Question: Why did Herbert Hoover’s actions to resolve the Great Depression Fail?

Question:

Why did Herbert Hoover’s actions to resolve the Great Depression Fail?

Herbert Hoover took unprecedented steps to resolve the crisis, but did NOT take an interventionist approach

Hoover created the President’s Organization for Unemployment Relief to help raise private funds for voluntary relief agencies.PROBLEM: Private programs to aid the unemployed barely exist

Charities and local gov’t would help unemployedPROBLEM: private charities such as the Salvation Army had exhausted their resources

Refusal to admit that charities and local gov’t not well equipped

Hoover got Congress to establish The Reconstruction Finance CorporationFederal funds to

BanksInsurance companiesRailroads

“Trickle down”Public Work funding

(America: Story of Us)

Hoover thought business should be self-regulating.

He had a mania for a balanced budget.

He lacked political finesse.

In June 1932, a group of 15-20,000 impoverished First World War veterans marched on Washington to demand the immediate payment of an enlistment bonus not due to them until 1945.

On June 15, the House approved a bill that would grant the veterans early payment but, under a threatened veto by Hoover, the bill failed in the Senate.

On 28 July 1932, Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur ordered Major George S. Patton to remove the protestors from the Mall.

Patton quickly drove the protestors from Washington. MacArthur then ordered Patton to pursue the marchers into Virginia and destroy their encampment.

In the resulting conflict, scores were injured and one child was killed.

Hoover’s Administration tried to pass of the marchers as communists and criminals.NO ONE BUYS THISConfirms the notion that Hoover is harsh and insensitive

Republican candidate: HooverDemocrat candidate: Franklin D. RooseveltCame from wealthy familyEducated at HarvardWas VP nom in 1920Contracted polio

Paralyzed from the waist downWife Eleanor was a social reformerElected Governor of New York in 1928 and 1930 (Political comeback)

In March 1933, the country was virtually leaderless and the banking system had collapsed.

In his inaugural address, he said “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself….”

He promised vigorous leadership and bold action, called for discipline and cooperation, expressed his faith in democracy, and asked for divine protection and guidance.

He was a practical politician who practiced the art of the possible.

He was a charismatic person who exhibited a warmth and understanding of people.

He knew how to handle press by focusing attention on Washington.

He provided dynamic leadership in a time of crisis.

He was willing to experiment

Relief: to provide jobs for the unemployed and to protect farmers from foreclosure

Recovery: to get the economy back into high gear, “priming the pump”

Reform: To regulate banks, to abolish child labor, and to conserve farm lands

Overall objective: to save capitalism

Brains Trust: specialists and experts, mostly college professors, idea men

New Economists: government spending, deficit spending and public works, government should prime economic pump

Roosevelt Cabinet: included conservatives, liberals, Democrats, Republicans, inflationists, anti-inflationists -- often conflicting, compromising, blending ideas

Emphasis: reformPolitical Position: conservative

Primary aim: economic recovery

Philosophy: economic nationalism and economic scarcity (i.e., raise prices by creating the illusion of scarcity)

Objectives: higher prices for agriculture and business

Beneficiaries: big business and agricultural business

Purpose: recovery of industry

Created a partnership of business, labor, and government to attack the depression with such measures as price controls, high wages, and codes of fair competition

Purpose: the recovery of agriculture

Paid farmers who agreed to reduce production of basic crops such as cotton, wheat, tobacco, hogs, and corn

Money came from a tax on processors such as flour millers and meat packers who passed the cost on to the consumer

Purpose: relief Gave outdoor work to unemployed men between the ages of 17 and 29

They received $30 per month, but $22 went back to the family

Emphasis: reformPolitical Position: liberalPrimary aim: permanent reform

Philosophy: international economic cooperation and economic abundance

Objectives: increased purchasing power and social security for public

Beneficiaries: small farmers and labor

Purpose: reformGave money to states for aid to dependent children, established unemployment insurance through payroll deduction, set up old-age pensions for retirees.

Purpose: recovery and reform

Used federal funds to tear down slums and construct better housing.

By 1935, political disunity was evident. There were critics on the right and the left.

NENEW W DEDEALAL

Conservative opponents said the New Deal went too far:It was socialism (killed individualism)It added to the national debt ($35 billion)It wasted money on relief and encouraged idleness

It violated the constitution & states rightsIt increased the power of the Presidency (FDR was reaching toward dictatorship, Congress arubber stamp, independenceof judiciary threatened, separation of powers shattered)

Steps FDR took to protect New Deal accomplishments (both failed):Court-Packing Plan (proposed increasing Supreme Court from 9 to 15 members, caused in revolt in Dem. Party)

Purge of the Democratic Party in the Election of 1938 (came out strongly in favor of liberal Dem. Candidates, evidence that he interfered in a state campaign, Republicans gained strength in both houses of Congress)

Reasons for decline of New Deal reform after 1937:

Court-packing plan made Congress irritable.Recession of 1937-38 weakened confidence in New Deal measures. Republicans gained strength in both houses.

Attempted purge of Democratic party failed.Conservative Democrats were elected to office. Resentful of attempted party purge, they joined ranks with Republicans to block New Deal legislation.

Increasing focus on foreign affairs.

Attacked soil erosionBuilt dams and planted trees to prevent floods

Reclaimed the grasslands of the Great Plains

Developed water power resources

Encouraged regional reconstruction projects like the TVA and Columbia River project

Established the principle that government has responsibility for the health, welfare, and security, as well as the protection and education of its citizens

Embraced social security, public health, housing

Entered the domain of agriculture and labor

Strengthened executive branch

Reasserted presidential leadership

Revitalized political party as a vehicle for the popular will and as an instrument for effective action.

Redefined the concept of democracy so that it included not only political rights but economic security and social justice as well.

The New Deal maintained a democratic system of government and society in a world threatened by totalitarianism.Increased size and scope of government to meet needs of the depression

Provided the leadership that enabled Congress to put through the necessary relief, recovery, and reform measures.

Sponsored moderate legislation to neutralize the popularity of radical opponents 

Motion pictures, radio, art, and literature blossom during the New Deal.

Orson Welles Charlie Chaplin

Duke Ellington

Frank Capra

Dorothea Lange John Steinbeck

Movies are a Hit• About 65% of population goes to movies once a week

• Films offer escape from reality; show wealth, romance, fun

Gone With the Wind—perhaps most famous film of eraMargaret Mitchell had written the novel

Musicals—live action or animated—way to forget problems

• Comedies, realistic gangster movies especially popular

• Several films present New Deal policies in positive light

•90% of households have a radio; families listen together every day

•Dramas, variety shows play in evening

•Orson Welles—actor, director, producer, writer

•Soap operas for homemakers broadcast in middle of day

•Children’s shows after school hours•Immediate news coverage becomes customary

Artists Decorate America• Federal Art Project pays artists to make art, teach in schools

• Aim to promote art appreciation, positive image of America

• Murals typically portray dignity of ordinary people at work

• Many outstanding works painted by artists, including Grant Wood

• Federal Theater Project hires actors, artists

Woody Guthrie Sings of America• Singer, songwriter Woody Guthrie sings of plight of poor

In depicting the course of daily life, New Deal artists memorialized routine events such as waiting for a train or watching workers from a city window. Behind these celebrations of the mundane, however, lay a belief that such vignettes represented the essence of modern American life as lived by most individuals. Artists considered it to be their responsibility to capture such core experiences.

Dorothea Lange

CREATED/PUBLISHED1935 June.

)

COLLECTIONFarm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection

Home of a dust bowl refugee in California. Imperial County.

Dorothea Lange, photographer.

CREATED/PUBLISHED1937 Mar.

REPRODUCTION NUMBERLC-USF34-016264-C DLC (b&w film neg.)

COLLECTIONFarm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection

Dust storm. It was conditions of this sort which forced many farmers to abandon the area.

Spring 1935. New Mexico. Dorothea Lange, photographer.

CREATED/PUBLISHED 1935 Apr. REPRODUCTION NUMBER LC-USF34-002812-E DLC (b&w film neg.) COLLECTION Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection

"CCC Boys at Work"Prince George County, Virginia

Unemployed Men Eating in Volunteers of America Soup Kitchen, Washington, D.C.

"Stringing rural TVA transmission line."Rural Electrification Administration (REA) - Tennessee Valley Administration (TVA)

Michigan artist Alfred Castagne sketching WPA construction workersBy an unknown photographer, May 19, 1939

Diverse Writers Depict American LifeFederal Writers’ Project supports many who become major writers

Richard Wright, African-American author, writes Native Son

John Steinbeck writes The Grapes of Wrath about Dust Bowl migrants

Some writers examine difficulty of life in 1930s

Others show dignity of ordinary people, values of small-town life