March 21, 2007
Photo Essay ~ Hoover & The Great Depression
From 1929 up to the Second World War, Americans experienced what most consider the worst economic Depression in U.S. history. Many blame President Hoover for causing the shift from the Roaring Twenties⎯ an era of Jazz, flappers, new technologies, economic prosperity and Henry Ford’s Model T automobile ⎯to the period known as the Great Depression of the 1930s. Several photographs captured during that period demonstrate the agony and despair that Americans experienced from the onset of Hoover’s presidency up to the presidential election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Although the depression and Americans’ struggles to survive did not end until WWII, FDR’s New Deal offered Americans the aid that President Hoover failed to provide. Images speak louder than words, and the following pictures demonstrate the neglect that Americans experienced and felt during Hoover’s presidency.
Photo Credit: Wikipedia, Herbert Hoover
In 1928, Americans elected Herbert Hoover as the 31st President of the United States. Hoover’s election came at a time when Americans witnessed a period of economic boom, higher wages and soaring business profits. President Hoover was to continue America’s economic prosperity; however, soon after Hoover took office the period of the Roaring Twenties would come to an end, and the President’s choices would either bring the U.S back to that period or lead Americans to struggle for life.
Photo Credit: The Authentic History Center: Primary Sources from American Culture – Stock Market Crash 1929
On Tuesday October 29, 1929, after a ten-day steady fall of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Stock Market finally crashed on what Americans came to know as “Black Tuesday.” In addition, the unregulated practice known as buying on margin hurt American’s credit and worsened the effects of the stock market crash. Investors panicked and dumped over 16 million shares. Throughout the month following the crash, Americans lost tens of billions of dollars. The stock market crash on that dreadful Tuesday caused wide commotion and despair, which lead people to crowd Wall Street. Over 400 police officers had to safeguard the area, and the above picture demonstrates the crowds that gathered soon after the crash.
Photo Credit: Wikipedia, Hoover
The events of the Stock Market Crash of 1929, lead Americans to enter into the period known in U.S history as the Great Depression. The economic downfall severely affected families and businesses, increasing the unemployment rate in the U.S and leading millions of Americans to homelessness. President Hoover, a firm supporter of laissez-faire (hands-off) policy, failed to take action on the situation, believing that the economy would fix itself. He encouraged Americans and their families to continue their hard work and that with their determination and self-reliance the nation would come out of the depression. However, Hoover’s failure to aid families and the unemployed lead Americans to live in shantytowns which people defined as “Hoovervilles.”
Photo Credit: American Treasures of the Library of Congress Exhibit, Memory ~ The Bonus Army March.
Another group severely affected by the Great Depression, were the middle-aged WWI veterans. Congress before the stock market crash had agreed to pay veterans a bonus stipend, which they could collect in 1945. However, with the events of the depression, veterans demanded their bonus early. When Congress refused to provide their bonus early, veterans formed a “Bonus Army” with more than 20,000 men. The “Bonus Army” marched over to Washington, D.C in the summer of 1932 and set up their Hoovervilles outside of the Capitol steps. Since the veterans would not leave until they were paid, President Hoover ordered General Douglas McArthur along with federal troops to force the veterans out of the Capitol with the use of tear gas and by setting fire to their Hovervilles. The press named the events of the Bonus Army March and the actions of the federal troops, as what people known today as the “Battle of Anacostia Flats.”
Photo Credit: Wikipedia, FDR
Hoover’s failure to assist Americans during the Great Depression cost him the chance for reelection in 1932. Americans wanted and needed an optimistic leader who would save them from there devastating lives. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was that leader, who promised to assist and offer Americans direct relief. Roosevelt won the election against Hoover by a landslide, and once in office FDR would immediately set to work his New Deal policies in order to take America out of the depression.
FDR’s New Deal improved the situation in America, but it did not end the Great Depression. It would take America’s involvement in WWII to finally get the nation out of the Great Depression. Today these images demonstrate how Americans struggled to make it through the depression and how they were in desperate need of government aid and not a laissez-faire policy.
