Herbert Hoover & Great Depression

Title: Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression

The Depression had a calamitous effect on tens of millions of Americans. • Homes taken away when mortgage payments were not made • Homeless built shantytowns, sarcastically called “Hoovervilles”

Life savings lost as thousands of banks failed. • Employers went bankrupt or, to avoid bankruptcy, laid off the majority of workers • In rural areas, farmers struggled as produce prices dropped more than 50%

To make matters worse, a prolonged drought afflicted the Great Plains • Region turned into a giant Dust Bowl • Result: Agrarian unrest – Attacked those who tried to evict them – Conspired to keep their farms

• Formed Farmers’ Holiday Association – Organized demonstrations

Hoover made 2 mistakes in addressing the problems of the Great Depression • Encouraged passage of the Hawley-Smoot Tariff – Raised import duties of foreign goods to 40%

• Expulsion of the Bonus Expeditionary Force – World War I veterans lobbied for early payment of benefits for their service but bill was defeated – They refused to leave & squatted in empty government offices – Hoover ordered the Army to expel them; cavalry attacked them with tear gas

This ensured the loss of Hoover’s reelection & the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt • Argued for a more interventionist government • Promised relief payments to unemployed • Inaugural address: Declared war on the Depression • “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself nameless, unreasoning, unjustified fear.” • Implemented sweeping reform called the New Deal • Listen to 1933 speech