Why did Roosevelt win the 1932 election?
After the Wall Street Crash and the subsequent Depression it is not surprising that Hoover lost and Roosevelt won the presidency election of 1932. But what are the main reasons Roosevelt was elected.
Hoover had been President during the Depression and many Americans blamed him for the hard times that they had encountered. Unemployment rose rapidly and in many cities workers who had contributed to the prosperity of the 1920s now were not able to find work and had to live off bread and soup from charity workers. Ever town had it’s own so-called ‘Hooverville’ which was a shanty town of huts where migrants lived while searching for work.
The American public began to feel that he did too little too late and talked all the time about ‘prosperity just around the corner’. An example of doing too little too late was the protest by the bonus army. This was a group of soldiers who had fought in WW1 and were promised bonuses which would only be paid in 1945. However, after the crash they demanded that their bonuses be paid to them then rather than in 15 years time. By 1932 many veterans were living in terrible poverty and organised a protest to Washington where in June of that year more than 20,000 set up camp opposite the White House. Hoover did not support the protestors and ordered the army to evict them from their camp which had become known as a ‘Hooverville’. During the clearance of the protestors two veterans were killed and 1000 were injured by tear-gas. To many people, America seemed close to revolution.
