The attempts of Hoover's government to deal with the depression

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  • Created by: Heather
  • Created on: 30-03-14 10:24
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  • The attempts of Hoover's Government to deal with the Depression
    • How they tried to deal with the Depression
      • He held conferences with business leaders to get agreements that they would maintain production and employment levels,
      • He offered $4,000 million for major building projects in the construction industries to provide new jobs,
        • In 1931, the Hoover Dam was beginning to get built,
      • He cut taxes so more people had more money to spend,
      • The Government tried to help farmers by buying food above-market prices,
      • The Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930 had average duties of 40% on agricultural/ industrial goods to stop imports,
      • He tried to organise the work of voluntary agencies by insisting that helping the poor was mainly the role of local communities and governments
      • In 1932, he was forced top accept the Emergency Relief Act which provided $300 million to states to help the unemployed,
      • Hoover set up the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) which provided loans of up to $1500million to businesses to help them recover,
    • How unsuccessful Hoover was and why he didn't do more
      • However, other countries retaliated and even less was exported from the USA,
        • Farmers were left with their huge supplies of food,
      • However by 1932 there was 12 million unemployed so it failed to have an impact,
      • But this encouraged farmers to grow more, rather than encouraging them to produce less,
      • However, by late 1931, many cities were bankrupt from relief programmes they had been operating to provide food and shelter,
      • He believed that voluntary co-operation between Government and business would solve problems,
      • He had great difficulty in appreciating the extent of the crisis and the scale of help needed,
      • Hoover found it difficult to change his policies to deal with the deepening crisis,
      • He was blamed for not intervening on a large scale,
      • He couldn't abandon the principles of self-help and voluntary co-operation and continued to believe the economy would right itself,
      • Even if Hoover wanted to have direct Government action, the Republican controlled congress wouldn't have approved,

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