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Herbert Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20 , 1964 ) Republican Term- March 4, 1929 – March 4, 1933 VP- Charles Curtis

Herbert Hoover came into his presidency ambitious and ready to change America. But his presidency soon went downhill. Hoover had to change many of his polices that had helped him get elected after the stock market crash of 1929. Because Hoover dealt with the stock market crash so poorly I think that he deserves a D+ for his presidency.

One goal of Herbert Hoover was to change the way the president related to the country. He wanted a new relationship with the press and had journalists elect a group who could recommend how to improve White House press conferences. He even refused to use a spokes person for him and gave reporters copies of his statements before he started. He had frequent press conferences during his first 120 days in office. He then had to change his polices after the stock market crash though by screening his reporters and limiting his availability to the press. Hoover had a good relationship with congress. This was mostly because the Republicans had the majority in both the Senate and House during Hoover's presidency. They passed many bills to try to help the economy that ended up just hurting it more. Such acts, like the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, just made it harder for Americans to spare their money. The administration did make some good changes, Federal Home Loan Bank Act did help Americans keep their homes and made the rate of foreclosure drop, but these actions were too little too late.

The most successful thing that Hoover did was his attempts to improve the country. He did a lot to try to catch the gangsters that were now ruling American cities, gangsters such as Al Capone. Hoover had the help of the IRS for this task and tried to catch the heads of the gangs for tax invasion. He also had the Hoover Dam built and helped to stop judicial intervention in labor disputes. He also helped protect all children ignoring race, expanded the national park system, instituted prison reform and improved the American relationship with Native Americans. The downfall of the Hoover administration was the Great Depression and the way that it was handled. The passing of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff is a good example of how the Administration poorly handled the new economic crisis. This tariff raised the taxes on foreign goods up to 60%. The intentions were good because the government wanted people to buy American but this tariff hurt much more than just the U.S. because the whole world was now in a deep depression.

The way the administration reacted the stock market crash is what had the lasting impact. The poor decisions that were made at the beginning of the crash made the depression worsen and made the future job of dealing with the depression harder. Even the people of America were upset with how Hoover reacted to the depression dubbing their homeless cities "Hoovervilles." The reaction to this made some progress in the U.S. with the Federal Home Loan Bank Act. Along with the Reconstruction Financial Corporation these bills were later edited and reopened during the New Deal under FDR. Both the good and the bad reactions of the Hoover administration had lasting impacts on the U.S. and future presidents.

The United States was defiantly in worse shape after Hoover left office. He did attempt to get the country back on its feet but what he did was very unproductive. He left the country with high unemployment rates and many Americans upset with the federal government. Though he did have good intentions in his actions it still left the country torn apart. This is why he deserves a D+ as his overall grade.

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