A reflection on the 31st U.S. president on his 150th birthday.
In the pantheon of American presidents, the nation’s 31st—Herbert Hoover, who was born 150 years ago on August 10, 1874 —often ranks in the bottom tier, criticized as a “callous and cruel” man when millions of his countrymen suffered economic woes during the Great Depression (1929–1939).
While the engineering marvel, the Hoover Dam, bears his name, so did “Hoovervilles”: shantytowns constructed across the country, so named by residents who blamed him for “the intolerable economic and social conditions” since the “government failed to provide relief,” according to History.com.
Yet this maligned caricature, an utterly unsympathetic man, could not be further from the truth. In fact, upon his death at 90 years old on Oct. 20, 1964, Neil MacNeil—a journalist and associate of Hoover’s—said the former president “fed more people and saved more lives than any other man in history.”
This is not hyperbole. In his lifetime, Hoover was known as “The Great Humanitarian,” aiding tens of millions of hungry and destitute people in America, China, Belgium, Poland, and even the Soviet Union. Along with his Quaker upbringing, which cultivated in him the virtues of “hard work and self-dependence,” Hoover held steadfast to the belief that “voluntarism and private charity could answer any crisis” and that “it was not necessary to involve the state,” according to Herbert Hoover, by William E. Leuchtenburg.
This self-reliance was rooted in his humble childhood, which began in a two-room house in West Branch, Iowa. By nine years old, Hoover became an orphan: his blacksmith father, Jesse, died of a heart attack, while his mother, Hulda, succumbed to typhoid fever. In 1885, the 11-year-old Hoover and his two siblings were sent to live with his maternal uncle, Henry J. Minthorn, in Newburg, Ore. His uncle was a “mostly silent, taciturn man,” whom Hoover did not believe was “very happy,” as he would describe in his memoirs. Still, Minthorn was like a “second father,” the 31st president stated.
Education was not Hoover’s main interest, as evidenced by him leaving school at 14 years old, until he “decided to pursue a career as a mining engineer,” enrolling in Stanford University’s inaugural class in 1891, according to the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum. It was at Stanford that Hoover met his wife, Lou Henry.
After graduating in 1895 with a degree in geology, Hoover excelled as a mining engineer, becoming a “doctor of sick mines,” working in Australia and China, while amassing a fortune. One of his first forays into international charity came with the Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901), an anti-imperialist, anti-Christian uprising. As noted by his presidential library, Hoover “helped construct barricades, organized the food supplies, and saw to the operation of the water purification plant,” while the city of Tientsin—where he lived—endured a month-long barrage by the “Boxers.” Even his White House biography states he “once risked his life rescuing Chinese children.”
In 1914, World War I erupted, thrusting Hoover—now a 40-year-old millionaire living in London—into public life. As tens of thousands of Americans tried to escape a war-torn Europe, many “found they were unable to cash their credit, obtain temporary accommodation, or find tickets for ships” crossing the Atlantic, according to the U.S. National Park Service. Hoover stepped in, organizing the Committee of American Residents in London for Assistance of American Travellers, where he “display[ed] superb managerial skills,” Leuchtenburg writes. Within six weeks, 120,000 Americans made it home due to his efforts.
Impressed by his work, American Ambassador to England Walter Hines Page tapped Hoover to prevent mass starvation in Belgium, caused by German occupation and British naval blockades. Accepting the duty, the future president established the Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB) shipping and distributing food on a “colossal scale,” Leuchtenburg argues, feeding more than 10 million civilians spread throughout 20,000 square miles in a war zone. He even “took special pains to care for Belgium’s world-famous lacemakers,” seeing “to it that they were supplied with thread so that they could carry on their precious craft,” according to Herbert Hoover.
Hoover’s reputation as an administrator soared; so much so that President Woodrow Wilson appointed him head of the U.S. Food Administration in May 1917, where Hoover “succeeded in cutting consumption of foods needed overseas and avoided rationing at home, yet kept the Allies fed,” his White House biography states. Even his future political rival, Franklin D. Roosevelt, praised Hoover, saying in 1920, “He is certainly a wonder, and I wish we could make him President of the United States. There could not be a better one.”
After the war, Hoover continued his efforts to “distribute food and relief supplies” as director-general of the American Relief Administration (ARA), helping “tens of millions of people in more than 20 war-torn countries.” Neither creed nor ideology stopped him from assisting those in need. This is most evident in his humanitarian aid to those starving in the Soviet Union. Hoover loathed communism and Bolshevism. Indeed, Soviet Union leaders like Vladimir Lenin believed Hoover was an “insolent liar” involved in “trickery” to destabilize the country. Americans even criticized Hoover’s aid to the Soviets. Yet 35 million people faced famine. As Hoover once exclaimed, “Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!”
And feed them, the ARA did—more than 10.5 million people per day, according to the Heritage Foundation. Meanwhile, when visiting Poland in 1919, Hoover witnessed children desperately in need of shoes and warm clothes; in response, he “ordered 700,000 pairs of shoes and 700,000 coats,” according to “A Man Who Saved the Lives of Millions” by the U.S. Consulate, Krakow.
In 1921, Hoover received his first of five Nobel Peace Prize nominations (the other years being 1933, 1941, 1946, and 1965) for his humanitarian efforts. He never won.
Still, Hoover’s popularity was well-established, and he was brought stateside to serve as the Secretary of Commerce in the Harding and Coolidge administrations. His organizational skills were once again put on display when the Mississippi River flooded in 1927, the most destructive river flood in U.S. history that left nearly one million Americans homeless, according to the National Weather Service. As noted by the Hoover Institution, he “assembl[ed] hundreds of ships to carry supplies, [oversaw] the creation of tent cities for refugees, and [made] radio and press appeals that helped raise millions of dollars for the Red Cross.”
Had Hoover’s career ended then, the “Master of Emergencies” (another laudatory nickname he earned) would arguably be viewed as an exemplar of the “American Dream” and lauded as a hero in the collective consciousness. Indeed, in 1928, no one seemed more equipped to handle the presidency than Hoover; and the American people voted him into office in a landslide over Democrat Al Smith. With the victory, he became the first president born west of the Mississippi.
Eight months into his tenure, however, the stock market crashed, plunging the world economy into a decade-long depression. In the aftermath, Hoover’s sterling reputation was tarnished as political opponents portrayed him as an inept, indifferent leader. This perception stuck, despite his efforts to spur job creation and prevent bank collapses, even so far as “point[ing] the way to the New Deal,” establishing programs “extrapolated” by the Roosevelt administration, according to Stanford Magazine. None of it worked, as the expert administrator was a “peculiarly artless politician.” Hoover lost his re-election bid to Roosevelt in 1932, and remained an active, vocal critic of the New Deal, “warning against tendencies toward statism,” as noted in his White House biography.
In his post-presidency life, Hoover refused to stay still. He was elected chairman of the Boys’ Clubs of America on Oct. 19, 1936. According to the National Archives, the organization had “nearly 300 clubs in 150 cities and towns”; by 1960, under Hoover’s leadership, it grew to “more than 600 clubs in over 300 cities serving 600,000 boys.” In 1939, he established the Finnish Relief Fund to provide much-needed supplies to civilians suffering from the Soviet Union invasion, known as the Winter War. That same year, he founded the Commission for Polish Relief, which delivered “150 tons of clothing and blankets within its first few months of operating” and served 200,000 meals a day, according to the U.S. Consulate, Krakow.
When World War II commenced, the Roosevelt administration refused to call upon the former president’s expertise to aid in humanitarian efforts due to his consistent criticisms. However, President Harry Truman, when he assumed office, quickly reversed this policy, appointing Hoover to the Famine Emergency Committee to combat mass starvation in war-torn countries, which the former president obliged. In total, Hoover “traveled 35,000 miles through 38 countries over 57 days assessing food shortages,” as noted by the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum.
After the trip, Hoover advised world powers to “tighten their belts and increase their food exports to famine-stricken countries,” and “urged that within the United Nations there be set up an organization to focus attention on the needs of the children,” according to The New York Times (Aug. 9, 1964). In addressing the latter, he spearheaded the establishment of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and secured its first contribution of $15 million from the United States. Today, UNICEF claims to have “helped slash child mortality rates by more than half since 1990 and save 122 million children’s lives.”
Hoover certainly lived a prolific, active life until his death in 1964. Millions of people around the world avoided starvation thanks to his efforts. For a self-made man who believed in “rugged individualism,” he touted charity, often saying as president, “A voluntary deed is infinitely more precious to our national ideal and spirit than a thousand-fold poured from the Treasury.”
His belief in ‘voluntarism’—encouraging non-government entities and individuals to engage in charitable initiatives—is central to building a strong civil society. As biographer George Nash has stated, “Hoover practiced the philanthropic virtues that he professed.” But he also believed in the American experiment. A sign hanging in the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum encapsules his perspective, reading:
“I have had every honor to which any man could aspire. There is no place on the whole earth except here in America where all the sons of man have this chance in life…Here alone are the open windows through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit. Here alone is human dignity not a dream, but an accomplishment. Perhaps it is not perfect, but it is more full in realization here than any other place in the world.”
From a two-room shack to the presidency, Hoover certainly embodies the American spirit. On the 150th anniversary of his birth, perhaps it is time to reassess his legacy: he was not a cold, callous man as depicted in his tarnished presidency, but a man who helped save millions of lives through his handiwork. In fact, he should be remembered as the 20th century’s “great humanitarian”—for few come close to the scale at which he operated.
Those lives saved, not his presidency, is his legacy, and one Americans should reflect on if we are to create a civilization of charity and love.
