The Great Depression
Part 1
Complete the chart by filling in each president’s views on the Great Depression.
Herbert Hoover
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Causes of the Great Depression
*Weak agricultural and industrial growth in the US was due to foreign competition with domestic businesses, and a solution that helped both domestic and foreign economies grow mutually was not necessary.
*The lack of individual and voluntary response to the depression, especially response from industry leaders, was the issue, and policies regarding “CEO philanthropy” should be encouraged in lieu of federal intervention.
*Lack of employment was due to a lack of public projects and improvements which needed to be slowly and cautiously funded and regulated.
Weak agriculture and industrial growth was due to a lack of regulation and required federal control and government loans to stop the spiraling depression in these sectors.
*Lack of unemployment was due to the lack of state and city government’s ability to sufficiently employ the vast unemployed young men in the US, and federal intervention was absolutely necessary.
*Lack of unregulated, unfair business practices in the industrial markets resulted in disenfranchised employees who worked too much for too little. Cutthroat competition between these types of companies resulted in low profit margins, low wages, and low morale.
General description of response to Depression
Beliefs that guided him in his attempt to solve it
He believed that raising prices on foreign products would protect American products from competition.
He believed that citizens, businesses and the government should work together voluntarily instead of being rescued through government mandated programs.
Roosevelt believed that, without a national plan for economic reform, the country would succumb to demagogues like Long and Coughlin.
What he told Americans they had
References: Schultz, K. M. (2012). Hist 2 (2nd ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database