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.
Herbert Hoover was sworn into office when the economic status of the country stood at its highest and the nation was accustomed to a prosperous way of living. When the stock market plummeted and took its toll on the citizens from coast to coast, it was out of his control. The approach however that was taken to deal with the matter is what will ultimately separate Hoover and Roosevelt when the debates to categorize the greatest and worst presidents the nation has seen begin. Hoover was known for false promises as he would speak optimistically to his audience and never deliver. The people began to resent his words knowing they would all fall through eventually. Roosevelt in his inaugural address knew the people were tired of hearing speeches that never pulled through and only spoke with truth as he stated:
In the Roaring Twenties, people started buying household materials and stocks that they could not pay for in credit. Farmers, textile workers, and miners all got low wages. In 1929, the stock market crashed. All of these events started the Great Depression. During the beginning of the Great Depression, 9000 banks were closed, ending nine million savings accounts. This lead to the closing of eighty-six thousand businesses, a European depression, an overproduction of food, and a lowering of prices. It also led to more people going hungry, more homeless people, and much lower job wages. There was a 28% increase in the amount of homeless people from 1929 to 1933. And in the midst of the beginning of the Great Depression, President Hoover did nothing to improve the condition of the nation. In 1932, people decided that America needed a change. For the first time in twelve years, they elected a democratic president, President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Immediately he began to work on fixing the American economy. He closed all banks and began a series of laws called the New Laws. L...
In 1929, the stock market crashed, bringing great ruin to our country. The result, the Great Depression, was a time of hardship for everyone around the world. The economy in the US was lower than ever and people were suffering immensely. During these trying times, two presidents served- Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (F.D.R.) Both had different views on how the depression should be handled, with Hoover believing that the people could solve the issue themselves with no government involvement, and with F.D.R. believing that the government should work for their people in such difficult times.
The stock market crash of 1929 set in motion a chain of events that would plunge the United States into a deep depression. The Great Depression of the 1930's spelled the end of an era of economic prosperity during the 1920's. Herbert Hoover was the unlucky president to preside over this economic downturn, and he bore the brunt of the blame for the depression. Hoover believed the root cause of the depression was international, and he therefore believed that restoring the gold standard would ultimately drag the United States out of depression by reviving international trade. Hoover initiated many new domestic works programs aimed at creating jobs, but it seemed to have no effect as the unemployment rate continued to rise. The Democrats nominated Franklin Roosevelt as their candidate for president in 1932 against the incumbent Hoover. Roosevelt was elected in a landslide victory in part due to his platform called "The New Deal". This campaign platform was never fully explained by Roosevelt prior to his election, but it appealed to the American people as something new and different from anything Hoover was doing to ameliorate the problem. The Roosevelt administration's response to the Great Depression served to remedy some of the temporary employment problems, while drastically changing the role of the government, but failed to return the American economy to the levels of prosperity enjoyed during the 1920's.
In conclusion, Herbert Hoover tried every method he could think of to combat the Great Depression, unfortunately for him, he didn't know what the proper method was. This depression was unprecedented in American History, and Hoover tried to just let boom and bust run its course. He had some good ideas but they were too late in his term, he was too orthodox in his thinking, and he wasn't willing to try anything drastic. Herbert Hoover could have been a great president in a different era, but he just happened to be very unlucky with when he was elected. Hoover may end up being one of the worst presidents in history, but when you look at it closely, he was a victim of circumstance and environment.
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.
Hoover’s nation was coming out of a war and was facing an economy plummeting into an unknown Great Depression. Hoover proclaimed a need for reform of the criminal justice system, the enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment, cooperation of government and businesses, the development of education, organization of the public health services, and maintaining the integrity of the He called for restoration with action, and promised solutions to the economic crisis, unemployment, world policy. He however, does remind the people, “We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed.”
Herbert Hoover was born on August 10, 1874, in West Branch, Iowa, and was the first president born west of the Mississippi River. (Biography.com pag.1) Herbert Hoover was the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933. When the election of 1932 came around, Hoover blamed the depression on factors beyond his control, but the public either didn’t care or wasn’t buying it, and Franklin Roosevelt won the election. (Biography.com pag.2)
At the start of the Depression, many letters (mostly discouraging) were sent to President Hoover. These letters came primarily from well-to-do citizens, however some leftist workers’ letters found their way in as well. The well-to-do citizens agreed that the ultimate cause of the lower classes’ depression was their laziness and incompetence. On top of that, these well-to-do citizens thanked Hoover, probably because their money had gone unscathed (McElvaine, 38). Some opinions weren’t as favorable for the Hoover administration, however. Some people believed that “engineers may be intelligent but poor presidents” (pp. 43). Finally, the leftist parties did not appreciate the endeavors of the Hoover presiden...
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".
Herbert Hoover the president at this current time believed that the government should not directly intervene in the economy and wasn't responsible for making jobs for it's people. He and other leaders believed the crisis would simply run its course and they would all be able to return to their normal lives.11 By 1932 things had not gotten any better and Hoover was replaced in an overwhelming victory by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt took immediate action to the country’s economic problems by issuing legislation aimed at stabilizing industry and agriculture, create jobs, and stimulate recovery. He created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to protect people's accounts and the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate and prevent abuse in the stock market. He also created Tennessee Valley Authority and Works Project Administration.12 By 1939 Roosevelt's New Deal increased the GDP to $92.2 billion dollars, but unemployment was still at 17.2%. (See Table 1, U.S. GDP) (See Table 2, U.S. Unemployment Rate) But, that all changed on December 7, 1941 when Japan attacked 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.
Hoover, who was exiting office, to President Roosevelt, the new incoming president.
However, even before the Depression, there were signs that Hoover was becoming more conservative. As Document A suggests, Hoover did not want to be considered completely laissez-faire. He seemed less determined to preserve the extremely capitalistic society of the 1920's which was run, often corruptly, by political machines, such as Tweed. However, the success of the American economy under the private interest beliefs of Harding and Coolidge required him to ensure that the lack of intervention ...
But for the majority of the country during one of our toughest times, he was what we needed. Without consulting history, it’s impossible to judge what he did very negatively. The old ways weren’t working, and while President Hoover tried to do something, it wasn’t enough. President Roosevelt was more successful with the actions he took for relief during the Great Depression. References: EyeWitness History editors.