Hoover, Herbert Clark (1874-1964), was president when the United States was swept by the Great Depression. Hoover, a member of the Republican Party, had been a multimillionaire businessman and a successful public official before he became president. He entered the White House at a time of great prosperity in the United States. Americans expected him to lead them on to even better days. Then seven months after he took office, the stock market crashed. Soon after, the Great Depression began.
President Hoover and many business leaders believed that prosperity would soon return to the United States. To some people, he appeared to act slowly in the emergency. But Hoover was the first president to use the power of the federal government to fight a depression.
Hoover entered public life in 1914, after World War I began. He happened to be in London and accepted the task of distributing food to the hungry people of Belgium and northern France. President Woodrow Wilson then made him food administrator in the United States. For 19 months, Hoover supervised the production and distribution of food for American soldiers and civilians and for the nation’s allies.
In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed Hoover secretary of commerce. Hoover held this post until he ran for president in 1928. Hoover defeated Alfred E. Smith, the Democratic candidate, by the largest majority of electoral votes ever received by a candidate up to that time. Four years later, however, Franklin D. Roosevelt beat Hoover by an even larger majority of electoral votes.
Most people found Hoover shy and reserved. He had a quiet sense of humor but rarely laughed heartily. Hoover enjoyed fishing, hiking, and reading biographies and detective stories.
Early life
Boyhood.
Herbert Hoover was the first president born west of the Mississippi River. He was born in West Branch, Iowa, on Aug. 10, 1874. One of his ancestors, Andrew Huber (or Hoover), had come to Pennsylvania from Germany in 1738. Huber moved to North Carolina, where his son John became a Quaker. John’s descendants settled in Ohio. They moved to Iowa in 1853.
Herbert’s parents, Jesse Clark Hoover and Hulda Randall Minthorn Hoover, had two sons and a daughter—Theodore, Herbert, and Mary, who was called May. Jesse Hoover was a blacksmith and a dealer in farm equipment. Hulda Hoover, who was born in Canada, became a religious leader among the Quakers.
Hoover’s father died in 1880 of heart trouble and other complications. He left a $1,000 life insurance policy and a little property. Hulda Hoover supported the family by preaching and sewing. She died of pneumonia and typhoid fever when Herbert was 9, and relatives reared the children. Most of the time, Herbert did not live with his brother and sister. He stayed with his uncle Allan Hoover near West Branch for about two years of his childhood.
Although an orphan, Herbert had a pleasant boyhood. He played in the woods and fished and swam in the streams. He picked potato bugs to earn money to buy fireworks and received a penny for every hundred bugs that he picked.
Education.
In 1885, Hoover went to Newberg, Oregon, to live with another uncle, Henry J. Minthorn. Hoover received his secondary school education at Friends Pacific Academy, a small Quaker school of which his uncle was principal. Hoover worked to earn money whenever he could. One summer, he weeded onions at 50 cents a day. In 1888, Minthorn opened a real estate office in Salem, Oregon. Hoover worked there as an office boy. He also studied algebra and geometry at a business college.
In 1890, Hoover became interested in engineering after talking with an engineer who visited his uncle’s office. He later decided to become a mining engineer. At the age of 17, Hoover enrolled in the first class of the newly founded Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. While in college, he managed a laundry agency and delivered newspapers to pay his expenses. He also worked as a part-time secretary for John Branner, head of the university’s geology department. Hoover spent his summer vacations doing geological work in Arkansas, California, and Nevada. After graduation in 1895, he worked briefly as a miner in California.
Hoover’s family.
At Stanford, Hoover met geology student Lou Henry (March 29, 1874-Jan. 7, 1944), the daughter of a banker. They were married on Feb. 10, 1899, in Monterey, California. 
Mrs. Hoover was a brilliant woman. She spoke several languages and had a deep interest in science, literature, and art. For about five years, the Hoovers spent their leisure time translating a famous old book on mining from Latin into English. Mrs. Hoover also wrote articles for scientific and historical publications.
The Hoovers had two sons. Herbert, Jr. (1903-1969), also became a mining engineer. He served as undersecretary of state during President Dwight D. Eisenhower‘s first term. Allan (1907-1993) became a director of a lead- and zinc-mining company and of other businesses.
Engineer and businessman.
In 1896, Hoover began his career in the San Francisco office of Louis Janin, a well-known mining engineer. The next year, a London company wanted an engineer to manage its gold mines in Australia. Hoover, then 23, got the job on Janin’s recommendation. Late in 1898, after less than two years in Australia, Hoover accepted the post of chief engineer for the Chinese Imperial Bureau of Mines.
The Hoovers spent their honeymoon sailing from California to China. While her husband made prospecting trips and directed engineering projects, Mrs. Hoover learned to speak Chinese. The Boxer Rebellion began in 1900, and Hoover supervised the construction of defenses for the foreign settlement in Tianjin. During the three-week Boxer siege of the settlement, he directed the distribution of food and other supplies.
The Chinese government was in disorder after the rebellion. Hoover went to London and helped organize a private company to develop the Chinese mines. In 1901, he returned to China as the company’s general manager. He resigned after a few months and went to London as a partner in the mining company with which he had been associated since 1897. In 1908, Hoover established his own engineering firm. Hoover reorganized mines in many parts of the world. By 1914, he had become a multimillionaire.
Political and public activities
Food administrator.
Hoover was in London in 1914. The start of World War I had stranded thousands of Americans in Europe. United States officials in London asked Hoover to aid these people. He organized a committee that helped about 120,000 Americans get home. In August 1914, the U.S. ambassador in London asked Hoover to organize food relief for Belgium. German troops had conquered the country, and many Belgians were not getting enough food. Hoover set up the Commission for Relief in Belgium. From October 1914 to April 1917, he gathered and distributed food, and helped raise relief funds. His commission saved millions of people from starvation.
The United States entered the war in April 1917. President Wilson asked Hoover to head the United States Food Administration. Hoover was given broad powers over the prices, production, and distribution of food. Americans responded eagerly to his campaign to save food for people in war-torn Europe. The term “Hooverize” came to mean saving and doing without various foods. Meatless and wheatless days were observed. After the war ended in 1918, Hoover returned to Europe to direct the feeding of millions of people. He had become internationally famous.
Secretary of commerce.
As early as 1919, many Americans thought Hoover should be president. Both Republican and Democratic political leaders wanted him as a candidate in 1920. Hoover announced that he was a Republican but did not do well in the primary elections. In 1921, President Warren G. Harding named Hoover secretary of commerce. Hoover held this office under Harding and under Calvin Coolidge, who followed Harding as president.
As secretary of commerce, Hoover again showed his great skill as an administrator and planner. He reorganized the Department of Commerce and rapidly expanded its work. He became interested in so many activities that one official called him “Secretary of Commerce and Under Secretary of everything else.” Hoover set up many conferences to consider such problems as industrial production, labor relations, child welfare, foreign trade, and housing. He also brought order into radio broadcasting, promoted commercial aviation, and helped end the 12-hour workday in the steel industry.
Election of 1928.
President Coolidge announced in August 1927 that he did not “choose to run” for reelection. In February 1928, Hoover became a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. The party’s national convention nominated him on the first ballot, and chose Senator Charles Curtis of Kansas for vice president. The Democrats nominated Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York for president and Senator Joseph T. Robinson of Arkansas for vice president.
In the election campaign, Hoover spoke hopefully about increasing prosperity. He observed, “The slogan of progress is changing from the full dinner pail to the full garage.” Prohibition became a major issue of the campaign. Smith wanted to repeal Amendment 18 of the Constitution, which prohibited the sale of alcoholic drinks. Hoover called prohibition an “experiment noble in motive.” Millions of Americans felt that the Republicans would keep the nation prosperous. In addition, many voters opposed Smith because he was a Roman Catholic. Hoover carried 40 of the 48 states and received 444 electoral votes to only 87 for Smith.
After the election, Hoover made a good-will tour of Latin America. His trip helped lay the foundation for the Good Neighbor Policy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt era.
Hoover’s administration (1929-1933)
Champion of prosperity.
President Hoover expected prosperity to continue. “Ours is a land rich in resources … ,” he said in his inaugural address. “In no nation are the fruits of accomplishment more secure.”
During his campaign, Hoover had promised to help the farmers, who had not shared in the general prosperity. To fulfill his promise, he called a special session of Congress in April 1929. In June, Congress passed the Agricultural Marketing Act. This law established the Federal Farm Board, which promoted farm cooperatives and purchased farm surpluses. Hoover also wanted to raise tariffs on farm products to reduce foreign competition. But the Smoot-Hawley bill, which Congress passed in 1930 and Hoover signed, went too far and raised the tariff on many nonfarm products as well. The increased tariffs seriously damaged America’s foreign trade and contributed to the depression.
The Great Depression.
The United States had been building up to a crash for a long time. Other groups besides farmers had not shared in the prosperity of the 1920’s. In the coal-mining and textile-manufacturing industries, for example, working conditions were poor and wages low. The economy was also weakened by widespread buying on credit. Thousands of people had borrowed money to pay for stocks. Stock prices soared to record heights. Then, in October 1929, the stock market crashed. The Great Depression began.
At first, few people believed that the depression would affect the entire nation. Many thought the stock market would recover in a few weeks or months. But by the end of 1929 the crash had caused losses estimated at $40 billion. The values of stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange had dropped 35 percent. Fortunes had been wiped out. Thousands of workers had lost their jobs.
Hoover told the people they had no reason for fear. He called business leaders, industrialists, and labor leaders together for conferences. All these groups promised to cooperate in an effort to keep wages stable and to avoid strikes. But economic conditions grew worse. By 1932, more than 12 million Americans were out of work. Factories closed and many banks failed. Thousands of people lost their homes because they could not keep up their mortgage payments. Many families lived in clumps of shacks that became known as Hoovervilles.
The Great Depression affected other nations, too. Germany could not pay the 1931 installment on its World War I reparations. Other countries also had difficulty paying their war debts. At Hoover’s suggestion, a one-year postponement of international debt payments was negotiated. This postponement became known as the Hoover Moratorium.
Recovery efforts.
Hoover was reluctant to interfere with the American economy. He called the depression “a temporary halt in the prosperity of a great people.” At first, he depended on business companies and industries to solve their own problems and to take part in national stabilization efforts. But in 1932, at Hoover’s request, Congress passed several laws enabling the government to help business. One of these laws set up the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). The RFC loaned money to banks and other firms to keep them from going bankrupt.
Hoover had believed that the states and local communities should provide relief for jobless workers. But it became clear that the unemployed needed much more assistance. Congress authorized the RFC to lend up to $300 million to the states for relief. Other laws provided credit for homeowners and farmers, and improved court practices and bankruptcy procedures.
Hoover supported many public works and conservation programs. In part, these projects were designed to help provide jobs. During his administration, the Bureau of Reclamation started to build Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. The government worked to develop inland waterways for navigation and flood control. It added about 3 million acres (1,200,000 hectares) to national parks and monuments and enlarged the national forests. It built more than 800 public buildings and helped states build about 37,000 miles (59,500 kilometers) of major highways.
The “Bonus Army.”
Unemployed workers staged hunger marches and demonstrations in several cities during the early 1930’s. The most famous was that of the Bonus Expeditionary Force, an “army” of World War I veterans. The bonus law of 1924 had given every veteran a certificate that was payable in 1945. But now the veterans wanted the bonus paid immediately. The House of Representatives passed a bill to meet their demand. Hoover opposed the bonus because he did not believe it was financially sound.
In June 1932, about 15,000 veterans from many states marched on Washington, D.C., to bring pressure on the Senate to pass the bill. Crowds of veterans stood on the Capitol steps, marched around the building, and visited senators. But the Senate defeated the bonus bill. Efforts to clear the veterans from public buildings led to a riot. General Douglas MacArthur led troops in driving the veterans from Washington. He then used troops to clear the veterans’ camp just outside the city, though Hoover had given orders not to advance on the camp.
Foreign policy.
Under Hoover, the United States moved toward cooperation with other nations on such problems as arms control. In the London Naval Treaty of 1930, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States agreed to limit the number of their fighting ships. Hoover proposed a reduction in land weapons in 1932, but other countries refused to cooperate.
Hoover worked to improve relations with Latin America. He brought home the marines who had been helping to maintain peace in Nicaragua since 1912. He made an agreement with Haiti under which U.S. troops would be withdrawn from that country in 1934. The troops had been sent to Haiti in 1915 to end a series of revolutions.
In 1931, Japanese forces invaded Manchuria. China protested to the League of Nations, and a League commission condemned Japan as an aggressor. Hoover declared that the United States would not recognize territorial gains made in violation of the Kellogg-Briand Pact.
Life in the White House.
President and Mrs. Hoover gave the Executive Mansion a “new look.” They decorated it with souvenirs and art objects that they had collected during years of world travel. A large cage of canaries was placed in the second-floor corridor. Around the cage, Mrs. Hoover put bamboo furniture and grass rugs from South America.
The Hoovers entertained frequently but avoided personal publicity as much as possible. Mrs. Hoover, a gracious hostess, hired three secretaries to help her prepare invitations. Once she invited 200 guests for dinner. Something went wrong, and 500 people arrived. The White House staff had to hurry out to neighborhood stores and buy more food.
In summer, President and Mrs. Hoover often escaped from the heat by vacationing in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. The president enjoyed fishing for trout in the Rapidan River. He built a summer home in the mountains and later gave it to the Shenandoah National Park. Hoover also exercised by playing a daily medicine ball game with a group of friends. The game, now called Hoover-ball, usually began on the White House lawn at 7 a.m. The players, who included newsmen and government officials, were called the “medicine ball cabinet.”
Election of 1932.
The Republicans had little hope of winning the 1932 presidential election. They renominated Hoover and Vice President Curtis but did not support the candidates vigorously. The Democrats nominated Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York for president. They nominated Speaker of the House John N. Garner of Texas for vice president.
The Democrats attacked Hoover’s leadership in the depression. Roosevelt called for a “new deal” for the American people. He promised to balance the budget, bring relief to the unemployed, help the farmers, and end prohibition. Hoover defended his record, promised economy in government, and opposed inflation. In the election, Roosevelt carried 42 of the 48 states. He won by an electoral vote margin of 472 to 59.
During Hoover’s last four months in office, bank failures and unemployment increased. Congress paid little attention to his recommendations, and President-elect Roosevelt refused to promise support for Hoover’s policies. Amendment 20 to the Constitution, known as the “lame duck amendment,” became law in January 1933. It provided that a president’s term of office should end on January 20 instead of March 4, but this provision did not go into effect until October 1933.
Elder statesman
After leaving the presidency, Hoover spent much time traveling, reading, giving speeches, and writing. He continued to develop the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace that he had founded at Stanford in 1919. He and his wife moved from Palo Alto, California, to New York City. Mrs. Hoover died there on Jan. 7, 1944.
Hoover published The Challenge to Liberty in 1934. It was an attack on President Roosevelt’s New Deal program. In 1940, during the first Russo-Finnish War, Hoover headed a committee that collected relief funds for Finland. He published The Problems of Lasting Peace (1942) and The Basis of Lasting Peace (1945). After World War II, Democratic President Harry S. Truman named Hoover chairman of the President’s Famine Emergency Committee. In this post, Hoover surveyed the food needs of many nations. He went to Europe in 1946 and 1947 to report to President Truman on relief needs.
Also in 1947, Hoover became chairman of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government (called the Hoover Commission). Commission proposals that were adopted streamlined the government and cut costs. By 1961, Hoover was a director or trustee of a number of private educational, scientific, and charitable institutions. The Herbert Hoover Library, which houses most of Hoover’s official papers, was dedicated in West Branch in 1962. Hoover completed his four-volume work, An American Epic, in 1964.
Hoover gave all his income from government employment, including his pension, to charity and to public service projects. His services to government and society restored Hoover to popular favor. He died Oct. 20, 1964, at the age of 90 in New York City. The country mourned him as a truly great American. Hoover was buried on a hill overlooking his birthplace in West Branch.
