Question

Read the excerpt from Herbert Hoover’s “Rugged Individualism” speech, delivered on October 22, 1928. Choose two highlighted examples that best emphasize why Hoover supported a limited federal response to the onset of the Great Depression.

Answer 1

All highlighted examples show how Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) believed that once the federal government started to take directly participate in the economic system the inevitable outcome would be the loss of freedom.

In the first and second examples he is saying that once the government starts to take part, it goes all the way into the private lives of individuals which would be an attack against the basis of freedom.

Hoover thought like this because for him freedom only exists in the private life when it's kept away and separate from the government.

The third and fourth examples have the same meaning as the priors only now he is talking specifically about economics. He believed the problem of the Great Depression should be figured out by private businesses and the government should only cushion the situation.