Hoover who was currently president at that time belonged to the Republican Party and traditionally the Republican Party is favoured by the upper classes. The Republican Party believed it wasn’t the government’s role to interfere too much in the everyday lives of its citizens; this policy is known as “laissez-faire”, meaning leave alone.
One of the main reasons to why Hoover became president of the United States of America was due to his efforts in the First World War when he helped to feed starving people.
Although during the depression he did not do much to help the poor or people who needed urgent help because their finances were in such a terrible state. Instead he followed the traditional heritage of the Republican Party and simply did not help the American economy. The homeless and financially paralysed people all came together and created their own towns, they were named after the president as these towns were called “Hoovevilles.” Te American public had to come together and work through the depression themselves because the government did not do enough to help the public which led to many people homeless or living in tents!
Franklin D Roosevelt on the other hand had a plan called the “New Deal” to help the economy to recover he setup many different organisations to tackle different issues and effects which led or contributed to the depression.
I believe that’s the most legitimate reason as to why he was voted in as president in 1932. The American public were suffering and they clearly needed immediate help, they saw that Roosevelt was doing a good job and he could get the country through the depression. In 1932 nearly 25% of the whole population was unemployed!
FDR’s ideas of dealing with the depression were very effective especially the three R’s (Relief, Recovery and Reform). Another key feature were the alphabet agencies, they were very effective as they focused on individual problems of the recession.
Some of the agencies were: The Emergency Banking Act-Roosevelt closed all banks for a four day “bank holiday” every bank was inspected and only sufficient banks with enough money were allowed to re-open this was important because the banks were a major cause of the depression, they were loaning money to people who simply could not repay it.
Another example is The Economy Act-this cut the pay for anyone working for the government, army, navy, and air force by 15% these tough measures were needed so that money could be reinvested and pumped through the economy.
In conclusion Roosevelt felt that he needed to introduce the New Deal due to the fact that America was in a terrible financial crisis, and there was no real immediate action being taken by the current president Hoover and the public were suffering as their financial problems were getting out of hand and were receiving no support from the government.
