Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were the presidents during the Great Depression. Both of them had their own ideas about how to deal with the Great Depression, which both ideas had good points and bad points. Both presidents had different ways of addressing the situation. But they both attempted to address the consequences of the Great Depression. Hoover believed that our economy goes through cycles, and thought that the government should let things run its course and believed that things would eventually improve.
He thought this way all until his last year as president when he finally started getting the government involved. Trying to end the depression hoover created laws and programs like the National Credit Corporation, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, and the Emergency Relief and Construction Act. Franklin on the other hand believed that the government needed to be heavily involved in trying to end the Great Depression. He set up programs and laws also to attempt to end the Great Depression. They both attempted to address the consequences of the Great Depression.
Franklin D. Roosevelt created the “New Deal” where he tried to turn around the negative economic effects of the depression. It included many federally funded programs that caused the government to get involved more. Although Hoover did not agree on spending federal money on such programs. So instead Hoover tried to encourage the economy through banking and trade policies. Also by inspiring volunteerism to help those that were most affected by the damage of the depression. Hoover tried many times to fix the economy, but failed most times.
Hoover tried to regulate and relieve farmers by creating the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1929 which was an act introduced as a way to stop the downward falling of crop prices. The Act tried to help farmers in buying, selling, and storing extra agriculture. The result of this only made farmers go into greater debt. In comparison Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted to put Americans back to work and replenish the economy and the confidence of the economy. He created a United States federal law of the New Deal era which reduced agricultural production by paying farmers allowance not to plant on part of their land and to kill off extra livestock.
Its purpose was to reduce crop excess and therefore effectively raise the value of crops. He also set up public work programs such as Public Works Administration which was part of the New Deal of 1933 designed to reduce unemployment and increase purchasing power through the construction of highways and public buildings. Lead by Secretary of the Interior Harold L Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933 in response to the Great Depression. PWA built dams, bridges, hospitals, and schools. It was very successful.
He also set up the Civilian Conservation Corps which was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families as part of the New Deal. By doing these policies people were put back to work through the government on public projects. Franklin D. Roosevelt strived to protect and help farmers and fair wages. In economic purposes Hoover created the National Credit Corporation in 1931 to attempt to persuade the largest banks to provide lending agencies that would be able to give banks, on the edge of foreclosure, money that could be used for loans.
But his efforts in making this work failed so he tried to create the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) which was a government corporation in the United States that operated between 1932 and 1957 which provided financial support to state and local governments and made loans to banks, railroads, mortgage associations and other businesses In comparison to the economy issues Franklin D. Roosevelt created a policy called the Emergency Relief Act also known as FERA Replaced in 1935 by the WPA. Hoover led it and the agencies gave loans to the states to operate relief programs. ain goal was to relieve household unemployment by creating new unskilled jobs in local and state government.
Jobs were more expensive than direct cash payments (called “the dole”), but were psychologically more helpful to the unemployed, who wanted any sort of job, for self-esteem, to play the role of male breadwinner. Also created a policy known also as the Banking Act, prohibited commercial banks from participating in the investment banking business. Sponsored by Senator Carter Glass and Senator Henry Steagall. This act was passed as an emergency measure to counter the failure of almost 5,000 banks during the Great Depression.
It lost its effectiveness and was finally abolished in 1999 They both created policies that created loans for banks and the people to relieve a lot of stress and saved more money because of interest, when those owed money. Both policies had successes but had struggles as well. I personally agree more with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He seemed to always know what needed to be done and did what he could do to get it done instead of wait it out as Hoover seemed to in the beginning Getting the government involved was important because it opened up more opportunities and relieved a lot of pressure and stress.
However getting the government involved also created other problems. Some say Hoover made no difference in helping end the Great Depression, I believe he still had an impact on helping a small amount. In conclusion Roosevelt believed that it was useful to have the government spend money to help the people that were economically in trouble, while Hoover believed in an idea called “rugged individualism” which means that people are responsible for their own welfare.
