Herbert Hoover

“Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt” – Herbert Hoover.

Some individuals seem to have a knack for just

getting missed by history despite their significant importance to it. One such

individual often overlooked and forgotten by the history books is Herbert Clark

Hoover who, although little remembered outside of the historical community, had

a huge impact both domestically and abroad.

Herbert Hoover was born 10 August 1874 in West

Branch, Iowa. While he was still young, his family moved to Oregon and after a

fairly typical childhood, he graduated from George Fox University and Stanford

University. Herbert Hoover had several jobs in his life before the one that

would make him most famous; having worked as a businessman, an engineer and a

politician, Herbert Hoover would eventually rise to become the 31st president

of the United States.

Prior to his ascension to the White House, Herbert Hoover was tapped to become the senior manager of the Commission for Relief in Belgium. The Commission for Relief in Belgium was founded after World War I as an international agency dedicated to helping provide food supplies and other important equipment to the occupied people of Belgium during World War I. It was partly because of his excellent work in this position that he was later appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to head the Food Administration.

His work with food was not yet over though as Herbert

Hoover also led the American Relief Administration which was dedicated to

helping bring relief supplies, food, and other aid to Central and Eastern

Europeans after the war.

It was his outstanding humanitarianism and a

long history of helping to serve others that made Herbert Hoover a powerful

political force in his day and although he was not successful in getting the

Republican nomination in the presidential election of 1920, he did get himself

appointed as the Secretary of Commerce working under President Warren G.

Harding as well as Calvin Coolidge. He even gained the title of Secretary of

Commerce and Undersecretary of all other departments due to his incredible

energy and active participation in every realm of the executive branch.

His humanitarianism during the Great

Mississippi flood of 1927 continued to build his public persona and the

dividends paid off as he was elected the Republican Party’s nominee in 1928 and

he would go on to defeat the rival Democratic candidate Al Smith. The future

seemed bright for Herbert Hoover, however, there was a problem brewing on the

horizon that few saw coming and that was the collapse of the American, and

world, economies triggering what is known as the Great Depression.

Although the collapse happened shortly after

his ascension to the presidency, his name became irreconcilably linked to the

issue. Hoover utilized a variety of public policies, executive authority, and

his own political persuasiveness to help float the economy and keep it from

sinking. He did not believe that the federal government had a duty to meddle

directly in the affairs of the relief effort, fearing that individuals might

become dependent on the government for their needs and lose their own autonomy.

He did begin many of the great works projects

that were continued by his successor including the building of Hoover Dam,

originally known as Boulder Dam, which was at the time the largest single dam

in the world. Despite his attempts at public works projects and his political...