The decline of Republicanism - what influenced the political landscape?

what did Hoover persuade Congress to do in 1929 following the Wall Street Crash?

to set up the Federal Farm Board to help farmers who found it hard to sell their goods abroad because of government isolationist tariffs, but that was seen as a special case.

what did Hoover come to realise wasn’t working?

lassez-faire

what did he believe was the answer?

for private charities, set up by businesses and the wealthy, to offer help on a local, personal level. He felt that the most government should do was to encourage people to do this.

what did Hoover set up in 1930?

the President's Emergency Committee for Employment, a temporary organisation to find work projects for the unemployed and to persuade businesses to create more jobs on a local, voluntary, basis.

what did Hoover encourage businessmen to do?

to invest in the economy by setting up similar organisations.

what did Hoover realise in the end?

federal intervention was needed.

between 1930 and the presidential election in 1932, what did Hoover move from?

encouraging private help to giving federal help to the states, first advising them on projects and then giving them money to fund at least some of the help.

what did Hoover do when he realised encouraging private help fell far short of what was needed?

he reluctantly asked Congress to pass laws to give direct federal help. This was a significant and, to many people in Congress and the country, unwelcome change of direction. Indeed, Hoover tried to put through more federal measures, many of which Congress rejected. Even those he did get passed took the government into debt, rather than keeping the government debt down, as he was expected to do.

how did Hoover increase the debt in his last year of presidency?

the government received $2,000 million and spent over $5,000 million, but it was too little, too late.

how did people feel towards Hoover?

despite his attempts to change government thinking on welfare provision, Hoover was the person whom many people blamed for the economic crisis. They even named the huge shanty towns of homeless people that sprang up around many cities Hoovervilles' after him.

how did political parties feel towards Hoover?

Democrats felt he was not doing enough to revive the economy, while some Republicans thought he was doing too much.

Bonus March

Hoover mishandled the Bonus March. In 1924, Congress had voted to pay First World War veterans a bonus in 1945. In 1932, around 40,000 impoverished veterans arrived in Washington to request immediate payment. When the police could not get them all to leave, Hoover sent in the army and defended General Douglas MacArthur's burning of the veterans' encampment. 'Well, Hoover's Democrat opponent Franklin Roosevelt reportedly said, 'this elects me.

National Convention - attitude of the people towards Hoover

At the Republican National Convention, no one applauded during Hoover's acceptance speech, which a British journalist attributed to 'the dispiriting influence of Mr Hoover's personality, his unprepossessing exterior, his sour, puckered face of a bilious baby. In sharp contrast, Hoover's Democrat opponent Roosevelt was handsome, optimistic, confident, and a good speaker who said what the electorate wanted to hear. As Governor of New York, he had told the New York state legislature that government relief for the unemployed was a 'social duty ... necessary to preserve our democratic form of government.

Hoover as a Lame Duck president

Roosevelt won in a landslide in November 1932 but the 20th Amendment had yet to come into force, so the unpopular Hoover staggered on for four months before Roosevelt's inauguration in March 1933.

what was Hoover’s relationship with the media?

Hoover has frequently had a bad press. During the 1932 campaign, Roosevelt blamed him for the Wall Street crash and the Great Depression, an oft repeated and unfair accusation.

what was a correct speculation?

the contemporary conviction that he was the wrong man for the job during a Depression was correct. He was not an inspirational leader and his resistance to large-scale federal government intervention in the economy added to the sense of despair amongst the poor and unemployed, who felt he lacked understanding and sympathy. Americans hoped for a more helpful President - for a changed presidency.