Editing Herbert Hoover (section)

==Mining engineer==
{{See also|Causes of the Great Depression#Trying to return to the Gold Standard}}
===Bewick, Moreing===
[[File:Herbert Hoover in 1898.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Hoover, aged 23; taken in [[Perth]], Western Australia, in 1898]]

When Hoover graduated from Stanford in 1895, the country was in the midst of the [[Panic of 1893]] and he initially struggled to find a job.{{sfn|Leuchtenburg 2009|pp=6–9}} He worked in various low-level mining jobs in the [[Sierra Nevada|Sierra Nevada Mountains]] until persuading prominent mining engineer Louis Janin to hire him.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=46–48}} After working as a mine scout for a year, Hoover was hired by Bewick, Moreing & Co. ("Bewick"), a London-based company that operated [[Gold mining|gold mines]] in [[Western Australia]].{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=48–50}} He first went to [[Coolgardie, Western Australia|Coolgardie]], then the center of the [[Eastern Goldfields]], which was actually in [[Western Australia]], receiving a $5,000 salary ({{Inflation|US|5000|1897|fmt=eq}}). Conditions were harsh in the goldfields; Hoover described the [[Coolgardie (biogeographic region)|Coolgardie]] and [[Murchison (biogeographic region)|Murchison]] [[rangeland]]s on the edge of the [[Great Victoria Desert]] as a land of "black flies, red dust and white heat".<ref name="Hoover biography">{{cite web|url=http://hooverinstitutionla.blogspot.com/2011/06/herbert-hoover-just-another-stanford.html?m=1|title=Herbert Hoover, the graduate: Have Stanford degree, will travel |date=June 15, 2011|publisher=Hoover Institution |access-date=January 24, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Citation | url = http://hoover.archives.gov/info/faq.html#Australia | publisher = Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum | title = FAQ | contribution = What did the President do in Western Australia? | access-date = January 18, 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120118014403/http://www.hoover.archives.gov/info/faq.html#Australia | archive-date = January 18, 2012 | url-status = dead | df = mdy-all }}</ref>

Hoover traveled constantly across the [[Outback]] to evaluate and manage the company's mines.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=54–55}} He convinced Bewick to purchase the [[Sons of Gwalia]] gold mine, which proved to be one of the most successful mines in the region.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|p=56}} Partly due to Hoover's efforts, the company eventually controlled approximately 50 percent of gold production in [[Western Australia]].{{sfn|Nash|1983|p=283}} Hoover brought in many [[Italian Australians|Italian immigrants]] to cut costs and counter the [[Australian labour movement|labour movement]] of the Australian miners.<ref name=HG>{{Citation | url = http://www.gwalia.org.au/ | title = Gwalia Historic Site | place = AU}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.abc.net.au/programsales/studyguide/StG_Hoovers_Gold.pdf | publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|year=2005|title=Hoover's Gold|access-date=June 17, 2010}}</ref> During his time with the mining company, Hoover became opposed to measures such as a [[minimum wage]] and [[workers' compensation]], feeling that they were unfair to owners. Hoover's work impressed his employers, and in 1898 he was promoted to junior partner.{{sfn|Leuchtenburg 2009|pp=10–13}} An open feud developed between Hoover and his boss, Ernest Williams, but Bewick's leaders defused the situation by offering Hoover a compelling position in [[Qing China|China]].{{sfn|Burner|1996|p=32}}

Upon arriving in China, Hoover developed gold mines near [[Tianjin]] on behalf of Bewick and the Chinese-owned [[Chinese Engineering and Mining Company]].{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=70–71, 76}} He became deeply interested in [[History of China|Chinese history]], but gave up on learning the [[Chinese language|language]] to [[List of multilingual presidents of the United States#Herbert Hoover|a fluent level]]. He publicly warned that Chinese workers were inefficient and racially inferior.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=72–73}} He made recommendations to improve the lot of the Chinese worker, seeking to end the practice of imposing long-term servitude contracts and to institute reforms for workers based on merit.{{sfn|Burner|1996|p=34}} The [[Boxer Rebellion]] broke out shortly after the Hoovers arrived in China, trapping them and numerous other foreign nationals until a [[Eight-Nation Alliance|multi-national military force]] defeated Boxer forces in the [[Battle of Tientsin]]. Fearing the imminent collapse of the Chinese government, the director of the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company agreed to establish a new Sino-British venture with Bewick. After they established effective control over the new Chinese mining company, Hoover became the operating partner in late 1901.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=77–81, 85–89}}

In this role, Hoover continually traveled the world on behalf of Bewick, visiting mines operated by the company on different continents. Beginning in December 1902, the company faced mounting legal and financial issues after one of the partners admitted to having fraudulently sold stock in a mine. More issues arose in 1904 after the British government formed two separate [[Royal Commission|royal commissions]] to investigate Bewick's labor practices and financial dealings in Western Australia. After the company lost a lawsuit Hoover began looking for a way to get out of the partnership, and he sold his shares in mid-1908.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=88–93, 98, 102–104}}

===Sole proprietor===
[[File:HHoover (retouched).jpg|thumb|upright|Hoover in 1917 while a mining engineer]]

After leaving Bewick, Moreing, Hoover worked as a London-based independent mining consultant and financier. Though he had risen to prominence as a geologist and mine operator, Hoover focused much of his attention on raising money, restructuring corporate organizations, and financing new ventures.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=112–115}} He specialized in rejuvenating troubled mining operations, taking a share of the profits in exchange for his technical and financial expertise.{{sfn|Leuchtenburg 2009|pp=11–13}} Hoover thought of himself and his associates as "engineering doctors to sick concerns", and he earned a reputation as a "doctor of sick mines".{{sfn|Nash|1983|p=392}} He made investments on every continent and had offices in San Francisco; London; New York City; Paris; [[Saint Petersburg|Petrograd]]; and [[Mandalay]], [[Myanmar|British Burma]].<ref>Hoover, Herbert C. (1952). ''The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover Years of Adventure 1874–1920''. London: Hollis & Carter. p. 99</ref> By 1914, Hoover was a very wealthy man, with an estimated personal fortune of $4 million (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|4|1914|r=2}}&nbsp;million in {{Inflation-year|US}}).{{sfn|Nash|1983|p=569}}

Hoover co-founded the [[Consolidated Zinc|Zinc Corporation]] to extract [[zinc]] near the Australian city of [[Broken Hill]], [[New South Wales]].{{sfn|Whyte 2017|p=115}} The Zinc Corporation developed the [[froth flotation]] process to extract zinc from lead-silver ore{{sfn|Burner|1996|pp=24–43}} and operated the world's first selective ore differential flotation plant.<ref name="Blainey">{{cite book|last1=Blainey|first1=Geoffrey|title=The Rush That Never Ended|url=https://archive.org/details/rushthatneverend0000blai|url-access=registration|date=1963|publisher=Melbourne University Press|location=Melbourne|pages=[https://archive.org/details/rushthatneverend0000blai/page/265 265–268]}}</ref> Hoover worked with the Burma Corporation, a British firm that produced silver, lead, and zinc in large quantities at the [[Namtu]] [[Bawdwin Mine]].<ref name="Hoover" />{{rp|90–96,101–102}}{{sfn|Nash|1983|p=381}} He also helped increase [[Copper extraction|copper production]] in [[Kyshtym]], [[Russian Empire|Russia]], through the use of pyritic smelting. He also agreed to manage a separate mine in the [[Altai Mountains]] that, according to Hoover, "developed probably the greatest and richest single body of ore known in the world".<ref name="Hoover">Hoover, Herbert C. (1952). ''The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover Years of Adventure 1874–1920''. London: Hollis & Carter</ref>{{rp|102–108}}<ref name="Kennan">{{cite book|last1=Kennan|first1=George|title=Siberia and the Exile System|date=1891|publisher=James R. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co.|location=London|pages=165, 286}}</ref>

In his spare time, Hoover wrote. His lectures at [[Columbia University|Columbia]] and Stanford universities were published in 1909 as ''Principles of Mining'', which became a standard textbook. The book reflects his move towards [[Progressivism in the United States|progressive]] ideals, as Hoover came to endorse [[Eight-hour day|eight-hour workdays]] and [[Trade union|organized labor]].{{sfn|Leuchtenburg 2009|pp=18–20}} Hoover became deeply interested in the [[history of science]], and he was especially drawn to the ''[[De re metallica]]'', an influential 16th century work on mining and metallurgy by [[Georgius Agricola]]. In 1912, Hoover and his wife published the first English translation of ''De re metallica''.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=119–120}} Hoover also joined the board of trustees at Stanford, and led a successful campaign to appoint John Branner as the university's president.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=124–125}}