Chapter 23 the Great Depression and the New Deal Review and Assessment

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Place the successes and failures of Herbert Hoover's presidency
• Decide the fairness and accuracy of assessments of Hoover'due south presidency

As then much of the Hoover presidency is circumscribed by the onset of the Great Depression, one must be careful in assessing his successes and failures, so as not to aspect all blame to Hoover. Given the suffering that many Americans endured between the fall of 1929 and Franklin Roosevelt's inauguration in the spring of 1933, information technology is easy to lay much of the blame at Hoover's doorstep (Effigy 25.16). Nevertheless, the extent to which Hoover was constrained past the economical circumstances unfolding well before he assumed function offers a few mitigating factors. Put simply, Hoover did not crusade the stock market crash. However, his stubborn adherence to a questionable conventionalities in "American individualism," despite mounting prove that people were starving, requires that some blame exist attributed to his policies (or lack thereof) for the depth and length of the Depression. Yet, Hoover's presidency was much more than than simply combating the Depression. To appraise the extent of his inability to provide meaningful national leadership through the darkest months of the Depression, his other policies require consideration.

Effigy 25.16 Herbert Hoover (left) had the misfortune to exist a president elected in prosperity and after tasked with leading the state through the Great Low. His unwillingness to face the harsh realities of widespread unemployment, farm foreclosures, business failures, and bank closings made him a deeply unpopular president, and he lost the 1932 ballot in a landslide to Franklin D. Roosevelt (right). (credit: Architect of the Capitol)

HOOVER'Due south Foreign POLICY

Although it was a relatively quiet period for U.South. diplomacy, Hoover did help to usher in a period of positive relations, specifically with several Latin American neighbors. This would establish the basis for Franklin Roosevelt'south "Practiced Neighbor" policy. After a goodwill tour of Key American countries immediately following his election in 1928, Hoover shaped the subsequent Clark Memorandum—released in 1930—which largely repudiated the previous Roosevelt Corollary, establishing a footing for unlimited American military intervention throughout Latin America. To the contrary, through the memorandum, Hoover asserted that greater emphasis should be placed upon the older Monroe Doctrine, in which the U.S. pledged assistance to her Latin American neighbors should any European powers interfere in Western Hemisphere affairs. Hoover farther strengthened relations to the s by withdrawing American troops from Haiti and Nicaragua. Additionally, he outlined with Secretary of State Henry Stimson the Hoover-Stimson Doctrine, which announced that the Us would never recognize claims to territories seized past force (a direct response to the contempo Japanese invasion of Manchuria).

Other diplomatic overtures met with less success for Hoover. Most notably, in an try to support the American economy during the early on stages of the Depression, the president signed into law the Smoot-Hawley Tariff in 1930. The police force, which raised tariffs on thousands of imports, was intended to increase sales of American-fabricated goods, merely predictably angered foreign trade partners who in plow raised their tariffs on American imports, thus shrinking international merchandise and endmost additional markets to desperate American manufacturers. Equally a consequence, the global depression worsened further. A similar attempt to spur the world economic system, known as the Hoover Moratorium, likewise met with great opposition and petty economic benefit. Issued in 1931, the moratorium called for a halt to World War I reparations to be paid by Germany to France, equally well as forgiveness of Allied war debts to the U.Due south.

HOOVER AND CIVIL RIGHTS

Belongings true to his belief in individualism, Hoover saw little demand for significant civil rights legislation during his presidency, including any overtures from the NAACP to endorse federal anti-lynching legislation. He felt African Americans would benefit more from pedagogy and assimilation than from federal legislation or programs; nonetheless he failed to recognize that, at this fourth dimension in history, federal legislation and programs were required to ensure equal opportunities.

Hoover did give special attending to the improvement of Native American atmospheric condition, beginning with his selection of Charles Curtis as his vice-presidential running mate in the 1928 election. Curtis, of the Kaw Tribe, became the country'due south first Native American to hold then high an elected role. Hoover subsequently appointed Charles Rhoads as the new commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Diplomacy and advocated, with Rhoads' assistance, for Native American self-sufficiency and full absorption equally Americans under the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. During Hoover's presidency, federal expenditures for Native American schools and health care doubled.

Click and Explore

Cartoons, peculiarly political cartoons, provide a window into the frustrations and worries of an historic period. Browse the political cartoons at The Changing Face of Herbert Hoover to better sympathize the historical context of Herbert Hoover's presidency.

A FINAL ASSESSMENT

Herbert Hoover'south presidency, embarked upon with much promise following his election in November 1928, produced a legacy of mixed reactions. Some Americans blamed him for all of the economic and social woes from which they suffered for the adjacent decade; all blamed him for simply not responding to their needs. As gimmicky commentator and actor Volition Rogers said at the time, "If an American was lucky enough to observe an apple to consume in the Depression and bit into it only to find a worm, they would arraign Hoover for the worm." Likewise, subsequent public opinion polls of presidential popularity, also every bit polls of professional person historians, routinely rate Hoover in the bottom seven of all U.S. presidents in terms of overall success.

However, Hoover the president was a product of his fourth dimension. Americans sought a president in 1928 who would continue the policies of normalcy with which many associated the prosperity they enjoyed. They wanted a president who would forego government interference and allow industrial commercialism to grow unfettered. Hoover, from his days every bit the secretary of commerce, was the ideal candidate. In fact, he was too ideal when the Great Low actually striking. Holding steadfast to his philosophy of "American individualism," Hoover proved largely incapable of shifting into economic crisis mode when Americans came to realize that prosperity could not last forever. Desperate to aid, but unwilling to compromise on his philosophy, Hoover could not manage a comprehensive solution to the worldwide low that few foresaw. Simply when reelection was less than a year abroad did a reluctant Hoover initiate significant policies, merely even then, they did non provide direct relief. By the commencement of 1932, unemployment hovered near 25 percent, and thousands of banks and factories were closing their doors. Combined with Hoover's ill-timed response to the Bonus Army crisis, his political fate was sealed. Americans would await to the next president for a solution. "Democracy is a harsh employer," Hoover ended, equally he awaited all but certain defeat in the November election of 1932 (Figure 25.17).

Figure 25.17 By the election of 1932, Hoover (left) knew that he was beaten. In photos from this time, he tends to announced grim-faced and downtrodden.

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Source: https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/25-4-assessing-the-hoover-years-on-the-eve-of-the-new-deal

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