X-1-2 on ramp with pilots Robert Champine and Herb Hoover

Herbert Clark (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st President of the United States from 1929 to 1933. He was a professional mining engineer and was raised as a Quaker. As a Republican Secretary of Commerce, he promoted government support for standardization, efficiency, international trade and partnerships between government and business. Hoover's ambitious programs were hit by the Great Depression, that get worse every year despite the increasingly large-scale interventions he made in the economy. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 struck less than eight months after he took office. Hoover tried to combat the Great Depression with large-scale government public works projects such as the Hoover Dam. He also called on industry to keep wages high but the economy kept falling and unemployment rates rose to about 25%. This downward spiral, as well as his support for prohibition policies that had lost favor, led to 1932 elections defeat in a landslide by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, who promised a New Deal. In 1947, after WWII end, President Harry S. Truman appointed Hoover to head the Hoover Commission to foster greater efficiency throughout the federal bureaucracy. "Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt."

NASA Photo Collection