American Minute with Bill Federer
Herbert Hoover: Indian Reservation, Engineer, WWI Relief, President, Middle East, Communism, Constitution, the Bible
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Herbert Clark Hoover
was born AUGUST 10, 1874, in West Branch, Iowa.
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At the age of 6, his father died.
Herbert was sent to live on the
Osage Indian Reservation
in
Oklahoma
with his Quaker uncle, who was an Indian agent.
There he made many Indian friends and attended the "Indian Sunday-School."
Herbert Hoover
was the
only U.S. President
to have
lived on an Indian reservation.
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His Canadian-born
Quaker mother,
Hulda, taught Sunday School and spoke at the
Friend's Meeting House.
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She died when he was only nine years old.
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In 1885, the orphaned
Herbert Hoover
went to live with another
Quaker uncle
in Newberg, Oregon, where he was one of the first students to attend
Friend's Pacific Academy
(renamed
George Fox University
in 1949 in honor of the 17th century founder of the Quakers).
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In 1891, he was accepted into
Stanford University's inaugural class,
being the first student to live in the dormitory.
He worked his way through school doing laundry, delivering papers, and working for the U.S. Geological Survey.
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Herbert
graduated from
Stanford
in 1895 with a degree in geology, and in 1897, he sailed across the ocean to work as a mining engineer in
Western Australia.
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In 1898, while overseas, he cabled a marriage proposal to
Miss Lou Henry,
with whom he had fallen in love with at Stanford.
She wired back her acceptance.
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They were both 24 years old when they married on February 10, 1899.
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Miss Lou Henry
was
Episcopalian
and
Herbert
was
Quaker,
but as there were no
Quaker Meeting Houses
in Monterey, California, they married in a civil ceremony performed by
Roman Catholic priest Father Ramon Mestres
of the Cathedral of San Carlos Borromeo.
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They traveled on their honeymoon cruise to
China,
where
Herbert
worked for the last of the
Qing Emperors
as a mining consultant.
Lou
would be the
only First Lady
to
speak Chinese.
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On June 1, 1900,
Herbert
and his wife,
Lou,
were caught in
China's Boxer Rebellion,
being besieged in the city of
Tientsin
for over a month.
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Chinese Boxer fighters,
which included a mob of
10,000 Muslim "Gansu Braves,"
relentlessly attacked in a brutal attempt to
expel all foreigners,
most significantly Britain, United States, Australia, India, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Japan.
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Thousands of
Chinese Christians
were also targeted and executed, with churches and cathedrals being burned down.
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To defend against the attacks,
Hoover
organized the building of barricades, while under heavy fire.
His wife,
Lou,
worked in the hospital caring for the wounded. They are credited with
rescuing Chinese children
caught in the crossfire.
Not long after, in 1912, the
last Chinese Emperor abdicated,
ending 2,000 years of Imperial China.
China
then experienced decades of unrest with warlord factionalism, invasion by Japan, the Republic of China, the Nationalist Party, and the Communist Party.
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Returning to America, the
Hoovers
lived in both in California and London from 1901 to 1909.
Hoover
launched his own business as an independent mining consultant in 1908, traveling worldwide
with investments on every continent,
and maintaining offices in:
- Burma,
- San Francisco,
- Mandalay,
- London,
- St. Petersburg,
- Paris, and
- New York City.
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Hoover
lectured at
Stanford
and
Columbia universities
and published a textbook,
Principles of Mining,
in 1909.
He headed the
American Child Health Association,
and his wife,
Lou,
was the chair of the
American Women's War Relief Fund.
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In
World War I,
at the request of the American Consul,
Hoover
helped
120,000 Americans
who were stranded in Europe to return home.
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He directed the
feeding of Belgium
after Kaiser Wilhelm II overran it.
In gratitude, the Belgian city of Leuven named a town square after him,
"Hooverplein."
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Working 14-hour days, for two years,
Hoover
orchestrated the
feeding 9 million war victims
in 21 countries of
Central Europe
and
Russia.
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He was appointed by
President Wilson
as
director
of the
U.S. Food Administration.
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He served as
Secretary of Commerce
under
Presidents Harding
and
Coolidge.
In gratitude for his efforts, Washington, D.C., named its first airport
"Hoover Field."
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Of his time serving under
President Warren G. Harding,
Hoover
wrote in his personal memoirs, published 1952:
"(Harding)
had another side which was not good.
His political associates had been men of the type of
Albert B. Fall
(Teapot Dome Scandal) ...
Harry Daugherty
(bootlegging scandal) ...
Charles Forbes
(embezzled from veterans over $2 million) ...
He enjoyed the company of these men (in)
weekly White House poker parties
... the play lasted most of the night ...
It irked me to see it in the White House."
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In 1927, the
Mississippi River flooded,
leaving 1.5 million people displaced from their homes.
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With his experience coordinating large scale relief to millions,
Hoover
mobilized state and local authorities, militia, army engineers, the Coast Guard, and the American Red Cross.
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He oversaw the setting up of health units which stamped out malaria, pellagra and typhoid, gaining him national appreciation.
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In a landslide victory in 1928, Republican
Herbert Hoover
was elected the
31st U.S. President.
He refused a salary,
as he did throughout his entire life, never taking payment for public service.
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His
Vice-President, Charles Curtis,
was the
first Native American
to hold that office, being a descendant of
Osage chief Pawhuska.
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At that time,
Illinois Republican Oscar De Priest
was the
only African-American member of the U.S. Congress.
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President Hoover's wife,
First Lady Lou Hoover,
disregarded customs and in 1929, invited De Priest's wife,
Jessie De Priest,
to have tea at the
White House.
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In his Inaugural Address, March 4, 1929,
President Herbert Hoover
stated:
"I assume this trust in the humility of knowledge that only through
the guidance of Almighty Providence
can I hope to discharge its ever-increasing burdens ...
Ill-considered remedies for our faults brings only penalties after them. But if we hold the faith of the men in our mighty past who created these ideals, we shall leave them heightened and strengthened for our children ...
I beg your tolerance, your aid, and your cooperation.
I ask the help of Almighty God
in this service to my country to which you have called me."
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Explaining his views on the Constitution,
Herbert Hoover
stated at an event in San Diego, September 17, 1935, the same year the
Hoover Dam
was dedicated:
"Our Constitution ... is based upon certain inalienable freedoms and protections which in no event the government may infringe ...
It does not require a lawyer to interpret those provisions. They are as clear as the
Ten Commandments
...
Behind them is the conception which is
the highest development of the Christian faith
- the conception of
individual freedom with brotherhood."
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Hoover
encouraged the nation:
"Freedom is an open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit and of human dignity.
With the preservation of these
moral and spiritual qualities
and with
God's grace
will come further greatness for our country."
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Hoover
championed individual hard work and independence, rather than dependence on government, as he wrote in
The Challenge of Liberty,
1934:
"While I can make no claim for having introduced the term,
'rugged individualism,'
I should be proud to have invented it.
It has been used ... in eulogy of those
God-fearing men and women
of honesty whose stamina and character and fearless assertion of rights led them to make their own way in life."
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During the
"roaring twenties,"
there was irresponsible market speculation, stock manipulation, and banks that were over-leveraged with debt, in addition to growing domestic and international conditions.
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Inheriting these problems, the
Stock Market crashed
just eight months into
Hoover's
term in office.
At the onset of the Depression,
President Hoover
stated at the Gridiron Club, April 27, 1931:
"If, by the
grace of God,
we have passed the worst of this storm, the future months will be easy.
If we shall be called upon to endure more of this period, we must gird ourselves for even greater effort, for today we are writing the introduction to the future history of civilization in America ...
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... The question is whether that history shall be written in terms of
individual responsibility,
and the capacity of the Nation for
voluntary cooperative action,
or whether it shall be written in terms of futile attempt to cure poverty by the enactment of law, instead of the maintained and protected initiative of our people ...
If we can maintain this courage and resolution we shall have written this new chapter in national life in terms to which our whole idealism has aspired.
May
God
grant to us the spirit and strength to carry through to the end."
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In a Memorial Day address at Valley Forge, May 30, 1931,
President Hoover
stated:
"If, by the
grace of God,
we stand steadfast in our great traditions through this time of stress, we shall insure that we and our sons and daughters shall see these fruits increased many fold ...
If those few thousand men endured that long winter of privation and suffering ... held their countrymen to the faith, and by that holding held fast the freedom of America,
what right have we to be of little faith?"
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On October 18, 1931, in an address which began a nation-wide drive to aid the private relief agencies,
President Herbert Hoover
stated:
"This civilization ... which we call American life, is builded and can alone survive upon the translation into individual action of
that fundamental philosophy announced by the Savior nineteen centuries ago."
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On September 15, 1932, to leaders of the "national drive" committee for voluntary relief agencies,
President Herbert Hoover
stated:
"We maintain the
spiritual impulses
in our people for generous giving and generous service - in the spirit
that each is his brother's keeper."
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Hoover
was implementing a recovery plan based on volunteerism, aid through the states, and mobilizing private relief agencies. He stated February 3, 1931:
"The American people are doing their job today.
They should be given a chance to show whether they wish to preserve the principles of
individual and local responsibility
and
mutual self-help
before they embark on what I believe to be a disastrous system."
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Unfortunately,
political opposition
by
those wanting to expand the Federal Government's power
prolonged and thwarted his recovery efforts, thereby sabotaging
Hoover's
reelection.
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Hoover
warned in a campaign speech at Madison Square Garden, NY, October 31, 1932, against the
collectivist "New Deal" plans of his Democrat opponent, Franklin Roosevelt,
as the government would effectively take control of private business and restrict individual freedom:
"To enter upon a series of deep changes ... would be to
undermine and destroy our American system
...
No man who has not occupied my position in Washington can fully realize the
constant battle
which must be carried on
against incompetence, corruption, tyranny of government expanded into business activities
...
Free speech
does not live many hours after
free industry and free commerce die."
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Hoover
lost the election in 1932 to
Franklin Roosevelt,
who succeeded in having himself reelected three more times.
Under
Roosevelt,
the
Great Depression
lingered on, being compounded by the
Dust Bowl,
which devastated 100 million acres.
It was not until the United States entered World War II that the U.S. economy improved.
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During WWII,
Herbert Hoover
signed a joint-statement with the
widows of
Presidents
Theodore Roosevelt, Coolidge, Taft, Harrison
and
Cleveland,
which stated:
"Menaced by
collectivist trends,
we must seek revival of our strength in the spiritual foundations which are the bedrock of our republic.
Democracy is the outgrowth of the
religious conviction
of the
sacredness of every human life.
On the religious side, its highest embodiment is the
Bible;
on the political side, the
Constitution."
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Near the end of World War II, in declining health,
President Roosevelt
attended the
Yalta Conference,
where he condemned half of Europe to the iron-fisted control of the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,
led by the communist dictator
Stalin.
FDR had earlier admitted, February 10, 1940:
"The Soviet Union ... is run by a dictatorship as absolute as any other dictatorship in the world."
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On his way back from the Yalta Conference,
Roosevelt
met with
Saudi King, Abdul Aziz.
Afterwards,
FDR
wrote to him on April 5, 1945, promising that he would not let the United States recognize a Jewish State.
A week later, the ailing
Roosevelt
finally died, April 12, 1945.
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The next President,
Harry S Truman,
immediately took steps to recognize the
State of Israel.
Truman
appointed
Herbert Hoover
as Chairman of the
Hoover Commission
, as
President Eisenhower
did later.
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Hoover
proposed a solution to the Middle East crisis, as reported by
Scripps-Howard Press,
November 19, 1945:
"In ancient times the irrigation of the Tigris and Euphrates Valleys supported probably 10 million people in the kingdoms of Babylon and Nineveh.
The deterioration and destruction of their irrigation works by the Mongol invasion centuries ago, and their neglect for ages, are responsible for the shrinkage of the population to about 3,500,000 people in modern Iraq ...
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... Some 30 years ago, Sir William Willcocks, an eminent British engineer, completed a study of the restoration of the old irrigation system.
He estimated that about 2,800,000 acres of the most fertile land in the world could be recovered at a cost of under $150,000,000 ...
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... Some progress has been made under the Iraq government but their lack of financial resources and the delay of war have retarded the work greatly ...
My own suggestion is that Iraq might be financed to complete this great land development on the consideration that it be made the scene of resettlement of the Arabs from Palestine ..."
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Hoover
continued:
"This would clear Palestine completely for a large
Jewish emigration and colonization.
A suggestion of transfer of the Arab people of Palestine was made by the British Labor Party in December, 1944, but no adequate plan was proposed as to where or how they were to go ..."
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Hoover
added:
"There is room for many more Arabs in such a development in Iraq than the total Arabs in Palestine. The soil is more fertile.
They would be among their own race which is Arab-speaking and Mohammedan.
The Arab population of Palestine would be the gainer from better lands in exchange for their present holdings. Iraq would be the gainer for it badly needs agricultural population ...
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... Today millions of people are being moved from one land to another.
If the lands were organized and homes provided, this particular movement could be made the model migration of history. It would be a solution by engineering instead of by conflict.
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... I realize that the plan offers a challenge both to the statesmanship of the Great Powers as well as to the goodwill of all parties concerned. However, I submit it and it does offer a method of settlement with both honor and wisdom."
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Five years after the
United Nations
was established,
Herbert Hoover
proposed reorganizing it to exclude
Socialist -Communist countries
due to their atrocious record of human rights violations, as recorded by the
American Newspaper Publishers Association,
April 27, 1950:
"What the world needs today is a definite, spiritual mobilization of the nations who believe in
God
against this
tide of Red agnosticism.
It needs a moral mobilization against the hideous ideas of the
police state and human slavery
...
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... I suggest that the
United Nations
should be
reorganized without the Communist nations
in it.
If that is impractical, then a definite New United Front should be organized of those peoples who
disavow communism,
who stand for
morals and religion,
and who
love freedom ..."
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Hoover
continued:
"It is a proposal based solely upon
moral, spiritual
and
defense
foundations.
It is a proposal to redeem the concept of the United Nations to the high purpose for which it was created. It is a proposal for
moral and spiritual cooperation of God-fearing free nations.
And in
rejecting an atheistic other world,
I am confident that the
Almighty God will be with us."
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Herbert Clark Hoover
died October 20, 1964.
A few years earlier, he spoke at a reception on his 80th birthday in West Branch, Iowa, August 10, 1954, warning how socialism is the path to communism:
"I have witnessed on the ground in 20 nations the workings of the philosophy of that
anti-Christ, Karl Marx.
There rises constantly in my mind the forces which make for progress and those which may corrode away the safeguards of freedom in America ...
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... I want to say something ... not in the tones of Jeremiah but in the
spirit of Saint Paul
...
Our
Founding Fathers
did not invent the priceless boon of individual freedom and respect for the dignity of men. That great gift to mankind sprang from the
Creator
and not from governments ...
Today the
Socialist virus and poison gas
generated by
Karl Marx and Friedreich Engels
have spread into every nation on the earth ...
Their dogma is
absolute materialism
which defies
truth and religious faith ..."
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Hoover
continued:
"A nation is strong or weak, it thrives or perishes upon what it believes to be true.
If our youth are rightly instructed in the faith of our fathers ... then our power will be stronger ...
To this whole gamut of
Socialist infections,
I say to you ...
God
has blessed us with another wonderful word - 'heritage.'
The great documents of that heritage are
not from Karl Marx.
They are from the
Bible,
the
Declaration of Independence
and the
Constitution of the United States.
Within them alone can the safeguards of freedom survive."
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Hoover
, who was a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers), stated:
"The whole inspiration of our civilization springs from
the teachings of Christ
and the lessons of the prophets. To read the
Bible
for these fundamentals is a
necessity of American life."
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Schedule Bill Federer for informative interviews & captivating PowerPoint presentations: 314-502-8924
wjfederer@gmail.com
American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission is granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate, with acknowledgment.
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