Carl Cannon’s Morning Note
Good morning. It’s the first Friday in December; it’s also the day of the week when I share a quotation intended to be informative or enlightening. Inspired by the tributes to Rosalynn Carter, I was looking for a good first lady quote. I didn’t need to look far, as I’m spending the week on the Stanford University campus, courtesy of the Hoover Institution. Today’s inspiring words come from Lou Henry Hoover, wife of the 31st U.S. president.
First, I’d direct you to RCP’s front page, which contains the latest poll averages, political news and video, and aggregated opinion pieces ranging across the ideological spectrum. We also offer the usual complement of original material from our stable of columnists and contributors. Recent highlights include the following:
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DeSantis Takes On Newsom in Red vs. Blue State Debate. Susan Crabtree and Phil Wegman recap last night’s feisty match-up of the coastal governors.
Families of American Hostages Press for Swifter Action. Susan listens in on the heartbreaking pleas of the relatives of those still being held in Gaza.
Megyn Kelly’s New Media Moment. Phil sits down with the polarizing talk show host as she prepares to moderate the upcoming GOP presidential debate.
Biden Family Grift and Hunter’s Fake Offer To Testify. Charles Lipson outlines the case against the first family and the many obstructed investigations that have kept it under wraps.
Failure of Western Feminism When It’s Most Needed. Phyllis Chesler implores her fellow-travelers to be consistent and stand for women’s rights even when it’s uncomfortable.
2024 Presidential Election Will Be Decided by “Double Haters.” Louis Perron observes the unusual situation where voters will choose between an incumbent and the last incumbent they ousted.
The Case That Should Restore Our Government. Peggy Little writes that both the legal professoriate and the legal media may be losing sight of a foundational principle in jurisprudence.
Mega-Jolt: The Costs and Logistics of Plugging In. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm gave Americans a glimpse of the future during her road trip this summer touting electric vehicles. At RealClearPolicy, John Murawski describes the unexpected challenges.
How To Improve Higher Education Policymaking and Our National Discourse. Also at RealClearPolicy, Michael Brickman shines a light on the obstacles faced by young adults entering college and the workforce.
From Sputnik to CHIPS: Preparing Students for the Future. At RealClearEducation, Dan Correa and Mark Schneider submit that education in the U.S. should produce a talent pipeline from grade school to STEM careers.
Amid Rising Premiums, Legislation Would Raise Costs Even Higher. At RealClearHealth, JC Scott contends that this proposal will hurt consumers and line the pockets of drug companies.
Artificial Intelligence Doomsayers Shouldn’t Fear Human Progress. At RealClearMarkets, Jonathan Decker promises that the rewards of technology innovation in artificial intelligence are worth the risk.
Nosenko, Angleton, and the JFK Assassination. Writing for RealClearDefense, Francis Sempa adds yet another assessment to the long list of theories tied to the late president’s death.
Essential Aspect of the A-10 Story. Also in RealClearDefense, Winslow Wheeler reviews a recent book about the storied ground attack fighter and argues for its continued use by the Air Force.
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In the winter of 1899, two Stanford University geology students were married in Monterey, California. The bride was Lou Henry, a natural athlete, avid outdoorswoman, and academic star who spoke several languages and whose deep religious faith translated into a lifetime of helping the least among us.
Under her married name, this extraordinary woman was destined to take her place in the United States’ long line of activist and inspirational first ladies. Like several others, she shined in spite of her husband’s tenure as president, not because of it.
Lou was a strong advocate of universal suffrage and once commented about the need for all women to exploit their right to vote. “Bad men are elected by good women who stay at home from the polls on Election Day,” she said.
Lou Henry’s father had evidently wanted a son, but aside from that unorthodox first name, no one in that clan ever let gender — or anything else — slow them down. Charles Henry took his daughter hunting and fishing in the woods and fields of Iowa, and she learned to skate and sled on the frozen Cedar River. When Lou was 11, her family moved to California where she became an instant Westerner. She climbed trees to tie up rope swings, organized pickup baseball games on vacant fields, and became an expert horsewoman who eschewed sidesaddle. She collected reptiles as pets, starred as Joan of Arc in the school play, and wrote two school essays at age14: “Universal Suffrage” and “The Independent Girl.”
Lou had intended to be a schoolteacher and she earned a teaching certificate at San Jose State, but ended up at Stanford, where she was the school’s first female geology major, and perhaps the first at any university in this country. It was in Palo Alto that she met her future husband, “Bert.” Their honeymoon was in China, where he had accepted a job and where she set a precedent as being prepared for any kind of action.
Lou Hoover immersed herself in Chinese art, history, and culture. She learned Mandarin — her fifth language besides English — faster and more thoroughly than her husband and manned the barricades with him when the Boxer Rebellion broke out. Their house was riddled with bullets, but Herbert Hoover and his wife were unhurt. And Bert had to be impressed that his wife learned to shoot a pistol — just in case.
The forbidding history of the 20th century seemed to attach itself to this couple: At their next posting in London, World War I broke out. Mrs. Hoover joined her husband in organizing war relief efforts credited with saving hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of Europeans from starvation.
As first lady, Lou was considered demanding by the White House staff and aloof by the journalists who covered the Hoover administration. She had a vision for her job, and a plan. Mrs. Hoover was the first wife of a president to address the nation via the radio. She undertook a public speaking schedule of her own. And she quietly demonstrated the values she’d laid out in “Independent Girl.”
Without fanfare, Lou Hoover put a stop to the antediluvian custom of not inviting pregnant women to White House social occasions. In an act of courtesy that did not go down so easily, she also tendered an invitation to a White House tea for congressional wives to Jessie DePriest, an African American woman married to black congressman Oscar DePriest.
This simple gesture brought fierce reaction from southern segregationists. Newspapers in the South howled. Sen. Thaddeus H. Caraway of Arkansas had an account of the event read into the Congressional Record in protest. The first lady stood accused of “defiling” the White House. Actually, Lou Hoover had done just the opposite: She had done the old mansion proud.
Her quiet but unwavering activism had been foreshadowed before her husband won the presidency. In May 1923, when Warren G. Harding was president and Lou Hoover’s husband was Commerce secretary, she addressed a Republican women’s group in Philadelphia.
“Women have come to stay in politics,” Lou Hoover said. “There is no way of keeping out and there is no such thing as a neutral or passive voice. If you are not active, you are helping the other side.”
And that is our quote of the week.
