How Hoover and America Handled the Onset of the Great Depression

2. Farmers were among the hardest hit during the first three years of the depression

During the First World War, America’s farmers responded to the government’s urging and produced record crops. The following decade of the Roaring Twenties found prices for their crops declining steadily, due to the results of their success in creating surpluses. Throughout the 1920s, farmers encountered declining prices, as well as several years of failed crops due to weather. Competition from imports took their toll. By the end of the decade, farmers were struggling; the collapse of the stock market and the ensuing bank failures added to their miseries.

Beginning in the fall of 1930, after another bad year for crops across much of the American plains, farmers began to default on their loans. Banks were unable to carry them foreclosed in previously unforeseen numbers. Other farmers managed to hold on to their properties for a time, but lacked the wherewithal to plant crops. When drought conditions arrived, the unplanted fields added to the Dust Bowl conditions which devastated the Great Plains in waves during the 1930s. Some small farmers managed to survive the depression and the series of droughts which accompanied it through diversification of labor, and the sale of some property to pay taxes and loans. Thousands did not during the early years of the depression.

3. Towns based on agricultural support suffered heavy losses of jobs

Dubuque, Iowa, a community with an industrial base reliant on agricultural products in 1929, already felt depression conditions before that year’s stock market collapse. Falling prices for farm produce led to job losses in Dubuque, and similar communities across America, in the mid-to-late 1920s. Between 1927 and the end of 1933, 2,200 workers lost their jobs due to business closures in Dubuque. During the same period only 13 new companies opened, creating 300 jobs, a net loss of 1,900. Railroad jobs in Dubuque numbered over 600 when the 1930s began. At the beginning of 1933, there were only a couple dozen still employed by the railroads.

Despite the failures of farms and the means to ship their produce to market, most large urban areas did not suffer from food shortages. They did however suffer from hunger, not from lack of food, but from lack of money with which to purchase it. Low food costs continued throughout the Great Depression, after having been one of its major causes in rural communities. Hoover did not support federal government intervention to directly aid farmers, the food supply chain, nor consumers, during the first three years of the depression, and the situation worsened with each succeeding year until 1933.

4. Unregulated banking practices worsened the depression during the Hoover Administration

Throughout the Roaring Twenties, which began following the post-WWI recession around 1923, investment in the stock market soared. Among the participants in widespread speculation were the banks across America, which used the deposits from their customers to invest in the markets. Banks also lent money to investors to purchase more stock. By 1928, stock prices were wildly over their actual value, and several investors (including Joseph P. Kennedy), withdrew from the speculative bubble, anticipating its bursting. The stock market created great wealth on paper during the 1920s, shared by a relatively few.

In 1929, the market that giveth took away. The collapse on what became known as Black Tuesday – October 29, 1929 – erased $14 billion in speculated wealth. By Friday of that grim financial week, over $30 billion vanished like smoke in the air. The losses exceeded American expenditures during World War I by a factor of ten. Banks invested in the stock market were forced to close their doors, creating runs on other banks by a panicked public, leading to further closures. In early 1930, Hoover initiated steps to shore up banks and other financial institutions, with little effect on the growing crisis. It was one of many efforts he made to help the business community, believing it would in turn help the workers. In essence, Hoover believed in a trickle-down effect.

5. The collapse of the banking system worsened the depression nationwide

The near-total collapse of the banking system in 1930, which continued in waves across the country for another three years, created many of the circumstances associated with the Great Depression. Money vanished from circulation. The unregulated lending practices of the 1920s and the ineffectiveness of the Federal Reserve combined to cripple the banks. Americans distrusted the banks, withdrawing their funds whenever possible. Banks chartered by states were not required to be members of the Federal Reserve, which limited its ability to intervene. Weak leadership at the Federal Reserve, as well as decentralization of its 12 banks, contributed further to the national panic.

Herbert Hoover continued to promote the idea that the economic downturn in the fall of 1929 and the early winter of 1930 would be mild. The belief contributed to the recession caused by the stock market crash becoming the Great Depression. By the time the need for positive action by the federal government was obvious, the economy sat in shambles. The collapse of the banking industry, induced by a lack of consumer confidence in the system and the government, finally drew Hoover’s attention in 1931. He took several actions which steadily worsened the financial situation. The following year, 1932, is widely regarded as the worst of the Great Depression for most Americans.

6. The President’s High Wage Policy worsened the depression

Herbert Hoover, as noted, was a successful businessman in private life, a self-made wealthy man, and well-respected by industry leaders. As more and more Americans lost their jobs, particularly in the manufacturing industries, the President adopted two policies which he believed would bolster consumer spending and restart the economy. One proposed the sharing of jobs, reducing the hours of work of individuals, but retaining the hours of production. The other was an incentive to pay relatively high wages. During the early months of the downturn, which he still believed would be short and mild, he summoned industry leaders to Washington.

General Motors, Ford, the steel industry, DuPont, the railroads, and many other major industries attempted to implement the President’s plan, to no avail. By the end of the summer, 1931, hours logged in factories decreased by 20%, and there were 35% fewer workers. In 2009, a study conducted at UCLA concluded the President’s High Wage Policy and job sharing caused at least two-thirds of the drop in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) during the worst years of the Great Depression. The study’s author claimed Hoover’s policies led to the “recession” being at least three times worse than it otherwise would have been had he done nothing. By mid-1932, nearly all American employers dropped the High Wage Policy and cut payrolls substantially.

7. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act

History often describes Herbert Hoover as a President who subscribed to the laissez-faire idea of economics, unwilling to intervene to stimulate the financial system to restore prosperity. That description is untrue. Hoover tried several initiatives to strengthen the economy during the first three years of the depression, especially during the second half of 1931 and during the election year of 1932. It’s just that most of them didn’t have any measurable impact, other than those which worsened conditions in the United States. One of the latter was the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, signed by the President in June, 1930.

Over a thousand economists and financial leaders urged the President not to sign the new tariff. He ignored them, believing the tariffs would ease unemployment in the United States. The price of imported goods and materials jumped. American exports dropped by over 60%. Unemployment went from an estimated 8% when the tariffs were enacted, to double that a year later, to over 24% in 1932. The Smoot-Hawley Act was not in itself a cause of the Great Depression, but it did nothing to ease the financial distress, and likely contributed to its length. Between 1929 and 1934 worldwide trade decreased by over 60%, in part due to tariffs imposed by competing countries. Nearly all of the economists who urged the President not to sign the act predicted its detrimental impact, though Hoover believed he had to sign the bill.

8. Hoover signed Smoot-Hawley to help the agricultural industry

Hoover’s support of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act centered on his desire to provide relief to America’s farmers after the disastrous 1920s left them reeling. During the election campaign of 1928, Hoover announced his intention to provide relief to farmers through raising agricultural tariffs and increasing funding for the Federal Farm Board, which both subsidized loans to farmers and purchased goods. Hoover strongly believed the President should not be involved in Congressional debates and the creation of bills, and thus did not argue for his agricultural tariffs during the legislative process. His congressional supporters failed to get a clean agricultural tariff bill through either House.

As it so often does, Congress tied the agricultural tariffs into a broad package of additional legislation, which raised tariffs for hundreds of goods and products. When it passed and appeared on his desk, Hoover believed he had no choice but to sign it, still believing the economic downturn at the time would be short and relatively mild. The bill was almost universally unpopular among progressive Republicans, and severed the President’s relations with that wing of the party. The resulting contraction of global trade had an adverse effect across virtually all of the American economy, including the agricultural interests Hoover had hoped to aid. It was proposed with good intentions, but Congressional sausage-making rendered it an additional disaster.

9. Hoover’s administration raised taxes in 1931

After supporting the President’s High Wage Policy in 1930, businesses began cutting wages and jobs in 1931, hoping to keep at least some portions of their operations afloat. Hoover recognized the need to increase federal revenues, though a push to increase income taxes in the rapidly worsening economic environment appeared politically unwise. Instead, Hoover turned to the banks, having his administration lobby Congress for the passage of a tax on checks. A tax of 2 cents on personal checks passed in 1931, adding an additional tax burden to anyone using checks for purchases, to pay bills, rent, mortgages, and even taxes (equivalent to about 31 cents today).

The Check Tax increased the cost of using checks at a time when Americans attempted to reduce their expenses. Americans responded by curtailing their use of checks whenever and wherever possible. They turned to cash instead. Withdrawing cash from the banks created further pressure on the financial institutions, reduced lending, and further shrunk the supply of money in circulation. Banks already badly in need of cash found themselves unable to retain necessary funds for operation, and the Federal Reserve failed to increase the cash available. The Check Tax was another well-intended attempt to stimulate the economy which instead produced the opposite effect. It added to the common distrust of banks, with many Americans believing the funds from the tax went directly to the banks themselves.

10. The Davis-Bacon Act of 1931

Prior to the onset of the Great Depression, numerous states and municipalities in the United States passed laws which required government contractors to pay wages on projects on par with what prevailed in the location at the time. The laws protected local workers from being ignored through the use of migrant labor, paid using tax dollars. In the late 1920s, Congress came to realize that many projects funded with federal dollars did not result in employment for their constituents, with contractors turning to cheaper labor from other communities. Support grew for a bill introduced by Congressman Robert Bacon of New York, which forced contractors to pay the locally prevailing wage.

President Hoover supported the bill, which passed in 1931 and immediately proved unworkable, subject to kickbacks and outright fraud, and unenforceable. Hoover made changes to the enforcement provisions via executive orders, convinced that the provisions of the act supported his belief in the High Wage Policy and doctrine. He later vetoed amendments passed by Congress which in his view weakened the bill. Both labor unions and contractors opposed the bill, for differing reasons, and like other issues tied to maintaining high wages, it did little to stimulate either jobs or spending. Migrant workers continued to receive much lower wages, taking jobs from local workers and earning their enmity.

11. Hoover gradually realized the downturn was not a mild recession

Between 1929 and the election year of 1932 housing starts in the United States dropped by 80%. The lack of buildings forced the majority of workers in the construction industry to look for other forms of work. Most found no success. By 1932, arguably the worst year of the depression, 34 million Americans lived under a roof with no full-time wage earner. If they had a roof at all, many were forced into temporary housing and shantytowns, erected on public lands with tents, lean-tos, and other crude shelters. While the President struggled to find solutions to the crisis, the public and press took to calling the camps sheltering the homeless “Hoovervilles”.

By the end of 1932, 11,000 banks in the United States had failed, out of the 25,000 which existed in 1929. About one million farms no longer existed as working producers of agricultural goods. Homeless families and individuals estimated to number as many as two million people wandered the nation, seeking work, food, and shelter. Hoover’s efforts to stimulate the economy failed spectacularly, in no small part because of the lack of regulations and safeguards later established. Still, Hoover continued to pursue solutions to the financial disaster, promoting his efforts while campaigning for re-election before an increasingly derisive electorate.

12. Hoover’s policies changed a budget surplus into a deficit

In 1929, the first year of Herbert Hoover’s administration, the President inherited a budget surplus. Following the stock market crash, Hoover opted to reduce income tax rates by 1% of the 1929 rates when people filed their taxes in 1930. There was no federal withholding at the time, people filed their taxes and paid what they owed. Income tax refunds were unknown, since no money was withheld during the years. During 1930, Hoover established federal agencies and advisory committees, intended primarily to shore up the crumbling financial system. As he did so he increased federal spending, and the surplus of 1929 became a deficit in 1930.

By 1932 some conservative economists and politicians believed the steadily expanding deficit contributed to the continuing, and still worsening depression. Hoover asked Congress to increase federal income tax rates across the board. The act produced by Congress both increased the number of people owing taxes and the rates to determine the amount they owed. Hoover compared the act to similar actions during the First World War, calling them justified to “fight the depression, the misery and suffering from which are equally great”. In effect, Hoover compared the depression to a war, and asked Americans to rally around him as he led them to victory.

13. Hoover publicly blamed America’s depression on Europe’s economy

European countries for the most part removed themselves from the gold standard in response to their own economic woes. Hoover refused to follow suit. Instead, he publicly blamed much of America’s industrial and agricultural collapse on the problems in Europe and their adverse effects on trade. He proposed a moratorium on the payment of war reparations by Germany as that nation’s economy fell into near-complete collapse, in order to stabilize markets. The action did little to shore up the German economy, which nearly collapsed anyway. The German democratic government collapsed with it as the Nazis gained strength.

By 1931, Hoover was the target of considerable disdain among the Americans most affected by the depression. Nearly 60% of the population was considered “poor” by government standards. Cardboard inserts for shoes to cover holes in the sole were called “Hoover leather”. Men sleeping on park benches and city sidewalks covered themselves with discarded newspapers and called them “Hoover blankets”. Still, the President’s mind remained closed to the idea of direct relief payments to the unemployed, the homeless, and the hungry. He continued to support the idea that such relief belonged in the hands of the state and local governments.

14. Hoover also shifted blame for unemployment to immigrants

As the depression worsened in 1931, unavoidable scapegoats emerged upon whom Americans vented their growing frustrations and fears. In many areas of the country, racism and xenophobia also contributed. Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans became a target across America, blamed for taking American jobs, often at lower wages. A mass deportation of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, including thousands of American citizens, began in 1929. It was endorsed by President Hoover as protection for American jobs, after his Secretary of Labor, John Doak, requested additional federal agents “to assist in the deportation of 500,000 foreigners”.

Several states developed their own deportation programs in addition to the federal effort, an act applauded by Hoover. Following Hoover’s national call for Mexican deportations in 1929, the popular magazine The Saturday Evening Post ran a series of articles describing the racial inferiority of Mexicans. Hoover did not express racist views, declaring that deportations were necessary to protect American jobs, not for the purposes expressed by numerous communities in the United States. Hoover’s Administration worked with representatives of the Mexican government to underwrite the costs absorbed by deportees.

15. Hoover opposed federal intervention via direct aid to individuals

Herbert Hoover was a noted philanthropist long before he was elected President. He also gained experience in disaster relief, in Central Europe following World War I, and in the United States following the Great Mississippi Flood in 1927. Hoover recognized the need for the federal government to come to the aid of the states and local communities, and moved to act on that need by early 1932. But he refused to yield to the urgings of members of both political parties and provide financial aid directly to Americans. He argued that to do so would undermine American morale, destroy the work ethic, and encourage Americans to enjoy idleness.

Instead, Hoover favored the organization of volunteer groups and boards to distribute federal largesse on a local level, through the creation of public works projects. He continued throughout his administration to urge the railroads and utility companies to develop infrastructure, partially funded through federal support and tax reductions. Hoover argued that the 1920s economic boom erupted when banks and individuals spent money they did not yet have through speculation, and the federal government doing the same thing – deficit spending – would create an even worse downturn in the economy. His volunteerism required the increase in taxes which led to the disastrous tax increases in 1932, which placed an ever-greater burden on the common man, and little in the way of relief.

16. Hoover’s policies and failures vaulted FDR to national prominence

The same year Herbert Hoover became President of the United States, 1929, saw Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated as Governor of New York. Following the stock market crash, FDR moved for immediate and aggressive action against the economic downturn. As Hoover argued the downturn was mild and destined to be short-lived, Roosevelt proposed several state initiatives, including the first in the United States for government-provided unemployment insurance. Following reelection in 1930, FDR proposed a comprehensive relief package in the state, which offered voters a stark contrast between the troubled federal response and the successes in New York.

During the Presidential election of 1932, which pitted FDR and Hoover against each other, Hoover continued to support the national policy of Prohibition. It was he who gave Prohibition its moniker as the “noble experiment” in 1928. FDR argued that repeal would create jobs, including a larger market for grains, and generate badly needed tax revenues. FDR pointed out both were necessary fighting the economic depression, which he likened to a national emergency. His successes in New York and his enthusiastic endorsement of repeal were two major factors in his defeat of Hoover at the polls in November, 1932.

17. Hoover at first earned praise for his response to the economic downturn

During the first 18 months of the depression, Hoover’s steps to mitigate the effects of the downturn focused on completing government projects such as dams and bridges, encouraging businesses to keep wages up, and preventing general panic. In 1930, The New York Times editorialized, “No one in his place could have done more. Very few of his predecessors could have done as much”. Both the government and major businesses spent more in the first six months of 1930 than in all of 1929. But consumers did not follow suit. Consumer spending dropped month after month after month. In late 1931, Hoover ordered the Farm Board to transfer surplus agricultural products to the Red Cross.

The transfer of agricultural surpluses, intended to be distributed to relief agencies across the country, did not produce much in the way of food. The poor harvests of preceding years continued in 1930 and worsened in 1931. In August, 1931, Hoover organized the President’s Organization on Unemployment Relief (POUR), intending to raise money for the unemployed through private donations. Still, Hoover opposed direct injection of federal capital via unemployment payments. By the end of 1931 Hoover was roundly criticized for his actions, viewed as failures, and for his inaction, viewed as callous disregard for the nation’s suffering citizens.

18. Hoover took more forceful action in the run-up to the 1932 elections

In early 1932 the first hopeful signs the depression was easing appeared. They were short-lived, as another series of shocks to the banking industry, triggered in large part by bank failures in Europe, again induced national panic. In January Hoover created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), a federally owned entity intended to lend money to corporations in danger of default. During the first six months, the RFC lent money primarily to railroads and agricultural businesses. In July, Hoover expanded the RFC to allow loans to states and communities for public works projects.

The RFC loans stabilized some industries and state governments with injections of cash, but it failed to accomplish its most important goal, reducing unemployment. Jobs remained scarce, cash among consumers remained scarce, and consumer spending continued to drop. The blame fell most squarely on the shoulders of the President. Hoover ran for re-election touting his record in supporting businesses, especially big businesses, and promising jobs and prosperity would quickly return. His opponents in his own party cited his wasteful federal spending and protective tariffs as causes for the increasing severity of the depression.

19. The Bonus Army

In 1924 Congress passed, over the veto of President Calvin Coolidge, the World War Adjusted Compensation Act. The law guaranteed the payment of benefits to veterans of the First World War, granting them certificates redeemable in 1945. A veteran’s beneficiaries could cash the certificates should he pre-decease the redeemable date, which was his birthday in 1945. The certificates were also available as collateral for loans, and by 1932 over $1.3 billion in loans to veterans were backed by certificates. That same year, veteran groups led by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) began demonstrating to have the benefits paid to unemployed veterans as a means of easing the strains of the depression.

Hoover opposed the idea. The House of Representatives supported it. In the spring, 1932, a massive gathering of 17,000 veterans and their families, comprising 43,000 in all, gathered in Washington near the Anacostia River, establishing a “Hooverville”. They called themselves the Bonus Army. In June, after the House of Representatives passed a bill authorizing early payment of the certificates, a mass gathering of the veterans appeared before the United States Capitol. They demonstrated on the day the Senate was to consider and vote on the bill. The Senate defeated the bill on June 17. The veterans returned to their encampment, where they remained despite orders from the DC police and the federal government to disperse.

Also Read: 10 Ways the United States Has Treated its Veterans Through History.

20. The attack on the Bonus Army

On July 28, tired of the negative publicity created by the existence of the Bonus Army, Hoover ordered his Secretary of War to use the US Army to disperse the veterans. The job fell to the Army’s Chief of Staff, Douglas MacArthur, a veteran of World War I. MacArthur relied on Army intelligence which indicated the Bonus Army was incited by Communist influencers, as part of a general uprising to take place that summer. He violated his orders to avoid the use of force, and attacked the Bonus Army encampment with tanks and infantry. After Hoover ordered the attack stopped, MacArthur again ignored the President and launched a second assault.

George Patton, Dwight Eisenhower, and other officers who gained prominence during World War II took part in the attack on their fellow veterans. At least two veterans were killed and over 1,000 injured in the assaults and panic as the veteran’s families fled. Eisenhower wrote the official Army report, which endorsed the actions taken by MacArthur, his boss at the time. The public reaction was for the most part outrage, other than from the conservative wing of the Republican Party. Hoover retained control over the party, though its progressive wing abandoned him completely.

21. The Election Campaign of 1932

Herbert Hoover had no problem dominating the Republican Convention in 1932, emerging as the party’s nominee, though with tepid support from most of the party nationally. The protective tariffs (which he opposed other than for agriculture) and the creation of federally funded agencies to fight the depression (which created deficit spending) isolated him from much of the party. Worst was his raising of taxes during the height of the depression. Long considered aloof and callous by the general public, the Bonus Army incident reinforced the belief that he cared little for the common man, and much for big business.

Hoover campaigned vigorously, proclaiming his actions against the depression successful, and predicting the return of prosperity in the near future. He argued that businesses and the banking system were fundamentally sound. Meanwhile, the worst months of the depression unfolded. FDR, who pointed to the measurable success of the programs he instituted in New York, announced similar national programs to end the depression. FDR won just under 58% of the popular vote, and the Democrats retained control of the House, extending their majority. They also seized control of the Senate. In the Electoral College Hoover received just 59 votes, to FDR’s 472.

22. The lame duck period, 1932-33

Prior to 1937, Inauguration Day for the office of the President of the United States occurred on March 4, except when that date was a Sunday. In such a case, the date moved to March 5. Thus, a period of four months transpired between the election and the installation of a new administration. The last four months of the Hoover Administration were among the worst, in terms of the depression, of any of the preceding years. Unemployment during that winter climbed rapidly. Cash continued in short supply. Once again, bank failures led the nation into a panic-driven run on the banks. As weaker and smaller banks collapsed, larger banks found depositors lining up at their doors to remove their savings.

Many banks, throughout that winter, responded by simply closing their doors, refusing to admit customers. Hoover responded by lobbying Congress to enact emergency legislation to allow federal funds to further bolster the banking system. Congress did nothing. The incoming legislators weren’t interested in Hoover’s response, and the Republicans remaining in the Senate resented Hoover, blaming him for the loss of the majority in that body. Major banks in the United States also felt the tremors from bank failures in Europe. By the end of February, 1933, the nation was ready for Hoover’s exit from the national stage.

23. Hoover left office determined to oppose government intervention to fight the depression

Herbert Hoover was 58 when he left office, and the only surviving ex-president. He left office embittered and angry. During the failed campaign he endured being pelted with eggs and vegetables at several stops as he attempted to deliver remarks defending his actions and outlining his plans. His speeches were interrupted by hecklers, his radio addresses were ignored, and the few Republican newspapers which endorsed him found their subscription bases reduced. His attempts to present FDR’s planned programs as socialism did not find an appreciative audience, other than the far-right wing of his own party. Nonetheless, he left office determined to oppose Roosevelt’s plans for expanding the government.

Hoover published the first of several books defending his Presidency and attacking FDR in 1934, titled The Challenge to Liberty. He called the Banking Act of 1933, which stabilized the banks and created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), “gigantic socialism”. To Hoover, the National Recovery Administration and Roosevelt’s actions to save America’s small farms were “fascism”. Hoover drew thinly veiled comparisons between FDR’s New Deal and the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany. In 1938 Hoover went to Germany, stayed for a time at Herman Goering’s hunting lodge, Karinhall, and met Adolf Hitler. When FDR introduced Lend-Lease in 1940, which added American jobs, Hoover opposed it vehemently, calling it irresponsible war-mongering on the part of the President.

24. Hoover helped create the myth that FDR made the depression worse

By the end of 1933, the US economy showed signs of growth in all areas, including easing unemployment numbers and greater consumer spending. 1934 continued the upwards trends, as did the following year. By the end of 1936, all areas of the economy had returned to or exceeded the levels measured in the summer of 1929 except one. Unemployment remained above 10% by most estimates, though it too had improved from the darkest days of 1932. In late 1936 the Federal Reserve, concerned about the sharp increases in consumer spending and in bank lending, took steps to contract the money supply. The result was the Recession of 1937, which ended four years of economic growth.

Hoover was one of the earliest opponents to call the downturn the Roosevelt Recession, a name adopted by Republicans and even conservative Democrats. Its causes were many, but again a rapid and aggressive response by the federal government limited its scope, and by the beginning of 1939 employment had returned to 1936 levels, and the economy again experienced steady growth, which expanded with the coming of Lend-Lease and the eventual war economy. Hoover and conservatives argued that it was only the war which ended the Great Depression, made worse by FDR. Conservatives continue to advance that argument today.

Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:

“The Great Depression Hits Farms and Cities in the 1930s”. Tom Morain, Iowa Pathways. Online

“Why do banks fail? Evidence from the 1920s”. Lee J. Alston, Wayne A. Grove, David C. Wheelock, Explorations in Economic History. 1994. Online

“Hoover’s Economic Policies”. Steven Horwitz, Library of Economics and Liberty. Online

“Smoot-Hawley Tariff: A Bad Law, Badly Timed”. John Steele Gordon, Barron’s. April 21, 2017

“The Hoover/Mellon Tax on Checks”. David Henderson, Library of Economics and Liberty. March 18, 2013. Online

“Davis-Bacon and Related Acts”. Article, United States Department of Labor. Online

“Hoovervilles and Homelessness”. Article, The Great Depression in Washington State. Online

“Herbert Hoover was no deficit-cutter”. Stefan Karlsson, the Christian Science Monitor. March 11, 2010

“The Great Depression”. Article, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum. Online

“America’s Forgotten History of Mexican-American ‘Repatriation'”. Francisco Balderrama Interview, Fresh Air, National Public Radio. September 10, 2015. Online

“America’s Forgotten History of Illegal Deportations”. Alex Wagner, The Atlantic. March 6, 2017

“Franklin D. Roosevelt: Life Before the Presidency”. William E. Leuchtenberg, The Miller Center, University of Virginia. Online

“Herbert Hoover: Domestic Affairs”. David E. Hamilton, The Miller Center, University of Virginia. Online

“Banking Acts of 1932”. Michael Gou, Gary Richardson, Alejandro Komai, Daniel Park, Federal Reserve History. Online

“World War and Veterans: Struggle for Compensation”. Article, US House of Representatives History, Art, and Archives. Online

“The Bonus March”. The American Experience, PBS. Online

“Franklin D. Roosevelt: Campaigns and Elections”. William E. Leuchtenberg, The Miller Center, University of Virginia. Online

“Hating on Herbert Hoover”. Nicholas Lemann, The New Yorker. October 16, 2017