at first what did president Hoover rely on to relieve the depression

Blood brother, Tin Y'all Spare a Dime? The Great Depression, 1929-1932

President Hoover's Response

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Learning Objectives

Past the end of this department, you will be able to:

• Explicate Herbert Hoover'southward responses to the Not bad Depression and how they reflected his political philosophy
• Identify the local, metropolis, and land efforts to combat the Nifty Low
• Analyze the frustration and anger that a bulk of Americans directed at Herbert Hoover

President Hoover was unprepared for the scope of the depression crisis, and his express response did not begin to help the millions of Americans in need. The steps he took were very much in keeping with his philosophy of limited authorities, a philosophy that many had shared with him until the upheavals of the Great Low made it clear that a more directly government response was required. But Hoover was stubborn in his refusal to give "handouts," as he saw direct government assist. He called for a spirit of volunteerism among America'southward businesses, asking them to continue workers employed, and he exhorted the American people to tighten their belts and make practice in the spirit of "rugged individualism." While Hoover's philosophy and his appeal to the country were very much in keeping with his character, it was non plenty to continue the economy from plummeting further into economical chaos.

The steps Hoover did ultimately take were besides trivial, too late. He created programs for putting people back to piece of work and helping beleaguered local and state charities with aid. But the programs were small in scale and highly specific as to who could benefit, and they only touched a small percentage of those in demand. As the situation worsened, the public grew increasingly unhappy with Hoover. He left office with one of the lowest approval ratings of any president in history.

THE INITIAL REACTION

In the immediate aftermath of Black Tuesday, Hoover sought to reassure Americans that all was well. Reading his words later the fact, it is easy to observe fault. In 1929 he said, "Any lack of confidence in the economical hereafter or the strength of business organisation in the United states is foolish." In 1930, he stated, "The worst is behind the states." In 1931, he pledged federal aid should he ever witness starvation in the country; just as of that engagement, he had yet to run across such need in America, despite the very real prove that children and the elderly were starving to expiry. Yet Hoover was neither intentionally blind nor unsympathetic. He simply held fast to a conventionalities system that did not change equally the realities of the Bully Low set in.

Hoover believed strongly in the ethos of American individualism: that hard work brought its ain rewards. His life story testified to that belief. Hoover was born into poverty, made his mode through college at Stanford University, and eventually made his fortune as an engineer. This experience, as well as his all-encompassing travels in China and throughout Europe, shaped his fundamental confidence that the very existence of American civilisation depended upon the moral fiber of its citizens, as evidenced by their ability to overcome all hardships through individual endeavour and resolve. The idea of regime handouts to Americans was repellant to him. Whereas Europeans might demand assistance, such as his hunger relief work in Belgium during and later World War I, he believed the American graphic symbol to be different. In a 1931 radio address, he said, "The spread of government destroys initiative and thus destroys grapheme."

Likewise, Hoover was not completely unaware of the potential damage that wild stock speculation might create if left unchecked. As secretary of commerce, Hoover often warned President Coolidge of the dangers that such speculation engendered. In the weeks before his inauguration, he offered many interviews to newspapers and magazines, urging Americans to curtail their rampant stock investments, and even encouraged the Federal Reserve to heighten the discount rate to arrive more plush for local banks to lend money to potential speculators. Nonetheless, fearful of creating a panic, Hoover never issued a stern alert to discourage Americans from such investments. Neither Hoover, nor any other politician of that day, e'er gave serious thought to outright government regulation of the stock market. This was even truthful in his personal choices, as Hoover ofttimes lamented poor stock advice he had once offered to a friend. When the stock olfactory organ-dived, Hoover bought the shares from his friend to assuage his guilt, vowing never again to advise anyone on matters of investment.

In keeping with these principles, Hoover'south response to the crash focused on two very common American traditions: He asked individuals to tighten their belts and work harder, and he asked the business community to voluntarily help sustain the economy past retaining workers and continuing production. He immediately summoned a briefing of leading industrialists to run into in Washington, DC, urging them to maintain their current wages while America rode out this cursory economic panic. The crash, he assured business leaders, was not part of a greater downturn; they had nix to worry about. Similar meetings with utility companies and railroad executives elicited promises for billions of dollars in new construction projects, while labor leaders agreed to withhold demands for wage increases and workers continued to labor. Hoover also persuaded Congress to pass a $160 million taxation cut to eternalize American incomes, leading many to conclude that the president was doing all he could to stem the tide of the panic. In April 1930, the New York Times editorial board ended that "No one in his place could have washed more."

However, these modest steps were non plenty. By late 1931, when it became articulate that the economic system would not better on its own, Hoover recognized the need for some government intervention. He created the President's Emergency Committee for Employment (PECE), after renamed the President's Organization of Unemployment Relief (POUR). In keeping with Hoover'due south distaste of what he viewed as handouts, this arrangement did not provide directly federal relief to people in need. Instead, it assisted state and private relief agencies, such as the Ruby Cross, Conservancy Army, YMCA, and Community Chest. Hoover also strongly urged people of means to donate funds to assistance the poor, and he himself gave significant private donations to worthy causes. Merely these individual efforts could non alleviate the widespread effects of poverty.

Congress pushed for a more directly authorities response to the hardship. In 1930–1931, it attempted to laissez passer a $sixty million bill to provide relief to drought victims past allowing them access to food, fertilizer, and animal feed. Hoover stood fast in his refusal to provide food, resisting any element of directly relief. The final pecker of $47 1000000 provided for everything except food but did non come close to adequately addressing the crisis. Once more in 1931, Congress proposed the Federal Emergency Relief Bill, which would have provided $375 1000000 to states to help provide food, wearable, and shelter to the homeless. Simply Hoover opposed the bill, stating that information technology ruined the remainder of power betwixt states and the federal regime, and in February 1932, it was defeated by fourteen votes.

However, the president'due south determined opposition to direct-relief federal government programs should non be viewed as one of indifference or uncaring toward the suffering American people. His personal sympathy for those in need was boundless. Hoover was 1 of simply ii presidents to decline his salary for the office he held. Throughout the Smashing Low, he donated an average of $25,000 annually to various relief organizations to assist in their efforts. Furthermore, he helped to enhance $500,000 in individual funds to back up the White House Conference on Child Wellness and Welfare in 1930. Rather than indifference or heartlessness, Hoover's steadfast adherence to a philosophy of individualism as the path toward long-term American recovery explained many of his policy decisions. "A voluntary human action," he repeatedly commented, "is infinitely more precious to our national ideal and spirit than a thousand-fold poured from the Treasury."

As conditions worsened, however, Hoover eventually relaxed his opposition to federal relief and formed the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) in 1932, in function because information technology was an election year and Hoover hoped to keep his office. Although non a form of directly relief to the American people in greatest need, the RFC was much larger in telescopic than whatever preceding endeavour, setting aside $2 billion in taxpayer coin to rescue banks, credit unions, and insurance companies. The goal was to boost confidence in the nation'due south financial institutions by ensuring that they were on solid ground. This model was flawed on a number of levels. Get-go, the plan simply lent money to banks with sufficient collateral, which meant that near of the aid went to large banks. In fact, of the offset $61 1000000 loaned, $41 million went to just three banks. Modest boondocks and rural banks got nigh nothing. Furthermore, at this fourth dimension, confidence in financial institutions was not the primary concern of most Americans. They needed nutrient and jobs. Many had no coin to put into the banks, no matter how confident they were that the banks were safe.

Hoover's other endeavor at federal assistance also occurred in 1932, when he endorsed a bill by Senator Robert Wagner of New York. This was the Emergency Relief and Construction Act. This act authorized the RFC to expand beyond loans to financial institutions and allotted $1.v billion to states to fund local public works projects. This program failed to deliver the kind of help needed, notwithstanding, as Hoover severely limited the types of projects it could fund to those that were ultimately self-paying (such as toll bridges and public housing) and those that required skilled workers. While well intended, these programs maintained the status quo, and there was still no direct federal relief to the individuals who so badly needed it.

PUBLIC REACTION TO HOOVER

Hoover's steadfast resistance to government aid cost him the reelection and has placed him squarely at the forefront of the most unpopular presidents, according to public opinion, in modern American history. His name became synonymous with the poverty of the era: "Hoovervilles" became the common name for homeless shantytowns ([link]) and "Hoover blankets" for the newspapers that the homeless used to go on warm. A "Hoover flag" was a pants pocket—empty of all money—turned inside out. Past the 1932 election, hitchhikers held upward signs reading: "If you don't give me a ride, I'll vote for Hoover." Americans did not necessarily believe that Hoover caused the Corking Low. Their acrimony stemmed instead from what appeared to exist a willful refusal to aid regular citizens with directly aid that might allow them to recover from the crisis.

Hoover became one of the least popular presidents in history. "Hoovervilles," or shantytowns, were a negative reminder of his role in the nation's financial crunch. This family (a) lived in a "Hooverville" in Elm Grove, Oklahoma. This shanty (b) was one of many making upward a "Hooverville" in the Portland, Oregon area. (credit: modification of work by U.s. Farm Security Administration)

FRUSTRATION AND PROTEST: A BAD SITUATION GROWS WORSE FOR HOOVER

Desperation and frustration often create emotional responses, and the Great Depression was no exception. Throughout 1931–1932, companies trying to stay afloat sharply cutting worker wages, and, in response, workers protested in increasingly biting strikes. Equally the Low unfolded, over 80 percent of automotive workers lost their jobs. Fifty-fifty the typically prosperous Ford Motor Visitor laid off two-thirds of its workforce.

In 1932, a major strike at the Ford Motor Company manufacturing plant near Detroit resulted in over sixty injuries and four deaths. Often referred to as the Ford Hunger March, the event unfolded as a planned sit-in among unemployed Ford workers who, to protest their drastic state of affairs, marched nine miles from Detroit to the company's River Rouge plant in Dearborn. At the Dearborn urban center limits, local police force launched tear gas at the roughly three grand protestors, who responded by throwing stones and clods of dirt. When they finally reached the gates of the institute, protestors faced more police and firemen, as well equally private security guards. Every bit the firemen turned hoses onto the protestors, the police and security guards opened fire. In addition to those killed and injured, constabulary arrested fifty protestors. Ane calendar week later, threescore thousand mourners attended the public funerals of the four victims of what many protesters labeled police brutality. The event ready the tone for worsening labor relations in the U.S.

Farmers also organized and protested, frequently violently. The most notable instance was the Subcontract Holiday Association. Led by Milo Reno, this organization held pregnant sway amongst farmers in Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Dakotas. Although they never comprised a bulk of farmers in any of these states, their public actions drew press attention nationwide. Among their demands, the association sought a federal government plan to set agricultural prices artificially high enough to cover the farmers' costs, every bit well every bit a government commitment to sell whatever farm surpluses on the world market. To achieve their goals, the group chosen for farm holidays, during which farmers would neither sell their produce nor buy whatever other goods until the government met their demands. However, the greatest forcefulness of the clan came from the unexpected and seldom-planned actions of its members, which included barricading roads into markets, attacking nonmember farmers, and destroying their produce. Some members even raided pocket-sized town stores, destroying produce on the shelves. Members also engaged in "penny auctions," bidding pennies on foreclosed farm state and threatening any potential buyers with bodily damage if they competed in the sale. Once they won the auction, the association returned the land to the original owner. In Iowa, farmers threatened to hang a local approximate if he signed whatever more farm foreclosures. At least one death occurred as a direct upshot of these protests before they waned post-obit the election of Franklin Roosevelt.

One of the most notable protest movements occurred toward the terminate of Hoover's presidency and centered on the Bonus Expeditionary Force, or Bonus Ground forces, in the spring of 1932. In this protestation, approximately fifteen thousand World War I veterans marched on Washington to demand early on payment of their veteran bonuses, which were not due to be paid until 1945. The group camped out in vacant federal buildings and fix up camps in Anacostia Flats near the Capitol building ([link]).

In the spring of 1932, World War I veterans marched on Washington and prepare up camps in Anacostia Flats, remaining there for weeks. (credit: Library of Congress)

Many veterans remained in the metropolis in protest for nigh two months, although the U.S. Senate officially rejected their request in July. By the middle of that month, Hoover wanted them gone. He ordered the police to empty the buildings and articulate out the camps, and in the substitution that followed, police force fired into the crowd, killing 2 veterans. Fearing an armed uprising, Hoover and then ordered General Douglas MacArthur, forth with his aides, Dwight Eisenhower and George Patton, to forcibly remove the veterans from Anacostia Flats. The ensuing raid proved catastrophic, as the war machine burned down the shantytown and injured dozens of people, including a twelve-calendar week-onetime baby who was killed when accidentally struck by a tear gas canister ([link]).

When the U.S. Senate denied early on payment of their veteran bonuses, and Hoover ordered their makeshift camps cleared, the Bonus Army protestation turned violent, cementing Hoover's demise as a president. (credit: U.S. Department of Defense)

As Americans bore witness to photographs and newsreels of the U.Southward. Ground forces forcibly removing veterans, Hoover's popularity plummeted even farther. By the summertime of 1932, he was largely a defeated man. His pessimism and failure mirrored that of the nation's citizens. America was a country in desperate demand: in demand of a charismatic leader to restore public confidence besides as provide physical solutions to pull the economy out of the Great Low.

Whether he truly believed it or simply idea the American people wanted to hear it, Hoover connected to country publicly that the country was getting back on track. Heed as he speaks nearly the "Success of Recovery" at a entrada stop in Detroit, Michigan on October 22, 1932.

Department Summary

President Hoover'southward deeply held philosophy of American individualism, which he maintained despite extraordinary economic circumstances, made him particularly unsuited to bargain with the crisis of the Great Low. He greatly resisted government intervention, considering information technology a path to the downfall of American greatness. His initial response of asking Americans to discover their ain paths to recovery and seeking voluntary business measures to stimulate the economy could non stem the tide of the Depression. Ultimately, Hoover did create some federal relief programs, such equally the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), which sought to boost public confidence in financial institutions past ensuring that they were on solid ground. When this measure out did piffling to help impoverished individuals, he signed the Emergency Relief Deed, which allowed the RFC to invest in local public works projects. But even this was likewise niggling, too tardily. The severe limits on the types of projects funded and type of workers used meant that nearly Americans saw no benefit.

The American public ultimately responded with anger and protestation to Hoover's apparent disability to create solutions. Protests ranged from manufacturing plant strikes to farm riots, culminating in the notorious Bonus Army protestation in the spring of 1932. Veterans from World War I lobbied to receive their bonuses immediately, rather than waiting until 1945. The authorities denied them, and in the ensuing chaos, Hoover chosen in the military machine to disrupt the protest. The violence of this act was the final accident for Hoover, whose popularity was already at an all-fourth dimension depression.

Review Questions

Which of the following protests was directly related to federal policies, and thus had the greatest impact in creating a negative public perception of the Hoover presidency?

the Farm Holiday Association

the Ford Motor Visitor labor strikes

the Bonus Expeditionary Force

the widespread appearance of "Hooverville" shantytowns

C

Which of the following groups or bodies did non offering directly relief to needy people?

the federal government

local police force and schoolteachers

churches and synagogues

wealthy individuals

A

What attempts did Hoover brand to offer federal relief? How would yous evaluate the success or failure of these programs?

Hoover formed the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) in 1932. This represented a pregnant effort, although information technology did not provide any straight assist to needy Americans. The RFC gear up aside $2 billion in taxpayer coin to rescue banks, credit unions, and insurance companies, hoping to promote Americans' confidence in financial institutions. However, by lending money only to banks with sufficient collateral, he ensured that near of the recipients of the assistance were large banks. Additionally, virtually Americans at this time did not have assets to identify into banks, however confident they may take felt. In 1932, Hoover besides endorsed the Emergency Relief and Construction Act, which allotted $1.v billion to states to fund local public works projects. Hoover'south limitations upon the types of projects that could receive funding and the types of workers who could participate, still, limited the program's utility.

Glossary

American individualism

the conventionalities, strongly held by Herbert Hoover and others, that hard work and individual endeavour, absent authorities interference, comprised the formula for success in the U.S.

Bonus Army

a group of Globe State of war I veterans and affiliated groups who marched to Washington in 1932 to demand their state of war bonuses early on, only to be refused and forcibly removed by the U.S. Army

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Source: http://pressbooks-dev.oer.hawaii.edu/ushistory/chapter/president-hoovers-response/