President Hoover

Cronus Wang

13.3

1. Hoover lost the chance of winning reelection because he failed to save the nation from the Great Depression. As he insisted the government should not interfere with the Great Depression, and the downswing of business cycles was just natural occurrence. As many people, such as group of veterans in WWI called Bonus Army, called for an early payment of bonus, and they marched on Washington, D.C.. President Hoover called for General Douglas MacArthur and federal troops to clear the marchers by using violence. Photographs of American troops marching with fixed bayonets against ragged veterans shocked the nation; therefore, all Hoover’s action let him lose the chance to win the election.

1. President Hoover believed that depression relief should com form state and local governments and private agencies. (He established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to give more than a billion dollars of government loans to railroads and large businesses. They also lent money to banks so that they can extend loans to struggling businesses. Hoover preferred the trickle-down economics that money poured into the top of the economic pyramid, the rich people, will trickle down to the base, the poor people.) FDR believed that the depression required strong action and leader ship by the federal government.

1. During the Great Depression, economic troubles in Europe contributed to the rise to power of racist leaders like Benito Mussolini in Italy and Adolf Hitler in Germany. They wanted to gain power, but they failed in the US. Although some questioned the ability of America’s capitalistic and democratic institutions to overcome the crisis, most Americans never lost faith in their county.

1. Tennessee Valley Authority built a series of dams to control floods and to generate electric power. The agency also replanted forests and built fertilizer plants. These created jobs and attracted industry with the promise of cheap power. While some “socialists” considered it was bad because it gave government direct control of an industry. Private power companies complained that they could not compete with the TVA, because the agency paid not taxes. But the program still ensured the survival of the Tennessee Valley.

1. In his first hundred days in office, FDR established several programs to provide relief from the immediate hardship of the depression, achieve a long0term economic recovery, and institute reforms to prevent future depressions. The Civilian Conservation Crops provided jobs for young men, and extended work and training to minority youth. The Federal Emergency Relief Act granted federal funds to state and local agencies to help the unemployed. The Civil Works Administration provided jobs on public-works projects. Other programs like HOLC, FHA, NRA, PWA all tired to relieve the economic problem created by the Great Depression.

13.4

1. Both the first phase of the New Deal and the second phase focused on relief, recovery, and reform. While the second phase also tried to promote the general welfare, to intervene to protect citizens’ rights, and to address the problems of the ell, the poor, and the unemployed, created measures to protect workers’ rights. The second phase focused on long-term goals.

1. In the second phase, Congress established the Rural Electrification Administration that loaned money to electric utilities to build power lines, bringing electricity to isolated rural areas. By 1950, about 80 percent of American farms had electricity. It also changed the relationship between government and farmers. The government was no committed to providing price supports, or subsidies, for agriculture.

1. In the American West, many of the New Deal public-works water project, such as the complex Central Valley irrigation system, brought west water. The massive Bonneville Dam in the Pacific Northwest controlled flooding and provided electricity to a vast number of citizens.

1. The United Automobile Workers union stages a sit-down strike, occupying one of General Motors’s most important plants in Flint, Michigan. The workers refused to leave the workplace until a settlement is reach. Even when the police and state militia threatened to remove them by force, the workers informed the governor that they would not leave. After 44 days, General Motors agreed to recognize the UAW. The workers in the union then gained better wages and working conditions.

1. With passage of labor reform legislation in 1937, the court began to turn Roosevelt’s way. The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the act. Then, FDR nominated a  number of Justice friendlier to the New Deal. 1937 was a turning point. For the years to come, the court more willingly accepted a large role for the federal government. But the court-packing incident had weakened FDR politically. Many people began to criticize FDR. Public were much less willing to support further New Deal legislation.

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