Happy birthday to Herbert Hoover (8/10)

[Terabith]

Happy birthday to Herbert Hoover! (8/10)

 

Herbert Hoover was orphaned at the age of nine. After this, he spent a few years living on an Indian reservation with an uncle who was an Indian agent. Hoover learned to hunt and survive in the wilderness from the Native American children. He grew up a devout Quaker, although the uncle that he spent several years living with after his parents died liked to rephrase Bible verses to say such things as, “Turn your cheek once, but if he smites thee again, then punch him.” This is, shall we say, not aligned with either the teachings of Jesus or the Quakers.

 

Despite a childhood of hardships, Hoover put himself through Stanford, where he studied geology and engineering, although he got fairly poor grades and devoted most of his time to part time jobs and campus activities. He was a millionaire by the age of 40. Hoover’s personal slogan was, “Work is life.” He didn’t really seek power or even wealth. He just really, really liked to work. He didn’t believe in taking vacations, and when he wasn’t working, he was antsy and uncomfortable. He said hobbies were a waste of time that could be spent working. He built a mining empire and made a ton of money.

 

After making his fortune, Hoover decided to turn his obsessive work like nature to the job of humanitarian aid. When World War I started, he spearheaded a private effort to rescue 120,000 American tourists stranded in Europe. After that, he was asked to coordinate American efforts to relieve food to neutral Belgium to save starving Europeans. Hoover ran the American Relief Administration, which fed millions of people. Between 1921 and 1923, Hoover directed aid to a famine stricken Soviet Union, where he fed fifteen million people daily. When criticized for aiding communism, Hoover said, “Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!”

 

At one point, Hoover was tasked with meeting with German commanders in the middle of the war to negotiate bringing aid to American troops who were being held as prisoners of war. And apparently the traditional way of negotiating involved drinking a ton of booze. Hoover was crafty, however, and decided to turn that booze into a negotiating strategy. He told the bartender to only pour water into the American’s martinis, and to make sure nobody got the drinks mixed up, he had the American drinks all be served with an onion garnish. As the evening went on, the Germans got drunker from all the gin and got sloppier, and the Americans negotiated brilliantly. Interestingly, the Gibson martini, named after the general who was in on the negotiating party, became a real hit in the United States.

 

When Coolidge decided he wouldn’t run for re-election in 1928, Hoover decided the office of president might be just enough work to be up for his taste and efficiently, allow him to do the most good for the most people.

 

It really wasn’t his fault that the stock market crashed seven months into his presidency, kicking off the Great Depression. Hoover had even warned people about the dangers of the stock market during his inaugural address. However, once the stock market collapsed, Hoover made bad decision after bad decision, which exacerbated the crisis. Turns out maybe the presidency isn’t an entry level job after all? (Hoover had served admirably as Secretary of Commerce under both Presidents Coolidge and Harding, but had never run for political office himself. He quickly distinguished himself while running against Democrat Al Smith by creating one of the best slogans in presidential history, even if it became ironic in light of the Depression: “a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.”)

 

Hoover’s only real diversion from the constant economic crisis caused by the Depression while he was president was the sport he invented called “Hooverball.” In this game, players stand on opposite sides of a tall net throwing and catching a ball, only instead of using a soft, bouncy volleyball, Hoover would hurl a ten pound medicine ball at the other team, how has to either catch or get hit by that same ball when they threw it back. One of Hoover’s friends described it as “more strenuous than either boxing, wrestling, or football.” He played it virtually every day.

 

After World War Two, President Truman asked Hoover to again work to prevent global famine. Hoover, the president who was accused of causing the Great Depression, was such a great humanitarian that he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times.

 

It is said that, “Hoover fed more people and saved more lives than any man in history.”

 

But what he should be remembered for is the fact that he was so uncomfortable with the notion of staff in the White House that he ordered them to be invisible. He didn’t ever want to see any staff, which led them to constantly jump into closets or hide behind bushes if they heard him coming. There were even bells that were rung to warn the staff to hide. The truly ridiculous thing is that when FDR took over after Hoover, he didn’t change this policy. It wasn’t until Harry Truman asked why the devil people were hurling themselves into closets and behind couches that the White House staff were allowed to come out of hiding. (The poor White House staff had to deal first with President Coolidge’s weird pranks of ringing the emergency bell and then hiding and then President Hoover’s bizarre sense of privacy.)

 

Hoover and his wife would speak in Mandarin to prevent other people from understanding what they overheard. Herbert Hoover’s wife, Lou Hoover, spoke eight languages. The two of them met at Stanford, where Lou was the only female geology major.

 

After Truman’s presidency, a presidential pension was created. Hoover didn’t need it, being a millionaire many times over, but he accepted the pension even though he had never taken a salary so that Harry Truman, who was poor and needed the pension, would feel better about accepting it.

[kbutton]

I think he is one of our more interesting presidents--every time I read something about him, I learn something new. Thanks!

[Beth S]

Thanks, once again @Terabith! 
Now I know much more about HH.  👍

[Corraleno]

I love your presidential posts and have learned so much!