ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
What should governments do?
Does economic prosperity result from tax cuts and minimal government?
Was the Great Depression inevitable?
How did Hoover’s views on government influence his response to the Great Depression?
Explain the causes of the Great Depression and its effects on the economy.
Evaluate Hoover’s approaches to resolving the Great Depression and how Americans reacted to them.
CURRICULUM STANDARD: US 42
Describe the steps taken by President Herbert Hoover to address the depression, including his: philosophy of “Rugged Individualism,” public works projects, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, and response to the “Bonus Army.” (Culture, Economics, History, Politics/Government, Tennessee)
SOCIAL STUDIES PRACTICES FOR TENNESSEE
SSP 01
Collect data and information from a variety of primary and secondary sources, including:
● Printed materials (e.g., literary texts, newspapers, autobiographies, speeches, interviews, letters, personal journals)
● Graphic representations (e.g., maps, timelines, charts, political cartoons, photographs, artwork)
SSP 02
Critically examine a primary or secondary source in order to:
● Extract and paraphrase significant ideas
● Discern differences between evidence and assertion
● Draw inferences and conclusions
● Recognize author’s purpose, point of view, and potential bias
● Assess the strengths and limitations of arguments
SSP 03
Synthesize data from a variety of sources in order to:
● Establish accuracy and validity by comparing sources to each other
● Recognize disparities among multiple accounts
SSP 04
● Construct and communicate arguments citing supporting evidence to:
● Demonstrate and defend an understanding of ideas
● Compare and contrast viewpoints
● Illustrate cause and effect
● Predict likely outcomes
● Devise new outcomes or solutions me appropriate questions for further investigation
SSP 05
Develop historical awareness by:
● Recognizing how and why historical accounts change over time
● Perceiving and presenting past events and issues as they might have been experienced by the people of the time, with historical empathy rather than present-mindedness
● Evaluating how unique circumstances of time and place create context and contribute to action and reaction
● Identifying patterns of continuity and change over time, making connections to the present
MATERIALS
Document No. 1: Herbert Hoover, “Rugged Individualism” Speech, 1928 (excerpts) Source https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=1334
Document No. 2: Smoot-Hawley Tariff (March 1930) Source https://spartacus-educational.com/Smoot-Hawley.htm
Document No. 3: "Rail Splitting," in the Public Ledger. Reprinted from Review of Reviews, October 1932.
Document No. 4: Photograph of the police attacking the Bonus Army camp (28th July 1932) Source https://www.historynet.com/wwi-bonus-army-protest-in-washington.htm
Document No. 5: https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2016/05/bonus-army-using-veterans-political-pawns/
Document No. 6: Drawing of Herbert Hoover that appeared in the B.E.F. News (August 1932)
Herbert Hoover – “Rugged Individualism” Speech (1928)
“I intend... to discuss some of those more fundamental principles upon which I believe the government of the United States should be conducted....
During one hundred and fifty years we have builded up a form of self government and a social system which is peculiarly our own. It differs essentially from all others in the world. It is the American system.... It is founded upon the conception that only through ordered liberty, freedom and equal opportunity to the individual will his initiative and enterprise spur on the march of progress. And in our insistence upon equality of opportunity has our system advanced beyond all the world.
During World War I we necessarily turned to the government to solve every difficult economic problem. The government having absorbed every energy of our people for war, there was no other solution. For the preservation of the state the Federal Government became a centralized despotism (dictatorship) which undertook unprecedented responsibilities, assumed autocratic (total) powers, and took over the business of citizens. To a large degree, we regimented our whole people temporally into a socialistic state. However justified in war time, if continued in peace-time it would destroy not only our American system but with it our progress and freedom as well.
When the war closed, the most vital of issues both in our own country and around the world was whether government should continue their wartime ownership and operation of many [instruments] of production and distribution. We were challenged with a... choice between the American system of rugged individualism and a European philosophy of diametrically opposed doctrines of paternalism and state socialism. The acceptance of these ideas would have meant the destruction of self-government through centralization... [and] the undermining of the individual initiative and enterprise through which our people have grown to unparalleled greatness.
The Republican Party [in the years after the war] resolutely turned its face away from these ideas and war practices.... When the Republican Party came into full power it went at once resolutely back to our fundamental conception of the state and the rights and responsibility of the individual. Thereby it restored confidence and hope in the American people, it freed and stimulated enterprise, it restored the government to a position as an umpire instead of a player in the economic game. For these reasons the American people have gone forward in progress....
There is [in this election]... submitted to the American people a question of fundamental principle. That is: shall we depart from the principles of our American political and economic system, upon which we have advanced beyond all the rest of the world....”
1. What event gave the US government so much control over the economy? In your opinion, why was this necessary?
2. What does Hoover say were the results of the Republicans (Harding & Coolidge) going back to laissez-faire economics once “the Republican Party came into full power?”
3. Do you agree with Hoover that the US government should be “an umpire instead of a player in the economic game?” Explain.
Document 2
Document 3
Document 4
Document 5
Document 6
PROCEDURE
- Divide the class into six groups with three to four students in each group. Students will collaborate and work in small groups to read and discuss the documents.
- Distribute copies of the Document 1 to each group. As each group finishes, distribute the next document with questions, until all documents have been completed. Students will answer the questions based on the document. Allow approximately ten minutes for each document.
- The students will discuss thoughts about each document.
- Summary and exit ticket: Students write their response to the essential questions in their group.
KEY TERMS:
Herbert Hoover
Speculation
Black Tuesday
Great Depression
Hawley-Smoot Tariff
Business cycle
Reconstruction Finance Corporation
Trickle-down economics
Bonus Army
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Hoover did not cause the Depression. He tried to solve the problems of the Depression. Americans expected him to remedy the problems. He tried several different approaches. In the beginning of the Great Depression, Hoover used a hands-off approach. Hoover felt the dips and rises of the business cycle were normal. The problems would work themselves out.
Hoover asked Americans to work toward common goals. He asked business leaders to keep prices and wages at current levels. He asked the government to reduce taxes, lower interest rates, and create public works programs. He asked wealthier people to give more money to charity. This plan of volunteerism did not work. It was not legislated, and business owners did what they felt was in their best interest. Hoover was against using the federal government to aid people. He felt it was unconstitutional. He favored “rugged individualism” which allowed people to better themselves through their own means. People began to demand government assistance.
New tariffs hurt the economy and helped spread the depression. The government moved to protect American products from foreign competition by raising tariffs. In June 1930, Congress passed the Hawley-Smoot Tariff. Hoover signed the bill into law. The tariff raised taxes on foreign imports to a level in which the foreign goods could not compete in the American market. European countries imposed tariffs of their own. The Hawley-Smoot Tariff added to the problems of the Great Depression. It hurt American businesses and farmers, and it was devastating to the global economy.
Facing criticism, Hoover began to use federal resources to battle the depression. He urged Congress to create the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). It was passed in 1932 and gave more than a billion dollars of government loans to struggling businesses. It also loaned money to banks so banks could loan out more money to businesses. Business, in turn, would have the funds to put people to work. This idea is called trickle-down-economics. The banks did not increase their loans. Businesses did not use the loans to hire more workers.
In 1932, thousands of World War I veterans marched on Washington, D.C., demanding a solution to their problem. In 1924, Congress had passed the Adjusted Compensation Act, which provided for a lump-sum payment to veterans of World War in 1945. In 1931, veteran groups wanted an early payment, arguing they needed the money to support their families. In May and June of 1932, almost twenty thousand veterans arrived at the capital. They set up camps and occupied empty government buildings. The House of Representatives agreed and passed a bill to give them early payment. The bill was defeated in the Senate. Some Bonus Army marchers left, and others stayed to lobby for the bill. A riot broke out in July when police tried to evict them from the buildings.
Hoover called for General Douglas MacArthur and troops to clear the area. MacArthur ordered his troops to ready tear gas and fix bayonets. More than one thousand marchers were tear-gassed, and many were injured, some very badly. Hoover had not ordered the use of such force. Photographs of the
troops against the marchers shocked the nation. Hoover did not stand a chance to be reelected in 1932.