Hoover vs. The DepressionCh. 15, Section 4

Hoover’s Strategy

Confidence is the key!

– If people believe in the economy, they will spend more.

Voluntary Action

oCompanies keep wages high in hopes that it will stimulate the economy

• This plan fails as the economy worsens…

Federal Farm Board

o$150 million in loans to farmers (failed)

SOME public works (Hoover Dam)

Hawley-Smoot Tariff • protect American industries

– Backfires when European countries pass their own tariffs, slowing down international trade

“If it were possible to give this employment to 10,000,000 people by the Government, it would cost upwards of $9,000,000,000 a year. It would pull down the employment of those who are still at work by the high taxes and the demoralization of credit upon which their employment is dependent. It would mean the growth of a fearful bureaucracy which, once established, could never be dislodged.”

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

Gave $$$ to banks and big business in hopes that the effect would “trickle down”.– People saw this as

Hoover helping the “Fat Cats” while the “little man” starved!

Bonus Army

• WWI vets march on DC to demand a pension due to them in 1945

• By the end of the rout:• Two veterans were shot

and killed. • Two infants died from tear

gas asphyxiation. • An 11 week old baby was in

critical condition resulting from shock due to tear gas exposure.

• An 11 year old boy, David Barscheski was partially blinded by tear gas.

• One bystander was shot in the shoulder.

• One veteran, Christopher Bilger, had his ear severed by a Cavalry saber.

• One veteran was stabbed in the hip with a bayonet.

• At least twelve police were injured by the veterans.

• Over 1,000 men, women, and children were exposed to the tear gas, including police, reporters, residents of Washington D.C., and ambulance drivers.

All of these failings made Hoover more and more unpopular.

Election of 1932

Took place in the depths of the Depression

FDR had created relief for jobless workers while governor of New York

Roosevelt’s New Deal

FDR and Eleanor were a powerful political duo

• Empathy for the poor

• Promised a New Deal for America

• Offered hope and optimism in time that there wasn’t much in the country.

• Landslide victory for FDR– 57% of the

popular vote, 89% of the electoral vote

Change in viewpoint…

• For the 1st time ever, Americans were electing a President to help them, not just lead them.