Transcripts For CSPAN3 American History TV 20150217

Chair. On one side of her desk theres a stapler, and then next to it a fragment of a cannonball that ez soo using as a paperweight something she could have picked up on the civil war battlefield. All sorts of other useful and interesting things are here on this desk. Red cross windows are here. People on the street car could see those windows. People on the road would know what this house was about by the windows and the red cross flag that ordinarily flies above the windows. Clara barton died in her bedroom in this house three days before the titanic sank april 12th, 1912. You can watch this and other american artifacts programs anytime by visiting our website at cspan. Org history. Keep track of the Republicanled Congress and follow its new members through its first session. New congress best access. On cspan, cspan 2, cspan radio, and cspan. Org. Each week American History tvs reel america brings you archival films that help tell the story of the 20th century. Republican Herbert Hoover served as president from 1929 to 1933. Remembered most for his time in the oval office at 9the start of the Great Depression hoover also served as the secretary of commerce under president harding and coolidge. In this hourlong 1960 nbc interview hoover discusses his life beyond the presidency. Speaking with reporter ray henley he delves into topics including his childhood, his time in china during the boxer rebellion, and his involvement in supplying food to civilians in germanoccupied belgium during world war i. This program is part of the collections of the Stanford University libraries collections and university archives. This is the campus of Stanford University. One of americas great schools. This is the memorial church. This is the memorial theater. And this is the library on war, revolution, and peace. The news commentator. I am meeting a Great American and an old friend. Im here to have a talk with the 31st president of the United States, mr. Herbert hoover. Sit down, ray. Thank you sir. Could you tell us what it means . Well it is the library on war, revolution and peace. The purpose of it is to present the complete history of this world since the beginning of the First World War i. It has many objectives. One of them is to aid in the development of measures of peace out of the display of the experience of the world. It covers economic, military other questions. It is now the haven of historians from all over the world. Because the german war library was destroyed in the last war, the french war library was destroyed, and the British War Library was greatly damaged. This is practically the only complete story of what has happened in the last 50 years. How did the idea of the library start . I was crossing the north sea on a usual journey to belgian collection with relief and i had to book to read written by andrew p. White. He was the great historian of the french revolution. And he complained in that book that he had not been able to present the life of the people in general of france because of the disappearance of fragmentary literature newspapers, bulletins, a thousand things that displayed the lives of the people. I concluded that i was in a unique position to collect that material. So i established collection agencies in all of the countries at war in europe. I was going behind the lines once a month on the circuit around in connection with my particular job. And so we started the collection of that type of literature and we moved into more important documentation. Library must contain a huge number of documents. It contains today probably 20 million documents. Many of them are the originals, which have formed the turning points in world history. The most pathetic of them i think i would show you and that is this. When the russians invaded poland they took about 250 polish military prisoners. They set up work camps all over siberia. Later on when the germans attacked the russians the russians, anxious to increase their military strength, asked the poles to reassemble those armies out of those work camps. They were able to find about 60,000 poles still alive out of the 250,000 that were originally sent. But every one of these poles coming out of a work camp had to get a permit, which was constituted as sort of a Railway Ticket to the headquarters where he was recruited. The poles were a small minority in each camp and their positions, who else was there and how many, and these tickets themselves show the location. So one is able to reproduce the whole slave system at that particular period. And at that time there were obviously about 14 Million People in slave camps. We have here a map showing the location of these slave labor camps made up from the 40,000 documents which we have in the library. Youll see those marked t. We have also the first issue of the communist newspaper pravda. And this issue announces the victory of the communist revolution. We have a file of this newspaper and the other great communist newspaper izvestia right down to today. With the exception of three months. And that three months gap was due to an overenergetic postmaster general who considered this subversive literature, and he stopped it coming to us. So that we had to do something about that. Did you take measures there to relax the situation . I certainly relaxed the postmaster general. But i dont think weve ever been able to recover the lost numbers. Here is another document thats been of profound interest to me. This is the int diary of the Prime Minister of japan at the time we went to war. He made an enormous effort, strenuous effort, to effect a peace with the United States and prevent the war. And the pathos of this document is a warrant for its retention. Of a man who made a real struggle to prevent world war ii ii. There must have excuse me did you have Something Else there, mr. Hoover . I have also some parts of the goebbels diary. He probably was one of the wickedest men that ever lived. And he records his various wickednesses, private and public, in this diary. Apparently he never expected for us to have it. Mr. Hoover, there must have been some mighty interesting stories connected with the collection of these documents. There were a multitude of dramatic incidents. I recollect that after the communist revolution in hungary, at which time there arose a man named bela kunig as the dictator, the people rebelled and he fled in an airplane. One of our energetic youngsters collecting material went around to the headquarters. He found there was nowhere to go. Sew proceeded to load files into that outpost of communism in that truck and he finally found out in the library. I made a request of president hebert. For a documentation that would be apropos to this effort. And he gave me the complete minutes of the german war council presided over by the emperor during the entire First World War wall the documentation attached to those measures. That is the only set in the world. And finally, at the quf a german ambassador i agreed we would keep it in the vault for a number of years. Its not yet open to the public. Where is the library located here at the leland Stanford University, mr. Hoover . Mr. Henle i graduated from this university. And after that mrs. Hoover kept a house on the campus here. I also at the same time was a trustee of this university. So very naturally i was anxious to build up the institution. I know you were born in west branch, iowa. And i think that generally people know that after your mother and father died that an uncle asked you to share his home in oregon. Could you tell us, sir how it happened then that you got down here and attended leland Stanford University . The uncle of mine in oregon was a country doctor. With all of the fine attributes of the country doctors of the United States. I lived with him and his family parkts of it, for seven years. And during that time i got a job as an office boy. And on an occasion a gentleman came in and he talked with the office boy. And he was inquiring what i wanted to do so far. And he said, well, you ought to take up engineering. And he was himself. In engineering. We discussed p. Soon i noticed that Stanford University had announced the institution would be opened that autumn. And the tuition would be free. And that is more or less fitted in my necessities. They announced they would hold entrance examinations in portland oregon. I went to the appointed place i took examinations as well as i could. Not having been in high school but having attended a night school where i had picked up some latin and some mathematics. I passed the mathematics examinations with such distinction that the professor conducting the examinations sparked a good deal of interest sent for me, inquired about my family background. He himself was a quaker. He was a great professor of mathematics and subsequently was the president of Swathmore College for many years. But in any event he said to come down to university and he thought i could get in and he also thought he could help me with my way through the university. So there you have two cases where older men showed a key interest in a young man trying to get along. I have a number of unforgettable obligations to men who took an interest to a youngster. They do it yet all over the United States. There were two or many more to follow. Of course that was the beginning then of your engineering career was it not . Well, i presume. You dont call yourself an engineer until you get somewhere out of college. But that was where i began at Stanford University. Could you tell me, mr. Hoover, after you got your diploma then at Leland Stanford what was your first job . Well i had worked during the summer vacations during my entire time at stanford on the United States geological survey. There was a spot where i earned most of the money i had needed. And after having finished that season, not having a job, thats after i had graduated, i went into the mines at grass valley in california, being familiar with those mines from the previous work id done for the geological survey. I saw the job, and i thought my diploma might field importance and i might even get on the staff of some mine. But that diploma didnt seem to impress anybody. And finally i got to a condition where i took a job underground in a mine and i worked five months i think or six as a common miner. And it was not a bad experience. I understand you to say, sir that you took a job as a common miner . Yeah, sure. A gold mine. I didnt even have a distinction of being a miner. I was started by loading trucks. I rose to that eminent position some two or three months later. How many hours did you work a day there sir . Oh, the regulation hours at that time was ten hours a day and six days a week. Do you remember what you got, how much wages you got . 2 a day. I think i got 2 1 4 after i was promoted to run the drill. Well, then sir on your very first job you learned to work with your hands, didnt you . Well that wasnt quite the whole start. I worked with my hands when i was a boy. And thats how i really learned at that time, was the agony of walking and going from mine to mine looking for a job. But i take it then that you during that period you were able to lay aside a little money for future activities. Well i certainly laid enough money aside to get down to San Francisco and look for a better job. Mr. Hoover, then how did you happen to get into professional engineering after those underground mining days experience . Well, i had developed a great friend of dr. Browner here at stanford. He was one those men who always boosted youngster alone. He introduced me to the leading engineer in San Francisco mr. Louis gem. He gave me a temporary appointment. He had an application for an engineer to go to australia. And there i went on the first 10,000 job. Then subsequently to that your work took you to countries all over the world didnt it mr. Hoover . Yes. As a partner in an Engineering International Engineering Firm. We managed mines in china and india and burma and australia and russia. I dont know where all. Including the United States and canada. So that during the first seven years of this century i wandered around the world seven times with my entire family. Well, it must have been good to get home then after one of those long trips in those days. Always a thrill to come back to america. This is a place where freedom really lived. Did you practice engineering in russia during the czarist days . Yes, sir. We had very large operations which we managed in russia. One of them was at a place called kishtem in the urals. There we had over 100,000 little men. And a very successful operation. The main interest in it was that it was a complicated chemical and metallurgical operation. But subsequently the bolsheviks when they seized it werent able to manipulate because they had locked up all the brains in the staff and expelled all our american staff. And so it shut down and it was closed i think for 15 years or more. And all those people were put out of a job. I see. During your experience in russia how did you get along with the russian people . We got along extremely well because at that time the government was anxious to see the development of the Natural Resources of the country and we were the First Americans to come in. We had no political implications. British and french and all the other nationalities carried with them certain political possibilities. So the russians welcomed the americans. I see. We had no difficulty getting on with the people because for that type of an operation we tried to get the best intelligence there was. We paid wages far higher than the common wage of the country. We hadnt had a strike or a labor difficulty. Mr. Hoover, did you ever hear from any of those russian workers afterward . Some years after that i undertook a relief of communist russia on behalf of the American People. And i picked some of our staff who spoke russian, american staff, and sent them back in connection with relief. They went to kishtem to look around. There they were met by a deputation who came to them with a pet whoigs said will you not get mr. Hoover and his men to come back . Life was so much better. I see. Do you have any souvenirs of those days mr. Hoover . Yes. I have what i think is an interesting souvenir. This was presented to me by the workmen in the kishtem mines in russia. Its a chemical russian piece. It has one curious quality. Aside from its artistic merit which is really very good. And that is the curious plaque which resembles bronze and comes from the fact that they use the most impure iron in the world in order to make it. Runs 10 of sulfur. No american iron smelter could touch iron ore more than a tenth of 1 . But nevertheless they built up quite an artistic industry on the basis of that curious iron and the innate artistic quality of the workmen. Shall we go over and take a look at them . Ray this is a very unusual display of the ancient chinese porcelain art in blue and white in form and arrangement. They are the very height of chinese concepts in artistic arrangement and in workmanship. We thought it would be appropriate that this set should be placed in the memorial room to mrs. Hoover downstairs, and that has been done. She of course collected these items, did she someone. She collected porcelains for 40 years. Lets go sit down. You were many times in china, werent you, mr. Hoover . Yes. I went to china originally as a part of the Engineering Firm ive mentioned to you as the chief engineer to the then department of nines. It it had been created by a reform government. That job came to an end by the boxer uprising which threw the government out. And mrs. Hoover and i had to spend a month under artillery in the town of tin sin until the American Marines came in and rescued us. Outside of your experience in the boxer rebellion, mr. Hoover, how were your relations generally with the chinese . The chinese are very friendly people. I have traveled over a great part of china during the two years prior to that. And had nothing but courtesies from everybody. I was supposed to have an official position and had certain protections in the shape of a cup of cavalry usually. But theres nothing to comment on it particularly. An infinitely friendly people. They have a sense of humor. Theyre highly individualistic. And of course poverty is the total aspect of china except in a very narrow circle. Mr. Hoover what do you think now that the communists arent in power what will happen to the Chinese People . When mao tse tung and his armies drove Chiang Kaishek out of the mainland the first thing he did was disarm the chinese civil population right down to the last butcher knife. And no civil population with pitchforks can ever create a revolution to throw out machine guns. The consequence is that regime is fixed until such a time as the failure of its methods, failure of productivity, should cause the regime itself to change. And no doubt they will have fights amongst the chinese leaders. Theyve already showed that. And often enough revolutions of that kind in history have blown up by fights among the leaders. And there are some of those fights going on now. The russians of course will have influence on the chinese. Do you think that the russian attitude on easing world tension may have some effect on the chinese reds . They may have to restrain them if they want to get their own objectives. We may be witnessing a phenomenon which may be similar to that we saw at the time that stalin came into power. He wanted time to build up his industry and his armies and he began the most peaceful thing that there was rubbing around the earth at that time. He joined the league of nations. He signed the kellogg pact. He made the peace treaties with some 30 of his neighbors. Nothing could have been more promising for lasting peace. In 1939 he violated every one of those agreements. So that one can wonder that perhaps this new regime, wanting time to consolidate being troubled by a failure in agriculture and hunger amongst their people would like to have an interval of peace. I have no confidence with the objectives of those people that it would be a lasting peace with goodwill toward men. But it might be endurable. We might be ready to reduce the armament of the world somewhat. All of which might come out of geneva. And thats what we must pray for. This book here mr. Hoover, looks familiar. I think i recognize it as being a copy of what they call the agricula. Can you tell us about it please, sir . This book was First Published just 400 years ago. It is in latin. It was in latin. And comprehended the whole gamut of the mining and metallurgical and Chemical Industries of their time. There were great difficulties in translation from the latin because the technical terms had been invented by the author in latin wp 600 years after the language was dead. But she was an accomplished linguist. She was able to read it. And with her background of Technical Training and the fact i knew something about the subjects we were able to make a translation of this for the first time. It was purely a labor of love. It had no great practical value at modern times. Although many of the processes illustrated here are still in action. In any event, for a couple of hundred years it was the textbook of those industries. And at one time they chained it in an iron binding to the kath dralds of mining towns such as san luis pocazi. And the priests translated it for the benefit of the miners plus the illustrations. So that the book had at one time a great weight. But of course now its only a matter of interest. There is nothing particularly public about the book at the time. We were 2,000 copies printed and distributed amongst engineers. Since that time its become a rare item. And it now sells for 250. But we dont have any more of them. You have the 250. I got the 250. It must have been a tremendously difficult job to translate this. It took five years and furnished Family Interest during that entire period. Mr. Hoover, when did your career as an engineer come to an end . It came to an end shortly after i took over the belgian relief in 1914. I didnt know it at the time. We all expected the war would be over very shortly and wed get back to working. But as the war went on and on my clients and partners had to have some other interest. So i never went back to the profession. Who was it who asked you to get into the relief work . That was the combined pressures of leading belgians. The belgian ambassador the belgian Prime Minister and the American Ambassador in london and the American Ambassador in brussels. They all seemed to concentrate in order to undertake that job. So that this operation carried out during the war, you certainly must have been in some exciting experiences from time to time. Well, most of it was a pretty humdrum business. You had to transport a tremendous volume of food overseas, a fleet of 300 ships. You had to distribute it transport it inland. Ration the population and take possession of their agricultural product and so forth. And in fact it was the first Food Administration in the history of the world. The residents that came out of it were nothing very startling. One of them i remember rather distinctly. The Service Across the north sea was maintained by the dutch. And they frequently lost their channel steamers. But always provided methods of escape. One day i went down to take the boat and i had usually paid the bill for my food and cabin at the end of the trip. But the steward came to me and said you have to pay cash. And i said how come . Well he said last voyage the Queen Wilhelmina went down and the passengers owed me nine pound ten and he said i never got the money. Im afraid youre being unduly modest there mr. Hoover. It seems to me i recall a story of your having been actually under fire. I was under fire a number of times. The only time i really got wounded was when the germans were bombing the town of beloyne, where i was stopping overnight. And they looked out the window to see this performance. As the germans dropped a bomb in the street right opposite the hotel. And i got showered with glass. I got cut up a lot, but i never got a purple heart. Now, didnt some of the authorities fight the feeding of starving children during your belgian relief career . We had to transport all of our materials through the british blockade, and a Great Division rose in the british cabinet as to the military desirability of our going on. The military side of the cabinet insisted that 10 or 12 million or 12 million starving belgians and frenchmen would inconvenience the germans a lot and the germans were already short of food and it might bring the war to a quicker end. That was their argument. I was called before the cabinet. And i found in short time that sir edward gray and lloyd george, mr. Ash kliff, who was then Prime Minister, were all on my side. So i pushed the issue even further. And ultimately i got a subsidy of 5 million a month out of the british to carry on the work. And in the end before we were done with four years of it i was receiving 10 or 12 million a month from the british. You may have inversely a question that was on my mind, mr. Hoover but now answer this point. What do you think of the policy of starvation as an instrument of warfare . Well, i it may be an instrument of warfare. It might conceivably bring the war to an earlier end. But starvation leaves a mass of human beings that are a liability to the world for all time, both themselves and their descendants. Your work in belgian relief, mr. Hoover did not end your food relief operation did it, sir . No. The belgian relief continued throughout the war. And i continued to conduct with. When we came into the war, i substituted dutch inside of belgium. At that time the british and french were beginning to find food difficulties and they began to call on me for advice. And about that time president wilson asked me to take over the United States Food Administration. So i became food administrator of the United States continued in that until the time of the armistice in 1918. And then i was asked to go to europe on behalf of all of the allied government to take over rehabilitation of food supply of some 350 Million People in eastern europe. That work ended in what year sir . That well, we took it up again in russia in 1923. So you might say i had spent about nine years on that kind of a job. By that time, of course, you were in the president s cabinet as secretary of commerce. Then you also had some relief work put on your shoulders as secretary of commerce, did you not . Well, that was the russian problem. And we had one job in mississippi. Yes, sir. Thats what i was referring to. Could you tell us something about that . Well, the flood of 1927 was the greatest flood that had ever been known along the mississippi mississippi. And the protections were weak, and they all gave way and the country for 1,000 miles north and south and from 70 to 150 miles wide ran out of water. So president coolidge asked me to take over that job. We moved about a maland a half of people out of the low ground and pud them out of the water and put them in camps on the high ground and looked after them for three months and put them back in their homes again. We lost only three lives in that operation. And the expense of it was conducted entirely by american charity. We never called on the government for a dime except that i had the services of the navy and the coast guard. You referred briefly to Russian Relief in 1923. Could you tell me more about that . A dreadful drought struck south russia in 1923. Maxim gorky on behalf of the communist government appealed to me to undertake some american help. I organized the operation. We sent some 200 americans into russia. They gave them completely free movement. I raised plus congressional appropriations about 70 million of american money. And we unquestionably saved about 17 million russian lives. And when we finished they got out of a beautiful scroll and the American People of gratitude. And youll find it somewhere here in the library. In russian. But when the american communists got too entirely abusive, i sent out a photograph of it in translation by way of stopping them up a little. Then mr. Hoover, as i recall, your next great work was an organization of the relief during the depression. Can you tell me something about that . Unemployment of course grew with the depression and especially when the whole economy of europe collapsed and brought us down. And i organized relief in the United States. At the time i left office we had about 18 Million People on relief in the United States. And mr. Roosevelt had me continue the same number up until pearl harbor. Your own next operations in the field of relief then came when, sir . Well, i at the beginning of the Second World War i as appealed to by some eight or nine governments in europe who had been occupied by the germans to again come to their relief. We organized some relief for them, but in the course of three or four two years the military people in control of the allied side adopted the old british doctrine and they closed off our operations. It was not until the war was over when the inevitable postwar famine began that i again was called back into service. Bear in mind that every world war will create a worldwide famine. I dont need to go into the reasons for that. But its a solemn fact mr. Truman was faced with a famine in 1926 even greater than the world has ever seen before. He asked me to take a part in the management of the famine and i did soo by organizing the necessary setup in washington and again i visited 38 different nations by plane, organized their Food Administrations got their cooperation, and in the end we pulled through. When we started, we were convinced that at least 800 people would die in that famine. But we found a sort of all over the world we hadnt expected. And in the end we pulled them all through. There was no mass starvation anywhere that i know of. Well its very clear, mr. Hoover, that your operations in the field of relief have been literally tremendous. May i ask you this very frankly . During all these years did you accept any compensation . Connection with your relief work . Ive never accepted compensation either for relief or for federal service. Except in this sense. That i have at time taken federal salaries and expended them on matters outside of my own needs. I was led to that by an overall question of conviction of my own. And i dont say this in disparagement of men accepting salaries from the government because most of our officials must have them to live. But it happened that i had prospered in my profession at a time when the income tax was only 1 . I was able to save the competence. And i felt i owed to my country a debt that was unpayable and i had no right to ask her to pay me so that that was the practice right up until the 30th day of june this year. And yet sir, i think that on occasion you possibly have beenhe smeared to the effect you oh, yes. Everybody gets smeared. And i took it as the final test of whether the smears are of any right or effectiveness is when Congress Makes an investigation of a fella. Id been in federal service off and on for 40odd years and i hadnt yet been investigated by congress. I see. That certainly is the answer to it isnt it . Maybe. Mr. Hoover, i know that you have had a special interest in children. And i believe that you set up a special relief for children. Could you tell us about that please, sir . That originated during the belgian problem. There were 2 million belgian children. And the normal ration for an adult is deficient in the type of food that will support child life. So we had set up an extra meal every day for all the children in belgium, 2 million of them. When we came into the relief of europe as a whole after the armistice, we expanded that service and we carried about 12 or 14 million children. If you catch them young enough you can feed them up so they can become normal. If its gone too far they are ancestors of all of the bandits and racketeers in the world. That brings to mind did i interrupt you, sir . Well, when world war ii came along, i having set up these arrangements all over the world in 39 countries to meet their famine i found there was a tremendous impoverishment and undernourishment amongst children all overt the world. A desperate situation. There were some 30 million of them as we calculated them. So i took that matter up with the United Nations and the American Administration and they set up an organization and i suggested the men who should operate it. And these were the men who had operated in europe in world war ii and world war i. And theyre still operating until this day. So far as i know they looked after nearly 50 million children in the last five years. As you were speaking there of Child Welfare and child relief work, mr. Hoover my mind went back to a rather notable statement that you made on the subject. As i recall, it was back in 1930 when you were president , and i believe you had summoned a Child Welfare council at that time. I think its in here in this book. Im wondering if it wouldnt be appropriate for you to tell us about it at this time. I can read it to you if thats telling you about it. All right, sir. That statement has been republished many times and is rather an old statement of the American People, im afraid. The older i grow the more i appreciate children. We approach all the problems of childhood with affection. Theirs is the problems of joy and of good humor. They are the most wholesome part of the race. They are the sweetest for they are fresher from the hands of god. Whimsical, ingenious, mischievous. We live a life of apprehension as to what their opinion may be of us, a life of defense against their terrifying energy. We put them to bed with a sense of relief and a lingering of devotion. We envy them the freshness of adventure and the discovery of life. We mourn over the disappointments which they will meet. Thank you, sir. I think that probably brings us up to your work with the government Reorganization Commission. Two president s i believe called you to washington to take up that work. Could you tell me what your reaction is from that labor . The problems perhaps are entirely too long to go into here. But this government of ours multiplied itself from about 600,000 officials up to 2,500,000 as the result of 23 years of war and trouble and they multiplied its budget from 3. 5 billion to as high as 75 billion with a growth of Government Agencies from about 300 up to some 1,600 and a fabulous waste and duplication and lack of efficiency. Sought congress with the approval of the president in each case set up the commission and in each case i was asked to take the chairmanship. The first Reorganization Commission of six years ago secured the adoption of a great many of its recommendations, about70 , in fact. They related largely to reorganizations of different agencies and setting up a new structure of government. The korean war and rearmament came along and obscured whatever savings there were. The Second Commission examined the government from a functional and a policy point of view. And we have made recommendations which if adopted would enable the balancing of the budget and a very substantial reduction in taxes. The last commission required five years to get its proposals adopted. It may take us some years to get these. But i feel certain that they will come. And i believe you intend to keep working at it to see what you can do to make it come true. Well, the press seems determined on getting me retired, but i cant stop until we get these recommendations adopted. Mr. Hoover, seems to me this is appropriate time for me to ask you this. In view of world conditions in our own country and abroad what do you think with respect to the chances of private enterprise returning and the chances of our having greater individual freedom again . Well, you mentioned abroad. There has been a total economic revolution in germany. Germany has gone back to a Free Enterprise system and has become the most prosperous state in europe. Like wise belgium, recreated from socialism into Free Enterprise, been prosperous ever since. The last election in britain guaranteed the retreat from socialism and a Free Enterprise. In our own country we havent made as much progress as we should. The second Reorganization Commission, however, proceeded on the thesis that this was a country where the economic and social system was based on private enterprise and individual action. Regulated to prevent unfair practice and to prevent a monopoly. And that the government should only intervene with the people in matters in which the people could not support and take care of themselves. Well, our department has departed a long way from that basis and the recommendations of the Reorganization Commission are very largely in the nature of methods of return back to the fundamental these sister thesis on which this country was founded. Weve covered a vast number of subjects here today. Covered a lot of ground. And i think the thing that comes out of it, possibly is the fact that youve been a mighty hardworking man all your life. However, i do think that youre also known for your relaxation. Would you tell us, how do you get your relaxation . Well i go fishing whenever i get a chance. Also, i go to all the baseball games. And any other exercise of that kind. I have a rather a yen for fishing because the ripple of a brook and the slap of the wave against the side of the boat will brainwash most anybody into a much cleaner position. Didnt you once make a very famous statement about fishing . Well i dont know. Ive maybe said a lot about it. I explain eded the Vice President , they all went fishing they all have, even though they never fished before. That was because the American People have a respect for privacy only on two occasions. One of them is prayer. And the other is fishing. And president s cant pray all the time. The fishing question is often a problem of getting away from here to somewhere else and getting out of an awkward spot. And it didnt matter much how many fish you get. If you get any you know perfectly well that all men are equal before fishes. So sentiency of these evil thoughts that seem to affect our social system. That of course brings me to another subject that i wanted to ask you about before we part. Your interest in boys club. I refer to that because i was thinking of your talking about baseball and fishing. You have a very vital interest in the boys club. Will you tell me what that means to you . Well i have been the chairman of the board of the boys clubs now for nearly 20 years. And i was connected with it even before that. But appeared to me as being a completely systematic method by which elder people could be a help to youngsters. Out of their normal schooling and parents and so forth. The boys clubs have got about 400,000 members. Theyre all slum boys. Its a slum movement. It is probably the best preventive of youth delinquency there is in the United States. These boys are taken in and they are given certain manual trainings and theyre given music and they have ample gains and theyre organized into teams instead of gangs. And they have equipment that is growing in dimensions. Today it would cost 120 million to replace the equipment we have in those institutions. And i might mention to you that the boys clubs these boys clubs, developed five major league players. In the last series. Wow. And it also gives a chance for the elder man to do something for the boys just at older men did thing forth you as you were growing up, is that right . Thats a large part of it is based on voluntarily helping people. The carpenter goes in and takes charge of the carpenter shop and develops a boy that looks like a carpenter, he helps him along in life and so forth. Right. Mr. Hoover while ive been sitting here ive been wanting to did you something about these nags. This flag is the president s flag, is that not right . Thats quite right. Would you tell me please why you have it here . It is the only gift that a president receives from the American People. He gets no pension, he gets no title, but he gets his own flag. He has a right to fly it. Unlike a senator who is called a senator or a governor whos called a governor after he leaves office youd better mention the kentucky colonels and all the generals. Thats true. The president is just nothing but plain mister. And i think its a comfortable feeling. Well mr. Hoover i want to thank you for this session that you and i have had here together today. Theres just one other thing. I wonder if you would be willing to give me something of your philosophy, something of your feeling about your fellow americans and about your country. Ray, thats rather an extensive subject. One time i wrote a passage on the subject. I think youve got it in that book if youll give it to me. I dont think i could phrase it as well as i did at that time, doing it extemporaneously. Fine. So if youd like, i dont mind reading it to you. I wish you would sir. Perhaps without immodesty i can claim to have had some experience in what the word america means. Ive lived in many lands many kinds of american life. After my early boyhood in an iowa village i lived as a ward of a country doctor in oregon. I lived among those to whom hard work was the price of existence. The opportunities of america opened to me through the public schools. They carried me to the professional training and a Great American university. I began by working with my own hands for my daily bread. I have tasted the despair of fruitless search for a job. I even know the kindly encouragement of a boardinghousekeeper. Ive seen america in contrast with many nations and many races. My profession took me into many foreign lands under many kinds of governments. Ive worked in governments of free men, of tyrannies, of socialists, of communists and i have met with princes and kings and despots and desperados. I have seen the squalor of asia and the frozen class barriers of europe. I was not a tourist. I was associated in their working lives and in their problems. I had to deal with their social systems and their governments. And in these great masses of people this was a hallowed word, america. To them it was the hope of their whole world. Every homecoming was for me a reaffirmation of the glory of america. Each time my soul was washed by the relief from grinding poverty of other nations, by the greater kindliness and frankness which comes from the acceptance of equality and the wideopen opportunity to all who want a chance. It is more than that. It is a land of selfrespect born alone of free men. I have had every honor to which a man could aspire. There is no place on this whole earth except here in america where all of the sons of man can have this chance in life that has come to me. I recount all this in order that in quaker terms i may give my own testimony. The meaning of our word america