Was Hoover Blamed For The Great Depression

The first main cause of the Dust Bowl was Destruction of Prairie Grass. “The story of the southern plains in the 1930’s is essentially about dust storms, when the earth ran amok(DocA).” Donald Worster means the earth is total chaos and the fact that it had no control as it usually would with normal weather or normal conditions. “Grass is what holds the earth together(DocB).”The sheepherder says that because he wants to explain that grass can absorb rainwater and prevent erosion.Destruction of Prairie Grass helped cause the Dust Bowl because when there’s no grass the soil will eventually turn into dust if there is not enough rain to sustain the planted crops.

Because of the plague known as the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover is often seen as one of the worst presidents in American history. He enacted policies such as the Hawley-Smoot Tariff that flushed America deeper into the depression. Hoover didn't understand that to solve a crisis such as a depression, he needed to interact directly with the people by using programs such as social security and welfare. Instead, Hoover had the idea that if he were to let the depression run its course, it would eventually end. There are three things that can be used to define Hoover's presidency during the depression, his actions, his mentality toward fixing things, and the fact that he helped pave the way for the “New Deal”

One major cause of that Dust Bowl was severe droughts during the 1930’s. The other cause was capitalism. Over-farming and grazing in order to achieve high profits killed of much of the plain’s grassland and when winds approached, nothing was there to hold the devastated soil on the ground.

In the 1920s, Americans were trying to figure out what was everyone’s role in society. During this time women started to take on bigger jobs then housekeeping and African Americans are finally standing up for their race. Once 1929 hit, Herbert Hoover, America’s newest president, was viewed as an ‘American Superhero’ at that time because of everything he promised society; however, America gets hit by the Great Depression leaving society in a hole. While banking systems were unstable and overproduction were leaving people bankrupt, Herbert Hoover was blaming Europe and was failing to keep society financially stable. As his presidency went on, filmmakers made film cycles and gangster pictures like Little Caesar that portrayed America’s corrupt society during the Great Depression. By the end of his campaign, Hoover was known as the worst American ever which led to the rising of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. Roosevelt saw the struggling society as an opportunity to help his campaign in which he created the New Deal. America was given an opportunity that allowed them to look forward to the future. During Herbert Hoover’s presidency, America did not support the federal government, but after Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for president and promised a New Deal, they began to look more favorably on the government.

The first known cause that contributed to the start of the Dust Bowl were farmers who began to try new farming techniques in order to increase profit and minimalize spending. The reasoning behind this was that World War I was going on. This made the demand for wheat sky rocket, and farmers were being paid record prices for their crops. Our nation was making money by feeding other nations, and therefore it was logical to turn every foot of land into farming land. (“United States History.” 1)

Also Hoover would not, under any circumstances, allow America to be in debt. He thought that taping into the national debt would prolong the depression even make it worse since the government would have to pay interest on the loans. Hoover was a man set on his ways and helped very little with the Depression.

The dust bowl was caused by a combination of environmental conditions and use of new farming technology. In Oklahoma during the time of the dust bowl people people decided to leave “until it rains” (Document A: Henderson Letter). This quote implies that drought is the cause for the dust bowl and that the people of the Oklahoma panhandle believed that once the drought ended, the dust bowl would as well. While it does appear that drought is one of the causes of the dust bowl, “farmers and plows on the plains” also played a role in “destroying the delicate ecological balance that had evolved there” (Document D: Historian, Professor David Worster). This quote suggests that it was the use of technology and over farming that ultimately resulted in the dust bowl. In reality there were numerous causes such as “soils

Although many people believe that the Dust Bowl of the 1830’s was not something that could be prevented by the farmers, the Dust Bowl could have been prevented and it is the farmers fault that the Dust Bowl happened. This is because they cut down anything that was holding the soil together and acting as windbreaks, the farmers used dryland farming techniques, and they used the wrong types of plows.

The 1929 Stock Market Crash "We’d like to thank you, Herbert Hoover/ For really showing us the way/ You dirty rat, you Bureaucrat, you/ Made us what we are today (www.stlyrics.com)." These lyrics from the musical Annie place the blame for the 1929 Stock Market Crash solely on the then former president Herbert Hoover. The truth of the matter is that placing the blame for the Stock Market Crash on Mr. Hoover is very unfair. Herbert Hoover was only one of many causes of the Stock Market Crash. It is easy to try to place the blame for one of the most destructive events in the history of the American economy on one person, but the real causes lie in the rampant speculation, the lack of regulation of the stock market, and the questionable ethics of many of the companies and brokers that were involved in the market. Although the 1929 Stock Market Crash is generally blamed on a few scapegoats, it was actually caused by a multitude of factors, which makes finding a scapegoat impossible.

In the years following the civil war farmers settled in the great plain regions of north america, although it had lack of trees and water. The fields were unsuitable for agriculture but farmers still began cultivating them. But in the 1930s a dreadful drought and dust storm struck the plains which became known as the Dust bowl. The Dust Bowl according to document C, was a natural disaster that could not be prevented because the weather can not be controlled. This means that there’s no one to blame for the storm but mother nature.

Hoover attempted many plans to end the Great Depression. Hoover rested on his belief of “volunteerism” which was a key concept of progressivism. Hoover believed private organized charities were sufficient to meet social welfare needs and was the “American Way”. Progressivism was when you displayed the wrong actions businesses were taking to the public in hopes that the public would make businesses reform their ways. This was a keen reason to why Hoover failed to solve the problems of the Great Depression. The first solution to the Great Depression attempted by Hoover came after the great crash. Hoover received a petition from the president of General Electric, Gerard Swoop, in 1929. It called for series of voluntary wage and price freezes of leading industries in the U.S. in exchange for freezing wages and prices. They asked in return for the government to cover the cost of welfare capitalism; which was an attempt to break the union, by providing benefits to make companies obsolete. They would pay workers 80% when laid off, but when the stock market crashed, they would only give them 20% salary. This was due partially to welfare capitalism. They

The Dust Bowl was an American travesty that not only affected the people living in the Midwest, but throughout the entire country in many ways. The Dust Bowl had a series of things that provoked it, along with the great depression that was going on at that time. It also caused many people to disperse all across the country in order for them to try and escape the deadly dust. Just to make everything worse, the current president at the time, Herbert Hoover, didn’t do much in order to help. The Dust Bowl caused a great deal of loss to many people, not only their loss of crops, but their loss of families and farm animals.

Making of America states that Hoover’s major tool for solving the crisis, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, had some major flaws. For one, it took too long to begin operating. It was already years into the depression when it was established and this was simply too late. Not only that, but while it had loaned money out, this appeared to have no effect on boosting the economy. According to Biography.com, Hoover another highly fundamental mistake in his administrative approach to the Great Depression. In an attempt to guard America’s industries, Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Act into law, which raised taxes on goods to other nations. This inflated tariff on imports to foreign countries, which ultimately led to their refusal to buy American products in a time that money gained from those sales were crucial to economic revival. USHistory.com prescribes the concerns that many individuals have observed, and this was that Hoover did not recognize the seriousness of the issues at different perspectives of the depression, and therefore did little to directly address the desperate needs of the people. This is exemplary by his refusal to enact federal relief funding and programs that could have been greatly beneficial to the critical state of the country.

The rich farmers used all new mechanical tractors to dig up 10X the amount of farmland they needed but with the more farmland came the need for more water and the drought was just around the corner and i think you know the rest. Also withe the new tractors they needed more land so they went to the fields of short grass just destroying everything around them like digging up short grass and messing up the terrain to make more farmland.

Many people think that the Great Depression was caused solely by the stock market crash. Anybody who tells you this probably didn’t pass U.S. History in high school. The fact is, the Great Depression was caused many different factors. Four of which were overproduction, uneven distribution of wealth, protective tariffs, and the four “sick industries” of the 1920’s.