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Herbert Hoover

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: USA Presidents

   Herbert Clark Hoover
   Herbert Hoover
     __________________________________________________________________

   31st President of the United States
   In office
   March 4, 1929 –  March 4, 1933
   Vice President(s)   Charles Curtis
   Preceded by Calvin Coolidge
   Succeeded by Franklin D. Roosevelt
     __________________________________________________________________

   Born August 10, 1874
   West Branch, IA
   Died October 20, 1964
   New York City, New York
   Political party Republican
   Spouse Lou Henry Hoover
   Religion Quaker
   Signature

   Herbert Clark Hoover ( August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964), the 31st
   President of the United States (1929-1933), was a successful mining
   engineer, and administrator. He showed the Efficiency Movement
   component of the Progressive Era, arguing there were other solutions to
   all social and economic problems—a position that was challenged by the
   Great Depression that began while he was President.

Family background

   Hoover (whose family's name was originally Huber) was born into a
   Quaker family of distant German (Pfautz, Wehmeyer) and Swiss (Huber,
   Burkhart) descent, in West Branch, Iowa. He was the first President to
   be born west of the Mississippi River. Both of his parents, Jesse
   Hoover and Hulda Minthorn, died when Hoover was young. His father died
   in 1880 and his mother in 1883.

   In 1885, eleven-year-old "Bert" Hoover went to Newberg, Oregon to
   become the ((( head leader over ) ??? ) *** WIKI EDITOR *** - this
   makes no sense.) his uncle John Minthorn, a doctor and real estate
   developer whom Hoover recalled as "a severe man on the surface, but
   like all Quakers kindly at the bottom."

   At a young age, Hoover was self-kept and goalgetting. "My boyhood
   ambition was to be able to earn my own living, without the help of
   anybody, anywhere" he once said. As an office boy in his uncle's Oregon
   Land Company he mastered bookkeeping and typing, while also went to
   business school in the afternoon. Thanks to a local schoolteacher, Miss
   Jane Gray, the boy's eyes were opened to the novels of Charles Dickens
   and Sir Walter Scott. David Copperfield, the story of another orphan
   cast into the world, remained a lifelong favorite.

Mining Engineer

   In August and September 1905 Herbert Hoover visited the mines at Broken
   Hill, NSW Australia, to judge the activity to extract zinc from
   tailings left after the concentrating process had taken a lead and
   silver concentrate. Miles of tailings dumps had added up for the lack
   of a treatment process to extract the zinc. Hoover, through his workers
   Bewick, Moreing and Company, had been sent by the embryonic "Collins
   House" group of entrepreneurs and financiers. Judging that the on going
   technology of froth floatation, froth floatation process would be able
   to treat the zinc tailings Hoover acted to make contracts with the
   leading mines at Broken Hill to buy their tailings. Those contracts was
   then transferred to the Zinc Corporation which was floated in October
   1908 in London and Melbourne. Hoover became a director of the Zinc
   Corporation at its foundation.

   Herbert Hoover was also the mining engineer at the Prince of Wales
   Mine, Gundagai in around 1900.. He was also hired in London to be a
   company representative at various gold mines in Western Australia. In
   1902 Hoover travelled to Big Bell, Cue, Menzies and Coolgardie.

Humanitarian

   Bored with making money, the Quaker side of Hoover was very anxious to
   be of service to others. When World War I started in August 1914, he
   helped get together the return home of 120,000 American tourists and
   businessmen from Europe. Hoover led five hundred volunteers to pass out
   food, clothing, steamship tickets and cash. "I did not realize it at
   the moment, but on August 3, 1914 my career was over forever. I was on
   the slippery road of public life." The difference between dictatorship
   and democracy, Hoover liked to say, was simple: dictators organize from
   the top down, democracies from the bottom up.
   Hoover seated (left) with Arthur Flemming at Ohio Wesleyan University
   Enlarge
   Hoover seated (left) with Arthur Flemming at Ohio Wesleyan University

   Belgium faced a food crisis after being invaded by Germany in fall
   1914. Hoover undertook an unprecedented relief effort as head of the
   Committee for Relief in Belgium (CRB). The CRB became, in effect, an
   independent republic of relief, with its own flag, navy, factories,
   mills and railroads. Its $11-million-a-month budget was supplied by
   voluntary donations and government grants. In an early form of shuttle
   diplomacy, he crossed the North Sea forty times seeking to persuade the
   enemies in Berlin to allow food to reach the war's victims. Long before
   the Armistice of 1918, he was an international hero. The Belgian city
   of Leuven named a prominent square after him. In addition, the Finns
   added the word hoover, meaning "to help," to their language in honour
   of his two years of humanitarian work.

   After the United States entered the war in April 1917, President
   Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover head of the American Food
   Administration, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. He succeeded in
   cutting consumption of food needed overseas and avoided rationing at
   home. After the end of the war, Hoover, a member of the Supreme
   Economic Council and head of the American Relief Administration,
   organized shipments of food for millions of starving people in Central
   Europe. To this end, he employed a newly formed Quaker organization,
   the American Friends Service Committee to carry out much of the
   logistical work in Europe. He extended aid to famine-stricken
   Bolshevist Russia in 1921. When a critic inquired if he was not thus
   helping Bolshevism, Hoover retorted, "Twenty million people are
   starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!"

   During this time, Hoover realized that he was in a unique position to
   collect information about the Great War and its aftermath. In 1919, he
   pledged US$50,000 to Stanford University to support his Hoover War
   Collection and donated to the University the extensive files of the
   Commission for Relief in Belgium, the U.S. Food Administration, and the
   American Relief Administration. Scholars were sent to Europe to collect
   pamphlets, society publications, government documents, newspapers,
   posters, proclamations, and other ephemeral materials related to the
   war and the revolutions and political movements that had followed it.
   The collection was later renamed the Hoover War Library and is now
   known as the Hoover Institution.

Commerce Secretary

   In this 1926 photo, William P. McCracken, assistant secretary of
   commerce for civil aviation, is shown with Secretary Hoover (center)
   and assistant secretary of commerce Walter Drake.
   Enlarge
   In this 1926 photo, William P. McCracken, assistant secretary of
   commerce for civil aviation, is shown with Secretary Hoover (centre)
   and assistant secretary of commerce Walter Drake.

   Hoover was touted as a possible Democratic Party presidential candidate
   in 1920, but he announced his support for Warren G. Harding, and in
   1921, Hoover became Secretary of Commerce. As Secretary of Commerce,
   Hoover became one of the most visible men in the country, often
   overshadowing Presidents Harding and Calvin Coolidge. As secretary and
   as President, Hoover revolutionized the relations between business and
   government. Rejecting the adversarial stance of Roosevelt, Taft, and
   Wilson, he sought to make the Commerce Department a powerful service
   organization, empowered to forge cooperative voluntary partnerships
   between government and business. This philosophy is often called
   "associationalism."

   Many of Hoover's efforts as Commerce Secretary centered on the
   elimination of waste and the increase of efficiency in business and
   industry. This included such things as reducing labor losses from trade
   disputes and seasonal fluctuations, reducing industrial losses from
   accident and injury, and reducing the amount of crude oil spilled
   during extraction and shipping. One major achievement was to promote
   progressive ideals in the areas of standardization products and
   designs. He energetically promoted international trade by opening
   offices overseas that gave advice and practical help to businessmen. He
   was especially eager to promote Hollywood films overseas. [Hart 1998]
   His "Own Your Own Home" campaign was a collaboration with organizations
   working to promote ownership of single-family dwellings, including the
   Better Houses in America movement, the Architects' Small House Service
   Bureau, and the Home Modernizing Bureau. He worked with bankers and the
   savings and loan industry to promote the new long term home mortgage,
   which dramatically stimulated home construction.
   Hoover listening to the radio.
   Enlarge
   Hoover listening to the radio.

   Among Hoover's other successes were the radio conferences, which played
   a key role in the early organization, development and regulation of
   radio broadcasting. Hoover played a key role in major projects for
   navigation, irrigation of dry lands, electrical power, and flood
   control. As the new air transport industry developed, Hoover held a
   conference on aviation to promote codes and regulations. He became
   president of the American Child Health Organization, and he raised
   private funds to promote health education in schools and communities.

   In the spring of 1927, the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 broke the
   banks and levees of the Mississippi River. The governors of six states
   along the Mississippi asked for Herbert Hoover in the emergency, so
   President Coolidge sent Hoover to mobilize state and local authorities,
   militia, army engineers, Coast Guard, and the American Red Cross. He
   set up health units, with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, to
   work in the flooded regions for a year. These workers stamped out
   malaria, pellagra and typhoid fever from many areas. His work during
   the flood brought Herbert Hoover to the front page of newspapers almost
   everywhere.

Election of 1928

   In 1928, when President Coolidge declined to run for a second term of
   office, Herbert Hoover became the leading Republican candidate.
   Hoover’s reputation, experience, and public popularity coalesced to
   give him the nomination. He campaigned against Al Smith on the basis of
   efficiency and prosperity. Although Smith was the target of
   anti-Catholicism from the Baptist and Lutheran communities, Hoover
   avoided the religious issue. (Quakers were themselves under attack as
   pacifists.) He supported prohibition tentatively (calling it a "noble
   experiment"). Historians agree that Hoover's national reputation and
   the booming economy, combined with the deep splits in the Democratic
   party over religion and prohibition, guaranteed his landslide victory.

   On poverty he promised: "We in America today are nearer to the final
   triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land."
   Within months, the Stock Market Crash of 1929 occurred, and the
   nation's economy spiraled downward into what became known as the Great
   Depression.

Presidency 1929-1933

Policies

   Even if the Hoover presidency has a negative imprint on it, it must be
   noted that there were some important reforms under the Hoover
   administration.

   The President expanded civil service coverage, cancelled private oil
   leases on government lands and led the way for the prosecution of
   gangster Al Capone. He appointed a commission which set aside 3 million
   acres (12,000 km²) of national parks and 2.3 million acres (9,000 km²)
   of national forests; advocated tax reduction for low-income Americans
   (not enacted); doubled the numbers of veteran hospital facilities;
   negotiated a treaty on St. Lawrence Seaway (which failed in the U.S.
   Senate); wrote a Children's Charter that advocated protection of every
   child regardless of race or gender; built the San Francisco Bay Bridge;
   created an antitrust division in the Justice Department; required air
   mail carriers to improve service; proposed federal loans for urban slum
   clearances (not enacted); organized the Federal Bureau of Prisons;
   reorganized the Bureau of Indian Affairs; proposed a federal Department
   of Education (not enacted); advocated fifty-dollar-per-month pensions
   for Americans over 65 (not enacted); chaired White House conferences on
   child health, protection, homebuilding and homeownership; and signed
   the Norris-La Guardia Act that limited judicial intervention in labor
   disputes.

   Hoover's humanitarian and Quaker reputation—along with a Native
   American vice president—gave special meaning to his Indian policies.
   His Quaker upbringing influenced his views that Native Americans needed
   to achieve economic self-sufficiency. As President, he appointed
   Charles J. Rhoads as commissioner of Indian affairs. Hoover supported
   Rhoads' commitment to Indian assimilation and sought to minimize the
   federal role in Indian affairs. His goal was to have Indians acting as
   individuals (not as tribes) and assume the responsibilities of
   citizenship which had been granted with the Indian Citizenship Act of
   1924.

   In the foreign arena, Hoover began formulating what would later become
   Roosevelt's Good Neighbour policy by withdrawing American troops from
   Nicaragua and Haiti; he also proposed an arms embargo on Latin America
   and a one-third reduction of the world's naval power, which was called
   the Hoover Plan. The Roosevelt Corollary ceased being part of U.S.
   foreign policy. He and Secretary of State Henry Stimson outlined the
   Hoover-Stimson Doctrine that said the United States would not recognize
   territories gained by force.

Great Depression

   The economy was put to the test with the onset of the Great Depression
   in the United States in 1929. It is not accurate, as was routinely
   claimed by his Democratic opponents, that Hoover "did nothing" in the
   face of the crisis, nor that he was a believer in laissez-faire
   policies. He explicitly denounced laissez-faire in his 1922 book
   American Individualism, took an active pro-regulation stance as
   Commerce Secretary, and saw tariff and agricultural support bills
   through Congress. In his memoirs he recalled his rejection of Treasury
   Secretary Mellon's suggested "leave-it-alone" approach. However, Hoover
   opposed direct relief from the federal government, seeking instead to
   organize voluntary measures and encourage state and local government
   responses. Except for accelerating public works expenditures, Hoover
   largely shunned legislative relief proposals until late in his term.
   While his efforts were small in comparison to that of the Roosevelt
   administration, they exceeded that of any federal administration before
   him.
   Children are sitting infront of signs criticizing Hoover's policies.
   One sign says "Hard Times Are Still Hoover-ing Over Us".
   Enlarge
   Children are sitting infront of signs criticizing Hoover's policies.
   One sign says "Hard Times Are Still Hoover-ing Over Us".

   Soon after the stock market crash, Hoover summoned industrialists to
   the White House and secured promises to maintain wages. Henry Ford even
   agreed to increase workers' daily pay from six to seven dollars. From
   the nation's utilities, Hoover won commitments of $1.8 billion in new
   construction and repairs for 1930. Railroad executives made a similar
   pledge. Organized labor agreed to withdraw its latest wage demands. The
   President ordered federal departments to speed up construction
   projects. He contacted all forty-eight state governors to make a
   similar appeal for expanded public works. He went to Congress with a
   $160 million tax cut, coupled with a doubling of resources for public
   buildings and dams, highways and harbors. He appointed a Federal Farm
   Board that tried to raise farm prices.

   Praise for the President's intervention was widespread. "No one in his
   place could have done more," concluded the New York Times in the spring
   of 1930. "Very few of his predecessors could have done as much." In
   February, Hoover announced—prematurely—that the preliminary shock had
   passed and that employment was on the mend.

   Together government and business actually spent more in the first half
   of 1930 than the previous year. Yet frightened consumers cut back their
   expenditures by ten percent. A severe drought ravaged the agricultural
   heartland beginning in the summer of 1930. The combination of these
   factors caused a downward spiral, as earning fell, smaller banks
   collapsed, and mortgages went unpaid. Hoover's hold-the-line policy in
   wages lasted little more than a year. Unemployment soared from five
   million in 1930 to over eleven million in 1931. A sharp recession had
   become the Great Depression.

   In 1930, Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which raised
   tariffs on over 20,000 dutiable items, despite the protests of
   economists. Major trading partners, like Canada, immediately
   retaliated. The tariff, combined with the 1932 Revenue Act, which hiked
   taxes and fees across the board, is often blamed for deepening the
   depression, and are considered by some to be Hoover's biggest political
   blunders. Moreover, the Federal Reserve System's tightening of the
   money supply (for fear of inflation) is regarded by Milton Friedman and
   most modern economists as a mistaken strategy, given the situation.
   Hoover's stance on the economy was based on volunteerism. From before
   his entry to the presidency, he was among the greatest proponents of
   the concept that public-private cooperation was the way to achieve high
   long-term growth. Hoover feared that too much intervention or coercion
   by the government would destroy individuality and self-reliance, which
   he considered to be important American values. Though he was not averse
   to taking action which he considered was in the public good, such as
   regulating radio broadcasting and aviation, he preferred a voluntary,
   non-government approach.

   In June 1931, to deal with a very serious banking collapse in Vienna
   that threatened to cause a worldwide financial meltdown, Hoover issued
   the Hoover Moratorium that called for a one-year halt in reparations
   payments by Germany to France and in the payment of Allied war debts to
   the United States. The Hoover Moratorium had the effect of temporarily
   stopping the banking collapse in Europe. In June 1932, a conference
   canceled all reparations payments by Germany.

   The following is an outline of other actions Hoover took to try to help
   end the Depression through government taxing and spending:
    1. Signed the Emergency Relief and Construction Act, the nation's
       first Federal unemployment assistance.
    2. Increased public works spending. Some of Hoover's efforts to
       stimulate the economy through public works are as follows:
         1. Asked Congress for a $400 million increase in the Federal
            Building Program
         2. Directed the Department of Commerce to establish a Division of
            Public Construction in December 1929
         3. Increased subsidies for ship construction through the Federal
            Shipping Board
         4. Urged the state governors to also increase their public works
            spending, though many failed to take any action.
    3. Signed the Federal Home Loan Bank Act establishing the Federal Home
       Loan Bank system to assist citizens in obtaining financing to
       purchase a home.
    4. Increased subsidies to the nation's struggling farmers with the
       Agricultural Marketing Act; but with only limited impact.
    5. Established the President's Emergency Relief Organization to
       coordinate local private relief efforts resulting in over 3,000
       relief committees across the U.S.
    6. Authorized the repatriation to Mexico of 1-2 million people living
       in barrios throughout California, Texas and Michigan, 60% of whom
       were U.S. citizens of Mexican-descent, in an effort to ease
       unemployment.
    7. Urged bankers to form the National Credit Corporation to assist
       banks in financial trouble and protect depositors' money.
    8. Actively encouraged businesses to maintain high wages during the
       Depression, in line with the philosophy, called Fordism, that high
       wages create prosperity. Most corporations maintained their
       workers' wages early in the Depression in the hope that more money
       into the pockets of consumers would end the economic downturn.
    9. Signed the Reconstruction Finance Act. This act established the
       Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which made loans to the states
       for public works and unemployment relief. In addition, the
       corporation made loans to banks, railroads and agriculture credit
       organizations.
   10. Raised tariffs. After hearings held by the House Ways and Means
       Committee generated more than 20,000 pages of testimony regarding
       tariff protection, Congress responded with legislation that Hoover
       signed despite some misgivings. Instead of protecting American
       jobs, the Smoot-Hawley tariff is widely blamed for setting off a
       worldwide trade war which only worsened the country's (and the
       world's) economic ills.

Economy

   In order to pay for these and other government programs, Hoover agreed
   to one of the largest tax increases in American history. The Revenue
   Act of 1932 raised income tax on the highest incomes from 25% to 63%.
   The estate tax was doubled and corporate taxes were raised by almost
   15%. Also, a "check tax" was included that placed a 2-cent tax (over 30
   cents in today's dollars) on all bank checks. Economists William D.
   Lastrapes and George Selgin,, conclude that the check tax was "an
   important contributing factor to that period's severe monetary
   contraction." Hoover also encouraged Congress to investigate the New
   York Stock Exchange, and this pressure resulted in various reforms.
   national debt and gross national product climbs from 20% to 40% under
   Hoover; levels off under FDR; soars during World War II. From
   Historical Statistics US (1976)
   Enlarge
   national debt and gross national product climbs from 20% to 40% under
   Hoover; levels off under FDR; soars during World War II. From
   Historical Statistics US (1976)

   For this reason, years later libertarians argued that Hoover's
   economics were statist. Franklin D. Roosevelt blasted the Republican
   incumbent for spending and taxing too much, increasing national debt,
   raising tariffs and blocking trade, as well as placing millions on the
   dole of the government. Roosevelt attacked Hoover for "reckless and
   extravagant" spending, of thinking "that we ought to centre control of
   everything in Washington as rapidly as possible," and of leading "the
   greatest spending administration in peacetime in all of history."
   Roosevelt's running mate, John Nance Garner, accused the Republican of
   "leading the country down the path of socialism".

   These policies pale beside the more drastic steps taken later as part
   of the New Deal. Hoover's opponents charge that his policies came too
   little, and too late, and did not work. Even as he asked Congress for
   legislation, he reiterated his view that while people must not suffer
   from hunger and cold, caring for them must be primarily a local and
   voluntary responsibility.

   Even so, New Dealer Rexford Tugwell later remarked that although no one
   would say so at the time, "practically the whole New Deal was
   extrapolated from programs that Hoover started."

   Unemployment rose to 24.9% by the end of Hoover's presidency in 1933,
   at the depth of the Great Depression.

1932 campaign

   Hoover addresses a large crowd in his 1932 campaign.
   Enlarge
   Hoover addresses a large crowd in his 1932 campaign.

   Hoover was nominated by the Republicans for a second term. In his nine
   major radio addresses Hoover primarily defended his administration and
   his philosophy. He realized he would lose. The apologia approach did
   not allow Hoover to refute Franklin Roosevelt's charge that he was
   personally responsible for the depression.

Bonus Army

   Thousands of World War I veterans and their families demonstrated and
   camped out in Washington, D.C., during June 1932, calling for immediate
   payment of a bonus that had been promised by the Adjusted Service
   Certificate Law for payment in 1924. Although offered money by Congress
   to return home, some members of the " Bonus army" remained. Washington
   police attempted to remove the demonstrators from their camp, but they
   were unsuccessful and the conflict grew. Hoover sent U.S. Army forces
   led by General Douglas MacArthur and aided by junior officers Dwight D.
   Eisenhower and George S. Patton to stop a march. MacArthur, believing
   he was fighting a communist revolution, chose to clear out the camp
   with military force. In the ensuing clash, hundreds of civilians were
   injured and several were killed. The incident was another negative for
   Hoover in the 1932 election.

Administration and Cabinet

   Hoover's official White House portrait
   Enlarge
   Hoover's official White House portrait
   OFFICE                    NAME                TERM
   President                 Herbert Hoover      1929–1933
   Vice President            Charles Curtis      1929–1933
   Secretary of State        Henry L. Stimson    1929–1933
   Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon       1929–1932
                             Ogden L. Mills      1932–1933
   Secretary of War          James W. Good       1929
                             Patrick J. Hurley   1929–1933
   Attorney General          William D. Mitchell 1929–1933
   Postmaster General        Walter F. Brown     1929–1933
   Secretary of the Navy     Charles F. Adams    1929–1933
   Secretary of the Interior Ray L. Wilbur       1929–1933
   Secretary of Agriculture  Arthur M. Hyde      1929–1933
   Secretary of Commerce     Robert P. Lamont    1929–1932
                             Roy D. Chapin       1932–1933
   Secretary of Labor        James J. Davis      1929–1930
                             William N. Doak     1930–1933

Supreme Court appointments

   Hoover appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the
   United States:
     * Charles Evans Hughes ( Chief Justice) – 1930
     * Owen Josephus Roberts – 1930
     * Benjamin Nathan Cardozo – 1932

Post World War II

   President John F. Kennedy meets with former President Hoover.
   Enlarge
   President John F. Kennedy meets with former President Hoover.

   Based on Hoover's previous experience with Germany at the end of World
   War I, in the winter of 1946 - 47 President Harry S. Truman selected
   Hoover to tour Germany in order to ascertain the food status of the
   occupied nation. Hoover toured what was to become West Germany in Field
   Marshall Herman Goering's old train coach and produced a number of
   reports sharply critical of U.S. occupation policy. The economy of
   Germany had "sunk to the lowest level in a hundred years". As the Cold
   War deepened, Hoover expressed reservations about some of the
   activities of the American Friends Service Committee, which he
   previously had strongly supported.

   On Hoover’s initiative, a school meals program in the U.S. and British
   occupation zones of Germany was begun on 14 April 1947. The program
   served 3.5 million children ages 6 through 18. A total of 40,000 tons
   of American food was made available during the Hooverspeisung (Hoover
   meals).

   In 1947, President Harry S. Truman appointed Hoover to a commission,
   which elected him chairman, to reorganize the executive departments.
   This became known as the Hoover Commission. He was appointed chairman
   of a similar commission by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953. Both
   found numerous inefficiencies and ways to reduce waste.

   In 1949, New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey offered Hoover the Senate
   seat vacated by Herbert Lehman. The former President declined, and the
   seat went to John Foster Dulles.

   Hoover died at the age of 90 in New York City at 11:35 a.m. on October
   20, 1964, 31 years and seven months after leaving office. He had
   outlived his wife by 20 years. By the time of his death, he had
   rehabilitated his image. He had the longest retirement of any
   President. (Gerald Ford as of 2006 has been out of office for 29
   years). Hoover and his wife are buried at the Herbert Hoover
   Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa. Hoover was
   honored with a state funeral, and it was America's third in a span of
   12 months following John F. Kennedy and Douglas MacArthur.

Heritage and memorials

   The Lou Henry and Herbert Hoover House, built in 1919 in Palo Alto,
   California, is now the official residence of the president of Stanford
   University, and a National Historic Landmark. Hoover's rustic rural
   presidential retreat, Rapidan Camp (also later known as Camp Hoover) in
   the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, has recently been restored
   and opened to the public. The Hoover Dam was also named in his honour.

Quotes

     * "True American Liberalism utterly denies the whole creed of
       socialism." The Challenge to Liberty, pg 57.
     * "A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage" - Presidential
       Campaign Slogan 1928
     * "I outlived the bastards" - answer to a question of how he managed
       to survive the long ostracism under the Roosevelt administration.
       (Hoover also outlived every member of his own Cabinet, as well as
       the Harding and Coolidge Cabinets).
     * "Once upon a time my political opponents honored me as possessing
       the fabulous intellectual and economic power by which I created a
       worldwide depression all by myself."
     * "Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and
       die."
     * "There are only two occasions when Americans respect privacy,
       especially in Presidents. Those are prayer and fishing."
     * "Wisdom oft times consists of knowing what to do next"
     * "Democracy is a harsh employer." - Comment to a former secretary in
       1936.
     * "The only trouble with capitalism is capitalists - they are too
       damn greedy."
     * "Forget this 'Great Depression' let's all go to Europe!"

Trivia

     * There is a square in downtown Leuven, Belgium, that is named after
       Hoover (Herbert Hooverplein). Along with the famous Ladeuzeplein
       where the Central Universitair Library is located, Herbert
       Hooverplein serves as the location of Leuven's famous yearly
       September Kermis and December Christmas Market.

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