Election of 1932
Hoover v. FDR
Hoover
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Believed that the key to
recovery was confidence
Depression was a “worldwide economic conditions
beyond our control”
Government and business
officials tried to maintain
public confidence
Voluntary action fails
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Business promised to
keep wages up but
did not keep the
promise
After a year of bad
times people began to
blame the depression
on President Hoover
Government actions
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Agricultural Marketing
Act- designed to stabilize
prices of crops
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Program was a failure-lost
more than $150 million
To create jobs they spent
money on building roads,
parks, and dams.
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Hoover Dam
Government actions
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Hawley-Smoot tariff- Highest import tax,
Europeans raised their taxes too, caused a
slowdown of trade
Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) - lent
money to banks and large industries
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Banks continued to fail
People felt that the government was only helping the
rich
Hoover’s unpopularity grows
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Hoover thinks relief should come from state and local
governments
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People thought he was cold hearted
Blamed him for their problems
1932- Finally lent money to state and local
governments for unemployment but it was too little
to late
Bonus Army demanded pension money for 1945
marched in Washington
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Hoover called in the Army
Army used force to make marchers leave
Many people were injured
Action
Goal
Success or Failure/Why?
Organized to presuade
White
business
FAIL- businesses
House
leaders
cut workers
conference
voluntarily to
pay
of business
maintain
leaders
workers wages
Signed the
HawleySmoot
tarriff bill
FAIL- Europe
raised their
protect domestic
own tariffs
industries from
bringing slow
imports
down in
international
trade
set up
to help banks so
Reconstruction
they could extend
Finance
loans
Corporation
FAIL- people
thought
government was
only helping the
banks not people
Insisted that
state and local
governments
handle relief
programs
FAIL- refusal to
provide direct aid.
Created a negative
public reaction
to protect selfrespect & avoid
creating a large
bureaucracy
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FDR- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Promised people a new
deal and that “happy
days were here”
Democrat
Harvard graduate
On New York State
Senate twice
Assistant secretary of
Navy under President
Wilson
Polio in 1920 and never
walked again
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Ready to experiment with
government roles
Brought optimism to the
table
Worked with depression
relief as a governor of New
York
FDR- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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Wife Eleanor was niece of Theodore
Roosevelt
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Experienced political worker and social
reformer
Worked for several causes
Public housing legislation
 State government reform
 Birth control
 Better conditions for working women
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Election of 1932
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“This campaign is more than a contest
between two men… it is a contest
between two philosophies of government”
Hoover 1932
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Battle between how much the government
should and should not be involved in fixing
people’s problems
Hoover argued that government would be
to powerful
Election of 1932
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FDR won with a margin of 7 million votes
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People didn’t always support FDR because of his
ideas, they opposed Hoover for being too passive
1933- FDR took office