Freedom First

Lou Henry and Herbert Hoover were always thankful for the extraordinary opportunities afforded them by the American way of life. This gratitude deepened the couple’s commitment to giving back to their country and community in the form of public service.

Herbert Hoover’s preeminence in relief work led to a career in government, with eight years as the nation’s secretary of commerce and four years as president of the United States. Lou Henry Hoover’s dedication to public service also brought her national attention, especially during her time as First Lady, when she made effective use of her position on behalf of various of causes, becoming the first First Lady to give public addresses over the radio.

The Hoovers were particularly devoted to ensuring equal opportunities for children, supporting the Girl Scouts, Boys Clubs, and the National Amateur Athletics Federation–Women’s Division. Their commitment to children’s rights also led to the landmark White House Conference on the Health and Protection of Children (1930) and Herbert Hoover’s drafting of the Child’s Bill of Rights (1931).

Considered a humane reformer with an idealistic vision of America, Herbert Hoover was, at various times in his life, both the most highly regarded American of his generation for his humanitarian work and vilified for the Great Depression, which began during his presidency. Yet he never wavered in his support of policies that he believed would ensure freedom and American individualism.

Herbert Hoover’s most ardent initiatives in later years grew out of his commitment to resisting collectivist policies and fighting communism. Hoover expounded on his ideas for preserving the American way of life through his countless public addresses and publications and his several memoirs, including the posthumously published The Crusade Years and Freedom Betrayed.

Lou Henry Hoover believed the Girl Scouts of America gave girls of all backgrounds the training to develop a wide range of skills to prepare them for adult life, including physical fitness, for which she was a strong advocate.

Her dedication to the organization began after World War I and continued throughout her life. Whether as the national president or as a campfire speaker to local troops, she remained closely involved in the activities of the organization.

Lou Henry Hoover served as the president of the Girl Scouts of America from 1922 to 1925, while her husband was secretary of commerce. After Herbert Hoover served as president of the United States, she resumed her leadership of the Girl Scouts from 1935 to 1937. It was during her second term that the Girl Scouts leadership approved a national plan to bake and sell cookies in support of scouting, a tradition that continues to this day.

Herbert Hoover was chairman of the American Relief Administration (ARA), initially a US government agency formed in 1919 and charged with distributing food in Europe. He converted the ARA into a quasi-private relief organization, and over the next several years—often working in conjunction with other private American relief organizations—it would distribute several hundred million dollars in food and medicine to twenty-two countries in Europe and the Near East.

American aid was inspired by a combination of interrelated motives, from pure humanitarianism to the promotion of US economic interests. An essential goal to the aid program was, as Hoover phrased it, “to stem the tide of Bolshevism.” The Bolsheviks had come to power in Russia in 1917, and in the aftermath of the First World War Bolshevik ideology was threatening to gain a foothold in Europe. One common perception of the day was that the cure for the “disease of bolshevism” was food, and the United States was the only country capable of delivering it.

The ARA’s largest undertaking was its final operation: a two-year rescue mission to Soviet Russia to fight the Great Famine of 1921–23. It was at that time that Hoover, who was then serving as secretary of commerce, published a book of reflections on the American national identity. Hoover’s book made a case for what today would be called American exceptionalism. At its core was the notion that individualism was a uniquely American quality, far superior to the collectivist alternatives, notably the communist experiment then under way in the Soviet Union. “In Russia under the new tyranny,” Hoover wrote, “a group, in pursuit of social theories, have destroyed the primary self-interest impulse of the individual to production.” In American Individualism (1922), Hoover maintained that the individualist spirit of the American people, together with equality of opportunity, would ensure progress and prosperity.