Herbert Hoover to Woodrow Wilson
Title
Herbert Hoover to Woodrow Wilson
Creator
Hoover, Herbert, 1874-1964
Identifier
WWP19114
Date
1917 July 12
Description
Herbert Hoover tells Woodrow Wilson with regard to Mr. Gore’s amended bill and how it will affect the Food Administration’s efforts to conserve and make foodstuffs available to the American people.
Source
Hoover-Wilson Correspondence, Hoover Institution, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford, California
Publisher
Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum
Subject
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924--Correspondence
Hoover, Herbert, 1874-1964--Correspondence
Language
English
Text
Dear Mr. President
Considerable effort will be made in the Senate to secure the substitution of Mr. Gore’s amended bill, though I am uncertain as to what the possibilities of success are in this effort. I enclose for your information some votes on Mr. Gore’s substitute which have been furnished me by Judge Curtis Lindley who is assisting us on the legal side.
I would like to point out in this matter that Mr. Gore’s substitute extracts absolutely the whole of the teeth from the bill and renders it impossible for us to control speculation, for it reduces the hoarding and board of trade provisions to a nullity and makes it impossible for us to control wasteful practices in distribution and manufacture and impossible to control extortion in profits and charges. If the bill should pass Congress in this form the whole objective of the Food Administration in the sense of securing for the consumer in this country foodstuffs at a reasonable ratio to the return to the producer, is entirely hopeless. I may also mention that the form of administration proposed by Mr. Gore also destroys the whole question of the imaginative side of leadership of yourself and sense of vounteer service in the interest of the Nation, which is absolutely critical in order to amass the devotion of the people. I simply cannot hope to secure this sort of administration if it is to be controlled by a meticulous “board” with its impossible mixture of irresponsible executive and advisory functions. Moreover, at your wish the Food Administration was launched upon this basis and it becomes merely a drive at yourself personally and to a lesser degree at me.
I remain,
(Signed) Hoover.
Your obedient servant,
Considerable effort will be made in the Senate to secure the substitution of Mr. Gore’s amended bill, though I am uncertain as to what the possibilities of success are in this effort. I enclose for your information some votes on Mr. Gore’s substitute which have been furnished me by Judge Curtis Lindley who is assisting us on the legal side.
I would like to point out in this matter that Mr. Gore’s substitute extracts absolutely the whole of the teeth from the bill and renders it impossible for us to control speculation, for it reduces the hoarding and board of trade provisions to a nullity and makes it impossible for us to control wasteful practices in distribution and manufacture and impossible to control extortion in profits and charges. If the bill should pass Congress in this form the whole objective of the Food Administration in the sense of securing for the consumer in this country foodstuffs at a reasonable ratio to the return to the producer, is entirely hopeless. I may also mention that the form of administration proposed by Mr. Gore also destroys the whole question of the imaginative side of leadership of yourself and sense of vounteer service in the interest of the Nation, which is absolutely critical in order to amass the devotion of the people. I simply cannot hope to secure this sort of administration if it is to be controlled by a meticulous “board” with its impossible mixture of irresponsible executive and advisory functions. Moreover, at your wish the Food Administration was launched upon this basis and it becomes merely a drive at yourself personally and to a lesser degree at me.
I remain,
(Signed) Hoover.
Your obedient servant,
Original Format
Letter
To
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924
Files
Citation
Hoover, Herbert, 1874-1964, “Herbert Hoover to Woodrow Wilson,” 1917 July 12, WWP19114, Hoover Institute at Stanford University Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.