Herbert Hoover and His Role in The Great Depression
With the continually worsening conditions, and the stock market crash on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, the United States was thrown into the biggest economical disaster of our history. Everyone, excluding the rich upper class, became poor and most unemployed. The majority of the American populace found themselves living in ‘shantytowns’ or ‘Hoovervilles’ as they later became to be known, which consisted of many cramped shacks constructed from whatever was available. This meant old burnt-out cars, cardboard boxes, random pieces of lumber, and anything else that people could find. Times truly were tough. It was a daily struggle for people to support their own lives, let alone those of their family on the meager amount of money they had. The lucky man in charge of bringing us out from the depths of this very great of depressions was none other than the thirty-first president of these United States.
Herbert Clark Hoover was born in an Iowa village in 1874 to a Quaker blacksmith. He grew up in Oregon and eventually graduated from Stanford University as a mining engineer. After marrying Lou Henry, his girlfriend from Stanford, they went to China where he worked as the leading engineer for the country. Upon entering World War I, President Wilson placed Hoover at the head of the Food Administration where he successfully kept the Allies well fed. Following the war, Hoover organized food shipments for millions of starving people in Europe and Soviet Russia as a member of the Supreme Economic Council and head of the American Relief Administration. Finally, in 1928 Hoover became the Republican Presidential nominee, and later the President of the United States of America. A year later, those United States sank into deep depression.
Following the crash of the stock market in 1929, Americans looked to their federal government for help through these hard times. The public required Direct Relief, or cash payments or food provided for the poor by the government. Hoover and his rugged individualist mentality, however, believed that the government should not interfere with the economic happenings of its citizens. He said that aid to the hungry and the deserving unemployed should come from local govern...
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...nto the shoulders of Hoover, between 10 and 20 thousand World War I veterans marched to Washington D.C. in the spring of 1932. This Bonus Army, as it was to be called, made the trip under Walter Waters to support a bill under debate that might grant them a cash bonus. The original bonus, previously passed in 1924, was supposed to give them life insurance in 1945. This new bill in Congress was to give each soldier $500 immediately. Surprisingly, Hoover wasn’t upset with the Bonus Army’s gathering, and even encouraged them by providing food and supplies. On June 17, 1932, the Patman Bill was put down and Hoover ordered the Bonus Army to depart. When 2,000 of the men refused to move, the president sent 1,000 soldiers to send them home. With tear gas and bayonets, their task was accomplished. A few men were killed in this ordeal.
Herbert Hoover was the boy from Iowa fated to lead this nation through one of its greatest disasters. Unfortunately, he receives much undeserved blame for the crash of the stock market and subsequent depression the U.S. faced. Considering the circumstances, Hoover did a commendable job pulling us through this very hard of times.
President Herbert Hoover was the conservative republican president of America when the great depression occurred, and was given the burden of rebuilding the economy. He believed the federal government should not intervene, and instead believed that helping the needy was the obligation of private organizations and donors, whom he pressured. In addition, Hoover granted loans to big businesses, hoping that the money would “trickle down” and that more employees would be hired. Still, during...
The Great Depression hit the United States while Hoover was serving his first and only term as president. In the end, the public saw Hoover as a man who began his presidency as a liberal, but who’s beliefs began to resemble those of a conservative towards the end of his term. The Progressive Age had come to an end by 1910 and big business thrived as Harding, Coolidge, an...
Because of the plague known as the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover is often seen as one of the worst presidents in American history. He enacted policies such as the Hawley-Smoot Tariff that flushed America deeper into the depression. Hoover didn't understand that to solve a crisis such as a depression, he needed to interact directly with the people by using programs such as social security and welfare. Instead, Hoover had the idea that if he were to let the depression run its course, it would eventually end. There are three things that can be used to define Hoover's presidency during the depression, his actions, his mentality toward fixing things, and the fact that he helped pave the way for the “New Deal”
The economy drained over the years that Hoover was in term. The taxes didn’t end the suffering of the farmers because foreign nations increased their tariffs. In 1932, Hoover created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, federal agency enabled for endangered banks and corporations borrow go...
Hoover believed that it should be the duty of the People and charity organizations to raise money to relieve economic struggle and that, “the opening of the doors of the National Treasury is likely to stifle this giving and thus destroy far more resources than the proposed charity from the Federal Government” ( AUTHOR 9). Hoover considered self-government and mutual self-help to be the “American way” (9) and that relying on the government for aid is a “disastrous system” ( AUTHOR 12) to embark upon. Contrastingly, Roosevelt stated that, “the Democratic Government had the innate capacity to protect its people against disasters” (AUTHOR 58) and that the government can accomplish tasks that charities and communities cannot. In his second inaugural address, he alluded to previous events such as the revolutionary war and noted that a strong and proactive Federal Government was necessary for the country’s recovery. Through the methods of government, Franklin Roosevelt united an off-track population, used government resources and the people's’ help to better the nation’s economy, and paved a promising path for future
At the moment of the Great Depression, many Americans lost hope in the government and hope for changes and government reforms. President Hoover, the current president at the time of the Depression, was faced with much criticism, was extremely unpopular, and was blamed for the struggle that Americans had to face during his presidency. Society began to mock the president, and small towns began popping up, which were known as Hooverville’s. Many poor and unemployed Americans stayed in
...for their misfortune. The rich blamed the poor, the poor blamed the rich, the middle class blamed the blacks, and no one took responsibility themselves. One complaint most of these classes (with exception to the few that benefited) was the lack of success of the New Deal and other relief efforts. Whether the blacks had too much employment, or the poor were too lazy to receive aid, very few Americans appeared to be happy with Roosevelt’s solution. This didn’t stop his popularity. Many Americans stood behind their president rain or shine, depression or big boom. Regardless of their positions, these citizens who turned to the President in their time of desperation proved that the pen is truly mightier.
Citizens living in Hoovervilles often faced hunger and contracted diseases from the unsanitary conditions. The people only had a few options to get food as most of them were unemployed and homeless. The options were: standing in breadlines, going to the soup kitchens or, as a last result, going through the trash cans. For most, Hoover was to blame for everything happening around them. Seeing his people going through one of the darkest times in history, he still had the the thought that self help was the only way that people were going to get through it. His name then began being used to compare his lack of help to the poor conditions his people were going through. As a result, living during the great depression caused difficult everyday tasks and made a negative impact on the people's
The Great Depression America 1929-1941 by Robert S. McElvaine covers many topics of American history during the "Great Depression" through 1941. The topic that I have selected to compare to the text of American, Past and Present, written by Robert A. Divine, T.H. Breen, George M. Frederickson and R. Hal Williams, is Herbert Hoover, the thirty-first president of the United States and America's president during the horrible "Great Depression".
In fact, Hoover is ranked 9th place in the worst presidents list, according to U.S. News. Perhaps of his shy and introverted personality, he decided not fix the Great Depression because he did not want to make the situation worse. Although, doing something is better than doing nothing. Also, he sent the Army to clear America’s WWI veterans from their campsite in Washington D.C. The infantry and cavalry paired with six tanks were ordered to clear out the veterans and their families, Hoover killed his own people. On the other hand, fortunately, Franklin Delano Roosevelt came into office on January 30th, 1882. Instead of doing nothing, FDR fought the Depression with his New Deal; which was a group of U.S.government programs whose purpose was to help the country recover from economic problems. The New Deal was a success and brought relief to many Americans. With this in mind, President Herbert Hoover’s presidency was a
One of Hoover’s famous quotes was “if a man has not made a million dollars by the time he is forty, then he is not worth much” (Egan, 2006) before the Great depression. How disheartening this would be to hear as a farmer struggling to make ends meet being sold worthless land provided within the United States and then less than a year later the depression starts. Hoover during the depression believed in patience and self-reliance. He felt that the depression and the change in the economy was something that will come and go and it wasn’t the government’s responsibility to intervene. Luckily when a leader was elected, President Roosevelt came up with the new deal. The new deal effected American history by setting forth programs between the years 1933-1938. Roosevelts addressed that there wasn’t enough circling money. While on the radio for the first time which changed the way America does business he told listeners “they could pull their savings out of mattresses and beneath the floor. The government would back there dollars”, If they put it in the bank. He also advocated for the local farmers and ended free-market agriculture economics which would put money back into the farmer’s pockets and less wasted food. Roosevelt would have the government buy a surplus of corn, meat and distribute it to the poor, unlike Hoover. Roosevelt didn’t want to take away the American peoples dignity so he came up
People, especially blacks, were being put out of work everywhere; the wave of depression had hit the entire country. Banks were failing, and the cities, in a desperate attempt to provide relief, were running out of money. Because President Hoover was confident that business conditions would soon improve, federal funds were not used to provide relief; relief was the responsibility of private charities. City allowances soon ran out, and there was no money left. Pennies were used to buy food and fuel. Many people went without food in order to p...
In response to the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt was ready for action unlike the previous President, Hubert Hoover. Hoover allowed the country to fall into a complete state of depression with his small concern of the major economic problems occurring. FDR began to show major and immediate improvements, with his outstanding actions during the First Hundred Days. He declared the bank holiday as well as setting up the New Deal policy. Hoover on the other hand; allowed the U.S. to slide right into the depression, giving Americans the power to blame him. Although he tried his best to improve the economy’s status during the depression and ‘pump the well’ for the economy, he eventually accepted that the Great Depression was inevitable.
Have you ever stopped and thought about what everybody in the world has in common? Family is a very common thing. It could just be a group of people that you care about and love or it could just be a person. Family is always together and family never falls apart. Family is that one group that you love and worry about and it can be that one person. In the book The Outsiders by S.E Hinton family is a very important thing. Family is the best blessing to have. The theme S.E Hinton talks about is family always sticks together.
Hoover is also vilified repeatedly for his inaction with the Depression. His personal policy and his party’s policy were designed to let the country find its own way, for if it became dependent on government aide, it would be a weaker nation that if it found it’s own way. This was a flawed assumption on their behalf though, because even in the 1920’s, there was a movement from many of the nation’s younger voters advocating change.