Hoover and Hard Times: The Great Depression

1. Hoover and Hard Times: The Great Depression 1929-1933

2. Middle-Class Workers & Families • Unemployment rates rose to 25% • White collar workers were not as much affected as much as industrial workers and farmers. • “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” • Women cut back on household expenses. • Even though most income of families fell, it was not so bad because of the falling cost of consumer good, especially in food. • Example: ten course meal= 60cents

4. Struggling • Men realized there was not much they could do for their families. • Depression was inescapable. • No one took economic security for granted anymore. • Families feared for their children and their future.

5. “The Great Engineer” • Hoover did not know what to do. • Economic crisis was unsolvable. • Business cycle • He tried voluntarism, exhortation, and limited government intervention.

6. POUR • Hoover created the President’s organization on unemployment relief. (POUR) • He wanted private contributions for relief as the unemployment rate increased. • A lot of the organizations and charities were not able to give much and ended up shutting their doors. • Hoover held himself firm. • “It is not the function of the government to relieve individuals of their responsibilities to their neighbors.”

7. Uh oh! • Hoover was afraid that the POUR was going to lose their own “self reliance” because of government “relief”. • Authorized federal funds. • Rejected smaller grant. • Americans were becoming angry. • Hoover tried to lighten the mood. • BACK FIRED!

8. Hawley-Smoot Tariff 1930 • Purpose was to support American farmers and manufacturers by raising the tariffs on imported goods by 40% • Result • It lowered international trade. • Other nations did not have enough money to pay their debts to the United States. • 1931 Hoover announced a delay for the payments of World War I debts and compensation.

9. Fight. • Communist leaders helped the belief that depression displayed a failure of capitalism. • Some American’s in this group wanted revolution. • “Fight don’t starve” were read in banners. • An incident on Ford River’s Rouge Plant in 1932 resulted in the murders of 4 men and wounding 50 others.

10. When will it stop? • Not only did social unrest spread, but so did racial violence. • Vigilant committees began to give out bounties to force African American workers from the Illinois central railroads payroll. • Results • -Killing of 10 men • -7 wounded • Economy got worse. • KKK reemerged. • Lynching's constantly occurred • Pennsylvania, Colorado, Minnesota, and Ohio

11. Summer of 1932 • Shook the nation like never before. • Many World War I veterans and their families converged on the nations capital as congress debated a bill which authorized immediate payment of “cash bonus” that they were suppose to receive in 1945. • The Bonus Army • “Hooverville” • The Senate voted it down. • Most bonus marchers left Washington but some stayed having nowhere else to go. • “Insurrectionists”

12. Summer of 1932 • Men and women were chased down by horsemen • Chilldren were tear gassed • Shacks set on fire • The newspaper the next day had photos of the U.S. troops attacking their own citizens. • “Thank God we still have a government that knows how to deal with a mob.”

13. February 1933 • Resolution calling for the new election of a U.S. President. • Franklin D. Roosevelt- “unlimited power” • Hitler rose to power and his National Socialist Party in depression-ravaged Germany and this brought a great sense of crisis to the citizens of what would come next for their future.