History. Woodrow wilson and world war i having written the will to believe Woodrow Wilson and americas strategy for peace and security. Kennedy is also editor of a companion to Woodrow Wilson. Please welcome ross kennedy. Thanks very much for that introduction. Thanks to the Hoover Library for organizing this conference. Just Walking Around the museum before it is impressive. If you get a chance you should go and look at the exhibits because they are great. It was because of wilson that he went from being a relatively unknown mining engineer to just six years later to being a serious for the presidency. I want to lay out the main reasons why hoover advanced so quickly during the administration. I will argue what had to do with his administrative ability, his political skills and affinity with wilson. Ill talk on why the two men had a falling out. Probably the most fundamental reason is he was good at what wilson asked him to do. Even Administration Officials who clashed with hoover and there were quite a few of them, but even someone like him would have admitted he was very effective at managing his assignments. It is no guarantee to rising american politics. What hoover had in abundance was political skill to make sure he was suited to be a politician. He was uncomfortable being the focus of public attention. He lacked personal charm and he tended to see the worst in any situation. Wilson once remarked during the war that he disliked talking to hoover because hoover was always so pessimistic about everything. Hoover was a master at selfpromotion with high level officials who could promote his career. Since at least 1912 when he joined the board of trustees hoover wanted to get involved in public affairs. When the war broke out he immediately seized on it as an opportunity to realize his goal of public service. As early as august 5th, just one day after britain declared war on germany hoover was writing friends in the United States cabling them to find out how he could be appointed as a special commissioner to help american tourists stranded by the war. There were tens of thousands of them often with very little money who were flocking looking for help. Hoover organized his own private group to help them. He made sure that the press knew about it. He also lobbied ambassador to try to get the administration to back his efforts to help the tourists. Secretary of war who was traveling to england soon after the war broke out, both of them were impressed with hoover and decided to make it the disburser of Government Funds to meet the tourist crisis. Hoovers contacts soon got him into the embassys initial talks with several officials from europe to raise funds for it and to allow it to function which was not easy to do because neither side had a direct interest in helping the crv. Hoover launched a massive Publicity Campaign to publicize belgiums plight and the efforts to feed its hungry people. Since hoover was the head of the crb this Propaganda Campaign became the Public Relations by january 1915 they were reporting on the activities. They were featuring hoover. House met hoover on a trip to london in early 1915. House had gone there on his first efforts to sound out the belij rans on peace talks. He was immediately impressed with hoovers work on belgium. He made an effort to cultivate knowing that he might be able to help in his activity with anything else that came up. So he would feed who loved information and gossip. He would feed on various european officials that house had to deal with in his efforts to sound out peace talks. House became a crucial ally for hoover. He praised hoovers work to the president and encouraged wilson to send hoover a note of thanks, which wilson did in march 1915. Hoover there after stay until touch with the president and making a pioint in late 1915. In fact during the first big crisis with germany hoover wrote a long memo to wilson out its li outlining what he thought he should do. He was krit kcritical of wilson that point. Wilson admired hoover. Such men as hoover he said stir me deeply and make me in love with duty. Together with the adoring press attention hoover received through the publicity effort hoovers ties to house and to the president himself perfectly positioned him for a major appointment when the u. S. Entered the war in april 1917. Just to be sure though hoover in the weeks prior to april between the time period when germany declared its intention to start unrestricted sub Marine Warfare between february and march hoover was trying to drum up money and he was lobbying congress to give an appropriation to the work. So when the crisis over sub Marine Warfare started hoover gave a series of interviews and contacts with officials that he knew. So he lobbied pretty hard for the job. Something in the administration if the u. S. Got involved in the war. In some ways he was pushing against an open door. He was a famous figure at this point. Wilson liked him from the exchanges of letters they had and wilsons closest adviser was actively lobbying wilson to get hoover an appointment. So on may 19th a few weeks after the United States officially entered the war wilson appointed hoover food administrator. It began his Wartime Service in the administration. Hoovers job as food administrator in some ways replicated his leadership except on a much larger scale. Again, he essentially blurred Food Production and food conservation with himself. He became a household name through the Propaganda Campaign and some of those poster are on display in the museum. Slogans, very colorful posters. You need to economize. It was called to hooverize something meant to conserve, to economize in the national interest. One was in the 1918 valentines day card that was one of the more popular cards on that valentines day. I cant resist reading this to you thchlt is what the card said. I can hooverize on dinner and on lights and fuels too but ill never learn to hooverize when it comes to loving you. Again, hoover i just think thats great. Hoover used his leadership of the Food Administration to make new political contacts especially among leading progressives like jane adams. He also had contacts with the new republic which was the most important progressive magazine was edited prior into the war. His leadership put him in touch with a lot of progressive leaders. He also became a direct adviser to wilson gaining membership in 1918. Now part of the official inner circle hoover made sure to loyally serve hoovers political needs. In november 1918 he publicly echoed his appeal to elect a democrat ek congress in the Congressional Elections that year. The price that hoover fixed during the war. They want a higher price and the it was one of the reasons the dem kralts ran into a lot of trouble. He went out of his way who were trying to sell the price hoover had set to their constituents. They did loyal political work in that 1918 election. Although it didnt pay off the republicans won that election and took criminal of congress. Given his efficiency at his job and Loyal Service to the administration on political matters soon after the election was over wilson decided to turn the Food Administration into an agency for the relief and rehabilitation of europe. This gave hoover entree into the paris peace conference. He became one of the most important figures at the conference. He was involved at the economic boards. He was involved in distributing food to Central Europe and eastern europe. He really signed in this role. He was an economist working with the british delegation at the conference and who was very critical of what happened at the paris peace conference canes in 1919 in a best selling book he wrote about the conference stated that hoover was quote the only man who immerged from the ordeal of paris with an enhanced reputation. May i add that hoover was the only that immerged from world war i with an enhanced reputation. Hoovers political idealology also helps explain his rise in american politics under wilson. Wilson no doubt found it easy to promote hoover because the two men shared similar political values and believes. Both of them heavily emphasized the importance of free competition in american life. The engine of progress and foundation of democracy was the striving free individual creating new enterprises and inventions. The man on the make as wilson called this figure in 1912. Neither wilson nor hoover simply glorified individualism. Wilson stressed individuals could only find fulfillment through service to others. One of wilsons most famous speeches is when he was president of princeton. It was all about princeton and the Nations Service and how an individual could really only find their fulfillment through helping and serving others. Hoover saw trade associations, labor unions and corporations as expressions of voluntary cooperation and as entities that could spur further voluntary cooperation between people and between groups both public and private. Both hoover and wilson also agreed that corporate abuses of power posed a threat to equality of opportunity but they were confident that modest regulations on business would solve that problem. In this sense both wilson and hoover, in my view, were very very close spectrum. Theyre both centrist, mainstream, progressives. Both of them see socialism on the left as promoting a program that wouldnt work. Hoover thought that socialism would create inefficiency, it would stifle initiative, diminish the character traits of hard work and inventiveness that he thought were necessary for american progress. Wilson believed the same thing. Both of them might sympathize with how the socialists viewed americas problems in the sense that both recognized that a concentration of power in largescale cooperations could threaten democracy and threaten individual opportunity. But neither of them liked the socialist program for dealing with those problems. On the other hand, on their right, both men thought that 1890s style unbridled capitalism was also a threat to democracy and to individual opportunity. And in fact, both wilson and hoover related the socialism on the left and laissezfaire economics on the rights, they related them together in the sense of saying that it was the reactionaries on the right and the failure to reform that stimulated the far left. And so both saw themselves in the center as promoting modest reforms to fix what they saw as glaring problems, glaring abuses of power by big business, but that would rely also largely on voluntary efforts by people, especially for hoovers part, on in associations and working with each other. Finally, neither wilson nor hoover included africanamericans in their vision of an equal opportunity america. Its remarkable the degree to which both men often talked endlessly about equality of opportunity, freedom, individual initiative and mobility, the ability to rise up through the ranks in american life. But they never really acknowledged that africanamericans faced very, very difficult burdens in doing that because of the legacy of slavery and jim crowe laws that dominated american society. On foreign policy, hoover and wilson also had similar ideas. They both had the same viewpoint, essentially, about americas place in the world and about American Foreign policy. Both believed in american exceptionalism. The notion that the United States was a uniquely free society and politically and morally superior to other nations. This exceptionalism meant that the United States had a duty to lead the world on a path toward greater prosperity, democracy and peace. The two leaders also related those concepts together, prosperity, democracy and peace. Both believed that a Prosperous Society would be a Good Foundation for democracy. Both believed that democratic societies were much more likely to be peaceful than autocratic societies. Thats a key linkage of those concepts because those ideas continued to resonate throughout the rest of the 20th century, and indeed, on down to today. Both leaders also despised traditional balance of power politics. And by that i mean they distrusted the International System that existed prior to 1914. Both of them saw that system has dominated by alliances, unrestrained imperialism and arms races. Arms races in particular alarmed both wilson and hoover. Arms races were something that sapped the nations economy and arms races were something that primed countries to go to war, because the more nations armed, the less they had a possibility to negotiate. It poisoned the atmosphere for compromise and negotiations to solve a crisis. So both men very much were interested in reforming the International System. Both of them thought the United States could bring greater order to international politics, ideally through some kind of institution like the one wilson proposed, the league of nations. Finally, both leaders distrusted european governments. Wilson and hoover saw the europeans as wanting to manipulate the United States, to serve their own interests. Their own imperial interests in particular. Its amazing in reading some of hoovers letters to wilson, how vehement he is in his distrust and dislike for the british. Really Strong Language in the way he described it. These were americas allies, the united kingdom, the british. Hoover seems to have harbored particular animus toward them because they had often been reluctant to cooperate with hoover on his belgian relief effort and they also had a different sense of priorities on Food Supplies during the war. But wilson also distrusted the allies. As you probably know, when the United States entered the conflict, wilson refused to call the United States an ally of britain and france. Instead, the u. S. Was an associated power. The idea was that United States would continue to be sort of an umpire between germany and the allies, sort of a mediator, even while the u. S. Was in the war. And hoover, for his part, was very dedicated to america keeping its own independence of action. He wanted the United States to be free from constraint, free to decide what was in the best interests of everybody in europe rather than being tied to the allies. Given all of this, given this commonality in their political outlook, given the service that hoover had done for the administration and his loyal political efforts to wilson during the crucial Congressional Elections of 1918, given all this, one might have expected wilson to support hoover for president in 1920. When hoover returned from europe in late 1919, there was already speculation in the press that he would run for president. Coming not just from republicans but actually mostly in the late 1919, early 1920 period, most of the speculation about hoover running for president came from democrats. Or people sympathetic to the democratic party. New republic, the magazine i mentioned earlier, sort of the flagship of the american progressive movement. New republic was enthusiastic about hoover in late 1919, early 1920. Wilson, however, did not support this idea that hoover would make a good president. And in fact, the two men had a falling out in over the course of early 1920. The seeds of that falling out went back a little bit earlier to the peace conference. First, hoover in june 1919 objected to the treaty terms with germany that wilson had negotiated with the allies. He thought the terms were so harsh that the germans probably would not sign the treaty. And hoover thought that would be a disaster. If they didnt sign, the operative game plan that the allies and wilson had, was to either invade germany or at least threaten to and certainly to keep tightening up the blockade on the german people. And hoover thought that would just collapse germanys society and lead to total chaos if either an invasion or a continued blockade took place. On the other hand, it germany did sign the treaty, hoover was convinced that there would be such a political backlash in germany that the country would also fall apart into chaos and probably a communist or militaristic reactionary government would take over. So hoover urged wilson to modify the treaty. He did this in early june, in a couple of memos he sent to the president and then in a meeting directly with wilson. Now, keep in mind, this is after wilson has been negotiating the treaty since early 1919. So for about six months. Very strenuous negotiations. Very tough negotiations that almost broke down on more than one occasion. So wilson was in no mood to modify the treaty. When hoover actually met with him face to face from different accounts of that meeting, it did not go well. The president responded very angrily to hoovers suggestions, apparently the two men exchanged words. And afterward wilson started to distrust hoover. And he told one of his aides, quote, i have the feeling that he, hoover, would rather see a good cause fail than succeed if he were not the head of it. Returning to the United States in september 1919 hoover put aside his misgivings about the treaty and decided to support it. He did so because he thought that the ratification of the versailles treaty, which included american entry into the league of nations because the way the treaty was written, the first section of the treaty is the constitution of the league of nations and then the whole second section are the terms of peace against germany. Its kind of two parts but one treaty. And so, ratification involved both. If you rejected it, you would be rejecting american membership in the league as well as rejecting the peace terms