Herbert Hoover Had High Hopes
President Herbert Hoover once pronounced, “The president is not only the leader of the party, he is the President of the whole people. He must interpret the conscience of America. He must guide his conduct by the idealism of our people.” America’s 31st president was forced to tackle the Great Depression and help save others from starvation. Born in Iowa Village in 1874, Herbert Hoover, an orphan, adopted by his uncle, grew up in Oregon Where he attended Quaker schools. Hoover enrolled at Stanford University when the school opened in 1891, where he then graduated as a mining engineer. Herbert Hoover positively impacted humanity due to improvements in the economy as well as culturally making a difference in people’s lives. Specifically, he provided others with homes to stay in, lent money to citizens, and attempted to stop the Great Depression. Hoover also culturally affected humanity positively by providing members of the United States and Europe with necessities, saving people from disease with the help of the peace army, and providing people with food.
Herbert Hoover affected humanity in a positive way economically, by creating new neighborhoods for citizens to stay in, lending people money, helping pay for various items, and contributing to resolving the Great Depression. Furthermore, Herbert Hoover played an important role in helping others even during times of war through his rescue efforts. Specifically, “Germany declared war on France, and the American Consul General asked his help in getting stranded tourists home.” (The White House). During World War I, tourists were stranded due to non-functioning trains and Hoover helped save many lives by providing these tourists with a home to stay in Germany. He offered financial assistance to get stranded tourists a home to stay in, during this hardship, which improved their economic condition. On the American front, Hoover helped others by providing them with loans for multiple reasons through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. This program helped “to aid business, additional help for farmers facing mortgage foreclosures, banking reform, a loan to states for feeding the unemployed, expansion of public works, and drastic
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s plan helped make the economy get stable through programs that he started, helping create more jobs for the unemployed. He passed bills that helped both the American people and its environment. For example, new roads and bridges were built. Another one of FDR’S efforts to get out of the depression was to enter WWII. Document 6 shows a cartoon of how much was produced for the war and shows Uncle Sam working, too. Overall, FDR’s decision to enter the war was the greatest impact on the Great Depression because they got out of it. Herbert Hoover was a terrible leader in many Americans’ views because they believed he did not do enough for the people and was more supportive toward big businesses. He gave money to the rich so that they would pass it down to the poor but instead the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Another downfall of Hoover was Hoovervilles. These were a collection of poor people without homes. The name was given as a disgrace to Hoover. In result, FDR was a more favored president during the Great Depression than Hoover.
Because of the plague known as the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover is often seen as one of the worst presidents in American history. He enacted policies such as the Hawley-Smoot Tariff that flushed America deeper into the depression. Hoover didn't understand that to solve a crisis such as a depression, he needed to interact directly with the people by using programs such as social security and welfare. Instead, Hoover had the idea that if he were to let the depression run its course, it would eventually end. There are three things that can be used to define Hoover's presidency during the depression, his actions, his mentality toward fixing things, and the fact that he helped pave the way for the “New Deal”
Herbert Hoover, the president in office when the Great Depression hit the country, did very little to ameliorate the devastating situation. Hoover underestimated the seriousness of the crisis, misdiagnosed the causes of the problems, and clung to his beliefs in individual achievement and self-help. His corrective measures, aimed at inflation and the federal budget, were thus damaging themselves. Furthermore, he hesitated to mobilize government resources to aid Americans and instead appealed to private groups to lend a hand (Encarta). Thus Hoover’s administration did little to mitigate the impact of the Depression.
"Give a man a fish, and he eats for one day, teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime." Hoover did not want Americans to become reliant on government aid and this optimism that Americans could overcome the greatest economic crisis is what later made him one of the most disliked presidents in history.
In the year of 1929 the stock market crashed and hurt many of the people in America as it continued through the rest of the 1930s and into the early 1940s. This left America in a whirlpool of poverty and despair. When the stock market crashed it led to The Great Depression. It led to being where one out of every four workers became unemployed no matter if they were skilled or not. People became homeless and were struggling to survive. They had to make new homes out of cardboard or whatever they could find, these were called “hoovervilles.” Most people didn’t have enough money to buy food to feed themselves or even their families. President Herbert Hoover did not seem to be going out of his way to help the country in any way. He was against most forms of government relief and he believed that the depression would come to an end on its own. Americans were very tired and frustrated with Hoover’s ways and so they elected a new president. They elected Franklin D. Roosevelt who
Towards the end of the 1920’s the economy in America took a drastic turn. This was when Calvin Coolidge’s presidency had ended and changes in the government began to take place. “Just seven months after Herbert Hoover entered the White House, economic trouble mocked his campaign statement about being near ‘the final triumph over poverty.’ On October 24, 1929 panic swept the New York Stock Exchange as nearly 13 million shares changed hands” (Hamilton). The start to Hoover’s presidency was also the start of the Great Depression. His term consisted heavily on working on taking steps to bring America out of the drastic economic fall that they had just entered. He began taking action by launching public works programs, tax reductions, and the formation
"I have no fears for the future of our country. It is bright with hope," said by Herbert Hoover as he was attempting to receive the public’s vote during his run for president in 1929. Herbert Hoover grew up in Oregon, but his parents had him in a town in Iowa. He later graduated from Stanford as a mining engineer after he enrolled in 1891 when the school first opened. He later married Lou Henry, who also went to Stanford, and they moved to China. When he lived in China he became China’s leading engineer. He returned to America after World War I and eventually ran for president in 1928. Herbert Hoover affected humanity in a mixed way due to his successful international affairs and because of his poor economic decisions.
Herbert Hoover was known as the great humanitarian who can solve any problem he faced. Later on, it turns out to be false which ends up hurting not only America but the people
` Herbert Hoover was born on August 10, 1874, in West Branch, Iowa, and was the first president born west of the Mississippi River. He was academically successful and strived to be the best. He was a great candidate but his presidency was a failed one. The Great Depression is mostly to blame, as Hoover worked hard to get to his position and then watched his hard work leave as he lost the chance to be reelected.
Hoover started creating jobs when the Depression caused Americans to demand public purpose reform, but the public still quickly characterized him as a conservative despite passing some, now considered, liberal legislation. At first Hoover stubbornly held to his belief that government could not and should not try to end the Depression as shown in Document B. In 1930, Hoover remained conservative. He rarely intervened in the economy and
A plundering devastation into the heart of America left thousands of American dreams and beings crushed by an invisible malefactor engendered no other than ourselves. The steps Herbert Hoover took during the Great Depression were not adequate to dig America out of the economy downfall. Programs that were created to put people back to work and avail state and local charities with aid didn’t benefit the majority of the population, compared to those who genuinely needed it. American citizens decreed Hoover’s presidency as the situation crescendo; not even all the way into the depression the public's ratings of Hoover were ostensibly low. In 1931, he pledged federal aid in case of starvation in the country; however he still had yet to witness the devastating starvation of Americans from all social stances and ages. He was rooted so deeply in his American philosophy that he could be viewed as neither intentionally ignorant nor merciless. Hoover grasped tight onto his political stance that hinder the efficient help he needed to provide while the Great Depression started to make a home in America; leading to the frustration and exasperation of American citizens.
Herbert Hoover served as the thirty-first President from 1929 to 1933 where he was succeeded by Roosevelt. Hoover was the United States President during a troubling time for many Americans; the Great Depression. Hoover gained a “reputation as a humanitarian in World War I by leading hunger-relief efforts in Europe as head of the American Relief Administration” (biography.com). Hoover was also the U.S. secretary of commerce before he served time in office. Hoover was a known humanitarian and organized many relief efforts. Hoover has many other published works such as The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Cabinet and the Presidency, The Challenge to Liberty, The Problems of Lasting Peace, The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson, Principles of Mining, and Fishing
Contrarily before the Depression, there were signs that pointed to President Herbert Hoover becoming more conservative. Document A suggests that Herbert Hoover didn't want' do be considered strictly laissez-faire. Document A proposes that Herbert Hoover wanted to liberalism to be found not " in striving to spread bureaucracy but striving to set its bounds, " but also wanted The United States to know that, " he doesn't want to be misinterpreted as believing that the Untied States ins a free for all, or system of laissez-faire." Hoover appeared as if he was less determined to preserve the capitalistic society of the 1920's seeing that he argued that capitalism also has social obligations. However, the success of the American economy under presidents Hading and Coolidge who believed in private interest beliefs required him to make sure that the lack of intervention in the economy would be maintained. Also Hoover began to sense of the public disapproval and transformation of the working masses and public views. The public mass began to start looking favorably on restriction of unfair business practices. This transformation of the public opinion gave president Hoover trouble since he wasn't completely dedicated to the private interest or public purpose.
President Herbert Hoover took office shortly before the Great Depression began, in a time in which the country was doing well.
With the public work programs, Hoover provided unemployed Americans with many different jobs in order to create some sort of income. The most famous of these programs was the Boulder Dam, which will be talked about later. Throughout the entire depression, Hoover stood on his belief of a hands-off government until late in his presidency. Under pressure from Americans and his fellow politicians, President Hoover eventually gave in and signed an act granting money and/or food to areas in dire need. That was the extent of his direct relief.