Title: Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression

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Title Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression
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The Depression had a calamitous effect on tens of
millions of Americans.

• Homes taken away when mortgage payments were not
  made
• Homeless built shantytowns, sarcastically called
  Hoovervilles

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Life savings lost as thousands of banks failed.

• Employers went bankrupt or, to avoid bankruptcy,
  laid off the majority of workers
• In rural areas, farmers struggled as produce
  prices dropped more than 50

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To make matters worse, a prolonged drought
afflicted the Great Plains

• Region turned into a giant Dust Bowl
• Result Agrarian unrest
• Attacked those who tried to evict them
• Conspired to keep their farms
• Formed Farmers Holiday Association
• Organized demonstrations

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Hoover made 2 mistakes in addressing the problems
of the Great Depression

• Encouraged passage of the Hawley-Smoot Tariff
• Raised import duties of foreign goods to 40
• Expulsion of the Bonus Expeditionary Force
• World War I veterans lobbied for early payment of
  benefits for their service but bill was defeated
• They refused to leave squatted in empty
  government offices
• Hoover ordered the Army to expel them cavalry
  attacked them with tear gas

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This ensured the loss of Hoovers re-election
the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt

• Argued for a more interventionist government
• Promised relief payments to unemployed
• Inaugural address Declared war on the Depression
• The only thing we have to fear is fear itself
  nameless, unreasoning, unjustified fear.
• Implemented sweeping reform called the New Deal
• Listen to 1933 speech