What you’ll learn to do: describe Hoover’s response and other efforts to combat the Depression crisis

Figure 1. A sign written by Roosevelt supporters.

President Hoover was unprepared for the scope of the Depression crisis, and his limited response did not begin to help the millions of Americans in need. The steps he took were very much in keeping with his philosophy of limited government, a philosophy that many had shared with him until the upheavals of the Great Depression made it clear that a more direct government response was required. But Hoover was stubborn in his refusal to give “handouts,” as he understood direct government aid to be. When suffering Americans looked to Hoover for help, Hoover could only answer with a call for volunteerism. He asked business leaders to promise to maintain investments and employment and encouraged state and local charities to assist those in need. Charitable relief organizations were overwhelmed by the growing needs of the rapidly multiplying unemployed, underfed, and unhoused Americans. By mid-1932, for instance, a quarter of all of New York’s private charities closed; they had simply run out of money.

Ultimately, Hoover did create some federal relief programs, such as the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), which sought to boost public confidence in financial institutions by ensuring that they were on solid footing. When this measure did little to help impoverished individuals, he signed the Emergency Relief Act, which allowed the RFC to invest in local public works projects. But even this was too little, too late. Restrictions on the types of projects funded and the types of workers required meant that most Americans saw no benefit.

The American public ultimately responded with anger and protest to Hoover’s apparent inability to offer effective solutions. Protests ranged from factory strikes to farm riots, culminating in the notorious Bonus Army protest in the spring of 1932. Veterans from World War I lobbied to receive their bonuses immediately, rather than waiting until 1945. The government denied them, and in the ensuing chaos, Hoover called in the military, who violently put down the protest. The public brutality of this act was the final blow for Hoover, whose popularity was already at an all-time low.