Herbert Hoover was one of the most beloved presidents in history. Even though the president is known as a position of power, it is not always a position that results in fondness by the public. Hoover was able to be one of the most progressive presidents in history due to his humanitarianism. He was one of the few presidents that seemed to genuinely care about the public and focused on reform that would bring about real change. He was interested in having a profound impact and help the country to move forward after the first world war. Few presidents have achieved the type of popularity that Hoover amassed. It is important to understand what his real contributions were as president and what his biggest accomplishments are. Here are the major accomplishments of Herbert Hoover.
Children’s Programs
One of the biggest accomplishments that Hoover had during his time as president were the programs that he started for children. He felt that government programs needed to be in place that would help put children first and make sure that those suffering would have some relief. The way to put these children programs into action was to increase the government budget. Presidents of the past were not willing to do so, but Hoover was one of the few that saw how transformative these programs could be for children.
Prison Reform
Not only was Hoover active with government programs for children, but he was also one of the few presidents that made prison reform a priority. He put about 7 million into making prisons improved for inmates and putting programs in place that would help released prisoners to be acclimate into society. He was one of the few presidents that actually took the needs of prisoners seriously and saw them as actual people instead of just criminals. This is one of the reasons why Hoover is always viewed as a humanitarian.
National Parks
Another one of his accomplishments was to obtain more land for national parks to use. He was someone that was very active as a conservationist. He felt that we need to take better care of the world that we live in. He made it impossible to get private oil leasing on government land, which is something that had not been done before Hoover took office.
As far as being a humanitarian and having a heart, Hoover is often viewed as the most compassionate president in history.