The Great Humanitarian

Re-evaluating Herbert Hoover

This is mostly excerpted from my book There Never Was…Democracy Freedom Justice. Suggesting in the title is only partially true, I do attempt to re-examine some of the notions that he did nothing to end the great depression, and to suggest it could have been a normal panic of two to four years, and that by 1930 stats suggest a recovery was beginning. Then he paid his debt to those who supported him becoming a president. I think that was the precipitator what became our longest depression.

Herbert Hoover, and perhaps Jimmy Carter, may be our most historically abused presidents. . Before becoming president he was one of the most beloved men to ever become president. Yes, he did believe people should be able to work hard and succeed in life as he had done. But contrary to common discourse, he never thought people didn’t need any help. Thus he was thought of as the great humanitarian. Yes, in his inaugural days as president he promised a continued prosperity of Harding-Coolidge years. And in those days he was still dealing with cleaning up the mess of Teapot Dome. But he managed to stay untouched in any of the multiple corruption scandals amongst Harding’s cabinet. Primarily a lifelong democrat, he became nationally prominent in the Wilson years. He had pushed for the minimum wage, and higher taxes on those who had been profiting from the war economy,  he supported most of the progressive labor policies that took place during those years. He was a vociferous critic of Palmer and his strike breaking tactics as well, which brought him a lot of national attention. In 1920 he had a lot of appeal to the progressives in both parties (and there were quite a lot of progressive Republicans within the party at the time). As the 1920’s approached he attempted to be unaffiliated in hopes either party might draft him at their convention. But Wilson’s unpopularity over the League of Nations (which Hoover has supported) and the post-war economic downtown (for laborers and farmers) led him to see no hope for their success in the coming election. He decided to declare as a Republican, but his hopes fizzled when Hiram Johnson, the ultra-right California senator defeated him and was selected as California’s favorite son (yes, Teddy Roosevelt had chosen him as his v-p choice for his 3rd party run in 1912 that allowed Wilson to win the presidency in the first place), who had been such a thorn in Wilson’s side. Some view him as a liberal in his early years but if so he was extremely isolationist and even though he initially would support FDR he opposed him by ‘36 and his economic reforms.

But in ‘20, Hoover supported the relatively unknown Harding as the party’s compromise candidate was rewarded by an offer of a cabinet post. Harding offered him either interior or commerce. Hoover’s republican bonafides were questioned by the senate so Harding decided to make a “paired” nomination offering, Hoover for Commerce and Andrew Mellon for treasurer and together the package was approved. Hoover would remain for eight years throughout the end of Coolidge’s presidency. As Commerce secretary he became quite popular, navigating between unrestrained capitalism and strong support for labor. He saw capitalism as necessary for economic growth but also thought labor was essential for producing that growth. As the commerce secretary he gained the unofficial title as Secretary of Commerce and the Under-Secretary of all other departments. He demanded and received authority from Harding to coordinate commerce throughout all of the executive departments so he had a say in shaping the entire administration. He led the way in promoting local governments to support infrastructure programs to ease the employment from the economic downtown the Harding administration had inherited. He also convinced Harding to institute a national commission on unemployment and one notable thing from the ‘20’s was that unemployment at times dropped to as low as 3.2%. And he attempted to override Mellon’s tax cuts to be much more progressive and opposed Mellon’s elimination of the estate tax. He became heavily influential in the development and regulation of two new industries–radio and air travel. He encouraged crop dusting to help farmers fight blight and become more productive, He also set the groundwork for the FAA by demanding pilots to be licensed and planes to be federally inspected. He was instrumental in getting the Radio Act passed that allowed federal oversight and regulation and promoted establishing the radio commission (to become the FCC) to be able to enforce politically balance (not yet equal time) to political opponents and parties, understanding that the reach of radio could far exceed newspapers and turn political dialogue into demagoguery or confusion. If you favor federal regulatory powers, then Herbert Hoover is your man. He also was decidedly instrumental in establishing model traffic regulations across the country to reduce fatalities, the building of roads (both state and federal) to be better suited for both vehicle and human safety and establishing the Model Municipal Traffic Ordinance and the Model Uniform Vehicle Code.

But he also used his power to begin government reportings, How much steel is being produced, etc, etc. He was instrumental in standardizing products from baby bottle nipples (another rather new innovation) to automobile tires. He made Hollywood the movie capital of the world by promoting Hollywood films worldwide and made trade deals that somehow always seemed to favor Americans, like the rubber shortage when Britain tried to control the Malaysian rubber market he was able to negotiate a favorable treaty for American rubber manufacturers. . He also more or less created an environment of product availability throughout the year by attempting to influence management techniques to avoid seasonal fluctuations.

When the Great Mississippi Flood occurred in 1927, six governors of the flooded areas asked Coolidge to allow Hoover to coordinate relief efforts for the one and a half million displaced people. There was no FEMA at the time, nevertheless Hoover acted as if there were, and even though Coolidge initially rejected the idea as beyond federal jurisdiction, Hoover went ahead and raised what would probably be close to $300 million dollars in today’s money to build tent cities and have food trucked in. As the ‘28 election approached, Hoover was arguably the most beloved American and the obvious presidential choice. As soon as Coolidge said he was not going to seek another term, Hoover threw his hat in the ring. Coolidge, however, didn’t agree and said something like “that man has given me nothing but trouble for six years and thinks more about helping everyone but business.” Although the extremely pro-business Republicans were opposed, no suitable opponent seemed available en though many forecast a Hoover presidency would slow the unfettered growth and he might attempt to do to them what he had done with the steel industry. Despite the court having overruled regulating hours of work, he pretty much threatened the industry that if they didn’t grant an eight-hour workday by contract to their workers that he might use emergency powers to take them over. (Truman would later do such a thing and the court told him he couldn’t). But Hoover’s bully whip was stronger than Truman’s direct action.

Another accomplishment, popular, but one that backfired when the depression broke out was to encourage savings and loans to adopt a new policy, the “long-term mortgage” to allow people to buy homes and spread out payments over 20 years. Of course that enabled the housing construction business to boom and real estate moguls like a guy in New York City named Fred Trump to begin building houses in 1926. But Hoover went around preaching a motto that everyone was entitled to their own home. So Hoover was a shoo-in for the nomination and won on the first ballot, not an easy accomplishment in an era where favorites very seldom nominated and compromise candidates had to be sought that no one knew enough about to be objectionable 

But now we must pause all the praise. In order to win the election Hoover did, in my estimation, some pretty nasty things. He promised to maintain prohibition for the midwesterners, where the northeasterner, Al Smith, wanted to end it which lost him the midwestern vote (he was also Catholic). Hoover also wanted the southern lily white democratic vote and made a deal with them to help suppress the black Republican vote if the democratic south would vote for him.

That insured him a landslide with five democratic states in the south going republican. Some have claimed that he began that effort during the flood rescue by not aiding the black victims equally and suppressing it, and by colluding with some prominent black leaders to keep it from the press with promised administrative favors to them should he become president. I don’t know, but it could be. The press of the time didn’t report it (but who would have cared, at the time, if it had?) and those black leaders denied it. But then he did win those states. But that could have been because his relief efforts in those states were so successful and they were grateful—you decide.

Now let’s talk about his idea for the American future and not let’s worry too much about his “business as usual promises” of the campaign. He did not win because of that, but because many thought it would not be a continuation of the Harding-Coolidge. Yes he favored volunteerism over government relief. It had been very successful in bringing him to his first notoriety in providing relief for the Belgians after their valiant stand against the Germans in the war that had devastated the country. It worked again during the flood of ‘27 relief effort. People still send disaster relief funds to people during natural disasters here, and also elsewhere. If I were to take a stand on the issue I would say Hoover is right because people do give to disaster relief. Disasters arouse sympathies within people’s bosom and compassions that transcend normal antagonism. Of course the question is always, is it enough? We don’t think it is a very reliable effort anymore. And we don’t largely because of the crash that was about to happen and because volunteerism didn’t seem to work then, and the failure has been repeated so often ever since that belief is what prolonged the depression. As I said, I don’t know if it is enough, but I’m pretty sure that is not the cause of the depression’s prolonged life.

What is missed in the discussion is that while Hoover was pro-business, he believed strongly that business should be responsive to human needs and that the government did have a role , when the businesses did not. But he used the pulpit as much as regulations, however,  to encourage business to do the right thing. He was not opposed to regulations by the government, but not only was it unclear at that time how much regulation over business that the government could do (certainly SCOTUS said almost none), but I think Hoover placed much more faith in businesses being able to show more compassion towards their laborers than I have very seldom seen  them illustrate. But he did have humanitarian principles, and he did believe that people could and should unify for the betterment of all. But many of his accomplishments at commerce had been accomplished by organizing committees that would attempt to show business and state and local governments how they could benefit themselves by behaving more altruistically towards others. But he was not above using regulations or laws when he deemed it necessary.

So exactly what happened? Hoover approached the presidency with great optimism that business would continue to grow and that their growth would encourage them to welcome sharing that growth. It’s hard to say how much the actual producers, the laborers and farmers were optimistic upon his ascendancy. . But the editorials were about as unanimously positive as they’ve even been. They seemed to believe he would be the man who would maintain business growth, and stabilize the farm economy, and help labor. An awful lot on one’s man plate. And even though there had been some grumblings by financiers the market spiked upwardly to an even greater degree. And he had begun to take some actions even before the crash. He’d already established the Federal Farm Board to study a way to stabilize farm prices to prevent market fluctuations and to increase farmer’s share and to make the cycle of debt that farmers incurred in order to produce food, end up more in their favor. And if we read the latter half of his inauguration speech, the part after the promise to maintain market growth, we get to the part that hit home with a young Texan named Lyndon Baines Johnson and that gave him optimism. He was returning about this time from being a laborer in California to work his way through college. He was really given hope by the second part, the part that poverty in America would end, that inequality would end, and that new technologies were going to allow everyone to advance equally in prosperity.

The story is that Hoover did nothing to try to end the depression, that he fiddled while America burned. Well he attempted quite a lot actually. One of the first things he did was suggest to his advisors the need for a bank holiday. Unfortunately they all said it would be unconstitutional.

Roosevelt did do it and the courts said he didn’t have the authority. But a little too late in the game because Roosevelt had already done it. Hoover got congress to fund a hundred million dollars for farm lending and purchases to prevent deflation. He called in the railroads and the public utility companies and convinced them to unilaterally invest in expanded maintenance and construction projects that hired a lot of people and resulted in a big drop in the unemployment.rate and he more or less ordered the FED to drop interest rates to practically nothing, It seemed to be working. He got bold enough to suggest a pension to everyone over 65 of $50 but it went nowhere. Nevertheless, the economy was on the recovery by 1930, people were returning to work, prices were maintained and many of the losses from the crash were being regained. Banks had become solid enough to refinance projects, and prices were maintained on a steady line neither going up nor down. Why is none of this written about?

Well, because Congress passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in June. Hoover had favored tariffs on food. Europe now had recovered from their own food shortages by then and Canadian-American food supply connection should not have been altered drastically. This had been on the cards even during his campaign to stabilize American food prices and also enable farmers a greater share of the food market. But Smoot-Hawley raised tariffs on everything.

Economists almost across the board said it was wrong-headed and would end the recovery. The progressives in the Republican party were outraged when Hoover signed it and they failed to support almost anything might have wanted to do after that,forcing him to rely only on the more conservative portion. Hoover didn’t want the bill anymore than the economists or the progressives. But I doubt he quite expected the doom some had forecast. While there might have been a nearly veto proof house, the senate was heavily divided and only 39 of a strong majority of republicans voted in favor, but 5 democrats joined and it passed by two votes. This is the beginning of the great depression, not the stock market crash of ‘29, as commonly promulgated. It was the highest tariff bill since the Abominable Tariff of 1828. Canada and Europe retaliated and international trade ceased. Within a year, both imports and exports decreased by ⅔. The crash was now international and in Germany the economic recovery that had almost wiped out the Nazi party in their last election were able to gain enough momentum to begin their takeover two years later. The die was cast ,and Rubicon crossed into depression and just as the ‘28 tariff finalized the descent that led us into the civil war, Smoot-Hawley led directly to WWII.

After that there was not too much that could be done. It took seven years to even begin the recovery The remaining three of Hoover’s and the first four of Roosevelt’s. No business was going to be cajoled into cooperating with the government now. There was another decline, and then stagnation in the market. Large businesses held their own, but they weren’t going to hire. The dust storms pummeled the midwest and farmers, totally absorbed by debt couldn’t feed themselves, let alone anyone else so they fled west where they could, and the Hoover Dam would provide enough water to make the western desert a new flourishing farmbelt. Hoover would say he signed the bill because he felt he couldn’t veto the first legislation of the 71st congress. That’s false. We’ve just talked about a lot that they had already passed. When Herbert Hoover decided he was announcing for president two very powerful leaders in congress rallied behind him and discouraged competitors and paved his way to the easy party nomination. One was the head of the senate finance committee, the other the head of the house ways and means committee. I remember that even in my youth, the one house member’s name everyone knew, even if they didn’t know the speaker, they knew the chair of ways and means. He was in the press more than anyone but the presidents themselves Well those two men who had enabled Mr. Herbert Hoover, Mr. Great Humanitaria into the presidency, those two men kind of owned Mr. Herbert Hoover, and those two men’s names were Reed Smoot and Willis Hawley. Do you get the connection? The Smoot-Hawley Act, Reed Smoot, Willis Hawley. Kingmakers of getting Mr. Herbert Hoover into the White House. A bill Mr. Herbert Hoover had been told by almost every economist would be disastrous, a man who should have been the voice of progressive Republicans, except that a couple of them wanted to be president themselves, but a man who was made president by a couple of the non-progressives who really should have opposed him, but adopted him instead. So yes Hoover, the Great Humanitarian, the man who should have been one of our greatest progressive presidents, that man bought his presidency by selling his soul to Reed Smoot and Willis Hawley. And the price for his soul was not just the great depression but world war two. So yes he should be blamed for the depression, he should also be blamed for Adolph Hitler and the second world war and he deserves all of the low esteem his presidency earned him. Just not for the reasons he is accused of. He was not a Harding-Coolidge clone, po-business, uncaring person. He just sold himself to become president. He sold his humanitarianism to the southern democrats to get their support and he sold his entire life’s work and reputation to Smoot and Hawley to become president. I guess he thought he could still rise above it and accomplish what he had promised in his inaugural. But of course he didn’t see Black Tuesday coming and he didn’t realize his payment would be due under the economic turmoil when his debt was called in.

But it was worse than that. The 1930’s. We all learned in school about the leftists labor agitation of the 30’s.  An agitation that began much earlier from the closing days of another failed promise to American blacks after the civil war, a disastrous failure both during and after reconstruction, and the failure to every laborer and midwestern farmer who had fought to get their own freedom from bondage as much as the slaves. But during the depression it came to a head. The divide now was not between north and south. The divide was between the worker, between the laborers who produced the goods to enrich their owners, the now totally dominant masterclass of the industrialists who no longer had to defend their own brand of slavery and the producers of food. Those who owned the land and fed those same owners who took for themselves more and more of  their profit.