Comparing the Ideas of Hoover & Roosevelt

RESPONSES TO THE GREAT DEPRESSION

Did not believe the government should give aid to the needy Worried aid would undermine self-reliance and encourage people to become

reliant on the government Believed his job to generate optimism and restore public confidence

Hoovervilles: Homeless Americans built cities out of cardboard boxes

Asked healthy banks to loan money to failing ones

Reluctantly created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC)- issued government loans to banks, railroads, and big business RFC loaned money to states to help with needy- financed public works

projects

HOOVER’S RESPONSE

HOOVER’S RESPONSE

Trickle-Down Theory: Government gives money to business they hire more employees more people earn money The problem with the trickle

down solution – the poor could not wait for money to trickle down.

Hoover battled the Bonus Army Hoover called in troops to push

the Bonus Army out of DC - used tear gas and tanks

Americans mad at the use of tanks to push out disabled veterans

HOOVER’S RESPONSE

Roosevelt promised voters a New Deal

FDR won the1932 Election in landslide

FDR’s plans focused on Relief, Recovery, & Reform Relief - Help unemployed Recovery - Reverse

downward slide of economy

Reform- Focused on the financial sector

FDR’S RESPONSE

First Hundred Days – Congress passed a record amount of legislation Emergency Banking Act – Gave the federal government the power to help

reopen banks Beer-Wine Revenue Act – Legalized the sale of beer and wine Reforestation Act – Provided work for 250,000 young men that year Federal Emergency Relief Act – Granted money to states for

unemployment Agricultural Adjustment Act – Set prices for farm crops while trying to

reduce overproduction Tennessee Valley Authority – Funded the construction of flood control

dams Federal Securities Act – Regulated the sale of stocks Home Owners Refinancing Act – Provided aid to families losing their

homes National Industrial Recovery Act – Established the Public Works

Commission to supervise building projects Banking Act of 1933 – Established the Federal Deposit Insurance

Corporation (FDIC)

FDR’S RESPONSE