National Archives and Records Administration

Intro Boyhood Lou Henry Hoover Belgian Relief Secretary of Commerce President After the White House

Elementary School Field Trips
to the
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum
  Pre & Post Visit Activities

Secretary of Commerce

After his election in 1920, President Harding asked Herbert Hoover to join his cabinet. He was offered either of two cabinet positions, Secretary of the Interior or Secretary of Commerce. He chose to accept the position of Secretary of Commerce because he thought that in that position he could carry out some of the ideas he had for making that department a vital contributor to every aspect of the nation’s economic life. During his tenure in this position he accomplished much. One early effort was to standardize and simplify sizes and styles of thousands of consumer items. Standard sizes were adopted for paper, auto tires, nuts and bolts, plumbing, window frames, and many more items. The Department of Commerce oversaw the Bureau of Standards that researched safety standards in such items as elevators and auto brakes, the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce which worked to develop markets at home and abroad, the Bureau of Lighthouses, and the Bureau of Fisheries. During his time as Secretary of Commerce one of the greatest floods in American history occurred. In 1927, the Mississippi River overflowed its banks and broke levees. Over a million people were driven from their homes, two million acres of crops were flooded, thousands of cattle were lost, and millions of dollars in buildings and property were destroyed. The governors of the six states along the Mississippi River asked for Herbert Hoover to help in this emergency. President Coolidge sent him to mobilize state and local authorities, militia, army engineers, Coast Guard, weather bureaus, and the Red Cross. His work in the flood brought Herbert to the front page of newspapers everywhere.

To learn more about Hoover as Secretary of Commerce go to:
http://www.ecommcode.com/hoover/hooveronline/hoover_bio/comm.htm

Pre-visit activities:

• Have students study the cartoon entitled “Secretary of Everything.” Perhaps a transparency of this would work best so you might have a whole class discussion. What do the students think the cartoon means? Does it put Secretary Hoover in a favorable light? What is the cartoonist trying to say with this cartoon? Does this apparent view of Secretary Hoover carry over to when he was president? Be prepared to defend your answer.
  Click here to print the cartoon entitled “Secretary of Everything.”
   
• During the flood of 1927, Secretary Hoover raised 15 million dollars for the American Red Cross. Research the Red Cross and what this organization does.
   

Post-visit activities:

• Secretary Hoover was instrumental in regulating a wide variety of everyday objects. Plan a skit in which you and a few friends go on a road trip across Iowa. How would your trip be different if the regulations that Secretary Hoover oversaw had never been put in place?
   
• Create a radio commercial asking Americans to help the people living in the flooded areas along the Mississippi River.