Herbert Hoover And The Great Depression

While the rest of the nation soared on a burgeoning bubble of prosperity in the 1920s, the plight of the farmers served as a harbinger of the economic peril which encapsulated the rest of the nation the following decade. Overproduction of crops following the mechanization of farming and the loss of world markets mirrored the misfortune of businesses, who likewise experienced superfluous supply and decreased demand from debt-laden Americans. Many deplored the Gini Index of .5 and blamed such income disparities between the wealthiest and poorest Americans for their predicament. Radical groups calling for generous Share the Wealth schemes, socialism, communism and anti-semitism resultantly gained significant momentum, and threatened to steal

In tackling the Great Depression, he relied not on government assistance but on “mutual self-help” amongst Americans to prevent “hunger and cold” (H). President Hoover, a staunch conservative, believed that implementing such welfare policies would “strike at the roots of self government” (H). During his presidency, therefore, he avoided government handouts instead aiming to indirectly aid the American people through the pursuit of trickle-down economics. Many hostile critics commentated that the “Great Humanitarian” would appropriate money to feed the hungry Belgians and American livestock but fail to provide direct relief to Americans. Yet Hoover overestimated the effect that charitable organizations and trickle-down economics would have on the American people. Many jobless men traveled throughout the country looking for money or jobs during the Great Depression, though by 1939 Americans had exhausted their charitable coffers and simply could not take care of others. A 1939 photo reflects this sentiment: “Jobless Men Keep Going, We Can’t Take Care Of Our Own” (A). This sign demonstrates the need, therefore, for the government to assist the hungry and cold, for mutual self-help failed. The laissez faire status quo simply was not working for

With the mechanization of farming, farmers revolutionized the efficiency of harvesting, planting, and irrigating crops. Along with the loss of overseas markets, such mechanization of farming facilitated a crop surplus in a market of decreasing demand. As farmers produced more and more crops attempting to offset the effects of the surplus, they only drove prices further down. Jobless and unable to make a living, farmers “banded together...for mutual protection” blockading roads and harassing law enforcement (J). In a letter to President Roosevelt, Walter Procter, a likely leftist who acknowledged that Social Security only “partly meets the situation,” foresaw a rebellion of the American worker. Procter wrote that human nature was “reach[ing] its limits, and that means revolution.” As a likely leftist leader, Procter sought to encourage the president to further pursue leftist goals arguing that the Social Security Legislation was “a step in the right direction (D).” The reason this purpose is significant is that it reveals the leftist influence on President Roosevelt’s policy making. Father Charles Coughlin confirmed the discontent of the Americans. At first supporting the President’s New Deal policies, he testified before Congress in 1934 predicting “a revolution in this country which will make the French Revolution look silly!” if the New Deal