With the continually worsening conditions, and the stock market crash on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, the United States was thrown into the biggest economical disaster of our history. Everyone, excluding the rich upper class, became poor and most unemployed. The majority of the American populace found themselves living in shantytowns’ or Hoovervilles’ as they later became to be known, which consisted of many cramped shacks constructed from whatever was available. This meant old burnt-out cars, cardboard boxes, random pieces of lumber, and anything else that people could find.
Times truly were tough. It was a daily struggle for people to support their own lives, let alone those of their family on the meager amount of money they had. The lucky man in charge of bringing us out from the depths of this very great of depressions was none other than the thirty-first president of these United States. Herbert Clark Hoover was born in an Iowa village in 1874 to a Quaker blacksmith. He grew up in Oregon and eventually graduated from Stanford University as a mining engineer.
After marrying Lou Henry, his girlfriend from Stanford, they went to China where he worked as the leading engineer for the country. Upon entering World War I, President Wilson placed Hoover at the head of the Food Administration where he successfully kept the Allies well fed. Following the war, Hoover organized food shipments for millions of starving people in Europe and Soviet Russia as a member of the Supreme Economic Council and head of the American Relief Administration. Finally, in 1928 Hoover became the Republican Presidential nominee, and later the President of the United States of America.
A year later, those United States sank into deep depression. Following the crash of the stock market in 1929, Americans looked to their federal government for help through these hard times. The public required Direct Relief, or cash payments or food provided for the poor by the government. Hoover and his rugged individualist mentality, however, believed that the government should not interfere with the economic happenings of its citizens. He said that aid to the hungry and the deserving unemployed should come from local governments, not the federal.
President Hoover did, however, engage in indirect relief through his huge public works programs and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. With the public work programs, Hoover provided unemployed Americans with many different jobs in order to create some sort of income. The most famous of these programs was the Boulder Dam, which will be talked about later. Throughout the entire depression, Hoover stood on his belief of a hands-off government until late in his presidency. Under pressure from Americans and his fellow politicians, President Hoover eventually gave in and signed an act granting money and/or food to areas in dire need.
That was the extent of his direct relief. As previously mentioned, the Boulder Dam was one of the most famous, and certainly most expensive (with the whole project costing about $385 million) public works program. To provide jobs and much needed money to unemployed Americans, the Bureau of Reclamation, under President Hoover, authorized the Boulder Canyon Project on the Colorado River in 1928. The entire project included a hydroelectric power plant and a reservoir to control floods of the Colorado River and supply power to the Pacific Southwest.
The dam reservoir is Lake Mead, which can store approximately 28 million acre-feet of water, making it one of the world’s largest artificially created bodies of water. Besides providing many jobs, the project responsible for the officially named Hoover Dam (as of 1947), added about 3 million acres of national parks and monuments and expanded national forests. Another part of Hoover’s relief plan was the institution of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in 1932. The RFC was created to provide emergency financing facilities for financial institutions, agriculture, commerce, and industry.
It did this by loaning money to banks, trust and insurance companies, railroads, and many industries and agricultural organizations as well as the local governments, all in order to stimulate economic growth. Basically, the RFC acted to make and collect loans and buy and sell securities between these groups. In all, the Corporation was successful in its goals. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was used greatly in the U. S. until 1953 when its functions were transferred to other government agencies.
Yet another measure by Hoover to turn around the economy and provide much needed help to the American public, in particular the homeowners and farmers, was the Federal Home Loan Bank Act. This act was passed by Congress in order to reform banking, provide mortgage relief to homeowners, and funnel more federal money into business investments. It lowered mortgage rates for homeowners and allowed farmers to refinance their farm loans and avoid foreclosure. The farmers, and agriculture in general, benefited greatly from these measures.
To heap even more trouble onto the shoulders of Hoover, between 10 and 20 thousand World War I veterans marched to Washington D. C. in the spring of 1932. This Bonus Army, as it was to be called, made the trip under Walter Waters to support a bill under debate that might grant them a cash bonus. The original bonus, previously passed in 1924, was supposed to give them life insurance in 1945. This new bill in Congress was to give each soldier $500 immediately. Surprisingly, Hoover wasn’t upset with the Bonus Army’s gathering, and even encouraged them by providing food and supplies.
On June 17, 1932, the Patman Bill was put down and Hoover ordered the Bonus Army to depart. When 2,000 of the men refused to move, the president sent 1,000 soldiers to send them home. With tear gas and bayonets, their task was accomplished. A few men were killed in this ordeal. Herbert Hoover was the boy from Iowa fated to lead this nation through one of its greatest disasters. Unfortunately, he receives much undeserved blame for the crash of the stock market and subsequent depression the U. S. faced. Considering the circumstances, Hoover did a commendable job pulling us through this very hard of times.