4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL FEBRUARY 22, 2017
O PINION
Offbeat Oregon History
Oregonian saved whole nations from starving to death
O
n the last
day of July,
For The Sentinel
1914, for-
mer Oregonian Her-
bert Clark Hoover was
on top of the world. From his plush offi ce in the fi nancial district
in London, he kept a watchful eye on mining investments all over
the world. His net worth was climbing past $4 million — not bad
for a lad who’d set out into the world two decades before with $40
in his pocket.
And some critical investments in Russia were about to pay off
big. When they did, he’d use the cash to buy the Sacramento Union
newspaper, move back to his beloved Northern California home,
and settle into a quiet, pleasant life as a newspaper magnate.
Then, as he recalls in his memoirs, “the diplomatic lightning
started to fl ash from capitol to capitol” in old Europe, and within
half a week the First World War was under way — and all Hoover’s
plans lay in ruins about his feet.
The Russian investment suddenly looked like a dead duck. His
other mines, most of them in the British colonial empire, were shut-
ting down one by one as all available workers rushed off to war.
Cash fl ow almost stopped, and Hoover’s net worth plummeted.
But that wasn’t the real problem. Hoover was still young, just 40
years old. He could wait fi ve or ten years to make his move. He’d
already waited 20; what was a few more? No, the real problem was
not fi nancial; it was moral.
Hoover had long since given up on the gold mining business.
Staying ahead of the swindlers with their salted mines and tiresome
con games was just too much work. The vast majority of his hold-
ings now were in mining operations for boring gray stuff — zinc,
lead, coal, iron and tin — exactly the materials that were now in
huge demand by the world’s hungry war machines.
And Hoover was still a Quaker. Not the most devout one you
would ever meet, but a Quaker nonetheless, a founding member of
the Friends Monthly Meeting in Salem, Oregon — which remained
his home church until his death. No Quaker could countenance
building a fortune out of mining lead for bullets, iron for shell cas-
ings, coal for battleships.
Luckily for Hoover’s conscience — and luckily for hundreds of
millions of hungry Belgians, northern French, Poles, Eastern Eu-
ropeans and Russians over the following 40 years — he wouldn’t
have to.
“I did not realize it at the moment, but on August 3, 1914, my
career was over forever,” Hoover wrote in his memoirs. “I was on
the slippery road of public life.”
It started with a project to organize a clearinghouse for getting
By Finn J.D. John
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Likes pet column
What a beautiful story Mary Ellen. It touched my
heart. Thank you.
With Love To All ~ Dick
stranded American tourists, caught abroad in the outbreak of hos-
tilities, safely on their way home. He proved so successful in this
that a delegation of concerned citizens from Belgium came to him
a month or so later to propose that he take command of an interna-
tional organization to import food into German-occupied Belgium.
The problem for Belgium was, the British had set up a blockade
around Germany so that no food or supplies could get in. Belgium,
a conquered British ally, was technically the Germans’ responsibili-
ty to feed; but the Germans were taking the position that unless the
British let them import food for Belgium, any ensuing starvation
was on them. The Brits’ response to that was, in effect, “Sure, if
we let food in for the Belgians you’ll just requisition it. You should
have thought of this before you invaded.”
And so the stalemate dragged on while Belgium slowly starved.
The plan Hoover worked out with the delegation involved the
U.S. Embassy owning the food right up until the point where it was
served to a Belgian. It would therefore not be subject to requisition
or embargo.
It required some careful thought.
“I was not bothered over administrative matters such as the pur-
chase and overseas shipment of large quantities of materials,” he
wrote in his memoirs. “Any engineer could do that. But there were
other phases for which there was no former human experience to
turn to for guidance. It would require that we fi nd the major food
supply for a whole nation; raise the money to pay for it; get it past
navies at sea and occupying armies on land; set up an agency for
distribution of supplies for everybody justly; and see that the (Ger-
mans) took none of it. It was not ‘relief’ in any known sense.”
After three days of thinking and planning, Hoover made the deci-
sion — and, divesting himself of his mining interests, poured him-
self into the challenge of engineering and executing a plan to feed
an entire nation, while stymieing the best efforts of militarists in
Britain and Germany, who hoped to turn starvation in Belgium into
a military advantage.
When the U.S. entered the war, President Woodrow Wilson
named Hoover food administrator for the U.S. And after the war,
Hoover became the head of the American Relief Administration
and oversaw a program that kept another several hundred million
from starving in Eastern Europe — and postrevolutionary Russia, a
country run by the Bolsheviks, whom Hoover detested.
All of this turned Hoover into an American hero. Throughout the
1920s, he was possibly the most admired American citizen, both at
home and around the world. That popularity, of course, carried him
straight to the top, and in 1929 he was sworn in as President of the
United States … and then the Great Depression broke out.
Just four years after he took offi ce, of course, he was probably the
most hated American citizen. The fact that Herbert Hoover, the
man who essentially invented modern industrialized hunger re-
lief, became associated with hunger and want in Depression-rav-
aged Americans’ minds is proof that history has a dark and ironic
sense of humor.
The shadow cast by
Hoover’s failed pres-
idency still haunts his
legacy to this day. He is
the president most often
called upon for dispar-
aging comparisons with
sitting leaders — both
George W. Bush and
Barack Obama were
compared with him by
their opponents.
Perhaps that’s why,
other than the Hoover-Minthorn House in Newberg, his time in
Oregon is barely noticeable. His home in Salem is a private resi-
dence, and has been remodeled so that it no longer resembles what
it looked like in 1890; its current occupants may not even realize
they are living in a former President’s boyhood home. His offi ce at
the Oregon Land Company is now part of the building that houses
the Union Gospel Mission. The Salem meetinghouse of the Society
of Friends (Quakers), where he remained a member until his death,
has passed into the hands of a new congregation from a different
denomination. All that remains is some graffi ti which he reportedly
carved on a brick wall at the building that’s now Boone’s Treasury.
In Shedd, though, if you visit the historic Boston Flouring Mills
— now a state park — and take the guided tour, they’ll show you
a color photocopy of a very old document. It’s a bill of sale dated
1891, facilitated by the Oregon Land Company; and one of the wit-
nesses signed his name “Bert Hoover.”
That was in 1891. Twenty years later the mill was running 24
hours a day grinding fl our for Hoover’s American Relief Admin-
istration, which was using it to save several hundred million Volga
Russians from starving to death … and chances are, no one working
at the mill had any idea.
An aging Hoover was called out of retirement after the Second
World War ended, when President Harry Truman asked for his help
in coordinating food relief to war-torn Europe. Hoover didn’t have
to be asked twice. For several years after the war’s end, Hoover’s
organization was the primary source of calories for hundreds of
millions of Eastern Europeans.
How many of them would have starved to death without Hoover’s
help? We’ll never know. But Hoover himself, looking back on his
life while writing his memoirs, estimated his total tally of lives
saved at 1.4 billion. That’s roughly fi ve times more deaths prevent-
ed than Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, and Mao Zedong caused, com-
bined.
Whatever his reputation from the presidential years, Herbert
Hoover was a man whom Oregon should be very proud to claim as
a native stepson.
A clarifi cation concerning press releases and material submitted by the community: The Sentinel is happy to
receive press releases but its new policy is to report on these happening, rather than ask community members
to do our jobs and simply print the submission.. All press releases will be reported on insuring that the infor-
mation is correct and keep Sentinel staff accountable. Community members are also welcome to submit story
ideas, briefs and stories. While staff cannot gaurentee stories submitted by the community will run, issues
contained in those stories will always be reported on.
We Want Your News!
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
wants to be your source
for all things Cottage Grove.
But we need your help!
If you’ve got a news tip,
we’d be glad to hear about it:
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
In person: 116 N. Sixth Street, Cottage Grove
Email: cgnews@cgsentinel.com
Office phone: 942-3325
ADMINISTRATION:
JOHN BARTLETT, Regional Publisher..............................
GARY MANLY, General Manager................942-3325 Ext.
207 • publisher@cgsentinel.com
AARON AMES, Sales Repersentative...............942-3325
Ext. 216 • aames@cgsentinel.com
TAMMY SAYRE, Sales Repersentative......... 942-3325
Ext. 213 • tsayre@cgsentinel.com
SPORTS DEPARTMENT:
SAM WRIGHT, Sports Editor...................942-3325 Ext.
204 • swright@cgsentinel.com
CUSTOMER SERVICE
CARLA WILLIAMS, Office Manager.................942-3325
Ext. 201 • cwilliams@cgsentinel.com
LEGALS.............................................................942-3325
Ext. 200 • cwilliams@cgsentinel.com
NEWS DEPARTMENT:
CAITLYN MAY, Editor......................................942-3325
Ext. 212 • cmay@cgsentinel.com
GRAPHICS:
RON ANNIS, Graphics Manager
(USP 133880)
Subscription Mail Rates in Lane and Portions of Douglas Counties:
Ten Weeks ................................................................$9.10
One year .................................................................$36.15
e-Edition year..........................................................$36.00
Rates in all other areas of United States: Ten Weeks $11.70; one year, $46.35, e-Edition $43.00.
Letters to the Editor policy
In foreign countries, postage extra.
No subscription for less than Ten Weeks. Subscription rates are subject to change upon 30 days’ notice. All subscritptions must be
paid prior to beginning the subscription and are non-refundable.
Periodicals postage paid at Cottage Grove, Oregon.
Postmaster: Send address changes to P.O. Box 35, Cottage Grove, OR 97424.
Local Mail Service:
If you don’t receive your Cottage Grove Sentinel on the Wednesday of publication, please let us know.
Call 942-3325 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Advertising Ownership:
All advertising copy and illustrations prepared by the Cottage Grove Sentinel become the property of the Cottage Grove Sentinel and
may not be reproduced for any other use without explicit written prior approval.
Copyright Notice:
Entire contents ©2017 Cottage Grove Sentinel.
The Cottage Grove Sentinel receives many letters to the editor. In order to ensure that your letter will be
printed, letters must be under 300 words and submitted by Friday at 5 p.m. Letters must be signed and
must include an address, city and phone number or e-mail address for verifi cation purposes. No anony-
mous letters will be printed. Letters must be of interest to local readers.
Personal attacks and name calling in response to letters are uncalled for and unnecessary.
If you would like to submit an opinion piece, Another View must be no longer than 600 words.
To avoid transcription errors, the Sentinel would prefer editorial and news content be sent
electronically via email or electronic media. Hand written submissions will be accepted, but we may
need to call to verify spelling, which could delay the publishing of the submission.