ADDRESSES UPON THE AMERICAN ROAD BY Herbert Hoover 1948-1950 1951 STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS STANFORD, CALIFORNIA STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS STANFORD, CALIFORNIA LONDON : GEOFFREY CUMBERLEGE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS THE BAKER AND TAYLOR COMPANY 55 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 3 HENRY M. SNYDER & COMPANY 440 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 16 W. S. HALL & COMPANY 457 MADISON AVENUE, NEW YORK 22 COPYRIGHT 1951 BY THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY PRINTED AND BOUND IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Contents PART I: DOMESTIC POLICIES AND ECONOMICS THE MIRACLE OF AMERICA 3 ["Woman's Home Companion," November 1948] GIVE US SELF-RELIANCE — OR GIVE US SECURITY 8 [Address at Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, June 11, 1949] THINK OF THE NEXT GENERATION 13 [Birthday Address at the Reception Tendered, by Stanford University, August 10, 1949] DEBTS, DEFICITS, AND TAXES 22 [Address before the United States Junior Chamber of Commerce, Chicago, Illinois, June 16, 1950] ON PROPOSED SOCIAL SECURITY LEGISLATION 32 [Letter to the Honorable Robert L. Doughton, Chairman, Ways and Means Committee, House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., April 25, 1949] ON FEDERAL GRANTS-IN-ALD 41 [Letter to the Honorable Samuel K. McConnell, Jr., Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., June 22, 1949] v ON VIEWS AS TO OLD-AGE ASSISTANCE 47 [Letter to Senator H. Alexander Smith, Princeton, New Jersey, December 15, 1949] ON REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 50 ["American Druggist," July 1950] ON URGING AND STIMULATING VOTING 52 [Statement Recorded for 'Mutual Broadcasting System, New York City, October 11, 1948] ON ADVERTISING 53 [Remarks before the Advertising Clubs of New York City, November 14, 1949] ON RECEIVING AN AWARD BY NEW YORK BOARD OF TRADE 55 [Remarks before the New York Board of Trade Dinner, the Waldorf Astoria, New York City, October 18, 1949] PART II: FOREIGN POLICIES THE VOICE OF WORLD EXPERIENCE 59 [Address before the American, Newspaper Publishers Association, the Waldorf Astoria, New York City, April 27, 1950] THE UNITED NATIONS AND WORLD PEACE 68 [Dedication of the William Allen White Memorial, Emporia; Kansas, July 11, 1950] ON VIEWS ON THE CHINA SITUATION 78 [Letters to Senator William F. Knowland, Washington, D.C., December 31, 1949, and a Note on Formosa] vi ON THE FORMOSAN SITUATION 82 [Memorandum for an Editor, January 29, 1950] ON RECOGNITION OF COMMUNIST CHINA 84 [Letter to Senator William F. Knowland, Washington D.C., May 6, 1950] ON THE COMMITTEE FOR THE MARSHALL PLAN TO AID EUROPEAN RECOVERY 86 [Letter to the Honorable Robert P. Patterson, New York City, February 9, 1948] ON POLICIES OF THE INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT 88 [Letter to Mr. John J. McCloy, President, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Washington, D.C., July 5, 1948] WHERE WE ARE NOW 91 [Broadcast from New York City, October 19, 1950] WHEN DISARMAMENT CAN COME 100 [Address in Response to the Presentation by General Dwight Eisenhower of the First Award of the Military Order of Foreign Wars of the United States for Outstanding Citizenship, New York City, November 1, 1950] PART III: REORGANIZATION OF THE GOVERNMENT PREFACE TO "THE HOOVER COMMISSION REPORT" 107 [McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York, 1949] vii POLICY STATEMENT OF THE COMMISSION ON ORGANIZATION OF THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF THE GOVERNMENT 112 [Adopted on October 20, 1947] MEMORANDUM ON TASK FORCES TO BE ORGANIZED 116 [October 20, 1947] ON THE NATIONAL SECURITY 122 [Statement before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Washington, D.C., April 11, 1949] 122 [Statement before the Armed Services Committee, House of Representatives, Washington D.C., June 39, 1949] 128 [Statement before the Armed Services Committee, House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., October 21, 1949] 132 ON EXPENDITURES IN THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE 137 [Statement before House Committee on Expenditures, Washington, D.C., January 31, 1949] THE NEED FOR REORGANIZATION 142 [Address before the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, New York City, March 5, 1949] THE REFORM OF GOVERNMENT 146 ["Fortune" May 1949] ON REORGANIZATION OF THE POST OFFICE AND CIVIL SERVICE 153 [Statement before the Senate Subcommittee on Post Office and Civil Service, Washington, D.C., June 50, 1049] viii REMOVING OBSTACLES TO ECONOMY AND TO COMPETENCE IN GOVERNMENT 155 [Address before the Washington Conference of the Citizens Committee on the Hoover Reports, Shoreham Hotel, Washington, D.C., December 12, 1949] ON THE PRESIDENT'S 21 REORGANIZATION PLANS 164 [Statement to the Press, May 23, 1950] PART TV: SCIENTIFIC – EDUCATIONAL – SOCIAL ON FEEDING GERMANY 167 [Statement for "Common Cause" at Request of Christopher Emmet, April 9, 1948] ON AMERICAN OVERSEAS AID 169 [Telegram to Mr. Lee Marshall, National Chairman, American Overseas Aid, New York City, July 7, 1948] ON BELGIAN-AMERICAN FOUNDATION STUDENT EXCHANGE 170 [Statement to the Press, October 12, 1948] ON THE UNCOMMON MAN 171 [Remarks by Tel-phone from New York City to Wilmington College, Wilmington, Ohio, November 11, 1948] "TO LIGHTEN THEIR DARKNESS" 173 ["Reader's Digest," February 1948] THE GOVERNMENT CANNOT DO IT ALL 174 [Greater New York Fund's Twelfth Annual Campaign Dinner, the Waldorf Astoria, New York City, April 25, 1940] ix THE INSTITUTE FOR THE CRIPPLED AND DISABLED 177 [Remarks at Commencement Exercises, New York City, June 6, 1949] ON INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT J. E. WALLACE STERLING 179 [Letter to Board of Trustees, Stanford University, California, October 7, 1949] ON THE SALVATION ARMY 180 [Luncheon, the Waldorf Astoria, New York City, December 14, 1949] ON HONORING 1949 FOOTBALL COACH OF THE YEAR 182 [Remarks at Football Coach of the Year Dinner, New York City, January 12, 1950] ON RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP 185 [Letter to President Alvin C. Eurich, State University of New York, Albany, New York, January 23, 1950] ENGINEERING SOCIETY OF THE MOLES 187 [Address, New York City, February 9, 1950] IN BEHALF OF BOYS' CLUB WEEK, 1950 191 [Recording for Joe DiMaggio's Weekly Radio Program, New York City, March 11, 1950] MESSAGE TO THE SALVATION ARMY 193 [Kickoff Luncheon, Philadelphia, April 3, 1950] "PAVEMENT BOYS" 195 [Address before the Annual Convention of the Boys' Clubs of America, Washington, D.C., May 18, 1950] x ON AWARD OF APPROVAL FOR MAURICE PATE 200 [Letter Read at Presentation of Princeton University Merit Cup, Princeton, New Jersey, June 1950] PART V: OUR NATIONAL POLICIES IN THIS CRISIS OUR NATIONAL POLICIES IN THIS CRISIS 203 [Broadcast from New York City, December 20, 1950] INDEX 211 xi PART I DOMESTIC POLICIES AND ECONOMICS The Miracle of America* Woman's Home Companion [November 1948] DURING the last score of years our American form of civilization has been deluged with criticism. It comes from our own people who deplore our undoubted faults and genuinely wish to remedy them. It comes from our political parties by their denunciations in debate of our current issues. It arises from the forthright refusal of the American people to wash their dirty linen in secret. It comes from our love of sensational incidents where villainy is pursued by law and virtue triumphs. It comes from intellectuals who believe in the American system but who feel that our moral and spiritual greatness has not risen to the level of our industrial accomplishments. Criticism also comes from our native Communists who want to overturn the system. And from the fuzzy-minded totalitarian liberals who believe that their creeping collectivism can be adopted without destroying personal liberty and representative government. It comes bitterly and daily from the governments behind the Iron Curtain and their officials and even from the press of the western European nations that we are trying to help. Altogether we seem to be in a very, very bad way and engaged in our decline and fall. Criticism is no doubt good for our national soul—if it does not discourage us entirely. * Copyright 1948 by the Crowell-Collier Publishing Company. 3 4 ADDRESSES UPON THE AMERICAN ROAD Perhaps the time has come for Americans to take a little stock and think something good about themselves. We could point out that our American system has perfected the greatest productivity of any nation on earth; that our standard of living is the highest in the world. We could point to our constantly improving physical health and lengthening span of life. We could mention the physical condition of our youth as indicated somewhat by our showing in the recent Olympic games. In the governmental field, we could suggest that our supposedly decadent people still rely upon the miracle of the ballot and the legislative hall to settle their differences of view and not upon a secret police with slave camps. In the cultural field, we could point out that with only about six per cent of the world's population we have more youth in high schools and institutions of higher learning, more musical and literary organizations, more libraries and probably more distribution of the printed and spoken word than all the other ninety-four per cent put together. On the moral and spiritual side, we have more hospitals and charitable institutions than all of them. And we could suggest that we alone, of all nations, fought in two world wars and asked no indemnities, no acquisition of territory, no domination over other nations. We could point to an advancement of the spirit of Christian compassion such as the world has never seen, and prove it by the tons of food and clothes and billions of dollars we have made as gifts in saving hundreds of millions from famine and governments from collapse. Much as I feel deeply the lag in spots which do not give equal chance to our Negro population, yet I cannot refrain from saying that our twelve million Negroes probably own more automobiles than all the two hundred million Russians or the three hundred million Negroes under European governments in Africa.