President Hoover And Franklin D. Roosevelt

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”

Compare and contrast Hoover and Roosevelt’s actions in the aftermath of the Crash of 1929. How did both administrations attempt to deal with the economic stagnation, social hardship and psychological impact of the depression? What needed to be fixed and which approach proved more successful? In your essay you should address not only the underlying economic and social problems that both administrations had to deal with and the various corrective measures they adopted, but also the underlying philosophical approaches of Hoover and Roosevelt and their supporters.

Towards the end of the 1920’s the economy in America took a drastic turn. This was when Calvin Coolidge’s presidency had ended and changes in the government began to take place. “Just seven months after Herbert Hoover entered the White House, economic trouble mocked his campaign statement about being near ‘the final triumph over poverty.’ On October 24, 1929 panic swept the New York Stock Exchange as nearly 13 million shares changed hands” (Hamilton). The start to Hoover’s presidency was also the start of the Great Depression. His term consisted heavily on working on taking steps to bring America out of the drastic economic fall that they had just entered. He began taking action by launching public works programs, tax reductions, and the formation

Under Presidents W.G. Harding and C. Coolidge, he was the Secretary of Commerce and prior to that, he served as the head of both the Food Administration and the American Relief Administration (“Herbert Hoover”). However, all of these qualifications could not prepare him for the peril he would face in the upcoming months. Hoover’s confidence was initially seen as positive, but when things started to clearly go wrong and he remained confident, people grew unhappy. Although the exact person or reason cannot be pinpointed, many historians are in consensus that Hoover’s inability to be proactive was part of why the Depression became the catastrophe it was (“The 1930s”). Just seven months after confidently assuring the people that he had “no fears for the future of our country,” the stock market crashed (“Herbert Hoover”).

After the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Hoover administration, something had to be done regarding the relief and recovery of the Great Depression. This was one of the more important objectives of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first term as president. Although Herbert Hoover made somewhat of an attempt trying to reconcile the country, but he was unable to live up to his rhetoric, “prosperity is right around the corner.” Hoover failed to comprehend the extent of the damage of the stock market crash from a global perspective and simply did too much too fast. When Franklin Roosevelt came into presidency in 1933, he set out his first hundred-day plan. Within the first term, FDR created a series of relief and recovery acts to start the

The stock market crashed on Thursday, October 24, 1929, less than eight months into Herbert Hoover’s presidency. Most experts, including Hoover, thought the crash was part of a passing recession. By July 1931, when the President wrote this letter to a friend, Governor Louis Emmerson of Illinois, it had become clear that excessive speculation and a worldwide economic slowdown

After the roaring twenties, in 1929, the U.S. economy took a downwards turn. The uneven distribution of income, stock market speculation, overproduction of goods, a weak farm economy, and extreme laissez faire government policies caused the Great Depression to occur. President Herbert Hoover initially thought of the stock market crash as a passing recession, but his laissez faire approach only heightened the negative effects of the Great Depression. He believed that it was the job of state and local governments, not the federal government, to aid in public relief. However, Hoover’s “lame duck” approach proved his powerless efforts to stem the depression.

Herbert C. Hoover’s “New Day” presidency began with a landslide win the 1928 presidential election when he became the 31st president of the United States; known best for his administration’s failures and the “Great Depression” of 1930. Americans did not realize at the time of his presidency that Hoover would set policies and practices that would one day benefit Americans in mortgage and finance, corporate and bank bailouts, and the “Great Recession of 2010”.

The Great Depression was a severe economic panic that drastically impacted the quality of life in the 1930’s. The Depression left in its wake, widespread hunger, poverty and unemployment, as well as a worldwide economic crisis. President Hoover and Congress responded to the downturn with the ideas that individual initiative, voluntarism, and high tariffs, as well as adherence to the gold standard and smaller scale government programs would prove to be adequate in righting the economy. Hoover’s failure to abandon limited government out of fear that the American system would be disrupted (Document D) and his insensitivity to the depth of the crisis led to his increasing unpopularity as well as an increase in severity of the depression. Disheartened

After the stock market crash on Thursday of October 24, 1929 Hoover had worked ceaselessly to fix the economy. In his struggle to fix the economy Hoover had founded government agencies, encouraged labor unity, and backed public aid for local works. In addition to these struggles Hoover had made lots of adjustments to buying goods, the cooperation of the government and business, and at the same time balancing budgets. Hoover had the power to enforce many of the laws to give order and a chance to the people to get through the Depression, but Hoover resented the idea for fear of making the government into socialism. A few years of the struggling, the Depression was vigorously merciless to all who lived through it. The next presidential elections had been very fast, the new President Roosevelt signed numerous of laws that have earned the name of “Hundred Days.” Later after Roosevelt had finished his law-mania, he created the New Deal. The New Deal supported federal aid, giving more power to the government allowing them to control many industries, the New Deal is based off of what Hoover was trying to achieve. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History President Hoover stated “...the role of American government would fundamentally change because of the New Deal.” On Thursday of October 24, 1929 the stock market crashed. When the market crashed many

To many Americans who lived during the 1920's, the stock market was the epicenter of America's wealth and financial confidence. The New York Stock Exchange showed people how to get rich fast, which appealed to people in the middle and working class because they were the ones who invested and placed the most trust in the stock market's ability to drive up a price through supply and demand. However, on October 24, 1929, the stock market crashed which left the nation in economic disarray and political uncertainty with the middle and working classes impacted the most. Of those citizens, taking care of hard-hit elderly people during the depression became almost as desperate a necessity as providing relief to the unemployed. In Roosevelt's second inaugural address, he stated, “Instinctively, we recognized a deeper need - a need to find through government the instrument of our united purpose to solve for the individual the ever-rising problems of a complex civilization.”

President Herbert Hoover’s response to the crash on Wall Street and the Depression, while good-natured and with the best intentions, was arguably sub par and had a direct effect on how people viewed his policies and the outcome of the presidential election of 1932. “The Great Depression challenged the optimism, policies, and philosophy that Herbert Hoover had carried into the White House in 1929. The president took unprecedented steps to resolve the crisis but shrank back from the interventionist policies activists urged. His failures, personal as well as political and economic, led to his repudiation and to a major shift in government policies” (Goldfield, 722). President Hoover’s basic idea to solve the Depression was through no federal

During Herbert Hoover’s administration any mistakes were made after the Stock Market crash. After the crash during the depression Hoover took action but made a few mistakes along the way. Many of Hoover’s acts were passed by congress and signed by Hoover himself. His worst offense was the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, which raised tariffs. The raising of tariffs was the worst possible thing that could have occurred. Hoover tried his best to reassure the country that the economy would become improved, although it actually worsened. To improve things after the crash Hoover prepared all Federal Departments to speed up public works. He did this with hopes to generate supplementary jobs and bring back the economy. As well, Hoover asked congress if they would reduce spending, and use what was no longer required to restart public works. Unfortunately for Hoover a collapse in Europe and a change in foreign trade caused prices for United States manufactured goods and farm equipment. After this occurrence President Hoover asked congress once again for more money, his time he wanted the money for farm loans and to establish the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which would be used to help buildings in need as well as banks and railroads. With all of Hoovers efforts by July 1932 the Depression began

In the 1920s, American economy had a great time. The vast majority of Americans in 1929 foresaw a continuation of the dizzying economic growth that had taken place in most of the decade. However, the prices of stock crested in early September of 1929. The price of stock fell gradually during most of September and early October. On “Black Tuesday” 29 October 1929, the stock market fell by forty points. After that, a historically great and long economic depression started and lasted until the start of the Second World War. The three causes of the Great Depression are installment buying, uneven distribution of wealth and the irrational behavior in the stock market.

Herbert Hoover, the president in office when the Great Depression hit the country, did very little to ameliorate the devastating situation. Hoover underestimated the seriousness of the crisis, misdiagnosed the causes of the problems, and clung to his beliefs in individual achievement and self-help. His corrective measures, aimed at inflation and the federal budget, were thus damaging themselves. Furthermore, he hesitated to mobilize government resources to aid Americans and instead appealed to private groups to lend a hand (Encarta). Thus Hoover’s administration did little to mitigate the impact of the Depression.