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 **Vice President: Charles Curtis (served 1929-1933) **  **Thematic Context (American Identity) ** As the newly elected president stepped up to take his highly-honored position, it seemed so assuring that America would never see the end of prosperity that was flourishing over the states. As the unexpected came into effect, different people took different routes to react toward the growing crisis. Some stayed on the optimistic side, continuing to prosper and grow, while others, which were the majority, were left behind in sober, largely because they had no other choice. Nevertheless, hardships that the Americans endured during the tedious Hoover presidency displayed the perseverance and energy exerted to fulfill the American dream. The Great Depression, unfortunately fell under and completely plagued the Hoover administration, became America’s longest-lasting and most severe economic downturn. Numerous causes contributed to the depression, each of the factor took place at different periods and imprinted different effects on the lives of the people. To start off, the agriculture and industrial structure was already in bad shape. With advancing technology, producers were able to accelerate the production growth rapidly, but for the most part, failed to deliver those large quantities of goods to the mass. Adding to that, European nations were deeply agonized by the troubling aftermath of World War I, therefore unable repay the loans they had borrowed from American banks, adding to the fact that Germany was feebly fulfilling payments to the Allies that were required under the Treaty of Versailles. With European’s entanglements affecting international economy, farmers’ products from America being shipped to the Old World sharply decreased, adding fuel to the fire that agricultural prices were already at bottommost during the 1920s. Though industrial productivity and profits increased effectively, industrial giants invested their money either into stock market or speculative schemes, instead of into the expansion of new factories or to fund other newly-developed factories, which would have created new jobs for the working classes. The working classes, in the other hand, were kept in place, with their wages remained humbled. This division created a wide gap between the rich and poor - where the richest one percent of Americans owned over a third of all American assets - virtually limited economic growth that should have been promoted by the wealthy. The Great Depression did not reveal its ugly side until the “Great Crash” had taken place in 1929 that foreshadowed the imminency of doom. As the economy showed obvious sluggishness - unemployment, fallen prices, high interest rates-, many began to dump their stocks. During the stock frenzy, there were no buyers since stockowners were trying to sell, and stock prices eventually shrunk. On October 29 of the same year, dubbed as “Black Tuesday”, brokers sold over 16 million shares. The market spiraled downward for more than two years, with one estimate claiming that investors lost nearly $75 billion. Between 1929 and 1933, 5,000 American banks collapsed, one in four farms went into foreclosure, and an average of 100,000 jobs vanished each week. The tragedy that hard-working Americans had to face were brutal, bringing the burden of hunger, poverty, and hopelessness they had to endure. Amidst economic grievances, some were unmoved and able to increase American prestige through their investments. The Empire State building, designed by the architectural firm of Shreve, Lamb, & Harmon Associates, were completed and opened on May 1,1931. The builder John Jakob Raskob won the race to sky, particularly against the Chrysler Building being constructed at around the same time. The Empire State Building, standing at 1,250 feet tall, became the world’s tallest building and held its rank for forty years until the completion of the World Trade Center in New York City in 1972 took over. The astonishing monument, constructed by Starrett Brothers and Eken Incorporated, was constructed in just one year and 45 days, 4 months earlier than the expected deadline, and because of the hit of the Great Depression significantly lowered labor costs, the cost of the building was only $40,948,900, well below the $50 million expected price tag. But then again, due of the Great Depression, nearly half of the building remained unused, giving it the nickname the "Empty State Building."  <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Relationship with Congress ** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">President Hoover’s cabinet was rather loyal and for the most part competent. Yet maybe he was too dependent on their part, for that limited his involvements and let Congress dominate over the legislating power. However, President Hoover did find a way to keep himself aware of the public and its arousing issues. He appointed numerous commissions to study and solve those dilemmas. Following Hoover’s main principles, these commissions and committees were sent out, not to prompt federal actions for economic and social reforms, but rather gathered and publicized information, made recommendations, summoned voluntary efforts, and, in some cases, suggested legislation. One of the commissions was the Wickersham Commission on Law Enforcement, which appeared in the spotlight for investigating the federal government's judicial system, along with the dangerous political issue dealing with prohibition. The establishment of new commissions allowed Hoover to appoint officials trained in social sciences, for he chose to keep many of Coolidge's appointees at the lower levels of the federal bureaucracy. Though these progressives seemed impressive, the Republican House, first overcame as the majority, was not in complete cooperation with Hoover's idealism and eventually caused disputes and further division. After the congressional election of 1930, the Republicans lost its majority to the Democrats; some even rebelled and combined with the opposing Democrats to harass Hoover during cursed time.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Herbert Clark Hoover **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">August 10, 1874, West Branch, Iowa - October 20, 1964, New York City, New York **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Political Party: Republican **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Term: March 4, 1929 – March 4, 1933 (one term) **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Thesis ** <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It is hard to decipher the usage of power that President Herbert Hoover exercised during his presidential term was helping or suffocating the nation in overall. Under the spectrum of the American views, President Hoover was either a hero or a villain, but at the time, he seemed to be uncaring and misplaced to understanding the depth of turmoil that the country was in. Much of his “voluntarism” philosophy of running and activating the country through cooperation among individuals and groups, rather than the governmental legislations and interventions - which Hoover feared that would destroy the American ideals like individualism and self-reliance-, was meant to maintain a high growth economy, but unfit for the unhealthy status of economy, where the working classes were crying for aid to stand back up. Legislations passed being associated with this theory mostly proved to be ineffective. Even though his presidency was not able to recover by the re-election of 1932, President Hoover, unlike many other unsuccessful presidents, held a belief and a plan for the country, therefore deserves a C for his presidency.  <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;">
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Goals ** <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Stepping into power of the growing world power, President Hoover jovially cherished the prosperity that the nation was enjoying. Hoover, at the time of his inauguration, appeared to be an energetic Republican, where he saw the future of the United States “bright with hope”. He then again emphasized his proponent of self-improvement declaring that “a large responsibility rests directly upon our citizens”, prosing social and economic reforms, of course through voluntarism and individual effort, on such issues as prohibition, criminal justice reform, public health, education to inform the masses, and many other general stand on reforms. President Hoover also addressed his establishment of commissions to study issues contrasting the planned reforms above, and for foreign affairs, he endowed world peace by limit on armaments. The president’s objectives through voluntarism had gone nowhere due to the Great Depression. Though his commissions were practiced, there were no clear improvements by them except from their investigations painfully acknowledged the fact that the country was deep in turmoil.

<span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Positive Action ** <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Late into his presidency, President Hoover finally started to come to be cognizant of the fact that he had to use federal power to help the people through the Great Depression. In January 1932, upon Hoover’s request, Congress finally passed the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). Congress provided the agency with the initial capital of $500 million and allowed it it borrow up to $2 billion. The RFC, funded and ran by the government, was designed to provide indirect relief by giving loans out to large banks, railroads, farm mortgage associations, savings and loan associations and life insurance companies, in return would help them recover and able to give out loans to private sectors again, therefore the economy would be able to rise back up. As the agency progressed, $2 million was loaned to the targeted organizations and, fortunately, bankruptcies in many areas were slowed. Though often neglected to reach out to smaller banks, economists and historians nowaday acknowledged that it had helped to prevent larger financial institutions from failing. <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Negative Action ** <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">With the great Depression pressing down the government to use politics for relief, politicians under pressure frantically shuffled to pass out a law to calm their people. Unfortunately the help that President Hoover and Congress provided, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, was not alleviating the people’s worries. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff of June 1930, chiefly sponsored by Senator Reed Smoot of Utah, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Representative Willis Hawley of Oregon, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, raised the country’s tariff from 38.5 percent, as established by the Fordney-McCumber Act of 1922, to nearly 60%, setting the rate as the highest protective tariff in US history. To keep his promise of helping farmers by raising protective rate, President Hoover reluctantly signed the bill, though about a thousand amendments poured in from economists and financial advisors pleading him to veto the bill. The towering tariff eventually set America against its trading partners and further isolated itself from international finance. Protectionism during this period was actually causing chaos, not only shunned the rare potential foreign consumers to buy American farm products, but also made it more difficult for them to recover in the long run. Although many blamed this measure to provoke the economic crash, that is not possible since the Depression had long rooted into the economy when the law was passed. Although the proposed tariff was more of a consequence rather than the initiative of the Great Depression, it certainly did not make it better. <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Decision that impact future administration or generation ** <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">During President Hoover’s administration, the Twentieth Amendment was ratified on January 23, 1933. With this addition, the presidential and vice presidential terms begin on January 20, and congressional terms begin on January 3. The December to March session of those Congressmen defeated for reelection in November, also called the “lame ducks”, was abolished, for the "lame duck" sessions were generally unproductive, as the members engaged in virtually no legislative activity. Though taken a spot in the Book of the Laws of Land, the amendment had not yet made a dramatic impact compared to other liberal legislations. <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Conclusion ** <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">President Hoover’s term was battered by the nation's greatest depression, a historical event that probably no leader could have survive through. Helplessly the country was languished by the end of his term of office, far worse off than the beginning of the term. Hoover’s philosophy, though grand and admirable, was not appropriate during the period of financial woes, where everybody scrambled for only themselves. His optimistic view that the Great Depression was a temporary mishap diverged his thinking and action to the wrong direction, causing his reputation to wane. Having that said, President Hoover, the right leader at the wrong time, earns a C for his presidency. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Works Cited <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Bailey, Cohen, and Kennedy. The American Pageant:Twelfth Edition. New York: Houghton Mifflin. 2002. "Big Apple History . Building the Big Apple . The Empire State Building | PBS KIDS GO!"Big Apple History. Building the Big Apple. The Empire State Building | PBS KIDS GO! N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2012. < <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://pbskids.org/bigapplehistory/building/topic22.html__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">>. "The Empire State Building." About.com 20th Century History. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2012. < <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/a/empirestatebldg.htm__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">>. "The Empire State Building." Empire State Building History and Facts. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2012. < <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.wonderclub.com/WorldWonders/EmpireHistory.html__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">>. "Hoover, Herbert (1874-1964), Inaugural Address of President Herbert Hoover | The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History." Hoover, Herbert (1874-1964), Inaugural Address of President Herbert Hoover | The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2012. < <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.gilderlehrman.org/collections/1b938c6b-ae74-4a40-a73e-544972047968?back=/mweb/search?needle=GLC05612__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">>. "Miller Center." American President: Herbert Clark Hoover. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. < <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://millercenter.org/president/hoover__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">>. "The Presidency of Herbert C. Hoover." The Presidency of Herbert C. Hoover. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2012. < <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/fauhoo.html__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">>. "Reconstruction Finance Corporation." Answers.com. Answers, n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2012. < <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.answers.com/topic/reconstruction-finance-corporation__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">>. "Reconstruction Finance Corporation." Reconstruction Finance Corporation. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2012. < <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1523.html__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">>. "Smoot-Hawley Tariff." Smoot-Hawley Tariff. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2012. < <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://future.state.gov/when/timeline/1921_timeline/smoot_tariff.html__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">>. "Twentieth Amendment (redirected from 20th Amendment)." TheFreeDictionary.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2012. <http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/20th Amendment>. "48a. The Market Crashes." The Market Crashes [ushistory.org]. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2012. < <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.ushistory.org/us/48a.asp__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">>. <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;">