The Great Depression and Herbert Hoover

Many people promoted rugged individualism during the Great Recession because many had no choice, but to survive in the midst of harsh economic conditions. Herbert Hoover was President during these times. Cities and towns suffered a great deal. Shantytowns had homeless people. Dust storms harmed the Great Plains. Hoover didn’t start the Great Recession. He did have the responsibility to do something about it as he was President during the peak of it. Hoover knew of economics and he hired experts to try to gather solutions in ending the problem of the recession. He tried different methods and they failed. His failure to solve the problem contributed to his defeat during the 1932 Presidential election. At first, Hoover wanted a hands off policy. He viewed recessions as part of natural occurrences of the business cycle, but people suffering deserve government intervention, especially during times of a massive recession. Hoover once didn’t want the government to be involved. That policy did nothing since by definition; it was no adequate policy at all (of non-intervention). He was Secretary of Commerce years ago. Later, he used another strategy. He wanted to voluntarily encourage businesses and labor to promote economic growth. He also wanted the government to have lower taxes, lower interest rates, and form public works programs. He wanted more money in businesses and individuals and these entities would stimulate economic growth.

This is similar to the Reaganomics of the future. Hoover wanted this goal to end the recession. Hoover wanted the super wealthy to give more money to the poor via charities. He believed that money, food, and clothing would go into these religious and private charities. These charities would, in turn, give money to those suffering. Hoover’s plan wanted volunteerism and voluntary cooperation. It didn’t work out. The reason was that businesses would cut wages, and most Americans followed individual actions not cooperative actions. Workers were laid off for capitalistic reasons. Hoover wanted Americans to work in the interest of the country as a whole without federal legislation. Hoover also believed that state and local governments should provide more relief measures and jobs. He believed in localism. Localism means that problems are best solved by the state and local governmental entities. The problem is that states and cities lacked the economic resources to end the Depression. Hoover even resisted using federal resources to help victims of the Great Depression too. Hoover rejected public assistance and believed in rugged individualism. Charities had little money, unemployment increased, and local plus state government struggled to get the resources to help Americans. This crisis was so big, that the federal government had to take a role in solving it. There were Hoovervilles everywhere. Homelessness was widespread. President Hoover’s policies failed. People started to associate Hoover with the problem from calling trucks Hoover wagons and calling cardboard boxes Hoover houses.

Then, Hoover decided to use federal resources to attack the Depression. Hoover thought that a lack of credit contributed to the recession, so he wanted Congress to create the RFC. RFC stood for the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. It was passed on 1932. The RFC gave more than a billion dollars of government loans to large businesses and railroads. It wanted to lend money to banks and these loans would help businesses struggling. He or Hoover believed that money sent to the bankers would be lent to businesses. He viewed this plan as businesses would later hire workers, and production plus consumption would develop. This was part of trickledown economics or the money from the wealthy would go down to the poor. The FRC was part of the federal government, but it didn’t work under Hoover’s actions. The RFC lent out billions, but the bankers didn’t readily increase their loans to businesses. Many businesses didn’t use the loans to hire more workers. The money didn’t go down to the poor in massive levels at all. Hoover did caused a successful public works program of the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. Congress approved this plan in 1929. It was finished by the early 1930’s and gave employment to many people. Hoover wanted to end the Great Depression, but the problem was that his neoliberal policies didn’t work. People were angry and started to protest against him.

Some American rejected capitalism and believed that capitalism promoted economic inequality and injustice. Some believed in socialism and communism. Others rejected these goals. By this time, fascism grew in Italy and Germany with racists like Hitler and Mussolini. Most Americans never lost faith in democracy. Most Americans wanted substantial change. In 1932, many people came to Washington, D.C. to call for that change. These were World War I veterans and they wanted the bonuses that Congress promised them. These human beings were involved in the Bonus Army. Congress promised a Bonus via the 1924 Adjusted Compensation Act. This law provided payments to the veterans in 1945. Many veterans by 1931 wanted an early payment since the Depression came about. Many veterans were out of work and needed money to survive. The House of Representatives agreed and passed a bill to promote early payments of the bonuses. Yet, the Senate rejected this, so the bill of an early payment was ultimately rejected. Veterans groups came into D.C. to protest this situation. 20,000 veterans came into the capital by the summer of 1932.

Many of them occupied government buildings and set up camps. By July, some of the police wanted to evict them and riots happened. President Hoover sympathized with the marchers. Yet, he wanted General Douglas MacArthur and federal troops to clear them out. MacArthur used tear gas and bayonets to force the veterans out of the Washington, D.C. area. The Army force that removed the WWI veterans included World War II leaders like Dwight Eisenhower and George Patton. Eisenhower later regretted this action as very excessive. Patton wanted his troops to show their sabers. More than 1,000 veterans were tear gassed and many were injured. This response was totally inappropriate and wrong period. MacArthur accused the protesters of trying to promote a direct control of government, but these World War I veterans just wanted just compensation for their service and sacrifice to American society. Hoover didn’t personally order such force in using bayonets and tear gas. Yet, the images of American troops using bayonets on veterans shocked Americans. Images have power and many people blamed Hoover totally for it. Unemployment was almost 25 percent. People were hungry and homeless. Hoover failed to end the Great Depression, so Americans voted for a new President in 1932 to try to get change. The next President would be one of the most transformative President in American history both domestically and foreign policy wise.


By Timothy