Passed Presidents - # 31 – Herbert Hoover

Herbert Hoover was elected our 31st president in 1928. The Republican won in a landslide the only elected office he ever held. He was enormously popular...a self-made millionaire, an organizational genius, a Quaker whose humanitarian works gained him world-wide acclaim. He continued his party’s hold on the White House at a time of unprecedented prosperity. It was Boom Time in the country and he was the perfect guy for the job.

Four years later, he was a bust. The Market crashed. The Great Depression was here and we had 25 percent unemployment. FDR beat Hoover by a wider margin than Hoover beat Al Smith. When he left office, he was grayer, thinner and quite beaten.

While he directed federal resources to banks, farm bureaus and other entities that could address the recovery, he did not support federal aid to the people most affected by the tanked economy. He was totally ineffective and tone deaf to the needs of the masses. Shanty towns and tent cities sprang up all across the country. They were called “Hoovervilles”.

“Hooverville” In Seattle
(From Google Images)

Herbert Hoover was born in West Branch, Iowa in 1874, the first president from west of the Mississippi River. One of two Quakers who became president, his faith stressed the values of hard work, peace and charity. Orphaned at 11, he moved to the west coast and was raised by an uncle. He entered Stanford University in its very first class and graduated with a degree in geology. He worked all over the world and became a renowned mining engineer with his own engineering and financial consulting firm.

Herbert Hoover Birthplace, West Branch, IA (23 October 2006)

At the same time, he always engaged in public service. He headed relief efforts for Americans caught up in the First World War, then the Commission for Relief in Belgium. He was so successful that President Wilson asked him to be the U.S. Food Administrator and Director of the American Relief Administration. The organization fed 350 million people in more than twenty countries after The War to End All Wars.

The Goddess Isis, Herbert Hoover National Historic Site, 

West Branch, IA (23 October 2006)

The statue of the Egyptian Goddess of Life was a gift 

from the people of Belgium to honor Hoover’s 

humanitarian work during and after World War I.

He was Secretary of Commerce during the Harding and Coolidge administrations. During that time, he performed another administrative feat. The Great Mississippi River flood of 1927 was the worst natural disaster in the nation’s history. There were numerous levee breaches and the river was over one hundred miles wide in places. Hundreds of thousands were displaced in the south.

I am reminded of Randy Newman’s wonderful song – Louisiana 1927 and the following lyric:

President Coolidge, come down in a railroad train
With a little fat man with a notepad in his hand
President say, “Isn’t it a shame
What the river has done to this poor cracker’s land?”

Louisiana, Louisiana
They’re tryin’ to wash us away
They’re tryin’ to wash us away

(Go to the link to hear the song and see images of the flood)

I believe the ‘little fat man’ was Herbert Hoover. He orchestrated the response and recovery as only Hoover could. John Barry’s terrific Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America notes that he convinced the railroads to provide free transportation for refugees and to cut rates for freight during the emergency. Contrast that with the lousy federal relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina where FEMA consistently botched the job but managed to cut sweet deals with favored contractors at profiteering rates. Want to buy a used trailer? Is this a great country or what?

Hoover Graves, West Branch, IA (23 October 2006)

Many First Ladies have significant stories of their own. From my grave-hunting perspective, it’s unfortunate that their last resting places alongside their husbands are often marked so insignificantly. Not so with Lou Henry Hoover. She has a grave that is equal to the president’s. She was the first woman to earn a geology degree from Stanford. She spoke Chinese and translated a classic, medieval mining and metallurgy text from Latin. Lou Henry was no lightweight.

Bert outlived Lou by twenty years. He died in his Waldorf-Astoria suite in New York City on this day in 1964. At over 31 years, his was the longest retirement of any president, until Jimmy Carter passed him. At 90, he was the second oldest president after John Adams until Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan passed them both.

Bert and Lou are buried together on a hillside in the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site in West Branch, Iowa. The site includes his birthplace, Library and Museum.

Herbert Hoover

31st President; Served 1929-1933

Born: August 10, 1874, West Branch, IA

Died: October 20, 1964, New York, NY

Grave Location: Herbert Hoover Birthplace, West Branch, IA

Date Visited: 10/23/2006