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Challenge to Liberty

Posted on Tuesday, July 16, 2024
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by AMAC, Robert B. Charles
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17 Comments
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Sometimes history gets it wrong. Mention his name, and a stereotype comes to mind. We think we understand, have it right, but not always. Only decades later does the truth really emerge.

If you read his name, most instantly think of the Great Depression, tend to blame him for things, imagine signals missed or fumbled, and a lack of caring or intelligence. Actually, that is…wrong.

He was a Quaker, early graduate of Stanford University in 1895. A trained engineer, he travelled the world, explored China, Australia, and built strong relationships. In World War I, as Americans struggled for food, Democrat Woodrow Wilson made him the “food czar,” and he helped millions through such a difficult time.

When World War I ended, Europe was shattered, millions starving. He created the American Relief Administration, a “Marshall Plan before the Marshall Plan.” He wanted liberty to live.

In time, he ran for president. In 1920, he lost to Warren G. Harding, but served as his Secretary of Commerce, then again under Calvin Coolidge. For a decade, he served, developed American air travel, promoted radio, managed natural disasters – which occurred then too – and kept stepping up.

And he wrote. He liked to write and was good at it. He held forth on everything from mining and engineering to politics and crisis response, post-war demobilization, education, and anti-discrimination.

He was finally elected president in 1928, and was dealt a low card with the stock market collapse. He struggled to get America back on track and was blamed. Only gradually has history rethought his legacy, his example of intense effort for others, volunteerism, and innate, remarkable capabilities.

After the presidency, he befriended patriots, including JFK. He died in 1964, a year after JFK was assassinated. His biggest contributions, however, might be his ideas. In 1934, he wrote “The Challenge to Liberty.”

Reading it, one shivers. World War II had not yet begun, not even on the horizon. World War I is a decade and a half behind him. Yet what he wrote presciently, and his words apply even today.

This former president wrote, with conviction: “Not only in the United States, but throughout the world, the whole philosophy of individual liberty is under attack…Peoples and governments are blindly wounding, even destroying, those fundamental human liberties which have been the foundation and the inspiration of progress since the Middle Ages.”

“The great question before the American people is not whether these…abuses can be mastered…these new and powerful forces organized and directed to human welfare, but whether they can be organized by free men…whether we will abandon the heritage of liberty for some new philosophy…which must mark the passing of freedom.”

He was not done. Liberty, he said, “is not a catalogue of political ‘rights.’ Liberty is a thing of the spirit – to be free to worship, to think, to hold opinions, and to speak without fear – free to challenge wrong and oppression with surety of justice.”

“Liberty conceives that the…spirit of men can be free only if the individual is free to choose his own calling, to develop his talents, to win and to keep a home sacred from intrusion, to rear children in ordered security…He must be free to earn, to spend, to save, to accumulate property that may give protection in old age and to loved ones.”

Tying political and economic liberty together, he observed liberty “insists equally upon protections to all these freedoms or there is no liberty…No man, no group, may infringe upon the liberties of others” because liberty “demands freedom from frozen barriers of class…and equal opportunity for every boy and girl to win that place in the community to which their abilities and character entitle them.” There, in a nutshell, is the American Dream, “content of their character.”

A keen student of history, he wrote: “In every generation men and women of many nations have died that the human spirit may be thus free…at Plymouth rock, at Lexington, at Valley Forge, at Yorktown, at New Orleans…at Gettysburg, at San Juan Hill, in the Argonne, are the graves of Americans who died for this purpose.”

“From these sacrifices…there grew a great philosophy of society…The high tenet of this philosophy is that liberty is an endowment from the Creator of every individual man and woman…which no power, whether economic or political, can encroach…,” including a government.

“The whole purpose of government is to nurture and assure these liberties…No man long holds his freedom under a government which claims men’s liberties,” which is why we limit government.

As that book progresses, he argues America “marks the high tide of a thousand years of human struggle.” Celebrating liberty, “our country has grown to greatness, and has led the world in the emancipation of men.”

He closes with a caution: “When the boundaries of liberty are overstepped, America will cease to be American…” and we may accidentally “eclipse…liberty.” 

Who was this thoughtful, maligned, prolific, today newly respected leader? None other than Herbert Hoover. So, next time someone derides him, point them to his “Challenge to Liberty.” He was ahead of his time.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.

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Dan W.
Dan W.
2 months ago

Herbert Hoover had arguably the most impressive pre-presidential government career of any president.

The stock market crash was not his fault. Unfortunately, his tightening and laissez-faire economic policies did not work and exacerbated the economic depression.

However, his economic policies of the early 1930s gave us a blueprint of what to do (and not to do) when the economic crisis of 2008 struck and we were able to pull out that economic mess and relatively short order.

Lawrence Greenberg
Lawrence Greenberg
2 months ago

Just as Mr. Hoover was wrongly blamed for things not of his doing, FDR was given credit for things he did not do, and was not criticized for things he did do, like implementing policies that prolonged The Great Depression.

Hugh Johnson
Hugh Johnson
2 months ago

Mister we should could use a man like Herbert Hoover/ Donald Trump again. Everybody knew who they were then Men were Men and Girls were Girls. Gee our old gasoline engine ran great (at a lower price per gal.). Those were the DAYS!!

John Bass
John Bass
2 months ago

I always thought the man got a bad reputation for something he had no control over. The American people blamed him for the stock market crash of 1929 and the great depression that followed. What a stroke of bad luck…I know, call me captain obvious.

Trump, Vance 2024. Because if Joe and the Dem’s are allowed to continue, the great depression will look like a cake walk compared to the next one.

Max
Max
2 months ago

RBC, excellent article with Pres. Herbert Hoover, definitely a man ahead of the times where his words should be a beacon to all.

Timothy Cremeens, PhD
Timothy Cremeens, PhD
2 months ago

My Dad, God rest his soul, was a “yellow-dog” Democrat until he voted for Ronald Reagan. He lived through the Great Depression, and like so many others, he blamed President Hoover for the crash. It’s too bad that his reputation has over the years been tarnished by Democrats. People NEED to STUDY history, not just read it.

dac
dac
2 months ago

RBC thanks again for your insights, background information and another take history. The only true freedom we have in this country under the democrat/communist leadership is on America’s Got Talent, where you can do whatever you want, no matter how good… or how stupid. And even there, there is a small group of people that will cancel (buzz) you in a heartbeat because their opinions are the ones that matter. 😉

Melinda
Melinda
2 months ago

I value your history lessons to fill the gaps in my knowledge.

Jim Oudie
Jim Oudie
2 months ago

…………WE WILL SEE WHAT HAPPENS NOW! ……I THINK TRUMP OUGHT TO HAVE A ‘SAFETY ZONE THAT PROTECTS HIM AND CLEAR 360 DEGEES BULLET-PROOF BARRIERS AROUND HIM WITH A MIC TO COMMUNICATE TO THE CROWDS!!!!
THE SECURITY SHOULD HAVE DRONES TO CHECK OUT BUILDINGS AND ROOF TOPS!!!
THINK OF JFK!

uncleferd
uncleferd
2 months ago

Interesting article, with a parting thought that is certainly memorable, considering the cultural neurosis that threatens us from the left !

Jeff Duncan on Social Security and Secure Borders
jack smith and his memo ; trump
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