Herbert Hoover: Quaker roots bore fruits

(President Herbert Hoover)

The name Herbert Hoover is often linked with the Great Depression.  The 31^st President of the United States is more often blamed for these hard times than credited with his many efforts to relieve them.  Not many realize that much of Roosevelt's New Deal was predicated upon programs that Hoover had initiated.

Hoover learned early on to effectively deal with hard times.  The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum reports on the "joys and hazards" of his boyhood life in the small Quaker town of West Branch, Iowa.  What fun it was to hike, fish, swim, sled, and hunt for fossils!  However, this fun was tempered by such challenges as droughts, storms, "typhus, diphtheria and pneumonia."

The Hoovers belonged to a strict Quaker sect that "valued a blunt plainness… believed that people will work well together" and "were dedicated to peace, and the belief that good common reason

and strategic planning provide one with an uncluttered conscience."  Hoover's mother was a "recorded minister" whose "faith was expressed in temperance and charitable activities."  The "long hours of Quaker

meetings" provided young Hoover with an opportunity for developing tremendous patience.

This early Quaker training seemed to bear much fruit during Hoover's presidency.  He was the first to donate his entire four-year salary to charity, and worked diligently to protect the rights of children.  He designed

extensive criminal-reform legislation, and initiated a Good Neighbor policy with Latin America that resulted in the withdrawal of troops from Nicaragua and Haiti.

Resources

http://hoover.nara.gov/education/hooverbio.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Hoover

Copyright August 10, 2012 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved