Hoover’s EffortsChapter 22 Section 2 and 3

Free Food People w/o jobs were often forced to go

hungry Bread lines – lines waiting on a free handout of

food Soup kitchen – places to get free food Private charity set up bread lines and soup

kitchens to give poor people a meal

Nowhere to Go Shantytowns – communities of shacks on

unused or public lands for the newly homeless Also called Hoovervilles b/c they blamed President

Hoover for the depression Hobos – homeless and unemployed

Americans began to wander around the country

Denial and Escape To express his confidence Hoover favored formal

dress and manners in the White House w/ or w/o guests

Nicknames… People living in shantytowns, renamed them

“Hoovervilles.” Newspapers used as bed covers were called “Hoover

blankets.” An empty pocket turned inside out was a “Hoover flag.” Jackrabbits caught for food were “Hoover Hogs.”

Hoovervilles

Hoovervilles

The Land Dies Dust Bowl – 1932

A terrible drought struck the Great Plains area The soil dried to dust

Okies – families from Oklahoma who lost their farms, packed up their belongings and went to California looking for a better life

The Dust Bowl

The “Okies” Hundreds of thousands of “Okie”

migrants streamed out of the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, and Colorado, where chronic drought and harmful agricultural practices blasted crops and hopes.

Parched, poor, and windblown, Okies migrated to the lush fields and orchards of California, congregating in labor camps.

As one Okie said, “When they need us they call us migrants, and when they’ve picked their crops, we’re bums and we have to get out.”

Migrant Camp

Oklahoma Mother

Penny Auctions/Farm Foreclosures

Arkansas Sharecroppers

Promoting Recovery Hoover tried to convince industry to keep

factories open and to stop slashing wages Hoover increased public works

Public Works – Govt. financed building projects Construction jobs to replace those lost in the private

sector

He didn’t do enough to fix the problems He needed to massively increase govt. spending to

create enough new jobs and he refused to do that

Footing the Bill Someone had to pay for public works

projects, so who pays for it? If the govt. raised taxes to pay for projects it would

take money away from consumers and hurt businesses

If the govt. kept taxes low and ran a budget deficit it would have to borrow the money from banks

But then less money would be available for businesses and consumers who wanted loans

Hoover’s Efforts There was very little money in the economy Hoover believed…

Govt. needed to make sure that banks could make loans to corporations

Those corporations could then expand production and rehire workers

Hoover asked the Federal Reserve Board to put more currency into circulation The Board refused

Hoover’s Efforts 2 National Credit Corporation (NCC)

Created a pool of money to enable troubled banks to continue lending money in their communities

This didn’t meet the nation’s needs

Hoover’s Efforts 3 Reconstruction Finance Corporation

(RFC) Govt. to do the lending for borrowers To make loans to banks, railroads, and

agricultural institutions The RFC was overly cautious, didn’t meet the

nation’s needs

Too Little Hoover strongly opposed the federal

govts. participation in relief Relief – money that went directly to

impoverished families Hoover b/l only the state and city govt. should

dole out relief The state and city govts. were running out of

money

Too Late Reluctantly Hoover signed the

Emergency Relief and Construction Act Called for 1.5 billion for public works and 300

million in loans to the states for direct relief It was too late, the program could not reverse the

collapse

Hoover’s Legacy For decades, both scholars and the

public has held Hoover in low esteem, blaming him for the Great Depression and criticizing his efforts to solve the crisis.

Hoover had been in favor of government intervention with the creation of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the Emergency Relief Construction Act.

But he is still criticized for not authorizing large-scale relief programs.

Quite simply, Hoover never seemed to have grasped the grave threat that the economic crisis represented to the nation.

Hoover proved unable to handle Congress, the press, and the public

What emerges, then, for Hoover is a mixed and perhaps still damning verdict that remains very much alive today.

The Great Depression brought about many of his political failures and seemed to have paved the way for F.D.R.’s victory in 1932.

Faces of the Depression

Quilting Party – North Carolina

Troup County, Georgia1933Cason Jewell Callaway inspecting his cabbage crop. He was experimenting with crops other than cotton or corn.

Montgomery, Alabama

Downtown Macon, Georgia

1934 Chatsworth Georgia

Cobb County, Georgia

Baptism

Whitfield County, Georgia

Georgia Governor - Herman Talmadge

Christmas Dinner – Iowa (1935)

1930’s leather football helmetSpalding basketball shoes