Posted on 10/22/2008 6:31:06 AM PDT by johnny reb
Once upon a time , there was a presidiential election in the United States. A few months after the election, the uninspiring man from New England left the White House. The press wasn’t sorry to see him go.The departing President disliked the hustling newcomer and called him the “Wonder Boy.”
But most of the nation hailed the dynamic, youthful new president from the nations heartland. Some called him the most brilliant man who had ever become president. His achievements were even more amazing because he came from a poor background and never knew his real father.
The new president was keen on high technology. He believed that planning and analysis could solve the nation’s problems much as you would solve an engineering problem. A Philadelphia newspaper called him “easily the most commanding figure in the modern science of ‘engineering statesmanship.’ “
Wherever he went he created a great buzz. He formed committees and trade councils, sponsored research programs, boosted funding, commissioned reports, and created working groups to tackle problems.
Unlike his “do-nothing” predecessors, he was a “policy wonk” who often knew the details of an issue better than the experts. Education, the oil industry, medical care for children, conservation- he was intensely interested in every public issue. He often took a personal hand in drafting bills.
The new presidents basic idea was simple: If business, labor, and government would just work together life would constantly become better.
FIGHTING THE DOWNTURN
Faced with an economic downturn that wasn’t his fault, the president boldly used all the resources of government to turn it around.
Low interest rates were the cornerstone of his policy. The Federal Reserve poured money into the economy. The government got “tough on trade” and moved to keep out unfair foreign competition.
Huge stimulus programs were passed. More major public works were started in his four years than in the previous 30. He leaned on business to hire more people and to avoid wage cuts. Loans and grants flew out to needy and distressed groups as fast as the president could sign the bills.
Alas, everyone agreed that something had to be done about the runaway budget deficits. He signed the biggest peacetime tax increase in U.S. history. The top rate jumped from 25% to 63%.
It was all in vain. The downturn deepened into the biggest depression ever. Washington’s streets filled with protesters demanding money from the government. The president had to use the army to clear them out.
Four years after sweeping into the oval office on a wave of hope, the president was buried in a landslide. Strangest of all, historians would blame him for not doing enough to stop the economic collapse.
Bill Clinton four years from now? No. The man was Herbert
Hoover, president from 1929-33 and scapegoat for the great
Depression.
Except that Hoover didn’t have George W. Bush to blame all his problems on.
Hoover was born in Iowa, raised for the most part in Oregon, and educated at Stanford. I don't think he ever lived in New England.
Other than that, neat story.
They were talking about Calvin Coolidge.
And according to many, it was Democratic icon FDR who ended that depression, when in fact it was really World War II that bailed the US out from FDR’s socialist “fixes” for that depression.
Oops. I stand corrected.
So he raised taxes, cut into trade, and spent tax money like there was no tomorrow...how was he a “scapegoat”? Sure, FDR made it a lot worse, but it looks like Hoover did his fair share to screw it all up.
The uninspiring man from New England was Calvin Coolidge, the president who preceded Hoover.
That sentence a bit confusing. He meant after the election of the new president, Hoover, the president from New England, Calvin Coolidge, left the White House. I don’t agree that Coolidge was uninspiring. I am quite an admirer of his.
Hoover was 54 when he became president. I don’t know that I would refer to this as “youthful” in 1929.
Yes, my bad. See reply 6.
Just as an aside, there were so many funny jokes about Coolidge. Alice Roosevelt Long said he was weaned on a pickle, and when Dorothy Parker was told that he had died, she asked, "How can they tell?" At one dinner party a guest told him that she had a bet that she could make him say at least 3 words. He replied, "You lose".
Hoover wasn’t a scapegoat. He deserved the blame for the Great Depression. The first bad move he made was turning the Federal Reserve against the stock market.
Just Googling on causes of the great depression I can't find a single article that blames Hoover for it.
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