The Great Depression was a milestone in US history. It shows us what a hands-off laissez-faire approach looks like in crisis and what a strong hands-on, intervening government looks like in crisis. It started on Black Tuesday, October 29th, 1929. People couldn’t get their money from banks after the stock market crashed because they didn’t have it. Unemployment rates skyrocketed and America needed a president to lead with a strong grasp over this economic crisis. 2 and a half years later on March 4, 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was sworn into office and he was a man with a plan. He was quite the contrary from his predecessor, Herbert Hoover, who used laissez-faire, hands-off tactics when the country needed it least. FDR would come …show more content…
The Great Depression was a time of peril for the strong majority of Americans. Hoover’s main solution was to not do much, to let time pass and hope the problem goes away. Well, that’s being unfair, he enacted some questionable policies. For example, he signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff bill that would tax 40% of trade. As a result, GDP fell 8.5% as this just isolated America’s trade partners. (6.4) Even during his speeches, Hoover pushed responsibility away, hoping that the Great Depression would just go away like magic to retain his hands-off philosophy. During his second State of the Union Address, he said “There are many factors which give encouragement for the future. The fact that we are holding from 80 to 85% of our normal activities and incomes; that our major financial and industrial institutions have come through the storm unimpaired…” He’s completely neglecting the 15-20% of the economy that’s clearly not alright. People are losing jobs and some even becoming homeless. His most significant response was making cardboard villages for homeless people called Hooverville that were only needed because he didn’t do anything to help the economy, so they had no jobs. Other than his obligatory speeches, Hoover would not converse with the people. Roosevelt actually utilized new technology, the radio, to have Fireside Chats. Many people compare this to how modern day politicians utilize social media. On his first chat on March 12, 1933, he assured people how the banking system worked, why they couldn’t get their money, and how he was going to fix it. (6.9) Even during his Inaugural Address, he said “Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive, and will prosper.” Here, he’s admitting to what’s happening with the economy and assuring
Hoover administration was trying to stop the economy from bleeding out. In the next few paragraphs I will give details on how two Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt dealt with The Great Depression. Public goods: President Hoover’s believed that supporting public radio broadcasting and aviation would beneficial to the American people. He create the Federal Farm Bond loan for $500 million dollars to help farmers to produce crop more efficiently.
Research Question: Did Hoover as a president accomplished anything to save American’s economy during The Great Depression? Research Paper Jamie Tieliang Yang US History Period 6 April 9 2015 Ms. Hilaman Windermere Preparatory School Word Count – 1454 Table of Contents Page A. Plan of Investigation…………………………………………………..
Herbert Hoover became the U.S president in the 1928 election and in 1929 stocks began to drop. Before he became president he was known for his organizational skill in the 1927 flood relief. Also Hoover made the committees to solve the problems but did not like to run them; he expected someone else to run it. In addition when it came to government spending Hoover was for engineering project but not humanitarian assistants. Hoover believed in limited government and it was that believe that make the depression worse.
Jaiah Jackson U.S. History 2 Mr.Grillo May 31, 2023 The Great Depression marked a significant turning point of the United States, and the leadership of Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt played a crucial role in shaping the nation's response to the crisis. While Hoover and Roosevelt shared a common goal of restoring the country’s economic prosperity, their approaches differed significantly. This essay will compare and contrast the backgrounds, policies, and leadership styles of these two presidents, to better understand their impact on American History.
President Hoover promised that in every pot there would be a chicken, but like the lyrics from a song in the musical Annie, the people of the day said, “not only don’t we have the chicken, we ain’t got the pot.” President Hoover caused a lot of anger, he caused people to be homeless with no food and little money, and although Hoover promised to fix everything, it was completely unclear to anyone that anything had changed. The Great depression was one of the worst moments in history. President Hoover decided to try and fix the economy, but his strategy was not working.
His relationship with Latin America, Europe, and Asia were a big part of his foreign policies since he wanted to search for solutions and to resolve problems in a friendly way more than in power. Herbert Hoover, the 31st President of the United States, took office in 1929, the year the US economy plunged into the Great Depression. Although the policies of his predecessors undoubtedly contributed to the crisis, which lasted more than a decade, in the minds of the American people, Hoover bore much of the responsibility. when elected under the Republican label, the economy is relatively flourishing, and optimism prevails. A few months later, the New York Stock Exchange collapses and the Great Depression begins.
Herbert Hoover was and Andrew Mellon had different ways about dealing with the Great Depression than the ways Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) and John Keynes did. Mostly with the role the government played throughout the devastating event. The Great Depression was caused by the results of World War I and the stock market crash on October 24, 1929 under Herbert Hoover’s presidency. The stock market was the way to become rich, but quickly became the path to bankruptcy after the crash.
Unfortunately Hoover’s acknowledgment of the problem was not enough for Roosevelt and Hoover to find common ground. Roosevelt clearly disagreed with Hoover’s methods of depending on charity to pull America out of the Great Depression. He verbalised this in his speech, “We refused to leave the problems of our common welfare to be solved by the winds of change and the hurricanes of disaster. ”(Hanes and hanes 9) To reiterate, Roosevelt was saying that he refused to leave the responsibility of the suffering American people up to charities. The government is responsible for its citizens.
During the Great Depression, President Hoover had stood with his philosophy of limited government, which he believed the economy would recover on its own. Hoover would refuse to give handouts or provide financial donations, because he saw this as direct government aid. Instead, Hoover had asked for other American businesses to keep workers employed and continue production, and for all citizens to hold on tight and make it through these hard times by following “rugged individualism.” A term used by Hoover, a belief that all individuals can be successful on their own without much help from government aid. When tax revenues had collapsed because of the poor economy, in response Hoover raised the taxes, which caused more devastation to the economy.
Nevertheless, Hoover did attempt to pull the nation out of the sinkhole it was falling into, he just used unconventional methods to do so. Instead of spending the government's money on direct aid, Hoover wanted the nation to help businesses flourish and to rely on volunteerism for neighborly support. When he was a young man, Hoover had to work his own way through college in order to get to where he was, and because of this he strongly believed that Americans needed to work hard for everything they received. His plans to pull the United States out of the Great Depression were not successful, and this made people believe that he didn’t attempt to find a solution at all. While the President did little to support the unemployed firsthand, he did try to improve the nation's economy as a whole because he believed that the nation's success depended on the strength of its business.
Hoover tried to make policies for his citizens but those policies just made everything worse than it already was. Hoover gave out more taxes, and while he was trying to stimulate the economy, the unemployment rates continued to rise and the country fell deeper into debt. Hoover didn’t do much during this period to help people out, Wikipedia Contributors. “Herbert Hoover.”, states, “The causes of the Great Depression remain a matter of debate, but Hoover viewed a lack of confidence in the financial system as the fundamental economic problem facing the nation.”
The wealth during the 1920s left Americans unprepared for the economic depression they would face in the 1930s. The Great Depression occurred because of overproduction by farmers and factories, consumption of goods decreased, uneven distribution of wealth, and overexpansion of credit. Hoover was president when the depression first began, and he maintained the government’s laissez-faire attitude in the economy. However, after the election of FDR in 1932, his many alphabet soup programs in his first one hundred days in office addressed the nation’s need for change.
Hoover is often blamed for not doing anything to end the Great Depression, but he actually did try to use the government to create infrastructure projects, thus creating jobs. Like the Hoover Dam and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to try to end the Depression. There are two major differences between their approaches. One is that President Roosevelt was willing to do more than President Hoover to combat the Great Depression. Roosevelt was willing to let the government become more involved in the economy.
President Herbert Hoover made efforts to try to fix the great depression. Many people disliked him as a president and complained he didn’t even care. However he at least tired to help people recover from the great depression. Some policies he created were the Hoover Moratorium, the Federal Home Loan Bank Act of 1932, and the Great New Deal. Hoover created the Hoover Moratorium to end the war debts however it didn’t help with the economic crisis.
The Great Depression was a time during 1929 to 1939, It was the longest lasting economic disaster. The two presidents in term during this crisis, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover, approached this problem in different ways. Hoover’s idea on this was to have private citizens help each others, while Roosevelt believed the government should take care of its people with social programs. Looking at these ideas in more depth we can infer ways our country should go. Herbert Hoover served as president during 1929 to 1933.