Herbert Hoover was the 31st President of the U. S. from 1929-1933. Franklin Roosevelt was the 32nd President of the U. S. from 1933-1945. Policies of Hoover’s administration included The Norris-La Guardia Act and The Emergency Relief and Construction Act. Some policies of Roosevelt’s were the New Deal and the Lend Lease Policy. During Herbert Hoover’s presidency was the beginning of the worst economic fall in the history of the United States, “The Great Depression”. When Roosevelt took office, the depression was in its full swing and millions of people were unemployed. The comparison between
Herbert Clark Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt has its similarities and differences. Hoover was elected in 1928 and inaugurated in 1929. His presidency took place during the early part of The Great Depression. On October 24th, 1929, the stock market crashed. As stock prices fell sharply that day, known as “Black Thursday,” many people who had invested heavily in the stock market lost large fortunes almost overnight (Hayes 1). This made it extremely difficult for Hoover and his administration. Hoover told the public that what had happened was only a temporary problem.
He was extremely wrong about that ituation. It then turned into the depression, which lasted during the 1930’s. Waugh 2 Herbert Hoover tried to do nothing but help the U. S. escape the depression, but it was too late. An idea that Hoover had was The Norris-La Guardia Act of 1932. This was one of the first laws in the United States that encouraged labor union activity. The act forbade an employer to sue a worker for breaking a promise not to join a union (Hoover, Herbert Clark, 6). He wanted to expand the Federal Farm Board. He always encouraged businesses to cut wages or to lay off people.
This would cause much more unemployment. Another policy Hoover tried was the Emergency Relief Act. This created the federal home loan banks. He also created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. This caused all government loans to business firms to have to go through the corporation and this would help government spending for the public. Hoover was not fully successful with all of these policies, but was making an effort to escape the depression The country during Hoover’s presidency was arguably the worst it ever has been. One out of every four men were unemployed.
At the time there was not a federal or state programs to help the people in need. Homeless families would move to bigger cities to abandoned places and fixed up makeshift homes. These little places with many homeless would be called “Hoovervilles. ” Thousands of business enterprises were going out of business, mortgages on homes and farms were being foreclosed, banks and stock brokerage firms had been ruined (1932 F. D. R Vs. Herbert Hoover 1). To make things worse during the economic fall, there had been a drought in agriculture in the Midwest, putting even more pressure on the farming economy.
The country during Hoover’s presidency really expressed individualism as it was one of his main philosophies. After being beaten by Roosevelt in the 1932 election, Hoover became a critic of everything that Roosevelt was trying to do for the country. He wrote articles and books. Some people even said that he was obsessed with observing every little move Roosevelt made. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30th, 1882. He was born into a very wealthy family that had always been wealthy through the years.
His parents’ names were James and Sarah Ann Delano Roosevelt. His family ran around him as a child. Everyone was always giving Franklin their full attention and wanted to know how he was doing or if he ever needed anything. Roosevelt was not an athletic man. He went to Groton School, which was all boys. He did not fit in well with the other students. After graduating in 1900, he then attended Harvard University. He graduated in three years and was engaged with Eleanor Roosevelt in his last year of college. Eleanor was his fifth cousin and was Theodore Roosevelt’s niece.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected in 1932 and inaugurated in 1933. During his first inaugural address in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt told the country, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” (Elkins 1). Roosevelt was elected four times in a ro to be the President of he United States of America. He had served from 1933-1945. He is the only president to be elected for more than two terms. He was diagnosed with polio in 1921 which caused him to be paralyzed from the waist down. His presidency took place as The Great Depression was in full swing.
The first action he had done was the closing of the banks so foreign speculators would not be able to access gold. In 1945, Roosevelt died of polio. Franklin Roosevelt came into a situation that was difficult, but he was determined to escape the depression in the country was in. He had many policies that were very helpful to the economic crisis. He created social security. Roosevelt also created the minimum wage process we still use today. He also created the Lend Lease policy. This policy allowed Great Britain to borrow U. S. goods and supplies to fight Germany.
Roosevelt also led the United States through World War II. The U. S. did not enter the conflict until Japan, a German ally, bombed the U. S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 (Elkins 2). The U. S. would not have entered wWilif this action would not of happened. The U. S. was isolationists at the time at had no intent of entering the war. The New Deal was the major policy that was enforced under the Roosevelt administration. The New Deal allowed the government to interfere with private businesses (Bardhan- Quallan 75). He created child labor laws.
Roosevelt addressed the American people through a series of “fireside chats. ” He spoke to millions of Americans about the banking crisis. To fix it, he ordered the Emergency Banking Act. There was about thirty chats. They would last anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 minutes. Around thirteen million people were unemployed when Roosevelt took office. The New Deal set up agencies to employ young men , assist business and labor, subsidize home and farm ortgages, and help the unemployed (Elkins 1). Agencies such as the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps. , NRA (National Recovery Agency), and the AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Administration).
He created the Works Progress Administration, which created 8. 5 million jobs during 1935-1943. Both presidencies were during the worst economic crisis the United States has ever experienced. President Hoover was put in a bad position due to the presidency before him. This was also the case for Roosevelt. Roosevelt’s New Deal helped the United States tremendously, but some of his actions were unconstitutional to the Supreme Court (Bardhan-Quallan 75).
Both presidents had policies that were key to escaping the depression. Some ideas failed, some succeeded gratefully. In all the nation had to come together to escape the depression. This puts an extreme amount of pressure on both presidents. Each move they made or each law they passed could help the U. S. , but could also make the depression even worse. The comparison of these presidencies was very similar due to how the country’s economy was the worst it had ever been. Roosevelt brought the U. S. out of the depression even though Hoover tried extremely hard he just was not successful.
