1) Hoover’s mistakes A) Before Wall Street Crash - claimed that the boom would go on forever and poverty would be removed. B) Laissez Faire - he believed that government should not interfere in business and that business would right itself sooner or later. Therefore he did nothing. C) 1930 - 31 Hoover made speeches claimed that the depression was short lived. D) Seen as uncaring - a) in magazine interview he claimed that nobody was actually starving - b) he believed that cities and local authorities should help their own unemployed and that it was not the governments responsibility
2) Government reaction A) lowered taxes B) passed the Hawley - Smoot Tariff intended to stop foreign imports - but this worsened things because it led to the fall of exports C) Not until 1932 did Hoover set up Reconstruction Finance Corporation which could make grants and loans to state government
3) Hoover’s increasing unpopularity A) 20,000 ex soldiers went to Washington - August 1932 - to ask for immediate payment of their bonuses B) Bonus marches camped outside the Whitehouse - Hoover refused to meet them and sent troops including tanks to clear them away.
