How to be a Forgotten Hero
While humans desire to control the perception of their legacies, history offers examples where external factors change their legacies unpredictably. One example is Herbert Hoover – the 31st President of the United States (1929 - 1933). Before the Great Depression, he was an American hero for his efforts of feeding war-torn Europe during the late 1910s and as the Commerce Secretary during the 1920s. However, President Hoover’s failed response to the Depression overshadows his legacy. To understand Hoover’s success and failure, we must thoroughly examine his life.
Herbert Hoover was born on August 10th, 1874, to working-class Quakers in Iowa. Hoover barely knew them before they both passed away by 1883. By the age of nine, Hoover began living with his uncle in Oregon and pursued primary school until his early teens. Later, Hoover worked as an office clerk while attending night classes (Leuchtenburg, 2008, 1-5). Hoover's determination led him to join Stanford University's inaugural class in 1891. University life challenged Hoover: he worked multiple part-time jobs and organized campus activities while pursuing a degree in mining engineering. During his senior year, Hoover met Lou Henry– Stanford's first female geology student, and the two immediately fell for each other. However, Hoover soon realized he should establish himself before he married Lou (Leuchtenburg, 6-9).
Hoover worked several mining jobs after he graduated from Stanford in 1895. His tireless work ethic eventually landed him a job at the British mining conglomerate Bewick, Moreing & Co. (Bewick). Over the next two years, Hoover managed Bewick’s mines in Western Australia, effectively increasing company profits by implementing anti-labor policies. His efforts led to his promotion to a Junior Partner in 1898--a position that would take him to China. That same year, Lou graduated from Stanford and Hoover wasted no time in proposing to her via telegraph. In February 1899, the couple was married before heading off to China (Kellogg, 1920, 59-66, 80-85). The newlyweds arrived in the country soon after the start of the Boxer Rebellion—an anti-foreigner revolt led by Chinese martial artists. While the unrest caused some delays, the chaos ultimately allowed Bewick to increase its control over China’s mines. During Hoover’s time in China, he began to shift his economic views; he improved the working conditions of Bewick’s mines, which increased Bewick’s profits. This showed him that pro-labor policies could, in fact, benefit businesses and their employees. In 1902, the Hoovers moved to London after another successful Bewick promotion (Leuchtenburg, 13-14; Burner, 1979, 32-40). In 1908, Hoover left the company to be an independent mining consultant; he spent his free time developing his political beliefs and his family (Leuchtenburg, 16-19).
When World War One broke out in the summer of 1914, nearly 120,000 Americans were trapped in Europe. The American Embassy in London asked Hoover for help repatriating Americans using his organizational and managerial abilities. He quickly gathered several wealthy friends and created a committee to support repatriation; one such branch opened up in Belgium. Hoover soon began focusing on war-torn Belgium as repartition efforts wound down and he rebranded the organization as the Committee for Relief of Belgium (CRB). Through this organization, Hoover spent the next three years making sure that food could be distributed to Belgium without interference from the warring nations. Hoover’s efforts were recognized by President Woodrow Wilson, who admired Hoover’s management and leadership style. Following America’s declaration of war on Germany in April 1917, President Wilson appointed Hoover to the newly created U.S. Food Administration. In this role, he balanced providing food aid to war-torn Europe while ensuring stability in American food prices during the war (Burner, 728-4, 92-107). Hoover stayed on after the war in order to continue relief efforts throughout Europe, becoming a heroic figure in the eyes of many for his leadership. In fact, President Wilson brought him on as an advisor to the Versailles negotiations. (Leuchtenburg, 41-5). In 1920, Hoover entered politics by joining the Republican party in supporting their presidential nominee, Warren G. Harding. Harding became the 29th President in March 1921 and appointed Hoover as the Secretary of Commerce (Clements, 2011, 101-103).
The Secretary of Commerce was a relatively weak cabinet position when it was created in 1903. Hoover spent the majority of his tenure during the 1920s expanding the secretary’s influence through Progressive policies. This ranged from implementing new regulations to investing in new technologies like airplanes (Burner, 159-167). Hoover became so politically powerful that Harding and his successor, Calvin Coolidge, sometimes deferred to Hoover’s judgment on domestic matters. Even the press praised Hoover’s economic management (Clements, 106-113.). In August 1927, President Coolidge announced he would not run for re-election, making Hoover the obvious frontrunner. Hoover seized the Republican nomination in 1928 and crushed the Democratic candidate in elections that November. Hoover hoped after the election that he would reshape the country under his mandate (Clements, 395-398, 411-423). However, the next four years would destroy, and ultimately define, his legacy.
On October 24th, 1929, the Wall Street Stock market crashed, marking the beginning of the Great Depression. President Hoover immediately responded by brokering an informal agreement between unions and large businesses: the unions wouldn’t strike if businesses kept on their workers. However, the agreement was problematic because Hoover enacted policies that kept wages high even as production declined. Businesses eventually had no choice but to cut staff to survive the Great Depression. President Hoover realized his agreement was not working, so he allowed it to lapse in late 1931. Unions responded to Hoover’s betrayal with strikes (Ohanian, 2009, 2310-2311, 2314-21). This encapsulates why Hoover’s response to the Depression failed: he underestimated the scale of the crisis. Whatever policy he supported, from public works projects to commissions, was too small to have any impact. It did not help that the press quickly turned on Hoover for his inability to resolve the crisis. By 1932, Hoover was so unpopular that no Republican candidate challenged his re-nomination since the nominee couldn’t escape the long shadow of Hoover’s failures (Burner, 245-259, 260-281, 307). However, Hoover’s victory was quickly followed by the loss of his humanitarian legacy.
During World War I, the government promised soldiers a bonus payment for their service following the war. By 1924, Congress passed a bill that gave WWI veterans these promised bonuses. However, the catch was that these would not be redeemable until 1945. Veterans wanted to redeem their bonuses as soon as possible, so thousands gathered around Washington D.C. following Hoover’s renomination. A new bonus bill successfully made it through the House but died in the Senate, despite Hoover’s efforts. Fearing that the veterans might cause violence, Hoover ordered the army to eliminate the protestors. What resulted was a harsh crackdown on the veterans by the army. Hoover’s reluctant support of the army’s actions destroyed whatever chance he had to be reelected. That November Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the 32nd President. Rosevelt’s economic policies, such as direct welfare payments and massive public works, were partially based on Hoover’s policies; the difference was FDR had the personal charisma–and political skills–to implement them. In March 1933, Hoover left the presidency in quiet disgrace (Burner, 309-318, 323).
Hoover spent the rest of his life active in Republican politics representing the party’s old guard. He witnessed the run-up to World War II, Lou’s death in 1944, and the emergence of the postwar conservative movement. He also served on various government commissions and managed his archives at Stanford. Hoover died on October 20th, 1964, at ninety years old (Leuchtenburg, 147-161). While we can now recognize Hoover's efforts before 1929, his legacy is tainted by his mismanagement of the Great Depression’s early relief efforts. One could argue Hoover lacked certain skills to resolve the Great Depression from his humanitarian efforts and time as the Commerce Secretary. However, no one thought this recent orphan would be a leader of modern humanitarianism, and then a failed president, in 1883. Maybe an unintended benefit of Hoover's failed presidency is saving the legacy of thousands of people who made sure Europe didn’t starve during the late 1910s. The only reason the public knows about them, and their organizations, is their importance in Hoover’s life. Maybe next time we call someone a “failed leader” we should consider who they stand for just as much as what they did.
Works Cited
Burner, D. (1979). Herbert Hoover, A Public Life. Knopf. https://archive.org/details/herberthooverpub00burn/mode/2up
Clements, K. (2011). The Life of Herbert Hoover: Imperfect Visionary, 1918-1928. Palgrave Macmillan. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=623845
Kellogg, V. (1920). Herbert Hoover, The Man And His Work. D. Appleton and company. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/13960/t3qv3n76s
Leuchtenburg, W. E. (2008). Herbert Hoover (The American Presidents). Henry Holt & Co.
Ohanian, L. E. (2009). “What—or who—started the Great Depression?” Journal of Economic Theory, 144(6), 2310–2335. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jet.2009.10.007
