What did President Hoover do to fight the Depression?

Many people believe that President Hoover did little or nothing in response to the Great Depression. In fact, beginning immediately after the stock market crash in October, 1929, Hoover implemented many ideas to lessen the effect of the Depression and to hasten the recovery. He directed all Federal Departments to speed up public works and other projects, in order to create more jobs. He directed the Federal Farm Board to support commodities prices and asked Congress to decrease non-essential government spending and use the money to start new public works. President Hoover called many conferences with industry and finance leaders to encourage voluntary cooperation among businesses to relieve the Depression. Hoover also created the President's Organization on Unemployment Relief to stimulate and coordinate employment and relief efforts.

After the collapse of the European economy in April of 1931 caused the Depression to become even worse, President Hoover called for a temporary suspension of international debt payments, which saved the international banking system from complete collapse. With foreign trade at a standstill, prices for U.S. manufactured goods and farm products fell, and American industries began laying off even more workers. President Hoover asked Congress to appropriate more money for farm loans and to create the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which would be used to help financially endangered building and loan associations, agricultural cooperatives, banks and railways. He proposed federally funded Home Loan Discount Banks to help protect people from losing their homes. He asked Congress to loan $300,000,000 to the states to aid their relief programs, and to transfer agricultural surpluses from the Farm Board to the Red Cross for distribution to relief agencies.

By July, 1932 the Depression had begun to show signs of improvement. But many people in the United States were unhappy with the rate of recovery, and blamed Hoover for all the problems and suffering that had occurred. With the Presidential election approaching, the Democratic candidate, Franklin D. Roosevelt, promised the people a "New Deal." In November, Roosevelt was elected President.

http://hoover.archives.gov/info/faq.html#depression

Pretty far cry from today's uber-conservatives...

Dang, so Romney is a Rooseveldt in sheep's clothing?



Interesting parallel there, Pipemajor.

--Bill

I still think the best part of Hoover's legacy is his great-grandaughter Margaret.

Originally Posted by Pipemajor

Pretty far cry from today's uber-conservatives...

Think about that for a moment; it's an even further cry from today's ultra-Leftist who is in the White House right now and whose actions aren't anywhere near what Hoover's was.

Gosh, now the left is changing it's stripes. Prior to this he'd been the do nothing.

Revisionism!



And better yet, he made it worse doing what the Dems want to do today.

Originally Posted by Highflight

Think about that for a moment; it's an even further cry from today's ultra-Leftist who is in the White House right now and whose actions aren't anywhere near what Hoover's was.

Not sure what colored lenses you're reading with but you did note the use of government-funded public works projects to employ MORE people, some mortgage relief efforts and distributing surplus agriculture production to relief agencies?

So, in some respects, your "ultra-Leftist" in the White House right now has quite a few actions similar to Hoover's.

It's today's radical right which has drifted off the map...

Originally Posted by Pipemajor

So, in some respects, your "ultra-Leftist" in the White House right now has quite a few actions similar to Hoover's.

...

I got to hand it to you pipemajor, your about the only person I know that still is backing Obama.

For HF and goat. Wear with pride.

--Bill

PIpemajor is not the only one. The President got handed a crap sandwich and is just a man trying to do his best.

Originally Posted by newguy

PIpemajor is not the only one. The President got handed a crap sandwich and is just a man trying to do his best.

You mean the same crap sandwhich Obama spent hundreds of millions to obtain and once obtained promise would change it?

The one the previous administration left on the plate for the next occupant of the oval office, and the one that the obstructionist congress had kept on the plate for years.

Originally Posted by newguy

The one the previous administration left on the plate for the next occupant of the oval office, and the one that the obstructionist congress had kept on the plate for years.

you mean the same obstructionist congress that only got elected in 2010? Or the one that's controlled both houses back in 2008?

And if the crap sandwhich was so bad, why did he bother to beg and plead for people to give it to him? Why did he tell everyone that he wanted to have it? Why did he promise everyone that he was going to change it?

Seems to me that if you want something that bad, that once you get it, you should take ownership of it.

“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else." B. Franklin

I don't think anyone gets to that level of politics without a monumental ego. He probably thought he could fix things, only to find out the size of the true issues. I think he has been hobbled by the folks who made it the priority from day one to get him out of office as fast as possible, and to cripple any iniative he tried. I realize this is not a popular view on this forum. I am not going to argue with anyone as nothing is to be gained.

Originally Posted by newguy

I don't think anyone gets to that level of politics without a monumental ego. He probably thought he could fix things, only to find out the size of the true issues. I think he has been hobbled by the folks who made it the priority from day one to get him out of office as fast as possible, and to cripple any iniative he tried. I realize this is not a popular view on this forum. I am not going to argue with anyone as nothing is to be gained.

Let me ask you this ... what was the Democratic priority on day one of Bush's first term?

It's silly and intellectually dishonest for anyone to sit here and point fingers when we ALL know both parties are equally guilty of doing the exact same thing as the other.

The hypocrisy of it all astounds me ... but what amazes me even more is how many on each side is willing to buy it hook line and sinker that one side is some how more "pure" than the other.

Logan5, I never said anything like that. What I said was I believe he is trying to do his best under a set of enormously difficult circumstances. I also believe that the divisions between people have grown over the last few years as the economy worsened and people became more alarmed. I have seen it here in my home state as the Walker recall fight has divided families and neighbors. It has goptten to the point where a civil discussion is almost not possible. I have also seen it on this forum where the politics have become so polarized and divisive that long time posters have stopped "coming around" as the attacks on all sides become more and more strident. As I said, I have no wish to argue.