Hoover’s Policies
SECTION THREE
Goals
 Explain why President Hoover opposed government
sponsored direct relief for needy individuals during
the Great Depression.
 Outline the Hoover administrator’s attempt to solve
the economic problems of the depression, and
analyze the success of these efforts.
 Analyze how radicals and veterans responded to
President Hoover’s policies.
 Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of Hoover’s
policies.
Hoover’s Philosophy
 Opposed direct relief.
 Rugged individualism- belief that success comes
through individual effort and private enterprise.
 Felt private charities and local communities could
best provide for needy.
Volunteerism
 1930 Hoover creates President’s Committee for
Unemployment Relief (PCUR) to help local
organization.
 Designed to encourage donations to private relief
organizations such as Community Chest, the Red
Cross, Salvation Army and the YMCA.
Boosting the Economy
 Hoover holds meeting just weeks after crash to
encourage predepression levels of production,
employment and wages.
 Issued cheerful public statements.
 Public works such as construction of the Hoover
Dam.
Farm Crisis
 1929 Agricultural Marketing Act created Federal
Farm Board (FFB) which gave loans to farmers.
 FFB bought surplus to reduce supply.
 Home Loan Bank Act of 1932 designed to help
reduce foreclosures.
The Reconstruction Finance Corporation
 RFC created in 1932.
 Could loan up to $2 billion of taxpayer money to
stabilize troubled banks, insurance companies,
railroad companies, and other institutions.
Rumblings of Discontent
 By 1932 Hoover perhaps most hated man in
America.
 Communist and Socialist Parties vocal in
disapproval- encouraged activism.
The Bonus Army
 10,000 WW1 veterans and their families protested in
Washington D.C. in May 1932. Group labeled the
Bonus Army.
 Supporting veterans’ bonus bill granting early
payments of pensions – bill did not pass.
The Election of 1932
 Franklin D. Roosevelt runs against Hoover.
 Distant cousin of Teddy Roosevelt.
 Wife Eleanor earnestly believed in social reform.
 Paralyzed by polio.
 Attacked Hoover’s record.