Roosevelt v. Hoover essays

Roosevelt v. Hoover essays During the 1930s, the economy was struggling and the main issue was whether or not the government should help out. Hoover tried as much as possible to stay away from government control over the economy and industries. Roosevelt did not want the government to stay out of the economy but to intervene and regulate only to a certain extent. President Franklin D. Roosevelt is commonly thought of as a liberal and President Herbert C. Hoover as a conservative; a statement that is true. In the early 1930s, President Hoover was frantically trying to find an answer to the depression; only he did not want the government to intervene with industries and the economy. Hoover stated in many of his speeches that he was strongly against this issue. In his candidate speech in October 1929 he said It is a false liberalism that interprets itself into the government operation of commercial business. Hoover was a very conservative President and did not like taking risks. President Roosevelt, on the other hand, was a very liberal president. He invested much of the governments money into programs to improve unemployment, and control the economy to help get America back on its feet. During his many years as president, government expenditures and total debt almost doubled. The opinion of the public during the presidencies of Hoover and Roosevelt also thought of Hoover as conservative and Roosevelt as liberal. In one 1931 cartoon, Hoover is shown reaching for a boat containing a struggling economy. Hoover is clinging to a rock trying to save the boat but he is only willing to reach so far. During the Great Depression and its recovery, the United States needed a liberal president to step in and take control of the economy and regulate things until the US got back on its feet. Hoover was not the right man for the job, but Roosevelt did a very good job saving the economy. It is a valid statement that Hoover is conservati...