Herbert Hoover
(born August 10, 1874, West Branch, Iowa, U.S.?died October 20, 1964, New York, New York) was the 31st
president
of the
United States
(1929?33). Hoover’s reputation as a humanitarian?earned during and after
World War I
as he rescued millions of Europeans from
starvation
?faded from public
consciousness
when his administration proved unable to
alleviate
widespread joblessness, homelessness, and
hunger
in his own
country
during the early years of the
Great Depression
.
Hoover was the son of Jesse and Hulda Hoover. His father was a hardworking
blacksmith
and farm-implement dealer and his mother an extremely pious woman who eventually adopted
Quakerism
. Amid the streams, woodlands, and rolling hills around West Branch,
Iowa
, the young Hoover enjoyed an almost
idyllic
childhood?until age six, when his father died from
heart disease
and, four years later, his mother died of
pneumonia
orphaning Herbert, his older brother,
Theodore
, and younger sister, Mary.
Britannica Quiz
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(Read Herbert Hoover’s Britannica entry on his brother, Theodore Jesse Hoover.)
The orphaned Herbert then left Iowa for
Oregon
, where he grew up in the home of John and Laura Minthorn, his maternal uncle and aunt. His parents’ character and religiosity and the trauma of his early childhood left an indelible mark on the young Herbert, instilling in him the self-reliance, industriousness, and
moral
concern for the needy, abandoned, and downtrodden that would characterize him for the rest of his life (his favourite book was
David Copperfield
). In classic
Quaker
fashion, his speech, dress, and demeanour were unadorned. Hoover was a member of the first class at
Stanford University
(1895). He graduated with a degree in
geology
and became a mining engineer, working on a wide variety of projects on four continents and displaying exceptional business
acumen
. Within two decades of leaving Stanford, he had amassed a personal net worth of about $4 million.
Caught in
China
during the
Boxer Rebellion
(1900), Hoover displayed his gift for humanitarian rescue by organizing relief for trapped foreigners. He drew on his China experience in 1914, when he helped Americans stranded in
Europe
at the outbreak of
World War I
. For the next three years, he headed the Commission for Relief in
Belgium
, overseeing what he called “the greatest charity the world has ever seen” and exhibiting impressive executive ability in helping to procure
food
for some nine million people whose country had been overrun by the German
army
. So skilled was Hoover’s performance that Pres.
Woodrow Wilson
appointed him U.S. food administrator for the duration of the war. Relying primarily on voluntary cooperation by the American public, Hoover won wide support for “wheatless” and “meatless” days so that as much of the nation’s agricultural output as possible could be sent to soldiers at the front. Recognized by war’s end as the “Great Engineer” who could organize resources and personnel to accomplish extraordinary acts of
benevolence
, Hoover was the natural choice to head the
American Relief Administration
. The ARA sent shiploads of food and other life-sustaining supplies to war-ravaged Europe?including
Germany
and
Bolshevik
Russia
during the
famine
in that country in 1921?23. The outreach to Soviet Russia garnered Hoover much
criticism
, but he defended his actions on humanitarian grounds, saying, “Twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed.”
In 1921 President-elect
Warren G. Harding
chose Hoover to serve as secretary of commerce. In the Harding cabinet Hoover proved to be one of the few progressive voices in a
Republican
administration that generally saw little role for government other than assisting the growth of business. Hoover alienated many Old Guard Republican leaders as he vigorously supported U.S. membership in the
League of Nations
,
collective bargaining
rights for labour, and government regulation of such new industries as radio broadcasting and commercial aviation. Continuing as commerce secretary under Pres.
Calvin Coolidge
, Hoover spearheaded efforts that ultimately led to construction of
Hoover Dam
and the
St. Lawrence Seaway
. He illustrated his continuing dedication to humanitarian rescue when he supervised relief efforts during and after the
Mississippi River flood of 1927
.
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When President Coolidge decided not to run for another term in
1928
, Hoover received the Republican presidential nomination, despite the objections of
conservatives
opposed to his departure from the party’s traditional
laissez-faire
philosophy. In the ensuing campaign, Hoover and running mate
Charles Curtis
ran against
New York
Gov.
Alfred E. Smith
and vice presidential candidate
Joseph T. Robinson
in a contest that focused on
Prohibition
and
religion
. Smith opposed Prohibition, while Hoover remained
equivocal
, calling it an “experiment noble in motive.” Smith’s
Roman Catholicism
proved a liability, especially in the South, but the election outcome chiefly reflected the close identification in the public mind of the Republican Party with the enormous prosperity of the 1920s. Hoover captured more than 21 million popular votes to Smith’s approximately 15 million, and he received 444 electoral votes to his Democratic opponent’s 87. (
See
primary source document: Inaugural Address.
See also
Cabinet of President Herbert Hoover and
United States presidential election of 1928
.)
Cabinet of President Herbert Hoover
March 4, 1929?March 3, 1933
|
State
|
Henry Lewis Stimson
|
Treasury
|
Andrew W. Mellon
|
Ogden Livingston Mills (from February 13, 1932)
|
War
|
James William Good
|
Patrick Jay Hurley
(from December 9, 1929)
|
Navy
|
Charles Francis Adams
|
Attorney General
|
William De Witt Mitchell
|
Interior
|
Ray Lyman Wilbur
|
Agriculture
|
Arthur Mastick Hyde
|
Commerce
|
Robert Patterson Lamont
|
Roy Dikeman Chapin (from December 14, 1932)
|
Labor
|
James John Davis
|
William Nuckles Doak (from December 9, 1930)
|
During the 1928 presidential campaign, Hoover said, “We are nearer today to the ideal of the abolition of
poverty
and fear from the lives of men and women than ever before in any land.” One year later the
stock market cash of 1929
plunged the country into the worst economic collapse in its history. President Hoover parted ways with those leaders of the Republican Party?including Secretary of the Treasury
Andrew Mellon
?who believed there was nothing for the government to do but wait for the next phase of the
business cycle
. Hoover took prompt action. He called business leaders to the White House to urge them not to lay off workers or cut
wages
. He urged state and local governments to join private charities in caring for Americans made
destitute
by the
Depression
. He asked
Congress
to appropriate money for public-works projects to expand government employment. In 1931 he backed creation of the
Reconstruction Finance Corporation
(RFC, established 1932), a large-scale lending institution intended to help
banks
and industries and thereby promote a general recovery.
The nation’s economy failed to respond to Hoover’s
initiatives
. As the Depression worsened, banks and other businesses collapsed and poverty stalked the land, and the American people began to blame Hoover for the
calamity
. The homeless began calling their shantytowns “Hoovervilles.” Demands rose for greater government action, especially direct relief payments to the most impoverished of the millions of unemployed. Believing that a dole would prove addictive, sapping the will of Americans to provide for themselves, Hoover adamantly opposed direct federal relief payments to individuals. He was also a firm believer in a balanced budget, unwilling to plunge the federal government into massive
debt
through a
welfare
program. This is not to say that Hoover opposed assistance to those in need. For example, expenditures for
American Indian
schools and health care doubled during his administration, and this earned him
accolades
as the first president to recognize some basic Indian rights. Hoover also furthered the long-held
Quaker
interest in prison reform,
alleviating
prison overcrowding by building new penitentiaries and work camps, expanding educational opportunities for prisoners, and increasing the number of prisoners placed on
parole
. He also supported RFC loans to states for relief purposes, though this modest program did little to alleviate suffering or to stimulate economic recovery. Also largely ineffective?but sincerely pursued?was Hoover’s attempt to defuse international tensions by promoting disarmament negotiations at the
London Naval Conference
of 1930. Quaker
pacifism
undoubtedly spurred Hoover’s interest in the
arms race
and international disarmament, but, like his relief schemes on the home front that could hardly suppress or contain the Depression, these efforts failed to reduce world
tensions
or to prevent
Japan’s
invasion of
Manchuria
in 1931.
Hoover also made some critical mistakes in his handling of the
Depression
. In 1930, for example, he signed into law (against the advice of many leading economists) the
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act
, which raised many import duties so high that foreign countries could not sell goods in the United States; as a result, those countries could not?or would not?purchase American goods at a time when the need for sales abroad had never been greater. More problems arose in 1932, when Hoover authorized General
Douglas MacArthur
to evict from
Washington, D.C.
, the
Bonus Army
, a group of World War I veterans who had camped in the nation’s capital to pressure
Congress
into awarding a promised bonus many years in advance of the scheduled payout date. MacArthur greatly exceeded Hoover’s orders in using military force against the unemployed former soldiers. The result was a
public relations
nightmare for the president. Hoover’s silence regarding MacArthur’s excesses led the public to think that the president had been responsible for the brutality. The man who had enjoyed a worldwide reputation as a humanitarian now appeared heartless and cruel.
By the
1932 presidential campaign
, Hoover was blaming the Depression on events abroad and predicting that election of his Democratic challenger,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
, would only intensify the disaster. The electorate obviously thought differently, as Roosevelt captured nearly 23 million votes (and 472 electoral votes) to Hoover’s slightly less than 16 million (59 electoral votes). During the months between the
election
and the inauguration, Hoover attempted unsuccessfully to gain Roosevelt’s commitment to sustaining his policies. When he left the
White House
on March 4, 1933, Hoover was a defeated and embittered man.
Hoover and his wife?the former Lou Henry (
Lou Hoover
), also a Stanford-trained geologist?moved first to
Palo Alto
,
California
, and then to
New York City
, where they took up residence at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. For the next 30 years, Hoover was closely identified with the most
conservative
elements in the Republican Party, condemning what he regarded as the radicalism of the
New Deal
and opposing Roosevelt’s attempts to take a more active role against German and Japanese aggression. He believed
fascism
lay at the root of government programs like the New Deal and argued so in
The Challenge to Liberty
(1934) and the eight-volume
Addresses upon the American Road
(1936?61). An
ardent
anticommunist and foe of international crusades, he opposed American entry into
World War II
(until the
attack on Pearl Harbor
) and denounced American involvement in the
Korean
and
Vietnam wars
. His last major activity was heading the
Hoover Commission
, under Presidents
Harry Truman
and
Dwight D. Eisenhower
, which aimed at streamlining the federal
bureaucracy
. The research-oriented
Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace
at Stanford University?founded in 1919 as the Hoover War Collection, a library on World War I?is named in his honour.