Chapter 22 Section 3 Critical Thinking #3

3) How did Hoover's belief in "rugged individualism" shape his policies during the Great Depression?
-what his belief implies about his view of people
-how that translates into the role of government
-Hoover's policies

Hoover's political philosophy was that the government should play a limited role in helping to solve problems. People needed to cooperate in order to pull through hard times, and the government was to encourage cooperation, but not to force it. This and his belief in "rugged individualism", the belief that people should succeed through their own efforts lead him to not take immediate action. Due to this, Hoover wasn't supportive of welfare programs, or relief programs, thinking that it would weaken people's moral fiber. Although people wanted the government to help them, Hoover's first action was to say that people and local charities should help out the needy. After the crash of the stock market, Hoover had a meeting with business leaders and asked them not to lay employees off or cut wages, and asked labor leaders not to strike or ask for higher wages. Hoover also started a charity to collect money for the poor, but none of these actions had much of an effect, and a year later the economy was growing smaller. Shantytowns, soup kitchens and unemployment were becoming much more common (page 685). Although his view of people was that they could cooperate to make things better with minimal help from the government, clearly it was beyond them to fix the economy. Though Hoover did not take drastic action, he authorized the building of the Hoover Dam, which helped the agricultural economy of California because it provided irrigation and jobs. But by 1930, the country was still in the depression, and people started to call shantytown "Hoovervilles", and newpapers for blankets "Hooverblankets", etc. Hoover still refused to support welfare or direct relief programs, and went for the whole "cooperation with a little help from the government will make everything just dandy" approach. He supported the creation of the federal farm Board, which raised crop prices, and established the National Credit Corporation, which loaned money to small banks to help them avoid going bankrupt. When it became clear that these weren't turning the economy around and with the next presidential election approaching, Hoover tried in earnest to pass legislation that would help the country and boost his popularity, supporting the Federal Home Loan Bank Act (lowered mortgages), and supported the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which gave $2 billion in emergency financing for large businesses, banks, and insurance companies. Altogether, Hoover's belief that people could pull through without help from the gov't. doomed the nation to even more years of severe economic depression, and they shaped his policies so that the goverment gave minimal help to suffering Americans.