1. Aim #64: What was Hoover’s response to the Depression? Do now! Read and answer questions for “How would you have addressed the Great Depression?

2. Just a Review: Fundamental Causes of the Depression Drop in farm prices Massively uneven distribution of income “Get rich quick” schemes in real estate and especially in stocks Overextension of credit Increased inventories of goods Immediate cause: October 1929 stock market crash Many consumers in the 1920s bought items such as this ironer on credit

3. (I) Hoover’s Response a.Initially, Hoover was a “rugged individualist” and opposed government intervention 1. Believed depression would cure itself as others had in the past 2. urged Americans to turn to community and church resources to meet needs of poor (Salvation Army, Red Cross) b. Gradually used federal agencies to address issues 1.Met with business and labor leaders to reduce layoffs and strikes 2.Financed federal work works (i.e. Hoover Dam) 3.Set up the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to make loans to stimulate the economy (remember they believe in the “trickle down” theory of economics 4.Federal Farm Board: govt. had power to purchase farm goods in order to keep prices from falling 5.Raised tariffs 33% by signing the Hawley-Smoot Tariff in an attempt to keep foreign goods off the U.S. market https://youtu.be/uhiCFdWeQfA

4. As the depression worsened, Hoover called for more direct government action to ease peoples’ suffering Under Hoover, the gov’t issued relief checks to help the unemployed Congress created the Reconstruction Finance Corps (RFC) to loan money to save failing businesses

5. These efforts did not end the depression and many citizens lost faith in President Hoover

6. 6 “Hoovervilles”, homeless camps

7. Movies as Escape from Reality During the Depression

8. The effects of the depression were made worse by the Dust BowlDust Bowl Decades of over-farming and droughts in the Plains led to windstorms that swept away soil and made farming impossible

9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H7NhI2p n5M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H7NhI2p n5M Hoover video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAgm13acwoI (Annie)

10. (II) Election of 1932 a.Hoover refused to accept responsibility for depression b.Accused FDR or seeking destruction of capitalism c.FDR offered a “New Deal” for the “forgotten man” Campaign slogan: “Happy Days are Here Again” Question: Do you think That people were voting for FDR or just against Hoover?