Remembering Herbert Hoover
On October 20, 1964 (47 years ago today) Herbert Clark Hoover, the 31st President of the United States, died in New York City at the age of 90. Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer who spent a lot of time working overseas. The 23 year old Hoover went to Australia in 1897 as an employee of Bewick, Moreing & Co., a London-based mining company. He served as a geologist and mining engineer while searching the Western Australian goldfields for investments. He was appointed as mine manager and brought in many Italian immigrants to cut costs and counter the union activites of the Australian miners.
Hoover married his Stanford University sweetheart, Lou Henry, in 1899. The Hoovers had two sons, Herbert Clark Jr. (1903–1969) and Allan Henry (1907–1993). They went to China, where Hoover worked for Bewick, Moreing & Co. as China's leading engineer. Hoover and his wife learned Mandarin Chinese while in China and the couple would speak it during his tenure at the White House when they wanted to foil eavesdroppers. During the Boxer Rebellion, the Hoover family was trapped in Tianjin in June 1900. For almost a month, the settlement was under heavy fire. Hoover himself guided U.S. Marines around Tianjin during the battle, using his extensive knowledge of the local terrain.
During World War I Hoover helped organize the return of 120,000 Americans from Europe. He led five hundred volunteers in the distribution of food, clothing, steamship tickets, and cash. In April 1917, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover head of the U.S. Food Administration.
This led to his appointment as States Secretary of Commerce under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, and he was ultimately tapped as the GOP candidate in the presidential election of 1928. Hoover easily won the Republican nomination, despite having no previous elected office experience. Hoover is the most recent cabinet secretary to be elected President of the United States, as well as one of only two Presidents (along with William Howard Taft) to have been elected without previous electoral experience or high military rank. Hoover won by a landslide over Democrat Al Smith.
But as President, when the Wall Street Crash of 1929 struck less than eight months after he took office, Hoover tried to combat the ensuing Great Depression with volunteer efforts, public works projects such as the Hoover Dam, tariffs such as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, an increase in the top tax bracket from 25% to 63%, and increases in corporate taxes, none of which produced economic recovery. Hoover's was perceived as an ineffective president and was defeated in the 1932 election.
Because of Hoover's previous experience with Germany at the end of World War I, in 1946 President Harry S. Truman asked Hoover to tour Germany to ascertain the food status of the occupied nation. Hoover toured Germany and was critical of U.S. occupation policy. On Hoover’s initiative, a school meals program in the American and British occupation zones of Germany was begun on April 14, 1947. The program served 3.5 million children aged six through 18. In 1947, Truman appointed Hoover to a commission to reorganize government departments. He suggested ways to reduce waste, but was disappointed that the government did not enact most of the recommendations that the commissions had made. In 1949, the New York State Governor Thomas E. Dewey offered Hoover a seat in the U.S. Senate, to fulfill an unexpired term, but Hoover declined it.
Hoover became friends with Truman and joked that they were for many years the sole members of the "trade union" of former Presidents. He vehemently opposed American involvement in the Korean War, saying that "'To commit the sparse ground forces of the non-communist nations into a land war against this communist land mass [in Asia] would be a war without victory, a war without a successful political terminal . . . that would be the graveyard of millions of American boys and the exhaustion of the United States."
In 1960, he appeared at his final Republican National Convention. Since the 1948 convention, he had been feted as the guest of "farewell" ceremonies (the unspoken assumption being that the aging former President might not survive until the next convention). Joking to the delegates, he said, "Apparently, my last three good-byes didn't take." Although he lived to see the 1964 convention, ill health prevented him from attending.
Hoover never saw the outcome of the 1964 election, he died following massive internal bleeding at the age of 90 in New York City at 11:35 am on October 20, 1964, 31 years and seven months after leaving office. At the time of his death he was the second longest-lived president after John Adams. Subsequently this record was surpassed by Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. By the time of his death, he was much more admired and respected by the public than he had been as President.
Hoover married his Stanford University sweetheart, Lou Henry, in 1899. The Hoovers had two sons, Herbert Clark Jr. (1903–1969) and Allan Henry (1907–1993). They went to China, where Hoover worked for Bewick, Moreing & Co. as China's leading engineer. Hoover and his wife learned Mandarin Chinese while in China and the couple would speak it during his tenure at the White House when they wanted to foil eavesdroppers. During the Boxer Rebellion, the Hoover family was trapped in Tianjin in June 1900. For almost a month, the settlement was under heavy fire. Hoover himself guided U.S. Marines around Tianjin during the battle, using his extensive knowledge of the local terrain.
During World War I Hoover helped organize the return of 120,000 Americans from Europe. He led five hundred volunteers in the distribution of food, clothing, steamship tickets, and cash. In April 1917, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover head of the U.S. Food Administration.
This led to his appointment as States Secretary of Commerce under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, and he was ultimately tapped as the GOP candidate in the presidential election of 1928. Hoover easily won the Republican nomination, despite having no previous elected office experience. Hoover is the most recent cabinet secretary to be elected President of the United States, as well as one of only two Presidents (along with William Howard Taft) to have been elected without previous electoral experience or high military rank. Hoover won by a landslide over Democrat Al Smith.
But as President, when the Wall Street Crash of 1929 struck less than eight months after he took office, Hoover tried to combat the ensuing Great Depression with volunteer efforts, public works projects such as the Hoover Dam, tariffs such as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, an increase in the top tax bracket from 25% to 63%, and increases in corporate taxes, none of which produced economic recovery. Hoover's was perceived as an ineffective president and was defeated in the 1932 election.
Because of Hoover's previous experience with Germany at the end of World War I, in 1946 President Harry S. Truman asked Hoover to tour Germany to ascertain the food status of the occupied nation. Hoover toured Germany and was critical of U.S. occupation policy. On Hoover’s initiative, a school meals program in the American and British occupation zones of Germany was begun on April 14, 1947. The program served 3.5 million children aged six through 18. In 1947, Truman appointed Hoover to a commission to reorganize government departments. He suggested ways to reduce waste, but was disappointed that the government did not enact most of the recommendations that the commissions had made. In 1949, the New York State Governor Thomas E. Dewey offered Hoover a seat in the U.S. Senate, to fulfill an unexpired term, but Hoover declined it.
Hoover became friends with Truman and joked that they were for many years the sole members of the "trade union" of former Presidents. He vehemently opposed American involvement in the Korean War, saying that "'To commit the sparse ground forces of the non-communist nations into a land war against this communist land mass [in Asia] would be a war without victory, a war without a successful political terminal . . . that would be the graveyard of millions of American boys and the exhaustion of the United States."
In 1960, he appeared at his final Republican National Convention. Since the 1948 convention, he had been feted as the guest of "farewell" ceremonies (the unspoken assumption being that the aging former President might not survive until the next convention). Joking to the delegates, he said, "Apparently, my last three good-byes didn't take." Although he lived to see the 1964 convention, ill health prevented him from attending.
Hoover never saw the outcome of the 1964 election, he died following massive internal bleeding at the age of 90 in New York City at 11:35 am on October 20, 1964, 31 years and seven months after leaving office. At the time of his death he was the second longest-lived president after John Adams. Subsequently this record was surpassed by Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. By the time of his death, he was much more admired and respected by the public than he had been as President.