title: herbert hoover and the great depression
TRANSCRIPT
Title: Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression
The Depression had a calamitous effect on tens of millions of Americans.
• Homes taken away when mortgage payments were not made
• Homeless built shantytowns, sarcastically called “Hoovervilles”
Life savings lost as thousands of banks failed.
• Employers went bankrupt or, to avoid bankruptcy, laid off the majority of workers
• In rural areas, farmers struggled as produce prices dropped more than 50%
To make matters worse, a prolonged drought afflicted the Great Plains
• Region turned into a giant Dust Bowl
• Result: Agrarian unrest – Attacked those who tried
to evict them– Conspired to keep their
farms
• Formed Farmers’ Holiday Association– Organized demonstrations
Hoover made 2 mistakes in addressing the problems of the Great Depression
• Encouraged passage of the Hawley-Smoot Tariff– Raised import duties of foreign goods to 40%
• Expulsion of the Bonus Expeditionary Force– World War I veterans lobbied for early payment of
benefits for their service but bill was defeated– They refused to leave & squatted in empty
government offices – Hoover ordered the Army to expel them; cavalry
attacked them with tear gas
This ensured the loss of Hoover’s re-election & the election of Franklin D.
Roosevelt• Argued for a more
interventionist government• Promised relief payments to
unemployed• Inaugural address: Declared
war on the Depression• “The only thing we have to
fear is fear itself nameless, unreasoning, unjustified fear.”
• Implemented sweeping reform called the New Deal
• Listen to 1933 speech