Presidents Behaving Goodly: Herbert Hoover, Great Humanitarian
Most people associate Herbert Hoover with the great depression that occurred on his watch. While he did not cause the problem, and while he tried to employ many of the cures that his successor used, Hoover is still widely considered to be one of the worst presidents in many surveys. However Hoover was a tremendous success, both before and after his presidency, when it came to providing aid to those who suffered in the wake of the ravages of war.
Before his presidency, Hoover was a very successful mining engineer. When World War I began in August 1914, Hoover was living in London. He was a very wealth man and once famously said "If a man has not made a million dollars by the time he is forty, he is not worth much". When the war broke out, Hoover helped organize the return of around 120,000 Americans where were stranded in Europe. He led a group of 500 volunteers in distributing food, clothing, steamship tickets and cash among those Americans who were trying to return home. This was a turning point in Hoover's life and he later said: "I did not realize it at the moment, but on August 3, 1914, my career was over forever. I was on the slippery road of public life."
Hoover's relief skills were utilized to help not just his countrymen, but the Europeans who were suffering as well. When Belgium faced a food crisis after being invaded by Germany in 1914, Hoover undertook an unprecedented relief effort with the Commission for Relief in Belgium (known as the CRB). As chairman of the CRB, Hoover worked with the leader of a Belgian aid group, Émile Francqui, to feed the Belgians for the remainder of the war. The CRB obtained and imported millions of tons of food for the Belgian group to distribute, and he monitored the distribution of the food to make sure the German army didn't appropriate the food. The CRB had its own flag, navy, factories, mills, and railroads. It was funded both by private donations and government grants and had an $11-million-a-month budget. Hoover worked 14-hour days from London, administering the distribution of over two million tons of food to nine million war victims. He crossed the North Sea forty times to meet with German authorities and persuade them to allow food shipments. He was so admired for his efforts that the Belgian city of Leuven named a prominent square Hooverplein after him. Hoover's agency fed 10.5 million people daily.
Not everyone supported Hoover's efforts however. Many in Great Britain, including Winston Churchill, believed that it was really Germany's responsibility to supply the relief. Churchill considered the Belgian relief effort "a positive military disaster".
American Ambassador to Great Britain, Walter Page, wrote of Hoover on December 30, 1916:
Mr. Herbert C. Hoover, Chairman of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, would, if opportunity should offer, make a useful officer in the State Department. He is probably the only man living who has privately (i.e., without holding office) negotiated understandings with the British, French, German, Dutch, and Belgian governments. He personally knows and has had direct dealings with these governments, and his transactions with them have involved several hundred million dollars. He is a man of very considerable fortune—less than when the war began, for tins relief work has cost him much. He was approached on behalf of the British Government with the suggestion that if he would become a British subject the Government would be pleased to give him an important executive post and with the hint that if he succeeded a title might await him. His answer was: "I'll do what I can for you with pleasure; but I'll be damned if I'll give up my American citizenship—not on your life!" Within the last six months two large financial organizations, each independently, have offered him $100,000 a year to enter their service; and an industrial company offered him $100,000 "to start with." He declined them all. When the Belgian relief work recently struck a financial snag, Hoover by telegraph got the promise of a loan in the United States to the British and French governments for Belgian relief of $150,000,000.
After the United States entered the war in April 1917, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover to head the U.S. Food Administration, a body created pursuant to the Lever Food Control Act in 1917. Hoover believed that centralization of authority was essential to any relief effort. He famously said"food will win the war". Hoover established set days for people to avoid eating specified foods and save them for soldiers' rations: meatless Mondays, wheatless Wednesdays, and "when in doubt, eat potatoes". This program helped reduce consumption of foodstuffs needed overseas and avoided rationing at home. It was dubbed "Hooverizing" by government publicists. The agency employed a system of price controls and licensing requirements for suppliers to maximize production. Despite efforts to prevent it, some companies reaped great profits.
After the war, as a member of the Supreme Economic Council and head of the American Relief Administration, Hoover organized shipments of food for millions of starving people in Central Europe. He used a newly formed Quaker organization, the American Friends Service Committee, to carry out a lot of the logistical work in Europe. He also provided aid to the defeated German nation after the war, as well as relief to famine-stricken Bolshevik-controlled areas of Russia in 1921, despite the opposition of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and other Republicans. In answer to his critics, he said "Twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!". In July 1922, Soviet author Maxim Gorky wrote to Hoover, saying: "Your help will enter history as a unique, gigantic achievement, worthy of the greatest glory, which will long remain in the memory of millions of Russians whom you have saved from death."
At war's end, the New York Times named Hoover one of the "Ten Most Important Living Americans". Democratic Party leaders saw him as a potential Presidential candidate, and President Wilson privately preferred Hoover as his successor. Hoover's future nemesis Franklin D. Roosevelt even supported this. Hoover briefly considered becoming a Democrat, but he believed that 1920 would be a Republican year.
Hoover subsequently served as Secretary of Commerce under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge before becoming president in 1928. He lost his bid for re-election in 1932 in a campaign with so much bitterness between he and his successor FDR that the two men did not even speak to one another on the car ride to Roosevelt's inauguration. When the United States entered the war following the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hoover offered himself to the government in any capacity necessary, but the Roosevelt Administration did not call upon him to serve.
Following the end of World War II, Hoover became friends with President Harry S. Truman. Because of Hoover's experience with Germany at the end of World War I, Truman asked Hoover to tour Germany to ascertain the food needs of the occupied nation. In 1946 Hoover toured Germany in Hermann Göring's old train coach and produced a number of reports 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 provided food to 3,500,000 children aged six through 18. A total of 40,000 tons of American food was provided under the program.
Later in life, Hoover threw himself into fund-raising for the Boys Clubs (now the Boys & Girls Clubs of America), which became his pet charity. When he died in October of 1964, Hoover's image had improved considerably, in large measure due to his accomplishments as a great humanitarian.
Before his presidency, Hoover was a very successful mining engineer. When World War I began in August 1914, Hoover was living in London. He was a very wealth man and once famously said "If a man has not made a million dollars by the time he is forty, he is not worth much". When the war broke out, Hoover helped organize the return of around 120,000 Americans where were stranded in Europe. He led a group of 500 volunteers in distributing food, clothing, steamship tickets and cash among those Americans who were trying to return home. This was a turning point in Hoover's life and he later said: "I did not realize it at the moment, but on August 3, 1914, my career was over forever. I was on the slippery road of public life."
Hoover's relief skills were utilized to help not just his countrymen, but the Europeans who were suffering as well. When Belgium faced a food crisis after being invaded by Germany in 1914, Hoover undertook an unprecedented relief effort with the Commission for Relief in Belgium (known as the CRB). As chairman of the CRB, Hoover worked with the leader of a Belgian aid group, Émile Francqui, to feed the Belgians for the remainder of the war. The CRB obtained and imported millions of tons of food for the Belgian group to distribute, and he monitored the distribution of the food to make sure the German army didn't appropriate the food. The CRB had its own flag, navy, factories, mills, and railroads. It was funded both by private donations and government grants and had an $11-million-a-month budget. Hoover worked 14-hour days from London, administering the distribution of over two million tons of food to nine million war victims. He crossed the North Sea forty times to meet with German authorities and persuade them to allow food shipments. He was so admired for his efforts that the Belgian city of Leuven named a prominent square Hooverplein after him. Hoover's agency fed 10.5 million people daily.
Not everyone supported Hoover's efforts however. Many in Great Britain, including Winston Churchill, believed that it was really Germany's responsibility to supply the relief. Churchill considered the Belgian relief effort "a positive military disaster".
American Ambassador to Great Britain, Walter Page, wrote of Hoover on December 30, 1916:
Mr. Herbert C. Hoover, Chairman of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, would, if opportunity should offer, make a useful officer in the State Department. He is probably the only man living who has privately (i.e., without holding office) negotiated understandings with the British, French, German, Dutch, and Belgian governments. He personally knows and has had direct dealings with these governments, and his transactions with them have involved several hundred million dollars. He is a man of very considerable fortune—less than when the war began, for tins relief work has cost him much. He was approached on behalf of the British Government with the suggestion that if he would become a British subject the Government would be pleased to give him an important executive post and with the hint that if he succeeded a title might await him. His answer was: "I'll do what I can for you with pleasure; but I'll be damned if I'll give up my American citizenship—not on your life!" Within the last six months two large financial organizations, each independently, have offered him $100,000 a year to enter their service; and an industrial company offered him $100,000 "to start with." He declined them all. When the Belgian relief work recently struck a financial snag, Hoover by telegraph got the promise of a loan in the United States to the British and French governments for Belgian relief of $150,000,000.
After the United States entered the war in April 1917, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover to head the U.S. Food Administration, a body created pursuant to the Lever Food Control Act in 1917. Hoover believed that centralization of authority was essential to any relief effort. He famously said"food will win the war". Hoover established set days for people to avoid eating specified foods and save them for soldiers' rations: meatless Mondays, wheatless Wednesdays, and "when in doubt, eat potatoes". This program helped reduce consumption of foodstuffs needed overseas and avoided rationing at home. It was dubbed "Hooverizing" by government publicists. The agency employed a system of price controls and licensing requirements for suppliers to maximize production. Despite efforts to prevent it, some companies reaped great profits.
After the war, as a member of the Supreme Economic Council and head of the American Relief Administration, Hoover organized shipments of food for millions of starving people in Central Europe. He used a newly formed Quaker organization, the American Friends Service Committee, to carry out a lot of the logistical work in Europe. He also provided aid to the defeated German nation after the war, as well as relief to famine-stricken Bolshevik-controlled areas of Russia in 1921, despite the opposition of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and other Republicans. In answer to his critics, he said "Twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!". In July 1922, Soviet author Maxim Gorky wrote to Hoover, saying: "Your help will enter history as a unique, gigantic achievement, worthy of the greatest glory, which will long remain in the memory of millions of Russians whom you have saved from death."
At war's end, the New York Times named Hoover one of the "Ten Most Important Living Americans". Democratic Party leaders saw him as a potential Presidential candidate, and President Wilson privately preferred Hoover as his successor. Hoover's future nemesis Franklin D. Roosevelt even supported this. Hoover briefly considered becoming a Democrat, but he believed that 1920 would be a Republican year.
Hoover subsequently served as Secretary of Commerce under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge before becoming president in 1928. He lost his bid for re-election in 1932 in a campaign with so much bitterness between he and his successor FDR that the two men did not even speak to one another on the car ride to Roosevelt's inauguration. When the United States entered the war following the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hoover offered himself to the government in any capacity necessary, but the Roosevelt Administration did not call upon him to serve.
Following the end of World War II, Hoover became friends with President Harry S. Truman. Because of Hoover's experience with Germany at the end of World War I, Truman asked Hoover to tour Germany to ascertain the food needs of the occupied nation. In 1946 Hoover toured Germany in Hermann Göring's old train coach and produced a number of reports 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 provided food to 3,500,000 children aged six through 18. A total of 40,000 tons of American food was provided under the program.
Later in life, Hoover threw himself into fund-raising for the Boys Clubs (now the Boys & Girls Clubs of America), which became his pet charity. When he died in October of 1964, Hoover's image had improved considerably, in large measure due to his accomplishments as a great humanitarian.