A truly great American was born 150 years ago today in West Branch, Iowa: Herbert Clark Hoover. Even a partial list of his accomplishments is astounding:
- He was an extraordinarily successful mining engineer.
- He organized the return of Americans from Europe after the outbreak of World War I.
- He organized the feeding of Belgium during World War I (despite the opposition of Winston Churchill, among others).
- He organized relief in central and eastern Europe after World War I.
- He organized the feeding of the famine-ravaged USSR in 1921-2, saving upwards of 20 million people from starvation.1
- He helped feed German school children after World War II.
- He led commissions to recommend how to re-organize the executive branch if the federal govenrment for both Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower.
Oh yes, and he was the 31st President of the United States.
For decades, Hoover has been blamed for the Great Depression and the government’s response to it. Democrats have especially done this because it’s good politics. (They are doing it up to today: see Joe Biden.) But it doesn’t matter. Herbert Hoover was a great man – and a good man. The country would be better off if we had more people like him in public service today.
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1 When Hoover was asked if he was helping Bolshevism by providing relief, he replied, "Twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed." See a discussion of this effort in this post.
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