President Hoover's reaction to the Great Depression

1. UNIT 7 GREAT
DEPRESSION AND
THE NEW DEAL
Hoover Fails to Halt
the Depression

2. HOOVER FAILS TO HALT THE DEPRESSION
 Herbert Hoover—President when Great Depression
begins and initially does very little
 Hoover believed the Depression was just a small natural
recession
 Hoover didn’t provide direct emergency relief to people
because he feared undermining America’s “Rugged
Individualism”
 Hoover wanted Voluntary Private Organizations providing
emergency relief, not the government

3.  Hoover didn’t provide direct emergency relief to people because he
feared undermining America’s “Rugged Individualism”
 “We were challenged with a... choice between the American system of
rugged individualism and a European philosophy of diametrically
opposed doctrines. Doctrines of paternalism and state socialism. The
acceptance of these ideas would have meant the destruction of self-
government through centralization... [and] the undermining of the
individual initiative and enterprise through which our people have
grown to unparalleled greatness.”
 Hoover wanted Voluntary Private Organizations providing emergency
relief, not the government

4. HOOVER FAILS TO HALT THE DEPRESSION
 Hoover begins to act:
 Federal Reserve Board—reduced the money supply during
the Great Depression when they should have expanded it
(wanted low prices, so people would spend money)
 -the supply of money in the economy affects the rate of
economic activity

5. HOOVER FAILS TO HALT THE DEPRESSION
 “Hoovervilles” –Make shift Shanty Towns created by the
homeless began to form on the outskirts of major US
cities
 Many people began to rely on soup kitchens and church
charity to live
 American family begins to break up with many women
having to hold the family together while men are
unemployed

6. HOOVER FAILS TO HALT THE DEPRESSION
 Many people feel that Hoover did too little and was too late
in taking measures against the Great Depression
 In election of 1932 voters were so frustrated with Herbert
Hoover that he is defeated by Franklin D Roosevelt in
landslide election
 Franklin D Roosevelt (FDR)—introduced a New Deal
program to get the economy moving again