Herbert Hoover

B

Author

Hoover also wrote numerous articles for engineering journals. In 1909 these articles were published in book form under the title Principles of Mining, which became a standard engineering school text on ore extraction. In collaboration with Mrs. Hoover he translated Georgius Agricola's De Re Metallica into English. Originally published in Latin in 1556, this treatise dealt with mining and metallurgical processes. Hoover checked and deciphered the symbols, and his wife translated the text.

C

Humanitarian

“I am interested in some kind of public service,” Hoover often declared, and his public-spirited wife agreed with his desire to aid his fellow citizens. Hoover's opportunity came with the outbreak of World War I in 1914, when he was in London looking after his business affairs. The U.S. ambassador asked Hoover to organize the return of Americans stranded in Europe. So efficiently did he perform this work that he was assigned the gigantic task of getting food, shelter, and clothing to thousands of homeless and hungry European civilians. Hoover resigned from all his executive positions, and for the next five years paid his own expenses and accepted no salary or fee.

C

1

Belgian Relief Commissioner

As chairman of the commission for relief in northern France and Belgium, which were overrun by German armies, Hoover supervised the distribution of millions of tons of food and clothing to French and Belgian refugees. He operated behind the lines of hostile armies and moved through naval blockades. As he put it, “I moved constantly in and out behind the trenches on both sides ... My duties required that I meet constantly with high military and civil officials in England, Germany, France, and the neutral countries.”

D

U.S. Food Administrator

After the United States entered the war in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson summoned Hoover from Europe to be U.S. food administrator. Military victory depended largely on the American capacity to feed the Allied armies. Although he was given wide powers, Hoover depended more on propaganda and voluntary cooperation than on coercion. Americans became used to words like “to hooverize,” which meant conserving important foods like meat and wheat. His organization and administration of the Grain Corporation, the Food Purchase Board, and the Sugar Equalization Board conserved and encouraged production of agricultural products.

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E

Postwar Work

Even after the armistice, the Allies continued their blockade around Germany. Hoover, in Europe again, worked to have it relaxed. He was appointed chairman of the American Relief Administration to assist in the economic restoration of Europe, receiving from the U.S. Congress $100 million to fight famine and plague. In this official role, and afterward as a private citizen, Hoover oversaw the distribution of 46 million tons of food to people in 30 countries. He controlled shipping, directed railways and coal mines, and reopened ports and canals closed by war. When the American Relief Administration was terminated, Hoover organized the European Children's Fund to care for millions of orphaned children in central and eastern Europe.

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