Herbert Hoover, the thirty-first President of the United States, was a healthy-looking gentlemen, with a long, ball nose, a cleft chin, and thin, gray eye brows. A Quaker with a strong Protestant work ethic, he was an extremely successful business man who had a soft spot for humanitarian causes. The skill and efficiency with which he organized dozens of privately funded hunger relief efforts earned him the position of Food Administrator, to which he was appointed by President Wilson during World War I. His success as Chairman of the Allied Food Council, also during World War I, gained him the notoriety and respect that made him a 1929 Presidential contender without ever having held an elected office. Riding on the wave of prosperity from the Coolidge years, Hoover won the election by one of the largest popular margins to date. Unfortunately, the prosperity did not last. The stock market crash, only seven months after President Hoover assumed office, ushered in the worst economic depression in the history of the United States. Hoover's belief in the American principle of self reliance may have been applauded at any other time, but during the Great Depression, his refusal to give "hand outs," as he called unemployment relief efforts, earned him the overwhelming contempt of the American people. Though he had not been personally responsible for bringing about the Great Depression, he was largely saddled with the blame, partly because he inherited the history of the party that had been in power during the years of over-speculation, partly because he refused aid to the unemployed, and partly because he, himself, was a fat and prosperous-looking millionaire. So thoroughly did the nation grow to hate Hoover that Congress passed legislation to end his term in January rather than on March 4, the usual date. The legislation passed, but did not go into effect until the following October. Hoover was allowed to stay in office until March 4, 1933, but Congress had made its point.
Herbert Clark Hoover was born August 10, 1874, in West Branch, Iowa. He was the second child of three born to Huldah and Jesse Hoover, a Quaker couple of modest means. Jesse Hoover, a black smith and farm equipment salesman, died when his son was only six. Huldah Hoover died two years later. Upon the death of their mother, Herbert and his two siblings were split up and sent to live with different relatives. Herbert was taken in by his Uncle Allen Hoover of Cedar County, Iowa. In Cedar County, Herbert lived and worked on his uncle's farm and attended a local public school during the winter months. A year later Herbert was sent to live with his mother's brother, Dr. John Minthorne in Newberg, Oregon. Herbert's Uncle John was in the process of establishing a Quaker school, and Herbert attended a local public school until his uncle's school was completed. In Newberg, Herbert supplemented his education by taking classes at a local business school where he learned shorthand. In 1891 Hoover enrolled in the first freshman class of the newly established Leland Stanford Jr. University in Palo Alto, California. While attending Stanford, he worked as a manager of a laundrette, a newspaper boy, and a part-time secretary for the geology department to pay for his education. He also took work as a geologist in California, Arkansas, and Nevada during summer recesses from Stanford. Hoover graduated with a degree in engineering in 1895 and took a job doing physical labor in a gold mine in Nevada City, California. After a few months he moved to San Francisco where he took a job as a typist for Bewick, Moreing and Company of London. Hoover was promoted to the position of engineering assistant in 1897 and sent to supervise mines in Western Australia. His work in Australia earned him recognition within the engineering community and a position with the Chinese government's Imperial Bureau of Mines for Chihli and Jehol in 1898.
On February 10, 1898 Herbert Hoover married Lou Henry, the daughter of a wealthy Monterey, California banker, and a fellow alumnus of Stanford. The couple was married in Monterey, California and spent a working honeymoon in China. Already proficient in several languages, Lou Hoover began learning Chinese and began translating Agricola's De re metallica into English with her husband. The Hoovers' translation of De re metallica was completed in 1912. The Hoovers had two sons, both of which were born in London. Herbert Hoover Jr. served as Under-Secretary of State from 1954 to 1957.
When the Boxer Rebellion broke out in 1900, Herbert Hoover was in charge of distributing provisions to thousands of displaced Chinese citizens. He displayed a tremendous aptitude for relief work, and the relief effort was largely successful. The Imperial Bureau of Mines was disbanded after the revolution, and Hoover secured a position overseeing construction work in the Chinwantangtao Harbor. Within a year he was hired as a manager for the wealthy Chinese Engineering and Mining Company, Ltd.
Hoover moved to London in 1901 where he resumed employment with Bewick, Moreing and Company. In 1908 he became a freelance consultant and was hired to supervise mines all over the world. He had returned to London, working for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, when World War I broke out. At the request of the American ambassador, Hoover established the American Relief Committee, an organization designed to ensure a safe passage home for American tourists stranded in Europe. In 1915 Herbert Hoover was appointed chairman of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, which was established to provide food, water, and shelter for the people of war-torn Belgium and northern France. When the United States entered the war in 1917, Hoover returned home where President Wilson appointed him chairman of the food division of the Council of National Defense. Hoover was later appointed head of the Federal Food Administration. In his capacity as a war-time administrator, Hoover established the United States Grain Corporation and the Sugar Equalization Board to stimulate food production and conserve existing supplies. In February 1919 Hoover was appointed director-general of Congress's American Relief Administration, which had been established to aid victims of the war in eastern Europe and which was later used to aid famine victims in the U.S.S.R. After the war, Hoover served as chairman of the Inter-Allied Food Council and as head of the food division of the Supreme Economic Council, both of which provided relief to victims of the War in eastern Europe.
Herbert Hoover had served as President Wilson's economic adviser during the Versailles Peace Conference and was a strong supporter of the policies of the Wilson Administration. In spite of these strong Democratic ties, however, Hoover declared himself a Republican in 1918. His 1920 bid for the Republican nomination was defeated by Warren G. Harding. Harding went on to win the election and appoint Hoover to the position of Secretary of Commerce, a position which Hoover would maintain throughout the Harding and Coolidge Administrations. As Secretary of Commerce, Hoover was responsible for the legislation which set an eight-hour work day for railroad employees and laws which limited the abuses of child labor. He completely overhauled the Department of Commerce in order to make it more efficient and worked closely with industrial leaders in expanding the world market to American trade.
When President Coolidge declined the Republican nomination for re-election in 1928, Herbert Hoover was the party's next choice. Hoover won the nomination on the first ballot at the Republican National Convention in Kansas City. Charles Curtis received the Vice Presidential nomination. The Democrats nominated Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York. Hoover campaigned in support of a high protective tariff, the development of hydroelectric power plants, and prohibition. The campaigned turned ugly when large sections of the voting population found themselves unwilling to have a Catholic, such as Governor Smith, as President of the United States. On the prosperous tail of the Coolidge administration, and in light of Smith's Catholicism, Herbert Hoover won the election by the largest margin ever in the popular vote and in the electoral college. Herbert Hoover became the thirty-first President of the United States on March 4, 1929.
Seven months after President Hoover's inauguration, the stock market in New York City crashed, ushering in the worst economic depression in the nation's history. President Hoover responded to the crisis by personally meeting with the heads of industry and asking them not to cut production, wages, or employment. The request meant little to industry leaders who were themselves facing bankruptcy. President Hoover believed that the secret to recovery was to balance the federal budget, and he dedicated most of his time to trying to do just that.
In 1930 President Hoover signed into law the Smoot-Hawly Act which, as he promised during his campaign, considerably raised the protective tariff. The other nations of the world, themselves undergoing economic hardships, responded to the Smoot-Hawly Act by raising their own protective tariffs. A viscous trade war ensued, exacerbating the plight of the economy.
Though President Hoover was against the notion of federal aid for the unemployed, he did establish the Reconstruction Financial Corporation to administer low interest government loans to failing businesses. The Reconstruction Financial Corporation later gave some $30 million to bankrupt state governments. The Bureau of Reclamation was an effort to conserve the United States' natural resources while at the same time, create jobs for the unemployed. The Bureau was responsible for building and fixing waterways; one of the larger project undertaken was the Boulder Dam (now the Hoover Dam).
In June of 1932, a group of World War I veterans marched on the Capitol to demand that their military bonuses, which were not by law payable until 1945, be paid immediately. When President Hoover denied the demands of the protesters, the march turned into a riot. The President called out the National Guard to put down the violence, and the nation's animosity against the President increased.
In foreign affairs, the Hoover Administration was responsible for the London Naval Treaty of 1930, which further limited the navies of the United States, Great Britain, and Japan. The Hoover Administration was also responsible for the removal of United States troops stationed in Nicaragua and in Haiti. President Hoover arranged a deal with the other nations that had been involved in the war that provided for a one-year delay of payment of war debts.
President Hoover secured his party's nomination for re-election in 1932, but lost miserably to the Democratic candidate, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Congress passed the Twentieth Amendment, or the "lame duck" Amendment, in January 1933. The Amendment moved the date of the Presidential inauguration from March 4 to January 20. It was an attempt to rid the nation of President Hoover early, but the law did not go into effect until the following October. President Hoover left the White House on March 4, 1933 and retired to Palo Alto, California.
In his retirement, Former President Hoover was a fierce critic of the Roosevelt Administration. He wrote The Challenge to Liberty in 1934 to voice his opposition to Roosevelt's New Deal. In 1942 he wrote The Problems of Lasting Peace, which he updated in 1945, and changed the title to The Basis of Lasting Peace. Herbert Hoover moved to New York City in 1943. His wife, Lou Hoover, died on January 7, 1944. In 1946 President Truman appointed Hoover chairman of the Famine Emergency Commission, a relief organization for European victims of World War II. Then in 1947, President Truman appointed Hoover chairman of the Commission on Reorganization of the Executive Branch of Government (known as the "Hoover Commission"), which was established to suggest measures to make the Executive Branch more efficient. The Commission was disbanded in 1949, but re-instituted again under President Eisenhower. Former President Hoover was appointed chairman of the Second Commission on Reorganization of the Executive Branch of Government by President Eisenhower in 1953. In 1958 Hoover wrote The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson. Herbert Hoover died in New York City on October 20, 1964; he was ninety years old.
