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As soon as Calvin Coolidge announced that
he did not choose to run for reelection in 1928, Hoover
was inundated with letters and telegrams urging him to run
for president. The Democrats had nominated Alfred E.
Smith, the first Catholic to run for the Presidency. Hoover
and Smith were in accord on many issues of the 1928
campaign: reforms in child welfare, business practice, and
the prison system; the 
better
organization of Federal Government, and the development of
water resources and oil conservation. They differed on their
farm policies and they differed on Prohibition. Smith
favored a plan which would fix farm prices for produce and
dump surplus products abroad. This would mean that the
government controlled the farmer's distribution and
production. Al Smith campaigned for the repeal of
Prohibition, the constitutional amendment that prohibited
the use of alcoholic beverages. Hoover didn't think that the
Constitution was the proper place for the law, but once it
was there it was the duty of the president to enforce the
Constitution. Speaking was hard for Hoover, and being before
a crowd was an ordeal. He seemed stiff and monotonous before
big crowds, and he was shy with strangers. However, in 1928,
the nation had great self confidence, and Herbert Hoover
represented the best of technical proficiency that acted on
humane needs that the people saw as their future. Hoover
was elected by one of
the biggest majorities in the history of the Republican
party. His Vice President was Charles Curtis.
On a rainy March day, Herbert
Hoover took the oath of office as the 31st President of
the United States. He brought to the presidency a wide range
of interests, information, and experience. He banked his
presidential salary and gave it entirely to charity. From
the day Hoover organized the Belgian Relief in 1914, until
his death fifty years later, he never accepted for his
private use any payment for public service. He had reached
the highest office in which Herbert Hoover felt he could
make the greatest contribution to his own country.
When Hoover became president, there was a
frenzy of activity on the stock market. People were buying
stocks by borrowing money, or they were buying stocks on
margin (buying with only a portion of the money down, and
the rest out of profits). This had been going on since the
early 1920's and Herbert Hoover knew this gambling in the
stock market was dangerous.
Banks were also speculating in the stock
market with their depositors' money, and there were no laws
to stop them. Soon after Hoover's inauguration, the market
went up and up. Most of the money for stock market gambling
was being borrowed through the banks, and Hoover
asked for an examination of the banking system along with
laws to reform and strengthen the system.
Hoover tried to stop the speculation, but no
one listened. Privately, he tried to convince the more
influential bankers to stop making loans to brokers who were
recklessly encouraging speculation. His appeals to the
Federal Reserve, Congress and Governor Roosevelt (to propose
stiffer regulation of the New York stock exchange) went
unheeded.
Another pressing problem for the new
president was the farm problem. Farmers wanted the
government to buy the surplus that they grew, at fair market
prices and dispose of them, but they didn't want any control
over production by the government. Hoover believed that no
government agency should be involved in the buying and
selling and price-fixing of any products. This would lead to
greater surpluses and government control. He believed the
farmers could organize to fight their own battles and the
government's role was to help them organize. In June
Congress passed the Agricultural Marketing Act, and
established the Federal Farm Board. This organization would
help farmers form marketing organizations, establish
associations for storage, and help stabilize market
conditions by holding surpluses off the market to wait for
more favorable prices. It would help farmers help
themselves. Hoover also proposed tariffs on agricultural
products. The tax would be imposed to protect industry and
agriculture in the United States from lower priced overseas
products where living standards and wages were lower, and
also to raise revenue for the government.
Seven months after Hoover was inaugurated,
the stock market crashed. The president tried giving
statements of confidence to the people. This would be a new
kind of disaster that Hoover must pioneer. Hoover was blamed
for much of what was going wrong, and people were losing
confidence in him. He had ideas which he hoped to implement
through voluntary cooperation of business and industrial
leaders. By the spring of 1930 the economy was starting to
recover. In August a big drought struck the Great Plains
states. A million farmers watched the skies for rain that
never fell and they saw their crops die under a blazing sun.
Hoover was working to ease the Depression while the
Democrats were saying Hoover caused it and they added that
the drought was just another part of the Depression. Hoover
saw the relief coming from the state and local
municipalities, which would rely on volunteers, but a few
months later people were clamoring for the President to
offer direct federal aid to the people. Because this was so
contrary to Hoover's belief of helping people to help
themselves, he at first refused to promote direct federal
help because he saw it as a way which would lead to
political corruption and the weakening of the morale of the
American public.
In the summer of 1931, Hoover began to allow
more indirect aid to drought stricken farmers. By the
following spring direct aid was being widely distributed in
the form of foodstuffs and cotton cloth. By this time there
was an argument over everything Hoover tried to do to fight
the Depression. He tried public works projects for which he
was blamed for extravagance in government spending. When he
refused to support a bill to give the Red Cross millions of
dollars they said they did not need, the President was
called callous about suffering. But Hoover carried on with
his practical, problem solving nature, hiding the hurt that
he surely felt as people blamed him for all of society's
ills.
Hoover's day at the White
House began with a game of medicine
ball at 7:30. The game was like volleyball with an 6
pound ball tossed over a 10 foot net on a court. It was
scored like tennis. This was Hoover's daily exercise. After
breakfast he would work for half an hour in his office on
letters, papers or writing an address. He had appointments
every 15 minutes for the rest of the morning. Lunch always
included guests, to discuss business. After lunch he
returned to writing and appointments. He left the office at
6 pm. Dinner always meant guests, friends or official
visitors.
By the spring of 1931, things were looking
better with the Depression and unemployment, but Europe
exploded in an economic crisis. This of course affected
the U.S. The American banking system was so involved with
Europe through war debts, bonds, loans and bank deposits
abroad and European deposits in America, that whatever
happened on one side of the ocean affected the other as
well. Hoover presented programs to reform the banking
program, to expand the public works across the country, and
to create the Reconstruction Finance Corporation which would
make government loans to save banks, farmers, railways, and
businesses from bankruptcy. Congress passed his RFC
legislation, but rejected his banking legislation. The RFC
performed impressively. This agency was Hoover's chief
contribution to recovery, and in establishing it he put the
Federal Government into the business of business regulation,
something he had been entirely opposed to when he had taken
office. In making this decision he was acting swiftly to
counter the dangers in the only manner which would work
through the federal government.
By the summer of 1932, the Depression
reached its lowest point. There were 12 million people
unemployed and 18 million on relief. 1932 was a Presidential
election year. Without much enthusiasm, the Republicans
nominated Herbert Hoover again, while the Democrats chose
Franklin D. Roosevelt.
During Hoover's Administration, he completed
plans to build the Grand Coulee Dam, and to control flooding
along the Mississippi. He also signed a treaty with Canada
to create the St. Lawrence Waterway. Under his
Administration the acreage of national forests and parks
increased by 5 million acres. Airmail service had been
reorganized, passenger service on airlines had tripled and
cost per mile for air travel was cut by 80 percent. He also
opened airmail to South America. He had worked out the
engineering of the San Francisco Bay Bridge and used RFC
funds to build it. He worked for legislation to protect
children and he wrote a Children's Charter calling for the
protection of the rights of every child regardless of race,
color or situation.
He had made reforms in the proceedings of
justice and in bankruptcy practice to help small businessmen
and homeowners. He reorganized the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover
(not related to Herbert Hoover). He designed legislation for
extensive reform of criminals. Hoover had made three high
caliber appointments to the Supreme Court, Chief Justice
Charles Evans Hughes, and Justices Owen Roberts, and
Benjamin Cardozo.
In Foreign affairs he led the United States
to greater international cooperation toward world peace,
with the Hoover-Stimson Doctrine. This document provided
that the U.S. would not recognize territories gained by
force. He developed a Good Neighbor policy with Latin
America, and withdrew U.S. troops from Nicaragua and Haiti.
But these achievements were not dramatic enough for a
successful campaign. Roosevelt was a new man with a charming
personality, and infectious smile and a golden voice. The
American people tired of the Depression and upset with the
slowness of the recovery were charmed by the gaiety and
confidence of FDR. They
elected him President in 1932.
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Last updated: June 20, 2001