Hoover and the Crash
Matching Activity Answers – the Origins of the
Great Depression
Bank Failures
When the Stock Market
failed in 1929, most
Americans didn’t realize
the depth of the crisis. If
you weren’t a stockbroker
or an investor, you may
not have realized the
urgency of the situation.
But in reality, most
stockbrokers had invested
money “on the margin” in
1929. Meaning, that if
you had money in a bank’s
savings account, you had
lost everything.
The Reconstruction Finance
Corporation
The Reconstruction
Finance Corporation
was meant to help
banks stay afloat and
to encourage
businesses not to lay
off any of their
workers. But when
the average
American struggling
to feed his family
saw Herbert Hoover
sending millions of
dollars to bankers
and corporations,
they were not happy.
Herbert Hoover
If he had known what he was signing up for, Hoover may never have run for President at all. He was
a condemned to being one of the most hated Presidents in history – but it really wasn’t his fault!
The Food Administration
The Bonus Army
The Bonus Army met with Congressional leaders and tried to see the President, but they never received their
pay early. In 1932, soldiers led by Douglas MacArthur and Dwight Eisenhower burned down the Bonus
Army’s shantytown, and ran over their houses with tanks to make the men disperse. Hoover feared that the
unrest might lead to Revolution – this was, after all, just 15 years after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.
“Wheatless Wednesday”
Saving grain became a
big priority during
World War I – thanks to
the efforts of none other
than Herbert Hoover.
Ironically, the man who
became famous for
feeding war refugees
and soldiers during
World War I would be
hated by his own people
for his lack of concern
for the poor during the
Great Depression.
Hoover Blankets
Americans took
advantage of every
opportunity to
criticize Herbert
Hoover. Empty
pockets were
“Hoover Flags.”
Automobiles being
dragged by horses –
because no one
could afford to
repair their motors
– were called
Hoover mobiles.
Hoover blankets –
they were
newspapers.
“Black Tuesday”- October 29, 1929
The date that the Stock
Market crashed for good
was October 29, 1929 –
“Black Tuesday.” The
circumstances were so
bad and the situation so
irreparable, that some
stock traders took their
own lives. Banks lost all
of their savings.
Businesses closed.
Borrowers defaulted on
loans, and banks failed.
This was the start of the
Great Depression which
would last an entire
decade.
Overproduction
Productivity is almost always
considered a good thing.
And to most Americans
today, low prices are
considered a good thing, too!
But in the late 1920s and
early 1930s, companies had
become over productive.
And when full warehouses of
goods could no find buyers,
prices – and then profits –
began to drop. The vicious
cycle of overproduction,
falling prices, and lost jobs
repeated itself all across the
nation in 1929.
Throwback Answer: Trustbuster
Here’s one for the
SOL Review section
of your notebooks.
Theodore Roosevelt
was the original
Trustbuster! He
broke up more
trusts than any
President ever had
before him, using
the Sherman AntiTrust Act. He sued
companies like
Armour Meats and
the Standard Oil
Company.
“Hoovervilles”
All across America,
on the outskirts of
major cities,
shantytowns shot up.
Homeless men and
their families built
lean-tos and shacks
in parts of the city
where no one else
was. The shanties
had no running
water, heat, or
bathrooms, and
were diseasespreading, filthy
environments.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
“This is preeminently the time
to speak the truth, the whole
truth, frankly and boldly. Nor
need we shrink from honestly
facing conditions in our country
today. This great Nation will
endure as it has endured, will
revive and will prosper. So, first
of all, let me assert my firm
belief that the only thing we
have to fear is fear itself—
nameless, unreasoning,
unjustified terror which
paralyzes needed efforts to
convert retreat into advance.”