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President Hoover Dbq

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President Herbert Hoover’s response to the crash on Wall Street and the Depression, while good-natured and with the best intentions, was arguably sub par and had a direct effect on how people viewed his policies and the outcome of the presidential election of 1932. “The Great Depression challenged the optimism, policies, and philosophy that Herbert Hoover had carried into the White House in 1929. The president took unprecedented steps to resolve the crisis but shrank back from the interventionist policies activists urged. His failures, personal as well as political and economic, led to his repudiation and to a major shift in government policies” (Goldfield, 722). President Hoover’s basic idea to solve the Depression was through no federal …show more content…

However, many of the business that had just pledged to President Hoover quickly fired many of their workers and severely cut the pay of any of those left with a job (Goldfield, 722). Hoover himself once said “You know, the only trouble with capitalism is capitalists; they’re too damn greedy” (Goldfield, 722). In order to help raise private funding for the voluntary relief his plan so dearly counted on President Hoover created the President’s Organization for Unemployment Relief. He believed that aid directly from the federal government would only cripple the recipients, take away character, and expand the federal government’s power. President Hoover even went so far as to veto any congressional attempts to send aid to the needy (Goldfield, 722). “The depression rendered Hoover’s beliefs meaningless. Private programs to aid the unemployed scarcely existed. Only a few unions, such as the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, had unemployment funds, and these were soon spent. Company plans for unemployment compensation covered less than one percent of workers” (Goldfield, …show more content…

After World War I, many unemployed Veterans were unhappy because they never received their service bonuses. So roughly ten thousand World War I veterans marched on Washington and set up a shantytown as a type of demonstration (Goldfield, 723-724). They became known as the Bonus Army. Since the Bonus Army was technically squatting in public building, President Hoover decided to have them evicted. The manner in which the Veterans were evicted is the final nail in Hoover’s metaphorical coffin. General Douglas McArthur led the charge to evict the Bonus Army, using infantry, cavalry, and even tanks to assault the shantytown (Goldfield, 724). “This assault provoked widespread outrage. The incident confirmed Hoover’s public image as harsh and insensitive” (Goldfield, 724). After the failure of his policies to relieve any amount of pressure from the depression and the massive public outcry against how the Bonus Army was handled, it was on wonder that the Presidential election of 1932 turned out the way it did. President Herbert Hoover’s response to the crash on Wall Street and the Depression, while good-natured and with the best intentions, was arguably sub par and had a direct effect on how people viewed his policies and the outcome of the presidential election of

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