Herbert Hoover

Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) is best known as being the 31st President of the United States (1929-1933). However, prior to that, he was a successful mining engineer, humanitarian, and administrator. He had the longest retirement of any U.S. President and died 31 years after leaving office, during the administration of Lyndon Johnson — his fifth successor.

Presidency

After capably serving as Secretary of Commerce under Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, and leading relief efforts in the wake of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, Hoover became the Republican Presidential nominee in 1928. He said then: "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land." Within months the Stock market crashed, and the nation's economy spiraled downward into what became known as the Great Depression.

Related Topics:
Secretary of Commerce - Warren G. Harding - Calvin Coolidge - Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 - Republican Presidential nominee in 1928 - Poverty - Stock market - Great 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. However, he signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which raised tariffs on over 20,000 dutiable items and later, the 1932 Revenue Act, which hiked taxes and fees (including postage rates) across the board. These acts are often blamed for deepening the depression, and being Hoover's biggest political blunders. Moreover, the Federal Reserve System's tightening of the money supply (for fear of inflation) is also regarded by most modern economists as a mistaken tactic given the situation. Hoover's Secretary of the Treasury was Andrew Mellon, a hold over from the Coolidge administration.

Related Topics:
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act - Inflation - Secretary of the Treasury - Andrew Mellon

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Hoover was nominated for a second term but was defeated by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1932 election. This was the first election in which the Republican party did not receive a majority of the African American vote since Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860. The trend continues to this day, with a majority of African Americans voting for the Democratic Party (United States).

Related Topics:
Franklin Delano Roosevelt - African American - Abraham Lincoln - 1860 - Democratic Party (United States)

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Hoover and the economy

Hoover's stance on the economy was based on volunteerism. From before his entry to the presidency, he was among the greatest proponents of the concept that public-private cooperation was the way to achieve high long-term growth. Hoover feared that too much intervention or coercion on behalf of the government would destroy individuality and self-reliance, which he considered to be important American values. Though he was not averse to taking action which he considered was in the public good - such as regulating radio broadcasting and aviation, he preferred a voluntary, non-government approach.

Related Topics:
Volunteerism - Radio - Aviation

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In June 1931, to deal with a very serious banking collapse in Central Europe that threatened to cause a world-wide financial melt-down, Hoover issued the so-called Hoover Moratorium that called for a one-year halt in reparations payments by Germany to France and in the payment of Allied war debts to the United States. The Hoover Moratorium had the effect of temporarily stopping the banking collapse in Europe. In June 1932, a conference was held in Switzerland that cancelled all reparations payments by Germany.

Related Topics:
June - 1931 - Central Europe - Hoover Moratorium - Reparations - Germany - France - 1932 - Switzerland

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Hoover's economy was put to the test with the onset of the Great Depression in 1929. It was his vocal stance on non-intervention that led to public perception that he was a laissez-faire, 'do nothing' president, which his supporters deny.

Related Topics:
Great Depression - Laissez-faire

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The following is an outline of other actions Hoover took to try to help end the depression through government taxing and spending:

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• Signed the Emergency Relief and Construction Act, the nation's first Federal unemployment assistance.
• Increased public works spending. Some of Hoover's efforts to stimulate the economy through public works are as follows:
• Asked Congress for a $400 million increase in the Federal Building Program
• Directed the Department of Commerce to establish a Division of Public Construction in December 1929.
• Increased subsidies for ship construction through the Federal Shipping Board
• Urged the state governors to also increase their public works spending, though many failed to take any action.
• Signed the Federal Home Loan Bank Act establishing the Federal Home Loan Bank system to assist citizens in obtaining financing to purchase a home.
• Increased subsidies to the nation's struggling farmers with the Agricultural Marketing Act, but with only limited impact.
• Established the President's Emergency Relief Organization to coordinate local, private relief efforts resulting in over 3,000 relief committees across the U.S.
• Urged bankers to form the National Credit Corporation to assist banks in financial trouble and protect depositor's money.
• Actively encouraged businesses to maintain high wages during the depression. Many businessmen, most notably Henry Ford, raised or maintained their worker's wages early in the Depression in the hope that more money into the pockets of consumers would end the economic downturn.
• Signed the Reconstruction Finance Act. This act established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which made loans to the states for public works and unemployment relief. In addition, the RFC made loans to banks, railroads and agriculture credit organizations.
• Raised tariffs to protect American jobs. After hearings held by the House Ways and Means Committee generated over 20,000 pages of testimony regarding tariff protection, Congress responded with legislation that Hoover signed despite some misgivings. Instead of protecting American jobs, the Smoot-Hawley tariff is widely blamed for setting off a worldwide trade war which only worsened the country's economic ills.

In order to pay for these and other government programs, Hoover agreed to one of the largest tax increases in American history. The Revenue Act of 1932 raised taxes on the highest incomes from 25% to 63%. The estate tax was doubled and corporate taxes were raised by almost 15%. Hoover also encouraged Congress to investigate the New York Stock Exchange and this pressure resulted in various reforms.

Related Topics:
Tax increase - Revenue Act of 1932 - Estate tax - Corporate tax - New York Stock Exchange

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For this reason, some hold that Hoover's economics were in fact left-wing in character. During the 1932 elections, Franklin D. Roosevelt blasted the Republican incumbent for spending and taxing too much, increasing national debt, raising tariffs and blocking trade, as well as placing millions on the dole of the government. He attacked Herbert Hoover for "reckless and extravagant" spending, of thinking "that we ought to center control of everything in Washington as rapidly as possible," and of leading "the greatest spending administration in peacetime in all of history." Roosevelt's running mate, John Nance Garner, accused the Republican of "leading the country down the path of socialism".

Related Topics:
Left-wing - Franklin D. Roosevelt - John Nance Garner - Socialism

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These policies pale beside the more drastic steps taken as part of the New Deal, however, and Hoover's opponents charge that they came too little, and too late. Even as he legislated for changes, 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.

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Even so, New Dealer Rexford Tugwell (see ) later remarked that although no one would say so at the time, "practically the whole New Deal was extrapolated from programs that Hoover started."

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Unemployment rose to 24.9% by the end of Hoover's presidency in 1933, a year that is considered to be the depth of the Great Depression. Even with massive intervention by his successor Roosevelt, the economy underwent only limited improvement, with unemployment falling to 14.3% in 1937, and then rising to 19% under a severe recession in 1937-1938 (a contraction labeled a depression by some economists). It was not until the war in the 1940s that the economy recovered fully. (Unemployment did not drop below 9.9% until 1942).

Related Topics:
1933 - 1937 - 1938 - 1940 - 1942

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The Bonus Army

Thousands of World War I veterans and their families demonstrated in Washington, D.C., during June 1932, calling for immediate payment of a bonus that had been promised by the Bonus Law of 1924 for payment in 1945. Hoover, unconscionably, sent U.S. Army forces, led by General Douglas MacArthur and aided by junior officers Dwight D. Eisenhower and George S. Patton Jr., to remove the "Bonus army" from the capitol. This possible violation of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, and the fact that only a token payment was given to the veterans to pay for their trip home, added to Hoover's image as a cold-hearted president with little sympathy for the suffering created by the Great Depression.

Related Topics:
Veterans - Bonus Law of 1924 - 1945 - U.S. Army - Douglas MacArthur - Dwight D. Eisenhower - George S. Patton Jr. - Bonus army - Posse Comitatus Act - 1878

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Cabinet

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