Herbert Hoover
This was the way people thought of Hoover
Herbert Hoover was a life long engineer and had a wife along with two sons. He did all of this before he got involved in politics. He had very little experience He would eventually become the thirty first president in the United States. His task was to help the economy recover and to get the country out of the depression. He did a so-so job of helping the people during the depression. His position was that, "At the same time he reiterated his view that while people must not suffer from hunger and cold, caring for them must be primarily a local and voluntary responsibility(Whitehouse.gov). So he believe in low government regulation. Hoover believed that the best way to solve the problem was to let people solve it together with as little government assistance as possible. He thought that it would liquify over time and just disappear, but that was not the case at all as the depression only grew worse. The economy was not recovering and showed no signs of recovering after it hit rock bottom. So he had to do something and proposed this to congress, Reconstruction Finance Corporation to aid business, additional help for farmers facing mortgage foreclosures, banking reform, a loan to states for feeding the unemployed, expansion of public works, and drastic governmental economy"(Whitehouse.gov). This was how the government started to get involved in the recovery of the economy. This was suppose to stimulate the economy but it was done to late to really have an affect on it. Along with that Hoover started to try to make more jobs by using his engineering background. He gave money to the transportation industry. Shortly after more men were getting employed as more roads were being built, bridges were getting fixed, and routine maintenance was happening. All of these gave men jobs but the biggest job producer was The Hoover Dam. This dam was created to control the flow of the river and for flood control. As a result Lake Mead was formed. Construction lasted 5 years between 1931 and 1936. Up to as many as five thousand unemployed people were employed by six companies. Although Hoover had made a dent in the number of unemployed people, it was not enough to keep him in office. People thought that he had not done enough to help them during the depression and in some sense thought that Hoover had abandoned them. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected in1932 and ended Herbert Hoovers time in office.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
FDR having a news conference with the American people
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a successful lawyer before he became a senator and eventually became president. He had a very influential wife that helped the country come out of economic despair along with himself. They had six kids when they were younger. FDR was elected to four terms of which was cut short when he died of polio. America was in very hard times during a part of his time being elected. "He Assumed the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves"(Whitehouse.gov). Many people were in disarray as they had lost their property and everything they owned. Family's were also struggling as their was practically no way to provide for their kids. Roosevelt's ultimate goal was to reverse all of these hardship. Although his way of doing it was different than Hoover's. He believed that the people needed help from the government instead of being left to figure out how to solve the problems on their own. Also, that the economy needed to be stimulated by the government. He knew that the problems would not liquidate on its own. Through high government regulation America slowly started to pull out of The Great Depression. He started by coming up with the new deal which was suppose to help people out. Also, he made huge changes in the ways that industry's were run during his first hundred days. This was to help get the economy back on track and to make sure industry's were being fair to their workers. Although their was some skepticism, "By 1935 the Nation had achieved some measure of recovery, but businessmen and bankers were turning more and more against Roosevelt's New Deal program"(Whitehouse.gov). This happened because they thought Roosevelt was regulating with government to much. So he changed the way he did things and everything was fixed. This was how F.D.R helped get us out of the depression.