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What Was Herbert Hoover's Downfall

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The Roaring 20’s was period of prosperity, it was quickly brought to halt by Black Thursday. On Black Thursday, October 24th, 1929, the stock market crashed; thus, begun the Great Depression. Our 31st president, Herbert Clark Hoover, presided over this period of economic decline. Hoover did not start the Great Depression, but he didn’t do anything to help it; this was his downfall. He was called the “Great Humanitarian” by many, he was well liked and respected. In fact, future president Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said, “Herbert Hoover is certainly a wonder, and I wish we could make him President of the United States. There could not be a better one” (Moore 367) Herbert Hoover once was a great man, but thanks to the Depression (and Franklin …show more content…

His Democratic opponent was Alfred Smith; Hoover won 58% of the popular vote to Smith’s 41%, and he won 40 out of the 48 states in the Electoral College (Alaska and Hawaii would not become states until Dwight D. Eisenhower’s tenure as president during the 1950s). Herbert Hoover was sworn in as the 31st President of the United States on March 4th, 1929. For his first few months as president, Hoover worked on changes and reforms; he directed the FBI to work on cleaning up Chicago and ending the reign of Al Capone. Herbert passed the Hawley-Smoot Tariff, which raised the tariffs imported into America by 40%. In the fall of 1929, Hoover advised Wall Street to stop allowing widespread stock purchasing on the margin (paying only a margin of the price); they refused, and the bull market continued. On October 24th, 1929, stock prices fell drastically, they were propped up by investment bankers, and improved on Friday. However, the stocks crashed again on Monday and Tuesday; the Great Depression has begun. During the Depression, unemployment rates rose steadily, banks closed, and people were broke and homeless. Farmers experienced horrible droughts in the Great Plains, which caused the Dust Bowl of the mid-1930s. As unemployment rose, unemployed World War I veterans marched on Washington demanding their bonuses; they weren’t supposed to receive them until 1945. As Hoover got tired of their demonstrations, he ordered the Washington D.C. police to move them; the police fired into the crowd, killing two people. After the incident, Herbert told Secretary of War Patrick Hurley to take care of the situation, who turned it over to Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur and his two aids (Colonel Dwight David Eisenhower and Major George S. Patton). MacArthur called tanks and troops in, tear gas was fired into the crowd, some marchers were bayoneted, and the camp was burned;

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