[165], By the end of 1930, the national unemployment rate had reached 11.9 percent, but it was not yet clear to most Americans that the economic downturn would be worse than the Depression of 1920–21. [128] Hoover accepted the nomination at Stanford Stadium, telling a huge crowd that he would continue the policies of the Harding and Coolidge administrations. Hoover, the 31st United States president, was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election. [215] The incident proved embarrassing for the Hoover administration, and destroyed any remaining chance he had of winning re-election. Their plan was to drastically cut back on output and British Malaya, which had the effect of tripling rubber prices. Hoover then served as the U.S. Secretary of Commerce from 1921 to 1928. [31][32] During his time with the mining company, Hoover became opposed to measures such as a minimum wage and workers' compensation, feeling that they were unfair to owners. [64] The CRB obtained and imported millions of tons of foodstuffs for the CNSA to distribute, and helped ensure that the German army did not appropriate the food. [42] He made investments on every continent and had offices in San Francisco; London; New York City; Paris; Petrograd; and Mandalay, British Burma. [17][b] During his freshman year, he switched his major from mechanical engineering to geology after working for John Casper Branner, the chair of Stanford's geology department. Herbert Clark Hoover was born on August 10, 1874 in West Branch, Iowa, he was the first United States president to be born west of the Mississippi River. Charles Curtis, the son of a white father and a mother with French and Native American heritage, is not well-remembered today, but he was once one of … [186] The act increased taxes across the board, rolling back much of the tax cut reduction program Mellon had presided over during the 1920s. In response to continued attacks on his character and presidency, Hoover wrote more than two dozen books, including The Challenge to Liberty (1934), which harshly criticized Roosevelt's New Deal. In 1949, New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey offered Hoover the Senate seat vacated by Robert F. Wagner. According to Professor David E. Hamilton, historians have credited Hoover for his genuine belief in voluntarism and cooperation, as well as the innovation of some of his programs. [245] He stated in one report that "there is the illusion that the New Germany left after the annexations can be reduced to a 'pastoral state.' [51] Hoover became deeply interested in the history of science, and he was especially drawn to the De re metallica, an influential 16th century work on mining and metallurgy. In an early form of shuttle diplomacy, he crossed the North Sea forty times to meet with German authorities and persuade them to allow food shipments. Top earners were taxed at 63 percent on their net income, the highest rate since the early 1920s. As a United States Commerce Secretary in the 1920s under Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted economic modernization. Contemporaries described Hoover's approach as a "third alternative" between "unrestrained capitalism" and socialism, which was becoming increasingly popular in Europe. [99], Hoover envisioned the Commerce Department as the hub of the nation's growth and stability. [252] Though Eisenhower appointed Hoover to another presidential commission, Hoover disliked Eisenhower, faulting the latter's failure to roll back the New Deal. [151] The causes of the Great Depression remain a matter of debate,[152] but Hoover viewed a lack of confidence in the financial system as the fundamental economic problem facing the nation. [7] Hoover's mother died in 1884, leaving Hoover, his older brother, Theodore, and his younger sister, May, as orphans. In Freedom Betrayed, Hoover strongly critiques Roosevelt's foreign policy, especially Roosevelt's decision to recognize the Soviet Union in order to provide aid to that country during World War II. With the impending retirement of Coolidge, Hoover immediately emerged as the front-runner for the 1928 Republican nomination, and he quickly put together a strong campaign team led by Hubert Work, Will H. Hays, and Reed Smoot. [87] The Russian famine of 1921–22 claimed six million people, but the intervention of the ARA likely saved millions of lives. The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum is located in West Branch, Iowa next to the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site. The book reflects his move towards progressive ideals, as Hoover came to endorse eight-hour workdays and organized labor. [40] He specialized in rejuvenating troubled mining operations, taking a share of the profits in exchange for his technical and financial expertise. The convention instead selected Senator Charles Curtis of Kansas. [120] He did so with the cooperation of African-American leader Robert Russa Moton, who was promised unprecedented influence once Hoover became president. [150], In late October 1929, the Stock Market Crash of 1929 occurred, and the worldwide economy began to spiral downward into the Great Depression. [74] He carefully selected men to assist in the agency leadership—Alonzo Taylor (technical abilities), Robert Taft (political associations), Gifford Pinchot (agricultural influence), and Julius Barnes (business acumen). MacArthur, believing he was fighting a Communist revolution, chose to clear out the camp with military force. [184] Though some economists, like William Trufant Foster, favored deficit spending to address the Great Depression, most politicians and economists believed in the necessity of keeping a balanced budget. ", Short, Brant. Hoover's war-time service made him a favorite of many progressives, and he unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination in the 1920 presidential election. [138][139], Hoover saw the presidency as a vehicle for improving the conditions of all Americans by encouraging public-private cooperation—what he termed "volunteerism". [4] Herbert's family figured prominently in the town's public prayer life, due almost entirely to mother Hulda's role in the church. In any case, I apologize for the error, and appreciate the correction. Hoover had never been a strong proponent of Prohibition, but he accepted the Republican Party's plank in favor of it and issued an ambivalent statement calling Prohibition "a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose. (He was apparently less politically successful as vice president than he was in the Senate.). [219] As Governor of New York, Roosevelt had called on the New York legislature to provide aid for the needy, establishing Roosevelt's reputation for being more favorable toward government interventionism during the economic crisis. "[246] 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 3,500,000 children. Full name: Herbert Clark Hoover Years in office: 1929–1933 Political party: Republican Vice president: Charles Curtis Age at inauguration: 54 Nicknames: “The Great Engineer” [244] Because of Hoover's experience with Germany at the end of World War I, in 1946 Truman selected the former president to tour Allied-occupied Germany to ascertain the food needs of the occupied nation. The American State Department wanted no such crisis and compromised the issue in 1926. [205], According to Leuchtenburg, Hoover was "the last American president to take office with no conspicuous need to pay attention to the rest of the world". House. Nash. [232] Though Hoover was eager to oppose Roosevelt at every turn, Senator Arthur Vandenberg and other Republicans urged the still-unpopular Hoover to remain out of the fray during the debate over Roosevelt's proposed Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937. [41] Hoover thought of himself and his associates as "engineering doctors to sick concerns", and he earned a reputation as a "doctor of sick mines". Curtis was vice president under President Herbert Hoover for four years, much of it consumed by the nation's darkest economic times, the Great … [63] With the cooperation of the Wilson administration and the CNSA, a Belgian relief organization, Hoover established the Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB). [279], Hoover was inducted into the Australian Prospectors and Miners' Hall of Fame in the category Directors and Management.[280]. [62], The German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 set off a food crisis in Belgium, which relied heavily on food imports. [166] A series of bank failures in late 1930 heralded a larger collapse of the economy in 1931. Nevertheless, during Hoover's term, the world order established in the immediate aftermath of World War I began to crumble. Hoover sent U.S. Army forces led by General Douglas MacArthur to the protests. Overview. [43] By 1914, Hoover was a very wealthy man, with an estimated personal fortune of $4 million (equivalent to $102.1 million in 2019). "[132] In the South, Hoover and the national party pursued a "lily-white" strategy, removing black Republicans from leadership positions in an attempt to curry favor with white Southerners. "[14] Hoover attended Friends Pacific Academy (now George Fox University), but dropped out at the age of thirteen to become an office assistant for his uncle's real estate office (Oregon Land Company)[15] in Salem, Oregon. Charles Curtis, from the Library of Congress. Herbert Hoover was born on August 10, 1874 in West Branch, Iowa. [216], By mid-1931 few observers thought that Hoover had much hope of winning a second term in the midst of the ongoing economic crisis. [171] The Hoover Moratorium was warmly received in Europe and the United States, but Germany remained on the brink of defaulting on its loans. Hoover's progressive stances, continuing support for the League of Nations, and recent conversion to the Republican Party aroused opposition to his appointment from many Senate Republic… [162] Despite the widespread unpopularity of the bill, Hoover felt that he could not reject the main legislative accomplishment of the Republican-controlled 71st Congress. "[66], Hoover worked 14-hour days from London, administering the distribution of over two million tons of food to nine million war victims. [247], In 1947, Truman appointed Hoover to a commission to reorganize the executive departments; the commission elected Hoover as chairman and became known as the Hoover Commission. [83] Throughout the Paris Peace Conference, Hoover served as a close adviser to President Wilson, and he largely shared Wilson's goals of establishing the League of Nations, settling borders on the basis of self-determination, and refraining from inflicting a harsh punishment on the defeated Central Powers. Before serving as president, Hoover led the Commission for Relief in Belgium, served as the director of the U.S. Food Administration, and served as the third U.S. Secretary of Commerce. After the Wickersham Report was published in 1931, Hoover rejected the advice of some of his closest allies and refused to endorse any revision of the Volstead Act or the Eighteenth Amendment, as he feared doing so would undermine his support among Prohibition advocates. [228] During the 1930s, Hoover increasingly self-identified as a conservative. [60] Hoover later stated, "I did not realize it at the moment, but on August 3, 1914, my career was over forever. [84] The following year, famed British economist John Maynard Keynes wrote in The Economic Consequences of the Peace that if Hoover's realism, "knowledge, magnanimity and disinterestedness" had found wider play in the councils of Paris, the world would have had "the Good Peace. [250] Hoover favored the United Nations in principle, but he opposed granting membership to the Soviet Union and other Communist states. [28] He convinced Bewick, Moreing to purchase the Sons of Gwalia gold mine, which proved to be one of the most successful mines in the region. Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician, businessman, and engineer, who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933. [3] As a young child he was often referred to by his father as "my little stick in the mud" when he repeatedly got trapped in the mud crossing the unpaved street. He recruited numerous academics from various fields and tasked them with publishing reports on different aspects of the economy, including steel production and films. [110], As Commerce Secretary, Hoover hosted national conferences on street traffic collectively known as the National Conference on Street and Highway Safety. [159] These actions were collectively designed to prevent a cycle of deflation and provide a fiscal stimulus. [142] He appointed a Cabinet consisting largely of wealthy, business-oriented conservatives,[143] including Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon. He viewed the Soviet Union to be as morally repugnant as Nazi Germany and supported the efforts of Richard Nixon and others to expose Communists in the United States.[251]. [206] As president, Hoover largely made good on his pledge made prior to assuming office not to interfere in Latin America's internal affairs. Shots were fired by the police in a futile attempt to attain order, and two protesters were killed while many officers were injured. [125], Many wary Republican leaders cast about for an alternative candidate, such as Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon or former Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes. His lectures at Columbia and Stanford universities were published in 1909 as Principles of Mining, which became a standard textbook. [278] His wife was inducted into the hall in 1990. "Legacies Versus Politics: Herbert Hoover, Partisan Conflict, and the Symbolic Appeal of Associationalism in the 1920s. [179] In January 1932, he convinced Congress to authorize the establishment of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), which would provide government-secured loans to financial institutions, railroads, and local governments. Vice President Mike Pence speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, on April 23, 2020. The Lou Henry and Herbert Hoover House, built in 1919 in Stanford, California, is now the official residence of the president of Stanford University, and a National Historic Landmark. The winning candidate, Herbert Hoover, secured 837 votes, having been the favorite for the nomination since August 1927 (when President Calvin Coolidge took himself out of contention). He achieved unprecedented success in the post raising the stature of the Department of Com… The 1920 Census was the first and only Decennial Census where the results were not used to reapportion Congress, which ultimately influenced the 1928 Electoral College and impacted the Presidential Election. Review our. Hoover described the New Deal's National Recovery Administration and Agricultural Adjustment Administration as "fascistic", and he called the 1933 Banking Act a "move to gigantic socialism. [218] Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidential nomination on the fourth ballot of the 1932 Democratic National Convention, defeating the 1928 Democratic nominee, Al Smith. [270], Although Hoover is generally regarded as having had a failed presidency, he has also received praise for his actions as a humanitarian and public official. By then Hoover had solved his image problem, and during his 1928 campaign he successfully squelched attacks that alleged he was too close to British interests. [135] Hoover's appeal to Southern white voters succeeded in cracking the "Solid South", and he won five Southern states. [255] In the early 1960s, President John F. Kennedy offered Hoover various positions; Hoover declined the offers but defended Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs invasion and was personally distraught by Kennedy's assassination in 1963. [13] Minthorn ensured that Hoover received an education, but Hoover disliked the many chores assigned to him and often resented Minthorn. The collection was renamed the Hoover War Library in 1922 and is now known as the Hoover Institution. [21] He served as student manager of both the baseball and football teams, and helped organize the inaugural Big Game versus the University of California. Curtis' slow fade from our collective memory is surprising considering his place in the American story. Charles Curtis | vice president of United States | Britannica "[124] Despite his lukewarm feelings towards Hoover, Coolidge had no desire to split the party by publicly opposing the popular Commerce Secretary's candidacy. [214], Thousands of World War I veterans and their families demonstrated and camped out in Washington, DC, during June 1932, calling for immediate payment of bonuses that had been promised by the World War Adjusted Compensation Act in 1924; the terms of the act called for payment of the bonuses in 1945. Hoover was born to a Quaker family in West Branch, Iowa. "[27], Hoover traveled constantly across the Outback to evaluate and manage the company's mines. [81] The United States Food Administration became the American Relief Administration (ARA), and Hoover was charged with providing food to Central and Eastern Europe. MR. HOOVER DIES AT 90; IOWA RITES New York -- Herbert Clark Hoover, 31st president of the United States, died Tuesday at the age of 90. Also located at Stanford is the Hoover Institution, a think tank and research institution started by Hoover. Hoover's attempts at regulating radio were not supported by all congressmen, and he received much opposition from the Senate and from radio station owners. He also agreed to manage a separate mine in the Altai Mountains that, according to Hoover, "developed probably the greatest and richest single body of ore known in the world. [47] Hoover worked with the Burma Corporation, a British firm that produced silver, lead, and zinc in large quantities at the Namtu Bawdwin Mine. His Rapidan fishing camp in Virginia, which he donated to the government in 1933, is now a National Historic Landmark within the Shenandoah National Park. Soon after he became president, the Great Depression started. Hoover and his wife lived in Palo Alto until her death in 1944, at which point Hoover began to live permanently at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City. Beginning in December 1902, the company faced mounting legal and financial issues after one of the partners admitted to having fraudulently sold stock in a mine. [54] Immediately after earning a promotion in 1898, Hoover cabled Lou Henry, asking her to marry him. One observer described Hoover as "an orphan [who] seemed to be neglected in many ways. While serving as Secretary of Commerce he would often stop at the Belgian embassy for cocktails. He tended to oppose governmental coercion or intervention, as he thought they infringed on American ideals of individualism and self-reliance. [6] Hoover's father, noted by the local paper for his "pleasant, sunshiny disposition", died in 1880 at the age of 34. He declined. I was on the slippery road of public life. [204] In January 1933, a constitutional amendment repealing the Eighteenth Amendment was approved by Congress and submitted to the states for ratification. [141] Hoover made extensive use of commissions to study issues and propose solutions, and many of those commissions were sponsored by private donors rather than by the government. [177], The economy continued to worsen, with unemployment rates nearing 23 percent in early 1932,[178] and Hoover finally heeded calls for more direct federal intervention. [269] A 2017 C-Span poll of historians also ranked Hoover as the 36th best president. The conferences issued a model Uniform Vehicle Code for adoption by the states, and a Model Municipal Traffic Ordinance for adoption by cities. This article is about the 31st president of the United States. UPDATE: I had originally said that Curtis’s mother was 3/4 American Indian, based on various sources I saw. Roosevelt's performance in the popular vote made him the first Democratic presidential nominee to win the presidency with a majority of the popular vote since Franklin Pierce in 1852. [75], World War I had created a global food crisis that dramatically increased food prices and caused food riots and starvation in the countries at war. The American auto industry consumed 70% of the world's output, but British investors controlled much of the supply. [82] He also established the European Children's Fund, which provided relief to fifteen million children across fourteen countries. In 1930, he released the Clark Memorandum, a rejection of the Roosevelt Corollary and a move towards non-interventionism in Latin America. In 1912, Hoover and his wife published the first English translation of De re metallica. Though he did not attend high school, Hoover learned bookkeeping, typing, and mathematics at a night school. [82] In addition to providing relief, the ARA rebuilt infrastructure in an effort to rejuvenate the economy of Europe. ", Britten, Thomas A. [121], Hoover quietly built up support for a future presidential bid throughout the 1920s, but he carefully avoided alienating Coolidge, who was eligible to run for another term in the 1928 presidential election. [126] However, Hughes and Mellon declined to run, and other potential contenders like Frank Orren Lowden and Vice President Charles G. Dawes failed to garner widespread support. [90] During the post-war period, Hoover also served as the president of the Federated American Engineering Societies.