5 Steps to a 5: AP U.S. History 2022 by Daniel P. Murphy

Author:Daniel P. Murphy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McGraw Hill LLC
Published: 2021-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

President Hoover and the Depression

It is a myth that President Herbert Hoover did nothing to combat the suffering of people during the Great Depression. He took strenuous action to relieve the desperation of his fellow citizens. Conservative critics now argue that he did too much and that, along with Franklin Roosevelt’s subsequent New Deal, his actions helped prolong the crisis through too much government action.

Hoover used the powers of his office to encourage business leaders to maintain current payrolls and wage levels. As the crisis intensified, he helped coordinate the work of charities and local relief organizations. Hoover believed that Americans should meet the challenge of the Great Depression through the spirit of voluntarism, with neighbors helping neighbors help themselves. He feared that a program of direct federal payments to the unemployed would foster dependence upon the government.

Hoover backed legislation intended to help combat the effects of the Depression. Hoover had been concerned about the problems of rural America before the stock market crash. In June 1929, he signed the Agricultural Marketing Act that established the federal Farm Board empowered to provide loans to farmers and to purchase crops as a way of supporting higher farm prices. This bill proved to be a precursor to New Deal efforts to bolster the agricultural economy. In 1930, despite misgivings, Hoover joined Congress in enacting the Hawley-Smoot Tariff, which raised tariffs to near record levels. The intent of the tariff was to protect American jobs by making foreign-made products more expensive. Other nations responded to this by raising their tariffs on American goods. The resulting decrease in international trade probably contributed to making the Great Depression a global phenomenon. While Americans making products for the domestic market may have been helped by the tariff, workers who made products for export were hurt. The tariff failed in its purpose of reviving the American economy.

In an effort to prime the American economy through government spending and to provide jobs for the unemployed, President Hoover authorized many public works projects, including the construction of the dam on the Colorado River that was eventually named after him. In 1932, he supported the establishment of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). The RFC provided federal credit to banks, which could in turn loan this money to railroads and other businesses. A similar measure enabled the federal government to make loans to banks in danger of failing. Also in 1932, Hoover signed legislation that authorized federal loans to the states; the states could then use this capital to fund relief programs. Despite all this legislative activity to combat the Great Depression, Hoover resolutely refused to provide direct federal support to the poor and unemployed. He feared such activity by the central government would undermine federalism, and he still worried that federal “welfare” would undermine the American character. This left the president open to charges by his political opponents that he was interested only in protecting banks and big businesses and that he was indifferent to the woes of the “common man.

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