Herbert Hoover: Humanitarian Hero

By Silence Dogood

What do you think of when you hear the name Herbert Hoover? Like most, when the name of the 31st president is invoked, you probably think of the Great Depression. No story of the Great Depression is complete without mention of Hoovervilles—camps of homeless people living in open urban spaces like Central Park in makeshift shacks.

The successful political campaign of 1932 by Franklin D. Roosevelt and his allies has helped shape our collective image of Hoover. It is certainly true that the onset of the Great Depression occurred during Hoover’s administration. Economists have debated the causes of the Great Depression since it began—and to this day, they still don’t fully agree. Contrary to much popular belief, Hoover did not simply sit by and allow the country to fall deeper into depression. He worked relentlessly throughout his four years in office, attempting to pull the nation out of economic collapse. In fact, while it is not a consensus opinion (very little of this fascinating topic is), some economists believe the economy had begun to turn a corner by late 1932 and early 1933, before Hoover left office, suggesting he may have been closer to ending the crisis than history often credits.

While all of this is a topic ripe for debate, that is not what we are here to discuss today. Instead, I’d like to look at a different side of Herbert Hoover—one that is almost completely forgotten today, but which, in the first half of the 20th century, was the very reason he was able to rise to such political prominence.

Before the start of World War I, Hoover was in the midst of an immensely successful career as a mining engineer. That career began at Stanford University, where he earned a degree in geology (and, as Hoover himself liked to point out, was “Stanford’s first student,” having been the first in the school’s inaugural class to receive a dorm room). From there, his work took him from mines in the United States to operations across the globe, including major stints in Australia and China, before eventually landing him in London.

It was there, in London, that Hoover found himself with a front-row seat for the outbreak of a war that would change the world.

World War I was certainly not a monocausal war. That said, the events of June 28, 1914, are widely considered the match that lit the fuse that blew up the powder keg of Europe. On that day, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist. That, understandably, led Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia. Because of a vast and entangling network of alliances that had formed over decades across Europe, this set off a domino effect, pulling nations from all corners of the continent into a rapidly escalating conflict.

Before long, Russia had mobilized to defend Serbia. Germany backed Austria-Hungary and declared war on Russia, and then on France. And Germany’s eventual invasion of Belgium, in turn, brought the United Kingdom into the war.

Herbert Hoover watched from London as thousands of American citizens—whether they be tourists simply visiting or expatriates who had relocated years earlier—found themselves stranded on a warring continent, an ocean away from home. With banks closed and transportation severely limited because of the conflict, Hoover quickly sprang into action. He organized ships to carry stranded Americans home and distributed loans—sometimes from his own personal funds—to help them get by. This would be the first of many critical actions Hoover would take throughout the war.

As Germany’s occupation of Belgium continued, reports began to spread that the Belgian people were inching closer and closer to the brink of starvation. The German army placed immense strain on the country’s resources, disrupting agriculture and supply lines and making it increasingly difficult to produce enough food to sustain both the local population and the occupying forces.

Out of this crisis, Herbert Hoover began the defining work of his life. With the mission of feeding desperate Belgians, Hoover helped form the Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB).

With all of Europe at war, this was no easy task.

The British were extremely wary of Hoover’s endeavor. International rules of war placed the responsibility of feeding civilians in occupied territory on the occupying power. The British feared that if they allowed food to be imported into Belgium, the Germans would simply seize it for themselves. Hoover understood this risk but saw the alternative as unacceptable.

Working in direct consultation with both the British and German governments throughout the war, Hoover was able to organize a vast logistical network of food producers, transport ships, storage facilities, and distribution systems. Through this effort, food was delivered to more than 9 million people in Belgium and northern France.

In 1917, the United States entered World War I. Seeing the results of Hoover’s work and recognizing his extraordinary logistical skill, President Woodrow Wilson appointed him to lead the United States Food Administration. The goal of this new agency was to ensure the nation produced enough food to feed U.S. troops and their Allies abroad without causing shortages at home.

Rather than imposing strict rationing, Hoover took the issue directly to the people, relying on public cooperation and sheer patriotism. He promoted campaigns such as “Meatless Mondays” and “Wheatless Wednesdays,” encouraging American households to voluntarily conserve food. The administration’s slogan captured the spirit of the effort: “Food Will Win the War.”

When the war finally ended and the Allies emerged victorious, Hoover was not finished. He transformed his wartime organization into the American Relief Administration, which took on the task of feeding a devastated Europe as it struggled to rebuild. Through a combination of public and private support, the ARA helped feed people in more than 20 countries and, at its peak, was credited with providing meals to millions of children each day.

By the time Hoover reached the White House in 1929, he was a household name not only in the United States but around the world.

When Hoover was defeated in the election of 1932 by FDR, he believed his political career was over. He was wrong. Having already served under Woodrow Wilson and for Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge as Secretary of Commerce prior to his administration, Hoover would later go on to serve in various capacities under Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower. He was even offered a role in the administration of John F. Kennedy but declined due to his health.

At his funeral, the chaplain of the United States Senate, Frederick B. Harris, summed up the work of Hoover succinctly when he said of him: “And so it is ours today to gratefully salute one who brought sustenance to more starving humans than any other man who has ever walked this earth.”

Herbert Hoover was, in many ways, cursed to rise to the presidency at one of the most difficult moments in American history. It is almost impossible to know exactly how much his efforts helped or hurt the country during the Great Depression.

What is not up for debate is the work he did outside of his presidency. Hoover contributed to this American experiment in ways that resonate with both modern progressives and conservatives. More than that, it is almost impossible to quantify his contributions to the world through his efforts during and after the war.

Herbert Hoover deserves to be remembered as more than a casualty of economic circumstance. He deserves to be remembered for what he was: a true humanitarian hero.