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Comparing the Reaction of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover to the Great Depression

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Comparing the Reaction of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover to 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 …show more content…

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

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