And its nice to see so many of you on this gorgeous day. I know the temptation is to be outside. But im glad you joined us. Welcome to the Herbert Hoover president ial library museum. One of 13 such institutions operated by the National Archives and records administration. Im tom schwartz, and director, and i have the great pressure of introduce ago guest speaker there are few housekeeping matters. As a courtesy to our speaker, and other members of the audience, please silence your cell phones and other electronic devices. Remember, this is being recorded for later broadcast on cspan. And no ring tone warrants being captured only National Video of for an audience. Well have amp supply of Herbert Hoover in he white house high high which home sure heed be april to sign. Visit our other exhibit, world of the gangster, and take a palm card from the lobby which highlights our upcoming programs, events and exhibits. If youre not a member of our foundation, i hope you will take home a membership application and consider joining. The hoover president ial Foundation Supports all of our exhibits and programs, including travel grants, which provided our speaker several weeks of research in the library collections. Finally, if youd also help us by fill ought survey form after the program, before you leave, that helps us in evaluating the programs we provide. Charles rapleeye is an Award Winning investigative journalist and editor. His interests are wide ranging. He has written about the media, law enforcement, organized crime, slavery and the american revolution, as well as the wellreceived biography of robert morris. Finance year of the american revolution. A native of cambridge, massachusetts, he attended the university of wisconsin where he majored in economics. One of the strengths of his study of the hoover presidency is to explain in simple language the complicated Economic Issues that brought about and sustained the Great Depression. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome charles rapleeye. Hi there and thank you for coming out today. Its a little awkward for me to come to the hoover institution, the hoover president ial library, and talk to people about Herbert Hoover, what i know about Herbert Hoover, because i feel like a number of you will know more about hoover today than i would know in another five years of research. I feel like this is the place of some aficionados and some experts, and i appreciate your listening to what i might have to add. What im going to do is not so much talk about what well, what i feel like i can add is what i found that struck me about hoover. I knew something about hoover when i started but not a whole lot. I feel like im sort of every man that way. So the things i ran across that really struck me and surprised me, i thought would be of general interest, of interest to you people. Also want to thank tom swartz for the invitation to speak here, and particularly Matt Schaffer and spencer howard, who were the researchers who worked with me hand in glove for a couple of years on constantly my constantly calling on them for new information to look up a document i had missed to assist me on fining and locating material. Theyre very good at what they do and i appreciate how helpful they were to me. Ill start with an anecdote. Hoover the first thing that struck me about hoover, which i found so compelling and revealed him in a real human dimension was hi constant conflicts. He was never very settled on what he was doing or how he was dying it. He was full of second guesses about himself, about his strategies. He was of a divided mind, and that was before the presidency. Its very much part of his character. Ask then during the presidency it continued to sort of plague him. Couldnt have been very easy. Heres the a story i thought sort of brought some of that out. On a saturday afternoon in may, 1931, when the depression had really set in and hoover was under a lot of pressure. President hoover spent a rare free hour chatting with the journalist, reporter who made the switch early from print to the more immediate medium of radio. It was more a conversation than an interview, and hoover was feeling free and glib, but he was president , after all, and before it was over, the discussion turned to the upcoming election. The reporter asked hoover if he were worried about the campaign prospect. No, not at all, the president quickly replied. It was obviously too flip a response considering the state of the economy and the popularity of Franklin Roosevelt. Im sorry, this is early 32 so he knew that roosevelt was he was up against roosevelt. After a pause, hoover decided to explain himself. Quote the reason im not worried is because i dont give a damn whether i am reelected or not. Here was hoovers old ambivalence about politics based by three trying year inside the white house. A candid remark that was in exactly true and carried the potential for political damage. The reporter ended his visit shouldnt after hoovers statement. A few minutes later hoover called in his press secretary, ted jocelyn, and were vaguely what he might know about the reporter. Jocelyn said he new him as a correspondent foe the black lip daily eagle. Hoover then asked if the reporter understood the white house rules f reporter that all talks with the president are confidential. Jocelyn said he couldnt say for sure. Then run him him him done. I said that would cause a sensation if rae peteed. And jocelyn jumped and caught the reporter and the store was squelched for jocelyn, it was confirmation of hoovers unacknowledged but ill concealed yearn to return to office. The president may say he doesnt give a damn about reelection but wants it more than anything else. And part of this what i liked about this is this anecdote is that hoover is of two minds and its not clear that he knows which side he is on. These conflicts are internal and they beguile hoover as well as everybody around him. Hoover could also show in his duality some real determination, some real sense of what he wanted and where he was going. And an example of that to me, the telling one, is when he first learned that Calvin Coolidge was not going to run for reelection, hoover then was serving in coolidges cabinet and was a like by and odds on favorite to succeed coolidge if coolidge were to step aside. But when this happened, hoover had no warning of it. Nobody had any warning of it and that was sort of the way Calvin Coolidge didding did things. He would surprise people. And he did this in on this occasion he called reporters to his vacation where he was his vacation spot in the midwest where he was taking some time out from the white house, and coolidge said, i do not choose to run for my reelection. And at the time that was big mystery, what did coolidge really mean . Did he mean simply he is not going to run, which is what it turn out to be. But he wasnt real straightforward in what he said. Didnt explain and it people were wondering. It was announced by telegram and followed hoover was in grove, a place that then and now is a retreat for the elite and a place where they can let their hair down. Hoover loved that place. When the word came in that coolidge made this announcement, there were hundreds of telegrams to the front office at the bohemian grove, asking what hover hoover had to say. A crowd of men made their way to hoovers home and cabin to learn what he had to say. The ap cable was followed by hups more so many the switchboard operator had to sent out for help. Most called for hoover to announce his candidacy for the nations top office, but hoover responded with caution. I regret the suggestion that the president might stand down, hoover said in a statement for reporters. In case it was unclear, hoover add, president coolidge should be renominated and reelected. That same day, hoover sent out a tell gram of his own, this one a private communication, instructing a cohort of friends and political barkers in new york to sit tight there might be a campaign but saying more right now would appear unseemly. There should be no demonstration of any kind until coolidge clarified this cryptic utterance. This was for show. Hoover wanted to conceal his ambition from the public and from president coolidge, whose real motives remained obscures, and i should ad also from lou hoover who was not a big fan of herbert jumping into the public arena, and for months leading up to his decision to speaker the race, hoover kept his conversation about politics secret from lou. He would tell his friends, not now. Wait until were alone. That same night, everybody hoover told his people to sit tight. He made a hasty exit to conduct a secret midnight meeting with ralph arnold, his principal booster in california and then they retired to a booth in a nearby tavern to talk withmer privacy. Arnold was a stanford friend and had taken the train north or short to its to seek permission to put hoovers network of political backers into motion. That night, hoover gave arnold his blessing. Herbert hoovers campaign for the presidency got underway that night. And as if to confirm the decision, the information day hoover ordered his personal secretary to distribute to his intimates reasons the country a secret code that would be employed for political communications. So once again you have hoover telling some people one thing, some people another, and kind of hedging bets with himself. He wasnt sure yet he was in the race. But he is getting things into motion, and to some degree thats typical political you got to be careful what you say publicly and you have another agenda privately. But you get the sense with hoover that this really he had trouble settling it in his own mind before he gets into larger scenes of action. What i found, too, was that having made it to the white house, this sense of internal conflict continued to bedevil hoover and it was not just internal. In other words, people could see it. And they were surprised at this. Hooverbefore he war, had always been a super executive and man of quick decision and firm conviction, and that once he was in the white house that seemed to dissipate and it was confusing to the electorate, confusing to people around him. Now, another short passage, quoting clarence dill, a colleague of hoovers, a member of congress when hoover was secretary of commerce, and theyd worked together on a number of things. Clarence dill noted hoovers transformation from effective cabinet officer to a guarded and cautious president. This is early in his term. This was soon after becoming president. This change came over him. Dill was a congressman from washington state, a democrat, hoover being a republican so not of the same party but not especially partisan who sat in the senate and. He found that economy secretaries to be flexible and constructive. Quote, he was one of the most affable, agreeable and helpful men in the cabinet, dill said, during a 1967 oral history interview. So he is looking back. But something had changed upon hoovers election. Quote, it seemed to me he had lost his political charm, if some might call it that, dill said him no longer had that friendly, affable attitude, when he became president. He was distant. He had high respect for the office and this is what dill attributed this to. In dill residents view hoovers reserve game distinctly more pronounced after the election, the same transition Thomas Stokes noticed during the campaign when he remarked on hoovers personality and how he now appeared timid. Dill in his recollection, said he made two early trips to the white house to discuss legislation, what surprised on both occasions to find that the president , whom he form formerly considered a friend, wouldnt look its hmm. He looked at the ceiling or the floor or out the window when i tried to talk to him. Dill found the visit so disturbing he avoided any further encounters with the president. He never lost his respect for hoover, however. And to the end considered him a great character, one of the standouts he had met in the course of his own public career. But the presidency, dill said, smothers hoovers better quality. Quote, i think the office of president impressed him so much he lost his effective personality in trying to respect the office, dill said. Always felt mr. Hoover was so impressed we the office he couldnt be the free, open man he was. This ambivalence and this sort of hesitation in the face of conflict, and you think back to hoovers years at commerce, conflict he thrived on, but somehow once he took the central position of president , hesitation became his mode. Some again, this is all early in game. And it took a real toll on hoover. He was elected by a landslide, and was very popular across the country. Within a year and this is the october hoover takes office in march. The crash hits turned the end of october but the stock market crash, people didnt immediately recognize, oh, here comes the beginning of the Great Depression. That took months to sink in, or even years to recognize quite how deep the trough was they were heading into. But so that even before this happened, hoover, his Political Capital was all gone. He is a hobbled president , even on the onset of the depression. So its to keep in mind as the story progresses that as i utilize the device and telling the story i divided the book into three parts and the first part is called the rise and fall of Herbert Hoover. So im dating his fall to 1930. Before the depression was his burden to bear. The point is that he was not well suited to be president. Im not the only person to run across that. Ill quote from walter litman, one of the great pundits of the time and this was his analysis of what had happened. This, again, in early 1930s. Litman writes my own notion is that a close examination of mr. Hoovers conduct in the critical matters will disclose a strange weakness which renders him indefensive at the point where indecisive to point where the battle can be lost. And this called the peculiar weakness of mr. Hoover. This weakness appears at the point where in order to win he would have to intervene in the hurley burly of conflicting wills which are the living tissue of popular government. End quote. The pattern was there for all to see when lines were drawn and the contenders look for convention. Hoover tended to fade away. His voice mute and his purpose obscure. Knowing hoover was new to elective office, litman laid the president s failings to the vaguery of democratic process. Quote, he is baffled and worried. His action paralyzed by his own inexperience in the very special business of democratic. So might see hoovers remote bearing as arrogance, but litman felt otherwise. Again, the source was in the system. Hoover prized certainty, lit man rote and was excessively diffident in the presence of the normal irrationality of democracy. Hoover was quickly emerging as a caution to those who saw as the dry logic of the engineer as an antidote to the practice of politics. Litman again, quote in the realm of reason he is an unusually bold man in the realm of unreason he is for a statesman exceptionally thinskinned and an easily bewildered man. So this is hoover on the verge of the depression, occupying an office that he didnt quite fit, trying to lead a people that was not hearing him, and then the depression sets in. And this, i i felt was what im talking about next. Hoovers frustrations in the white house. I think to Say Something about hoover. He is generally understood to be a pacific sort of composed, very dignified fellow, and dignity was very big in his mind and dignity was big part of his conception of the presidency. So when it started to turn against him, he felt really bamboozled, frustrated, and angry. I think it says a lot before being president. What Pressure Cooker that thing is when things start to go wrong, and here are a couple of quit anecdotes about hoover feeling the heat. The first one involves this was, again, ted jocelyn, his press secretary, and a big supporter of hoovers. He wrote a book offeredwards after wards trying to salvage hoof hoovers reputation but politically that was not going to happen. Now, this is 1931 and the depression is really starting to grip the country. At the frustrations mounted in the long days piled one after another hoover started to show the strain, quote, the president is dog tired, jonathan noted in july. How he stands up under the pressure is a mystery to me. Seeking somehow to ease hoovers burden, jocelyn played a wild card. He contacted byron price, a wellliked Washington Bureau chief for the associated press. The president needed someone to alter his outlook. Quote, he is in a state and maybe a talk with you will do him good, jocelyn told byron price. Its not an interview, just a talk, he told price. Price was intrigued and upon being ushered into hoovers office he was astonishinged. He didnt look to me like the hoover i had been seeing, price recalled later. His hair was ruffled. He was almost crouching behind his desk and burst out of me with a volley of angry words. Not against me or the press but against the politics poll pos and foreign governments with absolutely unbridled language. I started to wonder what that actually means. Some people talked about hoover being able to swear with the best of them and in the mining camps of the australian outback and you can imagine thats some pretty heavy language in those days, but you never got any closer than, boy, hoover was using some colorful language that day. So, well just have to fill in with our imagination. In the midst of these tents and intermable negotiations hoover was boiling over. Price made controversial notes of the encounter and provided the verbatim quote from the embattled president. And now im asked to take the blame, hoover fumed it is miss fault the sellish men have refused to see the folly of their policies until too late . Is its my fault that france, our ally, has stood blindly in the way of settlement and cooperation . Hover was mad at france, but his anger income passed the whole Economic Disaster that compromised his term in office and this was in the negotiations of International Debts and france had thrown a wrench in the works. But his anger encompassed the whole Economic Disaster, quote, over a period of years has president and in the cabinet i have done all i could to avert the terrible situation we are in today but it was not enough, hoover complained to price. The original sin was committed