Similarities Between Hoover And The Great Depression

The Great Crash and the eventual Great Depression marred not only the American economy but sent ripples across global markets into ruin. As the stock market disastrously fell into pieces, two presidents were responsible for lifting the United States of America and its economy success. These two presidents, Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, constructed government policies and agencies to combat the rising unemployment and overall slump of the economy. Hoover’s lack of government funding along with poor reactions to public criticism and Roosevelt’s aggressive New Deal were solutions to an economy in desperate need of an answer.
Hoover, unlike previous leaders during American depressions, did not stand idle while the markets fixed

The tariff ultimately caused a public uproar since it would have stifled global trade and deals with American businesses. Hoover supplemented public work projects with $1 billion, a third of the $3.2 billion in the federal budget, barely budged the effort needed for supplying the unemployed with jobs (Davidson 492). Herbert granted Congress permission to pass the Emergency Relief and Construction Act in 1932 for the RFC, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, to give $1.5 billion to aid in public projects that could finance themselves. This went down quick as a failure due to the money spent thinning away as well as not meeting demands from requested loans of the Pennsylvania governor. Strikes violently began to form among frustrated workers who felt as if their employers or the government. The most famous events of this period of strikes were the Dearborn, Illinois Strike and the Bonus Army Protests. The Dearborn Strike was against Henry Ford and met heavy opposition from police with riot hoses and firearms, leaving 4 killed and 20 injured. The Bonus Army was a group of

Roosevelt had decided to use Hoover’s failures to his advantage while running for office. With a whopping 58% of voters choosing Roosevelt, the president took the reigns of the Executive Branch and began his New Deal (Davidson 493). The New Deal comprised of programs offering federal aid to banks, reforms to control the stock market, mortgage relief, work programs, revamping industry, and managing competition. To stop or decrease the banks’ failing at a fast rate, Roosevelt ordered all banks in the nation to close for 4 days as a “bank holiday” (Davidson 496). Roosevelt followed Congress with the passing of the Emergency Banking Act, a law that would give the government and extended reach to aid banks. Banks that were doing alright would reopen while failing banks would be in the hands of government officials that would lead them out of failure. The president also dropped the gold value for the dollar value so an event of the caliber of the Great Crash would be prevented. He followed this up with the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to keep an eye on the market (Davidson 496). Mortgage relief came in the form of the Home Owners’ Loan Act to homes lost and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, or FERA, to loan “money and food to states, local areas, and private charities” (Davidson 497). The FERA ended up using $5 million in 2 hours