MowryJournal.com   Life's Passions

Herbert C. Hoover (1874 – 1964)

The 31st President of the United States, 1929 – 1933

AKA: The Great Engineer, The Great Humanitarian, The Chief

From: Iowa, Oregon

College: Stanford University

Married to: Lou Henry Hoover

Children: Herbert, Jr., Allan

Party: Republican

Previous Jobs: Secretary of Commerce

In His Words: “You convey too great a compliment when you say that I have earned the right to the presidential nomination. No man can establish such an obligation upon any part of the American people. My country owes me no debt. It gave me, as it gives every boy and girl, a chance. It gave me schooling, independence of action, opportunity for service and honor. In no other land could a boy from a country village, without inheritance or influential friends, look forward with unbounded hope. My whole life has taught me what America means. I am indebted to my country beyond any human power to repay.”

“Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die.”

“Let me remind you that credit is the lifeblood of business, the lifeblood of prices and jobs.”

“A good many things go around in the dark besides Santa Claus.”

“Being a politician is a poor profession. Being a public servant is a noble one.”

“Honor is not the exclusive property of any political party.”

“About the time we can make the ends meet, somebody moves the ends.”

“I’m the only person of distinction who’s ever had a depression named for him.”

“More than ten million women march to work every morning side by side with the men. Steadily the importance of women is gaining not only in the routine tasks of industry but in executive responsibility. I include also the woman who stays at home as the guardian of the welfare of the family. She is a partner in the job and wages. Women constitute a part of our industrial achievement.”

Not true: Hoover did not cause the Great Depression. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, for sure.  Some would say that he did more to end the Depression than his successors … some would say that it was only the economic expansion of WWII that ended the Depression.  Hoover’s policies didn’t cause it, though, he was just caught in a bad economy.

True: Herbert Hoover was orphaned at the age of nine.

Hoover entered Stanford in 1891, in its inaugural year, after failing the entrance exams.

Hoover’s 1928 election slogan was “A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.”

When the Great Depression hit, many of the homeless lived in towns of shacks called “Hoovervilles.”

Hoover was the first millionaire President.

Hoover and Taft are the only two Presidents without electoral experience or military service.

He approved the “Star-Spangled Banner” as our national anthem. It became the national anthem in 1931.

Hoover was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution; he was descended from Jacobus Wynne.

Hoover is the only President not to appear on the cover of Time during his Presidency.

Hoover was one of four Presidents to live to be 90.

The Official Portrait:  Elmer W. Greene painted the official White Hosue portrait of Hoover in 1956.