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Herbert Hoover's tenure as the 31st president of the United States began on his inauguration on March 4, 1929, and ended on March 4, 1933. Hoover, a Republican, took office after a landslide victory in the
1928 presidential election The following elections occurred in the year 1928. Africa * 1928 Southern Rhodesian general election Asia * 1928 Japanese general election * 1928 Persian legislative election * 1928 Philippine House of Representatives elections * 1928 Philippin ...
over
Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...
Al Smith Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was an American politician who served four terms as Governor of New York and was the Democratic Party's candidate for president in 1928. The son of an Irish-American mother and a C ...
of New York. His presidency ended following his defeat in the 1932 presidential election by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hoover was the third straight Republican president, and he retained many of the previous administration's policies and personnel, including Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon. Hoover favored policies in which government, business, and labor worked together to achieve economic prosperity, but he generally opposed a direct role for the federal government in the economy. Seeking to address an ongoing
farm crisis A farm crisis describes times of agricultural recession, low crop prices and low farm incomes. The most recent US farm crisis occurred during the 1980s. Crisis of the 1920s and 1930s A farm crisis began in the 1920s, commonly believed to be a ...
, Hoover signed the
Agricultural Marketing Act of 1929 The Agricultural Marketing Act of 1929, under the administration of Herbert Hoover, established the Federal Farm Board from the Federal Farm Loan Board established by the Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916 with a revolving fund of half a billion dolla ...
. Despite growing public resistance to Prohibition, Hoover increased federal enforcement of Prohibition. In foreign affairs, Hoover favored non-interventionism in Latin America and pursued disarmament policies with the
London Naval Treaty The London Naval Treaty, officially the Treaty for the Limitation and Reduction of Naval Armament, was an agreement between the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Italy, and the United States that was signed on 22 April 1930. Seeking to address is ...
. When the Wall Street Crash of 1929 struck less than eight months after he took office, Hoover tried to combat the ensuing
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
by reassuring public confidence and working with business leaders and local government. He also approved the Smoot–Hawley Tariff of 1930, which raised tariff rates and reduced international trade. As the depression worsened in 1931 and 1932, Hoover reluctantly gave in to calls for direct federal intervention, establishing the
Reconstruction Finance Corporation The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was a government corporation administered by the United States Federal Government between 1932 and 1957 that provided financial support to state and local governments and made loans to banks, railroads, mortgag ...
and signing a major public works bill. At the same time, he signed the
Revenue Act of 1932 The Revenue Act of 1932 (June 6, 1932, ch. 209, ) raised United States tax rates across the board, with the rate on top incomes rising from 25 percent to 63 percent. The estate tax was doubled and corporate taxes were raised by almost 15 percent. ...
, which sought to maintain a balanced budget by raising taxes. However, the economy did not recover, and as a result, Hoover suffered an overwhelming defeat in the 1932 election. Hoover is usually ranked lower than average among U.S. presidents.


Election of 1928

After President
Calvin Coolidge Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929. Born in Vermont, Coolidge was a History of the Republican Party (United States), Republican lawyer ...
announced in August 1927 that he would not seek a second full term of office in the
1928 presidential election The following elections occurred in the year 1928. Africa * 1928 Southern Rhodesian general election Asia * 1928 Japanese general election * 1928 Persian legislative election * 1928 Philippine House of Representatives elections * 1928 Philippin ...
, Hoover emerged as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. While Hoover gained the support of important party constituencies and won several primaries, some party leaders opposed his candidacy. Coolidge viewed Hoover's candidacy with ill-concealed disgust, remarking that "for six years that man has given me unsolicited advice—all of it bad." Hoover's opponents were unable to unite around an alternative candidate, and Hoover won the presidential nomination on the first ballot of the
1928 Republican National Convention The 1928 Republican National Convention was held at Convention Hall in Kansas City, Missouri, from June 12 to June 15, 1928. Because President Coolidge had announced unexpectedly he would not run for re-election in 1928, Commerce Secretary Her ...
. The delegates considered re-nominating Vice President Charles Dawes to be Hoover's running mate, but Coolidge, who hated Dawes, remarked that this would be "a personal affront" to him. The convention instead selected Senator Charles Curtis of Kansas, who had native-American ancestry. Delegates to the
1928 Democratic National Convention The 1928 Democratic National Convention was held at Sam Houston Hall in Houston, Texas, June 26–28, 1928. Keynote speaker was Claude G. Bowers. The convention resulted in the nomination of Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York for pre ...
nominated New York Governor
Alfred E. Smith Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was an American politician who served four terms as Governor of New York and was the Democratic Party's candidate for president in 1928. The son of an Irish-American mother and a Civ ...
, who was described by Smith ally Franklin D. Roosevelt as "the Happy Warrior of the political battlefield." Hoover campaigned for efficiency and the Republican record of prosperity. Smith ran on his record of efficiency earned over four terms as governor. Both candidates were pro-business, and each promised to improve conditions for farmers, reform immigration laws, and maintain America's isolationist foreign policy. They differed on the Volstead Act which outlawed the sale of liquor and beer. Smith was a "wet" who called for its repeal, whereas Hoover gave limited support for Prohibition, calling it an "experiment noble in purpose." While Smith won extra support among Catholics in the big cities, he was the target of intense anti-Catholic rhetoric from the
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
, as well as numerous Protestant preachers in rural areas across the South and West. In the November election, Republicans won an overwhelming victory. Though Smith carried every large urban area in the country, Hoover received 58 percent of the popular vote and a massive 444 to 87 Electoral College majority. Hoover won 40 states, including Smith's home state; he also succeeded in cracking the " Solid South", winning in five traditionally Democratic states. Historians agree that Hoover's national reputation and the booming economy, combined with deep splits in the Democratic Party over religion and prohibition, were the decisive factors in the 1928 election.


Transition

Before President-elect Hoover would take office, there was a nearly four-month transition period. In November 1928, President-elect Hoover embarked on a ten-nation goodwill tour of Latin America. He delivered twenty-five speeches, stressing his plans to reduce American political and military interference in Latin American affairs. In sum, he pledged that the United States would act as a "good neighbor." While crossing the Andes from Chile, a plot to bomb Hoover's train as it crossed the vast Argentinian
central plain Central Plain or Central Plains may refer to: Regions * Zhongyuan, a plain in Northern China in the lower reaches of the Yellow River which was the cradle of Chinese civilisation ** Central Plains Economic Zone * Central Plain (Wisconsin), one ...
was foiled.


Inauguration

Hoover was inaugurated as the nation's 31st president on March 4, 1929, on the East Portico of the United States Capitol. Chief Justice (and former president) William Howard Taft administered the
oath of office An oath of office is an oath or affirmation a person takes before assuming the duties of an office, usually a position in government or within a religious body, although such oaths are sometimes required of officers of other organizations. Such ...
. This was the first inaugural ceremony recorded by newsreel cameras. Hoover's inaugural address projected an optimistic tone throughout, even as he spoke about the "disregard and disobedience of law," which he considered "the most malign" problem confronting the nation. Near the end of the speech he confidently observed: These words would stand in stark contrast to the sense of desperation that would pervade the nation during much of his presidency. The morning of the inauguration, the Coolidges had briefly met with the Hoovers in the Blue Room of the White House before departing for the United States Capitol for Hoover's inauguration.


Administration


Cabinet

Hoover's cabinet consisted largely of wealthy, business-oriented conservatives. As the third consecutive Republican president to take office in the 1920s, Hoover retained many of the previous administration's personnel, including Secretary of Labor
James J. Davis James John Davis (October 27, 1873November 22, 1947) was a Wales, Welsh-born American businessman, author and Republican Party (United States), Republican Party politician in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He served as United States Secre ...
and Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon. Hoover disliked Mellon, who maintained intense support among the party's Old Guard, and instead relied on Undersecretary of the Treasury
Ogden L. Mills Ogden Livingston Mills (August 23, 1884October 11, 1937) was an American lawyer, businessman and politician. He served as United States Secretary of the Treasury in President Herbert Hoover's cabinet, during which time Mills pushed for tax increa ...
. Henry Stimson, the Governor-General of the Philippines and a former Secretary of War, became Hoover's Secretary of State. After Hoover's old friend, Supreme Court Justice
Harlan F. Stone Harlan Fiske Stone (October 11, 1872 – April 22, 1946) was an American attorney and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1925 to 1941 and then as the 12th chief justice of the United States from 1941 un ...
declined to serve as Attorney General, Hoover promoted Solicitor General of the United States
William D. Mitchell William DeWitt Mitchell (September 9, 1874August 24, 1955) was an American attorney who had served as both Solicitor General of the United States under President Calvin Coolidge and United States Attorney General under President Herbert Hoover. ...
to the head the Justice Department. Hoover's first choice for Secretary of Agriculture was
Charles McNary Charles Linza McNary (June 12, 1874February 25, 1944) was an American Republican Party (United States), Republican politician from Oregon. He served in the United States Senate, U.S. Senate from 1917 to 1944 and was Party leaders of the United ...
, author of the controversial McNary-Haugen Farm Relief Bill, which Hoover had strenuously opposed. The position instead went to
Arthur Hyde Arthur Mastick Hyde (July 12, 1877October 17, 1947) was an American Republican politician, who served as the 35th governor of Missouri from 1921 to 1925, and as the United States Secretary of Agriculture for President Herbert Hoover from 1929 t ...
, who was inexperienced regarding agricultural issues. For Secretary of the Navy, Hoover chose Charles Francis Adams III, a scion of the
Adams political family The Adams family was a prominent political family in the United States from the late 18th through the early 20th centuries. Based in eastern Massachusetts, they formed part of the Boston Brahmin community. The family traces to Henry Adams of Bar ...
who shared Hoover's views on disarmament. Hoover persuaded Ray Lyman Wilbur, the president of
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
, to serve as Secretary of the Interior. Businessman
Robert P. Lamont Robert Patterson Lamont (December 1, 1867February 20, 1948) was United States secretary of commerce March 5, 1929 to August 7, 1932, during the administration of Herbert Hoover. He was commerce secretary during difficult times for commerce, as a ...
became Secretary of Commerce,
James William Good James William Good (September 24, 1866 – November 18, 1929) was an American politician and lawyer from the state of Iowa, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Cabinet of President Herbert Hoover as Secretary of War. He w ...
was appointed as Secretary of War, and
Walter Folger Brown Walter Folger Brown (May 31, 1869January 26, 1961) was an American politician and lawyer who is served as the Postmaster General of the United States from March 5, 1929 to March 4, 1933 under Herbert Hoover's administration. Biography Early & p ...
took the position of Postmaster General. Vice President Charles Curtis, who had previously opposed Hoover's nomination, had little influence with Hoover.


Press corps

Hoover held a press conference on his first day in office, promising a "new phase of press relations".Rouse, Robert
"Happy Anniversary to the first scheduled presidential press conference – 93 years young!"
, ''American Chronicle'', March 15, 2006
He asked the group of journalists to elect a committee to recommend improvements to the White House press conference. Hoover declined to use a spokesman, instead asking reporters to directly quote him and giving them handouts with his statements ahead of time. In his first 120 days in office, he held more regular and frequent press conferences than any other president, before or since. However, he changed his press policies after the 1929 stock market crash, screening reporters and greatly reducing his availability.


Judicial appointments

Hoover appointed three justices of the
Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
. He appointed Charles Evans Hughes to succeed Chief Justice William Howard Taft after the latter's death in 1930. A former associate justice, governor, secretary of state, and presidential nominee, Hughes would lead the
Hughes Court The Hughes Court refers to the Supreme Court of the United States from 1930 to 1941, when Charles Evans Hughes served as Chief Justice of the United States. Hughes succeeded William Howard Taft as Chief Justice after the latter's retirement, an ...
until 1941. A second vacancy arose in 1930 due to the death of Edward Terry Sanford. Hoover' first nominee, federal appellate judge
John J. Parker John Johnston Parker (November 20, 1885 – March 17, 1958) was an American politician and United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He was an unsuccessful nominee for associate justice of the Unite ...
, was rejected in the Senate due to the opposition of the
NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
and labor groups. Hoover now nominated Owen Roberts, an attorney who had risen to prominence due to his role in investigating the Teapot Dome scandal. Roberts was confirmed by acclamation. Hughes and Roberts both established centrist reputations on the bench, and they often held the balance between their more conservative and more liberal colleagues during the 1930s. In 1932, 91-year-old Associate Justice
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (March 8, 1841 – March 6, 1935) was an American jurist and legal scholar who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932.Holmes was Acting Chief Justice of the Un ...
announced his retirement from the Court.
George W. Norris George William Norris (July 11, 1861September 2, 1944) was an American politician from the state of Nebraska in the Midwestern United States. He served five terms in the United States House of Representatives as a Republican, from 1903 until 1913 ...
, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, insisted that Hoover nominate a progressive judge to succeed Holmes. Hoover nominated Benjamin Cardozo, the highly regarded chief judge of the
New York Court of Appeals The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the Unified Court System of the State of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six Associate Judges who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by t ...
, and Cardozo was approved by the Senate in a unanimous vote. Cardozo joined with
Louis Brandeis Louis Dembitz Brandeis (; November 13, 1856 – October 5, 1941) was an American lawyer and associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939. Starting in 1890, he helped develop the "right to privacy" concept ...
and
Harlan F. Stone Harlan Fiske Stone (October 11, 1872 – April 22, 1946) was an American attorney and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1925 to 1941 and then as the 12th chief justice of the United States from 1941 un ...
in forming a progressive block of Supreme Court justices known as the "Three Musketeers".


Domestic affairs

Hoover saw the presidency as a vehicle for improving the conditions of all Americans by encouraging public-private cooperation—what he termed "volunteerism". He tended to oppose governmental coercion or intervention, as he thought they infringed on American ideals of individualism and self-reliance. He sought a balance among labor, capital, and the government, and he has been variously labeled a corporatist or associationalist. Hoover made extensive use of commissions to study issues and propose solutions, and many of those commissions were sponsored by private donors rather than by the government. One of the commissions started by Hoover, the Research Committee on Social Trends, was tasked with surveying the entirety of American society.


Agriculture

After taking office, Hoover called Congress into session in an attempt to address the
farm crisis A farm crisis describes times of agricultural recession, low crop prices and low farm incomes. The most recent US farm crisis occurred during the 1980s. Crisis of the 1920s and 1930s A farm crisis began in the 1920s, commonly believed to be a ...
that had affected the country throughout much of the 1920s. Since the end of World War I, a glut of agricultural products on the world market had reduced the demand for American exports, resulting in domestic overproduction and a drop in prices. In June 1929, Hoover signed the
Agricultural Marketing Act of 1929 The Agricultural Marketing Act of 1929, under the administration of Herbert Hoover, established the Federal Farm Board from the Federal Farm Loan Board established by the Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916 with a revolving fund of half a billion dolla ...
, which established the
Federal Farm Board The Federal Farm Board was established by the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1929 from the Federal Farm Loan Board established by the Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916, with a revolving fund of half a billion dollarsWilliam Marion Jardine William Marion Jardine (January 16, 1879January 17, 1955) was a U.S. administrator and educator. He served as the United States Secretary of Agriculture from 1925 to 1929 and as the U.S. Minister to Egypt from 1930 to 1933. Early life and educ ...
, as an alternative to the McNary–Haugen Farm Relief Bill. The Agricultural Marketing Act authorized the Federal Farm Board to loan money to state and local cooperatives, which in turn would help farmers control crop prices by avoiding surpluses. Reflecting his desire to avoid statist solutions, Hoover successfully opposed other proposals, such as the McNary-Haugen bill, that would have directly subsidized farmers. During the special session of Congress in 1929, Hoover also sought to raise tariffs on agricultural products, but opposition from eastern senators delayed action on the tariff until 1930. Hoover hoped that the Federal Farm Board would become the agricultural equivalent of the Federal Reserve Board, in that it would help control supply and production, especially during emergencies. With its emphasis on cooperation between business and government, the Federal Farm Board also reflected Hoover's general approach to governance. As the economy worsened in the 1930s, the Hoover administration and the Federal Farm Board struggled to stabilize farm prices, and Hoover continued to reject a stronger federal role. Federal Farm Board Chairman Alexander Legge and Secretary of Agriculture Hyde tried to convince farmers to voluntarily restrict their own production, but farmers were unwilling to do so. Prices for agricultural goods like wheat and cotton sank to new lows in the early 1930s, and Westerners also faced a period of severe drought and dust storms known as the Dust Bowl. Many of the Farm Board's proposals to address the ongoing economic crisis would later be adopted by the Roosevelt administration.


Great Depression


Onset

On taking office, Hoover said that " ven the chance to go forward with the policies of the last eight years, we shall soon with the help of God, be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation." Hoover hoped that coordination among business, labor, and consumers could bring an end to the business cycle and allow for sustained and predictable economic growth. Having seen the fruits of prosperity brought by technological progress, many shared Hoover's optimism, and the already bullish stock market climbed even higher on Hoover's accession. This optimism concealed several threats to sustained U.S. economic growth, including the persistent farm crisis, a saturation of consumer goods like
automobiles A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as ...
, growing income inequality, an uneasy international situation, and the consolidation of various industries due to weak enforcement of antitrust law. Most dangerous of all to the economy was excessive
speculation In finance, speculation is the purchase of an asset (a commodity, good (economics), goods, or real estate) with the hope that it will become more valuable shortly. (It can also refer to short sales in which the speculator hopes for a decline i ...
had raised stock prices far beyond their value. Banks played a major role in enabling this speculation, as by 1929 commercial banks were loaning more money for investments in real estate or the stock market than for commercial enterprises. Some regulators and bankers, like
George L. Harrison George Leslie Harrison (January 26, 1887 – March 5, 1958) was an American banker, insurance executive and advisor to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson during World War II. Early life and education Harrison was born in San Francisco, California o ...
and George Fisher Baker, recognized the danger that speculation posed to the economy, and in 1927 Baker had warned Coolidge and Hoover that a failure to curb speculation would lead to "one of the greatest financial catastrophes that this country has ever seen." President Hoover was reluctant to become involved with the workings of the Federal Reserve System, and bankers like
Charles E. Mitchell Charles Edwin Mitchell (October 6, 1877 – December 14, 1955) was an American banker whose incautious securities policies facilitated the speculation which led to the Crash of 1929. First National City Bank's (now Citibank) abuses under his l ...
continued to encourage speculative practices. In late October 1929, the Stock Market Crash of 1929 occurred, and the worldwide economy began to spiral downward into the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. The
causes of the Great Depression The causes of the Great Depression in the early 20th century in the United States have been extensively discussed by economists and remain a matter of active debate. They are part of the larger debate about economic crises and recessions. The sp ...
remain a matter of debate, but Hoover viewed a lack of confidence in the financial system as the fundamental economic problem facing the nation. He sought to avoid direct federal intervention, believing that the best way to bolster the economy was through the strengthening of businesses such as banks and railroads. He also feared that allowing individuals on the "
dole Dole may refer to: Places * Dole, Ceredigion, Wales * Dole, Idrija, Slovenia * Dole, Jura, France ** Arrondissement of Dole * Dole (Kladanj), a village at the entity line of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina-Republika Srpska * Dole, Ljubuški, ...
" would permanently weaken the country. Instead, Hoover strongly believed that local governments and private giving should address the needs of individuals.


Early response

Though he attempted to put a positive spin on Black Tuesday, Hoover moved quickly to address the stock market collapse. In the days following Black Tuesday, Hoover gathered business and labor leaders, asking them to avoid wage cuts and work stoppages while the country faced what he believed would be a short recession similar to the Depression of 1920–21. Hoover also convinced railroads and public utilities to increase spending on construction and maintenance, while the Federal Reserve announced that it would cut interest rates. These actions were collectively designed to prevent a cycle of deflation and provide a fiscal stimulus. In early 1930, Hoover acquired from Congress an additional $100 million to continue the Federal Farm Board lending and purchasing policies. At the end of 1929, the FFB established the National Wool Marketing Corporation (NWMC), a national wool cooperative made up of 30 state associations. Hoover also supported new public works projects, although his fear of budget deficits led him to oppose expansive projects such as that contemplated by the
Muscle Shoals Bill The Muscle Shoals Bill was designed to build a dam in the Tennessee River and sell government-produced electricity. Congress passed bills to harness energy from the Tennessee River, but presidents Coolidge and Hoover insisted that private enterp ...
, which sought to establish government production and distribution of power in the Tennessee Valley. In late 1930, Hoover established the
President's Organization for Unemployment Relief The President's Organization for Unemployment Relief (originally known as the President's Emergency Committee for Employment) was a government organization created on August 19, 1931, by United States President Herbert Hoover. Its commission wa ...
, which issued press releases urging companies to hire workers. Hoover had taken office hoping to raise agricultural tariffs in order to help farmers reeling from the farm crisis of the 1920s, but his attempt to raise agricultural tariffs became connected with attempts to raise tariffs for other goods. After months of debate, Congress produced a bill that raised the average import duties on agricultural products from 38 percent to 49 percent and average import duties on industrial products from 31 percent to 34 percent. In June 1930, over the objection of many economists, Congress approved and Hoover reluctantly signed into law the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act. The intent of the act was to encourage the purchase of American-made products by increasing the cost of imported goods, while raising revenue for the federal government and protecting farmers. However, economic depression had spread worldwide, and Canada, France and other nations retaliated by raising tariffs, resulting in a contraction of international trade and a worsening of the Depression. Progressive Republicans such as Senator Borah were outraged when Hoover signed the tariff act, and Hoover's relations with that wing of the party never recovered. By the end of 1930, the national unemployment rate had reached 11.9 percent, but it was not yet clear to most Americans that the economic downturn would be worse than the Depression of 1920–21.


1930 midterm elections

The 1930 midterm elections saw Republicans lose control of the House and narrowly retain control of the Senate.
John Nance Garner John Nance Garner III (November 22, 1868 – November 7, 1967), known among his contemporaries as "Cactus Jack", was an American History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic politician and lawyer from History of Texas, Texas who ...
, the incoming Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, emerged as perhaps the most influential individual in Congress. The election was also a victory for
progressives Progressivism holds that it is possible to improve human societies through political action. As a political movement, progressivism seeks to advance the human condition through social reform based on purported advancements in science, techno ...
of both parties, as Republicans closely aligned with Hoover lost several congressional elections. Additionally, New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt's landslide re-election established him as the front-runner for the 1932 Democratic nomination. Despite the election defeat, Hoover refused to change his policies, rejecting the Chairman of the Committee on Employment's advice to appropriate additional money for public works. Instead, Hoover's first
State of the Union The State of the Union Address (sometimes abbreviated to SOTU) is an annual message delivered by the president of the United States to a joint session of the United States Congress near the beginning of each calendar year on the current conditio ...
address after the election called for a balancing of the budget. Hoover also refused to call a special session of Congress after the election, leaving the
72nd Congress The 72nd United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1931 ...
in recess from March 1931 to December 1931.


Later response

A series of bank failures in late 1930 heralded a larger collapse of the economy in 1931. Bank failures continued in 1931 as foreign investors withdrew money from the United States, and the Federal Reserve raised interest rates in order to prevent outflow of gold. While other countries left the gold standard, Hoover refused to abandon it; he derided any other monetary system as "collectivism." By mid-1931, the unemployment rate had reached 15 percent, giving rise to growing fears that the country was experiencing a depression far worse than recent economic downturns. Millions of Americans became homeless as the economy crumbled, and hundreds of shanty towns and homeless encampments sprang up across the country. A reserved man with a fear of public speaking, Hoover allowed his opponents in the Democratic Party to define him as cold, incompetent, reactionary, and out-of-touch. Hoover's opponents developed defamatory
epithet An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...
s to discredit him such as: " Hooverville" (the shanty towns and homeless encampments), "Hoover leather" (cardboard used to cover holes in the soles of shoes), and "Hoover blanket" (old newspaper used to cover oneself from the cold). Hoover also faced criticism from progressive Republicans like Governor Gifford Pinchot of Pennsylvania, who urged Hoover to call Congress into a special session to approve relief measures before the winter of 1931–1932. Rather than calling Congress into a special session, Hoover created the
National Credit Corporation The National Credit Corporation was an organization created in 1931 in the United States by President Herbert Hoover's administration to try to stop bank failure stemming from the Great Depression, and was a forerunner of the Reconstruction Financ ...
, a voluntary association of bankers, but the organization did not manage to save banks or ease credit as Hoover had hoped it would. As the Great Depression continued, Hoover finally heeded calls for more direct federal intervention, though he vetoed a bill that would have allowed direct federal lending to individuals. When the 72nd Congress convened in December 1931, Hoover proposed the establishment of the
Reconstruction Finance Corporation The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was a government corporation administered by the United States Federal Government between 1932 and 1957 that provided financial support to state and local governments and made loans to banks, railroads, mortgag ...
(RFC). Though some progressives criticized the bill as a bailout for banking interests that was insufficient to address the economic crisis, Congress passed a bill to create the RFC in January 1932. The RFC's initial goal was to provide government-secured loans to financial institutions, railroads, and local governments. The RFC saved numerous businesses from failure, but it failed to stimulate commercial lending as Hoover had hoped, partly because it was run by conservative bankers unwilling to make riskier loans. The RFC would be adopted by Roosevelt and greatly expanded as part of his New Deal. The economy continued to worsen, with unemployment rates nearing 23 percent in early 1932. With the RFC unable to stem the economic crisis, Hoover signed the
Emergency Relief and Construction Act The Emergency Relief and Construction Act (ch. 520, , enacted July 21, 1932), was the United States's first major-relief legislation, enabled under Herbert Hoover and later adopted and expanded by Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of his New Deal. Th ...
, a $2 billion public works bill, in July 1932. That same month, Hoover signed the
Federal Home Loan Bank Act The Federal Home Loan Bank Act, , is a United States federal law passed under President Herbert Hoover in order to lower the cost of home ownership. It established the Federal Home Loan Bank Board to charter and supervise federal savings and loan i ...
, establishing 12 district banks overseen by a Federal Home Loan Bank Board in a manner similar to the Federal Reserve System. Hoover and Senator Carter Glass, another gold standard proponent, recognized that they needed to stop deflation by encouraging lending. Hoover was instrumental in passing the Glass–Steagall Act of 1932, which allowed for prime rediscounting at the Federal Reserve, in turn allowing further inflation of credit and bank reserves.


Taxes and deficits

Though some economists, like William Trufant Foster, favored deficit spending to address the Great Depression, most politicians and economists believed in the necessity of keeping a balanced budget. Hoover shared this belief, and he sought to avoid a budget deficit through greatly increased tax rates on the wealthy. To pay for government programs and to make up for revenue lost due to the Depression, Hoover signed the
Revenue Act of 1932 The Revenue Act of 1932 (June 6, 1932, ch. 209, ) raised United States tax rates across the board, with the rate on top incomes rising from 25 percent to 63 percent. The estate tax was doubled and corporate taxes were raised by almost 15 percent. ...
. The act increased taxes across the board, so that top earners were taxed at 63 percent on their net income - up from 25 percent when Herbert Hoover took office. The 1932 act also increased the tax on the net income of corporations from 12 percent to 13.75 percent. Additionally, under Hoover, the estate tax was doubled,
corporate tax A corporate tax, also called corporation tax or company tax, is a direct tax imposed on the income or capital of corporations or analogous legal entities. Many countries impose such taxes at the national level, and a similar tax may be imposed at ...
es were raised by almost 15 percent, and a "check tax" took effect, placing a 2-cent tax on all bank checks. Economists William D. Lastrapes and George Selgin conclude that the check tax was "an important contributing factor to that period's severe monetary contraction". Despite the passage of the Revenue Act, the federal government continued to run a budget deficit.


Labor

Hoover believed that amicable business-labor relations were an important component of a prosperous economy. In 1931, Hoover signed the Davis-Bacon Act, which required a maximum eight-hour day on construction of public buildings, as well as the payment of at least the local "prevailing wage." The following year, he signed the
Norris–La Guardia Act The Norris–La Guardia Act (also known as the Anti-Injunction Bill) is a 1932 United States federal law relating to United States labor law. It banned yellow-dog contracts, barred the federal courts from issuing injunctions against nonviolent la ...
, which banned yellow-dog contracts, created a positive right of noninterference by employers against workers joining trade unions, and barred the
federal courts Federal court may refer to: United States * Federal judiciary of the United States ** United States district court, a particular federal court Elsewhere * Federal Court of Australia * Federal courts of Brazil * Federal Court (Canada) * Federal co ...
from issuing
injunction An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in pa ...
s against nonviolent labor disputes. Though Hoover had originally tried to stop the bill, he chose to sign it into law as he feared that Congress would simply override a veto.


Prohibition

The United States banned the production, importation, transportation, and sale of
alcoholic beverage An alcoholic beverage (also called an alcoholic drink, adult beverage, or a drink) is a drink that contains ethanol, a type of alcohol that acts as a drug and is produced by fermentation of grains, fruits, or other sources of sugar. The c ...
s nationwide in 1920 following the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment. In his 1929 inaugural address, Hoover, in addressing enforcement of prohibition laws said, "If citizens do not like a law, their duty as honest men and women is to discourage its violation; their right is openly to work for its repeal." Hoover increased federal enforcement of Prohibition by signing the
Increased Penalties Act The Increased Penalties Act was a bill that increased the penalties for violating prohibition. Enacted on March 2, 1929, it is also called the "Jones–Stalker Act" or the "Jones Act". The legislation was sponsored by two Republicans, Sen. Wesley ...
which made even minor liquor violations felonies. Hoover also established the
Wickersham Commission The National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (also known unofficially as the Wickersham Commission) was a committee established by the U.S. President, Herbert Hoover, on May 20, 1929. Former attorney general George W. Wickersham (1858 ...
to make public policy recommendations regarding Prohibition. The commission found widespread corruption and violations of Prohibition, and its exposure of brutal practices such as the "
third degree ''Third Degree'' is a 1986 album by Johnny Winter and the final one of the trilogy he made for Alligator Records. For the occasion Winter temporarily reunited with Tommy Shannon and Uncle Red Turner, who were the rhythm section on his first thr ...
" sparked outrage and helped lead to the reform of many police forces. As public opinion increasingly turned against Prohibition, more and more people flouted the law, and several states repealed state bans on alcoholic beverages. Though he recognized the change in public opinion, Hoover insisted that federal and state authorities continue to uphold Prohibition. A
grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...
movement began working in earnest for prohibition's repeal, supported by numerous organizations, such as the
Association Against the Prohibition Amendment The Association Against the Prohibition Amendment was established in 1918 and became a leading organization working for the repeal of prohibition in the United States. It was the first group created to fight Prohibition, also known as the 18th Ame ...
. A constitutional amendment repealing the Eighteenth Amendment was approved by Congress on January 23, 1933, and submitted to state ratifying conventions in each state for ratification. By December 1933, it had been ratified by the requisite number of states to become the Twenty-first Amendment.


Civil rights and Mexican Repatriation

Hoover seldom mentioned civil rights throughout his presidency. He believed that African Americans and other races could improve themselves with education and individual initiative. Hoover appointed more African Americans to federal positions than Harding and Coolidge had combined, but many African-American leaders condemned various aspects of the Hoover administration, including Hoover's unwillingness to push for a federal anti-
lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...
law. Hoover also continued to pursue the lily-white strategy, removing African Americans from positions of leadership in the Republican Party in an attempt to end the Democratic Party's dominance in the South. Though
Robert Moton Robert Russa Moton (August 26, 1867 – May 31, 1940) was an American educator and author. He served as an administrator at Hampton Institute. In 1915 he was named principal of Tuskegee Institute, after the death of founder Booker T. Washington ...
and some other black leaders accepted the lily-white strategy as a temporary measure, most African-American leaders were outraged. Hoover further alienated black leaders by nominating conservative Southern judge
John J. Parker John Johnston Parker (November 20, 1885 – March 17, 1958) was an American politician and United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He was an unsuccessful nominee for associate justice of the Unite ...
to the
Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
; Parker's nomination ultimately failed in the Senate due to opposition from the
NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
and organized labor. Many black voters switched to the Democratic Party in the 1932 election, and African Americans would later become an important part of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal coalition. As part of his efforts to limit unemployment, Hoover sought to cut immigration to the United States, and in 1930 he promulgated an executive order requiring individuals to have employment before migrating to the United States. With the goal of opening up more jobs for U.S. citizens, Secretary of Labor
William N. Doak William Nuckles Doak (December 12, 1882October 23, 1933) was an American labor leader. He was the Vice-President of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen and served as Secretary of Labor. He died of cardiovascular disease in McLean, Virginia si ...
began a campaign to prosecute illegal immigrants in the United States. Though Doak did not seek to deport one specific group of immigrants, his campaign most strongly affected
Mexican Americans Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexica ...
, especially Mexican Americans living in Southern California. Many of the deportations were overseen by state and local authorities who acted on the encouragement of Doak and the Department of Labor. During the 1930s, between 355,000 and one million were repatriated or deported to Mexico; approximately forty to sixty percent of those repatriated were birthright citizens - overwhelmingly children. Some scholars contend that the unprecedented number of repatriations between 1929 and 1933 were part of an “explicit Hoover administration policy". Voluntary repatriation was much more common during the repatriations than formal deportation. At least 82,000 of those repatriated were formally deported by the federal government, including 34,000 deported to Mexico between 1930 and 1933. According to legal professor Kevin R. Johnson, the repatriation campaign meets the modern legal standards of
ethnic cleansing Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, and religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal, extermination, deportation or population transfer ...
, arguing that it involved the forced removal of an ethnic minority by government actors. Charles Curtis, the nation's first Native American Vice President, and the first person with acknowledged non-European ancestry, was from the
Kaw tribe Kaw or KAW may refer to: Mythology * Kaw (bull), a legendary bull in Meitei mythology * Johnny Kaw, mythical settler of Kansas, US * Kaw (character), in ''The Chronicles of Prydain'' People * Kaw people, a Native American tribe Places * Kaw, F ...
in Kansas. Hoover's humanitarian and Quaker reputation, along with Curtis as a vice-president, gave special meaning to his Indian policies. His Quaker upbringing influenced his views that Native Americans needed to achieve economic self-sufficiency. As president, he appointed Charles J. Rhoads as commissioner of Indian affairs. Hoover supported Rhoads' commitment to Indian assimilation and sought to minimize the federal role in Indian affairs. His goal was to have Indians acting as individuals (not as tribes) and to assume the responsibilities of citizenship granted with the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.


Bonus Army

Thousands of World War I veterans and their families demonstrated and camped out in Washington, DC, during June 1932, calling for immediate payment of bonuses that had been promised by the World War Adjusted Compensation Act in 1924; the terms of the act called for payment of the bonuses in 1945. Although offered money by Congress to return home, some members of the "Bonus Army" remained. Washington police attempted to disperse the demonstrators, but they were outnumbered and unsuccessful. Shots were fired by the police in a futile attempt to attain order, and two protesters were killed while many officers were injured. Hoover sent U.S. Army forces led by General
Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was C ...
to the protests. MacArthur, believing he was fighting a Communist revolution, chose to clear out the camp with military force. Though Hoover had not ordered MacArthur's clearing out of the protesters, he endorsed it after the fact. The incident proved embarrassing for the Hoover administration, and destroyed any remaining chance he had of winning re-election.


Twentieth Amendment

Article I, Section 4, Clause 2 of the Constitution states that Congress must meet at least once per year, on the first Monday in December, though Congress could by law set another date and the president could summon special sessions. The original text of the Constitution set a duration for the terms of federal elected officials, but not the specific dates on which those terms would begin or end. From 1789 until the early 1930s, presidential and congressional terms began on March 4. The result of these scheduling decisions was that there was a long, four-month lame duck period between the election and inauguration of the president. As regular congressional sessions did not begin until December of each year, there was often a long lame duck session following the election, followed by a long period of congressional inactivity. Efforts to change these dates through a
constitutional amendment A constitutional amendment is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly altering the text. Conversely, t ...
began in the late 1920s. In March 1932, Congress approved a constitutional amendment moving the beginning and ending of the terms of the president and vice president from March 4 to January 20, and of members of Congress from March 4 to January 3. The amendment also specified procedures for cases in which the president-elect dies or otherwise fails to qualify. By January 23, 1933, the amendment had been ratified by the requisite number of states to become the Twentieth Amendment. Roosevelt's second inauguration in 1937 was the first presidential inauguration to take place on the new date.


Foreign affairs

In the midst of a worldwide depression, Hoover and Secretary of State Henry Stimson became more closely involved in world affairs than Hoover's Republican predecessors had been. According to Leuchtenberg, Hoover was "the last American president to take office with no conspicuous need to pay attention to the rest of the world." But during Hoover's term, the world order established with the 1919 Treaty of Versailles began to crumble.


Multilateral agreements

Though the United States remained outside of the League of Nations, Hoover showed a willingness to work within multilateral structures. Hoover pursued United States membership in the Permanent Court of International Justice, but the Senate never voted on his proposal. The Senate also defeated Hoover's proposed Saint Lawrence Seaway Treaty with Canada. Hoover placed a priority on disarmament, which he hoped would allow the United States to shift money from the military to domestic needs. Hoover and Stimson focused on extending the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, which sought to prevent a naval
arms race An arms race occurs when two or more groups compete in military superiority. It consists of a competition between two or more states to have superior armed forces; a competition concerning production of weapons, the growth of a military, and t ...
. A previous effort to extend the Washington Naval Treaty, the
Geneva Naval Conference The Geneva Naval Conference was a conference held to discuss naval arms limitation, held in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1927. The aim of the conference was to extend the existing limits on naval construction which had been agreed in the Washington Na ...
, had failed to produce results, but the Hoover administration convinced the British to re-open negotiations. In 1930, the United States and other major naval powers signed the
London Naval Treaty The London Naval Treaty, officially the Treaty for the Limitation and Reduction of Naval Armament, was an agreement between the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Italy, and the United States that was signed on 22 April 1930. Seeking to address is ...
. The treaty represented the first time that the naval powers had agreed to cap their tonnage of auxiliary vessels (previous agreements had focused on capital ships), but the treaty did not include France or Italy. The treaty provoked a nationalist backlash in Japan due to its reconfirmation of the "5–5–3" ratio which limited Japan to a smaller fleet than the United States or the United Kingdom. At the 1932 World Disarmament Conference, Hoover urged worldwide cutbacks in armaments and the outlawing of tanks and bombers, but his proposals were not adopted.


Reparations

When Hoover took office, an international committee meeting in Paris promulgated the Young Plan, which created the Bank for International Settlements and stipulated the partial forgiveness of German World War I reparations. Hoover was wary of agreeing to the plan, as he feared that it would be linked to reduced payments on loans the U.S. extended to France and Britain in World War I. He ultimately agreed to support the proposal at the urging of
Owen D. Young Owen D. Young (October 27, 1874July 11, 1962) was an American industrialist, businessman, lawyer and diplomat at the Second Reparations Conference (SRC) in 1929, as a member of the German Reparations International Commission. He is known for t ...
, the American industrialist who chaired the committee. Despite the settlement reached by the Young Plan, the German economy collapsed in the early 1930s, and Germany announced that it could not pay reparations. In response, Hoover issued the Hoover Moratorium, a one-year halt on Allied war loans conditional on a suspension of German reparations payments. Hoover also made American bankers agree to refrain from demanding payment on private loans from Germans. Hoover hoped that the moratorium would help stabilize the European economy, which he viewed as a major cause of economic troubles in the United States. As the moratorium neared its expiration the following year, an attempt to find a permanent solution was made at the Lausanne Conference of 1932. A working compromise was never established, and reparations payments virtually stopped.


Latin America

As president, Hoover largely made good on his pledge made prior to assuming office not to interfere in Latin America's internal affairs. In 1930, he released the
Clark Memorandum The Clark Memorandum on the Monroe Doctrine or Clark Memorandum, written on December 17, 1928 by Calvin Coolidge's undersecretary of state J. Reuben Clark, concerned the United States' use of military force to intervene in Latin American nations. ...
, a rejection of the Roosevelt Corollary and a move towards non-interventionism in Latin America. Hoover did not completely refrain from the use of the military in Latin American affairs; he thrice threatened intervention in the Dominican Republic, and he sent warships to
El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...
to support the government against a left-wing revolution. But he wound down the Banana Wars, ending the
occupation of Nicaragua The United States occupation of Nicaragua from 1912 to 1933 was part of the Banana Wars, when the US military invaded various Latin American countries from 1898 to 1934. The formal occupation began in 1912, even though there were various other ...
and nearly bringing an end to the
occupation of Haiti The United States occupation of Haiti began on July 28, 1915, when 330 United States Marine Corps, U.S. Marines landed at Port-au-Prince, Republic of Haiti (1859–1957), Haiti, after the Citibank, National City Bank of New York convinced t ...
. Franklin Roosevelt's Good Neighbor policy would continue the trend towards non-interventionism in Latin America.


Affairs in the Pacific

In 1931, Japan
invaded An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing con ...
Manchuria, defeating the
Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
's military forces and establishing
Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China, Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 afte ...
, a puppet state. The Hoover administration deplored the invasion, but also sought to avoid antagonizing the Japanese, fearing that taking too strong of a stand would weaken the moderate forces in the Japanese government. Hoover also viewed the Japanese as a potential ally against the Soviet Union, which he saw as a much greater threat. In response to the Japanese invasion, Hoover and Secretary of State Stimson outlined the Stimson Doctrine, which held that the United States would not recognize territories gained by force. The Hoover administration based this declaration on the 1928
Kellogg–Briand Pact The Kellogg–Briand Pact or Pact of Paris – officially the General Treaty for Renunciation of War as an Instrument of National Policy – is a 1928 international agreement on peace in which signatory states promised not to use war to ...
, in which several nations (including Japan and the United States) renounced war and promised to peacefully solve disputes. In the aftermath of invasion of Manchuria, Stimson and other members of the Cabinet came to believe that war with Japan might be inevitable, though Hoover continued to push for disarmament among the world powers. The United States had taken control of the Philippines after the Spanish–American War of 1898, and the islands remained a possession of the United States despite a vigorous independence movement. Stimson convinced Hoover to oppose independence on the grounds that it would hurt the Philippine economy.


Election of 1932

Between 1928 and 1932, the gross national product dropped by 30 percent, and by mid-1931 few observers thought that Hoover had much hope of winning a second term. Despite the economic calamity facing the nation and his dim hopes for re-election, Hoover faced little opposition for re-nomination at the
1932 Republican National Convention The 1932 Republican National Convention was held at Chicago Stadium in Chicago, Illinois, from June 14 to June 16, 1932. It nominated President Herbert Hoover and Vice President Charles Curtis for reelection. Hoover was virtually unopposed for ...
. Some Republicans talked of nominating Coolidge, former Vice President Charles Dawes, Senator Hiram Johnson, or Governor Gifford Pinchot, but all passed on the opportunity to challenge Hoover. Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidential nomination on the fourth ballot of the
1932 Democratic National Convention The 1932 Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago, Illinois June 27 – July 2, 1932. The convention resulted in the nomination of Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York for president and Speaker of the House John N. Garner from Tex ...
, defeating the 1928 Democratic nominee,
Al Smith Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was an American politician who served four terms as Governor of New York and was the Democratic Party's candidate for president in 1928. The son of an Irish-American mother and a C ...
. By 1932, the radio was in 12 million homes, changing the nature of presidential campaigns. No longer could presidents change the content of their speeches for each audience; anyone with a radio could listen to every major speech. Hoover originally planned to make only one or two major speeches, and to leave the rest of the campaigning to proxies, as sitting presidents had traditionally done. However, encouraged by Republican pleas and outraged by Democratic claims, Hoover entered the public fray. In his nine major radio addresses Hoover primarily defended his administration and his philosophy of government. Hoover urged voters to hold to the "foundations of experience," rejecting the notion that government interventionism could save the country from the Depression. In his campaign trips around the country, Hoover was faced with perhaps the most hostile crowds of any sitting president. Besides having his train and motorcades pelted with eggs and rotten fruit, he was often heckled while speaking, and on several occasions, the
Secret Service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For ...
halted attempts to kill Hoover by disgruntled citizens, including capturing one man nearing Hoover carrying sticks of dynamite, and another already having removed several spikes from the rails in front of the president's train. The Democrats attacked Hoover as the cause of the Great Depression, and for being indifferent to the suffering of millions. As Governor of New York, Roosevelt had called on the New York legislature to provide aid for the needy, establishing Roosevelt's reputation for being more favorable toward government interventionism during the economic crisis. Fausold rejects the notion that the two nominees were similar ideologically, pointing to differences between the two on federal spending on public works, agricultural issues, Prohibition, and the tariff. The Democratic Party, including Al Smith and other national leaders, coalesced behind Roosevelt, while progressive Republicans like George Norris and
Robert La Follette Jr. Robert Marion "Young Bob" La Follette Jr. (February 6, 1895 – February 24, 1953) was an American politician serving as a United States Senate, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin from 1925 to 1947. A member of the La Follette family, he was a son of Un ...
deserted Hoover. Hoover's attempts to vindicate his administration fell on deaf ears, as much of the public blamed his administration for the depression. Roosevelt won 57.4 percent of the popular vote compared to Hoover's 39.7 percent. Hoover's popular vote was reduced by 26 percentage points from his result in the 1928 election, while Roosevelt became the first Democratic presidential nominee to win a majority of the popular vote since the Civil War. In the electoral vote, Hoover lost 59–472, carrying only six Northeastern states. In the concurrent congressional election, the Democrats extended their control over the House and gained control of the Senate, giving them unified control of the legislative and executive branches for the first time since the 1918 elections. The election marked the end of the
Fourth Party System The Fourth Party System is the term used in political science and history for the period in American political history from about 1896 to 1932 that was dominated by the Republican Party, except the 1912 split in which Democrats captured the Whit ...
and the beginning of the Fifth Party System. Republicans would not re-gain
control Control may refer to: Basic meanings Economics and business * Control (management), an element of management * Control, an element of management accounting * Comptroller (or controller), a senior financial officer in an organization * Controlling ...
of either house of Congress until 1947, and Democrats would retain the presidency until 1953.


Post–election period

As Hoover's term extended until March 1933, he held office for several months after his defeat in the November 1932 election. During that period, the domestic banking system and the international situation continued to worsen. Adolf Hitler took power in Germany, Japan announced its intention to leave the League of Nations, and the British requested that they be allowed to suspend payments on World War I debts. Hoover was interested in linking debt cancellation to disarmament, but debt cancellation was extremely unpopular in much of the United States. He proposed that Roosevelt join him in negotiating an agreement to cancel the war debts, but Roosevelt, who viewed the causes of the Great Depression as primarily domestic in nature, refused to become involved. Hoover and Roosevelt met twice in the period between the election and Roosevelt's inauguration, but they were unable to agree on any united action to combat the Depression. In mid-February 1933, Hoover sought to convince Roosevelt to issue a public statement endorsing Hoover's policies for ending the Depression, but Roosevelt refused to do so. That same month, Roosevelt survived an assassination attempt; the bullets meant for Roosevelt killed Mayor Anton Cermak of Chicago. Hoover continued to unsuccessfully lobby Roosevelt regarding economic policy until Roosevelt took office on March 4, 1933.


Historical reputation

Hoover was extremely unpopular when he left office in 1933 and remained unpopular for the next several decades. In the 1930s, numerous popular diatribes appeared that were extremely harsh on Hoover; syndicated columnist
Arthur Krock Arthur Bernard Krock (November 16, 1886 – April 12, 1974) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American journalist. In a career spanning several decades covering the tenure of eleven United States presidents he became known as the "Dean of Washington ne ...
in 1931 said Hoover was a failure across the board as a party leader, economist, business authority, and personality. Historian Allan Nevins in July 1932 wrote that Hoover was an "exponent of narrow nationalism." He "botched the tariff, he botched farm relief, he botched prohibition—because he showed a Bourbon temper and an inelastic mind." Textbooks written in the older Progressive tradition identified Hoover with the reactionary side of class conflict.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr. (; born Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger; October 15, 1917 – February 28, 2007) was an American historian, social critic, and public intellectual. The son of the influential historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. and a spe ...
, a leading progressive exponent, strongly criticized Hoover in his influential work, ''The Crisis of the Old Order'' (1957). By the 1950s, however, a new school of consensus historians was replacing the Progressive approach, focusing on values shared across the political spectrum rather than class conflict. They started to praise Hoover for reforms that were picked up and further developed by Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal – such as relief of the unemployed, the Good Neighbor Policy in Latin America, and the
Reconstruction Finance Corporation The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was a government corporation administered by the United States Federal Government between 1932 and 1957 that provided financial support to state and local governments and made loans to banks, railroads, mortgag ...
.O'Brien and Rosen, "Hoover and the Historians" part one (1981) pp 31-36. Hoover's reputation experienced a strong recovery after 1970. Revisionist scholars in the 1970s portrayed Hoover in terms of the activist Secretary of Commerce that was so attractive to voters in the 1920s, while recognizing some failings in the Depression years. Carl Degler showed that Hoover and FDR were similar in many ways—both were Wilsonians who were shaped by their First World War experiences, gave government a major role in the economy, and imposed controls on big business. To these historians, Hoover was the link between the 1920s and the New Deal. These revisionist historians depicted Hoover as an individual "deserving of respect and historical study for his roles as a humane reformer, idealistic visionary, and institutional developer." Hawley in 2019 concluded that most revisionist historians "continued to agree that Hoover had not been the hardhearted reactionary, financial charlatan, and do-nothing president depicted in the earlier derogatory portrait." Hoover has been the subject of numerous serious biographies in recent years. Only a few of them, such as William Leuchtenburg's ''Herbert Hoover'' (2009), reflect the old negative viewpoint of an unattractive character who was cold and overbearing with little to show for his reforms. By contrast, Glen Jeansonne's ''Herbert Hoover: A Life'' (2016) emphasizes Hoover's remarkable combination of advanced technical knowledge, innovative organizing ability, highly profitable business acumen, and compassion For the civilian victims of the Great War. Jeansonne gives Hoover an "A" for effort in dealing with the Great Depression with all the tools known to the White House and new ones as well, albeit without great success. Hoover's reputation has also been affected by works focusing on his career outside of the presidency; biographers such as
George H. Nash George H. Nash (born April 1, 1945) is an American historian and interpreter of American conservatism. He is a biographer of Herbert Hoover. He is best known for ''The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945'', which first appeare ...
have shed light on Hoover's career before 1921, while Gary Best wrote a working focused on Hoover's post-presidential career and his influence on the conservative movement According to Professor David E. Hamilton, historians have credited Hoover for his genuine belief in voluntarism and cooperation, as well as the innovation of some of his programs. However, Hamilton also notes that Hoover was politically inept and failed to recognize the severity of the Great Depression. Polls of historians and political scientists have generally
ranked A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of o ...
Hoover in the bottom third of presidents. A 2018 poll of the
American Political Science Association The American Political Science Association (APSA) is a professional association of political science students and scholars in the United States. Founded in 1903 in the Tilton Memorial Library (now Tilton Hall) of Tulane University in New Orleans, ...
’s Presidents and Executive Politics section ranked Hoover as the 36th best president. A 2021
C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...
poll of historians also ranked Hoover as the 36th most effective president.


References


Works cited

* * * * * * * * * Book 5 in The Life of Herbert Hoover Series. * * * * * * * * * * Watson, Richard L. "The Defeat of Judge Parker: A Study in Pressure Groups and Politics." ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'' 50.2 (1963): 213-23
online
*


Further reading


Biographical

* . * Edwards, Barry C. "Putting Hoover on the Map: Was the 31st President a Progressive?." ''Congress & the Presidency'' 41#1 (2014) pp 49–83
online
* Hatfield, Mark. ed. ''Herbert Hoover Reassessed'' (2002) * . * Jeansonne, Glen. ''Herbert Hoover: A Life'' (2016), 464pp; comprehensive scholarly biography * Smith, Gene. ''The Shattered Dream: Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression'' (1970) * Smith, Richard Norton. ''An Uncommon Man: The Triumph of Herbert Hoover'', (1987), biography concentrating on post 1932. * Walch, Timothy. ed. ''Uncommon Americans: The Lives and Legacies of Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover'' Praeger, 2003. * Wert, Hal Elliott. ''Hoover, The Fishing President: Portrait of the Private Man and his Life Outdoors'' (2005).


Scholarly studies


Extensive annotated bibliography
at the University of Virginia Miller Center of Public Affairs * * Barber, William J. ''From New Era to New Deal: Herbert Hoover, the Economists, and American Economic Policy, 1921–1933''. (1985) * Britten, Thomas A. "Hoover and the Indians: the Case for Continuity in Federal Indian Policy, 1900–1933" ''Historian'' 1999 61(3): 518–538. * Calder, James D. ''The Origins and Development of Federal Crime Control Policy: Herbert Hoover's Initiatives'' Praeger, 1993 * Clements, Kendrick A. ''Hoover, Conservation, and Consumerism: Engineering the Good Life''. University Press of Kansas, 2000 * DeConde, Alexander. ''Herbert Hoover's Latin American Policy''. (1951) * Doenecke, Justus D
"Anti-Interventionism of Herbert Hoover"
''Journal of Libertarian Studies'', (Summer 1987), 8(2): 311–340 * Fausold Martin L. and George Mazuzan, eds. ''The Hoover Presidency: A Reappraisal'' (1974) * Graff, Henry F., ed. ''The Presidents: A Reference History'' (3rd ed. 2002)
online
* Hamilton, David E. ''From New Day to New Deal: American Farm Policy from Hoover to Roosevelt, 1928–1933''. (1991) * * Hutchison, Janet. "Building for Babbitt: the State and the Suburban Home Ideal" ''Journal of Policy History'' 1997 9#2 : 184–210 * * Lichtman, Allan J. ''Prejudice and the Old Politics: The Presidential Election of 1928'' (1979) * Lisio, Donald J. ''The President and Protest: Hoover, MacArthur, and the Bonus Riot'', 2nd ed. (1994) * Lisio, Donald J. ''Hoover, Blacks, and Lily-whites: A Study of Southern Strategies'' (1985) * McPherson, Alan. "Herbert Hoover, Occupation Withdrawal, and the Good Neighbor Policy." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 44.4 (2014): 623-63
online
* Morris, Charles R. ''A Rabble of Dead Money: The Great Crash and the Global Depression: 1929-1939'' (PublicAffairs, 2017), 389 pp.

* Olson, James S. ''Herbert Hoover and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, 1931–1933'' (1977) * Robinson, Edgar Eugene and Vaughn Davis Bornet. ''Herbert Hoover: President of the United States''. (1976) * Romasco, Albert U. ''The Poverty of Abundance: Hoover, the Nation, the Depression'' (1965) * Schwarz, Jordan A. ''The Interregnum of Despair: Hoover, Congress, and the Depression''. (1970). Hostile to Hoover * Smith, Angella LaNette. ''Economic revolution from within: Herbert Hoover, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the emergence of the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933" (PhD dissertation,  Wayne State University, 2015; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2015. 3734689). * Sobel, Robert ''Herbert Hoover and the Onset of the Great Depression 1929–1930'' (1975) * Stoff, Michael B. "Herbert Hoover: 1929–1933". ''The American Presidency: The Authoritative Reference''. New York, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company (2004), 332–343 * Wilbur, Ray Lyman, and Arthur Mastick Hyde. ''The Hoover Policies''. (1937). In depth description of his administration by two cabinet members
online
*


Historiography and memory

* Anderson, Howard Clifford. ''Herbert Hoover: a study of historical revisionism.'' (DA Dissertation, Illinois State University, 1984). (DAI-A 46/01, ''Dissertation Abstracts International''; ProQuest document ID 303316009; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1984. 8504995) * Clements, Kendrick A. "Herbert Hoover and conservation, 1921-33." ''American Historical Review'' 89.1 (1984): 67–88.
Online
* Den Hertog, Johan. "The Commission for Relief in Belgium and the Political Diplomatic History of the First World War." ''Diplomacy & Statecraft'' 21.4 (2010): 593–613. * Dodge, Mark M., ed. ''Herbert Hoover and the Historians''. (1989) * Goldberg, David J. "Rethinking the 1920s: Historians and Changing Perspectives." ''OAH Magazine of History'' 21.3 (2007): 7-10. * Hawley, Ellis ed. '' Herbert Hoover and the Historians'' (Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, 1989) 141pp; Essays by scholars * Hawley, Ellis. "Herbert Hoover and the Historians-Recent Developments: A Review Essay." ''Annals of Iowa'' (Winter 2019) 78#1 pp 75–86. * ''Herbert Hoover Reassessed: Essays Commemorating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Inauguration of Our Thirty-first President'' (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1981
Online
Essays by scholars; 524 pp * Nash, Lee, ed. ''Understanding Herbert Hoover: Ten Perspectives'' (1987); essays by scholars * O'Brien, Patrick G. and Philip T. Rosen. "Hoover and the Historians: The Resurrection of a President," Parts I and II, ''Annals of Iowa'' 46 (1981), 25–42, 83–99; * O'Brien, Patrick G. "Hoover and Historians: Revisionism Since 1980," ''Annals of Iowa'' 49 (1988), 394–402. * Sibley, Katherine A.S., ed. ''A Companion to Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover'' (2014); 616pp; essays by scholars stressing historiography * Tracey, Kathleen. ''Herbert Hoover–A Bibliography: His Writings and Addresses''. (1977) * Zieger, Robert H. "Herbert Hoover: A Reinterpretation." ''American Historical Review'' (1976) 81#4 pp. 800–810
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* . * Myers, William Starr, and Walter H. Newton, eds. ''The Hoover Administration; a documented narrative''. (1936)
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* Hawley, Ellis, ed. ''Herbert Hoover: Containing the Public Messages, Speeches, and Statements of the President'', 4 vols. (1974–1977) {{Herbert Hoover 1929 establishments in the United States Hoover, Herbert 1920s in the United States 1930s in the United States