TLS, one page, 8 x 10.5, Department of Commerce, Office of the Secretary letterhead, June 24, 1922. Letter to George Horace Lorimer of the Saturday Evening Post, in full: "This is just a note of applause for your activities on Bolshevism. I have not the remotest fear of the actual Bolshevik in the United States, but what is happening is a sort of gaseous poisoning of the mind of all sorts of people by the surfeiting of the country with ideas of Bolshevik character, the prime essence of which is destruction. The deification of the instinct of destruction has made it an ideal instead of a jail crime. I send you herewith a clipping on this subject. The startling thing is the casual manner by which it is assumed that those of us are wicked who make a suggestion that the preservation of individual initiative is the basis of our society and that if we open our mouths we are spreading propaganda. However, I do not want to go into the subject at length. I am merely registering applause." Hoover has added "Purely personal" in the upper portion. Includes the referenced newspaper clipping, entitled 'Blames U. S. Policy Toward Russia,' affixed to the reverse of a Department of Commerce office sheet, annotated along the top by Hoover in pencil: "Washington Herald, 6/20/22." In very good to fine condition, with light overall staining.
Hoover’s mention of “the preservation of individual initiative is the basis of our society” serves as a direct allusion to his book American Individualism, a ringing endorsement of American ingenuity and equal opportunity that was published by Doubleday, Page, & Co., in December 1922. In spite of his staunch opposition to Bolshevism, Hoover’s ARA relief efforts during the Soviet Union famine of 1921-1922 remain one of history’s greatest humanitarian achievements. When a critic inquired if his program was not thus helping Bolshevism, Hoover exclaimed: ‘Twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!’
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