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HOOVER, HERBERT 1874-1964

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (1929-1933)

Depression-Era President

The thirty-first president of the United States, Herbert Hoover was chief executive at the beginning of the worst economic depression in American history. His was a serious, incorruptible, and independent intellect. He lacked the personal charm and charisma of other politicians, but there was probably little that any sitting president could have done to win the popularity contest at the polls in 1932, and he lost the election to Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Background

Born in Iowa on 10 August 1874, Herbert Clark Hoover was orphaned as a child. A Quaker known from his childhood as "Bert" to his friends, he began a career as a mining engineer soon after graduating from Stanford University in 1895. Within twenty years he had used his engineering knowledge and business acumen to make a fortune as an independent mining consultant.

Public Service

In 1914 Hoover administered the American Relief Committee, which assisted more than one hundred thousand Americans trapped in Europe at the outbreak of World War I. During the war he was praised for his efficiency as head of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, as U.S. Food Administrator, and as chairman of the Interallied Food Council. After the war he directed the American Relief Administration. All told, Hoover was responsible for distributing more than $5 billion worth of food, clothing, and supplies during and after the war, and he was deservedly acclaimed worldwide as a great humanitarian. From 1918 into the early 1920s Europeans sent him tens of thousands of cards, letters, and drawings to express their gratitude for their "Hoover lunches." In Finland to "hoover" came to mean to act in a kindly and helpful manner. In the United States to "hooverize" came to mean to ration one's food and supplies, because while he was U.S. Food Administrator in 1917-1918, Hoover importuned the nation to conserve voluntarily resources and comply with meatless and wheatless days. Franklin D. Roosevelt said of Hoover in 1920, "He is certainly a wonder and I wish we could make him President of the United States. There could not be a better one." In 1919 Hoover founded the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford University. As secretary of commerce in the Harding and Coolidge administrations (1921-1929), Hoover was widely celebrated for his leadership. In 1928 he defeated Democrat Al Smith for the presidency.

The Great Depression

Inaugurated on 4 March 1929, Hoover had been president only seven months when the stock market crashed. Ironically, at the start of his campaign he had declared that Americans were approaching "the final triumph over poverty," and he praised Americans' "rugged individualism" as a solution to the nation's economic problems. When it became clear that the Depression could not be ended without government intervention, Hoover reversed his stand and initiated a series of innovative federal programs in an attempt to counteract the economic downturn. But the economy continued to worsen, and he was handily defeated by Roosevelt in the presidential election of 1932. During Hoover's 1932 campaign one of his critics, Walter Lippmann, observed: "Mr. Hoover has long since abandoned his old faith in rugged individualism. His platform is a document of indefatigable paternalism. Its spirit is that of the Great White Father providing help for all his people. Every conceivable interest which has votes is offered protection, or subsidies, or access of some kind to the Treasury."

Out of Office

After his defeat Hoover kept silent on public policy for two years. In late 1934 he began his attack on the New Deal with The Challenge to Liberty', a book in which he articulated his ideological views. He remained active in the Republican Party, quietly and unsuccessfully seeking his party's presidential nomination in 1936 and 1940. As an elder statesman he headed government commissions under Presidents Harry'S Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower. After years of service to the nation, Herbert Hoover died on 29 October 1964.