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 * Name:** Herbert Clark Hoover
 * Birth/Death Date:** August 10-11, 1874 – October 20, 1964
 * Term of Office:** March 4, 1929- March 4, 1933
 * Party:** Republican[[image:http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR8DaydPvInCzxzsDc5o-yMGgVozGOUVvcqw7yBViSEbapWZw7T width="241" height="300" align="right"]]
 * Vice President:** Charles Curtis

President Herbert Hoover deserves a D for his presidency. He deserves it because he passed legislation, such as the Hawley-Smoot Tariff, that led the U.S. towards the Great Depression. He also did not do much to get the U.S. out of the depression and did not handle the Bonus March of 1932 properly. Overall, Hoover did not to a good job as president, but he did do a little to help the nation. Hoover did not have many clearly stated goals for his presidency. He wanted a more protective tariff, wanted better enforcement of Prohibition, and wanted to help farmers in some way other than subsidizing. None of his goals were completely accomplished. All of them were partly done. The Hawley-Smoot Tariff helped to protect agriculture and industry, but it was so high that it discouraged the war ravaged Europeans from trading with us. Hoover’s goal for the tariff backfired. The enforcement of Prohibition had no significant changes during his presidency. The goal of protecting farmers was unaccomplished, too. The farmers were too productive and built up a surplus of crops which forced the prices to plummet causing them to lose money. Hoover set up the Federal Farm Board which was supposed to help the farmers handle the surplus and bring the prices back up. The organization was not given enough power and failed to handle the surplus. The fall of agriculture was one of the many contributing factors of the Great Depression. None of Hoover’s goals were successfully accomplished, and some of those failures led toward the depression. Hoover had a decent relationship with Congress. He had the majority in both houses in the first half of his presidency. The democrats gained the majority in the House for the second half, and held the majority in the Senate by just one vote. Hoover did not get a lot of big bills passed through Congress during his term. When he proposed the more protective tariff Congress added on to it to make it more protective on areas that Hoover did not feel needed it. Hoover also did not veto too many bills, and those that he vetoed were not major. His relationship with Congress was neither good nor bad. It was just average. The greatest thing that the Hoover Administration did was trying to rescue and protect agriculture. The Agricultural Marketing Act of 1929 was designed to aid the farmers without subsidizing them. The Federal Farm Board was created with the intent of encouraging more farmer cooperatives and managing the surplus. The FFB was not given enough authority and did not help out that much. This attempt, and several others, was the greatest achievement of the Hoover administration. The worst things that the Hoover Administration did were the Hawley-Smoot Tariff, and the handling of the Bonus March in 1932. The Hawley-Smoot Tariff was an extremely high tariff that was originally meant to protect agriculture, but congress added on to it to include industrial goods, too. Although Hoover’s intentions were good with the tariff, it ended badly. Instead of protecting trade it discouraged it. The tariff was too high and Europe had just started to recover from WWI. The Europeans all demanded that we lower our tariff if we were to trade with them. The slowing of trade made the U.S. economy weaker going into the Great Depression. It was not a major cause of the depression, but it made it much deeper. Another mistake that the Administration made was the way that it handled the Bonus March in 1929. Approximately 15,000 veterans marched to Washington demanding bonus money the government owed them from WWI. The men then set up a shanty town outside of Washington, D.C. and refused to leave. Hoover ordered the military to clear out the shanty town. He sent in federal troops with fixed bayonets and tear gas bombs. They used the tear gas to clear out all of the men. One infant was killed by the tear gas and a small child was bayoneted in the leg while saving his pet. They then set fire to the shacks the Bonus Army had lived in. The Hoover Administration had very few great accomplishments and a lot of bad ones. The decision that Hoover made that had the greatest impact on future presidents as the proposal of the Twentieth Amendment. Commonly known as the “Lame-Duck Amendment” it moved the inauguration time of the president form March 4 to January 20. It shortened the time between the election of the president and the time that he assumed his duties as president. It also called for each new Congress to meet on January 3. This made the transition between presidents go smoother and faster by eliminating the “lame duck” period. The country was much worse off after President Hoover. When he was elected the country was riding on an economic boom, when he left the U.S. economy was at the lowest point in history. The reason that Hoover got a lower grade was not because of the economy, it was because of legislation he passed that helped to cause it and how he reacted. The Hawley-Smoot Tariff weakened the economy making the depression deeper and he did not do anything to bail the country out of the depression. He helped to cause the worst economic situation the country has ever, and will most likely ever, see. President Hoover deserves a D for his presidency. Works Cited "American President: Herbert Clark Hoover: Campaigns and Elections." //Miller Center of Public Affairs//. Web. 28 Apr. 2011. . Bailey, Thomas Andrew, David M. Kennedy, and Lizabeth Cohen. //The American Pageant//. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. Print. DeGregorio, William A., and Sandra Lee. Stuart. //The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents//. 7th ed. Fort Lee, NJ: Barricade, 2009. Print. "Herbert Hoover." //The White House//. Web. 28 Apr. 2011. .