FREE ESSAY ON ROOSEVELT, HOOVER, AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION

ROOSEVELT, HOOVER, AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION

The year was 1929. America goes through the biggest national crisis since the American
Civil War. They called it the Great Depression. The Stock Market was going down,
unemployment was going up, and money was becoming scarce. The United States had to look
up to the one person who could lead the country out of this national catastrophe, The
President. At this time the man who had that title was none other than Herbert Hoover.
Hoover, A republican, hoped that this was all a nightmare, he hoped that the Depression
was a small fluke that would fix itself after a short period of time. After seeing that
the Depression was getting worse had to use federal relief efforts. At the end of his
term a democrat, Franklin Roosevelt, took his place and tried to fulfill his campaign
promises by getting the country out of the Depression.
At first Hoover opposed any relief efforts, but as the Depression worsened, he started a
few farm assistance programs. Hoover hoped that theses farm programs would help the
farmers' situation with the low crop prices. Unfortunately farmers had to come dependent
on this government handout. Hoover also started federal work projects such as the Grand
Coulee Dam and the Hoover Dam. These projects provided many jobs for people and provided
affordable hydroelectric power for people but the Great Depression was a much bigger
problem than a few extra job openings could fix. Hoping that raising tariffs could help
American business Hoover created the Hawley-Smoot Tarrif. This actually worsened economy
and caused lower export rates. One of Hoover's big mistakes was that he wouldn't go off
the gold standard. Hoover believed that if our money was not backed up by anything that
it would be worthless and that the United States would have bad credit. Also Hoover would
not, under any circumstances, allow America to be in debt. He thought that taping into
the national debt would prolong the depression even make it worse since the government
would have to pay interest on the loans. Hoover was a man set on his ways and helped very
little with the Depression. 
In Roosevelt's inaugural address he declared war on the Depression and asks for an
expansion on his powers. When Roosevelt took over the office he summoned Congress to work
out his recovery plan. This is a period called the First Hundred Days and contained a
program called the First new Deal. Roosevelt started by putting poorly managed banks
under control of the Treasury Department and set standards required for someone to start
up a bank. This helped people to trust the banking system and caused people to put money
into the banking system. Roosevelt also created the FDIC, which guaranteed bank deposits.
Roosevelt later started many agencies known as the "alphabet agencies". Some of which are
the AAA, NIRA, PWA, CCC, TVA, SEC. All of the agencies were created to provide government
jobs or help out the situation of the low prices of farm product. Roosevelt believed in
the idea of experimentation. He thought that the government should always be doing
something, and if an idea doesn't work than it should be replaced with something else.
Roosevelt was able to get the American people on his side by informing them what was
going on and what he was planing to do this through his "fireside chats". Every few
months Roosevelt would discuss his future plans on how he was attempting to win the war
against the Great Depression. Though Roosevelt was able to provide more job and got the
banks up an running again he really had little lasting effect on the fight against the
depression. 
Hoover and Roosevelt had very different policies. Roosevelt didn't let the government sit
around. He made sure that there were government programs up and running. If he was
dissatisfied with the programs progress he would simply dismiss the program and start a
different program in it place. Hoover on the other hand wanted to wait and think. He
wanted to make sure that the programs that he provided money for wouldn't be a waste and
would definitely work. Hoover didn't want to spend anymore money than he had to. Hoover
really didn't want to raise the national debt no matter what. Roosevelt did whatever it
took no matter what the cost. Money was no object to Hoover, as long as he thought that
program or agency could have a chance of getting them through the Depression he took a
gamble on it and raised the national debt. Hoover made sure that there was enough hard
money to back up the paper money in America while Roosevelt played it risky and printed
extra money. Hoover and Roosevelt's policies were extremely dissimilar and they each
viewed relief from the Depression very differently.