Question

President Hoover believed that the government should respond to the Great Depression by ??

Answer 1

Answer:  By encouraging local governments and businesses and private charities to provide help and address Depression conditions.

Explanation:

Herbert Hoover served as President of the United States from 1929 to 1933.  He was in office when the Great Depression began, and was blamed for the fact that the country struggled as it did.  The problems that led to the Depression had been building up for years before Hoover took office, but as the leader of the country when the troubles hit, he was the one who took the bulk of the criticism.  And Hoover really had no successful solutions to the problems.  

In a radio addressed delivered on February 12, 1931, President Hoover emphasized his approach to let local governments, private businesses and  private charities lead the way in addressing Depression conditions.  He said this:  "Throughout this depression I have insisted upon organization of these forces through industry, through local government and through charity, that they should meet this crisis by their own initiative, by the assumption of their own responsibilities."  Hoover believed the federal government should take a secondary, supportive role -- not be the key force in solving the Depression.  He said, "The Federal Government has sought to do its part by example in the expansion of employment, by affording credit to drought sufferers for rehabilitation, and by cooperation with the community, and thus to avoid the opiates of government charity and the stifling of our national spirit of mutual self-help."

In the 1932 presidential election, Hoover's approach was rejected.  He was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who took over as president on a platform of national measures to combat the Depression -- a program of policies and initiatives that Roosevelt called the "New Deal."

Answer 2

The government represented by president Hoover in the fall of 1929, responded to the Great Depression; wide spreading unemployment during the 1930s and exacerbating an already difficult situation. The government spent millions of dollars on various relief programs. Most, however, were ineffective. Dole rations, for example, were heavily policed and much too small to live on; land settlement also ended in failure. At the same time the government increased relief spending, it also contributed to the crisis by laying off employees and making cuts to health care, education, and other social programs.