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Herbert Hoover
Fact File
- President No.: 31st
- Served: 1929-1933
- Party: Republican
- From: California
- Married: Lou Hoover
- Born: August 10, 1874
- Died: October 20, 1964
- Education: Stanford University
- Jobs Before President: Engineer, administrator, Served in Army, Secretary of Commerce
- Height: 5 feet, 11 inches
- Population at time: 122,775,046
- Hobbies: Medicine ball
- Pets: Dog named King Tut
- Transportation: Car, train
- Communication Methods: Telephone, letters
Herbert Hoover Biography
Herbert Hoover was the 31st President of the United States. He served from 1929-1933. He was born on August 10, 1874 in West Branch, Iowa. He was a son of a Quaker blacksmith. He attended Stanford University.
Hoover married Lou Henry and they left for China, where Hoover worked as a leading engineer for a private corporation in China. He and his wife found themselves in the Boxer Rebellion and for about a month, their settlement was under fire. His wife worked in the hospitals and Hoover oversaw the building of barricades.
Hoover was in London, just a week before his 40th birthday, when Germany went to war with France. The American Consul General asked Hoover to help evacuate American tourists stranded there Hoover and his committee had helped 120,000 American get back to the US in just six weeks.
Hoover was appointed to the head of the Food Administration in 1914. He had helped to feed Belgium which had been invaded by Germany earlier. Hoover was able to cut the consumption of food that was needed oversea without having to ration the needed foods at home and he kept the Allies fed.
After the war, Hoover organized food shipments for the millions in Central Europe. He extended the food aid to the Soviet Russia in 1921. Hoover was a member of the supreme Economic Council and he headed the American Relief Administration.
Hoover served as the Secretary of Commerce for President Harding and President Coolidge from 1921 – 1928. In 1928, Hoover became the Republican Presidential nominee. Although Hoover was committed to triumphing over poverty,, having the campaign slogan of “a chicken in every pot, a car in every garage” he had a tough time as the stock market crashed and the county and world went into a depression.
The stock market crash of 1929 proved to be tough on the American people. Hoover announced that he would keep a balanced budget but to offer relief, he would cut taxes and increase the public works spending. Tax relief for someone without a job was meaningless, however.
Hoover pushed through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) in 1932. It was an attempt to stimulate business by putting two billions dollars into the economy. The RFC bonds were used to fund loans to banks, give credit for agricultural corporations and land banks.
Hoover was deeply concerned for the caring for the American people and made it clear that no one should suffer from the cold or hunger. He stated that caring for the cold and hungry should be the responsibility for the local community.
However, many of Hoover’s opponents proclaimed Hoover the scapegoat for depression. Hoover was defeated in 1932. Hoover became a critic of the “New Deal of Roosevelt and warned of tendencies for statism.
Hoover was seen as unfeeling when he ordered US Army troops under MacArthur to remove World War I veterans from Washington’s Anacostia Flats. They had gathered there to ask for the early payment of bonuses that were due them.
The initiatives that were to increase the arms control agreements at the Washington conference (1921-1922) were not successful. Hoover’s foreign affairs now were rated as bad as his domestic troubles.
When Japan invaded Manchuria, which broke pledges to stay away from war and expansion in Asia, Hoover and his Secretary of State Henry Stimson declared a real American unwillingness to recognize Japan’s protectorate in Manchuria. People however, saw the Hoover-Stimson Doctrine as nothing more than a rhetorical response.
After he left the Presidency, President Truman asked Hoover in 1946 to serve on a commission. He was elected chairman and the commission reorganized the Executive Departments. President Eisenhower also appointed Hoover to a similar position in 1953. He was to make recommendations on the reorganization of the federal government.. There were many economic recommendations from the commissions.
Hoover died at the age of 90 on October 20, 1964 in New York City. However much emphasis that Hoover put on the cold and hungry of the world, he is still thought of as an unfeeling man.
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