Which hoover was president

He succeeded in cutting consumption of foods needed overseas and avoided rationing at home, yet kept the Allies fed. 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 Whatever their politics, they shall be fed! Yet within months the stock market crashed, and the Nation spiraled downward into depression.

After the crash Hoover announced that while he would keep the Federal budget balanced, he would cut taxes and expand public works spending. In 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 Hoover devoted the next 12 years to writing books, speaking on issues of public concern, and serving as chairman of a number of philanthropic organizations. Hoover and Truman also joined forces in on a commission to reorganize the executive branch of the federal government.

In addition to public service, Hoover devoted his post-Presidential years to social causes such as the Boys Clubs of America and the Hoover Institution, a research center he had established on the Stanford campus in He also wrote more than 40 books during those years.

Hoover insisted that the building be modest in size in accordance with scale of the other buildings in the community. The former President made his last visit to Iowa on August 10, , to dedicate that building to the American people. Herbert Hoover died on October 20, On October 25, the body of Herbert Hoover was interred in a simple grave on an Iowa hill overlooking the cottage where he was born.

Skip to main content. On This Page. He ran against New York governor Alfred E. Smith and won in a landslide. He also contacted business leaders and urged them not to cut wages or lay off workers, and in , he backed the establishment of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, a lending institution intended to help banks and industries in their recovery efforts. Unfortunately, none of these approaches helped the foundering economy, and Hoover watched helplessly while businesses closed their doors and Americans sank into poverty.

He also made a critical mistake in signing into law the Smoot-Hawley Act, which raised taxes on imports and prompted foreign nations to turn their backs on American-made goods when the country desperately needed sales.

He was working on another book when he died in New York City in , at age The 31st president has been the subject of several biographies, including a multi-volume work by historian George H.

In , journalist Kenneth Whyte introduced a new profile to the collection, Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times , which explored the former president's lengthy record of public service and the events that shaped his personality and decision-making. We strive for accuracy and fairness.

If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Hoover also applied the ethos of engineering to the world in general, believing that scientific expertise, when employed thoughtfully and properly, led to human progress. Hoover worked comfortably in a capitalist economy but believed in labor's right to organize and hoped that cooperation between labor and management and among competitors might come to characterize economic relations.

During these years, Hoover repeatedly made known to friends his desire for public service. Politically, Hoover identified with the progressive wing of the Republican Party, supporting Theodore Roosevelt's third-party bid in World War I brought Hoover to prominence in American politics and thrust him into the international spotlight. In London when the war broke out, he was asked by the U. Germany's devastating invasion of Belgium led Hoover to pool his money with several wealthy friends to organize the Committee for the Relief of Belgium.

Working without direct government support, Hoover raised millions of dollars for food and medicine to help desperate Belgians. Food Administration. Hoover performed quite admirably, guiding the effort to conserve resources and supplies needed for the war and to feed America's European allies.

Hoover even became a household name during the war; nearly all Americans knew that the verb "to Hooverize" meant the rationing of household materials. In this capacity, Hoover channeled 34 million tons of American food, clothing, and supplies to war-torn Europe, aiding people in twenty nations. Because of Hoover's knowledge of world affairs, Wilson relied him at the Versailles Peace Conference and as director of the President's Supreme Economic Council in This privately endowed organization later became the Hoover Institution, devoted to the study of peace and war.

No isolationist, Hoover supported American participation in the League of Nations. He believed, though, that Wilson's stubborn idealism led Congress to reject American participation in the League. In , Hoover emerged as a contender for the Republican presidential nomination. His run was blocked, however, by fellow a Californian, Senator Hiram Johnson, who objected to Hoover's support for the League. Republican Warren Harding won the White House in and appointed Hoover as his secretary of commerce, a position that Hoover retained under Harding's successor, President Calvin Coolidge.

Under Hoover's leadership, the Department of Commerce became as influential and important a government agency as the Departments of State and Treasury.

Hoover encouraged research into measures designed to counteract harmful business cycles. He supported government regulation of new industries like aviation and radio. He brought together more than one hundred different industries and convinced them to adopt standardized tools, hardware, building materials, and automobile parts.