Herbert C. Hoover Case

Herbert C. Hoover, formally known as the president who was in office when the Great Depression hit, was considered a conservative by many. He wanted everyone to be successful without help from the federal government and a man known for his lassiez faire economics. Franklin D. Roosevelt, the president preceding Hoover, on the other hand, was known for his constant experimentation with the economy to try to pull the United States out of the rut it had fallen into and a strong liberal. What people have yet to realize though is Hoover was not simply just a conservative and likewise, Roosevelt was not merely just an erotic liberal. Both presidents had programs throughout their administrations to prove they went back and forth between being conservative and liberal. That is why Herbert Hoover is a liberal conservative and Franklin Roosevelt is a conservative liberal.

Prior to and during the beginning of his presidency, Hoover believed in rugged individualism: a person should be able to be successful based on their own efforts (Doc A). A man should not depend on the federal government for help. Herbert Hoover took a very lax approach to the economy under his Secretary of Treasury, Andrew Mellon, with Mellon's idea of Classical Economics that supported lassiez faire and rugged individualism. Also, Hoover raised the tariff with the Hawley-Smoot Tariff, the first time that it had been raised since the Underwood Tariff had dropped it greatly in 1913. His reasoning for this was to protect infant industries that had been created during World War I. Lastly Hoover balanced a budget for the federal government so that people who purchased war bonds during World War I would be repaid. With this system, five hundred million dollars were being paid back to the people annually (Doc C). After the stock market crashed though in 1929 and the Great Depression set in, Hoover knew his economic strategy would work no more. He rejected Classical Economics even though Mellon pushed for the status quo. With this, Hoover came up with indirect aide, otherwise known as loans or public work projects to create jobs. Hoover is most famous for the Boulder Dam for one of the few public work projects he implemented. This dam was started in 1931 and finished in 1936 with the intention to bring about more jobs. With Boulder Dam, also called Hoover Dam, was responsible for the federal government spending eight-hundred million dollars on all public work projects, a very liberal plan (Doc B). As for loans, Hoover accepted the 1929 Agricultural Marketing Act. This idea had been previously presented by George Peek in 1921. The government would buy farmers' surplus crops and try to sell them on the global market. If the crops were sold for less than the government had paid for them, farmers would have to pay the difference, which either way helped the farmers greatly. Not to mention that Hoover was also responsible for the 1932 Reconstruction Finance Corporation that loaned at least two billion dollars to banks, railroads, and insurance companies. Herbert was also known for passing the 1932 Glass-Steagall Act that allowed banks to accept a greater variety of collateral. Even though Hoover made a few strives with his more liberal idea, he was still too conservative to pull the United States out of the Great Depression. Henceforth, the torch was passed on the next president.

Franklin D. Roosevelt is most known for his 'Alphabet Soup' Administration called the New Deal. In this administration, many groups were created to experiment with the struggling economy. In his first and second 'Hundred Days' in office, Roosevelt set the wheels in motion to help the United States with his hands-on approach to the economy. He came up with the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) for single men, age eighteen to twenty-five, to work on public work projects to which they earned thirty dollars per month and twenty-five of their payment went back to help support their families. Then there was the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) that insured up to five thousand dollars in bank accounts if a bank it was placed in failed along with he created bank holidays that closed all banks, but reopened the banks that were safe. He told the citizens of the United States using fireside chats not to pull all of their money out of the banks because they would be safe. FDR also took the U.S. off the gold standard and to help the farmers, he instituted the Agricultural Adjustment Act that paid farmers not to grow their crops.