Handling The Great Depression Essay, Research Paper

Hoover and Roosevelt had very different ideas on how the

Depression should be handled. This was almost entirely a result of two

integral differences in their schemas; Hoover was a Republican, and

had basically worked his way through life, while Roosevelt was not

only a Democrat, he had basically been born with the proverbial silver

spoon in his mouth. As one can easily see, in many ways these two are

complete opposites; in fact, if one looks at both their upbringing and

their political affiliation, it seems that Roosevelt’s and Hoover’s

policies must have been different in a great many ways. Hoover was

brought up in a poor family, and worked almost his entire life. When

he was eight years old, his parents died so he went to live with his

uncle. His uncle worked with him, and later became rich. Hoover had

endured a great many hardships in his life, and knew what it was like

to do without. In fact, Hoover was very poor as a child, although not

necessarily living in poverty. This effect on his schema would be

rather interesting, as it seems that he should have had a better

understanding of how to handle problems with the poor than Roosevelt.

As Hoover was born poor, one would think that he would know how to run

the country like a business, so that it would stay afloat; however,

when confronted with the Depression, he repeatedly cut taxes. Hoover

was basically a hard working Republican, the quintessential self made

man. Roosevelt, on the other hand, had been born into a very rich

family; He grew up with education at Harvard, had his own pony and

sailboat, and had everything basically taken care of for him in his

childhood by his mother. This gave him a sense of security, of being

able to do anything he wanted, most simply because he didn’t fail

early on. He had never lived through what the American public was

going through, so his view of the world, his schema, did not

necessarily include what it was like to live in poverty. He believed

that the Depression could be solved merely by putting as many people

to work for the government as possible. This could relate to how,

growing up, he himself did not have to work in any way, shape, or

form. Roosevelt did have one other perspective that would always be

unavailable to Hoover; he was a cripple. He had contracted polio on

1921; by the time he became governor of New York in 1928, he could not

walk unaided. He refused to let this stop him, though, and remained a

suave speaker, unlike his competitor Hoover.

Political affiliation is also one of the most necessary

differences to realize in contrasting Hoover and Roosevelt. Hoover’s

policies, when viewed form the modern perspective, seem rather

strange. One of his major efforts appears to have been lowering taxes;

he basically expressed faith in the existent American system. He

called leaders of industry to Washington D.C. and made them promise to

keep up wages and such, but when they did not he worked with local

welfare agencies. He basically refused to give out any national

welfare, believing that it demeaned proud Americans. While he

attempted much to help businesses, it was clear by 1932 that his

policies were a complete failure. Even when the Democrats had control

of the congress after 1930, he still stubbornly refused to take

stronger action. Throughout this time, the bank failures had been

steadily going up. His lowest point in popularity was when a group of

veterans camped in D.C. demanding a bonus that they were due. Hoover

ordered them removed. Yet even through all of this, he still insisted

that the American public did not honestly want national relief.

Basically, Roosevelt could have no better campaign than Hoover’s

presidency. Roosevelt’s philosophy, on the other hand, was entirely

different. His most readily apparent ability was his voice; he was

able to talk to people in such a way that they almost always went

along with him. He was exceptionally confident, and made those around

him feel so too. Roosevelt did not tend to deal with underlying

problems; he was, however, wonderful at taking care of the surface

problem. On his inauguration day, he gave his famous speech asserting

that the only thing America had to fear was fear itself; not entirely

true, because the nation stood on the brink of collapse. The banks in

Chicago and New York were closed. Within ten days, Roosevelt had them

back open. Throughout the next few years, Roosevelt’s general policy

was to make work for anyone and everyone who was idle; it didn’t

matter if the work was pointless, and didn’t really need to be done.

Roosevelt simply took the men of the nation and put them to work at

whatever he could think of for them to do. The job really didn’t

matter; the only reason it was there was to keep the public happy. It

is questionable how much these work projects actually helped America

to come out of the Depression; in fact, most believe that only World

War II saved America’s economy. Regardless, the American spirit was

once again uplifted, and even if the Depression hadn’t gone away the

American public once again felt as though they were the best country

in the world. Hoover and Roosevelt had a variety of differences, both

in their background and in their political ideas. Hoover had been born

poor, and had worked his way up to a higher station in life (partially

with the help of an uncle who came into money). Roosevelt’s family,

though, possessed basically old wealth. He had whatever he wanted as a

child. As far as their political views, Hoover favored a local end to

the Depression, basically not believing that the central American

government could accomplish what was necessary. Roosevelt, on the

other hand, understood as Robert Wiebe did, that the time for island

communities was over, and it was necessary for the central power in

the country to lend a hand.