PART IV Chapt Sixteen- A Woman of Firsts

Part IV

Chapter 16

A Woman of Firsts

Lou Henry Hoover

“Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven...”

                                                                                                    Jesus

Few Americans are aware of Lou Henry Hoover. But she was admired and beautiful and talented enough to have been a very popular first lady; Born to a middle-class family in the Midwest, College educated, a person of excellence, she was innovative, adventuresome and altruistic. Lou Henry Hoover was a natural-born leader and pathfinder, who established the standards of behavior and activism for modern first ladies. And she did it all in just one term.

Lou Hoover's second appearance on

 the cover of TIME. The inset oval is a detail from

 a cabinet card purchased on the Internet along 

with most of the images in this book 

Lou was precisely described by one writer as “...an activist, a wife, a mother, a philanthropist, a geologist, an outdoorswoman, a clubwoman, a writer, a progressive and a conservative.” This was a fair appraisal, except they left out hospital volunteer, interior designer, world traveler, fund-raiser, and first lady. Any person represented by all of those legitimate adjectives would normally be remembered as a veritable Wonder Woman. But not in these United States. For no reasonable justification, hers has been an egregious branding of humiliation. And that one justification was the world's economy during her husband's last three years as the thirty-first President of the United States.

Herbert Hoover, Lou's husband, also a stellar individual, suffered a legacy even worse, and an equally unjust reputation of ineptitude and shame. His brilliant star fell like a low-flying goose shot out of the sky. Incredibly, President Herbert Hoover was a man of unquestioned character and great abilities, considered by some, even before he was elected, as the “most popular man in the world.” A globe-trotting industrial trouble-shooter for the mining industry, his humanitarian labors to feed the starving in Europe during WWI, and success serving three preceding presidential cabinets had propelled him to the top of the American political scene in a completely equitable process. He had risen as a “Progressive” in the Republican Party, recognized proudly in those days as the “Party of Lincoln.” The Republican Party in those times was still begrudgingly respected by the Media, and still enjoyed the confidence of African Americans, although their Civil Rights were not yet achieved because of Democratic racism and obstruction.

Yet after Herbert Hoover's presidency, all of that had changed. A worldwide economic disaster turned the public against the Hoovers, and Republicans, and left their lives upside down, and in three years the American people reversed themselves and judged them as fools.  Our uncharitable national history obligingly stripped them of simple dignity.

This is an important point. Even though the Hoovers stood firmly for modernity, hospitality, and ahead of their times, practiced racial equality and impartiality, they were viciously denigrated and expelled. And precisely because of these qualities. As they courageously brought progressive ideas to the White House, a significant portion of America proved to be shallow, provincial, and racist, and when given an excuse, the divided country did its best to hate, humiliate and then forget them both. As events unfolded, the economy would provide the catalyst for their undoing. 

There are talkers and then there are doers. And the American people love a good talker, and have come to expect their president to be eloquent as well. President Hoover was not a very convincing speaker, unable to fake confidence, and unaware of his transparency as news photos revealed his heavy concerns, written all over his face. His approach to tell people the truth, face the facts and “buck up” in hard times fell on deaf ears. 

The Hoovers followed a far different playbook, and instead were stalwart, take the bull by the horns, social generals. They practiced that popular quip, “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.” Neither liked to give speeches. They were more problem solvers than statesmen. But they believed that America could whip any problem, and speeches or political bluffing was not enough; every American had to get into the trenches, stop complaining, and get to work. The Hoovers led by example.

But why all the animosity for these once popular leaders? Surely in 1932 America was not yet so accustomed to Hollywood-styled stage and camera presence.

Greatly downplayed, there had been a social revolution in the United States, in a bad way, beginning in 1919 when Prohibition had been enacted. The removal of alcohol from the store shelves across America left a significant portion of the population disgruntled, frustrated and embracing new lifestyle choices, many of them illegal. Bootlegging, smuggling and gang violence skyrocketed, as “speak easys” began to nurture underworld networking, and criminal empires were born. Prohibition was at the zenith of its unpopularity, yet it was making gangsters like Al Capone rich. Herbert Hoover had promised to shut them down.

There were, in effect, powerful, competing powers with vastly different goals and moralities. The nation's federal law of alcohol prohibition was in direct combat with corrupt local governments which were pervasively bribed by underworld bootlegging cartels. When Herbert Hoover was elected in 1928, part of his agenda was to bust up these regional crime syndicates, and return America to “Law and Order.” The criminal liquor czars did not welcome Hoover's goals and used flowing booze to campaign against him and his fledgling enforcers- the FBI. Herbert Hoover came to represent an unwanted and invasive authority in everyday life; a kill-joy.

It was the beginning of the stormy courtship between the Media and the powers that be. With the advent of radio, an American president had to have “media savvy.” The Media was realizing its awesome power through exciting new technologies, and was immediately adapting to them. Radio, newsreels, daily newspapers made current events truly current. Public relations for politicians became much harder to manipulate. The prevention of unfair scandal, political assassination, and mass panic became impossible. Both parties aggressively sought to shape American perceptions, like never before. But predictably, those not in power were more creative and aggressive, and ruthless, and usually got in the first punch. There was never a very effective counter-punch.

This was the beginning of the cynical axiom of today, that “perception is reality.” And to their epic loss, the Hoovers were not a bit extroverted, and not prepared to shape public perceptions. The monumental, sinking economic depression had a thousand fronts, and had become a worldwide quandary, which would take years to address.

One of Lou Hoover's rare but oft repeated quotes was to achieve goals by “Leading from behind.” And although this quip is just as often misunderstood, there is wisdom in it. If the leader initially leads by example and knows what they are doing.

Lou and her husband believed in America, her system, her people, and her invincibility, because they first knew and believed in themselves. To them, a good leader was to lead “from behind,” as their reinforcements took over and expanded the mission. The Hoovers knew that nothing worthwhile, no achievement, no program means anything if it is totally dependent on its leaders to survive. It must take flight on its own, create its own soldiers, or it will eventually die. Any solution to the Depression had to come from their workaday world built on feasibility and accountability. It would be irresponsible to run the country into a financial chasm it could never resolve...

It would never occur to them to create a battery of unfunded government programs, which would triple the cost of government while they doubled its size, and in the process send the nation into a huge debt, impossible to pay. Those would the resorts of the Roosevelt Administration.

The Great Depression came along at the height of the Hoover's public service, and confounded economists and every theory of government. The government as it existed did not have the tools, but was saddled with the mandate to solve the problem. Although these things had been discussed, bank deposit insurance, minimum wage, unemployment insurance and Social Security did not exist. None of the theories or functions of Free Enterprise promised to resolve the growing poverty and hopelessness growing on a global scale.

The Hoovers responded to the Great Depression admirably, but half of the citizens in the country were Democrats and thus already poised to dislike, if not defy them, as they had always done; the Media sensed the Hoover's distrust or downright contempt of them and responded in kind. Meanwhile the racists and Socialists had their own reasons for resisting them, and a good third of the country was thirsty for drink and devoted to contravening Hoover's Law and Order ambitions. So the economic crash, something totally out of the power of any president, tipped the scales of public approval and became a convenient, uniting complaint which spelled political and personal disaster for the Hoovers.

Distrust in banks caused middle class people to withdraw their money from their bank accounts, and thus extract their cash from the economy. America had suffered serious economic depressions before in 1873, 1893, 1907 and 1920. Americans had become disgusted with a predictable cycle of feast and famine. Confidence in banks and finance were at an all-time low. Suddenly loans became scarce. There had been “runs' on the banks before, but this was the granddaddy of them all. 

Economists began to debate the usefulness of new economic theories, some which required deficit spending and redistribution of wealth to solve the depression. Whatever the question, Socialism was touted to be the answer.

Many citizens reasoned, if the government could take away booze, and police the world at American's expense, and meet the needs of other countries, even rebuild Europe, it “should take care of its own people first.” All of this distrust and isolationism was anathema to the Hoovers.

Economic manipulations by the Federal Reserve Board, and the subsequent roller-coaster of economic inflations and depressions, and growing and pervasive nihilism had demoralized America into a helpless, confused, self-pitying spectator. Meanwhile Socialism promised fairness and satisfaction to many, as self-determination to many Americans translated into an eternal status quo, even a lifetime of poverty. Meanwhile, the Hoovers led bravely and watched to see if the country responded, with their patriotic resolve.

This did not happen. America was not only the greatest nation in the world, with the greatest abilities, but it also nursed the greatest, the most competitive, the most outrageous and self-destructive political scrimmage in the world. Frightened by ruthless leftist elements in the Media who hated Capitalism and every self-reliant bone in the Hoover's bodies, the American people put their cash in a coffee can, froze their finances, and watched the Hoovers melt down- and found a broad consensus of negativity and discontent.

Years of relative national prosperity after WWI had given birth to the modern age. Many wealthy and powerful Americans made exorbitant profits during the years of rebuilding Europe after the carnage of World War I, and the predictable moral decadence from that prosperity led to the wild antics of the Prohibition years. Consequently the “Roaring Twenties,” had left Americans astray of their ideological foundations. Drugs, alcohol, divorce, lawsuits, sexual promiscuity, had all reached all-time highs.

Automobiles, cross-country travel, radios, risque popular music, magazine advertising, all contributed to a narcissistic society... that placed appearances, perceptions far above mundane, sometimes uncomfortable truths. But the Hoovers were realists and patriots who dealt in the truth; facing it, dealing with it. Depending on it. And depending on hard work and the work ethics of the American people. This impasse turned into their epitaph.

The Hoovers were handy scapegoats to whip on, and easy targets to demonize and destroy, conveniently giving our society what all irritated societies need to maintain order; someone to blame. The Democratic South and Northern racists joined together, united in the castigation of the Hoovers and their Administration, glad to bury them for their sins of daring to “disgrace the White House” by socially entertaining black guests. And who had broken tradition and courageously invited the wife of a black congressman into the White House? Lou Hoover.

Who had corralled and indoctrinated thousands of sweet, young, innocent American girls, through her major influence of the Girl Scouts, to go out and bravely try to address the needs of the poor during this economic failure? Lou Hoover. Who had spearheaded female athletics, encouraging American girls to play and even compete in sports, something which required “unladylike” behavior and “scandalous” clothing? Yes, Lou Hoover.

How dare she, these were no proper activities for our little girls! Or so thought a fiercely backward sector of society. But the Hoovers knew well, and proposed repeatedly what it would take for America to pull itself out of the Depression. It would take the hard work and talents of physically vibrant men and women, and it would take respect for law and order. It would take trust in the system. And America said hell no.

Over the decades the Leftists had grown to despise the American economic system, and to some degree justifiably. It was governed by an independent money trust, one we still have today known as the Federal Reserve Board. This private organization, led by powerful, un-elected, untouchable captains of finance, had used the ebb and flow of the world's economy to make huge profits, even during WWI, and especially after the war. Suspicions were further inflamed by former Congressman Charles Lindbergh Sr., and others, who saw the FED as an unconstitutional predator of the American people. The issues were complicated, and the solutions revolutionary, and finally the losses to American farms during “Hoover's depression” tipped the scales of tolerance.

President Hoover became the hapless “fair-haired boy” holding office when the economic powers of the country decided to force banks to call notes, raise interest rates, and gradually through a series of depressions let American farmers take the worst losses in decades. All of this to pop the bubble of inflation... and then conveniently rake in profits from a panicking public, who let go of their financial assets at huge losses to pay their bills. Suddenly money was worth more... as was gold, treasury bonds, land, or any commodities, all now back in the crafty hands of the manipulators. But money was now also scarce, and credit even more so. Then lack of money led to business shut downs, job losses. People could not afford to buy anything. The big money profiteers bought up everything they could, taking advantage of the plummeting prices. And Hoover was blamed, making the whole scheme the master stroke of corrupt Capitalist genius... as it destroyed the Republicans and placed the political power into the hands of the Democrats.

It took many years for the American people to realize that it serves the Capitalist profiteers best to keep the populace deep in debt, stretched to the limit, as they keep the upper hand in desperate times. The population, which is kept distracted and misinformed by the Media, remain ignorant and apolitical, and through credit and loans become slaves of the system.

Years before, it had been Herbert Hoover, then Secretary of Commerce, who had made volunteer food-rationing a national cause, so that essential food could be sent to starving people in foreign lands during and after WWI. This was known with some sarcasm as “Hooverizing,” and met with mixed reviews, depending on the reviewer's personal sense of charity. This modest national campaign for meeting a global food emergency had been rejected by some Americans, especially Democrats, as invasive and overly generous. Now, in the heat of a terrible depression, when that same strategy became absolutely necessary for Americans, Herbert Hoover became the butt of many jokes and uncharitable derision.

Hooverizing had now become a way of life. Had he not always been the rich person demanding sacrifice from average Americans? This was too much. Angry banners, and even some burned effigies defied the man who had become the perennial proponent of sacrifice and frugality, for the common good.

In Texas, a strange new marsupial had made his appearance, something like an armored pig... Armadillos had migrated up into the South from Mexico and rural folks were desperate, actually hungry enough to try to eat them. They tasted like greasy pork... and the country folk called them“Hoover Hogs.”  This became the lasting impression of Herbert Hoover in the South. Whole families were suddenly combing the country in search of jobs, and the simple elements necessary for survival. They camped in roadside villages comprised of tents and makeshift shelters, called derisively “Hoovervilles.”

The Great Depression also severed longstanding ties between blacks, and the non-racist working class with the Republican Party, long considered their friend.  Disgruntled Americans found comfort and camaraderie in deriding their unpopular ruler. Texas and many Southern states would become solidly Democratic for the next half-century, and separated from Republicans, revive or continue their racist variations of Jim Crow laws for another thirty years.

President Hoover tried his best to address the country's needs, but poverty of the pocketbook was powerfully haunted by poverty of the mind.

No government on earth has ever found a fair alternative to prevent these painful economic fluctuations without also robbing people of the natural rewards for genius, or the incentives for efficient work and innovation. And sometimes, as in the Great Depression, the losses are too great, the recovery time too long, and popular sentiments become irrational and toxic. In these times desperate people do desperate things to survive. Criminals and anarchists move in to capitalize on societal vulnerabilities. That ugly result became just one of the Hoover's dark remembrance in history.

Lou Hoover courageously suffered the personal and political crash with her husband, and comforted him upon every downward slide, and she shared in his insurmountable political nosedive. But she always held her head high. No marriage ever suffered any greater test of unjust hatred and pervasive public rejection. And few marriages ever fared as well in the aftermath, in spite of such an overwhelming reversal of fortune.

Who could endure this? What kind of marriage could survive this kind of undeserved shame after a lifetime of altruism and public service? What kind of background shapes such persons, so resolute, so impervious to the temptations of world fame? How does one develop the kind of character that resists the resulting mental depression from becoming a nationwide social pariah?

Lou and her little sister about the time her father

 began to experiment with banking- and moves to 

Texas and California

Like her illustrious husband, Lou Henry grew up in the West and Midwest. Brilliant and statuesque, she had a humble yet invigorating upbringing, and was a stellar student in college. In today's world she might have been a model, or a politician. She loved nature and the out of doors, and was athletic. Lou was the poster girl of the modern young woman. Herbert Hoover was her equal, and they may have been one the most handsome and ideal couples to ever enter the White House.

Tragically, and to their loss, their public persona was a shallow publicity contrivance, a political illusion. There was no such thing in those days as “vetting.” Men running for office were judged strictly by their wealth or business prowess... and the usual superficial requirements... Our Presidents have always tended to be tall men with good hair. If you were wealthy, it was assumed that you were born that way, or that you somehow stole it. So few Americans were aware of the Hoover's inspiring resumes. All they knew was the Hoovers were rich and powerful, people whose names often appeared in the newspaper, and most Americans imagined the fancy silver spoons in their infant mouths, as they must assuredly have been born into the privileged class. But this was far from true.

The truth about the Hoovers would not be acknowledged for almost ninety years.