Heroes: The Humanitarian

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Hoover traveled the world as a doctor of sick mines. At 24, he was chief engineer of China's Bureau of Mines, and a living legend; he was known as "the foreign mandarin" with "green eyes" that could pierce the earth. He advised the Russian Czar on the development of his huge mine holdings, made a fortune of his own, mainly on fabulous lead, silver and zinc mines in the jungles of Burma.

But at the outbreak of World War I, Hoover declared, "Let fortune go to hell," abandoned business interests that were about to skyrocket in value, plunged into a selfless life of public service. Working in London, he helped some 120,000 Americans who were stranded in Europe without convertible currency, accepted their lOUs, and raised enough cash for the Americans to return home.

"Stunted Bodies." When Belgium was overrun by German troops, Hoover traveled to Berlin and to secret German field headquarters, let top officers believe that the U.S. might enter the war unless they permitted him to bring in food for starving Belgians. In London and Paris, he warned the French and English of likely U.S. indignation unless they eased their blockade to facilitate such shipments. After such tactics succeeded, Hoover supervised the shipment of a billion dollars worth of food and clothing to Belgium, directed a fleet of 60 cargo ships and 400 barges, crossed the mine-filled North Sea 40 times himself.

When the U.S. did enter the war, Hoover came home to head the U.S. Food Administration. Without resorting to either price controls or rationing, he met the domestic and military food demands of the U.S., increased the export of foodstuffs to hungry allies by 35%. At the height of wartime passions, he urged that German and Austrian women and children be fed by the U.S. too. "I did not believe that stunted bodies and deformed minds in the next generation were the foundation upon which to rebuild civilization," he later explained. At war's end, Hoover headed a massive American relief effort in Europe, directed the delivery of 20 million tons of food and supplies to 300 million people in 22 countries.

Hoover's humanitarian work lasted a lifetime. As Secretary of Commerce, he directed the evacuation of 1,500,000 people from the floodlands of the lower Mississippi in 1927, saw that they were housed and fed. Years later, in 1946, Democratic President Harry Truman asked Hoover to examine the relief needs of Asia and Europe in the post-World War II famine. Then 71, Hoover tirelessly trekked 35,000 miles through 25 countries to make his report.

With his remarkable grasp of detail and his organizational genius, Hoover also completed two monumental studies of the federal bureaucracy for Presidents Truman and Eisenhower. His commissions recommended some 645 specific changes in governmental organization and procedure, designed to save some $10 billion annually. About 70% of them were put into effect.