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Herbert Clark Hoover **Born:** August 10, 1874 **Died:** October 20, 1964 **Party:** Republican **Term:** 1929-1933 **Vice President:** Charles Curtis Herbert Hoover was not a bad man. He was very well educated and well suited to be a president, just not at this time in American history. His intentions were always to protect and preserve the nation; however his actions were not exactly the best. When he became president the country was at its peak from the roaring twenties and he foresaw an easy term. Things didn’t work out so well. Less than a year into his presidency the country went into the worst depression ever. He cannot be blamed for this but he can be blamed for his poor job trying to pull the nation back into prosperity. He did make progress late in his presidency and began to pull the country out of the depression but much damage was already done by the time he took action. For this he deserves a C. His main goals when entering the Whitehouse were to aid farmers and to reform the tariffs currently in place. To help the struggling farmers he created the Federal Farm Board which gave loans to farmers and bought surpluses of crops to help control prices and demand in the market. The Farm Marketing Act was also passed and it excluded farmers from anti-cooperative laws so that they could work together to control prices of various crops. Neither program had much success however, there was simply too large of a surplus to handle. Hoover’s other goal with tariffs was to create a protective tariff for farmers without raising tariffs too much because he was against high tariff rates. However, by the time an agreement was reached in congress on a tariff many amendments had been added and the result was the Hawley-Smoot tariff. It raised tariffs to a new high of 60%. Not exactly what Hoover had wanted. It actually ended up hurting the farmers and other industries because it killed foreign trade. It sparked a chain reaction in Europe. Since we raised our tariffs so high other nations did the same thing and world trade was slowed down. Not long into his term the country fell into the Great Depression. It was a result of over speculation in the stock market and massive overproduction in many industries, especially agriculture. Once this happened Hoover’s goals switched to helping the nation out of the crisis. He was a staunch believer of self help and strongly opposed government subsidies. He thought that if the government began handing out money it would develop into socialism. Instead he supported trickle down economics. He wanted to give government loans to large private banks and large corporations such as railroad companies. His hope was that the banks would invest in smaller businesses and banks spreading the wealth. He wanted the businesses to use their funds to create jobs. Neither of these wishes came true. The banks and corporations instead invested in what they thought were trustworthy production industries. This was a huge mistake as more overproduction led the country deeper into depression. As things worsened Hoover refused to budge on his views of not subsidizing the country with government funds. Eventually he created the President's Organization for Unemployment Relief of POUR. It was essentially a financial advisor for the public. It sponsored public programs to help the economy, and unemployment programs. It had very little effect though and didn’t help much. Hoover then convinced large banks to form the National Credit Corporation. The goal was for the larger banks to help the smaller banks financially. However, the owners of the larger banks were not very willing to loan money to smaller banks and the program slowly failed. Hoover finally realized that the only way to pull the country out of the ordeal was to give it government money. The first program was the RFC. It gave government loans to banks and industries such as railroads. Hoover also passed the Emergency Relief Construction Act which was a bundle of government funds to many different organizations and companies. After all o this Hoover began to make progress in his final goal of pulling the nation out of the depression. Unfortunately for him his term was drawing to an end and a reelection was unlikely. He simply acted too late. Looking at how much legislation was passed during Hoover’s presidency and the fact that he started with a republican majority in congress would make it seem like he had a good relationship with congress. He did not. Throughout his presidency he was at ends with congress. There was a large minority that wanted government subsidies from the beginning which he opposed. One of his early ideas was to create a nonpartisan tariff committee to control changes in the tariff but congress instantly shot down the idea. Congress also denied his appointment of John Parker to the Supreme Court. Many acts such as the Farm Marketing Act took months to years to be agreed upon which ended up hurting the country. All was not bad in Hoover’s presidency. He did make progress in preserving nature securing 2 million acres of land for national parks. The Norris-La Guardia Anti-injunction Act was the most important act he passed while president. It restricted employers from hiring people to work in order to break up strikes. It took away the right of judges to break up strikes, and it forbade employers from forbidding employees from forming unions while encouraging workers to form labor unions. He improved relations with countries in Latin America by withdrawing troops from many countries such as Nicaragua. Hoover also deserves credit for his attempts at helping the economy. By the end of his presidency the economy wasn’t really improving but it was beginning to stabilize. The depression is definitely a negative during Hoover’s presidency, but it can’t be used against him since he didn’t cause it. However, his lack of action can. He waited way too long to intervene. His intentions were good; he was trying to avoid socialistic action and wanted the economy to save itself. However, sometimes the government needs to take action and that was one of them. The Bonus Army was also a big issue. WWI veterans had gathered at the Whitehouse to collect their bonuses they earned for their services. After refusing to leave Hoover used force with the military to remove them. Things got out of hand and it turned out more violent than he had wanted and two people died. Hoover’s main legacy was in foreign affairs. He was a strong advocate for disarmament in the Navy. He also greatly loosened the U.S. grip in Latin America when he withdrew many troops from the area in various countries. Hoover also made improvements in nature conservation. The country was obviously not better off in the end of his presidency compared to the very beginning. But if compared to when the market initially crashed Hoover did make some progress which would give F.D.R. the base for reconstruction. Had Hoover acted sooner he may have been able to make much more progress but he didn’t which is why he deserves a C.

"Herbert Hoover." //Miller Center//. University of Virginia, 2009. Web. 3 Dec. 2009. [].
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"Herbert Hoover." //Wikipedia//. Wikipedia, 2 Dec. 2009. Web. 3 Dec. 2009. []. "Historical Party Strength in Congress." Congress OL. House of Representatives, 12 Nov. 2009. Web. 12 Nov. 2009. [].

"United States Senate." Senate.gov. United States Senate, 2009. Web. 12 Nov. 2009. [].