Future US President Herbert Hoover was born on August 10, 1874 in West Branch. His parents were Quakers from provincial Iowa with German roots. The boy's father traded agricultural machinery and worked as a blacksmith. He died when Herbert was only 6 years old. The mother died 4 years later. The orphaned boy moved to his uncle in Oregon. In 1891, young Hoover entered the newly opened Stanford University. By profession, he became a mining engineer, and nothing foreshadowed that this specialist would go into politics.
Mining engineer career
In 1895, Herbert Hoover received a bachelor's degree. His professional career has been extremely exciting. But it all started modestly. First, a Stanford graduate got a job as a rock cleaner at the mining company Reward Gold Mine. Then the young specialist interested the British. The British Bewick, Moreing and Company, which specialized in gold, hired the 23-year-old Hoover and sent him to Australia. On the "green continent" the American taught his colleagues there the specific Californian method of extracting the precious metal. In Australia, Herbert Hoover acquiredinvaluable experience not only as a geologist, but also as a manager.
Then the specialist received an unexpected offer from the Chinese government. In the Middle Kingdom, mining was in a primitive state. The Chinese wanted to adopt modern Western experience. That is why the capable and energetic Herbert Hoover was the best candidate for them. The American was “lucky” to be in China at the moment when the infamous Boxer Rebellion began there. It was a wave of pogroms in foreign quarters. Against the dominance of foreigners were primarily peasants. They did not like the missionary activity of Christians.
Once Tianjin, where the Hoovers lived, came under shelling. Rebel shells hit a building across the street from the home of an American engineer. On that day, Herbert Clark Hoover risked his life by rushing into a ruined house and saving a Chinese girl. Many years later, in 1928, as a presidential candidate, he banned journalists from advertising this story during the election campaign. During the Boxer Rebellion, the American not only did his direct duties, but also restored the destroyed railroads.
Private life
The amazing prospect of working in China made Hoover think about his family future. The young man already had a fiancee who continued to live in California. In 1898, the future Lou Henry Hoover received a telegram from her fiancé, in which he described the upcoming trip to Asia and offered hermarry. The girl agreed. The couple married on February 10, 1899 in the city of Monterrey. Following the example of her husband, Lou Henry adopted the Quaker faith. The newlyweds sailed on a ship to China the very next day after the wedding. The wife has always been close to Herbert. She passed away in 1964.
The Hoovers had two children. Herbert was born in 1903 and became an engineer and diplomat. Like his father, he graduated from Stanford University. He worked as an engineer in the field of aircraft construction, a geophysicist, and in the 50s he was the secretary of state in charge of Middle East relations. The youngest son, Allan, also became a mining engineer and spent most of his career in California.
Entrepreneur and philanthropist
In 1901, Herbert Hoover left China. He became a co-owner of Bewick, Moreing & Co, a mining company. For some time he again returned to Australia. In 1908, Hoover began his career as an independent consultant. A period of cooperation with companies around the world followed. The specialist managed to work in San Francisco, London, New York, St. Petersburg, Paris and even in Burma, where he once caught malaria. The future US president collaborated with the Ural magnates. In particular, he helped develop the Kyshtym copper deposit, and then managed the mines in the Altai Mountains. Thanks to successful investments, by 1914 Herbert Hoover became a we althy man. His personal fortune was about $4 million.
Hoover's life changed dramatically after the outbreak of the First World War. In the summer of 1914 he was in London. The American Consul in Great Britain asked Hoover to help organize the return to their homeland of US citizens who found themselves in mortal danger in Europe. It was a huge crowd of people - about 120 thousand people.
Then future President Herbert Hoover created a commission to help occupied Belgium. The Germans even agreed to let humanitarian aid delivered to the mainland by sea. At this time, the British Navy kept Germany in a naval blockade. The British also did not oppose the delivery of goods to the civilian population. The Hoover Commission quickly gained serious influence. She bought food in Australia and America, and her fleet amounted to several dozen ships.
The future 31st US President himself crossed the front line several times and constantly risked his life. His active peacekeeping activities could not go unnoticed. Hoover received the Washington Prize in 1919 for his many services to humanity and engineering.
Minister of Commerce
By the end of the war, Hoover had become a well-known and prominent figure. In 1918, by decision of President Woodrow Wilson, he headed the American Relief Administration. She did the same thing: organizing assistance to destroyed Europe (most of the cargo was delivered to Poland and Czechoslovakia). And although the First World War had already ended, a new bloody conflict broke out in Russia, where the Civil War began.
In 1919, the Hoover organization began to help the white NorthWestern army. The Americans delivered wheat and grain flour, beans, peas, condensed milk, lard. In 1921, Hoover became US Secretary of Commerce. He was appointed by President Warren Harding, who rightly appreciated the rich experience of a skilled organizer.
It is noteworthy that in this post, Hoover played an important role in shaping the American radio industry. At that time, broadcasting using these devices was regulated by the Department of Commerce and personally by Hoover. It was so large that the Federal Court limited the powers of the head of the department. Because of this, for several years, Americans suffered from total chaos in their own radios, when different stations went on the air on the same frequency.
The mess was sorted out in 1927. Congress passed the famous Radio Act, which created a special Federal Radio Commission.
Help to Soviet Russia
In 1921, a terrible famine began in Russia, which hit the Volga region the hardest. The reason for this was the Civil War, the tough policy of the surplus appraisal and the complete devastation in the countryside. The writer Maxim Gorky, who had considerable influence abroad, asked the American government for help. Hoover was known for his anti-Bolshevik stance, but agreed to support the starving. In August 1921, in Riga, the American Relief Administration and People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Maxim Litvinov signed an agreement on the supply of humanitarian supplies to Soviet Russia.
At first, help was providedexclusively for children and the sick. The Americans organized canteens, where only the starving most in need of support could get in. They received a special entry card.
In Petrograd alone, the Americans opened 120 canteens that fed more than 42,000 children. The main food flows were directed to the Volga region: Samara, Kazan, Saratov and Simbirsk provinces (in total, about 7 thousand cuisines appeared there). A few months after the start of deliveries, Hoover in Washington managed to convince congressmen to increase funding for the program.
The problem was that at that time the US authorities did not recognize the Soviet government. Deliveries to Russia ceased in 1923. During this time, according to the People's Commissariat for Foreign Trade, about 585 thousand tons of food, medicines and clothing were imported.
Presidency
In 1928, Hoover (as a member of the US Republican Party) entered the next presidential race. His main competitor was Democrat Alfred Smith. Hoover was able to win thanks to his reputation. Behind him was personal success as a businessman and help to Europe during the war. In addition, the Americans considered the amazing economic boom of the 1920s to be the personal merit of the Secretary of Commerce.
However, Hoover's tenure in office was marked by the beginning of the Great Depression. The stock market crisis caused the collapse of the entire economy. Hoover had to deal with an economic storm like no other in the US or Europe. The anti-crisis policy of the president was reduced to several mainpoints. First, he tried to give additional development to small private business. Secondly, Hoover persuaded entrepreneurs not to reduce their own production. A serious irritant in society was the conflict between trade unions and employers. The President tried to soften this confrontation.
In addition, Hoover proposed a program of massive public works, which was supposed to solve the problem of rising unemployment. In 1930, Congress approved the plan and allocated $750 million for its implementation. But, despite attempts by the state to intervene in the situation, the situation continued to deteriorate. In the summer of 1930, employers began to massively reduce their production.
At the suggestion of Hoover, Congress created a fund that financed the most important railroads, as well as credit and banking organizations. At the same time, the president vetoed a law on direct financial assistance to the unemployed, believing that excessive cash injections would deprive such people of initiative in finding new jobs. By 1932, their number reached an unprecedented 12 million people, and all American production during the crisis decreased by 50%.
Unrealized reforms
It is curious that when Hoover first came to power in early 1929, he was going to introduce economic reforms that were supposed to further weaken the state's influence on the economy. This was the progressive course of libertarianism, or the so-called laissez-faire principle. Drawing up the economic program, Hoover relied onown experience of an entrepreneur who has worked in many countries of the world.
Other important domestic policy events in 1929-1933. were the establishment of the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the reorganization of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Hoover also defended pension reform in every possible way, as a result of which every American over 65 years old should receive $ 50 a month. Due to the Great Depression, this initiative never came to fruition.
Foreign policy
In 1928, Herbert Hoover led an unprecedented tour of ten countries in Latin America. During the trip, he delivered 25 speeches, and the visits themselves led to a detente in relations with the countries of the continent. While in Argentina, Hoover nearly became the victim of an assassination attempt by a local anarchist.
Despite all the difficulties, the president managed to lay the foundations for a new "good neighbor" policy that replaced the numerous "banana wars". This cliché was used to refer to US actions directed against the countries of the Caribbean and Central America, when the Americans, in particular, controlled Puerto Rico and Cuba. The "good neighbor" policy was continued under Roosevelt. It was then, in 1934, that American troops left Haiti.
Failure in re-elections
The catastrophic situation in the economy undermined the authority of Hoover. With the presidential election of 1932 approaching, his level of support was prohibitively low. During traditional campaign speeches to voters, Hoover had to face a hostile, angry audience. rivalPresident was Franklin Roosevelt. He won the election, becoming the next head of the United States.
The Republican candidate suffered a natural defeat. Contemporaries accused Hoover of failing to adopt an anti-crisis program that could calm the economic storm. Roosevelt, having gone to extreme measures and proposed a new course, corrected the situation. At the same time, even today's historians note that Hoover turned out to be a hostage to the situation. He was not lucky enough to become president on the eve of the crisis that broke out not through his fault, but for objective reasons that had accumulated over decades. Hoover's supporters noted and continue to note that during the peak of the Great Depression, no presidential measures could help America.
Later years and legacy
Roosevelt's radicalism was that he strengthened the role of the state in the economy to the extreme, which was contrary to the usual US market model.
Hoover, having become a private citizen, criticized the policies of his successor for many years. When World War II began, he advocated not interfering in European affairs.
Hoover returned to public service during the presidencies of Truman and Eisenhower. An experienced manager headed the commission guiding the reform of the state apparatus. He wrote many articles and books, including memoirs, in which he described his vivid adventures of his youth. Hoover served as ex-president for a record-breaking 31-year term. He died on October 20, 1964 in New York. The former first person was90 years old. His final resting place was his native Iowa.
The United States cherishes the memory of the 31st president, who, despite all the nuances of the Great Depression, managed to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of his fellow citizens by old age. Many objects and places are named after him. The most famous is the Hoover Dam (Arizona). This dam on the Colorado River is still considered unique today. Its construction began during the Hoover presidency in 1931, and ended under Roosevelt in 1936. The first drafts of the dam appeared in the 1920s. Hoover was then secretary of commerce and became a member of the commission in charge of the dam project. Thanks to her, it was possible to establish the water supply of southern California and the development of local agriculture, as well as curb the obstinate mountain river.
