The 31st President of The United States, Herbert Hoover

Herbert Hoover: The son of a Quaker blacksmith, Herbert Clark Hoover brought an unparalleled reputation for public service as an engineer, administrator, and caring for the presidency. He was born in a valley of Iowa in 1874, he grew up in Oregon. He enrolled at Stanford University when it opened in 1891, graduating as a mining engineer. He married his love Stanford, Lou Henry, and went to China, where he worked for a private corporation as chief engineer of China. In June 1900 the Boxer Rebellion caught the Hoovers in Tientsin. For nearly a month the agreement was under heavy fire. While his wife worked in hospitals, Hoover directed the building of barricades, and once risked his life rescuing Chinese children. A week before Hoover celebrated his 40 years in London, Germany declared war on France, and the American Consul General asked for help to return to their homes to tourists. In six weeks his committee helped 120,000 Americans return to the United States. Hoover continued to shift to a much more difficult task, to feed Belgium, which had been undermined by the German army.

After the United States entered the war, President Wilson appointed Hoover as director of the Food Administration. He was successful in cutting consuo food needed overseas and avoided rationing in the country, and however kept the fed allies. After the Armistice, Hoover, a member of the Supreme Economic Council and head of the American Administration for Assistance, organized shipments of food for starving millions in central Europe. He offered help a hungry Soviet Russia in 1921. When a critic asked him if he would not help Bolshevik, Hoover replied, "Twenty million people are dying of hunger. Whosoever is their policy, they must be fed ! " After serving capably as Secretary of Commerce under the mandate of the Presidents Harding and Coolidge, Hoover became the Republican presidential candidate in 1928. He said then: "We in America today, we are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land. " His election seemed to ensure prosperity. In a few months the stock market fell, and the nation spiraled downward into depression. After the fall Hoover announced that while he could keep the federal balanced budget, cut taxes and expand public expenditure work.

In 1931 the impact of Europe deepened the crisis, although the President submitted to Congress a program calling for the creation of the Finance Corporation for Reconstruction to help businesses, additional support for farmers who were facing foreclosure, bank reforms a loan to states to feed the unemployed, the expansion of public works, and the drastic governmental economy. At the same time, he reiterated his view that while people should not suffer from hunger and cold, care for them should be the responsibility mainly local and voluntary. His opponents in Congress, who he felt he was sabotaging his program for his own political benefit unjustly painted as a scoundrel and cruel President. Hoover became the scapegoat for depression and was heavily defeated in 1932. In the 30s he became a powerful critic of the New Deal, warning against tendencies toward stagnation. In 1947 President Truman appointed Hoover to a commission, which elected him chairman, to reorganize the executive departments. In 1953 President Eisenhower appointed him chairman of a similar commission. Many economies resulted from both commissions. Over the years, Hoover wrote many articles and books, one of which was working when he died at age 90 in the city of New York on October 20, 1964.