Richard its taken actually from the title of a relatively famous hoover speech about the uncommon man. If you remember, Vice President henry wallace, who was the second of fdrs Vice President s, gave a famous speech in 1942, i believe, maybe 1943, about the century of the common man. And wallace, from a left of center perspective, was projecting, in effect, the goals and ambitions of the generation that was fighting world war ii. It wasnt enough simply to defeat the nazis, but to create at home a true democracy, a place where the common man would finally come into his own. And hoover approached this from a different place on the political spectrum. He was in effect making the case for what we might call a meritocracy. Some of these things, i should not paraphrase it, but when you get sick, you want an uncommonly skillful doctor. When we go to war, we want an uncommonly able general. You get the picture. The advances in society were brought about not by common, but by uncommon individuals. And then with hoover wit, he said i have never met an american parent who is proud to have their son or daughter called common. And it is an interesting, you know, its an interesting outlook. In any event, it seemed to me it applied to hoover more than anyone else. Hoover said, when all is said and done, accomplishment is all that matters. Which, when you think about it, it is a rather unsentimental the sort of thing you would expect an engineer to say. And that is one of the keys to understanding his life, his success in everything but the presidency. Brian as we continue our series on the presidency, go back to the beginning of Herbert Hoover. Where did he come from and where did it all start . Richard his life began in august 1874. His father was a blacksmith. , general grant was in the white house. His father was a blacksmith, jesse hoover. His mother hulda first of all, they were both quakers, which meant that she was an equal presence in the church, in the community, the home. She was a lay preacher, if you will. So religion was a significant part of his early days. He remembered and again, it seems to me such a window on his later shortcomings, if you will, as a politician in particular. He remembered as a boy sitting in the stark, cold, barren meetinghouse that the quakers used in west branch, and his feet did not even touch the floor. And along with all the adults, women on one side, men on the other, waiting for the divine light to illuminate his life, to move him to speak as it moved others in the congregation. And he also said something terribly poignant. He said he was 10 years old before he realized that he could do something for the sheer joy of it without offending the lord. When people wrote about the adult hoover being an enigma, an emotionally distant man, who was clearly movedery by the suffering, particularly of children in belgium and thereafter, they had trouble making the two hoovers blend. And in some ways, again, it was a preview. His strengths were the mirror side of his weaknesses. Brian what were his parents like and what happened to them . Richard well, he was orphaned at eight. Jesse died first. And hulda, i believe i want to say he may have been 10. In any event, he was put on a train with . 10 sewn into his underclothes and some homemade vittles, and sent to live with a quaker uncle in newberg, oregon. If you go today, you can see the Herbert Hoover boyhood home there. And there he was, in effect, trained to business. His uncle was a businessman. And bert, as he was known, went on to stanford. He was in the original class. In fact stanford became the closest thing to a home away from home. He would be a trustee for 50 years. He built his home there. Today, it is the University President s house. But any event, he loved stanford. He ran a business. He ran a laundry business and other businesses. He had an entrepreneurial streak in him. Studied geology and engineering. Met, fell in love with lou henry, also from iowa. A unique woman, in many ways. The first at stanford to earn a geology degree. They had this real partnership, they were intellectual equals. The best evidence of that is andey were married in 1899 the government of china had invited him to help develop that countrys mines. And they were they went, and they were promptly caught up in the boxer rebellion, the native forces against the westerners, who for too long had subjugated , had exploited a very weak china. In any event, they were in tienzen during the siege. And then these wonderful letters, lou, who was she was the perfect wife because she loved adventure. And to her, the boxer rebellion was an adventure. She writes letters home saying, youre missing one of the great sieges of the age. She also said later on she got up every morning and sweep the bullets off her front porch. They had two children, two sons. And lou designed you can see it at the library a cradle exclusively for use on board ocean liners. By the time herbert junior was eight years old, he had been around the world five times, which tells you what happened, was herbert began in nevada, and being hired by a London Mining firm at the age of 23 and sent to australia, found fabulous riches there for his employers, and then went to london. He had offices. By the time hes in his 30s, he is generally regarded as the worlds foremost mining engineer. He is living in london. And in fact, one of the things that would come back to haunt him throughout his political career, throughout his public life, were those among his own countrymen, nativists, who believed that he was not sufficiently american. That he was somehow really british. It is reminiscent of some of the allegations made against barack obama when he ran for president. In any event, hoover is 40 years old in 1914, living in london as i say, hugely successful, restless. As i said, he was a member of the society of friends, a quaker. And he had a quaker conscience. And he was bored with making money. Several millionaire, times over, and he was not terribly impressed with wealth. And so, in 1914, at the outbreak of world war i, he was very receptive when he was approached by some fellow engineers. The first crisis of the war was something approaching 120,000 american travelers who were in europe at the time the war broke out, who managed to make their way to london. But then they had to get home. And hoover agreed to, in effect, leave this group. They put up their own funds at times, that managed to organize transportation to get all of these people out of the war zone, to get them home. And the thing to remember about it is, for all the checks he wrote, and he wrote a lot of checks, he said later on, only 500 was not repaid, which was a fraction. And it taught him a lesson, for better or worse, which is the foundation on which everything that follows rests. He had an unlimited faith in the generosity, the basic goodness, and the trustworthiness of the American People. And that is important because subsequently, within a matter of weeks, he was approached about taking on an enormous task, something never before attempted, something that no one could really put their arms around, because it was unprecedented. Belgium had been invaded by the germans. Basically, it was out of the war, and there was 7. 5 Million People in belgium who faced starvation at one point who was told they were down to five days of food supply. In addition, there was a corner of france. Anyway, between the two, there were 10 Million People who confronted the real specter of starving to death. In the face of that, hoover was hisd to, in effect, abandon career for however long the war lasted and undertake the organization of what i call an independent republic of relief. No one had any idea of the dimensions of the task. They learned that the hard way. But eventually, something called the commission for the relief of belgium, or the crb. And remember, britain was locating europe and then germany. The germans to not want to feed the belgians. The british were shocked anyone asked them to feed the belgians, who after all had been invaded by the germans. What hoover was doing, or attempting to do, had never been done before. In the end, it was a fouryear effort that cost over 1 billion. When 1 billion was a real money. Was real money. Most of it was raised, some of it provided by warring governments. But he kept the belgians alive. One of the things and there are so many stories. Toldng as he lived he belgium stories. That was a period of pure unadulterated accomplishment and idealism. Lou, for example, his partner, undertook to save the belgium lace industry. Again, they were always trying to raise funds, so basically she saw to it there were these surreptitious factories, if you will, people who were making, spinning, belgian lace, which would be smuggled out of the country. People would wrap themselves in this lace under their clothes. The story is everything. It is a spy story, a humanitarian story, it is a political and diplomatic story. Hoover was not very diplomatic , by nature. The interesting thing is lou said later on he was never the same after belgium, that what he saw, particularly the children. Remember he was orphaned. All his life, he was not naturally gifted in social interaction, but with children, it was a different person. Belgium stamped him, for better or worse. And the other remarkable thing, and again building on what we said earlier, it was all voluntary. He appealed to the American People. He said to the American People, if you tell them what you need, they will give you the shirt off their backs. And there is you go to west branch, the records are there. It is a remarkable story. I mean, there was one group, i think they were the kansas club of new york who were going to build a clubhouse. Instead of building themselves a clubhouse, they gave hoover the 500,000 that they had raised. That was repeated over and over again. And again at this point, the United States wasnt in the war. But that reinforced hoovers belief that all his life he was working for a third way, between laissezfaire capitalism, which he abhorred, and socialism, which he dreaded. And he came up with this it is a terribly clunky term, associational what was it . Voluntary association. The idea that without government coercion, without legislative edict, you could approach, you could reach americans at the grassroots through churches, through community chests, through the red cross, through a whole host of volunteer organizations. That that was the backbone of america. That was the strength of america. That was what gave voice to american ideals. And that was great. And it worked. And then Woodrow Wilson asked hoover to come home. He had become a phenomenon, as you might imagine. Wilson had trusted him with something called the American Food administration. And he is it is all voluntary. There are no ration cards in world war i. He uses propaganda. He uses public relations. This new, embryonic science, to reach people, and touch people, and motivate people to respond to his appeals. So there were meatless mondays, and there were wheatless wednesdays. Not every campaign worked. There was a campaign, buy a pig. You know, a properly cared for pig is as sanitary as anything else. Well, the suburbs do not rise up and embrace that. Steak was adapted to many diets. Ofarless gum is a byproduct the food administration. Again, the idea was that the American People would grow more, save more, and together they would basically feed their allies across the sea. The problem with that, there is two problems with that. Again, it confirmed hoover in his belief, which by now was a bedrock conviction, that whatever the problem, you did not need a government solution, you just needed to organize i mean, hoover always said the test of a democracy is that it is organized from the ground up, not dictated from the top down. And again, people responded, it confirmed him in his faith. Economically the problem the legacy was farmers grew more addicted they became to foreign surplus purchases overseas, and of course in the 1920s, no more war, no more european markets, and there is a slump. So, there was an agricultural depression in america long before 1929. And that was one of the things that bedeviled president s throughout the period. Hoover and Woodrow Wilson became what passes for close with either man. Each in his own way was almost too rational, too cerebral for the political process. They were both at versailles, wilson, and hoover was part of the delegation. And later on, years later, hoover did something no american president had ever done, and the record stood until george w. Bush wrote about his dad. Hoover was the only american president to write a book about another american president. He wrote a book called the ordeal of Woodrow Wilson, which was very sympathetic and a best seller. Hoover wrote two dozen books. That was the only one on the bestseller list. But it is a fascinating and what it is in wilson that clearly appeals to hoover, it is useful to know in terms of predicting many of the problems that hoover would experience in the white house. Brian who asks him to be commerce secretary and how long was he there and what impact did he have . Richard it is interesting. The Harding AdministrationWarren Harding, rather touchingly, aware of his own limitations, set out to recruit a cabinet of the best men. So, i mean, Charles Evans hughes became secretary of state. And he asked hoover, and basically gave hoover a choice. And hoover picked the commerce department, which in those days was perhaps the least Important Department in the cabinet. Well, of course, hoover being hoover, soon there were cartoons to portray hoover as secretary of commerce and undersecretary of everything else. And he did ruffle a lot of feathers. Because he used well, he created something out of what was there. The federal radio commission. Radio is regulated because hoover started it. The forerunner of the fcc. And from the outset, he was certain he did not want a bbc type arrangement. He did not want he wanted government to regulate the industry, but he did not want government to run the industry. With enormous repercussions ever since. The first airfield in washington was hoover, hoover field, over on the where the pentagon is now. He took he wrote zoning regulations that could be adapted all over the country. He promoted the construction of new housing with standardized products. I mean, sounds kind of dull, but the fact is something hoover was an engineer, he thought like an engineer, he ate like an engineer. In the white house, it was famous, no state dinner could last more than 60 minutes. And he once ate five courses in 13 minutes. He, in the 1920s, he called his son into his office one day, his son he was Herbert Clark hoover, and his son was Herbert Clark hoover, jr. , and he asked him, would you mind dropping your middle initial . He said why . He said, because it took him so long to write out his name. They could save you have got to get yourself inside that kind of brain in order to understand both hoovers accomplishments and his limitations. Brian how long was he commerce secretary . Richard he was commerce secretary for eight years. Almost eight years. At the tail end. Seven and a half years. Under harding and coolidge. This is a very poignant scene and, you know, who knows what might have been. Harding had Great Respect for hoover. He never [laughter] he said, you do not write the same gd english that i do. I am not sure that that is an insult, but anyway, but he had Great Respect for hoover. One thing i have mentioned, both parties in 1920 floated with the idea of nominating hoover. Wilson told his brotherinlaw, that if it was left to him, he choose as his successor Herbert Hoover. And hoover talked to some democrats in 1920, but he decided he was a bull moose republican, a Teddy Roosevelt progressive republican. He was no stand pattern. His problem with the party throughout the 1920s and his presidency was from the right wing of the party that never really trusted him. And a lot of them were isolationists too. They held his cosmopolitan background against him. But anyway, he accompanied harding on the crosscountry voyage of understanding to alaska, where harding fell ill. And then they returned to san francisco. And it is funny, Hoover Harding pressed Hoover Harding was clearly oppressed by something, and he could not get it off his chest. And so he could not sleep. And so he played bridge endlessly, game after game of bridge. And it is funny, hoover, who loved cards and was a mean canasta player, permanently lost his taste for bridge, never played bridge again after harding died because that trip had worn out his tolerance for the game, but also because of the tragic consequences of the trip. Harding asked him at one point, cryptically, if you knew of some great scandal within the administration, what would you do . And hoovers advice was to go public with it. You would at least get credit for exposing the wrongdoers. And harding did not bring up the subject again, but it was very clear to hoover that teapot dome and the other harding scandals had broken through. And were, you know he said later on, people dont die of broken hearts, but people can get exhausted and be vulnerable to heart attacks because of profound disappointment. And clearly Warren Harding was disappointed. The other the completion of that story, harding died in august 1923, coolidge becomes president. He retains hoover. They dont have the same chemistry that harding did. Coolidge was as suspicious of activity as hoover was unwilling to be inactive. And plus i think coolidge sensed hoovers ambition. And yet, it is interesting, when the mississippi overflowed, what to this day by some measurements is still the greatest Natural Disaster in American History, 1927, a flood covered thousands and thousands of square miles in the south, there was no government agency. There was no expectation the government would respond in any way. There was