Herbert Hoover (1874–1964,) fully Herbert Clark Hoover, was an American Republican political leader who 31st president of the U.S. 1929–33. As president, he was faced with the long-term problems of the Depression. He held office during the onset of the Great Depression.
Born in West Branch, Iowa, Hoover trained in mining engineering at Stanford University. He worked in this field in the U.S., Australia, and China and founded his own successful mining firm in 1908. He led the Commission for Relief in Belgium, served as the U.S. Food Administration director, and served as the third U.S. Secretary of Commerce. His leadership made him a popular public figure and heralded his political career.
The Great Depression, beginning with the stock market crash in October 1929, overshadowed President Hoover’s administration. He demanded private relief rather than large-scale government programs. His popularity plummeted, and the shantytowns that sprang up around the country were called Hoovervilles after him.
Franklin D Roosevelt defeated Hoover in 1932. He retired to private life until World War II, when he organized civilian relief operations in Europe. He later headed the Hoover Commissions (1947–49, 1953–55,) which studied the executive branch of government and suggested many administrative and policy reforms later adopted.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Herbert Hoover
Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive pronouncement. Economic wounds must be healed by the action of the cells of the economic body, the producers and consumers themselves.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Law, Economy
It is those moral and spiritual qualities which rise alone in free men, which will fulfill the meaning of the word American. And with them will come centuries of further greatness to our country.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: America
Thus the scene of the tragedy of Liberty world over must be suffering and discontent among the people. The drama moves swiftly in a torrent of words in which real purposes are disguised in portrayals of Utopia; idealism without realism; slogans, phrases and statements destructive to confidence in existing institutions; demands for violent action against slowly curable ills; unfair representation that sporadic wickedness is the system itself; searing prejudice against the former order; dismay and panic in the economic organization which feeds on its own despair. Emotions rise above reason. The man on horseback, ascending triumphantly to office on the steps of constitutional process, demands and threatens the parliament into the delegation of its sacred power. Then follows consolidation of authority through powerful propaganda in the pay of the state to transform the mentality of the people. Resentment of criticism, denunciation of all opposition, moral terrorization, all follow in sequence. The last scene is the suppression of freedom. Liberty dies of the water from her own well- free speech- poisoned by untruth. In the Epilogue the dreams of those who saw Utopia are shattered and the people find they are marching backward toward the Middle Ages- as regimented men.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Liberty
America – a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Experiment
New discoveries in science … will continue to create a thousand new frontiers for those who still would adventure.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Science
Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Youth, Government, Debt
American business needs a lifting purpose greater than the struggle of materialism.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Money
Governments know that the life of the world cannot be saved if the soul of the world is allowed to be lost.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Soul
Wisdom oft times consists of knowing what to do next.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Wisdom
Honest differences of views and honest debate are not disunity. They are the vital process of policy-making among free men.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Unity, Opinions
No public man can be a little crooked. There is no such thing as a no-man’s-land between honesty and dishonesty.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Honesty
The future of nations cannot be frozen … cannot be foreseen. It we are going to accomplish anything in our time we must approach our problem in the knowledge that there is nothing rigid or immutable in human affairs. History is a story of growth, decay and change. If no provision, no allowance is made for change by peaceful means, it will come anyway-and with violence.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: History
The supreme purpose of history is a better world.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: History
If you take a worm’s eye view of the ills in American life and our foreign relations; you may worry that we are entering the decline and fall of the greatest nation in history. If you take a bird’s eye view you will see the increasing skills, growing productivity, and the expansion of education and understanding, with improving health and growing strength all over our nation. And from whence came this strength? It lies in freedom of men’s initiative and the rewards of their efforts. It comes from our devotion to liberty and religious faith. We will have no decline and fall of this nation, provided we stand guard against the evils which would weaken these forces.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Liberty
If America is to be run by the people, it is the people who must think. And we do not need to put on sackcloth and ashes to think. Nor should our minds work like a sundial which records only sunshine. Our thinking must square against some lessons of history, some principles of government and morals, if we would preserve the rights and dignity of men to which this nation is dedicated.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: America
Presidents cannot always kick evil-minded persons out of the front door. Such persons are often selected by the electors to represent them.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Politics
The slogan of progress is changing from the full dinner pail to the full garage.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Progress
Honor is not the exclusive property of any political party.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Honor
Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die. And it is youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow and the triumphs that are the aftermath of war.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: War
A splendid storehouse of integrity and freedom has been bequeathed to us by our forefathers. In this day of confusion, of peril to liberty, our high duty is to see that this storehouse is not robbed of its contents.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Freedom
Along this road of spending, the government either takes over, which is Socialism, or dictates institutional and economic life, which is Fascism.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Government
Children are our most valuable natural resource.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Children
All men are equal before fish.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Equality
Peace is not made at the council table or by treaties, but in the hearts of men.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Peace
About the time we can make the ends meet, somebody moves the ends.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Success & Failure, Opportunity
Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Idealism, Getting Going, Inaction, Ideals, Procrastination, Words
Next to religion, baseball has furnished a greater impact on American life than any other institution
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Baseball
Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Youth
Where there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Government
Liberty is a thing of the spirit-to be free to worship, to think, to hold opinions, and to speak without fear-free to challenge wrong and oppression with surety of justice.
—Herbert Hoover
Topics: Liberty
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