MUMBLINGS November 30, 2006

President Herbert Hoover was one of the worst treated men by the American public in history. He did not deserve it, as he was a great person.

In our trip to West Branch, Iowa where we went to visit the Herbert Hoover Library, we learned a lot about this great man.

He was born in West Branch, Iowa in 1874. This was a small village and where his library is located.

His mother died when he was three years old and his father died when he was seven. He was then adopted by a stern uncle and aunt in Oregon where he was raised. The aunt and uncle must have had some money because they sent him to Stanford University. He graduated with top honors as a mining engineer.

He obtained rapid success. He was hired by a huge company to supervise a mining project overseas. He soon had his own company and had mining enterprises in the Philippines and other countries including China, in his successful career. At a young age he became a multimillionaire. After achieving riches, he decided he would like to serve his fellow man in various capacities.

One week before Hoover celebrated his 40th birthday in London, Germany declared war on France, and the American Consul General asked his help in getting stranded tourists home. In six weeks, his committee helped 120,000 Americans return to the United States. Next Hoover turned to a far more difficult task, to feed starving Belgiums, who had been overrun by the German army.

He was successful in this. At an economical cost he got volunteers to help in the project. Being so successful in this after the United States entered World War 1, President Wilson appointed him head of the Food Administration. He then cut the consumption of foods needed overseas and avoided rationing at home.

After the Armistice, Hoover, a member of the Supreme Economic Council and head of the American Relief Administration, organized shipments of food for starving millions in central Europe. He extended aid to famine-stricken Soviet Russia in 1921.

After successfully serving as Secretary of Commerce under Presidents Harding and Coolidge, Hoover became the Republican Presidential Nominee in 1928.

He said, "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land." His election seemed to ensure prosperity. Yet within months the stock market crashed, and the nation spiraled downward into depression.

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After the crash Hoover announced that while he would keep the federal budget balanced, he would cut taxes and expand public works spending.

In 1931 repercussions from Europe deepened the crisis, even though the President presented to Congress a program asking for creation of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to aid business, additional help for farmers facing mortgage foreclosures, banking reform, a loan to states for feeding the unemployed, expansion of public works, and drastic governmental economy.

At the same time he reiterated his view that while people must not suffer from hunger and cold, caring for them must be primarily a local and voluntary responsibility.

His opponents in Congress, who he felt were sabotaging his program for their own political gain, unfairly painted him as a callous and cruel President. Hoover became the scapegoat for the depression and was badly defeated in 1932 by F.D.R. In the 1930's he became a powerful critic of the New Deal, warning against tendencies toward statism. Most of his ideas were put into action by the Roosevelt administration.

President Hoover continued actively in public works and guaranteed more money than he was worth to properly feed people in foreign countries.

At the age 86, Hoover traveled 14,000 miles, delivered twenty speeches, and accepted the latest of his 468 awards and citations.

In 1947 President Truman appointed Hoover to a commission, which elected him chairman, to reorganize the Executive Departments. He was appointed chairman of a similar commission by President Eisenhower in 1953. Many economies resulted from both commissions' recommendations. Over the years, Hoover wrote many articles and books, one of which he was working on when he died at 90 in New York City at the Wardolf Hotel on October 20, 1964.

See you again soon, I hope.