In the four years that he was head of commission relief for Belgium they spent $1.5 billion, and helped 10 million civilians. .
On April 6, 1917 when the United States joined the war, President Wilson appointed Hoover as the U.S. food Ambassador. He was appointed director of relief and rehabilitation on November 11, 1918 by the Allied "Big Four" leaders and by 1920 Hoover's management fed and clothed 200 million people. Hoover worked to, increase food production, reduce consumption, eliminate waste, stabilize prices, and improve distribution. .
Hoover established an organization called the American Relief Administration because of all the children that were malnourished and sick, it used $100 million appropriated by congress. In total he helped 350 million people in 21 different countries. .
Even though Hoover had always been a republican, Hoover" friends launched a campaign to give him either a republican or democratic nomination for president, in 1919 when Hoover returned to the United States. Since Hoover did not get his parties nomination, President Harding appointed him secretary of commerce. Hoover held that position for seven years In that seven years Hoover helped extend activities in foreign trade. .
Newspapers, and Politicians started saying that is was qualified for the presidency after he talked about his personal and political philosophy it the book American Individualism.
Hoover became the leading republican candidate when Coolidge announced that he would not be running for a second term in office. Hoover won the election by a large popular and electoral vote. Popular vote was 21, 430, 743, to 15, 016, 443. The popular vote was 444 to 87. Hoover won the election by one of the biggest majorities in the history of the Republican Party. .
One of the first things that Hoover had to deal with was that when the Farmers had overproduced and prices fell on such crops as wheat and corn, they wanted the government to buy their products and resell them overseas.
