This week on q a, president ial historian Richard Norton smith. He discusses his book an uncommon man the triumph of Herbert Hoover. Richard norton smith, why did you call your book that you wrote 35 years ago uncommon man . 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 the fdrs game a speech about the common man and wallace from the leftist Center Perspective was projecting in effect the goals and ambitions of the generation that was fighting world war ii, and it wasnt 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 in the political spectrum, and he was in effect making the case for what we might call amerit ameritaucracy. When you get sick you want a doctor, when you go to war you want an able general. You get the picture. The advances in society were brought about not by common but uncommon individuals. And it was hoover whit. He said ive never met an american parent who is proud to have their son ordaught daughte called common. And, you know, its an interesting outlook. So in any event, it seemed to me that it applied to hoover more than anyone else. Hoover said when all is said and done accomplishment is all that matters, which when you stop to think about it is a rather unsentimental, the sort of thing you would expect an engineer to say, and thats one of the keys to understanding his life, his success in everything but the presidency. As we continue our series on the presidency, go back to the beginning of her beginning of Herbert Hoover. His life began in august 1874. General grant was in the white house. His father was a blacksmith, jesse hoover. His mother, they were both quakers, which meant she was an equal presence in the church, in the community, in the home. She was a wife preacher if you will, so religion was a significant part of his early days, and again it seems to me such a window on his later comings if you will as a politician in particular. He remembered as a boy sitting in the stark, cold, barren, Meeting House that the quakers used in west branch, and his feet didnt 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 i think 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 ward. When people wrote about the adult hoover being an enigma, an emotionally distant man who was nevertheless clearly very moved by the suffering particularly of children in belgium and thereafter, they had trouble making the two hoovers blend. And in some ways, again, its a preview of his strengths or the mirror side of his weaknesses. What were his parents like and what happened to them . Well, he wass orphaned at 8. Jesse died first, and hoover i believe i want to say he may have been 10. In any event he was put on a train with 10 cents sewn into his underclothes and homemade vittles and sent to organ to an uncle. And there he was in effect trained to business. Hisal was a businessman, and burt as he was known went onto stanford. He was in the original class. In fact, stanford became probably the closest thing to a home away from home. He would be a trustee for over 50 years. He built his home there. Today its the University President s house. But in any event he loved stanford, and he ran a business, he ran a laundry business, or the businesses. So he had this entrepreneurial streak in him, studied engineering met lou henry also from iowa, a unique woman in many ways, the first at stanford to earn a geology degree. So they had this real special partnership from the beginning. They were intellectual equal and the besteds of that is they were married in 1899, and the government of china had invited him to help develop that countrys minds, and they went, they sailed their honeymoon and they were promptly caught up in the box of rebellion, which is the up rising of native forces against the westerners who for too long had in effect subjugated and exploited a very weak china. In any event they were there during the siege and there were these wonderful letters, and she was the perfect wife because she loved adventure. And to her the box of 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 swept it bullets off her front porch. They had two children, two sons. And lou designed you can see it at the library in west branch, lou designed a cradle specifically for use onboard ocean liners. By the time Herbert Hoover was 8 years old hed been around the world five times. Hoover began in nevada and then 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 hes generally reknowned as the worlds foremost engineer. In fact one of things that would come back to haunt him throughout his public career, throughout his public life were those among his own countrymen, nativists who did not believe he was sufficiently american, that he was somehow really british. Its reminiscent of some of the allegations made against barack obama when he ran for president. In any event hoover was 40 years old in 1914, living in london and hugely successful, and restless. As i said he was a member of society of friends, a quaker and he had a quaker conscience, and he was bored of just making money. 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 approaching 120,000 american travelers who were in europe at the time war broke out who managed to make their way to london and hoover agreed to in effect lead this group that put up their own funds at times that managed to get all these people through the war zone. For all the checks he wrote and he wrote a lot of checks he said later on like 500 wasnt repaid, which was a fraction, and it taught him a lesson for better or worse, which is the foundation everything that follows rests. He had an unlimited faith in the generosity, the basic goodness and the trustworthiness of the American People, and thats 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 earlier in the war by the germans. Basically it was out of the war. There was 7. 5 Million People at belgium who faced starvation. At one point who was told they were down to about five days food supply. In addition there was a corner of france anyway, between the two there are 10 Million People who confronted the real specter of starving to death. And in the face of that hoover was asked to, in effect, abandon his 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 blockading europe and germany. The germans didnt 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 a billion dollars. Billion dollars was real money. Much of it voluntarily raised and some of it provided by warring governments. But it kept the belgians alive. One of the things there are so many stories. As long as he lived he told belgian stories. That was a period of pure unadulterated accomplishment. And mean lou, for example, his partner undertook to save the belgian waste industry, and again they were always trying to raise funds. So basically she saw to it there were these surreptitious factories, if you will, people spending belgian lace that would be smuggled out of the country. People would wrap themselves in this lace under their clothes. This story has everything. Its a spy story, a humanitarian story, 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 belgian. Remember he was an orphan and all his life there was something about hoover he was not actually gifted in social interaction. But with children there was a different person. And belgium stamped him for better or worse and the other remarkable thing 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 shirts off their backs. And you go to westbranch, the records are there, it is to the remarkable story i think there was the kansas group of new york who were going to build a clubhouse. And instead of building a clubhouse they gave hoover the 500,000 they had raised, and that was repeated over and over again. At this point the United States wasnt in the war. They had but, again that reinforced hoovers belief that all his life he was looking for a third way between lassez faire capitalism and its a very hooveresque term, what was it, voluntary association. The idea that without government coercion, without legislative edict you could approach you could reach americans at the grass roots through churches through community chests, through red cross, through a whole host of volunteer organizations, but that was the backbone of america, that was the have strength of america. Thats what gave life to american ideals, and that was great. It worked and then Woodrow Wilson asked hoover to come home. Hed become a phenomenon as you might imagine and wilson entrusted him with something called the American Food administration. And its 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 meatless wednesdays. Not every campaign worked. A properly cared for pig is as sanitary as anything else, well the suburbs did not rise up and embrace that. Whale steak was adapted to some but not many diets. Sugarless gum is a byproduct of the food administration. Again, the idea was the American People would grow more, save more and together they would basically feed their allies across the seas. Two problems with that. It confirmed hoover in his beliefs which was now a bedrock conviction that whatever the problem you didnt need a government solution, you just needed to organize. Hoover always said the test of a democracy is that its organized from the ground up, not dictated from the top down. And again people responded. It confirmed him in this face. Economically the problem of the legacy was we grew farmers grew more and more they became addicted to foreign to surplus purchases overseas and of course in the 1920s no more war, no more european markets, theres a slump. So there was an agcuricultural depressant in america long before 1949. Hoover and Woodrow Wilson became close i mean what passes for close for either man. Each in his own way was almost too rational, too cerebral for the political process. And hoover was the only american president to write a book about another american president. He wrote a book about the ordeal of Woodrow Wilson which is very sympathetic and a bestseller. Hoover wrote two dozen books. That was the only one on the bestseller list. But its a fascinating and its useful to know in predicting many of the problems hoover would experience in the white house. Who asked him to be commerce secretary, and how long was he there, and what impact did he have . The Harding Administration Warren Harding rather touchingly aware of his own limitations setout to recruit cabinet of the best men. And he asked hoover he basically gave hoover a choice and hoover picked the commerce department, which in those days was perhaps the least important part of the cabinet. Of course hoover being hoover soon there were cartoons portraying hoover secretary of merse and he did rub 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. And from the outset he was certain he did not want a bbc type arrangement. He wanted government to regulate the industry, but he didnt want government to run the industry. And all the repercussions ever since. The first airfield in washington was hoover, hoover field over where the pentagon is now. He took he wrote zoning regulations that could be adapted all over the country. He promoted the construction of nigh housing with standardized products. I mean, sounds kind of dull, but the fact is 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. In the 1920s he called his son into his office one day, his son was Herbert Clark hoover and he was Herbert Clark, jr. And he said would you mine dropping your middle initial, and i mean youve got to get yourself inside that kind of brain in order to understand both hoovers accomplishments and his limitation. How long was he commerce secretary . He was commerce secretary for 8 years, almost 8 years at the tail end after hed been nominated for president in 1928. But 7 1 2 years. Theres a poignant scene and who goes what might have been. Harding had Great Respect for hoover. He never well, im not sure thats an insult, but in any event, but he had Great Respect for hoover, and one thing i mention both parties of 1920 flirted with the idea of nominating hoover. Wilson told his brotherinlaw if left to him he would choose his successor, Herbert Hoover. And hoover talked to some democrats in 1920 but he decided he was almost republican. He was a Teddy Roosevelt progressive republican, and in fact his problem with the party throughout the 20s and throughout the presidency was from the right wing of the party. And a lot of them were isolationists, too. And they held his cosmopolitan background against him. Anyway, he accompanied harding on the crosscountry voyage of understanding to alaska where harding fell ill, and then they returned to san francisco. And its funny. Hoover harding pressed hoover and so he couldnt sweep and so he played bridge endlessly, game after game of bridge. And its funny, hoover who won cards and was a mean canasta player in his later years permanently lost his taste for bridge, never played bridge again after harding died because that trip had wornout 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, totally said you would at least get credit for exposing the wrongdoers. And harding didnt bring up the subject again, but it was very clear to hoover that teapot dome and the other harding scandals had broken the through and were he said later on, he said people dont die of broken hearts, but people can 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, and 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 its interesting when the mississippi overflowed to this day by some measurements its still the greatest Natural Disaster in American History, 1927, a flood covered thousands of 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 only Herbert Hoover who was the master of emergencies. This was the emergency of the scale he had dealt with overseas. So typically he left washington, went out into the field, organized tent cities, Railroad Cars full of food, you know, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And its interesting because in 1928 he ran against a very impressive governor of new york, alsmith, charismatic figure and in many ways seen as the father of modern liberalism before franklin roosevelt, his successor. And its you know, no one writes about 1928 without emphasizing the bigotry, the anticatholic bigotry that smith ran into particularly in the south. And extraordinary its not dwight eisenhower, its Herbert Hoover who carried texas and several other southern states. The assumption is he only carried them as a major of the anticatholic bias that existed in the deep south. And that cleary was a factor. But theres another factor and that is the gratitude that people in the deep south felt because hoover was the face of release at the time of the floods. The only person certainly the only person with government who had tried to address their needs. The harding story concludes in they built the harding tomb, a great big hollow drum in ohio, but they couldnt get anyone to dedicate it. Coolidge wouldnt go and dedicate it. 7 years after harding died hoover took a train to marion, and he dedicated it. And not only did he dedicate it, but he used his speech to single out people in the audience who had been crooks in the Harding Administration, people who had hastened the president s death. It was a very gutsy thing to do. How was he picked by the Republican Party to be the candidate, and how big did he win against al smith . In many ways he was a reluctant choice. Remember this was a guy who had, you know, fraternized with the enemy, had been part of Woodrow Wilsons war cabinet, this was someone who talked seriously to democrats about 1920. There was a letter that year from a Young Franklin roosevelt to a friend who had urged hoovers virtues and fdr agreeing saying no one would be better than Herbert Hoover as a democratic nominee. While hoover was not interested in being a sacrificial lamb that year he knew enough about politics to know in 1920 it was a republican year. Anyway, he allowed his name to be entered in the california primary against the senator who was a militant isolationist, and the result was a mixed bag. He had enough votes to really wound johnson and make sure that johnson would not be nominated, but not enough votes to impress the professionals. And remember that was the famous smokefilled Room Convention where senatorial cabal according to legend met and by process of elimination came up with Warren Harding. Well, the fact is hoover was never a regular republican. Again, hed been a support of the bold moves third party. I mean he was that kind of in the 1920s the closest thing to a modern parallel would be colin powell say in the 1990s or early, you know, post 2,000, someone who frankly should have made the party proud to have as a member but who the base would instinctively shy away from. How dbig did he win by . He won big. 21. 5 million votes to 15 million votes. However, beneath those numbers there are portents for the future. One reason al smith i think is held in higher regard than most unsuccessful candidates theres a real sense that smith started something. The best evidence of that cities, american cities. Calvin coolidge carried new york city. The last republican to do so. Al smith, of course, carried new york city but he carried a lot of other cities as well. And whats fascinating to speculate is would that break through in the south, would that have been a one time event or might it have foreshadowed. I cant tell you. I cant answer that. And i think a lot of economists if theyre honest seyou had the crazy system where germany is borrowing the rest of the world owed it. But american banks were loaning money to germany, which then used the money to pay off so in addition you had a rotten bank system. There were banks speculating on the stock market. I mean there were banks doing things to positive money that would shock us today. You had wall street speculation, rank overheated, baseless, lots of people buying stock on margin, which is to say in effect they were borrowing funds and if they borrow down theyd have to sell their stock to pay off i mean the whole system was rigged. Who would believe it was the cumulative impact of the war, and its true there was an international phenomenon. It was not limited to the United States. But i for the life of me cant give you a single reason and one very important contributing factor was consumer goods in the 1920s. Ironically hoover celebrated the abundance of modern industry. You know, cars were affordable, so were refrigerators and so were other appliances, homes. All of those homes that he built but lots of them were bought on credit. And aviation, you had these new industries taking off. And one thing economists know is that wages fell in tricky pace with prices. And you had this gap which grew, and at the same time you had millions of people who were in effect overcommitted. They were living in effect paycheck to paycheck. They were speculating with stocks, but eventually the purchasing power being what it was and 40 of the American Work force in the 1940s was in agriculture. So nearly half the country was depressed long before wall street collapsed. One other thing that is so easy to overlook when youre looking at the failure of the economy to respond to the very stimulative efforts of hoover, you have to remember how tiny a percentage of the american gdp went to the government in those days. Herbert hoover became president in 1929, the federal budget and it was one of those cases there are instances where congress will pass something and the many years down the road and of course theres this understandable groundswell of demanding of early payment of the bonus. And a 3 billion a year budget could have been doubled, and it would i mean criticism of hoover for not being sufficiently and how limited was the effect. But the other thing is, you know, like all of us in retrospect we see all kinds of things that we didnt see at the time the idea that government in times should bust the budget, in other words they should do everything it could it can to boost purchasing power. Depressions are all about deflation, so if you could inflate the economy presumably thats the necessary medicine and theres a famous incident in 35, 36 where fdr it was very cordial but it was very clear that fdr wasnt intellectually and hoover exists in the shadow of fdr. Fdr did so much more, but in the context of the time when hoover did was seen as so much more than his predecessors. But remember we had Great Depressions before. Martin van buren, Grover Cleveland in the 1890s had been president. The notion that the government, the federal government would step in and try to correct the Economic Cycle was hearsay. And the secretary of the treasury maintained and he basically told the president to just flush out the system, all of that was economics and hoovers response was to get himself a new secretary of the treasury. He sent melon to the court of st. James. Early in 1930 the New York Times among other Media Outlets praised hoover for doing more than any president before funde the circumstances. In fact, go back to Warren Hardings administration as secretary of commerce and there was a severe recession right after and it was hoover who was delegated with the responsibility, and what he did was among other things greatly increase public work setting, which again is in many ways afore shadow of a new deal. Well, like wise hoover immediately, again, voluntary association. Hoover called to the white house dozens of the nations leading business executives. He got them to agree to undertake an increase in their commitments. They initially agreed to increase worker wages. He contacted all of the governors of the states, the 48 states and appealed to them to increase, step up, accelerate public works programs. He himself went to congress and asked for 150 million, which more than any president before him more than most president s combined and that was the first installment. So the idea he did nothing is pretty thoroughly so why is he indelibly, personally associated with the Great Depression . The democrats brilliantly hired and hiez sole job every day, day in and day out was to blacken the reputation of the president , to drive home in voters minds the fact that this man was harmless, this man was responsible for the Great Depression, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Hoovers great failure hed youd say he had a failure of imagination. He should have never signed in 1930 which in effect at the worst possible time built walls around the American Economy and encouraged other countries to do the same. That was a real error of judgment, but hoovers great failing, well go back to that 10yearold boy who didnt know he could do something and a direct connection between that and the adult hoover. Hes the most improbable politician. His story is every president is unique. One of the lessons i think that hoovers story teaches us is beware of successful businessmen. The qualities that drive business success, the ability to work with a board of directors, the knowledge that your order will be carried out, thats not the same as working with congress. Hoover had poor relations with congress, which was not only republican the first half of his term and then gradually democratic the second half. He didnt have the political gifts. He knew he didnt have political gifts, but thats the other lesson of the hoover presidency. Hoover is one of those very rare president s sort of quasigauge madison comes to minds, people again almost too rational, too cerebral, who dont have in their dna whatever that political gene is that enables linden johnson, an extreme example, to thrive. What were the circumstances in 1932, did he run again and what happened . He ran again, was nominated. Another issue that complicated particularly more the republicans because they had a lot of rural supporters, the Republican Party was split on the issue. Hoover again who didnt mind taking a drink but i think by 1932, the supporters are probably concluding that this experiment had not worked. In many ways it had backfired. He was carrying that deadweight. He had the depression. I mean he had his own inability to inspire, you think of fdr in radio, well hoover was on radio. If he got excited, if he founded exciting speaking on the radio. He said it was as exciting is talking to a doorknob. That is the literal, that is the engineer. Anyway, he ran again. The bonus army came. Its still the subject of controversy, he dispatched him. Not to cross the bridge and set fire to the veterans camp, he took it upon himself to do that. Hoover sent explicit orders to arthur and they were disobeyed. That was not the last time that he was to disobey executive authority. Fdr swept the country. Hoover had 59 electoral votes. I mean i dont think, modestly jimmy carter between 76 and 80, i dont think anyone has ever gone from when he was elected to such a powerful consensus that he should leave office. I think roosevelt carried all but six states. And with it, congress. Then of course, in some ways would put this seal on hoovers reputation with the next three months. The whos are roosevelt interim was so bad that the constitution was amended. If you remember president used to be sworn in on march 4th. It was decided that that was too long. It was too long because it was too long in 1932 and 1933. The two men had virtually no communication. I think it is safe to say that hoover believed that fdr was deliberately avoiding having any responsibility in the hopes that if things did go to hell, he would then receive the credit, and in many ways that is exactly what happened. The irony is the banks were crashing at the end. The roof was falling in. Hoover could have closed the banks. Some would say stubbornness. Some would say principal. I would say lack of finesse. He insisted that fdr had to agree with him. It had to be a joint undertaking. There is a difference. Fdr who is not only borne politician but a natural pragmatist. Remember its him who says try something, if that doesnt work try something else, if that is works try something else. That is exactly what the American People want to hear after 40 years in which it was felt that nothing had been tried. In fact, things were tried but it came to be overshadowed by the scale and scope of what fdr undertook. What were the circumstances in your life in 1984 when this book was published . I was in d. C. I had published a big biography of, i spent a year publishing it, i return to d. C. , i was writing on a consultants basis. I am a very proud to say that we did this work over the years. I had done this book on tom. In some ways he is the ultimate overlooked historical figure. The little man on the wedding cake. Someone stereotyped and written off who turned out to have it vastly more interest and consequential life. In many ways, hoover was a very logical sequel. I didnt think about it at the time. I had no agenda. Ive visited west bridge as a adolescent. I was very moved by the site. It is still moving. West branch iowa. The 450 yards separate the two. The birthplace is the size of the average american living room today. A little white wash cottage. To injured 50 yards away on the hillside called the overlook. Simple graves of, this is hoover. He made one thing known that nothing be planted or built that would interfere with the view. He wanted people to stand in his grief and look off at the little house and draw the conclusion he had drawn. The fact that the circumstances of your birth in no way limited the potential of your life. Its 1984 when you wrote this book and it was published. When did you run the Hoover Library . And why . Out of this book i had no idea the night i was planning the eve of a 17 year career, i was called by john fawcett. He himself was from west branch iowa, running the president ial library system. At the time it was very small. I could not have been more surprised in my life, he asked me if i had any interest in being the director of the Hoover Library . I thought immediately what a wonderful job. People around me, i was working off of the center of california reading speeches. People thought why on earth would you want to go live in west branch iowa, the tells you more about them than it tells you about west branch. In any event i went to washington and spent six plus years warning my trade in west branch. Making friends for life. I did it in reverse. I wrote the book and then became the director of the library. That was very simple. What would you say it was the most significant thing that hoover did that is still in the country to this day . You can look physically at hoover dam. Its no accident that his name was put on. It he negotiated a compact with seven states over the water of the Colorado River that they were all fighting over. Water being deer in the west. Anyway, the result was that is the most obvious physical legacy. Much more important however i would argue is the example of a businessmans who walked away. He walked away from his fortune. He said it can go to hell. First feet belgium. Then to organize american relief. Ultimately to go on to save more lives than hitler, stalin, and mao together. Not a bad epitaph. Thank you so much for helping us on our series on president s. This book is available on amazon and other places. This is in a library in moe furred, michigan. The triumph of Herbert Hoover is its name. Thank you very much. Thank you. Its for free transfer, visit us on q in a. Org. Its tonight at eight Eastern Program looking at the constitution and its founding. George washingtons influence and shaping the constitution after the revolutionary war. This president and his role in making it work. American history tv right now and over the weekend on cspan 3. Every saturday night American History tv takes you to College Classrooms around the country for lectures on history. Why do you all know who lizzy borden is . Tell us if you knew about the murder trial before this class . It was in a transformation that took place in the minds of American People. We will talk about both sides of the story here. The tools and techniques of slave owner power, also those that were practiced by sleeve people. Topics ranging from the American Revolution to september 11th. Lectures on history on cspan 3 every saturday at 8 pm eastern. Also available as a podcast. Find it where you listen to podcasts
vimarsana.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.