Herbert Hoover and a question of history repeating itself
By Mychal Wilmes
wilmes@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 03/04/2010 9:23 AM
E-mail article | Print version
Herbert Hoover promised a chicken in every pot when he ran for the presidency in 1928.
The West Bend, Iowa-born Hoover was a great humanitarian who saved millions from starvation through charitable work inside and outside government. During World War 1, Hoover encouraged Americans to plant victory gardens to help the effort.
Hoover suffered from miserable timing when he entered the White House to replace Calvin Coolidge. The stock market crashed and the luckless Hoover was blamed. Shanty towns that were constructed by those who were thrown on the street because they couldn't pay their mortgages came to be called Hoovervilles.
It was a cruel fate for a man who worked so hard to help the poor. Hoover shared the conservative philosophy of the time that government had no business interfering in business, so his administration launched new government programs to help revive the economy. Neither Social Security or unemployment insurance existed, so former wage-earners and their families fell through the cracks. It was a more agrarian society then, and the Great Depression led more people to return to farms, where food — if little else — was available.
The farm economy had turned sour long before the stock market crashed. Farmers had ratcheted production up during World War 1 to meet increased demand and kept it high even though foreign demand fizzled after the war. Grain and livestock prices crashed.
Franklin Roosevelt, who didn't treat Hoover with the respect he deserved, brought an entire new philosophy to the White House. A host of New Deal programs soon followed, which included make-work programs for the unemployed and a farm program designed to better control production. Roosevelt took a radical approach. With hogs next to worthless — it cost more to get them to market than the animals were worth — the White House embarked on a poorly organized effort to have farmers kill piglets. The move was denounced by the general public, who wondered how farmers could treat their animals so cruelly and questioned the wisdom of wasting meat when so many people were hungry. The farm programs that exist today have the roots in the Great Depression.
It's often said that history repeats itself. I'm not sure that's true.
If it does, we are in for a long slog to recovery. In the 1930s, unemployment remained high and the economy weak until the nation embarked on a military buildup for a war that most expected the United States to eventually be involved in. The economy continues to struggle now, and people seem to be returning to their roots.
Home gardening's popularity is soaring, fueled because people want to save money and think backyard produce to be healthier than store-bought product that may have been trucked hundreds or thousands of miles.
During the Great Depression, people became disgusted with WallStreet movers and Washington politicians and demanded a return to common-sense values. Moralists condemned alcohol consumption and gambling. They passed Prohibition and got one-armed bandits removed from hotels and grocery stores. Prohibition, at its best, provided farmers with a new source of income. Corn mash was needed for the stills that were built in isolated rural areas.
The moralists of that time would be shocked to see government-run lottery games and casinos that have become major industries and revenue sources.
Hoover, for his part, would have liked to see people through their precious money away playing foolish games. Hoover's name — if he is remembered in high school history classes — is brought up when the Great Depression is discussed.
That's a shame. Iowa's native son didn't cause it. Greed, stupidity and the belief that prosperity is our God-given right as Americans did. I think we may be relearning that lesson today.