology and participated in college politics. It was at Stanford that Hoover met the woman he would later marry, Lou Henry, a fellow geology student.

After graduation in 1895, Hoover worked as a day laborer in the Reward Gold Mine in Grass City, California. In 1896, he got an office job at an important mining firm in San Francisco, California. His experience and promotions there eventually led in 1897 to a position with one of the world's leading mining consulting firms, Bewick, Moreing, and Company of London, England.

The company sent Hoover to Australia, where he proved his worth as a mining engineer by recommending several successful mine purchases for the company. He was quickly considered a success and an authority in his field, making a staggering salary of $10,000 per year. He soon proposed marriage to Lou Henry, and they were married in 1899.

In 1898, Hoover went to China on behalf of Bewick, Moreing, to exploit extensive and profitable coal deposits. While he was there, Chinese nationalists rebelling against foreign powers began the Boxer Rebellion. In exchange for helping the Chinese government defend against the rebellion, Hoover was given control of the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company. He used the company to buy a share of partnership in Bewick, Moreing. Hoover's later business deals in places such as Sri Lanka, Russia, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Burma, and Malaysia helped him to amass a great fortune.

In 1901, the Hoovers moved to London, where they had two children. Hoover was drawn to move beyond amassing great fortunes and started to consider philanthropic ways to apply his skills. When World War I (1914–18) broke out in 1914, he found his opportunity.

A new career

When war started in August 1914, the American ambassador to Britain asked for Hoover's assistance to aid Americans stranded abroad at the onset of war. Hoover did this with such efficiency that he was asked to oversee the Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB) to help people in German-occupied Belgium. The CRB operated much like a state, with 4,000 committees worldwide, 130,000 volunteers, and $200 million in gifts and subsidies. Hoover's extraordinary diplomatic skill, his knowledge of worldwide shipping, and his determination and perseverance kept a steady flow of food to Belgium.

In May 1917, U.S. president Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924; served 1913–21) appointed Hoover food administrator for the United States during its involvement in World War I. In that role, Hoover stimulated agricultural production, controlled surging farm prices, and was able to ship food surpluses to a famished Europe.

Hoover took part in the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 to negotiate peace treaties after World War I. He held a variety of positions: chairman of the Inter-Allied Food Council, director general of the American Relief Administration, economic director of the Supreme Economic Council, chairman of the European Coal Council, and personal advisor to President Wilson.

Secretary of commerce

By 1920, rumblings about nominating Hoover for the presidency were heard among both Republicans and Democrats. Though a Hoover nomination did not happen that year, his backing of Republican Warren G. Harding (1865–1923; served 1921–23), who became the next president, earned Hoover a new position as the secretary of commerce, the head of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Hoover was secretary of commerce from 1921 to 1929 under both President Harding and President Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933; served 1923–29). In this role, Hoover encouraged the formation of trade associations, pushed cooperative markets for farmers, and was particularly aggressive in seeking overseas markets for American businesses. His greatest aim was for commercial expansion to replace military investment for bringing peace and prosperity to the world.

In 1927, the Mississippi River flooded, which left 350,000 people destitute. Dominating the headlines, Hoover directed the feeding, clothing, and housing of the stricken families. Such publicity made him the most famous secretary of commerce in U.S. history, and in 1928 Hoover was nominated and elected president of the United States.

Presidency

When Herbert Hoover was inaugurated in March 1929, the United States was enjoying a period of prosperity. U.S. business was growing, manufactured goods and raw materials flowed from the United States to the rest of the world, and technology was developing at an impressive rate. The prosperity, however, was far from evenly distributed, and there were many who were doing poorly, too.

In time, manufacturers started to have too much inventory and began to allow installment payments, or credit, for purchases. Those who had a little to invest risked their earnings in the stock market, which is the market for buying and selling shares in large companies. Often people bought stocks on margin, which meant they only paid a fraction of the total cost for the stock and borrowed the rest. If stock prices went up, investors repaid the borrowed amount and pocketed the profit. However, if stocks went down, investors lost the entire investment if they could not repay the borrowed money to the broker.

On October 24, 1929, stock prices plummeted. Prices continued to dive as investors scrambled to sell their stocks, and thousands of people lost their savings. It marked the beginning of the Great Depression (1929–41; a time of economic downturn in the United States) and Hoover's greatest challenge.

Domestic recovery

In November 1929, Hoover gathered railroad, labor, and construction leaders along with mayors and governors. In December, he gathered groups of business, labor, and farm leaders, too. Warning of a serious recession, Hoover worked to place the responsibility for avoiding major catastrophe within their hands. He asked them to foster industrial expansion, avoid strikes, share work when possible, stabilize prices, and provide relief where needed. Most of all, he stressed that there must not be drastic wage cuts. He pushed both national and state public offices to employ people out of work, asking Congress and state governors to appropriate, or provide the funds needed, for such jobs.

Though it seemed that Hoover's policies were working by spring 1930, by fall economic conditions had again worsened. Employers were forced to cut production. Hoover responded by creating the President's Emergency Committee for Unemployment, which established three thousand local committees. By June 1931, $2 billion was being spent and a million men were being employed on federal projects. Despite occasional rallies in the economic indicators, by 1932 over 20 percent of the labor force was unemployed, and only one-quarter of the unemployed was receiving relief assistance.

The most important effort Hoover made to bring relief was the recovery program called the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). The RFC started in January 1932. That year it provided loans to over five thousand banks, railroads, life insurance companies, farm mortgage associations, and building and loan associations. It saved many businesses from failure, halting further financial collapse and restoring some public confidence.

Though Hoover took great steps to bring relief to the country, he had two personal limits that reduced his popularity with the public and contributed to his inability to win another term as president. He opposed offering direct federal aid to the unemployed. Believing such aid would lower wages to a bare minimum and reward laziness, he insisted that unemployment relief was a problem for local governments. Hoover also was against any policies that might shift the budget out of balance by spending more federal money than the government was collecting in taxes and other revenues. In Hoover's opinion, a balanced federal budget was the keystone of recovery.

The Bonus Army March

By spring 1932, there were signs of social unease and community disruptions. Hunger marches took place, and the unemployed rioted. The most memorable event was the gathering of World War I veterans in Washington, D.C. Known as the Bonus Army, the eleven thousand veterans marched in front of the White House and the Capitol demanding an early payment of a bonus not scheduled for distribution until 1945. They camped in abandoned buildings and in tents at Anacostia Flats, across the river from the Capitol, waiting for Congress to make a decision.

When payment was rejected by Congress, most men returned home. A minority, however, refused to leave the buildings, and Hoover instructed that the men be evicted. Both his secretary of war, Patrick Hurley (1883–1963), and U.S. Army general Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964) took disastrous steps to carry out the eviction. The veterans were pushed back far beyond their camps with the use of tanks, guns, and tear gas. Two veterans were killed. Hoover was personally horrified, but instead of blaming Hurley and MacArthur, he took personal responsibility and suffered the resulting negative opinions.

Foreign policies

The economic problems of the Great Depression affected the rest of the developed world, and President Hoover's challenges extended beyond the nation's borders, too. He met those challenges with the intention of maintaining peace. To ease the global depression, he allowed nations to delay payment of debts to the United States for a year.

In Asia, Japan was launching military attacks against China. The Hoover administration's Stimson Doctrine stated that the United States would not recognize any unilateral change in Asia imposed by force. The United States, however, refrained from supporting China with military intervention.

Hoover promoted international disarmament, or the voluntary reduction in arms worldwide. He also initiated the “good neighbor” policy, which implied the United States would refrain from intervening in other country's politics.

Post-presidential years

President Hoover only served one term as president, losing to Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 election, but he continued to be vocal and active after his presidency. During World War II (1939–45) Hoover launched relief efforts in German-occupied Poland and Finland.

In 1946, President Harry S. Truman (1884–1972; served 1945–53) appointed Hoover honorary chairman of the Famine Emergency Committee. In 1947, Truman named Hoover to head the Committee on Organization of the Executive Branch of Government, now known as the Hoover Commission. Hoover's job was to evaluate the structure and operation of the executive branch of government and to recommend improvements. He performed this service again for President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969; served 1953–61) in 1953.

Until the end of his life, Hoover wrote a number of books, including three memoirs and several volumes on his relief activities. He also wrote multiple defenses of his governmental policies. Herbert Hoover died in New York City on October 20, 1964.